A New Deep-Neural-Network--Based Missing Transverse Momentum Estimator, and its Application to W Recoil

This dissertation presents the first Deep-Neural-Network–based missing transverse momentum (pTmiss) estimator, called “DeepMET”. It utilizes all reconstructed particles in an event as input, and assigns an individual weight to each of them. The DeepMET estimator is the negative of the vector sum of the weighted transverse momenta of all input particles. Compared with the pTmiss estimators currently utilized by the CMS Collaboration, DeepMET is found to improve the pTmiss resolution by 10-20%, and is more resilient towards the effect of additional proton-proton interactions accompanying the interaction of interest. DeepMET is demonstrated to improve the resolution on the recoil measurement of the W boson and reduce the systematic uncertainties on the W mass measurement by a large fraction compared with other pTmiss estimators

Semi-supervised Graph Neural Networks for Pileup Noise Removal

The high instantaneous luminosity of the CERN Large Hadron Collider leads to multiple proton-proton interactions in the same or nearby bunch crossings (pileup). Advanced pileup mitigation algorithms are designed to remove this noise from pileup particles and improve the performance of crucial physics observables. This study implements a semi-supervised graph neural network for particle-level pileup noise removal, by identifying individual particles produced from pileup. The graph neural network is firstly trained on charged particles with known labels, which can be obtained from detector measurements on data or simulation, and then inferred on neutral particles for which such labels are missing. This semi-supervised approach does not depend on the ground truth information from simulation and thus allows us to perform training directly on experimental data. The performance of this approach is found to be consistently better than widely-used domain algorithms and comparable to the fully-supervised training using simulation truth information. The study serves as the first attempt at applying semi-supervised learning techniques to pileup mitigation, and opens up a new direction of fully data-driven machine learning pileup mitigation studies

How to Choose Interesting Points for Template Attacks?

Template attacks are widely accepted to be the most powerful side-channel attacks from an information theoretic point of view. For template attacks, many papers suggested a guideline for choosing interesting points which is still not proven. The guideline is that one should only choose one point as the interesting point per clock cycle. Up to now, many different methods of choosing interesting points were introduced. However, it is still unclear that which approach will lead to the best classification performance for template attacks. In this paper, we comprehensively evaluate and compare the classification performance of template attacks when using different methods of choosing interesting points. Evaluation results show that the classification performance of template attacks has obvious difference when different methods of choosing interesting points are used. The CPA based method and the SOST based method will lead to the best classification performance. Moreover, we find that some methods of choosing interesting points provide the same results in the same circumstance. Finally, we verify the guideline for choosing interesting points for template attacks is correct by presenting a new way of conducting template attacks

Towards Optimal Leakage Exploitation Rate in Template Attacks

Under the assumption that one has a reference device identical or similar to the target device, and thus be well capable of characterizing power leakages of the target device, Template Attacks are widely accepted to be the most powerful side-channel attacks. However, the question of whether Template Attacks are really optimal in terms of the leakage exploitation rate is still unclear. In this paper, we present a negative answer to this crucial question by introducing a normalization process into classical Template Attacks. Specifically, our contributions are two folds. On the theoretical side, we prove that Normalized Template Attacks are better in terms of the leakage exploitation rate than Template Attacks; on the practical side, we evaluate the key-recovery efficiency of Normalized Template Attacks and Template Attacks in the same attacking scenario. Evaluation results show that, compared with Template Attacks, Normalized Template Attacks are more effective. We note that, the computational price of the normalization process is of extremely low, and thus it is very easy-to-implement in practice. Therefore, the normalization process should be integrated into Template Attacks as a necessary step, so that one can better understand practical threats of Template Attacks

Cryptosystems Resilient to Both Continual Key Leakages and Leakages from Hash Functions

Yoneyama et al. introduced Leaky Random Oracle Model (LROM for short) at ProvSec2008 in order to discuss security (or insecurity) of cryptographic schemes which use hash functions as building blocks when leakages from pairs of input and output of hash functions occur. This kind of leakages occurs due to various attacks caused by sloppy usage or implementation. Their results showed that this kind of leakages may threaten the security of some cryptographic schemes. However, an important fact is that such attacks would leak not only pairs of input and output of hash functions, but also the secret key. Therefore, LROM is rather limited in the sense that it considers leakages from pairs of input and output of hash functions alone, instead of taking into consideration other possible leakages from the secret key simultaneously. On the other hand, many other leakage models mainly concentrate on leakages from the secret key and ignore leakages from hash functions for a cryptographic scheme exploiting hash functions in these leakage models. Some examples show that the above drawbacks of LROM and other leakage models may cause insecurity of some schemes which are secure in the two kinds of leakage model. In this paper, we present an augmented model of both LROM and some leakage models, which both the secret key and pairs of input and output of hash functions can be leaked. Furthermore, the secret key can be leaked continually during the whole life cycle of a cryptographic scheme. Hence, our new model is more universal and stronger than LROM and some leakage models (e.g. only computation leaks model and bounded memory leakage model). As an application example, we also present a public key encryption scheme which is provably IND-CCA secure in our new model

On the Impacts of Mathematical Realization over Practical Security of Leakage Resilient Cryptographic Schemes

In real world, in order to transform an abstract and generic cryptographic scheme into actual physical implementation, one usually undergoes two processes: mathematical realization at algorithmic level and physical realization at implementation level. In the former process, the abstract and generic cryptographic scheme is transformed into an exact and specific mathematical scheme, while in the latter process the output of mathematical realization is being transformed into a physical cryptographic module runs as a piece of software, or hardware, or combination of both. In black-box model (i.e. leakage-free setting), a cryptographic scheme can be mathematically realized without affecting its theoretical security as long as the mathematical components meet the required cryptographic properties. However, up to now, no previous work formally show that whether one can mathematically realize a leakage resilient cryptographic scheme in existent ways without affecting its practical security. Our results give a negative answer to this important question by introducing attacks against several kinds of mathematical realization of a practical leakage resilient cryptographic scheme. Our results show that there may exist a big gap between the theoretical tolerance leakage rate and the practical tolerance leakage rate of the same leakage resilient cryptographic scheme if the mathematical components in the mathematical realization are not provably secure in leakage setting. Therefore, on one hand, we suggest that all (practical) leakage resilient cryptographic schemes should at least come with a kind of mathematical realization. Using this kind of mathematical realization, its practical security can be guaranteed. On the other hand, our results inspire cryptographers to design advanced leakage resilient cryptographic schemes whose practical security is independent of the specific details of its mathematical realization

Conversational Recommender System and Large Language Model Are Made for Each Other in E-commerce Pre-sales Dialogue

E-commerce pre-sales dialogue aims to understand and elicit user needs and preferences for the items they are seeking so as to provide appropriate recommendations. Conversational recommender systems (CRSs) learn user representation and provide accurate recommendations based on dialogue context, but rely on external knowledge. Large language models (LLMs) generate responses that mimic pre-sales dialogues after fine-tuning, but lack domain-specific knowledge for accurate recommendations. Intuitively, the strengths of LLM and CRS in E-commerce pre-sales dialogues are complementary, yet no previous work has explored this. This paper investigates the effectiveness of combining LLM and CRS in E-commerce pre-sales dialogues, proposing two collaboration methods: CRS assisting LLM and LLM assisting CRS. We conduct extensive experiments on a real-world dataset of Ecommerce pre-sales dialogues. We analyze the impact of two collaborative approaches with two CRSs and two LLMs on four tasks of Ecommerce pre-sales dialogue. We find that collaborations between CRS and LLM can be very effective in some cases.Comment: EMNLP 2023 Finding

Improving Factual Consistency of Text Summarization by Adversarially Decoupling Comprehension and Embellishment Abilities of LLMs

Despite the recent progress in text summarization made by large language models (LLMs), they often generate summaries that are factually inconsistent with original articles, known as "hallucinations" in text generation. Unlike previous small models (e.g., BART, T5), current LLMs make fewer silly mistakes but more sophisticated ones, such as imposing cause and effect, adding false details, overgeneralizing, etc. These hallucinations are challenging to detect through traditional methods, which poses great challenges for improving the factual consistency of text summarization. In this paper, we propose an adversarially DEcoupling method to disentangle the Comprehension and EmbellishmeNT abilities of LLMs (DECENT). Furthermore, we adopt a probing-based efficient training to cover the shortage of sensitivity for true and false in the training process of LLMs. In this way, LLMs are less confused about embellishing and understanding; thus, they can execute the instructions more accurately and have enhanced abilities to distinguish hallucinations. Experimental results show that DECENT significantly improves the reliability of text summarization based on LLMs

Pretreating poplar cuttings with low nitrogen ameliorates salt stress responses by increasing stored carbohydrates and priming stress signaling pathways

Soil salinity is a widespread stress in semi-arid forests worldwide, but how to manage nitrogen (N) nutrition to improve plant saline tolerance remains unclear. Here, the cuttings of a widely distributed poplar from central Asia, Populus russikki Jabl., were exposed to either normal or low nitrogen (LN) concentrations for two weeks in semi-controlled greenhouse, and then they were added with moderate salt solution or not for another two weeks to evaluate their physiological, biochemical, metabolites and transcriptomic profile changes. LN-pretreating alleviated the toxicity caused by the subsequent salt stress in the poplar plants, demonstrated by a significant reduction in the influx of Na+ and Cl- and improvement of the K+/Na+ ratio. The other salt-stressed traits were also ameliarated, indicated by the variations of chlorophyll content, PSII photochemical activity and lipid peroxidation. Stress alleviation resulted from two different processes. First, LN pretreatment caused a significant increase of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC), allowed for an increased production of osmolytes and a higher potential fueling ion transport under subsequent salt condition, along with increased transcript levels of the cation/H+ ATPase. Second, LN pretreatment enhanced the transcript levels of stress signaling components and phytohormones pathway as well as antioxidant enzyme activities. The results indicate that early restrictions of N supply could enhance posterior survival under saline stress in poplar plants, which is important for plantation programs and restoration activities in semi-arid areas.This research was supported by Natural Science Foundation of China ( 31770644 and 31270660 ), Project of Innovation research team in Sichuan Education Administration in China (No. 13TD0023 )

Ginsenoside Rh1 Improves the Effect of Dexamethasone on Autoantibodies Production and Lymphoproliferation in MRL/lpr Mice

Ginsenoside Rh1 is able to upregulate glucocorticoid receptor (GR) level, suggesting Rh1 may improve glucocorticoid efficacy in hormone-dependent diseases. Therefore, we investigated whether Rh1 could enhance the effect of dexamethasone (Dex) in the treatment of MRL/lpr mice. MRL/lpr mice were treated with vehicle, Dex, Rh1, or Dex + Rh1 for 4 weeks. Dex significantly reduced the proteinuria and anti-dsDNA and anti-ANA autoantibodies. The levels of proteinuria and anti-dsDNA and anti-ANA autoantibodies were further decreased in Dex + Rh1 group. Dex, Rh1, or Dex + Rh1 did not alter the proportion of CD4+ splenic lymphocytes, whereas the proportion of CD8+ splenic lymphocytes was significantly increased in Dex and Dex + Rh1 groups. Dex + Rh1 significantly decreased the ratio of CD4+/CD8+ splenic lymphocytes compared with control. Con A-induced CD4+ splenic lymphocytes proliferation was increased in Dex-treated mice and was inhibited in Dex + Rh1-treated mice. Th1 cytokine IFN-γ mRNA was suppressed and Th2 cytokine IL-4 mRNA was increased by Dex. The effect of Dex on IFN-γ and IL-4 mRNA was enhanced by Rh1. In conclusion, our data suggest that Rh1 may enhance the effect of Dex in the treatment of MRL/lpr mice through regulating CD4+ T cells activation and Th1/Th2 balance