A heuristic optimization method for mitigating the impact of a virus attack

Taking precautions before or during the start of a virus outbreak can heavily reduce the number of infected. The question which individuals should be immunized in order to mitigate the impact of the virus on the rest of population has received quite some attention in the literature. The dynamics of the of a virus spread through a population is often represented as information spread over a complex network. The strategies commonly proposed to determine which nodes are to be selected for immunization often involve only one centrality measure at a time, while often the topology of the network seems to suggest that a single metric is insufficient to capture the influence of a node entirely. In this work we present a generic method based on a genetic algorithm (GA) which does not rely explicitly on any centrality measures during its search but only exploits this type of information to narrow the search space. The fitness of an individual is defined as the estimated expected number of infections of a virus following SIR dynamics. The proposed method is evaluated on two contact networks: the Goodreau's Faux Mesa high school and the US air transportation network. The GA method manages to outperform the most common strategies based on a single metric for the air transportation network and its performance is comparable with the best performing strategy for the high school network.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the International Conference on Computational Science (ICCS) in Barcelona. 11 pages, 5 figure

Ecological Aspects and Conservation of Wild Grapevine Populations in the S.W. of the Iberian Peninsula

Populations of wild grapevine, Vitis vinifera L. subsp. sylvestris (Gmelin) Hegi, were discovered in S.W. of the Iberian Peninsula over the last years. Location, ecological aspects, sanitary characteristics, including the ELISA test to detect specific virus attack, are described. In vitro propagation and conservation are also considered. The paper also contains a global description of female and male individuals. This material could be used to start breeding programs of cultivated varieties and also to restore riverbank forests, which constitute one of the worst preserved ecosystems in the area

Lowering virus attack with improved yield and fiber quality in different cotton genotypes by early sown cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.)

A three year study with the objective of exploring the possible role of different sowing dates and cotton genotypes on seed cotton yield, fiber quality and virus attack was conducted at the Cotton Research Station (CRS), Multan, Pakistan during three consecutive years (2006, 2007 and 2008). Two cotton genotypes namely: MNH-6070 and CIM-496 were sown on five different sowing dates (15th April, 1st May, 15th May, 1st June and 15th June) during the three consecutive years (2006, 2007 and 2008). The analyzed data indicated that early sown cotton (15th April) resulted in low virus attack (21.06%) and enhanced seed cotton yield (1575%), together with yield components (number of bolls per plant and boll weight), and improved fiber quality (staple length and micronaire) during all the three years as compared with late sown crop (15th June). Likewise, MNH-6070 also resulted in low virus attack (45.79%) and higher seed cotton yield (117.19%), as well as yield components. Regarding fiber quality, MNH-6070 resulted in higher micronarie, while CIM-496 resulted in higher staple length. Early sowing and cotton genotype MNH-6070 also resulted in maximum ginning out turn (GOT). Nonetheless, seed cotton yield and fiber quality were both negatively affected due to late sowing (1st and 15th of June) in both cotton genotypes. In crux, early sowing enhanced seed cotton yield due to increased number of bolls per plant, boll weight and low virus attack. Similarly, cotton genotype MNH-6070 also resulted to higher seed cotton yield, GOT and more resistance against virus attack due to its better genetic makeup. In summary, cotton genotype MNH-6070 should be sown on 15th April in order to obtain maximum seed cotton yield under agro-climatic conditions of Multan, Pakistan.Key words: Sowing time, seed cotton yield, staple length, micronaire

Computer Viruses

In this paper, I plan to discuss viruses and related problems, take a look at one virus attack in particular, and examine what the future holds for computer security

Weak ties: Subtle role of information diffusion in online social networks

As a social media, online social networks play a vital role in the social information diffusion. However, due to its unique complexity, the mechanism of the diffusion in online social networks is different from the ones in other types of networks and remains unclear to us. Meanwhile, few works have been done to reveal the coupled dynamics of both the structure and the diffusion of online social networks. To this end, in this paper, we propose a model to investigate how the structure is coupled with the diffusion in online social networks from the view of weak ties. Through numerical experiments on large-scale online social networks, we find that in contrast to some previous research results, selecting weak ties preferentially to republish cannot make the information diffuse quickly, while random selection can achieve this goal. However, when we remove the weak ties gradually, the coverage of the information will drop sharply even in the case of random selection. We also give a reasonable explanation for this by extra analysis and experiments. Finally, we conclude that weak ties play a subtle role in the information diffusion in online social networks. On one hand, they act as bridges to connect isolated local communities together and break through the local trapping of the information. On the other hand, selecting them as preferential paths to republish cannot help the information spread further in the network. As a result, weak ties might be of use in the control of the virus spread and the private information diffusion in real-world applications.Comment: Final version published in PR

Virus Attack on Mobile Phone as an Impediment to Network Stability

Viruses that infect cell phones especially Smartphone’s are beginning to emerge as a new obverse in the fight againstcomputer viruses. Cell phones viruses have become real as many smartphones and other modern cell phones featureinternet capability and contain storage space. Cell phones viruses can be harmful because they can steal personalinformation entered by the user that is useful in identity theft, make expensive calls using the victim’s account or rundown the battery quickly. In this paper, we will study mobile phone viruses and how the effect network stability.Keywords: Virus, Cell Phones, Smartphones, Operating System (OS

Impact of Pandemic – COVID 19 in Agrarian Part of the Country – A Study across Villages Adopted by Mount Carmel College, Autonomous, Bangalore

This paper is showing that COVID19 has affected all walks of life. Protecting lives of people suffering from the disease as well as frontline health responders have been the priority of nations. Governments have swung into actions since the Corona virus attack created an unprecedented situation. India declared a three-week nation-wide lockdown till mid-April in the initial phase, which was subsequently extended for achieving satisfactory containment of the virus spread

PLANNING TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENTS FOR HIGH PAYOFFS: A RATIONAL EXPECTATIONS APPROACH TO GAUGING POTENTIAL AND REALIZED VALUE IN A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT

This paper examines the impact of information security breaches on organizational performance. Up to date, there have been only a few empirical academic studies that have investigated this issue and they have investigated information security breaches with the focus on the short-term impact on the market value of the firm. This study offers an alternate approach to investigate this issue as it explores the impact of breaches on financial performance of the firm, one year after the breach. Using a “matched sampling” methodology, we explored the impact of each type of breach (i.e. confidentiality, integrity, and availability) and also by IT intensity and size. Our results suggest that the direction of the impact (i.e. positive, negative) is dependent on the type of security breaches and also the impact of IT intensive firms is different from non-IT intensive firms. Our study also includes some important implications for managers and stock market investors.Information security, impact, security breach, organizational performance,confidentiality, integrity, availability