L-SRR: Local Differential Privacy for Location-Based Services with Staircase Randomized Response

Location-based services (LBS) have been significantly developed and widely deployed in mobile devices. It is also well-known that LBS applications may result in severe privacy concerns by collecting sensitive locations. A strong privacy model ''local differential privacy'' (LDP) has been recently deployed in many different applications (e.g., Google RAPPOR, iOS, and Microsoft Telemetry) but not effective for LBS applications due to the low utility of existing LDP mechanisms. To address such deficiency, we propose the first LDP framework for a variety of location-based services (namely ''L-SRR''), which privately collects and analyzes user locations with high utility. Specifically, we design a novel randomization mechanism ''Staircase Randomized Response'' (SRR) and extend the empirical estimation to significantly boost the utility for SRR in different LBS applications (e.g., traffic density estimation, and k-nearest neighbors). We have conducted extensive experiments on four real LBS datasets by benchmarking with other LDP schemes in practical applications. The experimental results demonstrate that L-SRR significantly outperforms them.Comment: accepted to CCS'22; full versio

The diagnostic value of elastography and ultrasound contrast in papillary thyroid microcarcinoma

目的 评估弹性成像与超声造影（CEUS）两种检查技术对鉴别诊断甲状腺微小乳头状癌（TMC）的价值。方法  对常规超声检测出且定性困难的73例80个甲状腺微小结节进行弹性成像及CEUS检查，所有结节均经手术病理证实。比较两种检查方法的准确性。结果 80个结节中CEUS诊断正确率为85.0%（68/80）,其中6例TMC误诊为良性病变，6例良性结节误诊为TMC；弹性成像5分法诊断正确率为92.5%（74/80）,其中3例TMC误诊为良性结节，3例良性结节误诊为TMC。性成像诊断甲状腺微小癌的敏感性94.0%，特异性90.0%，准确性92.5%；CEUS诊断甲状腺微小癌的敏感性88.0%，特异性80.0%，准确性85.0%。结论 CEUS和弹性成像对于诊断TMC方面均有价值，但弹性评分≥3作为诊断TMC的敏感性、特异性及准确性均高于CEUS。Objective: To assess the value of elastic imaging and CEUS two inspection techniques for differential diagnosis of thyroid papillary carcinoma (TMC). Method: To do elastic imaging and CEUS checks to 73 cases of 80 thyroid nodules which was tested by conventional ultrasonic and difficult to quantify. All nodules were confirmed by surgery and pathologic examination. Comparing the accuracy of both detection methods. Result: Of the 80 nodules, the accuracy of CEUS diagnosis was 85.0%（68/80）,  of which 6 cases were misdiagnosed as benign lesions, and 6cases of benign nodules were misdiagnosed as TMC: the accuracy of 5-point scale criteria of elastography was 92.5%（74/80）, of which 3 TMC were misdiagnosed as benign nodules: and 3 benign nodules were misdiagnosed as TMC. The application of elastography in the diagnosis of thyroid microcarcinoma displayed a sensitivity of 94.0%, a specificity of 90.0% and an accuracy of 92.5%. Elastography detection was more advantagerous than CEUS in the diagnosis of thyroid microcarcinoma, and compared to CEUS , the differences were statistically significant（P <0.05）.Conclusion: Elastography and Ultrasound Contrast have highly practical value to diagnosis of TMC.  The sensitivity specificity and accuracy of using elastic score ≥3 as criteria of diagnosis of TMC was higher than that of CEUS

Antibody dependent enhancement infection of Enterovirus 71 in vitro and in vivo

BACKGROUND: Human enterovirus 71 (EV71) has emerged as a significant cause of acute encephalitis and deaths in young children. The clinical manifestations caused by EV71 varied from mild hand, foot and mouth disease to severe neurological complications and deaths, but its pathogenesis remains elusive. Antibody dependent enhancement (ADE) infection has been reported in various viruses and has been shown to contribute to disease severity. RESULTS: In this study, the presence of sub-neutralizing antibody was demonstrated to enhance EV71 infection in THP-1 cells and increase the mortality of EV71 infection in a suckling mouse model. Further, a secondary infection model was established to characterize the correlation between ADE and disease severity, and primary asymptomatic EV71 infection was shown to increase the mortality of the secondary EV71 infection in suckling mice. CONCLUSIONS: Together, these in vitro and in vivo experiments strongly supported the hypothesis of ADE infection of EV71. The present findings indicate ADE might contribute to the pathogenesis of severe EV71 infection, and raise practical issues of vaccine development and antibody-based therapy

Relationship between Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Insertion/Deletion Gene Polymorphism and Susceptibility of Minimal Change Nephrotic Syndrome: A Meta-Analysis

Aim. This meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the association between ACE I/D gene polymorphism and MCNS susceptibility. Method. A predefined literature search and selection of eligible relevant studies were performed to collect the data from electronic databases. Results. Six articles were identified for the analysis of association between ACE I/D gene polymorphism and MCNS risk, including 4 for Asians, one in Caucasian population and one for Africans. There was a markedly positive association between D allele or DD genotype and MCNS susceptibility in Asians (D: P = .01, DD: P = .02), but not for Caucasians and Africans (Caucasians: D: P = .16, DD: P = .98; Africans: D: P = .81, DD: P = .49). Furthermore, the II genotype seemed not to play a protective role against MCNS risk for Asians, Caucasians and Africans (P = .12, P = .09, P = .76, resp.). Interestingly, there was also significant association between ACE I/D gene polymorphism and MCNS susceptibility in overall populations (D: P = .007, DD: P = .04, II: P = .03). Conclusion. D allele or DD genotype might be a significant genetic molecular marker for MCNS susceptibility in Asians and overall populations, but not for Caucasians and Africans. More larger and rigorous genetic epidemiological investigations are required to further explore this association

Preparation and characterization of a novel aqueous dispersion for enteric coating of pantoprazole sodium pellets

The purpose of this work was to investigate a novel aqueous dispersion (Eudragit® L100-55) for enteric coating of drugs. Three different casting solutions, Eudragit® L100-55 aqueous dispersion, Eudragit® L100-55 organic solution, and Eudragit® L30D-55 aqueous dispersion, were used to prepare free films by the casting method. Drug-loaded pellets, prepared by the extrusion-spheronization method, were coated with one of these three coating solutions using the fluidized-bed spray coating technology. Properties of the free films were thoroughly investigated. Films formed by Eudragit® L100-55 aqueous dispersions showed similar properties to those formed by Eudragit® L100-55 organic solution regarding thermodynamic properties, moisture permeability, solubility and acid tolerance ability. Furthermore, the performance of the novel film was better than that formed by Eudragit® L30D-55 aqueous dispersion. Among the three enteric coating solutions, Eudragit® L100-55 aqueous dispersion will be a promising aqueous dispersion for enteric coating and can be used in the development of enteric-coated preparations

Light Controllable Electronic Phase Transition in Ionic Liquid Gated Monolayer Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

Ionic liquid gating has proved to be effective in inducing emergent quantum phenomena such as superconductivity, ferromagnetism, and topological states. The electrostatic doping at two-dimensional interfaces relies on ionic motion, which thus is operated at sufficiently high temperature. Here, we report the in situ tuning of quantum phases by shining light on an ionic liquid-gated interface at cryogenic temperatures. The light illumination enables flexible switching of the quantum transition in monolayer WS2 from an insulator to a superconductor. In contrast to the prevailing picture of photoinduced carriers, we find that in the presence of a strong interfacial electric field conducting electrons could escape from the surface confinement by absorbing photons, mimicking the field emission. Such an optical tuning tool in conjunction with ionic liquid gating greatly facilitates continuous modulation of carrier densities and hence electronic phases, which would help to unveil novel quantum phenomena and device functionality in various materials