A study of security issues of mobile apps in the android platform using machine learning approaches

Mobile app poses both traditional and new potential threats to system security and user privacy. There are malicious apps that may do harm to the system, and there are mis-behaviors of apps, which are reasonable and legal when not abused, yet may lead to real threats otherwise. Moreover, due to the nature of mobile apps, a running app in mobile devices may be only part of the software, and the server side behavior is usually not covered by analysis. Therefore, direct analysis on the app itself may be incomplete and additional sources of information are needed. In this dissertation, we discuss how we can apply machine learning techniques in multiple tasks for security issues in regard of mobile apps in the Android platform. These include malicious apps detection and security risk estimation of apps. Both direct sources of information from the developer of apps and indirect sources of information from user comments are utilized in these tasks. We also propose comparison of these different sources in the task of security risk estimation to point out the necessity of usage of indirect sources in mobile app security tasks

Exploring the Innovation System of the Animation Industry: Case study of a Chinese Company

In the past 10 years, the animation industry has developed rapidly due to new technology and market expansion. Leading firms such as Disney are continuously seeking strategies to expand business towards products and service innovation, whereas Pixar and DreamWorks focus mainly on technology management. Driven by market and government policy, there is a blooming of the animation industry in China. However, most Chinese companies, in shortage of knowledge and experience, are unclear about innovation strategies. Thus, this paper aims to investigate the innovation system of China’s animation industry as a late comer. The literature is covered together with an industry review. To further explore the details, an in-depth case study into a Chinese company is conducted. This company has developed an open innovation system by interacting with industry, university and government; meanwhile, it is penetrating into the character business and service sector, seeking for sustainability. Findings indicate that a combination of internal knowledge management and open innovation is important; government plays a vital role at the early stage of forming the innovation system; innovation is a dynamic process with different configurations at each stage. Discussions are given to address the critical issues of the innovation system in the animation industry, followed by conclusions and recommendations for future research areas

Dihydro­cryptopine

In the crystal structure of the title compound [systematic name: 6,7-dimeth­oxy-12-methyl-16,18-dioxa-12-aza­tetra­cyclo­[12.7.0.04,9.015,19]henicosa-1(21),4,6,8,14,19-hexaen-3-ol], C21H25NO5, the benzene rings exhibits a dihedral angle of 14.95 (4)°. In the crystal, mol­ecules are linked by pairs of O—H⋯O hydrogen bonding into inversion dimers. These dimers are further connected by C—H⋯O inter­actions

Characterization of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome in rural regions of Zhejiang, China.

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) infections have recently been found in rural regions of Zhejiang. A severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) surveillance and sero-epidemiological investigation was conducted in the districts with outbreaks. During the study period of 2011-2014, a total of 51 SFTSV infection cases were identified and the case fatality rate was 12% (6/51). Ninety two percent of the patients (47/51) were over 50 years of age, and 63% (32/51) of laboratory confirmed cases occurred from May to July. Nine percent (11/120) of the serum samples from local healthy people without symptoms were found to be positive for antibodies to the SFTS virus. SFTSV strains were isolated by culture using Vero, and the whole genomic sequences of two SFTSV strains (01 and Zhao) were sequenced and submitted to the GenBank. Homology analysis showed that the similarity of the target nucleocapsid gene from the SFTSV strains from different geographic areas was 94.2-100%. From the constructed phylogenetic tree, it was found that all the SFTSV strains diverged into two main clusters. Only the SFTSV strains from the Zhejiang (Daishan) region of China and the Yamaguchi, Miyazakj regions of Japan, were clustered into lineage II, consistent with both of these regions being isolated areas with similar geographic features. Two out of eight predicted linear B cell epitopes from the nucleocapsid protein showed mutations between the SFTSV strains of different clusters, but did not contribute to the binding ability of the specific SFTSV antibodies. This study confirmed that SFTSV has been circulating naturally and can cause a seasonal prevalence in Daishan, China. The results also suggest that the molecular characteristics of SFTSV are associated with the geographic region and all SFTSV strains can be divided into two genotypes

Numerical Simulation and Experimental Study of the Tube Receiver's Performance of Solar Thermal Power Tower

AbstractA water-vapor tube receiver is a significant component in the solar thermal power tower plant. However, the tube flow performance is much different from others. Because semi-circumference of the tube is heated with an uneven heat flux, which is into a Gaussian distribution in this paper, and the other semi-circumference is insulated. A 5kW- Xe-arc lamp was used to simulate a solar light source. In this study, the effect of different entrance velocity on the flow performance and thermal efficiency of the tube receiver are investigated with numerical and experimental methods. The results of experiment and simulation agree well. The results show that the temperature distribution of water and tube wall are very uneven both in the axial and radial directions. The thermal efficiency of the tube receiver increases with the increase of entrance velocity

Preparative Scale Production of Functional Mouse Aquaporin 4 Using Different Cell-Free Expression Modes

The continuous progress in the structural and functional characterization of aquaporins increasingly attracts attention to study their roles in certain mammalian diseases. Although several structures of aquaporins have already been solved by crystallization, the challenge of producing sufficient amounts of functional proteins still remains. CF (cell free) expression has emerged in recent times as a promising alternative option in order to synthesize large quantities of membrane proteins, and the focus of this report was to evaluate the potential of this technique for the production of eukaryotic aquaporins. We have selected the mouse aquaporin 4 as a representative of mammalian aquaporins. The protein was synthesized in an E. coli extract based cell-free system with two different expression modes, and the efficiencies of two modes were compared. In both, the P-CF (cell-free membrane protein expression as precipitate) mode generating initial aquaporin precipitates as well as in the D-CF (cell-free membrane protein expression in presence of detergent) mode, generating directly detergent solubilized samples, we were able to obtain mg amounts of protein per ml of cell-free reaction. Purified aquaporin samples solubilized in different detergents were reconstituted into liposomes, and analyzed for the water channel activity. The calculated Pf value of proteoliposome samples isolated from the D-CF mode was 133 µm/s at 10°C, which was 5 times higher as that of the control. A reversible inhibitory effect of mercury chloride was observed, which is consistent with previous observations of in vitro reconstituted aquaporin 4. In this study, a fast and convenient protocol was established for functional expression of aquaporins, which could serve as basis for further applications such as water filtration

Pulmonary blastoma treatment response to anti-PD-1 therapy: a rare case report and literature review

Pulmonary blastoma (PB) is a rare and invasive malignancy of the lungs with a poor prognosis. Although the mainstay treatment of PB is surgery, and radiotherapy and chemotherapy have been reported, no standard therapy exists for patients inoperable in advanced stages. Moreover, little is known about driver mutation status and immunotherapy efficacy. This paper presents a male patient diagnosed with classic biphasic PB using CT-guided lung biopsy pathology and immunohistochemistry. The patient’s symptoms included cough, chest pain, shortness of breath, hemoptysis, and hypodynamia. The primary focus of this paper is to discuss the impact of anti-PD-1 immunotherapy on PB. The patient experienced progression-free survival (PFS) of over 27 months following sintilimab second-line anti-PD-1 therapy. The patient has currently survived for nearly 40 months with a satisfactory quality of life

An XMM-Newton Survey of the Soft X-ray Background. II. An All-Sky Catalog of Diffuse O VII and O VIII Emission Intensities

We present an all-sky catalog of diffuse O VII and O VIII line intensities, extracted from archival XMM observations. The O VII and O VIII intensities are typically ~2-11 and <~3 ph/cm^2/s/sr (LU), respectively, although much brighter intensities were also recorded. Our data set includes 217 directions observed multiple times by XMM. The time variation of the intensities from such directions may be used to constrain SWCX models. The O VII and O VIII intensities typically vary by <~5 and <~2 LU between repeat observations, although several intensity enhancements of >10 LU were observed. We compared our measurements with SWCX models. The heliospheric SWCX intensity is expected to vary with ecliptic latitude and solar cycle. We found that the observed oxygen intensities generally decrease from solar maximum to solar minimum, both at high ecliptic latitudes (as expected) and at low ecliptic latitudes (not as expected). The geocoronal SWCX intensity is expected to depend on the solar wind proton flux and on the sightline's path through the magnetosheath. The intensity variations seen in directions that have been observed multiple times are in poor agreement with the predictions of a geocoronal SWCX model. The oxygen lines account for ~40-50% of the 3/4 keV X-ray background that is not due to unresolved AGN, in good agreement with a previous measurement. However, this fraction is not easily explained by a combination of SWCX emission and emission from hot plasma in the halo. The line intensities tend to increase with longitude toward the inner Galaxy, possibly due to an increase in the supernova rate in that direction or the presence of a halo of accreted material centered on the Galactic Center. The variation of intensity with Galactic latitude differs in different octants of the sky, and cannot be explained by a single simple plane-parallel or constant-intensity halo model. (Abridged)Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. 29 pages (main body of paper) plus 85 pages (full versions of Tables 1, 2, and 4 - these tables will be published as machine-readable tables in the journal, and appear in abbreviated form in the main body of the paper). 12 figures. v2: Minor corrections, conclusions unaltere

Mendelian randomization analysis identified tumor necrosis factor as being associated with severe COVID-19

Background: Observational studies have shown that anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) therapy may be beneficial for patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Nevertheless, because of the methodological restrictions of traditional observational studies, it is a challenge to make causal inferences. This study involved a two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis to investigate the causal link between nine TNFs and COVID-19 severity using publicly released genome-wide association study summary statistics.Methods: Summary statistics for nine TNFs (21,758 cases) were obtained from a large-scale genome-wide association study. Correlation data between single-nucleotide polymorphisms and severe COVID-19 (18,152 cases vs. 1,145,546 controls) were collected from the COVID-19 host genetics initiative. The causal estimate was calculated by inverse variance-weighted (IVW), MR–Egger, and weighted median methods. Sensitivity tests were conducted to assess the validity of the causal relationship.Results: Genetically predicted TNF receptor superfamily member 6 (FAS) positively correlated with the severity of COVID-19 (IVW, odds ratio = 1.10, 95% confidence interval = 1.01–1.19, p = 0.026), whereas TNF receptor superfamily member 5 (CD40) was protective against severe COVID-19 (IVW, odds ratio = 0.92, 95% confidence interval = 0.87–0.97, p = 0.002).Conclusion: Genetic evidence from this study supports that the increased expression of FAS is associated with the risk of severe COVID-19 and that CD40 may have a potential protective effect against COVID-19