Cryptanalytic Attacks on IDEA Block Cipher

International data encryption algorithm (IDEA) is a secret key or symmetric key block cipher. The purpose of IDEA was to replace data encryption standard (DES) cipher, which became practically insecure due to its small key size of 56 bits and increase in computational power of systems. IDEA cipher mainly to provide data confidentiality in variety of applications such as commercial and financial application e.g. pretty good privacy (PGP) protocol. Till 2015, no successful linear or algebraic weaknesses IDEA of have been reported. In this paper, author explained IDEA cipher, its application in PGP and did a systematic survey of various attacks attempted on IDEA cipher. The best cryptanalysis result which applied to all keys could break IDEA up to 6 rounds out of 8.5 rounds of the full IDEA cipher1. But the attack requires 264 known plaintexts and 2126.8 operations for reduced round version. This attack is practically not feasible due to above mention mammoth data and time requirements. So IDEA cipher is still completely secure for practical usage. PGP v2.0 uses IDEA cipher in place of BassOmatic which was found to be insecure for providing data confidentiality

Immune Mediated Musculoskeletal Disorders of Dogs: An Overview

Immune mediated musculoskeletal diseases are important diseases of dogs which occur due to failure of immunoregulation or to an abnormal immune response. As clinical signs of these disorders overlap with numerous other syndromes of musculoskeletal system, the confirmative diagnosis is difficult. Glucocorticoids are the basis of therapy with adjunct therapy of cytotoxic drugs, chrysotherapy which require continuous monitoring of patient. Generally there is no curative treatment in most of the disorders due to recurrence of disease after withdrawal of treatment

Stability indicating method development and validation for simultaneous estimation of atorvastatin calcium and celecoxib in bulk and niosomal formulation by RP-HPLC

The present work describes development and validation of a specific, sensitive, precise and stability-indicating high-performance liquid chromatographic method of analysis of atorvastatin calcium and celecoxib, both as a bulk drug and in niosomal formulation. The analysis has been performed by using Cosmosil-C18 column (4.6 mm´250 mm, 5 m) at 25 °C using acetonitrile: ammonium acetate buffer pH 5.0: methanol (50:25:25 v/v/v) as mobile phase. The detection was carried out at 277nm with a flow rate of 1.0mL/min. The retention times of Atorvastatin calcium and Celecoxib were 6.195 and 3.989min, respectively. The method was validated according to ICH guidelines, for specificity, precision, linearity, accuracy and robustness. Atorvastatin calcium and Celecoxib were subjected to stress conditions of hydrolysis, oxidation, photolysis and thermal degradation. The degradation was observed in oxidation and acid hydrolysis. The linearity for atorvastatin calcium and celecoxib were in the range of 100-500 µg/mL. The recovery study of atorvastatin and celecoxib were found to be in the range of 98.96 - 99.92% and 98.90-100%, respectively. The proposed method was validated and successfully applied to the estimation of Atorvastatin calcium and Celecoxib in combined in-house niosomal formulation.O presente trabalho descreve o desenvolvimento e a validação de método de análise por cromatografia de alta eficiência específico, sensível, preciso e indicador de estabilidade de atorvastatina cálcica e celecoxibe, ambos como fármaco e como formulação niosômica. A análise foi realizada utilizando coluna Cosmosil-C18 (4,6 mm´250 mm, 5 m) a 25 °C, e acetonitrila: tampão acetato de amônio pH 5,0: metanol (50:25:25 v/v/v) como fase móvel. A detecção foi realizada a 277 nm, com fluxo de 1,0 mL/min. Os tempos de retenção de atorvastatina cálcica e de celecoxibe foram 6,195 e 3,989 min, respectivamente. O método foi validado de acordo com as regras da ICH para especificidade, precisão, exatidão e robustez. A atorvastatina cálcica e o celecoxibe foram submetidos a condições de estresse por hidrólise, oxidação, fotólise e degradação térmica. A degradação foi observada por oxidação e hidrólise ácida. Observou-se a linearidade da atorvastatina cálcica e do celecoxibe na faixa de 100-500 µg/mL. A recuperação da atorvastatina e do celecoxibe foi observada na faixa de 98,96-99,92% e 98,90-100%, respectivamente. O método proposto foi validado e aplicado com sucesso para a determinação de atorvastatina cálcica e celecoxibe em formulação niosômica caseira combinada

Erratum: "A Gravitational-wave Measurement of the Hubble Constant Following the Second Observing Run of Advanced LIGO and Virgo" (2021, ApJ, 909, 218)

[no abstract available

Search for Gravitational Waves Associated with Gamma-Ray Bursts Detected by Fermi and Swift during the LIGO-Virgo Run O3b

We search for gravitational-wave signals associated with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by the Fermi and Swift satellites during the second half of the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo (2019 November 1 15:00 UTC-2020 March 27 17:00 UTC). We conduct two independent searches: A generic gravitational-wave transients search to analyze 86 GRBs and an analysis to target binary mergers with at least one neutron star as short GRB progenitors for 17 events. We find no significant evidence for gravitational-wave signals associated with any of these GRBs. A weighted binomial test of the combined results finds no evidence for subthreshold gravitational-wave signals associated with this GRB ensemble either. We use several source types and signal morphologies during the searches, resulting in lower bounds on the estimated distance to each GRB. Finally, we constrain the population of low-luminosity short GRBs using results from the first to the third observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. The resulting population is in accordance with the local binary neutron star merger rate. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society

Narrowband Searches for Continuous and Long-duration Transient Gravitational Waves from Known Pulsars in the LIGO-Virgo Third Observing Run

Isolated neutron stars that are asymmetric with respect to their spin axis are possible sources of detectable continuous gravitational waves. This paper presents a fully coherent search for such signals from eighteen pulsars in data from LIGO and Virgo's third observing run (O3). For known pulsars, efficient and sensitive matched-filter searches can be carried out if one assumes the gravitational radiation is phase-locked to the electromagnetic emission. In the search presented here, we relax this assumption and allow both the frequency and the time derivative of the frequency of the gravitational waves to vary in a small range around those inferred from electromagnetic observations. We find no evidence for continuous gravitational waves, and set upper limits on the strain amplitude for each target. These limits are more constraining for seven of the targets than the spin-down limit defined by ascribing all rotational energy loss to gravitational radiation. In an additional search, we look in O3 data for long-duration (hours-months) transient gravitational waves in the aftermath of pulsar glitches for six targets with a total of nine glitches. We report two marginal outliers from this search, but find no clear evidence for such emission either. The resulting duration-dependent strain upper limits do not surpass indirect energy constraints for any of these targets. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society

Search for gravitational waves from Scorpius X-1 in the second Advanced LIGO observing run with an improved hidden Markov model

We present results from a semicoherent search for continuous gravitational waves from the low-mass x-ray binary Scorpius X-1, using a hidden Markov model (HMM) to track spin wandering. This search improves on previous HMM-based searches of LIGO data by using an improved frequency domain matched filter, the J-statistic, and by analyzing data from Advanced LIGO's second observing run. In the frequency range searched, from 60 to 650 Hz, we find no evidence of gravitational radiation. At 194.6 Hz, the most sensitive search frequency, we report an upper limit on gravitational wave strain (at 95% confidence) of h095%=3.47×10-25 when marginalizing over source inclination angle. This is the most sensitive search for Scorpius X-1, to date, that is specifically designed to be robust in the presence of spin wandering. © 2019 American Physical Society

Risk profiles and one-year outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation in India: Insights from the GARFIELD-AF Registry.

BACKGROUND: The Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF) is an ongoing prospective noninterventional registry, which is providing important information on the baseline characteristics, treatment patterns, and 1-year outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). This report describes data from Indian patients recruited in this registry. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 52,014 patients with newly diagnosed AF were enrolled globally; of these, 1388 patients were recruited from 26 sites within India (2012-2016). In India, the mean age was 65.8 years at diagnosis of NVAF. Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor for AF, present in 68.5% of patients from India and in 76.3% of patients globally (P < 0.001). Diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD) were prevalent in 36.2% and 28.1% of patients as compared with global prevalence of 22.2% and 21.6%, respectively (P < 0.001 for both). Antiplatelet therapy was the most common antithrombotic treatment in India. With increasing stroke risk, however, patients were more likely to receive oral anticoagulant therapy [mainly vitamin K antagonist (VKA)], but average international normalized ratio (INR) was lower among Indian patients [median INR value 1.6 (interquartile range {IQR}: 1.3-2.3) versus 2.3 (IQR 1.8-2.8) (P < 0.001)]. Compared with other countries, patients from India had markedly higher rates of all-cause mortality [7.68 per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval 6.32-9.35) vs 4.34 (4.16-4.53), P < 0.0001], while rates of stroke/systemic embolism and major bleeding were lower after 1 year of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Compared to previously published registries from India, the GARFIELD-AF registry describes clinical profiles and outcomes in Indian patients with AF of a different etiology. The registry data show that compared to the rest of the world, Indian AF patients are younger in age and have more diabetes and CAD. Patients with a higher stroke risk are more likely to receive anticoagulation therapy with VKA but are underdosed compared with the global average in the GARFIELD-AF. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION-URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01090362