Privacy-Preserving Deep Learning on Big Data in Cloud

In the analysis of big data,deep learn-ing is a crucial technique.Big data analysis tasks are typically carried out on the cloud since it offers strong computer capabilities and storage areas.Nev-ertheless,there is a contradiction between the open nature of the cloud and the demand that data own-ers maintain their privacy.To use cloud resources for privacy-preserving data training,a viable method must be found.A privacy-preserving deep learning model(PPDLM)is suggested in this research to ad-dress this preserving issue.To preserve data privacy,we first encrypted the data using homomorphic en-cryption(HE)approach.Moreover,the deep learn-ing algorithm’s activation function—the sigmoid func-tion—uses the least-squares method to process non-addition and non-multiplication operations that are not allowed by homomorphic.Finally,experimental re-sults show that PPDLM has a significant effect on the protection of data privacy information.Compared with Non-Privacy Preserving Deep Learning Model(NPPDLM),PPDLM has higher computational effi-ciency.

Federated Feature Concatenate Method for Heterogeneous Computing in Federated Learning

Federated learning is an emerging machine learning techniquethat enables clients to collaboratively train a deep learning model withoutuploading raw data to the aggregation server. Each client may be equippedwith different computing resources for model training. The client equippedwith a lower computing capability requires more time for model training,resulting in a prolonged training time in federated learning. Moreover, it mayfail to train the entire model because of the out-of-memory issue. This studyaims to tackle these problems and propose the federated feature concatenate(FedFC) method for federated learning considering heterogeneous clients.FedFC leverages the model splitting and feature concatenate for offloadinga portion of the training loads from clients to the aggregation server. Eachclient in FedFC can collaboratively train a model with different cutting layers.Therefore, the specific features learned in the deeper layer of the serversidemodel are more identical for the data class classification. Accordingly,FedFC can reduce the computation loading for the resource-constrainedclient and accelerate the convergence time. The performance effectiveness isverified by considering different dataset scenarios, such as data and classimbalance for the participant clients in the experiments. The performanceimpacts of different cutting layers are evaluated during the model training.The experimental results show that the co-adapted features have a criticalimpact on the adequate classification of the deep learning model. Overall,FedFC not only shortens the convergence time, but also improves the bestaccuracy by up to 5.9% and 14.5% when compared to conventional federatedlearning and splitfed, respectively. In conclusion, the proposed approach isfeasible and effective for heterogeneous clients in federated learning.

Blockchain-Assisted Secure Fine-Grained Searchable Encryption for a Cloud-Based Healthcare Cyber-Physical System

The concept of sharing of personal health data over cloud storage in a healthcare-cyber physical system has become popular in recent times as it improves access quality.The privacy of health data can only be preserved by keeping it in an encrypted form,but it affects usability and flexibility in terms of effective search.Attribute-based searchable encryption(ABSE)has proven its worth by providing fine-grained searching capabilities in the shared cloud storage.However,it is not practical to apply this scheme to the devices with limited resources and storage capacity because a typical ABSE involves serious computations.In a healthcare cloud-based cyber-physical system(CCPS),the data is often collected by resource-constraint devices;therefore,here also,we cannot directly apply ABSE schemes.In the proposed work,the inherent computational cost of the ABSE scheme is managed by executing the computationally intensive tasks of a typical ABSE scheme on the blockchain network.Thus,it makes the proposed scheme suitable for online storage and retrieval of personal health data in a typical CCPS.With the assistance of blockchain technology,the proposed scheme offers two main benefits.First,it is free from a trusted authority,which makes it genuinely decentralized and free from a single point of failure.Second,it is computationally efficient because the computational load is now distributed among the consensus nodes in the blockchain network.Specifically,the task of initializing the system,which is considered the most computationally intensive,and the task of partial search token generation,which is considered as the most frequent operation,is now the responsibility of the consensus nodes.This eliminates the need of the trusted authority and reduces the burden of data users,respectively.Further,in comparison to existing decentralized fine-grained searchable encryption schemes,the proposed scheme has achieved a significant reduction in storage and computational cost for the secret key associated with users.It has been verified both theoretically and practically in the performance analysis section.

Inhalation of shin-I essential oil enhances lactate clearance in treadmill exercise

Objective:To evaluate the effect of Shin-I essential oil inhalation on blood lactate changes in rats subjected to treadmill exercise.Methods:Adult male Sprague Dawley rats(n=12) were randomly divided into the control or the Shin—1 group.Rats were subjected to a treadmill exercise program(15 m/min for 30 mim.After exercise,rats were exposed to 200 ui.of water or Shin—I essential oil.res|ieclively.using a nebulizer for 180 min during the recovery period.Blood samples were collected every 15 min.Blood glucose and lactate concentrations were determined in a CMA 600 analyzer.Results:The basal glucose and lactate levels wen? no significantly different between two groups.After exercise,glucose levels were slightly increased to about 110%-120%of the basal level in both groups.lactate levels of both groups reached to 110%-140%of basal levels during exercise.In the recovery period,lactate levels further increased to 180%of the basal level and were maintained at a plateau in the control group.However,lactate levels gradually decreased to 609—657 of the basal level in the Shin-I group.Lactate clearance was significantly enhanceil after Shin-I essential oil inhalation.Conclusions:Our results provide evidence that Shin-I essential oil inhalation may accelerate recovery after exercise in rats.

A Photo Certificate-A Framework for Generating Visualized Public Key Certificates

In the proposed photo certificate, the principal component is the image, for example, the user＇s photo. User-related fields, such as the subject＇s name, the issuer＇s name, and the expiration period, which are meaningful to users, are embedded into the surface of the photo by using a visible watermark algorithm, so that the reader can capture this information without the requirement for special software. The remaining fields in the certificate are embedded into a marked photo. Later, the whole photo certificate is eryptographically signed by certification authority （CA） private key to guarantee the integrity of our photo certificate. By such arrangement, the eertificate＇s verification is divided into two layers. The first layer is human visual system oriented and the second layer is the software-oriented. User can determine whether the user＇s photo and its subject＇s name are consistent and cheek whether the expired period is valid first. The second layer＇s verification is lunched only when the first layer＇s verification is passed. To sum up, the proposed photo certificate not only inherits the functions of a traditional certificate, but also provides a friendlier operational environment of X.509 certificate.

THE CRUCIAL CONSTANTS IN THE EXPONENTIAL-TYPE ERROR ESTIMATES FOR GAUSSIAN INTERPOLATION

It＇s well-known that there is a very powerful error bound for Gaussians put forward by Madych and Nelson in 1992. It＇s of the form｜f（x） - s（x）｜≤（Cd）c/d｜｜f｜｜h where C, c are constants, h is the Gaussian function, s is the interpolating function, and d is called fill distance which, roughly speaking, measures the spacing of the points at which interpolation occurs. This error bound gets small very fast as d → 0. The constants C and c are very sensitive. A slight change of them will result in a huge change of the error bound. The number c can be calculated as shown in [9]. However, C cannot be calculated, or even approximated. This is a famous question in the theory of radial basis functions. The purpose of this paper is to answer this question.

Reversible Data Hiding for Medical Images in Cloud Computing Environments Based on Chaotic Hénon Map

Reversible data hiding techniques are capable of reconstructing the original cover image from stego-images. Recently, many researchers have focused on reversible data hiding to protect intellectual property rights. In this paper, we combine reversible data hiding with the chaotic Henon map as an encryption technique to achieve an acceptable level of confidentiality in cloud computing environments. And, Haar digital wavelet transformation （HDWT） is also applied to convert an image from a spatial domain into a frequency domain. And then the decimal of coefficients and integer of high frequency band are modified for hiding secret bits. Finally, the modified coefficients are inversely transformed to stego-images.

Distortion-Free Data Embedding Scheme for High Dynamic Range Images

Distortion-free data embedding is a technique which can assure that not only the secret data is correctly extracted but also the cover media is recovered without any distortion after secret data is extracted completely. Because of these advantages, this technique attracts the attention of many researchers. In this paper, a new distortion-free data embedding scheme for high dynamic range （HDR） images is proposed. By depending on Cartesian product, this scheme can obtain higher embedding capacity while maintaining the exactly identical cover image and stego image when using the tone mapping algorithms. In experimental results, the proposed scheme is superior to Yu et aL＇s scheme in regard to the embedding rate——an average embedding rate of 0.1355 bpp compared with Yn et aL＇s scheme （0.1270 bpp）.

Guest Editorial Special Issue on Information Security

The Intemet is a popular channel for allowing more and more users to exchange information without geographical limitations and time restrictions. Therefore, a large amount of digital data, such as digital images, text, audio, and video, is transmitted over the Intemet. Unfortunately, sensitive digital data can be intercepted by malicious users of the Internet, so the development of techniques for ensuring the secrecy and security of data during transmission has become a top priority.

Study of the Relationship Between the Organizational Climate and the Campus Ethical Issues of Universities across the Taiwan Strait

The study applied the approach of empirical studies to select 176 teachers in 9 universities in Taiwan and Inland in China to deliver questionnaires. The study intended to explore the influence of organizational climate on campus ethics and its diversity between the universities across the Taiwan strait. The study explored that the organizational climate in the universities across the Strait was not ethically high. Yet, the universities in Inland emphasized more on campus restraint in teachers behavior, job performance and their sense of belonging to the school.The study result demonstrated that improving leadership of the universities could enhance teachers identification with their schools and could promote the level of campus across the Strait.

Reversible Data Embedding Scheme Using Relationships between Pixel-Values and Their Neighbors

Reversible data embedding is becoming a very important issue in securing images transmitted over the Internet, especially in dealing with sensitive images such as those created for military data and medical data. Based on the relationships between pixels and their neighbors, we propose a reversible data embedding scheme to embed hidden messages into an original image. In our proposed scheme, a two-layer data embedding approach is used for our proposed data embedding phase. Layer-1 embedding is used to hide secret data. Layer-2 embedding, which is an embedding variant of the proposed layer-1 embedding, is used to hide side information, such as the parameters required to restore the marked image. In our layer-1 embedding, the value of an embedded pixel is determined according to a predetermined threshold and the relationship between the pixel and its neighbors. In our layer-2 embedding, the similar data embedding concept is expanded to the block-based. Experimental results provide supportive data to show that the proposed scheme can provide greater hiding capacity while preserving the image quality of a marked image in comparison with previous work.

Data Hiding in AMBTC Images Using Selective XOR Hiding Scheme

Nowadays since the Internet is ubiquitous,the frequency of data transfer through the public network is increasing.Hiding secure data in these transmitted data has emerged broad security issue,such as authentication and copyright protection.On the other hand,considering the transmission efficiency issue,image transmission usually involves image compression in Internet-based applications.To address both issues,this paper presents a data hiding scheme for the image compression method called absolute moment block truncation coding(AMBTC).First,an image is divided into nonoverlapping blocks through AMBTC compression,the blocks are classified four types,namely smooth,semi-smooth,semi-complex,and complex.The secret data are embedded into the smooth blocks by using a simple replacement strategy.The proposed method respectively embeds nine bits(and five bits)of secret data into the bitmap of the semi-smooth blocks(and semicomplex blocks)through the exclusive-or(XOR)operation.The secret data are embedded into the complex blocks by using a hidden function.After the embedding phase,the direct binary search(DBS)method is performed to improve the image qualitywithout damaging the secret data.The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method yields higher quality and hiding capacity than other reference methods.

An Improved Transfer-Learning for Image-Based Species Classification of Protected Indonesians Birds

This research proposed an improved transfer-learning bird classification framework to achieve a more precise classification of Protected Indonesia Birds(PIB)which have been identified as the endangered bird species.The framework takes advantage of using the proposed sequence of Batch Normalization Dropout Fully-Connected(BNDFC)layers to enhance the baseline model of transfer learning.The main contribution of this work is the proposed sequence of BNDFC that can be applied to any Convolutional Neural Network(CNN)based model to improve the classification accuracy,especially for image-based species classification problems.The experiment results show that the proposed sequence of BNDFC layers outperform other combination of BNDFC.The addition of BNDFC can improve the model’s performance across ten different CNN-based models.On average,BNDFC can improve by approximately 19.88%in Accuracy,24.43%in F-measure,17.93%in G-mean,23.41%in Sensitivity,and 18.76%in Precision.Moreover,applying fine-tuning(FT)is able to enhance the accuracy by 0.85%with a smaller validation loss of 18.33%improvement.In addition,MobileNetV2 was observed to be the best baseline model with the lightest size of 35.9 MB and the highest accuracy of 88.07%in the validation set.

The Effects of Intangible Assets （IA） on the Loan Interest Rates for Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises （SMEs） in Taiwan

This study is motivated by the lack of direct empirical research on the relationship between intangible assets （IA） and loan interest rates for small- and medium-sized enterprises （SMEs） in emerging markets. This study uses a multivariate regression to investigate the effects of 1A on loan interest rates by focusing on SMEs. Using a panel sample of 186 publicly-listed SMEs with 952 annual observations in Taiwan from 2001 to 2006, the empirical findings indicate that an SME＇s IA does negatively affect loan interest rates. The main contribution of this study lies in its direct testing of whether IA can affect the loan interest rates for SMEs in an emerging market. The finding provides empirical evidence that an SME with greater IA leads to lower interest rates on bank loans, implying that SMEs should strive to invest in IA and enhance their knowledge management for obtaining more benefits of loan interest rates. Furthermore, the findings may provide empirical evidence for SMEs in emerging markets and can be compared with those for firms in industrialized economies.

Quality of Financial Statements and Tenure of Statement-Related Personnel

This study investigates the association between quality of financial statements and tenure of statement-related personnel. First, we examined whether there is still a significant association between financial statement quality and the tenure of audit partners who are responsible for the quality assurance of financial statements after the implementation of mandatory audit partner rotation. We addressed this issue by using a sample of Taiwan Residents companies, with which no significant association between audit partner tenure and the magnitude of discretionary accruals （DA）, a common proxy for financial statement quality, was found. Second, we investigated whether an association exists between the financial statement quality and the tenure of management who is responsible for the preparation of financial statements. We also addressed this issue by using Taiwan Residents data and found a significant association between management tenure （MT） and the magnitude of DA. Our findings provide evidence that audit partner tenure would neither improve nor deteriorate the quality assurance of a financial statement, when there is a mandatory audit partner rotation after a fixed period of time. Whereas how MT affects financial statement quality after the enactment of the mandatory audit partner rotation is dependent on the management position. Increasing tenure of chief executive officer （CEO） and chief financial officer （CFO） will enhance and hinder financial statement quality respectively. In the end, we found a significant interaction of tenure between auditor and CFO. This result implies that the downward bias of CFO on the financial statement preparation can be mitigated by auditors with increasing tenure.

Audit Partner Rotation, Audit Quality, and Dynamic Industry Structure

Previous research on the relationship between audit partner tenure and audit quality assumed that auditors conducted auditing works in a stable external environment where the corporate and management behavior was highly predictable. This study uses the joint tenure between audit partners and management to explain audit quality, because corporate directors would consider an appropriate adjustment in the management to deal with a dramatic change in the external environment. First, we examined whether there is a significant association between audit partner tenure and audit quality after the implementation of mandatory audit partner rotation by using the auditor tenure only. We addressed this issue by using a sample of Taiwan Residents companies and found no significant association between audit partner tenure and the magnitude of discretionary accruals （DA）, a common proxy for audit quality. Second, we tested the relationship between audit partner tenure and audit quality under the consideration of industry structure stability. The result exhibits a negative relation between audit partner tenure and audit quality under the control of industry structural stability which is measured by a proxy variable, the joint tenure between audit partner and management. Third, we investigated whether the association does exist between joint tenure of auditors and management and audit quality. We also addressed this issue by using Taiwan Residents data and found a significant association between the joint tenure of auditor and management and the magnitude of DA. Our findings provide evidence that the use of a mandatory rotation rule is an ineffective way to improve audit quality.

On the Reduction of Numerical Dissipation in Central-Upwind Schemes

We study central-upwind schemes for systems of hyperbolic conservation laws,recently introduced in[13].Similarly to staggered non-oscillatory central schemes,these schemes are central Godunov-type projection-evolution methods that enjoy the advantages of high resolution,simplicity,universality and robustness.At the same time,the central-upwind framework allows one to decrease a relatively large amount of numerical dissipation present at the staggered central schemes.In this paper,we present a modification of the one-dimensional fully-and semi-discrete central-upwind schemes,in which the numerical dissipation is reduced even further.The goal is achieved by a more accurate projection of the evolved quantities onto the original grid.In the semi-discrete case,the reduction of dissipation procedure leads to a new,less dissipative numerical flux.We also extend the new semi-discrete scheme to the twodimensional case via the rigorous,genuinely multidimensional derivation.The new semi-discrete schemes are tested on a number of numerical examples,where one can observe an improved resolution,especially of the contact waves.

Generic user revocation systems for attribute-based encryption in cloud storage

Cloud-based storage is a service model for businesses and individual users that involves paid or free storage resources. This service model enables on-demand storage capacity and management to users anywhere via the Internet. Because most cloud storage is provided by third-party service providers, the trust required for the cloud storage providers and the shared multi-tenant environment present special challenges for data protection and access control. Attribute-based encryption(ABE) not only protects data secrecy, but also has ciphertexts or decryption keys associated with fine-grained access policies that are automatically enforced during the decryption process. This enforcement puts data access under control at each data item level. However, ABE schemes have practical limitations on dynamic user revocation. In this paper, we propose two generic user revocation systems for ABE with user privacy protection, user revocation via ciphertext re-encryption(UR-CRE) and user revocation via cloud storage providers(UR-CSP), which work with any type of ABE scheme to dynamically revoke users.

Solutions to the Complex Korteweg-de Vries Equation: Blow-up Solutions and Non-Singular Solutions

In the paper two kinds of solutions are derived for the complex Korteweg-de Vries equation, includ- ing blow-up solutions and non-singular solutions. We derive blow-up solutions from known 1-soliton solution and a double-pole solution. There is a complex Miura transformation between the complex Korteweg-de Vries equation and a modified Kortcweg-de Vries equation. Using the transformation, solitons, breathers and rational solutions to the com- plex Korteweg-de Vries equation are obtained from those of the modified Korteweg-de Vries equation. Dynamics of the obtained solutions are illustrated.

Evaluation of the Potential Inhibitory Activity of A Combination of L.Acidophilus,L.Rhamnosus and L.Sporogenes on Helicobacter Pylori：A Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial

Objective： To investigate whether three strains of probiotics, L. acidophilus, L. rhamnosus, and L. sporogenes, had significant inhibitive effects on Helicobacter pylori（H. pylori）. Methods： This is a 4-week, randomly assigned, parallel-group, doubled-blind, and placebo-controlled study. Fifty patients with a positive H. pylori infection urea breath test（△UBT） result 〉 10% and without ulcer symptoms were randomized into a treatment group and a placebo group by a computer generated allocation sheet with 1：1. These subjects took one capsule of probiotics or placebo twice daily. The primary measurement was the change in △UBT values. Results： The △UBT values during the 4-week treatment period and the 2-week follow-up period were not significantly different between the treatment group and the placebo group, indicating that the inhibitive effects on H. pylori were comparable between both groups. The monocyte count（%） was 5.77±1.11 in the treatment group versus 5.09±1.12 in the placebo group（P=0.044）, and the basophile count was 0.55±0.32 in the treatment group versus 0.36±0.23 in the placebo group（P=0.024） at week 2 of the treatment period, both of which reached statistical significance. The monocyte count was 5.75±1.26 in the treatment group and 4.72±0.99 in the placebo group at the end of the follow-up period（P=0.003）. Conclusions： There was no significant inhibitive effects of the three probiotic strains（L. acidophilus, L. rhamnosus, and L. sporogenes） on H. pylori. Probiotics can not play the same role as antibiotics in the eradication of H. pylori, the role of probiotics is likely to be important as adjuvant to the triple or quadruple therapy for H. pylori, especially in resistance cases.