Holography: a behavior‐based profiler for malware analysis

Behavior‐based detection and signature‐based detection are two popular approaches to malware (malicious software) analysis. The security industry, such as the sector selling antivirus tools, has been using signature and heuristic‐based technologies for years. However, this approach has been proven to be inefficient in identifying unknown malware strains. On the other hand, the behavior‐based malware detection approach has a greater potential in identifying previously unknown instances of malicious software. The accuracy of this approach relies on techniques to profile and recognize accurate behavior models. Unfortunately, with the increasing complexity of malicious software and limitations of existing automatic tools, the current behavior‐based approach cannot discover many newer forms of malware either. In this paper, we implement ‘holography platform’, a behavior‐based profiler on top of a virtual machine emulator that intercepts the system processes and analyzes the CPU instructions, CPU registers, and memory. The captured information is stored in a relational database, and data mining techniques are used to extract information. We demonstrate the breadth of the ‘holography platform’ by conducting two experiments: a packed binary behavior analysis and a malvertising (malicious advertising) incident tracing. Both tasks are known to be very difficult to do efficiently using existing methods and tools. We demonstrate how the precise behavior information can be easily obtained using the ‘holography platform’ tool. With these two experiments, we show that the ‘holography platform’ can provide security researchers and automatic malware detection systems with an efficient malicious software behavior analysis solution. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A novel compact self‐similar fractal UWB MIMO antenna

A novel compact self‐similar fractal ultra‐wideband (UWB) multiple‐input‐multiple‐output (MIMO) antenna is presented. This fractal geometry is designed by using iterated function system (IFS). Self‐similar fractal geometry is used here to achieve miniaturization and wideband performance. The self‐similarity dimension of proposed fractal geometry is 1.79, which is a fractional dimension. The antenna consists of two novel self‐similar fractal monopole‐antenna elements and their metallic area is minimized by 29.68% at second iteration. A ground stub of T‐shape with vertical slot enhances isolation and impedance bandwidth of proposed MIMO antenna. This antenna has a compact dimension of 24 × 32 mm² and impedance bandwidth (S₁₁ < ?10 dB) of 9.4 GHz ranging from 3.1 to 12.5 GHz with an isolation better than 16 dB. The various diversity performance parameters are also determined. There is good agreement between measured and simulated results, which confirms that the proposed antenna is acceptable for UWB applications.     

Fabrication of anti‐reflection coatings on plastics using the spraying layer‐by‐layer self‐assembly technique

Abstract— Anti‐reflection (AR) coatings on plastic substrates have been extensively investigated with the development of large‐area LCD and LED displays. A robust AR coating on plastics requires strong adhesion to the substrate, precise thickness and refractive index, and abrasion resistance. In this paper, abrasion‐resistant AR coatings were fabricated on polycarbonate substrates using the layer‐by‐layer spraying deposition of poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) and silica nanoparticles. The adhesion between the substrates and coatings was enhanced by treating the polycarbonate surfaces with aminopropyltrimethoxylsilane (APTS). The porous low‐refractive‐index PAH/silica‐nanoparticles multilayers were constructed by the layer‐by‐layer spraying of PAH and silica‐nanoparticles aqueous solutions onto the functionalized substrates. The subsequent treatment of the porous coatings with tetrahydroxylsilane leads to stable abrasion‐resistant AR coatings. The resultant AR coatings can reduce the reflection from 5 to 0.3%. The reported technique provides a cost‐effective method for large‐scale production of AR coatings on plastic substrates.     

A new anti‐windup strategy for PID controllers with derivative filters

This paper presents a new strategy for suppressing the windup effect caused by actuator saturation in proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controlled systems. In the proposed approach, the windup effect is modeled as an external disturbance imported to the PID controller and an observer‐based auxiliary controller is designed to minimize the difference between the controller output signal and the system input signal in accordance with an H‐infinite optimization criterion. It is shown that the proposed anti‐windup (AW) scheme renders the performance of the controlled system more robust toward the effects of windup than conventional PID AW schemes and provides a better noise rejection capability. In addition, the proposed PID AW scheme is system independent and is an explicit function of the parameters of the original PID controller. As a result, the controller is easily implemented using either digital or analog circuits and facilitates a rapid, on‐line tuning of the controller parameters as required in order to prevent the windup effect. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society     

MarCHGen: A framework for generating a malware concept hierarchy

Automatic classification of virus instances into a concept hierarchy has been attracting much attention from malware research community. However, it is definitely not a trivial work, because malwares usually come in binary forms whose actions are complicated and obfuscated. Therefore, the typical data mining approaches based on feature extraction are not easily applied. In this paper, we tackle this problem by introducing a framework known as MarCHGen (Malware Concept Hierarchy Generation). In this framework, we first apply virus logical concept analysis, which incorporates formal concept analysis with temporal logic to capture malware behaviours and generalize a virus concept lattice accordingly. Second, we propose an on‐the‐fly conceptual clustering technique to generate a malware concept hierarchy. In the MarCHGen framework, the malware concept hierarchy will be monitored by the prelarge data set management technique to avoid reclustering several times unnecessarily. Our approach has been applied in a real data set of virus, and promising experimental results have been acquired.     

A compact substrate integrated waveguide backed self‐quadruplexing antenna for C‐band communication

This article presents a simple, compact, and lightweight substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) backed self‐quadruplexing antenna for quad‐band applications. The design procedure is straightforward. Topside of the SIW cavity is modified to form four patches of different lengths which are fed separately by four 50‐Ω microstrip feed lines and operate at 5.14, 5.78, 6.74, and 7.74. It attains 4.1, 4.96, 6.2, and 6.1 peak gain at the above frequencies, respectively. The observed front‐to‐back‐ratio is more than 17.5 dB and the isolation level is above 28 dB. This antenna topology allows to redesign each resonant frequencies as per application requirement using a single parameter and without disturbing other performances. Design guidelines for developing the proposed antenna are provided. A prototype antenna is fabricated using RT‐Duroid (5870) substrate and characterized for validation. The proposed antenna is suitable for handheld microwave devices for C‐band communication.     

Dynamic anti‐windup design in anticipation of actuator saturation

In a traditional anti‐windup design, the anti‐windup mechanism is set to be activated as soon as the control signal saturates the actuator. A recent innovation of delaying the activation of the anti‐windup mechanism, both static and dynamic, until the saturation reaches a certain level of severity has led to a performance improvement of the resulting closed‐loop system. It has been shown that significant further performance improvements can be obtained by activating a static anti‐windup mechanism in anticipation of actuator saturation, instead of immediate or delayed activation. This paper demonstrates that anticipatory activation of a dynamic anti‐windup mechanism would also lead to significant performance improvements over both the immediate and delayed activation schemes.Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamic anti‐windup method for a class of time‐delay control systems with input saturation

An anti‐windup‐based approach is newly attempted to deal with time‐delay control systems with input saturation. Following the anti‐windup paradigm, we assume that controllers have been designed beforehand for time‐delay control systems based on existing design techniques which will show desirable performance. Then, an additional compensator is designed to provide graceful performance degradation under control input saturation. By taking the difference of controller states in the absence and presence of input saturation as a performance index, a dynamic compensator which minimizes it is derived. The resulting anti‐windup compensator is expressed in plant and controller parameters. The proposed method not only provides graceful performance degradation, but also guarantees the stability of the overall systems. Illustrative examples are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed method. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A values‐driven self‐organization mechanism for automating multiagent coordination

In distributed and open environments, MASs (multiagent systems) generally have no mechanisms for prior coordination and self‐organization has been believed to be the necessary selection to achieve the coordination of agents. This paper first presents a values‐driven model for self‐organization in which the expected emergent properties of a system are specified as the social values while the social values are realized via implicitly inducing members to regulate their individual values and adjust their behaviors to fit the expectations of the system. Based on the values‐driven self‐organization, this paper proposes an automated coordination mechanism for decentralized MASs. In this mechanism, by indirectly changing the difficulties in acquiring resources (which may be delegated to some special agents since MASs generally do not have substantial bodies), MASs can lead agents to regulate their values to be consistent with the social values of MASs so that the coordination of MASs can spontaneously emerge from the local behaviors of agents. Finally, this paper implements a simulation traffic system using the coordination mechanism based on values‐driven self‐organization to validate the emergence of coordination among multiple agents.     

Dual‐band quasi‐self‐complementary antenna for wireless local network operation

This article proposes a compact (6 × 21 × 0.4 mm³) antenna with dual‐band operation that satisfies the wireless local area network. To achieve optimal impedance matching for the lower and upper operating bands, the proposed antenna structure is designed as a quasi‐self‐complementary (QSC) type, in which the lower (2.4 GHz) operating band is excited through the loop‐like structure of the proposed antenna, whereas its self‐complementary counterpart (rectangular patch structure) induces the upper (5.2/5.8 GHz) operating band. Further investigation was also conducted by printing the proposed QSC antenna onto a flexible substrate of 0.063 mm in thickness. To cover both operating bands, the proposed flexible antenna was restructured to 20.5 × 8 mm². The design and initial characteristics of the two proposed antennas were discussed in detail via simulation, and the experimental results showed satisfactory performance of both operating bands. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:298–305, 2014.     

Dynamic anti‐windup compensator for fractional‐order system with time‐delay

This paper describes the results of introducing an additional dynamic element to an anti‐windup compensator from control quality and stability area anslysis viewpoint. The analyzed system consists of a first‐order plant with time delay and a fractional‐order PI controller, to present the discussed approach. The controller is tuned based on Hermite‐Biehler and Pontryagin theorems. In the paper, the stability analysis and tracking performance are presented based on both simulation and experimental results. The experiments have been performed using Inteco Modular Servo System with performance evaluated on the basis of the selected performance criterion, namely the Integral of Absolute Error, to verify the applicability of the proposed method. The results have proven that use of the additional dynamic element provides a wider range of controller parameters to ensure stability of the closed‐loop system and better tracking performance in comparison to the system without anti‐windup compensation or system with a standard anti‐windup compensator. It is actually the first time that this type of analysis for dynamic element compensation in anti‐windup framework has been presented for fractional‐order systems. In addition, all the obtained results are referred to the experimental data.     

Modified dynamic anti‐windup through deferral of activation

We consider the dynamic anti‐windup design problem for linear systems with saturating actuators. The basic idea proposed here is to apply anti‐windup only when the performance of saturated system faces substantial degradation. We provide synthesis LMIs to obtain the gains of the dynamic anti‐windup compensator in a structure that delays the activation of the anti‐windup. Benefits of the proposed design method over the immediate activation of the anti‐windup are demonstrated using a well‐known example. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A fuzzy self‐organizing map algorithm for biological pattern recognition

Data clustering is a key task for various processes including sequence analysis and pattern recognition. This paper studies a clustering algorithm that aimed to increase accuracy and sensitivity when working with biological data such as DNA sequences. The new algorithm is a modified version of fuzzy C‐means (FCM) and is based on the well‐known self‐organizing map (SOM). In order to show the performance of the algorithm, seven different data sets are processed. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has the potential to outperform SOM and FCM in terms of clustering and classification accuracy abilities. Additionally, a brief comparison is made the proposed algorithm with some previously studied ‘FCM‐SOM’ hybrid algorithms from the literature.     

A study on spot distortion for an in‐line self‐converging system for color CRTs

Abstract— The spot distortion at the screen periphery of an in‐line self‐converging CRT is formulated by considering four factors; (a) oblique incidence of the beam at the screen periphery, (b) increased path length of the beam, (c) beam compression due to the deflection, and (d) the astigmatism due to the deflection field. The analytic spot size calculated with the formulas agrees well with measurement, though the effects of a particular gun system, spherical aberration, and space‐charge repulsion are not taken into consideration in the formulas while assuming an ideal deflection field. The analytic formulas enable easy evaluation of spot distortion at the screen periphery because they give an intuitive understanding of beam behavior in the in‐line self‐converging system. In addition to the derivation of the formulas, “transposed scanning” is analyzed with the use of the formulas for one of the ways to optimize the spot distortion at the screen periphery.     

A novel substrate integrated waveguide cavity‐backed self‐diplexing antenna array with frequency beam scanning characteristic

This article presented a substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) cavity‐backed self‐diplexing antenna array with frequency beam scanning characteristic. The proposed array consists of 16 SIW cavity‐backed slot antennas. The SIW cavity‐backed slot antenna can be fed by two separate ports to resonate at two different frequencies and achieve high isolation better than 20 dB between two input ports. The proposed element is a typical self‐diplexing antenna. These cavity‐backed slot antennas are shunt‐fed by a compact 1 to 16 SIW power divider and series‐fed by a set of microstrip lines, respectively. As a result, this array achieves an unidirectional radiation pattern at 10.2 GHz with high gain of 15.10 dBi, and a frequency beam scanning characteristic from 7.0 to 9.0 GHz ranging from ?50° to 46°.     

Individual learning goal orientations in self‐managed team‐based organizations: A study on individual and contextual variables

Previous research has shown the importance of individual learning goal orientation for both job and task performance and consequently organizational performance. Despite its importance, knowledge on the antecedents of learning goal orientation remains scarce, especially in the context of self‐managing team‐based organizations. In fact, most of the research on goal orientation antecedents has been focused on individual characteristics, belief, and ability, while the contextual factors that might influence them remain unspecified. We build on and further extend earlier studies by jointly exploring the role of individual and contextual factors affecting individual learning orientation. In particular, this study combines individual informal social network, self‐efficacy, performance feedbacks, and team identification into a model that explains individuals' learning goal orientation within self‐managing team‐based organizations. The model was empirically tested on a sample of 104 individuals belonging to an R&D organization relying on self‐managing teams. Results show that performance feedback has a negative direct effect, while team identification has a positive direct effect on individual learning goal orientation. In addition, we found that individual self‐efficacy is a mediator of the relationships between performance feedback and brokerage in the advice network and individual learning goal orientation. Finally, we did not find a relationship between centrality in the friendship network and individual learning goal orientation.     

Ultrawideband high‐gain dual‐polarized antenna with anti‐interference capability

In this article, a high‐gain dual‐polarized antenna with band‐rejection capability for ultrawideband (UWB) applications is proposed. Tapered dipoles are chosen as a primary radiator to achieve UWB operation and it is reflected by a metallic cavity reflector for high gain radiation. A notch at WLAN band is realized by etching a set of four bent slots in the radiating elements. The measured results demonstrate that the proposed design with overall dimensions of 0.69λ _L × 0.69λ _L × 0.16λ _L (λ _L is free‐space wavelength at the lowest operating frequency) has operating bandwidth of 95.1% (3.2‐9.0 GHz) and the rejected frequency band from 5.0 to 5.9 GHz. Additionally, good unidirectional radiation patterns with a broadside gain from 8.1 to 11.5 dBi and radiation efficiency of better than 90% are also achieved.     

一种基于预警信息的漏洞自动化快速防护方法

针对当前Web应用防护方法无法有效应对未知漏洞攻击、性能损耗高、响应速度慢的问题,本文从漏洞预警公告中快速提取漏洞影响范围和细节,然后对目标系统存在风险的访问请求与缺陷文件和函数调用关系进行自动化定位,构建正常访问模型,从而形成动态可信验证机制,提出并实现了基于预警信息的漏洞自动化快速防护方法,最后以流行PHP Web应用的多个高危漏洞对本文方法进行验证测试,结果表明本文方法能够自动化快速成功阻止最新漏洞攻击,平均性能损耗仅为5.31%。     

A survey of self‐healing systems frameworks

Rising complexity within multi‐tier computing architectures remains an open problem. As complexity increases, so do the costs associated with operating and maintaining systems within these environments. One approach for addressing these problems is to build self‐healing systems (i.e. frameworks) that can autonomously detect and recover from faulty states. Self‐healing systems often combine machine learning techniques with closed control loops to reduce the number of situations requiring human intervention. This is particularly useful in situations where human involvement is both costly to develop, and a source of potential faults. Therefore, a survey of self‐healing frameworks and methodologies in multi‐tier architectures is provided to the reader. Uniquely, this study combines an overview of the state of the art with a comparative analysis of the computing environment, degree of behavioural autonomy, and organisational requirements of these approaches. Highlighting these aspects provides for an understanding of the different situational benefits of these self‐healing systems. We conclude with a discussion of potential and current research directions within this field. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Intelligent self‐adaptive resources selection for grid applications

Grid computing is considered a promising trend, which enables the sharing of a wide variety of computational and storage resources geographically distributed. Despite the advantages of such paradigm, several problems have emerged during the last decade; most of them caused by an inefficient utilization of grid resources. The present contribution proposes an approach to improve the grid resources selection process. An optimization model for choosing grid resources in an intelligent way has been designed. A mathematical formulation to monitor the resources efficiency has also been established. Furthermore, the model provides a self‐adaptive capability to grid applications, enhancing them for dealing with the changing environmental conditions. The model applies an artificial intelligence algorithm for ensuring an efficient selection. In particular, three different versions have been implemented. Each of them uses a different algorithm. Finally, during the evaluation phase of the model, the experimental tests were performed in a real grid infrastructure. The results show that the model improves the infrastructure throughput, by increasing the finished tasks rate and by reducing the applications execution time. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.