Fast and secure key distribution using mesoscopic coherent states of light

This work shows how two parties A and B can securely share sequences of random bits at optical speeds. A and B possess true-random physical sources and exchange random bits by using a random sequence received to cipher the following one to be sent. A starting shared secret key is used and the method can be described as an unlimited one-time-pad extender. It is demonstrated that the minimum probability of error in signal determination by the eavesdropper can be set arbitrarily close to the pure guessing level. Being based on the $M$-ry encryption protocol this method also allows for optical amplification without security degradation, offering practical advantages over the BB84 protocol for key distribution.Comment: 11 pages and 4 figures. This version updates the one published in PRA 68, 052307 (2003). Minor changes were made in the text and one section on Mutual Information was adde

PacBio assembly of a Plasmodium knowlesi genome sequence with Hi-C correction and manual annotation of the SICAvar gene family.

Plasmodium knowlesi has risen in importance as a zoonotic parasite that has been causing regular episodes of malaria throughout South East Asia. The P. knowlesi genome sequence generated in 2008 highlighted and confirmed many similarities and differences in Plasmodium species, including a global view of several multigene families, such as the large SICAvar multigene family encoding the variant antigens known as the schizont-infected cell agglutination proteins. However, repetitive DNA sequences are the bane of any genome project, and this and other Plasmodium genome projects have not been immune to the gaps, rearrangements and other pitfalls created by these genomic features. Today, long-read PacBio and chromatin conformation technologies are overcoming such obstacles. Here, based on the use of these technologies, we present a highly refined de novo P. knowlesi genome sequence of the Pk1(A+) clone. This sequence and annotation, referred to as the 'MaHPIC Pk genome sequence', includes manual annotation of the SICAvar gene family with 136 full-length members categorized as type I or II. This sequence provides a framework that will permit a better understanding of the SICAvar repertoire, selective pressures acting on this gene family and mechanisms of antigenic variation in this species and other pathogens

UJI LAIK FUNGSI JALAN SECARA TEKNIS PADA RUAS JALAN MANADO – TOMOHON (SEGMEN BATAS KOTA MANADO – KOTA TOMOHON)

Ruas Jalan Nasional Batas Kota Manado – Kota Tomohon merupakan salah satu akses jalan utama yang menghubungkan kedua kota tersebut dan daerah sekitarnya. Tujuan penelitian ini  adalah untuk menganalisis tingkat kelaikan fungsi jalan serta perbaikan yang diperlukan agar jalan menjadi laik menurut Uji Laik Fungsi Jalan (ULFJ) berdasarkan Peraturan Menteri Pekerjaan Umum nomor.11/PRT/M/2010. Uji laik fungsi jalan adalah kondisi suatu ruas jalan yang memenuhi persyaratan teknis kelaikan jalan untuk memberikan keselamatan bagi penggunanya, dan persyaratan administratif yang memberikan kepastian hukum bagi penyelenggara jalan dan pengguna jalan, sehingga jalan tersebut dapat dioperasikan untuk umum. Analisis uji laik fungsi teknis jalan dilakukan dengan mengukur penyimpangan (deviasi) terhadap kondisi lapangan terhadap standar teknis setiap komponen teknis, meliputi: teknis geometrik jalan, teknis struktur perkerasan jalan, teknis struktur bangunan pelengkap jalan, teknis pemanfaatan ruang bagian-bagian jalan, teknis penyelenggaraan manajemen dan rekayasa lalu lintas, dan teknis perlengkapan jalan. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa pada ruas jalan Batas Kota Manado – Kota Tomohon termasuk dalam kategori laik fungsi dengan perbaikan teknis yang harus dipenuhi (LS). Perbaikan teknis yang harus dipenuhi pada ruas jalan tersebut berupa pemeliharaan rutin dan pengadaan komponen jalan yang belum ada, agar supaya ruas jalan Batas Kota Manado – Kota Tomohon dapat menjadi laik fungsi. Kata Kunci : Laik Fungsi, Standar Teknis, Ruas Jalan, Perbaika

Rede Nacional de Cuidados Continuados e Tempo de Internamento dos Doentes com Acidente Vascular Cerebral 2010-2011

INTRODUCTION: The National Post Hospital Care Project was created to provide a continuity of care after hospitalization or to functionally dependent people. Currently there is a great difficulty in the integration of patients. The objective of this paper is to compare the impact of the referral to the Project versus being discharged home, in the length of stay of stroke patients between 2010 and 2011. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Retrospective study of patients admitted to the Neurology Infirmary A and Stroke Unit of Coimbra's University Hospital, in 2010 and 2011. The cases analyzed were 1 209, featuring demographic data, length of stay, Rankin Score (mRS) and destination after discharge. The data was analyzed comparing the two years concerning the length of stay of stroke patients referred to the Project and those discharged home, given the their Rankin Score. RESULTS: In 2011, the number patients referred to the National Post Hospital Care Project was higher, 23.5% compared to 21.4%. The length of stay for the same Rankin Score of the patients referred to National Post Hospital Care Project, remained higher than those discharged home: for a Rankin Score of 1: 11, versus 26 days for the Project; Rankin Score 2: 13, versus 29 days for the project; Rankin Score 3: 13, versus 23 days for the Project; Rankin Score 4: 17, to 33 days for the Project, Rankin Score 5: 27, versus 39 days to the Project. After comparison between the length of stay of patient discharged of and those referred to the National Post Hospital Care Project, it was estimated that the referral represented an hospitalization excess of 1 718 days in 2010 and 1 198 days in 2011

Sublethal effects of chlorantraniliprole and thiamethoxam seed treatments when Lysiphlebus testaceipes feed on sunflower extrafloral nectar

Citation: Moscardini, V. F., Gontijo, P. C., Michaud, J. P., & Carvalho, G. A. (2014). Sublethal effects of chlorantraniliprole and thiamethoxam seed treatments when Lysiphlebus testaceipes feed on sunflower extrafloral nectar. Retrieved from http://krex.ksu.eduThe extrafloral nectar (EFN) of sunflower, Helianthus annuus L., is an important summer resource for many insects and represents a potential route of exposure to systemic insecticides applied as seed treatments to cultivated varieties. Among the many parasitoids that utilize sunflower EFN, Lysiphlebus testaceipes (Cresson) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) is an important generalist parasitoid of cereal aphids in North America. This study evaluated the performance of adult wasps fed EFN of sunflower plants grown from seed treated with chlorantraniliprole and thiamethoxam. Consumption of EFN from treated sunflower seedings caused no lethal effects, but reduced the numbers of greenbug nymphs, Schizaphis graminum Rondani, attacked and parasitized when wasps foraged in Petri dish arenas. Whereas control females self-superparasitized every fourth host, those exposed to chlorantraniliprole did not. Offspring developmental time and adult emergence were unaffected by either treatment, but thiamethoxam greatly reduced the proportion of female offspring

Non-target effects of chlorantraniliprole and thiamethoxam on Chrysoperla carnea when employed as sunflower seed treatments

Citation: Gontijo, P. C., Moscardini, V. F., Michaud, J. P., & Carvalho, G. A. (2014). Non-target effects of chlorantraniliprole and thiamethoxam on Chrysoperla carnea when employed as sunflower seed treatments. Retrieved from http://krex.ksu.eduThe use of systemic insecticides as seed treatments has raised concern about the possible impacts of these products on natural enemies. This study assessed the effects of sunflower seed treatments with chlorantraniliprole and thiamethoxam on Chrysoperla carnea by exposing larvae and adults to sunflower stem segments grown from treated seeds and the nectar secreted by their extrafloral nectaries. Confinement of larvae with stem segments for their entire developmental period had no effect on their survival or any life history parameter, except that the sex ratio of resulting adults was lower in the thiamethoxam treatment than in chlorantraniliprole. However, when adult pairs of C. carnea were exposed to treated stem segments during their maturation period, their subsequent survival and fecundity was significantly reduced by both materials, with thiamethoxam reducing median survival (LT[subscript 50]) and fecundity to a greater degree than chlorantraniliprole. Insufficient offspring were obtained from adults exposed to thiamethoxam to permit assessment of their fitness, but the offspring in the chlorantraniliprole-exposed adults had reduced larval survival relative to controls. The greater impact of seed treatments on adult lacewings may be partly attributable to their greater consumption of extra-floral nectar. Our results indicate that seed treatment with systemic insecticides can cause negative effects on beneficial insects, potentially disrupting their population dynamics, and should not be assumed compatible with biological control and IPM simply because this mode of application limits direct exposure

Phyllosticta citricarpa and sister species of global importance to Citrus.

Several Phyllosticta species are known as pathogens of Citrus spp., and are responsible for various disease symptoms including leaf and fruit spots. One of the most important species is P. citricarpa, which causes a foliar and fruit disease called citrus black spot. The Phyllosticta species occurring on citrus can most effectively be distinguished from P. citricarpa by means of multilocus DNA sequence data. Recent studies also demonstrated P. citricarpa to be heterothallic, and reported successful mating in the laboratory. Since the domestication of citrus, different clones of P. citricarpa have escaped Asia to other continents via trade routes, with obvious disease management consequences. This pathogen profile represents a comprehensive literature review of this pathogen and allied taxa associated with citrus, focusing on identification, distribution, genomics, epidemiology and disease management. This review also considers the knowledge emerging from seven genomes of Phyllosticta spp., demonstrating unknown aspects of these species, including their mating behaviour.TaxonomyPhyllosticta citricarpa (McAlpine) Aa, 1973. Kingdom Fungi, Phylum Ascomycota, Class Dothideomycetes, Order Botryosphaeriales, Family Phyllostictaceae, Genus Phyllosticta, Species citricarpa.Host rangeConfirmed on more than 12 Citrus species, Phyllosticta citricarpa has only been found on plant species in the Rutaceae.Disease symptomsP. citricarpa causes diverse symptoms such as hard spot, virulent spot, false melanose and freckle spot on fruit, and necrotic lesions on leaves and twigs.Useful websitesDOE Joint Genome Institute MycoCosm portals for the Phyllosticta capitalensis (https://genome.jgi.doe.gov/Phycap1), P. citriasiana (https://genome.jgi.doe.gov/Phycit1), P. citribraziliensis (https://genome.jgi.doe.gov/Phcit1), P. citrichinaensis (https://genome.jgi.doe.gov/Phcitr1), P. citricarpa (https://genome.jgi.doe.gov/Phycitr1, https://genome.jgi.doe.gov/Phycpc1), P. paracitricarpa (https://genome.jgi.doe.gov/Phy27169) genomes. All available Phyllosticta genomes on MycoCosm can be viewed at https://genome.jgi.doe.gov/Phyllosticta

O papel das tecnologias fotovoltaicas no contexto da transi??o energ?tica: uma abordagem multidisciplinar dos aspectos geopol?ticos, sociais, t?cnicos, econ?micos e ambientais

Este trabalho teve como objetivo principal analisar diversos aspectos da transi??o energ?tica com ?nfase nas tecnologias fotovoltaicas, explorando perspectivas e contribui??es de diversos especialistas renomados. Inicia-se o trabalho com a abordagem sobre a geopol?tica da transi??o energ?tica, destacando-se desafios e quest?es de justi?a na transi??o. A perspectiva cidad? ? abordada, ressaltando a import?ncia da aceita??o comunit?ria para o sucesso dessa empreitada global. Ao explorar o papel espec?fico da tecnologia fotovoltaica, focando no contexto brasileiro, examinam-se os desafios e oportunidades associados ? incorpora??o desse recurso na matriz energ?tica. Em seguida, explora-se a potencial coopera??o nos pa?ses do BRICS em energias renov?veis, evidenciando o papel da colabora??o internacional na acelera??o da transi??o. Aprofunda-se a compreens?o por meio de estudos de caso, examinando a transi??o energ?tica na Ar?bia Saudita e o impacto da energia solar fotovoltaica no desenvolvimento rural sustent?vel. Cada an?lise proporciona insights sobre os diferentes caminhos e desafios enfrentados por pa?ses e comunidades nessa jornada complexa, permitindo conectar as diferentes perspectivas e resultados. Conclui- se que a transi??o energ?tica n?o ? apenas uma mudan?a de fontes de energia, mas uma transforma??o abrangente que envolve aspectos geopol?ticos, sociais, econ?micos e ambientais. A busca por um futuro mais sustent?vel exige n?o apenas avan?os tecnol?gicos, mas tamb?m a constru??o de consenso, coopera??o internacional e adapta??o a contextos espec?ficos

Filisteus em Canaã, uma cultura desaparecida?

O Povo Filisteu1. As fontes egípcias e os Povos do Mar2. A Bíblia e os Filisteus3. Haverá uma cultura filisteia?4. Testemunhos Bíblicos sobre a cultura filisteia5. Os dados da Arqueologia6. Complexidade do problema filisteu-fenícioConclusã