Improved Generalization for Secure Data Publishing

In data publishing, privacy and utility are essential for data owners and users respectively, which cannot coexist well. This incompatibility puts the data privacy researchers under an obligation to find newer and reliable privacy preserving tradeoff-techniques. Data providers like many public and private organizations (e.g. hospitals and banks) publish microdata of individuals for various research purposes. Publishing microdata may compromise the privacy of individuals. To prevent the privacy of individuals, data must be published after removing personal identifiers like name and social security numbers. Removal of the personal identifiers appears as not enough to protect the privacy of individuals. K-anonymity model is used to publish microdata by preserving the individual's privacy through generalization. There exist many state-of-the-arts generalization-based techniques, which deal with pre-defined attacks like background knowledge attack, similarity attack, probability attack and so on. However, existing generalization-based techniques compromise the data utility while ensuring privacy. It is an open question to find an efficient technique that is able to set a trade-off between privacy and utility. In this paper, we discussed existing generalization hierarchies and their limitations in detail. We have also proposed three new generalization techniques including conventional generalization hierarchies, divisors based generalization hierarchies and cardinality-based generalization hierarchies. Extensive experiments on the real-world dataset acknowledge that our technique outperforms among the existing techniques in terms of better utility

Global age-sex-specific mortality, life expectancy, and population estimates in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1950–2021, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: a comprehensive demographic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

Background: Estimates of demographic metrics are crucial to assess levels and trends of population health outcomes. The profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on populations worldwide has underscored the need for timely estimates to understand this unprecedented event within the context of long-term population health trends. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 provides new demographic estimates for 204 countries and territories and 811 additional subnational locations from 1950 to 2021, with a particular emphasis on changes in mortality and life expectancy that occurred during the 2020–21 COVID-19 pandemic period. Methods: 22 223 data sources from vital registration, sample registration, surveys, censuses, and other sources were used to estimate mortality, with a subset of these sources used exclusively to estimate excess mortality due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 2026 data sources were used for population estimation. Additional sources were used to estimate migration; the effects of the HIV epidemic; and demographic discontinuities due to conflicts, famines, natural disasters, and pandemics, which are used as inputs for estimating mortality and population. Spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression (ST-GPR) was used to generate under-5 mortality rates, which synthesised 30 763 location-years of vital registration and sample registration data, 1365 surveys and censuses, and 80 other sources. ST-GPR was also used to estimate adult mortality (between ages 15 and 59 years) based on information from 31 642 location-years of vital registration and sample registration data, 355 surveys and censuses, and 24 other sources. Estimates of child and adult mortality rates were then used to generate life tables with a relational model life table system. For countries with large HIV epidemics, life tables were adjusted using independent estimates of HIV-specific mortality generated via an epidemiological analysis of HIV prevalence surveys, antenatal clinic serosurveillance, and other data sources. Excess mortality due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 was determined by subtracting observed all-cause mortality (adjusted for late registration and mortality anomalies) from the mortality expected in the absence of the pandemic. Expected mortality was calculated based on historical trends using an ensemble of models. In location-years where all-cause mortality data were unavailable, we estimated excess mortality rates using a regression model with covariates pertaining to the pandemic. Population size was computed using a Bayesian hierarchical cohort component model. Life expectancy was calculated using age-specific mortality rates and standard demographic methods. Uncertainty intervals (UIs) were calculated for every metric using the 25th and 975th ordered values from a 1000-draw posterior distribution. Findings: Global all-cause mortality followed two distinct patterns over the study period: age-standardised mortality rates declined between 1950 and 2019 (a 62·8% [95% UI 60·5–65·1] decline), and increased during the COVID-19 pandemic period (2020–21; 5·1% [0·9–9·6] increase). In contrast with the overall reverse in mortality trends during the pandemic period, child mortality continued to decline, with 4·66 million (3·98–5·50) global deaths in children younger than 5 years in 2021 compared with 5·21 million (4·50–6·01) in 2019. An estimated 131 million (126–137) people died globally from all causes in 2020 and 2021 combined, of which 15·9 million (14·7–17·2) were due to the COVID-19 pandemic (measured by excess mortality, which includes deaths directly due to SARS-CoV-2 infection and those indirectly due to other social, economic, or behavioural changes associated with the pandemic). Excess mortality rates exceeded 150 deaths per 100 000 population during at least one year of the pandemic in 80 countries and territories, whereas 20 nations had a negative excess mortality rate in 2020 or 2021, indicating that all-cause mortality in these countries was lower during the pandemic than expected based on historical trends. Between 1950 and 2021, global life expectancy at birth increased by 22·7 years (20·8–24·8), from 49·0 years (46·7–51·3) to 71·7 years (70·9–72·5). Global life expectancy at birth declined by 1·6 years (1·0–2·2) between 2019 and 2021, reversing historical trends. An increase in life expectancy was only observed in 32 (15·7%) of 204 countries and territories between 2019 and 2021. The global population reached 7·89 billion (7·67–8·13) people in 2021, by which time 56 of 204 countries and territories had peaked and subsequently populations have declined. The largest proportion of population growth between 2020 and 2021 was in sub-Saharan Africa (39·5% [28·4–52·7]) and south Asia (26·3% [9·0–44·7]). From 2000 to 2021, the ratio of the population aged 65 years and older to the population aged younger than 15 years increased in 188 (92·2%) of 204 nations. Interpretation: Global adult mortality rates markedly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, reversing past decreasing trends, while child mortality rates continued to decline, albeit more slowly than in earlier years. Although COVID-19 had a substantial impact on many demographic indicators during the first 2 years of the pandemic, overall global health progress over the 72 years evaluated has been profound, with considerable improvements in mortality and life expectancy. Additionally, we observed a deceleration of global population growth since 2017, despite steady or increasing growth in lower-income countries, combined with a continued global shift of population age structures towards older ages. These demographic changes will likely present future challenges to health systems, economies, and societies. The comprehensive demographic estimates reported here will enable researchers, policy makers, health practitioners, and other key stakeholders to better understand and address the profound changes that have occurred in the global health landscape following the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic, and longer-term trends beyond the pandemic

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

A Comparative Numerical Study of Heat and Mass Transfer Individualities in Casson Stagnation Point Fluid Flow Past a Flat and Cylindrical Surfaces

There is a consensus among researchers that the simultaneous involvement of heat and mass transfer in fluid flow owns numerous daily life applications like energy systems, automobiles, cooling of electronic devices, power generation by the stream, electric power, and diagnosing and characterizing diseases, to mention just a few. Owing to such motivation, we considered both heat and mass transfer aspects in non-Newtonian fluid flow regimes. The Casson fluid is considered as a non-Newtonian fluid. For better novelty the flow is considered at both flat and cylindrical surfaces along with stagnation point, magnetic field, mixed convection, heat generation, viscous dissipation, thermal radiations, and temperature-dependent thermal conductivity. The ultimate differential equations are nonlinear, and hence difficult to solve analytically. Therefore, a numerical scheme, namely the shooting method with the Runge–Kutta algorithm, is adopted to report an acceptable solution for flow field description. The outcomes are shared comparatively for flat and cylindrical surfaces. We have seen that compared to a flat surface, the cylindrical surface has a larger Nusselt number magnitude

Phytochemical Screening and Antimicrobial Activities of Stem, Leaves and Fruit Extracts of Viscum album L.

The current research was conducted to study the qualitative analysis and antimicrobial activity of different extracts of Viscum. album L. Screening of Viscum album for their chemicals was led by familiar qualitative procedures, which exposed the existence of a number of bioactive compounds including alkaloids, saponins, tannins, flavonoids, terpenoids, steroids, reducing sugar and phenols. The antimicrobial activities were investigated by disc diffusion method. Investigation of the data discovered that all of the five extracts of Viscum album stems, leaves and fruit showed diverse range of antimicrobial activities. Ethyl acetate, butanol, water and crude extracts showed maximum inhibitory effects against all the microbial species. Especially, Gram-positive bacterial and fungal pathogen. The most liable, gram-positive bacteria were Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus atrophaeus and Staphylococcus aureus, which were repressed by all extracts except n-hexane. The most susceptible gram-negative bacterial species were Escherichia coli, Erwinia carotovora and Agrobacterium tumefaciens where as the most resilient gram-negative bacterium was Salmonella typhi. The results have also supported the practice of aqueous extract were found to be in effect against Salmonella typhi and Escherichia coli. Thus, our findings have provided support for the use of Viscum album stems, leaves and fruit in traditional medicines

Interaction of 6 mercaptopurine with calf thymus DNA--deciphering the binding mode and photoinduced DNA damage.

DNA is one of the major intracellular targets for a wide range of anticancer and antibiotic drugs. Elucidating the binding between small molecules and DNA provides great help in understanding drug-DNA interactions and in designing of new and promising drugs for clinical use. The ability of small molecules to bind and interfere with DNA replication and transcription provides further insight into how the drugs control the expression of genes. Interaction of an antimetabolite anticancer drug 6 mercaptopurine (6MP) with calf thymus DNA was studied using various approaches like UV-visible spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, CD, viscosity and molecular docking. UV-visible spectroscopy confirmed 6MP-DNA interaction. Steady state fluorescence experiments revealed a moderate binding constant of 7.48 × 10(3) M(-1) which was consistent with an external binding mode. Competitive displacement assays further confirmed a non-intercalative binding mode of 6MP which was further confirmed by CD and viscosity experiments. Molecular docking further revealed the minimum energy conformation (-119.67 kJ/mole) of the complex formed between DNA and 6MP. Hence, the biophysical techniques and in-silico molecular docking approaches confirmed the groove binding/electrostatic mode of interaction between 6MP and DNA. Further, photo induced generation of ROS by 6MP was studied spectrophotometrically and DNA damage was assessed by plasmid nicking and comet assay. There was a significant increase in ROS generation and consequent DNA damage in the presence of light

An Early Triassic (Dienerian) microgastropod assemblage from the Salt Range, Pakistan and its implication for gastropod recovery from the end-Permian mass extinction

A single limestone sample from the Early Triassic (late Dienerian) of the Salt Range in Pakistan has yielded numerous small gastropods (smaller 2 mm), few bivalves and abundant ammonoids. The limestone is interpreted as a tempestite. Many of the gastropods are extremely well-preserved including protoconch preservation and micro-ornaments. Five species of gastropods are present: (1) isolated larval shells representing a neritimorph taxon of the family Trachyspiridae, (2) early juvenile and larval specimens of the caenogastropod Strobeus pakistanensis, (3) the new caenogastropod species Coelostylina hydrobiformis Nützel & Ware, (4) the new heterobranch genus and species Eographis microlineata Nützel & Ware representing the earliest occurrence of the extant family Hyalogyrinidae (Valvatoidea), (5) the heterobranch Sinuarbullina sp., a genus which originates in the Early Triassic and has also been reported from China, Spitsbergen and the US. Three genera (trachyspirid, Strobeus and Coelostylina) represent survivors from the end-Permian mass extinction whereas Eographis and Sinuarbullina have their earliest known occurrence in the Early Triassic. Eographis is the first Early Triassic genus for which coaxial larval heterostrophy is shown. Together with the Devonian genus Palaeocarboninia and the Carboniferous genus Heteroaclisina, it witnesses a high age of Ectobranchia (living families Hyalogyrinidae, Valvatidae, Cornirostridae and Xylodisculidae). This supports the assumption that this group is the first extant offshoot of the Heterobranchia. The studied assemblage is strongly dominated by Strobeus pakistanensis. The small size of the gastropods reflects their ontogenetic stage (early juvenile and larval shells) as well as a small adult size in some of the species. Most of the present gastropods had planktotrophic larval development providing further evidence against the hypothesis that the end-Permian mass extinction event selected against larval planktotrophy. Failure to grow to a larger size or to perform metamorphosis suggests unfavourable living conditions in the source community probably due to oxygen deficiency prior to transport by storm. Size sorting is seen as less likely because the limestone is poorly sorted with relatively large ammonoids being present in considerable numbers.The studied sample yielded also three bivalve taxa amongst them two species representing the genera Leptochondria and Crittendenia. • Key words: Gastropoda, Bivalvia, Early Triassic, Recovery, end-Permian extinction, protoconchs

Griesbachian and Dienerian (Early Triassic) ammonoids from the Salt Range, Pakistan

Introduction The biotic recovery following the end-Permian mass extinction is an intensively studied topic, for which high accuracy and high precision time control is of paramount importance. Nekto-pelagic clades such as ammonoids and conodonts recovered very quickly compared to other marine clades (e.g. Brayard et al. 2006, 2009; Orchard 2007) and play the leading roles in dating of Lower Triassic marine sedimentary rocks. However, many studies addressing the recovery are based on insufficiently resolved palaeontological age controls. This is particularly the case for the Dienerian, where ammonoids and biochronology are still poorly understood (Jenks et al. 2015). A review of the current knowledge of Griesbachian and Dienerian ammonoids from the Salt Range is given in the foreword of this volume (Ware & Bucher 2018) to which the reader is referred. From 2007 to 2010, our research group carried out intensive field work in the Salt Range and the Surghar Range. Palynological and carbon isotope records have been recently published by Hermann et al. (2011a,b, 2012a,b) and Schneebeli- Hermann et al. (2012), oxygen isotopes from biogenic phosphates by Romano et al. (2013), Smithian ammonoids by Br€uhwiler et al. (2012) and bivalves of Smithian and Spathian ages by Wasmer et al. (2012). The present work focuses on Griesbachian and Dienerian ammonoids from four different areas in the Salt Range. It is based on abundant and well-preserved material sampled bed by bed. This new material provides the basis for a comprehensive revision of the taxonomy and biostratigraphy of Griesbachian and Dienerian ammonoids in the Salt Range, where all relevant sections are found. Because of the incomparable quality of the Dienerian ammonoid record of the Salt Range, this taxonomic and biostratigraphical re-investigation is an essential contribution to the Lower Triassic ammonoid zonation of the Northern Indian Margin and to the understanding of the Early Triassic biotic recovery