Quantum-Inspired Blockchain-Based Cybersecurity: Securing Smart Edge Utilities in IoT-Based Smart Cities

Blockchain plays a vital task in cybersecurity. With the exerted efforts for realising large-scale quantum computers, most current cryptographic mechanisms may be hacked. Accordingly, we need a quantum tool utilised for designing blockchain frameworks to have the ability to be executed in the level of digital computers and resist the probable attacks from both digital and quantum computers. Quantum walks may be utilised as a quantum-inspired model for designing new cryptographic algorithms. In this paper, we present a new authentication and encryption protocol based on quantum-inspired quantum walks (QIQW). The proposed protocol is utilized to build a blockchain framework for secure data transmission among IoT devices. Instead of using classical cryptographic hash functions, quantum hash functions based on QIQW are employed for linking blocks of the chain. The main advantages of the presented framework are helping IoT nodes to effectively share their data with other nodes and full control of their records. Security analysis demonstrates that our proposed protocol can defend against message attack and impersonation attacks, thus ensuring secure transmission of data among IoT devices.     

Development and validation of a questionnaire for teacher effective communication in Qur’an learning

ABSTRACT

A student’s perception of teacher effective communication influences the learning atmosphere. The measurement of perception indicates how students view the quality of learning. As few studies have explored the development of an appropriate measurement tool of students’ perception of learning to read the Qur’an, this study aims to develop such a tool. Conceptual analysis and a survey using open-ended questions resulted in dimensions and items. Six experts and three instructors evaluated the content validity. The questionnaire was then administered to 421 participants – 201 for Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and 220 for Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The results successfully identified four dimensions that explained 64.6% of the variation. The instrument consisted of 13 items with satisfactory reliability and validity. The dimension with the highest coefficient path was ‘understanding and friendliness’ (UF), while the dimension of ‘learning media’ (LM) was the lowest. There was a significant influence of gender on the dimension of UF, as well as verbal (V) and non-verbal (NV) communication, while there were no differences in the dimension of LM. The questionnaire can be effectively used as a measurement device of dimensions related to students’ perception of teacher effective communication in Qur’an learning.     

Turkish grade 10 students' and science teachers' conceptions of nature of science: A national study

This study aimed to assess grade 10 Turkish students' and science teachers' conceptions of nature of science (NOS) and whether these conceptions were related to selected variables. These variables included participants' gender, geographical region, and the socioeconomic status (SES) of their city and region; teacher disciplinary background, years of teaching experience, graduate degree, and type of teacher training program; and student household SES and parents' educational level. A stratified sampling approach was used to generate a representative national sample comprising 2,087 students and 378 science teachers. After establishing their validity in the Turkish context, participants were administered a questionnaire comprising 14 modified “Views on Science‐Technology‐Society” (VOSTS) items to assess their views of certain aspects of NOS. A total of 2,020 students (97%) and 362 teachers (96%) completed the questionnaire. Participant responses were categorized as “naïve,” “have merit,” or “informed,” and the frequency distributions for these responses were compared for various groupings of participants. The majority of participants held naïve views of a majority of the target NOS aspects. Teacher views were mostly similar to those of their students. Teacher and student views of some NOS aspects were related to some of the target variables. These included teacher graduate degree and geographical region, and student household SES, parent education, and SES of their city and geographical region. The relationship between student NOS views and enhanced economic and educational capitals of their households, as well as the SES status of their cities and geographical regions point to significant cultural (specifically Western) and intellectual underpinnings of understandings about NOS. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 1083–1112, 2008     

A new eccentricity-based simulation to generate ultimate confined interaction diagrams for circular concrete columns

The analysis of circular concrete columns using unconfined concrete models is a well established practice. However, there is a necessity to develop realistic analysis and design tools that predict the extreme ultimate capacity of such columns since modern codes and standards like AASHTO LRFD are introducing extreme load events. The increase in strength and ductility due to full axial confinement is not applicable to pure bending and bending plus axial load simply because the area of effective confined concrete is reduced. The higher the eccentricity the smaller the compressed portion of the confined core. Accordingly, the ultimate confined strength is gradually reduced from the fully confined value f_cc′ (at zero eccentricity) to the unconfined value f_c′ (at infinite eccentricity) as a function of eccentricity to diameter ratio. A numerical analysis algorithm is developed using the finite layer procedure and the secant stiffness approach within a framework of incremental-iterative moment of area computations. The resulting nonlinear section analysis requires radial loading in which the eccentricity is kept constant or the axial load is proportional to the applied moment. The results are compared with existing experimental data and the widely used Mander model to benchmark the present predictions.