A Novel Clustering Model Based on Set Pair Analysis for the Energy Consumption Forecast in China

The energy consumption forecast is important for the decision-making of national economic and energy policies. But it is a complex and uncertainty system problem affected by the outer environment and various uncertainty factors. Herein, a novel clustering model based on set pair analysis (SPA) was introduced to analyze and predict energy consumption. The annual dynamic relative indicator (DRI) of historical energy consumption was adopted to conduct a cluster analysis with Fisher’s optimal partition method. Combined with indicator weights, group centroids of DRIs for influence factors were transferred into aggregating connection numbers in order to interpret uncertainty by identity-discrepancy-contrary (IDC) analysis. Moreover, a forecasting model based on similarity to group centroid was discussed to forecast energy consumption of a certain year on the basis of measured values of influence factors. Finally, a case study predicting China’s future energy consumption as well as comparison with the grey method was conducted to confirm the reliability and validity of the model. The results indicate that the method presented here is more feasible and easier to use and can interpret certainty and uncertainty of development speed of energy consumption and influence factors as a whole

A Lightweight Privacy-Preserving Fair Meeting Location Determination Scheme

Equipped with mobile devices, people relied on location-based services can expediently and reasonably organize their activities. But location information may disclose people\u27s sensitive information, such as interests, health status. Besides, the limited resources of mobile devices restrict the further development of location-based services. In this paper, aiming at the fair meeting position determination service, we design a lightweight privacy-preserving solution. In our scheme, mobile users only need to submit service requests. A cloud server and a location services provider are responsible for service response, where the cloud server achieves most of the calculation, and the location services provider determines the fair meeting location based on the computational results of the cloud server and broadcasts it to mobile users. The proposed scheme adopts homomorphic encryptions and random permutation methods to preserve the location privacy of mobile users. The security analyses show that the proposed scheme is privacy-preserving under our defined threat models. Besides, the presented solution only needs to calculate n Euclidean distances, and hence, our scheme has linear computation and communication complexity

Cost-effective secure e-health cloud system using identity based cryptographic techniques

Nowadays E-health cloud systems are more and more widely employed. However the security of these systems needs more consideration for the sensitive health information of patients. Some protocols on how to secure the e-health cloud system have been proposed, but many of them use the traditional PKI infrastructure to implement cryptographic mechanisms, which is cumbersome for they require every user having and remembering its own public/private keys. Identity based encryption (View the MathML sourceIBE) is a cryptographic primitive which uses the identity information of the user (e.g., email address) as the public key. Hence the public key is implicitly authenticated and the certificate management is simplified. Proxy re-encryption is another cryptographic primitive which aims at transforming a ciphertext under the delegator AA into another ciphertext which can be decrypted by the delegatee BB. In this paper, we describe several identity related cryptographic techniques for securing E-health system, which include new View the MathML sourceIBE schemes, new identity based proxy re-encryption (View the MathML sourceIBPRE) schemes. We also prove these schemes’ security and give the performance analysis, the results show our View the MathML sourceIBPRE scheme is especially highly efficient for re-encryption, which can be used to achieve cost-effective cloud usage.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Multifunctional dendrimer/combretastatin A4 inclusion complexes enable in vitro targeted cancer therapy

Mengen Zhang1,2, Rui Guo2, Yin Wang2, Xueyan Cao2, Mingwu Shen2, Xiangyang Shi1-31State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials; 2College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Donghua University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 3Centro de Química da Madeira, Universidade da Madeira, Campus da Penteada, Funchal, PortugalBackground: We report here a unique approach to using multifunctional dendrimer/combretastatin A4 (CA4) inclusion complexes for targeted cancer therapeutics.Methods: Amine-terminated generation 5 polyamidoamine dendrimers were first partially acetylated to neutralize a significant portion of the terminal amines, and then the remaining dendrimer terminal amines were sequentially modified with fluorescein isothiocyanate as an imaging agent and folic acid as a targeting ligand. The multifunctional dendrimers formed (G5.NHAc-FI-FA) were utilized to encapsulate the anticancer drug, CA4, for targeted delivery into cancer cells overexpressing folic acid receptors.Results: The inclusion complexes of G5.NHAc-FI-FA/CA4 formed were stable and are able to significantly improve the water solubility of CA4 from 11.8 to 240 µg/mL. In vitro release studies showed that the multifunctional dendrimers complexed with CA4 could be released in a sustained manner. Both 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide colorimetric assay and morphological cell observation showed that the inhibitory effect of the G5.NHAc-FI-FA/CA4 complexes was similar to that of free CA4 at the same selected drug concentration. More importantly, the complexes were able to target selectively and display specific therapeutic efficacy to cancer cells overexpressing high-affinity folic acid receptors.Conclusion: Multifunctional dendrimers may serve as a valuable carrier to form stable inclusion complexes with various hydrophobic anticancer drugs with improved water solubility, for targeting chemotherapy to different types of cancer.Keywords: PAMAM dendrimers, combretastatin A4, inclusion complexes, targeted cancer therap

Dendrimer-entrapped gold nanoparticles as potential CT contrast agents for blood pool imaging

The purpose of this study was to evaluate dendrimer-entrapped gold nanoparticles [Au DENPs] as a molecular imaging [MI] probe for computed tomography [CT]. Au DENPs were prepared by complexing AuCl4- ions with amine-terminated generation 5 poly(amidoamine) [G5.NH2] dendrimers. Resulting particles were sized using transmission electron microscopy. Serial dilutions (0.001 to 0.1 M) of either Au DENPs or iohexol were scanned by CT in vitro. Based on these results, Au DENPs were injected into mice, either subcutaneously (10 μL, 0.007 to 0.02 M) or intravenously (300 μL, 0.2 M), after which the mice were imaged by micro-CT or a standard mammography unit. Au DENPs prepared using G5.NH2 dendrimers as templates are quite uniform and have a size range of 2 to 4 nm. At Au concentrations above 0.01 M, the CT value of Au DENPs was higher than that of iohexol. A 10-μL subcutaneous dose of Au DENPs with [Au] ≥ 0.009 M could be detected by micro-CT. The vascular system could be imaged 5 and 20 min after injection of Au DENPs into the tail vein, and the urinary system could be imaged after 60 min. At comparable time points, the vascular system could not be imaged using iohexol, and the urinary system was imaged only indistinctly. Findings from this study suggested that Au DENPs prepared using G5.NH2 dendrimers as templates have good X-ray attenuation and a substantial circulation time. As their abundant surface amine groups have the ability to bind to a range of biological molecules, Au DENPs have the potential to be a useful MI probe for CT

Molecular and phylogenetic analyses of a new Amphotropic murine leukemia virus (MuLV-1313)

BACKGROUND: The amphotropic murine leukemia viruses (MuLV-A's) are naturally occurring, exogenously acquired gammaretroviruses that are indigenous to the Southern California wild mice. These viruses replicate in a wide range of cell types including human cells in vitro and they can cause both hematological and neurological disorders in feral as well as in the inbred laboratory mice. Since MuLV-A's also exhibit discrete interference and neutralization properties, the envelope proteins of these viruses have been extremely useful for studying virus-host cell interactions and as vehicles for transfer of foreign genes into a variety of hosts including human cells. However, the genomic structure of any of the several known MuLV-A's has not been established and the evolutionary relationship of amphotropic retroviruses to the numerous exogenous or endogenous MuLV strains remains elusive. Herein we present a complete genetic structure of a novel amphotropic virus designated MuLV-1313 and demonstrate that this retrovirus together with other MuLV-A's belongs to a distinct molecular, biological and phylogenetic class among the MuLV strains isolated from a large number of the laboratory inbred or feral mice. RESULTS: The host range of MuLV-1313 is similar to the previously isolated MuLV-A's except that this virus replicates efficiently in mammalian as well as in chicken cells. Compared to ENV proteins of other MuLV-A's (4070A, 1504A and 10A-1), the gp70 protein of MuLV-1313 exhibits differences in its signal peptides and the proline-rich hinge regions. However, the MuLV-1313 envelope protein is totally unrelated to those present in a broad range of murine retroviruses that have been isolated from various inbred and feral mice globally. Genetic analysis of the entire MuLV-1313 genome by dot plot analyses, which compares each nucleotide of one genome with the corresponding nucleotide of another, revealed that the genome of this virus, with the exception of the env gene, is more closely related to the biologically distinct wild mouse ecotropic retrovirus (Cas-Br-E) isolated from another region of the Southern California, than to any of the 15 MuLV strains whose full-length sequences are present in the GenBank. This finding was corroborated by phylogenetic analyses and hierarchical clustering of the entire genomic sequence of MuLV-1313, which also placed all MULV-A's in a genetically distinct category among the large family of retroviruses isolated from numerous mouse strains globally. Likewise, construction of separate dendrograms for each of the Gag, Pol and Env proteins of MuLV-1313 demonstrated that the amphotropic retroviruses belong to a phylogenetically exclusive group of gammaretroviruses compared to all known MuLV strains. CONCLUSION: The molecular, biological and phylogenetic properties of amphotropic retroviruses including MuLV-1313 are distinct compared to a large family of exogenously- or endogenously-transmitted ecotropic, polytropic and xenotropic MuLV strains of the laboratory and feral mice. Further, both the naturally occurring amphotropic and a biologically discrete ecotropic retrovirus of the Southern California wild mice are more closely related to each other on the evolutionary tree than any other mammalian gammaretrovirus indicating a common origin of these viruses. This is the first report of a complete genomic analysis of a unique group of phylogenetically distinct amphotropic virus

Enhancing the specificity and efficiency of polymerase chain reaction using polyethyleneimine-based derivatives and hybrid nanocomposites

There is a general necessity to improve the specificity and efficiency of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and exploring the PCR-enhancing mechanism still remains a great challenge. In this paper we report the use of branched polyethyleneimine (PEI)-based derivatives and hybrid nanocomposites as a novel class of enhancers to improve the specificity and efficiency of a nonspecific PCR system. We show that the surface-charge polarity of PEI and PEI derivatives plays a major role in their effectiveness to enhance the PCR. Positively charged amine-terminated pristine PEI, partially (50%) acetylated PEI (PEI-Ac50), and completely acetylated PEI (PEI-Ac) are able to improve PCR efficiency and specificity with an optimum concentration order of PEI < PEI-Ac50 < PEI-Ac, whereas negatively charged carboxyl-terminated PEI (PEI-SAH; SAH denotes succinamic acid groups) and neutralized PEI modified with both polyethylene glycol (PEG) and acetyl (Ac) groups (PEI-PEG-Ac) are unable to improve PCR specificity and efficiency even at concentrations three orders of magnitude higher than that of PEI. Our data clearly suggests that the PCR-enhancing effect is primarily based on the interaction between the PCR components and the PEI derivatives, where electrostatic interaction plays a major role in concentrating the PCR components locally on the backbones of the branched PEI. In addition, multiwalled carbon nanotubes modified with PEI and PEI-stabilized gold nanoparticles are also able to improve the PCR specificity and efficiency with an optimum PEI concentration less than that of the PEI alone, indicating that the inorganic component of the nanocomposites may help improve the interaction between PEI and the PCR components. The developed PEI-based derivatives or nanocomposites may be used as efficient additives to enhance other PCR systems for different biomedical applications