Reconstruction of the primordial power spectra with Planck and BICEP2

By using the cubic spline interpolation method, we reconstruct the shape of the primordial scalar and tensor power spectra from the recently released {\it Planck} temperature and BICEP2 polarization cosmic microwave background data. We find that the vanishing scalar index running (\dd n_s/\dd\ln k) model is strongly disfavored at more than $3\sigma$ confidence level on the $k=0.0002$ Mpc$^{-1}$ scale. Furthermore, the power-law parameterization gives a blue-tilt tensor spectrum, no matter using only the first 5 bandpowers $n_t = 1.20^{+0.56}_{-0.64} (95$ or the full 9 bandpowers $n_t = 1.24^{+0.51}_{-0.58} (95$ of BICEP2 data sets. Unlike the large tensor-to-scalar ratio value ($r\sim0.20$) under the scale-invariant tensor spectrum assumption, our interpolation approach gives $r_{0.002} < 0.060 (95{\rm CL})$ by using the first 5 bandpowers of BICEP2 data. After comparing the results with/without BICEP2 data, we find that {\it Planck} temperature with small tensor amplitude signals and BICEP2 polarization data with large tensor amplitude signals dominate the tensor spectrum reconstruction on the large and small scales, respectively. Hence, the resulting blue tensor tilt actually reflects the tension between {\it Planck} and BICEP2 data.Comment: complementary results without BICEP2 added, references add, typos corrected, 10 figures, 5 tables, 11 page

Free-riding Analysis Via Dynamic Game with Incomplete Information

AbstractP2P networks are distributed, acentric and self-organized systems. Due to the incomplete information of network environment, the uncertainty of trust relationship among peers and the selfishness of the peers in P2P networks, which give rise to many free-riders that seriously impact the stability and scalability of P2P networks. In this paper, by analyzing the incomplete information of network environment, the uncertainty of trust relationship among nodes, the phenomenon of the free-riding is studied based on game theory. The IIDGTrust (Incomplete Information Dynamic Game Trust)mechanism is presented through the case “Supplying the Public Resources”. Updating the trust relationship among the nodes according to the Bayesian law, which make nodes choose better strategies in time. The experimental results demonstrate that the IIDGTrust mechanism can effectively reduce the proportion of the free-riders in the P2P networks and maintain the stability of networks better

Development and Validation of A Rapid LC-MS/MS Method forTthe Determination of JCC76, A Novel Antitumor Agent for Breast Cancer, in Rat Plasma and Its Application to A Pharmacokinetics Study

JCC76 is a novel nimesulide analog that selectively inhibits the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) overexpressing breast cancer cell proliferation and tumor progression. To support further pharmacological and toxicological studies of JCC76, a novel and rapid method using liquid chromatography and electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) has been developed and validated for the quantification of the compound in rat plasma. A C18 column was used for chromatographic separation, and the mobile phase was aqueous ammonium formate (pH 3.7; 5 mm)–methanol (1:9, v/v) with an isocratic elution. With a simple liquid–liquid extraction procedure using the mixture of methyl tert-butyl ether–hexane (1:2, v/v), the mean extraction efficiency of JCC76 in rat plasma was determined as 89.5–97.3% and no obvious matrix effect was observed. This method demonstrated a linear calibration range from 0.3 to 100 ng/mL for JCC76 in rat plasma and a small volume of sample consumption. The intra- and inter-assay accuracy and precision were within ±10%. The pharmacokinetics of JCC76 was also profiled using this validated method in rats. In conclusion, this rapid and sensitive method has been proven to effectively quantify JCC76 for pharmacokinetics study

Non-Gaussian features from the inverse volume corrections in loop quantum cosmology

In this paper we study the non-Gaussian features of the primordial fluctuations in loop quantum cosmology with the inverse volume corrections. The detailed analysis is performed in the single field slow-roll inflationary models. However, our results reflect the universal characteristics of bispectrum in loop quantum cosmology. The main corrections to the scalar bispectrum come from two aspects: one is the modifications to the standard Bunch-Davies vacuum, the other is the corrections to the background dependent variables, such as slow-roll parameters. Our calculations show that the loop quantum corrections make $f_{{\rm NL}}$ of the inflationary models increase 0.1%. Moreover, we find that two new shapes arise, namely $\mathcal F_{1}$ and $\mathcal F_{2}$. The former gives a unique loop quantum feature which is less correlated with the local, equilateral and single types, while the latter is highly correlated with the local one.Comment: matched to the published version. 30 pages, 4 figure

Modular evolution of glutathione peroxidase genes in association with different biochemical properties of their encoded proteins in invertebrate animals

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Phospholipid hydroperoxide glutathione peroxidases (PHGPx), the most abundant isoforms of GPx families, interfere directly with hydroperoxidation of lipids. Biochemical properties of these proteins vary along with their donor organisms, which has complicated the phylogenetic classification of diverse PHGPx-like proteins. Despite efforts for comprehensive analyses, the evolutionary aspects of GPx genes in invertebrates remain largely unknown.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We isolated GPx homologs via <it>in silico </it>screening of genomic and/or expressed sequence tag databases of eukaryotic organisms including protostomian species. Genes showing strong similarity to the mammalian PHGPx genes were commonly found in all genomes examined. GPx3- and GPx7-like genes were additionally detected from nematodes and platyhelminths, respectively. The overall distribution of the PHGPx-like proteins with different biochemical properties was biased across taxa; selenium- and glutathione (GSH)-dependent proteins were exclusively detected in platyhelminth and deuterostomian species, whereas selenium-independent and thioredoxin (Trx)-dependent enzymes were isolated in the other taxa. In comparison of genomic organization, the GSH-dependent PHGPx genes showed a conserved architectural pattern, while their Trx-dependent counterparts displayed complex exon-intron structures. A codon for the resolving Cys engaged in reductant binding was found to be substituted in a series of genes. Selection pressure to maintain the selenocysteine codon in GSH-dependent genes also appeared to be relaxed during their evolution. With the dichotomized fashion in genomic organizations, a highly polytomic topology of their phylogenetic trees implied that the GPx genes have multiple evolutionary intermediate forms.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Comparative analysis of invertebrate GPx genes provides informative evidence to support the modular pathways of GPx evolution, which have been accompanied with sporadic expansion/deletion and exon-intron remodeling. The differentiated enzymatic properties might be acquired by the evolutionary relaxation of selection pressure and/or biochemical adaptation to the acting environments. Our present study would be beneficial to get detailed insights into the complex GPx evolution, and to understand the molecular basis of the specialized physiological implications of this antioxidant system in their respective donor organisms.</p

UPPRESSO: Untraceable and Unlinkable Privacy-PREserving Single Sign-On Services

Single sign-on (SSO) allows a user to maintain only the credential at the identity provider (IdP), to login to numerous RPs. However, SSO introduces extra privacy threats, compared with traditional authentication mechanisms, as (a) the IdP could track all RPs which a user is visiting, and (b) collusive RPs could learn a user's online profile by linking his identities across these RPs. This paper proposes a privacypreserving SSO system, called UPPRESSO, to protect a user's login activities against both the curious IdP and collusive RPs. We analyze the identity dilemma between the security requirements and these privacy concerns, and convert the SSO privacy problems into an identity transformation challenge. In each login instance, an ephemeral pseudo-identity (denoted as PID_RP ) of the RP, is firstly negotiated between the user and the RP. PID_RP is sent to the IdP and designated in the identity token, so the IdP is not aware of the visited RP. Meanwhile, PID_RP is used by the IdP to transform the permanent user identity ID_U into an ephemeral user pseudo-identity (denoted as PID_U ) in the identity token. On receiving the identity token, the RP transforms PID_U into a permanent account (denoted as Acct) of the user, by an ephemeral trapdoor in the negotiation. Given a user, the account at each RP is unique and different from ID_U, so collusive RPs cannot link his identities across these RPs. We build the UPPRESSO prototype on top of MITREid Connect, an open-source implementation of OIDC. The extensive evaluation shows that UPPRESSO fulfills the requirements of both security and privacy and introduces reasonable overheads