Beliefs and attitudes of citizens in Romania towards smart surveillance and privacy

This document presents the Romanian results of a qualitative study undertaken as part of the SMART project – “Scalable Measures for Automated Recognition Technologies” (SMART; G.A. 261727). The analysis and results are based on a set of three focus group discussions comprising of 20 participants, which were held in order to examine the beliefs and attitudes of citizens towards smart surveillance and privacy. The focus group discussions were conducted in line with a discussion guide mainly consisting of different scenarios aimed at stimulating a discussion amongst the participants. While some scenarios dealt with surveillance in everyday contexts likely to be encountered by research participants, other scenarios were hypothetical in nature and their aim was to elicit the feelings, beliefs and attitudes of the participants in relation to dataveillance, the massive integration of data from different sources, and the “security versus privacy trade-off”.Scalable Measures for Automated Recognition Technologies (G.A. 267127). The project was co-financed by the European Union within the Seventh Framework Programme (2007-2013).peer-reviewe

NETWORK INFERENCE DRIVEN DRUG DISCOVERY

The application of rational drug design principles in the era of network-pharmacology requires the investigation of drug-target and target-target interactions in order to design new drugs. The presented research was aimed at developing novel computational methods that enable the efficient analysis of complex biomedical data and to promote the hypothesis generation in the context of translational research. The three chapters of the Dissertation relate to various segments of drug discovery and development process. The first chapter introduces the integrated predictive drug discovery platform „SmartGraph”. The novel collaborative-filtering based algorithm „Target Based Recommender (TBR)” was developed in the framework of this project and was validated on a set of 28,270 experimentally determined bioactivity data points involving 1,882 compounds and 869 targets. The TBR is integrated into the SmartGraph platform. The graphical interface of SmartGraph enables data analysis and hypothesis generation even for investigators without substantial bioinformatics knowledge. The platform can be utilized in the context of target identification, drug-target prediction and drug repurposing. The second chapter of the Dissertation introduces an information theory inspired dynamic network model and the novel “Luminosity Diffusion (LD)” algorithm. The model can be utilized to prioritize protein targets for drug discovery purposes on the basis of available information and the importance of the targets. The importance of targets is accounted for in the information flow simulation process and is derived merely from network topology. The LD algorithm was validated on 8,010 relations of 794 proteins extracted from the Target Central Resource Database developed in the framework of the “Illuminating the Druggable Genome” project. The last chapter discusses a fundamental problem pertaining to the generation of similarity network of molecules and their clustering. The network generation process relies on the selection of a similarity threshold. The presented work introduces a network topology based systematic solution for selecting this threshold so that the likelihood of a reasonable clustering can be increased. Furthermore, the work proposes a solution for generating so-called “pseudo-reference clustering” for large molecular data sets for performance evaluation purposes. The results of this chapter are applicable in the lead identification and development processes

2020-05-16/17 DAILY UNM GLOBAL HEALTH COVID-19 BRIEFING

Executive Summary: Only 1 case in NM state prisons. NM case count. NM travel warning. NM web-based recovery reporting system. NM Mask Madness Tournament. Face covering in ABQ. NM graduate medical program funding. ABQ Memorial Day cancellation. NM affordable housing funding. Taos farmers market drive through opening. US correctional facility cases. Social distancing works. Dogs sniffing out COVID-19. Germany\u27s soccer league to restart. Mask effectiveness. Mask comfort w/cardboard cutout. Ammonium cleaning ineffective. CDC contact tracing guidance. Spanish immunity. CDC epidemic intelligence fellowship. Speaking transmits virus. Decontaminating workers. CDC advisory for children. Addressing ER fears. Indoor presymptomatic virus transfer. Virus transmission of currency. Safety advice for reopening. Lessons learned from universities. Dutch safe sex guidelines for singles. Recommendations are given on invasive management of acute coronary syndrome, onco-gynecologic surgery, endoscopy, hemodialysis, on resuming orthopedic surgery, clozapine monitoring, starting ADHD medications, orthodontics, and scaling up virtual services. At-home sample collection kit. Hydroxychloroquine no benefit. Tocilizumab reduces mortality rate. Calcium channel blockers beneficial. COVID-19 opinion/review vs. primary research. Disease severity and biomarkers. Concomitant liver injury. Gastrointestinal and liver involvement. Diabetes mortality. High incidence venous thrombosis. Monitoring global emotions with twitter

Defining the microbial effluxome in the content of the host-microbiome interaction

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2020-06-19/20/21 DAILY UNM GLOBAL HEALTH COVID-19 BRIEFING

Executive Summary: NM Highlights: Dr. Scrase on-line briefing. NM cases. Campgrounds closed through July 4th. Otero prison reports. Navajo nation’s first police dies. Santa Fe cancels 4th July fireworks. Face coverings donated. NM infection rate drops. US Highlights: AZ Governor issues Exec Order. Economics, Workforce, Supply Chain, PPE: Epidemiology Highlights: Reopening hospitals metric. Comparison of mask effectiveness. Private practices suffer. Healthcare Policy Recommendations: Maternal mortality. Practice Guidelines: Recommendations on hepatobiliary surgery and neonate management. Drugs, Vaccines, Therapies, Clinical Trials: Animal studies generate new vaccine candidates and vaccine platform. 16 new clinical trials registered. Other Science: Respiratory secretions detected by trained dogs. MRI findings show brain lesions in non-survivors. Healthy blood vessels may protect children. Meta-analysis on pneumonia severity. Smoking and COVID-19 severity meta-analysis

2020-06-15/16 DAILY UNM GLOBAL HEALTH COVID-19 BRIEFING

Executive Summary: NM Highlights: NM case updates. Tribal outreach campaign. Santa Fe firefighters support first responders. US Highlights: COVID-19 hospitalizations rise in Texas. US retail sales up in May. Projected COVID-19 deaths in US. International Highlights: COVID-19 prevention and control in Africa. COVID-19 response and challenge in Africa. Epidemiology Highlights: Herd immunity in Europe. Social distance measures effects. Modeling infections in India. Fecal analysis. Wastewater-based Epidemiology Consortium. Healthcare Policy Recommendations: Public health approach to lockdown debate. All of Us Program adds new COVID-19 initiatives. Practice Guidelines: Guidelines are reviewed on urology care. IBD endoscopy. Convalescent plasma use. Testing: Patient predictors of risk for positive COVID-19 test are reported and an online risk calculator is now available. Drugs, Vaccines, Therapies, Clinical Trials: Steroid dexamethasone reduces 28-day mortality by 1/3. Research links ‘inflamm-aging’ and cytokine storm in elderly. Cancer drug may reduce severe COVID-19. 48 new trials registered. Other Science: Postpone surgery. Proteins predict outcomes. Neurologic manifestations. Thromboembolic risk. Zoonotic transmission. Liver failure. Cardiac complications

2020-06-24/25 DAILY UNM GLOBAL HEALTH COVID-19 BRIEFING

Executive Summary: NM Highlights: Governor update. NM schools reopening. Parents split on allowing kids play sports. Santa Fe streets closure. Paid leave for ABQ businesses. 207 cases and 5 deaths. International Highlights: 9% HCW positive in Italy. Australian lessons. Economics, Workforce, Supply Chain, PPE: Plan for return to normalcy. Mask cleaning. Epidemiology Highlights: US years of life lost high. Fever and cough most prevalent symptoms. Hypertension and diabetes most prevalent comorbidities. Hypertension, diabetes and respiratory disease most prevalent in fatal cases. Practice Guidelines: Brazilian guidelines on thromboembolic complications in COVID-19. Novel design of door handle to touch with a forearm. Drugs, Vaccines, Therapies, Clinical Trials: Potential dexamethasone shortage. Arbidol potentially effective. Pixatimod promising. In-silico repurposing. 51 new COVID-19 trials. Other Science: Transmission prior to symptoms. Solar inactivation of coronaviruses. Risk factors for severity. Laboratory tests associated with outcomes

2020-06-29/30 DAILY UNM GLOBAL HEALTH COVID-19 BRIEFING

Executive Summary: NM Highlights: NM cases update. ABQ nursing home hit hard. UNM student family housing closure. White Sands National Park reopening. 52% of federal COVID-19 relief money for tribal communities. Bill signed to help NM taxpayers. US Highlights: Polarization of political elite response on Twitter. International Highlights: China’s military to use Ad5-nCoV vaccine in trials. Economics, Workforce, Supply Chain, PPE: Decontaminate N95 respirators using a microwave. Epidemiology Highlights: Mask-wearing prevents transmission. Face-masks associated with Italy’s declining epidemic. Healthcare Policy Recommendations: Social distancing reassessed? Lessons learned from previous pandemics. Digital tools against COVID-19. Investigating cultural and psychological factors to reduce spread. Practice Guidelines: Preserving couple relationships during COVID-19. Testing: No difference in viral load between symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals. A new fast point-of-care virus detection test. Few patient serum samples have virus RNA (at low viral load) and these are not associated with infectious disease. Symptoms and temperature reports are informative to screen health care workers. Drugs, Vaccines, Therapies, Clinical Trials: 37 new trials registered June 29-30. Other Science: Multisystem pediatric inflammatory syndrome. Hazardous postoperative outcomes. Childhood immunization in Africa. Citizen science and protein folding