Organized Communities, Stronger Schools: A Preview of Research Findings

Assesses the impact of community organizing for school reform on student outcomes such as attendance and test scores, school-community relationships, parent engagement, teacher morale, and policy and resource distribution at the system level

CYCLOSA: Decentralizing Private Web Search Through SGX-Based Browser Extensions

By regularly querying Web search engines, users (unconsciously) disclose large amounts of their personal data as part of their search queries, among which some might reveal sensitive information (e.g. health issues, sexual, political or religious preferences). Several solutions exist to allow users querying search engines while improving privacy protection. However, these solutions suffer from a number of limitations: some are subject to user re-identification attacks, while others lack scalability or are unable to provide accurate results. This paper presents CYCLOSA, a secure, scalable and accurate private Web search solution. CYCLOSA improves security by relying on trusted execution environments (TEEs) as provided by Intel SGX. Further, CYCLOSA proposes a novel adaptive privacy protection solution that reduces the risk of user re- identification. CYCLOSA sends fake queries to the search engine and dynamically adapts their count according to the sensitivity of the user query. In addition, CYCLOSA meets scalability as it is fully decentralized, spreading the load for distributing fake queries among other nodes. Finally, CYCLOSA achieves accuracy of Web search as it handles the real query and the fake queries separately, in contrast to other existing solutions that mix fake and real query results

The Acidity of a Carbon Nucleophile Dictates Enantioselectivity and Reactivity in Michael Additions to Aromatic and Aliphatic Enals via Iminium Activation

The Michael addition of activated methylenes to β-substituted α,β-unsaturated aldehydes (enals) via iminium catalysis takes place following reactivity and enantioselectivity patterns which depend on the electronic nature of the substituent in the β position (β-aryl or β-alkyl). Application of the same reaction conditions to both families of enals may result in erratic levels of asymmetric induction in the reactions of β-aryl enals or low reactivity with β-alkyl enals. A systematic analysis of this behavior using phenylacetic acid derivatives as case studies has led us to find a general trend: the different problems found for β-aryl and β-alkyl enals depend on the acidity of the nucleophile, and the outcome of the reaction for both types of enals can be improved substantially by careful choice of catalyst, solvent, and additive. Furthermore, this study has allowed us to understand subtle aspects of this transformation and has enabled the formulation of a general and reliable protocol to obtain high yields and enantioselectivities consistently, regardless of the acidity of the nucleophile and the nature of the substituent (aromatic or aliphatic) at the β positionWe thank CTQ-2009-12168, CAM (AVANCAT CS2009/PPQ-1634), UAM-CAM (CCG10-UAM/PPQ-5769), CTQ-2012-35957, CTQ2015-63997-C2-1-P, CTQ2016-78779-R and FOTOCARBON-CAM S2013/MIT-2841 for financial support. S.D. thanks the Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (CAM), and E.R. and S.M. thank MICINN, for predoctoral fellowships. P.M. thanks MICINN for a Ramón y Cajal contract and the EU for a Marie Curie grant (CIG: HYPERCAT-30422

Toward an Easy Configuration of Location Privacy Protection Mechanisms

Communication orale sur posterInternational audienceThe widespread adoption of Location-Based Services (LBSs) has come with controversy about privacy. While leverag-ing location information leads to improving services through geo-contextualization, it rises privacy concerns as new knowledge can be inferred from location records, such as home/work places, habits or religious beliefs. To overcome this problem, several Location Privacy Protection Mechanisms (LPPMs) have been proposed in the literature these last years. However , every mechanism comes with its own configuration parameters that directly impact the privacy guarantees and the resulting utility of protected data. In this context, it can be difficult for a non-expert system designer to choose appropriate configuration parameters to use according to the expected privacy and utility. In this paper, we present a framework enabling the easy configuration of LPPMs. To achieve that, our framework performs an offline, in-depth automated analysis of LPPMs to provide the formal relationship between their configuration parameters and both privacy and the utility metrics. This framework is modular: by using different metrics, a system designer is able to fine-tune her LPPM according to her expected privacy and utility guarantees (i.e., the guarantee itself and the level of this guarantee). To illustrate the capability of our framework, we analyse Geo-Indistinguishability (a well known differentially private LPPM) and we provide the formal relationship between its configuration parameter and two privacy and utility metrics

Prevalence of Trichomonas vaginalis infection among Sudanese patients with different genders in Khartoum state, Sudan

Background:  Trichomonas vaginalis infection is one of the major health problems in   the world, Trichomonas vaginalis infection is a common sexually transmitted protozoal infection, with an estimated 180 million prevalent cases worldwide. Objective: This study aims to estimate the prevalence of Trichomonas vaginalis infection among Sudanese patients according to sex and age in Bashaeir Hospital –Khartoum state. Methods: This study was a retrospective descriptive study of pre-collected urine samples, included male and female patients attending the outpatient, requested for urine general examination, samples were selected by systemic random sampling. One hundred-twenty five (125) samples have been taken; wet preparation has been done for all samples in Bashaeir Hospital lab. Result: 125 urine samples was examined. The number of females was 95 and males was 30. All samples were examined for T. vaginalis. Only 15 were positive. We could not collect data for all subjects; because it was not available. There was an available data about sex and age for 23 cases. Conclusion:Femalewas more affected by Trichomonas vaginalis than in males. The most affected age was ranging from (31-40) years

Hikayat Awang Sulung Merah Muda dari perspektif pendekatan pengurusan

Makalah ini akan menekuni unsur pengurusan yang terdapat dalam cerita lipur lara, iaitu Hikayat Awang Sulung Merah Muda. Pendekatan yang digunakan dalam kajian ini ialah Pendekatan Pengurusan dengan memberi fokus terhadap Prinsip Kepimpinan, iaitu salah satu prinsip dalam Pendekatan Pengurusan yang diutarakan oleh Mohamad Mokhtar Abu Hassan. Kaedah kepustakaan dan kaedah analisis teks merupakan dua kaedah yang diaplikasi dalam kajian ini. Objektif utama kajian ini adalah untuk menganalisis Prinsip Kepimpinan yang digunakan dalam Hikayat Awang Sulung Merah Muda. Hasil analisis memperlihatkan Prinsip Kepimpinan dalam Hikayat Awang Sulung Merah Muda amat dominan dan signifikan dalam menggambarkan pengurusan kepimpinan bertitik tolak daripada analisis terhadap struktur karya. Pengurusan kepimpinan ini menyerlah daripada dasar dan mekanisme pentadbir yang berwawasan dan berpandangan jauh, berjiwa rakyat, kebijaksanaan berkomunikasi dan bersemangat waja. Secara kesimpulannya, Prinsip Kepimpinan yang dipaparkan dalam Hikayat Awang Sulung Merah Muda ini dapat mengangkat aspek pengurusan dalam teks karya sastera tradisional sejak zaman tradisi lisan

ACCIO: How to Make Location Privacy Experimentation Open and Easy

International audienceThe advent of mobile applications collecting and exploiting the location of users opens a number of privacy threats. To mitigate these privacy issues, several protection mechanisms have been proposed this last decade to protect users' location privacy. However, these protection mechanisms are usually implemented and evaluated in monolithic way, with heterogeneous tools and languages. Moreover, they are evaluated using different methodologies, metrics and datasets. This lack of standard makes the task of evaluating and comparing protection mechanisms particularly hard. In this paper, we present ACCIO, a unified framework to ease the design and evaluation of protection mechanisms. Thanks to its Domain Specific Language, ACCIO allows researchers and practitioners to define and deploy experiments in an intuitive way, as well as to easily collect and analyse the results. ACCIO already comes with several state-of-the-art protection mechanisms and a toolbox to manipulate mobility data. Finally, ACCIO is open and easily extensible with new evaluation metrics and protection mechanisms. This openness, combined with a description of experiments through a user-friendly DSL, makes ACCIO an appealing tool to reproduce and disseminate research results easier. In this paper, we present ACCIO's motivation and architecture, and demonstrate its capabilities through several use cases involving multiples metrics, state-of-the-art protection mechanisms, and two real-life mobility datasets collected in Beijing and in the San Francisco area

GLOBAL METHYLATION PATTERN CHANGES IN BREAST AND COLORECTAL CANCER CELLS TREATED WITH DIFFERENT CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC DRUGS

Cancer in a global threat as it is considered the primary cause of death worldwide. Breast cancer is the most common cancer I female worldwide. In the present study we evaluated the role of temozolomide, carboplatin, sodium phenylbutyrate, and cyclophosphamide in changing the methylation landscape of four tumor cell liness; breast, colorectal, lung, and cervical. Cells were treated with 5 µM of each drug and the cells were incubated with the drugs for 48 and 96 h before reading the changes in methylation patterns. Global methylation quantification was measured in cells after being treated with the drugs. Data obtained indicated that sodium phenylbutyrate, followed by temozolomide were the drugs most efficient in hypermethylation of the DNA, while carboplatin followed by cyclophosphamide were able to reduce the concentration of 5-mC in the DNA. It has been concluded that using carboplatin in combination with sodium phenylbutyrate (PBA) might induce cell cycle arrest of malignant cells. Further studies are needed to highlight the mechanism of action of these drugs when combined in treatment of cancer. Keywords: methylation; breast; colon; lung; cervical; epigenetics

Modeling acquired resistance to the second-generation androgen receptor antagonist enzalutamide in the TRAMP model of prostate cancer

Enzalutamide (MDV3100) is a potent second-generation androgen receptor antagonist approved for the treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) in chemotherapy-naïve as well as in patients previously exposed to chemotherapy. However, resistance to enzalutamide and enzalutamide withdrawal syndrome have been reported. Thus, reliable and integrated preclinical models are required to elucidate the mechanisms of resistance and to assess therapeutic settings that may delay or prevent the onset of resistance. In this study, the prostate cancer multistage murine model TRAMP and TRAMP-derived cells have been used to extensively characterize in vitro and in vivo the response and resistance to enzalutamide. The therapeutic profile as well as the resistance onset were characterized and a multiscale stochastic mathematical model was proposed to link the in vitro and in vivo evolution of prostate cancer. The model showed that all therapeutic strategies that use enzalutamide result in the onset of resistance. The model also showed that combination therapies can delay the onset of resistance to enzalutamide, and in the best scenario, can eliminate the disease. These results set the basis for the exploitation of this "TRAMP-based platform" to test novel therapeutic approaches and build further mathematical models of combination therapies to treat prostate cancer and CRPC.Significance: Merging mathematical modeling with experimental data, this study presents the "TRAMP-based platform" as a novel experimental tool to study the in vitro and in vivo evolution of prostate cancer resistance to enzalutamide