Effects of social characters in viral propagation seeding strategies in online social networks

Online social networks have not only become a point of aggregation and exchange of information, they have so radically rooted into our everyday behaviors that they have become the target of important network attacks. We have seen an increasing trend in Sybil based activity, such as in personification, fake profiling and attempts to maliciously subvert the community stability in order to illegally create benefits for some individuals, such as online voting, and also from more classic informatics assaults using specifically mutated worms. Not only these attacks, in the latest months, we have seen an increase in spam activities on social networks such as Facebook and RenRen, and most importantly, the first attempts at propagating worms within these communities. What differentiates these attacks from normal network attacks, is that compared to anonymous and stealthy activities, or by commonly untrusted emails, social networks regain the ability to propagate within consentient users, who willingly accept to partake. In this paper, we will demonstrate the effects of influential nodes against non-influential nodes through in simulated scenarios and provide an overview and analysis of the outcomes.

Use of ultraviolet C (UVC) radiation to inactivate infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) and viral haemorrhagic septicaemia virus (VHSV) in fish processing plant effluent

We determined the stability of infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) and viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) suspended in either fish processing plant effluent blood water (EBW) or culture media and examined the effectiveness of UVC radiation to inactivate IHNV and VHSV suspended in both solutions. Without exposure to UVC, IHNV and VHSV were maintained in 4°C blood water for up to 48 hours without significant reduction in virus titer. However when exposed to UVC radiation using a low pressure mercury vapour lamp collimated beam, IHNV and VHSV were inactivated, and the efficacy of UVC radiation was dependent upon the solution and virus type being treated. A 3-log reduction for VHSV and IHNV in culture media was achieved at 3.28 and 3.84 mJ cm-2, respectively. The UV dose needed for a 3-log reduction of VHSV in EBW was 3.82 mJ cm-2. However, exposure of IHNV in EBW to the maximum UVC dose tested (4.0 mJ cm-2) only led to a 2.26-log-reduction. Factors such as particle size, and possible association of viruses with suspended EBW particulate, were not investigated in this study, but may have contributed to the difference in UVC effectiveness. Future work should emphasize improved filtration methods prior to UV treatment of processing plant EBW at an industrial scale.

Targeting viral hepatitis using natural milk protein and traditional medicinal herbs

Hepatitis is a major health related disease spread worldwide with frequent occurrence of epidemics. It is a zoonotic disease which leads to jaundice, anorexia, malaise and death. Although, vaccines have been developed against hepatitis A and hepatitis B, it is a challenge to generate vaccines against other prevalent forms of hepatitis which are equally harmful and spread worldwide. Natural products that are obtained from living organisms and found freely in nature have proven to be effective against several types of hepatitis due to presence of pharmacologically important bioactive compounds. Since they are natural products they do not cause much harm to body and can be easily applied or consumed. Our main focus is on hepatitis E virus (HEV) which is an opportunistic pathogen and leads to acute jaundice. This virus is mainly present in developing countries with poor sanitation facilities and effects individuals having weak immune response, mainly children, old people, organ transplant patients and pregnant women. HEV infection makes the patient more susceptible to infections from other viruses as well as HIV. In this review, we discussed about the natural protein known as lactoferrin which is isolated from milk colostrum and extracts of some medicinal plants that have proven to be effective against various forms of hepatitis. Such form of natural therapies forms the basis of modern medicine and major pharmaceutical discoveries.

Expression of anti-viral shRNA molecules in transgenic zebrafish

 Development of transgenic zebrafish specifically resistant to Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia Virus mediated by short-hairpin RNA interference. Introduction of shRNAs by Tol2 transgenisis in to zebrafish overwhelmed multiple facets of the endogenous microRNA pathway including Exportin-5 and Argonaute-2 and prevented normal zebrafish development.