Unconditionally Secure Oblivious Polynomial Evaluation: A Survey and New Results

Oblivious polynomial evaluation (OPE) is a two-party protocol that allows a receiver, R to learn an evaluation f(α), of a sender, S's polynomial f(x), whilst keeping both α and f(x) private. This protocol has attracted a lot of attention recently, as it has wide ranging applications in the field of cryptography. In this article we review some of these applications and, additionally, take an in-depth look at the special case of information theoretic OPE. Specifically, we provide a current and critical review of the existing information theoretic OPE protocols in the literature. We divide these protocols into two distinct cases (three-party and distributed OPE) allowing for the easy distinction and classification of future information theoretic OPE protocols. In addition to this work, we also develop several modifications and extensions to existing schemes, resulting in increased security, flexibility and efficiency. Lastly, we also identify a security flaw in a previously published OPE scheme.     

一种无证书签名方案的分析和改进

本文介绍了无证书签名的基本工作原理,介绍并分析了Hashimoto等人提出的一种无证书签名方案,对该方案进行了Ⅰ类型攻击,证明了该方案是不安全的,不能抵御超Ⅰ类型对手的攻击,对该方案提出了改进措施。     

The effect of the nutri-score label on consumer’s attitudes,taste perception and purchase intention: An experimental pilot study

A large number of studies has emerged on the environmental impacts of diets, with most studies concluding that a diet rich in plant-based foods, that are low in salt, sugar, and fat, and score high in nutritional values, confers both improved health and environmental benefits. Currently, new interventions are being implemented to improve people’s eating behavior, because most people overconsume unhealthy snacks, containing high proportions of salt, sugar and fat. The purpose of the current pilot study was to investigate the effects of the Nutri-Score label on three different snack bars on consumers’ attitudes, taste perception, and purchase intention towards these food products. An experimental study was conducted with a between subject design (food packaging with Nutri-Score label versus without) among 192 participants (M_age 31.7 years, SD 14.3 years; 63% female). Results showed that there were no effects found for the effect of the Nutri- Score label on consumers’ attitudes, taste perception and purchase intention. Bayesian analyses support the conclusion that the null hypothesis is accepted. These findings show that integrating the Nutri-Score label on food packages did not modify cognitive responses of consumers towards these food products. Changing consumption behaviors is challenging and more empirical and theoretical understanding is needed.     

Controlled Secure Direct Communication Protocol via the Three-Qubit Partially Entangled Set of States

In this paper, we first re-examine the previous protocol of controlled quantum secure direct communication of Zhang et al.’s scheme, which was found insecure under two kinds of attacks, fake entangled particles attack and disentanglement attack. Then, by changing the party of the preparation of cluster states and using unitary operations, we present an improved protocol which can avoid these two kinds of attacks. Moreover, the protocol is proposed using the three-qubit partially entangled set of states. It is more efficient by only using three particles rather than four or even more to transmit one bit secret information. Given our using state is much easier to prepare for multiqubit states and our protocol needs less measurement resource, it makes this protocol more convenient from an applied point of view.     

我国预包装食品致敏原声称情况调查

目的 了解我国预包装食品标签中致敏原声称的使用情况,为修订《预包装食品标签通则》提供建议。方法 在全国各地大中型超市进行采样或拍照,收集预包装食品致敏原标签声称信息并录入Excel,对各类食品的致敏原声称使用情况进行统计。结果 共采集8 694份样品,致敏原标签的总体标识率为21.58%(1 876/8 694),其中焙烤食品含有致敏原声称的标识率最高(65.73%, 468/712)。各致敏原成分中,关于乳及乳制品致敏原的声称率最高(17.09%,1 486/8 694),使用“可能含有”“本生产线也生产”“本加工设备也生产”“本生产工厂也加工”等常用于表明存在交叉接触的预防性致敏原声称的频率较高,主要集中在焙烤食品、膨化食品、谷物及其制品等3类食品中。结论 我国预包装食品中使用食品致敏原声称的食品种类较多,致敏原声称的使用缺乏规范,个别食品类别使用预防性致敏原声称的频率较高。致敏原声称在食品产品中广泛使用,应将其作为我国致敏原标识管理的重点。     

Background and foreground interaction: Influence of complementary colors on the search task

Labels are indispensable visual (communication) elements that completely deliver the geospatial message of maps. The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of complementary colors between the map's background and text on the readability of cartographic texts and thus on the efficiency of the map user's search task. This is compared with the use of the “traditional” black labels on the corresponding colored backgrounds. Furthermore, a number of user characteristics, such as gender and expertise, are taken into account as well. The users' eye movements were registered to study their attentive behavior during the visual search task. In addition to the complement of the color's hue, the analyses were based on the difference in luminance, which could also affect the labels' readability. The difference between the black and colored label design was significantly different versus the eye‐tracking metrics. A correlation was found between the color difference and reaction time measurement and between the luminance difference and fixation duration. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 40, 437–445, 2015     

Automatic brain tissue segmentation in MR images using hybrid atlas forest based on confidence-weighted probability matrix

The segmentation of specific tissues in an MR brain image for quantitative analysis can assist the disease diagnosis and medical research. Therefore, a robust and accurate method for automatic segmentation is necessary. Atlas-based-method is a common and effective method of automatic segmentation where an atlas refers to a pair of image consist of an intensity image and its corresponding label image. Apart from the general multi-atlas-based methods, which propagate labels through the single atlas then fuse them, we proposed a hybrid atlas forest based on confidence-weighted probability matrix to consider the atlases set as a whole and treat each voxel differently. In the framework, we first register the atlas to the image space of target and calculate the confidence of voxels in the registered atlas. Then, a confidence-weighted probability matrix is generated and it augments to the intensity image of the atlas or target for providing spatial information of the target tissue. Third, a hybrid atlas forest is trained to gather the features and correlation information among the atlases in the dataset. Finally, the segmentation of the target tissues is predicted by the trained hybrid atlas forest. The segment performance and the components efficiency of the proposed method are evaluated on the two public datasets. Based on the experiment results and quantitative comparisons, our method can gather spatial information and correlation among the atlases to obtain an accurate segmentation.     

Application of a Technofunctional Caseinate Hydrolysate to Replace Surfactants in Ice Cream

There is a demand for a clean label of ice cream in the food industry. To meet this requirement, alternative surfactants and hydrocolloids without an additive number have to be found. Here, a caseinate hydrolysate with improved interfacial properties was investigated as such an additive. Replacing only the surfactant resulted in ice cream characteristics, comparable to using a commercial emulsifier (INS 472b). Thus, a clean labeling of the surfactant using this hydrolysate is possible. By contrast, replacing the hydrocolloid additionally led to an unfavorable ice cream texture and stability.     

能源互联网智能感知技术框架与应用布局

智能感知技术是数字化的关键技术之一,是能源互联网的基础技术。在当前数字化进程深入推动能源革命的背景下,智能感知技术已成为能源互联网建设与发展的数字引擎。文章总结了能源互联网框架下智能感知技术的战略背景、业务需求及重要意义,通过分析当前存在的问题,详细阐述了智能感知技术理论及发展趋势,梳理智能感知核心技术框架,提出系统性技术标准体系,并给出了能源互联网“源-网-荷-储”智能感知应用布局,最后结合我国能源互联网发展现状,对智能感知建设路径与发展方向进行了探讨与展望。     

Trans fatty acids in commercial cookies and biscuits: An update of Portuguese market

Cookies and biscuits are a recognized source of trans fatty acids (TFA). Aware of its consumption worldwide, an update on TFA content was taken in 2012, in a total of 50 samples commercialized in Portugal. Despite the absence of specific Portuguese legislation, TFA amounts in cookies and biscuits are generally low, with TFA amounts lower than 0.1 g per 100 g, and an average of 0.6% in the extracted fat in 49 of the 50 samples analyzed. Unfortunately, one sample presented 27% of TFA in the lipids, highlighting that the problem is still present. Also, a high prevalence of saturated fatty acids was observed, as high as 92.4% in the fat (53.0% on average). This fact is also a major health concern, particularly when the reformulation of these products in the last years (2006–2012) was effective regarding TFA reduction but seemed to have occurred at expenses of increasing SFA, thus reducing the potential beneficial effect achievable by replacing with cis-unsaturated fats, as generally recommended.