#contrast-induced
LightNews LightNews
dppapers.bsky.social
Parallel Composition for Statistical Privacy

Dennis Breutigam, Rüdiger Reischuk

http://arxiv.org/abs/2602.09627
Parallel Composition for Statistical Privacy Dennis Breutigam, Rüdiger Reischuk http://arxiv.org/abs/2602.09627 Differential Privacy (DP) considers a scenario in which an adversary has almost complete information about the entries of a database. This worst-case assumption is likely to overestimate the privacy threat faced by an individual in practice. In contrast, Statistical Privacy (SP), as well as related notions such as noiseless privacy or limited background knowledge privacy, describe a setting in which the adversary knows the distribution of the database entries, but not their exact realizations. In this case, privacy analysis must account for the interaction between uncertainty induced by the entropy of the underlying distributions and privacy mechanisms that distort query answers, which can be highly non-trivial. This paper investigates this problem for multiple queries (composition). A privacy mechanism is proposed that is based on subsampling and randomly partitioning the database to bound the dependency among queries. This way for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, upper privacy bounds against limited adversaries are obtained without any further restriction on the database. These bounds show that in realistic application scenarios taking the entropy of distributions into account yields improvements of privacy and precision guarantees. We illustrate examples where for fixed privacy parameters and utility loss SP allows significantly more queries than DP.
February 11, 2026 at 4:53 AM
renesugar.bsky.social
D-4F Ameliorates Contrast Media–Induced Oxidative Injuries in Endothelial Cells via the AMPK/PKC Pathway #VCAM1 #ICAM1 #MECFS #LongCovid

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
D-4F Ameliorates Contrast Media–Induced Oxidative Injuries in Endothelial Cells via the AMPK/PKC Pathway
Endothelial dysfunction is involved in the pathophysiological processes of contrast media (CM)–induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) after vascular angiography or intervention. Previous study found that apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) mimetic peptide, ...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
February 9, 2026 at 4:09 PM
eccentricradiant07.bsky.social
I love seeing Vertigo contrast Lawton's despair and suicidal ideations following the loss of his son, and how Vertigo chooses to live, taking in how despite Ivy's vile treatment of him, he was free from his chemically induced episodes. Shame knowing Jim Corrigan blew up his country after this
February 7, 2026 at 4:24 PM
epsteinweb.bsky.social
Part 1/2 — HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_013646.jpg
#epsteinweb #houseoversight013646
setting for the spiritual work toward that promised in John “...that you love one another; even as | have loved you, that you also love one another.” In contrast with what has been described in previous chapters as the entheogenic drug-induced transitions to a spiritual mind, one is tempted to describe these Fundamentalists’ states as the amphetamine religions. The Los Angeles Ram’s Hall of Fame defensive end, on very high doses of amphetamine (125 milligrams compared with the diet dose of 5 milligrams) taken four hours before the Sunday games, the Baptist minister, Deacon Jones, used his famous and consciousness annihilating head slap to daze the opposing offensive tackle in order to gain access to and injure the other team’s quarterback. Before taking the handful of Dexedrine spansuls, he would tell me, “See you on Tuesday.” Along with the Deacon’s destructive aggression was the other invariant feature of the actions of high doses of amphetamine, compulsive stereotypy, the fixity and driven repetition of over simplified actions and thoughts along with the loss of breadth of vision and adaptive flexibility. Deacon consistently rushed inside, took the inside lane, in spite of offensive linemen, who having studied previous game films, being set up to expect his route. They used this knowledge to take him out of the play. In modern theological parlance, judgmental rigidity and thinly veiled disapproval take the place of the more flexibly curious and lovingly humane feelings of the participants in the evolution in spiritual understanding of today’s liberal Protestant process religions. These are the ones that believe that the properties of God evolve along with our biology, our brains and our growing scientific understanding of ourselves and the world. Angry splitting is not just a stimulant drug effect. Recall my experience of the sudden emergence of a first second wind after a mile or so of my daily ten miles of running. It was frequently accompanied by inner
February 7, 2026 at 11:00 AM
epsteinweb.bsky.social
Part 1/2 — HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_013645.jpg
#epsteinweb #houseoversight013645
Sabbarian grid of permission obviously did not cover driving on the free way to the mental health center. It is the splitting of us from them that leads to the breakdown in empathy and compassionate identification with others. Studies of the dominance of direction of rotation within a closed space in small mammals have shown that amphetamine- induced intensification makes the choice of right versus left (or left versus right) rotation, broken symmetry, more statistically significant. In contrast, the Hefner Foundation of Switzerland has shown that entheogenic drugs such as psilocybin in man facilitate seeing both of the conflicting, simultaneously presented, right eye and left eye images in place of the usual dominance of just one of the two representations. A precondition of compassion might be that a person’s brain be able to see and comprehend both or several sides of apparently conflicting points of view at the same time. The Fundamentalists do not see things that way. In the Koran, Mohammed says, “...give sustenance to the poor man, the orphan, the captive...and for the unbelievers We have prepared fetters and chains and a blazing fire....” In the New Testament’s Mark we find the final words of the risen Jesus, “...whoever believes and is baptized will be saved but whoever does not believe will be damned.” The Crusaders’ claimed scriptural support for their murderous marches to reclaim Jerusalem. Carl Jung wrote about the New Testament’s Revelations in his Answer to Job: “...a terrifying picture that blatantly contradicts all ideas of Christian humility, tolerance, love of your neighbor and your enemies and makes nonsense of a loving father in heaven and rescuer of mankind. A veritable orgy of hatred, wrath, vindictiveness and blind destructive fury that revels in fantastic images of terror breaks out...overwhelming a world which Christ endeavored to restore to the original state of innocence and loving communion with God...” As Princeton University
February 7, 2026 at 10:59 AM
epsteinweb.bsky.social
Part 1/2 — HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_013594.jpg
#epsteinweb #houseoversight013594
episodes of rageful envy of everyone else in the world that had been spared. My wife escaped into an alcoholic flirtation with her major professor; my sons grew increasingly ensconced in the generous and kind neighborhood homes of their playmates. | metered as many hours as possible in equity growing, long lonely days in a small, dark, couch filled, university office, listening to Beverly Hills, Brentwood and West Los Angles citizens as they psychoanalyzed their mysterious lack of emotional fulfillment from materialistic fulfillment. Legend has it that Gautama’s sudden insight about the universality of this sated, bored condition occurred in 528 B.C. after 49 days of sitting in the lotus position under the bodhi tree, now called ficus religiosa. |n contrast with Buddha’s illumination, my psychoanalytic training- induced, Freudian-Darwinian instinctual conflict, driven by fears of starvation and castration, drew me tighter into the world of meaningless, coin flip probabilities. Our house was a block away from a West Los Angeles synagogue and we knew the Rabbi and his family well. Our sons played together frequently. The Rabbi tried to bring comfort to me on my death watch, with hours of discussions about trans-individual, ethnic belonging and a deeper foray into philosophical humanism. Both felt completely irrelevant to my condition. As an intern tending to those dying at night in Ochsner Foundation Hospital in New Orleans, it seemed to me that Jews tended to die more noisily than Catholics. For my personal escape from low-lying dread, | needed the metrically linear time of chronos to become the metric-free, topological, continuous surface of the twisted circular ribbon of a Mobius loop, with the view from each moment a kairos, a stretchable infinity of each moment’s internal multiplicity of times. The ruthlessly reasonable Hebraic historicity, configured by the tooth-for-a- tooth, Mosaic and Roman tfalion law, the reciprocal, economic, exchange-calculating brains
February 7, 2026 at 10:47 AM
auntminnie.bsky.social
PCCT led to lower radiation exposure, fewer adverse reactions, and lower rates of contrast-induced acute kidney injury compared with EID-CT #radiology #CT #PCCT #lungcancer buff.ly/Ppv6alt
PCCT has higher safety profile that EID-CT for lung imaging
Photon-counting CT (PCCT) leads to fewer adverse outcomes than energy-integrating detector CT (EID-CT), researchers say.
buff.ly
February 3, 2026 at 10:30 PM
cellsdev.bsky.social
A fascinating review on the role of Activin in organ induction. Isn't it wild that in Xenopus embryos, a piece of the animal cap can be induced with Activin at different concentrations and buffers to form the ❤️, kidney, the pancreas, head, tail, and even a whole embryoid 🤯:
doi.org/10.1016/j.cd...
Fig. 1. Animal cap assay and sandwich method as in vitro induction systems. In amphibians, a blastocoel cavity clearly forms inside the animal hemisphere during the blastula and early gastrula stages. The cap-like portion lining the roof of the blastocoel cavity is the animal cap. This region consists of a sheet of pluripotent cells, organized into one or several layers. In the animal cap assay, the animal cap was treated with a physiological saline solution containing inducing factors and then cultured. Depending on the type, concentration, and duration of exposure to the inducing factors, animal caps can differentiate into various cell types. In contrast, the sandwich method, involves culturing the inducer source in between two animal caps. In this technique, the sources of induction can include the dorsal lip of the blastopore (organizer), adult tissues, pelletized soluble factors, or animal caps pretreated with soluble factors. In this figure, activin is used as an example of an inducing factor. Fig. 12. Summary of the in vitro induction system using activin as an inducing factor. This in vitro induction system utilizes activin and retinoic acid as inducing factors to treat animal caps, employing techniques such as animal cap assay, dissociation/reaggregation protocol, and the sandwich method. By applying these methods, various levels of self-organization can be replicated and controlled in vitro, ranging from lower-order cell differentiation to higher-order tissue differentiation, organogenesis, and even the formation of fundamental body plans. Abbreviations: Dorsal [D], ventral [V], and retinoic acid [RA]. Fig. 11. Formation of embryoids by artificial activin concentration gradients. To create embryoids, animal caps were prepared through treatment with low (0.5–1 ng/ml), intermediate (5–10 ng/ml), or high (50–100 ng/ml) concentrations of activin. These three types of activin-treated animal caps were then sequentially arranged and cultured with untreated animal caps. After 3 days of culture, embryoids with distinct head and trunk-tail structures were formed (A). Histological sections revealed differentiation into head tissues, such as the cement gland [cg] and eyes, and trunk-tail tissues including the ear vesicle [ev], brain [br], notochord [not], muscle [mus], and gut (B). When newt embryos are used in similar combination cultures, neural plate structures forming the brain [white arrow] and axial structures forming the trunk-tail regions [black arrow] are sometimes observed (C). Fig. 7. In vitro heart formation and in vivo transplantation experiment. When treated with a high concentration of activin, the animal caps of Xenopus embryos did not differentiate into heart tissue. However, if the animal cap dissociates into individual cells before activin treatment and then reaggregates, it forms a beating heart [arrow] with 100 % efficiency (A). This heart expresses differentiation marker genes, such as Nkx2.5, GATA-4, Tbx5, MHCα, TnIc (cardiac troponin I), and ANF, none of which are expressed in an animal cap treated with activin alone, without dissociation/reaggregation (B). Electron microscopy reveals the presence of intercalated discs [id] specific to the cardiac muscle, along with visible mitochondria [m] and Z-bands [z] (C). When the reaggregated heart tissue is orthotopically transplanted into the cardiac primordium of a neurula-stage embryo, it integrates without rejection and continues to beat (D), although it does not persist through host metamorphosis. In contrast, when the reaggregated tissue is ectopically transplanted into the ventral region of the neurula, it begins to beat synchronously with the host heart and gradually reddens as it initiates blood circulation (E).
January 31, 2026 at 6:39 PM
teefofgod.bsky.social
the contrast btwn our resistance and the govt, and the experience of living with and moving through the beauty and the terror makes it almost spiritual. i am also having a trauma induced manic episode.

but the love here is real.

and there is nowhere else quite like here, i will die on that hill.
January 29, 2026 at 10:38 PM
mbickhardt.bsky.social
To account for the contrast between “system-induced” environmental destruction under capitalism and its merely “time-induced” character under socialism, GDR thinkers invoked the need to “gain time in the economic competition with the capitalist system”
January 27, 2026 at 5:19 PM
s1rr34l.bsky.social
The #GrumpyOldGit ponders the important question - why is #football #soccer called #TheBeautifulGame

#Comedy #Humour #Funny #Observation #Satire #Sarcasm #LOL #Meme #AI
The image captures a moment of domestic philosophy delivered from the sagging throne of a well-worn armchair. An elderly man - white-bearded, world-weary, and radiating the quiet authority of someone who has seen optimism come and go - raises a glass of whiskey with the deliberation of a judge passing sentence. His T-shirt reads “Beware Grumpy Old Git,” which is less a joke and more a legally binding disclaimer. In this living room, women's beach volleyball has replaced the footy. The so-called “Beautiful Game” has been ousted for a more sunlit, athletic, choreographed by physics and optimism game. The contrast is the joke. Football, with its theatrics of injury, tribal rage, and rolling around like Victorian fainting ladies, is nowhere to be seen, yet it looms heavily in the caption above, accused of aesthetic fraud. This is satire built on blunt comparison rather than subtlety. Why endure ninety minutes of mud, moaning, and VAR-induced existential dread when beauty is literally being broadcast in high definition from a beach? The man’s gaze isn’t leering; it’s contemplative. This isn’t lust, it’s critique. A cultural audit conducted with a raised eyebrow and a half-empty glass. The humour lands in its shameless honesty. It skewers football’s self-importance while cheerfully admitting that perhaps the problem isn’t sport at all, but the stories we tell ourselves about it. The image doesn’t argue. It shrugs, sips, and lets irony do the heavy lifting; like a pub philosopher who’s done pretending that rolling about on wet grass is art when there’s clearly a better offer on the other channel.
January 26, 2026 at 2:47 PM
vonmallinckrodt.bsky.social
Dreaming …

may act as a nonlinear regulator that maintains cognitive coherence under social and environmental stress.

It may prevent representational overfitting rather than merely consolidating memory.🖖
Scientific Image Description (English) The image visualizes a nonlinear cohesion-regulation model of a complex adaptive system, exemplified by the dreaming human as a carrier of a hierarchical generative model. The central composition is dominated by a glowing S-shaped curve, symbolizing a hysteretic state dynamic. This curve represents transitions between distinct regimes of system stability, ranging from integrative coherence to critical instability and shock-induced breakdown. The left side of the image depicts a highly structured, networked urban environment, overlaid with symbolic representations of neural networks, mechanical elements, and abstract mathematical notation. This region corresponds to the collective sociosemantic representation field (Fₖ): an ordered domain of language, technology, institutions, and shared expectations acting as a semantic attractor for individual cognition. The visual order implies low divergence and high predictability. In contrast, the right side presents a chaotic, physically extreme landscape, characterized by volcanic eruptions, storms, destruction, and disrupted spatial coherence. This side represents invariant boundary conditions (Fᵤ)—physical, biological, and ecological constraints that exist independently of social narratives and serve as hard validation limits for internal models. The imagery conveys high entropy and non-negotiable system constraints. The solitary human figure positioned at the edge of a cliff symbolizes the individual generative model (Fᵢ). Its placement between order and chaos highlights the structural tension arising from divergence between personal beliefs, collective semantic structures, and universal invariants. The figure’s observational stance suggests that these dynamics operate largely below conscious awareness, rather than through deliberate control. The central S-curve functions as a visual analogue of the nonlinear hysteresis described in the accompanying whitepaper. The upper stable s… Das Bild visualisiert ein nichtlineares Kohärenz-Regulationsmodell eines komplex adaptiven Systems, dargestellt am Beispiel des träumenden Menschen als Träger eines hierarchischen generativen Modells. Die zentrale Komposition wird durch eine S-förmige, leuchtende Kurve bestimmt, die den Verlauf einer hysteretischen Zustands-dynamik symbolisiert. Diese Kurve repräsentiert den Übergang zwischen unterschiedlichen Regimen der Systemstabilität - von integrativer Kohärenz über kritische Instabilität bis hin zu Schock- und Kollaps-zuständen. Die linke Bildhalfte zeigt eine strukturierte, vernetzte urbane Umgebung, durchzogen von symbolischen Darstellungen neuronaler Netze, Zahnräder und abstrahierter mathematischer Notation. Diese Seite steht für das kollektive soziosemantische Repräsentationsfeld (Fk): eine Ordnung aus Sprache, Technologie, Institutionen und kulturellen Erwartungen, die als semantischer Attraktor auf das individuelle kognitive Modell wirkt. Die visuelle Ordnung deutet auf geringe Divergenz und hohe Vorhersagbarkeit hin. Die rechte Bildhalfte kontrastiert dies mit einer chaotischen, physikalisch extremen Landschaft: eruptive vulkanische Aktivität, Stürme, Zerstörung und aufgelöste Raum-Zeit-Strukturen. Diese Seite repräsentiert die invarianten Randbedingungen (Fu) - physikalische, biologische und ökologische Constraints, die unabhär & von sozialen Narrativen🖖 Constraints, die unabhängig von sozialen Narrativen existieren und als harte Validierungsgrenzen für interne Modelle fungieren. Die Bildsprache verweist auf hohe Entropie und nicht verhandelbare System-grenzen. Die menschliche Figur am Rand der Klippe symbolisiert das individuelle generative Modell (Fi). Ihre exponierte Position zwischen Ordnung und Chaos verdeutlicht die strukturelle Spannung, die aus der Divergenz zwischen individuellen Überzeugungen, kollektiven Bedeutungsstrukturen und universellen Invarianten entsteht. Die Figur ist nicht aktiv handelnd dargestellt, sondern beobachtend - ein Hinweis darauf, dass die dargestellten Dynamiken überwiegend unterhalb bewusster Kontrolle operieren. Die zentrale S-Kurve fungiert als visuelle Metapher für die im Whitepaper beschriebene nichtlineare Hysterese der Traumdynamik. Der obere stabile Abschnitt steht für integrative Traumzustände, in denen moderate Divergenzen durch semantische Rekonfiguration ausgeglichen werden. Der steile Übergang markiert den kritischen Kipppunkt, an dem das System in einen Schockzustand (Albtraum-Regime) übergeht, um einen radikalen Modell-abgleich zu erzwingen. Der untere Abschnitt symbolisiert Zustände des Resonance Muting, in denen narrative Integration temporär unterbrochen wird, um systemische Fragmentierung zu verhindern.🖖 exponierte Position zwischen Uranung una Chaos verdeutlicht die strukturelle Spannung, die aus der Divergenz zwischen individuellen Überzeugungen, kollektiven Bedeutungsstrukturen und universellen Invarianten entsteht. Die Figur ist nicht aktiv handelnd dargestellt, sondern beobachtend - ein Hinweis darauf, dass die dargestellten Dynamiken überwiegend unterhalb bewusster Kontrolle operieren. Die zentrale S-Kurve fungiert als visuelle Metapher für die im Whitepaper beschriebene nichtlineare Hysterese der Traumdynamik. Der obere stabile Abschnitt steht für integrative Traumzustände, in denen moderate Divergenzen durch semantische Rekonfiguration ausgeglichen werden. Der steile Übergang markiert den kritischen Kipppunkt, an dem das System in einen Schockzustand (Albtraum-Regime) übergeht, um einen radikalen Modell-abgleich zu erzwingen. Der untere Abschnitt symbolisiert Zustände des Resonance Muting, in denen narrative Integration temporar unterbrochen wird, um systemische Fragmentierung zu verhindern. Insgesamt veranschaulicht das Bild Träumen nicht als Nebenprodukt neuronaler Aktivität, sondern als notwendigen Regulierungsmechanismus, der adaptive Varianz bereitstellt und eine Überanpas-sung (Singularisierung) des individuellen Modells an starre kollektive Strukturen ebenso verhindert wie dessen Entkopplung von universellen Realitäts-bedingungen.🖖
January 24, 2026 at 6:50 PM
jofmicroscopy.bsky.social
🔬 In this new paper, the authors state that single-mask edge illumination x-ray phase contrast micro-CT improves 3D imaging of weakly attenuating samples. The beam is modulated into 'beamlets' aligned to pixel boundaries by the mask, so their refraction-induced deviations can be used to form images.
January 20, 2026 at 3:11 PM
wukang.bsky.social
"Thus, the robust efficacy of IV-BCG in SIV+ MCM is retained regardless of anti-BCG drug treatment, indicating that BCG does not need to survive long to provide protection."

"In contrast, SIV control was necessary for full protection induced by IV-BCG."

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41510269/
Viral control is required for intravenous BCG-mediated protection against tuberculosis in simian immunodeficiency virus-infected macaques - PubMed
Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), is a major global health challenge, especially for people living with HIV (PLWH) not on antiretroviral therapy. We previously showed that intravenous Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (IV-BCG) provides robust protection in SIV+ Mauritian cynomolg …
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
January 10, 2026 at 1:16 AM
eprint.ing.bot
EGC-Stream: Design, Cryptanalysis, and Hardware Evaluation of an Expander-Graph-Based Stream Cipher (W.A. Susantha Wijesinghe) ia.cr/2026/009
Abstract. This paper introduces a design methodology for synchronous stream ciphers based on sparse expander graphs as the primary state evolution mechanism, and demonstrates its viability through EGC-Stream, a concrete 128-bit cipher instance. In contrast to conventional designs built around LFSR/NLFSR feedback or complex filtering functions, the proposed approach derives security from structural diffusion induced by a regular Cayley graph combined with a uniform nonlinear Boolean update rule. Key material is injected through a lightweight LFSR mechanism that is deliberately decoupled from the diffusion structure, enabling clear separation between state mixing and key influence. The cipher operates on a 128-bit internal state composed of a 64-bit primary expander-based state and a 64-bit LFSR, and produces one keystream bit per clock cycle following a fixed 256-cycle warm-up phase. Security is evaluated using exact solver-based bounds for short-round differential and linear trails, complemented by empirical algebraic and statistical experiments. These results characterize the cipher’s local trail behavior and observed output properties under the tested configurations. Complementary algebraic experiments based on black-box Algebraic Normal Form (ANF) reconstruction demonstrate rapid saturation of algebraic degree and dense Boolean representations of keystream bits. Statistical evaluation using the NIST SP 800-22 test suite confirms the absence of detectable biases within the tested limits. Hardware efficiency is assessed through baseline FPGA and ASIC implementations. On an Artix-7 FPGA, EGC-Stream achieves deterministic single-bit-per-cycle output with modest resource usage and competitive throughput. ASIC synthesis in a 45 nm standard-cell library results in a compact implementation within the range of established lightweight stream ciphers. Overall, EGC–Stream demonstrates that expander-graph-based diffusion provides a practical, hardware-friendly, and analytically tractable foundation for stream cipher design. Image showing part 2 of abstract.
January 9, 2026 at 2:31 AM
mvargam.bsky.social
Yet, in the same year (while still at Yale) she did publish an abstract in Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. about a transplantation experiment about which I was always dreaming as a PhD student (not knowing that it was done 70 years prior): putting a fish organizer into a newt embryo. (3/4)
Introductory parts of the 1936 abstract: "8659 C Structures Developed in Amphibians by Implantation of Living Fish Organizer. JANE M. OPPENHEIMER.*(Introduced by J. S. Nicholas.) From Osborn Zoological Laboratory, Yale University. The study of mutual interactions between developing fish andamphibian tissue was tested by implanting parts of fish blastulxinto the blastwcele of developing amphibians. This method appliesalso t o the study of the capacity for differentiation of isolated em-bryonic cells of the teleostean. Halves of blastula of the eggs ofDanio rerio (the Zebra fish), isolated from their yolk an hourbefore the commencement of the visible processes of gastrulation,were implanted into the blastoccele of Triturus torosus eggs. Thehosts were fixed after 10 days of development." Highlighted text from the results part of the abstract: "The induction consisted of well-differentiatedunilateral medulla, an auditory ganglion and an auditory vesicle.The indwed medulla formed 1)y the amphibian cells was similarin ccnfiguration to normal amphihian medulla; it was coextensivewith the fish notochord in length. In contrast to this, the inducedauditory vesicle u-as situated anterior to the fish notochord andthe induced amphibian medulla, and probably was induced directlyby the amphibian medulla."
January 4, 2026 at 7:46 PM
healingfromlc.bsky.social
I wasn’t told beforehand but I know now. And a lot of people I talk to now who have contrast-induced insomnia had CTAs, so I think it could be a risk factor.
December 27, 2025 at 3:15 PM
plosbiology.org
Is #Bsubtilis a good model for the spore-forming #anthrax #pathogen B. anthracis? This study identifies >150 B. anthracis #sporulation genes and cytologically phenotypes the mutants, revealing similarities & striking differences between model & pathogen @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3YsvlyZ
Conserved B. anthracis sporulation genes have mutant phenotypes that are similar, but not identical, to B. subtilis mutants. Top: Representative fluorescence and phase-contrast micrographs of sporulating B. anthracis and B. subtilis. Wild-type strains were induced to sporulate by nutrient exhaustion at 37 °C in PA (B. anthracis) or DSM (B. subtilis). Time after the onset of sporulation is indicated in the top left corner of the B. anthracis images. The membranes were stained (0–5 hour) with TMA-DPH. Bottom: Representative fluorescence images of the indicated B. anthracis mutants at hour 4 of sporulation. All strains harbor forespore (PspoIIQ-yfp) and mother cell (PspoIID-cfp) transcriptional reporters. σF activity in the forespore (SigF) and σE activity in the mother cell (SigE) were visualized with YFP (false-colored green) and CFP (false-colored red), respectively. The membranes were stained with TMA-DPH. Disporic cells in spoIIR::Tn (yellow carets), impaired engulfment in spoIID::Tn and spoIIQ::Tn (white carets), and small forespores in spoIIIAE::Tn (light blue carets) are highlighted. Scale bars indicate 5 μm.
December 16, 2025 at 8:55 AM
plosbiology.org
Is #Bsubtilis a good model for the spore-forming #anthrax #pathogen B. anthracis? This study identifies >150 B. anthracis #sporulation genes and cytologically phenotypes the mutants, revealing similarities & striking differences between model & pathogen @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3YsvlyZ
Conserved B. anthracis sporulation genes have mutant phenotypes that are similar, but not identical, to B. subtilis mutants. Top: Representative fluorescence and phase-contrast micrographs of sporulating B. anthracis and B. subtilis. Wild-type strains were induced to sporulate by nutrient exhaustion at 37 °C in PA (B. anthracis) or DSM (B. subtilis). Time after the onset of sporulation is indicated in the top left corner of the B. anthracis images. The membranes were stained (0–5 hour) with TMA-DPH. Bottom: Representative fluorescence images of the indicated B. anthracis mutants at hour 4 of sporulation. All strains harbor forespore (PspoIIQ-yfp) and mother cell (PspoIID-cfp) transcriptional reporters. σF activity in the forespore (SigF) and σE activity in the mother cell (SigE) were visualized with YFP (false-colored green) and CFP (false-colored red), respectively. The membranes were stained with TMA-DPH. Disporic cells in spoIIR::Tn (yellow carets), impaired engulfment in spoIID::Tn and spoIIQ::Tn (white carets), and small forespores in spoIIIAE::Tn (light blue carets) are highlighted. Scale bars indicate 5 μm.
December 15, 2025 at 5:35 PM
plosbiology.org
Is #Bsubtilis a good model for the spore-forming #anthrax #pathogen B. anthracis? This study identifies >150 B. anthracis #sporulation genes and cytologically phenotypes the mutants, revealing similarities & striking differences between model & pathogen @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3YsvlyZ
Conserved B. anthracis sporulation genes have mutant phenotypes that are similar, but not identical, to B. subtilis mutants. Top: Representative fluorescence and phase-contrast micrographs of sporulating B. anthracis and B. subtilis. Wild-type strains were induced to sporulate by nutrient exhaustion at 37 °C in PA (B. anthracis) or DSM (B. subtilis). Time after the onset of sporulation is indicated in the top left corner of the B. anthracis images. The membranes were stained (0–5 hour) with TMA-DPH. Bottom: Representative fluorescence images of the indicated B. anthracis mutants at hour 4 of sporulation. All strains harbor forespore (PspoIIQ-yfp) and mother cell (PspoIID-cfp) transcriptional reporters. σF activity in the forespore (SigF) and σE activity in the mother cell (SigE) were visualized with YFP (false-colored green) and CFP (false-colored red), respectively. The membranes were stained with TMA-DPH. Disporic cells in spoIIR::Tn (yellow carets), impaired engulfment in spoIID::Tn and spoIIQ::Tn (white carets), and small forespores in spoIIIAE::Tn (light blue carets) are highlighted. Scale bars indicate 5 μm.
December 15, 2025 at 2:00 PM
dppapers.bsky.social
Prediction with Expert Advice under Local Differential Privacy

Ben Jacobsen, Kassem Fawaz

http://arxiv.org/abs/2512.06971
Prediction with Expert Advice under Local Differential Privacy Ben Jacobsen, Kassem Fawaz http://arxiv.org/abs/2512.06971 We study the classic problem of prediction with expert advice under the constraint of local differential privacy (LDP). In this context, we first show that a classical algorithm naturally satisfies LDP and then design two new algorithms that improve it: RW-AdaBatch and RW-Meta. For RW-AdaBatch, we exploit the limited-switching behavior induced by LDP to provide a novel form of privacy amplification that grows stronger on easier data, analogous to the shuffle model in offline learning. Drawing on the theory of random walks, we prove that this improvement carries essentially no utility cost. For RW-Meta, we develop a general method for privately selecting between experts that are themselves non-trivial learning algorithms, and we show that in the context of LDP this carries no extra privacy cost. In contrast, prior work has only considered data-independent experts. We also derive formal regret bounds that scale inversely with the degree of independence between experts. Our analysis is supplemented by evaluation on real-world data reported by hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic; RW-Meta outperforms both the classical baseline and a state-of-the-art \textit{central} DP algorithm by 1.5-3$\times$ on the task of predicting which hospital will report the highest density of COVID patients each week.
December 9, 2025 at 4:53 AM
allergy-eaaci.bsky.social
Dynamic Regulation of Collagens, Proteases, Their Inhibitors, and Cell Death in Experimental #Asthma in Mice. First author: Marlena Tynecka; corresponding author: Andrzej Eljaszewicz

👉 doi.org/10.1111/all.70126

#Allergy_journal

Read more articles 👉 journalallergy.com/Asthma-Lower-Airways
This study investigates airway remodeling in acute and chronic experimental #asthma models induced by house dust mite extract to elucidate inflammatory and structural changes. Two acute T2-low models demonstrated pronounced airway inflammation characterized by goblet cell hyperplasia, collagen deposition, and significant upregulation of extracellular matrix remodeling and fibroblast activation. In contrast, the chronic Th17-mediated model exhibited reduced extracellular matrix deposition, increased matrix metalloproteinase activity, and a distinct molecular signature dominated by IL-17A-driven pathways, indicative of extracellular matrix degradation and structural instability.
December 3, 2025 at 4:53 PM
It is probably heating induced by the magnets - I was in an MRI playing "Has this dude any gallstones"? and no contrast or anything. Felt I was being cooked.

That Trump doesn't know what was being scanned is just not plausible as well.

And: hope you are well now!
December 1, 2025 at 7:20 PM
paulginva.bsky.social
Yet another study finding that building more housing, even “luxury” condos, makes housing more affordable overall. Left-NIMBYs are so frustrating because we share the same goal of more affordable housing, but their policies make housing less affordable.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Abstract We test whether new condominium construction generates vacancies in a lo-cal housing market through induced moves. Using detailed address-history mi-crodata, we track households who moved into a newly built 512-unit condo-minium tower in Honolulu, Hawai'i, which included both market-rate and income-restricted units. We identify prior addresses and follow vacancy chains across multiple rounds of moves. The vacated homes were substantially cheaper than the new units and spanned diverse locations and housing types. Income-restricted units produced fewe condary vacancies, but those vacancies were concentrated at lower price points. Our results show that new condominium construction eases supply constraints and expands affordability in a local housing market and the contrast between market-rate and income-restricted units has importa mplica-tions for inclusionary zoning policies.
November 28, 2025 at 11:26 PM