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Along with the fast development of wireless technologies, smart devices have become an integral part of our daily life. Authentication is one of the most common and effective methods for these smart devices to prevent unauthorized access. Moreover, smart devices tend to have limited computing power, and they may possess sensitive data. In this paper, we investigate performing graph operations in a privacy-preserving manner, which can be used for anonymous authentication for smart devices. We propose two protocols that allow two parties to jointly compute the intersection and union of their private graphs. Our protocols utilize homomorphic encryption to prevent information leakage during the process, and we provide security proofs of the protocols in the semihonest setting. At last, we implement and evaluate the efficiency of our protocols through experiments on real-world graph data.

BackgroundThe aim of this prospective randomized controlled study was to evaluate whether pretreatment with a small dose of dezocine could prevent remifentanil-induced cough in general anesthesia induction.Trial designa prospective, randomized, controlled study.MethodsA total of 210 patients receiving elective operative hysteroscopy from December 2018 to April 2019 were enrolled in the present study. They were randomly equally separated into dezocine group (n = 105) and control group (n = 105). Patients were intravenously pre-administrated with dezocine 0.03 mg/kg (diluted to 5 mL) or the same volume of normal saline 1 min prior to remifentanil infusion. One minute later, intravenous injection of propofol 1.5 mg/kg and cisatracurium 0.1 mg/kg were given to all patients for induction of general anesthesia. The counts of coughs occurred during the anesthesia induction period were recorded and the severity of cough was scaled.ResultsThere were 7 cases of mild cough in dezocine group and 18 cases of mild cough, 12 cases of moderate cough and 4 cases of severe cough in control group. The incidence rate of cough was significantly lower and the severity of cough was obviously relieved in dezocine group compared to control group (6.67% vs. 32.38%,P ConclusionThis study recommends the efficacy and safety of a pretreatment with a small dose of dezocine in reducing remifentanil-induced cough during general anesthesia.Trial RegistrationChiCTR2000032035.Date of registration: Retrospectively registered on 2020/04/18.

Survivals after prenatal hypoxia-ischemia (HI) usually suffer long-lasting cognitive defects. Reduced blood-oxygen supplies and the following reperfusion cause mitochondrial injury. Damaged mitochondria could be replaced by mitochondrial biogenesis program and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ co-activator 1α (PGC-1α) is the specific up-regulator. The objective of this study was to determine whether PGC-1α and mitochondrial biogenesis participate in the resistant responses of an immature brain to prenatal HI. We used a pregnant rat model of transient occlusion of uterine perfusion to induce intrauterine HI associated brain injury. SH-SY5Y cells exposed to oxygen-glucose deprivation was used to investigate the HI induced reactions in vitro. PGC-1α and its downstream signaling pathway (NRF-1 and TFAM) were examined by Western blot and quantitative Real-time PCR. Mitochondrial respiratory enzyme COX-IV was investigated by Western blot and immunohistochemistry. Mitochondrial density and morphology was detected by transmission electron microscopy. The hippocampal injury and cognitive function were examined. We found that the intrauterine HI triggered PGC-1α-NRF-1-TFAM pathway in both protein and mRNA levels. COX-IV expression significantly increased after HI injury. Intrauterine HI induced both mitochondrial impairment and mitochondrial biogenesis. Postnatal administration of pioglitazone further promoted PGC-1α and mitochondrial biogenesis, alleviated hippocampal injury, and improved performance in the behavioral tasks after intrauterine HI. Our investigation implicated activation of PGC-1α, and mitochondrial biogenesis is a neuroprotective mechanism against brain injury caused by systemic prenatal HI. Promotion of PGC-1α by pioglitazone might be a potential treatment for protecting against hippocampal injury and cognitive defects after intrauterine HI.

Every day social multimedia applications generate millions of images. To handle such huge amount of images, an optimal solution is using the public cloud, since it has powerful storage capability. Images usually contain a wealth of sensitive information, therefore social service providers need not only to provide services such as retrieval and sharing but also to protect the privacies of the images. In this paper, we propose a privacy-preserving scheme for content-based image retrieval and sharing in social multimedia applications. First, the users extract visual features from the images, and perform locality-sensitive hashing functions on visual features to generate image profile vectors. We then model the retrieval on the images as the equality search on the image profile vectors. To enable accurate and efficient retrieval, we design the secure index structure based on cuckoo hashing, which has constant lookup time. To meet the requirements of dynamic image updating, we enrich our service with image insertion and deletion. In order to reduce the key management overhead and the access control overhead in social applications, we process keys using secret sharing techniques to enable the users holding similar images to query and decrypt images independently. Finally we implement the prototype of the proposed scheme, and perform experiments over encrypted image databases.

Background Maternal hypotension after spinal anaesthesia occurs at a high rate during caesarean delivery and can lead to adverse maternal or foetal outcomes. The aim of this study was to determine the optimal dose of spinal ropivacaine for caesarean section with or without intravenous single bolus of S-ketamine and to observe the rates of hypotension associated with both methods. Methods Eighty women undergoing elective caesarean delivery were randomly allocated into either a ropivacaine only or ropivacaine with intravenous S-ketamine group. If the upper sensory level of the patient reached T6 and the visual analogue scale (VAS) scores remained below 3 points before delivery, the next patient had a 1/9th chance of receiving a lower dose or an 8/9th chance of receiving the same dose as the previous patient. If the patient had VAS scores of more than 2 points or needed an extra epidural rescue bolus before delivery, a higher dose was used for the next patient. The primary outcome was the successful use of spinal ropivacaine to maintain patient VAS score of Results The estimated ED90 of ropivacaine was 11.8 mg (95% CI: 11.7–12.7) with and 14.7 mg (95% CI: 14.6–16.0) without intravenous S-ketamine, using biased coin up-down sequential dose-finding method. The rates of hypotension and associated symptoms were significantly lower in S-ketamine group than in the ropivacaine only group. Conclusions A spinal dose of ropivacaine 12 mg with a single intravenous 0.15 mg/kg bolus dose of S-ketamine may significantly reduce the risk of hypotension and induce sedation before delivery. This method may be used with appropriate caution for women undergoing elective caesarean delivery and at a high risk of hypotension or experiencing extreme nervousness. Trial registration http://www.chictr.org.cn (ChiCTR2000040375; 28/11/2020).

Importance Quantification of potential consequences associated with the use of epidural analgesia during labor could help to improve the safety and quality of labor and delivery care for parturient women. Objective To evaluate the association between epidural analgesia use during labor and neonatal infection in a large cohort of parturient women. Design, Setting, and Participants This propensity score-matched cohort study was conducted at a university-affiliated hospital in Shanghai, China. Women at full-term pregnancy undergoing vaginal delivery between January 2013 and October 2018 were included in the study. Parturient women who were parous, experiencing premature delivery (gestational age

Background Post-spinal hypotension has a high occurrence during cesarean delivery, and can lead to adverse maternal or fetal outcomes. The purpose of the study was to determine the optimal dose of spinal ropivacaine for cesarean section with or without intravenous single bolus of S-ketamine and to observe the incidences of hypotension of both methods. Methods Eighty women undergoing elective cesarean delivery were randomly allocated into Group ropivacaine or Group ropivacaine with intravenous S-ketamine. If the upper sensory level of the patient reached T6 and the visual analogue scale (VAS) scores continuously below 3 before delivery, the next patient had a 1/9th chance of receiving a lower dose or an 8/9th chance of receiving the same of previous dose. If the patient had VAS scores above 2 or needed an extra epidural rescue bolus before delivery, a higher dose was used for the next patient. The primary outcome was the successful use of spinal ropivacaine to maintain VAS of patients below 3 before delivery and the incidence of post-spinal hypotension of both groups. Secondary outcomes included the incidences of hypotension related symptoms and managements, upper sensory level of anesthesia, level of sedation, neonatal outcomes, Edinburgh postnatal depression scale scores on admission and discharging of hospital and post-operative analgesic effect. The 90% effective dose (ED90) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were estimated by isotonic regression. Results The estimated ED90 of ropivacaine was 11.8 mg (95% CI 11.7–12.7) with and 14.7 mg (95% CI 14.6–16.0) without intravenous S-ketamine using biased coin up-down sequential dose-finding method, and the incidences of hypotension and its related symptoms were significantly lower in S-ketamine group. Conclusions A spinal dose of ropivacaine 12 mg with single intravenous 0.15 mg/kg bolus dose of S-ketamine may significantly reduce the risk of hypotension and provide sedative status before delivery, thus the method could be cautiously used in parturients with high risks of hypotension or extreme nervousness. Clinical trial registration: http://www.chictr.org.cn (ChiCTR2000040375; 28 Nov 2020)

Vector commitment (VC) schemes allow committing to an ordered sequence of ${q}$ values ${(m_1,\cdots ,m_q)}$ in such a way that one can later open the commitment at specific positions. However, the existing VC schemes suffer from two substantial shortcomings that limit their use: (i) the commitments cannot be opened except at some specific positions, and (ii) their security only captures position-binding but offers no privacy: the client may learn additional information about the committed sequence through the proofs and the commitments. To resolve these problems, we first extend VC to a more expressive primitive called VC with sum binding (VCS), in which the commitment can also be opened to the sum of all elements in the committed sequence. VCS additionally satisfies the security of sum binding, which guarantees that the commitment cannot be opened to different sums. To enhance its privacy, we extend VCS to zero-knowledge VCS (ZKVCS), in which commitments and proofs constructed during the protocol execution leak nothing about the committed sequence. We formalize this new property by a standard real/ideal experiment. Meanwhile, the detailed performance analyses and simulations show that our proposed schemes are more practical. Finally, we introduce a novel notion of (zero-knowledge) verifiable database supporting sum and show how to construct it from our (ZK)VCS scheme.

Graph data structure has been widely used across many application areas, such as web data, social network, and cheminformatics. The main benefit of storing data as graphs is there exists a rich set of graph algorithms and operations that can be used to solve various computing problems, including pattern matching, data mining, and image processing. Among these graph algorithms, the subgraph isomorphism problem is one of the most fundamental algorithms that can be utilized by many higher level applications. The subgraph isomorphism problem is defined as, given two graphs [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], whether [Formula: see text] contains a subgraph that is isomorphic to [Formula: see text]. In this paper, we consider a special case of the subgraph isomorphism problem called the subgraph matching problem, which tests whether [Formula: see text] is a subgraph of [Formula: see text]. We propose a protocol that solve the subgraph matching problem in a privacy-preserving manner. The protocol allows two parties to jointly compute whether one graph is a subgraph of the other, while protecting the private information about the input graphs. The protocol is secure under the semi-honest setting, where each party performs the protocol faithfully.

Offline electronic cash is a new and well-acknowledged type of e-cash scheme that can release the bank from participating in every spending protocol. However, it is still an unsolved problem to des...

BACKGROUND Pressure recording analytical method (PRAM) of MOSTCARE is a minimally invasive system based on mathematical analysis of arterial pressure profile changes and allows continuous recording of hemodynamic measurements. Herein, we aimed to use the MostCare system to investigate the hemodynamics of patients receiving spinal anesthesia during elective cesarean section. METHODS In this observational study, we recruited 17 patients scheduled for elective cesarean section. For each patient, we acquired continuous recordings of hemodynamic parameters at 14 key timepoints: surgical admission (two baseline parameters), immediately after the administration of spinal anesthesia, six subsequent time points (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 min after anesthesia), during peritoneum and uterine incision, during delivery, following the administration of oxytocin, and after surgery had been completed. Statistical analysis was carried out by repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). RESULTS During a twelve min period after spinal anesthesia, we observed significant reductions in mean arterial pressure (MAP), dicrotic pressure (Pdic), cardiac index (CI), stroke volume index (SVI), dP/dtmax, and cardiac cycle efficiency (CCE) (P

Background: Oxaliplatin resistance is a major challenge for treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). Many molecular targeted drugs for refractory CRC have been developed to solve colorectal cancer drug resistance, but their effectiveness and roles in the progression of CRC and oxaliplatin- resistance still not clear.Methods: PDOs derived from CRC patients were constructed to conduct the sensitivity assays of oxaliplatin in vitro. Oxaliplatin resistant PDOs were selected and treated under the combined treatment of ML264(a KLF5 inhibitor) and oxaliplatin to determine the effects of KLF5 inhibition on apoptosis. Using CRC cell lines to investigate downstream mechanisms and xenograft models to confirm whether ML264 can restore oxaliplatin sensitivity of CRC cells in vivo.Results: We successfully constructed CRC PDOs and conducted the sensitivity test of oxaliplatin in PDOs from different patients. We found that ML264 restores oxaliplatin sensitivity in CRC PDOs by restoring the apoptotic response, and this effect was achieved by inhibiting the KLF5/Bcl-2/caspase3 signal pathway. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and luciferase reporter assay verified that KLF5 promoted the transcription of Bcl-2 in CRC cells. KLF5 inhibition also overcomed oxaliplatin resistance in xenograft tumors.Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that ML264 can restores oxaliplatin sensitivity in CRC PDOs by restoring the apoptotic response. KLF5 might be a potential therapeutic target for CRC resistant to oxaliplatin. PDOs have strong potential in evaluating inhibitors and drug combinations therapy in a preclinical environment.

Background Post-spinal anesthesia hypotension during cesarean delivery is caused by decreased systemic vascular resistance due to the blockage of the autonomic nerves, which is further worsened by inferior vena cava (IVC) compression by the gravid uterus. This study aimed to assess whether peak velocity and diameter of the IVC below the xiphoid or right common femoral vein (RCFV) in the inguinal region, as measured on ultrasound, could reflect the degree of IVC compression and further identify parturients at risk of post-spinal hypotension. Methods Fifty-six parturients who underwent elective cesarean section with spinal anesthesia were included in this study; peak velocities and anteroposterior diameters of the IVC and peak velocities and transverse diameters of the RCFV were measured using ultrasound before anesthesia. The primary outcome was the ultrasound measurements of IVC and RCFV acquired before spinal anesthesia and their association with post-spinal hypotension. Hypotension was defined as a drop in systolic arterial pressure by > 20% from the baseline. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to identify the association between the measurements of IVC, RCFV, and post-spinal hypotension during cesarean delivery. Receiver operating characteristic curves were used to test the abilities of the identified parameters to predict post-spinal hypotension; the areas under the curve and optimum cut-off values for the predictive parameters were calculated. Results A longer transverse diameter of the RCFV was associated with the occurrence of post-spinal hypotension (odds ratio = 2.022, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.261–3.243). The area under the receiver operating characteristics curve for the prediction of post-spinal hypotension was 0.759 (95% CI 0.628–0.890, P = 0.001). A transverse diameter of > 12.2 mm of the RCFV could predict post-spinal hypotension during cesarean delivery. Conclusions A longer transverse diameter of RCFV was associated with hypotension and could predict parturients at a major risk of hypotension before anesthesia. Trial registration This study was registered at http://www.chictr.org.cn on 16, May, 2018. No. ChiCTR1800016163.

Background: The pain control effect of ketamine versus control in women during cesarean operation is not well determined. Objectives: The present meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the clinical efficacy of ketamine versus control in cesarean section anesthesia for reducing the postoperative pain and analgesia. Study Design: We used meta-analysis to address this concern. Setting: Meta-analysis-based study. Methods: The databases PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were systematically searched to identify the relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of ketamine versus control in controlling pain after cesarean section from inception to August 2018. Based on the Cochrane Handbook, the combined analysis was performed using Revman 5.3 software. Results: A total of 20 RCTs with 1,737 patients who underwent cesarean section were included. Meta-analysis showed that the pain score in the ketamine group was less than that of the control group (mean difference [MD], –1.10; 95% confidence interval [CI], –1.61, –0.59; P < 0.0001). Application of ketamine during cesarean section also resulted in decreased consumption of morphine when compared with the control group (MD, –6.11 mg; 95% CI, –9.93, –2.29; P = 0.002). In addition, the first time required for analgesia was significantly longer in the ketamine group than that of the control group (MD, 72.48 minutes; 95% CI, 50.85, 94.11; P < 0.00001). Limitations: Limited patients were included with moderate strength. Conclusions: Ketamine supplementation during cesarean section reduces pain and morphine consumption and prolongs the postoperative analgesia. Key words: Ketamine, cesarean section, randomized controlled trials, meta-analysis

Background Sevoflurane is a commonly used inhalation anesthesia and is famous for rapid onset of action, less metabolism in vivo and fast recovery. The aim of this study is to elaborate whether sevoflurane inhibits Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) migration function. Methods In vitro experiments, the HUVECs were divided into four groups randomly, and were exposed to 2% sevoflurane, refer to 1.6 minimal alveolar concentration (MAC), respectively for 0.5h, 1h, 2h and the first group was the control group which exposed to the same gas environment with other three groups but only without sevoflurane. After sevoflurane exposure, HUVECs were conducted the scratch assay. Results The results suggested that the HUVECs exposed to 2% sevoflurane for 2 h were more obviously inhibited on the migration distance during 12 h after scratched than the control group. Quantitative PCR results suggested that the HUVECs exposed to 2% sevoflurane for 2 h expressed more vascular endothelial cadherin (VE-cadherin) than the control group, with statistic difference. However, other scratch assay and quantitative trials suggested that the HUVECs which were transfected with VE-cadherin siRNA and exposed to 2% sevoflurane for 2 h had no significant difference with the control group on the migration distance and the expression of VE-cadherin. Conclusion These results suggested that sevoflurane inhibited the HUVECs migration function by up-regulating VE-cadherin expression, and may have an adverse effect on the normal functions of vascular endothelial cells.

Nowadays, our daily life is surrounded by various social networks, and they play an important role for people to communicate with others. The social networks contain large amount of valuable information, that can be used for research and business purposes. As a result, social network analysis and data mining receive lots of research attentions in recent years. Graph structure is commonly used in social network analysis, since it is easy to convert the data in social networks into graph-structured data, and various graph algorithms can help to solve different computing problems. In this paper, we investigate performing graph operations in a privacy-preserving manner, which are widely used in social network analysis. We propose two protocols that allow two parties to jointly compute the intersection and union of their graphs. Our protocols utilize homomorphic encryption to prevent information leakage during the process, and we provide security proofs of the protocols in the semi-honest setting.

Conjunctive searchable encryption is an efficient way to perform multi-keyword search over encrypted data in cloud storage. However, most existing methods do not take into account the integrity verification of the search result. Moreover, existing integrity verification methods can only verify the integrity of single-keyword search results, which cannot meet the requirements of conjunctive search. To address this problem, we proposed a conjunctive keyword searchable encryption scheme with an authentication mechanism that can efficiently verify the integrity of search results. The proposed scheme is based on the dynamic searchable symmetric encryption and adopts the Merkle tree and bilinear map accumulator to prove the correctness of set operations. It supports conjunctive keyword as input for conjunctive search and gives the server the ability to prove the integrity of the search result to the user. Formal proofs and extensive experiments show that the proposed scheme is efficient, unforgeable and adaptive secure against chosen-keyword attacks.

In the era of big data, cloud storages become prevalent while security issues on outsourced data emerge. Without the physical control of the data owners, the outsourced data faces more risks. Provable Data Possession (PDP) is a probabilistic technique for checking whether data is correctly stored in remote servers without retrieving the entire data. For many previous PDP schemes, correctly choosing public keys for data owners relies on the security of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), which is resource consuming. In this paper, we propose an Identity-Based Batch Provable Data Possession (ID-BPDP) scheme to eliminate the certificate management. Meanwhile, to the best of our knowledge, it is the first identity-based provable data possession scheme supporting batch verification for multiple owners and multiple clouds simultaneously to reduce computation cost greatly. We prove that our scheme is correct and secure based on bilinear pairings and the hardness assumption of Computational Diffie-Hellman problem, and also give detailed analyses to show that our scheme is able to verify the integrity of data efficiently.

BACKGROUND The processes of mechanical ventilation-induced lung injury (VILI) triggers the release of high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), a prominent damage-associated molecular pattern (DAMP) family member, which can cause damage to pulmonary vascular endothelial cells. We aimed to determine whether propofol protected against endothelial cell injury induced by HMGB1 in vitro and in vivo. MATERIAL AND METHODS ICR mice (male) were mechanically ventilated for 4 h after anesthetization at both low tidal volume (LVT, 6 ml/kg) and high tidal volume (HVT, 30 ml/kg). A propofol bolus (10 mg/kg) was administered to the animals prior to the onset of ventilation, followed by infusion at 5 mg/(kg·h). We obtained confluent cultures of mouse lung vascular endothelial cells (MLVECs) and then performed cyclic stretching at 20% stretch for 4 h with or without propofol. RESULTS HMGB1 reduced the expression of tight junctions between endothelial cells, including VE-cadherin and ZO-1, and increased endothelial permeability, and both were blocked by propofol. We found that MLVECs exhibited mitochondrial oxidative damage by HMGB1, which was successfully suppressed through administration of MnTBAP as well as propofol. Propofol ameliorated HVT-associated lung vascular hyperpermeability and HMGB1 production in vivo. Propofol also inhibited HMBG1 release caused by cyclic stretching in MLVECs in vitro. CONCLUSIONS Our results prove that the cyto-protective function of propofol protects against lung ventilation-induced dysfunction of the lung endothelial barrier. This function of propofol is mediated through inhibition of HMGB1 release caused by mechanical stretching and mitochondrial oxidative damage triggered by HMGB1.

BACKGROUND: Evidence showed that the use of epidural analgesia increased the risk of maternal fever during labor, and the potential mechanisms involved inflammation. Lymphocyte played a role in the inflammatory responses, and lymphopenia predicted adverse outcomes for patients. The aim of this study was to investigate whether lymphocyte count was associated with the incidence of intrapartum fever in nulliparous women undergoing vaginal delivery. METHODS: In this retrospective cohort study, electronic medical record data at the International Peace Maternity and Child Health Hospital (IPMCH, Shanghai, China) between 2012 and 2017 were extracted. The primary outcome of this study was baseline lymphocyte count in febrile and afebrile parturients who received labor epidural analgesia. Other confounding factors associated with the development of intrapartum fever were analyzed using multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS: The final study population consisted of 36,562 parturients, of whom 18,952 (51.8%) received labor epidural analgesia. Labor epidural analgesia was associated with an increased risk of maternal fever [relative risk: 4.55; 95% confidence interval (CI): 4.16–4.98; P

The intersection operation on multisets has many applications in different scenarios, such as data mining and pattern matching. This motivates us to study the problem that when users outsource their private encrypted sets and delegate the set-intersection operation on the corresponding plaintexts to the cloud, the cloud can manage to conduct the operation and make the result verifiable without the decryption capability. We formally introduced a model of Verifiable Intersection Operations on Encrypted Data in Cloud and presented the definitions of the correctness and security properties. We also proposed a concrete scheme basing on the bilinear-map accumulator and re-encryption. The scheme was proved secure under some cryptographic assumptions. And the experimental results of the algorithm implementation show the scheme is partly practical for real scenarios. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Static accumulators allow to succinctly represent a set into a single accumulator value. For every accumulated element, one can efficiently compute a witness to prove its membership in the accumulator. Dynamic accumulators are an extension of the static accumulator, which additionally support insert and remove operations. To the best of our knowledge, all of the existing accumulator schemes may disclose the accumulated set to an outsider. This may be undesirable in many business situations. To this end, we introduce a more powerful primitive called chameleon accumulator ( C A ) , which is compatible with the previous accumulator scheme. It additionally allows to update the accumulated set without changing the accumulator. For this new property, we formalize its corresponding security called indistinguishability: arbitrary adversary cannot find out whether the collision finding algorithm had been used or not. Next, we provide the first construction of C A and prove its security under Square-CDH assumption. To additionally support non-membership witness, we formally define and construct the first practical universal C A ( U C A ). We extend the construction of U C A to support subset operations with the constant-size witness. Finally, we show how to use the chameleon accumulator to reduce update efficiency to constant in verifiable keyword searchable encryption.

With the development of cloud computing, verifiable computation (VC) has attracted considerable attentions due to its importance. However, the existing VC schemes suffer from two substantial shortcomings that limit their usefulness: (i) they have to invest expensive computational tasks in the preprocessing stage, which has exceeded the available computation capacity of the client, and (ii) they do not support frequent updates, so that each update needs to perform the computation from scratch. To resolve these problems, we propose a novel primitive called verifiable outsourced computation with full delegation (FD-VC), which greatly reduces the computation cost of the client by delegating the preprocessing to the cloud. During this phase, the cloud cannot obtain any knowledge of the verification key. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first VC scheme not only supporting full delegation but also supporting dynamic update. The highlight of our scheme is that verification and update cost are constant and independent of the degree of the polynomial. Our scheme is provably correct and secure based on bilinear pairing and the hardness assumption of Bilinear Diffie-Hellman Exponent problem, and our analyses show that our scheme is very practical and suitable for the real world applications.

In 2015, Wang proposed the first identity-based provable data possession scheme named ID-DPDP ( IEEE Transactions on Services Computing , vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 328-340, Mar./Apr. 2015) to verify outsourced data publicly without the implementation of PKI. Unfortunately, in this letter, we demonstrate that this scheme is insecure in the sense that cloud servers can generate valid proofs without possessing the original data blocks. We also show another security issue in this scheme which leads to some data blocks can never be verified unless all the data blocks are challenged. Meanwhile, we provide solutions to these problems while preserving the security features of the original scheme.

In many applications, information can be stored and managed using graph data structures, and there is a rich set of graph algorithms that can be used to solve different problems. The subgraph isomorphism problem is defined as, given two graphs G and H, whether G contains a subgraph that is isomorphic to H. The problem has been well studied for many years, and it can be used for many application areas, such as cheminformatics, pattern matching, data mining and image processing. In this paper, we present a private subgraph matching protocol, which solves a special case of the subgraph isomorphism problem. The protocol allows two parties, each holding a private graph, to jointly compute whether one graph is a subgraph of the other. During the protocol, each party learns no useful information about the graph of the other party. We prove that the protocol is secure in the semi-honest setting.

A wide range of applications can benefit from storing and managing data as graph structures, and graph theory algorithms can be used to solve various computing problems. In this paper, we propose a secure two-party private graph intersection protocol against semi-honest servers. The protocol allows a server and a client, each holding a private graph, to jointly compute the intersection of their graphs. The protocol utilizes homomorphic encryptions and a private set intersection sub-protocol to prevent information leakage during the process. At the end of the protocol, the server learns the graph intersection, and the client learns the vertex intersection.

CRC (colorectal cancer) is one of the most malignant tumours in both developing and developed countries. It is estimated that 60% of CRC patients have liver metastasis. In the present study, we show that miR-30b is an important regulator in human CRC migration and invasion, which are vital steps in CRC liver metastasis. miR-30b was significantly down-regulated in primary CRC specimens compared with normal tissues. Furthermore, miR-30b was much lower in liver metastasis tissues than in CRCs. We validated SIX1 (SIX homeobox 1), a member of the SIX homeodomain family of transcription factors and an EMT (epithelial–mesenchymal transition)-promoting gene, as the direct target of miR-30b . Forced expression of miR-30b inhibited CRC cell migration and invasion in vitro via its target gene SIX1 . Furthermore, an inverse correlation between expression of SIX1 and miR-30b has been observed both in primary CRC specimens and liver metastasis. Taken together, miR-30b plays an important role in mediating metastatic related behaviour in CRC . miR-30b may serve as a potential diagnostic marker and therapeutic target for patients with CRC in the future. Abbreviations: CRC, colorectal cancer; EGF, epidermal growth factor; EMT, epithelial–mesenchymal transition; GAPDH, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase; HEK, human embryonic kidney; IHC, immunohistochemistry; LM, liver metastasis; qPCR, quantitative real-time PCR; SIX1, SIX homeobox 1; ZEB1, zinc finger E-box-binding homeobox 1

Background The pleth variability index (PVI) has been demonstrated to be a useful, noninvasive indicator of continuous fluid responsiveness. Whether PVI can be used to assess the changes of intravascular volume status remains to be elucidated. Material/Methods Using correlation analysis and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, we sought a correlation between PVI and the initial distribution volume of glucose (IDVG), evaluating PVI as an indicator of the central extracellular fluid volume after anesthesia induction in patients undergoing elective abdominal surgery. Results Strong negative correlations existed between IDVG and PVI (r=−0.72), IDVG, and pulse pressure variation (PPV) (r=−0.73), and between IDVG and systolic pressure variation (SPV) (r=−0.53), P

Background: As a relatively new drug in obstetrical anesthesia, norepinephrine is less likely to induce bradycardia and decrease cardiac output, which makes it a potential alternative to phenylephrine. The purpose of this study was to determine the optimal norepinephrine bolus dose needed to either prevent or reverse hypotension after the use of combined spinal and epidural (CSE) anesthesia in 90% of women during elective cesarean delivery (CD). Methods: Eighty women undergoing elective CD were randomly allocated into either a prophylactic group or a rescue group in this dose finding study. If the women’s systolic blood pressure (SBP) was maintained above 80% of their baseline, the next patient had an 8/9 th chance of receiving the same dose or a 1/9 th chance of receiving a lower dose. If the patient’s SBP was not maintained, a higher dose was used for next patient. The primary outcome was the successful use of the norepinephrine bolus dose to maintain SBP above 80% of the baseline until after delivery. Secondary outcomes included nausea, vomiting, breathlessness, dizziness, hypertension, bradycardia due to hypotension and supplemental use of atropine and norepinephrine, upper sensory level of anesthesia, umbilical vein (UV) blood gases, and 1- and 5-minute Apgar scores. The 90% effective dose (ED 90 ) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were estimated using isotonic regression methods. Results: The estimated ED90 of the norepinephrine prophylactic bolus was 10.85 µg (95% CI, 9.20– 11.67 µg) and that of the norepinephrine rescue bolus was 12.3 µg (95% CI, 10.0–12.8 µg) using isotonic regression methods. Conclusions: For norepinephrine, either a prophylactic bolus dose of 11 µg or a rescue bolus dose of 12 µg was recommended for clinical practices.

Whether pulse oximeter perfusion index (PI) may be applied to detect the onset of caudal block in pediatric patients under ketamine intravenous basal anesthesia is investigated. 40 ASA I, 2–8-year-old boys scheduled for elective circumcision surgery were randomized into two groups. Group I: 20 patients were anesthetized by 2 mg·kg−1 ketamine intravenous injection (IV) followed by caudal block using 1 mL·kg−1 lidocaine (1%); Group II: 20 patients were anesthetized by 2 mg·kg−1 ketamine IV only. PI on the toe in Group II decreased by 33 ± 12%, 71 ± 9% and 65 ± 8% at 1 min, 15 min, and 30 min after ketamine injection. The maximum increase in MAP and HR after ketamine IV was 11 ± 6% at 3 min and 10 ± 6% at 2 min. Compared to the PI value before caudal injection of lidocaine, PI in Group I increased by 363 ± 318% and 778 ± 578% at 5 min and 20 min after caudal block, while no significant changes in MAP and HR were found compared to the baseline before caudal block. Thus, PI provides an earlier, more objective, and more sensitive indicator to assess the early onset of caudal block under basal ketamine anesthesia.

Searchable symmetric encryption is an efficient way to perform keyword search over encrypted data in cloud storage. However, most existing methods do not take into account the integrity verification of the search result. Moreover, existing methods can only verify the integrity of single-keyword search results, which cannot meet the requirements of multi-keyword conjunctive search. To address this problem, we proposed a multi-keyword searchable encryption scheme with an authentication mechanism that can efficiently verify the integrity of search results. The proposed scheme is based on the searchable symmetric encryption and adopts the bilinear map accumulator to prove the correctness of set operations. It supports multiple keywords as input for conjunctive search and gives the server the ability to prove the integrity of the search result to the user. Formal proofs show that the proposed scheme is unforgeable and adaptive secure against chosen-keyword attacks. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that can authenticate the multi-keyword search result over encrypted data.

Provable Data Possession PDP is a technique for checking whether data is correctly stored in remote servers without retrieving the entire data. For many previous PDP schemes, correctly choosing public key for clients relies on the security of Public Key Infrastructure PKI, but PKI itself still faces many kinds of security vulnerabilities. In addition, the verification of certificates introduces heavy computation and communication cost. In this paper, we propose an Identity-Based Batch Provable Data Possession ID-BPDP scheme to eliminate the certificate management. Meanwhile, to the best of our knowledge, it is the first identity-based provable data possession scheme supporting batch verification for multiple owners and multiple clouds simultaneously to reduce computation cost greatly. Our scheme is provably correct and secure based on bilinear pairings and the hardness assumption of Computational Diffie-Hellman problem, and our analyses/simulations show that the scheme is able to verify the integrity of data efficiently.

Recent studies have found that propofol may protect brain from cerebral ischemic-reperfusion injury. However, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. The effects of propofol were evaluated in HBVSMC after hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R). Cell viability and levels of SOD, LDH, and MDA were measured. Apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry. The levels of Bax, Bcl-2, Caspase3, Sur2b, Kir6.1, JNK, p-JNK, mTOR, and p-mTOR proteins were measured by western blotting. H/R decreased cell viability and SOD activity and increased LDH leakage and MDA content in HBVSMC, all of which were significantly reversed by propofol. Propofol suppressed the levels of H/R-induced apoptosis. The expression of Bcl-2 and p-mTOR was significantly downregulated and the expression levels of Bax, Caspase3, Kir6.1, and p-JNK were upregulated following H/R injury. The ratio of p-JNK/JNK was increased; however, that of p-mTOR/mTOR decreased correspondingly. The effects on the expression of these proteins were reversed by propofol treatment. SP600125 enhanced and Everolimus attenuated the effect of propofol. These findings suggested that the protective effect of propofol against H/R injury in the HBVSMC was through the inhibition of apoptosis by inducing the expression of Bcl-2 and p-mTOR as well as inhibiting the expression levels of Bax, Caspase3, Kir6.1, and p-JNK.

Inadequate management of neuropathic pain results in poor clinical outcomes and reduces quality of life for the patient all over the world, but intricate interplay between wide variety of the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in the development and progression of neuropathic pain makes it difficult to design effective therapeutic strategies. The present study aims to elucidate the interaction of 5-HT1A receptors (5-HT1ARs), soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) and NO/cGMP signaling pathway in the development of neuropathic pain. The results showed that after sciatic nerve crush procedure, the protein level of sGC in the spinal cord was greatly increased. The mechanical threshold in rats was significantly enhanced by the sGC inhibitor ODQ and neuronal NO synthase (nNOS) inhibitor SMTC, indicating the role of sGC and nNOS in the process of neuropathic pain. The treatment of NO donors (SNP and SIN-1) and cGMP-selective phosphodiesterase inhibitor (Zaprinast) all significantly decreased the mechanical threshold in rats, but the 5-HT1ARs inhibitor WAY100635 significantly increased the mechanical threshold in rats, demonstrating the role of NO/cGMP pathway and 5-HT1ARs in the development of neuropathic pain. Finally, the protein levels of sGC was greatly increased by SNP and Zaprinast but decreased by WAY100635 and SMTC, showing the regulation of NO/cGMP pathway and 5-HT1ARs on the protein expression of sGC. Taken together, it is suggested that sGC in the spinal cord regulates the neuropathic pain, which is mediated by 5-HT1ARs and NO/cGMP pathway.

We present a brief introduction of the nucleon pair approximation (NPA) of the shell model in this paper. We review our recent calculated results which include level spectra and electromagnetic properties of low-lying states, by applying the NPA to even-even nuclei and to odd-A nuclei. We also apply this method to a few schematic systems such as single-j shell, to investigate the validity of SD-pair truncation of the shell model.

Objective: To observe the change of PVI after thoracic epidural block on the basis of general anesthesia. Methods: In 26 patients undergoing elective upper abdominal operations, changes of SVI, PVI, SVV, PPV and CVP were monitored immediately before and 10 minutes after T8-9 thoracic epidural anesthesia on the basis of general anesthesia. The definition was that patients with ΔSVI greater than 10% belonged to response group to epidural block. Results: Before epidural block, the PVI, SVV and PPV baseline values in patients of response group were significantly higher than those in patients of non-response group. PVI, SVV and PPV after epidural block were significantly higher than immediately before epidural block (P < 0.001). PVI, SVV and PPV baseline values immediately before epidural block were positively correlated with ΔSVI; the correlation coefficients were 0.70, 0.71 and 0.63, respectively, P ≤ 0.001. The optimal critical values for PVI, SVV and PPV to predict response to T8-9 gap epidural block under general anesthesia were 16% (sensitivity 80%, specificity 92%), 13% (sensitivity 90%, specificity 62%) and 12% (sensitivity 90%, specificity 77%), respectively. Conclusion: PVI can be used as a noninvasive indictor to monitor volume change after thoracic epidural block on the basis of general anesthesia.