A cognitive deep learning approach for medical image processing.

In ophthalmic diagnostics, achieving precise segmentation of retinal blood vessels is a critical yet challenging task, primarily due to the complex nature of retinal images. The intricacies of these images often hinder the accuracy and efficiency of segmentation processes. To overcome these challenges, we introduce the cognitive DL retinal blood vessel segmentation (CoDLRBVS), a novel hybrid model that synergistically combines the deep learning capabilities of the U-Net architecture with a suite of advanced image processing techniques. This model uniquely integrates a preprocessing phase using a matched filter (MF) for feature enhancement and a post-processing phase employing morphological techniques (MT) for refining the segmentation output. Also, the model incorporates multi-scale line detection and scale space methods to enhance its segmentation capabilities. Hence, CoDLRBVS leverages the strengths of these combined approaches within the cognitive computing framework, endowing the system with human-like adaptability and reasoning. This strategic integration enables the model to emphasize blood vessels, accurately segment effectively, and proficiently detect vessels of varying sizes. CoDLRBVS achieves a notable mean accuracy of 96.7%, precision of 96.9%, sensitivity of 99.3%, and specificity of 80.4% across all of the studied datasets, including DRIVE, STARE, HRF, retinal blood vessel and Chase-DB1. CoDLRBVS has been compared with different models, and the resulting metrics surpass the compared models and establish a new benchmark in retinal vessel segmentation. The success of CoDLRBVS underscores its significant potential in advancing medical image processing, particularly in the realm of retinal blood vessel segmentation.

ASSERT: A Blockchain-Based Architectural Approach for Engineering Secure Self-Adaptive IoT Systems.

Internet of Things (IoT) systems are complex systems that can manage mission-critical, costly operations or the collection, storage, and processing of sensitive data. Therefore, security represents a primary concern that should be considered when engineering IoT systems. Additionally, several challenges need to be addressed, including the following ones. IoT systems' environments are dynamic and uncertain. For instance, IoT devices can be mobile or might run out of batteries, so they can become suddenly unavailable. To cope with such environments, IoT systems can be engineered as goal-driven and self-adaptive systems. A goal-driven IoT system is composed of a dynamic set of IoT devices and services that temporarily connect and cooperate to achieve a specific goal. Several approaches have been proposed to engineer goal-driven and self-adaptive IoT systems. However, none of the existing approaches enable goal-driven IoT systems to automatically detect security threats and autonomously adapt to mitigate them. Toward bridging these gaps, this paper proposes a distributed architectural Approach for engineering goal-driven IoT Systems that can autonomously SElf-adapt to secuRity Threats in their environments (ASSERT). ASSERT exploits techniques and adopts notions, such as agents, federated learning, feedback loops, and blockchain, for maintaining the systems' security and enhancing the trustworthiness of the adaptations they perform. The results of the experiments that we conducted to validate the approach's feasibility show that it performs and scales well when detecting security threats, performing autonomous security adaptations to mitigate the threats and enabling systems' constituents to learn about security threats in their environments collaboratively.

A Blockchain-Based Multi-Factor Authentication Model for a Cloud-Enabled Internet of Vehicles.

Continuous and emerging advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have enabled Internet-of-Things (IoT)-to-Cloud applications to be induced by data pipelines and Edge Intelligence-based architectures. Advanced vehicular networks greatly benefit from these architectures due to the implicit functionalities that are focused on realizing the Internet of Vehicle (IoV) vision. However, IoV is susceptible to attacks, where adversaries can easily exploit existing vulnerabilities. Several attacks may succeed due to inadequate or ineffective authentication techniques. Hence, there is a timely need for hardening the authentication process through cutting-edge access control mechanisms. This paper proposes a Blockchain-based Multi-Factor authentication model that uses an embedded Digital Signature (MFBC_eDS) for vehicular clouds and Cloud-enabled IoV. Our proposed MFBC_eDS model consists of a scheme that integrates the Security Assertion Mark-up Language (SAML) to the Single Sign-On (SSO) capabilities for a connected edge to cloud ecosystem. MFBC_eDS draws an essential comparison with the baseline authentication scheme suggested by Karla and Sood. Based on the foundations of Karla and Sood's scheme, an embedded Probabilistic Polynomial-Time Algorithm (ePPTA) and an additional Hash function for the Pi generated during Karla and Sood's authentication were proposed and discussed. The preliminary analysis of the proposition shows that the approach is more suitable to counter major adversarial attacks in an IoV-centered environment based on the Dolev-Yao adversarial model while satisfying aspects of the Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (CIA) triad.