Search Results (81)

The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) comprises the application of traditional Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in the healthcare domain. IoMT ensures seamless data-sharing among hospitals, patients, and healthcare service providers, thereby transforming the medical environment. The adoption of IoMT technology has made it possible to provide various medical services such as chronic disease care, emergency response, and preventive treatment. However, the sensitivity of medical data and the resource limitations of IoMT devices present persistent challenges in designing authentication protocols. Our study reviews the overall architecture of the IoMT and recent studies on IoMT protocols in terms of security requirements and computational costs. In addition, this study evaluates security using formal verification tools with Scyther and SVO Logic. The security requirements include authentication, mutual authentication, confidentiality, integrity, untraceability, privacy preservation, anonymity, multi-factor authentication, session key security, forward and backward secrecy, and lightweight operation. The analysis shows that protocols satisfying a multiple security requirements tend to have higher computational costs, whereas protocols with lower computational costs often provide weaker security. This demonstrates the trade-off relationship between robust security and lightweight operation. These indicators assist in selecting protocols by balancing the allocated resources and required security for each scenario. Based on the comparative analysis and a security evaluation of the IoMT, this paper provides security guidelines for future research. Moreover, it summarizes the minimum security requirements and offers insights that practitioners can utilize in real-world settings. Full article

Central to the debate on the production–comprehension relationship in prosodic development is the acquisition of the focus-to-prosody mapping in West Germanic languages. Past research primarily examined the production–comprehension relationship in 4- to 5-year-old English and Dutch-speaking children and yielded evidence both for and against a production-precedes-comprehension asymmetry. Recent research shows a protracted developmental trajectory to adult-like use of the full range of prosodic means for focus marking in Dutch-speaking children, suggesting a comprehension-precedes-production asymmetry. Little is known about whether the production–comprehension relationship changes with age and differs between children. To elucidate the effect of age on the production–comprehension relationship and shed initial light on individual differences in this domain, we investigated production and comprehension of the focus-to-prosody mapping in SVO sentences by 71 Dutch-speaking children aged 4 to 8 years, using picture-based production and online comprehension tasks. Multilevel modelling showed that the children’s comprehension was predictive of their production in sentence-initial focus but not in sentence-final focus across ages. However, this predictive relationship between comprehension and production differed for different children depending on whether their comprehension was adult-like. In conclusion, we have found limited evidence that children’s comprehension of the focus-to-prosody mapping supports their use of prosody to mark focus in production. The stability of individual differences across development is similar to findings in other domains of language acquisition. Full article

ABG analysis is the gold standard for assessing acid–base balance, oxygenation, and ventilation in critically ill patients, but it is invasive and associated with patient discomfort and potential complications. Venous blood gas (VBG) analysis offers a less invasive alternative, although its clinical utility remains debated. This review evaluates the current evidence on VBG analysis, exploring its correlation with ABG, clinical applications, and limitations. Studies show a strong correlation between ABG and VBG for pH and a good correlation for bicarbonate and base excess in most cases, while the correlation for pCO₂ remains controversial. Predictably, pO₂ values differ significantly due to oxygen consumption gradients between the arterial and venous blood. VBG analysis is especially valuable for initial assessments, monitoring therapeutic responses, and guiding resuscitation in intensive care settings. It is not merely an alternative to ABG but a complementary tool that can provide unique insights, such as mixed venous oxygen saturation (SvO₂) or indices that require combined ABG and VBG data, like the pCO₂ gap. This review highlights the diagnostic equivalence of VBG in appropriate contexts and advocates for its use when arterial sampling is unnecessary or impractical. Furthermore, VBG analysis could enhance patient care by enabling the timely, less invasive assessment of hemodynamic and metabolic conditions. Future research should focus on refining interpretation algorithms and expanding the clinical applications of VBG to fully realize its potential in critical care practice. Full article

Background: While carotid pathologies are well-established risk factors for stroke, their specific effects on outcomes following stroke that cannot be classified as atherosclerotic remain unclear. In this study, we aimed to determine whether carotid pathologies are associated with functional dependence (FD) 3 months after small vessel occlusion (SVO) stroke. Methods: This retrospective study included patients with a first-ever SVO stroke admitted to a single cerebrovascular-specialty hospital between October 2021 and March 2024. Standardized ultrasound criteria were used to grade the carotid plaques. The modified Rankin scale (mRS) was used to assess functional outcomes at 3 months. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify FD predictors (mRS of ≥2). Results: Of the 372 included patients, 276 achieved functional independence and 96 experienced FD at 3 months. Univariable analysis revealed an association between carotid plaque grade III and FD (odds ratio [OR], 2.46; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.05–6.51; p = 0.049). However, this association was not significant in the multivariable model. Overall, age (adjusted OR, 1.07; 95% CI 1.03–1.10, p < 0.001), NIHSS at initial presentation (adjusted OR, 1.84; 95% CI, 1.55–2.18; p < 0.001), and diabetes (adjusted OR, 2.84; 95% CI, 1.37–5.92; p = 0.005) were independently associated with FD 3 months after SVO stroke. Conclusions: Carotid plaque severity was not independently associated with functional outcomes 3 months after SVO stroke. Age, NIHSS at initial presentation, and diabetes were identified as independent FD predictors. Future in-depth studies are warranted to confirm the complex interplay of factors influencing functional outcomes in patients with SVO stroke and carotid pathologies simultaneously. Full article

Acquiring prosodic focus marking in a second language (L2) is difficult for learners whose native language utilizes strategies that differ from those of the target language. German typically uses pitch accents (L+H*/H*) to mark focus, while (Modern Standard) Arabic preferably employs a syntactic strategy (word order) or lexical means. In Syrian Arabic, a variety which is predominantly oral, pitch accents are used to mark focus, but the distribution and types are different from German. The present study investigates how Syrian Arabic learners of German prosodically mark focus in L2 German. A question–answer paradigm was used to elicit German subject-verb-object (SVO)-sentences with broad, narrow, or contrastive focus. Productions of advanced (C1, N = 17) and intermediate (B1/B2, N = 8) Syrian Arabic learners were compared to those of German controls (N = 12). Like the controls, both learner groups successfully placed pitch accents on focused constituents. However, learners, especially those with lower proficiency, used more pitch accents in non-focal regions than the controls, revealing challenges in de-accentuation. These may result from the larger number of phrase boundaries in learners’ productions, which in turn might be explained by transfer from the L1 or aspects of general fluency. Learners also differed from the controls with respect to accent type. They predominantly used H* for narrow or contrastive focus (instead of L+H*); proficiency effects played only a minor role here. Our study hence reveals an intricate interplay between cross-linguistic influence and proficiency in the L2 acquisition of prosodic focus marking, targeting a language pair so far underrepresented in the literature (German vs. Syrian Arabic). Full article

Is negation negative? For some authors, in some languages, it is not. This is the case for so-called strict negative concord languages (e.g., Russian), in which negation is taken to be non-negative, following the cross-linguistic analysis for negative concord systems proposed by Hedde Zeijlstra’s work “Sentential negation and negative concord”. However, this analysis is focused on languages with SVO word order. In this paper, I propose to reconsider the typology of negative concord by zooming out of the focus on SVO languages that current literature has relied on. I discuss the case of SOV languages where observing a strict NC pattern leads to weaker conclusions about the nature of negation than for SVO languages with strict negative concord, leaving the negativity status of negation in those languages underdetermined. I then take a look at Turkish, an SOV language with three sentential negation markers: plain sentential negation -mA, copular negation değil, and existential negation yok. Evidence from the interaction of these markers with neither..nor phrases suggests that değil and yok, in contrast with -mA, are non-negative for some speakers. In order to explain the variation, I put forward a hypothesis about the learning process, in which there is sometimes insufficient evidence in the input to determine whether değil and yok are negative, and learners choose between two conflicting heuristics that result in the negativity or non-negativity of these markers. Full article

This paper presents a first typology of negative indefinites in Bantu languages. The lack of interest in expressions of ‘nobody’ in Bantu languages is connected with the idea that they merely involve a generic noun for ‘person’ and main clause negation. Our study, based on a dataset of 85 Bantu languages, shows that exponents of ‘nobody’ can be quite diverse, either resembling exponents of ‘somebody’ or differing from them through the use of pragmatically strong modifiers like scalar additive operators or explicit quantifiers like the numeral ‘one’. We also look at the constructions in which exponents of ‘nobody’ occur and observe that next to canonical SVO constructions, two construction types are used which are known to express information structure in Bantu languages: inversion constructions and existential cleft constructions. Inversion constructions are shown to be especially frequent with intransitive clauses but we also find object inversion for either ‘somebody’ or ‘nobody’ but not for both in the same language. Existential cleft constructions, on the other hand, are shown to be especially frequent with transitive clauses and, more importantly, they are more frequently used for expressions of ‘nobody’ than for expressions of ‘somebody’ in line with recent observations for South-East Asian and Mixtec languages. Full article

The integration of Internet Protocol version 6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPANs) provided IP technologies within wireless sensor networks that dramatically increased the Internet of Things (IoT). Therefore, to facilitate efficient mobility management for resource-constrained IP-based sensor nodes, the Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) standard has been introduced to reduce communication overhead. However, the standard has addressed security and mobility authentication challenges in 6LoWPANs, although recent solutions have yet to focus much on facilitating secure group handovers. Considering these issues, a Secure and Lightweight Group Mobility Authentication Scheme (SL_GAS) is proposed for 6LoWPAN’s highly constrained sensor nodes. SL_GAS innovatively utilizes one-time alias identities, temporary IDs, tickets, and an aggregated MAC with tags to ensure mutual authentication while maintaining sensor anonymity, providing a balanced security and privacy approach. SL_GAS’s robustness against a variety of security threats is validated through formal automated verification using the Scyther tool alongside SVO logic, while an informal analysis demonstrates its resilience to known attacks. Comparative analysis with existing schemes highlights SL_GAS’s advantages in reducing signal cost, transmission delay, communication, and computation overhead. SL_GAS stands out for its combination of security, privacy, and efficiency, making it a promising approach for enhancing IoT connectivity in resource-constrained settings. Full article

Salt caverns are recognized as an excellent medium for energy storage. However, due to the unique characteristics of China’s bedded salt formations, which contain numerous salt layers and a high concentration of insoluble impurities, significant accumulation at the bottom of salt caverns occurs, leading to the formation of extensive sediment voids. These sediment voids offer a potential space for underground oil storage, referred to as sediment void oil storage (SVOS). Oil recovery process from these sediment voids is a critical process. This paper summarizes the oil recovery technologies for SVOS and identifies four key factors—geological evaluation, stability evaluation, tightness evaluation, and oil storage capacity—all of which influence enhance oil recovery from sediment voids. This paper also outlines the overall oil recovery process, presents oil recovery experiments, and discusses oil recovery methods for enhancing oil recovery from sediment void. Additionally, it addresses the challenges of oil recovery in SVOS and explores its potential advantages and applications. The findings suggest that salt cavern sediment voids, as a promising storage space, provide a new approach to realize oil recovery and can overcome the limitations associated with cavern construction in high-impurity salt mines. The oil recovery from the sediment void is feasible, and China has rich rock salt and other convenient conditions to develop SVOS technology. Full article

This study evaluates the performance of biofuels created from triple blends of fossil diesel, sunflower or castor oil (SVOs), and 2-Ethylhexyl Nitrate (EHN), a low-viscosity, high-cetane (LVHC) solvent. EHN reduces the viscosity of SVOs to enable their use in conventional diesel engines without compromising fuel properties. The results show that the power output from these blends is similar to or greater than that of fossil diesel, with comparable fuel consumption. Furthermore, the blends significantly reduce emissions of carbon monoxide (CO) and soot, though NOx emissions are slightly higher due to the nitrogen content in EHN. However, NOx levels remain within permissible limits. The substitution of fossil diesel could be further enhanced if EHN were produced using green hydrogen and lignocellulosic biomass, making it a renewable and sustainable biofuel component. These findings support the potential of EHN/SVO biofuel blends to replace a significant portion of fossil diesel in conventional diesel engines while maintaining performance and reducing harmful emissions, except for a slight increase in NOx. Full article

The 5G-AKA protocol, a foundational component for 5G network authentication, has been found vulnerable to various security threats, including linkability attacks that compromise user privacy. To address these vulnerabilities, we previously proposed the 5G-AKA-Forward Secrecy (5G-AKA-FS) protocol, which introduces an ephemeral key pair within the home network (HN) to support forward secrecy and prevent linkability attacks. However, a re-evaluation uncovered minor errors in the initial BAN-logic verification and highlighted the need for more rigorous security validation using formal methods. In this paper, we correct the BAN-logic verification and advance the formal security analysis by applying an extended SVO logic, which was adopted as it provides a higher level of verification compared to BAN logic, incorporating a new axiom specifically for forward secrecy. Additionally, we enhance the ProVerif analysis by employing a stronger adversarial model. These refinements in formal verification validate the security and reliability of 5G-AKA-FS, ensuring its resilience against advanced attacks. Our findings offer a comprehensive reference for future security protocol verification in 5G networks Full article

Background/Objectives: Debates regarding how to represent verb phrases (VPs) consisting of the verb plus the complement and the aspectual marker -le in Mandarin Chinese remain an issue. Methods: Syntactic priming under a memory disguise paradigm was employed to investigate the issue using the SVO-ba alternation, where the SVO structure consists of a subject verb object, and the ba structure of a subject ba object verb, in five-year-olds (n = 216), an age with fully fledged grammatical knowledge but little interference from literacy. Results: The results indicate that both the complement and the marker -le should be represented in terms of phrasal rather than morphological structures. When -le is inflected to the verb alone, realization, which makes an event a fact, rather than completion, which makes an event finished, is accomplished. The event must be telicized to a state through a resultative complement to induce reliable production of the ba construction. The postverbal elements represent their own phrasal structure and challenge the verb-centered lexico-syntactic account because there are no additional representations left within a verb. Conclusions: More elicitations of the SVO than the ba invite future neurolinguistic explorations to disentangle the impacts of the frequency and thematic arrangement of agent and patient on grammatical representations cross-linguistically. Full article

The rapid evolution of mobile and optical communication technologies is driving the transition from 5G to 6G networks. This transition inevitably brings about changes in authentication scenarios, as new security demands emerge that go beyond the capabilities of existing frameworks. Therefore, it is necessary to address these evolving requirements and the associated key challenges: ensuring Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) to protect communications even if long-term keys are compromised and integrating Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) techniques to defend against the threats posed by quantum computing. These are essential for both radio and optical communications, which are foundational elements of future 6G infrastructures. The DMRN Protocol, introduced in 2022, represents a major advancement by offering both PFS and PQC while maintaining compatibility with existing 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards. Given the looming quantum-era challenges, it is imperative to analyze the protocol’s security architecture through formal verification. Accordingly, we formally analyze the DMRN Protocol using SVO logic and ProVerif to assess its effectiveness in mitigating attack vectors, such as malicious or compromised serving networks (SNs) and home network (HN) masquerading. Our research found that the DMRN Protocol has vulnerabilities in key areas such as mutual authentication and key exchange. In light of these findings, our study provides critical insights into the design of secure and quantum-safe authentication protocols for the transition to 6G networks. Furthermore, by identifying the vulnerabilities in and discussing countermeasures to address the DMRN Protocol, this study lays the groundwork for the future standardization of secure 6G Authentication and Key Agreement protocols. Full article

In this research work, the feasibility of using fusel oil, a by-product of the sugar–alcohol industry, as an LVLC solvent in blends with straight vegetable oils (SVOs) and diesel was investigated. Concretely, diesel/fusel oil/sunflower oil (D/FO/SO) and diesel/fusel oil/castor oil (D/FO/CO) triple blends were prepared and characterized by measuring the most important physicochemical properties, i.e., viscosity, density, cold flow properties, flash point and cetane number. An appreciable improvement in cold flow values has been achieved with triple blends, without compromising properties such as calorific value and cetane number. Likewise, the triple blends meet the viscosity and density requirements specified by the European quality standard EN 14214 and the American standard ASTM D6751. After characterization, the triple blends were used on a diesel engine, evaluating different parameters such as power output, opacity, exhaust emissions (CO and NO_x) and consumption at different engine loads. The results indicate that as the biofuel content in the blend increases, engine power decreases while fuel consumption rises. Nevertheless, the values obtained with D/FO/CO are better than those for D/FO/SO and are also very similar to those of fossil diesel. Regarding opacity values and NO_x emissions obtained with the utilization of the triple blends, they are lower than those produced by diesel. However, in the case of CO emissions, it depends on the type of oil used, with the samples prepared with castor oil exhibiting the best results. Full article

Objectives: To assess the mismatch between the clinical observation of vitreous alterations and self-reported symptoms in young patients complaining of symptomatic vitreous opacities (SVO). Methods: The ophthalmic medical records of young patients presenting primarily with SVO were retrospectively evaluated. Symptoms severity was assessed using a questionnaire. The status of the vitreous body was examined with indirect ophthalmoscopy at the slit-lamp and classified according to an ad hoc severity scale. Results: Sixty eyes of thirty otherwise healthy patients (median age: 32.5 (IQR: 29.0–37.0) years old) complaining of SVO (median duration: 38 months; interquartile range: 18–84 months) were enrolled. SVO was rated as severe by 50% of participants, affecting all the activities explored in the questionnaire. Twenty-three patients (76.6%) reported SVO-related depression and/or anxiety, for which eleven patients (36.6%) were or had been using medication. Fifty-eight eyes (96.6%) showed no evidence of (or minimal) vitreous opacity, while two eyes (3.3%) were found to have significant vitreous opacity. No significant inter-gender differences (p > 0.05) and no significant differences (p > 0.05) were found between the severity of vitreous opacity and patients’ reported symptoms nor with their psychological status and medication use. Conclusions: Severe discomfort related to the perception of vitreous floaters exists in young patients whose vitreous gel examination is unremarkable or shows only minor alterations. We believe this discrepancy can be explained by optical anisotropy; significant forward-scattering of light, which results in floater symptoms; and reduced back reflection, which limits the clinical observation. Full article