On the first eigenvalue of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann operator on forms

We study a Dirichlet-to-Neumann eigenvalue problem for differential forms on a compact Riemannian manifold with smooth boundary. This problem is a natural generalization of the classical Steklov problem on functions. We derive a number of upper and lower bounds for the first eigenvalue in several contexts: many of these estimates will be sharp, and for some of them we characterize equality. We also relate these new eigenvalues with those of other operators, like the Hodge Laplacian or the biharmonic Steklov operator.Comment: 26 page

Inelastic and elastic collision rates for triplet states of ultracold strontium

We report measurement of the inelastic and elastic collision rates for ^{88}Sr atoms in the (5s5p)^3P_0 state in a crossed-beam optical dipole trap. This is the first measurement of ultracold collision properties of a ^3P_0 level in an alkaline-earth atom or atom with similar electronic structure. Since the (5s5p)^3P_0 state is the lowest level of the triplet manifold, large loss rates indicate the importance of principle-quantum-number-changing collisions at short range. We also provide an estimate of the collisional loss rates for the (5s5p){^3P_2} state.Comment: 4 pages 5 figure

An Optimizing Protocol Transformation for Constructor Finite Variant Theories in Maude-NPA

[EN] Maude-NPA is an analysis tool for cryptographic security protocols that takes into account the algebraic properties of the cryptosystem. Maude-NPA can reason about a wide range of cryptographic properties. However, some algebraic properties, and protocols using them, have been beyond Maude-NPA capabilities, either because the cryptographic properties cannot be expressed using its equational unification features or because the state space is unmanageable. In this paper, we provide a protocol transformation that can safely get rid of cryptographic properties under some conditions. The time and space difference between verifying the protocol with all the crypto properties and verifying the protocol with a minimal set of the crypto properties is remarkable. We also provide, for the first time, an encoding of the theory of bilinear pairing into Maude-NPA that goes beyond the encoding of bilinear pairing available in the Tamarin toolPartially supported by the EU (FEDER) and the Spanish MCIU under grant RTI2018-094403-B-C32, by the Spanish Generalitat Valenciana under grant PROMETEO/2019/098, and by the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research under award number FA9550-17-1-0286. Julia Sapiña has been supported by the Generalitat Valenciana APOSTD/2019/127 grantAparicio-Sánchez, D.; Escobar Román, S.; Gutiérrez Gil, R.; Sapiña-Sanchis, J. (2020). An Optimizing Protocol Transformation for Constructor Finite Variant Theories in Maude-NPA. Springer Nature. 230-250. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59013-0_12S230250Maude-NPA manual v3.1. http://maude.cs.illinois.edu/w/index.php/Maude_Tools:_Maude-NPAThe Tamarin-Prover Manual, 4 June 2019. https://tamarin-prover.github.io/manual/tex/tamarin-manual.pdfAl-Riyami, S.S., Paterson, K.G.: Tripartite authenticated key agreement protocols from pairings. In: Paterson, K.G. (ed.) Cryptography and Coding 2003. LNCS, vol. 2898, pp. 332–359. Springer, Heidelberg (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-40974-8_27Baader, F., Snyder, W.: Unification theory. In: Robinson, J.A., Voronkov, A. (eds.) Handbook of Automated Reasoning, vol. 1, pp. 447–533. Elsevier Science (2001)Baelde, D., Delaune, S., Gazeau, I., Kremer, S.: Symbolic verification of privacy-type properties for security protocols with XOR. In: 30th IEEE Computer Security Foundations Symposium, CSF 2017, pp. 234–248. IEEE Computer Society (2017)Blanchet, B.: Modeling and verifying security protocols with the applied pi calculus and ProVerif. Found. Trends Privacy Secur. 1(1–2), 1–135 (2016)Clavel, M., et al.: Maude manual (version 3.0). Technical report, SRI International, Computer Science Laboratory (2020). http://maude.cs.uiuc.eduComon-Lundh, H., Delaune, S.: The finite variant property: how to get rid of some algebraic properties. In: Giesl, J. (ed.) RTA 2005. LNCS, vol. 3467, pp. 294–307. Springer, Heidelberg (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-32033-3_22Cremers, C.J.F.: The scyther tool: verification, falsification, and analysis of security protocols. In: Gupta, A., Malik, S. (eds.) CAV 2008. LNCS, vol. 5123, pp. 414–418. Springer, Heidelberg (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-70545-1_38Dreier, J., Duménil, C., Kremer, S., Sasse, R.: Beyond subterm-convergent equational theories in automated verification of stateful protocols. In: Maffei, M., Ryan, M. (eds.) POST 2017. LNCS, vol. 10204, pp. 117–140. Springer, Heidelberg (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-54455-6_6Escobar, S., Hendrix, J., Meadows, C., Meseguer, J.: Diffie-Hellman cryptographic reasoning in the Maude-NRL protocol analyzer. In: Proceedings of 2nd International Workshop on Security and Rewriting Techniques (SecReT 2007) (2007)Escobar, S., Meadows, C., Meseguer, J.: A rewriting-based inference system for the NRL protocol analyzer and its meta-logical properties. Theor. Comput. Sci. 367(1–2), 162–202 (2006)Escobar, S., Meadows, C., Meseguer, J.: Maude-NPA: cryptographic protocol analysis modulo equational properties. In: Aldini, A., Barthe, G., Gorrieri, R. (eds.) FOSAD 2007-2009. LNCS, vol. 5705, pp. 1–50. Springer, Heidelberg (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03829-7_1Escobar, S., et al.: Protocol analysis in Maude-NPA using unification modulo homomorphic encryption. In: Proceedings of PPDP 2011, pp. 65–76. ACM (2011)Escobar, S., Meadows, C.A., Meseguer, J., Santiago, S.: State space reduction in the Maude-NRL protocol analyzer. Inf. Comput. 238, 157–186 (2014)Escobar, S., Sasse, R., Meseguer, J.: Folding variant narrowing and optimal variant termination. J. Log. Algebr. Program. 81(7–8), 898–928 (2012)Fabrega, F.J.T., Herzog, J.C., Guttman, J.D.: Strand spaces: why is a security protocol correct? In: Proceedings of IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, pp. 160–171 (1998)Guttman, J.D.: Security goals and protocol transformations. In: Mödersheim, S., Palamidessi, C. (eds.) TOSCA 2011. LNCS, vol. 6993, pp. 130–147. Springer, Heidelberg (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27375-9_8Joux, A.: A one round protocol for tripartite Diffie-Hellman. In: Bosma, W. (ed.) ANTS 2000. LNCS, vol. 1838, pp. 385–393. Springer, Heidelberg (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/10722028_23Kim, Y., Perrig, A., Tsudik, G.: Communication-efficient group key agreement. In: Dupuy, M., Paradinas, P. (eds.) SEC 2001. IIFIP, vol. 65, pp. 229–244. Springer, Boston, MA (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-46998-7_16Küsters, R., Truderung, T.: Using ProVerif to analyze protocols with Diffie-Hellman exponentiation. In: IEEE Computer Security Foundations, pp. 157–171 (2009)Küsters, R., Truderung, T.: Reducing protocol analysis with XOR to the XOR-free case in the horn theory based approach. J. Autom. Reason. 46(3–4), 325–352 (2011)Meadows, C.: The NRL protocol analyzer: an overview. J. Logic Program. 26(2), 113–131 (1996)Meier, S., Cremers, C., Basin, D.: Strong invariants for the efficient construction of machine-checked protocol security proofs. In: 2010 23rd IEEE Computer Security Foundations Symposium, pp. 231–245 (2010)Meseguer, J.: Conditional rewriting logic as a united model of concurrency. Theoret. Comput. Sci. 96(1), 73–155 (1992)Meseguer, J.: Variant-based satisfiability in initial algebras. Sci. Comput. Program. 154, 3–41 (2018)Meseguer, J.: Generalized rewrite theories, coherence completion, and symbolic methods. J. Log. Algebr. Meth. Program. 110, 100483 (2020)Mödersheim, S., Viganò, L.: The open-source fixed-point model checker for symbolic analysis of security protocols. In: Aldini, A., Barthe, G., Gorrieri, R. (eds.) FOSAD 2007-2009. LNCS, vol. 5705, pp. 166–194. Springer, Heidelberg (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03829-7_6Sasse, R., Escobar, S., Meadows, C., Meseguer, J.: Protocol analysis modulo combination of theories: a case study in Maude-NPA. In: Cuellar, J., Lopez, J., Barthe, G., Pretschner, A. (eds.) STM 2010. LNCS, vol. 6710, pp. 163–178. Springer, Heidelberg (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22444-7_11Schmidt, B., Sasse, R., Cremers, C., Basin, D.A.: Automated verification of group key agreement protocols. In: 2014 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, SP 2014, pp. 179–194. IEEE Computer Society (2014)Skeirik, S., Meseguer, J.: Metalevel algorithms for variant satisfiability. J. Log. Algebraic Methods Program. 96, 81–110 (2018)TeReSe: Term Rewriting Systems. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2003)Yang, F., Escobar, S., Meadows, C.A., Meseguer, J., Narendran, P.: Theories of homomorphic encryption, unification, and the finite variant property. In: Proceedings of PPDP 2014, pp. 123–133. ACM (2014

A compactness theorem for scalar-flat metrics on manifolds with boundary

Let (M,g) be a compact Riemannian manifold with boundary. This paper is concerned with the set of scalar-flat metrics which are in the conformal class of g and have the boundary as a constant mean curvature hypersurface. We prove that this set is compact for dimensions greater than or equal to 7 under the generic condition that the trace-free 2nd fundamental form of the boundary is nonzero everywhere.Comment: 49 pages. Final version, to appear in Calc. Var. Partial Differential Equation

Full-length dysferlin transfer by the hyperactive Sleeping Beauty transposase restores dysferlin-deficient muscle

Dysferlin-deficient muscular dystrophy is a progressive disease characterized by muscle weakness and wasting for which there is no treatment. It is caused by mutations in DYSF, a large, multiexonic gene that forms a coding sequence of 6.2 kb. Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon is a nonviral gene transfer vector, already used in clinical trials. The hyperactive SB system consists of a transposon DNA sequence and a transposase protein, SB100X, that can integrate DNA over 10 kb into the target genome. We constructed an SB transposon-based vector to deliver full-length human DYSF cDNA into dysferlin-deficient H2K A/J myoblasts. We demonstrate proper dysferlin expression as well as highly efficient engraftment (>1,100 donor-derived fibers) of the engineered myoblasts in the skeletal muscle of dysferlin- and immunodeficient B6.Cg-Dysf(prmd) Prkdc(scid)/J (Scid/BLA/J) mice. Nonviral gene delivery of full-length human dysferlin into muscle cells, along with a successful and efficient transplantation into skeletal muscle are important advances towards successful gene therapy of dysferlin-deficient muscular dystrophy

Non-collaborative Attackers and How and Where to Defend Flawed Security Protocols (Extended Version)

Security protocols are often found to be flawed after their deployment. We present an approach that aims at the neutralization or mitigation of the attacks to flawed protocols: it avoids the complete dismissal of the interested protocol and allows honest agents to continue to use it until a corrected version is released. Our approach is based on the knowledge of the network topology, which we model as a graph, and on the consequent possibility of creating an interference to an ongoing attack of a Dolev-Yao attacker, by means of non-collaboration actuated by ad-hoc benign attackers that play the role of network guardians. Such guardians, positioned in strategical points of the network, have the task of monitoring the messages in transit and discovering at runtime, through particular types of inference, whether an attack is ongoing, interrupting the run of the protocol in the positive case. We study not only how but also where we can attempt to defend flawed security protocols: we investigate the different network topologies that make security protocol defense feasible and illustrate our approach by means of concrete examples.Comment: 29 page

Electrochemical vs antibacterial characterization of ZrCN-Ag coatings

Nowadays, antibacterial properties are becoming a viable feature to be introduced in biomaterials due to the possibility of modifying the materials' surface used in medical devices in a micro/nano metric scale. As a result, it is mandatory to understand the mechanisms of the antimicrobial agents currently used and their possible failures. In this work, the antibacterial activity of ZrCNAg films is studied, taking into consideration the ability of silver nanoparticles to be dissolved when embedded into a ceramic matrix. The study focuses on the silver release evaluated by glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy and the effect of the fluid composition on this release. The results revealed a very low silver release of the films, leading to non-antibacterial activity of such materials. The silver release was found to be dependent on the electrolyte composition. NaCl (8.9 g L? 1) showed the lowest spontaneously silver ionization, while introducing the sulfates in Hanks' balanced salt solution (HBSS) such ionization is increased; finally, the proteins incorporated to the (HBSS) showed a reduction of the silver release, which also explains the low ionization in the culture medium (tryptic soy broth) that contains high quantities of proteins.This research is partially sponsored by the FEDER funds through the program COMPETE - Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade and by the Portuguese national funds through FCT-Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, under the projects ANTIMICROBCOAT - PTDC/CTM/102853/2008 and in the framework of the Strategic Projects PEST-C/FIS/UI607/2011, PEST-C/EME/UI0285/2011 and SFRH/BD/80947/2011.This work has also been supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion of Spain through the Consolider-Ingenio 2010 Programme (CSD2008-00023) and through project RyC2007-0026