Server-Aided Multi-Secret Sharing Scheme for Weak Computational Devices

In the setting of (t, n) threshold secret sharing, at least t parties can reconstruct the secret, and fewer than t parties learn nothing about the secret. However, to achieve fairness, the existing secret sharing schemes either assume a trusted party exists or require running multi-round, which is not practical in a real application. In addition, the cost of verification grows dramatically with the number of participants and the communication complexity is O(t), if there is not a trusted combiner in the reconstruction phase. In this work, we propose a fair server-aided multi-secret sharing scheme for weak computational devices. The malicious behavior of clients or server providers in the scheme can be verified, and the server provider learns nothing about the secret shadows and the secrets. Unlike other secret sharing schemes, our scheme does not require interaction among users and can work in asynchronous mode, which is suitable for mobile networks or cloud computing environments since weak computational mobile devices are not always online. Moreover, in the scheme, the secret shadow is reusable, and expensive computation such as reconstruction computation and homomorphic verification computation can be outsourced to the server provider, and the users only require a small amount of computation     

Patients admitted to psychiatric hospital: Presenting problems and resolution at discharge.

Examined a cohort of admissions (N?=?280) to a 150-bed public psychiatric hospital to investigate homogeneity in patient problems and patient subtypes. The interrelationships of presenting problems, treatment provided, length of stay, resolution of presenting problems, and several other variables were also studied. Results indicated that many problems experienced by patients were not psychiatric symptoms. Most presenting problems were addressed but few resolved. The primary form of treatment was psychotropic medication. Many patients were discharged before treatment effectiveness was determined. Little association was found between diagnosis, patients' problems or patient subgroup, and psychotropic drugs prescribed. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence for the use of an internal sense of direction in homing.

Path integration, the ability to maintain a representation of location and direction on the basis of internal cues, is thought to be important for navigation and the learning of spatial relationships. Representations of location and direction in the brain, such as head direction cells, grid cells, and place cells in the limbic system, are thought to underlie navigation by path integration. While this idea is generally consistent with lesion studies, the relationship between such neural activity and behavior has not been studied on a task where animals demonstrably use a path integration strategy. Here we report the development of such a task in rats: by slowly rotating rats before their return to a trial-unique home base, we could show subjects relied on internal cues only to navigate. To illustrate how this task can be combined with recording, we show examples of simultaneously recorded head direction cells in which neural activity is closely related to rats’ homing direction. These results support the notion that rats can navigate by path integration, that this ability depends on head direction cells, and suggest a convenient behavioral paradigm for investigating the neural basis of navigation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Guaranteeing prescribed performance and contact maintenance via an approximation free robot force/position controller

In this paper, we consider the problem of force/position tracking for a robot with revolute joints in compliant contact with a kinematically known planar surface. A novel controller is designed capable of guaranteeing, for an a priori known nonsingular initial robot condition, (i) certain predefined minimum speed of response, maximum steady state error as well as overshoot concerning the force/position tracking errors, (ii) contact maintenance and (iii) bounded closed loop signals. No information regarding either the robot dynamic model or the force deformation model is required and no approximation structures are utilized to estimate them. As the tracking performance is a priori guaranteed irrespectively of the control gains selection, the only concern is to adopt those values that lead to reasonable input torques. Finally, a comparative simulation study on a 6-DOF robot illustrates the performance of the proposed controller.     

Constrained visual servoing under uncertain dynamics

In visual servoing, limitations in the field of view of the vision sensors are either ignored or treated at the kinematic level. The former can easily jeopardise task success, while the latter reduces the maximum achievable robotic motion speeds. In this work, the aforementioned literature gap is filled by designing and rigorously analysing a torque controller that guarantees prescribed transient and steady-state performance attributes on the image feature coordinate errors, while respecting the field-of-view constraints. No path planning and no information regarding the actual system dynamics are required. In addition, no approximation structures (i.e. neural networks, fuzzy systems, etc.) are utilised to acquire such knowledge. The proposed visual servo controller is static, involving very few and simple calculations to produce the control signal, making its implementation on embedded control platforms straightforward. Simulation studies are utilised to illustrate the motivation and to clarify–verify the theoretical findings.     

The reliability of relationship satisfaction: A reliability generalization meta-analysis.

We conducted a reliability-generalization meta-analysis of 7 of the most frequently used measures of relationship satisfaction: the Locke–Wallace Marital Adjustment Test (LWMAT), the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (KMS), the Quality of Marriage Index, the Relationship Assessment Scale, the Marital Opinion Questionnaire, Karney and Bradbury's (1997) semantic differential scale, and the Couples Satisfaction Index. Six hundred thirty-nine reliability coefficients from 398 articles and 636,806 individuals provided internal consistency reliability estimates for this meta-analysis. We present the average score reliabilities for each measure, characterize the variance in score reliabilities across studies, and consider sample and study characteristics that are predictive of score reliability. Overall, the KMS and the LWMAT appear to be the strongest and weakest measures, respectively, from a reliability perspective. We discuss the importance of considering reliability invariance when making cross-group comparisons and provide recommendations for researchers when electing a measure of relationship satisfaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organic food

“Organic” or “organically grown” foods are commonly represented as “food grown without pesticides; grown without artificial fertilizers; grown in soil whose humus content is increased by the additions of organic matter; grown in soil whose mineral content is increased with applications of natural mineral fertilizers; which has not been treated with preservatives, hormones, antibiotics, etc.” The substitution of “organic” for “chemical” fertilizers during the growth of plants produces no change in the nutritional or chemical properties of foods. All foods are made of “chemicals.” Traces of pesticides have been reported to be present in about 20 to 30% of both “organic” and conventional foods. These traces are usually within the official tolerance levels. Such levels are set low enough to protect consumers adequately. Indeed, there is no record of a single case of injury to a consumer resulting from the application of pesticides to food crops at permitted levels. There is no method for distinguishing between “organic” and conventional foods. The use of the term “organic” is a promotional device. Prices of “organic” foods tend to be higher than those of their conventional counterparts. A series of controlled tests showed that conventional foods were superior to corresponding “health foods” in terms of odor, color, texture, and flavor.     

SMART RHESINs—Superparamagnetic Magnetite Architecture Made of Phenolic Resin Hollow Spheres Coated with Eu(III) Containing Silica Nanoparticles for Future Quantitative Magnetic Particle Imaging Applications

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) is a powerful and rapidly growing tomographic imaging technique that allows for the non-invasive visualization of superparamagnetic nanoparticles (NPs) in living matter. Despite its potential for a wide range of applications, the intrinsic quantitative nature of MPI has not been fully exploited in biological environments. In this study, a novel NP architecture that overcomes this limitation by maintaining a virtually unchanged effective relaxation (Brownian plus Néel) even when immobilized is presented. This superparamagnetic magnetite architecture made of phenolic resin hollow spheres coated with Eu(III) containing silica nanoparticles (SMART RHESINs) was synthesized and studied. Magnetic particle spectroscopy (MPS) measurements confirm their suitability for potential MPI applications. Photobleaching studies show an unexpected photodynamic due to the fluorescence emission peak of the europium ion in combination with the phenol formaldehyde resin (PFR). Cell metabolic activity and proliferation behavior are not affected. Colocalization experiments reveal the distinct accumulation of SMART RHESINs near the Golgi apparatus. Overall, SMART RHESINs show superparamagnetic behavior and special luminescent properties without acute cytotoxicity, making them suitable for bimodal imaging probes for medical use like cancer diagnosis and treatment. SMART RHESINs have the potential to enable quantitative MPS and MPI measurements both in mobile and immobilized environments.