Mohammed Khalil

Fingerprint verification using statistical descriptors

The importance of high precision matching in fingerprint cannot be over-emphasized. This paper presents a novel fingerprint verification algorithm which improves matching accuracy by overcoming the shortcomings of poor image quality. The proposed method involves determination of a singular point using orientation field reliability, extraction of a square-sub-image (SSI); 129x129 pixels, statistical analysis of the co-occurrence matrices as well as application of dual analyses on experimental results; Pattern Recognition and Image Processing Laboratory (FVC2002) testing protocol and Program for Rate Estimation and Statistical Summaries (PRESS). The efficiency of the proposed method has been demonstrated by the experimental results which show equal error rate (EER) of 28% and a comparatively more accurate and robust means for reliable fingerprint verification.

Measles vaccine failure.

Suleimania Childrens Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was the site of a on-year study, started June 1987, which was designed to investigate measles vaccine failure. The first part of the study consisted of 336 patients with measles. Diagnosis was established on clinical grounds and confirmed by fluorescent IgM analysis. Those patients 9 months and older, which is the legal age of vaccination, comprised 310 subjects. Of these, 29.4% had been vaccinated. This percentage appears to be within the normal range, considering the local coverage rate of vaccination and seroconversion rate, compared with those for other countries. The main cause of vaccine failure was persistent maternal antibodies. The second part from various study involved testing the potency of some samples of measles vaccine obtained from various health centers in the Riyadh region. Potency was found to meet recommended standards.

Authentication and Tamper Detection of Digital Holy Quran Images

This paper introduces a novel fragile watermarking method for digital Quran image authentication and tamper identification. The presented scheme utilizes discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and can locate the pixels of malicious tampering if present. The wavelet coefficients are considered for embedding authentication code that are encrypted with a secret key, ensuring high security. The authentication binary code is embedded in a block of wavelet coefficients. The experimental results show that the proposed method can retain the image quality after watermarking process with minimum watermark payload and can achieve promising tampering detection. The watermark is secure against local attacks because it is encrypted using secret key. We have also performed experiments to exhibit the fragility of the watermark against known attacks.

Reference point detection for camera-based fingerprint image based on wavelet transformation

BackgroundFingerprint recognition systems essentially require core-point detection prior to fingerprint matching. The core-point is used as a reference point to align the fingerprint with a template database. When processing a larger fingerprint database, it is necessary to consider the core-point during feature extraction. Numerous core-point detection methods are available and have been reported in the literature. However, these methods are generally applied to scanner-based images. Hence, this paper attempts to explore the feasibility of applying a core-point detection method to a fingerprint image obtained using a camera phone.MethodThe proposed method utilizes a discrete wavelet transform to extract the ridge information from a color image. The performance of proposed method is evaluated in terms of accuracy and consistency. These two indicators are calculated automatically by comparing the method’s output with the defined core points.ResultsThe proposed method is tested on two data sets, controlled and uncontrolled environment, collected from 13 different subjects. In the controlled environment, the proposed method achieved a detection rate 82.98%. In uncontrolled environment, the proposed method yield a detection rate of 78.21%.ConclusionThe proposed method yields promising results in a collected-image database. Moreover, the proposed method outperformed compare to existing method.

Audio watermarking with high embedding capacity based on multiple access techniques

Abstract This paper deals with a new digital audio watermarking scheme based on multiple access techniques. In digital communication, multiple access techniques allow several users transmissions by taking the same communication channel. The present work proposes to embed multiple sub-watermarks in the same channel that is the audio signal. Our main objective is to investigate embedding capacity (the amount of information that can be hidden) limitations of our proposed audio watermarking system. Three multiple access techniques have been employed in the new multi-watermarking system: DS-CDMA (Direct-Sequence Code Division Multiple Access), FHMA (Frequency Hopped Multiple Access) and FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Access). Experimental results allow us to make the choice on the best multiple access technique, in the multi-watermarking system, which significantly permits the highest embedding capacity (a data embedding rate up to 6 kb/s) with almost no loss of data imperceptibility and with acceptable extraction fidelity ( BER ≃ 10 − 2 ) even in presence of disturbances.

Efficient Random Key Based Encryption System for Data Packet Confidentiality in WSNs

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) consists of numerous tiny wireless sensor nodes to communicate with each other with limited resources. The resource limitations and vulnerabilities of wireless sensor node expose the network to suffer with numerous attacks. The WSN constraints and limitations should be taken under consideration while designing the security mechanism. The recent Biological inspired self-organized secure autonomous routing protocol (BIOSARP) requires certain amount of time at initialization phase of WSN deployment to develop overall network knowledge. Initialization phase is a critical stage in the overall life span of WSN that requires an efficient active security measures. Therefore, in this paper we propose E-BIOSARP that enhances the BIOSARP with random key encryption and decryption mechanism. We present the design, pseudo code and the simulation results to prove the efficiency of E-BIOSARP for WSN. Network simulator 2 (NS2) has been utilized to perform the analysis. Our result shows that proposed E-BIOSARP can efficiently protect WSN from spoofed, altered or replayed routing information attacks, selective forwarding, acknowledgement spoofing, sybil attack and hello flood attack.

Two-Layer Fragile Watermarking Method Secured with Chaotic Map for Authentication of Digital Holy Quran

This paper presents a novel watermarking method to facilitate the authentication and detection of the image forgery on the Quran images. Two layers of embedding scheme on wavelet and spatial domain are introduced to enhance the sensitivity of fragile watermarking and defend the attacks. Discrete wavelet transforms are applied to decompose the host image into wavelet prior to embedding the watermark in the wavelet domain. The watermarked wavelet coefficient is inverted back to spatial domain then the least significant bits is utilized to hide another watermark. A chaotic map is utilized to blur the watermark to make it secure against the local attack. The proposed method allows high watermark payloads, while preserving good image quality. Experiment results confirm that the proposed methods are fragile and have superior tampering detection even though the tampered area is very small.

Safety evaluation of MMR vaccine during a primary school campaign in Saudi Arabia

Monitoring of adverse events following the administration of MMR vaccine containing the Urabe mumps virus vaccine strain, to over 2 million schoolchildren (aged 6-13 years) revealed that the incidence of vaccine-associated aseptic meningitis was one case per 295 000 doses given. About 92 per cent of these children had had their primary immunization against MMR at 12 months of age and, therefore, were probably not immunologically naïve. It appears from our data that the use of the Urabe-based mumps vaccine in the booster-dose format induces much less adverse effects than usually observed following the primary immunization with it. Further studies are needed to prove this conclusively.

Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus in children: Familial and clinical patterns in Riyadh.

Type I diabetes mellitus is probably common in Saudi Arabia, but only a small amount of information on the disease is available and most cases reported so far have been type II diabetes mellitus. Type I diabetes was diagnosed in 110 children who were followed at Suleimania Childrens Hospital over a five-year period (1985-1989). Saudis represented 74.5% (82/110) of the patients, and 53.6% (59/110) were female. Consanguinity existed in 42.7% (47/110) of the parents. A first-degree family history was positive for insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus in 28.1% (31/110). Mean age at onset was 5.87 years, which is low compared with other ages cited in the literature. Thirty-three patients (30%) were below three years of age at onset. The most common clinical sign was diabetic ketoacidosis, which was seen in 67.2% (74/110). Duration of symptoms before diagnosis ranged from two days to more than two months, with a mean of 18.2 days. Partial remission was seen in 30.9% (34/110). This low percentage is probably due to the young age distribution at onset and perhaps to a different pattern of severity of the disease in our community. Further studies, including opening a local registry, are needed for confirming the incidence and characteristics of the disease in Saudi Arabia.

Follow-up study for measles maternal antibodies and seroconversion after measles vaccination.

Seventy-two children were included in this study which examined measles maternal antibodies in children at the ages of six and nine months. The seroconversion after the first measles vaccination at nine months and revaccination at fifteen months was also evaluated. Results of testing were negative in 33% of the children at six months and in 36% at nine months, indicating continued susceptibility to measles. No significant difference was found in the measles IgG level between six and nine months of age. After the initial vaccination at nine months of age, the seroconversion rate was 85%. After revaccination at fifteen months of age, the children showed a significant increase in their measles IgG levels.