Leveraging a Randomized Key Matrix to Enhance the Security of Symmetric Substitution Ciphers

An innovative strategy to enhance the security of symmetric substitution ciphers is presented, through the implementation of a randomized key matrix suitable for various file formats, including but not limited to binary and text files. Despite their historical relevance, symmetric substitution ciphers have been limited by vulnerabilities to cryptanalytic methods like frequency analysis and known plaintext attacks. The aim of our research is to mitigate these vulnerabilities by employing a polyalphabetic substitution strategy that incorporates a distinct randomized key matrix. This matrix plays a pivotal role in generating a unique random key, comprising characters, encompassing both uppercase and lowercase letters, numeric, and special characters, to derive the corresponding ciphertext. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology in enhancing the security of conventional substitution methods for file encryption and decryption is supported by comprehensive testing and analysis, which encompass computational speed, frequency analysis, keyspace examination, Kasiski test, entropy analysis, and the utilization of a large language model.Comment: In Proceedings of the 10th IEEE Asia-Pacific Conference on Computer Science and Data Engineering 2023 (CSDE

Relapse of Takayasu’s arteritis with tuberculosis relapse: a rare presentation

Takayasu’s Arteritis (TA) is a disease of unknown etiology with incidence between 1.2 to 2.3 cases per million per year. It is a chronic granulomatous arteritis affecting large elastic arteries, predominantly the aorta, its main branches, pulmonary and coronary arteries characterized histologically by an inflammatory cell infiltrate that affects all the layers of the arterial wall. The etiology of TA is not clear but a causal relationship between TA and tuberculosis (TB) have been suggested. The first case of Takayasu’s arteritis was described in 1908 by Japanese ophthalmologist Mikito Takayasu. Despite the association with tuberculosis and the similarity between granulomatous lesions in both the diseases, the exact role of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the pathogenesis of TA is still unknown

A Horseshoe Pit mixture model for Bayesian screening with an application to light sheet fluorescence microscopy in brain imaging

Finding parsimonious models through variable selection is a fundamental problem in many areas of statistical inference. Here, we focus on Bayesian regression models, where variable selection can be implemented through a regularizing prior imposed on the distribution of the regression coefficients. In the Bayesian literature, there are two main types of priors used to accomplish this goal: the spike-and-slab and the continuous scale mixtures of Gaussians. The former is a discrete mixture of two distributions characterized by low and high variance. In the latter, a continuous prior is elicited on the scale of a zero-mean Gaussian distribution. In contrast to these existing methods, we propose a new class of priors based on discrete mixture of continuous scale mixtures providing a more general framework for Bayesian variable selection. To this end, we substitute the observation-specific local shrinkage parameters (typical of continuous mixtures) with mixture component shrinkage parameters. Our approach drastically reduces the number of parameters needed and allows sharing information across the coefficients, improving the shrinkage effect. By using half-Cauchy distributions, this approach leads to a cluster-shrinkage version of the Horseshoe prior. We present the properties of our model and showcase its estimation and prediction performance in a simulation study. We then recast the model in a multiple hypothesis testing framework and apply it to a neurological dataset obtained using a novel whole-brain imaging technique

A step to clean energy - Sustainability in energy system management in an emerging economy context

Due to high consumption of energy, its associated concerns such as energy security and demand, wastage of resources, and material-energy recovery are leading to the importance of sustainable energy system development. This is a high time to assess the sustainability in energy systems for meeting the requirements of energy with an enhanced economic, ecological, and social performance from a nation context. The energy system plays a significant role in deciding the economic progress of emerging economies such as India, China, Brazil, and Africa. In this paper, an original attempt has been made to list and evaluate important indicators for sustainability assessment of energy systems development and management in an emerging economy especially India. Firstly, based on the analysis of the extant literature and then followed by expert opinion, potential key sustainability assessment indicators for energy systems development and management were identified. Further, grey based Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory technique to understand the causal interactions amongst indicators and segregate them into cause and effect groups, is used. This work can provide useful aids to decision making bodies, sustainability practitioners and business organisations in selective implementation, monitoring and control of sustainable strategies in energy systems development and management and meeting sustainable development goals of clean energy in a nation context.N

Food and welfare in India, c. 1900–1950

In 2001, the People's Union for Civil Liberties submitted a writ petition to the Supreme Court of India on the “right to food.” The petitioner was a voluntary human rights organization; the initial respondents were the Government of India, the Food Corporation of India, and six state governments. The petition opens with three pointed questions posed to the court: * A. Does the right to life mean that people who are starving and who are too poor to buy food grains ought to be given food grains free of cost by the State from the surplus stock lying with the State, particularly when it is reported that a large part of it is lying unused and rotting? * B. Does not the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India include the right to food? * C. Does not the right to food, which has been upheld by the Honourable Court, imply that the state has a duty to provide food especially in situations of drought, to people who are drought affected and are not in a position to purchase food

Drug Utilization Study in Patients Attending Hypertension Clinic of a Tertiary Care Hospital, Rajasthan, India

Background: Hypertension is a major public health problem in India, affecting a significant proportion of the population. Drug utilization research is important for assessing the rationality of drug treatment and for identifying areas for improvement. This study examined the drug utilization pattern of antihypertensive drugs in hypertensive patients at an Outpatient Department (OPD) in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India, based on JNC-8 classification. Materials and Methods: The observational cross-sectional study included 300 hypertension patients aged above 25 attending the hypertension clinic. Exclusions were made for inpatients, age < 25, uncertain diagnosis, pregnant/lactating mothers, and patients subsequently admitted after OPD visits. Results: The majority of affected patients were above 60 years old, with most having hypertension for 2-5 years, often accompanied by Type II Diabetes Mellitus. Oral administration was the primary drug delivery route. On average, patients received 1.93 antihypertensive drugs per encounter (range: 1 to 4), with an average of 5.82 drugs per encounter (range: 1 to 12). Losartan (72%) and amlodipine (46%) were the most prescribed drugs, with Angiotensin Receptor Blockers (ARBs) being the most prescribed drug class (79.3%), followed by Calcium Channel Blockers (CCBs) at 46.6%. The most common therapy was a two-drug combination (44.6%), followed by single-drug therapy (33%). Approximately 26.3% of prescriptions indicated potential drug interactions. Conclusions: This study provides valuable baseline data on the prescribing pattern of antihypertensive drugs. Rational prescribing practices are being followed, with the majority of patients being prescribed a combination of two or three antihypertensive drugs. However, there is a need to educate patients about the risks associated with uncontrolled high blood pressure and the benefits of lifestyle changes

Targeting tumour re-wiring by triple blockade of mTORC1, epidermal growth factor, and oestrogen receptor signalling pathways in endocrine-resistant breast cancer

Background Endocrine therapies are the mainstay of treatment for oestrogen receptor (ER)-positive (ER+) breast cancer (BC). However, resistance remains problematic largely due to enhanced cross-talk between ER and growth factor pathways, circumventing the need for steroid hormones. Previously, we reported the anti-proliferative effect of everolimus (RAD001-mTORC1 inhibitor) with endocrine therapy in resistance models; however, potential routes of escape from treatment via ERBB2/3 signalling were observed. We hypothesised that combined targeting of three cellular nodes (ER, ERBB, and mTORC1) may provide enhanced long-term clinical utility. Methods A panel of ER+ BC cell lines adapted to long-term oestrogen deprivation (LTED) and expressing ESR1wt or ESR1Y537S, modelling acquired resistance to an aromatase-inhibitor (AI), were treated in vitro with a combination of RAD001 and neratinib (pan-ERBB inhibitor) in the presence or absence of oestradiol (E2), tamoxifen (4-OHT), or fulvestrant (ICI182780). End points included proliferation, cell signalling, cell cycle, and effect on ER-mediated transactivation. An in-vivo model of AI resistance was treated with monotherapies and combinations to assess the efficacy in delaying tumour progression. RNA-seq analysis was performed to identify changes in global gene expression as a result of the indicated therapies. Results Here, we show RAD001 and neratinib (pan-ERBB inhibitor) caused a concentration-dependent decrease in proliferation, irrespective of the ESR1 mutation status. The combination of either agent with endocrine therapy further reduced proliferation but the maximum effect was observed with a triple combination of RAD001, neratinib, and endocrine therapy. In the absence of oestrogen, RAD001 caused a reduction in ER-mediated transcription in the majority of the cell lines, which associated with a decrease in recruitment of ER to an oestrogen-response element on the TFF1 promoter. Contrastingly, neratinib increased both ER-mediated transactivation and ER recruitment, an effect reduced by the addition of RAD001. In-vivo analysis of an LTED model showed the triple combination of RAD001, neratinib, and fulvestrant was most effective at reducing tumour volume. Gene set enrichment analysis revealed that the addition of neratinib negated the epidermal growth factor (EGF)/EGF receptor feedback loops associated with RAD001. Conclusions Our data support the combination of therapies targeting ERBB2/3 and mTORC1 signalling, together with fulvestrant, in patients who relapse on endocrine therapy and retain a functional ER

Role of CCL3L1-CCR5 Genotypes in the Epidemic Spread of HIV-1 and Evaluation of Vaccine Efficacy

Polymorphisms in CCR5, the major coreceptor for HIV, and CCL3L1, a potent CCR5 ligand and HIV-suppressive chemokine, are determinants of HIV-AIDS susceptibility. Here, we mathematically modeled the potential impact of these genetic factors on the epidemic spread of HIV, as well as on its prevention.Ro, the basic reproductive number, is a fundamental concept in explaining the emergence and persistence of epidemics. By modeling sexual transmission among HIV+/HIV- partner pairs, we find that Ro estimates, and concordantly, the temporal and spatial patterns of HIV outgrowth are highly dependent on the infecting partners' CCL3L1-CCR5 genotype. Ro was least and highest when the infected partner possessed protective and detrimental CCL3L1-CCR5 genotypes, respectively. The modeling data indicate that in populations such as Pygmies with a high CCL3L1 gene dose and protective CCR5 genotypes, the spread of HIV might be minimal. Additionally, Pc, the critical vaccination proportion, an estimate of the fraction of the population that must be vaccinated successfully to eradicate an epidemic was <1 only when the infected partner had a protective CCL3L1-CCR5 genotype. Since in practice Pc cannot be >1, to prevent epidemic spread, population groups defined by specific CCL3L1-CCR5 genotypes might require repeated vaccination, or as our models suggest, a vaccine with an efficacy of >70%. Further, failure to account for CCL3L1-CCR5-based genetic risk might confound estimates of vaccine efficacy. For example, in a modeled trial of 500 subjects, misallocation of CCL3L1-CCR5 genotype of only 25 (5%) subjects between placebo and vaccine arms results in a relative error of approximately 12% from the true vaccine efficacy.CCL3L1-CCR5 genotypes may impact on the dynamics of the HIV epidemic and, consequently, the observed heterogeneous global distribution of HIV infection. As Ro is lowest when the infecting partner has beneficial CCL3L1-CCR5 genotypes, we infer that therapeutic vaccines directed towards reducing the infectivity of the host may play a role in halting epidemic spread. Further, CCL3L1-CCR5 genotype may provide critical guidance for optimizing the design and evaluation of HIV-1 vaccine trials and prevention programs