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Conventional brute-force attacks can now be detected and identified based on statistical analysis of logs and traffic data. However, they fail to detect low-frequency and distributed brute-force attack behaviors. To address different attack methods, new detection techniques have emerged. This study compares various machine learning algorithms and selects two methods, namely the clustering algorithm k-means and bdscan, as well as the decision tree algorithm for data learning. In one approach, normal user login data is integrated with enterprise email log data. The data is first statistically analyzed and filtered, followed by quantifying data characteristics using information entropy. Subsequently, machine learning algorithms are employed for classification, and the results are visualized for display. In another approach, labeled raw data is used to train a model using the decision tree algorithm. By comparing the two analysis results, a more accurate model can be obtained. These analytical methods can help enterprises strengthen email security and defend against low-frequency and distributed brute-force attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As an essential component of the BR (brassinosteroid) signaling pathway, BSK (BR-signalling kinases) plays a vital role in plant growth, development, and stress regulation. There have been sporadic reports on the functions of members of this family in monocotyledonous model plant rice, but few reports have been reported on the phylogenetic analysis and gene expression profiling of the family genes. Results: In this study, a total of 6 OsBSK members were identified at the genomic level by bioinformatics methods, distributed on four rice chromosomes. Through the evolution analysis of 74 BSK proteins from 22 species, it was found that BSKs originated from higher plants, were highly conserved, and could be divided into six subgroups. Among them, OsBSKs belonged to four subgroups or two significant groups. OsBSK family gene promoters contained a large number of light, abscisic acid (ABA), and methyl jasmonate (MeJA) response-related elements. At the same time, the qRT-PCR test also showed that the genes of this family were involved in response to a variety of hormones, biotic and abiotic stress treatments, and expression patterns of the family gene can be roughly divided into two categories, which were similar to the tissue expression patterns of genes in different growth stages. OsBSK1–1, OsBSK1–2, and OsBSK3 were mostly up-regulated. OsBSK2, OsBSK4, and OsBSK5 were mostly down-regulated or had little change in expression. Conclusions: This study revealed the origin and evolution of the BSK family and the farm-out of BSKs in rice growth, development, and stress response. It provides the theoretical reference for in-depth analysis of BR hormone, signal transduction, and molecular breeding design for resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we introduce a concept of nearly totally disjoint spectra (NTDS) functions that slightly extends the notion of basic totally disjoint spectra functions. Novel construction methods of totally disjoint spectra (TDS) plateaued functions are proposed. We investigate the design of five-value spectrum functions with Walsh supports, the cardinalities of which are not a power of two. We also study the construction of TDS functions using NTDS functions. To acquire five-value spectrum functions in odd variables in practice, a succinct searching procedure using TDS functions designed in this paper is introduced finally. Experimental results show that such approach could yield plenty of desirable functions in odd-variable with few Walsh spectral values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boolean functions play essential roles in certain symmetric cryptographic schemes and error-correcting codes. Apart from the cryptographic criteria satisfied by Boolean functions, constructions of functions with few Walsh spectral value are also of particular interests in cryptographic applications. Due to the problem that the five-value spectrum functions with duals being not basic plateaued functions remains to be answered, in this paper we intend to investigate the construction on non-basic plateaued duals of five-value spectrum functions. The issue of constructing non-basic totally disjoint spectra plateaued functions is dealt with from two aspects. We firstly address the characterization of non-basic plateaued functions corresponding to Walsh supports with unequal cardinality. Then the necessary and sufficient conditions of the spectral design of a partially non-basic five-value spectrum function are proposed. Meanwhile, we also provide the sufficient condition for constructing a valid five-value spectrum function whose duals are both defined on non-affine subspaces. Finally, the design of totally disjoint spectra functions on non-affine subspaces with equal cardinality is also studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: In recent years, the incidence of cancer has been steadily increasing, necessitating a more urgent and in-depth understanding and exploration of this disease. During the process of literature review, we have discovered that the novel protein-coding gene, cartilage intermediate layer protein 2, has been partially associated with colorectal cancer in several studies. However, its role in other cancers remains elusive. Therefore, this study aims to explore the function and mechanism of cartilage intermediate layer protein 2 in pan-cancer. Our findings will enhance the understanding of the role of cartilage intermediate layer protein 2 in pan-cancer tumorigenesis and progression, especially in pancreatic cancer. This research could potentially establish cartilage intermediate layer protein 2 as a promising prognostic biomarker and immunotherapy target for cancers. The elucidation of its significance in pan-cancer will contribute to the development of more effective therapeutic strategies. Cartilage intermediate layer protein 2 (CILP2) facilitates interactions between matrix components in cartilage and has emerged as a potential prognostic biomarker for cancer. This study aimed to investigate the function and mechanisms of CILP2 in pan-cancer. We evaluated the pan-cancer expression, methylation, and mutation data of CILP2 for its clinical prognostic value. Additionally, we explored the immunological characteristics of CILP2 in pan-cancer and then focused specifically on pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PAAD). The subtype analysis of PAAD identified subtype-specific expression and immunological characteristics. Finally, in vitro and in vivo experiments assessed the impact of CILP2 on pancreatic cancer progression. CILP2 exhibited high expression in most malignancies, with significant heterogeneity in epigenetic modifications across multiple cancer types. The abnormal methylation and copy number variations in CILP2 were correlated with poor prognoses. Upregulated CILP2 was associated with TGFB/TGFBR1 and more malignant subtypes. CILP2 exhibited a negative correlation with immune checkpoints in PAAD, suggesting potential for immunotherapy. CILP2 activated the AKT pathway, and it increased proliferation, invasion, migration, and epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) in pancreatic cancer. We demonstrated that CILP2 significantly contributes to pancreatic cancer progression. It serves as a prognostic biomarker and a potential target for immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biochar adsorption has emerged as a favorable and environmentally friendly approach for removing metals such as chromium (Cr) from wastewater. However, the use of pristine biochar (PBC) is limited due to its finite adsorptive capacity, selectivity, and potential for secondary pollution. In this study, a novel bifunctionalized magnetic biochar (BMBC) was fabricated by incorporating cystamine as a ligand and glutaraldehyde as a crosslinker into alkali-treated magnetic biochar (MBC). This chemical modification introduced numerous amino groups and disulfide bonds onto the surfaces of BMBC. The biochar adsorbents' surface morphologies, crystal structures, and texture properties were characterized using SEM, XRD, and N2 adsorption-desorption techniques. The specific surface area was determined using the BET method. Furthermore, the surface functional groups and elemental compositions before and after adsorption were analyzed using FTIR and XPS, respectively. The results demonstrated higher Cr(VI) removal efficacy of BMBC (100%) than MBC (72.37%) and PBC (61.42%). Optimal conditions for Cr(VI) removal were observed at a solution pH of 2, a temperature of 50 °C, a reaction time of around 1440 min, and an initial adsorbate concentration of 300 mg/L. The sorption process followed a chemical mechanism and was controlled by monolayer adsorption, with a maximum adsorption capacity of 66.10 mg/g at 50 °C and a pH of 2, as indicated by the larger fitting values of the pseudo–second-order and Langmuir models. The positive ∆Ho and ∆So values and negative ∆G0 values suggested a spontaneous and endothermic Cr(VI) adsorption process with high randomness at the solid/liquid interface. The removal of Cr(VI) was attributed to the reduction of Cr(VI) into Cr(III) facilitated by the introduced amino acids, sulfur, and Fe(II), electrostatic interaction between Cr(VI) in the solution and positive charges on the adsorbent surface, and complexation with functional groups. The presence of co-existing cations such as Cu(II), Cd(II), Mn(II), and K(I) had little effect on Cr(VI) removal efficiency. At the same time, the co-existence of anions of Cl−, NO3−, SO42−, and HPO42− resulted in a 7.58% decrease in the Cr(VI) removal rate. After five consecutive adsorption/desorption cycles, BMBC maintained a high Cr(VI) removal rate of 61.12%. Overall, this novel BMBC derived from rice straw shows great promise as a biosorbent for treating Cr(VI) in wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hedged public-key encryption (HPKE), introduced by Bellare et al. (ASIACRYPT 2009), provides useful security when the per-message randomness fails to be uniform due to faulty implementations or adversarial actions. The HPKE scheme achieves IND-CPA (chosen plaintext attack) security when the randomness they used is of high quality, but, when the randomness is poor quality, rather than breaking completely, it achieves a weaker but a useful notion of security called IND-CDA (chosen distribution attack) as long as the message and randomness together have sufficient min-entropy. However, little research on HPKE in the presence of key leakage was done. In this paper, we study HPKE featuring key leakage-resilience and formulate appropriate security notion for key leakage-resilient HPKE. We work in the continual key leakage model where the secret key is refreshed periodically and an adversary can learn arbitrary but bounded leakage on the secret key between the updates. We present two generic constructions of continual leakage-resilient HPKE in the standard model by using a continual leakage-resilient all-but-one lossy trapdoor function. Finally, we give an instantiation of leakage-resilient HPKE under the linear assumption in bilinear groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between microplastics (MPs) and human respiratory health has garnered significant attention since inhalation constitutes the primary pathway for atmospheric MP exposure. While recent studies have revealed respiratory risks associated with MPs, virgin MPs used as plastic surrogates in these experiments did not represent the MPs that occur naturally and that undergo aging effects. Thus, the effects of aged MPs on respiratory health remain unknown. We herein analyzed the interaction between inhalable aged MPs with lung surfactant (LS) extracted from porcine lungs vis-à-vis interfacial chemistry employing in-vitro experiments, and explored oxidative damage induced by aged MPs in simulated lung fluid (SLF) and the underlying mechanisms of action. Our results showed that aged MPs significantly increased the surface tension of the LS, accompanied by a diminution in its foaming ability. The stronger adsorptive capacity of the aged MPs toward the phospholipids of LS appeared to produce increased surface tension, while the change in foaming ability might have resulted from a variation in the protein secondary structure and the adsorption of proteins onto MPs. The adsorption of phospholipid and protein components then led to the aggregation of MPs in SLF, where the aged MPs exhibited smaller hydrodynamic diameters in comparison with the unaged MPs, likely interacting with biomolecules in bodily fluids to exacerbate health hazards. Persistent free radicals were also formed on aged MPs, inducing the formation of reactive oxygen species such as superoxide radicals (O 2 •–), hydrogen peroxide (HOOH), and hydroxyl radicals (•OH); this would lead to LS lipid peroxidation and protein damage and increase the risk of respiratory disease. Our investigation was the first-ever to reveal a potential toxic effect of aged MPs and their actions on the human respiratory system, of great significance in understanding the risk of inhaled MPs on lung health. [Display omitted] • The differences in potential health risks between aged and unaged MPs were explored. • Aged MPs exerted a greater impact on the interfacial properties of lung surfactant relative to unaged MPs. • The adsorption of phospholipids and proteins promoted agglomeration of MPs. • The higher toxicity of aged MPs stems from the environmentally persistent free radicals that are formed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]