Evaluation of dietary intake in Danish adults by means of an index based on food-based dietary guidelines

Background: Data on dietary intake and physical activity has been collected from a representative sample of the Danish population from 2003–2008. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to describe the habitual diet in Denmark and to evaluate the overall diet quality using a diet quality index based on the National Food-Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDG), which consists of seven guidelines regarding diet and one regarding physical activity. Design: Data from the Danish National Survey of Diet and Physical Activity 2003–2008 (n=3354) were included. The diet quality index was constructed based on five of the seven dietary guidelines. Individuals were categorised according to quartiles of the diet quality index, and food and nutrient intakes were estimated in each of the groups. Results: Macronutrient distribution did not meet recommendations in any of the groups, as energy from total fat and especially saturated fat was too high. A high intake of high-fat milk products, fat on bread and processed meat contributed to a high intake of total fat and saturated fat, and sugar-sweetened soft drinks contributed to a high intake of added sugars in the group below the lowest quartile of the diet quality index. Individuals above in the highest quartile had higher intakes of ‘healthy foods’ such as fish, fruit and vegetables, rye bread, and also a higher consumption of water and wine. Overall, intakes of micronutrients were sufficient in all groups. Conclusions: The diet quality index is a useful tool in assessing food and nutrient intake in individuals with high vs. low degree of compliance towards the dietary guidelines, and provides a valuable tool in future studies investigating variations in dietary intakes with respect to lifestyle, demographic and regional differences in Denmark

Subversion-Resistant Commitment Schemes: Definitions and Constructions

A commitment scheme allows a committer to create a commitment to a secret value, and later may open and reveal the secret value in a verifiable manner. In the common reference string model, (equivocal) commitment schemes require a setup phase which is supposed to be done by a third trusted party. Recently, various news is reported about the subversion of $\textit{trusted}$ setup phase in mass-surveillance activities; strictly speaking about commitment schemes, recently it was discovered that the SwissPost-Scytl mix-net uses a trapdoor commitment scheme, that allows undetectably altering the votes and breaking users\u27 privacy, given the trapdoor [Hae19, LPT19]. Motivated by such news and recent studies on subversion-resistance of various cryptographic primitives, this research studies the security of commitment schemes in the presence of a maliciously chosen commitment key. To attain a clear understanding of achievable security, we define a variety of current definitions called subversion hiding, subversion equivocality, and subversion binding. Then we provide both negative and positive results on constructing subversion-resistant commitment schemes, by showing that some combinations of notions are not compatible while presenting subversion-resistant constructions that can achieve other combinations

Compressed σ-protocol theory and practical application to plug & play secure algorithmics

Σ-Protocols provide a well-understood basis for secure algorithmics. Recently, Bulletproofs (Bootle et al., EUROCRYPT 2016, and Bünz et al., S&P 2018) have been proposed as a drop-in replacement in case of zero-knowledge (ZK) for arithmetic circuits, achieving logarithmic communication instead of linear. Its pivot is an ingenious, logarithmic-size proof of knowledge BP for certain quadratic relations. However, reducing ZK for general relations to it forces a somewhat cumbersome “reinvention” of cryptographic protocol theory. We take a rather different viewpoint and reconcile Bulletproofs with Σ-Protocol Theory such that (a) simpler circuit ZK is developed within established theory, while (b) achieving exactly the same logarithmic communication. The natural key here is linearization. First, we repurpose BPs as a blackbox compression mechanism for standard Σ-Protocols handling ZK proofs of general linear relations (on compactly committed secret vectors); our pivot. Second, we reduce the case of general nonlinear relations to blackbox applications of our pivot via a novel variation on arithmetic secret sharing based techniques for Σ-Protocols (Cramer et al., ICITS 2012). Orthogonally, we enhance versatility by enabling scenarios not previously addressed, e.g., when a secret input is dispersed across several commitments. Standard implementation platforms leading to logarithmic communication follow from a Discrete-Log assumption or a generalized Strong-RSA assumption. Also, under a Knowledge-of-Exponent Assumption (KEA) communication drops to constant, as in ZK-SNARKS. All in all, our theory should more generally be useful for modular (“plug & play”) design of practical cryptographic protocols; this is further evidenced by our separate work (2020) on proofs of partial knowledge

Depletion of Kinesin 5B Affects Lysosomal Distribution and Stability and Induces Peri-Nuclear Accumulation of Autophagosomes in Cancer Cells

Background: Enhanced lysosomal trafficking is associated with metastatic cancer. In an attempt to discover cancer relevant lysosomal motor proteins, we compared the lysosomal proteomes from parental MCF-7 breast cancer cells with those from highly invasive MCF-7 cells that express an active form of the ErbB2 (DN-ErbB2). Methodology/Principal Findings: Mass spectrometry analysis identified kinesin heavy chain protein KIF5B as the only microtubule motor associated with the lysosomes in MCF-7 cells, and ectopic DN-ErbB2 enhanced its lysosomal association. KIF5B associated with lysosomes also in HeLa cervix carcinoma cells as analyzed by subcellular fractionation. The depletion of KIF5B triggered peripheral aggregations of lysosomes followed by lysosomal destabilization, and cell death in HeLa cells. Lysosomal exocytosis in response to plasma membrane damage as well as fluid phase endocytosis functioned, however, normally in these cells. Both HeLa and MCF-7 cells appeared to express similar levels of the KIF5B isoform but the death phenotype was weaker in KIF5B-depleted MCF-7 cells. Surprisingly, KIF5B depletion inhibited the rapamycin-induced accumulation of autophagosomes in MCF-7 cells. In KIF5B-depleted cells the autophagosomes formed and accumulated in the close proximity to the Golgi apparatus, whereas in the control cells they appeared uniformly distributed in the cytoplasm. Conclusions/Significance: Our data identify KIF5B as a cancer relevant lysosomal motor protein with additional functions in autophagosome formatio