Secure Communications in CIoT Networks with a Wireless Energy Harvesting Untrusted Relay.

The Internet of Things (IoT) represents a bright prospect that a variety of common appliances can connect to one another, as well as with the rest of the Internet, to vastly improve our lives. Unique communication and security challenges have been brought out by the limited hardware, low-complexity, and severe energy constraints of IoT devices. In addition, a severe spectrum scarcity problem has also been stimulated by the use of a large number of IoT devices. In this paper, cognitive IoT (CIoT) is considered where an IoT network works as the secondary system using underlay spectrum sharing. A wireless energy harvesting (EH) node is used as a relay to improve the coverage of an IoT device. However, the relay could be a potential eavesdropper to intercept the IoT device's messages. This paper considers the problem of secure communication between the IoT device (e.g., sensor) and a destination (e.g., controller) via the wireless EH untrusted relay. Since the destination can be equipped with adequate energy supply, secure schemes based on destination-aided jamming are proposed based on power splitting (PS) and time splitting (TS) policies, called intuitive secure schemes based on PS (Int-PS), precoded secure scheme based on PS (Pre-PS), intuitive secure scheme based on TS (Int-TS) and precoded secure scheme based on TS (Pre-TS), respectively. The secure performances of the proposed schemes are evaluated through the metric of probability of successfully secure transmission ( P S S T ), which represents the probability that the interference constraint of the primary user is satisfied and the secrecy rate is positive. P S S T is analyzed for the proposed secure schemes, and the closed form expressions of P S S T for Pre-PS and Pre-TS are derived and validated through simulation results. Numerical results show that the precoded secure schemes have better P S S T than the intuitive secure schemes under similar power consumption. When the secure schemes based on PS and TS polices have similar P S S T , the average transmit power consumption of the secure scheme based on TS is lower. The influences of power splitting and time slitting ratios are also discussed through simulations.

Roles of the crucial mitochondrial DNA in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy prognosis and diagnosis: A review.

Mitochondrial DNA is implicated in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) development. We aimed to identify valuable mtDNAs that contribute to the development of HCM. Differentially expressed mitochondrial DNAs (DEMGs) between HCM and controls were screened. GO and KEGG functional enrichment analyses were performed, and the optimum genes were explored using the LASSO regression mode and SVM-RFE model. A diagnostic scoring model was constructed and verified using ROC curves. Mitochondria-based subtypes were identified. Immune performance among the subtypes including immune cells, immune checkpoint genes, and HLA family genes was analyzed. Finally, an mRNA-transcription factor (TF)-miRNA network was constructed using Cytoscape software. Twelve DEMGs in HCM were selected. Among them, 6 DEMGs, including PDK4, MGST1, TOMM40, LYPLAL1, GATM, and CPT1B were demonstrated as DEMGs at the point of intersection of Lasso regression and SVM-RFE. The ROC of the model for the training and validation datasets was 0.999 and 0.958, respectively. Two clusters were divided, and 4 immune cell types were significantly different between the 2 clusters, including resting mast cells, macrophages M2, and plasma cells. Nine upregulated KEGG pathways were enriched in cluster 1 vs. cluster 2 including O-glycan biosynthesis, the ErbB signaling pathway, and the GnRH signaling pathway. Meanwhile, 49 down-regulated pathways were enriched such as the toll-like signaling pathway and natural killer cell-mediated cytotoxicity pathway. The 6 gene-based mRNA-TF-miRNA networks included other 133 TFs and 18 miRNAs. Six DEMGs in HCM, including PDK4, MGST1, TOMM40, LYPLAL1, GATM, and CPT1B, can be indicative of HCM prognosis or disease progression.

An evaluation of the clinical efficacy of the application of 28mm cryoballoon for linear ablation of left atrial apex combined with enlarged pulmonary vein vestibule ablation for persistent atrial fibrillation.

OBJECTIVE: to retrospectively investigate the efficacy and safety of the application of 28 mm cryoballoon for pulmonary vein electrical isolation (PVI) combined with top left atrial linear ablation and pulmonary vein vestibular expansion ablation for persistent atrial fibrillation. METHODS: From July 2016 to December 2020, 413 patients diagnosed with persistent atrial fibrillation were evaluated, including 230 (55.7%) in the PVI group (PVI only) and 183 (44.3%) in the PVIPLUS group (PVI plus ablation of the left atrial apex and pulmonary vein vestibule). The safety and efficacy of the two groups were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: The AF/AT/AFL-free survival rates at 6, 12, 18, 24 and 30 months after procedure was 86.6%, 72.6%, 70.0%, 61.1% and 56.3% in the PVI group and 94.5%, 87.0%, 84.1%, 75.0% and 67.9% in the PVIPLUS group, respectively. At 30 months after procedure, the AF/AT/AFL-free survival rate was significantly higher in the PVIPLUS group than in the PVI group (P = 0.036; HR:0.63; 95% CI:0.42 to 0.95). CONCLUSION: The application of 28-mm cryoballoon for pulmonary vein electrical isolation combined with linear ablation of the left atrial apex and expanded ablation of the pulmonary vein vestibule improves the outcome of persistent atrial fibrillation.

Efficacy of extended antrum ablation based on substrate mapping plus pulmonary vein isolation in the treatment of atrial fibrillation.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) technique has become the cornerstone of atrial fibrillation (AF) catheter ablation. The objective of this study was to assess the efficacy and safety of extended antrum ablation based on electrophysiological substrate mapping plus PVI in AF patients who underwent cryoballoon ablation. METHODS: In this observational study, a total of 121 paroxysmal AF patients and 80 persistent AF patients who did not achieve the procedure endpoint after cryoballoon ablation received extra extended antrum ablation (EAA) based on electrophysiological substrate mapping via radiofrequency ablation (EAA group). As a control group (PVI group), among paroxysmal AF and persistent AF patients, we conducted a propensity score-matched cohort, in whom only PVI was completed. RESULTS: The average follow-up time was 15.27±7.34 months. Compared with PVI group, paroxysmal AF patients in the EAA group had a significantly higher rate of AF-free survival (90.1% vs. 80.2%, p=0.027) and AF, atrial flutter, or atrial tachycardia (AFLAT) -free rate survival (89.3% vs. 79.3%, p=0.031). Persistent AF patients in the EAA group also had a significantly higher rate of AF-free survival (90.0% vs. 75.0%, p=0.016) and AFLAT-free survival (88.8% vs. 75.0%, p=0.029) than PVI group. Complication rates did not significantly differ between both groups, in either paroxysmal AF or persistent AF patients. CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrate that extra extended antrum ablation based on electrophysiological substrate mapping is effective and safe. Moreover, the strategy can improve the outcome of AF cryoablation.

Porcine alpha interferon inhibit Japanese encephalitis virus replication by different ISGs in vitro.

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) causes serious zoonosis in South Asia, Southeast Asia and other areas. Pigs are an important reservoir for this virus in nature. The treatment of JEV infection in pigs is important for controlling the prevalence of JEV in humans and economic losses in pig farming. In this study, we selected a high activity porcine alpha-interferon to inhibit JEV replication in porcine kidney cell lines (PK-15). Alpha interferon exhibited high antiviral activity against JEV; the expression of three interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs), ISG15, Mx2 and OAS L, increased significantly after interferon treatment. Furthermore, we verified the anti-JEV effect of these ISGs by RNAi and overexpression. Mx2 and OAS L exhibited strong anti-JEV effects in PK-15 cells. Based on these novel results, alpha interferon (IFN-α) should be considered to be a potential drug against JEV in pigs.

Prediction of significant coronary artery disease in patients undergoing operations for rheumatic mitral valve disease.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to develop a logistic regression model and a simple score system for the prediction of significant coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients undergoing operations for rheumatic mitral valve disease. METHODS: A total of 1241 rheumatic patients (mean age 57±6 years), who underwent routine coronary angiography (CAG) before mitral valve operations between 1998 and 2009, was analyzed. To identify low-risk (≤5%) patients, a bootstrap refined logistic regression model on the basis of clinical risk factors was developed, from which an additive model was derived. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to compare discrimination, and precision was quantified by the Hosmer-Lemeshow statistic. Significant coronary atherosclerosis was defined as 50% or more luminal narrowing in one or more major epicardial vessels by means of CAG. RESULTS: One hundred twenty-seven (10.2%) patients had significant coronary atherosclerosis. Independent predictors of significant CAD include age, male sex, hypertension, angina, smoking, and hypercholesterolemia. Five hundred and fifty patients were designated as low risk according to our logistic regression and additive models. Of these patients, only 6 (1.1%) had single-vessel disease, and none had multivessel disease. Our models proved more efficient than established regression models. CONCLUSIONS: Our logistic regression model could estimate the risk of significant CAD in rheumatic patients undergoing mitral valve operations, while the additive simple score system could reliably identify the low-risk patients in whom routine preoperative angiography might be safely avoided.