A problem-structuring model for analyzing transportation–environment relationships

This study discusses a decision support framework that guides policy makers in their strategic transportation related decisions by using multi-methodology. For this purpose, a methodology for analyzing the effects of transportation policies on environment, society, economy, and energy is proposed. In the proposed methodology, a three-stage problem structuring model is developed. Initially, experts’ opinions are structured by using a cognitive map to determine the relationships between transportation and environmental concepts. Then a structural equation model (SEM) is constructed, based on the cognitive map, to quantify the relations among external transportation and environmental factors. Finally the results of the SEM model are used to evaluate the consequences of possible policies via scenario analysis. In this paper a pilot study that covers only one module of the whole framework, namely transportation–environment interaction module, is conducted to present the applicability and usefulness of the methodology. This pilot study also reveals the impacts of transportation policies on the environment. To achieve a sustainable transportation system, the extent of the relationships between transportation and the environment must be considered. The World Development Indicators developed by the World Bank are used for this purpose.     

On the SINR statistics of a VFDM cognitive spectrum sharing system

An analytical precise approximation of the SINR statistics of the two-tier Vandermonde-subspace frequency division multiplexing (VFDM) cognitive spectrum sharing systems over frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channels is presented. It is shown that the gamma distribution provides the best fitting accuracy and that its use leads to simple, yet accurate, closed-form expressions for evaluating the ergodic capacity (EC) and average bit error probability (ABEP) performance of such systems. In deriving these expressions, the parameters of the gamma distribution have been obtained for various operating conditions of the considered VFDM system using distribution fitting. Furthermore, regression analysis has been used to obtain approximate analytical expressions for these parameters in relation to the system operating parameters. Performance evaluation results, obtained for various system implementations, including the standardized IEEE 802.11 and 3GPP LTE, are presented to demonstrate the validity of the proposed methodology. Its accuracy has been verified by means of computer simulations.     

Cognitive radio network with secrecy and interference constraints

In this paper, we investigate the physical-layer security of a secure communication in single-input multiple-output (SIMO) cognitive radio networks (CRNs) in the presence of two eavesdroppers. In particular, both primary user (PU) and secondary user (SU) share the same spectrum, but they face with different eavesdroppers who are equipped with multiple antennas. In order to protect the PU communication from the interference of the SU and the risks of eavesdropping, the SU must have a reasonable adaptive transmission power which is set on the basis of channel state information, interference and security constraints of the PU. Accordingly, an upper bound and lower bound for the SU transmission power are derived. Furthermore, a power allocation policy, which is calculated on the convex combination of the upper and lower bound of the SU transmission power, is proposed. On this basis, we investigate the impact of the PU transmission power and channel mean gains on the security and system performance of the SU. Closed-form expressions for the outage probability, probability of non-zero secrecy capacity, and secrecy outage probability are obtained. Interestingly, our results show that the strong channel mean gain of the PU transmitter to the PU’s eavesdropper in the primary network can enhance the SU performance.     

Towards a framework for developing students' fraction proficiency

The importance of the knowledge of fractions in mathematical learning, coupled with the difficulties students have with them, has prompted researchers to focus on this particular area of mathematics. The term ‘fraction proficiency' used in this article refers to a person's conceptual comprehension, procedural skills and the ability to approach daily situations involving fractions. In the area of fractions, there has been a call for more research to study how, and where, efforts should be focused in order to integrate the various aspects of fraction knowledge for students, and even for teachers, to help them develop proficiency in fractions. Thus, the article presents a theoretical synthesis of the specialized literature in the learning and teaching of fractions, with the aim of proposing a framework for developing students' fraction proficiency. The frameworks presented in the article may shed light upon the implications for the design of fraction instruction, which should focus on developing a multi-faceted knowledge of fractions, rather than simply isolating one facet from the others.     

Quantum topological resolution of catalyst proficiency

The purpose of this exploratory investigation is to characterize, contrast, and explain the differences between efficient Ni(π‐allyl)₂ and inefficient Pd(π‐allyl)₂ systems in the catalyzed cross‐coupling of alkanes. Within the framework of the quantum theory of atoms in molecules, we have created quantum topology phase diagrams (QTPDs) for nonisomeric species by the creation of aggregate‐isomers; simple sum rules are introduced to ensure that the Poincaré‐Hopf relation is obeyed. We show that the catalyzed reaction cycles can be represented as a directed QTPD where each species of the main reaction cycle forms a closed loop. The topological position of the unwanted side products relative to the main reaction cycle for each catalyst is also considered. We find the more efficient Ni(π‐allyl)₂ catalyst produces a reaction cycle on the QTPD that contains no “missing” topologies, preferentially proceeding to desired product at 94% yield, while avoiding wasteful side‐product pathways, disconnected from the major pathway by “missing” topologies. The converse is true for the less efficient Pd(π‐allyl)₂ catalyst, whose reaction pathway markedly bifurcates to final yields of 56% and 44% for product and side‐product, respectively. We subsequently used our nearest neighbor ring‐critical point approach to show that the species of the main reaction cycle of the efficient Ni(π‐allyl)₂ catalyst facilitates the desired chemical transformation whilst more effectively barring the formation of unwanted side product, with respect to the inefficient Pd(π‐allyl)₂ catalyst. The findings from the QTPD analysis are in agreement with traditional energetic‐barrier interpretations of reaction pathway preference. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Physical layer secrecy of a cognitive radio with spatially correlated Alamouti OSTBC system

In this paper, an underlay spectrum-sharing system with Alamouti orthogonal space–time block coding (OSTBC) is considered to analyze and evaluate the physical layer security (PLS) performance of the cognitive radio system under a practical scenario with spatially correlated transmit antennas. It is assumed that there exists a passive eavesdropper and the cognitive channel and the wiretap channel follow Rayleigh fading distribution. To investigate and study the PLS performance of the cognitive system, first closed-form expressions are derived for three PLS metrics, namely: the probability of strictly-positive secrecy capacity (PSPSC), the secrecy outage probability (SOP), and the average secrecy capacity (ASC). Then numerical results obtained from the derived closed-form expressions are presented and validated by the computer simulations, to study the effects of spatial correlation on the PLS performance of the considered cognitive radio system under different parameters. It is shown that increasing the SNR of the cognitive system (Alice-to-Bob) channel yields an improvement in the PLS of the cognitive system. Moreover, a smaller value of the eavesdropping (Alice-to-Eve) channel SNR always leads to a better PLS for the cognitive system. It is also observed that the spatial correlation related to Alice-to-Bob channel degrades the PLS, and the spatial correlation related to Alice-to-Eve channel has less impact on the PLS performance.     

Single decision reporting for cooperative spectrum sensing under erroneous feedback channels with Byzantine attack

Spectrum sensing based on a single user suffers from low detection performance due to fading, shadowing, and hidden node problems. Cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) is thought to be a potential method to overcome these issues and improve detection performance in determining the available spectrum in cognitive radio (CR). However, CSS suffers in case of erroneous reporting channels, and it is also susceptible to Byzantine attacks by malicious users (MUs). In this paper, we first analyze the traditional CSS under erroneous feedback channels. And then, we extend the analysis to include erroneous reporting channels in the presence of the Byzantine attack. We propose a single decision reporting (SD-R) algorithm immune to erroneous reporting channels. The proposed algorithm also improves the performance under the Byzantine attack. With the proposed algorithm, MUs can attempt only false alarm attacks, whereas the miss detection attack is not possible. An extensive analysis is carried out, and the plots are shown to prove the superiority of the proposed algorithm.     

Robust secrecy rate maximization in IRS-assisted cognitive radio networks

In this paper, we focus on the secrecy rate maximization problem in intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-assisted cognitive radio (CR) networks. In order to improve the security, there is a common scheme to add artificial noise (AN) to the transmitted signal, which is also applied in this paper. Further, in CR networks, the secondary users always cannot obtain accurate channel state information (CSI) about the primary user and eavesdropper. By taking jointly design for the IRS phase shift matrix, the transmitted beamforming of the secondary base station (BS), and the covariance matrix of AN, our objective is to maximize the minimal secrecy rate of all secondary users. Due to the serious coupling among the designed variables, it cannot be solved by conventional methods. We propose an alternating optimization (AO) algorithm. In simulation results, we apply primary users and secondary users randomly distributed in the communication area, which numerically demonstrate the superiority of our proposed scheme.     

Secure collaborative cognitive radio based on chaotic modulation and compressive sensing

Cognitive radio (CR) is a wireless technology that is used to overcome the spectrum scarcity problem. CR includes several stages, spectrum sensing is the first stage in the CR cycle. Traditional spectrum sensing (SS) techniques have many challenges in the wideband spectrum. CR security is an important problem, since when an attacker from outside the network access the sensing information this produces an increase in sensing time and reduces the opportunities for exploiting vacant band. Compressive sensing (CS) is proposed to capture all the wideband spectrum at the same time to solve the challenges and improve the performance in the traditional techniques and then one of the traditional SS techniques are applied to the reconstructed signal for detection purpose. The sensing matrix is the core of CS must be designed in a way that produces a low reconstruction error with high compression. There are many types of sensing matrices, the chaotic matrix is the best type in terms of security, memory storage, and system performance. Few works in the literature use the chaotic matrix in CS based CR and these works have many challenges: they used sample distance in the chaotic map to generate a chaotic sequence which consumes high resources, they did not take into consideration the security in reporting channel, and they did not measure their works using real primary user (PU) signal of a practical application under fading channel and low SNR values. In this paper, we propose a chaotic CS based collaborative scenario to solve all challenges that have been presented. We proposed a chaotic matrix based on the Henon map and use the differential chaotic shift keying (DCSK) modulation to transmit the measurement vector through the reporting channel to increase the security and improve the performance under fading channel. The simulation results are tested based on a recorded real-TV signal as PU and Compressive Sampling Matching Pursuit (CoSaMP) recovery algorithm under AWGN and TDL-C fading channels in collaborative and non-collaborative scenarios. The performance of the proposed system has been measured using recovery error, mean square error (MSE), derived probability of detection (Pdrec), and sensitivity to initial values. To measure the improvement introduced by the proposed system, it is evaluated in comparison with selected chaotic and random matrices. The results show that the proposed system provides low recovery error, MSE, with high Pdrec, security, and compression under SNR equal to −30 dB in AWGN and TDL-C fading channels as compared to other matrices in the literature.     

Cooperative wideband spectrum sensing under reporting channel errors: Analysis and algorithm

This paper focuses on the performance analysis and the algorithm development for cooperative wideband spectrum sensing (CWSS) under imperfect reporting channels for cognitive radio (CR). The centralized approach with multiple distributed cooperating secondary users (CSUs) and a fusion center (FC) is considered for CWSS. Nakagami fading is used to model the channel between PUs and the CSUs. The CSUs equipped with multiple diversity antennas are considered to take advantage of both space and antenna diversity. In this work, the reporting channel model under erroneous reporting is proposed. The repetition code-based CWSS (RC-CWSS) algorithm is proposed for performance improvement. First, the modified, improved theoretical analysis of an existing algorithm called partial band Nyquist sampling-based CWSS (PBNS-CWSS) under no reporting errors is given. The theoretical analysis under an imperfect reporting channel is then carried out for the same algorithm. Then, the complete theoretical analysis for the proposed RC-CWSS algorithm is carried out. The theoretical analyses are verified using Monte-Carlo simulations. The analysis shows that the performance of CWSS is greatly affected by the reporting channel errors. Also, the RC-CWSS outperforms recently proposed state-of-the-art algorithms. Finally, the effects of different parameters on the performance of the proposed algorithm are also studied.