Privacy Preserving Internet Browsers: Forensic Analysis of Browzar

With the advance of technology, Criminal Justice agencies are being confronted with an increased need to investigate crimes perpetuated partially or entirely over the Internet. These types of crime are known as cybercrimes. In order to conceal illegal online activity, criminals often use private browsing features or browsers designed to provide total browsing privacy. The use of private browsing is a common challenge faced in for example child exploitation investigations, which usually originate on the Internet. Although private browsing features are not designed specifically for criminal activity, they have become a valuable tool for criminals looking to conceal their online activity. As such, Technological Crime units often focus their forensic analysis on thoroughly examining the web history on a computer. Private browsing features and browsers often require a more in-depth, post mortem analysis. This often requires the use of multiple tools, as well as different forensic approaches to uncover incriminating evidence. This evidence may be required in a court of law, where analysts are often challenged both on their findings and on the tools and approaches used to recover evidence. However, there are very few research on evaluating of private browsing in terms of privacy preserving as well as forensic acquisition and analysis of privacy preserving internet browsers. Therefore in this chapter, we firstly review the private mode of popular internet browsers. Next, we describe the forensic acquisition and analysis of Browzar, a privacy preserving internet browser and compare it with other popular internet browser

Vulnerability analysis of satellite-based synchronized smart grids monitoring systems

The large-scale deployment of wide-area monitoring systems could play a strategic role in supporting the evolution of traditional power systems toward smarter and self-healing grids. The correct operation of these synchronized monitoring systems requires a common and accurate timing reference usually provided by a satellite-based global positioning system. Although these satellites signals provide timing accuracy that easily exceeds the needs of the power industry, they are extremely vulnerable to radio frequency interference. Consequently, a comprehensive analysis aimed at identifying their potential vulnerabilities is of paramount importance for correct and safe wide-area monitoring system operation. Armed with such a vision, this article presents and discusses the results of an experimental analysis aimed at characterizing the vulnerability of global positioning system based wide-area monitoring systems to external interferences. The article outlines the potential strategies that could be adopted to protect global positioning system receivers from external cyber-attacks and proposes decentralized defense strategies based on self-organizing sensor networks aimed at assuring correct time synchronization in the presence of external attacks

An alkali catalyzed trans-esterification of rice bran, cottonseed and waste cooking oil

In this research work, biodiesel production by trans-esterification of three raw materials including virgin and used edible oil and non edible oil has been presented. A two step method following acidic and alkali catalyst was used for non edible oil due to the unsuitability of using the straight alkaline-catalyzed trans-esterification of high FFA present in rice bran oil. The acid value after processing for rice bran, cottonseed and waste cooking oil was found to be 0.95, 0.12 and 0.87 respectively. The influence of three variables on percentage yield i.e., methanol to oil molar ratio, reaction temperature and reaction time were studied at this stage. Cottonseed oil, waste cooking oil and rice bran oil showed a maximum yield of 91.7%, 84.1% and 87.1% under optimum conditions. Fuel properties of the three biodiesel satisfied standard biodiesel fuel results

Effect of poly(ethylene glycol) on insulin stability and cutaneous cell proliferation in vitro following cytoplasmic delivery of insulin-loaded nanoparticulate carriers – A potential topical wound management approach

We describe the development of a nanoparticulate system, with variation of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) content, capable of releasing therapeutic levels of bioactive insulin for extended periods of time. Recombinant human insulin was encapsulated in poly(d,l-lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles, manufactured with variation in poly(ethylene glycol) content, and shown to be stable for 6days using SDS-PAGE, western blot and MALDI MS. To determine if insulin released from this sustained release matrix could stimulate migration of cell types normally active in dermal repair, a model wound was simulated by scratching confluent cultures of human keratinocytes (HaCaT) and fibroblasts (Hs27). Although free insulin was shown to have proliferative effect, closure of in vitro scratch fissures was significantly faster following administration of nano-encapsulated insulin. This effect was more pronounced in HaCaT cells when compared to Hs27 cells. Variation in PEG content had the greatest effect on NP size, with a lesser influence on scratch closure times. Our work supports a particulate uptake mechanism that provides for intracellular insulin delivery, leading to enhanced cell proliferation. When placed into an appropriate topical delivery vehicle, such as a hydrogel, the extended and sustained topical administration of active insulin delivered from a nanoparticulate vehicle shows promise in promoting tissue healing

Role Of Variant Sialylation In Regulating Tumor Cell Behavior

Many different tumors have been documented to have elevated levels of the enzyme ST6Gal I, a Golgi glycosyltransferase that adds α2-6 sialic acids to glycoproteins. Concurrently, upregulated ST6Gal I is associated with metastasis and poor patient prognosis. We initially showed that HD3 colonocytes made to express oncogenic-ras, a common mutation in colon carcinoma, have increased expression of ST6Gal I and elevated α2-6 sialylated integrins. Having established that ras regulates ST6Gal I expression in colon epithelial cells, we found that colonocytes carrying hyper α2-6 sialylated β1 integrins exhibit increased adhesion to and migration toward collagen I. Further, we found that β1 integrins in human colon adenocarcinoma samples consistently carry higher levels of α2-6 sialic acids. These results led us to hypothesize that hypersialylated β1 integrins may have a role in augmenting tumor progression by affecting cell adhesion and motility. To determine whether the effects of oncogenic ras on cell behavior were mediated via upregulated ST6Gal I and consequent hypersialylation of β1 integrins, we individually manipulated ras and ST6Gal I levels in HD3 colonocytes. These cells were engineered to express oncogenic ras with high and low ST6Gal I levels. Initially we confirmed that shRNA mediated dowregulation of ST6Gal I in HD3 cells having oncogenic-ras intact leads to decreased α2-6 sialylation of β1 integrins. We found that cells with diminished integrin sialylation show decreased in vitro invasiveness and impaired binding to and migration toward collagen I, as compared iii with oncogenic-ras expressing HD3 cells that have high ST6Gal I. We also found that ST6Gal I can protect against apoptosis. Specifically, while downregulating ST6Gal I in HD3 cells restored the sensitivity to apoptotic stimuli, forced ST6Gal I expression in SW48 cells actually protected cells from entering the apoptotic cascade. This finding, to our knowledge, represents a novel function attributable to ST6Gal I. Taken together, results presented in this dissertation establish that altered sialylation of surface glycoprotein receptors in general, and β1 integrins in particular, plays a direct role in regulating tumor cell behavior

Stock Market Returns and Direction Prediction: An Empirical Study on Karachi Stock Exchange

There has been much research in the recent past on the predictability of stock return, mainly due to its significance in managing economic gains on a high scale. Our research initiates the forecasting of the Karachi stock return with the help of the Wavelet analysis and Empirical mode decomposition method. This paper attends in large part to investors and traders to deduce a method for predicting the stock market. The collected data ranges from Jan 2009 to Dec 2012. Every training set is selected from January through October and the sets left over are used for testing. What we have discovered is that Empirical Mode decomposition (EMD) method supersedes all other models on the Mean square error and Mean Absolute error criteria. We may also evaluate the performance of these models by changing strategy direction and comparing payoffs to understand which framework performs as a better forecasting model. It is establishes by the results of the study that the same model serves better for forecasting in trading strategy and could rule over other possible models for most periods under consideration. It is our belief that this study will help stock investors to come to quick decisions about optimal buying or selling time in Karachi Stock Exchange Key Words: Forecasting, KSE (Karachi Stock Exchange) 100 Index, Empirical Mode Decomposition, Trading Strateg