The Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the New Technology Demonstration Program

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory is one of four National Labs implementing the Federal Energy Management Program`s New Technology Demonstration Program for the Department of Energy. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory has an extensive history of working on energy-related projects in both the public and private domain. Work on this program is intended to bring the strength of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory technology development abilities and unique facilities to bear on the technical challenges associated with evaluating energy efficient technologies. This paper describes some energy-related experiences at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the New Technology Demonstration Program at the Lab. The five technologies that the Lab is supporting in this Program are introduced. One of the technologies being evaluated, a retrofit system for rooftop units, is described in detail

Computational Indistinguishability between Quantum States and Its Cryptographic Application

We introduce a computational problem of distinguishing between two specific quantum states as a new cryptographic problem to design a quantum cryptographic scheme that is "secure" against any polynomial-time quantum adversary. Our problem, QSCDff, is to distinguish between two types of random coset states with a hidden permutation over the symmetric group of finite degree. This naturally generalizes the commonly-used distinction problem between two probability distributions in computational cryptography. As our major contribution, we show that QSCDff has three properties of cryptographic interest: (i) QSCDff has a trapdoor; (ii) the average-case hardness of QSCDff coincides with its worst-case hardness; and (iii) QSCDff is computationally at least as hard as the graph automorphism problem in the worst case. These cryptographic properties enable us to construct a quantum public-key cryptosystem, which is likely to withstand any chosen plaintext attack of a polynomial-time quantum adversary. We further discuss a generalization of QSCDff, called QSCDcyc, and introduce a multi-bit encryption scheme that relies on similar cryptographic properties of QSCDcyc.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figures. We improved presentation, and added more detail proofs and follow-up of recent wor

Epithelial IL-6 trans-signaling defines a new asthma phenotype with increased airway inflammation

Background: Although several studies link high levels of IL-6 and soluble IL-6 receptor (sIL-6R) to asthma severity and decreased lung function, the role of IL-6 trans-signaling (IL-6TS) in asthmatic patients is unclear. Objective: We sought to explore the association between epithelial IL-6TS pathway activation and molecular and clinical phenotypes in asthmatic patients. Methods: An IL-6TS gene signature obtained from air-liquid interface cultures of human bronchial epithelial cells stimulated with IL-6 and sIL-6R was used to stratify lung epithelial transcriptomic data (Unbiased Biomarkers in Prediction of Respiratory Disease Outcomes [U-BIOPRED] cohorts) by means of hierarchical clustering. IL-6TS-specific protein markers were used to stratify sputum biomarker data (Wessex cohort). Molecular phenotyping was based on transcriptional profiling of epithelial brushings, pathway analysis, and immunohistochemical analysis of bronchial biopsy specimens. Results: Activation of IL-6TS in air-liquid interface cultures reduced epithelial integrity and induced a specific gene signature enriched in genes associated with airway remodeling. The IL-6TS signature identified a subset of patients with IL-6TS-high asthma with increased epithelial expression of IL-6TS-inducible genes in the absence of systemic inflammation. The IL-6TS-high subset had an overrepresentation of frequent exacerbators, blood eosinophilia, and submucosal infiltration of T cells and macrophages. In bronchial brushings Toll-like receptor pathway genes were upregulated, whereas expression of cell junction genes was reduced. Sputum sIL-6R and IL-6 levels correlated with sputum markers of remodeling and innate immune activation, in particular YKL-40, matrix metalloproteinase 3, macrophage inflammatory protein 1 beta, IL-8, and IL-1 beta. Conclusions: Local lung epithelial IL-6TS activation in the absence of type 2 airway inflammation defines a novel subset of asthmatic patients and might drive airway inflammation and epithelial dysfunction in these patients.Peer reviewe

From fire to ice

Absorption chillers are heat-operate refrigeration without harmful environmental emissions (CFCs, HCFCS, and HFCS). The machine uses either steam or a gas-fired burner as the energy source and utilizes endothermic evaporation to provide refrigeration to an external process fluid, usually chilled water. In the United States, absorption chillers are used in regions where the cost of electricity is high relative to natural gas. Absorption chillers are also used in applications where steam is readily available or in areas where seasonal load peaks cause utilities to subsidize gas cooling. This paper will describe the history of absorption, the basic absorption refrigeration cycle and some advanced high efficiency cycles. Practical applications of absorption refrigeration to commercial end uses will also be discussed

Refrigeration in a world without CFCs

In an era of heightened awareness of energy efficiency and the associated environmental impacts, many industries, worldwide, are exploring ``environmentally friendly`` technologies that provide equivalent or improved performance while reducing or eliminating harmful side effects. The refrigeration and air conditioning industry, due to its reliance on CFCs and HCFCs has invested in research in alternatives to the industry standard vapor compression machines. One alternative technology with great promise is chemical absorption. Absorption chillers offer comparable refrigeration output with reduced SO{sub 2}, CO{sub 2}, and NO{sub x} emissions. Additionally, absorption chillers do not use CFCs or HCFCs, refrigerants that contribute to ozone depletion and global warming. The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction for those new to absorption technology as well as a discussion of selected high efficiency cycles and environmental impacts for those familiar with absorption. The introduction will include a brief history of absorption and a description of the basic refrigeration cycle, while the advanced sections will discuss triple-effect technology and a life-cycle or ``systems`` approach to evaluating global warming impacts

Highly polymorphic microsatellite loci of the heavily fished squid genus Illex (Ommastrephidae).

Ommastrephid squid of the genus Illex form an important trophic component of large areas of the Atlantic ocean, both as prey for fish, seabirds, whales and other cephalopods, and as predators themselves. Three species occupy extensive coastal and offshore distributions in the southwest (Illex argentinus), northwest (Illex illecebrosus) and northeast (Illex coindetti) Atlantic. As for many squid, the biology of Illex is poorly understood because direct observational methods for studying their population biology and behaviour are constrained by logistics and difficulties with traditional morphological techniques. The application of molecular genetic markers in squid has also been problematic, as allozyme (e.g. Carvalho et al. 1992) and mitochondrial (Norman et al. 1994) markers have shown insufficient variability for inferring population structure, migration and mating patterns. The need for suitable markers has become more urgent since the development in 1985 of an intensive fishery targeting I. argentinus, one of the largest (300 000 tons per annum) for any molluscan. The other two species are also the targets of fisheries. A study of another squid (Shaw 1997) showed that microsatellite DNA regions are abundant and highly polymorphic in this group, identifying their potential for population discrimination and individual identification (Shaw & Boyle 1997). We have isolated polymorphic microsatellite markers from I. argentinus, and tested their potential utility for defining population structure and variability in each of the three Illex species, and the wider application of primers to other genera within the Cephalopoda

A Note on Quantum Security for Post-Quantum Cryptography

Shor's quantum factoring algorithm and a few other efficient quantum algorithms break many classical crypto-systems. In response, people proposed post-quantum cryptography based on computational problems that are believed hard even for quantum computers. However, security of these schemes against \emph{quantum} attacks is elusive. This is because existing security analysis (almost) only deals with classical attackers and arguing security in the presence of quantum adversaries is challenging due to unique quantum features such as no-cloning. This work proposes a general framework to study which classical security proofs can be restored in the quantum setting. Basically, we split a security proof into (a sequence of) classical security reductions, and investigate what security reductions are "quantum-friendly". We characterize sufficient conditions such that a classical reduction can be "lifted" to the quantum setting. We then apply our lifting theorems to post-quantum signature schemes. We are able to show that the classical generic construction of hash-tree based signatures from one-way functions and and a more efficient variant proposed in~\cite{BDH11} carry over to the quantum setting. Namely, assuming existence of (classical) one-way functions that are resistant to efficient quantum inversion algorithms, there exists a quantum-secure signature scheme. We note that the scheme in~\cite{BDH11} is a promising (post-quantum) candidate to be implemented in practice and our result further justifies it. Finally we demonstrate the generality of our framework by showing that several existing works (Full-Domain hash in the quantum random-oracle model~\cite{Zha12ibe} and the simple hybrid arguments framework in~\cite{HSS11}) can be reformulated under our unified framework.Comment: To appear in PQCrypto2014. Same content with different formattin