Reducing the window of opportunity for Android malware Gotta catch ’em all

Spotting malicious samples in the wild has always been difficult, and Android malware is no exception. Actually, the fact Android applications are (usually) not directly accessible from market places hardens the task even more. For instance, Google enforces its own communication protocol to browse and download applications from its market. Thus, an efficient market crawler must reverse and implement this protocol, issue appropriate search requests and take necessary steps so as not to be banned. From end-users?? side, having difficulties spotting malicious mobile applications results in most Android malware remaining unnoticed up to 3?months before a security researcher finally stumbles on it. To reduce this window of opportunity, this paper presents a heuristics engine that statically pre-processes and prioritizes samples. The engine uses 39 different flags of different nature such as Java API calls, presence of embedded executables, code size, URLs?? Each flag is assigned a different weight, based on statistics we computed from the techniques mobile malware authors most commonly use in their code. The engine outputs a risk score which highlights samples which are the most likely to be malicious. The engine has been tested over a set of clean applications and malicious ones. The results show a strong difference in the average risk score for both sets and in its distribution, proving its use to spot malware.     

Effects of dilute acetic acid on the cervical smear

BACKGROUND: Mesothelial integrity is essential for the prevention of pericardial adhesions. This study was performed to determine the effect of physical protection of the pericardium on mesothelial integrity. METHODS: A pericardial biopsy specimen was obtained at the time of pericardiotomy (0 minutes) in 10 patients undergoing a cardiac operation for the first time. The left free edge of the pericardiotomy was plicated inward to protect the mesothelium. Biopsy specimens were obtained from the protected and unprotected pericardium at 45 and 90 minutes after the start of extracorporeal circulation. Mesothelial integrity and the local inflammatory response were then assessed and graded histologically. RESULTS: The mesothelium was found to be present in the protected specimens at 0, 45, and 90 minutes, but it was found to be denuded in the unprotected specimens (p = 0.003 at 45 minutes; p = 0.004 at 90 minutes). Local inflammation was totally established in both the protected and unprotected specimens at 45 minutes. CONCLUSIONS: Physical agents appear to be the main factor that is damaging to the pericardial mesothelium, and this is an important concept to be taken into consideration when designing a method to prevent pericardial adhesions.     

Un environnement de conception de systèmes distribués basé sur UML

This paper introduces a new environment for developing distributed systems. It is based on theTurtle uml profile. Analysis and design phases, described in previous papers, have been extended with an additional deployment phase. In this new step,Turtle components are deployed over hardware execution nodes, and nodes are connected together throughout links,Turtle deployment diagrams are given a formal semantics inRt-lotos, therefore following the approach used forTurtle analysis and design diagrams. Moreover, the paper presents a Java code generator which outputs appropriate Java code forTurtle deployment diagrams. This code is automatically deployable on networks because it implements node communication using network protocols such asUdp orRmi. ttool, the turtle toolkit has been extended to support these new diagrams and code generators. The attack of protected data exchanged throughout securedHttp sessions serves as example.     

The effects of blackcurrant and strawberry powder on the physicochemical and in vitro glycaemic response of starches derived from sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) and potato (Solanum tuberosum)

Phenolic compounds have been shown to deliver numerous health benefits. Research has also shown that starch and phenolic compounds interact. This study aimed to investigate the effects of blackcurrant and strawberry powder on the physicochemical and in vitro predicted glycaemic response of sweet potato and potato starches. Sweet potato, or potato, starches were mixed with 0%, 5%, 10% and 15% (w/w) of blackcurrant, or strawberry, powder, to form blackcurrant and strawberry-enriched starch pastes. The results showed that enrichment with 5%, 10% and 15% blackcurrant or strawberry powder for sweet potato and potato starch significantly altered the pasting viscosity and colour profiles (P < 0.05), increased the phenolic content and antioxidant activities of starch pastes (P < 0.05). Blackcurrant or strawberry powders mixed with sweet potato or potato starches reduced amount of reducing sugar released during in vitro digestion. Addition of 15% blackcurrant powder for the starch exerted stronger in vitro antioxidant and hypoglycaemic properties than that of 15% strawberry powder. Collectively, these findings suggested that addition of blackcurrant or strawberry powder into sweet potato and potato starches manipulated the hypoglycaemic property of pastes.     

The effective velocity model: An improved approach to velocity sampling in actuator line models

Actuator line modeling of wind turbines requires the definition of a free-stream velocity in a computational mesh and a regularization kernel to project the computed body forces onto the domain. Both choices strongly influence the results. In this work, a novel velocity sampling method—the so-called effective velocity model (EVM)—is implemented in the CFD software SOWFA, validated, and compared to pre-existing approaches. Results show superior method robustness with respect to the regularization kernel width ( $ϵ$) choice while preserving acceptable accuracy. In particular, the power predicted by the EVM is nearly independent of the $ϵ$ value.     

Use of a continuous leaching method to assess the oral bioaccessibility of trace elements in seafood

A continuous leaching method, coupled online with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used on seafood samples to assess the maximum bioaccessibility of several trace elements. The method indeed involves continuous leaching of the food sample by artificial saliva and gastric juice, successively, where this exposition of the food to fresh reagent drives the dissolution equilibrium to the right. Leaching with intestinal juice had to be omitted because it resulted in clogging problems. The experimental apparatus includes a mini-column of powdered sample, which is directly connected to the nebulizer of an ICP-MS instrument. The on-line approach allows a quick assessment of the maximum bioaccessibility of elements of interest by monitoring the real-time release of elements by a given reagent. The method was applied to determine the bioaccessibility of four toxic elements (Al, Cd, Hg, and Pb) and of four essential elements (V, Mn, Cu, and Zn) in certified reference materials and in actual seafood samples. In all cases, mass balance was verified by carrying out the total digestion of the remaining residue from the mini-column and the relationship between total concentration and bioaccessibility was examined.     

Rapid and Green Analytical Method for the Determination of Quinoline Alkaloids from Cinchona succirubra Based on Microwave-Integrated Extraction and Leaching (MIEL) Prior to High Performance Liquid Chromatography

Quinas contains several compounds, such as quinoline alkaloids, principally quinine, quinidine, cinchonine and cichonidine. Identified from barks of Cinchona, quinine is still commonly used to treat human malaria. Microwave-Integrated Extraction and Leaching (MIEL) is proposed for the extraction of quinoline alkaloids from bark of Cinchona succirubra. The process is performed in four steps, which ensures complete, rapid and accurate extraction of the samples. Optimal conditions for extraction were obtained using a response surface methodology reached from a central composite design. The MIEL extraction has been compared with a conventional technique soxhlet extraction. The extracts of quinoline alkaloids from C. succirubra obtained by these two different methods were compared by HPLC. The extracts obtained by MIEL in 32 min were quantitatively (yield) and qualitatively (quinine, quinidine, cinchonine, cinchonidine) similar to those obtained by conventional Soxhlet extraction in 3 hours. MIEL is a green technology that serves as a good alternative for the extraction of Cinchona alkaloids.