A Systematic Key Management Mechanism for Practical Body Sensor Networks

Security plays a vital role in promoting the practicality of Wireless Body Sensor Networks (BSNs), which provides a promising solution to precise human physiological status monitoring. A fundamental security issue in BSN is key management, including establishment and maintenance of the key system. However, current BSN key management solutions are either designed for specific phases of a BSN’s life-time or restricted to strong assumptions such as homogeneous BSN composition, pre-deployed key materials, and existing secure path, which limits their applications in real-world BSNs. In this paper, we develop the Systematic Key Management (SKM) for practical BSNs, where basic human interactions are conducted for non-predeployed secure BSN initialization, and authenticated key agreement is achieved using lightweight non-pairing certificateless public key cryptography. We construct a BSN prototype consisting of selfdesigned motes and Android phones to evaluate the real-world performance of SKM. Through extensive simulations and test-bed experiments, we demonstrate that our lightweight SKM scheme manages to provide high security guarantee while outperforming state-of-the-art approaches in terms of both computation and storage efficiency

Up-regulation of MiR-205 under hypoxia promotes epithelial-mesenchymal transition by targeting ASPP2

The epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) is one of the crucial procedures for cancer invasion and distal metastasis. Despite undergoing intensive studies, the mechanisms underlying EMT remain to be completely elucidated. Here, we identified that apoptosis-stimulating protein of p53-2 (ASPP2) is a novel target of MiR-205 in various cancers. Interestingly, the binding site of MiR-205 at the 3′-untranslated region of ASPP2 was highly conserved among different species. An inverse correlation between MiR-205 and ASPP2 was further observed in vivo in cervical cancers, suggesting MiR-205 may be an important physiological inhibitor of ASPP2. Hypoxia is a hallmark of solid tumor microenvironment and one of such conditions to induce EMT. Notably, MiR-205 was remarkably induced by hypoxia in cervical and lung cancer cells. A marked suppression of ASPP2 was observed simultaneously. Further studies confirmed that hypoxia-induced ASPP2 suppression was mainly attributed to the elevated MiR-205. Interestingly, the alteration of MiR-205/ASPP2 under hypoxia was accompanied with the decreased epithelial marker E-cadherin and increased mesenchymal marker Vimentin, as well as a morphological transition from the typical cobblestone-like appearance to the mesenchymal-like structure. More importantly, MiR-205 mimics or ASPP2 silencing similarly promoted EMT process. By contrast, ASPP2 recovery or MiR-205 inhibitor reversed MiR-205-dependent EMT. Further studies demonstrated that the newly revealed MiR-205/ASPP2 axis promoted cell migration and also increased cell proliferation both in vivo and in vitro. These data together implicated a critical impact of MiR-205/ASPP2 on promoting EMT. MiR-205/ASPP2 may be potential diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers in cervical and lung cancers

Polymorphic genetic characterization of the ORF7 gene of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) in China

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) exhibits extensive genetic variation. The outbreak of a highly pathogenic PRRS in 2006 led us to investigate the extent of PRRSV genetic diversity in China. To this end, we analyzed the Nsp2 and ORF7 gene sequences of 98 Chinese PRRSV isolates.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Preliminary analysis indicated that highly pathogenic PRRSV strains with a 30-amino acid deletion in the Nsp2 protein are the dominant viruses circulating in China. Further analysis based on ORF7 sequences revealed that all Chinese isolates were divided into 5 subgroups, and that the highly pathogenic PRRSVs were distantly related to the MLV or CH-1R vaccine, raising doubts about the efficacy of these vaccines. The ORF7 sequence data also showed no apparent associations between geographic or temporal origin and heterogeneity of PRRSV in China.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings enhance our knowledge of the genetic characteristics of Chinese PRRSV isolates, and may facilitate the development of effective strategies for monitoring and controlling PRRSV in China.</p

Targeted metabolomic profiles of serum amino acids and acylcarnitines related to gastric cancer

Background Early diagnosis and treatment are imperative for improving survival in gastric cancer (GC). This work aimed to assess the ability of human serum amino acid and acylcarnitine profiles in distinguishing GC cases from atrophic gastritis (AG) and control superficial gastritis (SG) patients. Methods Sixty-nine GC, seventy-four AG and seventy-two SG control patients treated from May 2018 to May 2019 in Gansu Provincial Hospitalwere included. The levels of 42 serum metabolites in the GC, AG and SG groups were detected by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS). Then, orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) and the Kruskal-Wallis H test were used to identify a metabolomic signature among the three groups. Metabolites with highest significance were examined for further validation. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was carried out for evaluating diagnostic utility. Results The metabolomic analysis found adipylcarnitine (C6DC), 3-hydroxy-hexadecanoylcarnitine (C16OH), hexanoylcarnitine (C6), free carnitine (C0) and arginine (ARG) were differentially expressed (all VIP >1) and could distinguish GC patients from AG and SG cases. In comparison with the AG and SG groups, GC cases had significantly higher C6DC, C16OH, C6, C0 and ARG amounts. Jointly quantitating these five metabolites had specificity and sensitivity in GC diagnosis of 98.55% and 99.32%, respectively, with an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.9977. Conclusion This study indicates C6DC, C16OH, C6, C0 and ARG could effectively differentiate GC cases from AG and SG patients, and may jointly serve as a valuable circulating multi-marker panel for GC detection

Effects of obesity with reduced 25(OH)D levels on bone health in elderly Chinese people: a nationwide cross-sectional study

BackgroundObesity is often accompanied by lower 25(OH)D levels, whereas these two parameters exhibit opposite effects on bone health. It is uncertain what are the effects of lower 25(OH)D levels in obesity on bone health in elderly Chinese people.MethodsA nationally representative cross-sectional analysis of China Community-based Cohort of Osteoporosis (CCCO) was performed from 2016 to 2021, which consisted of 22,081 participants. Demographic data, disease history, Body mass index (BMI), bone mineral density (BMD), the levels of the biomarkers of vitamin D status and those of bone metabolism markers were measured for all participants (N = 22,081). The genes (rs12785878, rs10741657, rs4588, rs7041, rs2282679 and rs6013897) related to 25(OH)D transportation and metabolism were performed in a selected subgroup (N = 6008).ResultsObese subjects exhibited lower 25(OH)D levels (p &lt; 0.05) and higher BMD (p &lt; 0.001) compared with those of normal subjects following adjustment. The genotypes and allele frequency of rs12785878, rs10741657, rs6013897, rs2282679, rs4588 and rs7041 indicated no significant differences among three BMI groups following correction by the Bonferroni’s method (p &gt; 0.05). The levels of total 25(OH)D (ToVD) were significantly different among the GC1F, GC1S and GC2 haplotype groups (p &lt; 0.05). Correlation analysis indicated that ToVD levels were significantly correlated with parathyroid hormone levels, BMD, risk of osteoporosis (OP) and the concentration levels of other bone metabolism markers (p &lt; 0.05). Generalized varying coefficient models demonstrated that the increasing BMI, ToVD levels and their interactions were positively associated with BMD outcomes (p &lt; 0.001), whereas the reduced levels of ToVD and BMI increased the risk of OP, which was noted notably for the subjects with reduced ToVD levels (less than 20.69 ng/ml) combined with decreased BMI (less than 24.05 kg/m2).ConclusionThere was a non-linear interaction of BMI and 25(OH)D. And higher BMI accompanied by decreased 25(OH)D levels is associated with increased BMD and decreased incidence of OP, optimal ranges exist for BMI and 25(OH)D levels. The cutoff value of BMI at approximately 24.05 kg/m2 combined with an approximate value of 25(OH)D at 20.69 ng/ml are beneficial for Chinese elderly subjects

Traitor Tracing against Public Collaboration (Full Version)

Broadcast encryption provides a convenient method to distribute digital content to subscribers over an insecure broadcast channel. Traitor tracing is needed because some users may give out their decryption keys to construct pirate decoders. There are many traitor tracing schemes based on collusion secure codes and identifiable parent property codes. However, these schemes are subject to public collaboration of traitors, which is presented by Billet and Phan in EUROCRYPT 2009 as an attack against code-based traitor tracing schemes. In this paper, we describe a generic collusion secure codes based scheme secure against such collaboration. Our scheme is motivated by the idea of identity-based encryption with wildcards (WIBE). We regard the collusion secure codeword for each user as his/her identity, and issue private key accordingly. When in broadcasting, we use a special pattern of WIBE, namely all bit positions in the codewords of intended receivers are set as wildcards. When in tracing, we use another special pattern of WIBE, namely all positions are set as wildcards except the tracing position. By using WIBE, each user is issued one decryption key which should be used as a whole and any incomplete part of the key is useless, while in previous codes based schemes each user holds a number of keys that can be used separately for different bit positions in the codeword. Thus our scheme is resistant to public collaboration, since if the decryption key is disclosed as a whole, it will immediately lead to the accusation of the very traitor. Our idea fits well for code based traitor tracing schemes, no matter collusion secure codes or identifiable parent property codes. We provide an instance based on Boneh-Boyen-Goh WIBE scheme, achieving constant private key storage cost for each user. We also present another instance achieving shorter ciphertexts, on the expense of increasing public keys and private keys. Our scheme presents an answer to the problem left open by Billet and Phan