Anonymous Blockchain-based System for Consortium

Blockchain records transactions with various protection techniques against tampering. To meet the requirements on cooperation and anonymity of companies and organizations, researchers have developed a few solutions. Ring signature-based schemes allow multiple participants cooperatively to manage while preserving their individuals’ privacy. However, the solutions cannot work properly due to the increased computing complexity along with the expanded group size. In this article, we propose a Multi-center Anonymous Blockchain-based (MAB) system, with joint management for the consortium and privacy protection for the participants. To achieve that, we formalize the syntax used by the MAB system and present a general construction based on a modular design. By applying cryptographic primitives to each module, we instantiate our scheme with anonymity and decentralization. Furthermore, we carry out a comprehensive formal analysis of our exemplified scheme. A proof of concept simulation is provided to show the feasibility. The results demonstrate security and efficiency from both theoretical perspectives and practical perspectives.

Law, Status, and the Lash: Judicial Whipping in Early Modern England

This article focuses on the contested development of judicial whipping as a marker and maker of status in the particular social, cultural, and political context of England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In these years people disputed with special vigor who could be whipped and why, often in battles fought in and around parliaments and the Court of Star Chamber, and often invoking fears of “servility.” Tracing the rise and spread of judicial whipping, its linking with the poor, and disputes over its use, this article demonstrates how whipping served as a distinctively and explicitly status-based disciplinary tool, embedding hierarchical values in the law not just in practice but also in prescript. Some authorities thought the whip appropriate only for the “servile” and, indeed, both valuable and dangerous for its ability to inculcate a “slavish disposition.” After men of the gentry successfully asserted their freedom from the lash, so too did a somewhat expanded group of “free” and “sufficient” men. By the later seventeenth century, challenges over the uses of judicial whipping left it limited ever more firmly to people of low status, affixed by law to offenses typically associated with the insubordinate poor.

Analysis of brain waves changes in stressful situations based on horror game with the implementation of virtual reality and brain-computer interface system: a case study

ObjectivesThis presents a case for fear and stress stimuli and afterward EEG data analysis.MethodsThe stress factor had been evoked by a computer horror game correlated with virtual reality (VR) and brain-computer interface (BCI) from OpenBCI, applied for the purpose of brain waves changes observation.ResultsResults obtained during the initial study were promising and provide conclusions for further research in this field carried out on an expanded group of involved participants.ConclusionsThe study provided very promising and interesting results. Further investigation with larger amount of participants will be carried out.

Improved Density Peaks Clustering Based on Natural Neighbor Expanded Group

Density peaks clustering (DPC) is an advanced clustering technique due to its multiple advantages of efficiently determining cluster centers, fewer arguments, no iterations, no border noise, etc. However, it does suffer from the following defects: (1) difficult to determine a suitable value of its crucial cutoff distance parameter, (2) the local density metric is too simple to find out the proper center(s) of the sparse cluster(s), and (3) it is not robust that parts of prominent density peaks are remotely assigned. This paper proposes improved density peaks clustering based on natural neighbor expanded group (DPC-NNEG). The cores of the proposed algorithm contain two parts: (1) define natural neighbor expanded (NNE) and natural neighbor expanded group (NNEG) and (2) divide all NNEGs into a goal number of sets as the final clustering result, according to the closeness degree of NNEGs. At the same time, the paper provides the measurement of the closeness degree. We compared the state of the art with our proposal in public datasets, including several complex and real datasets. Experiments show the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed algorithm.

Endoskopische Submukosa-Dissektion bei mukosalen Low-Risk-Magenfrühkarzinomen – eine retrospektive, unizentrische Studie

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Die endoskopische Submukosa-Dissektion (ESD) ist in Asien Standard zur Behandlung von Magenfrühkarzinomen (MFK) im Rahmen von definierten Kriterien. Auch in Europa wird sie immer häufiger benutzt. Bei Risikokonstellationen (z. B. Submukosa-Invasion, Lymphangio-Invasion, schlecht differenziertes Karzinom) ist das Auftreten von Lymphknotenmetastasen möglich. Wir definierten eine „Low-Risk-Gruppe“ (differenzierte, nur mukosal gelegene MFK ohne Ulzeration und Gefäßinfiltration, größenunabhängig) um das endoskopische Ergebnis und den Langzeitverlauf dieser prognostisch günstigen Gruppe zu untersuchen. Patienten und Methoden Patienten mit nicht vorbehandelten Low-Risk-MFK wurden in die retrospektive Auswertung aufgenommen. Ausgewertet wurden Patientendaten (Alter, Geschlechterverteilung), Karzinomparameter (Anzahl, Größen, Lokalisation, Paris-Klassifikation), histologische Parameter, Resektionsdaten (u. a. En-bloc-Resektion, R-Status), Nachsorgen (u. a. Lokalrezidive, Überleben) und Komplikationsdaten. Ergebnisse Durch ESD wurden bei 55 Patienten 61 Low-Risk-MFK entfernt. In 93,4 % gelang die En-bloc-, in 91,8 % die R0-Resektion. In 8 Fällen (13,1 %) kam es zu interventionsabhängigen Komplikationen: 5 verzögerte Nachblutungen (8,2 %), 2 Mikroperforationen (3,3 %, keine Operation notwendig) und ein Nicht-ST-Hebungsinfarkt (1,6 %).Während der Nachbeobachtungszeit (Mittelwert: 54,3 Monate) kam es in 4 Fällen (6,6 %) zu Lokalrezidiven, von welchen zumindest zwei erfolgreich endoskopisch behandelt werden konnten. Die anderen beiden Patienten verstarben nach endoskopischer Re-Therapie vor der ersten Kontrolle. Insgesamt verstarben 4 Patienten (7,8 %) während des Follow-ups, jeweils nicht tumorassoziiert. Bei 9 Patienten (16,4 %) wurden syn- oder metachrone Läsionen nachgewiesen, welche alle endoskopisch behandelt werden konnten. Lymphknotenmetastasen traten nicht auf. Fazit In der von uns definierten Low-Risk-Gruppe von mukosalen MFK wurde mittels ESD eine hohe Rate von En-bloc- und R0-Resektionen erreicht. Die festgestellten Lokalrezidive konnten endoskopisch beherrscht werden. Metastasen wurden nicht festgestellt, kein Patient verstarb tumorassoziiert. ESD ist für diese Gruppe daher als Standard-Therapie zu empfehlen. Hinsichtlich des klinisch-endoskopischen Verlaufs bei Vorhandensein von Risikofaktoren sowohl bei Mukosakarzinomen als auch der übrigen MFK aus der sogenannten Expanded-Group (u. a. Lymphangio-Invasion, submukosainvasive MFK, schlecht differenzierte G3-Karzinome) liefert die Studie keine Daten.

A Robust Species Tree for the Alphaproteobacteria

ABSTRACT The branching order and coherence of the alphaproteobacterial orders have not been well established, and not all studies have agreed that mitochondria arose from within the Rickettsiales. A species tree for 72 alphaproteobacteria was produced from a concatenation of alignments for 104 well-behaved protein families. Coherence was upheld for four of the five orders with current standing that were represented here by more than one species. However, the family Hyphomonadaceae was split from the other Rhodobacterales, forming an expanded group with Caulobacterales that also included Parvularcula. The three earliest-branching alphaproteobacterial orders were the Rickettsiales, followed by the Rhodospirillales and then the Sphingomonadales. The principal uncertainty is whether the expanded Caulobacterales group is more closely associated with the Rhodobacterales or the Rhizobiales. The mitochondrial branch was placed within the Rickettsiales as a sister to the combined Anaplasmataceae and Rickettsiaceae, all subtended by the Pelagibacter branch. Pelagibacter genes will serve as useful additions to the bacterial outgroup in future evolutionary studies of mitochondrial genes, including those that have transferred to the eukaryotic nucleus.