Age of Information for Short-Packet Covert Communication with Time Modulated Retrodirective Array

In this paper,the covert age of information(CAoI),which characterizes the timeliness and covertness performance of communication,is first investigated in the short-packet covert communication with time modulated retrodirective array(TMRDA).Specifically,the TMRDA is designed to maximize the antenna gain in the target direction while the side lobe is sufficiently suppressed.On this basis,the covertness constraint and CAoI are derived in closed form.To facilitate the covert transmission design,the transmit power and block-length are jointly optimized to minimize the CAoI,which demonstrates the trade-off between covertness and timelessness.Our results illustrate that there exists an optimal block-length that yields the minimum CAoI,and the presented optimization results can achieve enhanced performance compared with the fixed block-length case.Additionally,we observe that smaller beam pointing error at Bob leads to improvements in CAoI.

Age of Loop Information with Flexible Transmission Enabled Communication and Control Co-Design in Industrial IoT

Precise and low-latency information transmission through communication systems is essential in the Industrial Internet of Things(IIoT).However,in an industrial system,there is always a coupling relationship between the control and communication components.To improve the system's overall performance,exploring the co-design of communication and control systems is crucial.In this work,we propose a new metric±Age of Loop Information with Flexible Transmission(AoLI-FT),which dynamically adjusts the maximum number of uplink(UL)and downlink(DL)transmission rounds,thus enhancing reliability while ensuring timeliness.Our goal is to explore the relationship between AoLI-FT,reliability,and control convergence rate,and to design optimal blocklengths for UL and DL that achieve the desired control convergence rate.To address this issue,we first derive a closed-form expression for the upper bound of AoLI-FT.Subsequently,we establish a relationship between communication reliability and control convergence rates using a Lyapunov-like function.Finally,we introduce an iterative alternating algorithm to determine the optimal communication and control parameters.The numerical results demonstrate the significant performance advantages of our proposed communication and control co-design strategy in terms of latency and control cost.

Age of Information Based User Scheduling and Data Assignment in Multi-User Mobile Edge Computing Networks:An Online Algorithm

This paper investigates the age of information(AoI)-based multi-user mobile edge computing(MEC)network with partial offloading mode.The weighted sum AoI(WSA)is first analyzed and derived,and then a WSA minimization problem is formulated by jointly optimizing the user scheduling and data assignment.Due to the non-analytic expression of the WSA w.r.t.the optimization variables and the unknowability of future network information,the problem cannot be solved with known solution methods.Therefore,an online Joint Partial Offloading and User Scheduling Optimization(JPOUSO)algorithm is proposed by transforming the original problem into a single-slot data assignment subproblem and a single-slot user scheduling sub-problem and solving the two sub-problems separately.We analyze the computational complexity of the presented JPO-USO algorithm,which is of O(N),with N being the number of users.Simulation results show that the proposed JPO-USO algorithm is able to achieve better AoI performance compared with various baseline methods.It is shown that both the user’s data assignment and the user’s AoI should be jointly taken into account to decrease the system WSA when scheduling users.

Dynamic Update Scheme of Spectrum Information Based on Spectrum Opportunity Incentive in the Database-Assisted Dynamic Spectrum Management

To solve the problem of delayed update of spectrum information(SI) in the database assisted dynamic spectrum management(DB-DSM), this paper studies a novel dynamic update scheme of SI in DB-DSM. Firstly, a dynamic update mechanism of SI based on spectrum opportunity incentive is established, in which spectrum users are encouraged to actively assist the database to update SI in real time. Secondly, the information update contribution(IUC) of spectrum opportunity is defined to describe the cost of accessing spectrum opportunity for heterogeneous spectrum users, and the profit of SI update obtained by the database from spectrum allocation. The process that the database determines the IUC of spectrum opportunity and spectrum user selects spectrum opportunity is mapped to a Hotelling model. Thirdly, the process of determining the IUC of spectrum opportunities is further modelled as a Stackelberg game by establishing multiple virtual spectrum resource providers(VSRPs) in the database. It is proved that there is a Nash Equilibrium in the game of determining the IUC of spectrum opportunities by VSRPs. Finally, an algorithm of determining the IUC based on a genetic algorithm is designed to achieve the optimal IUC. The-oretical analysis and simulation results show that the proposed method can quickly find the optimal solution of the IUC, and ensure that the spectrum resource provider can obtain the optimal profit of SI update.

Hyperspectral Image Super-Resolution Network Based on Reinforcing Inter-Spectral Incremental Information

Hyperspectral images typically have high spectral resolution but low spatial resolution,which impacts the reliability and accuracy of subsequent applications,for example,remote sensingclassification and mineral identification.But in traditional methods via deep convolution neural net-works,indiscriminately extracting and fusing spectral and spatial features makes it challenging toutilize the differentiated information across adjacent spectral channels.Thus,we proposed a multi-branch interleaved iterative upsampling hyperspectral image super-resolution reconstruction net-work(MIIUSR)to address the above problems.We reinforce spatial feature extraction by integrat-ing detailed features from different receptive fields across adjacent channels.Furthermore,we pro-pose an interleaved iterative upsampling process during the reconstruction stage,which progres-sively fuses incremental information among adjacent frequency bands.Additionally,we add twoparallel three dimensional(3D)feature extraction branches to the backbone network to extractspectral and spatial features of varying granularity.We further enhance the backbone network’sconstruction results by leveraging the difference between two dimensional(2D)channel-groupingspatial features and 3D multi-granularity features.The results obtained by applying the proposednetwork model to the CAVE test set show that,at a scaling factor of×4,the peak signal to noiseratio,spectral angle mapping,and structural similarity are 37.310 dB,3.525 and 0.9438,respec-tively.Besides,extensive experiments conducted on the Harvard and Foster datasets demonstratethe superior potential of the proposed model in hyperspectral super-resolution reconstruction.

Robust and Discriminative Feature Learning via Mutual Information Maximization for Object Detection in Aerial Images

Object detection in unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)aerial images has become increasingly important in military and civil applications.General object detection models are not robust enough against interclass similarity and intraclass variability of small objects,and UAV-specific nuisances such as uncontrolledweather conditions.Unlike previous approaches focusing on high-level semantic information,we report the importance of underlying features to improve detection accuracy and robustness fromthe information-theoretic perspective.Specifically,we propose a robust and discriminative feature learning approach through mutual information maximization(RD-MIM),which can be integrated into numerous object detection methods for aerial images.Firstly,we present the rank sample mining method to reduce underlying feature differences between the natural image domain and the aerial image domain.Then,we design a momentum contrast learning strategy to make object features similar to the same category and dissimilar to different categories.Finally,we construct a transformer-based global attention mechanism to boost object location semantics by leveraging the high interrelation of different receptive fields.We conduct extensive experiments on the VisDrone and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Benchmark Object Detection and Tracking(UAVDT)datasets to prove the effectiveness of the proposed method.The experimental results show that our approach brings considerable robustness gains to basic detectors and advanced detection methods,achieving relative growth rates of 51.0%and 39.4%in corruption robustness,respectively.Our code is available at https://github.com/cq100/RD-MIM(accessed on 2 August 2024).

Improving the Effectiveness of Image Classification Structural Methods by Compressing the Description According to the Information Content Criterion

The research aims to improve the performance of image recognition methods based on a description in the form of a set of keypoint descriptors.The main focus is on increasing the speed of establishing the relevance of object and etalon descriptions while maintaining the required level of classification efficiency.The class to be recognized is represented by an infinite set of images obtained from the etalon by applying arbitrary geometric transformations.It is proposed to reduce the descriptions for the etalon database by selecting the most significant descriptor components according to the information content criterion.The informativeness of an etalon descriptor is estimated by the difference of the closest distances to its own and other descriptions.The developed method determines the relevance of the full description of the recognized object with the reduced description of the etalons.Several practical models of the classifier with different options for establishing the correspondence between object descriptors and etalons are considered.The results of the experimental modeling of the proposed methods for a database including images of museum jewelry are presented.The test sample is formed as a set of images from the etalon database and out of the database with the application of geometric transformations of scale and rotation in the field of view.The practical problems of determining the threshold for the number of votes,based on which a classification decision is made,have been researched.Modeling has revealed the practical possibility of tenfold reducing descriptions with full preservation of classification accuracy.Reducing the descriptions by twenty times in the experiment leads to slightly decreased accuracy.The speed of the analysis increases in proportion to the degree of reduction.The use of reduction by the informativeness criterion confirmed the possibility of obtaining the most significant subset of features for classification,which guarantees a decent level of accuracy.

Analysis of Secured Cloud Data Storage Model for Information

This paper was motivated by the existing problems of Cloud Data storage in Imo State University, Nigeria such as outsourced data causing the loss of data and misuse of customer information by unauthorized users or hackers, thereby making customer/client data visible and unprotected. Also, this led to enormous risk of the clients/customers due to defective equipment, bugs, faulty servers, and specious actions. The aim if this paper therefore is to analyze a secure model using Unicode Transformation Format (UTF) base 64 algorithms for storage of data in cloud securely. The methodology used was Object Orientated Hypermedia Analysis and Design Methodology (OOHADM) was adopted. Python was used to develop the security model;the role-based access control (RBAC) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) to enhance security Algorithm were integrated into the Information System developed with HTML 5, JavaScript, Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) version 3 and PHP7. This paper also discussed some of the following concepts;Development of Computing in Cloud, Characteristics of computing, Cloud deployment Model, Cloud Service Models, etc. The results showed that the proposed enhanced security model for information systems of cooperate platform handled multiple authorization and authentication menace, that only one login page will direct all login requests of the different modules to one Single Sign On Server (SSOS). This will in turn redirect users to their requested resources/module when authenticated, leveraging on the Geo-location integration for physical location validation. The emergence of this newly developed system will solve the shortcomings of the existing systems and reduce time and resources incurred while using the existing system.

Compensatory Damages in Personal Information Public Interest Litigation in China: Challenges and Prospects

In contrast to private interest litigation,public interest litigation provides a more potent solution to personal information infringements marked by extensive scope,unspecified victims,and limited individual loss.However,com⁃pensatory damages remain a contentious issue,both in theory and in practice,within the legal framework of personal in⁃formation public interest litigation.Through an empirical study conducted within China's judicial practice,this paper reveals that the pending issue concerning the nature and function of compensatory damages has caused highly contra⁃dictory verdicts regarding their calculation and allocation,as well as their relationship with other forms of pecuniary li⁃abilities.Only by acknowledging the role of compensatory damages imposed in personal information public interest liti⁃gation as"Skimming off Excess Profits",and affirming their function as deterrence rather than compensation can they truly achieve the broader objective of safeguarding personal information security and promoting public welfare,as well as avoid disrupting the harmony of the existing legal landscape.

Whole-Process Project Cost Management Based on Building Information Modeling (BIM)

The whole-process project cost management based on building information modeling(BIM)is a new management method,aiming to realize the comprehensive optimization and improvement of project cost management through the application of BIM technology.This paper summarizes and analyzes the whole-process project cost management based on BIM,aiming to explore its application and development prospects in the construction industry.Firstly,this paper introduces the role and advantages of BIM technology in engineering cost management,including information integration,data sharing,and collaborative work.Secondly,the paper analyzes the key technologies and methods of the whole-process project cost management based on BIM,including model construction,data management,and cost control.In addition,the paper also discusses the challenges and limitations of the whole-process BIM project cost management,such as the inconsistency of technical standards,personnel training,and consciousness change.Finally,the paper summarizes the advantages and development prospects of the whole-process project cost management based on BIM and puts forward the direction and suggestions for future research.Through the research of this paper,it can provide a reference for construction cost management and promote innovation and development in the construction industry.

Information Management: Knowledge, Emancipation, and Metaphysics in the 21st Century

This text is trying to discuss an approximation to the concept of human emancipation,as part of our well-being,in terms of Education and Knowledge.Without abandoning our metaphysical perception of wholeness,as an extension of the continuity principle which connects our conscious and unconscious world,emancipation is considered as a personal struggle against all oppressions.Some of these are grounded in our inner world.In accordance with the Enlightenment request,reasoning and knowledge can help us to structure new forms of acceptances which are shaping our own emancipatory meaning.Under the impact of social influence and personal interpretation,the perceived knowledge is considered as a mental tool containing an upgraded valid information.Taking under consideration that this validity is not able to overcome the metaphysical origins of human thought,it is suggested that when this mental tool is functioning in a self-transformative,self-constructed,and flexible form,human intelligence is structuring a compatible information management mechanism,which can enable us to formulate our personal acceptances,bridge our empirical and hyper-empirical inner world,and enlighten our request for self-criticism,self-determination,and above all emancipation.

Application of Electronic Information Engineering in Hospital Management

To further enhance the overall service quality of China’s hospitals and improve the trust of the majority of patients in hospitals,this paper takes intelligent hospital management as the object of study,analyzes the importance of electronic information engineering technology applied in hospital management,and discusses the specific application methods of electronic information engineering in hospital management.This aims the existing problems in the current hospital management,such as insufficient degree of informatization,data sharing difficulties,lack of professionals,etc.Corresponding improvement measures are proposed,including strengthening the construction of informatization,promoting data sharing,and cultivating professionals.It is hoped that this study will enable the majority of hospital managers to make better use of electronic information engineering technology to effectively solve the current problems faced by hospitals and to continuously improve the comprehensive competitiveness of China’s hospitals.

A Building Information Modeling-Life Cycle Cost Analysis Integrated Model to Enhance Decisions Related to the Selection of Construction Methods at the Conceptual Design Stage of Buildings

Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) provides a systematic approach to assess the total cost associated with owning, operating, and maintaining assets throughout their entire life. BIM empowers architects and designers to perform real-time evaluations to explore various design options. However, when integrated with LCCA, BIM provides a comprehensive economic perspective that helps stakeholders understand the long-term financial implications of design decisions. This study presents a methodology for developing a model that seamlessly integrates BIM and LCCA during the conceptual design stage of buildings. This integration allows for a comprehensive evaluation and analysis of the design process, ensuring that the development aligns with the principles of low carbon emissions by employing modular construction, 3D concrete printing methods, and different building design alternatives. The model considers the initial construction costs in addition to all the long-term operational, maintenance, and salvage values. It combines various tools and data through different modules, including energy analysis, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) to execute a comprehensive assessment of the financial implications of a specific design option throughout the lifecycle of building projects. The development of the said model and its implementation involves the creation of a new plug-in for the BIM tool (i.e., Autodesk Revit) to enhance its functionalities and capabilities in forecasting the life-cycle costs of buildings in addition to generating associated cash flows, creating scenarios, and sensitivity analyses in an automatic manner. This model empowers designers to evaluate and justify their initial investments while designing and selecting potential construction methods for buildings, and enabling stakeholders to make informed decisions by assessing different design alternatives based on long-term financial considerations during the early stages of design.

Smart City Rail Transit Operation and Management Information Construction Strategy

Rail transit is considered one of the safest and most efficient modes of transportation.Ticketing,vehicle dispatching,and passenger flow control during rail transit operations in China have been improving over the years.Smart city construction and intelligent management models has also been increasingly emphasized with the rapid development of information and internet technology.Therefore,it is essential to conduct relevant research and discussions to improve the overall efficiency and quality of urban rail transit operation and management.This article provides an overview of smart city rail transit operation and management informatization,the principles of construction,and the functions of smart city rail transit operation and management informatization.Additionally,it discusses the strategies for the construction of smart city rail transit operation and management information and its development prospects.

Gut microbiota-astrocyte axis: new insights into age-related cognitive decline

With the rapidly aging human population,age-related cognitive decline and dementia are becoming increasingly prevalent worldwide.Aging is considered the main risk factor for cognitive decline and acts through alterations in the composition of the gut microbiota,microbial metabolites,and the functions of astrocytes.The microbiota–gut–brain axis has been the focus of multiple studies and is closely associated with cognitive function.This article provides a comprehensive review of the specific changes that occur in the composition of the gut microbiota and microbial metabolites in older individuals and discusses how the aging of astrocytes and reactive astrocytosis are closely related to age-related cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases.This article also summarizes the gut microbiota components that affect astrocyte function,mainly through the vagus nerve,immune responses,circadian rhythms,and microbial metabolites.Finally,this article summarizes the mechanism by which the gut microbiota–astrocyte axis plays a role in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.Our findings have revealed the critical role of the microbiota–astrocyte axis in age-related cognitive decline,aiding in a deeper understanding of potential gut microbiome-based adjuvant therapy strategies for this condition.

An Application of a Multi-Tier Data Warehouse in Oil and Gas Drilling Information Management

Expenditure on wells constitute a significant part of the operational costs for a petroleum enterprise, where most of the cost results from drilling. This has prompted drilling departments to continuously look for ways to reduce their drilling costs and be as efficient as possible. A system called the Drilling Comprehensive Information Management and Application System (DCIMAS) is developed and presented here, with an aim at collecting, storing and making full use of the valuable well data and information relating to all drilling activities and operations. The DCIMAS comprises three main parts, including a data collection and transmission system, a data warehouse (DW) management system, and an integrated platform of core applications. With the support of the application platform, the DW management system is introduced, whereby the operation data are captured at well sites and transmitted electronically to a data warehouse via transmission equipment and ETL (extract, transformation and load) tools. With the high quality of the data guaranteed, our central task is to make the best use of the operation data and information for drilling analysis and to provide further information to guide later production stages. Applications have been developed and integrated on a uniform platform to interface directly with different layers of the multi-tier DW. Now, engineers in every department spend less time on data handling and more time on applying technology in their real work with the system.

SAR IMAGE RECOGNITION BASED ON MULTI-ASPECT OF SHADOW INFORMATION

The traditional synthetic aperture radar（SAR） image recognition techniques focus on the electro magnetic （EM） scattering centers, ignoring the important role of the shadow information on the SAR image recognition. It is difficult to classify targets by the shadow information independently, because the shadow shape is dependent on the radar aspect angle, the depression angle and the resolution. Moreover, the shadow shapes of different targets are similar. When the multiple SAR images of one target from different aspects are available, the performance of the target recognition can be improved. Aimed at the problem, a multi-aspect SAR image recognition technique based on the shadow information is developed. It extracts shadow profiles from SAR images, and takes chain codes as the feature vectors of targets. Then, feature vectors on multiple aspects of the same target are combined with feature sequences, and the hidden Markov model （HMM） is applied to the feature sequences for the target recognition. The simulation result shows the effectiveness of the method.

Incentive mechanism analysis of information security outsourcing based on principal-agent model

In order to solve principal-agent problems caused by interest inconformity and information asymmetry during information security outsourcing, it is necessary to design a reasonable incentive mechanism to promote client enterprises to complete outsourcing service actively. The incentive mechanism model of information security outsourcing is designed based on the principal-agent theory. Through analyzing the factors such as enterprise information assets value, invasion probability, information security environment, the agent cost coefficient and agency risk preference degree how to impact on the incentive mechanism, conclusions show that an enterprise information assets value and invasion probability have a positive influence on the fixed fee and the compensation coefficient; while information security environment, the agent cost coefficient and agency risk preference degree have a negative influence on the compensation coefficient. Therefore, the principal enterprises should reasonably design the fixed fee and the compensation coefficient to encourage information security outsourcing agency enterprises to the full extent.

Structural damage detection method based on information fusion technique

Multi-source information fusion （MSIF） is imported into structural damage diagnosis methods to improve the validity of damage detection. After the introduction of the basic theory, the function model, classifications and mathematical methods of MSIF, a structural damage detection method based on MSIF is presented, which is to fuse two or more damage character vectors from different structural damage diagnosis methods on the character-level. In an experiment of concrete plates, modal information is measured and analyzed. The structural damage detection method based on MSIF is taken to localize cracks of concrete plates and it is proved to be effective. Results of damage detection by the method based on MSIF are compared with those from the modal strain energy method and the flexibility method. Damage, which can hardly be detected by using the single damage identification method, can be diagnosed by the damage detection method based on the character-level MSIF technique. Meanwhile multi-location damage can be identified by the method based on MSIF. This method is sensitive to structural damage and different mathematical methods for MSIF have different preconditions and applicabilities for diversified structures. How to choose mathematical methods for MSIF should be discussed in detail in health monitoring systems of actual structures.

A method based on mutual information and gradient information for medical image registration

Mutual information is widely used in medical image registration, because it does not require preprocessing the image. However, the local maximum problem in the registration is insurmountable. We combine mutual information and gradient information to solve this problem and apply it to the non-rigid deformation image registration. To improve the accuracy, we provide some implemental issues, for example, the Powell searching algorithm, gray interpolation and consideration of outlier points. The experimental results show the accuracy of the method and the feasibility in non-rigid medical image registration.