Antecedent and Consequences of Blockchain-as-a-Service for E-Voting: The Mediating Role of Perceived Trust

Electronic voting refers to internet voting (e-voting), a system for electronically casting and counting votes. The current voting service provided by the government includes balloting paper and e-voting. However, these services cannot be relied on due to several issues such as electoral fraud (e.g., counting, rigging, and election manipulation), circuitry failure (e.g., tampering with the motherboard), and, more importantly, such services do not provide the facility to track back the casted vote. Considering the problems in earlier voting services, the blockchain-as-a-service for e-voting has been introduced to make the voting process more secure, immutable, transparent, and reliable. Within the blockchain-as-a-service for e-voting, we have reviewed the available literature and witnessed that the majority of the studies have given much emphasis on the technical side but lack its focus on the adoption behavior of blockchain-as-a-service for evoting during the election period. Therefore, the foci of this study to explore the antecedent (i.e., digital literacy) and consequences (i.e., consumer wellbeing, users’ referral) of users’ adoption behavior of blockchain-as-a-service for e-voting under the mediating mechanism of users’ perceived trust between digital literacy and adoption behavior. This study collected data from a 315 US sample using the Mturk. Partial least squares – structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analyses were used to analyze the study data. The PLS-SEM analysis revealed that the measurement model of the study, including digital literacy as a higher-order reflective-formative construct and other reflective models (e.g., adoption behavior, consumer wellbeing, etc.), have adequate reliability and validity. Upon estimating the study’s structural model, we found that digital literacy of blockchain e-voting positively impacts on perceived trust and adoption behavior of blockchain e-voting technology. Perceived trust in blockchain e-voting also revealed to have a positive impact on users’ adoption behavior of blockchain-as-a-service for evoting. Furthermore, the results of the study indicated that blockchain adoption behavior is a significant predictor of consumer well-being and citizen referral behavior. We also tested the mediating effect of perceived trust between digital literacy and adoption behavior of blockchain-as-a-service for e-voting and found that digital literacy successfully predicts the adoption behavior of blockchain e-voting through perceived trust, signifying the pivotal role of trust. This study theoretically extends the domain of blockchain-as-a-service for evoting via investigating its potential antecedent (i.e., digital literacy) and consequences (i.e., citizen referral behavior and consumer well-being) of users’ adoption behavior of blockchain-as-a-service for evoting. Besides, we also expands the literature of perceived trust via studying it as a mediating mechanism between digital literacy and users’ adoption behavior of blockchain-as-a-service for evoting. It also helps design, prepare, and implement new technologies while considering consumers\u27 digital literacy and trust. Government officials and regulators should promote ways to improve the level of digital literacy to implement the blockchain e-voting service fully. Policymakers should collaborate with industry practitioners to create a well-thought-out plan that targets and improves public digital literacy while also increasing trust in blockchain e-voting to increase people\u27s adoption and usage of this technology

Thyroid Hormone Replacement Therapy in Patients with Various Types of Cancer

Primary hypothyroidism is a common endocrine disorder that is effectively treated with l-thyroxine (T4) replacement. Preclinical and limited clinical evidence, however, indicates that T4 is a growth factor for a variety of cancers, acting at the thyroid hormone receptor on plasma membrane integrin αvβ3. T4 is the primary ligand for this receptor, whereas 3,5,3′-triiodo-l-thyronine (T3) is the principal intracellular thyroid hormone analogue. The evidence is reviewed here that T4 is a proliferative for breast, lung, kidney and prostate cancers and for glioblastoma, regulates cancer cell respiration and is a pro-angiogenic factor in established tumors. The recommendation is made that T3 be considered alternative replacement treatment for patients with primary hypothyroidism who also have cancer

Acquisition of invasiveness by breast adenocarcinoma cells engages established hallmarks and novel regulatory mechanisms

Background/Aim: Proteomics of invasiveness opens a window on the complexity of the metastasis-engaged mechanisms. The extend and types of this complexity require elucidation. Materials and Methods: Proteomics, immuno -histochemistry, immunoblotting, network analysis and systems cancer biology were used to analyse acquisition of invasiveness by human breast adenocarcinoma cells. Results: We report here that invasiveness network highlighted the involvement of hallmarks such as cell proliferation, migration, cell death, genome stability, immune system regulation and metabolism. Identified involvement of cell-virus interaction and gene silencing are potentially novel cancer mechanisms. Identified 6,113 nodes with 11,055 edges affecting 1,085 biological processes show extensive re-arrangements in cell physiology. These high numbers are in line with a similar broadness of networks built with diagnostic signatures approved for clinical use. Conclusion: Our data emphasize a broad systemic regulation of invasiveness, and describe the network of this regulation. - 2019 International Institute of Anticancer Research. All rights reserved.Scopu

Radiobiology & Radiation Benefits in Alzheimer’s from CT: a physics assessment

This work is a review and assessment of research literature on Alzheimer’s disease (AD) today which is an irreversible neurological disorder, that continuously decreases the individual’s memory and thinking skills and, suddenly, the ability to carry out the simplest functions of daily living. Although treatment can only help manage the symptoms of AD, there is no cure for the disease. CT imaging is proven to be somewhat helpful in the detection of AD disease similar to MRI, multiple repeat CT seems to show promise in part-reversing the loss (radiation Hormesis). Invivo exposure, spatial distribution, and quantitative characterization could be essential markers in diagnosing and assessing AD progression. Phase-Contrast X-ray microcomputed tomography (micro CT) is an emerging highly sensitive imaging technique capable of high resolution and impressive soft tissue discrimination. FDG and Pittsburgh compound B PET are functional tools to map affected brain with AD. There is a potential to extend it to imaging precise 3D information about the inner structures of the entire brain in future using clinical CT machines but with phase contrast software without requiring thin sections. However, we feel clinical scanners with phase contrast modes will not provide the plaque imaging exactly for 50 μm for individual plaques but plaque tangles and high tissue contrast resolution for hippocampus structures as in highfield MRI may be possible by phase contrast CT

Radiologic contrast-Induced transmetallation In mineral rich fruits: X-ray imaging to Understand Heat Cycling during Climate Change and Map Metal Redistribution in Biological media for Biomedical Applications

Heat cycling due to climate change can affect hydrated protein or carbohydrate functions, the latter is not well studied. The project started with involving the study of heat-stressed carbohydrate behavior when bulk water was partly stripped from carbohydrates in model microwaved fruits and vegetables, like apples and sweet potatoes (that are mineral-rich) and was set in mineral exchange competition with toxic metals like Gadolinium and chelating complexes like iodinated EDTA. These are common radiologic contrast medias that strongly absorb x-rays and are currently implicated in man-made environmental toxins. Our goal was to map diffusion of injected heavy atoms as well as that of native minerals as a possible result of a metal exchange or “transmetallation”. This is a new concept for metal ion-induced toxicity and our work perhaps is the first imaging demonstration of transmetallation in live biological media. The second phase involved detection of transmetallation in one fruit model, fresh apples, but expressed in four different apple varieties common in North America consisting of different PH and mineral balances. These fruits were treated with contrast media and radiographed under mammography equipment with low kV x rays. This was another way to explore transmetallation induced by toxic heavy atoms from the medical industry for carbohydrate systems with different amounts of iron, magnesium, potassium in their biochemical pools. Low kV x-rays are sensitive to small mineral differences in model biological media and may provide insight to in vivo applications as in various tumors with different pH differences or in infection with metal-dependent bacterial growth. Differential x-ray absorption maps due to radiologic contrast-induced transmetallation could reveal different grades for tumors and help guide treatment plans. Low dual kV CT systems are available today and our work may help develop new tumor grading and infection management using metal chelation to starve metal-dependent bacteria

Developing Ionic Nanomaterials for Biomedical Applications: Surface Chemistry and Morphologic Imaging

Microscopic properties of various radiologic contrast materials are studied for weak to strong surface interactions in model fruits. These interactions are imaged under various ionic environments as present in multiple, common fruit systems. Low and high X-ray energies may show different imaging noise reflective of scattered radiation from iron, manganese, and other metal ions in fruits. This will be compared with MRI image noise on similar systems obtainable from collaborating MRI research students (see Bleidis Buitrago et al, in this poster session)

Pharmacodynamic Modeling of Anti-Cancer Activity of Tetraiodothyroacetic Acid in a Perfused Cell Culture System

Unmodified or as a poly[lactide-co-glycolide] nanoparticle, tetraiodothyroacetic acid (tetrac) acts at the integrin αvβ3 receptor on human cancer cells to inhibit tumor cell proliferation and xenograft growth. To study in vitro the pharmacodynamics of tetrac formulations in the absence of and in conjunction with other chemotherapeutic agents, we developed a perfusion bellows cell culture system. Cells were grown on polymer flakes and exposed to various concentrations of tetrac, nano-tetrac, resveratrol, cetuximab, or a combination for up to 18 days. Cells were harvested and counted every one or two days. Both NONMEM VI and the exact Monte Carlo parametric expectation maximization algorithm in S-ADAPT were utilized for mathematical modeling. Unmodified tetrac inhibited the proliferation of cancer cells and did so with differing potency in different cell lines. The developed mechanism-based model included two effects of tetrac on different parts of the cell cycle which could be distinguished. For human breast cancer cells, modeling suggested a higher sensitivity (lower IC50) to the effect on success rate of replication than the effect on rate of growth, whereas the capacity (Imax) was larger for the effect on growth rate. Nanoparticulate tetrac (nano-tetrac), which does not enter into cells, had a higher potency and a larger anti-proliferative effect than unmodified tetrac. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis of harvested cells revealed tetrac and nano-tetrac induced concentration-dependent apoptosis that was correlated with expression of pro-apoptotic proteins, such as p53, p21, PIG3 and BAD for nano-tetrac, while unmodified tetrac showed a different profile. Approximately additive anti-proliferative effects were found for the combinations of tetrac and resveratrol, tetrac and cetuximab (Erbitux), and nano-tetrac and cetuximab. Our in vitro perfusion cancer cell system together with mathematical modeling successfully described the anti-proliferative effects over time of tetrac and nano-tetrac and may be useful for dose-finding and studying the pharmacodynamics of other chemotherapeutic agents or their combinations