New Impossible Differential Attacks on Camellia

Camellia is one of the most worldwide used block ciphers, which has been selected as a standard by ISO/IEC. In this paper, we propose several new 7-round impossible differentials of Camellia with 2 $FL/FL^{-1}$ layers, which turn out to be the first 7-round impossible differentials with 2 $FL/FL^{-1}$ layers. Combined with some basic techniques including the early abort approach and the key schedule consideration, we achieve the impossible differential attacks on 11-round Camellia-128, 11-round Camellia-192, 12-round Camellia-192, and 14-round Camellia-256, and the time complexity are $2^{123.6}$, $2^{121.7}$, $2^{171.4}$ and $2^{238.2}$ respectively. As far as we know, these are the best results against the reduced-round variants of Camellia. Especially, we give the first attack on 11-round Camellia-128 reduced version with $FL/FL^{-1}$ layers

Effect of PGC-1α on Proliferation, Migration, and Transdifferentiation of Rat Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells Induced by High Glucose

We assessed the role of PGC-1α (PPARγ coactivator-1 alpha) in glucose-induced proliferation, migration, and inflammatory gene expression of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). We carried out phagocytosis studies to assess the role of PGC-1α in transdifferentiation of VSMCs by flow cytometry. We found that high glucose stimulated proliferation, migration and inflammatory gene expression of VSMCs, but overexpression of PGC-1α attenuated the effects of glucose. In addition, overexpression of PGC-1α decreased mRNA and protein level of VSMCs-related genes, and induced macrophage-related gene expression, as well as phagocytosis of VSMCs. Therefore, PGC-1α inhibited glucose-induced proliferation, migration and inflammatory gene expression of VSMCs, which are key features in the pathology of atherosclerosis. More importantly, PGC-1α transdifferentiated VSMCs to a macrophage-like state. Such transdifferentiation possibly increased the portion of VSMCs-derived foam cells in the plaque and favored plaque stability

Strategic modification of ligands for remarkable piezochromic luminescence (PCL) based on a neutral Ir(iii) phosphor

A new aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-active neutral Ir(III) complex has been rationally designed and synthesized by introducing carboxyl and F substituents into the ancillary and cyclometalating ligands, respectively, to construct different kinds of intermolecular interaction, leading to excellent piezochromic luminescence (PCL) properties. The emission colours are tunable by a grinding–fuming/heating process with good reversibility in the solid state. A combination of powder X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, 1H NMR, X-ray photoelectron and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy unambiguously confirm that the mechanism of PCL involves disruption of the intermolecular π–π interactions and hydrogen bonding. The combined AIE and PCL properties have enabled an efficient re-writable data recording device to be fabricated using the Ir(III) complex as the active material

Dinuclear metal complexes: multifunctional properties and applications

The development of metal complexes for optoelectronic applications is a fertile area of research. In contrast to the rigorous development of mononuclear metal complexes, dinuclear species have been less well studied and their fundamental chemistry and applications are under-explored. However, dinuclear species present special properties and functions compared with mononuclear species as a consequence of tuning the bridging ligands, the cyclometalated ligands or the two metal centers. More recently, dinuclear species have enabled important breakthroughs in the fields of OLEDs, photocatalytic water splitting and CO2 reduction, DSPEC, chemosensors, biosensors, PDT, smart materials and so on. Here we present an overview of recent developments of dinuclear metal complexes, their multifunctional properties and their various applications. The relationship between structure and property of dinuclear species and important factors which influence device performance are discussed. Finally, we illustrate some challenges and opportunities for future research into dinuclear metal complexes. This review aims to provide an up-to-date summary and outlook of functional dinuclear metal complexes and to stimulate more researchers to contribute to this exciting interdisciplinary field

Atorvastatin Combining with Probucol: A New Way to Reduce Serum Uric Acid Level during Perioperative Period of Interventional Procedure

Uric acid has ever been considered as one of contrast induced acute kidney injury’s risk factors. Atorvastatin and probucol can both improve contrast induced acute kidney injury separately. This prospective study is to assess their effect on reducing serum uric acid level and contrast induced acute kidney injury during perioperative period of interventional procedure. On the basis of different doses of atorvastatin and probucol, 208 cases admitted for coronary angiography or percutaneous coronary intervention were randomly classified into standard combined group (S-C group), intensive combined group (I-C group), and intensive atorvastatin group (I-A group). Patients’ blood urea nitrogen, serum creatinine, and serum uric acid were measured and estimated glomerular filtration rate was evaluated 24 hours before and after the procedure. After procedure, blood urea nitrogen in all the three groups decreased; Scr of S-C group and I-A group increased significantly, while estimated glomerular filtration decreased in the S-C group (P<0.05); serum uric acid in S-C group and I-C group decreased significantly (P<0.05). Combination treatment of atorvastatin and probucol before intervention could reduce perioperative serum uric acid level; meanwhile, the intensive combined treatment can improve the contrast induced acute kidney injury. The result was the same for hypertensive patients

Improvement and Performance Evaluation for Multimedia Files Transmission in Vehicle-Based DTNs

In recent years, P2P file sharing has been widely embraced and becomes the largest application of the Internet traffic. And the development of automobile industry has promoted a trend of deploying Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks over vehicle ad hoc networks (VANETs) for mobile content distribution. Due to the high mobility of nodes, nodes’ limited radio transmission range and sparse distribution, VANETs are divided and links are interrupted intermittently. At this moment, VANETs may become Vehicle-based Delay Tolerant Network (VDTNs). Therefore, this work proposes an Optimal Fragmentation-based Multimedia Transmission scheme (OFMT) based on P2P lookup protocol in VDTNs, which can enable multimedia files to be sent to the receiver fast and reliably in wireless mobile P2P networks over VDTNs. In addition, a method of calculating the most suitable size of the fragment is provided, which is tested and verified in the simulation. And we also show that OFMT can defend a certain degree of DoS attack and senders can freely join and leave the wireless mobile P2P network. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can significantly improve the performance of the file delivery rate and shorten the file delivery delay compared with the existing schemes

A Meet-in-the-Middle Attack on Round-Reduced mCrypton Using the Differential Enumeration Technique

This paper describes a meet-in-the-middle (MITM) attack against the round reduced versions of the block cipher mCrypton-64/96/128. We construct a 4-round distinguisher and lower the memory requirement from $2^{100}$ to $2^{44}$ using the differential enumeration technique. Based on the distinguisher, we launch a MITM attack on 7-round mCrypton-64/96/128 with complexities of $2^{44}$ 64-bit blocks and $2^{57}$ encryptions. Then we extend the basic attack to 8 rounds for mCrypton-128 by adding some key-bridging techniques. The 8-round attack on mCrypton-128 requires a time complexity $2^{100}$ and a memory complexity $2^{44}$. Furthermore, we construct a 5-round distinguisher and propose a MITM attack on 9-round mCrypton-128 with a time complexity of $2^{115}$ encryptions and a memory complexity of $2^{113}$ 64-bit blocks

Nurse-led cognitive screening model for older adults in primary care

Author version made available in accordance with publisher copyright. Under 12 month embargo from date of publication [26 September 2014]. This is the accepted version of the following article: [Yang, Y., Xiao, L. D., Deng, L., Wang, Y., Li, M. and Ullah, S. (2014), Nurse-led cognitive screening model for older adults in primary care. Geriatrics & Gerontology International.], which has been published in final form at [doi: 10.1111/ggi.12339]. In addition, authors may also transmit, print and share copies with colleagues, provided that there is no systematic distribution of the submitted version, e.g. posting on a listserve, network or automated delivery.Aim The present study aimed to establish a nurse-led cognitive screening model for community-dwelling older adults with subjective memory complaints from seven communities in Chongqing, China, and report the findings of this model. Methods Screenings took place from July 2012 to June 2013. Cognitive screening was incorporated into the annual health assessment for older adults with subjective memory complaints in a primary care setting. Two community nurses were trained to implement the screening using the Mini-Mental State Examination and Montreal Cognitive Assessment. Results Of 733 older adults, 495 (67.5%) reported having subjective memory complaints. Of the 249 individuals who participated in the cognitive screening, 102 (41%) had mild cognitive impairment, whereas 32 (12.9%) had cognitive impairment. A total of 80 participants (78.4%) with mild cognitive impairment agreed to participate in a memory support program. Participants with cognitive impairment were referred to specialists for further examination and diagnosis; only one reported that he had seen a specialist and had been diagnosed with dementia. Conclusions Incorporating cognitive screening into the annual health assessment for older adults with subjective memory complaints was feasible, though referral rates from primary care providers remained unchanged. The present study highlights the urgent need for simple screenings as well as community-based support services in primary care for older adults with cognitive or mild cognitive impairments

Survey of Image Adversarial Example Defense Techniques

The rapid and extensive growth of artificial intelligence introduces new security challenges. The generation and defense of adversarial examples for deep neural networks is one of the hot spots. Deep neural networks are&nbsp; most widely used in the field of images and most easily cheated by image adversarial examples. The research on the defense techniques for image adversarial examples is an important tool to improve the security of AI applications. There is no standard explanation for the existence of image adversarial examples, but it can be observed and understood from different dimensions, which can provide insights for proposing targeted defense approaches. This paper sorts out and analyzes current mainstream hypotheses of the reason for the existence of adversarial examples, such as the blind spot hypothesis, linear hypothesis, decision boundary hypothesis, and feature hypothesis, and the correlations between various hypotheses and typical adversarial example generation methods. Based on this, this paper summarizes the image adversarial example defense techniques in two dimensions, model-based and data-based, and compares and analyzes the adaptation scenarios, advantages and disadvantages of different technical methods. Most of the existing image adversarial example defense techniques are aimed at defending against specific adversarial example generation methods, and there is no universal defense theory and method yet. In the real application, it needs to consider the specific application scenarios, potential security risks and other factors, optimize and combine the configuration in the existing defense methods. Future researchers can deepen their technical research in terms of generalized defense theory, evaluation of defense effectiveness, and systematic protection strategies