An Auditable Confidentiality Protocol for Blockchain Transactions

Blockchain exposes all users’ transaction data to the public, including account balances, asset holdings, trading history, etc. Such data exposure leads to potential security and personal privacy risks that restrict blockchain from broader adoption. Although some existing projects focus on single-chain confidential payment, no existing cross-chain system supports private transactions yet, which is incompatible with privacy regulations such as GDPR. Also, current confidential payment systems require users to pay high extra fees. However, a private and anonymous protocol encrypting all transaction data raises concerns about malicious and illegal activities since the protocol is difficult to audit. We need to balance privacy and auditability in blockchain. We propose an auditable and affordable protocol for cross-chain and single-chain transactions. This protocol leverages zero-knowledge proofs to encrypt transactions and perform validation without disclosing sensitive users\u27 data. To meet regulations, each auditor from an auditing committee will have an encrypted secret share of the transaction data. Auditors may view the private transaction data only if a majority of the committee agrees to decrypt the data. We employ a ZK-rollup scheme by processing multiple transactions in batches, which reduces private transaction costs to 90\% lower compared with solutions without ZK-rollup. We implemented the proposed scheme using Zokrates and Solidity and evaluated the protocol on the Ethereum test network, and the total one-to-one private transactions cost only 5 seconds. We also proved the security of the protocol utilizing the standard real/ideal world paradigm

Neurophysiological differences between patients clinically at high risk for schizophrenia and neurotypical controls – first steps in development of a biomarker

Background: Schizophrenia is a severe, disabling and prevalent mental disorder without cure and with a variable, incomplete pharmacotherapeutic response. Prior to onset in adolescence or young adulthood a prodromal period of abnormal symptoms lasting weeks to years has been identified and operationalized as clinically high risk (CHR) for schizophrenia. However, only a minority of subjects prospectively identified with CHR convert to schizophrenia, thereby limiting enthusiasm for early intervention(s). This study utilized objective resting electroencephalogram (EEG) quantification to determine whether CHR constitutes a cohesive entity and an evoked potential to assess CHR cortical auditory processing. Methods: This study constitutes an EEG-based quantitative neurophysiological comparison between two unmedicated subject groups: 35 neurotypical controls (CON) and 22 CHR patients. After artifact management, principal component analysis (PCA) identified EEG spectral and spectral coherence factors described by associated loading patterns. Discriminant function analysis (DFA) determined factors’ discrimination success between subjects in the CON and CHR groups. Loading patterns on DFA-selected factors described CHR-specific spectral and coherence differences when compared to controls. The frequency modulated auditory evoked response (FMAER) explored functional CON–CHR differences within the superior temporal gyri. Results: Variable reduction by PCA identified 40 coherence-based factors explaining 77.8 % of the total variance and 40 spectral factors explaining 95.9 % of the variance. DFA demonstrated significant CON–CHR group difference (P <0.00001) and successful jackknifed subject classification (CON, 85.7 %; CHR, 86.4 % correct). The population distribution plotted along the canonical discriminant variable was clearly bimodal. Coherence factors delineated loading patterns of altered connectivity primarily involving the bilateral posterior temporal electrodes. However, FMAER analysis showed no CON–CHR group differences. Conclusions: CHR subjects form a cohesive group, significantly separable from CON subjects by EEG-derived indices. Symptoms of CHR may relate to altered connectivity with the posterior temporal regions but not to primary auditory processing abnormalities within these regions

Tidal Truncation of Circumplanetary Discs

We analyse some properties of circumplanetary discs. Flow through such discs may provide most of the mass to gas giant planets, and such discs are likely sites for the formation of regular satellites. We model these discs as accretion discs subject to the tidal forces of the central star. The tidal torques from the star remove the disc angular momentum near the disc outer edge and permit the accreting disc gas to lose angular momentum at the rate appropriate for steady accretion. Circumplanetary discs are truncated near the radius where periodic ballistic orbits cross, where tidal forces on the disc are strong. This radius occurs at approximately 0.4 r_H for the planet Hill radius r_H. During the T Tauri stage of disc accretion, the disc is fairly thick with aspect ratio H/r > 0.2 and the disc edge tapering occurs over a radial scale ~ H ~ 0.1 r_H. For a circular or slightly eccentric orbit planet, no significant resonances lie within the main body of the disc. Tidally driven waves involving resonances nonetheless play an important role in truncating the disc, especially when it is fairly thick. We model the disc structure using one dimensional time-dependent and steady-state models and also two dimensional SPH simulations. The circumplanetary disc structure depends on the variation of the disc turbulent viscosity with radius and is insensitive to the angular distribution of the accreting gas. Dead zones may occur within the circumplanetary disc and result in density structures. If the disc is turbulent throughout, the predicted disc structure near the location of the regular Jovian and Saturnian satellites is smooth with no obvious feature that would favor formation at their current locations.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Ultra-broadband THz time-domain spectroscopy of common polymers using THz air photonics

D’Angelo F, Mics Z, Bonn M, Turchinovich D. Ultra-broadband THz time-domain spectroscopy of common polymers using THz air photonics. Optics Express. 2014;22(10): 12475

A Real-World, Multicenter, Observational Retrospective Study of Durvalumab After Concomitant or Sequential Chemoradiation for Unresectable Stage III Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Introduction: For unresectable stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the standard therapy consists of chemoradiotherapy (CRT) followed by durvalumab maintenance for responding patients. The present study reports on the safety and outcome of durvalumab use after CRT in a real-world, multicenter, retrospective cohort. Methods: Two hundred thirty-eight patients have been included. We collected data on systemic therapy, radiation therapy, the timing between CRT and durvalumab, number of durvalumab cycles, reasons for non-starting or discontinuation, incidence and grade of adverse events (AEs), and progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Results: One hundred fifty-five patients out of 238 (65.1%) received at least one durvalumab dose: 91 (58.7%) after concomitant CRT (cCRT) and 64 (41.3%) after sequential CRT (sCRT). Programmed-death ligand 1 (PD-L1) status was unknown in 7/155 (4.5%), negative in 14 (9.1%), and positive ≥1% in 134/155 (86.4%). The main reasons for non-starting durvalumab were progression (10.1%), PD-L1 negativity (7.5%), and lung toxicity (4.6%). Median follow-up time was 14 months (range 2–29); 1-year PFS and OS were 83.5% (95%CI: 77.6–89.7) and 97.2% (95%CI: 94.6–99.9), respectively. No significant differences in PFS or OS were detected for cCRT vs. sCRT, but the median PFS was 13.5 months for sCRT vs. 23 months for cCRT. Potentially immune-related AEs were recorded in 76/155 patients (49.0%). Pneumonitis was the most frequent, leading to discontinuation in 11/155 patients (7.1%). Conclusions: Durvalumab maintenenace after concurrent or sequential chemoradiation for unresectable, stage III NSCLC showed very promising short-term survival results in a large, multicenter, restrospective, real-world study. Durvalumab was the first drug obtaining a survival benefit over CRT within the past two decades, and the present study contributes to validating its use in clinical practice

CMS physics technical design report : Addendum on high density QCD with heavy ions

Peer reviewe

Comparative evaluation of analogue front-end designs for the CMS Inner Tracker at the High Luminosity LHC

The CMS Inner Tracker, made of silicon pixel modules, will be entirely replaced prior to the start of the High Luminosity LHC period. One of the crucial components of the new Inner Tracker system is the readout chip, being developed by the RD53 Collaboration, and in particular its analogue front-end, which receives the signal from the sensor and digitizes it. Three different analogue front-ends (Synchronous, Linear, and Differential) were designed and implemented in the RD53A demonstrator chip. A dedicated evaluation program was carried out to select the most suitable design to build a radiation tolerant pixel detector able to sustain high particle rates with high efficiency and a small fraction of spurious pixel hits. The test results showed that all three analogue front-ends presented strong points, but also limitations. The Differential front-end demonstrated very low noise, but the threshold tuning became problematic after irradiation. Moreover, a saturation in the preamplifier feedback loop affected the return of the signal to baseline and thus increased the dead time. The Synchronous front-end showed very good timing performance, but also higher noise. For the Linear front-end all of the parameters were within specification, although this design had the largest time walk. This limitation was addressed and mitigated in an improved design. The analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the three front-ends in the context of the CMS Inner Tracker operation requirements led to the selection of the improved design Linear front-end for integration in the final CMS readout chip

Modelling human choices: MADeM and decision‑making

Research supported by FAPESP 2015/50122-0 and DFG-GRTK 1740/2. RP and AR are also part of the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center for Neuromathematics FAPESP grant (2013/07699-0). RP is supported by a FAPESP scholarship (2013/25667-8). ACR is partially supported by a CNPq fellowship (grant 306251/2014-0)