Key schedule algorithm based on coordinate geometry of a three-dimensional hybrid cube

Cryptographic algorithms play an important role in information security where it ensures the security of data across the network or storage. A key schedule algorithm is the mechanism that generates and schedules all session-keys for the encryption process. The 2-dimensional hybrid cube is generated based on permutation and combination of integer numbers that are utilized in the construction of encryption and decryption key in the non-binary block cipher. The generation of key space by using the 2-dimensional hybrid cubes are not sufficient to resist attacks and could easily be exploited. Therefore, the large key space is more desirable to resist any attack on the secret key. This research proposed a new Key Schedule Algorithm based on the coordinate geometry of a Hybrid Cube (KSAHC) for the non-binary block cipher. By using the three-dimensional hybrid cube in KSAHC transformation, encryption keys are represented as n × n × n matrix of integer numbers and used in the development of the permutation and substitution of order 4 square matrix. Triangular Coordinate Extraction (TCE) technique has also been introduced to extract the coordinates during the rotation of Hybrid Cube surface (HCs) and plays an important role in the development of KSAHC algorithm. The Hybrid Cube Encryption Algorithm (HiSea) has been implemented to validate the encryption keys that are generated from the proposed algorithm. The strength of the keys and ciphertext are compared with the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), HiSea, and Dynamic Key Schedule Algorithm (DKSA). The proposed KSAHC algorithm has been validated using the randomness test proposed and recommended by NIST, the average result of avalanche test is 93%, entropy is 0.9968, correlation assessment test is -0.000601 and having large key space 2.70 × 1067 keys that makes the Brute Force attack difficult and time-consuming. Therefore, it can be concluded that the strength and validity of KSAHC algorithm have been enhanced as compared to other algorithms and can serve as the alternative algorithm in designing security systems

Public Provision of Education and Government Spending in Pakistan

The study has been carried out to measure the incidence of government spending on education in Pakistan at the provincial (both rural and urban) level, using the primary data of the Pakistan Social Standard Living Measures Survey (PSLM), 2004-2005, and by employing the three-step Benefit Incidence Approach methodology. The paper reviews the national policies emphasising provision of education in Pakistan, as well as the trend in coverage and public sector spending on education facilities in Pakistan. The study examines the inequalities in resource distribution and service provision in relation to the government education expenditure. The rural areas of Pakistan are the more disadvantaged in the provision of the education facilities. Overall, the expenditure on the education sector is progressive, both at the regional and the provincial levels. However, variation exists in the shares of different income groups benefit from the provision of educational facilities created by public expenditure.education, public expenditure, Public Policy, Gini Coefficient, Concentration Coefficient, Benefit Incidence Approach

Health Care Services and Government Spending in Pakistan

The study has been carried out to measure the incidence of government spending on health in Pakistan at provincial, both rural and urban level; using the primary data of the Pakistan Social Standard Living Measures Survey (PSLM), 2004-05, and by employing the three-step Benefit Incidence Approach (BIA) methodology. The paper reviews the national policies emphasising health services as well as the trend in access to and public sector spending on health care facilities in Pakistan. The study explores the inequalities in resource distribution and service provision against the government health expenditures. The rural areas of Pakistan are the more disadvantaged in the provision of the health care facilities. The expenditures in health sectors are overall regressive in rural Pakistan as well as at provincial and regional levels. Mother and Child subhead is regressive in Punjab and General Hospitals and Clinics are regressive in all provinces. Only the Preventive Measures and health facilities sub-sector is progressive in Pakistan. Public health expenditures are pro-rich in Pakistan.Health, Expenditure, Public Policy, Gini, Concentration Coefficient, Mother and Child, Preventive Measures, Hospital and Clinics

Health Care Services and Government Spending in Pakistan

The study has been carried out to measure the incidence of government spending on health in Pakistan at provincial, both rural and urban level; using the primary data of the Pakistan Social Standard Living Measures Survey (PSLM), 2004-05, and by employing the three-step Benefit Incidence Approach (BIA) methodology. The paper reviews the national policies emphasising health services as well as the trend in access to and public sector spending on health care facilities in Pakistan. The study explores the inequalities in resource distribution and service provision against the government health expenditures. The rural areas of Pakistan are the more disadvantaged in the provision of the health care facilities. The expenditures in health sectors are overall regressive in rural Pakistan as well as at provincial and regional levels. Mother and Child subhead is regressive in Punjab and General Hospitals and Clinics are regressive in all provinces. Only the Preventive Measures and health facilities sub-sector is progressive in Pakistan. Public health expenditures are pro-rich in Pakistan.health, Expenditure, Public Policy, Gini, Concentration Coefficient, Mother and Child, Preventive Measures, Hospital and Clinics

Public Provision of Education and Government Spending in Pakistan

The study has been carried out to measure the incidence of government spending on education in Pakistan at the provincial (both rural and urban) level, using the primary data of the Pakistan Social Standard Living Measures Survey (PSLM), 2004-2005, and by employing the three-step Benefit Incidence Approach methodology. The paper reviews the national policies emphasising provision of education in Pakistan, as well as the trend in coverage and public sector spending on education facilities in Pakistan. The study examines the inequalities in resource distribution and service provision in relation to the government education expenditure. The rural areas of Pakistan are the more disadvantaged in the provision of the education facilities. Overall, the expenditure on the education sector is progressive, both at the regional and the provincial levels. However, variation exists in the shares of different income groups’ benefit from the provision of educational facilities created by public expenditure.Education, Public Expenditure, Public Policy, Gini Coefficient, Concentration Coefficient, Benefit Incidence Approach

A comprehensive survey on pi-sigma neural network for time series prediction

Prediction of time series grabs received much attention because of its effect on the vast range of real life applications. This paper presents a survey of time series applications using Higher Order Neural Network (HONN) model. The basic motivation behind using HONN is the ability to expand the input space, to solve complex problems it becomes more efficient and perform high learning abilities of the time series forecasting. Pi-Sigma Neural Network (PSNN) includes indirectly the capabilities of higher order networks using product cells as the output units and less number of weights. The goal of this research is to present the reader awareness about PSNN for time series prediction, to highlight some benefits and challenges using PSNN. Possible fields of PSNN applications in comparison with existing methods are presented and future directions are also explored in advantage with the properties of error feedback and recurrent networks

Smartphone Forensic Analysis: A Case Study for Obtaining Root Access of an Android Samsung S3 Device and Analyse the Image without an Expensive Commercial Tool

Smartphone is a very useful and compact device that fits in persons pocket, but at the same time itcan be used as a tool for criminal activities. In this day and age, people increasingly rely on smartphones rather than desktop computers or laptops to exchange messages, share videos and audiomessages. A smartphone is almost equivalent in its application to a PC, hence there are securityrisks associated with its use such as carrying out a digital crime or becoming a victim of one. Criminalscan use smartphones for a number of activities. Namely, committing a fraud over e-mail,harassment via text messages, drug trafficking, child pornography, communications related to narcotics,etc. It is a great challenge for forensic experts to extract data from a smartphone for forensic purposes that can be used as evidence in the court of law. In this case study, I show how to obtain the root access of Samsung S3 phone, how to create DD image and then how to examine DD image via commercial tool like UFED physical analyzer trial version which doesnt support Android devices. I will extract the messages for Viber on trial version of UFED Physical analyzer.Science Foundation Irelan

Security Support in Continuous Deployment Pipeline

Continuous Deployment (CD) has emerged as a new practice in the software industry to continuously and automatically deploy software changes into production. Continuous Deployment Pipeline (CDP) supports CD practice by transferring the changes from the repository to production. Since most of the CDP components run in an environment that has several interfaces to the Internet, these components are vulnerable to various kinds of malicious attacks. This paper reports our work aimed at designing secure CDP by utilizing security tactics. We have demonstrated the effectiveness of five security tactics in designing a secure pipeline by conducting an experiment on two CDPs - one incorporates security tactics while the other does not. Both CDPs have been analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. We used assurance cases with goal-structured notations for qualitative analysis. For quantitative analysis, we used penetration tools. Our findings indicate that the applied tactics improve the security of the major components (i.e., repository, continuous integration server, main server) of a CDP by controlling access to the components and establishing secure connections

Tuberculous pericardial abscess with impending pericardial effusion and cardiac tamponade

The case of a 59 year male with acute tuberculous pericardial abscess who presented with cough, dyspnoea, haemoptysis, signs of Tamponade and a large Pleural Effusion is reported. Performing Pericardiocentesis did not improve his symptoms hence he was subjected to surgery. Acute tuberculous pericardial abscess was the diagnosis made after histopathology which was successfully managed with sternotomy along with drainage of pus

Comparative RNA-seq based transcriptomic analysis of bud dormancy in grape

BACKGROUND: Bud dormancy is an important biological phenomenon of perennial plants that enables them to survive under harsh environmental circumstances. Grape (Vitis vinifera) is one of the most grown fruit crop worldwide; however, underlying mechanisms involved in grape bud dormancy are not yet clear. This work was aimed to explore the underlying molecular mechanism regulating bud dormancy in grape. RESULTS: We have performed transcriptome and differential transcript expression analyses of “Shine Muscat” grape buds using the Illumina RNA-seq system. Comparisons of transcript expression levels among three stages of dormancy, paradormancy (PD) vs endodormancy (ED), summer buds (SB) vs ED and SB vs PD, resulted in the detection of 8949, 9780 and 3938 differentially expressed transcripts, respectively. Out of approximately 78 million high-quality generated reads, 6096 transcripts were differentially expressed (log2 ratio ≥ 1, FDR ≤ 0.001). Grape reference genome was used for alignment of sequence reads and to measure the expression level of transcripts. Furthermore, findings obtained were then compared using two different databases; Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), to annotate the transcript descriptions and to assign a pathway to each transcript. KEGG analysis revealed that secondary metabolites biosynthesis and plant hormone signaling was found most enriched out of the 127 total pathways. In the comparisons of the PD vs ED and SB vs ED stages of grape buds, the gibberellin (GA) and abscisic acid (ABA) pathways were found to be the most enriched. The ABA and GA pathways were further analyzed to observe the expression pattern of differentially expressed transcripts. Transcripts related to the PP2C family (ABA pathway) were found to be up-regulated in the PD vs ED comparison and down-regulated in the SB vs ED and SB vs PD comparisons. GID1 family transcripts (GA pathway) were up-regulated while DELLA family transcripts were down-regulated during the three dormancy stages. Differentially expressed transcripts (DEGs) related to redox activity were abundant in the GO biological process category. RT-qPCR assay results for 12 selected transcripts validated the data obtained by RNA-seq. CONCLUSION: At this stage, taking into account the results obtained so far, it is possible to put forward a hypothesis for the molecular mechanism underlying grape bud dormancy, which may pave the way for ultimate improvements in the grape industry. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12870-016-0960-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users