Anonymization of Sensitive Quasi-Identifiers for l-diversity and t-closeness

A number of studies on privacy-preserving data mining have been proposed. Most of them assume that they can separate quasi-identifiers (QIDs) from sensitive attributes. For instance, they assume that address, job, and age are QIDs but are not sensitive attributes and that a disease name is a sensitive attribute but is not a QID. However, all of these attributes can have features that are both sensitive attributes and QIDs in practice. In this paper, we refer to these attributes as sensitive QIDs and we propose novel privacy models, namely, (l1, ..., lq)-diversity and (t1, ..., tq)-closeness, and a method that can treat sensitive QIDs. Our method is composed of two algorithms: an anonymization algorithm and a reconstruction algorithm. The anonymization algorithm, which is conducted by data holders, is simple but effective, whereas the reconstruction algorithm, which is conducted by data analyzers, can be conducted according to each data analyzer’s objective. Our proposed method was experimentally evaluated using real data sets

Indoor particle counts during Asian dust events under everyday conditions at an apartment in Japan.

[Objective]Asian dust storms originating from arid regions of Mongolia and China are a well-known springtime phenomenon throughout East Asia. Evidence is increasing for the adverse health effects caused by airborne desert dust inhalation. Given that people spend approximately 90 % of their time indoors, indoor air quality is a significant concern. The present study aimed to examine the influence of outdoor particulate matter (PM) levels on indoor PM levels during Asian dust events under everyday conditions. [Methods]We simultaneously monitored counts of particles larger than 0.3, 0.5, 1, 2, and 5 μm using two direct-reading instruments (KC-01D1 airborne particle counter; Rion), one placed in an apartment room and another on the veranda, under everyday conditions before and during an Asian dust event. We also examined how indoor particle counts were affected by opening a window, crawling, and air purifier use. [Results]An Asian dust event on 24 April 2012 caused 50- and 20-fold increases in PM counts in outdoor and indoor air, respectively. A window open for 10 min resulted in a rapid increase of indoor PM counts up to 70 % of outside levels that did not return to baseline levels after 3 h. An air purifier rapidly reduced PM counts for all particle sizes measured. [Conclusions]It is important to account for occupant behavior, such as window-opening and air purifier use, when estimating residential exposure to particulate matter

Shortened cataract surgery by standardisation of the perioperative protocol according to the Joint Commission International accreditation: a retrospective observational study

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the impact of standardisation of the perioperative protocol based on the Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation guidelines for operating time in cataract surgery. DESIGN: Retrospective observational study. SETTING: Single centre in Japan. PARTICIPANTS: Between March 2014 and June 2016, 3127 patients underwent cataract surgery under topical anaesthesia including 2581 and 546 patients before and after JCI accreditation, respectively. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOMES: We compared three time periods, comprising the preprocedure/surgery time (pre-PT), PT and post-PT, and total PT (TPT) of cataract surgery between patients before and after JCI accreditation, by regression analysis adjusted for age, sex and cataract surgery-associated confounders. RESULTS: The main outcomes were pre-PT, PT, post-PT and TPT. Pre-PT (19.8+/-10.5 vs 13.9+/-8.5 min, p \u3c 0.001) and post-PT (3.5+/-4.6 vs 2.6+/-2.1 min, p \u3c 0.001) significantly decreased after JCI accreditation, while PT did not significantly change (16.8+/-6.7 vs 16.2+/-6.3 min, p=0.065). Consequently, TPT decreased on average by 7.3 min per person after JCI accreditation (40.1+/-13.4 vs 32.8+/-10.9 min, p \u3c 0.001). After adjusting for confounders, pre-PT (beta=-5.82 min, 95% CI -6.75 to -4.88), PT (beta=-0.76 min, 95% CI -1.34 to -1.71), post-PT (beta=-0.85 min, 95% CI -1.24 to -0.45) and TPT (beta=-7.43 min, 95% CI -8.61 to -6.24) were significantly shortened after JCI accreditation. CONCLUSION: Perioperative protocol standardisation, based on JCI accreditation, shortened TPT in cataract surgery under local anaesthesia

Low-dose irradiation promotes tissue revascularization through VEGF release from mast cells and MMP-9–mediated progenitor cell mobilization

Mast cells accumulate in tissues undergoing angiogenesis during tumor growth, wound healing, and tissue repair. Mast cells can secrete angiogenic factors such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Ionizing irradiation has also been shown to have angiogenic potential in malignant and nonmalignant diseases. We observed that low-dose irradiation fosters mast cell–dependent vascular regeneration in a limb ischemia model. Irradiation promoted VEGF production by mast cells in a matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9)–dependent manner. Irradiation, through MMP-9 up-regulated by VEGF in stromal and endothelial cells, induced the release of Kit-ligand (KitL). Irradiation-induced VEGF promoted migration of mast cells from the bone marrow to the ischemic site. Irradiation-mediated release of KitL and VEGF was impaired in MMP-9–deficient mice, resulting in a reduced number of tissue mast cells and delayed vessel formation in the ischemic limb. Irradiation-induced vasculogenesis was abrogated in mice deficient in mast cells (steel mutant, Sl/Sld mice) and in mice in which the VEGF pathway was blocked. Irradiation did not induce progenitor mobilization in Sl/Sld mice. We conclude that increased recruitment and activation of mast cells following irradiation alters the ischemic microenvironment and promotes vascular regeneration in an ischemia model. These data show a novel mechanism of neovascularization and suggest that low-dose irradiation may be used for therapeutic angiogenesis to augment vasculogenesis in ischemic tissues

Allelotypes of lung adenocarcinomas featuring ALK fusion demonstrate fewer onco- and suppressor gene changes

BACKGROUND: A subset of lung adenocarcinomas harboring an EML4-ALK fusion gene resulting in dominant oncogenic activity has emerged as a target for specific therapy. EML4-ALK fusion confers a characteristic histology and is detected more frequently in never or light smokers and younger patients. METHODS: To gain insights into etiology and carcinogenic mechanisms we conducted analyses to compare allelotypes of 35 ALK fusion-positive and 95 -negative tumours using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays and especially designed software which enabled precise global genomic profiling. RESULTS: Overall aberration numbers (gains + losses) of chromosomal alterations were 8.42 and 9.56 in tumours with and without ALK fusion, respectively, the difference not being statistically significant, although patterns of gain and loss were distinct. Interestingly, among selected genomic regions, oncogene-related examples such as 1p34.3(MYCL1), 7q11.2(EGFR), 7p21.1, 8q24.21(MYC), 16p13.3, 17q12(ERBB2) and 17q25.1 showed significantly less gain. Also, changes in tumour suppressor gene-related regions, such as 9p21.3 (CDKN2A) 9p23-24.1 (PTPRD), 13q14.2 (RB1), were significantly fewer in tumours with ALK fusion. CONCLUSION: Global genomic comparison with SNP arrays showed tumours with ALK fusion to have fewer alterations in oncogenes and suppressor genes despite a similar overall aberration frequency, suggesting very strong oncogenic potency of ALK activation by gene fusion

Regulation of Airway Smooth Muscle Cell Proliferation by Diacylglycerol Kinase: Relevance to Airway Remodeling in Asthma

Airway remodeling in asthma involves the hyperproliferation of airway smooth muscle (ASM) cells. However, the molecular signals that regulate ASM growth are not completely understood. Gq-coupled G protein-coupled receptor and receptor tyrosine kinase signaling regulate ASM cell proliferation via activation of phospholipase C, generation of inositol triphosphate (IP3) and diacylglycerol (DAG). Diacylglycerol kinase (DGK) converts DAG into phosphatidic acid (PA) and terminates DAG signaling while promoting PA-mediated signaling and function. Herein, we hypothesized that PA is a pro-mitogenic second messenger in ASM, and DGK inhibition reduces the conversion of DAG into PA resulting in inhibition of ASM cell proliferation. We assessed the effect of pharmacological inhibition of DGK on pro-mitogenic signaling and proliferation in primary human ASM cells. Pretreatment with DGK inhibitor I (DGKI) significantly inhibited platelet-derived growth factor-stimulated ASM cell proliferation. Anti-mitogenic effect of DGKI was associated with decreased mTOR signaling and expression of cyclin D1. Exogenous PA promoted pro-mitogenic signaling and rescued DGKI-induced attenuation of ASM cell proliferation. Finally, house dust mite (HDM) challenge in wild type mice promoted airway remodeling features, which were attenuated in DGKζ-/- mice. We propose that DGK serves as a potential drug target for mitigating airway remodeling in asthma

The Projected Dark and Baryonic Ellipsoidal Structure of 20 CLASH Galaxy Clusters

We reconstruct the two-dimensional (2D) matter distributions in 20 high-mass galaxy clusters selected from the CLASH survey by using the new approach of performing a joint weak gravitational lensing analysis of 2D shear and azimuthally averaged magnification measurements. This combination allows for a complete analysis of the field, effectively breaking the mass-sheet degeneracy. In a Bayesian framework, we simultaneously constrain the mass profile and morphology of each individual cluster, assuming an elliptical Navarro-Frenk-White halo characterized by the mass, concentration, projected axis ratio, and position angle (PA) of the projected major axis. We find that spherical mass estimates of the clusters from azimuthally averaged weak-lensing measurements in previous work are in excellent agreement with our results from a full 2D analysis. Combining all 20 clusters in our sample, we detect the elliptical shape of weak-lensing halos at the 5σ significance level within a scale of 2 Mpc h. The median projected axis ratio is 0.67 ± 0.07 at a virial mass of M = (15.2 ± 2.8) × 10 M, which is in agreement with theoretical predictions from recent numerical simulations of the standard collisionless cold dark matter model. We also study misalignment statistics of the brightest cluster galaxy, X-ray, thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, and strong-lensing morphologies with respect to the weak-lensing signal. Among the three baryonic tracers studied here, we find that the X-ray morphology is best aligned with the weak-lensing mass distribution, with a median misalignment angle of |ΔPA| = 21° ± 7°. We also conduct a stacked quadrupole shear analysis of the 20 clusters assuming that the X-ray major axis is aligned with that of the projected mass distribution. This yields a consistent axis ratio of 0.67 ± 0.10, suggesting again a tight alignment between the intracluster gas and dark matter. © 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.This work was made possible by the availability of high-quality weak-lensing data produced by the CLASH survey. We are grateful to the CLASH team who enabled us to carry out this work. We thank the anonymous referee for constructive suggestions and comments. We thank Masamune Oguri for making his simulated Subaru Suprime-Cam observations available to us. K.U. acknowledges support from the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (grants MOST 103-2112-M-001-030-MY3 and MOST 106-2628-M-001-003-MY3) and from the Academia Sinica Investigator Award. M.S. and S.E. acknowledge financial support from the contracts ASI-INAF I/009/10/0, NARO15 ASI-INAF I/037/12/0, ASI 2015-046-R.0 and ASI-INAF n.2017-14-H.0. Support for D.G. was provided by NASA through Einstein Postdoctoral Fellowship grant number PF5-160138 awarded by the Chandra X-ray Center, which is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for NASA under contract NAS8-03060. T.O. acknowledges support from the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan under the grant MOST 106-2119-M-001-031-MY3. M.M., M.S., S.E., and J.S. acknowledge support from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Directorate General for Country Promotion (Project "Crack the lens"). J.S. was supported by NSF/AST-1617022