On the security of arbitrated quantum signature schemes

Due to potential capability of providing unconditional security, arbitrated quantum signature (AQS) schemes, whose implementation depends on the participation of a trusted third party, received intense attention in the past decade. Recently, some typical AQS schemes were cryptanalyzed and improved. In this paper, we analyze security property of some AQS schemes and show that all the previous AQS schemes, no matter original or improved, are still insecure in the sense that the messages and the corresponding signatures can be exchanged among different receivers, allowing the receivers to deny accepting the signature of an appointed message. Some further improvement methods on the AQS schemes are also discussed.Comment: 4 pages, no figure

Early intervention for incipient insanity: early notions from the 19th century English literature.

AIM: Early intervention programmes in mental illnesses started to bloom in the 1990s, and many programmes have been established worldwide during the past twenty years. However, the concept of early intervention has emerged during the 19th century but it did not make much impact on practice. The aim of this review is to identify the difficulties appeared during that period of time which could provide insight into the modern development of early intervention initiatives. METHODS: A narrative review which focused on English literature about early intervention for insanity during the 19th century was undertaken. RESULTS: Clinicians during the 19th century recognized that treatment would be the most effective at the early stage of the mental illness and they had emphasized the importance of early intervention. However, because of a number of factors, such as the limited roles of asylums, lack of knowledge about mental disorder and the lack of effective treatment, the idea of early intervention did not make impact in clinical service during that period of time. CONCLUSION: During the past two hundred years, understanding towards mental illness has advanced and more effective treatments, such as the use of anti-psychotic medications, have been developed. Reflecting on the past experience and difficulties might shed light on the development of today early intervention in mental disorder.This is the author accepted manuscript. It is currently under an indefinite embargo pending publication by Wiley

Single-cell profiling reveals distinct immune response landscapes in tuberculous pleural effusion and non-TPE

BackgroundTuberculosis (TB) is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and remains a major health threat worldwide. However, a detailed understanding of the immune cells and inflammatory mediators in Mtb-infected tissues is still lacking. Tuberculous pleural effusion (TPE), which is characterized by an influx of immune cells to the pleural space, is thus a suitable platform for dissecting complex tissue responses to Mtb infection.MethodsWe employed singe-cell RNA sequencing to 10 pleural fluid (PF) samples from 6 patients with TPE and 4 non-TPEs including 2 samples from patients with TSPE (transudative pleural effusion) and 2 samples with MPE (malignant pleural effusion).ResultCompared to TSPE and MPE, TPE displayed obvious difference in the abundance of major cell types (e.g., NK, CD4+T, Macrophages), which showed notable associations with disease type. Further analyses revealed that the CD4 lymphocyte population in TPE favored a Th1 and Th17 response. Tumor necrosis factors (TNF)-, and XIAP related factor 1 (XAF1)-pathways induced T cell apoptosis in patients with TPE. Immune exhaustion in NK cells was an important feature in TPE. Myeloid cells in TPE displayed stronger functional capacity for phagocytosis, antigen presentation and IFN-γ response, than TSPE and MPE. Systemic elevation of inflammatory response genes and pro-inflammatory cytokines were mainly driven by macrophages in patients with TPE.ConclusionWe provide a tissue immune landscape of PF immune cells, and revealed a distinct local immune response in TPE and non-TPE (TSPE and MPE). These findings will improve our understanding of local TB immunopathogenesis and provide potential targets for TB therapy

Meta-analysis Followed by Replication Identifies Loci in or near CDKN1B, TET3, CD80, DRAM1, and ARID5B as Associated with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in Asians

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a prototype autoimmune disease with a strong genetic involvement and ethnic differences. Susceptibility genes identified so far only explain a small portion of the genetic heritability of SLE, suggesting that many more loci are yet to be uncovered for this disease. In this study, we performed a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies on SLE in Chinese Han populations and followed up the findings by replication in four additional Asian cohorts with a total of 5,365 cases and 10,054 corresponding controls. We identified genetic variants in or near CDKN1B, TET3, CD80, DRAM1, and ARID5B as associated with the disease. These findings point to potential roles of cell-cycle regulation, autophagy, and DNA demethylation in SLE pathogenesis. For the region involving TET3 and that involving CDKN1B, multiple independent SNPs were identified, highlighting a phenomenon that might partially explain the missing heritability of complex diseases

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Early treatment of insanity in 19th century England

Early intervention in psychosis emerged in the 1980s and has gradually become a new paradigm in mental health service worldwide. Yet, very few studies on the history of early intervention in mental illness exist even to date. This dissertation explored the situation in 19th century England when Britain was the only superpower in the world and at the same time was plagued by the rising number of insanity cases that she could only cope with by building more and bigger asylums. The idea of early treatment of insanity was found in various publications written by different physicians in the first half of 19th century. A few of them also proposed primary preventive measures as they believed that a good and disciplined life style could help to avoid the illness. They also saw that insanity could be hereditary. Meanwhile, the debate over the nature of insanity whether it is purely biological or goes beyond the physical body was happening in England as in continental Europe. The physicians supporting the idea of early intervention were also those who subscribed to the theory that insanity has a biological origin. The staging concept in the development of mental illness was well conceived by some physicians. There were also attempts to identify the symptoms in incipient insanity which is close to the modern concept of prodromal stage. Some medical professions also put forward detailed theories on the pathology of the illness based on their knowledge on brain physiology and its interaction with other organs of the body. During this period, professionalization of psychiatrists was advancing. In this process, there was clash between two schools of thoughts. One considered that the profession should move along a scientific path while the other considered that more effort should be devoted to pragmatic issues such as those concerning asylum management. This conflict had in some way hindered the advancement of early treatment. Another major obstacle to the provision of early treatment was the distrust of the society towards psychiatrists. After a number of notorious cases involving people being wrongly confined in the asylums had been widely publicized, the law was tightened to limit the authority of psychiatrists in certifying insanity and in treating uncertified cases. This had resulted in a serious blockade on the road to early treatment. Stigmatization of mental illness in the society was also a major factor in deterring people from seeking early assistance. From the experience in 19th century England, it was found that medicalization of mental illness, professionalization of psychiatrists, establishment of mutual trust between psychiatrists and the society, as well as de-stigmatization of mental illness would be conducive to the development of an early intervention paradigm.published_or_final_versionPsychological MedicineMasterMaster of Psychological Medicin