Metric Identification of Vertices in Polygonal Cacti

The distance between two vertices u and v in a connected graph G is the number of edges lying in a shortest path(geodesic)between them.A vertex x of G performs the metric identification for a pair(u,v)of vertices in G if and only if the equality between the distances of u and v with x implies that u=v(That is,the distance between u and x is different from the distance between v and x).The minimum number of vertices performing the metric identification for every pair of vertices in G defines themetric dimension of G.In this paper,we performthemetric identification of vertices in two types of polygonal cacti:chain polygonal cactus and star polygonal cactus.

Novel Double-Damped Tuned AC Filters in HVDC Systems

This paper presents a performance analysis of novel doubledampedtuned alternating current (AC) filters in high voltage direct current(HVDC) systems. The proposed double-damped tuned AC filters offer theadvantages of improved performance of HVDC systems in terms of betterpower quality, high power factor, and lower total harmonic distortion (THD).The system under analysis consists of an 878 km long HVDC transmissionline connecting converter stations at Matiari and Lahore, two major cities inPakistan. The main focus of this research is to design a novel AC filter usingthe equivalent impedance method of two single-tuned and double-dampedtuned AC filters. Additionally, the impact of the damping resistor on the ACchannel is examined. TheTHDof theHVDCsystem with and without currentAC filters was also compared in this research and a double-damped tuned ACfilter was proposed. The results of the simulation represent that the proposeddouble-damped tuned AC filter is far smaller in size, offers better powerquality, and has a much lower THD compared to the AC filters currently inplace in the converter station. The simulation analysis was carried out utilizingpower systems computer-aided design (PSCAD) software.

A 37 GHz Millimeter-Wave Antenna Array for 5G Communication Terminals

This work presents,design and specific absorption rate(SAR)analysis of a 37GHz antenna,for 5th Generation(5G)applications.The proposed antenna comprises of 4-elements of rectangular patch and an even distribution.The radiating element is composed of copper material supported by Rogers RT5880 substrate of thickness,0.254 mm,dielectric constant(εr),2.2,and loss tangent,0.0009.The 4-elements array antenna is compact in size with a dimension of 8mm×20mm in length and width.The radiating patch is excited with a 50 ohms connector i.e.,K-type.The antenna resonates in the frequency band of 37 GHz,that covers the 5G applications.The antenna behavior is studied both in free space and in the proximity of the human body.Three models of the human body,i.e.,belly,hand,and head(contain skin,fat,muscles,and bone)are considered for on-body simulations.At resonant frequency,the antenna gives a boresight gain of 11.6 dB.The antenna radiates efficiently with a radiated efficiency of more than 90%.Also,it is observed that the antenna detunes to the lowest in the proximity of the human body,but still a good impedance matching is achieved considering the−10 dB criteria.Moreover,SAR is also being presented.The safe limit of 2 W/kg for any 10 g of biological tissue,specified by the European International Electro Technical Commission(IEC)has been considered.The calculated values of SAR for human body models,i.e.,belly,hand and head are 1.82,1.81 and 1.09 W/kg,respectively.The SAR values are less than the international recommendations for the three models.Furthermore,the simulated and measured results of the antenna are in close agreement,which makes it,a potential candidate for the fifth-generation smart phones and other handheld devices.

Th-Shaped Tunable Multi-Band Antenna for Modern Wireless Applications

A compact,reconfigurable antenna supporting multiple wireless services with a minimum number of switches is found lacking in literature and the same became the focus and outcome of this work.It was achieved by designing a Th-Shaped frequency reconfigurable multi-band microstrip planar antenna,based on use of a single switch within the radiating structure of the antenna.Three frequency bands(i.e.,2007–2501 MHz,3660–3983MHz and 9341–1046 MHz)can be operated with the switch in the ON switch state.In the OFF state of the switch,the antenna operates within the 2577–3280MHz and 9379–1033MHz Bands.The proposed antenna shows an acceptable input impedance match with Voltage Standing Wave Ratio(VSWR)less than 1.2.The peak radiation efficiency of the antenna is 82%.A reasonable gain is obtained from 1.22 to 3.31 dB within the operating bands is achieved.The proposed antenna supports UniversalMobile Telecommunication System(UMTS)-1920 to 2170 MHz,Worldwide Interoperability and Microwave Access(WiMAX)/Wireless Broadband/(Long Term Evolution)LTE2500–2500 to 2690 MHz,Fifth Generation(5G)-2500/3500 MHz,Wireless Fidelity(Wi-Fi)/Bluetooth-2400 to 2480 MHz,and Satellite communication applications in X-Band-8000 to 12000 MHz.The overall planar dimension of the proposed antenna is 40×20mm2.The antennawas designed,along with the parametric study,using Electromagnetic(EM)simulation tool.The antenna prototype is fabricated for experimental validation with the simulated results.The proposed antenna is low profile,tunable,lightweight,cheap to fabricate and highly efficient and hence is deemed suitable for use in modern wireless communication electronic devices.

Cactus-Shaped Frequency Reconfigurable Antenna for Sub 10 GHz Wireless Applications

This paper presents,a novel cactus shaped frequency reconfigurable antenna for sub 10 GHz wireless applications.PIN diode is utilized as an electrical switch to achieve reconfigurability,enabling operation in four different frequency ranges.In the switch ON state mode,the antenna supports 2177-3431 and 6301-8467 MHz ranges.Alternatively,the antenna resonates within 2329-3431 and 4951-6718 MHz while in the OFF state mode.Radiation efficiency values,ranging from 68%to 84%,and gain values,ranging from 1.6 to 4 dB,in the operating frequency bands.the proposed antenna satisfy the practical requirements and expectations.The overall planner dimensions of the proposed antenna model is 40×21 mm^(2).Moreover,the measurement results from the prototype support the simulation results.Based on the frequency ranges supported by the antenna,it can be used for multiple wireless standards and services,including Worldwide interoperability and Microwave Access(WiMAX),Wireless Fidelity(Wi-Fi),Bluetooth,Long Term Evolution(LTE)and satellite communications.This increases its applicability for use in mobile terminals.

Alteration of faecal microbiota balance related to long-term deep meditation

Background Advancements in research have confirmed that gut microbiota can influence health through the microbiota–gut–brain axis.Meditation,as an inner mental exercise,can positively impact the regulation of an individual’s physical and mental health.However,few studies have comprehensively investigated faecal microbiota following long-term(several years)deep meditation.Therefore,we propose that long-term meditation may regulate gut microbiota homeostasis and,in turn,affect physical and mental health.Aims To investigate the effects of long-term deep meditation on the gut microbiome structure.Methods To examine the intestinal flora,16S rRNA gene sequencing was performed on faecal samples of 56 Tibetan Buddhist monks and neighbouring residents.Based on the sequencing data,linear discriminant analysis effect size(LEfSe)was employed to identify differential intestinal microbial communities between the two groups.Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States(PICRUSt)analysis was used to predict the function of faecal microbiota.In addition,we evaluated biochemical indices in the plasma.Results Theα-diversity indices of the meditation and control groups differed significantly.At the genus level,Prevotella and Bacteroides were significantly enriched in the meditation group.According to the LEfSe analysis,two beneficial bacterial genera(Megamonas and Faecalibacterium)were significantly enriched in the meditation group.Functional predictive analysis further showed that several pathways—including glycan biosynthesis,metabolism and lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis—were significantly enriched in the meditation group.Moreover,plasma levels of clinical risk factors were significantly decreased in the meditation group,including total cholesterol and apolipoprotein B.Conclusions Long-term traditional Tibetan Buddhist meditation may positively impact physical and mental health.We confirmed that the gut microbiota composition differed between the monks and control subjects.The microbiota enriched in monks was associated with a reduced risk of anxiety,depression and cardiovascular disease and could enhance immune function.Overall,these results suggest that meditation plays a positive role in psychosomatic conditions and well-being.

On Cycle Related Graphs with Constant Metric Dimension

If G is a connected graph, the distance d (u,v) between two vertices u,v ∈ V(G) is the length of a shortest path between them. Let W = {w1, w2, ..., wk} be an ordered set of vertices of G and let v be a vertex of G . The repre-sentation r(v|W) of v with respect to W is the k-tuple (d(v,w1), d(v,w2), …, d(v,wk)). . If distinct vertices of G have distinct representations with respect to W , then W is called a resolving set or locating set for G. A re-solving set of minimum cardinality is called a basis for G and this cardinality is the metric dimension of G , denoted by dim (G). A family ? of connected graphs is a family with constant metric dimension if dim (G) is finite and does not depend upon the choice of G in ?. In this paper, we show that dragon graph denoted by Tn,m and the graph obtained from prism denoted by 2Ck + {xkyk} have constant metric dimension.

Enabling Reachability Across Multiple Domains Without Controller Synchronization in SDN

Software-defined networking(SDN)makes network agile and flexible due to its programmable approach.An extensive network has multiple domains in SDN for the scalability and performance of the network.However,the inter-domain link is also crucial for the stability of the entire network on the data plane layer.More than one inter-domain connection enhances the scalability of the data plane layer.However,it faces a reachability problem with the principal root,which causes forwarding loops and packet drops in the network,thereby degrading network performance.The proposed solution is a multiple controller architecture;however,this approach increases the complexity and affects network performance.Thus,in this study,we propose a framework that avoids forwarding loops and packet drops without the synchronization of multiple-domain controllers in the network using an avoid loop with test packet scheme.Moreover,we collect the link status for improved routing and load balancing for the upcoming flow across inter-domain links to prevent congestion and increase throughput in real time.Our proposed methodology can significantly reduce the controller workload against multiple controller architecture,minimize flow setup latency,and improve throughput.

Defocus Blur Segmentation Using Local Binary Patterns with Adaptive Threshold

Enormousmethods have been proposed for the detection and segmentation of blur and non-blur regions of the images.Due to the limited available information about blur type,scenario and the level of blurriness,detection and segmentation is a challenging task.Hence,the performance of the blur measure operator is an essential factor and needs improvement to attain perfection.In this paper,we propose an effective blur measure based on local binary pattern(LBP)with adaptive threshold for blur detection.The sharpness metric developed based on LBP used a fixed threshold irrespective of the type and level of blur,that may not be suitable for images with variations in imaging conditions,blur amount and type.Contrarily,the proposed measure uses an adaptive threshold for each input image based on the image and blur properties to generate improved sharpness metric.The adaptive threshold is computed based on the model learned through support vector machine(SVM).The performance of the proposed method is evaluated using two different datasets and is compared with five state-of-the-art methods.Comparative analysis reveals that the proposed method performs significantly better qualitatively and quantitatively against all of the compared methods.

Hyper Elliptic Curve Based Certificateless Signcryption Scheme for Secure IIoT Communications

Industrial internet of things (IIoT) is the usage of internet of things(IoT) devices and applications for the purpose of sensing, processing andcommunicating real-time events in the industrial system to reduce the unnecessary operational cost and enhance manufacturing and other industrial-relatedprocesses to attain more profits. However, such IoT based smart industriesneed internet connectivity and interoperability which makes them susceptibleto numerous cyber-attacks due to the scarcity of computational resourcesof IoT devices and communication over insecure wireless channels. Therefore, this necessitates the design of an efficient security mechanism for IIoTenvironment. In this paper, we propose a hyperelliptic curve cryptography(HECC) based IIoT Certificateless Signcryption (IIoT-CS) scheme, with theaim of improving security while lowering computational and communicationoverhead in IIoT environment. HECC with 80-bit smaller key and parameterssizes offers similar security as elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) with 160-bitlong key and parameters sizes. We assessed the IIoT-CS scheme security byapplying formal and informal security evaluation techniques. We used Realor Random (RoR) model and the widely used automated validation of internet security protocols and applications (AVISPA) simulation tool for formalsecurity analysis and proved that the IIoT-CS scheme provides resistance tovarious attacks. Our proposed IIoT-CS scheme is relatively less expensivecompared to the current state-of-the-art in terms of computational cost andcommunication overhead. Furthermore, the IIoT-CS scheme is 31.25% and 51.31% more efficient in computational cost and communication overhead,respectively, compared to the most recent protocol.

Geotechnical and Hydrological Characterization of Subsurface for Metallic Minerals Mining Operations in Punjab, Pakistan

The study area is covered by alluvium having average thickness of about 200 m that is underlain by the Precambrian basement rock units including iron ore to be mined in future. In this regards, necessary campaign of subsurface investigations including both geotechnical and hydrogeological has been carried. In geotechnical investigations, disturbed and undisturbed samples were collected from five (5) boreholes and hydrological investigations by using water pump out test were conducted to determine the characteristics of aquifer. Rock samples were also collected from already drilled boreholes for iron ore estimation from a depth of more than 200 m. The laboratory testing has classified alluvium as silty sand/sandy silt (SP-SM/SM) and clayey silt/non-plastic silt (CL-ML/ML) as per soil classification criteria having angel of friction of 31.4 - 38.5 degree with bulk density of 1.461 - 1.853 g/cc. The initial void ratio (eo) varies from 0.412 to 0.952 with no swell potential in consolidation tests. The chemical analyses of the soil have indicated values of 0.003% - 0.006%, 0.0012% - 0.0057%, 0.013% - 0.030% sulphate, chloride and organic matter contents respectively with pH-value of 6.92 - 7.56. The strength of the underlying rock was found to be medium strong to very strong corresponding to values of 25 - 140 MPa in uniaxial compression and indirect tensile strength of 15.66 MPa. Hydrological study reveals that aquifer is unconfined and generally isotropic in nature. The average transmissivity, hydraulic conductivity and storage coefficient are 6038 m2/day, 4.0 × 101 m/day and 0.016, respectively that presented aquifer is quite permeable. The cone of influence covered area of 65 m from main production well. For the open pit mining operation, stability analysis is performed by assuming a 4V:1H slope in the bedrock while 1V:1H in the overlying sediments cover using Limit-Equilibrium (LE) analysis in Slide computer program. However, overburden slope was concluded to be unstable with the analyzed slope angle. The deformation analysis for mine slopes by finite element method was performed using Phase 2 (RS) software. The results show maximum deformation is likely to be in order of as high as 700 mm for individual slope riser whereas in the range of 300 to 400 mm for the overall slope.

Realizing Complete Solid-Solution Reaction to Achieve Temperature Independent LiFePO_(4) for High Rate and Low Temperature Li-Ion Batteries

The lithium iron phosphate battery(LiFePO4 or LFP)does not satisfactorily deliver the necessary high rates and low temperatures due to its low Li+diffusivity,which greatly limits its applications.The solid-solution reaction,compared with the traditional two-phase transition,needs less energy,and the lithium ion diffusivity is also higher,which makes breaking the barrier of LFP possible.However,the solid-solution reaction in LFP can only occur at high rates due to the lattice stress caused by the bulk elastic modulus.Herein,pomegranate-like LFP@C nanoclusters with ultrafine LFP@C subunits(8 nm)(PNCsLFP)were synthesized.Using in situ X-ray diffraction,we confirmed that PNCsLFP can achieve complete solid-solution reaction at the relatively low rate of 0.1C which breaks the limitation of low lithium ion diffusivity of the traditional LFP and frees the lithium ion diffusivity from temperature constraints,leading to almost the same lithium ion diffusivities at room temperature,0,−20,and−40℃.The complete solid-solution reaction at all rates breaks the shackles of limited lithium ion diffusivity on LFP and offers a promising solution for next-generation lithium ion batteries with high rate and low temperature applications.

Emerging Roles of Sphingolipid Signaling in Plant Response to Biotic and Abiotic Stresses

Plant sphingolipids are not only structural components of the plasma membrane and other endomembrane systems but also act as signaling molecules during biotic and abiotic stresses.However,the roles of sphingolipids in plant signal transduction in response to environmental cues are yet to be investigated in detail. In this review,we discuss the signaling roles of sphingolipid metabolites with a focus on plant sphingolipids.We also mention some microbial sphingolipids that initiate signals during their interaction with plants, because of the limited literatures on their plant analogs.The equilibrium of nonphosphorylated and phosphorylated sphingolipid species determine the destiny of plant cells,whereas molecular connections among the enzymes responsible for this equilibrium in a coordinated signaling network are poorly understood.A mechanistic link between the phytohormone-sphingolipid interplay has also not yet been fully understood and many key participants involved in this complex interaction operating under stress conditions await to be identified.Future research is needed to fill these gaps and to better understand the signal pathways of plant sphingolipids and their interplay with other signals in response to environmental stresses.

On the Constant Metric Dimension of Generalized Petersen Graphs P(n,4)

In this paper, we consider the family of generalized Petersen graphs P（n,4）. We prove that the metric dimension of P（n, 4） is 3 when n = 0 （mod 4）, and is 4 when n = 4k ＋ 3 （k is even）.For n = 1,2 （mod 4） and n = 4k ＋ 3 （k is odd）, we prove that the metric dimension of P（n,4） is bounded above by 4. This shows that each graph of the family of generalized Petersen graphs P（n, 4） has constant metric dimension.

Acupuncture/Electroacupuncture as an Alternative in Current Opioid Crisis

Opioid drugs are the first line of defense in severe pain but the adverse effects associated with opioids are considered as a serious issue worldwide.Acupuncture/electroacupuncture is a type of Chinese medicine therapy which is an effective analgesic therapy,well documented in animals and human studies.Electroacupuncture stimulation could release endogenous opioid peptides causing analgesia in a variety of pain models.It can be used as an alternative therapy to control the opioid crisis.