7,659 research outputs found
Coupled magnetic and elastic properties in LaPr(CaSr)MnO manganites
We investigate a series of manganese oxides, the
La0.225Pr0.4(Ca1-xSrx)0.375MnO3 system. The x = 0 sample is a prototype
compound for the study of phase separation in manganites, where ferromagnetic
and charge ordered antiferromagnetic phases coexist. Replacing Ca2+ by Sr2+
gradually turns the system into a homogeneous ferromagnet. Our results show
that the material structure plays a major role in the observed magnetic
properties. On cooling, at temperatures below 100 K, a strong contraction of
the lattice is followed by an increase in the magnetization. This is observed
both through thermal expansion and magnetostriction measurements, providing
distinct evidence of magneto-elastic coupling in these phase separated
compounds
A Framework for Efficient Adaptively Secure Composable Oblivious Transfer in the ROM
Oblivious Transfer (OT) is a fundamental cryptographic protocol that finds a
number of applications, in particular, as an essential building block for
two-party and multi-party computation. We construct a round-optimal (2 rounds)
universally composable (UC) protocol for oblivious transfer secure against
active adaptive adversaries from any OW-CPA secure public-key encryption scheme
with certain properties in the random oracle model (ROM). In terms of
computation, our protocol only requires the generation of a public/secret-key
pair, two encryption operations and one decryption operation, apart from a few
calls to the random oracle. In~terms of communication, our protocol only
requires the transfer of one public-key, two ciphertexts, and three binary
strings of roughly the same size as the message. Next, we show how to
instantiate our construction under the low noise LPN, McEliece, QC-MDPC, LWE,
and CDH assumptions. Our instantiations based on the low noise LPN, McEliece,
and QC-MDPC assumptions are the first UC-secure OT protocols based on coding
assumptions to achieve: 1) adaptive security, 2) optimal round complexity, 3)
low communication and computational complexities. Previous results in this
setting only achieved static security and used costly cut-and-choose
techniques.Our instantiation based on CDH achieves adaptive security at the
small cost of communicating only two more group elements as compared to the
gap-DH based Simplest OT protocol of Chou and Orlandi (Latincrypt 15), which
only achieves static security in the ROM
Reference priors for high energy physics
Bayesian inferences in high energy physics often use uniform prior
distributions for parameters about which little or no information is available
before data are collected. The resulting posterior distributions are therefore
sensitive to the choice of parametrization for the problem and may even be
improper if this choice is not carefully considered. Here we describe an
extensively tested methodology, known as reference analysis, which allows one
to construct parametrization-invariant priors that embody the notion of minimal
informativeness in a mathematically well-defined sense. We apply this
methodology to general cross section measurements and show that it yields
sensible results. A recent measurement of the single top quark cross section
illustrates the relevant techniques in a realistic situation
cis-Regulatory sequences driving the expression of the Hbox12 homeobox-containing gene in the presumptive aboral ectoderm territory of the Paracentrotus lividus sea urchin embryo.
Embryonic development is coordinated by networks of evolutionary conserved regulatory genes encoding transcription factors and components of cell signalling pathways. In the sea urchin embryo, a number of genes encoding transcription factors display territorial restricted expression. Among these, the zygotic Hbox12 homeobox gene is transiently transcribed in a limited number of cells of the animal-lateral half of the early Paracentrotus lividus embryo, whose descendants will constitute part of the ectoderm territory. To obtain insights on the regulation of Hbox12 expression, we have explored the cis-regulatory apparatus of the gene. In this paper, we show that the intergenic region of the tandem Hbox12 repeats drives GFP expression in the presumptive aboral ectoderm and that a 234 bp fragment, defined aboral ectoderm (AE) module, accounts for the restricted expression of the transgene. Within this module, a consensus sequence for a Sox factor and the binding of the Otx activator are both required for correct Hbox12 gene expression. Spatial restriction to the aboral ectoderm is achieved by a combination of different repressive sequence elements. Negative sequence elements necessary for repression in the endomesoderm map within the most upstream 60 bp region and nearby the Sox binding site. Strikingly, a Myb-like consensus is necessary for repression in the oral ectoderm, while down-regulation at the gastrula stage depends on a GA-rich region. These results suggest a role for Hbox12 in aboral ectoderm specification and represent our first attempt in the identification of the gene regulatory circuits involved in this process
Counting States: A Combinatorial Analysis of SQM Fragmentation
The Strange Quark matter (SQM) hypothesis states that at extreme pressure and
density conditions a new ground state of matter would arise, in which half of
the \textit{down} quarks become strange quarks. If true, it would mean that at
least the core of neutron stars is made of SQM. In this hypothesis, SQM would
be released in the inter-stellar medium when two of these objects merge. It is
estimated that of SQM would be released this way. This matter
will undergo a sequence of processes that should result in a fraction of the
released SQM becoming heavy nuclei through \textit{r-process}. In this work we
are interested in characterizing the fragmentation of SQM, with the novelty of
keeping track of the \textit{quark configuration} of the fragmented matter.
This is accomplished by developing a methodology to estimate the energy of each
fragment as the sum of its \textit{constituent quarks}, the Coulomb interaction
among the quarks and fragments' momenta. The determination of the fragmentation
output is crucial to fully characterize the subsequent nucleosynthesis.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 2 table
Comparative analysis of bed density, total phenol content and protein expression pattern in Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile
Posidonia oceanica meadows are experiencing a progressive decline, and monitoring their status is crucial for the maintenance of these ecosystems. We performed a comparativeanalysis of bed density, total phenol content and protein expression pattern to assess the conservation status of Posidonia plants from the S. Marinella (Rome, Italy) meadow. The total phenol content was inversely related to maximum bed density, confirming the relationship between high phenol content and stressful conditions. In addition, protein expression pattern profilesshowed that the number of differentially expressed proteins was dramatically reduced in the latest years compared to previous analyses. Our results support the usefulness of integrating solid descriptors, such as phenol content, with novel biochemical/molecular approaches in the monitoring of meadows
Direct carrier–envelope phase stabilization of a soliton-effect compressed sub-two-cycle pulse source through nonlinear mixing of solitonic and dispersive waves
We present a carrier–envelope phase (CEP) stabilized sub-two-cycle 5.2 fs pulse source based on soliton-effect self-compression of femtosecond laser pulses in millimetre-long highly nonlinear photonic crystal fibres. We employ a simple and efficient scheme to generate a strong (40–60 dB, configuration dependent) CEP beat signal directly from the pulse source via f-to-2f interferometry where the second harmonic of the main soliton pulse is mixed with the isolated dispersive blue/green radiation peak that is also generated in the compression process, obviating the need for additional spectral broadening mechanisms.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal)Fonds Europeen de Developpement Economique et Regional (Grant PTDC/FIS/115102/2009
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