Information hiding in SOAP messages: A steganographic method for web services

Digital steganography is the art and science of hiding communications; a steganographic system thus embeds secret data in public cover media so as not to arouse an eavesdropper’s suspicion. Hence, it is a kind of covert communication and information security. There are still very limited methods of steganography to be used with communication protocols, which represent unconventional but promising steganography mediums. In this paper, we discuss and analyze a number of steganographic studies in text, XML as well as SOAP messages. Then, we propose a novel steganography method to be used for SOAP messages within Web services environments. The method is based on rearranging the order of specific XML elements according to a secret message. This method has a high imperceptibility; it leaves almost no trail because of using the communication protocol as a cover medium, and since it keeps the structure and size of the SOAP message intact. The method is empirically validated using a feasible scenario so as to indicate its utility and value

Public Twitter data and transport network status

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by IEEE in 2020 10th International Conference on Information Science and Technology (ICIST) on 22/09/2022, available online: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9202204 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.Twitter data can be collected and analysed to be used for predicting the status of a transport network at a given time and geographic location (e.g. forecasting disruptions, congestions, or road closures). However, this requires geolocating the tweets to define the parts of the transport network which may be related to these tweets. This paper investigates the relationship between the actual transport network status, with that being synthesised using public Twitter data in the Greater Manchester conurbation. Therefore, it answers the following question: are the sentiments of tweets around the incidents and accidents areas (or bounding boxes) different from the sentiments of tweets in the seamless traffic areas?. According to the used research methodology, analysis techniques, and sentiment detection APIs, it has been concluded that there is no significant difference between the sentiments in the tweets regardless the prevailing traffic conditions of the locations the tweets refer to.Published versio

MultiModal route planning in mobility as a service

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by ACM in Proceedings 2019 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence Workshops (WI 2019 Companion) in October 2019, available online: https://doi.org/10.1145/3358695.3361843 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a new approach for multimodal transportation in smart cities which refers to the seamless integration of various forms of transport services accessible through one single digital platform. In a MaaS environment there can be a multitude of multi modal options to reach a destination which are derived from combinations of available transport services. Terefore, route planning functionalities in the MaaS era need to be able to generate multi-modal routes using constraints related to a user's modal allowances, service provision and limited user preferences (e.g. mode exclusions) and suggest to the traveller the routes that are relevant for specific trips as well as aligned to her/his preferences. In this paper, we describe an architecture for a MaaS multi-modal route planner which integrates i) a dynamic journey planner that aggregates unimodal routes from existing route planners (e.g. Google directions or Here routing), enriches them with innovative mobility services typically found in MaaS schemes, and converts them to multimodal options, while considering aspects of transport network supply and ii) a route recommender that filters and ranks the available routes in an optimal manner, while trying to satisfy travellers' preferences as well as requirements set by the MaaS operator (e.g. environmental friendliness of the routes or promotion of specific modes of transport).Published versio

Heuristic-based journey planner for mobility as a service (Maas)

© 2020 The Authors. Published by MDPI. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.3390/su122310140The continuing growth of urbanisation poses a real threat to the operation of transportation services in large metropolitan areas around the world. As a response, several initiatives that promote public transport and active travelling have emerged in the last few years. Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is one such initiative with the main goal being the provision of a holistic urban mobility solution through a single interface, the MaaS operator. The successful implementation of MaaS requires the support of a technology platform for travellers to fully benefit from the offered transport services. A central component of such a platform is a journey planner with the ability to provide trip options that efficiently integrate the different modes included in a MaaS scheme. This paper presents a heuristic that implements a scenario-based journey planner for users of MaaS. The proposed heuristic provides routes composed of different modes including private cars, public transport, bike-sharing, car-sharing and ride-hailing. The methodological approach for the generation of journeys is explained and its implementation using a microservices architecture is presented. The implemented system was trialled in two European cities and the analysis of user satisfaction results reveal good overall performance.This research was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme grant number No 723176. And the APC was funded by the European Commission.Published versio

Factors that influence a patient’s decision to engage in genetic research

IntroductionThe most challenging step in clinical research studies is patient recruitment. Many research studies do not reach their targets because of participant rejection. The purpose of this study was to assess patient as well as the community knowledge, motivation, and barriers to participate in genetic research.MethodsA cross-section study was conducted between September 2018 and February 2020 using face-to-face interviews with candidate patients from outpatient clinics at King Fahad Medical City (KFMC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Additionally, an online survey was conducted to assess the community’s knowledge, motivation and barriers to participate in genetic research studies.ResultsIn total, 470 patients were interviewed for this study, with 341 being successfully recruited for the face to face interview, and the other patients being refused owing to time constraints. The majority percentage of the respondents were females. The respondents’ mean age was 30, and 52.6% reported having a college degree. The survey results from 388 participants illustrated that around 90% of the participants, participated voluntarily due to a good understanding of genetics studies. The majority held positive attitudes toward being part of genetic research, which exceeded the reported motivation score of >75%. The survey indicated that >90% of individuals were willing to participate to acquire therapeutic benefits or to receive continued aftercare. However, 54.6% of survey participants were worried about the side effects and the risks involved in genetic testing. A higher proportion (71.4%) of respondents reported that lack of knowledge about genetic research was one of the barriers to rejecting participation.ConclusionRespondents reported relatively high motivation and knowledge for participation in genetic research. However, study participants reported “do not know enough about genetic research” and “lack of time during clinic visit” as a barrier for participation in genetic research

Characterization of Spontaneous Bone Marrow Recovery after Sublethal Total Body Irradiation: Importance of the Osteoblastic/Adipocytic Balance

Many studies have already examined the hematopoietic recovery after irradiation but paid with very little attention to the bone marrow microenvironment. Nonetheless previous studies in a murine model of reversible radio-induced bone marrow aplasia have shown a significant increase in alkaline phosphatase activity (ALP) prior to hematopoietic regeneration. This increase in ALP activity was not due to cell proliferation but could be attributed to modifications of the properties of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC). We thus undertook a study to assess the kinetics of the evolution of MSC correlated to their hematopoietic supportive capacities in mice treated with sub lethal total body irradiation. In our study, colony-forming units – fibroblasts (CFU-Fs) assay showed a significant MSC rate increase in irradiated bone marrows. CFU-Fs colonies still possessed differentiation capacities of MSC but colonies from mice sacrificed 3 days after irradiation displayed high rates of ALP activity and a transient increase in osteoblastic markers expression while pparγ and neuropilin-1 decreased. Hematopoietic supportive capacities of CFU-Fs were also modified: as compared to controls, irradiated CFU-Fs significantly increased the proliferation rate of hematopoietic precursors and accelerated the differentiation toward the granulocytic lineage. Our data provide the first evidence of the key role exerted by the balance between osteoblasts and adipocytes in spontaneous bone marrow regeneration. First, (pre)osteoblast differentiation from MSC stimulated hematopoietic precursor's proliferation and granulopoietic regeneration. Then, in a second time (pre)osteoblasts progressively disappeared in favour of adipocytic cells which down regulated the proliferation and granulocytic differentiation and then contributed to a return to pre-irradiation conditions

Экспериментальный стенд для оценки эффективности применения многоходового калорифера как средства охлаждения рабочей жидкости гидропривода

In this article the problem of increase in operability of a hydraulic actuator by use of a multiple-pass heater as means of cooling of working liquid is considered. For studying of thermal processes, check of mathematical model and an assessment of efficiency of application of a multiple-pass heater the developed experimental stand is givenСтенд, описанный в данной статье, позволяет получить данные по влиянию температуры опрыскивающей калорифер жидкости на интенсивность охлаждения рабочей жидкости и установить оптимальные конструктивные параметры теплообменных устройст

Влияние повышенных температур на работоспособность гидравлического привода

In articles the issue of improvement of quality and efficiency of operability of hydraulically operated cars is investigated at influence of increased temperatures of working liquid and environment. The problem ensuring operability of a hydraulic actuator of the cars operated in wide temperature range, and increase of their efficiency is one of the most actual in domestic mechanical engineeringВ статье исследуется проблема повышения качества и эффективности работоспособности гидрофицированных машин при воздействии повышенных температур рабочей жидкости и окружающей сред

Numerical Solution for Electronic Assemblies Subjected to Mechanical Bending

This work introduces high-accuracy numerical solution for the two elastically coupled beams subjected to mechanical bending problem. Finite difference method (FDM) was considered to solve the governing equations along with the boundary conditions of the structure. The validity of this solution was ensured and tested with literature data. Finally, the influence of the key structural parameters of the problem, such as the relative stiffness between the beams as well as the elastic layer, was thoroughly discussed with the specific attention on its application in electronic assemblies subjected to mechanical bending. The numerical findings showed that for stiffer beams and compliant layer, the axial deformations of the layer are lower which can be reflected as lower solder stresses and hence more reliable designs of electronic devices.</jats:p