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

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

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

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

Two flavors of dynamical quarks on anisotropic lattices

We report on our study of two-flavor full QCD on anisotropic lattices using $O(a)$-improved Wilson quarks coupled with an RG-improved glue. The bare gauge and quark anisotropies corresponding to the renormalized anisotropy $\xi=a_s/a_t = 2$ are determined as functions of $\beta$ and $\kappa$, which covers the region of spatial lattice spacings $a_s\approx 0.28$--0.16 fm and $m_{PS}/m_V\approx 0.6$--0.9. The calibrations of the bare anisotropies are performed with the Wilson loop and the meson dispersion relation at 4 lattice cutoffs and 5--6 quark masses. Using the calibration results we calculate the meson mass spectrum and the Sommer scale $r_0$. We confirm that the values of $r_0$ calculated for the calibration using pseudo scalar and vector meson energy momentum dispersion relation coincide in the continuum limit within errors. This work serves to lay ground toward studies of heavy quark systems and thermodynamics of QCD including the extraction of the equation of state in the continuum limit using Wilson-type quark actions.Comment: 16 pages, 23 figures, Version accepted for publication in Physical Review

Keeping ahead of powdery mildew in barley

Powdery mildew is one of the world\u27s most significant barley diseases. In Australia, and more particularly Western Australia, its importance has been under-rated, and only recently has interest in this disease emerged. Powdery mildew was widespread throughout Western Australia\u27s southern cereal growing areas in 1983. Only a prolonged dry period in August and early September of that year prevented possible large-scale crop losses. Similar outbreaks occurred in 1984. While some barley varieties are resistant to infection, the use of fungicides, particularly seed dressings, can minimise further infection

An FFAG Transport Line for the PAMELA Project

The PAMELA project to design an accelerator for hadron therapy using non-scaling Fixed Field Alternating Gradient (NS-FFAG) magnets requires a transport line and gantry to take the beam to the patient. The NS-FFAG principle offers the possibility of a gantry much smaller, lighter and cheaper than conventional designs, with the added ability to accept a wide range of fast changing energies. This paper will build on previous work to investigate a transport line which could be used for the PAMELA project. The design is presented along with a study and optimisation of its acceptance