Asymmetric cryptosystem based on optical scanning cryptography and elliptic curve algorithm.

We propose an asymmetric cryptosystem based on optical scanning cryptography (OSC) and elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) algorithm. In the encryption stage of OSC, an object is encrypted to cosine and sine holograms by two pupil functions calculated via ECC algorithm from sender's biometric image, which is sender's private key. With the ECC algorithm, these holograms are encrypted to ciphertext, which is sent to the receiver. In the stage of decryption, the encrypted holograms can be decrypted by receiver's biometric private key which is different from the sender's private key. The approach is an asymmetric cryptosystem which solves the problem of the management and dispatch of keys in OSC and has more security strength than the conventional OSC. The feasibility of the proposed method has been convincingly verified by numerical and experiment results.

Unconventional Imaging: introduction to the feature issue.

This feature issue of Applied Optics is dedicated to the international meeting of Information Photonics 2020 (IP'20), which was held September 11-12, 2020, in Taipei, Taiwan. IP'20 covered a broad range of topics, including advanced display techniques, optical computing, and optical storage. This feature issue, however, limits topics to unconventional imaging techniques, such as digital holography, artificial-intelligence associated imaging, compressive imaging, and single-pixel imaging.

Impact of age and treatment institution type on outcomes of patients treated for chronic lymphocytic leukemia in British Columbia, Canada.

Older age has been shown to adversely impact overall survival (OS) in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) however, prior population-based studies did not analyze the impact of cytogenetic abnormalities or were prior to the availability of ibrutinib. OBJECTIVES: i) We sought to compare outcomes of patients based on their age at treatment to examine if older age has an impact on OS in patients who were treated during the period when fludarabine-rituximab was the standard upfront therapy and when ibrutinib was first introduced and ii) compare outcomes based on whether the patient received primary treatment at an academic or community-based centre. METHODS: The BC Provincial CLL Database, a population-based databasewas used to include patients who have received treatment in British Columbia (BC), Canada between 2004 and 2016. RESULTS: A total of 1122 patients were included (<70 years at treatment, n = 589) with median age at diagnosis 66 years. Younger patients had higher Rai stage (55% vs. 44% stage I-II, p < 0.001), higher lymphocyte count at diagnosis (13 × 109/L vs. 10 × 109/L, p = 0.004), greater proportion with B-symptoms at diagnosis (15% vs 10%, p = 0.004), shorter time from diagnosis to treatment (13.9 months vs. 21.4 months, p = 0.001), higher proportion treated at an academic centre (79% vs. 69%, p < 0.001) and more were treated with fludarabine-rituximab or FCR (69% vs. 42%, p < 0.001) compared to older patients. Older patients had both a significantly (p < 0.001) shorter OS from treatment start (4.7 years) and disease specific survival (8.1 years) than younger patients (median OS and DSS not reached). Of interest, there was no difference in OS between patients treated at an academic centre or community centre (p = 0.087). First-line treatment with chemoimmunotherapy improved OS (HR 0.465, 95% CI: 0.381-.567). CONCLUSIONS: Older age but not treatment-institution type adversely impacts overall survival and CLL survival in treated patients in BC.

3D display by binary computer-generated holograms with localized random down-sampling and adaptive intensity accumulation.

In this paper, we proposed a new technique to realize a high-quality three-dimensional (3D) display by using binary holograms. First, we applied a localized random down-sampling (LRDS) mask to down-sample the object function and generated a binary CGH by direct sign-thresholding. Subsequently, we devised the display by adaptive intensity accumulation (AIA). In AIA, multiple CGHs of the same object are generated. However, selective sampling points of the same scene are removed according to the reconstructed image of previous binary CGHs as the second and more binary CGHs are generated. Finally, these holograms are sequentially displayed on a fast spatial light modulator, a digital micromirror device (DMD). Thus, a high-quality 3D image is reconstructed without artifacts and speckle noise.

Candida albicans aspects of binary titanium alloys for biomedical applications.

Titanium and its alloys are widely used in biomedical devices, e.g. implants, due to its biocompatibility and osseointegration ability. In fact, fungal (Candida spp.) infection has been identified as one of the key reasons causing the failure of the device that is inevitable and impactful to the society. Thus, this study evaluated the surface morphology, surface chemical composition and Candida albicans adhesion on specimens of 16 binary Ti-alloys (∼5 wt% of any one of the alloy elements: Ag, Al, Au, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, In, Mn, Mo, Nb, Pd, Pt, Sn, V and Zr) compared with cp-Ti, targeting to seek for the binary Ti-alloys which has the lowest C. albicans infection. Candida albicans cultures were grown on the specimens for 48 h, and colony forming units (CFUs) and real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were used to evaluate the biofilm formation ability. Scanning electron microscopy and confocal laser scanning microscopy confirmed the formation of C. albicans biofilm on all specimens' surfaces, such that CFU results showed Ti-Mo, Ti-Zr, Ti-Al and Ti-V have less C. albicans formed on the surfaces than cp-Ti. RT-PCR showed Ti-Zr and Ti-Cu have significantly higher C. albicans DNA concentrations than Ti-Al and Ti-V (P < 0.05), whereas Ti-Cu has even showed a statistically higher concentration than Ti-Au, Ti-Co, Ti-In and Ti-Pt (P < 0.05). This study confirmed that Ti-Mo, Ti-Zr, Ti-Al and Ti-V have lower the occurrence of C. albicans which might be clinically advantageous for medical devices, but Ti-Cu should be used in caution.

Comparison of real-world treatment patterns in chronic lymphocytic leukemia management before and after availability of ibrutinib in the province of British Columbia, Canada.

We performed a retrospective study comparing treatment patterns and overall survival (OS) in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients with the advent of ibrutinib to provide current real-world data. METHODS: Using a provincial population-based database, we analyzed CLL patients who received upfront treatment in British Columbia before ibrutinib availability (1984-2014), during ibrutinib access for: relapse only (2014-2015) and for upfront treatment of patients (with 17p deletion or unfit for chemotherapy) (2015-2016). Analysis included up to third-line treatment. RESULTS: Of 1729 patients meeting inclusion criteria (median age, 66 years; 1466, period 1; 140, period 2; 123, period 3), FR was the most common first-line therapy (35.8 %, 54.3 % and 40.7 %, periods 1-3, respectively) and 18.7 % received ibrutinib upfront in period 3. The most common therapies in relapse were chemoimmunotherapy (36.1 % and 55.6 %, periods 1 and 2, second-line; 29.2 %, period 1, third-line) and ibrutinib (69.8 %, period 3, second-line; 46.4 % and 70.3 %, periods 2 and 3, third-line). OS improved for patients treated in periods 2-3 over period 1 (median OS not reached vs. 11.9 years, p < 0.001; no difference in OS for periods 2-3, p = 0.385). CONCLUSION: Ibrutinib has replaced chemoimmunotherapy as the preferred therapy in relapse. Overall survival has improved over time with access to ibrutinib.

Potential role of Candida albicans secreted aspartic protease 9 in serum induced-hyphal formation and interaction with oral epithelial cells.

INTRODUCTION: Candida albicans possesses the ability to switch rapidly between yeast to hyphal forms. Hyphal formation is a remarkable pathogenic characteristic, which allows C. albicans to invade into host cells. OBJECTIVES: This study was to investigate the role of the C. albicans SAP9 gene in hyphal formation and invasion ability. METHODS: The morphology of fungal cells in the hyphal-inducing liquid media (YPD+10% fetal bovine serum) was observed by the microscopy. And the morphology of the colony on solid agar plates of YPD+10% fetal bovine serum was photographed by the digital camera. The mRNA expressions of hypha-associated genes in serum medium were also analyzed by real time PCR. Then for the interaction between C. albicans and oral epithelial cells, endocytosis essay, invasion essay and damage assay were performed to compare the differences between the sap9Δ/Δ mutant strain and wild type strain. RESULTS: Compared with the wild type strain, the sap9Δ/Δ mutant strain exhibited a deficient yeast-to-hyphal morphological transition under serum hyphal-inducing conditions. Furthermore, the SAP9 knockout strain revealed a significant down-regulation of the expression of EFG1 (~40%), which is a transcription factor gene that mediates hyphae formation in C. albicans. Compared with the wild type strain, a 70% reduction in the endocytosis of the sap9Δ/Δ mutant strain by host cells was observed, as well as a 25% attenuation of active penetration and a 40% attenuation of host cell damage (P <0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our data strongly suggests that C. albicans Sap9 is a potential hyphal-associated factor that responds to serum hyphal-inducing stimuli via a cAMP-protein kinase A pathway mediated by EFG1, and contributes to the process of invasion of Candida into the epithelial cells, leading to host cell damage.

Enhanced direct binary search algorithm for binary computer-generated Fresnel holograms.

The direct binary search (DBS) algorithm was originally invented for the synthesis of a binary Fourier hologram, and was applied for the generation of a binary Fresnel hologram recently. DBS performs quality evaluation on every pixel. Therefore, both the quality and diffraction efficiency of the generated binary hologram are better among various algorithms of the binary hologram. However, DBS is a time-consuming algorithm and thus is impractical for the generation of high-definition computer-generated holograms. In this paper, we proposed an enhanced DBS (E-DBS) method to speed up the hologram computation. E-DBS is based on the same pixelwise evaluation strategy of DBS, but the diffraction field of a single pixel is precomputed as a lookup table. In evaluating any pixel value, only a small area in the region of interest affected by the diffraction field of single pixel is calculated. In addition, it is also found that qualified results can be obtained by using only 4% of the area of the diffraction field. As a result, the computing complexity of E-DBS can be reduced by at least 2 orders of magnitude in contrast to conventional DBS.

Optical cryptography with biometrics for multi-depth objects.

We propose an optical cryptosystem for encrypting images of multi-depth objects based on the combination of optical heterodyne technique and fingerprint keys. Optical heterodyning requires two optical beams to be mixed. For encryption, each optical beam is modulated by an optical mask containing either the fingerprint of the person who is sending, or receiving the image. The pair of optical masks are taken as the encryption keys. Subsequently, the two beams are used to scan over a multi-depth 3-D object to obtain an encrypted hologram. During the decryption process, each sectional image of the 3-D object is recovered by convolving its encrypted hologram (through numerical computation) with the encrypted hologram of a pinhole image that is positioned at the same depth as the sectional image. Our proposed method has three major advantages. First, the lost-key situation can be avoided with the use of fingerprints as the encryption keys. Second, the method can be applied to encrypt 3-D images for subsequent decrypted sectional images. Third, since optical heterodyning scanning is employed to encrypt a 3-D object, the optical system is incoherent, resulting in negligible amount of speckle noise upon decryption. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time optical cryptography of 3-D object images has been demonstrated in an incoherent optical system with biometric keys.

Safety and Immunogenicity of DTaP5-IPV Compared With DTaP5 Plus IPV as the Fifth Dose in Children 4-6 Years of Age.

BACKGROUND: Immunogenicity and safety of stand-alone diphtheria, tetanus toxoid, 5-component acellular pertussis vaccine adsorbed, inactivated poliovirus (IPV) combination vaccine (DTaP5-IPV) was compared with separate DTaP5 plus IPV vaccines as fifth dose in children 4-6 years of age. METHODS: In this phase III, controlled, multicenter, randomized, open-label study, participants were randomized to DTaP5-IPV plus measles/mumps/rubella (MMR) and varicella virus (VZV) vaccines (group 1; N = 324), DTaP5+IPV with MMR and VZV (group 2; N = 327), DTaP5-IPV with/without MMR/VZV (group 3; N = 2419) or DTaP5+IPV with/without MMR/VZV (group 4; N = 302). Immunogenicity endpoints (groups 1 and 2) included booster response rates and antibody geometric mean concentrations (GMCs). Noninferiority of DTaP5-IPV to DTaP5+IPV was evaluated based on differences (groups 1 and 2) in booster rates and postvaccination GMC ratios. Safety endpoints (all groups) included all adverse events. RESULTS: Noninferiority of DTaP5-IPV compared with DTaP5+IPV for all antigens was achieved. Booster rate differences were 5.4% for pertussis toxoid (PT); 7.4% for filamentous hemagglutinin; 3.7% for pertactin (PRN); 4.8% for fimbriae types 2 and 3; -0.1% for tetanus; -1.9% for diphtheria; 3.7% for poliovirus 1; -0.7% for poliovirus 2 and 0.3% for poliovirus 3. GMC ratios were 1.97 for PT; 1.56 for filamentous hemagglutinin; 1.51 for PRN; 1.33 for fimbriae types 2 and 3; 1.17 for tetanus; 1.20 for diphtheria; 1.27 for poliovirus 1; 0.90 for poliovirus 2 and 1.34 for poliovirus 3. Rates of immediate and unsolicited adverse events, solicited injection site reactions and systemic reactions were similar between groups. CONCLUSIONS: DTaP5-IPV was safe and immunogenic in children 4-6 years of age.

Fluzone® Intradermal Quadrivalent Influenza Vaccine.

INTRODUCTION: An intradermal version of Fluzone® split-virion inactivated trivalent influenza vaccine, containing 9 µg hemagglutinin per strain of A/H1N1, A/H3N2, and one B lineage virus (Fluzone Intradermal, Sanofi Pasteur), became available in the US during the 2011-2012 influenza season for adults 18-64 years of age. In advance of the 2015-2016 season, Fluzone Intradermal was replaced with Fluzone Intradermal Quadrivalent vaccine, which contains 9 µg hemagglutinin per strain of the two A-strain viruses and both B-strain lineage viruses (Victoria and Yamagata). AREAS COVERED: This literature review summarizes the history and mechanism of intradermal vaccination, discusses the clinical trial results supporting the immunogenicity and safety of Fluzone Intradermal Quadrivalent vaccine, and describes the unique microinjection system used to deliver Fluzone Intradermal Quadrivalent. Expert commentary: Fluzone Intradermal Quadrivalent may boost confidence in influenza vaccination with the addition of a second B-lineage strain. By using an innovative microinjection system, the vaccine is also designed to address some of the logistic challenges faced by healthcare providers administering immunizations.

Coherence experiments in single-pixel digital holography.

In optical scanning holography (OSH), the coherence properties of the acquired holograms depend on the single-pixel size, i.e., the active area of the photodetector. For the first time, to the best of our knowledge, we have demonstrated coherent, partial coherent, and incoherent three-dimensional (3D) imaging by experiment in such a single-pixel digital holographic recording system. We have found, for the incoherent mode of OSH, in which the detector of the largest active area is applied, the 3D location of a diffusely reflecting object can be successfully retrieved without speckle noise. For the partial coherent mode employing a smaller pixel size of the detector, significant speckles and randomly distributed bright spots appear among the reconstructed images. For the coherent mode of OSH when the size of the pixel is vanishingly small, the bright spots disappear. However, the speckle remains and the signal-to-noise ratio is low.

Safety and immunogenicity of a quadrivalent intradermal influenza vaccine in adults.

BACKGROUND: An intradermal (ID) trivalent split-virion influenza vaccine (IIV3-ID) (Fluzone(®) Intradermal, Sanofi Pasteur, Swiftwater, PA) has been available in the US since the 2011/2012 influenza season for adults aged 18-64 years. This study examined whether adding a second B-lineage strain affects immunogenicity and safety. METHODS: This randomized, double-blind, multicentre trial evaluated the immunogenicity and safety of an intradermal quadrivalent split-virion influenza vaccine (IIV4-ID) in adults 18-64 years of age in the US during the 2012-2013 influenza season. Participants were randomized 2:1:1 to receive a single injection of IIV4-ID, licensed IIV3-ID, or an investigational IIV3-ID containing the alternate B-lineage strain. Haemagglutination inhibition antibody titres were assessed in two-thirds of participants before vaccination and 28 days after vaccination. RESULTS: 1672 participants were vaccinated with IIV4-ID, 837 with licensed IIV3-ID, and 846 with an investigational IIV3-ID. For all four vaccine strains, antibody responses to IIV4-ID were statistically non-inferior to the response to the IIV3-ID vaccines containing the matched strains. For both B strains, post-vaccination antibody responses to IIV4-ID were statistically superior to the responses to IIV3-ID lacking the corresponding B strain. Adverse events were similar for IIV4-ID and IIV3-ID. The most commonly reported solicited reactions were pain, pruritus, myalgia, headache, and malaise; and most were grade 1 or 2 and appeared and resolved within 3 days of vaccination. IIV4-ID was statistically non-inferior to the two pooled IIV3-ID vaccines for the proportions of participants with at least one grade 2 or 3 systemic reaction. CONCLUSIONS: Antibody responses to the IIV4-ID were non-inferior to IIV3-ID for the A and matched B strains and superior for the unmatched B strains. IIV4-ID was well tolerated without any safety concerns. IIV4-ID may help address an unmet need due to mismatched B strains in previous influenza vaccines.

Catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome presenting with pulmonary hemorrhage: case report.

This is a case report of catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome (APLS) involving the rare manifestation of pulmonary hemorrhage. This rare variant of APLS is frequently life threatening despite medical therapy. The pathogenesis of pulmonary hemorrhage in catastrophic APLS remains incompletely understood. The optimal approach to managing pulmonary hemorrhage in the setting of catastrophic APLS is still unclear, however this case report demonstrates the success of combination therapy with anticoagulation, corticosteroids and plasma exchange.

Predicting walking function of patients one month poststroke using modified Rivermead mobility index on admission.

Being able to predict walking ability of patients with stroke at an early stage is useful in formulating realistic rehabilitation goals and facilitating early discharge planning, which are beneficial not only to the patients but their family members and health care providers. This study aimed to use the modified Rivermead mobility index (MRMI) of the stroke patients on day 3 of their admission to predict their independent walking ability on day 28 postadmission. A total of 232 patients with acute stroke who were admitted to the acute hospital were recruited. Fifty-three percent of them (n = 123) were able to achieve independent walking ability after 28 days of admission whereas 47.0% of them (n = 109) failed to do so. The receiver operating characteristics curve analysis was performed. The optimal cutoff score with the highest sum of sensitivity and specificity was found to be 18.5 (sensitivity, 85.0%; specificity, 75.0%) and the area under the curve was .880. In conclusion, MRMI on day 3 of admission maybe useful in predicting independent walking ability 1 month after stroke.

Comparison of two laboratory extraction techniques for the detection of Epstein-Barr virus in the saliva of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients.

AIM: The aim of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of DNA extraction using an extraction kit against the standard boiling technique for the detection of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients. METHODS: Stimulated whole saliva samples from newly-diagnosed NPC patients were collected. EBV DNA was extracted by both techniques (n = 23) followed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using the primer/probe set for BALF5. RESULTS: The results of the quantitative real-time PCR were reproducible in both groups. The two techniques were moderately correlated (r = 0.67, P < 0.05), and the degree of agreement was good. However, the mean EBV DNA level in the boiling group (3.02 ± 8.67 × 10(6) copies/µL) was significantly higher than the extraction kit group (1.15 ± 2.66 × 10(6) copies/µL) (P < 0.05). The EBV DNA level was higher in patients at an advanced overall stage (P = 0.05). CONCLUSION: The results of the present study showed that the performance of the extraction kit was not superior to the simple boiling technique for the detection of salivary EBV DNA in NPC patients using real-time PCR. The salivary EBV DNA level in patients at an advanced overall stage appeared to be higher than in patients at an early stage.

Vignetting-free computer-generated Fresnel holograms by mask shifting.

In computer-generated Fresnel holography, direct sampling (DS) and simple shading (SS) are two common ways to generate sampled Fresnel zone plates (FZPs) on the hologram plane. Nevertheless, either aliasing or vignetting, or both, will occur in the reconstructed image when the DS method or the SS method is applied. To avoid vignetting together with aliasing in the two sampling methods, either the object size or the object distance must be restricted in generating the holograms. In this paper we propose a mask-shifting (MS) method to generate the sampled FZPs. The main concept of the MS method is that the center of the FZP can be shifted relative to the center of the mask against the FZP when the FZP is at the margin of the hologram. The shifting of the mask will result in only a phase shift and will not change the intensity distribution of the reconstructed point. Thus, by using the MS method, aliasing and vignetting are simultaneously alleviated in any combination of object size and object distance.

Immunogenicity and safety of Fluzone(®) intradermal and high-dose influenza vaccines in older adults ≥65 years of age: a randomized, controlled, phase II trial.

We conducted a randomized, controlled, multicenter, phase II study to evaluate the immunogenicity and safety of an investigational intradermal (ID) trivalent influenza vaccine (TIV) and a high-dose (HD) intramuscular (IM) TIV in older adults (≥65 years of age). Older adult subjects were immunized with ID vaccine containing either 15µg hemagglutinin (HA)/strain (n=636) or 21µg HA/strain (n=634), with HD IM vaccine containing 60µg HA/strain (n=320), or with standard-dose (SD) IM vaccine (Fluzone(®); 15µg HA/strain; n=319). For comparison, younger adults (18-49 years of age) were immunized with SD IM vaccine. In older adults, post-vaccination geometric mean titers induced by the ID vaccines were superior to those induced by the SD IM vaccine for the A/H1N1 and A/H3N2 strains and non-inferior for the B strain. Seroconversion rates induced by the ID vaccines were superior to those induced by the SD IM vaccine in older adults for the A/H1N1 and B strains and non-inferior for the A/H3N2 strain. Results did not differ significantly for the two ID vaccine dosages. Post-vaccination geometric mean titers, seroconversion rates, and most seroprotection rates were significantly higher in HD vaccine recipients than in older adult recipients of the SD IM or ID vaccines and, for most measures, were comparable to those of younger adult SD IM vaccine recipients. Injection-site reactions, but not systemic reactions or unsolicited adverse events, were more common with the ID vaccines than with the IM vaccines. No treatment-related serious adverse events were reported. This study demonstrated that: (1) the ID and HD vaccines were well-tolerated and more immunogenic than the SD IM vaccine in older adults; (2) the HD vaccine was more immunogenic than the ID vaccines in older adults; and (3) the HD vaccine in older adults and the SD IM vaccine in younger adults elicited comparable antibody responses (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier no.: NCT00551031).

A Parameter Estimation Method for Biological Systems modelled by ODE/DDE Models Using Spline Approximation and Differential Evolution Algorithm.

The inverse problem of identifying unknown parameters of known structure dynamical biological systems, which are modelled by ordinary differential equations or delay differential equations, from experimental data is treated in this paper. A two stage approach is adopted: first, combine spline theory and Nonlinear Programming (NLP), the parameter estimation problem is formulated as an optimization problem with only algebraic constraints; then, a new differential evolution (DE) algorithm is proposed to find a feasible solution. The approach is designed to handle problem of realistic size with noisy observation data. Three cases are studied to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm: two are based on benchmark models with priori-determined structure and parameters; the other one is a particular biological system with unknown model structure. In the last case, only a set of observation data available and in this case a nominal model is adopted for the identification. All the test systems were successfully identified by using a reasonable amount of experimental data within an acceptable computation time. Experimental evaluation reveals that the proposed method is capable of fast estimation on the unknown parameters with good precision.