Signature Code Research Articles

Multi-Aspect, Robust, and Memory Exclusive Guest OS Fingerprinting

Precise fingerprinting of an operating system (OS) is critical to many security and forensics applications in the cloud, such as virtual machine (VM) introspection, penetration testing, guest OS administration, kernel dump analysis, and memory forensics. The existing OS fingerprinting techniques primarily inspect network packets or CPU states, and they all fall short in precision and usability. As the physical memory of a VM always exists in all these applications, in this article, we present OS-Sommelier $^+$ , a multi-aspect, memory exclusive approach for precise and robust guest OS fingerprinting in the cloud. It works as follows: given a physical memory dump of a guest OS, OS-Sommelier $^+$ first uses a code hash based approach from kernel code aspect to determine the guest OS version. If code hash approach fails, OS-Sommelier $^+$ then uses a kernel data signature based approach from kernel data aspect to determine the version. We have implemented a prototype system, and tested it with a number of Linux kernels. Our evaluation results show that the code hash approach is faster but can only fingerprint the known kernels, and data signature approach complements the code signature approach and can fingerprint even unknown kernels.

Guest Editorial: Cloud Security

Guest Editorial: Cloud Security

Abstract 4730: Identification of novel prognostic signatures in rhabdomyosarcoma by whole transcriptome expression profiling: A discovery and validation study

Abstract INTRODUCTION: Pediatric rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) has varying outcomes, especially in intermediate-risk disease (IR-RMS) due to the inherent inability of clinical staging to accurately risk-stratify a large proportion of patients. This study aimed to identify prognostic signatures in IR-RMS, the clinical subgroup with the most heterogeneous outcomes, which can potentially provide better risk stratification than routine clinicopathologic parameters. Signature performance was validated on an independent set of RMS patients. METHODS: Prospectively-obtained primary tumors from 80 IR-RMS patients on Children's Oncology Group clinical trial protocols formed the training set. Tumors from 19, 15 and 20 patients with low-risk, high-risk and IR-RMS formed the validation set. Annotated and unannotated transcripts were profiled by Affymetrix Human Exon microarrays employing 1,393,765 probe selection regions (PSRs) and used to derive weighted signatures. Potentials of coding and non-coding signatures to predict survival were compared using areas under receiver operating characteristic curves that provided a measure of predictive accuracy. Associated biological processes were analyzed using curated pathway analysis tools. RESULTS: Histologic subtype (p=0.94) and PAX-FKHR fusion status (p=0.66) were unable to predict survival in the training set of IR-RMS. Tumor site was the only clinical predictor of outcome in this set (p=0.041). Cox regression on 17,045 coding transcripts identified a prognostic 30-gene meta-feature (30gMF, p=0.001). Analysis of unannotated transcripts identified a 39-PSR meta-feature (39ncMF) that also predicted survival (p<0.001). Multiple PSRs interrogating the same genomic locus were then replaced by a single PSR that reduced ncMF size to 34 PSRs (34ncMF), which could still predict outcome (p<0.001). Predictive accuracy of 39ncMF was higher than 34gMF (96.4% vs. 70.8%, p<0.001). However, predictive accuracy of the former was comparable to the 34ncMF (96.7%, p=0.54). When applied to the validation set, the 34gMF, 39ncMF and 34ncMF were able to predict outcomes (p=0.022, 0.006, 0.012, respectively). Analysis of biological processes using 34gMF showed enrichment for functions/disorders associated with musculoskeletal development and signaling pathways. Similar analysis of non-coding signatures revealed enrichment for cellular assembly, cell cycle, apoptosis and cancer-associated functions. CONCLUSIONS: A concise non-coding RNA meta-feature was able to better predict outcome in IR-RMS than a coding gene meta-feature, where most standard clinical prognosticators failed. The meta-features were independently validated in IR and non-IR RMS. This suggests that non-coding transcripts can regulate and determine RMS biology and aggressiveness, and be used as novel prognostic indicators. Citation Format: Anirban P. Mitra, Sheetal A. Mitra, Jonathan D. Buckley, Philipp Kapranov, James R. Anderson, Stephen X. Skapek, Douglas S. Hawkins, Timothy J. Triche. Identification of novel prognostic signatures in rhabdomyosarcoma by whole transcriptome expression profiling: A discovery and validation study. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 4730. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-4730

Constructing a two bands optical code-division multiple-access network of bipolar optical access codecs using Walsh-coded liquid crystal modulators

We propose and experimentally demonstrated the two bands optical code-division multiple-access (OCDMA) network over bipolar Walsh-coded liquid-crystal modulators (LCMs) and driven by green light and red light lasers. Achieving system performance depends on the construction of a decoder that implements a true bipolar correlation using only unipolar signals and intensity detection for each band. We took advantage of the phase delay characteristics of LCMs to construct a prototype optical coder/decoder (codec). Matched and unmatched Walsh signature codes were evaluated to detect correlations among multiuser data in the access network. By using LCMs, a red and green laser light source was spectrally encoded and the summed light dots were complementary decoded. Favorable contrast on auto- and cross-correlations indicates that binary information symbols can be properly recovered using a balanced photodetector.

Using Wavelength/Time Signatures Scrambling to Realize Cryptographic Coded-WDM Data Networks

To combat with multiple-users interference and malicious eavesdropping, this paper proposes a double scrambling scheme over time/wavelength for a cryptographic optical CDMA (OCDMA) data transmission. By using wavelength-spreading/time-hopping, data reliability in OCDMA network can be highly improved. On the transmitter side, data bits are sliced into spectral chips, coded into M-sequence codes, and conducted with different units of time-delay. In the receiver side, fiber-delay lines (FDLs) reverse the spectral chips back to the same time basis, and optical switches (OSWs) turn on-off spectral chips into balanced detector for the final data decoding. By changing signature code frequently, the eavesdroppers cannot catch on the changing code speed and have little chance to detect the channel waveform to solve the code. To against eavesdropping, we take advantages of linear cyclic, periodic, and nearly-orthogonal characteristics of M-sequence codes. OSWs and FDLs are added into the arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) codecs. The spectral codes and the time-delay units will follow cell states of a controlling shift register. Different shift register states will reconfigure AWG light spectra into different coding sequences. After pass through the associated OSWs and FDLs, user signature code appears to be a two-dimensional code matrix. In perspective of eavesdropper, smooth eavesdropping presents difficulties due to signature codes’ frequent changing. The system can therefore achieve a high level of network confidentiality.

Alteration mineral mapping with ASTER data by integration of coded spectral ratio imaging and SOM neural network model

This study applied coded spectral ratio imaging and a self-organizing map (SOM) neural network model for subpixel classification of Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) data to map alteration minerals of the Masahim volcano, SE Iran. Spectra of samples were measured using a FieldSpec spectroradiometer, and were interpreted for finding key alteration minerals. Key minerals including sericite and kaolinite were selected. Thirty-six nonreciprocal spectral ratios of 9 ASTER reflective bands were created. Each spectral parameter (of 9 spectral bands and 36 spectral ratios) for the field and library mineral spectra was divided into deciles. Each decile of spectral bands or ratios was labeled from 9 for the highest down to 0 for the lowest decile. Spectral ratio code signature patterns of field samples were then compared to the US Geological Survey (USGS) spectral library to find 3 spectral ratio images for each key mineral. Based on these 3 ratio images, color ratio images were created and training areas were selected by a geographic information systems (GIS) overlay approach and were used to train the SOM model. This model was applied to the 5, 15, and 36 ratio image data sets as chemical composition images, and the results were compared using confusion matrices and coefficient of determination (R2). The results of SOM applied to 15 and 36 ratio image data sets showed good identification of key minerals. We achieved overall accuracies of 87% for SOM applied to the 36 ratio images, 86% for 15, and 85% for 5 ratio image data sets. The R2 produced from 15 ratio image data sets for sericite and kaolinite were 0.35 and 0.52, whereas they were 0.64 and 0.68, for 36 ratio image data sets. It was concluded that using SOM applied to ratio images could, therefore, be useful in alteration mapping of a volcano.

A Partially Distributed Intrusion Detection System for Wireless Sensor Networks

The increasing use of wireless sensor networks, which normally comprise several very small sensor nodes, makes their security an increasingly important issue. They can be practically and efficiently secured using intrusion detection systems. Conventional security mechanisms are not usually applicable due to the sensor nodes having limitations of computational power, memory capacity, and battery power. Therefore, specific security systems should be designed to function under constraints of energy or memory. A partially distributed intrusion detection system with low memory and power demands is proposed here. It employs a Bloom filter, which allows reduced signature code size. Multiple Bloom filters can be combined to reduce the signature code for each Bloom filter array. The mechanism could then cope with potential denial of service attacks, unlike many previous detection systems with Bloom filters. The mechanism was evaluated and validated through analysis and simulation.

Abstract 17: Prognostic value of coding and non-coding genomic meta-features in rhabdomyosarcoma.

Abstract Introduction: Intermediate-risk pediatric rhabdomyosarcomas (IR-RMSs) have heterogeneous outcomes, suggesting an inherent inability of clinical staging to accurately stratify a large proportion of patients. This study profiled IR-RMS for expressions of coding and non-coding transcripts to construct prognostic signatures that reflect underlying tumor biology and provide better risk stratification than routine clinicopathologic parameters. Methods: RNAs extracted from 80 prospectively-obtained primary IR-RMS and 40 low/high-risk RMS (non-IR-RMS) patients were profiled on Affymetrix Human Exon microarrays. Expressions of 1,393,765 probe selection regions (PSRs) representing annotated and unannotated transcripts were analyzed. Cox regression and leave-n-out cross validation were used to derive and finalize the weighted signatures. Potentials of the coding and non-coding signatures to predict overall survival were compared using areas under receiver operating characteristic curves that provided a measure of predictive accuracy. Results: Standard pathologic prognosticators such as histologic subtype and PAX-FKHR fusion status were unable to predict survival in this subset of IR-RMS (p=0.94 and 0.66, respectively). Tumor site was the only clinical predictor of outcome in this cohort of IR-RMS (p=0.041). Iterative cox regression on 17,045 coding transcripts identified a 34-gene meta-feature (34gMF) that this was able to predict survival in IR-RMS (p=0.001). Analysis of PSRs corresponding to unannotated transcripts identified a 39-PSR meta-feature (39ncMF) that also predicted survival (p<0.001). To eliminate feature redundancy, multiple PSRs interrogating the same unannotated genomic locus were replaced by a representative PSR that reduced the meta-feature size to 34 PSRs (34ncMF), which was still able to predict outcome (p<0.001). In multivariable models in IR-RMS that included tumor site, the genomic meta-features were the only significant predictors of outcome (34gMF, p=0.008; 39ncMF, p=0.019; 34ncMF; p=0.007). When applied on non-IR-RMS cases, the meta-features retained their prognostic abilities (34gMF, p=0.026; 39ncMF, p=0.034; 34ncMF, p=0.027). In IR-RMS, predictive accuracy of 39ncMF was significantly higher than 34gMF (96.4% vs. 71.1%, p<0.001). However, predictive accuracy of the former was comparable to the non-redundant 34ncMF (96.7%, p=0.54). Conclusions: A concise non-coding RNA meta-feature was able to better predict outcome in IR-RMS than a coding gene meta-feature, where most standard clinical prognosticators failed. The prognostic value of these meta-features is also observed in non-IR-RMS. These observations point to the possible role of non-coding transcripts in regulating and determining RMS biology and aggressiveness, and their potential to serve as novel prognostic indicators. Citation Format: Anirban P. Mitra, Sheetal A. Mitra, Jonathan D. Buckley, Philipp Kapranov, James R. Anderson, Stephen X. Skapek, Douglas S. Hawkins, Timothy J. Triche. Prognostic value of coding and non-coding genomic meta-features in rhabdomyosarcoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 17. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-17

Soft Decision Error Assisted Layered Multiuser Detectors for MIMO 2D Spread MC DS-CDMAs

In this paper, we present two layered multiuser detectors (MUDs) for MIMO frequency-time-domain (FT-domain) multi-carrier (MC) direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) systems with an antenna array at the base station. We assume that multiple users are active and individually utilize multiple transmit antennas in the MC DS-CDMA system. The users are organized into groups, and each user is assigned a unique Time-domain (T-domain) signature code. Moreover, users in the same group share a unique F-domain signature code. As a result, they can exploit the T-domain and F-domain signature codes to spread their multiple symbols in parallel, and then transmit the FT-domain spread signals from the corresponding multiple antennas over the fading channels to the base station. However, because of the non-ideal channel effect and/or the use of non-orthogonal signature codes, the FT-domain spread MC DS-CDMA system is affected by multiple access interference (MAI) in the same way as CDMA-like systems. To mitigate the effects of MAI and improve the system's performance, we propose two layered MUDs that exploit the layered soft decision errors. Specifically, in a trade-off between the performance and the computational complexity, only the soft decision errors of one user/one group are used in the proposed layered MUDs. The results of simulations and a complexity analysis demonstrate that the proposed layered MUDs outperform existing approaches and the computational complexity is modest.

Performance Analysis of Dual Unipolar/Bipolar Spectral Code in Optical CDMA Systems

This study analyzes and calculates dual unipolar and bipolar coded configurations of spectral-amplitude-coding opticalcode division multiple access (SAC-OCDMA) systems by using simulation methods. The important feature of theSAC-OCDMA systems is that multiple access interference (MAI) can be eliminated by code sequences of a fixed inphasecross-correlation value. This property can be effectively canceled multiple access interference by using balancedetection schemes. This study uses Walsh-Hadamard codes as signature codes for the unipolar and bipolar schemes.The coder and decoder structures are based on optical filters of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs). The simulation results ofunipolar/bipolar coding structures are first presented by commercial simulation obtained using OptiSystem software.The simulation results show that the bit error rate (BER) through use of the bipolar coding method is superior to theunipolar scheme, especially when the received effect power is large. When the system needs good performance totransmit multimedia data, we can use bipolar scheme in the network. If the users only transmit voice data, the unipolarmethod can be employed. The eye diagram also shows that the bipolar encoding structure exhibits a wider openingthan the unipolar encoding structure. The flexible implementation of codewords assigns and integratable hardwaredesigns for the scheme with FBGs to realize dual coding OCDMA system is proposed.

항공기 비행환경에 따른 플룸 IR 신호 영향성 연구

The plume infrared signature effects at various flight conditions of aircraft were investigated for the purpose of reducing infrared signature level. The nozzle of a virtual subsonic unmanned combat aerial vehicle was designed through a performance analysis. Nozzle and associated plume flowfields were first analyzed using a density-based CFD code and plume IR signature was then calculated on the basis of the narrow-band model. Finally, qualitative information for the plume infrared signature characteristics was obtained through the analysis of the IR signature effects at various flight conditions.

A Study of Bipolar Walsh-Hadamard Coding Method in Optical CDMA Networks

This study analyzes and calculates unipolar and bipolar coded configurations of spectral-amplitude-coding optical division multiple access (SAC-OCDMA) systems by using analytic and simulated methods. The important feature of the SAC-OCDMA systems is that multiple access interference (MAI) can be eliminated by code sequences of a fixed in-phase cross-correlation value. This property can be effectively canceled by multiple access interference by using balance detection schemes. This study uses Walsh-Hadamard codes as signature codes for the unipolar and bipolar schemes. The coder and decoder structures are based on optical filters of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs). The simulation results of unipolar/bipolar coding structures are first presented by commercial simulation obtained using OptiSystem software. The simulation results show that the bit error rate (BER) through use of the bipolar coding method is superior to the unipolar scheme, especially when the received effect power is large. The eye diagram also shows that the bipolar encoding structure exhibits a wider opening than the unipolar encoding structure.

Data Stolen Trojan Detection based on Network Behaviors

It is well known that data loss caused by data stolen Trojans is huge as it could upload privacy or secret data to hackers who controls it remotely. Most of current security tools monitor Trojans by scanning the signature code that is distinguished from normal software. However, this method can only recognize known Trojan except up-to-date malicious software that has unknown signature code. Some other security tools requiring preinstalled on hosts detects Trojans by program behaviors. This paper proposes a novel medel to detect data stolen Trojans based on their network behaviors. It consists of three detectors: 1) keep-alive detector detects keep-alive packets or connections; 2) master-slave-connection detector tries to find master and slave connections and 3) mistake detector analyses the rate of download vs. upload and connection time for different protocol. The experiments show that this method is efficient in recognizing data stolenTrojans. This protyped system proves the possibility of detection Trojans from network.

Performance Enhancement of Optical CDMA by Differential-Phase Method for Radio-over-Fiber Transmissions

The study proposes the differential-phase optical code-division multiple-access (OCDMA) network for radio-over-fiber (RoF) transmissions, and the characteristics are numerically analyzed. The network coder/decoders (codecs) are structured on the basis of arrayed-waveguide-grating (AWG) routers with complementary Walsh-Hadamard (CWH) signature codes. In the proposed system, the network requires only two AWG routers to accomplish spectral encoding of radio base station (RBS) and decoding of control station for the complementary keying, thus resulting in a simpler and low cost system. Performance analyses are evaluated with the dominant noise of phase-induced intensity noise (PIIN) in spectral code OCDMA network. By the proposed AWG-based OCDMA with the differential-phase scheme, it is possible to establish interference-free and low crosstalk beat noise RoF systems.

Security Based Performance Analysis in Optical CDMA Network Systems

OCDMA) is an alternative method, which performs encoding and decoding through an optical signature code, in order to allow the selection of a desired signal so that different users can share the same bandwidth. In such a systems, data signal overlap both in time and wavelength. Tradeoffs between security and performance in optical CDMA are presented. Confidentiality against eavesdropper interception strategies for optical CDMA is considered. Coherent detection and combining signals shows better confidentiality than the incoherent one. Spectral amplitude optical CDMA based on Modified Double Weight (MDW) systems, with different code dimension, is investigated. Increasing the network system capacity or maximizing authorized specified SNRs will lead to eavesdropper to detect high SNRs.

Optimal 2-D $(n\times m,3,2,1)$-optical Orthogonal Codes

Optical orthogonal codes are commonly used as signature codes for optical code-division multiple access systems. So far, research on 2-D optical orthogonal codes has mainly concentrated on the same autocorrelation and cross-correlation constraints. In this paper, we are concerned about optimal 2-D optical orthogonal codes with the autocorrelation λ <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">a</i> and the cross-correlation 1. Some combinatorial constructions for 2-D ( <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">n</i> × <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">m</i> , <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">k</i> ,λ <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">a</i> ,1) -optical orthogonal codes are presented. When <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">k</i> =3 and λ <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">a</i> =2, the exact number of codewords of an optimal 2-D ( <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">n</i> × <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">m</i> ,3,2,1)-optical orthogonal code is determined for any positive integers <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">n</i> ≡ 0,1,3,6,9,10 (mod 12) and <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">m</i> ≡ 2(mod 4).

Secure Web Financial Transaction Methods and Smart Authentication with a Focus on Mobile Devices

In the preceding few years, new form of security threats has appeared to alter the confidential data between the user and the navigation program's security mechanism. Man-In-The-Bro wser (MITB) and Man-In-The-M iddle (MITM) are new form of Internet intimidations, typically a Tro jan horse program; interpolate itself between the user and the navigation program like Internet Exp lorer or Firefo x. They take over user access to the bank's web site despite of the sound and emphatic authentication method. In the current scenario of security threats extra up-to-the-minute protections are required to avoid security breach of financial data transaction on web. These attacks emphasize the need for financial organizations to securely authenticate users and ensure the integrity of web transactions in the face of a growing threat environment. In this paper we analy ze the Man In the Browser and Man In the Middle attacks and propose a solution based upon Digitally signing a transaction and using the mobile phones as a software token for Dig ital Signature code generation which pioneers an avenue of carrying out secure authentication fro m a mobile device to verify an authentic user to carry out financial transactions in a secure way on the WWW.

One-user/one-group soft-decision aided layered detection for multiuser MIMO 2D spread multi-carrier DS-CDMA systems

We consider the uplink of a multiuser, multiple input multiple output (MIMO), frequency-time-domain spread, multi-carrier (MC), direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) system. In this two-domain (2D) spread system, users are arranged in groups. Each user is assigned a unique time-domain (T-domain) signature code and also shares a frequency-domain (F-domain) signature code with users in the same group. Moreover, each user employs his/her individual T-domain signature code and the shared F-domain signature code to spread multiple symbols, and then sends the spreading signals in parallel from multiple transmit antennas to the antenna array at the base station. However, the multiple access interference (MAI) effect, which results from the non-orthogonality of signature codes and is the main performance limitation, still exists in such an MC DS-CDMA system. To mitigate the MAI effect and improve the performance, we propose user-based and group-based layered detection schemes. Specifically, to enable a trade-off between the performance and the computational complexity, the schemes only use one user's/group's soft decisions for user-based/group-based layered detection. The results of simulations demonstrate that the proposed schemes outperform existing approaches, and their computational complexity is modest.

A simple algorithm to estimate sensible heat flux from remotely sensed MODIS data

Sensible heat flux (H) has a large impact on energy exchange between the surface and the atmosphere and, thus, affects climate change and climatic and hydrological modelling. In the past, remote sensing of H has been a major area of interest and, as a result, various methods have been established for its retrieval. However, large discrepancies between measured and simulated values of H have been observed over land surfaces because of various assumptions and simplifications. This article presents a generalized algorithm for the estimation of sensible heat flux that is suitable for a wide range of atmospheric and terrestrial conditions from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. Standard built-in atmospheric profiles in Fast Atmospheric Signature Code (FASCODE) together with atmospheric conditions obtained by periodic radio sounding, once a week, performed at the Broglio Space Centre in Malindi, Kenya, were used in simulating MODIS data at 11.03 and 12.02 μm wavelengths using PcLnWin software. This new approach improves the form of the Mito algorithm, developed to determine surface temperature, by removing some of the assumptions underlying the algorithm – for example, the assumption that air temperature T a is approximately equal to surface temperature T s. The resulting bulk aerodynamic resistance equation allows the formulation of a general algorithm for the determination of H, which takes into account the surface emittance effect, water vapour column (WVC), canopy properties, air temperature and different atmospheric stabilities. Unlike other conventional methods developed earlier for the determination of H, a prior knowledge of surface temperature as an auxiliary input is not necessary in this new algorithm. The estimates of sensible heat flux derived from MODIS using the proposed algorithm compared well with in situ measurements, giving a good correlation coefficient of r = 0.9.

Abstract 5581: A non-coding RNA panel is prognostically superior to standard pathologic criteria and coding transcripts in rhabdomyosarcoma

Abstract INTRODUCTION: Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), the most common pediatric soft-tissue sarcoma, is stratified by the Children's Oncology Group (COG) into low/intermediate/high risk based on clinical outcomes. Most RMS patients, however, are categorized as intermediate-risk where survival is highly heterogeneous, suggesting an inherent inability to accurately stratify a large proportion of patients. This study profiled intermediate-risk RMSs for expressions of coding and non-coding transcripts with the aim of constructing prognostic signatures. The goal was to identify RNA panels that reflect underlying tumor biology and provide better risk stratification than routine clinicopathologic parameters. METHODS: RNAs extracted from 79 prospectively-obtained primary tumors from intermediate-risk RMS patients under COG clinical trial protocols were profiled on Affymetrix Human Exon 1.0 ST microarrays. Expressions of 1,400,033 probe set regions (PSRs) representing annotated and unannotated transcripts were analyzed using the Genetrix suite of microarray analysis tools. Cox regression and leave-n-out cross validation were used to derive and finalize the expression signatures. Individual prognostic potentials of the coding and non-coding signatures, and that of a signature that combined both features were compared against each other. RESULTS: Standard pathologic prognosticators such as histologic subtype classification (alveolar versus embryonal) and PAX-FKHR fusion gene status were unable to predict outcome in this cohort (p=0.40 and 0.45, respectively). Cox regression analysis on 17,049 coding transcripts created a 42-gene meta-feature that was able to predict survival (p=0.00024). Leave-n-out cross validation of this meta-feature upheld its prognostic ability (p=0.00030). Analysis of PSRs corresponding to unannotated transcripts identified a 32-PSR meta-feature that also predicted survival with greater significance than PSRs corresponding to coding transcripts (p&amp;lt;0.00001). To eliminate feature redundancy, multiple PSRs interrogating the same unannotated genomic locus were replaced by a representative PSR that reduced the meta-feature size to 24 PSRs, which was still able to predict survival better than the coding gene meta-feature (p&amp;lt;0.00001). A meta-feature that combined coding and non-coding RNA features retained its ability to predict outcome (p=0.00002), with non-coding RNA features contributing towards the bulk of its prognostic potential. CONCLUSIONS: A more concise non-coding RNA meta-feature was able to better predict outcome in intermediate-risk RMS than a larger coding gene meta-feature, where standard pathologic prognosticators failed. These observations point to the possible role of non-coding transcripts in regulating and determining RMS biology and aggressiveness, and their potential to serve as novel prognostic indicators. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 5581. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-5581