Randomized ancillary qubit overcomes detector-control and intercept-resend hacking of quantum key distribution

Practical implementations of quantum key distribution (QKD) have been shown to be subject to various detector side-channel attacks that compromise the promised unconditional security. Most notable is a general class of attacks adopting the use of faked-state photons as in the detector-control and, more broadly, the intercept-resend attacks. In this paper, we present a simple scheme to overcome such class of attacks: A legitimate user, Bob, uses a polarization randomizer at his gateway to distort an ancillary polarization of a phase-encoded photon in a bidirectional QKD configuration. Passing through the randomizer once on the way to his partner, Alice, and again in the opposite direction, the polarization qubit of the genuine photon is immune to randomization. However, the polarization state of a photon from an intruder, Eve, to Bob is randomized and hence directed to a detector in a different path, whereupon it triggers an alert. We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that, using commercial off-the-shelf detectors, it can be made impossible for Eve to avoid triggering the alert, no matter what faked-state of light she uses.Comment: Quantum encryption, bidirectional quantum key distribution, detector control, intercept and resend attacks, faked state photon

Interleukin 6 (IL6) as a predictor outcome in patients with compensated cirrhosis and symptomatic gall stones after cholecystectomy

Compensated cirrhosis means that the liver is heavily scarred but can still perform many important functions; many peoples with compensated cirrhosis have gall bladder stones. The advantages of laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) for most patients have been extensively published. However its benefits and successful use in patients with cirrhosis are less documented. The study compromised 50 patients with symptomatic gallstone in compensated liver disease and undergone either open cholecystectomy (OC) or laparoscopic cholecystectomy. These patients were randomized into two groups: Group I included 24 patients who underwent OC, and group II included 26 patients who underwent LC. Patient’s age, sex, clinical presentation and Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) class were documented. No patients in this study had CTP class c cirrhosis. IL-6 was measured by ELISA, postoperative pain (measured by Visual analog scale), hospital stay, blood loss, recovery time (return to work), and liver function tests were documented. IL-6 was significantly lowered at 6th hour and 12th hour post operative in LC group. Mean surgical time was significantly longer in OC than LC group, (mean ±SD, 96.6 ±32 vs 58.7 ± 23.8 min, P = 0.037). No patients in group II required any blood replacement in contrast to 9 patients (37.5%) in group I. Intraoperative bleeding remained significantly higher in group I (P = 0.043). No patients in group II had wound complications compared with 5 patients (29.14%) in group I. Group I had significantly longer hospital stay than group II, mean 9.0+ 1.3 days (median 7) vs 2.3 days + 1.9 (median 2.5); P = 0.001. Our results were demonstrated that laparoscopic cholecystectomy can be performed safely in patients with CTP class A and B cirrhosis. IL-6 was more significantly, increased post operatively in open cholecystectomy than laparoscopic one and it correlated well with intensity of operative trauma. Keywords: Interleukin 6; Liver cirrhosis; Cholecystectom

HYDROCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND WATER QUALITY ASSESSMENT IN ABU-ZAABAL AREA, EASTERN NILE DELTA, EGYPT

Objective: The study presents simple tools for water resources quality classification based on its chemical compositions in Abu Zaabal area, eastern Nile Delta, Egypt and assess the water quality for different uses. Methods: 31 water samples were collected from different water resources in the study area and analyzed for physicochemical parameters. Hydrochemical relations, contour maps and statistical methods were used to estimate the contamination indices and evaluate the water resources for different purposes. Results: 83.3% of groundwater samples is fresh water and 16.7% are brackish water. 85.7% of surface water samples are fresh and 14.3% is saline. 92% of groundwater samples and 71.5% of surface water samples are very hard water. According to HPI values, 8% of the quaternary groundwater samples are good, 4% are poor, 4% are very poor and 84% of the samples are unsuitable. All groundwater samples and 71% of surface water samples are contaminated with respect to ammonia. Conclusion: Higher concentrations of TDS and heavy metal may be due to the clay nature of the soil, the marine sediments in the aquifer matrix together with the dissolution and leaching of minerals from agricultural, anthropogenic and industrial activities. The groundwater in the polluted zones is considered unsuitable for human drinking

Morphological and molecular characterization of somaclonal variations in tissue culture-derived banana plants

AbstractIn this study, 40000 tissue culture-derived banana plants (vitroplants) at different growth stages, i.e. acclimatization, nursery and open field of banana (Musa spp.) cultivar ‘Grand Naine’ were screened for somaclonal variations using morphological investigations and molecular characterization. The total detected variants were grouped into 25 off-types (two of them died) in addition to the normal plant. Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) was carried out to study the differences among the normal cultivar ‘Grand Naine’ and its 23 variants using 17 arbitrary primers. Cluster analysis results revealed that ‘winged petiole’ and ‘deformed lamina’ were more related to the normal plant. However, ‘Giant plant’ and ‘weak plant’ related to each other and clustered with normal plant. According to principal coordinate analysis, most of the variants were aggregated nearly, whereas ‘variegated plant’ was separated apart from the other variants. This may reflect the genetic difference between ‘variegated plant’ and the other variants. The results obtained from both molecular and morphological analyses were in contiguous with better resolution when using the PCOORDA analysis than cluster analysis. Thus, it can be said that molecular markers can be used to eliminate the undesirable somaclonal variants from the lab without additional culture of the vitroplants in the field in order to save time and efforts

EFFECT OF DIFFERENT NITROGEN AND POTASSIUM LEVELS AND FOLIAR APPLICATION OF BORON ON WHEAT YIELD

From the present study, it could be concluded that the highest concentration of nitrogen in wheat grains was obtained at 90 kg N fed-1 in the presence of potassium and spraying with boron. Increasing nitrogen levels increased the amount of nitrogen uptake by grains of wheat. Also the crude protein (%) in grains increased gradually with increasing nitrogen level in the presence of potassium and spraying with boron. The highest concentration of K in grains of wheat was obtained at the high levels of nitrogen in the presence of potassium and spraying with boron. Also the highest amounts of K uptake by the grains of wheat were recorded by the high levels of nitrogen in the presence of potassium and spraying of boron