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In this paper, we show the problem of two-party privacy-preserving record linkage (PPRL) can be seen as an identification problem in Information Theory. We propose to apply the identification codes that are designed for identification via channels to the problem of PPRL, due to their advantage in the performance analysis, especially on a quantitative evaluation of the privacy. Note that for the PPRL, linkage quality is typically evaluated experimentally, whilst for privacy, there are so far no commonly accepted privacy measures available that allow an objective evaluation. Our approach of identification code provides an objective evaluation on both linkage quality and privacy based on parameters of employed identification codes.

Amid persistent growth in global carbon outputs, enhancing carbon emission efficiency (CEE) has emerged as a pivotal strategy for synchronizing economic and ecological objectives. Digital finance (DF), leveraging its distinctive technological capabilities and inclusive financial features, plays a catalytic role in CEE optimization. This research methodically investigates the effect of DF on CEE using panel data (282 Chinese cities, 2011–2022) and several panel econometric estimation techniques. The findings reveal that: 1. The influence of DF on CEE follows a U-shaped trend, first suppressing and then promoting. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the U-shaped relationship is more pronounced across two dimensions—coverage breadth and usage depth—as well as in resource-based cities and key environmental protection cities. 2. Mechanism analysis demonstrates that DF exerts a U-shaped effect on green technology innovation, human capital accumulation, and public environmental awareness, thereby indirectly shaping CEE. 3. Policy synergy test reveals that the “Carbon Emission Trading” and “Low-Carbon City” pilot policies significantly amplify the U-shaped relationship between DF and CEE. In contrast, the effect of digitalization and infrastructure-oriented policies, exemplified by the “Smart City” and “Broadband China” pilot policies, is statistically insignificant. This study not only enriches the theoretical understanding of DF’s environmental effects but also provides policy insights for leveraging DF to accelerate green transformation.

Background Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) with positive HBeAg status constitutes a significant contributor to the development of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Pegylated interferon-alpha (pegIFNα) is a common treatment, but its response rate remains limited, and the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Methods Eighty-two HBeAg-positive CHB patients were enrolled. miR-194-5p expression, HBeAg, and HBV DNA levels were detected using qRT-PCR, ELISA, and quantitative PCR, respectively. ROC and logistic regression analyses were performed. Cellular experiments, including dual-luciferase reporter and rescue assays, along with Western blot analysis of JAK-STAT pathway proteins, were conducted to verify targeting and function. Results Complete response (CR) patients had significantly lower baseline HBV DNA than suboptimal response (SR) patients. After 48 weeks of pegIFNα therapy, miR-194-5p expression decreased notably in the CR group and correlated positively with HBV DNA and HBeAg levels. miR-194-5p predicted treatment response with an AUC of 0.831 and was an independent predictor. Mechanistically, miR-194-5p targeted SOCS2. Functional studies demonstrated that miR-194-5p overexpression enhanced, while SOCS2 supplementation attenuated, pegIFNα-induced phosphorylation of STAT1/STAT2, thereby influencing cell viability and inflammatory factor expression (TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β). Conclusion miR-194-5p may predict pegIFNα response in HBeAg-positive CHB. It regulates interferon signaling by targeting SOCS2 and modulating the JAK-STAT pathway activation, suggesting the miR-194-5p/SOCS2 axis as a potential therapeutic target.

To identify potential categories of alarm fatigue among ICU nurses and to explore the differences in characteristics and influencing factors among different categories. Using convenience sampling, 597 ICU nurses from 12 tertiary public hospitals across 8 cities in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China were recruited from September 2024 to December 2024. A cross-sectional survey was conducted using the General Information Questionnaire, ICU Nurses' Alarm Fatigue Scale, Stanford Presenteeism Scale: Health Status and Employee Productivity, and Nurses' Emotional Labor Scale. Potential profiles of nurse alarm fatigue were analyzed, and the influencing factors of different profiles were explored by univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression analysis. The median alarm fatigue scale score was 26(IQR = 19.75-31), and the alarm fatigue of ICU nurses could be categorized into low fatigue-robust tolerance group (30.8%), moderate fatigue (54.4%), and high fatigue-negative coping group (14.9%). The regression analyses showed that the number of children, the frequency of night shifts, the health status and employee productivity score, and the emotional labor score were the main factors of the ICU factors influencing different potential categories of nurse alarm fatigue (P < 0.05). ICU nurses alarm in Inner Mongolia exhibited moderate-to-high alarm fatigue with notable subgroup heterogeneity. Nursing managers should implement tailored interventions addressing profile-specific factors, such as workload adjustments and emotional support strategies, to mitigate alarm fatigue.

The quorum sensing (QS) circuit plays a role in the precise regulation of genes controlling virulence factors and biofilm formation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. QS-controlled biofilm formation by Pseudomonas aeruginosa in clinical settings has remained controversial due to emerging drug resistance; therefore, screening diverse compounds for anti-biofilm or anti-QS activities is important. This study demonstrates the ability of sub-minimum inhibitory concentrations (sub-MICs) of baicalin, an active natural compound extracted from the traditional Chinese medicinal Scutellaria baicalensis, to inhibit the formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms and enhance the bactericidal effects of various conventional antibiotics in vitro. In addition, baicalin exerted dose-dependent inhibitory effects on virulence phenotypes (LasA protease, LasB elastase, pyocyanin, rhamnolipid, motilities and exotoxin A) regulated by QS in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Moreover, the expression levels of QS-regulatory genes, including lasI, lasR, rhlI, rhlR, pqsR and pqsA, were repressed after sub-MIC baicalin treatment, resulting in significant decreases in the QS signaling molecules 3-oxo-C12-HSL and C4-HSL, confirming the ability of baicalin-mediated QS inhibition to alter gene and protein expression. In vivo experiments indicated that baicalin treatment reduces Pseudomonas aeruginosa pathogenicity in Caenorhabditis elegans. Greater worm survival in the baicalin-treated group manifested as an increase in the LT50 from 24 to 96 h. In a mouse peritoneal implant infection model, baicalin treatment enhanced the clearance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from the implants of mice infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa compared with the control group. Moreover, the combination of baicalin and antibiotics significantly reduced the numbers of colony-forming units in the implants to a significantly greater degree than antibiotic treatment alone. Pathological and histological analyses revealed mitigation of the inflammatory response and reduced cell infiltration in the peritoneal tissue surrounding the implants after baicalin treatment. Measurement of the cytokine levels in the peritoneal lavage fluid of mice in the baicalin treatment group revealed a decrease in IL-4, an increase in interferon γ (IFN-γ), and a reversed IFN-γ/IL-4 ratio compared with the control group, indicating that baicalin treatment activated the Th1-induced immune response to expedite bacterial load clearance. Based on these results, baicalin might be a potent QS inhibitor and anti-biofilm agent for combating Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm-related infections.

Water conservation is an important service function of ecosystems. A timely understanding of dynamic changes in the water conservation function is important for the protection and reconstruction of water resources. Based on remote sensing data, meteorological data, land cover data, and the \"Technical Criterion for Ecosystem Status Evaluation\" issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China, a comprehensive evaluation system was designed to assess the water conservation function of the Xiongan New Area from 2005 to 2015. The system created from four aspects, including ecological structure, ecological stress, water balance and landscape ecology. The results showed that from 2005 to 2015, the water conservation function of the Xiongan New Area first decreased and then increased, and the overall trend was upward. The increasing areas were mainly concentrated around Baiyangdian and near the grassland. Among all evaluated indicators, the precipitation compliance rate index fluctuated the most from -16.62 in 2010 to 6.70 in 2015. The evapotranspiration index was the largest in 2010 (6.47) and the smallest in 2005 (3.52). The Temperature Vegetation Dryness Index (TVDI) showed that the drought was the severest in 2010 and the least severe in 2015. However, the other indicators remain relatively stable. From the perspective of the spatial distribution, the water conservation function of the Xiongan New Area was gradually enhanced from north to south.

Background Blood–brain barrier (BBB) disruption is a major adverse event after ischemic stroke (IS). Caveolin-1 (Cav-1), a scaffolding protein, played multiple roles in BBB permeability after IS, while the pros and cons of Cav-1 on BBB permeability remain controversial. Numerous studies revealed that extracellular vesicles (EVs), especially stem cells derived EVs, exerted therapeutic efficacy on IS; however, the mechanisms of BBB permeability needed to be clearly illustrated. Herein, we compared the protective efficacy on BBB integrity between bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells derived extracellular vesicles (BMSC-EVs) and EVs from brain endothelial cells (BEC-EVs) after acute IS and investigated whether the mechanism was associated with EVs antagonizing Cav-1-dependent tight junction proteins endocytosis. Methods BMSC-EVs and BEC-EVs were isolated and characterized by nanoparticle tracking analysis, western blotting, and transmission electron microscope. Oxygen and glucose deprivation (OGD) treated b. End3 cells were utilized to evaluate brain endothelial cell leakage. CCK-8 and TRITC-dextran leakage assays were used to measure cell viability and transwell monolayer permeability. Permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion (pMCAo) model was established, and EVs were intravenously administered in rats. Animal neurological function tests were applied, and microvessels were isolated from the ischemic cortex. BBB leakage and tight junction proteins were analyzed by Evans Blue (EB) staining and western blotting, respectively. Co-IP assay and Cav-1 siRNA/pcDNA 3.1 vector transfection were employed to verify the endocytosis efficacy of Cav-1 on tight junction proteins. Results Both kinds of EVs exerted similar efficacies in reducing the cerebral infarction volume and BBB leakage and enhancing the expressions of ZO-1 and Claudin-5 after 24 h pMCAo in rats. At the same time, BMSC-EVs were outstanding in ameliorating neurological function. Simultaneously, both EVs treatments suppressed the highly expressed Cav-1 in OGD-exposed b. End3 cells and ischemic cerebral microvessels, and this efficacy was more prominent after BMSC-EVs administration. Cav-1 knockdown reduced OGD-treated b. End3 cells monolayer permeability and recovered ZO-1 and Claudin-5 expressions, whereas Cav-1 overexpression aggravated permeability and enhanced the colocalization of Cav-1 with ZO-1 and Claudin-5. Furthermore, Cav-1 overexpression partly reversed the lower cell leakage by BMSC-EVs and BEC-EVs administrations in OGD-treated b. End3 cells. Conclusions Our results demonstrated that Cav-1 aggravated BBB permeability in acute ischemic stroke, and BMSC-EVs exerted similar antagonistic efficacy to BEC-EVs on Cav-1-dependent ZO-1 and Claudin-5 endocytosis. BMSC-EVs treatment was superior in Cav-1 suppression and neurological function amelioration. Graphical Abstract

Linking several databases containing information on the same person is an essential step of many data workflows. Due to the potential sensitivity of the data, the identity of the persons should be kept private. Privacy-Preserving Record-Linkage (PPRL) techniques have been developed to link persons despite errors in the identifiers used to link the databases without violating their privacy. The basic approach is to use encoded quasi-identifiers instead of plain quasi-identifiers for making the linkage decision. Ideally, the encoded quasi-identifiers should prevent re-identification but still allow for a good linkage quality. While several PPRL techniques have been proposed so far, Bloom filter-based PPRL schemes (BF-PPRL) are among the most popular due to their scalability. However, a recently proposed attack on BF-PPRL based on graph similarities seems to allow individuals’ re-identification from encoded quasi-identifiers. Therefore, the graph matching attack is widely considered a serious threat to many PPRL-approaches and leads to the situation that BF-PPRL schemes are rejected as being insecure. In this work, we argue that this view is not fully justified. We show by experiments that the success of graph matching attacks requires a high overlap between encoded and plain records used for the attack. As soon as this condition is not fulfilled, the success rate sharply decreases and renders the attacks hardly effective. This necessary condition does severely limit the applicability of these attacks in practice and also allows for simple but effective countermeasures.

Sex chromosomes evolved from autosomes many times across the eukaryote phylogeny. Several models have been proposed to explain this transition, some involving male and female sterility mutations linked in a region of suppressed recombination between X and Y (or Z / W , U / V ) chromosomes. Comparative and experimental analysis of a reference genome assembly for a double haploid YY male garden asparagus ( Asparagus officinalis L.) individual implicates separate but linked genes as responsible for sex determination. Dioecy has evolved recently within Asparagus and sex chromosomes are cytogenetically identical with the Y , harboring a megabase segment that is missing from the X . We show that deletion of this entire region results in a male-to-female conversion, whereas loss of a single suppressor of female development drives male-to-hermaphrodite conversion. A single copy anther-specific gene with a male sterile Arabidopsis knockout phenotype is also in the Y- specific region, supporting a two-gene model for sex chromosome evolution. Several models have been proposed to explain the emergence of sex chromosomes. Here, through comparative genomics and mutant analysis, Harkess et al. show that linked but separate genes on the Y chromosome are responsible for sex determination in Asparagus , supporting a two-gene model for sex chromosome evolution.

Background Information literacy (IL) is vital in health education, yet studies indicate medical students' IL might be insufficient or deficient. This study aims to evaluate the impact of an integrated Evidence—based Medicine (EBM) course in improving information literacy (IL) skills among Chinese undergraduate and postgraduate medical students. Methods This study included 5—year and 7—year undergraduate students as well as postgraduate students majoring in clinical medicine from West China School of Clinical Medicine at Sichuan University who took the EBM course for the first time between January 2010 and December 2010 and participated in all sessions of the course. This study would employ a pre-and post-course comparison method to assess the impact of the integrated EBM course on the IL across different academic stages of Chinese medical students, in order to offer new and reliable strategies for the improvement of medical education of IL. The study incorporated an Evidence—Based Medicine (EBM) course intervention, followed by a comprehensive assessment of its impact. The course impact is defined as the alterations in students' self—perceived Information Literacy (IL) competencies, measured by the differences between pre—and post—course self—evaluations, along with the objectively demonstrated evidence application skills as reflected in the teacher—graded reports. Specifically, the evaluation of impact contains two parts: 1) subjective assessment, which was students' self-assessments of IL (information acquiring competency, information processing competency and information utilizing competency), conducted before and after the EBM course; 2) objective assessment, which was a teacher's assessment, conducted by having each student submit an evidence-based medical record report after the EBM course, and then the teacher assigning grades based on the records. Results A total of 288 medical students participated in the intervention course, including 5-year undergraduates ( n  = 106), 7-year undergraduates ( n  = 57) and postgraduates ( n  = 125). 1) Information acquiring ability: after the course, students demonstrate a more proactive and enthusiastic inclination towards acquiring information. Their capabilities and expertise in information gathering have notably improved. 2) Information processing ability, exhibited by a 9.7% increase in the number of students who can differentiate types of information ( p  < 0.05), and a 9.8% decrease in students who are unable to evaluate the accuracy of information ( p  < 0.05) after EBM course; 3) Information utilizing ability, with the percentage of medical students who can cite references in a standard format and synthesize information effectively increased by 18% ( p  < 0.05) and 10.1% ( p  < 0.05) respectively after EBM course. And multiple aspects of the three dimensions of IL showed significant improvement in the postgraduate students. 4)Post-course evaluations of the evidence-based medical record indicate that students have demonstrated commendable proficiency in constructing PICO-based questions and applying evidence to formulate clinical decisions rooted in actual clinical scenarios. Notably, over half of the students attained an A grade in this assessment; However, students exhibit relatively weaker skills in acquiring evidence and critical appraisal, particularly among the 5-year undergraduates and postgraduates; In terms of after-effect evaluation, only 10% of the students evaluated both self-evaluation and clinical effect, while most students evaluated the clinical effect alone. Conclusions The integrated Evidence—based Medicine (EBM) course contributes to the improvement of information literacy (IL) skills among Chinese medical students, as is evidenced by the preliminary pre—and post—course comparative analysis. Further randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are needed for a more comprehensive and in—depth evaluation of the impact of EBM on IL. In the future, there should be a reinforced emphasis on the skills related to acquiring information and critical appraisal specifically tailored to clinical questions. Moreover, it is essential to provide differentiated curricula to meet the specific needs of students in different grade levels.