Escaping the Big Brother: an empirical study on factors influencing identification and information leakage on the Web

This paper presents a study on factors that may increase the risks of personal information leakage, due to the possibility of connecting user profiles that are not explicitly linked together. First, we introduce a technique for user identification based on cross-site checking and linking of user attributes. Then, we describe the experimental evaluation of the identification technique both on a real setting and on an online sample, showing its accuracy to discover unknown personal data. Finally, we combine the results on the accuracy of identification with the results of a questionnaire completed by the same subjects who performed the test on the real setting. The aim of the study was to discover possible factors that make users vulnerable to this kind of techniques. We found out that the number of social networks used, their features and especially the amount of profiles abandoned and forgotten by the user are factors that increase the likelihood of identification and the privacy risks

Medical record linkage in health information systems by approximate string matching and clustering

BACKGROUND: Multiplication of data sources within heterogeneous healthcare information systems always results in redundant information, split among multiple databases. Our objective is to detect exact and approximate duplicates within identity records, in order to attain a better quality of information and to permit cross-linkage among stand-alone and clustered databases. Furthermore, we need to assist human decision making, by computing a value reflecting identity proximity. METHODS: The proposed method is in three steps. The first step is to standardise and to index elementary identity fields, using blocking variables, in order to speed up information analysis. The second is to match similar pair records, relying on a global similarity value taken from the Porter-Jaro-Winkler algorithm. And the third is to create clusters of coherent related records, using graph drawing, agglomerative clustering methods and partitioning methods. RESULTS: The batch analysis of 300,000 "supposedly" distinct identities isolates 240,000 true unique records, 24,000 duplicates (clusters composed of 2 records) and 3,000 clusters whose size is greater than or equal to 3 records. CONCLUSION: Duplicate-free databases, used in conjunction with relevant indexes and similarity values, allow immediate (i.e.: real-time) proximity detection when inserting a new identity

What is the clinical relevance of different lung compartments?

The lung consists of at least seven compartments with relevance to immune reactions. Compartment 1 - the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), which represents the cells of the bronchoalveolar space: From a diagnostic point of view the bronchoalveolar space is the most important because it is easily accessible in laboratory animals, as well as in patients, using BAL. Although this technique has been used for several decades it is still unclear to what extent the BAL represents changes in other lung compartments. Compartment 2 - bronchus-associated lymphoid tissue (BALT): In the healthy, BALT can be found only in childhood. The role of BALT in the development of the mucosal immunity of the pulmonary surfaces has not yet been resolved. However, it might be an important tool for inhalative vaccination strategies. Compartment 3 - conducting airway mucosa: A third compartment is the bronchial epithelium and the submucosa, which both contain a distinct pool of leukocytes (e.g. intraepithelial lymphocytes, IEL). This again is also accessible via bronchoscopy. Compartment 4 - draining lymph nodes/Compartment 5 - lung parenchyma: Transbronchial biopsies are more difficult to perform but provide access to two additional compartments - lymph nodes with the draining lymphatics and lung parenchyma, which roughly means "interstitial" lung tissue. Compartment 6 - the intravascular leukocyte pool: The intravascular compartment lies between the systemic circulation and inflamed lung compartments. Compartment 7 - periarterial space: Finally, there is a unique, lung-specific space around the pulmonary arteries which contains blood and lymph capillaries. There are indications that this "periarterial space" may be involved in the pulmonary host defense

Ethnic Variation in Inflammatory Profile in Tuberculosis

PMCID: PMC3701709This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Hsp90 orchestrates transcriptional regulation by Hsf1 and cell wall remodelling by MAPK signalling during thermal adaptation in a pathogenic yeast

Acknowledgments We thank Rebecca Shapiro for creating CaLC1819, CaLC1855 and CaLC1875, Gillian Milne for help with EM, Aaron Mitchell for generously providing the transposon insertion mutant library, Jesus Pla for generously providing the hog1 hst7 mutant, and Cathy Collins for technical assistance.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A Profile Likelihood Analysis of the Constrained MSSM with Genetic Algorithms

The Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (CMSSM) is one of the simplest and most widely-studied supersymmetric extensions to the standard model of particle physics. Nevertheless, current data do not sufficiently constrain the model parameters in a way completely independent of priors, statistical measures and scanning techniques. We present a new technique for scanning supersymmetric parameter spaces, optimised for frequentist profile likelihood analyses and based on Genetic Algorithms. We apply this technique to the CMSSM, taking into account existing collider and cosmological data in our global fit. We compare our method to the MultiNest algorithm, an efficient Bayesian technique, paying particular attention to the best-fit points and implications for particle masses at the LHC and dark matter searches. Our global best-fit point lies in the focus point region. We find many high-likelihood points in both the stau co-annihilation and focus point regions, including a previously neglected section of the co-annihilation region at large m_0. We show that there are many high-likelihood points in the CMSSM parameter space commonly missed by existing scanning techniques, especially at high masses. This has a significant influence on the derived confidence regions for parameters and observables, and can dramatically change the entire statistical inference of such scans.Comment: 47 pages, 8 figures; Fig. 8, Table 7 and more discussions added to Sec. 3.4.2 in response to referee's comments; accepted for publication in JHE

Genome-wide association and HLA fine-mapping studies identify risk loci and genetic pathways underlying allergic rhinitis

Allergic rhinitis is the most common clinical presentation of allergy, affecting 400 million people worldwide, with increasing incidence in westernized countries1,2. To elucidate the genetic architecture and understand the underlying disease mechanisms, we carried out a meta-analysis of allergic rhinitis in 59,762 cases and 152,358 controls of European ancestry and identified a total of 41 risk loci for allergic rhinitis, including 20 loci not previously associated with allergic rhinitis, which were confirmed in a replication phase of 60,720 cases and 618,527 controls. Functional annotation implicated genes involved in various immune pathways, and fine mapping of the HLA region suggested amino acid variants important for antigen binding. We further performed genome-wide association study (GWAS) analyses of allergic sensitization against inhalant allergens and nonallergic rhinitis, which suggested shared genetic mechanisms across rhinitis-related traits. Future studies of the identified loci and genes might identify novel targets for treatment and prevention of allergic rhinitis

Enhancing Jatropha oil extraction yield from the kernels assisted by a xylan-degrading bacterium to preserve protein structure

We investigated the use of bacterial cells isolated from paddy crab for the extraction of oil from Jatropha seed kernels in aqueous media while simultaneously preserving the protein structures of this protein-rich endosperm. A bacterial strain—which was marked as MB4 and identified by means of 16S rDNA sequencing and physiological characterization as either Bacillus pumilus or Bacillus altitudinis—enhanced the extraction yield of Jatropha oil. The incubation of an MB4 starter culture with preheated kernel slurry in aqueous media with the initial pH of 5.5 at 37 °C for 6 h liberated 73% w/w of the Jatropha oil. Since MB4 produces xylanases, it is suggested that strain MB4 facilitates oil liberation via degradation of hemicelluloses which form the oil-containing cell wall structure of the kernel. After MB4 assisted oil extraction, SDS-PAGE analysis showed that the majority of Jatropha proteins were preserved in the solid phase of the extraction residues. The advantages offered by this process are: protein in the residue can be further processed for other applications, no purified enzyme preparation is needed, and the resulting oil can be used for biodiesel production