This paper presents the adaptation of a specific metric for the RPL protocol in the objective function MRHOF. Among the functions standardized by IETF, we find OF0, which is based on the minimum hop count, as well as MRHOF, which is based on the Expected Transmission Count (ETX). However, when the network becomes denser or the number of nodes increases, both OF0 and MRHOF introduce long hops, which can generate a bottleneck that restricts the network. The adaptation is proposed to optimize both OFs through a new routing metric. To solve the above problem, the metrics of the minimum number of hops and the ETX are combined by designing a new routing metric called SIGMA-ETX, in which the best route is calculated using the standard deviation of ETX values between each node, as opposed to working with the ETX average along the route. This method ensures a better routing performance in dense sensor networks. The simulations are done through the Cooja simulator, based on the Contiki operating system. The simulations showed that the proposed optimization outperforms at a high margin in both OF0 and MRHOF, in terms of network latency, packet delivery ratio, lifetime, and power consumption.

In recent years, smart-phones and GPS-enabled devices have been a critical factor in the popularization and increasing demand of location based information systems. However, at the same time, the concern of privacy has also increased on users who would like to protect their exact location from attackers or from the service provider. One technique to protect the location is called Location Obfuscation, which consists in non reversible ways to slightly alter the location such that it does not reflect the real location of the user, but still contains enough information to provide a satisfactory service. In this work, the N-Rand, N-Mix and the N-Dispersion techniques are introduced and compared with other two existing techniques, Rand and Distortion, in terms of distance-based metrics. The results show that the N-Rand and N-Dispersion techniques produce a larger minimum distance to the original location, and the greatest average distance to the original path.

Aim/Purpose: This study aimed at recognizing and analyzing the trends of ICT use (hardware, software, and digital educational resources) by higher education professors in the Antioquia region (Colombia), and characterizing this population according to their context. Background: The inexorable growth of ICT and the convergence of networks have produced great changes in human culture, and particularly in the educational environment. As a result, the development of appropriate technological competencies and the study of the trends of ICT use to meet this requirement become necessary. Methodology: The study follows a quantitative approach, with a non-experimental and correlational design. The sample consisted of 97 professors from different universities of the Antioquia region (Colombia), age between 21 and 60 years old, selected in a non-aleatory way, to fill in an online survey. Contribution: A contribution is the identification and characterizing of an active population in higher education and the trends in use of digital resources in the classroom from the professors’ perception that allows recognizing the pedagogical potential of these resources to enrich the process of social and educational appropriation of ICT in higher education institutions (HEI). Findings: Findings show the level of use (low and high) of ICT (hardware, software, and digital educational resources) by university professors, identifying those that still maintain a predominant use (e.g., desktop PC); those that are innovative (e.g., laptop, smartphone), and those that appear with low frequency (e.g., apps, digital blackboard, clickers). These results show some factors that may influence the development of these trends, such as technological infrastructure, HEI support, teachers’ training, the accessibility and availability of resources, and preference for digital open resources. Recommendations for Practitioners: According to the results, universities should provide technological resources and suitable connectivity necessary for educational innovation to professors. Besides, it is suggested to strengthen the pedagogical use of ICT by training according to the trends of use and professors’ competency levels. Recommendation for Researchers: This study made evident professors’ great preference of using storage, display, and sound devices, among them the desktop PC and the laptop continue being the key tools to boost the educational process, in contrast to the low use of tools to detect plagiarism, social networks, and apps to boost activities with emergent technologies. Considering the potential and richness these tools may offer in the educational processes, it should be interesting to carry out studies on factors or motivations that influence the little inclination to use them. Impact on Society: The analysis of the trends of ICT use from the perspective of university professors about hardware, software, and digital educational resources may suggest greater attention to the permanent training to take advantage of the pedagogical and technological potential of these tools. Future Research: This study allows thinking of other ways and lines of research that are the base to develop future proposals exploring the reality of new generations of professors. It also could be the base to carry out comparative studies in other regional contexts, which permit to compare, contrast and enrich professors’ diversity. On the other hand, this research also shows the importance of carrying out mixed studies that offer a greater level of comprehension, analysis, and reflection about the target population and the trends of use of ICT.

This article makes a literature review of applications developed in the health industry which are focused on patient care from home and implement a service-oriented (SOA) design in architecture. Throughout this work, the applicability of the concept of Internet of Things (IoT) in the field of telemedicine and health care in general is evaluated. It also performs an introduction to the concept of SOA and its main features, making a small emphasis on safety aspects. As a central theme, the description of different solutions that can be found in the health industry is developed, especially those whose goal is health care at home; the main component of these solutions are body sensor networks. Finally, an analysis of the literature from the perspectives of functionalities, security implementation and semantic interoperability is made to have a better understanding of what has been done and which are probable research paths to be studied in the future.

Utility companies in developing countries employ analog electrical meters to determine consumption and bill their customers accordingly. Obtaining an accurate reading is an expensive and time-consuming process. High consumption levels of water, energy, or gas are fined by the government; thus, it is necessary to develop tools that allow users to be informed about their consumption in real time. This paper proposes a new number recognition algorithm named the Hausdorff distance for meter reading (HD MR). Experiments prove that HD MR can achieve a 99.9% recognition rate, even when recognized numbers are under rotation. The maximum recognition time is 31 ms; hence, the proposed method proves to be effective and capable in real time for the task proposed.

Child and adolescent sexual abuse (CSA) is an important global health problem, especially in non-Western low- and middle-income countries. A number of studies have indicated that, in Latin American countries, male CSA is phenomenon of great concern. However, research on this topic is seriously lacking, and more specifically, on male-on-male CSA. We carried out a qualitative and quantitative secondary analysis of 680 cases of alleged male-on-male CSA that occurred between the years 2017 and 2018 in the Caribbean Region of Colombia. We analyzed the contents of forensic interviews with the alleged victims, conducted by professionals working at the Colombian Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences. Our findings indicated a high prevalence of cases of alleged male-on-male CSA among young minors. Most of these cases were allegedly perpetrated by offenders known to the victim and involved high levels of violence. Evidence-based and culturally grounded preventative actions, such as training-based programs for teachers and parents among other public health initiatives are needed to address this type of CSA. Further research is also required to gain a more fine-grained understanding of the cultural and social context of CSA in the Caribbean Latin American countries.

The Internet of things (IoT) is a concept that has gained traction over the last decade. IoT networks have evolved around the wireless sensor network (WSN), and the following research looks at relevant IoT concepts and the different security issues that occur specifically at the network layer. This analysis is performed using a structured literature review (SLR). This form of bibliographic review has been a trend in recent years. Its strength is the performance of a bibliometric analysis that allows studying both trends in the line of research that you want to address and the relevant authors. This SLR reviews 53 proposals between 2011 and 2020, whose contribution is to mitigate attacks in the RPL (Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks) protocol. The revised proposals emerged after selecting keywords and databases in which to apply the search. Initially, approximately 380 research works appeared, for which it was necessary to continue using filters to refine the proposals to be included. After reading titles and abstracts, 53 papers were finally selected. In addition to analyzing the attacks mitigated in the RPL protocol, it is intended to identify the trend by which these attacks are reduced, as a result of the review, nine attacks have been found: rank, blackhole, selective forwarding, wormhole, DODAG (Destination-Oriented Directed Acyclic Graph) version number, DAO (Destination Advertisement Object) inconsistency, DIO (DODAG Information Object) suppression, Sybil, and sinkhole. Each of the 53 proposals analyzed in this review has an associated mitigation strategy, these strategies have been categorized into four groups, based on authentication or cryptography, based on network monitoring, based on secure parent node selection and other. According to the results, the authors’ primary mitigation strategy is based on network monitoring, with 30%. This review also identifies the principal authors and countries that need the development of this line of research.

The wireless sensor networks (WSN) are immersed in multiple areas of knowledge and are the alternative that allows analyzing, solving, and preventing problems under different facets. The RPL protocol (IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low power a Lossy Networks) arises for the management of this type of network restricted by their physical capabilities through different rules and operations that simplify the communications and constructions of the WSN. Although RPL is an efficient and standardized protocol, it does not consider high traffic handling and presents severe problems regarding load balancing, which leads to service disruption. In this article, WRF-RPL is proposed as a protocol for considering load balancing over RPL to distribute communications and messages into a network topology to avoid one preferred parent's congestions. The proposed protocol aims to improve the network's lifetime and the packet delivery through source nodes to the sink in an energy-efficient manner. Different simulated scenarios were conducted over the Cooja simulator. The results show that WRF-RPL protocols outperform the standard RPL protocol over Network Lifetime, PDR, control message overhead, and energy consumption compared with other existing protocols.