Cryptanalysis of simple three-party key exchange protocol (S-3PAKE)

Password-authenticated key exchange (PAKE) protocols allow parties to share secret keys in an authentic manner based on an easily memorizable password. Recently, Lu and Cao proposed a three-party password-authenticated key exchange protocol, so called S-3PAKE, based on ideas of the Abdalla and Pointcheval two-party SPAKE extended to three parties. S-3PAKE can be seen to have a structure alternative to that of another three-party PAKE protocol (3PAKE) by Abdalla and Pointcheval. Furthermore, a simple improvement to S-3PAKE was proposed very recently by Chung and Ku to resist the kind of attacks that applied to earlier versions of 3PAKE. In this paper, we show that S-3PAKE falls to unknown key-share attacks by any other client, and undetectable online dictionary attacks by any adversary. The latter attack equally applies to the recently improved S-3PAKE. Indeed, the provable security approach should be taken when designing PAKEs; and furthermore our results highlight that extra cautions still be exercised when defining models and constructing proofs in this direction.     

Simulation of aggregate wind farm short-term production variations

The variability of wind power production poses the greatest challenge in the integration of large-scale wind power in power systems. Furthermore, larger-scale penetration implies a wider geographical spreading of installed wind power, resulting in reduced variability and the smoothing effect of total power generation. Therefore, analysis of the impact of wind power variations on power system operation requires adequate modeling of aggregate power output from geographically dispersed wind farms. This paper analyzes different aspects of Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation methods for the synthetic generation of dependent wind power time series. However, testing indicates that these approaches do not adequately model the stochastic dependence between wind power time series in conjunction with individual persistence which is necessary to obtain realistic distributions of aggregate power output and total power variations. Consequently, a novel approach based on a modified second-order Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation is proposed. Simulation results show that this method obtains synthetic time series of aggregate wind power which very closely fit the original data, with respect to both the cumulative density function of total output power and the probability density function of power variations.     

Expression of DCC protein in colorectal tumors and its relationship to tumor progression and metastasis

The strains BALB/cHeA (BALB/c) and STS/A (STS) differ in production of IL-4 and IL-10, two Th2 cytokines, after stimulation of spleen cells with Concanavalin A, STS being a low and BALB/c a high producer. We analyzed the genetic basis of this strain difference using the recombinant congenic (RC) strains of the BALB/c-c-STS/Dem (CcS/Dem) series. This series comprises 20 homozygous strains. Each CcS/Dem strain contains a different, random set of approximately 12. 5% genes of the "donor" strain STS and approximately 87.5% of the "background" strain BALB/c. We selected for further analysis the RC strain production intermediate between BALB/c and STS. In (CcS-20xBALB/c)F2 hybrids we found that different loci control expression of IL-4 and IL-10. Cypr1 (cytokine production 1) on chromosome 16 near D16Mit15 controls IL-4 production, whereas the production of IL-10 is influenced by loci Cypr2 near D1Mit14 and D1Mit227 on chromosome 1 and Cypr3 marked by D5Mit20 on chromosome 5. In addition, the relationship between the level of these two cytokines depends on the genotype of the F2 hybrids at a locus cora1 (correlation 1) on chromosome 5. This differential genetic regulation may be relevant for the understanding of biological effects of T-helper cells in mice of different genotypes.     

Evolutionary Approach to Quantum and Reversible Circuits Synthesis

The paper discusses theevolutionary computation approach to theproblem of optimal synthesis of Quantum andReversible Logic circuits. Our approach usesstandard Genetic Algorithm (GA) and itsrelative power as compared to previousapproaches comes from the encoding and theformulation of the cost and fitness functionsfor quantum circuits synthesis. We analyze newoperators and their role in synthesis andoptimization processes. Cost and fitnessfunctions for Reversible Circuit synthesis areintroduced as well as local optimizingtransformations. It is also shown that ourapproach can be used alternatively forsynthesis of either reversible or quantumcircuits without a major change in thealgorithm. Results are illustrated onsynthesized Margolus, Toffoli, Fredkin andother gates and Entanglement Circuits. This isfor the first time that several variants ofthese gates have been automatically synthesizedfrom quantum primitives.     

Telomerase activity in colorectal carcinoma and its relationship to clinicopathological findings

Telomerase is thought to be responsible for cell immortality. The telomerase activity in carcinomas has been remarked since 1995. We examined telomerase activity in colorectal carcinoma by TRAP (Telomeric repeat amplification protocol) assay, and investigated its relationship to clinicopathological findings. We could analyse telomerase activities in 33 cases (66%) of 50 colorectal carcinomas, whereas the activity was not found in all 13 cases of noncancerous colorectal mucosa. There was no relation between the telomerase activity and the clinicopathological findings or metastatic status. We confirmed telomerase activities in much of colorectal carcinomas in spite of their progression. The carcinoma cells might be immortal from their early stage of progression by means of telomerase activity.     

Defective control of apoptosis, radiosensitivity, and spindle checkpoint in ataxia telangiectasia

We examined the regulation of apoptosis, radiosensitivity, and spindle checkpoint in response to DNA-damaging agents in ataxia telangiectasia (AT)-derived lymphoblastoid cell lines (AT-LCLs), which lack AT mutated (ATM) protein expression. In addition to the previous findings that AT-LCLs are defective in regulation of cell cycle at the G1, S, and G2-M checkpoints in response to X-ray irradiation (X-IR) and are highly sensitive to X-IR (J. Biol. Chem., 271: 20486-20493, 1996), we showed for the first time that AT-LCLs were defective in X-IR-associated spindle checkpoint control. The cells were also resistant to early apoptosis as much as LCLs derived from patients with Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS-LCLs). Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated nick end labeling assay of LCLs, however, demonstrated a significant increase in apoptotic cells among AT-LCLs cultured over a longer period after X-IR. These findings were in contrast to those of LFS-LCL, which showed very little increase in terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated nick end labeling-positive population, even in cells with hyperploidy. Thus, although early apoptosis and cell cycle controls in response to DNA damage are disrupted in both ATM and p53 mutations, cells from AT patients are much more susceptible to late-onset apoptosis than those of LFS. These differences may depend on the level of accumulation of DNA damage and/or threshold that triggers late-onset cell death in ATM or p53 mutations. Our findings allow a better understanding of the role of ATM in p53-dependent and independent signal transduction pathways in response to DNA damaging agents.     

Pedestrian gender classification using combined global and local parts-based convolutional neural networks

Pattern Analysis and Applications - The identification of a person’s gender plays an important role in various visual surveillance and monitoring applications which are growing more...     

Cost Effectiveness of Ozonation and AOPs for Aromatic Compound Removal from Water: A Preliminary Study

The capital and operating costs for several aromatic compounds (phenanthrene, 2,4-dimethylphenol, 2,4,6-trichlorophenol, nitrobenzene) removal from polluted groundwater using ozonation and advanced oxidation have been estimated on the basis of the laboratory experiments in semibatch conditions. The pollutants initial concentration was in the range of 0.01–1.0 mM. In the calculations the polluted groundwater flow rate was taken 40 m³/h with the initial pH = 7.0. It is shown that polluted groundwater purification from the aromatic pollutants with the initial concentration in the range of 0.01–1.0 mM using ozonation and advanced oxidation is economically feasible.     

Transient EMF induced in LV cables due to wind turbine direct lightning strike

This paper presents a novel, easy to use, engineering method for determining the transient electromotive force (EMF) induced in low-voltage (LV) cables, connecting the wind turbine with a near-by transformer, in the event of direct lightning strike into the top of the wind turbine tower. Proposed method is based on the application of the travelling wave analysis onto the system consisted of wind turbine tower, earthing system of wind turbine, earthing system of near-by transformer station and LV cables connecting the wind turbine with associated transformer. Hence, this design gives rise to a complex, mutually connected, earthing system. Direct lightning strike to the wind turbine initiates a travelling wave process in the system consisted of lightning channel, wind turbine tower and earthing system of the wind turbine. Due to the transient nature of the observed phenomenon, current and voltage states at the earthing system as well as in the associated low-voltage cables are formed through the propagation and reflection of the accompanying travelling waves. Transient EMF induced in LV cables could endanger cable main insulation and insulation of the associated transformer LV winding. Developed theory is subsequently applied on the concrete wind turbine example.