Zakria
Current Organizations / Institutes
The organizations/institutes from the scholar's latest article
Previous Organizations / Institutes
The organizations / institutes from the scholar's other articles in the past ten years
Zakria has a total of 34 co-authors. Here are the top co-authors by number of shared publications:
- Rajesh Kumar
Yangtze Delta Region Institute (Huzhou), University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Huzhou, China
8 shared publications - Jay Kumar
Dalhousie University, Faculty of Computer Science, Halifax, NS, Canada
5 shared publications - Muhammad Saddam Khokhar
Yangzhou University, China
5 shared publications - Muhammad Umar Aftab
Department of Computer Science, National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, Islamabad, Chiniot-Faisalabad Campus, Chiniot 35400, Pakistan
5 shared publications - Jianhua Deng
School of Information and Software Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology China (UESTC), Chengdu 610054, China
4 shared publications - Jingye Cai
School of Information and Software Engineering University of Electronic Science and Technology of China Chengdu Sichuan China
4 shared publications
Latest Publications
- Open Access
- 27 August 2026
- Published by MDPI AG in Preprints.org
The KHOKHAR Square Digital Root Transformation: 7443 a Fixed-Point Analysis of a 4-Digit Graph-Based Iterative Map
We introduce a deterministic iterative transformation T on four-digit strings. The transforma- tion places the four digits on the vertices of a square, replaces each edge by the digital root of the sum of its two endpoint digits, and subtracts the ascending arrangement of the four re- sulting edge-values from the descending arrangement. We call this the KHOKHAR Square Digital Root Transformation. An exhaustive computer search over all 104 four-digit strings from 0000 to 9999 shows that T has exactly two fixed points, 0000 and 7443, and that every four-digit string reaches one of them within at most six iterations. We give a short, direct proof characterizing exactly which strings map to 0000: a string does so if and only if its four edge digital roots already coincide. This condition holds for exactly 136 of the 10,000 four-digit strings , the ten repdigits together with 126 further, non-repdigit strings such as 0101 and 9990 , which refines the natural first guess that repdigits alone are responsible. The remaining 9,864 strings all converge to the nontrivial fixed point 7443. We close by discussing applications of the construction, and of its exhaustive-verification proof method, in computer science and quantum computing.
- 27 August 2026
- Published by MDPI AG in Preprints.org
Open AccessThe KHOKHAR Square Digital Root Transformation: 7443 a Fixed-Point Analysis of a 4-Digit Graph-Based Iterative Map
We introduce a deterministic iterative transformation T on four-digit strings. The transforma- tion places the four digits on the vertices of a square, replaces each edge by the digital root of the sum of its two endpoint digits, and subtracts the ascending arrangement of the four re- sulting edge-values from the descending arrangement. We call this the KHOKHAR Square Digital Root Transformation. An exhaustive computer search over all 104 four-digit strings from 0000 to 9999 shows that T has exactly two fixed points, 0000 and 7443, and that every four-digit string reaches one of them within at most six iterations. We give a short, direct proof characterizing exactly which strings map to 0000: a string does so if and only if its four edge digital roots already coincide. This condition holds for exactly 136 of the 10,000 four-digit strings , the ten repdigits together with 126 further, non-repdigit strings such as 0101 and 9990 , which refines the natural first guess that repdigits alone are responsible. The remaining 9,864 strings all converge to the nontrivial fixed point 7443. We close by discussing applications of the construction, and of its exhaustive-verification proof method, in computer science and quantum computing.
- Open Access
- 15 May 2025
- Published by Nature and Information Engineering Publishing Sdn. Bhd. in Contemporary Visual Culture and Art
- Vol. 1 (1) , 54-67
Generative AI as a Philosophical Mirror: Machine Hallucination and the Aesthetics of Algorithmic Representation
This case study delves into the unresolved philosophical complexities of representation in contemporary visual arts, using Refik Anadol’s Machine Hallucination series (2019–present) as a pivotal lens. By harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) to create immersive, data driven installations, Anadol’s work disrupts traditional notions of representation, authorship, agency, and viewer engagement within the dynamic, technology saturated landscape of 21stcentury visual culture. The study positions Machine Hallucination as a philosophical mirror, reflecting tensions between human creativity and algorithmic processes, reality and hyperreality, and individual versus collective meaning making. Through an interdisciplinary analysis grounded in philosophical, technological, and cultural frameworks, alongside comparisons with artists like Mario Klingemann and Hito Steyerl, this study illuminates the series’ role in redefining artistic practice while raising critical ethical questions about data, bias, and authenticity. The findings underscore representation as an evolving, unresolved issue, offering insights into its future in a world shaped by AI, virtual realities, and digital circulation.
- 15 May 2025
- Published by Nature and Information Engineering Publishing Sdn. Bhd. in Contemporary Visual Culture and Art
- Vol. 1 (1) , 54-67
Open AccessGenerative AI as a Philosophical Mirror: Machine Hallucination and the Aesthetics of Algorithmic Representation
This case study delves into the unresolved philosophical complexities of representation in contemporary visual arts, using Refik Anadol’s Machine Hallucination series (2019–present) as a pivotal lens. By harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) to create immersive, data driven installations, Anadol’s work disrupts traditional notions of representation, authorship, agency, and viewer engagement within the dynamic, technology saturated landscape of 21stcentury visual culture. The study positions Machine Hallucination as a philosophical mirror, reflecting tensions between human creativity and algorithmic processes, reality and hyperreality, and individual versus collective meaning making. Through an interdisciplinary analysis grounded in philosophical, technological, and cultural frameworks, alongside comparisons with artists like Mario Klingemann and Hito Steyerl, this study illuminates the series’ role in redefining artistic practice while raising critical ethical questions about data, bias, and authenticity. The findings underscore representation as an evolving, unresolved issue, offering insights into its future in a world shaped by AI, virtual realities, and digital circulation.
- 3 November 2022
- Published by Elsevier in Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics
- Vol. 102, 102139
Blockchain and homomorphic encryption based privacy-preserving model aggregation for medical images
- 3 November 2022
- Published by Elsevier in Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics
- Vol. 102, 102139
Blockchain and homomorphic encryption based privacy-preserving model aggregation for medical images
- Open Access
- 6 January 2022
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
- Vol. 15 (19391404) , 1039-1048
Multiscale and Direction Target Detecting in Remote Sensing Images via Modified YOLO-v4
Traditional target detection algorithms have difficulty to adapt complex environmental changes and have limited applicable scenarios. However, the deep-learning-based target detection model can automatically learn with strong generalization capability. In this article, we choose a single-stage deep-learning-based target detection model for research based on the model’s real-time processing requirements and to improve the accuracy and the robustness of target detection in remote sensing images. In addition, we improve the YOLOv4 network and present a new approach. First, we propose a classification setting of the nonmaximum suppression threshold to increase the accuracy without affecting the speed. Second, we study the anchor frame allocation problem in YOLOv4 and propose two allocation schemes. The proposed anchor frame scheme also improves the detection performance, and experimental results on the DOTA dataset validate their effectiveness.
- 6 January 2022
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
- Vol. 15 (19391404) , 1039-1048
Open AccessMultiscale and Direction Target Detecting in Remote Sensing Images via Modified YOLO-v4
Traditional target detection algorithms have difficulty to adapt complex environmental changes and have limited applicable scenarios. However, the deep-learning-based target detection model can automatically learn with strong generalization capability. In this article, we choose a single-stage deep-learning-based target detection model for research based on the model’s real-time processing requirements and to improve the accuracy and the robustness of target detection in remote sensing images. In addition, we improve the YOLOv4 network and present a new approach. First, we propose a classification setting of the nonmaximum suppression threshold to increase the accuracy without affecting the speed. Second, we study the anchor frame allocation problem in YOLOv4 and propose two allocation schemes. The proposed anchor frame scheme also improves the detection performance, and experimental results on the DOTA dataset validate their effectiveness.
- Open Access
- 8 December 2021
- Published by MDPI AG in Mathematics
- Vol. 9 (24) , 3162
Trends in Vehicle Re-Identification Past, Present, and Future: A Comprehensive Review
Vehicle Re-identification (re-id) over surveillance camera network with non-overlapping field of view is an exciting and challenging task in intelligent transportation systems (ITS). Due to its versatile applicability in metropolitan cities, it gained significant attention. Vehicle re-id matches targeted vehicle over non-overlapping views in multiple camera network. However, it becomes more difficult due to inter-class similarity, intra-class variability, viewpoint changes, and spatio-temporal uncertainty. In order to draw a detailed picture of vehicle re-id research, this paper gives a comprehensive description of the various vehicle re-id technologies, applicability, datasets, and a brief comparison of different methodologies. Our paper specifically focuses on vision-based vehicle re-id approaches, including vehicle appearance, license plate, and spatio-temporal characteristics. In addition, we explore the main challenges as well as a variety of applications in different domains. Lastly, a detailed comparison of current state-of-the-art methods performances over VeRi-776 and VehicleID datasets is summarized with future directions. We aim to facilitate future research by reviewing the work being done on vehicle re-id till to date.
- 8 December 2021
- Published by MDPI AG in Mathematics
- Vol. 9 (24) , 3162
Open AccessTrends in Vehicle Re-Identification Past, Present, and Future: A Comprehensive Review
Vehicle Re-identification (re-id) over surveillance camera network with non-overlapping field of view is an exciting and challenging task in intelligent transportation systems (ITS). Due to its versatile applicability in metropolitan cities, it gained significant attention. Vehicle re-id matches targeted vehicle over non-overlapping views in multiple camera network. However, it becomes more difficult due to inter-class similarity, intra-class variability, viewpoint changes, and spatio-temporal uncertainty. In order to draw a detailed picture of vehicle re-id research, this paper gives a comprehensive description of the various vehicle re-id technologies, applicability, datasets, and a brief comparison of different methodologies. Our paper specifically focuses on vision-based vehicle re-id approaches, including vehicle appearance, license plate, and spatio-temporal characteristics. In addition, we explore the main challenges as well as a variety of applications in different domains. Lastly, a detailed comparison of current state-of-the-art methods performances over VeRi-776 and VehicleID datasets is summarized with future directions. We aim to facilitate future research by reviewing the work being done on vehicle re-id till to date.
- Open Access
Collective Intelligence: Decentralized Learning for Android Malware Detection in IoT with Blockchain
The widespread significance of Android IoT devices is due to its flexibility and hardware support features which revolutionized the digital world by introducing exciting applications almost in all walks of daily life, such as healthcare, smart cities, smart environments, safety, remote sensing, and many more. Such versatile applicability gives incentive for more malware attacks. In this paper, we propose a framework which continuously aggregates multiple user trained models on non-overlapping data into single model. Specifically for malware detection task, (i) we propose a novel user (local) neural network (LNN) which trains on local distribution and (ii) then to assure the model authenticity and quality, we propose a novel smart contract which enable aggregation process over blokchain platform. The LNN model analyzes various static and dynamic features of both malware and benign whereas the smart contract verifies the malicious applications both for uploading and downloading processes in the network using stored aggregated features of local models. In this way, the proposed model not only improves malware detection accuracy using decentralized model network but also model efficacy with blockchain. We evaluate our approach with three state-of-the-art models and performed deep analyses of extracted features of the relative model.
Open AccessCollective Intelligence: Decentralized Learning for Android Malware Detection in IoT with Blockchain
The widespread significance of Android IoT devices is due to its flexibility and hardware support features which revolutionized the digital world by introducing exciting applications almost in all walks of daily life, such as healthcare, smart cities, smart environments, safety, remote sensing, and many more. Such versatile applicability gives incentive for more malware attacks. In this paper, we propose a framework which continuously aggregates multiple user trained models on non-overlapping data into single model. Specifically for malware detection task, (i) we propose a novel user (local) neural network (LNN) which trains on local distribution and (ii) then to assure the model authenticity and quality, we propose a novel smart contract which enable aggregation process over blokchain platform. The LNN model analyzes various static and dynamic features of both malware and benign whereas the smart contract verifies the malicious applications both for uploading and downloading processes in the network using stored aggregated features of local models. In this way, the proposed model not only improves malware detection accuracy using decentralized model network but also model efficacy with blockchain. We evaluate our approach with three state-of-the-art models and performed deep analyses of extracted features of the relative model.
- Open Access
Blockchain based Privacy-Preserved Federated Learning for Medical Images: A Case Study of COVID-19 CT Scans
Medical health care centers are envisioned as a promising paradigm to handle the massive volume of data of COVID-19 patients using artificial intelligence (AI). Traditionally, AI techniques often require centralized data collection and training the model in a single organization, which is most common weakness due to the privacy and security of raw data communication. To solve this challenging task, we propose a blockchain-based federated learning framework that provides collaborative data training solutions by coordinating multiple hospitals to train and share encrypted federated models without leakage of data privacy. The blockchain ledger technology provides the decentralization of federated learning model without any central server. The proposed homomorphic encryption scheme encrypts and decrypts the gradients of model to preserve the privacy. More precisely, the proposed framework: i) train the local model by a novel capsule network to segmentation and classify COVID-19 images, ii) then use the homomorphic encryption scheme to secure the local model that encrypts and decrypts the gradients, and finally the model is shared over a decentralized platform through proposed blockchain-based federated learning algorithm. The integration of blockchain and federated learning leads to a new paradigm for medical image data sharing in the decentralized network. The conducted experimental resultsdemonstrate the performance of the proposed scheme.
Open AccessBlockchain based Privacy-Preserved Federated Learning for Medical Images: A Case Study of COVID-19 CT Scans
Medical health care centers are envisioned as a promising paradigm to handle the massive volume of data of COVID-19 patients using artificial intelligence (AI). Traditionally, AI techniques often require centralized data collection and training the model in a single organization, which is most common weakness due to the privacy and security of raw data communication. To solve this challenging task, we propose a blockchain-based federated learning framework that provides collaborative data training solutions by coordinating multiple hospitals to train and share encrypted federated models without leakage of data privacy. The blockchain ledger technology provides the decentralization of federated learning model without any central server. The proposed homomorphic encryption scheme encrypts and decrypts the gradients of model to preserve the privacy. More precisely, the proposed framework: i) train the local model by a novel capsule network to segmentation and classify COVID-19 images, ii) then use the homomorphic encryption scheme to secure the local model that encrypts and decrypts the gradients, and finally the model is shared over a decentralized platform through proposed blockchain-based federated learning algorithm. The integration of blockchain and federated learning leads to a new paradigm for medical image data sharing in the decentralized network. The conducted experimental resultsdemonstrate the performance of the proposed scheme.
- Top Cited Papers
- 30 April 2021
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Sensors Journal
- Vol. 21 (14) , 16301-16314
Blockchain-Federated-Learning and Deep Learning Models for COVID-19 Detection Using CT Imaging
With the increase of COVID-19 cases worldwide, an effective way is required to diagnose COVID-19 patients. The primary problem in diagnosing COVID-19 patients is the shortage and reliability of testing kits, due to the quick spread of the virus, medical practitioners are facing difficulty in identifying the positive cases. The second real-world problem is to share the data among the hospitals globally while keeping in view the privacy concerns of the organizations. Building a collaborative model and preserving privacy are the major concerns for training a global deep learning model. This paper proposes a framework that collects a small amount of data from different sources (various hospitals) and trains a global deep learning model using blockchain-based federated learning. Blockchain technology authenticates the data and federated learning trains the model globally while preserving the privacy of the organization. First, we propose a data normalization technique that deals with the heterogeneity of data as the data is gathered from different hospitals having different kinds of Computed Tomography (CT) scanners. Secondly, we use Capsule Network-based segmentation and classification to detect COVID-19 patients. Thirdly, we design a method that can collaboratively train a global model using blockchain technology with federated learning while preserving privacy. Additionally, we collected real-life COVID-19 patients’ data open to the research community. The proposed framework can utilize up-to-date data which improves the recognition of CT images. Finally, we conducted comprehensive experiments to validate the proposed method. Our results demonstrate better performance for detecting COVID-19 patients.
- 30 April 2021
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Sensors Journal
- Vol. 21 (14) , 16301-16314
Top Cited PapersBlockchain-Federated-Learning and Deep Learning Models for COVID-19 Detection Using CT Imaging
With the increase of COVID-19 cases worldwide, an effective way is required to diagnose COVID-19 patients. The primary problem in diagnosing COVID-19 patients is the shortage and reliability of testing kits, due to the quick spread of the virus, medical practitioners are facing difficulty in identifying the positive cases. The second real-world problem is to share the data among the hospitals globally while keeping in view the privacy concerns of the organizations. Building a collaborative model and preserving privacy are the major concerns for training a global deep learning model. This paper proposes a framework that collects a small amount of data from different sources (various hospitals) and trains a global deep learning model using blockchain-based federated learning. Blockchain technology authenticates the data and federated learning trains the model globally while preserving the privacy of the organization. First, we propose a data normalization technique that deals with the heterogeneity of data as the data is gathered from different hospitals having different kinds of Computed Tomography (CT) scanners. Secondly, we use Capsule Network-based segmentation and classification to detect COVID-19 patients. Thirdly, we design a method that can collaboratively train a global model using blockchain technology with federated learning while preserving privacy. Additionally, we collected real-life COVID-19 patients’ data open to the research community. The proposed framework can utilize up-to-date data which improves the recognition of CT images. Finally, we conducted comprehensive experiments to validate the proposed method. Our results demonstrate better performance for detecting COVID-19 patients.
- Open Access
- 1 July 2020
- Published by MDPI AG in Electronics
- Vol. 9 (7) , 1083
Visual Features with Spatio-Temporal-Based Fusion Model for Cross-Dataset Vehicle Re-Identification
Vehicle re-identification (Re-Id) is the key module in an intelligent transportation system (ITS). Due to its versatile applicability in metropolitan cities, this task has received increasing attention these days. It aims to identify whether the specific vehicle has already appeared over the surveillance network or not. Mostly, the vehicle Re-Id method are evaluated on a single dataset, in which training and testing of the model is performed on the same dataset. However in practice, this negatively effects model generalization ability due to biased datasets along with the significant difference between training and testing data; hence, the model becomes weak in a practical environment. To demonstrate this issue, we have empirically shown that the current vehicle Re-Id datasets are usually strongly biased. In this regard, we also conduct an extensive study on the cross and the same dataset to examine the impact on the performance of the vehicle Re-Id system, considering existing methods. To address the problem, in this paper, we have proposed an approach with augmentation of the training dataset to reduce the influence of pose, angle, camera color response, and background information in vehicle images; whereas, spatio-temporal patterns of unlabelled target datasets are learned by transferring siamese neural network classifiers trained on a source-labelled dataset. We finally calculate the composite similarity score of spatio-temporal patterns with siamese neural-network-based classifier visual features. Extensive experiments on multiple datasets are examined and results suggest that the proposed approach has the ability to generalize adequately.
- 1 July 2020
- Published by MDPI AG in Electronics
- Vol. 9 (7) , 1083
Open AccessVisual Features with Spatio-Temporal-Based Fusion Model for Cross-Dataset Vehicle Re-Identification
Vehicle re-identification (Re-Id) is the key module in an intelligent transportation system (ITS). Due to its versatile applicability in metropolitan cities, this task has received increasing attention these days. It aims to identify whether the specific vehicle has already appeared over the surveillance network or not. Mostly, the vehicle Re-Id method are evaluated on a single dataset, in which training and testing of the model is performed on the same dataset. However in practice, this negatively effects model generalization ability due to biased datasets along with the significant difference between training and testing data; hence, the model becomes weak in a practical environment. To demonstrate this issue, we have empirically shown that the current vehicle Re-Id datasets are usually strongly biased. In this regard, we also conduct an extensive study on the cross and the same dataset to examine the impact on the performance of the vehicle Re-Id system, considering existing methods. To address the problem, in this paper, we have proposed an approach with augmentation of the training dataset to reduce the influence of pose, angle, camera color response, and background information in vehicle images; whereas, spatio-temporal patterns of unlabelled target datasets are learned by transferring siamese neural network classifiers trained on a source-labelled dataset. We finally calculate the composite similarity score of spatio-temporal patterns with siamese neural-network-based classifier visual features. Extensive experiments on multiple datasets are examined and results suggest that the proposed approach has the ability to generalize adequately.
- Open Access
- 27 January 2020
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Access
- Vol. 8, 24196-24208
A Hybrid Access Control Model With Dynamic COI for Secure Localization of Satellite and IoT-Based Vehicles
Secure localization of vehicles is gaining the attention of researchers from both academia and industry especially due to the emergence of internet of things (IoT). The modern vehicles are usually equipped with circuitries that gives connectivity with other vehicles and with cellular networks such as 4G/Fifth generation cellar network (5G). The challenge of secure localization and positioning is magnified further with the invention of technologies such as autonomous or driverless vehicles based on IoT, satellite, and 5G. Some satellite and IoT based localization techniques exploit machine learning, semantic segmentation, and access control mechanism. Access control provides access grant and secure information sharing mechanism to authorized users and restricts unauthorized users, which is necessary regarding security and privacy of government or military vehicles. Previously, static conflict of interest (COI) based access control was used for security proposes. However, static COI based access control creates excesses and administrative overload that creates latency in execution, which is the least tolerable factor in modern IoT or 5G control vehicles. Therefore, in this paper, a hybrid access control (HAC) model is proposed that implements the dynamic COI in the HAC model on the level of roles. The proposed model is enhanced by modifying the role-based access control (RBAC) model by inserting new attributes of the RBAC entities. The HAC model deals with COI on the level of roles in an efficient manner as compared to previously proposed models. Moreover, this model features significant improvement in terms of dynamic behavior, decreased administrative load, and security especially for vehicular localization. Furthermore, the mathematical modeling of the proposed model is implemented with an example scenario to validate the concept.
- 27 January 2020
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Access
- Vol. 8, 24196-24208
Open AccessA Hybrid Access Control Model With Dynamic COI for Secure Localization of Satellite and IoT-Based Vehicles
Secure localization of vehicles is gaining the attention of researchers from both academia and industry especially due to the emergence of internet of things (IoT). The modern vehicles are usually equipped with circuitries that gives connectivity with other vehicles and with cellular networks such as 4G/Fifth generation cellar network (5G). The challenge of secure localization and positioning is magnified further with the invention of technologies such as autonomous or driverless vehicles based on IoT, satellite, and 5G. Some satellite and IoT based localization techniques exploit machine learning, semantic segmentation, and access control mechanism. Access control provides access grant and secure information sharing mechanism to authorized users and restricts unauthorized users, which is necessary regarding security and privacy of government or military vehicles. Previously, static conflict of interest (COI) based access control was used for security proposes. However, static COI based access control creates excesses and administrative overload that creates latency in execution, which is the least tolerable factor in modern IoT or 5G control vehicles. Therefore, in this paper, a hybrid access control (HAC) model is proposed that implements the dynamic COI in the HAC model on the level of roles. The proposed model is enhanced by modifying the role-based access control (RBAC) model by inserting new attributes of the RBAC entities. The HAC model deals with COI on the level of roles in an efficient manner as compared to previously proposed models. Moreover, this model features significant improvement in terms of dynamic behavior, decreased administrative load, and security especially for vehicular localization. Furthermore, the mathematical modeling of the proposed model is implemented with an example scenario to validate the concept.