Omer Ali^1,2, Mohamad Khairi Ishak^1,*, Muhammad Kamran Liaquat Bhatti²

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.69, No.1, pp. 747-766, 2021, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2021.018098

Abstract The COVID-19 virus exhibits pneumonia-like symptoms, including fever, cough, and shortness of breath, and may be fatal. Many COVID-19 contraction experiments require comprehensive clinical procedures at medical facilities. Clinical studies help to make a correct diagnosis of COVID-19, where the disease has already spread to the organs in most cases. Prompt and early diagnosis is indispensable for providing patients with the possibility of early clinical diagnosis and slowing down the disease spread. Therefore, clinical investigations in patients with COVID-19 have revealed distinct patterns of breathing relative to other diseases such as flu and cold, which are worth investigating. Current supervised… More >

Samer Alabed^*, Issam Maaz, Mohammad Al-Rabayah

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.69, No.1, pp. 539-553, 2021, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2021.018061

Abstract In this article, we introduce a new bi-directional dual-relay selection strategy with its bit error rate (BER) performance analysis. During the first step of the proposed strategy, two relays out of a set of N relay-nodes are selected in a way to optimize the system performance in terms of BER, based on the suggested algorithm which checks if the selected relays using the max-min criterion are the best ones. In the second step, the chosen relay-nodes perform an orthogonal space-time coding scheme using the two-phase relaying protocol to establish a bi-directional communication between the communicating terminals, leading to a significant… More >

Abid Sohail^1,*, Dhanapal Durai Dominic², Mohammad Hijji³, Muhammad Arif Butt⁴

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.69, No.1, pp. 1141-1157, 2021, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2021.018023

Abstract Enterprises are continuously aiming at improving the execution of processes to achieve a competitive edge. One of the established ways of improving process performance is to assign the most appropriate resources to each task of the process. However, evaluations of business process improvement approaches have established that a method that can guide decision-makers to identify the most appropriate resources for a task of process improvement in a structured way, is missing. It is because the relationship between resources and tasks is less understood and advancement in business process intelligence is also ignored. To address this problem an integrated resource classification… More >

Noor Shakir Mahmood¹, Ahmed Ali Ajmi¹, Shamsul Sarip^2,*, Khairur Rijal Jamaludin², Hazilah Mad Kaidi², Hayati Abdul Talib²

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.69, No.1, pp. 895-911, 2021, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2021.018012

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has directly impacted the electric power industry; the energy sector has experienced huge losses in electricity production. These losses have also affected the reliability of communication and employees’ performance, hence destabilizing the electric power system. This article aims at achieving two objectives. First, analyzing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the communication of performance (human error and human factors) and energy management in electricity production. Second, to develop a conceptual framework model to alleviate effects of the pandemic on the power sector and then improve energy management and human performance. This paper involves investigating the influence… More >

Mohammad Aladaileh¹, Mohammed Anbar^1,*, Iznan H. Hasbullah¹, Yousef K. Sanjalawe^1,2, Yung-Wey Chong¹

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.69, No.1, pp. 373-391, 2021, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2021.017972

Abstract The Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technology improves network management over existing technology via centralized network control. The SDN provides a perfect platform for researchers to solve traditional network’s outstanding issues. However, despite the advantages of centralized control, concern about its security is rising. The more traditional network switched to SDN technology, the more attractive it becomes to malicious actors, especially the controller, because it is the network’s brain. A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on the controller could cripple the entire network. For that reason, researchers are always looking for ways to detect DDoS attacks against the controller with higher… More >

Gang Xu¹, Rui-Ting Shan², Xiu-Bo Chen², Mianxiong Dong³, Yu-Ling Chen^4,*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.69, No.1, pp. 339-349, 2021, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2021.017968

Abstract With the emergence of classical communication security problems, quantum communication has been studied more extensively. In this paper, a novel probabilistic hierarchical quantum information splitting protocol is designed by using a non-maximally entangled four-qubit cluster state. Firstly, the sender Alice splits and teleports an arbitrary one-qubit secret state invisibly to three remote agents Bob, Charlie, and David. One agent David is in high grade, the other two agents Bob and Charlie are in low grade. Secondly, the receiver in high grade needs the assistance of one agent in low grade, while the receiver in low grade needs the aid of… More >

Cuilin Wang¹, Yuling Liu^1,*, Yongju Tong¹, Jingwen Wang²

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.69, No.1, pp. 1375-1390, 2021, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2021.017950

Abstract Steganography based on generative adversarial networks (GANs) has become a hot topic among researchers. Due to GANs being unsuitable for text fields with discrete characteristics, researchers have proposed GAN-based steganography methods that are less dependent on text. In this paper, we propose a new method of generative lyrics steganography based on GANs, called GAN-GLS. The proposed method uses the GAN model and the large-scale lyrics corpus to construct and train a lyrics generator. In this method, the GAN uses a previously generated line of a lyric as the input sentence in order to generate the next line of the lyric.… More >

Bandar Almaslukh^*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.69, No.1, pp. 1343-1360, 2021, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2021.017914

Abstract Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are considered promising for applications such as military surveillance and healthcare. The security of these networks must be ensured in order to have reliable applications. Securing such networks requires more attention, as they typically implement no dedicated security appliance. In addition, the sensors have limited computing resources and power and storage, which makes WSNs vulnerable to various attacks, especially denial of service (DoS). The main types of DoS attacks against WSNs are blackhole, grayhole, flooding, and scheduling. There are two primary techniques to build an intrusion detection system (IDS): signature-based and data-driven-based. This study uses the… More >

Jehyeok Rew, Hyungjoon Kim, Eenjun Hwang^*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.69, No.1, pp. 801-817, 2021, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2021.017892

Abstract Objective and quantitative assessment of skin conditions is essential for cosmeceutical studies and research on skin aging and skin regeneration. Various handcraft-based image processing methods have been proposed to evaluate skin conditions objectively, but they have unavoidable disadvantages when used to analyze skin features accurately. This study proposes a hybrid segmentation scheme consisting of Deeplab v3+ with an Inception-ResNet-v2 backbone, LightGBM, and morphological processing (MP) to overcome the shortcomings of handcraft-based approaches. First, we apply Deeplab v3+ with an Inception-ResNet-v2 backbone for pixel segmentation of skin wrinkles and cells. Then, LightGBM and MP are used to enhance the pixel segmentation… More >

Resat Kosker^1,*, Ismail Gulten²

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.69, No.1, pp. 967-983, 2021, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2021.017857

Abstract In this paper, stress distribution is examined in the case where infinite length co-phase periodically curved two neighboring hollow fibers are contained by an infinite elastic body. The midline of the fibers is assumed to be in the same plane. Using the three-dimensional geometric linear exact equations of the elasticity theory, research is carried out by use of the piecewise homogeneous body model. Moreover, the body is assumed to be loaded at infinity by uniformly distributed normal forces along the hollow fibers. On the inter-medium between the hollow fibers and matrix surfaces, complete cohesion conditions are satisfied. The boundary form… More >