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With the advent of the big data era, data security and sharing have become the core elements of new-era data processing. Privacy-preserving record linkage (PPRL), as a method capable of accurately and securely matching and sharing the same entity across multiple data sources, is receiving increasing attention. Among the existing research methods, although PPRL methods based on Bloom Filter encoding excel in computational efficiency, they are susceptible to privacy attacks, and the security risks they face cannot be ignored. To balance the contradiction between security and computational efficiency, we propose a multi-party PPRL method based on secondary encoding. This method, based on Bloom Filter encoding, generates secondary encoding according to well-designed encoding rules and utilizes the proposed linking rules for secure matching. Owing to its excellent encoding and linking rules, this method successfully addresses the balance between security and computational efficiency. The experimental results clearly show that, in comparison to the original Bloom Filter encoding, this method has nearly equivalent computational efficiency and linkage quality. The proposed rules can effectively prevent the re-identification problem in Bloom Filter encoding (proven). Compared to existing privacy-preserving record linkage methods, this method shows higher security, making it more suitable for various practical application scenarios. The introduction of this method is of great significance for promoting the widespread application of privacy-preserving record linkage technology.

The multi-party Privacy-Preserving Record Linkage (PPRL) aims to identify and match the same entity across different parties’ data sources while ensuring that all private data remains protected and undisclosed, except for the final matching results shared among the parties. The previously proposed a multi-party PPRL method based on secondary encoding suffers from issues related to the number of data splits and load balancing, which impact computational efficiency and linkage quality. We propose an extended approach—a multi-party PPRL method based on improved secondary encoding(ISE_PPRL). By adopting a rational data split strategy and participant work strategy, and incorporating the geometric mean and consistent hashing algorithm, this method overcomes the traditional limitation where each party could only process a single data split. It effectively mitigates potential collusion risks among data splits, enhances security, optimizes computational efficiency, and maintains linkage quality. Experimental results demonstrate that this method exhibits significant advantages in improving security, enhancing computational efficiency, and maintaining linkage quality.

Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines are being used to combat the spread of COVID-19 (refs. 1 – 3 ), but they still exhibit critical limitations caused by mRNA instability and degradation, which are major obstacles for the storage, distribution and efficacy of the vaccine products 4 . Increasing secondary structure lengthens mRNA half-life, which, together with optimal codons, improves protein expression 5 . Therefore, a principled mRNA design algorithm must optimize both structural stability and codon usage. However, owing to synonymous codons, the mRNA design space is prohibitively large—for example, there are around 2.4 × 10 632 candidate mRNA sequences for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. This poses insurmountable computational challenges. Here we provide a simple and unexpected solution using the classical concept of lattice parsing in computational linguistics, where finding the optimal mRNA sequence is analogous to identifying the most likely sentence among similar-sounding alternatives 6 . Our algorithm LinearDesign finds an optimal mRNA design for the spike protein in just 11 minutes, and can concurrently optimize stability and codon usage. LinearDesign substantially improves mRNA half-life and protein expression, and profoundly increases antibody titre by up to 128 times in mice compared to the codon-optimization benchmark on mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 and varicella-zoster virus. This result reveals the great potential of principled mRNA design and enables the exploration of previously unreachable but highly stable and efficient designs. Our work is a timely tool for vaccines and other mRNA-based medicines encoding therapeutic proteins such as monoclonal antibodies and anti-cancer drugs 7 , 8 . An algorithm based on concepts established in computational linguistics enables rapid principled design of mRNA vaccines optimizing both structural stability and codon usage, resulting in improved half-life, protein expression and immune responses.

Background Studies suggest perceived social support from family and friends acts as a protective factor against cognitive decline, especially in older adults. However, few studies have focused on first‐generation immigrants in the United States. This study investigates how the perceived social support is differently associated with specific cognitive domains in first‐generation older Asian Americans. Method Data were collected from 141 first‐generation older Asian Americans (Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese) participating in an ongoing ARISE (Asian Americans & Racism: Individual and Structural Experiences) pilot study who are 65 years old or older in California. Participants completed cognitive and psychosocial assessments in their preferred languages (Mandarin, Korean, and Vietnamese). Verbal encoding and memory were assessed using the Auditory Verbal Learning Test. Basic attention and auditory working memory were measured using Digit Span Forward and Backward, respectively. Perceived social support from family and friends was assessed using the 6‐item National Latino and Asian American Study Social Network Scale on a 5‐point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). Multivariable linear regression and moderation analyses were performed, controlling for age, gender, and education. Result Participants were aged 65–88 years (Mean = 74.55, SD = 5.40); 50.3% were female, 74.3% had at least a high school education, and 82.8% expressed positive support level. Greater perceived social support was associated with better verbal encoding (β = 0.233, SE = 0.154, p = 0.003), but worse auditory working memory (β = ‐0.249, SE = 0.039, p = 0.001). Depression moderated the relationship between social support and working memory (β = ‐0.026, SE = 0.012, p = 0.033), with the negative impact being more pronounced at higher levels of depression. No significant associations were found for memory or basic attention (p = 0.065, p = 0.790). Conclusion These findings highlight the complex dynamics of social support in cognitive function among older first‐generation Asian Americans. Social support positively influenced verbal encoding, underscoring the importance of support systems for this population. However, more studies are needed to examine the role of mental health conditions, such as depression, in the relationships between social support and working memory.

Background Older adults with a history of sport‐related concussions and repetitive head impacts report increased difficulty forming new episodic memories. A common task of episodic memory in older adults is a face‐name memory task, however current versions of the task include faces that are not always representative of retired athlete populations, and frequently include faces of predominantly younger adults. The present study shows preliminary feasibility data for a novel inclusive face‐name memory task developed specifically for use in the context of an fMRI scan. Methods We created a racially inclusive face‐name memory task tailored for middle‐aged and older adults (age 50‐80; target n=100) for use in an MRI scanner. The task is comprised of 2 6‐minute runs, each including 3 blocks of encoding and retrieval phases, and featuring 4 face‐name pairs per block representing diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. Participants perform the task during an fMRI neuroimaging session to evaluate both behavioral performance on the task as well as the neural correlates of memory encoding and retrieval. Participants in the present study included men (n =4) and women (n =5) who had participated in at least 2 years of sport in High School, but ceased participation in organized sport after High School (ages 51‐77). Sport participation was classified as collision (n =3) vs. non‐contact (n =1) sport for male participants, and contact/collision (n =3) vs. non‐contact (n =2) sport for female participants. Results Preliminary behavioral data from the first 9 participants indicate that participants generally perform quite well on the in‐scanner task (ranging from 50‐100% accuracy; mean = 78.7%), and that overall task performance is correlated with Fluid (r=0.839; p =0.005), but not Crystalized (r=0.156; p =0.688) cognition (NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery), and while not significantly correlated, it seems to generally track with a face‐name memory task included as part of the NIH Toolbox battery (r=0.355; p =0.349). Conclusions Preliminary data suggest that our novel in‐scanner face‐name episodic memory task is feasible for older former High School athletes to perform in an MRI scanner, and that performance seems to track with other standardized assessments of Fluid cognition.

BackgroundPrior research has shown that memory for action sentences is stronger when stimuli are enacted during encoding than simply listened to: the so-called enactment effect. The goal of the present study was to explore how writing during encoding—through handwriting and through keyboarding—fares compared with enacting, in supporting memory recall.MethodsOne hundred Norwegian high school students (64 girls, 36 boys) aged 16–21 years (M = 17.1) participated in the study. Four lists of verb–noun sentences with 12 sentences in each list were presented in four encoding conditions: (i) motor enactment, (ii) verbal listening, (iii) handwriting, and (iv) keyboarding.ResultsResults revealed a significant main effect of encoding condition, with the best memory gained in the enactment condition. Regarding writing, results showed that handwriting and keyboarding during encoding produced the lowest recall in comparison with the enactment and verbal listening conditions.ConclusionThese results thus provide additional support for the enactment effect. While there has been much discussion on the relative benefits of handwriting versus keyboarding on student performance, both seemed to be equally poor strategies for the particular learning task explored here, potentially through increased cognitive load.

Fungal non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS)-encoding products play a paramount role in new drug discovery. Fusarium , one of the most common filamentous fungi, is well-known for its biosynthetic potential of NRPS-type compounds with diverse structural motifs and various biological properties. With the continuous improvement and extensive application of bioinformatic tools (e.g., anti-SMASH, NCBI, UniProt), more and more biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) of secondary metabolites (SMs) have been identified in Fusarium strains. However, the biosynthetic logics of these SMs have not yet been well investigated till now. With the aim to increase our knowledge of the biosynthetic logics of NPRS-encoding products in Fusarium , this review firstly provides an overview of research advances in elucidating their biosynthetic pathways.

Obstacle crossing requires visuospatial working memory to guide the trailing leg trajectory when vision in unavailable. Visuospatial working memory, as assessed with neuropsychological tests, declines with age, however, this remains to be investigated functionally in obstacle crossing. There is also evidence that visuospatial encoding during a secondary task interferes with balance control during stepping and walking in older people. Here, we studied the interaction effects of age by delay (study 1) and age by secondary visuospatial task (study 2) conditions on obstacle clearance in a visuospatial working memory -guided obstacle crossing task. Healthy young adults aged 19 to 36 years (n = 20 in study 1 and n = 17 in study 2) and healthy older adults aged 66 to 83 years (n = 29 in study 1 and n = 21 in study 2) were instructed to step over an obstacle with their leading leg and straddle it for a delay period before completing the crossing with their trailing leg. In study 1, two obstacle height conditions (12 cm, 18 cm) and two delay durations (20 s, 60 s) were presented in random order. In study 2, participants were required to attend to either no secondary task (control), a visuospatial secondary (star movement) task, or a nonspatial secondary (arithmetic) task, while straddling the obstacle for a delay duration of 20 s, at obstacle heights of 12 cm and 18 cm, randomly presented. Trailing leg kinematics (mean and variability of maximum toe clearance over the obstacle) were determined via motion capture. There were no statistically significant age by delay or age by secondary task interactions. In study 1, toe clearance variability was significantly greater in young adults and increased with increasing delay duration in both groups. In study 2, compared with the control condition, toe clearance variability was significantly greater in the non-spatial secondary task condition but not in the visuospatial condition. Contrary to our hypotheses, these findings suggest that young and older adults alike can store an obstacle representation via visuospatial working memory for durations of at least 60 s and use this information to safely scale their trailing leg over an obstacle. However, the increase in trailing leg toe clearance variability with delay duration suggests that obstacle representation starts to deteriorate even within the first 20 s regardless of age. The finding that undertaking a concurrent arithmetic task impaired visuospatial working memory-guided obstacle clearance suggests a potential increased risk of tripping during obstacle crossing while dual-tasking in both young and older people.

Binge alcohol use is common among teenagers with 28% of 12th graders reporting getting drunk in the past month. Chronic heavy drinking has been associated with verbal learning and memory deficits in adolescents and adults, yet verbal encoding in less frequently drinking teens has not yet been studied. Here, we examined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) response during verbal encoding among adolescent binge drinkers. Participants recruited from local high schools were of ages 16–18 and consisted of 12 binge drinkers and 12 demographically similar nondrinkers. Participants were all nonsmokers, and drinkers were abstinent from alcohol for an average of 33 days at the time of scanning. Participants performed a verbal paired associates learning task during fMRI acquisition. Drinkers recalled marginally fewer words than nondrinkers ( P = .07). Compared with nondrinkers, bingers showed more response in right superior frontal and bilateral posterior parietal cortices but less response in occipital cortex during novel encoding ( Ps < .05, clusters >1,512 μL). In addition, controls showed significant activation in the left hippocampus during novel encoding, whereas binge drinkers did not. Adolescent binge drinkers demonstrated (1) more response than nondrinkers in frontal and parietal regions, which could suggest greater engagement of working memory systems during encoding; (2) no hippocampal activation to novel word pairs; and (3) slightly poorer word pair recall, which could indicate disadvantaged processing of novel verbal information and a slower learning slope. Longitudinal studies will be needed to ascertain the degree to which emergence of binge drinking is linked temporally to these brain response patterns.

The rapid dissemination of the 2009 pandemic influenza virus underscores the need for universal influenza vaccines that elicit protective immunity to diverse viral strains. Here, we show that vaccination with plasmid DNA encoding H1N1 influenza hemagglutinin (HA) and boosting with seasonal vaccine or replication-defective adenovirus 5 vector encoding HA stimulated the production of broadly neutralizing influenza antibodies. This prime/boost combination increased the neutralization of diverse H1N1 strains dating from 1934 to 2007 as compared to either component alone and conferred protection against divergent H1N1 viruses in mice and ferrets. These antibodies were directed to the conserved stem region of HA and were also elicited in nonhuman primates. Cross-neutralization of H1N1 subtypes elicited by this approach provides a basis for the development of a universal influenza vaccine for humans.