A Decision Tree Approach for Assessing and Mitigating Background and Identity Disclosure Risks

The Facebook/Cambridge Analytica data scandal shows a type of privacy threat where an adversary attacks on a massive number of people without prior knowledge about their background information. Existing studies typically assume that the adversary knew the background information of the target individuals. This study examines the disclosure risk issue in privacy breaches without such an assumption. We define the background disclosure risk and re-identification risk based on the notion of prior and conditional probabilities respectively, and integrate the two risk measures into a composite measure using the Minimum Description Length principle. We then develop a decision-tree pruning algorithm to find an appropriate group size considering the tradeoff between disclosure risk and data utility. Furthermore, we propose a novel tiered generalization method for anonymizing data at the group level. An experimental study has been conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach

Pharmacokinetics, Metabolism and Toxicity of Carbon Nanotubes for Biomedical Purposes

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted great interest of the nano community and beyond. However, the biomedical applications of CNTs arouse serious concerns for their unknown in vivo consequence, in which the information of pharmacokinetics, metabolism and toxicity of CNTs is essential. In this review, we summarize the updated data of CNTs from the biomedical view. The information shows that surface chemistry is crucial in regulating the in vivo behaviors of CNTs. Among the functionalization methods, PEGylation is the most efficient one to improve the pharmacokinetics and biocompatibility of CNTs. The guiding effects of the pharmacokinetics, metabolism and toxicity information on the biomedical applications of CNTs are discussed

TEAD1-dependent expression of the FoxO3a gene in mouse skeletal muscle

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>TEAD1 </it>(TEA domain family member 1) is constitutively expressed in cardiac and skeletal muscles. It acts as a key molecule of muscle development, and trans-activates multiple target genes involved in cell proliferation and differentiation pathways. However, its target genes in skeletal muscles, regulatory mechanisms and networks are unknown.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this paper, we have identified 136 target genes regulated directly by TEAD1 in skeletal muscle using integrated analyses of ChIP-on-chip. Most of the targets take part in the cell process, physiology process, biological regulation metabolism and development process. The targets also play an important role in MAPK, mTOR, T cell receptor, JAK-STAT, calcineurin and insulin signaling pathways. TEAD1 regulates <it>foxo3a </it>transcription through binding to the M-CAT element in <it>foxo3a </it>promoter, demonstrated with independent ChIP-PCR, EMSA and luciferase reporter system assay. In addition, results of over-expression and inhibition experiments suggest that <it>foxo3a </it>is positively regulated by TEAD1.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our present data suggests that TEAD1 plays an important role in the regulation of gene expression and different signaling pathways may co-operate with each other mediated by TEAD1. We have preliminarily concluded that TEAD1 may regulate <it>FoxO3a </it>expression through calcineurin/MEF2/NFAT and IGF-1/PI3K/AKT signaling pathways in skeletal muscles. These findings provide important clues for further analysis of the role of <it>FoxO3a </it>gene in the formation and transformation of skeletal muscle fiber types.</p

Polymorphism in Growth Hormone Gene and its Association with Growth Traits in Siniperca chuatsi

Growth hormone (GH) is a candidate gene for growth traits in fish. In this study, we assessed associations between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in GH gene with growth traits in 357 Siniperca chuatsi individuals using high-resolution melting. Two SNPs were identified in GH gene, with one mutation in exon 5 (g.5045T>C), and one mutation in intron 5 (g.5234T>G). The corrections analysis of SNPs with the four growth traits was carried out using General Linear Model (GLM) estimation. Results showed that both of them were significantly associated with growth performance in S. chuatsi. For g.5234T>G, it was significantly associated with body weight (P＜0.01), body length (P＜0.05), body depth (P＜0.01), and body width (P＜0.01), and the individuals of genotype GG grew faster than those of genotypes TT and TG (P＜0.05). A further diplotype-trait association analysis confirmed that in fish with H3H2 (TC-GG) diplotype body weight, body length, and body width was greater than in those with other diplotypes (P＜0.05). These results demonstrated GH gene SNPs could be used as potential genetic markers in future marker assisted selection of S. chuatsi

Connectivity reveals homology between the visual systems of the human and macaque brains

The visual systems of humans and nonhuman primates share many similarities in both anatomical and functional organization. Understanding the homology and differences between the two systems can provide important insights into the neural basis of visual perception and cognition. This research aims to investigate the homology between human and macaque visual systems based on connectivity, using diffusion tensor imaging and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to construct structural and functional connectivity fingerprints of the visual systems in humans and macaques, and quantitatively analyze the connectivity patterns. By integrating multimodal magnetic resonance imaging, this research explored the homology and differences between the two systems. The results showed that 9 brain regions in the macaque visual system formed highly homologous mapping relationships with 11 brain regions in the human visual system, and the related brain regions between the two species showed highly structure homologous, with their functional organization being essentially conserved across species. Finally, this research generated a homology information map of the visual system for humans and macaques, providing a new perspective for subsequent cross-species analysis

An Internet Robot Tele-operating System

Abstract-A server-decentralized internet model based on Jabber for robot tele-operation with P2P stream media transfer supplement based on JXTA is proposed. The system is composed of four components: operators, robots, transfer servers and datakeeper. The robot-controlling data/robot state data are packed with XML stanzas and delivered to the resolved robot/operator through XML streams. The locale audio/video media streams of the robot are sent directly through P2P pipes to the operators. In order to test its availability and performance, the model is implemented and instanced as remote control systems for Virtual Puma560 robot and the Hexapod Monster robot. Experiments of the systems and network tests are carried out to evaluate the instances; the results show that the systems are suitable for many kinds of robot tele-operation scenarios despite the tough network environment

Topljivost CO2 u eterima 1-aliloksi-3-(4-nonilfenoksi)-2-propanola i polioksietilena

1-allyloxy-3-(4-nonylphenoxy)-2-propanol polyoxyethylene ethers (ANAPEs), a new type of absorbent, are polymeric surfactants with different adduct numbers. In this work, ANAPEs, including SN-10 with adduct number of 10 and SN-15 with adduct number of 15, were prepared for CO2 absorption using the isochoric saturation method. Densities of the ANAPEs at atmospheric pressure were measured by a 5.567 ± 0.004 cm3 pycnometer, which decreased with increased temperature. Solubility data of CO2 in ANAPEs were measured within the pressure range of 0 – 600.0 kPa and temperature range of 303.15 – 323.15 K at 10 K intervals and could be calculated on the basis of experimental data of p, xCO2 and bCO2. The solubility of CO2 in absorbents increased linearly with increasing pressure and decreased with increasing temperature at all the pressures. The solubility of CO2 in SN-15 is the highest at all temperatures, but almost the same with SN-10 at 303.15 K over pressures (p < 350kPa), which indicates physical dissolution process. Henry’s constants were determined from solubility data. With increasing temperature, Henry’s constants increased. Thermodynamics of CO2 absorption were calculated including enthalpy, entropy, and Gibbs energy. The absolute value of ΔsolH based on Hx of SN-15 is largest at 303.15 K and indicates stronger SN-15/CO2 interactions, consistent with solubility of CO2 based on Hx. The negative enthalpy demonstrated exothermic process, which means the dissolution of CO2 in ANAPEs is favourable enthalpically. The ΔsolG shows positive value. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.Ispitana je topljivost ugljikova dioksida u eterima 1-aliloksi-3-(4-nonilfenoksi)-2-propanola i polioksietilena (ANAPE), (SN-10 i SN-15) u izohornim uvjetima pri rasponu tlakova 0 – 600 kPa i temperatura 303,15 – 323,15 K. Topljivost CO2 raste s tlakom, a pri svim tlakovima opada s temperaturom. U cijelom temperaturnom rasponu topljivost je veća u SN-15, ali pri 303,15 K i tlakovima nižim od 350 kPa gotovo je izjednačena s topljivošću u SN-10 što ukazuje na fizikalni mehanizam otapanja. Određene su Henryjeve konstante i termodinamika apsorpcije, uključujući entalpiju, entropiju i Gibbsovu energiju. Prema negativnim vrijednostima entalpije otapanje CO2 u eterima ANAPE je egzoterman proces. Ovo djelo je dano na korištenje pod licencom Creative Commons Imenovanje 4.0 međunarodna

Happiness and the Quality of Government

This paper uses happiness data to assess the quality of government. Our happiness data are drawn from the Gallup World Poll, starting in 2005 and extending to 2017 or 2018. In our analysis of the panel of more than 150 countries and generally over 1,500 national-level observations, we show that government delivery quality is significantly correlated with national happiness, but democratic quality is not. We also analyze other quality of government indicators. Confidence in government is correlated with happiness, however forms of democracy and government spending seem not. We further discuss three channels (including peace and conflict, trust, and inequality) whereby quality of government and happiness are linked. We finally summarize what has been learned about how government policies could be formed to improve citizens’ happiness