Voting Systems with Trust Mechanisms in Cyberspace: Vulnerabilities and Defenses

With the popularity of voting systems in cyberspace, there is growing evidence that current voting systems can be manipulated by fake votes. This problem has attracted many researchers working on guarding voting systems in two areas: relieving the effect of dishonest votes by evaluating the trust of voters, and limiting the resources that can be used by attackers, such as the number of voters and the number of votes. In this paper, we argue that powering voting systems with trust and limiting attack resources are not enough. We present a novel attack named as Reputation Trap (RepTrap). Our case study and experiments show that this new attack needs much less resources to manipulate the voting systems and has a much higher success rate compared with existing attacks. We further identify the reasons behind this attack and propose two defense schemes accordingly. In the first scheme, we hide correlation knowledge from attackers to reduce their chance to affect the honest voters. In the second scheme, we introduce robustness-of-evidence, a new metric, in trust calculation to reduce their effect on honest voters. We conduct extensive experiments to validate our approach. The results show that our defense schemes not only can reduce the success rate of attacks but also significantly increase the amount of resources an adversary needs to launch a successful attack

(Z)-1,3-Bis(4-chloro­phen­yl)-2-(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)prop-2-en-1-one

In the title mol­ecule, C17H11Cl2N3O, the C=C bond connecting the triazole and 4-chloro­phenyl groups adopts a Z geometry. The dihedral angles formed by the triazole ring and the 4-chloro substituted benzene rings are 67.3 (1) and 59.1 (1)°. The dihedral angle between the two benzene rings is 73.5 (1)°

Screening and analysis of soda saline-alkali stress induced up- regulated genes in sugar sorghum

Soil salinization severely constrains the growth of crops, which ultimately leads to reduced yields. Because Sorghum dochna (common name sugar sorghum) has the advantageous properties of excellent salt stress resis- tance, high biomass, and tremendous flexibility for utilization as food, livestock feed, and industrial products, this species holds great potential to be further developed as a primary alternative crop. To elucidate the molecular mechanism that governs sugar sorghum’s adaptation to high salinity environments, we constructed a suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) cDNA library from sugar sorghum transcripts that contains the soda saline-alkali induced up-regulated genes from the resistant variety M-81E. The SSH cDNA library was screened by using the colony hybridization method, and the ESTs obtained were sequenced and analyzed. A total of 200 EST clones were identified, representing 127 unigenes (6 contigs and 121 singlets). A Blast analysis showed that 48 ESTs (46.6%) have annotated functions in GenBank, 55 ESTs (53.4%) have unknown functions (or encode hypothetical proteins), and 24 ESTs (18.9%) have no blast hits. The majority of the hypothetical ESTs from the cDNA library displayed very high sequence similarity with their homologs found through GenBank. A clustering analysis of the ESTs with known functions indicated that a wide variety of genes were induced during the salt stress treatment. These genes were found to function in photosynthesis, material and energy metabolism (carbohydrates, lipids, amino acids, co-enzymes, ions, etc.), synthesis or maintenance of constituents of the cell wall and cell membrane, signal transduction, transcriptional regulation, and as water channels. This indicates that sugar sorghum tolerance to soda saline-alkali stress results from the coordinated functions of many genes

Metabolic Profiling Study of Yang Deficiency Syndrome in Hepatocellular Carcinoma by H

This study proposes a 1H NMR-based metabonomic approach to explore the biochemical characteristics of Yang deficiency syndrome in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) based on serum metabolic profiling. Serum samples from 21 cases of Yang deficiency syndrome HCC patients (YDS-HCC) and 21 cases of non-Yang deficiency syndrome HCC patients (NYDS-HCC) were analyzed using 1H NMR spectroscopy and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) was applied to visualize the variation patterns in metabolic profiling of sera from different groups. The differential metabolites were identified and the biochemical characteristics were analyzed. We found that the intensities of six metabolites (LDL/VLDL, isoleucine, lactate, lipids, choline, and glucose/sugars) in serum of Yang deficiency syndrome patients were lower than those of non-Yang deficiency syndrome patients. It implies that multiple metabolisms, mainly including lipid, amino acid, and energy metabolisms, are unbalanced or weakened in Yang deficiency syndrome patients with HCC. The decreased intensities of metabolites including LDL/VLDL, isoleucine, lactate, lipids, choline, and glucose/sugars in serum may be the distinctive metabolic variations of Yang deficiency syndrome patients with HCC. And these metabolites may be potential biomarkers for diagnosis of Yang deficiency syndrome in HCC

Genome-wide search for the genes accountable for the induced resistance to HIV-1 infection in activated CD4+ T cells: apparent transcriptional signatures, co-expression networks and possible cellular processes

BACKGROUND: Upon co-stimulation with CD3/CD28 antibodies, activated CD4 + T cells were found to lose their susceptibility to HIV-1 infection, exhibiting an induced resistant phenotype. This rather unexpected phenomenon has been repeatedly confirmed but the underlying cell and molecular mechanisms are still unknown. METHODS: We first replicated the reported system using the specified Dynal beads with PHA/IL-2-stimulated and un-stimulated cells as controls. Genome-wide expression and analysis were then performed by using Agilent whole genome microarrays and established bioinformatics tools. RESULTS: We showed that following CD3/CD28 co-stimulation, a homogeneous population emerged with uniform expression of activation markers CD25 and CD69 as well as a memory marker CD45RO at high levels. These cells differentially expressed 7,824 genes when compared with the controls on microarrays. Series-Cluster analysis identified 6 distinct expression profiles containing 1,345 genes as the representative signatures in the permissive and resistant cells. Of them, 245 (101 potentially permissive and 144 potentially resistant) were significant in gene ontology categories related to immune response, cell adhesion and metabolism. Co-expression networks analysis identified 137 “key regulatory” genes (84 potentially permissive and 53 potentially resistant), holding hub positions in the gene interactions. By mapping these genes on KEGG pathways, the predominance of actin cytoskeleton functions, proteasomes, and cell cycle arrest in induced resistance emerged. We also revealed an entire set of previously unreported novel genes for further mining and functional validation. CONCLUSIONS: This initial microarray study will stimulate renewed interest in exploring this system and open new avenues for research into HIV-1 susceptibility and its reversal in target cells, serving as a foundation for the development of novel therapeutic and clinical treatments

Istodobni dokaz i razlikovanje svinjskog cirkovirusa tip 2, virusa reprodukcijskog i respiratornog sindroma tip 2, parvovirusa i virusa bolesti Aujeszkoga višestrukom lančanom reakcijom polimerazom u odbijene prasadi sa sindromom kržljavosti.

A multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was designed for the simultaneous detection of four viruses involved in postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) in pigs: porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV-2), type 2 porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), porcine parvovirus (PPV) and pseudorabies virus (PRV). Each of the four pairs of primers exclusively amplified the targeted fragment of the specific viruses. The sensitivity of the multiplex PCR, using purified plasmid constructs containing the specific viral target fragments, was 4.0×103, 4.5×103, 3.0×102 and 5.0×102 copies for PCV-2, type 2 PRRSV, PPV, PRV. Among 82 clinical samples, coinfection by PCV-2 and type 2 PRRSV was the most common. When compared with the virus isolation method commonly used to detect viruses, the multiplex PCR assay was found to be more sensitive and rapid and, as such, may prove to be a good alternative method for the detection of and differentiation in PMWS in pigs.Višestruka lančana reakcija polimerazom (PCR) razvijena je za istodobni dokaz četiriju virusa koji se nalaze kod sindroma kržljavosti odbijene prasadi: svinjskog cirkovirusa tip 2, virusa reprodukcijskog i respiratornog sindroma tip 2, parvovirusa i virusa bolesti Aujeszkoga. Svaki od četiri para početnica bio je specifičan isključivo za umnožavanje specifičnog fragmenta određenog virusa. Osjetljivost višestrukog PCR-a upotrebom pročišćenih konstrukata plazmida koji sadrže specifične virusne fragmente bila je na razini 4,0×103 kopija za svinjski cirkovirus tip 2, 4,5×103 kopija za virus reprodukcijskog i respiratornog sindroma, 3,0×102 za svinjski parvovirus i 5,0×102 kopija za virus bolesti Aujeszkoga. Među 82 klinička uzorka često je dokazana koinfekcija svinjskim cirkovirusom tip 2 i virusom respiratornog i reprodukcijskog sindroma. U usporedbi s izolacijom virusa, višestruka lančana reakcija polimerazom pokazala se osjetljivijom i bržom te se kao takva može rabiti kao alternativna metoda za dokaz i razlikovanje uzročnika sindroma kržljavosti prasadi