4,565 research outputs found
XDIVINSA: eXtended DIVersifying INStruction Agent to Mitigate Power Side-Channel Leakage
Side-channel analysis (SCA) attacks pose a major threat to embedded systems due to their ease of accessibility. Realising SCA resilient cryptographic algorithms on embedded systems under tight intrinsic constraints, such as low area cost, limited computational ability, etc., is extremely challenging and often not possible. We propose a seamless and effective approach to realise a generic countermeasure against SCA attacks. XDIVINSA, an extended diversifying instruction agent, is introduced to realise the countermeasure at the microarchitecture level based on the combining concept of diversified instruction set extension (ISE) and hardware diversification. XDIVINSA is developed as a lightweight co-processor that is tightly coupled with a RISC-V processor. The proposed method can be applied to various algorithms without the need for software developers to undertake substantial design efforts hardening their implementations against SCA. XDIVINSA has been implemented on the SASEBO G-III board which hosts a Kintex-7 XC7K160T FPGA device for SCA mitigation evaluation. Experimental results based on non-specific t-statistic tests show that our solution can achieve leakage mitigation on the power side channel of different cryptographic kernels, i.e., Speck, ChaCha20, AES, and RSA with an acceptable performance overhead compared to existing countermeasures.This work has been supported in part by EPSRC via grant EP/R012288/1, under the RISE (http://www.ukrise.org) programme.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
Using Diffusion-Diffusion Exchange Spectroscopy to observe diffusion exchange in yeast
The permeability of cell membranes varies significantly across both healthy and diseased tissue, and changes in cell membrane permeability can occur during treatment response in tumours. Measurements of cell membrane permeability could therefore be useful for tumour detection and as biomarkers of treatment response in the clinic. As the diffusion of water across the cell membrane is directly dependent on cell membrane permeability, we have investigated the ability of diffusion-diffusion exchange spectroscopy to quantify the diffusion exchange of water in a suspension of yeast, as a first step towards its application in tumours
Respiratory symptoms do not reflect functional impairment in early CF lung disease.
BACKGROUND
Lung disease can develop within the first year of life in infants with cystic fibrosis (CF). However, the frequency and severity of respiratory symptoms in infancy are not known.
METHODS
We assessed respiratory symptoms in 50 infants with CF and 50 healthy matched controls from two prospective birth cohort studies. Respiratory symptoms and respiratory rate were documented by standardized weekly interviews throughout the first year. Infants performed multiple breath washout in the first weeks of life.
RESULTS
We analyzed 4552 data points (2217 in CF). Respiratory symptoms (either mild or severe) were not more frequent in infants with CF (OR:1.1;95% CI:[0.76, 1.59]; p=0.6). Higher lung clearance index and higher respiratory rate in infants with CF were not associated with respiratory symptoms.
CONCLUSIONS
We found no difference in respiratory symptoms between healthy and CF infants. These data indicate that early CF lung disease may not be captured by clinical presentation alone
Complementary networks of cortical somatostatin interneurons enforce layer specific control
The neocortex is functionally organized into layers. Layer four receives the densest bottom up sensory inputs, while layers 2/3 and 5 receive top down inputs that may convey predictive information. A subset of cortical somatostatin (SST) neurons, the Martinotti cells, gate top down input by inhibiting the apical dendrites of pyramidal cells in layers 2/3 and 5, but it is unknown whether an analogous inhibitory mechanism controls activity in layer 4. Using high precision circuit mapping, in vivo optogenetic perturbations, and single cell transcriptional profiling, we reveal complementary circuits in the mouse barrel cortex involving genetically distinct SST subtypes that specifically and reciprocally interconnect with excitatory cells in different layers: Martinotti cells connect with layers 2/3 and 5, whereas non-Martinotti cells connect with layer 4. By enforcing layer-specific inhibition, these parallel SST subnetworks could independently regulate the balance between bottom up and top down input
Understanding the impact of heavy ions and tailoring the optical properties of large-area Monolayer WS2 using Focused Ion Beam
Focused ion beam (FIB) has been used as an effective tool for precise
nanoscale fabrication. It has recently been employed to tailor defect
engineering in functional nanomaterials such as two-dimensional transition
metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), providing desirable properties in TMDC-based
optoelectronic devices. However, the damage caused by the FIB irradiation and
milling process to these delicate atomically thin materials, especially in the
extended area, has not yet been elaboratively characterised. Understanding the
correlation between lateral ion beam effects and optical properties of 2D TMDCs
is crucial in designing and fabricating high-performance optoelectronic
devices. In this work, we investigate lateral damage in large-area monolayer
WS2 caused by the gallium focused ion beam milling process. Three distinct
zones away from the milling location are identified and characterised via
steady-state photoluminescence (PL) and Raman spectroscopy. An unexpected
bright ring-shaped emission around the milled location has been revealed by
time-resolved PL spectroscopy with high spatial resolution. Our finding opens
new avenues for tailoring the optical properties of TMDCs by charge and defect
engineering via focused ion beam lithography. Furthermore, our study provides
evidence that while some localised damage is inevitable, distant destruction
can be eliminated by reducing the ion beam current. It paves the way for the
use of FIB to create nanostructures in 2D TMDCs, as well as the design and
realisation of optoelectrical devices on a wafer scale
Observation of enhanced chiral asymmetries in the inner-shell photoionization of uniaxially oriented methyloxirane enantiomers
Most large molecules are chiral in their structure: they exist as two
enantiomers, which are mirror images of each other. Whereas the rovibronic
sublevels of two enantiomers are almost identical, it turns out that the
photoelectric effect is sensitive to the absolute configuration of the ionized
enantiomer - an effect termed Photoelectron Circular Dichroism (PECD). Our
comprehensive study demonstrates that the origin of PECD can be found in the
molecular frame electron emission pattern connecting PECD to other fundamental
photophysical effects as the circular dichroism in angular distributions
(CDAD). Accordingly, orienting a chiral molecule in space enhances the PECD by
a factor of about 10
An exploratory study into the effects of a 20 minute crushed ice application on knee joint position sense during a small knee bend.
Objectives
The effect of cryotherapy on joint positioning presents conflicting debates as to whether individuals are at an increased risk of injury when returning to play or activity immediately following cryotherapy application at the knee. The aim of this study was to investigate whether a 20 minute application of crushed ice at the knee immediately affects knee joint position sense during a small knee bend.
Design
Pre and post-intervention.
Setting
University movement analysis laboratory.
Participants
Eleven healthy male participants.
Main Outcome Measures
Kinematics of the knee were measured during a weight bearing functional task pre and post cryotherapy intervention using three-dimensional motion analysis (Qualisys Medical AB Gothenburg, Sweden). Tissue cooling was measured via a digital thermometer at the knee.
Results
Results demonstrated significant reductions in the ability to accurately replicate knee joint positioning in both sagittal (P=.035) and coronal (P=.011) planes during the descent phase of a small knee bend following cryotherapy.
Conclusion
In conclusion a twenty minute application of crushed ice to the knee has an adverse effect on knee joint repositioning. Team doctors, clinicians, therapists and athletes should consider these findings when deciding to return an athlete to functional weight bearing tasks immediately following ice application at the knee, due to the potential increase risk of injury
Towards a theory of conceptual design for software
Concepts are the building blocks of software systems. They are not just subjective mental constructs, but are objective features of a system's design: increments of functionality that were consciously introduced by a designer to serve particular purposes. This essay argues for viewing the design of software in terms of concepts, with their invention (or adoption) and refinement as the central activity of software design. A family of products can be characterized by arranging concepts in a dependence graph from which coherent concept subsets can be extracted. Just as bugs can be found in the code of a function prior to testing by reviewing the programmer's argument for its correctness, so flaws can be found in a software design by reviewing an argument by the designer. This argument consists of providing, for each concept, a single compelling purpose, and demonstrating how the concept fulfills the purpose with an archetypal scenario called an 'operational principle'. Some simple conditions (primarily in the relationship between concepts and their purposes) can then be applied to reveal flaws in the conceptual design.SUTD-MIT International Design Centre (IDC
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