MMALE—A Methodology for Malware Analysis in Linux Environments

In a computer environment, an operating system is prone to malware, and even the Linux operating system is not an exception. In recent years, malware has evolved, and attackers have become more qualified compared to a few years ago. Furthermore, Linux-based systems have become more attractive to cybercriminals because of the increasing use of the Linux operating system in web servers and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Windows is the most employed OS, so most of the research efforts have been focused on its malware protection rather than on other operating systems. As a result, hundreds of research articles, documents, and methodologies dedicated to malware analysis have been reported. However, there has not been much literature concerning Linux security and protection from malware. To address all these new challenges, it is necessary to develop a methodology that can standardize the required steps to perform the malware analysis in depth. A systematic analysis process makes the difference between good and ordinary malware analyses. Additionally, a deep malware comprehension can yield a faster and much more efficient malware eradication. In order to address all mentioned challenges, this article proposed a methodology for malware analysis in the Linux operating system, which is a traditionally overlooked field compared to the other operating systems. The proposed methodology is tested by a specific Linux malware, and the obtained test results have high effectiveness in malware detection.     

Virtual center for renal support: technological approach to patient physiological image

The patient physiological image (PPI) is a novel concept which manages the knowledge of the virtual center for renal support (VCRS), currently being developed by the Biomedical Engineering Group of the University of Seville. PPI is a virtual "replica" of the patient, built by means of a mathematical model, which represents several physiological subsystems of a renal patient. From a technical point of view, PPI is a component-oriented software module based on cutting-edge modeling and simulation technology. This paper provides a methodological and technological approach to the PPI. Computational architecture of PPI-based VCRS is also described. This is a multi-tier and multi-protocol system. Data are managed by several ORDBMS instances. Communications design is based on the virtual private network (VPN) concept. Renal patients have a minimum reliable access to the VCRS through a public switch telephone network--X.25 gateway. Design complies with the universal access requirement, allowing an efficient and inexpensive connection even in rural environments and reducing computational requirements in the patient's remote access unit. VCRS provides support for renal patients' healthcare, increasing the quality and quantity of monitored biomedical signals, predicting events as hypotension or low dialysis dose, assisting further to avoid them by an online therapy modification and easing diagnostic tasks. An online therapy adjustment experiment simulation is presented. Finally, the presented system serves as a computational aid for research in renal physiology. This is achieved by an open and reusable modeling and simulation architecture which allows the interaction among models and data from different scales and computer platforms, and a faster transference of investigation models toward clinical applications.     

Propagation of measurement noise through backprojection reconstruction in electrical impedance tomography

A framework to analyze the propagation of measurement noise through backprojection reconstruction algorithms in electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is presented. Two measurement noise sources were considered: noise in the current drivers and in the voltage detectors. The influence of the acquisition system architecture (serial/semi-parallel) is also discussed. Three variants of backprojection reconstruction are studied: basic (unweighted), weighted and exponential backprojection. The results of error propagation theory have been compared with those obtained from simulated and experimental data. This comparison shows that the approach provides a good estimate of the reconstruction error variance. It is argued that the reconstruction error in EIT images obtained via backprojection can be approximately modeled as a spatially nonstationary Gaussian distribution. This methodology allows us to develop a spatial characterization of the reconstruction error in EIT images.     

Enantiomer separation by countercurrent chromatography using cinchona alkaloid derivatives as chiral selectors

Cinchona-derived anion-exchange-type chiral selectors have been adapted and employed in countercurrent chromatography (CCC) for the separation of enantiomers of N-derivatized amino acids and 2-aryloxypropionic acids. The accurate optimization of the enantioseparation in terms of solvent system composition, pH values, ionic strength, and CCC operating conditions was performed. A wide range of solvent mixtures was evaluated. Successful resolutions were achieved in systems such as ammonium acetate buffer/tert-amyl alcohol/methanol/heptane and especially ammonium acetate buffer/methyl isobutyl ketone or diisopropyl ether. Up to 300 mg (0.92 mmol) of N-(3,5-dinitrobenzoyl)-(+/-)-leucine was totally resolved in a single run using a 10 mM concentration of chiral selector in 122 mL of stationary phase. This amount could be increased up to 900 mg (2.77 mmol) when pH-zone-refining mode was applied. The results here presented account for the high potential of CCC as a preparative enantiomer separation technique.     

Detection of objects composed of several regions by a region-configuration-estimation method

The task of detection of objects composed of several regions by means of statistical filters is analyzed. The target is assumed to have different unknown mean values in each of its regions. The detection is based on likelihood estimation, after performing an estimation of the actual configuration of the mean values in the target region. A simplified filter that reduces the computational complexity is also proposed. The statistical performance is analyzed theoretically and tested in computer experiments.     

Enhanced osteoinductive capacity and decreased variability by enrichment of demineralized bone matrix with a bone protein extract

Osteoinductive capacity of demineralized bone matrix (DBM) is sometimes insufficient or shows high variability between different batches of DBM. Here, we tried to improve its osteoinductive activity by alkali-urea or trypsin treatment but this strategy was unsuccessful. Then, we tested the enrichment of DBM with a bone protein extract (BPE) containing osteogenic growth factors comparing two sources: cortical bone powder and DBM. The osteoinductive capacity (alkaline phosphatase activity) of the obtained BPEs was evaluated in vitro in C2C12 cells. Specific protein levels present in the different BPE was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay or by a multiplex assay. BPE from cortical bone powder showed a lack of osteoinductive effect, in agreement with the low content on osteoinductive factors. In contrast, BPE from DBM showed osteoinductive activity but also high variability among donors. Thus, we decided to enrich DBM with BPE obtained from a pool of DBM from different donors. Following this strategy, we achieved increased osteoinductive activity and lower variability among donors. In conclusion, the use of a BPE obtained from a pool of demineralized bone to enrich DBM could be used to increase its osteoinductive effect and normalize the differences between donors.

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Drop Tower Setup to Study the Diffusion-driven Growth of a Foam Ball in Supersaturated Liquids in Microgravity Conditions

The diffusion-driven growth of a foam ball is a phenomenon that appears in many manufacturing process as well as in a variety of geological phenomena. Usually these processes are greatly affected by gravity, as foam is much lighter than the surrounding liquid. However, the growth of the foam free of gravity effects is still very relevant, as it is connected to manufacturing in space and to the formation of rocks in meteorites and other small celestial bodies. The aim of this research is to investigate experimentally the growth of a bubble cloud growing in a gas-supersaturated liquid in microgravity conditions. Here, we describe the experiments carried out in the drop tower of the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM). In few words, a foam seed is formed with spark-induced cavitation in carbonated water, whose time evolution is recorded with two high-speed cameras. Our preliminary results shed some light on how the size of the foam ball scales with time, in particular at times much longer than what could be studied in normal conditions, i.e. on the surface of the Earth, where the dynamics of the foam is already dominated by gravity after several milliseconds.     

Embedding Arabidopsis Plant Cell Suspensions in Low-Melting Agarose Facilitates Altered Gravity Studies

Gravity plays a role in modulating plant growth and development and its alteration induces changes in these processes. Microgravity research has recently been extended to the use of in vitro plant cell cultures which are considered as an ideal model system to study cell proliferation and growth. In general, among the ground-based facilities available for microgravity simulation, the 2D pipette clinostat had been previously considered a suitable facility to be used for unicellular biological models although studies using single plant cell cultures raised some concerns. The incompatibility comes from the standard requirement of shaking a suspension culture for assuring its viability and active proliferation status in the control samples. Moreover, a related issue applies to the use of the random positioning machine (RPM) for cell suspension experiments. Here, we demonstrate an alternative culture method based on the immobilization of the culture before the altered gravity treatment occurs, such that it behaves as a solid object. Our immobilization procedure preserved plant cell culture viability without compromising basic cell properties as viability, morphology, cell cycle phases distribution, or chromatin organization, when compared with a standard cell suspension under shaking as a control. This approach should allow the space biology community to improve the quantity and quality of plant cell results in future simulated microgravity experiments or spaceflight opportunities.