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Background Immunoglobulin G subclass 4 (IgG4) is hypothesized to play an immunomodulatory role, downregulating humoral immune responses. The role of this anti-inflammatory molecule in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has not been fully characterized. We sought to define alterations in serum IgG4 in patients with IBD and their association with multiyear disease severity. Methods We analyzed metadata derived from curated electronic health records from consented patients with IBD prospectively followed at a tertiary center over a 10-year time period. Patients with IBD with IgG4 serum levels available formed the study population. Demographics and multiyear clinical data were collected and analyzed. We stratified patients with IBD with low, normal, or high serum IgG4 levels. Results We found IgG4 characterized in 1193 patients with IBD and low IgG4 levels in 233 patients (20%) and elevated IgG4 levels in 61 patients (5%). An IgG4 deficiency did not significantly correlate with other antibody deficiencies. In a multiple Poisson regression analysis, low IgG4 was associated with more years on biologic agents (P = 0.002) and steroids (P = 0.049) and more hospital admissions (P < 0.001), clinic visits (P = 0.010), outpatient antibiotic prescriptions (P < 0.001), and CD-related surgeries (P = 0.011) during the study period after controlling for certain confounders. Elevated IgG4 was only associated with primary sclerosing cholangitis (P = 0.011). A cohort of patients with IgG4-deficient severe IBD received intravenous Ig replacement therapy, which benefited and was continued in 10 out of 11 individuals. Conclusions An IgG4 subclass deficiency, distinct from other antibody deficiencies, occurred commonly in a referral IBD population and was associated with multiple markers of disease severity. This is the first association of IgG4 subclass deficiency with an inflammatory disease process. Further work is needed to define the mechanistic role of IgG4 deficiency in this severe IBD subgroup.

Different from the existing quantum key distribution (QKD)-based quantum private query (QPQ) protocols, we propose a secure multi-party quantum private information query protocol utilizing universal blind quantum computation in quantum cloud computing. Due to the blindness and correctness of blind quantum computation, our protocol guarantees the privacy and security for all the clients and the servers. The clients obtain values corresponding to their queries only, and nothing else from the servers, while the servers can not get any information about the queries. In our protocols, the only thing that the clients do is to need the ability to perform single-qubit measurement or to prepare single-qubit states.

Background Peripheral blood eosinophilia (PBE) is a biomarker of an aggressive multiyear natural history in adults with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs). Additionally, PBE at diagnosis is associated with higher disease activity in pediatric-onset IBD. We sought to determine if PBE can function as a biomarker of long-term disease severity in pediatric-onset IBD patients who are followed into adulthood. Methods We analyzed a consented, prospective, natural history IBD registry at an adult tertiary center from 2009 to 2018. Prevalence of PBE was evaluated in both pediatric- and adult-onset IBD patients. Demographics, clinical characteristics, and health care utilization data were compared in patients with and without PBE. Results Among 2800 adult IBD patients, 23.4% had pediatric-onset disease. PBE was found in 34% of the pediatric-onset patients compared with 26.8% of the adult-onset IBD patients (P < 0.001). In the pediatric-onset IBD cohort, PBE was associated with higher rates of allergies (P < 0.0001), but not of asthma, allergic rhinitis, or primary sclerosing cholangitis. In the adult IBD patients with pediatric-onset disease, PBE was associated with higher rates of C-reactive protein elevation (P < 0.0001), erythrocyte sedimentation rate elevation (P < 0.0001), higher health care utilization, and higher average health care charges per year (P < 0.00001). Conclusions Peripheral blood eosinophilia was more prevalent in adult IBD patients with pediatric-onset compared with adult-onset disease. Among all IBD patients with long-term follow-up, PBE defined a subgroup with more severe illness. These data suggest that PBE may be a biomarker for a high-risk subgroup with high cost trajectory and long-term severity in pediatric-onset IBD that persists into adulthood.

Background: Aldosterone is an important hormone in the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), and playing a pivotal role in the development of hypertension, heart failure, and other cardiovascular diseases. Material and method: In this study, the role of the aldosterone in vascular calcification was underwent in rat model compared with other drugs. Vascular calcification, calcium concentration, activity of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), aldosterone, Urotensin II, mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) and Osteopontin (OPN) were detected or confirmed by the von Kossa staining, colorimetric assays, immunohistochemistry and radioimmunoassay, separately. Result: Results revealed that the aldosterone was significantly increased compared calcification + aldosterone group with calcification group, whereas it was notably decreased in calcification + Spironolactone group in the aortic wall. Compared with control group and aldosterone group, calcium content in vascular tissues was increased in calcification group and calcification + aldosterone group. As the immunoreactivity of the MR, OPN, Urotensin II, IL-6, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, and deposition of collagen in calcification group and aldosterone group, they all were increased slightly, but were significantly increased in calcification + aldosterone group. Conclusion: It is implied that aldosterone may be involved in the development of vascular calcification, however, the mechanism needs to be further studied.

This paper reviews recent economic studies that estimate the impacts of energy accidents and energy-related policies and regulations on pollution and health. Using difference-in-differences and regression discontinuity designs, most papers show that energy accidents and consumption significantly increased pollution and had adverse health effects. However, the enforcement of clean energy policies and strict regulations have improved air quality and mitigated the negative effects on health. Hence, future research should focus more on the health effects of clean energy in developing countries.

Background Multistate foodborne disease outbreaks and recalls of apples and apple products contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes demonstrate the need for improved pathogen control in the apple supply chain. Apple processing facilities have been identified in the past as potential sources of persisting L. monocytogenes contamination. In this study, we sought to understand the composition of microbiota in built apple and other tree fruit processing environments and its association with the occurrence of the foodborne pathogen L. monocytogenes. Results Analysis of 117 samples collected from three apple and other tree fruit packing facilities (F1, F2, and F3) showed that facility F2 had a significantly higher L. monocytogenes occurrence compared to F1 and F3 (p < 0.01). The microbiota in facility F2 was distinct compared to facilities F1 and F3 as supported by the mean Shannon index for bacterial and fungal alpha diversities that was significantly lower in F2, compared to F1 and F3 (p < 0.01). Microbiota in F2 was uniquely predominated by bacterial family Pseudomonadaceae and fungal family Dipodascaceae. Conclusions The composition and diversity of microbiota and mycobiota present in the investigated built food processing environments may be indicative of persistent contamination with L. monocytogenes. These findings support the need for further investigation of the role of the microbial communities in the persistence of L. monocytogenes to support the optimization of L. monocytogenes control strategies in the apple supply chain. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s40168-019-0726-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background. Subcortical infarcts can result in verbal memory impairment, but the potential underlying mechanisms remain unknown. Objective. We investigated the spatiotemporal deterioration patterns of brain structures in patients with subcortical infarction and identified the regions that contributed to verbal memory impairment. Methods. Cognitive assessment and structural magnetic resonance imaging were performed 1, 4, and 12 weeks after stroke onset in 28 left-hemisphere and 22 right-hemisphere stroke patients with subcortical infarction. Whole-brain volumetric analysis combined with a further-refined shape analysis was conducted to analyze longitudinal morphometric changes in brain structures and their relationship to verbal memory performance. Results. Between weeks 1 and 12, significant volume decreases in the ipsilesional basal ganglia, inferior white matter, and thalamus were found in the left-hemisphere stroke group. Among those 3 structures, only the change rate of the thalamus volume was significantly correlated with that in immediate recall. For the right-hemisphere stroke group, only the ipsilesional basal ganglia survived the week 1 to week 12 group comparison, but its change rate was not significantly correlated with the verbal memory change rate. Shape analysis of the thalamus revealed atrophies of the ipsilesional thalamic subregions connected to the prefrontal, temporal, and premotor cortices in the left-hemisphere stroke group and positive correlations between the rates of those atrophies and the change rate in immediate recall. Conclusions. Secondary damage to the thalamus, especially to the left subregions connected to specific cortices, may be associated with early verbal memory impairment following an acute subcortical infarct.

Consanguineous marriage (CM) has been linked to spontaneous abortion (SAB), although studies have largely been cross-sectional and likely underestimated early loss. We aimed to determine the relationships between CM and SAB in a prospective pregnancy cohort study in Telangana State, India. Data from 661 participants aged 15–35 years in the Longitudinal Indian Family hEalth (LIFE) study actively followed for pregnancy and pregnancy loss were analyzed. SAB was classified as early (

Background Persistent organ failure (POF) is the strongest determinant of mortality in acute pancreatitis (AP). There is a paucity of data regarding the impact of different POF attributes on mortality and the role of different characteristics of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) in the risk of developing POF. Objective We aimed to assess the association of POF dynamic features with mortality and SIRS characteristics with POF. Methods We studied 1544 AP subjects prospectively enrolled at 22 international centers (APPRENTICE consortium). First, we estimated the association of onset, duration, and maximal score of SIRS with POF. Then, we evaluated the risk of mortality based on POF onset, duration, number, type, and sequence of organs affected. Analyses were adjusted for potential confounders. Results 58% had SIRS, 11% developed POF, and 2.5% died. Early SIRS, persistent SIRS, and maximal SIRS score ≥ 3 were independently associated with higher risk of POF (p, Key Summary What is known? Persistent organ failure (POF; >48 h) is the strongest determinant of mortality in acute pancreatitis (AP).There is lack of evidence on the impact of different attributes of failing organs on AP mortality.The association of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) characteristics with POF, has not been well studied. What is new here? Mortality risk in AP patients with POF is determined by the number, type, and sequence of organ systems affected.Multiple POF affecting the cardiovascular and respiratory systems first or concurrently carries the highest mortality in AP compared to the renal system.Involvement of the renal system as the first failing organ or concurrently with other organs during multiple POF is associated with lower mortality than respiratoy or cardiovascular systems as first failing organs.Onset and duration of POF are not associated with mortality in AP patients.SIRS on admission, persistent SIRS, and three to four SIRS criteria, are independently associated with higher risk of POF.

In blind quantum computation (BQC) protocol, the quantum computability of servers are complicated and powerful, while the clients are not. It is still a challenge for clients to delegate quantum computation to servers and keep the clients’ inputs, outputs and algorithms private. Unfortunately, quantum channel noise is unavoidable in the practical transmission. In this paper, a novel BQC protocol based on maximally entangled Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states is proposed which doesn’t need a trusted center. The protocol includes a client and two servers, where the client only needs to own quantum channels with two servers who have full-advantage quantum computers. Two servers perform entanglement concentration used to remove the noise, where the success probability can almost reach 100% in theory. But they learn nothing in the process of concentration because of the no-signaling principle, so this BQC protocol is secure and feasible.

Objective This study aimed to examine the relationship between the follicular output rate (FORT) and clinical outcomes in patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). Methods A total of 841 patients with PCOS undergoing in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET) were divided into three groups according to their FORT (low, middle, and high). Controlled ovarian hyperstimulation and clinical outcomes were compared retrospectively. Results Serum estradiol levels on the day of human chorionic gonadotropin (3780.5, 3599.9, and 3375.7 pg/mL) and the number of retrieved oocytes (17.5, 16.1, and 14.8) decreased from the high to low FORT groups. Pre-ovulatory follicle counts were significantly higher in the high FORT group than in the middle and low FORT groups. The number of retrieved oocytes, high-quality embryo rate, and clinical pregnancy rate decreased from the high to low FORT groups. The incidence of moderate and severe ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) in the middle FORT group was significantly lower than that in the high and low FORT groups. Conclusions FORT may be used to predict clinical outcomes of IVF/intracytoplasmic sperm injection-embryo transfer in patients with PCOS. Efforts should be made to prevent OHSS in patients with PCOS and a high or low FORT in controlled ovarian hyperstimulation cycles.

We propose two controlled quantum secure communication schemes by entanglement distillation or generalized measurement. The sender Alice, the receiver Bob and the controllers David and Cliff take part in the whole schemes. The supervisors David and Cliff can control the information transmitted from Alice to Bob by adjusting the local measurement angles $$\theta _4$$?4 and $$\theta _3$$?3. Bob can verify his secret information by classical one-way function after communication. The average amount of information is analyzed and compared for these two methods by MATLAB. The generalized measurement is a better scheme. Our schemes are secure against some well-known attacks because classical encryption and decoy states are used to ensure the security of the classical channel and the quantum channel.

As per US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requirement, the study was designed to conduct the fourth and fifth criteria of Abbreviated New Drug Application to demonstrate equivalence of generic and branded Enoxaparin in vivo and vitro.Pharmacodynamic behavior of branded and generic Enoxaparin was compared in a parallel study in rats based upon measurement of anti-FXa and anti-FIIa profiles. Blood samples collected at baseline and at 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12 and 24 h postsubcutaneous administration of six batches of Lovenox and nine batches of generic Enoxaparin were evaluated for anti-FXa and anti-FIIa using chromogenic substrate method. Anti-FXa, Anti-FIIa, activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), and Heptest prolongation time were conducted in vitro as per the United States Pharmacopeia method. Pharmacodynamics parameters were obtained including peak effect (anti-FXamax, anti-FIIamax), area under the effect curve (AUEC0-T and AUEC0-∞), Tmax, and T1/2.Pharmacokinetic differences were not observed using anti-FXa or anti-FIIa. No statistically significant differences were observed between branded and generic Enoxaparin either in vitro anti-FXa, anti-FIIa, APTT, or Heptest assay.It can be concluded that they are bioequivalent in anticoagulant activity tested in vivo and vitro.

Big data is often thought as a large number of virous unstructured forms of data. Expensive intelligent computing engineering techniques of critical systems that are not cost-effective for non-critical systems may sometimes be used as a intelligent protection system. The private comparison is to compare the equality of the secret information of two parties privately, without disclosing any actual information. These secret information of two parties are big data that need to be analysed for comparison privately in critical system. Quantum private comparison is more safer than classic private comparison based on the theory of quantum mechanics. In this paper, a big data quantum private comparison scheme with intelligent third party is proposed. Two distrustful parties Alice and Bob compare the equivalence of big data information by quantum computing with the help of the intelligent robot belonged to a semi-honest third party Calvin. The participants including the intelligent robot are just required having the ability to prepare photons and perform measurement, which makes the presented protocol be more feasible in technique. The transmitted particles is in the anticlockwise order with a circle that make the transferred private information to be more safe. The technique of entanglement swapping makes the comparison be achieved with the help of the intelligent robot. Due to the photon transmission is a one-way distribution, the Trojan horse attack can be automatically avoided. It is secure against the various well-known attacks.

Because privacy problems with big data impede progress at all phases of the pipeline that can create value from data, Alice and Bob have to perform private queries in order to obtain the private comparison results of big data. Suppose that the cloud devices are with the capacity of conventional and quantum computation, an efficient quantum private comparison protocol with ring-trip transmission by safe cloud quantum computing in the quantum Internet is proposed. Two participant parties Alice and Bob, with the help of a semi-trusted third party and cloud device by simple quantum measurements and mathematical operation, can compare the equality of their secret information without revealing the content of secret information. We show that our protocol can resist the eavesdropper Eve's intercept-resend attack, entangle-measure attack, and Trojan horse attack to cloud device, participant's intercept-measure-resend attack, and third party's attack. The qubit efficiency of our protocol approaches to 100%. We also analyze the connection between Eve's obtained information and the fidelity of secret information in detail. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Quantum cryptography discusses the security of quantum information. Cloud computing has emerged as a computational paradigm and an alternative to the conventional computing. Cloud security is associated with cloud computing. In this paper, we define the new concept about quantum cloud and discuss the security of quantum information exchange in quantum internet. A tripartite simultaneous quantum information exchange protocol associated with the quantum cloud based on entanglement swapping and Bell states is proposed. The proposed secure quantum information exchange protocol can resist intercept-and-resend attack, intercept-and-measure attack, intercept-and-entangle auxiliary attack and denial-of-service attack. It can also be generalised to N-party case that is feasible and efficient.

Imatinib mesylate (STI571, Gleevec) is a signal transduction inhibitor and novel anti-cancer agent. It selectively inhibits aberrantly activated tyrosine kinases in malignant cells, for example, bcr-abl in leukaemia, platelet-derived growth factor receptor and stem cell factor receptor (c-Kit) in solid cancers including malignant glioma. However, recently published clinical studies with imatinib monotherapy in patients with malignant glioma demonstrated only very modest anti-tumour activity. The aim of this study was to investigate the biological activity of imatinib, its cellular mechanisms of action and its synergism with other chemotherapeutic agents in human malignant glioma cells in culture. Expression of PDGF/R and c-Kit was analyzed by RT-PCR. Proliferation was measured by MTT assays and drug synergy was assessed by the Chou-Talalay method. Cell cycle and apoptosis were analyzed by flow cytometry and migration by monolayer migration assays. Multi-immunoblot was performed on imatinib-treated and control malignant glioma cells. Results indicate that imatinib is more effective in inhibiting cell colony formation and migration rather than proliferation. Imatinib treatment caused cell cycle arrest of glioma cells in G0-G1 or G2/M, with significant elevation of a few cyclin-dependent kinases. Furthermore, imatinib acted synergistically with chemotherapy agents, such as the DNA alkylating agent, temozolomide, and riboneucleotide reductase inhibitors, for example, hydroxyurea at varied effective dose levels. In conclusion, imatinib exerts varied biological effects on malignant glioma cells in culture. Synergistic interaction of imatinib with chemotherapy agents may be related to cell cycle control mechanisms and could be potentially important in a clinical setting.

Multi-party quantum secret sharing scheme with high efficient based on entanglement states is proposed and analyzed. A three-party which is presented shares a sequence of joint key bits. In this scheme, a general proof of the security against eavesdropping for three-party quantum secret sharing based on entanglement swapping is provided. The scheme which is showed is secure against a dishonest participant's intercept-and-resend attack and eavesdropper's entangle auxiliary-particles attack. In case of eavesdropping attacks with full information again, the detection bit needs to be transmitted except those for detection, the total efficiency of the scheme approaches to 100%. The protocol can be generalized to N-party system by using N-partite entanglement states.

A protocol for three-party quantum secure direct communication using entanglement states is proposed. In this protocol, three participants simultaneously exchange their messages. The protocol is shown to stand against the intercept-and-resend attack, the intercept-and-measure attack, the intercept-and-entangle auxiliary attack and the denial-of-service attack. It can be generalized to N-party case that is feasible.

The visual cryptography scheme (abbreviated VCS) proposed by Naor and Shamir provides a way to encrypt a secret black-white image into shares. A qualified group of participants can recover the secret message without using any cryptographic computation. But the original scheme can easily be corrupted by malicious participant. We propose an extension of VCS to verify cheaters based on digital watermarking. Without any additional information and cryptographic computation, every participant can verify the validity of shares of other participants only by watermark extraction operation. Thus the security of VCS is enhanced.

We proposes a verifiable quantum secret sharing protocol based on entanglement swapping in this paper. It provides one-to-one communication to dealer who want to connect with the other participants. The dealer chooses the detection or information mode by uniform distribution until he can make sure the information to the participant is safe, and then communicates with the next participant. It can prevent not only the external eavesdropping but also the internal cheating and ensure the validity of information shared to participant by this protocol.

The aim of controlled quantum teleportation is to realize communication between Alice and Bob to cooperate with a trusted controller Charlie successfully. However, we show that the dishonest Bob can obtain the initial Alice's secret message with 50 percents without the permission of Charlie. We propose an improved controlled quantum teleportation scheme by using quantum entanglement swapping in quantum communication. The receiver Bob is identified by the trusted Charlie. After the sender Alice gets the feedback information from Charlie, he can make sure the identity of Bob and then sends the quantum information to Bob. The scheme can effectively prevent forged identity attack to ensure the security of quantum teleportation. We also propose a quantum teleportation scheme with identity authentication in controlled quantum network with multiple users and controllers.

Broadly speaking, cryptography is the problem of doing communication or computation involving two or more parties who may not trust one another. The best known cryptographic problem is the transmission of secret messages. Suppose wish to communicate in secret. For example, you may wish to give your credit card number to a merchant in exchange for goods, hopefully without any malevolent third party intercepting your credit card number. The way this is done is to use a cryptographic protocol. The most important distinction is between private key cryptosystems and public key cryptosystems.

Controlled quantum teleportation (CQT) is to realise communication between a sender Alice and a receiver Bob to cooperate with a controller Charlie. It can send any quantum state α|0〉 + β|1〉 successfully by this quantum communication system. However, its drawback is that Alice can not confirm Charlie’s and Bob’s identities. In this paper, we design two identity authentication schemes IA_C and IA_B based on entanglement swapping to make identification confirmation for Charlie and Bob, and use decoy states to check outside eavesdropping. Alice confirms the identity of Charlie by using two Bell states entanglement swapping. Moreover, the identity confirmation of Bob by Alice with the help of Charlie is to use three Bell states entanglement swapping. The scheme can effectively prevent forgery identity attack to ensure the security of quantum teleportation. We also propose an improved controlled quantum teleportation (ICQT) scheme with decoy states to ensure the security of quantum channel.