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Technology plays an important role in our society, especially in the field of education. It is quite regrettable that people, particularly the deaf, still face a lot of challenges in acquiring an education. Their learning methods are different as compared to hearing people. They use Sign Language (SL) rather than natural language to communicate and learn. They are required to put a lot of effort into learning different concepts using conventional pedagogies. Therefore, there is a dire need for some assistive technology to improve their learn-ability and understandability. In the present study, 192 deaf participants aged 5–10 years were sampled from two special child institutes. The objective of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of a mobile interface through a developed mobile application for learning basic mathematical concepts using Pakistan Sign Language (PSL). The present study bridges the gap between the technology-based method and conventional teaching methods, which are used for teaching mathematical concepts using PSL. The participants were divided into two groups, that is, one group learned through conventional methods (flash cards and board) and the other group through the developed mobile application. The difference in the performance of both the groups was evaluated by conducting quizzes. The quiz results were analyzed by the Z-test and ANOVA. The findings revealed that the Experimental Group (EG) participants, who were instructed by our mobile application showed higher proficiency in the quizzes as compared to the Control Group (CG). EG participants performed better than CG by 12% in the quizzes. A gender based difference was also observed for the quiz scores. Male participants in category C (word problem learning) performed 2.7% better than females in the EG and 2.5% better in the CG. Moreover, a significant difference was also observed in the time taken by participants in both groups to complete the quizzes. CG participants took 20 min longer than EG participants to complete the quizzes. The results of the ANOVA showed that the quiz scores were directly affected by the mode of teaching used for participants in both groups.

Smart grid (SG) vision has come to incorporate various communication technologies, which facilitate residential users to adopt different scheduling schemes in order to manage energy usage with reduced carbon emission. In this work, we have proposed a residential load management mechanism with the incorporation of energy resources (RESs) i.e., solar energy. For this purpose, a real-time electricity price (RTP), energy demand, user preferences and renewable energy parameters are taken as an inputs and genetic algorithm (GA) has been used to manage and schedule residential load with the objective of cost, user discomfort, and peak-to-average ratio (PAR) reduction. Initially, RTP is used to reduce the energy consumption cost. However, to minimize the cost along with reducing the peaks, a combined pricing model, i.e., RTP with inclining block rate (IBR) has been used which incorporates user preferences and RES to optimally schedule load demand. User comfort and cost reduction are contradictory objectives, and difficult to maximize, simultaneously. Considering this trade-off, a combined pricing scheme is modelled in such a way that users are given priority to achieve their objective as per their requirements. To validate and analyze the performance of the proposed algorithm, we first propose mathematical models of all utilized loads, and then multi-objective optimization problem has been formulated. Furthermore, analytical results regarding the objective function and the associated constraints have also been provided to validate simulation results. Simulation results demonstrate a significant reduction in the energy cost along with the achievement of both grid stability in terms of reduced peak and high comfort.

This paper proposes a novel method of constructing strong substitution-boxes (S-boxes) of order n (4 ≤ n ≤ 8) based on a recent optimization algorithm known as sine-cosine algorithm (SCA). The paper also proposes a new 1D chaotic map, which owns enhanced dynamics compared to conventional chaotic map, for generating initial population of S-boxes and facilitating the optimization mechanism of SCA. The proposed method applies the SCA with enhanced chaotic map to explore and exploit the search space for obtaining optimized S-boxes on the basis of maximization of nonlinearity as fitness function. The S-box construction involves three phases such as initialization of population, optimization, and adjustment. The simulation and performance analyses are done using standard measures of nonlinearity, strict avalanche criterion, bits independence criterion, differential uniformity, linear approximation probability, and autocorrelation function. The obtained experimental results are compared with some immediate optimization-based and other S-boxes to show the strength of proposed method for constructing bijective S-boxes of salient cryptographic features.

The issues of identity authentication and privacy protection of individuals in body area network (BAN) systems have raised much concern in past few years. To address the challenges of privacy protection in wireless BAN, an image encryption algorithm has been proposed recently by Wang et al. The encryption algorithm utilized two 1D chaotic maps to generate sub-chaotic matrices which are combined to perform encryption. The algorithm has good statistical encryption performance. However, a cautious inquiry finds that it has some underlying security defects. This paper evaluates the security of the Wang et al. encryption algorithm to show that it is totally breakable under proposed cryptanalysis and hence infeasible for privacy protection in BAN. It has been shown that the plain-image data can be recovered without any prior knowledge of secret key and plain-text. Furthermore, this paper also suggests an improved encryption scheme using secure hash algorithm SHA-512 for one-time keys and a 4D hyperchaotic system to subdue the security insufficiencies of the algorithm under study. The simulation results and analysis demonstrate that the improved image encryption scheme has excellent encryption quality, plain-image sensitivity, and resistance to possible cryptanalytic attacks.

The toxic effect of diclofenac (DCF) sodium and Ciprofloxacin (CIP) on gene expression of cytochrome P450 oxidase (CYPs) and the histology of liver and kidney of male albino rat has been evaluated in this study. DCF and CIP were chosen since they are inhibitors for specific CYP enzymes. Thirty-five adult male albino rats were divided into 7 groups of 5 animals each (A, B, C, D, E, F and G) and were treated orally with drugs for 21 consecutive days. Group A served as the control while B and C were treated with 5.3, 10.6 mg/kg body weight (bw) DCF sodium and groups D and E were treated with 40 and 80 mg/kg bw CIP, respectively. Groups F and G were treated with a mixture of the low and the high doses of both drugs, respectively. Both drugs significantly down regulated the mRNA expression of CYP1a2, CYP3a4 and CYP2c9. They caused hepatorenal histological changes. In the liver, massive fibrosis, necrosis, inflammatory cell infiltration with hemorrhages and hydrophilic degeneration have been observed. A massive tissue injury with glomerular and tubular damages due to sever necrosis, degeneration of concomitant inflammatory cells and blood vessels congestion have been shown in renal tissues. Although DCF and CIP are still used as therapeutic drugs, their use should be limited as their chronic administration induces a toxic effect on human health.

Objectives: To assess the different side effects of COVID-19 vaccines at different scenarios in Saudi Arabia. Methods: This cross-sectional study sought to investigate the side effects of COVID-19 vaccines through an online survey of 2,718 participants in Saudi Arabia. Results: People can manage their expectations about vaccine side effects and deal with symptoms better by knowing beforehand that they are likely to experience mild side effects for a short period, symptoms that are manifested regardless of age, and infection before or after vaccination. There are certain uncommon side effects that affect more people who got infected, and not before vaccination; there are side effects that disproportionately impact women, and also the side effects that wane after the second dose. Conclusion: These findings can assist in evaluating the concerns regarding vaccine acceptance. The public should be made aware that they are likely to experience at least one side effect, with temporary post-injection inflammation, musculoskeletal pain, fever, and headache as the most commonly reported side effects across the board. However, the common symptoms are mild to moderate, and the side effects last for a short period for most people. Keywords: COVID-19, vaccines, side effect, symptoms, Saudi Arabia [phrase omitted]

Objectives:To assess the different side effects of COVID-19 vaccines at different scenarios in Saudi Arabia.Methods:This cross-sectional study sought to investigate the side effects of COVID-19 vaccines through an online survey of 2,718 participants in Saudi Arabia.Results:People can manage their expectations about vaccine side effects and deal with symptoms better by knowing beforehand that they are likely to experience mild side effects for a short period, symptoms that are manifested regardless of age, and infection before or after vaccination. There are certain uncommon side effects that affect more people who got infected, and not before vaccination; there are side effects that disproportionately impact women, and also the side effects that wane after the second dose.Conclusion:These findings can assist in evaluating the concerns regarding vaccine acceptance. The public should be made aware that they are likely to experience at least one side effect, with temporary post-injection inflammation, musculoskeletal pain, fever, and headache as the most commonly reported side effects across the board. However, the common symptoms are mild to moderate, and the side effects last for a short period for most people.