Abstract-Clock synchronization is highly desirable in distributed systems, including many applications in the Internet of Things and Humans (IoTH). It improves the efficiency, modularity and scalability of the system; and optimizes use of event triggers. For IoTH, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) -a subset of the recent Bluetooth v4.0 stack -provides a lowpower and loosely coupled mechanism for sensor data collection with ubiquitous units (e.g., smartphones and tablets) carried by humans. This fundamental design paradigm of BLE is enabled by a range of broadcast advertising modes. While its operational benefits are numerous, the lack of a common time reference in the broadcast mode of BLE has been a fundamental limitation. This paper presents and describes CheepSync: a time synchronization service for BLE advertisers, especially tailored for applications requiring high time precision on resource constrained BLE platforms. Designed on top of the existing Bluetooth v4.0 standard, the CheepSync framework utilizes lowlevel timestamping and comprehensive error compensation mechanisms for overcoming uncertainties in message transmission, clock drift and other system specific constraints. CheepSync was implemented on custom designed nRF24Cheep beacon platforms (as broadcasters) and commercial off-the-shelf Android ported smartphones (as passive listeners). We demonstrate the efficacy of CheepSync by numerous empirical evaluations in a variety of experimental setups; and show that its average (single-hop) time synchronization accuracy is in the 10 µs range.

This project undertakes a large-scale quantitative and qualitative investigation into the lived experiences of transgender, gender non-conforming and gender non-binary persons in the Indian science ecosystem. Towards this goal, the study uses four key research methods: (a) applications under the Right to Information Act, 2005 to investigate the status of implementation of the legislative, judicial and policy documents that govern the access of transgender, gender non-conforming and gender non-binary persons to the Indian science ecosystem; (b) a policyscape approach to policy analysis to understand the effectiveness of the legislative, judicial and policy interventions that govern the access of transgender, gender non-conforming and gender non-binary persons to the Indian science ecosystem; (c) qualitative interviews and focus group discussions to understand the ways in which transgender, gender non-conforming and gender non-binary persons negotiate the Indian science ecosystem; and (d) a comparative historiography to understand and explicate the possibilities of political solidarity between different marginalised groups in the context of higher education in science in India, including caste-, gender- and disability-marginalised groups.

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Steganography, water marking and encryption are widely used in image processing and communication. A general practice is to use them independently or in combination of two -for e.g. data hiding with encryption or steganography alone. This paper aims to combine the features of watermarking, image encryption as well as image steganography to provide reliable and secure data transmission .The basics of data hiding and encryption are explained. The first step involves inserting the required watermark on the image at the optimum bit plane. The second step is to use an RSA hash to actually encrypt the image. The final step involves obtaining a cover image and hiding the encrypted image within this cover image. A set of metrics will be used for evaluation of the effectiveness of the digital water marking. The list includes Mean Squared Error, Peak Signal to Noise Ratio and Feature Similarity.

Clinical Engineering (CE), an interdisciplinary field derived from classical engineering emphasize on the importance of two important domains, medical and engineering. The field comprises of major themes that include medical terminology, clinical measurement and instruments, human factor engineering, medical ethics. As a clinical engineer, he/she makes sure on safety aspects in the hospital, ensures regular preventive maintenance procedures, evaluates new technologies, and develops a close relationship with clinicians. All this process ensures effective patient care and successful outcome of treatment. If clinical engineering procedures are incorporated in a larger scale in greater number of hospital and healthcare centers, a better patient-care outcome can be expected. The proposed work reports on the case study on need for clinical engineering and clinical engineers in India to bridge the crucial gap between engineering and medical domains. A survey was conducted to know from the public on initiating a new post graduate program on clinical electronics engineering. The outcome of the survey clearly shows an indication on the need for initiating the course in the post graduate level engineering program.