A framework for avoiding steganography usage over HTTP

Steganographic techniques allow users to covertly transmit information, hiding the existence of the communication itself. These can be used in several scenarios ranging from evading censorship to discreetly extracting sensitive information from an organization. In this paper, we consider the problem of using steganography through a widely used network protocol (i.e. HTTP). We analyze the steganographic possibilities of HTTP, and propose an active warden model to hinder the usage of covert communication channels. Our framework is meant to be useful in many scenarios. It could be employed to ensure that malicious insiders are not able to use steganography to leak information outside an organization. Furthermore, our model could be used by web servers administrators to ensure that their services are not being abused, for example, as anonymous steganographic mailboxes. Our experiments show that steganographic contents can be successfully eliminated, but that dealing with high payload carriers such as large images may introduce notable delays in the communication process.     

An efficient IP address lookup algorithm based on a small balanced tree using entry reduction

Due to a tremendous increase in internet traffic, backbone routers must have the capability to forward massive incoming packets at several gigabits per second. IP address lookup is one of the most challenging tasks for high-speed packet forwarding. Some high-end routers have been implemented with hardware parallelism using ternary content addressable memory (TCAM). However, TCAM is much more expensive in terms of circuit complexity as well as power consumption. Therefore, efficient algorithmic solutions are essentially required to be implemented using network processors as low cost solutions.Among the state-of-the-art algorithms for IP address lookup, a binary search based on a balanced tree is effective in providing a low-cost solution. In order to construct a balanced search tree, the prefixes with the nesting relationship should be converted into completely disjointed prefixes. A leaf-pushing technique is very useful to eliminate the nesting relationship among prefixes [V. Srinivasan, G. Varghese, Fast address lookups using controlled prefix expansion, ACM Transactions on Computer Systems 17 (1) (1999) 1-40]. However, it creates duplicate prefixes, thus expanding the search tree.This paper proposes an efficient IP address lookup algorithm based on a small balanced tree using entry reduction. The leaf-pushing technique is used for creating the completely disjointed entries. In the leaf-pushed prefixes, there are numerous pairs of adjacent prefixes with similarities in prefix strings and output ports. The number of entries can be significantly reduced by the use of a new entry reduction method which merges pairs with these similar prefixes. After sorting the reduced disjointed entries, a small balanced tree is constructed with a very small node size. Based on this small balanced tree, a native binary search can be effectively used in address lookup issue. In addition, we propose a new multi-way search algorithm to improve a binary search for IPv4 address lookup. As a result, the proposed algorithms offer excellent lookup performance along with reduced memory requirements. Besides, these provide good scalability for large amounts of routing data and for the address migration toward IPv6. Using both various IPv4 and IPv6 routing data, the performance evaluation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms have better performance in terms of lookup speed, memory requirement and scalability for the growth of entries and IPv6, as compared with other algorithms based on a binary search.     

The Importance of Therapeutically Targeting the Binary Toxin from Clostridioides difficile

Novel therapeutics are needed to treat pathologies associated with the Clostridioides difficile binary toxin (CDT), particularly when C. difficile infection (CDI) occurs in the elderly or in hospitalized patients having illnesses, in addition to CDI, such as cancer. While therapies are available to block toxicities associated with the large clostridial toxins (TcdA and TcdB) in this nosocomial disease, nothing is available yet to treat toxicities arising from strains of CDI having the binary toxin. Like other binary toxins, the active CDTa catalytic subunit of CDT is delivered into host cells together with an oligomeric assembly of CDTb subunits via host cell receptor-mediated endocytosis. Once CDT arrives in the host cell’s cytoplasm, CDTa catalyzes the ADP-ribosylation of G-actin leading to degradation of the cytoskeleton and rapid cell death. Although a detailed molecular mechanism for CDT entry and host cell toxicity is not yet fully established, structural and functional resemblances to other binary toxins are described. Additionally, unique conformational assemblies of individual CDT components are highlighted herein to refine our mechanistic understanding of this deadly toxin as is needed to develop effective new therapeutic strategies for treating some of the most hypervirulent and lethal strains of CDT-containing strains of CDI.     

双光子加工数据准备软件的研究*

双光子加工技术需要通过数据准备软件将CAD模型转换为加工数据.为此提出了三种进行双光子加工的数据准备方法,即STL处理、图片处理和线条处理;基于MFC的单文档/视图结构框架开发了软件.应用实例表明,该软件界面友好、运行可靠.     

参激随机共振及纠错码技术的应用

为了有效地降低数字信号传输过程中的比特误码率,提出了纠错编码与参数调节随机共振技术的结合.在经过噪声污染后,依据参数调节随机共振技术的性质,给出通过系统参数调节的二进制脉冲幅值调制（PAM）输入信号的渐近误码率公式,应用纠错码技术采用中间值估计的方法得到修正的比特误码率.数字仿真试验证实,理论计算结果与试验结果相吻合,纠错码技术与参激随机共振技术的结合应用于二进制基带信号传输,可以降低误码率,从而可以得到更好的效果,提高通信的可靠性和有效性.     

The Effects of Insulin-Like Growth Factor I and BTP-2 on Acute Lung Injury

Acute lung injury (ALI) afflicts approximately 200,000 patients annually and has a 40% mortality rate. The COVID-19 pandemic has massively increased the rate of ALI incidence. The pathogenesis of ALI involves tissue damage from invading microbes and, in severe cases, the overexpression of inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β). This study aimed to develop a therapy to normalize the excess production of inflammatory cytokines and promote tissue repair in the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ALI. Based on our previous studies, we tested the insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) and BTP-2 therapies. IGF-I was selected, because we and others have shown that elevated inflammatory cytokines suppress the expression of growth hormone receptors in the liver, leading to a decrease in the circulating IGF-I. IGF-I is a growth factor that increases vascular protection, enhances tissue repair, and decreases pro-inflammatory cytokines. It is also required to produce anti-inflammatory 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D. BTP-2, an inhibitor of cytosolic calcium, was used to suppress the LPS-induced increase in cytosolic calcium, which otherwise leads to an increase in proinflammatory cytokines. We showed that LPS increased the expression of the primary inflammatory mediators such as toll like receptor-4 (TLR-4), IL-1β, interleukin-17 (IL-17), TNF-α, and interferon-γ (IFN-γ), which were normalized by the IGF-I + BTP-2 dual therapy in the lungs, along with improved vascular gene expression markers. The histologic lung injury score was markedly elevated by LPS and reduced to normal by the combination therapy. In conclusion, the LPS-induced increases in inflammatory cytokines, vascular injuries, and lung injuries were all improved by IGF-I + BTP-2 combination therapy.     

二元Al-Li合金的沉淀反应SCIEI

本文通过对两种成分的二元Al-Li合金的硬度测量,DSC分析和TEM观察,研究了其沉淀过程。实验结果表明,在恒定时间时效,合金硬度与温度的关系曲线上在低温范围内有一峰值出现;在DSC曲线低温处有明显的回溶吸热峰,因此该合金低温时效有预沉淀(富Li GP区)形成。在较高温度时效,GP区不复存在;随着δ′相颗粒长大,合金硬度很快增加;DSC曲线上有两个δ′相回溶峰,它意味着δ′析出需有两次结构调整。平衡δ相借助晶界直接从过饱和固溶体中形核长大,其热稳定性较好。     

二元混合氯化盐的配制及热物性研究

在太阳能热发电技术中,硝酸盐类相变材料是使用最多的一种相变材料,但其最高使用温度仅为600 ℃,因此找到一种热容量大、工作温度范围宽、热损失低、价格便宜的相变储热材料是目前的研究重点。选取氯化锂和氯化钠两种高温熔盐相变材料按照不同的质量比混合制备了9种二元熔盐混合物,利用差式扫描量热仪（DSC）对其在600 ℃范围内的相变温度和相变潜热进行了研究。实验结果显示：由于氯化钠的熔点较高,当氯化锂和氯化钠的二元混合物中氯化钠的含量较多时,即氯化锂的含量较少时,少量的氯化锂不能将混合物的熔点降低至600 ℃以下,混合材料无法熔化;当氯化钠和氯化锂发生熔融时,无论何种比例其相变温度均保持在540 ℃左右,浮动±15 ℃;以质量配比为90%氯化锂-10%氯化钠的二元混合物的熔融温度与结晶温度相差较大,所以该二元混合熔盐可以应用于太阳能发电的传热和蓄热技术中。     

A binary approximating method for graspable region determination of biped climbing robots

For a biped pole-climbing robot (BiPCR) with grippers, it is an essential demand to determine the target grasp configuration for climbing and transiting between poles, with the graspable region as a priori knowledge. The graspable region on the target pole is critically important for climbing path planning and motion control. To efficiently compute the graspable region for a BiPCR, we propose a novel binary approximating method in this paper. This method may also be applied to generate the three-dimensional (3-D) workspace of a manipulator with constant orientation. The grasping problem and the concept of graspable region for a BiPCR are first introduced. The binary approximating method and the corresponding algorithms are then presented to generate the graspable region. Additional constraints on a biped climbing robot with five degrees of freedom (DoFs) are presented as a supplement to the algorithm. A series of comprehensive simulations are conducted with the five-DoF and six-DoF climbing robots to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. Finally, the dexterity of biped climbing robots with different DoFs is discussed.