Ransomware: Evolution, Mitigation and Prevention

Ransomware is a rapidly growing threat to the data files of individuals and businesses. It encrypts files on an infected computer and holds the key to decrypt the files until the victim pays a ransom. This malware is responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars of losses annually. Due to the large amounts of money to be made, new versions appear frequently. This allows bypassing antivirus software and other intrusion detection methods. In this paper, we present a brief history of ransomware, the arguments for and against paying the ransom, best practices to prevent an infection, and to recover from an infection should one happen

Business Intelligence Technology, Applications, and Trends

Enterprises are considering substantial investment in Business Intelligence (BI) theories and technologies to maintain their competitive advantages. BI allows massive diverse data collected from virus sources to be transformed into useful information, allowing more effective and efficient production. This paper briefly and broadly explores the business intelligence technology, applications and trends while provides a few stimulating and innovate theories and practices. The authors also explore several contemporary studies related to the future of BI and surrounding fields

The effects of changing economic conditions on energy costs in zircaloy 4 clad pressurized water reactors : a report to East Central Nuclear Group

Includes bibliographical references (page 78

A generalized study of the breeding potential of large heavy water moderated power reactors fueled with thoria and urania

"January 1967.""MIT-2073-5."Also issued as a Ph. D. thesis by the first author and supervised by the second and third authors, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Nuclear Engineering, 1966Includes bibliographical references (pages 324-328)U.S. Atomic Energy Commission contract AT(30-1)-207

Green Zia Application Sandia National Laboratories' Neutron Generator Production Facility

The Green Zia Environmental Excellence Program is a voluntary program designed to support and assist all New Mexico businesses to achieve environmental excellence through continuous improvement and effective energy management. The program encourages integration of environmental excellence into business operations and management practices through the establishment of a prevention-based environmental management system. The Neutron Generator Production Facility has participated in the Green Zia Environmental Excellence Program for two years. This document is the submittal application for inclusion in the 2003 Green Zia program year

Potent and Broad Inhibition of HIV-1 by a Peptide from the gp41 Heptad Repeat-2 Domain Conjugated to the CXCR4 Amino Terminus.

HIV-1 entry can be inhibited by soluble peptides from the gp41 heptad repeat-2 (HR2) domain that interfere with formation of the 6-helix bundle during fusion. Inhibition has also been seen when these peptides are conjugated to anchoring molecules and over-expressed on the cell surface. We hypothesized that potent anti-HIV activity could be achieved if a 34 amino acid peptide from HR2 (C34) were brought to the site of virus-cell interactions by conjugation to the amino termini of HIV-1 coreceptors CCR5 or CXCR4. C34-conjugated coreceptors were expressed on the surface of T cell lines and primary CD4 T cells, retained the ability to mediate chemotaxis in response to cognate chemokines, and were highly resistant to HIV-1 utilization for entry. Notably, C34-conjugated CCR5 and CXCR4 each exhibited potent and broad inhibition of HIV-1 isolates from diverse clades irrespective of tropism (i.e., each could inhibit R5, X4 and dual-tropic isolates). This inhibition was highly specific and dependent on positioning of the peptide, as HIV-1 infection was poorly inhibited when C34 was conjugated to the amino terminus of CD4. C34-conjugated coreceptors could also inhibit HIV-1 isolates that were resistant to the soluble HR2 peptide inhibitor, enfuvirtide. When introduced into primary cells, CD4 T cells expressing C34-conjugated coreceptors exhibited physiologic responses to T cell activation while inhibiting diverse HIV-1 isolates, and cells containing C34-conjugated CXCR4 expanded during HIV-1 infection in vitro and in a humanized mouse model. Notably, the C34-conjugated peptide exerted greater HIV-1 inhibition when conjugated to CXCR4 than to CCR5. Thus, antiviral effects of HR2 peptides can be specifically directed to the site of viral entry where they provide potent and broad inhibition of HIV-1. This approach to engineer HIV-1 resistance in functional CD4 T cells may provide a novel cell-based therapeutic for controlling HIV infection in humans

Anatomy of a post-starburst minor merger: a multi-wavelength WFC3 study of NGC 4150

(Abridged) We present a spatially-resolved near-UV/optical study of NGC 4150, using the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on board the Hubble Space Telescope. Previous studies of this early-type galaxy (ETG) indicate that it has a large reservoir of molecular gas, exhibits a kinematically decoupled core (likely indication of recent merging) and strong, central H_B absorption (indicative of young stars). The core of NGC 4150 shows ubiquitous near-UV emission and remarkable dusty substructure. Our analysis shows this galaxy to lie in the near-UV green valley, and its pixel-by-pixel photometry exhibits a narrow range of near-UV/optical colours that are similar to those of nearby E+A (post-starburst) galaxies. We parametrise the properties of the recent star formation (age, mass fraction, metallicity and internal dust content) in the NGC 4150 pixels by comparing the observed near-UV/optical photometry to stellar models. The typical age of the recent star formation (RSF) is around 0.9 Gyrs, consistent with the similarity of the near-UV colours to post-starburst systems, while the morphological structure of the young component supports the proposed merger scenario. The RSF metallicity, representative of the metallicity of the gas fuelling star formation, is around 0.3 - 0.5 Zsun. Assuming that this galaxy is a merger and that the gas is sourced mainly from the infalling companion, these metallicities plausibly indicate the gas-phase metallicity (GPM) of the accreted satellite. Comparison to the local mass-GPM relation suggests (crudely) that the mass of the accreted system is around 3x10^8 Msun, making NGC 4150 a 1:20 minor merger. A summation of the pixel RSF mass fractions indicates that the RSF contributes about 2-3 percent of the stellar mass. This work reaffirms our hypothesis that minor mergers play a significant role in the evolution of ETGs at late epochs.Comment: 28 pages, 2 tables, accepted for publication in Ap