Algorithms for verifying the integrity of untrusted storage

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-72).This work addresses the problem of verifying that untrusted storage behaves like valid storage. The problem is important in a system such as a network file system or database where a client accesses data stored remotely on an untrusted server. Past systems have used a hash tree-based checker to check the integrity of data stored on untrusted storage. This method has high overhead as the tree must be traversed on each load or store operation. In the offline approach, developed by Clarke et al. in [6], multiset hashes are used to verify a sequence of load and store operations. The overhead of this scheme is very low if checks are infrequent, but can be quite high if checks are performed frequently. The hybrid scheme combines the advantages of the two schemes and is efficient in most real world situations. The various schemes were implemented on top of Berkeley DB, an embedded database. Real world performance measurements were taken using OpenLDAP, a lightweight directory service, which relies heavily on Berkeley DB. All read and writes to the database were replaced with secure read and secure write operations. Using the DirectoryMark LDAP test suite, the online scheme had an overhead of 113% when compared to the an unmodified server, while the offline scheme with infrequent checks (T=50000) resulted in 39% fewer DOPS. The offline scheme, however, outperformed the online scheme by 31%, while the hybrid scheme outperformed the online scheme by only 19%. In the worst case, when checks were frequent (T=500), the hybrid scheme was 185% slower (65% fewer DOPS) than the online scheme. With frequent checks, the offline scheme was 101% slower (50% fewer DOPS) than the online scheme.by Ajay Sudan.M.Eng

Breast and Cervical Cancer Disparities in Alabama: Current Scenario, Ongoing Efforts to Reduce the Disparity Gaps, and What More We Could be Doing

Over the years, we have made considerable progress in our understanding of the biology of various cancers leading to advancements in cancer management strategies. Consequently, we have witnessed steady improvement in survival rates of cancer patients post-diagnosis, although the progress has been slow for some cancer types. Moreover, the advances in cancer care have not equally benefited all the minority and ethnic populations residing in the United States. The state of Alabama has one of the most diverse demographics in the country and as a result, we witness significant health disparities among our populations. Breast and cervical cancers are two major cancer types that disparately affect the women in our state. Here, we discuss the extent of disparities in the diagnosis and death rates from these cancers in the state of Alabama and potential underlying causes affecting the health outcomes. We also discuss ongoing efforts undertaken to reduce the disparity gaps and provide a perspective for addressing these disparities more effectively. &nbsp

Properties of dust in the North - East part of Perseus Cloud within the open cluster IC 348 using data from IRIS and AKARI

In this work, we have studied the dust properties of the North-East part of Perseus cloud having a size of 0.5o × 0.5o located at RA (ICRS): 56.14o DEC (ICRS): +32.15o, within the Open Cluster IC 348, using IRIS and AKARI data. An isolated region of size 0.39o×0.23o in IRIS and 0.34o×0.16o in AKARI data is detected within it. The infrared fluxes extracted using Aladin v11.0 are used to study the dust temperature and dust mass. The distance of the selected dust structure is calculated using Gaia EDR3, which is 309.98 pc. The infrared flux density is found to be increased for long-wavelength data. The average dust color temperature calculated from short-wavelength IRIS data is more than that calculated from long-wavelength AKARI data, which are 26.34 K±0.11 K for IRIS and 17.63 K±0.02 K for AKARI data. The mass of dust within the entire dust structure is 0.06 Mʘ for IRIS data and 37.44 Mʘ for AKARI data. Jeans mass for isolated region gives contradictory results in two surveys, for IRIS survey total mass is smaller than Jeans mass but for AKARI survey the total mass is larger than the Jeans mass. A good correlation between infrared fluxes is noticed for linear regression. The study background sources observed from the SIMBAD database explore the large number of stars, X-ray sources, YSOs, etc., embedded within the dust structure; some of them are responsible for dust heating and some for the contribution of dust mass. The contour map shows the identical distribution between infrared fluxes, dust color temperature and Planck’s function and dissimilar distribution between dust mass and visual extinction in IRIS and AKARI data. The high temperature at the central region suggests that the core of dust structure is thermally active, radiating the large thermal radiation in comparison to the outer region

Climate change impact assessment on the hydrological regime of the Kaligandaki basin, Nepal

The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used for projection of changes in the hydrological regime of the Kaligandaki basin, based on Representative Concentration Pathways Scenarios (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) of ensemble downscaled Coupled Model Intercomparison Project's (CMIP5) General Circulation Model (GCM) outputs. A rise in the average annual temperature of over 4 °C, and an increase in the average annual precipitation of over 26% is predicted by the end of the 21st century under RCP 8.5 scenario. Modeling results show these will lead to significant changes in the basin's water balance and hydrological regime.UK Government's Department for International Developmen

Alcohol use and burden for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2016 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016

Background Alcohol use is a leading risk factor for death and disability, but its overall association with health remains complex given the possible protective effects of moderate alcohol consumption on some conditions. With our comprehensive approach to health accounting within the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016, we generated improved estimates of alcohol use and alcohol-attributable deaths and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 195 locations from 1990 to 2016, for both sexes and for 5-year age groups between the ages of 15 years and 95 years and older. Methods Using 694 data sources of individual and population-level alcohol consumption, along with 592 prospective and retrospective studies on the risk of alcohol use, we produced estimates of the prevalence of current drinking, abstention, the distribution of alcohol consumption among current drinkers in standard drinks daily (defined as 10 g of pure ethyl alcohol), and alcohol-attributable deaths and DALYs. We made several methodological improvements compared with previous estimates: first, we adjusted alcohol sales estimates to take into account tourist and unrecorded consumption; second, we did a new meta-analysis of relative risks for 23 health outcomes associated with alcohol use; and third, we developed a new method to quantify the level of alcohol consumption that minimises the overall risk to individual health. Findings Globally, alcohol use was the seventh leading risk factor for both deaths and DALYs in 2016, accounting for 2.2% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 1.5-3.0) of age-standardised female deaths and 6.8% (5.8-8.0) of age-standardised male deaths. Among the population aged 15-49 years, alcohol use was the leading risk factor globally in 2016, with 3.8% (95% UI 3.2-4-3) of female deaths and 12.2% (10.8-13-6) of male deaths attributable to alcohol use. For the population aged 15-49 years, female attributable DALYs were 2.3% (95% UI 2.0-2.6) and male attributable DALYs were 8.9% (7.8-9.9). The three leading causes of attributable deaths in this age group were tuberculosis (1.4% [95% UI 1. 0-1. 7] of total deaths), road injuries (1.2% [0.7-1.9]), and self-harm (1.1% [0.6-1.5]). For populations aged 50 years and older, cancers accounted for a large proportion of total alcohol-attributable deaths in 2016, constituting 27.1% (95% UI 21.2-33.3) of total alcohol-attributable female deaths and 18.9% (15.3-22.6) of male deaths. The level of alcohol consumption that minimised harm across health outcomes was zero (95% UI 0.0-0.8) standard drinks per week. Interpretation Alcohol use is a leading risk factor for global disease burden and causes substantial health loss. We found that the risk of all-cause mortality, and of cancers specifically, rises with increasing levels of consumption, and the level of consumption that minimises health loss is zero. These results suggest that alcohol control policies might need to be revised worldwide, refocusing on efforts to lower overall population-level consumption.Peer reviewe

Mortality and pulmonary complications in patients undergoing surgery with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection: an international cohort study

Background: The impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on postoperative recovery needs to be understood to inform clinical decision making during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study reports 30-day mortality and pulmonary complication rates in patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: This international, multicentre, cohort study at 235 hospitals in 24 countries included all patients undergoing surgery who had SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed within 7 days before or 30 days after surgery. The primary outcome measure was 30-day postoperative mortality and was assessed in all enrolled patients. The main secondary outcome measure was pulmonary complications, defined as pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, or unexpected postoperative ventilation. Findings: This analysis includes 1128 patients who had surgery between Jan 1 and March 31, 2020, of whom 835 (74·0%) had emergency surgery and 280 (24·8%) had elective surgery. SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed preoperatively in 294 (26·1%) patients. 30-day mortality was 23·8% (268 of 1128). Pulmonary complications occurred in 577 (51·2%) of 1128 patients; 30-day mortality in these patients was 38·0% (219 of 577), accounting for 81·7% (219 of 268) of all deaths. In adjusted analyses, 30-day mortality was associated with male sex (odds ratio 1·75 [95% CI 1·28–2·40], p\textless0·0001), age 70 years or older versus younger than 70 years (2·30 [1·65–3·22], p\textless0·0001), American Society of Anesthesiologists grades 3–5 versus grades 1–2 (2·35 [1·57–3·53], p\textless0·0001), malignant versus benign or obstetric diagnosis (1·55 [1·01–2·39], p=0·046), emergency versus elective surgery (1·67 [1·06–2·63], p=0·026), and major versus minor surgery (1·52 [1·01–2·31], p=0·047). Interpretation: Postoperative pulmonary complications occur in half of patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection and are associated with high mortality. Thresholds for surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic should be higher than during normal practice, particularly in men aged 70 years and older. Consideration should be given for postponing non-urgent procedures and promoting non-operative treatment to delay or avoid the need for surgery. Funding: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland, Bowel and Cancer Research, Bowel Disease Research Foundation, Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeons, British Association of Surgical Oncology, British Gynaecological Cancer Society, European Society of Coloproctology, NIHR Academy, Sarcoma UK, Vascular Society for Great Britain and Ireland, and Yorkshire Cancer Research

Serum profiling of inflammatory cytokines and obesity and stress-associated hormones in women with or without breast cancer

Background: Breast cancer (BC)health disparities exist between African American (AA)and Caucasian American (CA) women. AA women develop BC earlier in life and are diagnosed with more aggressive phenotype leading to a poorer prognosis than their CA counterparts. Several factors, ranging from social, economic, behavioral to inherent biological differences, are associated with disparities and often one factor influences the other. Here we examined the levels of stress (cortisol),obesity (leptin) hormones and inflammatory cytokines (resistin and IL6) in serum samples obtained from AA and CA women with or without BC. Methods: AA and CA women who visited University of South Alabama Health Hospitals, were asked to participate in this study voluntarily and their consent was obtained. Blood samples were collected from a total of 30 women without BC (15 AA and 15 CA) and 44 with a BC diagnosis (22 AA and 22 CA). Serum was isolated by centrifugation after coagulation, aliquoted and stored at −80 °C. Serum levels of resistin, IL-6, leptin, and cortisol were quantified by performing Enzyme linked Immunosorbent assay using commercial kits. Statistical analyses were performed using Graph pad prism 8.0. Results: High levels of serum cortisol, leptin, resistin and IL-6 were observed in BC patients. Furthermore, AA women with or without BC diagnosis showed significantly higher levels of these hormones and cytokines than CA women. Conclusion: Higher levels of cortisol, leptin, resistin and IL-6 in BC patients suggest their role in aggressive tumor phenotypes, immune suppression and consequently poorer prognosis of the patients