Multiparty quantum secret sharing with pure entangled states and decoy photons

We present a scheme for multiparty quantum secret sharing of a private key with pure entangled states and decoy photons. The boss, say Alice uses the decoy photons, which are randomly in one of the four nonorthogonal single-photon states, to prevent a potentially dishonest agent from eavesdropping freely. This scheme requires the parties of communication to have neither an ideal single-photon quantum source nor a maximally entangled one, which makes this scheme more convenient than others in a practical application. Moreover, it has the advantage of having high intrinsic efficiency for qubits and exchanging less classical information in principle.Comment: 5 pages, no figure

Serving the cause when my organization does not: a self‐affirmation model of employees’ compensatory responses to ideological contract breach

Transactional and relational contract breach occur when organizations fail to deliver on promised personal benefits for employees and are associated with negative behaviors reciprocating such mistreatment. However, recent research suggests that ideological contract breach, a unique form of contract breach, may yield constructive behaviors because it is not organizations’ direct personal mistreatment of employees, but organizations’ abandonment of a valued cause to benefit a third party. Such an interesting prediction goes beyond the dominant social-exchange framework, which mainly forecasts destructive responses to breach. In this research, we develop a novel self-affirmation model to explain how ideological contract breach results in counterintuitive positive outcomes. In a hospital field study among medical professionals (N = 362) and their supervisors (N = 129), we found that ideological contract breach induces employees’ rumination about the breach, which in turn prompts them to self-affirm core values at work. This self-affirmation eventually spurs proactive serving behavior and self-improvement behavior to compensate for the breached ideology. Professional identification enhances this self-affirmation process

Mycoplasma genitalium Lipoproteins Induce Human Monocytic Cell Expression of Proinflammatory Cytokines and Apoptosis by Activating Nuclear Factor κB

This study was designed to investigate the molecular mechanisms responsible for the induction of proinflammatory cytokines gene expression and apoptosis in human monocytic cell line THP-1 stimulated by lipoproteins (LPs) prepared from Mycoplasma genitalium. Cultured cells were stimulated with M. genitalium LP to analyze the production of proinflammatory cytokines and expression of their mRNA by ELISA and RT-PCR, respectively. Cell apoptosis was also detected by Annexin V-FITC-propidium iodide (PI) staining and acridine orange (AO)-ethidium bromide (EB) staining. The DNA-binding activity of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) was assessed by electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA). Results showed that LP stimulated THP-1 cells to produce tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and IL-6 in a dose-dependent manner. The mRNA levels were also upregulated in response to LP stimulation. LPs were also found to increase the DNA-binding activity of NF-κB, a possible mechanism for the induction of cytokine mRNA expression and the cell apoptosis. These effects were abrogated by PDTC, an inhibitor of NF-κB. Our results indicate that M. genitalium-derived LP may be an important etiological factor of certain diseases due to the ability of LP to produce proinflammatory cytokines and induction of apoptosis, which is probably mediated through the activation of NF-κB

Value Cards: An Educational Toolkit for Teaching Social Impacts of Machine Learning through Deliberation

Recently, there have been increasing calls for computer science curricula to complement existing technical training with topics related to Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics. In this paper, we present Value Card, an educational toolkit to inform students and practitioners of the social impacts of different machine learning models via deliberation. This paper presents an early use of our approach in a college-level computer science course. Through an in-class activity, we report empirical data for the initial effectiveness of our approach. Our results suggest that the use of the Value Cards toolkit can improve students' understanding of both the technical definitions and trade-offs of performance metrics and apply them in real-world contexts, help them recognize the significance of considering diverse social values in the development of deployment of algorithmic systems, and enable them to communicate, negotiate and synthesize the perspectives of diverse stakeholders. Our study also demonstrates a number of caveats we need to consider when using the different variants of the Value Cards toolkit. Finally, we discuss the challenges as well as future applications of our approach.Comment: Updating authors' name

Tissue Stresses in Stented Coronary Arteries with Different Geometries: Effect of the Relation Between Stent Length and Lesion Length

In-stent restenosis after stent deployment remains an obstruction in the long-term benefits of stenting. This study sought to investigate the influence of the relation between stent length and lesion length on the mechanics of the arterial wall with different geometries, including straight and tapered vessels. Results showed that when the length of the stent was longer than the lesion length, the maximum stress in plaque and vessel increased as the length of stent increased. When the length of the stent was shorter than the lesion length, the vessel stress induced by stent inflation was lower; both ends of the stenosis plaque could not be fully expanded. When the length of the stent was equal to the lesion length, the plaque and vessel stress induced by stent inflation was minimal, and stent foreshortening was minimal. Compared with the straight vessel, the stent implantation in the tapered vessel with the same stent length resulted in greater stress in vessel and plaque, an increased stent recoil, and a decreased stent foreshortening. When the length of the stent is equal to lesion length, it may be the reasonable choice for straight vessels and tapered vessels. Conclusions drawn from this article can help surgeons to choose appropriate stent lengths

2-(4-Methyl­benzo­yl)benzoic acid monohydrate

In the title compound, C15H12O3·H2O, the two rings are oriented at a dihedral angle of 69.12 (3)°. In the crystal structure, intermolecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the mol­ecules into a three-dimensional framework

Terahertz Reconfigurable Metasurface for Dynamic Non-Diffractive Orbital Angular Momentum Beams using Vanadium Dioxide

Funding: This work was supported in part by the Natural Science Foundation of Beijing under Grant 4202047, in part by the Beijing Nova Program under Grant 181100006218039, and in part by the 111 Project (B17007). 10.13039/501100004826-Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality (Grant Number: 4202047) 10.13039/501100005090-Beijing Nova Program (Grant Number: Z181100006218039) 10.13039/501100013314-Higher Education Discipline Innovation Project (Grant Number: B17007)Peer reviewedPublisher PD

(4,6-Dibromo-m-phenyl­enedimethyl­idyne) tetra­acetate

The title mol­ecule, C16H16Br2O8, lies on a crystallographic twofold axis. Weak intra­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds may, in part, control the conformation of the mol­ecule. In the crystal structure, mol­ecules are connected into a two-dimensional network via weak inter­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds