Moderate exercise may attenuate some aspects of immunosenescence

BACKGROUND: Immunosenescence is related to the deterioration of many immune functions, which may be manifested in increased susceptibility to infection, cancer, and autoimmunity. Lifestyle factors, such as diet or physical activity, may influence the senescence of the immune system. It is widely accepted that moderate physical activity may cause beneficial effects for physical and psychological health as well as for the immune system activity in aged people. METHODS: Thirty elderly women aged 62 to 86 were subjected to a two-years authorized physical activity program. Peripheral blood lymphocytes distribution and the production of cytokines involved in the immune response development and regulation (IL-2, IL-4 and IFN-γ) were investigated. The same parameters were evaluated in two control groups of women: a sedentary group of 12 elderly women selected for the second round of the physical activity program and in a group of 20 sedentary young women. Flow cytometry methods were used for the examination of surface markers on peripheral blood lymphocytes and intracellular cytokines expression. RESULTS: The distribution of the main lymphocytes subpopulations in the peripheral blood of elderly women did not show changes after long-term moderate physical training. The percentage of lymphocytes expressing intracellular IL-2 was higher in the group of women attending 2-years physical activity program than in the control group of elderly sedentary women, and it was similar to the value estimated in the group of young sedentary women. There was no difference in the intracellular expression of IL-4 and IFN-γ between the active and elderly sedentary women. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that moderate, long-term physical activity in elderly women may increase the production of IL-2, an important regulator of the immune response. This may help ameliorate immunosenescence in these women

Steganography Training : a Case Study from University of Shumen in Bulgaria

This paper summarizes the experience and the learning outcomes of students of the "Informatics" specialty at the Episkop Konstantin Preslavsky University of Shumen (Bulgaria) on the problems of computer and network security as a component of their professional training. It is a continuous process starting from the "Computer steganography" course and turning into diploma papers, masters programs, specializations and PhDs in computer and network steganography. The outcome of this training would be bachelors and masters theses, practical activities of experimentation of stego software and steganology in a parallel computing environment, joint scientific publications of lecturers and students

Network Steganography in the DNS Protocol

This paper presents possibility of using of the DNS (Domain Name System) protocol for creating a simplex communication channel between a malware-infected computer with a compromised DNS server. The proposed channel can be used to steal data or confidential enterprise information secretly

BentSign: keyed hash algorithm based on bent Boolean function and chaotic attractor

In this study, we propose a novel keyed hash algorithm based on a Boolean function and chaotic attractor. The hash algorithm called BentSign is based on two Signature attractors and XOR function and a bent Boolean function. The provided theoretical and experimental results confirm that the novel scheme can generate output hashes with a good level of security, collision resistance, and protection against most common attacks

Information hiding in communication networks: Fundamentals, mechanisms, applications, and countermeasures

Describes Information Hiding in communication networks, and highlights their important issues, challenges, trends, and applications. -Highlights development trends and potential future directions of Information Hiding -Introduces a new classification and taxonomy for modern data hiding techniques -Presents different types of network steganography mechanisms -Introduces several example applications of information hiding in communication networks including some recent covert communication techniques in popular Internet service