Privacy-enhancing distributed protocol for data aggregation based on blockchain and homomorphic encryption

The recent increase in reported incidents of security breaches compromising users' privacy call into question the current centralized model in which third-parties collect and control massive amounts of personal data. Blockchain has demonstrated that trusted and auditable computing is possible using a decentralized network of peers accompanied by a public ledger. Furthermore, Homomorphic Encryption (HE) guarantees confidentiality not only on the computation but also on the transmission, and storage processes. The synergy between Blockchain and HE is rapidly increasing in the computing environment. This research proposes a privacy-enhancing distributed and secure protocol for data aggregation backboned by Blockchain and HE technologies. Blockchain acts as a distributed ledger which facilitates efficient data aggregation through a Smart Contract. On the top, HE will be used for data encryption allowing private aggregation operations. The theoretical description, potential applications, a suggested implementation and a performance analysis are presented to validate the proposed solution.This work has been partially supported by the Basque Country Government under the ELKARTEK program, project TRUSTIND (KK- 2020/00054). It has also been partially supported by the H2020 TERMINET project (GA 957406)

KOSTASystem, a multipurpose coastal videometry system

This contribution presents the KOSTASystem technology, a multipurpose coastal videometry system. It is implemented in 20 operational stations distributed along the Basque Coast (Spain), covering urban and natural beaches, port protection structures and natural coastal stretches. The purpose of this technology is to provide basic quantitative and qualitative data for coastal management applications. The most representative advances are related to the hardware, with the development of autonomous photovoltaic stations, and to the software, developing several tools for the calibration and restitution of the images and for the extraction of the information used in the different applications. In the longterm, within a climate change context, the most essential results have been obtained in the monitoring of beach morphology. In the short-term, the camera network works under extreme wave conditions, monitoring wave overtopping and flooding. Apart from this, it is also used for the daily management of the beaches in the summer season, improving the safety by detecting and predicting rip currents and providing information about beach user density (BUD). Finally, the constant improvement of this technology and its applications help to grow and collaborate within the European framework of the coastal observation network.Peer Reviewe

Bibliografía General de Historia de Vasconia (1998) = Euskal Herriko Historiaren Bibliografia Orokorra (1998)

Este trabajo tiene por objeto la publicación anual de un Índice Bibliográfico de Historia de Vasconia, comprendiendo el territorio de las Provincias Vascongadas (hoy, Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco), Navarra e Iparralde. Abarca lo publicado en revistas y libros editados en 1998 acerca de la Historia vasca desde la Antigüedad hasta nuestros días. Los títulos se clasifican en siete grandes apartados: Archivos, Fondos Documentales y Bibliotecas; Bibliografía e Historiografía; Obras Generales, Edad Antigua, Edad Media, Edad Moderna y Edad Contemporánea. A su vez, estas cuatro Edades se subdividen en Obras Generales y en varios periodos históricos.Urteroko Euskal Herriko Historiaren Aurkibide Bibliografikoa argitaratzea da lan honen helburua, Euskal Herriaren barnean Araba, Bizkaia eta Gipuzkoa (gaur egun, Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoa), Nafarroa eta Iparraldea harturik. Euskal Historiari buruz, Antzinatetik gure egunotaraino, 1998ko aldizkari eta liburuetan argitaraturikoa hartzen du bere baitan. Izenburuak zazpi sail handitan banaturik daude: Artxiboak, Gordailu Dokumentalak eta Bibliotekak; Bibliografia eta Historiografia; Obra Orokorrak, Antzinaroa, Erdi Aroa, Aro Modernoa eta Gaur egungo Aroa. Hala berean, lau Aro horiek Obra Orokorretan eta zenbait aldi historikotan banaturik aurkitzen dira.Le but de ce travail est la publication annuelle d'un Index Bibliographique d'Histoire du Pays Basque, y compris le territoire des Provinces Basques (aujourd'hui la Communauté Autonome du Pays Basque), la Navarre et le Pays Basque français. Il comprend ce qui a été publié dans des revues et des livres édités en 1998 au sujet de l'Histoire basque depuis l'Antiquité jusqu'à nos jours. Les titres sont classés en sept grandes sections: Archives, Fonds Documentaires et Bibliothèques; Bibliographie et Historiographie; Oeuvres Générales, Antiquité, Moyen-Âge, Temps Modernes et Epoque Contemporaine. En même temps, ces quatre Epoques se subdivisent en Oeuvres Générales et en plusieurs périodes historiques.The objective of this work is the annual publication of a Bibliographical Index for the History of Vasconia, including the territory of the Basque Provinces (today, the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country), Navarra and Iparralde. It encompasses what is published in magazines and books edited in 1998 about Basque History from the Antiquity to the present day. The titles are classified in six large sections: Archives, Libraries, Bibliography and Historiography; General Works, Ancient Times, Middle Ages, Modern Age and Contemporary Age. At the same time, these four Ages are subdivided into General Works and in several historical periods

A novel strategy based on genomics and specific PCR reveals how a multidrug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain became prevalent in Equatorial Guinea 15 years after its emergence.

OBJECTIVE: Molecular epidemiology techniques in tuberculosis (TB) can identify high-risk strains that are actively transmitted. We aimed to implement a novel strategy to optimize the identification and control of multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB in a specific population. METHODS: We developed a strain-specific PCR tailored from whole genome sequencing (WGS) data to track a specific MDR prevalent strain in Equatorial Guinea (EG-MDR). RESULTS: The PCR was applied prospectively on remnants of GeneXpert reaction mixtures owing to the lack of culture facilities in Equatorial Guinea. In 147 (93%) of 158 cases, we were able to differentiate between infection by the EG-MDR strain or by any other strain and found that 44% of all rifampicin-resistant TB cases were infected by EG-MDR. We also analysed 93 isolates obtained from Equatorial Guinea 15 years ago, before MDR-TB had become the problem it is today. We found that two of the scarce historical MDR cases were infected by EG-MDR. WGS revealed low variability-six single nucleotide polymorphisms acquired by this strain over 15 years-likely because of the lack in the country of a specific program to treat MDR-TB. CONCLUSIONS: Our novel strategy, which integrated WGS analysis and strain-specific PCRs, represents a low-cost, rapid and transferable strategy that allowed a prospective efficient survey and fast historical analysis of MDR-TB in a population

White Paper 2: Origins, (Co)Evolution, Diversity & Synthesis Of Life

Publicado en Madrid, 185 p. ; 17 cm.How life appeared on Earth and how then it diversified into the different and currently existing forms of life are the unanswered questions that will be discussed this volume. These questions delve into the deep past of our planet, where biology intermingles with geology and chemistry, to explore the origin of life and understand its evolution, since “nothing makes sense in biology except in the light of evolution” (Dobzhansky, 1964). The eight challenges that compose this volume summarize our current knowledge and future research directions touching different aspects of the study of evolution, which can be considered a fundamental discipline of Life Science. The volume discusses recent theories on how the first molecules arouse, became organized and acquired their structure, enabling the first forms of life. It also attempts to explain how this life has changed over time, giving rise, from very similar molecular bases, to an immense biological diversity, and to understand what is the hylogenetic relationship among all the different life forms. The volume further analyzes human evolution, its relationship with the environment and its implications on human health and society. Closing the circle, the volume discusses the possibility of designing new biological machines, thus creating a cell prototype from its components and whether this knowledge can be applied to improve our ecosystem. With an effective coordination among its three main areas of knowledge, the CSIC can become an international benchmark for research in this field

The effect of post-discharge educational intervention on patients in achieving objectives in modifiable risk factors six months after discharge following an episode of acute coronary syndrome, (CAM-2 Project): a randomized controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Objectives</p> <p>We investigated whether an intervention mainly consisting of a signed agreement between patient and physician on the objectives to be reached, improves reaching these secondary prevention objectives in modifiable cardiovascular risk factors six-months after discharge following an acute coronary syndrome.</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is room to improve mid-term adherence to clinical guidelines' recommendations in coronary heart disease secondary prevention, specially non-pharmacological ones, often neglected.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In CAM-2, patients discharged after an acute coronary syndrome were randomly assigned to the intervention or the usual care group. The primary outcome was reaching therapeutic objectives in various secondary prevention variables: smoking, obesity, blood lipids, blood pressure control, exercise and taking of medication.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>1757 patients were recruited in 64 hospitals and 1510 (762 in the intervention and 748 in the control group) attended the six-months follow-up visit. After adjustment for potentially important variables, there were, between the intervention and control group, differences in the mean reduction of body mass index (0.5 vs. 0.2; p < 0.001) and waist circumference (1.6 cm vs. 0.6 cm; p = 0.05), proportion of patients who exercise regularly and those with total cholesterol below 175 mg/dl (64.7% vs. 56.5%; p = 0.001). The reported intake of medications was high in both groups for all the drugs considered with no differences except for statins (98.1% vs. 95.9%; p = 0.029).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>At least in the short term, lifestyle changes among coronary heart disease patients are achievable by intensifying the responsibility of the patient himself by means of a simple and feasible intervention.</p

Validation of UVEDAI: An Index for Evaluating the Level of Inflammatory Activity in Uveitis

Introduction Uveitis is the inflammation of the middle layer of the eye, the uvea, and is a major cause of blindness. None of the instruments used in clinical practice are, in themselves, sufficient to evaluate the course of uveitis. Therefore, it is necessary to develop instruments enabling standardized measurement of inflammatory activity. We developed a composite disease activity index for patients with uveitis known as UVEDAI, which considers the overall activity of the eye. The objective of this study was to validate the composite index of ocular inflammation, UVEDAI. Methods A multicenter cross-sectional study involving eight Spanish tertiary hospitals. Sixty-two patients aged ≥ 18 years with acute uveitis were recruited. Participants gave informed consent before participating in the study. A full ophthalmological examination was performed by two ophthalmologists to determine inflammatory activity: one used the UVEDAI score and the other used clinical judgment. The ophthalmologists did not share their findings with each other to avoid introducing bias into the analysis. Construct validity was established by means of factor analysis. The criterion validity of the index was determined using an ordinal multivariate regression model, in which the dependent variable was the degree of uveal inflammation (mild, moderate, or high/severe). Cut-off points were determined for the UVEDAI and for the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results Sixty-two patients were included. Total variance with the three components accounted for 80.32% of the construct validity. Each of the three components identified one type of eye involvement. The discriminatory capacity of UVEDAI was 0.867 (95% CI 0.778; 0.955 p < 0.001) for mild versus moderate–high and 0.946 (95% CI 0.879; 1.000 p < 0.001) for high versus mild–moderate. Conclusions The variables included in UVEDAI enable ocular inflammatory activity to be described with a high degree of accuracy. The index may be used to evaluate and classify this activity with considerable discriminatory power.We would like to acknowledge the support of Abbvie: this study was conducted with an unrestricted grant from Abbvie. The Spanish Society of Rheumatology is the sponser and funder of this study and the journal's Rapid Service Fee, and has participated in the study design; in the analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication. The corresponding author had full access to all study data and had final responsibility for the decision to submit the manuscript for publication

Cortical thinning over two years after first-episode psychosis depends on age of onset

First-episode psychosis (FEP) patients show structural brain abnormalities at the first episode. Whether the cortical changes that follow a FEP are progressive and whether age at onset modulates these changes remains unclear. This is a multicenter MRI study in a deeply phenotyped sample of 74 FEP patients with a wide age range at onset (15–35 years) and 64 neurotypical healthy controls (HC). All participants underwent two MRI scans with a 2-year follow-up interval. We computed the longitudinal percentage of change (PC) for cortical thickness (CT), surface area (CSA) and volume (CV) for frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital lobes. We used general linear models to assess group differences in PC as a function of age at FEP. We conducted post-hoc analyses for metrics where PC differed as a function of age at onset. We found a significant age-by-diagnosis interaction effect for PC of temporal lobe CT (d = 0.54; p = 002). In a post-hoc-analysis, adolescent-onset (≤19 y) FEP showed more severe longitudinal cortical thinning in the temporal lobe than adolescent HC. We did not find this difference in adult-onset FEP compared to adult HC. Our study suggests that, in individuals with psychosis, CT changes that follow the FEP are dependent on the age at first episode, with those with an earlier onset showing more pronounced cortical thinning in the temporal lobe