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This phase II clinical trial investigated the efficacy and safety of intramuscular injection of plasmid pUDK-HGF, which encodes the human hepatocyte growth factor gene in patients with critical limb ischemia. Resting pain patients (

Multimedia data security has become a noticeable problem in the continuous development of multimedia technology. Traditional chaotic systems usually require larger bit-width iterative calculations to affect the generation rate of chaotic systems when generating. To solve this problem, we proposed a general Residual Chaotic System (RCS) for image security in heterogeneous multimedia signal processing environments. Based on the Residue Number System (RNS) commonly used in VLSI, we generate the general chaotic sequences by iterating unary polynomial function through it in Galois Field (GF). Moreover, we make use of the Box-Muller algorithm to generate RCS, which improved the speed of operation by a large margin when doing R/B backward transformation. Experiments show that the key sensitivity and plaintext sensitivity of the proposed encryption system are good, and the system can encrypt pictures efficiently and safely. Then, we proposed a watermark embedding and extraction algorithm with block selection. Based on the proposed new judgment conditions, the $4\times 4$ brightness blocks are divided into five categories, then the appropriate types of blocks are selected accordingly. After testing the performance indexes of cypher-text images, including statistical and sensitivity-related tests, all results indicate that our algorithm has good randomness and security. The invisibility is good, the watermark capacity has been significantly improved, and the video bit-rate growth rate is in a good range. The watermark can resist attacks such as noise and the bit error rate under re-encoding and Gaussian low-pass filtering attacks. Compared with other algorithms, the algorithm that we proposed is faster, much more efficient, and more secure. Therefore, it is a practical alternative scheme for heterogeneous communication environments.

Currently, with the rapid development and broad application of cloud computing technology, companies tend to use cloud services to build their applications or business systems. Selecting a trustworthy cloud service is a challenging multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. Moreover, decision makers are more inclined to use linguistic descriptions to assess the quality of service (QoS) for cloud services due to the limitation of the decision makers’ knowledge and the vagueness of criteria information. Therefore, we propose a practical, integrated MCDM scheme for cloud service evaluation and selection of cloud systems, allowing decision makers to compare cloud services based on QoS criteria. First, to more accurately and effectively express the uncertainty of qualitative concepts, the cloud model is used as a conversion tool for qualitative and quantitative information to quantify linguistic terms. Second, given the shortcomings of traditional differentiating measures between cloud models, a more comprehensive distance measurement algorithm using cloud droplet distribution is proposed for the cloud model. The new distance measurement algorithm is applied to the calculation of cloud model similarity and the gray correlation coefficient. The dynamic expertise weights are determined by calculating the similarity between the expert evaluation cloud model and the arithmetic mean cloud model. Then, we propose a technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) improved by the grey relational analysis (GRA) to calculate the relative closeness of alternatives to the positive and negative ideal solutions and establish a multi-objective optimization model that maximizes the relative closeness of all alternatives to determine the weights of the criteria. Finally, we reconstructed the QoS evaluation criteria for cloud services from both application and service perspectives, and the classical TOPSIS is applied to generate alternative rankings. The practicability and robustness of the scheme were tested through the cloud service selection problem experienced by a real mining company’s scheduling platform, which can provide practical references with the theoretical basis for the selection and evaluation of cloud services.

Recent progress of artificial intelligence makes it easier to edit facial movements in videos or create face substitutions, bringing new challenges to anti-fake-faces techniques. Although multimedia forensics provides many detection algorithms from a traditional point of view, it is increasingly hard to discriminate the fake videos from real ones while they become more sophisticated and plausible with updated forgery technologies. In this paper, we introduce a motion discrepancy based method that can effectively differentiate AI-generated fake videos from real ones. The amplitude of face motions in videos is first magnified, and fake videos will show more serious distortion or flicker than the pristine videos. We pre-trained a deep CNN on frames extracted from the training videos and the output vectors of the frame sequences are used as input of an LSTM at secondary training stage. Our approach is evaluated over a large fake video dataset Faceforensics++ produced by various advanced generation technologies, it shows superior performance contrasted to existing pixel-based fake video forensics approaches.

The transmission and negotiation of the robot swarms and the technical support provided by the communication technology are inseparable, and modulation recognition plays an important role in this transmission. Due to the diversity of current classifiers, choosing the correct classifier to improve the classification effect has become a key issue. To this end, this paper explores the performance of different classifiers in modulation recognition, selects six classifier families, and compares a total of 77 different single classifiers on the modulation dataset, which is implemented on the following three platforms: Weka, Python and MATLAB. The results show that the strong classifiers formed by the combination of weak classifiers is very effective, and Boosting, Bagging, and Random Forest are the three best classifier families. In addition, it was found that as the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) increases, the overall performance of the classifier families gradually improves, but the ranking of the families performance remains consistent.

With the rapid growth of the number of images, many content-based image retrieval methods have been extensively used in our daily life. In general, image retrieval services are very expensive in terms of computing and storage. Therefore, outsourcing services to the cloud server is a good choice for image owners. However, privacy protection can become a big issue for image owners because the cloud server can only be semi-trusted. In this paper, we propose a novel image retrieval scheme. It is a ciphertext image retrieval method based on random mapping features with the bag-of-words model. After encrypting the image with Advanced Encryption Standard and block permutation, the cloud server generates random templates and then extracts the local features. All local features are clustered by k-means algorithm to form the visual word. The histogram of encrypted visual words is constructed in this way as the feature vector to represent each image. The similarity between images can be measured by the distance between feature vectors on the cloud server. Experiments and analysis prove the effect of the scheme.

Deep neural networks are vulnerable to adversarial samples, posing potential threats to the applications deployed with deep learning models in practical conditions. A typical example is the fingerprint liveness detection module in fingerprint authentication systems. Inspired by great progress of deep learning, deep networks-based fingerprint liveness detection algorithms spring up and dominate the field. Thus, we investigate the feasibility of deceiving state-of-the-art deep networks-based fingerprint liveness detection schemes by leveraging this property in this paper. Extensive evaluations are made with three existing adversarial methods: FGSM, MI-FGSM, and Deepfool. We also proposed an adversarial attack method that enhances the robustness of adversarial fingerprint images to various transformations like rotations and flip. We demonstrate these outstanding schemes are likely to classify fake fingerprints as live fingerprints by adding tiny perturbations, even without internal details of their used model. The experimental results reveal a big loophole and threats for these schemes from a view of security, and enough attention is urgently needed to be paid on anti-adversarial not only in fingerprint liveness detection but also in all deep learning applications.

Background To investigate the therapeutic effect of human dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) transfected with adenovirus expressing hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) in a mouse model of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). Methods DPSCs were modified with Ad-HGF to produce HGF-overexpressing DPSCs, DPSCs-HGF. In experimental mouse CIA model, DPSCs-HGF and DPSCs-Null (modified with Ad-Null) were engrafted via intravenously after disease onset, which was determined by the presence of joint swelling. The therapeutic effects on joints were evaluated at 49 days after collagen injection by histopathological analysis and microcomputed tomography imaging. The inflammatory cytokines were analyzed both in sera and joints via MILLIPLEX kit and immunohistochemical staining, respectively, and the regulatory T cells (Tregs) were analyzed in peripheral blood by using flow cytometry. Furthermore, primary fibroblast-like synoviocytes were isolated, colony formation analysis and FACS were performed to evaluate the effect of HGF on the proliferation and cell cycle of FLSs. Western blot assay was carried out to clarify the signal pathway of HGF-cMet. Results We found that without HGF modification, DPSC transfusion was helpful in controlling autoimmune status, local synovitis, and bone erosion after intravenous administration. However, HGF-modified DPSCs have dual role in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In the early phase, HGF overexpression inhibited RA progression by its immunosuppressive effects, while in the late phase, HGF promoted synovitis by activating fibroblast-like synoviocytes to produce pathogenic IL-6, accelerating cell proliferation and inducing apoptosis resistance via phosphorylating the c-Met/Akt pathway. The overall effect of HGF modification attenuated the therapeutic effect of DPSCs. Conclusions Our study provides a comprehensive evaluation of the therapeutic effect of DPSCs in the mouse model and a primary answer to the divergence of whether HGF is harmful or helpful in RA.

The construction of the financial module is very important in the intelligent management of the company. The collection, transmission, and processing of relevant item information in the financial module are of great significance to the construction of the intelligent financial module. The intelligent financial processing module can improve financial office efficiency and increase the security of the financial processing process. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX 404) has always played a decisive role in the quality and transparency of the financial modules of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) of multinational corporations, due to the mandatory nature of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The purpose of this research is to design a set of intelligent ERP financial modules for multinational corporations that could comply with SOX 404, strengthen internal controls, and improve the security and convenience of the financial module. Thereby achieving intelligent management of financial modules and intelligent prevention of risks. Our solution could fortify the preventive controls over inappropriate payments to products with quality issues, reduce manual efforts for credit memo issuance and receipt. It could also fortify the preventive controls over financial risks potentially threatened by a sudden contingent liability concerning E&O issues. It could prevent potential and unexpected frauds arisen by a malicious user to meet the requirements of SOX over preventive and detective controls over the financial system. It could also ensure the consistency of journals between the preparer’s entry and review’s approval as well as improve the completeness and timeliness of financial statement assertions.

Wireless sensor network are widely used in various types of environmental monitoring and there are also many applications in the industrial field, we usually deploy sensor nodes in the corresponding areas to monitor and collect relevant data, waiting for a sink node to collect the stored data for further analysis and decision. But in some extremely harsh scenarios, the living environment of the sensor node is very bad, hence the data on the nodes will always lose. Generally, we use LT Codes to improve data persistence. However, some difficult problems with regard to the efficiency of coding and decoding of data can not be resolved by traditional solutions. In terms of the above problems, this paper improves the traditional coding method by reducing the number of encoded packets, so that the network congestion can be alleviated under the premise of successful data coding. What's more, we propose an edge layered collection model and a new coding strategy Edge Layering Fountain Codes (ELFC) based on the model, each sensor node inside the network sends its data to the edge nodes which are relatively safe to ensure the secure collection of data and allocate the resource consumption of the sensor nodes around the sink node. On this basis, the Ordered Edge Layering Fountain Codes (OELFC) is further proposed. The OELFC can collect data packets in a low degree-to-high degree manner, which greatly improves the efficiency of data decoding.

Background: BPD is a common pulmonary complication seen in preterm infants which has a multifactorial pathogenesis. Current strategies, albeit successful in moderately reducing morbidity and mortality of BPD, failed to draw overall satisfactory conclusion. Meanwhile, a substantial studies have reported the altered expression profile of microRNA and lncRNA in the pathogenesis of BPD, while detailed circRNA profile as well as comprehensive lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA and circRNA-miRNA-mRNA networks are largely unknown. Methods: Male C57BL6/J newborn pups were exposed to 85% O2 to construct the hyperoxia BPD model and CB-MNCs or UC-MSCs Cells were intravenously injected at PN7 thereafter. Growth rate was recorded, lung morphology were determined by HE staining and transmission electron microscopy, pulmonary function alterations were defined by respiratory function test and cardiovascular-pulmonary function assessment, reshaped expression of cytokines were evaluated by qPCR and immunohistochemistry approach. The underlying mechanism based on theory of ceRNA network were elucidated by whole transcriptome sequencing. Findings: Both CB-MNC and UC-MSC are efficient in alleviating BPD, verified by our mice model mimicking moderate and severe BPD. Notably, CB-MNC implantation have more prominent effects preventing alveolar simplification and pulmonary vessel loss, restoring pulmonary respiratory functions and reshaping inflammatory responses. Moreover, we further systematically investigated the expression profiles of mRNA, miRNA, lncRNA and circRNA. Importantly, those unique alterations induced by transplantation of different stem cells were highly enriched in the processes related to regulation of RhoGTPase activity, chromosome regulation and cell cycle control. Finally, we illustrate the comprehensive mRNA-miRNA-lncRNA and mRNA-miRNA-circRNA networks. Funding: This research was jointly granted by National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFC1001701, 2018YFC1002701) and Chinese National Natural Science Foundation Projects (81901518). Conflict of Interest: All authors declared that they had no competing conflicts of interests to disclose. Ethical Approval: Animal procedures were reviewed and approved by the Animal Care and Ethic Committee of seventh medical center of PLAGeneral Hospital (No. 2020-037). All animals were housed, cared for, and used in compliance with the guidelines regarding the humane use and care of laboratory animals for biomedical research published by the National Institutes of Health (No.85-23, revised 1996).

// Xiao-Xia Jiang 1, * , Yu Liu 1, 2, * , Hong Li 1, * , Yaping Gao 1 , Rong Mu 2 , Jianping Guo 2 , Jing Zhang 2 , Yan-Mei Yang 1 , Fengjun Xiao 3 , Bing Liu 4 , Changyong Wang 1 , Beifen Shen 1, 6 , Si-Yi Chen 5 , Zhanguo Li 2 , Guang Yang 1, 6 1 Beijing Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Beijing, China 2 Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, People’s Hospital, Peking University, Beijing, China 3 Institute of Radiation Medicine, Beijing, China 4 307-Ivy Translational Medicine Center, Laboratory of Oncology, Affiliated Hospital of Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Beijing, China 5 Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA 6 State Key Laboratory of Toxicology and Medical Countermeasures, Beijing Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Beijing, China * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Guang Yang, email: yangg62033@163.com Zhanguo Li, email: zgli99@aliyun.com Si-Yi Chen, email: siyichen@usc.edu Keywords: MYSM1, miR-150, FLT3, B1a, proliferation Received: June 06, 2016 Accepted: August 25, 2016 Published: August 31, 2016 ABSTRACT The aberrant expansion of B1a cells has been observed in several murine autoimmune disease models; however, the mechanism of such proliferation of B1a cells is still limited. Here, we identify that Myb Like, SWIRM And MPN Domains 1 (MYSM1), a histone H2A deubiquitinase, plays an intrinsic role in the proliferation of B1a cells where MYSM1 deficiency results in the increased proliferation of B1a cells in mice. We demonstrate that MYSM1 recruits c-Myc to the promoter of miR-150 and stimulates the transcription of miR-150. Our further investigation shows that miR-150 decreases FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) in B1a cells. In agreement with our animal studies, the percentage of FLT3 + B1 cells in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) patients is significantly higher than healthy control. Thus, this study uncovers a novel pathway MYSM1/miR-150/FLT3 that inhibits proliferation of B1a, which may be involved in the pathogenesis of SLE.

In the age of big data, plenty of valuable sensing data have been shared to enhance scientific innovation. However, this may cause unexpected privacy leakage. Although numerous privacy preservation techniques, such as perturbation, encryption, and anonymization, have been proposed to conceal sensitive information, it is usually at the cost of the application utility. Moreover, most of the existing works did not distinguished the underlying factors, such as data features and sampling rate, which contribute differently to utility and privacy information implied in the shared data. To well balance the application utility and privacy leakage for data sharing, we utilize mutual information and visualization techniques to analyze the impact of the underlying factors on utility and privacy, respectively, and design an interactive visualization tool to help users identify the appropriate solution to achieve the objectives of high application utility and low privacy leakage simultaneously. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme and tool, accelerometer data collected from mobile devices have been adopted as an illustrative example. Experimental study has shown that feature selection and sampling frequency play dominant roles in reducing privacy leakage with much less reduction on utility, and the proposed visualization tool can effectively recommend the appropriate combination of features and sampling rates that can help users make decision on the trade-off between utility and privacy.

Purpose Radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis results from thoracic radiation therapy and severely limits radiation therapy approaches. CD4 + CD25 + FoxP3 + regulatory T cells (Tregs) as well as epithelium-to-mesenchyme transition (EMT) cells are involved in pulmonary fibrosis induced by multiple factors. However, the mechanisms of Tregs and EMT cells in irradiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis remain unclear. In the present study, we investigated the influence of Tregs on EMT in radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis. Methods and Materials Mice thoraxes were irradiated (20 Gy), and Tregs were depleted by intraperitoneal injection of a monoclonal anti-CD25 antibody 2 hours after irradiation and every 7 days thereafter. Mice were treated on days 3, 7, and 14 and 1, 3, and 6 months post irradiation. The effectiveness of Treg depletion was assayed via flow cytometry. EMT and β-catenin in lung tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry. Tregs isolated from murine spleens were cultured with mouse lung epithelial (MLE) 12 cells, and short interfering RNA (siRNA) knockdown of β-catenin in MLE 12 cells was used to explore the effects of Tregs on EMT and β-catenin via flow cytometry and Western blotting. Results Anti-CD25 antibody treatment depleted Tregs efficiently, attenuated the process of radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis, hindered EMT, and reduced β-catenin accumulation in lung epithelial cells in vivo. The coculture of Tregs with irradiated MLE 12 cells showed that Tregs could promote EMT in MLE 12 cells and that the effect of Tregs on EMT was partially abrogated by β-catenin knockdown in vitro. Conclusions Tregs can promote EMT in accelerating radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis. This process is partially mediated through β-catenin. Our study suggests a new mechanism for EMT, promoted by Tregs, that accelerates radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis.

Irradiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis results from thoracic radiotherapy and severely limits radiotherapy approaches. CD4(+) CD25(+) FoxP3(+) regulatory T cells (Tregs) are involved in experimentally induced murine lung fibrosis. However, the precise contribution of Tregs to irradiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis still remains unclear. We have previously established the mouse model of irradiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis and observed an increased frequency of Tregs during the process. This study aimed to investigate the effects of Treg depletion on irradiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis and on fibrocyte, Th17 cell response and production of multiple cytokines in mice. Treg-depleted mice were generated by intraperitoneal injection with anti-CD25 mAb 2h after 20 Gy (60)CO γ-ray thoracic irradiation and every 7 days thereafter. Pulmonary fibrosis was semi-quantitatively assessed using Masson's trichrome staining. The proportions of Tregs, fibrocyte and Th17 cells were detected by flow cytometry. Th1/Th2 cytokines were assessed by Luminex assays. We found that Treg depletion decelerated the process of irradiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis and hindered fibrocyte recruitment to the lung. In response to Treg depletion, the number of CD4(+) T lymphocytes and Th17 cells increased. Moreover, Th1/Th2 cytokine balance was disturbed into Th1 dominance upon Treg depletion. Our study demonstrates that Tregs are involved in irradiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis by promoting fibrocyte accumulation, attenuating Th17 response and regulating Th1/Th2 cytokine balance in the lung tissues, which suggests that Tregs may be therapeutically manipulated to decelerate the progression of irradiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis.

Radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis is a frequently occurred complication from radiotherapy of thoracic tumors. The transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) superfamily plays a key regulatory role in pulmonary fibrosis. As TGF-β3 showed the potential anti-fibrotic properties especially in scar-less wound healing as opposed to the fibrotic function of TGF-β1, we sought to explore the role of TGF-β3 in radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis. A single thoracic irradiation of 20 Gy was applied in mice to establish the model of radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis and the mice were treated by intraperitoneal injections of recombinant TGF-β3 weekly after irradiation. We found that TGF-β3 decelerated the progress of radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis and hindered the recruitment of fibrocytes to lung. In addition, Th1 response was suppressed as shown by diminished IFN-γ in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) after irradiation, and enhancement of Th2 response was marked by increased IL-4 in BALF. TGF-β3 administration significantly attenuated these effects and increased the percentage of Tregs in lung during the progression of pulmonary fibrosis. Taken together, these data suggest that TGF-β3 might be involved in the regulatory mechanism for attenuation of radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis.