Global Stability of a Computer Virus Propagation Model with Two Kinds of Generic Nonlinear Probabilities

Vaccination is one of the most effective measures for suppressing the spread of computer virus, and the bilinear incidence rate assumption for the majority of previous models, which is a good first approximation of the general incidence rate, is in disagreement with the reality. In this paper, a new dynamical model with two kinds of generic nonlinear probabilities (incidence rate and vaccination probability) is established. An exhaustive mathematical analysis of this model shows that (a) there are two equilibria, virus-free equilibrium and viral equilibrium, and (b) the virus-free (or viral) equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable when the basic reproduction number is less (or greater) than unity. The analysis of the basic reproduction number is also included. Additionally, some numerical examples are given to illustrate the main results, from which it can be seen that the generic nonlinear vaccination is helpful to strengthen computer security

High expression of KNL1 in prostate adenocarcinoma is associated with poor prognosis and immune infiltration

Prostate adenocarcinoma (PRAD) is a common malignancy with increasing morbidity and mortality. Kinetochore scaffold 1 (KNL1) has been reported to be involved in tumor progression and prognosis in other tumors, but its role in PRAD has not been reported in detail. KNL1 expression analysis, clinicopathological parameters analysis, prognostic correlation analysis, molecular interaction network and functional abdominal muscle analysis and immune infiltration analysis by using multiple online databases and downloaded expression profile. The results suggest that KNL1 is highly expressed in PRAD, which is associated with worse prognosis in PRAD patients. KnL1-related genes are highly enriched in mitotic function, which is considered to be highly related to the development of cancer. Finally, KNL1 expression is associated with a variety of tumor infiltrating immune cells, especially Treg and Th2 cells. In conclusion, our findings provide preliminary evidence that KNL1 may be an independent prognostic predictor of PRAD and is associated with immune infiltration

State-based switching for optimal control of computer virus propagation with external device blocking

The rapid propagation of computer virus is one of the greatest threats to current cybersecurity. This work deals with the optimal control problem of virus propagation among computers and external devices. To formulate this problem, two control strategies are introduced: (a) external device blocking, which means prohibiting a fraction of connections between external devices and computers, and (b) computer reconstruction, which includes updating or reinstalling of some infected computers. Then the combination of both the impact of infection and the cost of controls is minimized. In contrast with previous works, this paper takes into account a state-based cost weight index in the objection function instead of a fixed one. By using Pontryagin\u27s minimum principle and a modified forward-backward difference approximation algorithm, the optimal solution of the system is investigated and numerically solved. Then numerical results show the flexibility of proposed approach compared to the regular optimal control. More numerical results are also given to evaluate the performance of our approach with respect to various weight indexes

Genetic variants in ELOVL2 and HSD17B12 predict melanoma‐specific survival

Fatty acids play a key role in cellular bioenergetics, membrane biosynthesis and intracellular signaling processes and thus may be involved in cancer development and progression. In the present study, we comprehensively assessed associations of 14,522 common single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 149 genes of the fatty‐acid synthesis pathway with cutaneous melanoma disease‐specific survival (CMSS). The dataset of 858 cutaneous melanoma (CM) patients from a published genome‐wide association study (GWAS) by The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center was used as the discovery dataset, and the identified significant SNPs were validated by a dataset of 409 CM patients from another GWAS from the Nurses’ Health and Health Professionals Follow‐up Studies. We found 40 noteworthy SNPs to be associated with CMSS in both discovery and validation datasets after multiple comparison correction by the false positive report probability method, because more than 85% of the SNPs were imputed. By performing functional prediction, linkage disequilibrium analysis, and stepwise Cox regression selection, we identified two independent SNPs of ELOVL2 rs3734398 T>C and HSD17B12 rs11037684 A>G that predicted CMSS, with an allelic hazards ratio of 0.66 (95% confidence interval = 0.51–0.84 and p = 8.34 × 10−4) and 2.29 (1.55–3.39 and p = 3.61 × 10−5), respectively. Finally, the ELOVL2 rs3734398 variant CC genotype was found to be associated with a significantly increased mRNA expression level. These SNPs may be potential markers for CM prognosis, if validated by additional larger and mechanistic studies