Honey Encryption for Language

Honey Encryption (HE), introduced by Juels and Ristenpart (Eurocrypt 2014), is an encryption paradigm designed to produce ciphertexts yielding plausible-looking but bogus plaintexts upon decryption with wrong keys. Thus brute-force attackers need to use additional information to determine whether they indeed found the correct key. At the end of their paper, Juels and Ristenpart leave as an open question the adaptation of honey encryption to natural language messages. A recent paper by Chatterjee et al. takes a mild attempt at the challenge and constructs a natural language honey encryption scheme relying on simple models for passwords. In this position paper we explain why this approach cannot be extended to reasonable-size human-written documents e.g. e-mails. We propose an alternative approach and evaluate its security

Deliberating stratospheric aerosols for climate geoengineering and the SPICE project

Increasing concerns about the narrowing window for averting dangerous climate change have prompted calls for research into geoengineering, alongside dialogue with the public regarding this as a possible response. We report results of the first public engagement study to explore the ethics and acceptability of stratospheric aerosol technology and a proposed field trial (the Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering (SPICE) ‘pipe and balloon’ test bed) of components for an aerosol deployment mechanism. Although almost all of our participants were willing to allow the field trial to proceed, very few were comfortable with using stratospheric aerosols. This Perspective also discusses how these findings were used in a responsible innovation process for the SPICE project initiated by the UK’s research councils

Photobacterium profundum under Pressure:A MS-Based Label-Free Quantitative Proteomics Study

Photobacterium profundum SS9 is a Gram-negative bacterium, originally collected from the Sulu Sea. Its genome consists of two chromosomes and a 80 kb plasmid. Although it can grow under a wide range of pressures, P. profundum grows optimally at 28 MPa and 15°C. Its ability to grow at atmospheric pressure allows for both easy genetic manipulation and culture, making it a model organism to study piezophily. Here, we report a shotgun proteomic analysis of P. profundum grown at atmospheric compared to high pressure using label-free quantitation and mass spectrometry analysis. We have identified differentially expressed proteins involved in high pressure adaptation, which have been previously reported using other methods. Proteins involved in key metabolic pathways were also identified as being differentially expressed. Proteins involved in the glycolysis/gluconeogenesis pathway were up-regulated at high pressure. Conversely, several proteins involved in the oxidative phosphorylation pathway were up-regulated at atmospheric pressure. Some of the proteins that were differentially identified are regulated directly in response to the physical impact of pressure. The expression of some proteins involved in nutrient transport or assimilation, are likely to be directly regulated by pressure. In a natural environment, different hydrostatic pressures represent distinct ecosystems with their own particular nutrient limitations and abundances. However, the only variable considered in this study was atmospheric pressure

Acquisition vs. Memorization Trade-Offs Are Modulated by Walking Distance and Pattern Complexity in a Large-Scale Copying Paradigm

In a “block-copying paradigm”, subjects were required to copy a configuration of colored blocks from a model area to a distant work area, using additional blocks provided at an equally distant resource area. Experimental conditions varied between the inter-area separation (walking distance) and the complexity of the block patterns to be copied. Two major behavioral strategies were identified: in the memory-intensive strategy, subjects memorize large parts of the pattern and rebuild them without intermediate visits at the model area. In the acquisition-intensive strategy, subjects memorize one block at a time and return to the model after having placed this block. Results show that the frequency of the memory-intensive strategy is increased for larger inter-area separations (larger walking distances) and for simpler block patterns. This strategy-shift can be interpreted as the result of an optimization process or trade-off, minimizing combined, condition-dependent costs of the two strategies. Combined costs correlate with overall response time. We present evidence that for the memory-intensive strategy, costs correlate with model visit duration, while for the acquisition-intensive strategy, costs correlate with inter-area transition (i.e., walking) times

Noninvasive assessment of asthma severity using pulse oximeter plethysmograph estimate of pulsus paradoxus physiology

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Pulsus paradoxus estimated by dynamic change in area under the oximeter plethysmograph waveform (PEP) might provide a measure of acute asthma severity. Our primary objective was to determine how well PEP correlates with forced expiratory volume in 1-second (%FEV₁) (criterion validity) and change of %FEV₁(responsiveness) during treatment in pediatric patients with acute asthma exacerbations.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We prospectively studied subjects 5 to 17 years of age with asthma exacerbations. PEP, %FEV₁, airway resistance and accessory muscle use were recorded at baseline and at 2 and 4 hours after initiation of corticosteroid and bronchodilator treatments. Statistical associations were tested with Pearson or Spearman rank correlations, logistic regression using generalized estimating equations, or Wilcoxon rank sum tests.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We studied 219 subjects (median age 9 years; male 62%; African-American 56%). Correlation of PEP with %FEV₁demonstrated criterion validity (r = - 0.44, 95% confidence interval [CI], - 0.56 to - 0.30) and responsiveness at 2 hours (r = - 0.31, 95% CI, - 0.50 to - 0.09) and 4 hours (r = - 0.38, 95% CI, - 0.62 to - 0.07). PEP also correlated with airway resistance at baseline (r = 0.28 for ages 5 to 10; r = 0.45 for ages 10 to 17), but not with change over time. PEP was associated with accessory muscle use (OR 1.16, 95% CI, 1.11 to 1.21, P < 0.0001).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>PEP demonstrates criterion validity and responsiveness in correlations with %FEV₁. PEP correlates with airway resistance at baseline and is associated with accessory muscle use at baseline and at 2 and 4 hours after initiation of treatment. Incorporation of this technology into contemporary pulse oximeters may provide clinicians improved parameters with which to make clinical assessments of asthma severity and response to treatment, particularly in patients who cannot perform spirometry because of young age or severity of illness. It might also allow for earlier recognition and improved management of other disorders leading to elevated pulsus paradoxus.</p

Reading between Eye Saccades

Background: Skilled adult readers, in contrast to beginners, show no or little increase in reading latencies as a function of the number of letters in words up to seven letters. The information extraction strategy underlying such efficiency in word identification is still largely unknown, and methods that allow tracking of the letter information extraction through time between eye saccades are needed to fully address this question. Methodology/Principal Findings: The present study examined the use of letter information during reading, by means of the Bubbles technique. Ten participants each read 5,000 five-letter French words sampled in space-time within a 200 ms window. On the temporal dimension, our results show that two moments are especially important during the information extraction process. On the spatial dimension, we found a bias for the upper half of words. We also show for the first time that letter positions four, one, and three are particularly important for the identification of five-letter words. Conclusions/Significance: Our findings are consistent with either a partially parallel reading strategy or an optimal serial reading strategy. We show using computer simulations that this serial reading strategy predicts an absence of a wordlength effect for words from four- to seven letters in length. We believe that the Bubbles technique will play an importan

Pseudovirgaria, a fungicolous hyphomycete genus

The genus Pseudovirgaria, based on P. hyperparasitica, was recently introduced for a mycoparasite of rust sori of various species of Frommeëlla, Pucciniastrum and Phragmidium in Korea. In the present study, an older name introduced by Saccardo based on European material, Rhinotrichum griseum, is shown to resemble P. hyperparasitica. Morphological study and ITS barcodes from fresh collections of R. griseum from Austria on uredinia and telia of Phragmidium bulbosum on Rubus spp. reveal that it is distinct from P. hyperparasitica. The status of the genus Rhinotrichum, introduced for a fungus occurring on dry wood, remains unclear. Pseudovirgaria grisea comb. nov. is therefore proposed for the mycoparasite occurring on rust fungi in Europe, and an epitype is designated from the recent collections

Parts, Wholes, and Context in Reading: A Triple Dissociation

Research in object recognition has tried to distinguish holistic recognition from recognition by parts. One can also guess an object from its context. Words are objects, and how we recognize them is the core question of reading research. Do fast readers rely most on letter-by-letter decoding (i.e., recognition by parts), whole word shape, or sentence context? We manipulated the text to selectively knock out each source of information while sparing the others. Surprisingly, the effects of the knockouts on reading rate reveal a triple dissociation. Each reading process always contributes the same number of words per minute, regardless of whether the other processes are operating

Adaptive Sampling of Information in Perceptual Decision-Making

In many perceptual and cognitive decision-making problems, humans sample multiple noisy information sources serially, and integrate the sampled information to make an overall decision. We derive the optimal decision procedure for two-alternative choice tasks in which the different options are sampled one at a time, sources vary in the quality of the information they provide, and the available time is fixed. To maximize accuracy, the optimal observer allocates time to sampling different information sources in proportion to their noise levels. We tested human observers in a corresponding perceptual decision-making task. Observers compared the direction of two random dot motion patterns that were triggered only when fixated. Observers allocated more time to the noisier pattern, in a manner that correlated with their sensory uncertainty about the direction of the patterns. There were several differences between the optimal observer predictions and human behaviour. These differences point to a number of other factors, beyond the quality of the currently available sources of information, that influences the sampling strategy