Fully Resolved assembly of Cryptosporidium Parvum

BACKGROUND: Cryptosporidium parvum is an apicomplexan parasite commonly found across many host species with a global infection prevalence in human populations of 7.6%. Understanding its diversity and genomic makeup can help in fighting established infections and prohibiting further transmission. The basis of every genomic study is a high-quality reference genome that has continuity and completeness, thus enabling comprehensive comparative studies. FINDINGS: Here, we provide a highly accurate and complete reference genome of Cryptosporidium parvum. The assembly is based on Oxford Nanopore reads and was improved using Illumina reads for error correction. We also outline how to evaluate and choose from different assembly methods based on 2 main approaches that can be applied to other Cryptosporidium species. The assembly encompasses 8 chromosomes and includes 13 telomeres that were resolved. Overall, the assembly shows a high completion rate with 98.4% single-copy BUSCO genes. CONCLUSIONS: This high-quality reference genome of a zoonotic IIaA17G2R1 C. parvum subtype isolate provides the basis for subsequent comparative genomic studies across the Cryptosporidium clade. This will enable improved understanding of diversity, functional, and association studies

Examining approaches to quantifying cyber risk for improved cybersecurity management

This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2019Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 63-71).As technology's societal influence continues to grow, cyber risk management is becoming a serious priority. Individuals are putting their important assets and personal data, such as social security numbers, passwords, medical history, and more into the cloud. As a result, security breaches pose a drastic threat. To properly address this, rigorous risk management needs to be in place, and it is a well-known adage that you can not manage what you can not measure. This thesis first shows that there is room in the industry for better quantitative cyber risk measurement and then provides an assessment of current players that are trying to approach this issue. As one solution to the problem, a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis is performed on well-known cybersecurity breaches to provide common failure modes, causes, and effects within an organization. Cyber risk must be evaluated quantitatively in order to effectively approach it.by Sravya Bhamidipati.M. Eng.M.Eng. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Scienc