Beliefs and Attitudes of Medical Students from Public and Private Universities in Malaysia towards Individuals with HIV/AIDS

We describe the findings from a survey assessing the beliefs regarding testing, confidentiality, disclosure, and environment of care and attitudes towards care of people with HIV/AIDS (PLHWA), in 1020, 4th and 5th year medical students, from public and private medical universities in Malaysia. A self-administered validated questionnaire based on the UNAIDS Model Questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale (5, strongly disagree; 4, disagree; 3, neutral; 2, agree; 1, strongly agree) was used as a survey tool. The survey included demographic data and data on undergraduate training received on HIV/AIDS. Statistical significance in the demographic data and training received by respondents was evaluated using the chi-square test while the independent Student's t-test was used for comparison of means between public and private universities. A P value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant with 95% confidence interval. Our study revealed less than 20% of medical students received adequate training to care for PLHWA. They had prevalent negative beliefs regarding testing, confidentiality, disclosure and environment of care towards PLHWA although in giving care to PLHWA, their attitudes were largely positive and nondiscriminatory.Article Link: http://www.hindawi.com/journals/tswj/2013/462826

Design and Focused Ion Beam Fabrication of Single Crystal Diamond Nanobeam Cavities

We present the design and fabrication of nanobeam photonic crystal cavities in single crystal diamond for applications in cavity quantum electrodynamics. First, we describe three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain simulations of a high quality factor (Q ~ 10^6) and small mode volume (V ~ 0.5 ({\lambda}/n)^3) device whose cavity resonance corresponds to the zero-phonon transition (637nm) of the Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) color center in diamond. This high Q/V structure, which would allow for strong light-matter interaction, is achieved by gradually tapering the size of the photonic crystal holes between the defect center and mirror regions of the nanobeam. Next, we demonstrate two different focused ion beam (FIB) fabrication strategies to generate thin diamond membranes and nanobeam photonic crystal resonators from a bulk crystal. These approaches include a diamond crystal "side-milling" procedure as well as an application of the "lift-off" technique used in TEM sample preparation. Finally, we discuss certain aspects of the FIB fabrication routine that are a challenge to the realization of the high-Q/V designs

Split Without a Leak: Reducing Privacy Leakage in Split Learning

The popularity of Deep Learning (DL) makes the privacy of sensitive data more imperative than ever. As a result, various privacy-preserving techniques have been implemented to preserve user data privacy in DL. Among various privacy-preserving techniques, collaborative learning techniques, such as Split Learning (SL) have been utilized to accelerate the learning and prediction process. Initially, SL was considered a promising approach to data privacy. However, subsequent research has demonstrated that SL is susceptible to many types of attacks and, therefore, it cannot serve as a privacy-preserving technique. Meanwhile, countermeasures using a combination of SL and encryption have also been introduced to achieve privacy-preserving deep learning. In this work, we propose a hybrid approach using SL and Homomorphic Encryption (HE). The idea behind it is that the client encrypts the activation map (the output of the split layer between the client and the server) before sending it to the server. Hence, during both forward and backward propagation, the server cannot reconstruct the client’s input data from the intermediate activation map. This improvement is important as it reduces privacy leakage compared to other SL-based works, where the server can gain valuable information about the client’s input. In addition, on the MIT-BIH dataset, our proposed hybrid approach using SL and HE yields faster training time (about~6 times) and significantly reduced communication overhead (almost~160 times) compared to other HE-based approaches, thereby offering improved privacy protection for sensitive data in DL

Ludwik Finkelstein and measurement - A challenge for the future

A brief reflection on the contribution of Ludwik Finkelstein and, echoing his own words, the continually changing and developing response to the push of advancing technology and the pull of changing requirements, setting a challenge for education in the field of measurement and instrumentation for future generations

Love or Hate? Share or Split? Privacy-Preserving Training Using Split Learning and Homomorphic Encryption

Split learning (SL) is a new collaborative learning technique that allows participants, e.g. a client and a server, to train machine learning models without the client sharing raw data. In this setting, the client initially applies its part of the machine learning model on the raw data to generate activation maps and then sends them to the server to continue the training process. Previous works in the field demonstrated that reconstructing activation maps could result in privacy leakage of client data. In addition to that, existing mitigation techniques that overcome the privacy leakage of SL prove to be significantly worse in terms of accuracy. In this paper, we improve upon previous works by constructing a protocol based on U-shaped SL that can operate on homomorphically encrypted data. More precisely, in our approach, the client applies homomorphic encryption on the activation maps before sending them to the server, thus protecting user privacy. This is an important improvement that reduces privacy leakage in comparison to other SL-based works. Finally, our results show that, with the optimum set of parameters, training with HE data in the U-shaped SL setting only reduces accuracy by 2.65% compared to training on plaintext. In addition, raw training data privacy is preserved

Istraživanje egzotičnih hiperjezgri ΛΛ6He hipersferičnom metodom tri tijela

We critically review the ΛΛ dynamics by examining several ΛΛ and Λα phenomenological potentials in the study of the bound state properties of ΛΛ 6He, as a three-body system. The hyperspherical harmonics expansion method, which is an essentially exact method, has been employed for the three-body system. A convergence in binding energy up to 0.07% for Kmax = 20 has been achieved. In our calculation, we made no approximation in restricting the allowed l-values of the interacting pair.Pažljivo istražujemo dinamiku ΛΛ ispitivanjem nekoliko ΛΛ i Λα fenomenoloških potencijala proučavajući svojstva vezanih stanja 6 ΛΛHe kao sustava tri tijela. Primijenili smo metodu hipersferičnih harmonika, koja je u biti egzaktna metoda za sustav tri tijela. Postigli smo konvergenciju energije vezanja do 0.07% za Kmax = 20. U ovim se računima nisu primijenila približenja ograničenjem dozvoljenih vrijednosti l međudjelujućeg para tijela

Istraživanje egzotičnih hiperjezgri ΛΛ6He hipersferičnom metodom tri tijela

We critically review the ΛΛ dynamics by examining several ΛΛ and Λα phenomenological potentials in the study of the bound state properties of ΛΛ 6He, as a three-body system. The hyperspherical harmonics expansion method, which is an essentially exact method, has been employed for the three-body system. A convergence in binding energy up to 0.07% for Kmax = 20 has been achieved. In our calculation, we made no approximation in restricting the allowed l-values of the interacting pair.Pažljivo istražujemo dinamiku ΛΛ ispitivanjem nekoliko ΛΛ i Λα fenomenoloških potencijala proučavajući svojstva vezanih stanja 6 ΛΛHe kao sustava tri tijela. Primijenili smo metodu hipersferičnih harmonika, koja je u biti egzaktna metoda za sustav tri tijela. Postigli smo konvergenciju energije vezanja do 0.07% za Kmax = 20. U ovim se računima nisu primijenila približenja ograničenjem dozvoljenih vrijednosti l međudjelujućeg para tijela

Portable devices for delivering imagery and modelling interventions: effects on netball players’ adherence, shooting performance, and self-efficacy

The main objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of portable devices (MP4) and a stationary device (DVD and fixed point stationary computer) in delivering imagery and modelling training among female netball players, examining the effect on imagery adherence, performance, self-efficacy, and the relative efficacy of presenting imagery instructions once at the start or before each of the video modelling examples. Fifteen participants were randomly assigned into each of the MP4 (initial and repeated instructions) and DVD conditions. Participants (N = 45) completed a measure of self-efficacy for netball shooting and performed a netball-shooting test. Then, they practised imagery for seven days. Finally, they repeated all the measures. The results showed shooting performance of participants in the portable device conditions improved significantly (p &lt; .05) compared to those in the stationary device condition, but there was no significant shooting performance difference between the two portable device conditions. These results indicate that MP4 was a useful portable device to enhance imagery with video modelling training adherence and to improve performance.Keywords: imagery, video-modelling, portable device, self-efficacy