The Seduction of Thanatos : Gabriele D’Annunzio and the Decadent Death

Peer reviewe

Subvert KEM to Break DEM: Practical Algorithm-Substitution Attacks on Public-Key Encryption

Motivated by the currently widespread concern about mass surveillance of encrypted communications, Bellare \emph{et al.} introduced at CRYPTO 2014 the notion of Algorithm-Substitution Attack (ASA) where the legitimate encryption algorithm is replaced by a subverted one that aims to undetectably exfiltrate the secret key via ciphertexts. Practically implementable ASAs on various cryptographic primitives (Bellare \emph{et al.}, CRYPTO\u2714 \& ACM CCS\u2715; Ateniese \emph{et al.}, ACM CCS\u2715; Berndt and Liśkiewicz, ACM CCS\u2717) have been constructed and analyzed, leaking the secret key successfully. Nevertheless, in spite of much progress, the practical impact of ASAs (formulated originally for symmetric key cryptography) on public-key (PKE) encryption operations remains unclear, primarily since the encryption operation of PKE does not involve the secret key, and also previously known ASAs become relatively inefficient for leaking the plaintext due to the logarithmic upper bound of exfiltration rate (Berndt and Liśkiewicz, ACM CCS\u2717). In this work, we formulate a practical ASA on PKE encryption algorithm which, perhaps surprisingly, turns out to be much more efficient and robust than existing ones, showing that ASAs on PKE schemes are far more effective and dangerous than previously believed. We mainly target PKE of hybrid encryption which is the most prevalent way to employ PKE in the literature and in practice. The main strategy of our ASA is to subvert the underlying key encapsulation mechanism (KEM) so that the session key encapsulated could be efficiently extracted, which, in turn, breaks the data encapsulation mechanism (DEM) enabling us to learn the plaintext itself. Concretely, our non-black-box yet quite general attack enables recovering the plaintext from only two successive ciphertexts and minimally depends on a short state of previous internal randomness. A widely used class of KEMs is shown to be subvertible by our powerful attack. Our attack relies on a novel identification and formalization of certain properties that yield practical ASAs on KEMs. More broadly, it points at and may shed some light on exploring structural weaknesses of other ``composed cryptographic primitives,\u27\u27 which may make them susceptible to more dangerous ASAs with effectiveness that surpasses the known logarithmic upper bound (i.e., reviewing composition as an attack enabler)

Association of kidney disease measures with risk of renal function worsening in patients with type 1 diabetes

Background: Albuminuria has been classically considered a marker of kidney damage progression in diabetic patients and it is routinely assessed to monitor kidney function. However, the role of a mild GFR reduction on the development of stage 653 CKD has been less explored in type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients. Aim of the present study was to evaluate the prognostic role of kidney disease measures, namely albuminuria and reduced GFR, on the development of stage 653 CKD in a large cohort of patients affected by T1DM. Methods: A total of 4284 patients affected by T1DM followed-up at 76 diabetes centers participating to the Italian Association of Clinical Diabetologists (Associazione Medici Diabetologi, AMD) initiative constitutes the study population. Urinary albumin excretion (ACR) and estimated GFR (eGFR) were retrieved and analyzed. The incidence of stage 653 CKD (eGFR < 60 mL/min/1.73 m2) or eGFR reduction > 30% from baseline was evaluated. Results: The mean estimated GFR was 98 \ub1 17 mL/min/1.73m2 and the proportion of patients with albuminuria was 15.3% (n = 654) at baseline. About 8% (n = 337) of patients developed one of the two renal endpoints during the 4-year follow-up period. Age, albuminuria (micro or macro) and baseline eGFR < 90 ml/min/m2 were independent risk factors for stage 653 CKD and renal function worsening. When compared to patients with eGFR > 90 ml/min/1.73m2 and normoalbuminuria, those with albuminuria at baseline had a 1.69 greater risk of reaching stage 3 CKD, while patients with mild eGFR reduction (i.e. eGFR between 90 and 60 mL/min/1.73 m2) show a 3.81 greater risk that rose to 8.24 for those patients with albuminuria and mild eGFR reduction at baseline. Conclusions: Albuminuria and eGFR reduction represent independent risk factors for incident stage 653 CKD in T1DM patients. The simultaneous occurrence of reduced eGFR and albuminuria have a synergistic effect on renal function worsening

Fabrication And Characterization Of Polymeric Optical By Plasmafluorination Process

The fabrication and characterization of planar polymeric waveguides produced on silicon substrate foroptical devices is reported. The cladding was made of a fluorinated polymer by CHF3plasma polymeriza-tion and the core was a PMMA film prepared by spin coating. The polymeric waveguides with differentwidths (from 10 to 100 μm) were patterned by UV photolithography. The plasma fluorinated opticalfilms were characterized by ellipsometry, metricon prism coupler, interferometer and FTIR-ATR. Thewaveguide optical characterization was done by coupling a laser beam, fiber-to-fiber coupling method,using a multimode optical fiber.12617476Large, M., Van Eljkelenborg, M.A., Lwin, R., Barton, G., Poladian, L., Tanner, R., Xue, S., An overview of mPOF fabrication (2006) WorkPOF, Rio de Janeiro and Campinas, pp. 21-25Harsányi, G., (1995) Polymer Films in Sensor Applications: Technology, Materials,Devices and Their Characteristics, , Technomic Publishing Company, Pennsyl-vaniaChen, C., Sun, X., Zhang, D., Shan, Z., Shin, S., Zhang, D., Dye-doped polymeric pla-nar waveguide devices based on a thermal UV-bleaching technique (2009) Opt. LaserTechnol., 41, pp. 495-498Cheng, Y.H., Ng, W.M., Aung, M.M., Lao, I.K., Thaveeprungsriporn, V., Polymerwaveguide sensor for early diagnostic and wellness monitoring (2011) Biosens. Bioelectron., 26, pp. 3666-3669Madani, A., Azarini, H., Latifi, H., Design and fabrication of a polymer micro ringresonator with novel optical material at add/drop geometry sing laser beamdirect write lithography technique (2013) Optik, 124, pp. 1746-1748Irawan, R., Cheng, Y.H., Ng, W.M., Aung, M.M., Lao, I.K., Thaveeprungsriporn, V., Polymethylmethacrylate by krypton fluoride excimer laser radiation (2011) Appl.Surf. Sci., 257, pp. 5237-5240Glen, R.M., Polymeric optical fibre (1986) Chemtronics, 1, pp. 98-106Emslie, C., Review polymer optical fibres (1988) J. Mater. Sci., 23, pp. 2281-2293D'Agostino, R., (1990) Plasma Deposition, Treatment and Etching of Polymers, , Academic Press, San DiegoCoburn, J., Winters, H.E., Plasma etching-A discussion of mechanisms (1979) J. Vac.Sci. Technol., 16, pp. 391-403Bartoli, J.R., Costa, R., Verdonck, P., Mansano, R., Carreno, M., Filmes ópticospoliméricos fluorados com índice de refraç ão gradual (1999) Polímeros, 9, pp. 148-155Padilha, G.S., Giacon, V.M., Bartoli, J.R., Effect of plasma fluorination variables onthe deposition and growth of partially fluorinated polymer over PMMA films (2013) Polímeros, 23, pp. 583-589Chen, C.L., Jen, F., Fabrication of polymer splitter by micro hot embossing tech-nique (2004) Tamkang J. Sci. Eng., 7, pp. 5-9Sugihara, O., Mizuno, H., Jordan, S., Kaino, T., Okamoto, N., Oohama, M., Passivealignment structure: Simple fabrication of polymeric optical waveguide withPOF guides (2004) Proceedings of 13th International Plastic Optical Fibres Confer-ence-2004, pp. 496-499. , NurnbergKoo, J.S., William, R.B., Grawith, C.B., Watts, S.P., Emmerson, G.D., Albanis, V., Smith, P.G.R., Grosse, M.C., UV written waveguide devices using crosslinkable PMMA-based copolymers (2003) Electron. Lett., 39, pp. 394-395Wochnowski, C., Meteva, K., Metev, S., Vollertsen, F., UV-laser assisted fluorina-tion of polymers (2007) Mater. Lett., 61, pp. 1046-1049Chen, H., Lv, T., Zheng, A., Han, Y., Directly writing embedded wave-guides in lithium niobate by a femtosecond laser (2013) Optik, 124, pp. 195-197Wang, Z., Cao, Y., Li, X., Gao, M., Zeng, X., Fabrication of fluorinated polyimideoptical waveguides by micropen direct writing technology (2011) Opt. Lasers Eng., 49, pp. 880-88

Edificações verticalizadas e efeitos associados às condições térmicas em Belém, Pará.

O Painel Intergovernamental de Mudanças Climática (IPCC) vem alertando para o aumento da temperatura média na Terra. Os grandes centros urbanos intensificaram as áreas construídas, verticalizaram suas edificações para expandir a capacidade de aporte populacional, ampliaram a área asfaltada do sistema viário, reduziram as áreas permeáveis e vegetadas condicionando o surgimento de vários fatores ambientais, inclusive as ilhas de calor nas grandes cidades. Objetivou-se neste trabalho avaliar respostas térmicas capazes de expressar evidências associadas ao processo de verticalização em Belém, Pará. Utilizou-se uma série histórica de dados mensais de temperatura do ar totalizando 44 anos (1967 a 2010) para analisar condições térmicas que descrevem o clima local. Para avaliar a verticalização foram analisados dados disponíveis na literatura sobre a evolução do número de pavimentos de 1878 a 2009 em Belém. Fez-se análise de anomalias, amplitudes térmicas e testes de correlação entre essas variáveis resposta. Os resultados indicaram que as temperaturas mínimas do ar se elevaram nos últimos 16 anos, expressas em termos de anomalias quentes, a partir de 1995 que podem estar associadas à mudança do skyline, principalmente nos bairro Doca de Souza Franco e Umarizal. Houve redução das amplitudes térmicas, evidenciando aumento da temperatura mínima aproximando-se do gradiente das temperaturas médias que foi explicada com cerca de 93% pela verticalização urbana. Conclui-se que existe necessidade de adoção de estratégias mitigadoras para evitar possíveis ilhas de calor em bairros mais verticalizados de Belém

Effect of zinc supplementation on methallothionein, copper, and zinc concentration in various tissues of copper-loades rats.

The present study was designed to investigate the effects of Zn administration on metallothionein concentrations in the liver, kidney, and intestine of copper-loaded rats. Male CD rats were fed a diet containing 12 mg Cu and 67 mg Zn/kg body wt. They were divided into either acute or chronic experimental protocols. Rats undergoing acute experiments received daily ip injections of either Cu (3 mg/kg body wt) or Zn (10 mg/kg body wt) for 3 d. Chronic experiments were carried out on rats receiving Cu ip injections on d 1, 2, 3, 10, 17, and 24, Cu injections plus a Zn-supplemented diet containing 5 g Zn/kg solid diet, or a Zn-supplemented diet alone. Rats injected Zn or Cu had increased MT concentrations in liver and kidney. Zn produced the most important effects and the liver was the most responsive organ. Rats fed a Zn-supplemented diet had significantly higher MT concentrations in liver and intestine with respect to controls. Increased MT synthesis in the liver may contribute to copper detoxification; the hypothesis of copper entrapment in enterocytes cannot be confirmed