A Practical and Scalable Privacy-preserving Framework

ENCRYPT is an EU funded research initiative, working towards the development of a scalable, practical, adaptable privacy-preserving framework, allowing researchers and developers to process data stored in federated cross-border data spaces in a GDPR-compliant way. ENCRYPT proposes an intelligent and user-centric platform for the confidential processing of privacy-sensitive data via configurable, optimizable, and verifiable privacy-preserving techniques. Hence, ENCRYPT builds on top of cutting-edge technologies such as Fully Homomorphic Encryption, Secure Multi-Party Computation, Differential Privacy, Trusted Execution Environment, GPU acceleration, knowledge graphs, and AI-based recommendation systems, making them configurable in terms of security and, most importantly, performance. The ENCRYPT framework is being designed taking into consideration the needs and preferences of relevant actors and will be validated in realistic use cases provided by consortium partners in three sectors, namely healthcare (oncology domain), fintech, and cyber threat intelligence domain. This position paper provides an overview of ENCRYPT by presenting project objectives, use cases, and technology pillars

Atrial Fibrillation Is Associated with Cognitive Impairment, All-Cause Dementia, Vascular Dementia, and Alzheimer's Disease: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a risk factor for cognitive impairment and dementia in patients with stroke history. However, the association between AF and cognitive impairment in broader populations is less clear. Objective To systematically review and quantitatively synthesize the existing evidence regarding the association of AF with cognitive impairment of any severity and etiology and dementia. Methods Medline, Scopus, and Cochrane Central were searched in order to identify studies investigating the association between AF and cognitive impairment (or dementia) cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Studies encompassing and analyzing exclusively patients with stroke history were excluded. A random-effects model meta-analysis was conducted. Potential sources of between-study heterogeneity were investigated via subgroup and meta-regression analyses. Sensitivity analyses including only studies reporting data on stroke-free patients, vascular dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease were performed. Results In total, 43 studies were included. In the pooled analysis, AF was significantly associated with dementia (adjusted OR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.3 to 2.1; I-2, 31%) and the combined endpoint of cognitive impairment or dementia (pooled adjusted OR, 1.5; 95% CI, 1.4 to 1.8; I-2, 34%). The results were significant, even when studies including only stroke-free patients were pooled together (unadjusted OR, 2.2; 95% CI, 1.4 to 3.5; I-2, 96%), but the heterogeneity rates were high. AF was significantly associated with increased risk of both vascular (adjusted OR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.2 to 2.3; I-2, 43%) and Alzheimer’s dementia (adjusted HR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.2 to 1.6; I-2, 42%). Conclusion AF increases the risk of cognitive impairment, all-cause dementia, vascular dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease. Future studies should employ interventions that may delay or even prevent cognitive decline in AF patients

PLOTO: Improved IWW resilience using predictive modelling, environmentally sustainable and emerging digital technologies and tools

editorial reviewed13. Climate action11. Sustainable cities and communitie

International Union of Angiology (IUA) position statement on no-option chronic limb threatening ischemia

This position paper, written by members of International Union of Angiology (IUA) Youth Committee and senior experts, shows an overview of therapeutical approaches for patients with Chronic Limb-Threatening Ischemia (CLTI) and absence of 'standard' solutions for revascularization. The aim is to demonstrate the accurate management of the 'no-option' CLTI patient including the wound treatment and the rehabilitation, considering always the goal of the increase of quality of life of the patients