Access Points Research Articles

Uncovering Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities: A Kali Linux Investigative Exploration Perspective

Abstract This research exploration presents a comprehensive methodology for conducting penetration testing for networking security protocols and vulnerabilities on the Wi-Fi networks using Kali Linux, an open-source penetration testing platform. The methodology also encompasses four main stages which are Preparation, Information Gathering, Simulated Attack, Reporting. In the Preparation Stage, the scope of the penetration test is defined, authorization is obtained, and within the testing environment the experimentation is prepared. The Information Gathering Stage involves scanning for associated nearby wireless access points (APs), identifying encryption modes, and assessing network coverage. The Simulated Attack Phase verifies the types of vulnerabilities through password cracking, infrastructure penetration tests, and client-side attacks. Finally, the Reporting Phase entails compiling of a very detailed test report with results visualized, findings and recommendations with directions. Experimental results validate the overall effectiveness of the methodology in identifying and mitigating Wi-Fi network vulnerabilities. Through systematic testing and analysis, Kali Linux facilitates proactive security measures to enhance Wi-Fi network defenses.

Characterizing trauma encounters among patients with language other than English preference at a level 1 trauma center's emergency department

AbstractObjectivesInjury‐related visits constitute a sizeable portion of emergency department (ED) visits in the United States. Individuals with language other than English (LOE) preference face barriers to healthcare and visits for traumatic injury may be the first point of contact with the healthcare system. Yet, the prevalence of traumatic injuries in this population is relatively unknown. Our objective was to characterize the prevalence and purpose of trauma encounters, and healthcare utilization, among a LOE cohort.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective chart review of LOE patients who presented for a trauma encounter at a level 1 trauma and emergency care center between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2021. LOE participants were identified by utilization of video‐based language interpretive services. Variables evaluated included injury patterns and primary and subspeciality healthcare utilization. Quantitative analysis of categorical and continuous variables was performed.ResultsA total of 429 patients were included. Most patients presented for one trauma encounter and the majority spoke Spanish. The most common causes of injury were motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) (28.5%, n = 129), ground‐level falls (15.9%, n = 72), and falls from heights (14.2%, n = 64). Occupational injuries made up 27.2% of trauma encounters (n = 123) and only 12.6% (n = 54) of patients had a primary care visit.ConclusionOur findings highlight the need for increased research and attention to all causes of injury, especially MVCs and occupational injuries, among those with LOE preference. Results reaffirm an underutilization of healthcare among this population and the opportunity for trauma encounters as points of access to care.

A CURE Lab in Introductory Biology at a Regional Comprehensive University Negatively Impacts Student Success in the Associated Lecture Course Among Students from Groups Underrepresented in Science.

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) have been proposed as a mechanism to democratize access to the benefits of apprentice-style scientific research to a broader diversity of students, promoting inclusivity and increasing student success and retention. As we evaluate CUREs, it is essential to explore their effectiveness within the environments of regional comprehensive universities and community colleges, because they are important access points for a wide variety of students. It is also important to address the potential influence of volunteer bias, where students can opt to enroll in either the CURE or a traditional lab, on the outcomes of CUREs. We evaluated a CURE at a regional comprehensive university under conditions both with and without volunteer bias. We find that nonvolunteer students report a lower sense of discovery and relevance of the CURE compared with students who volunteered for the course. Importantly, we also find that our replacement of the traditional lab class with a CURE resulted in lower scores on exams in the associated lecture course among students who are both BIPOC and Pell eligible. We call for additional research on the effects of CUREs at nonresearch-intensive institutions and without volunteer bias, to better understand the impact of these classes.

Vector Quantization Methods for Access Point Placement in Cell-Free Massive MIMO Systems

Vector Quantization Methods for Access Point Placement in Cell-Free Massive MIMO Systems

Enhancing WiFi Access Point Localization With AI-Based Filtering

Enhancing WiFi Access Point Localization With AI-Based Filtering

Sum rate maximization in UAV-assisted data harvesting network supported by CF-mMIMO system exploiting statistical CSI

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been considered to have great potential in supporting reliable and timely data harvesting for Sensor Nodes (SNs) from an Internet of Things (IoT) perspective. However, due to physical limitations, UAVs are unable to further process the harvested data and have to rely on terrestrial servers, thus extra spectrum resource is needed to convey the harvested data. To avoid the cost of extra servers and spectrum resources, in this paper, we consider a UAV-based data harvesting network supported by a Cell-Free massive Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (CF-mMIMO) system, where a UAV is used to collect and transmit data from SNs to the central processing unit of CF-mMIMO system for processing. In order to avoid using additional spectrum resources, the entire bandwidth is shared among radio access networks and wireless fronthaul links. Moreover, considering the limited capacity of the fronthaul links, the compress-and-forward scheme is adopted. In this work, in order to maximize the ergodically achievable sum rate of SNs, the power allocation of ground access points, the compression of fronthaul links, and also the bandwidth fraction between radio access networks and wireless fronthaul links are jointly optimized. To avoid the high overhead introduced by computing ergodically achievable rates, we introduce an approximate problem, using the large-dimensional random matrix theory, which relies only on statistical channel state information. We solve the nontrivial problem in three steps and propose an algorithm based on weighted minimum mean square error and Dinkelbach's methods to find solutions. Finally, simulation results show that the proposed algorithm converges quickly and outperforms the baseline algorithms.

Posttraumatic stress disorder in people who use drugs: syringe services program utilization, treatment need, and preferences for onsite mental health care

BackgroundSyringe services programs (SSPs) are critical healthcare access points for people with opioid use disorder (OUD) who face treatment utilization barriers. Co-locating care for common psychiatric comorbidities, like posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), at SSPs may reduce harms and enhance the health of individuals with OUD. To guide the development of onsite psychiatric care at SSPs, we collected quantitative survey data on the prevalence of PTSD, drug use patterns, treatment experiences associated with a probable PTSD diagnosis, and attitudes regarding onsite PTSD care in a convenience sample of registered SSP clients in New York City.MethodsStudy participants were administered the PTSD Checklist for the DSM-5 (PCL-5) and asked about sociodemographic characteristics, current drug use, OUD and PTSD treatment histories, and desire for future SSP services using a structured interview. Probable PTSD diagnosis was defined as a PCL-5 score ≥ 31.ResultsOf the 139 participants surveyed, 138 experienced at least one potentially traumatic event and were included in the present analysis. The sample was primarily male (n = 108, 78.3%), of Hispanic or Latinx ethnicity (n = 76, 55.1%), and middle-aged (M = 45.0 years, SD = 10.6). The mean PCL-5 score was 35.2 (SD = 21.0) and 79 participants (57.2%) had a probable PTSD diagnosis. We documented frequent SSP utilization, significant unmet PTSD treatment need, and high interest in onsite PTSD treatment.ConclusionsStudy findings point to the ubiquity of PTSD in people with OUD who visit SSPs, large gaps in PTSD care, and the potential for harm reduction settings like SSPs to reach people underserved by the healthcare system who have co-occurring OUD and PTSD.

Research on reactive voltage control strategy for substations connected to photovoltaic systems

Abstract The reactive voltage control of conventional substations is mainly realized by adjusting the switching of capacitors or reactors and changing the transformer ratio, which can only be controlled discretely. The PV inverter can carry out continuous reactive power control, and the reactive voltage control strategy of the conventional substation does not consider the reactive power control of the PV. In this paper, the nine-zone diagram control strategy of the traditional substation is used as a reference, and the reactive voltage optimization control strategy of a substation with a photovoltaic power generation system is constructed considering the characteristics that photovoltaic inverter can continuously regulate reactive power. Taking the internal power grid of an enterprise as an example, the simulation analysis verifies the effectiveness of the control strategy, which can ensure that the voltage and power factor of the grid-connected access point are qualified. At the same time, the voltage fluctuation of the grid-connected point can be reduced, and the network consumption can be reduced.

Screening for economic hardship at Child Health Care Centres: A qualitative study of stakeholders' perceptions and experiences of the Healthier Wealthier Families model in Sweden.

The Healthier Wealthier Families model uses the child healthcare services as an access point to screen and connect parents experiencing economic hardship to municipal Budget and Debt Counselling services. This study aimed to explore the perceptions and experiences of the Healthier Wealthier Families model in a Swedish context. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with three stakeholder groups: eligible parents who declined (n=10) and received (n=9) financial counselling; nurses (n=7); and financial counsellors (n=5). The data were analysed using thematic analysis. The analysis resulted in three main themes conveying the stigma of talking about finance, the connection between economic situation and family wellbeing, and the nuts and bolts of providing preventive financial counselling. A working model aiming to ameliorate child poverty in a societal service context needs to address the preconceptions and perceived mandate and role of the professionals, the prevalence of financial stigma in society, especially in relation to being a 'good' parent, and the current preoccupations and perceived financial needs and hopes of the families served.

Enhancing privacy and security in 5G networks with an anonymous handover protocol based on Blockchain and Zero Knowledge Proof

The latest advancement in cellular technology, 5G, has the ability to facilitate various applications such as Device-to-Device (D2D) communication, vehicular communications, and the Internet of Everything (IoE). However, the technology is faced with challenges related to user privacy, resource management, handover authentication, and security of the air interface and internet channels. Moreover, the use of specialized base stations such as wireless Access Points (AP) and Road-Side Units (RSU) in vehicular communications may be owned by subscribers outside formal network operators. The conventional handover authentication schemes have a lengthy latency period that conflicts with the 5G quality of service. To tackle these challenges, this paper presents an anonymous scheme that utilizes Blockchain and Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP) to ensure efficient privacy in the handover protocol of 5G Networks. The proposed scheme has been thoroughly evaluated for security and privacy and has shown to be resistant to identity catching, location area tracing, and replay attacks while achieving Forward/Backward secrecy. Furthermore, the performance evaluation of the proposed scheme indicates that it is efficient and speedy as it involves a limited number of messages, low computation, and does not necessitate the involvement of the Home Network (HN) in the authentication or handover protocols. A diligently crafted BAHO authentication protocol, following cryptographic principles, guarantees robust security against the Real-or-Random model. This results in a seamless and secure transition for User Equipment, upholding confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity during handovers between Access Points.

Performance Analysis of BER and SNR Performance in High-QAM Modulations Using Advancements in MIMO Systems

Wireless communications is one of the most active areas of technology development of our time. This development is being driven primarily by the transformation of what has been largely a medium for supporting voice telephony into a medium for supporting other services, such as the transmission of video, images, text, and data. Today, the widely deployed network type is based on a centralized approach that requires a network point of access, commonly called the Access Point (AP), to serves as a gateway between the mobile device and the Internet. The obtained results demonstrate that spatial diversity along with the power of STBC significantly improves the error performance in frequency selective wireless fading channels. The BER level is depend on the modulation type, SNR value and channel behavior. Modulation schemes that we have used in this paper are 4-QAM, 8-QAM, 16-QAM and 64-QAM which further improved using forward error correction codes (FEC). A comparison is made between the diversity gains of MIMO systems in terms of BER for high QAM modulation scheme. This work presents, a simulation toll MATLAB R2023a used for model implemented using Nakagami channel to study the performance analysis of Bit Error rate (BER) V/S Signal to Noise ratio (SNR). Keywords: AWGN, BER, Fading Channel, MIMO System, Nakagami, OFDM, QAM Modulation, SNR, STBC etc.

F.4 Anatomical assessment and comparative analysis of ventricular access points in pterional approach: a cadaveric study

Background: In early-stage transsylvian aneurysm surgery, achieving brain relaxation is crucial for the safe exposure of aneurysms; however, in cases of tight, hemorrhagic brains, ventricular drainage is often required. Although Paine/Samson initially proposed a ventricular access point in the frontal horn of the lateral ventricle, and numerous points and techniques have been described since, their consistency and success rates have not undergone rigorous evaluation through comparative cadaveric anatomical studies. Methods: We injected 2 cc agar-agar solutions with distinct colors into the lateral ventricles of twelve cadaveric brains, utilizing four described points, followed by refrigeration at 4°C for one hour for each injection. Next, the brains were sectioned in the coronal plane at 2 cm intervals for evaluation. We assessed the efficacy of the injections in reaching the ventricles and measured the ventricular dimensions, in addition to calculating the Evans’ index for each brain. Results: Injections at Paine/Samson’s point achieved a 100% success rate, followed by Hyunn’s point with a 91.6% success rate. The success rates at Temporal point and Park point were 83.3% and 58.3%, respectively. Conclusions: We emphasize the significance of direct ventricle puncture technique and our findings indicate that the classical Paine/Samson point is the most reliable among the evaluated methods.

#2923 Intracardiac vascular access as a last resort for hemodialysis in patients with exhausted traditional vascular access: a case report

Abstract Introduction The dysfunction of vascular access (VA) constitutes one of the main problems faced by nephrologists and patients in chronic hemodialysis (HD). This challenge becomes particularly worrying in patients who have depleted their upper extremity venous resources and have no longer arteriovenous fistula available, requiring the placement of a central venous catheters. It leads to an increase in morbidity and mortality and a higher of infections, thrombosis and exhaustion of access points. In such cases, alternatives to conventional VA are limited, with intracardiac access being an emerging option, albeit with very limited documented experience. Case Report We describe the case of a 68-year-old male with a history of hypertension, nasopharyngeal carcinoma in 2012 treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In 2018 he was diagnosed with low-grade urothelial bladder carcinoma (PT1G1) that infiltrated the subepithelial corion while sparing the muscular layer. He also had severe hydronephrosis with impaired renal function, requiring radical cystoprostatectomy with Bricker bladder reconstruction and subsequent bilateral nephrostomy due to persistent dilatation and progressive deterioration of renal function. He began chronic HD in June 2020 through a left femoral catheter due to the inability to access the upper thoracic vascular tree due to stenosing fibrosis from previous radiotherapy. He was placed on the waiting list for a kidney transplant (KT) in the right iliac fossa but experienced multiple catheter dysfunction episodes, requiring the placement of a right femoral venous catheter to continue with his HD sessions. Additionally, peritoneal dialysis was not considered due to previous urological surgery. Considering the limitation of VA and the possibility of KT as its best alternative, we opted for the insertion of a tunnelled intracardiac catheter at the right atrium. This procedure was conducted by the Cardiac Surgery Department on 03/12/2021 through a median sternotomy in the 4th intercostal space. A permanent hemodialysis catheter was inserted in the right atrium through the 3rd intercostal space and fixed with a purse-string suture. It was then tunnelled under the breast to the 2nd intercostal space through a counter-incision. The cuff was appropriately placed in the subcutaneous tissue (Figs 1 and 2). The intervention proceeded without any complication and the catheter exhibited normal functionality. After that, the patient received anticoagulation with enoxaparin the days between dialysis sessions. Consequently, the right femoral catheter was safely removed. Two weeks later, the patient successfully received a KT from a deceased donor. He was discharged on the day 11st post-KT with any complication and maintains a good renal function after 2 years of follow-up with a serum creatinine 1.7 mg/dL (eGFR: 39 ml/min). The intracardiac catheter was removed one month later through a mini-thoracotomy. Conclusions Intracardiac VA is an unusual and high-risk resource that seems an alternative in patients with exhausted VA with no alternative emergency renal replacement therapy, so it should be considered as the last resort. In the case of our patient, the implantation of this catheter allowed for the continuation of dialysis and access to KT.

Variations in sexual and reproductive health services for the provision of comprehensive contraceptive and abortion services across Europe: A questionnaire-based study commissioned by the European Board and College of Obstetrics & Gynaecology (EBCOG) and European Society of Contraception (ESC)

A questionnaire-based study was jointly organised by European Board and College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and European Society of Contraception to evaluate the current status as regards access and quality of care regarding contraception, abortion care, and pre-conceptional counselling and care among the 26 European countries. There are considerable variations among these countries as regards the provision of contraceptive services and abortion care. There is ample room for improvement through European training and education programs.However, the most important difference is the absence of a comprehensive network of healthcare providers in various countries to deliver these services at different points of access. There is notable absence of educational programs and instructional materials tailored specifically for nurses and midwives in several countries. This deficiency impedes the professional development and skills enhancement of these healthcare professionals, potentially compromising the quality of healthcare services provided to women in these countries.

Detection and characterisation of icy cavities on the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Abstract We report on the detection of three icy cavities on the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. They were identified on high-resolution anaglyphs built from images acquired by the OSIRIS instrument aboard the Rosetta spacecraft on 2016 April 9-10. Visually, they appear as bright patches of typically 15 to 30 m across whose large reflectances and spectral slopes in the visible substantiate the presence of sub-surface water ice. Using a new high-resolution photogrammetric shape model, we determined the three-dimensional shape of these cavities whose depth ranges from 20 to 47 m. Spectral slopes were interpreted with models combining water ice and refractory dark material and the water ice abundances in the cavities were found to amount to a few per cent. The determination of the lifetime of the icy cavities was strongly biased by the availability of appropriate and favourable observations, but we found evidences of values of up to two years. The icy cavities were found to be connected to jets well documented in past studies. A thermal model allowed us to track their solar insolation over a large part of the orbit of the comet and a transitory bright jet on 2015 July 18 was unambiguously linked to the brief illumination of the icy bottom of one of the cavities. These cavities are likely to be the first potential subsurface access points detected on a cometary nucleus and their lifetimes suggest that they reveal pristine sub-surface icy layers or pockets rather than recently recondensed water vapor.

Wireless wearable potentiometric sensor for simultaneous determination of pH, sodium and potassium in human sweat

This paper reports on the development of a flexible-wearable potentiometric sensor for real-time monitoring of sodium ion (Na+), potassium ion (K+), and pH in human sweat. Na0.44MnO2, polyaniline, and K2Co[Fe(CN)6] were used as sensing materials for Na+, H+ and K+ monitoring, respectively. The simultaneous potentiometric Na+, K+, and pH sensing were carried out by the developed sensor, which enables signal collection and transmission in real-time to the smartphone via a Wi-Fi access point. Then, the potentiometric responses were evaluated by a designed android application. Na+, K+, and pH sensors illustrated high sensitivity (59.7 ± 0.8 mV/decade for Na+, 57.8 ± 0.9 mV/decade for K+, and 54.7 ± 0.6 mV/pH for pH), excellent stability, and good batch-to-batch reproducibility. The results of on-body experiments demonstrated that the proposed platform is capable of real-time monitoring of the investigated ions.

Improved VoWiFi cell capacity using A‐MPDU for frame aggregation in sixth‐generation WLAN standard

AbstractThe rapid progress in wireless communication technology and proliferation of multimedia applications, including voice over WiFi (VoWiFi), demand exploration of innovative approaches to enhance the network performance and quality of service. We propose a technique for enhancing the cell capacity of wireless local area network (WLAN) access point that provides VoWiFi service in the sixth‐generation WLAN standard. The proposed technique uses the aggregate media access control protocol data unit (A‐MPDU) for frame aggregation with constant bit rate (CBR) traffic in the WiFi 6 standard (i.e., IEEE 802.11ax). On the other hand, the retransmission of voice packets substantially deteriorates the VoWiFi cell capacity. We compare the results obtained from the use of WiFi 6 with currently existing WLAN standards, such as IEEE 802.11b/g/n/ac. This comparison focuses on distributed coordination function interframe spacing (DIFS) and arbitration interframe spacing (AIFS) using CBR traffic. Using our technique, we can increase the VoWiFi cell capacity for CBR traffic by 24.25% and 25.20% when using DIFS and AIFS, respectively, while considering the A‐MPDU frame aggregation technique.

Locating people in tunnels using Wi-Fi technology

The aim of the project is to investigate the possibility of using people's mobile phones to locate people in a tunnel environment using the mobile phone's Wi-Fi connection. In total, 39 different trials were carried out under different conditions in a road tunnel in Stockholm, Sweden. In the trials, the Wi-Fi-based predicted location has been compared with the actual location of the recruited 16 participants in the tunnel. The conditions include the number of people in a group, the number of available access points in the tunnel, whether the mobile phone has an active or passive connection, whether a person is moving or standing still and whether the mobile phone is held in the hand or is stored in the person's pocket. The results indicate that the mean value for the distance between actual and predicted locations is in the order of 20 m or less, which is higher than reported in other studies. Despite this, there is a good potential to locate individuals in a tunnel emergency as the distance between emergency exits is often much longer than the uncertainties in the predicted locations of people. Improving the location algorithms will possibly reduce the uncertainty of the predicted location.

EC-MAC: Energy-Aware Cooperative MAC Protocol in Wireless Sensor Network

Nowadays, cooperative communication algorithms have been utilized in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) to enhance the overall network performance. As is well known, a WSN needs to consider a number of important factors, such as the energy effectiveness and the longevity of the sensor nodes. The energy-aware cooperative medium access control (EC-MAC) protocol is a novel protocol proposed in this paper for usage in WSNs. EC-MAC protocol allows the source nodes to use the intermediate nodes as relays that can be used to transmit the source's data to the access point (AP). This paper demonstrates how the suggested relay selection method can be used by the EC-MAC protocol to choose the best relay node. After channel state information (CSI) has been calculated and acquired, the best relay should have the highest residual energy and the quickest transmission time. Then, by establishing suitable cooperative links, data transmission from a source node to an AP can be carried out. The effectiveness of the EC-MAC protocol in terms of system energy efficiency is examined in this study using the MATLAB simulation tool and compares the outcomes with other cooperative protocols like Modified Cooperative Access MAC Protocol (MCA-MAC) and Throughput and Energy aware Cooperative MAC Protocol (TEC-MAC) and the performance of WSNs employing the suggested EC-MAC protocol is examined in this research for both ideal and dynamic channel conditions. EC-MAC protocol achieved energy efficiency improvements of 20%, and 40% respectively, more than MCA-MAC and TEC-MAC protocols. The results indicated that EC-MAC protocol offers a higher level of energy efficiency for the WSN than other cooperative protocols currently in use.

AHA-BV: Access and handover authentication protocol with batch verification for satellite–terrestrial integrated networks

At present, the rapid development of satellite capabilities has prompted the proposal of satellite–terrestrial integrated networks (STIN), which solves the problem of limited signal coverage of terrestrial cellular networks, further promotes the globalization process, and realizes global data sharing and on-demand use. However, due to the high openness of satellite-to-ground links in STIN, users are vulnerable to attacks such as eavesdropping, replay, tampering, and impersonation when requesting access to satellite nodes and obtaining subscription services. To ensure the security and reliability, many authentication protocols have been proposed, but there are still some shortcomings, such as high authentication overhead, vulnerability to certain attacks. In addition, for inter-satellite handovers caused by the highly dynamic topology of satellites, the computational overhead of existing handover authentication mechanisms is too high to be applied to frequent inter-satellite handover scenarios in STIN. To address the above issues, in this paper, we propose a new access and handover authentication protocol with batch verification for STIN, namely the AHA-BV protocol. The AHA-BV protocol not only realizes mutual authentication and key negotiation between users and satellite access points without the participation of the network control center, but also ensures the conditional anonymity of users during the access authentication phase. Furthermore, the lightweight batch verification mechanism reduces the risk of computing bottlenecks when resource-constrained satellites receive a large number of access authentication requests. Not only that, the AHA-BV protocol can also achieve sustained trust in subscription services from STIN with low computational overhead during the inter-satellite handover authentication phase. Formal and heuristic security analysis show that the AHA-BV protocol can meet the security requirements of STIN. Performance analysis indicates that the AHA-BV protocol has low authentication overhead while ensuring security, and is more suitable for users under satellite dynamic topology to access and obtain subscription services from STIN.