Anonymity on Byzantine-Resilient Decentralized Computing

In recent years, decentralized computing has gained popularity in various domains such as decentralized learning, financial services and the Industrial Internet of Things. As identity privacy becomes increasingly important in the era of big data, safeguarding user identity privacy while ensuring the security of decentralized computing systems has become a critical challenge. To address this issue, we propose ADC (Anonymous Decentralized Computing) to achieve anonymity in decentralized computing. In ADC, the entire network of users can vote to trace and revoke malicious nodes. Furthermore, ADC possesses excellent Sybil-resistance and Byzantine fault tolerance, enhancing the security of the system and increasing user trust in the decentralized computing system. To decentralize the system, we propose a practical blockchain-based decentralized group signature scheme called Group Contract. We construct the entire decentralized system based on Group Contract, which does not require the participation of a trusted authority to guarantee the above functions. Finally, we conduct rigorous privacy and security analysis and performance evaluation to demonstrate the security and practicality of ADC for decentralized computing with only a minor additional time overhead

Review on K-Feldspar Mineral Processing for Extracting Metallic Potassium as a Fertilizer Resource

The K-feldspar mineral is an insoluble potassium resource with a high potassium content and the most extensive and abundant reserves. To address the insufficient supply of soluble potassium fertilizers in China, the application of appropriate processing methods to extract potassium from K-feldspar and transform it into a soluble potassium fertilizer is of great significance. To date, various techniques have been developed to extract potassium from K-feldspar and produce a soluble potassium fertilizer. This review summarizes the main methods, i.e., the hydrothermal, high-temperature pyrolysis, microbial decomposition, and low-temperature methods, for potassium extraction from K-feldspar. The mechanisms, efficiencies, impact parameters, and research progress of each potassium extraction method are comprehensively discussed. This study also compares the merits and drawbacks of the individual methods in terms of potassium extraction efficiency and practical operating conditions. The species of additives, reaction temperature, reaction time, particle size of K-feldspar, and dosage of additives significantly affected the potassium extraction efficiency. Moreover, the combination of different methods was very effective in improving the potassium extraction efficiency. This review elaborates the research prospects and potential strategies for the efficient utilization of the K-feldspar mineral as a fertilizer resource

Construction of Z-Scheme TiO₂/Au/BDD Electrodes for an Enhanced Electrocatalytic Performance

TiO2/Au/BDD composites with a Z-scheme structure was prepared by orderly depositing gold (Au) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) on the surface of a boron-doped diamond (BDD) film using sputtering and electrophoretic deposition methods. It was found that the introduction of Au between TiO2 and the BDD, not only could reduce their contact resistance, to increase the carrier transport efficiency, but also could improve the surface Hall mobility of the BDD electrode. Meanwhile, the designed Z-scheme structure provided a fast channel for the electrons and holes combination, to promote the effective separation of the electrons and holes produced in TiO2 and the BDD under photoirradiation. The electrochemical characterization elucidated that these modifications of the structure obviously enhanced the electrocatalytic performance of the electrode, which was further verified by the simulated wastewater degradation experiments with reactive brilliant red X-3B. In addition, it was also found that the photoirradiation effectively enhanced the pollution degradation efficiency of the modified electrode, especially for the TiO2/Au/BDD-30 electrode

The structural basis of protein acetylation by the p300/CBP transcriptional coactivator

The transcriptional coactivator p300/CBP (CREBBP) is a histone acetyltransferase (HAT) that regulates gene expression by acetylating histones and other transcription factors. Dysregulation of p300/CBP HAT activity contributes to various diseases including cancer. Sequence alignments, enzymology experiments and inhibitor studies on p300/CBP have led to contradictory results about its catalytic mechanism and its structural relation to the Gcn5/PCAF and MYST HATs. Here we describe a high-resolution X-ray crystal structure of a semi-synthetic heterodimeric p300 HAT domain in complex with a bi-substrate inhibitor, Lys-CoA. This structure shows that p300/CBP is a distant cousin of other structurally characterized HATs, but reveals several novel features that explain the broad substrate specificity and preference for nearby basic residues. Based on this structure and accompanying biochemical data, we propose that p300/CBP uses an unusual \u27hit-and-run\u27 (Theorell-Chance) catalytic mechanism that is distinct from other characterized HATs. Several disease-associated mutations can also be readily accounted for by the p300 HAT structure. These studies pave the way for new epigenetic therapies involving modulation of p300/CBP HAT activity