Lightweight federated learning for STIs/HIV prediction.

This paper presents a solution that prioritises high privacy protection and improves communication throughput for predicting the risk of sexually transmissible infections/human immunodeficiency virus (STIs/HIV). The approach utilised Federated Learning (FL) to construct a model from multiple clinics and key stakeholders. FL ensured that only models were shared between clinics, minimising the risk of personal information leakage. Additionally, an algorithm was explored on the FL manager side to construct a global model that aligns with the communication status of the system. Our proposed method introduced Random Forest Federated Learning for assessing the risk of STIs/HIV, incorporating a flexible aggregation process that can be adjusted to accommodate the capacious communication system. Experimental results demonstrated the significant potential of a solution for estimating STIs/HIV risk. In comparison with recent studies, our approach yielded superior results in terms of AUC (0.97) and accuracy ( 93 % ). Despite these promising findings, a limitation of the study lies in the experiment for man's data, due to the self-reported nature of the data and sensitive content. which may be subject to participant bias. Future research could check the performance of the proposed framework in partnership with high-risk populations (e.g., men who have sex with men) to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the proposed framework's impact and ultimately aim to improve health outcomes/health service optimisation.

Comparative experimental study of the biomechanical properties of retrograde tibial nailing and distal tibia plate in distal tibia fracture.

Objective: A biomechanical comparative analysis was conducted to evaluate the retrograde tibial nailing (RTN) and distal tibia plate techniques for the treatment of distal tibia fractures. Methods: Fourteen fresh adult tibia specimens were selected, consisting of seven males and seven females aged 34-55 years. The specimens were randomly divided into two groups (Group A and Group B) using a numerical table method, with seven specimens in each group. Group A underwent internal fixation of distal tibial fractures using RTN, while Group B received internal fixation using a plate. The axial compression properties of the specimens were tested in the neutral positions under pressures of 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 N. Additionally, the torsional resistance of the two groups was assessed by subjecting the specimens to torques of 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0 N m. Results: At pressures of 400 and 500 N, the axial compression displacement in Group A (1.11 ± 0.06, 1.24 ± 0.05) mm was significantly smaller than that in Group B (1.21 ± 0.08, 1.37 ± 0.11) mm (p = 0.023, 0.019). Moreover, at a pressure of 500 N, the axial compression stiffness in Group A (389.24 ± 17.79) N/mm was significantly higher than that of the control group (362.37 ± 14.44) N/mm (p = 0.010). When subjected to torques of 4 and 5 N m, the torsion angle in Group A (2.97° ± 0.23°, 3.41° ± 0.17°) was significantly smaller compared to Group B (3.31° ± 0.28°, 3.76° ± 0.20°) (p = 0.035, 0.004). Furthermore, at a torque of 5 N m, the torsional stiffness in Group A (1.48 ± 0.07) N m/° was significantly higher than that in Group B (1.36 ± 0.06) N·m/° (p = 0.003). Conclusion: The results obtained from the study demonstrate that the biomechanical performance of RTN outperforms that of the distal tibial plate, providing valuable biomechanical data to support the clinical implementation of RTN.

The rumen microbiota contributed to the development of mastitis induced by subclinical ketosis.

BACKGROUND: Mastitis is a serious disease which affects animal husbandry, particularly in cow breeding. The etiology of mastitis is complex and its pathological mechanism is not yet fully understood. Our previous research in clinical investigation has revealed that subclinical ketosis can increase the number of somatic cell counts (SCC) in milk, although the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Recent studies have further confirmed the significant role of mastitis. RESULTS: In this study, we aimed to examine the SCC, rumen microbiota, and metabolites in the milkmen of cows with subclinical ketosis. Additionally, we conducted a rumen microbiota transplant into mice to investigate the potential association between rumen microbiota disturbance and mastitis induced by subclinical ketosis in dairy cows. The study has found that cows with subclinical ketosis have a higher SCC in their milk compared to healthy cows. Additionally, there were significant differences in the rumen microbiota and the level of volatile fatty acid (VFA) between cows with subclinical ketosis and healthy cows. Moreover, transplanting the rumen microbiota from subclinical ketosis and mastitis cows into mice can induce mammary inflammation and liver function damage than transplanting the rumen flora from healthy dairy cows. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to the infection of mammary gland by pathogenic microorganisms, there is also an endogenous therapeutic pathway mediated by rumen microbiota. Targeted rumen microbiota modulation may be an effective way to prevent and control mastitis in dairy cows.

ZEA mediates autophagy through the ROS-AMPK-m-TOR pathway to enhance the susceptibility of mastitis induced by Staphylococcus aureus in mice.

Mastitis is an inflammatory response of the mammary tissue caused by pathogenic bacterial infections, especially Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). Zearalenone (ZEA) is one of the common mycotoxins in moldy feed, which usually affects the cow's resistance to pathogenic microorganisms. However, it is not well understood whether ZEA affects the development of mastitis. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the role of ZEA in the development of S. aureus-induced mastitis in mice. The results showed that administered daily by gavage for one week of ZEA (40 mg/kg) aggravated the severity of mastitis induced by S. aureus. Furthermore, we found that ZEA promotes the adhesion and invasion of S. aureus into mouse mammary epithelial cells (MMEC) by activating autophagy, and the activation of autophagy mediated by ROS-AMPK-m-TOR pathway. Taken together, the results showed that ZEA enhances S. aureus-induced mastitis susceptibility through activating autophagy mediated by ROS-AMPK-mTOR signaling pathway.

Effect of the Similarity of Formulations and Excipients of Approved Generic Drug Products on In Vivo Bioequivalence for Putative Biopharmaceutics Classification System Class III Drugs.

One of the potential essential factors that restricts generic industry from applying the Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS) Class III biowaiver is adherence to the stringent formulation criteria for formulation qualitative (Q1) sameness and quantitative (Q2) similarity. The present study has investigated formulations and excipients from 16 putative BCS Class III drug substances in a total of 19 drug products via 133 approved abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) containing in vivo bioequivalence (BE) studies in human subjects during the time period from 2006 to 2022. We included the BCS Class III drugs in this study by referring to published literature, the World Health Organization (WHO) BCS Class I-IV list, FDA internal assessments, and physicochemical properties (high solubility and low permeability) of specific drug substances. Based upon all 133 approved generic formulations in this study, the highest amount of each different compendial excipient with a total of 40 is defined as its corresponding typical amount that has not shown any potential impact on in vivo drug absorption. In the present study, although only 30.08% of the investigated generic formulations met Q1 the same/Q2 similar formulation criteria for the BCS Class III biowaiver, and while approximately 69.92% failed to meet those criteria with non-Q1/Q2 similar formulations, all test/reference ratios (T/R) and 90% confidence intervals for all instrumental PK parameters (AUC0-t, AUC0-inf, and Cmax) met the bioequivalence (BE) criteria (80-125%). The results of formulation assessment suggest that the commonly used excipients without atypical amounts did not impact absorption of 16 putative BCS Class III drug substances. The rate and extent of absorption of drugs appears to be more dependent upon the biopharmaceutic and physiochemical properties of BCS Class III drug substance and less, or not dependent upon their formulations, excipients, and the excipients class. Our findings may lead to a more flexible formulation design space regarding the stringent BCS Class III formulation criteria.

Negative family body talk and negative emotional eating among Chinese adolescent girls and young adult women: The role of body dissatisfaction and feminism consciousness.

Negative emotional eating has been increasingly a prominent disordered eating and public health problem among young women, especially during COVID-19. Although previous studies have attempted to explain the relationship between body talk and negative emotional eating, limited studies focused on examining the potential mechanisms, especially the potential protective mechanism. Thus, the current study aimed to examine the relationship between negative family body talk (NFBT) and negative emotional eating, as well as its underlying mechanism - the mediating role of body dissatisfaction (BDIS) and the moderating role of feminism consciousness (FC). A cross-sectional study was employed among a sample of Chinese girls and young women (n = 813, Mage = 19.4 years) from a junior college in central China. Participants completed surveys assessing NFBT (Adapted Body Talk Scale), BDIS (Body Image State Scale), negative emotional eating (Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire), and FC (Synthesis Subscale from Feminist Identity Composite). A moderated mediation analysis was conducted. The results showed that: (1) after controlling for age and BMI, NFBT was positively associated with negative emotional eating, and BDIS could significantly mediate this relationship (mediating effect = 0.03, 95% CI [0.02, 0.06]); (2) FC significantly moderated both the direct relationship between NFBT and negative emotional eating and the relationship between NFBT and BDIS. Specifically, these two associations were not significant for participants with higher FC (+1SD above average). This study deepens our understanding of the relationship between NFBT and negative emotional eating, as well as the protective role of FC. If future studies demonstrate causal relationships, this evidence could point to a need for programs to prevent negative emotional eating in young women by increasing their level of feminism consciousness.

Parental Phubbing and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms during COVID-19: A Serial Meditating Model.

BACKGROUND: During the COVID-19 pandemic, depressive symptoms, a common emotional problem among adolescents, have become more prominent. Regarding the influencing factors of adolescent depressive symptoms, it is widely accepted that parents' problematic cellphone use around the family (specifically parental phubbing) is a strong predictive factor for the development of depressive symptoms among adolescents. Notably, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a sharp increase in the number of individuals with depressive symptoms, and the negative consequences of parental phubbing and depressive symptoms might have been exacerbated. Accordingly, this study aimed to examine the association between parental phubbing and adolescent depressive symptoms as well as their underlying mechanism. METHOD: To test our hypotheses, we conducted an offline/online survey with 614 adolescents in Central China from May to June 2022, which corresponded to a period of strict lockdowns in some areas due to the outbreak of the Omicron variant. The participants completed a set of measures, including a technology interference questionnaire, a parent-child relationship scale, a self-concept clarity scale, and the depressive symptoms scale. RESULTS: Parental phubbing was positively associated with adolescent depressive symptoms; the parent-child relationship and self-concept clarity could independently mediate this relationship; and the parent-child relationship and self-concept clarity were also serial mediators in this association. These findings extend previous research by highlighting the impact of parental technology use on their children and the underlying mechanism explaining adolescent depressive symptoms. They provide practical recommendations for parents to prioritize fostering a positive family environment and minimizing phubbing behaviors to enhance adolescent development, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A review of multi-factor authentication in the Internet of Healthcare Things.

Objective: This review paper aims to evaluate existing solutions in healthcare authentication and provides an insight into the technologies incorporated in Internet of Healthcare Things (IoHT) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) applications for next-generation authentication practices. Our review has two objectives: (a) Review MFA based on the challenges, impact and solutions discussed in the literature; and (b) define the security requirements of the IoHT as an approach to adapting MFA solutions in a healthcare context. Methods: To review the existing literature, we indexed articles from the IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, ScienceDirect, and SpringerLink databases. The search was refined to combinations of 'authentication', 'multi-factor authentication', 'Internet of Things authentication', and 'medical authentication' to ensure that the retrieved journal articles and conference papers were relevant to healthcare and Internet of Things-oriented authentication research. Results: The concepts of MFA can be applied to healthcare where security can often be overlooked. The security requirements identified result in stronger methodologies of authentication such as hardware solutions in combination with biometric data to enhance MFA approaches. We identify the key vulnerabilities of weaker approaches to security such as password use against various cyber threats. Cyber threats and MFA solutions are categorised in this paper to facilitate readers' understanding of them in healthcare domains. Conclusions: We contribute to an understanding of up-to-date MFA approaches and how they can be improved for use in the IoHT. This is achieved by discussing the challenges, benefits, and limitations of current methodologies and recommendations to improve access to eHealth resources through additional layers of security.

A Review of Homomorphic Encryption for Privacy-Preserving Biometrics.

The advancement of biometric technology has facilitated wide applications of biometrics in law enforcement, border control, healthcare and financial identification and verification. Given the peculiarity of biometric features (e.g., unchangeability, permanence and uniqueness), the security of biometric data is a key area of research. Security and privacy are vital to enacting integrity, reliability and availability in biometric-related applications. Homomorphic encryption (HE) is concerned with data manipulation in the cryptographic domain, thus addressing the security and privacy issues faced by biometrics. This survey provides a comprehensive review of state-of-the-art HE research in the context of biometrics. Detailed analyses and discussions are conducted on various HE approaches to biometric security according to the categories of different biometric traits. Moreover, this review presents the perspective of integrating HE with other emerging technologies (e.g., machine/deep learning and blockchain) for biometric security. Finally, based on the latest development of HE in biometrics, challenges and future research directions are put forward.

Degradation of Zearalenone by Dielectric Barrier Discharge Cold Plasma and Its Effect on Maize Quality.

In this study, a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) cold plasma was used to degrade zearalenone, and the degradation efficiency and the quality of maize were evaluated. The results showed that the zearalenone degradation rates increased with the increase in voltage and time. When it was treated at 50 KV for 120 s, the degradation percentage of the zearalenone in maize could reach 56.57%. The kinetics' analysis showed that the degradation followed a first-order reaction. The crude fiber of the maize reduced after the cold plasma treatment. In addition, cold plasma treatment did not significantly change the crude protein content, but slightly changed the fatty acid and color. The changes in maize quality are generally acceptable. DBD cold plasma may be a promising approach to reducing zearalenone in maize.

A Secure Online Fingerprint Authentication System for Industrial IoT Devices over 5G Networks.

The development of 5G networks has rapidly increased the use of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices for control, monitoring, and processing purposes. Biometric-based user authentication can prevent unauthorized access to IIoT devices, thereby safeguarding data security during production. However, most biometric authentication systems in the IIoT have no template protection, thus risking raw biometric data stored as templates in central databases or IIoT devices. Moreover, traditional biometric authentication faces slow, limited database holding capacity and data transmission problems. To address these issues, in this paper we propose a secure online fingerprint authentication system for IIoT devices over 5G networks. The core of the proposed system is the design of a cancelable fingerprint template, which protects original minutia features and provides privacy and security guarantee for both entity users and the message content transmitted between IIoT devices and the cloud server via 5G networks.Compared with state-of-the-art methods, the proposed authentication system shows competitive performance on six public fingerprint databases, while saving computational costs and achieving fast online matching.

Social Exclusion and Depression among undergraduate students: the mediating roles of rejection sensitivity and social self-efficacy.

Nowadays, depression has been a prominent mental health problem throughout the world. A common but negative social experience, social exclusion (also known as ostracism) is a great risk factor for individuals' health and adaptation. Undergraduate students are in a development period of challenges and transitions, so they are vulnerable to suffering from depression and negative social experiences. Against this background, the present study aimed to examine the association between social exclusion and undergraduate students' depression as well as the underlying mechanism - the mediating roles of rejection sensitivity and social self-efficacy. Seven hundred sixty-two undergraduate students were recruited to participate in this study, who were asked to complete a set of questionnaires measuring social exclusion, depression, rejection sensitivity, and social self-efficacy. After controlling for gender, social exclusion was positively associated with undergraduate students' depression. And rejection sensitivity and social self-efficacy could significantly mediate this relation through three mediating paths - the separate mediating effects of rejection sensitivity and social self-efficacy, as well as the serial mediating effect of rejection sensitivity and social self-efficacy. These results could not only deepen our understanding of this theme, but also have several practical implications for the intervention of depression, for example, relevant social skill training and cognitive therapy could be adopted to intervene the rejection sensitivity and social self-efficacy.

Machiavellianism and Gift-Giving in Live Video Streaming: The Mediating Role of Desire for Control and the Moderating Role of Materialism.

This study aimed to examine the association between Machiavellianism and gift-giving in live video streaming, as well as the mediating role of desire for control and the moderating role of materialism in this relation. A sample of 212 undergraduate students (146 males; the average age was 19.80 ± 2.05 years old) with experience of gift-giving in live video streaming was recruited to complete questionnaires on Machiavellianism, desire for control, materialism, and the frequency of gift-giving in live video streaming. The results showed that Machiavellianism was positively associated with gift-giving in live video streaming through the mediating role of desire for control; and the mediating effect of desire for control was moderated by materialism, with this relation being stronger for individuals with a higher level of materialism. Though with several limitations (e.g., cross-sectional method), this study could deepen our understanding of the influencing mechanism of gift-giving in live video streaming, which could also provide practical implications for the sustainable development of the live video streaming industry.

Aircraft Detection for Remote Sensing Image Based on Bidirectional and Dense Feature Fusion.

Aircraft, as one of the indispensable transport tools, plays an important role in military activities. Therefore, it is a significant task to locate the aircrafts in the remote sensing images. However, the current object detection methods cause a series of problems when applied to the aircraft detection for the remote sensing image, for instance, the problems of low rate of detection accuracy and high rate of missed detection. To address the problems of low rate of detection accuracy and high rate of missed detection, an object detection method for remote sensing image based on bidirectional and dense feature fusion is proposed to detect aircraft targets in sophisticated environments. On the fundamental of the YOLOv3 detection framework, this method adds a feature fusion module to enrich the details of the feature map by mixing the shallow features with the deep features together. Experimental results on the RSOD-DataSet and NWPU-DataSet indicate that the new method raised in the article is capable of improving the problems of low rate of detection accuracy and high rate of missed detection. Meanwhile, the AP for the aircraft increases by 1.57% compared with YOLOv3.

Biometrics for Internet-of-Things Security: A Review.

The large number of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices that need interaction between smart devices and consumers makes security critical to an IoT environment. Biometrics offers an interesting window of opportunity to improve the usability and security of IoT and can play a significant role in securing a wide range of emerging IoT devices to address security challenges. The purpose of this review is to provide a comprehensive survey on the current biometrics research in IoT security, especially focusing on two important aspects, authentication and encryption. Regarding authentication, contemporary biometric-based authentication systems for IoT are discussed and classified based on different biometric traits and the number of biometric traits employed in the system. As for encryption, biometric-cryptographic systems, which integrate biometrics with cryptography and take advantage of both to provide enhanced security for IoT, are thoroughly reviewed and discussed. Moreover, challenges arising from applying biometrics to IoT and potential solutions are identified and analyzed. With an insight into the state-of-the-art research in biometrics for IoT security, this review paper helps advance the study in the field and assists researchers in gaining a good understanding of forward-looking issues and future research directions.

An Energy-Efficient and Secure Data Inference Framework for Internet of Health Things: A Pilot Study.

Privacy protection in electronic healthcare applications is an important consideration, due to the sensitive nature of personal health data. Internet of Health Things (IoHT) networks that are used within a healthcare setting have unique challenges and security requirements (integrity, authentication, privacy, and availability) that must also be balanced with the need to maintain efficiency in order to conserve battery power, which can be a significant limitation in IoHT devices and networks. Data are usually transferred without undergoing filtering or optimization, and this traffic can overload sensors and cause rapid battery consumption when interacting with IoHT networks. This poses certain restrictions on the practical implementation of these devices. In order to address these issues, this paper proposes a privacy-preserving two-tier data inference framework solution that conserves battery consumption by inferring the sensed data and reducing data size for transmission, while also protecting sensitive data from leakage to adversaries. The results from experimental evaluations on efficiency and privacy show the validity of the proposed scheme, as well as significant data savings without compromising data transmission accuracy, which contributes to energy efficiency of IoHT sensor devices.

A Cancelable Iris- and Steganography-Based User Authentication System for the Internet of Things.

Remote user authentication for Internet of Things (IoT) devices is critical to IoT security, as it helps prevent unauthorized access to IoT networks. Biometrics is an appealing authentication technique due to its advantages over traditional password-based authentication. However, the protection of biometric data itself is also important, as original biometric data cannot be replaced or reissued if compromised. In this paper, we propose a cancelable iris- and steganography-based user authentication system to provide user authentication and secure the original iris data. Most of the existing cancelable iris biometric systems need a user-specific key to guide feature transformation, e.g., permutation or random projection, which is also known as key-dependent transformation. One issue associated with key-dependent transformations is that if the user-specific key is compromised, some useful information can be leaked and exploited by adversaries to restore the original iris feature data. To mitigate this risk, the proposed scheme enhances system security by integrating an effective information-hiding technique-steganography. By concealing the user-specific key, the threat of key exposure-related attacks, e.g., attacks via record multiplicity, can be defused, thus heightening the overall system security and complementing the protection offered by cancelable biometric techniques.

Functional Outcomes and New Vertebral Fractures in Percutaneous Vertebroplasty and Conservative Treatment of Acute Symptomatic Osteoporotic Vertebral Compression Fractures.

OBJECTIVE: The present study compared the clinical functional outcomes and new vertebral compression fractures (NVCFs) between percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) and conservative treatment (CT) in patients with severe pain due to acute osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (OVCFs). PVP has been increasingly used for the treatment of pain in patients with OVCFs. However, the effectiveness of the procedure and whether it causes NVCFs has remained controversial. METHODS: A total of 544 eligible patients with OVCFs found on spinal radiographs and intractable back pain for ≤6 weeks were recruited from September 2012 to February 2018 and assigned to PVP (n = 280; 392 levels) or CT (n = 264; 366 levels). The visual analog scale and Oswestry Disability Index scores were determined before the intervention and at the 1-week and 1-, 3-, 6-, 12-, and 24-month follow-up examinations. In addition, monthly telephone follow-up interviews were performed. In the case of a sudden increase in back pain, the patient returned to the hospital for medical and magnetic resonance imaging examinations for NVCF detection. RESULTS: The PVP group had significantly lower visual analog scale and Oswestry Disability Index scores than those for the CT group at 1 week and 1, 3, and 6 months (P < 0.05). However, the differences after 6 months were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Similar numbers of NVCFs (total and adjacent fractures) were found at 24 months in both groups (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Compared with CT, PVP provided a rapid decrease in pain and an early return to daily life activities, without an increase in the incidence of NVCFs.

Finger-to-Heart (F2H): Authentication for Wireless Implantable Medical Devices.

Any proposal to provide security for implantable medical devices (IMDs), such as cardiac pacemakers and defibrillators, has to achieve a trade-off between security and accessibility for doctors to gain access to an IMD, especially in an emergency scenario. In this paper, we propose a finger-to-heart (F2H) IMD authentication scheme to address this trade-off between security and accessibility. This scheme utilizes a patient's fingerprint to perform authentication for gaining access to the IMD. Doctors can gain access to the IMD and perform emergency treatment by scanning the patient's finger tip instead of asking the patient for passwords/security tokens, thereby, achieving the necessary trade-off. In the scheme, an improved minutia-cylinder-code-based fingerprint authentication algorithm is proposed for the IMD by reducing the length of each feature vector and the number of query feature vectors. Experimental results show that the improved fingerprint authentication algorithm significantly reduces both the size of messages in transmission and computational overheads in the device, and thus, can be utilized to secure the IMD. Compared to existing electrocardiogram signal-based security schemes, the F2H scheme does not require the IMD to capture or process biometric traits in every access attempt since a fingerprint template is generated and stored in the IMD beforehand. As a result, the scarce resources in the IMD are conserved, making the scheme sustainable as well as energy efficient.