Interplays of a waterborne disease model linking within- and between- host dynamics with waning vaccine-induced immunity

In this paper, we propose a multi-scale waterborne disease model and are concerned with a heterogenous process of waning vaccine-induced immunity. A completely nested rule has been adopted to link the within- and between-host systems. We prove the existence, positivity and asymptotical smoothness of the between-host system. We derive the basic reproduction numbers associated with the two-scale system in explicit forms, which completely determine the behavior of each system. Uncertainty analysis reveals the trade-offs of the kinetics of the within-host system and the transmission of the between-host system. Numerical simulations suggest that the vaccine waning process plays a significant role in the estimation of the prevalence at population level. Furthermore, the environmental heterogeneity complicates the transmission patterns at the population level.

An New Efficient Cluster Based Detection Mechanisms for Distributed Denial of Services (DDoS) Attacks

Cluster aggregation of statistical anomaly detection is a mechanism for defending against denial of service attack (dos) and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. DDoS attacks are treated as a congestioncontrol problem; because most of the congestion is occurred in the malicious hosts not follow the normal endto- end congestion control. Upstream routers are also notified to drop such packets in order that the router’s resources are used to route legitimate traffic hence term cluster aggregation. If the victim suspects that the cluster aggregations are solved by most of the clients, it increases the complexity of the cluster aggregation. This aggregation solving technique allows the traversal of the attack traffic throughout the intermediate routers before reaching the destination. In this proposal, the aggregation solving mechanism is cluster aggregation to the core routers rather than having at the victim. The router based cluster aggregation mechanism checks the host system whether it is legitimate or not by providing a aggregation to be solved by the suspected host.

Retrieving Historical Cases of Aujeszky’s Disease in Sicily (Italy): Report of a Natural Outbreak Affecting Sheep, Goats, Dogs, Cats and Foxes and Considerations on Critical Issues and Perspectives in Light of the Recent EU Regulation 429/2016

Aujeszky’s disease is caused by Suid alphaherpesvirus 1, and its main reservoir host is the pig. However, other species are also susceptible. Infection with this virus causes a severe neurological clinical picture named Aujeszky’s disease, usually accompanied by itching and death a few days after the onset of symptoms. This study reports a multi-species outbreak of Aujeszky’s disease that occurred in Sicily, which led to the death of 2 goats, 15 sheep, 2 dogs, 2 cats and 2 foxes. The diagnosis was made by culture, indirect immunofluorescence on brain samples and confirmed by biological test on rabbits. This study reports the first cases of Aujeszky’s disease in Italy in cats, goat and sheep. The finding of Aujeszky’s disease in several species in Sicily suggests a potential epizootic risk. In such areas where a multi-host system is recognised, an analysis of the risk factors should be carried out in order to develop targeted strategies for the control and eradication of the disease. The critical issues that hinder the control of Aujeszky’s disease in the studied territory and perspectives for eradication in the light of EU regulation 429/2016 are also discussed.

Iso-Partricin, an Aromatic Analogue of Amphotericin B: How Shining Light on Old Drugs Might Help Create New Ones

Partricin is a heptaene macrolide antibiotic complex that exhibits exceptional antifungal activity, yet poor selective toxicity, in the pathogen/host system. It consists of two compounds, namely partricin A and B, and both of these molecules incorporate two cis-type bonds within their heptaenic chromophores: 28Z and 30Z. In this contribution, we have proven that partricins are susceptible to a chromophore-straightening photoisomerization process. The occurring 28Z→28E and 30Z→30E switches are irreversible in given conditions, and they are the only structural changes observed during the experiment. The obtained all-trans partricin’s derivatives, namely iso-partricins A and B, exhibit very promising features, potentially resulting in the improvement of their selective toxicity.

A Hardware Platform for Ensuring OS Kernel Integrity on RISC-V

The OS kernel is typically preassumed as a trusted computing base in most computing systems. However, it also implies that once an attacker takes control of the OS kernel, the attacker can seize the entire system. Because of such security importance of the OS kernel, many works have proposed security solutions for the OS kernel using an external hardware module located outside the processor. By doing this, these works can realize the physical isolation of security solutions from the OS kernel running in the processor, but they cannot access the inner state of the processor, which attackers can manipulate. Thus, they elaborated several methods to overcome such limited capability of external hardware. However, those methods usually come with several side effects, such as high-performance overhead, kernel code modifications, and/or excessively complicated hardware designs. In this paper, we introduce RiskiM, a new hardware-based monitoring platform to ensure kernel integrity from outside the host system. To deliver the inner state of the host to RiskiM, we have devised a hardware interface architecture, called PEMI. Through PEMI, RiskiM is supplied with all internal states of the host system essential for fulfilling its monitoring task to protect the kernel. To empirically validate our monitoring platform’s security strength and performance, we have fully implemented PEMI and RiskiM on a RISC-V based processor and FPGA, respectively. Our experiments show that RiskiM succeeds in the host kernel protection by detecting even the advanced attacks which could circumvent previous solutions, yet suffering from virtually no aforementioned side effects.

An artificial host system enables the obligate parasitic plant Cuscuta campestris to grow and complete its life cycle in vitro

Cuscuta campestris is an obligate parasitic plant that requires a host to complete its lifecycle. Parasite-host connections occur via an haustorium, a unique organ that acts as a bridge for the uptake of water, nutrients and macromolecules. Research on Cuscuta is often complicated by host influences, but comparable systems for growing the parasite in the absence of a host do not exist. We developed an axenic method to grow C. campestris on an Artificial Host System (AHS). We evaluated the effects of nutrients and phytohormones on parasite haustoria development and growth. Haustorium morphology and gene expression were characterized. The AHS consists of an inert, fibrous stick that mimics a host stem, wicking water and nutrients to the parasite. It enables C. campestris to exhibit a parasitic habit and develop through all stages of its lifecycle, including production of new shoots and viable seeds. Phytohormones NAA and BA affect haustoria morphology, and increase parasite fresh weight and biomass. Gene expression in AHS haustoria reflect process similar to those in haustoria on actual host plants. The AHS is a methodological improvement for studying Cuscuta biology by avoiding specific host effects on parasite and giving researchers full control of the parasite environment.