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Civitas: Toward a Secure Voting System
Civitas is the first electronic voting system that is coercion-resistant, universally and voter verifiable, and suitable for remote voting. This paper describes the design and implementation of Civitas. Assurance is established in the design through security proofs, and in the implementation through information-flow security analysis. Experimental results give a quantitative evaluation of the tradeoffs between time, cost, and security.Engineering and Applied Science
Cell-based therapies for stroke : promising solution or dead end?
The introduction of recanalization procedures has revolutionized acute stroke management, although the narrow time window, strict eligibility criteria and logistical limitations still exclude the majority of patients from treatment. In addition, residual deficits are present in many patients who undergo therapy, preventing their return to premorbid status. Hence, there is a strong need for novel, and ideally complementary, approaches to stroke management.
In preclinical experiments, cell-based treatments have demonstrated beneficial effects in the subacute and chronic stages following stroke [1; 2; 3] and therefore are considered a promising option to supplement current clinical practice. At the same time, great progress has been made in developing clinically feasible delivery and monitoring protocols [4]. However, efficacy results initially reported in clinical studies fell short of expectations [5] raising concerns that cell treatment might eventually share the ‘dead end fate’ of many previous experimental stroke therapies. This Research Topic reviews some of the latest and most innovative studies to summarize the state of the art in translational cell treatments for stroke
GAT3 selective substrate l-isoserine upregulates GAT3 expression and increases functional recovery after a focal ischemic stroke in mice
Rational solutions of the discrete time Toda lattice and the alternate discrete Painleve II equation
The Yablonskii-Vorob'ev polynomials , which are defined by a second
order bilinear differential-difference equation, provide rational solutions of
the Toda lattice. They are also polynomial tau-functions for the rational
solutions of the second Painlev\'{e} equation (). Here we define
two-variable polynomials on a lattice with spacing , by
considering rational solutions of the discrete time Toda lattice as introduced
by Suris. These polynomials are shown to have many properties that are
analogous to those of the Yablonskii-Vorob'ev polynomials, to which they reduce
when . They also provide rational solutions for a particular
discretisation of , namely the so called {\it alternate discrete}
, and this connection leads to an expression in terms of the Umemura
polynomials for the third Painlev\'{e} equation (). It is shown that
B\"{a}cklund transformation for the alternate discrete Painlev\'{e} equation is
a symplectic map, and the shift in time is also symplectic. Finally we present
a Lax pair for the alternate discrete , which recovers Jimbo and Miwa's
Lax pair for in the continuum limit .Comment: 23 pages, IOP style. Title changed, and connection with Umemura
polynomials adde
Zolpidem is a potent stoichiometry-selective modulator of α1β3 GABAA receptors : evidence of a novel benzodiazepine site in the α1-α1 interface
Zolpidem is not a typical GABAA receptor hypnotic. Unlike benzodiazepines, zolpidem modulates tonic GABA currents in the rat dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus, exhibits residual effects in mice lacking the benzodiazepine binding site, and improves speech, cognitive and motor function in human patients with severe brain injury. The receptor by which zolpidem mediates these effects is not known. In this study we evaluated binary α1β3 GABAA receptors in either the 3α1:2β3 or 2α1:3β3 subunit stoichiometry, which differ by the existence of either an α1-α1 interface, or a β3-β3 interface, respectively. Both receptor stoichiometries are readily expressed in Xenopus oocytes, distinguished from each other by using GABA, zolpidem, diazepam and Zn2+. At the 3α1:2β3 receptor, clinically relevant concentrations of zolpidem enhanced GABA in a flumazenil-sensitive manner. The efficacy of diazepam was significantly lower compared to zolpidem. No modulation by either zolpidem or diazepam was detected at the 2α1:3β3 receptor, indicating that the binding site for zolpidem is at the α1-α1 interface, a site mimicking the classical α1-γ2 benzodiazepine site. Activating α1β3 (3α1:2β3) receptors may, in part, mediate the physiological effects of zolpidem observed under distinct physiological and clinical conditions, constituting a potentially attractive drug target
Mappings preserving locations of movable poles: a new extension of the truncation method to ordinary differential equations
The truncation method is a collective name for techniques that arise from
truncating a Laurent series expansion (with leading term) of generic solutions
of nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs). Despite its utility in
finding Backlund transformations and other remarkable properties of integrable
PDEs, it has not been generally extended to ordinary differential equations
(ODEs). Here we give a new general method that provides such an extension and
show how to apply it to the classical nonlinear ODEs called the Painleve
equations. Our main new idea is to consider mappings that preserve the
locations of a natural subset of the movable poles admitted by the equation. In
this way we are able to recover all known fundamental Backlund transformations
for the equations considered. We are also able to derive Backlund
transformations onto other ODEs in the Painleve classification.Comment: To appear in Nonlinearity (22 pages
Control intervention design for preclinical and clinical trials: consensus-based core recommendations from the third Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Roundtable
Control comparator selection is a critical trial design issue. Preclinical and clinical investigators who are doing trials of stroke recovery and rehabilitation interventions must carefully consider the appropriateness and relevance of their chosen control comparator as the benefit of an experimental intervention is established relative to a comparator. Establishing a strong rationale for a selected comparator improves the integrity of the trial and validity of its findings. This Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Roundtable (SRRR) taskforce used a graph theory voting system to rank the importance and ease of addressing challenges during control comparator design. "Identifying appropriate type of control" was ranked easy to address and very important, "variability in usual care" was ranked hard to address and of low importance, and "understanding the content of the control and how it differs from the experimental intervention" was ranked very important but not easy to address. The CONtrol DeSIGN (CONSIGN) decision support tool was developed to address the identified challenges and enhance comparator selection, description, and reporting. CONSIGN is a web-based tool inclusive of seven steps that guide the user through control comparator design. The tool was refined through multiple rounds of pilot testing that included more than 130 people working in neurorehabilitation research. Four hypothetical exemplar trials, which span preclinical, mood, aphasia, and motor recovery, demonstrate how the tool can be applied in practice. Six consensus recommendations are defined that span research domains, professional disciplines, and international borders.</p
B\"acklund transformations for the second Painlev\'e hierarchy: a modified truncation approach
The second Painlev\'e hierarchy is defined as the hierarchy of ordinary
differential equations obtained by similarity reduction from the modified
Korteweg-de Vries hierarchy. Its first member is the well-known second
Painlev\'e equation, P2.
In this paper we use this hierarchy in order to illustrate our application of
the truncation procedure in Painlev\'e analysis to ordinary differential
equations. We extend these techniques in order to derive auto-B\"acklund
transformations for the second Painlev\'e hierarchy. We also derive a number of
other B\"acklund transformations, including a B\"acklund transformation onto a
hierarchy of P34 equations, and a little known B\"acklund transformation for P2
itself.
We then use our results on B\"acklund transformations to obtain, for each
member of the P2 hierarchy, a sequence of special integrals.Comment: 12 pages in LaTeX 2.09 (uses ioplppt.sty), to appear in Inverse
Problem
Genome-wide repeat dynamics reflect phylogenetic distance in closely related allotetraploid Nicotiana (Solanaceae)
Nicotiana sect. Repandae is a group of four allotetraploid species originating from a single allopolyploidisation event approximately 5 million years ago. Previous phylogenetic analyses support the hypothesis of N. nudicaulis as sister to the other three species. This is concordant with changes in genome size, separating those with genome downsizing (N. nudicaulis) from those with genome upsizing (N. repanda, N. nesophila, N. stocktonii). However, a recent analysis reflecting genome dynamics of different transposable element families reconstructed greater similarity between N. nudicaulis and the Revillagigedo Island taxa (N. nesophila and N. stocktonii), thereby placing N. repanda as sister to the rest of the group. This could reflect a different phylogenetic hypothesis or the unique evolutionary history of these particular elements. Here we re-examine relationships in this group and investigate genome-wide patterns in repetitive DNA, utilising high-throughput sequencing and a genome skimming approach. Repetitive DNA clusters provide support for N. nudicaulis as sister to the rest of the section, with N. repanda sister to the two Revillagigedo Island species. Clade-specific patterns in the occurrence and abundance of particular repeats confirm the original (N. nudicaulis (N. repanda (N. nesophila ? N. stocktonii))) hypothesis. Furthermore, overall repeat dynamics in the island species N. nesophila and N. stocktonii confirm their similarity to N. repanda and the distinctive patterns between these three species and N. nudicaulis. Together these results suggest that broad-scale repeat dynamics do in fact reflect evolutionary history and could be predicted based on phylogenetic distance
The Milky Way Bulge: Observed properties and a comparison to external galaxies
The Milky Way bulge offers a unique opportunity to investigate in detail the
role that different processes such as dynamical instabilities, hierarchical
merging, and dissipational collapse may have played in the history of the
Galaxy formation and evolution based on its resolved stellar population
properties. Large observation programmes and surveys of the bulge are providing
for the first time a look into the global view of the Milky Way bulge that can
be compared with the bulges of other galaxies, and be used as a template for
detailed comparison with models. The Milky Way has been shown to have a
box/peanut (B/P) bulge and recent evidence seems to suggest the presence of an
additional spheroidal component. In this review we summarise the global
chemical abundances, kinematics and structural properties that allow us to
disentangle these multiple components and provide constraints to understand
their origin. The investigation of both detailed and global properties of the
bulge now provide us with the opportunity to characterise the bulge as observed
in models, and to place the mixed component bulge scenario in the general
context of external galaxies. When writing this review, we considered the
perspectives of researchers working with the Milky Way and researchers working
with external galaxies. It is an attempt to approach both communities for a
fruitful exchange of ideas.Comment: Review article to appear in "Galactic Bulges", Editors: Laurikainen
E., Peletier R., Gadotti D., Springer Publishing. 36 pages, 10 figure
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