Chaotic Masking Protocol for Secure Communication and Attack Detection in Remote Estimation of Cyber-Physical Systems

In remote estimation of cyber-physical systems (CPSs), sensor measurements transmitted through network may be attacked by adversaries, leading to leakage risk of privacy (e.g., the system state), and/or failure of the remote estimator. To deal with this problem, a chaotic masking protocol is proposed in this paper to secure the sensor measurements transmission. In detail, at the plant side, a chaotic dynamic system is deployed to encode the sensor measurement, and at the estimator side, an estimator estimates both states of the physical plant and the chaotic system. With this protocol, no additional secure communication links is needed for synchronization, and the masking effect can be perfectly removed when the estimator is in steady state. Furthermore, this masking protocol can deal with multiple types of attacks, i.e., eavesdropping attack, replay attack, and stealthy false data injection attack.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

The era of nano-bionic: 2D materials for wearable and implantable body sensors

Nano-bionics have the potential of revolutionizing modern medicine. Among nano-bionic devices, body sensors allow to monitor in real-time the health of patients, to achieve personalized medicine, and even to restore or enhance human functions. The advent of two-dimensional (2D) materials is facilitating the manufacturing of miniaturized and ultrathin bioelectronics, that can be easily integrated in the human body. Their unique electronic properties allow to efficiently transduce physical and chemical stimuli into electric current. Their flexibility and nanometric thickness facilitate the adaption and adhesion to human body. The low opacity permits to obtain transparent devices. The good cellular adhesion and reduced cytotoxicity are advantageous for the integration of the devices in vivo. Herein we review the latest and more significant examples of 2D material-based sensors for health monitoring, describing their architectures, sensing mechanisms, advantages and, as well, the challenges and drawbacks that hampers their translation into commercial clinical devices

The Circular Economy Concept in Design Education: Enhancing Understanding and Innovation by Means of Situated Learning

The concept of circular economy (CE) is high on the agenda of many planning agencies in European countries. It has also become a prominent issue in European academic education institutions. It is expected that spatial planning and design can support and add the spatial quality dimension of such a transition towards CE. However, incorporating the concept of CE in an integrative manner in urban design and planning courses is challenging because of its metabolic and complex nature. This article presents the first results of integrating design-teaching activities at a faculty of architecture with an H2020-financed research project. The integration of research and design education provided the students with a situated and indeed transdisciplinary learning environment. Students understood that they needed to address challenges from a systemic perspective rather early in the design process, meaning to understand what the relations between different subsystems and their spatial structures are. Furthermore, the experiment provided evidence that the eco-innovative solutions developed by the students are seen as an effective option to achieve objectives for a transition towards CE by stakeholders

The Coordinated Action of MYB Activators and Repressors Controls Proanthocyanidin and Anthocyanin Biosynthesis in Vaccinium

Vaccinium berries are regarded as “superfoods” owing to their high concentrations of anthocyanins, flavonoid metabolites that provide pigmentation and positively affect human health. Anthocyanin localization differs between the fruit of cultivated highbush blueberry (V. corymbosum) and wild bilberry (V. myrtillus), with the latter having deep red flesh coloration. Analysis of comparative transcriptomics across a developmental series of blueberry and bilberry fruit skin and flesh identified candidate anthocyanin regulators responsible for this distinction. This included multiple activator and repressor transcription factors (TFs) that correlated strongly with anthocyanin production and had minimal expression in blueberry (non-pigmented) flesh. R2R3 MYB TFs appeared key to the presence and absence of anthocyanin-based pigmentation; MYBA1 and MYBPA1.1 co-activated the pathway while MYBC2.1 repressed it. Transient overexpression of MYBA1 in Nicotiana benthamiana strongly induced anthocyanins, but this was substantially reduced when co-infiltrated with MYBC2.1. Co-infiltration of MYBC2.1 with MYBA1 also reduced activation of DFR and UFGT, key anthocyanin biosynthesis genes, in promoter activation studies. We demonstrated that these TFs operate within a regulatory hierarchy where MYBA1 activated the promoters of MYBC2.1 and bHLH2. Stable overexpression of VcMYBA1 in blueberry elevated anthocyanin content in transgenic plants, indicating that MYBA1 is sufficient to upregulate the TF module and activate the pathway. Our findings identify TF activators and repressors that are hierarchically regulated by SG6 MYBA1, and fine-tune anthocyanin production in Vaccinium. The lack of this TF module in blueberry flesh results in an absence of anthocyanins.publishedVersio

pH Dependent Molecular Self-Assembly of Octaphosphonate Porphyrin of Nanoscale Dimensions: Nanosphere and Nanorod Aggregates

Self-assembled nanostructures of zwitterionic octaphosphanatoporphyrin 1, of either nanoparticles or nanorods, depending on small changes in the pH, is demonstrated based on the J-aggregates. Porphyrin 1 self-assembled into nanosphere aggregates with a diameter of about 70–80 nm in the pH range 5–7, and nanorod aggregates were observed at pH 8.5. Hydrogen bonding, π-π stacking and hydrophilic interactions play important roles in the formation of this nanostructure morphology. Nanostructures were characterized by UV/Vis absorbance, fluorescence, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). This interesting pH dependent self-assembly phenomenon could provide a basis for development of novel biomaterials

PoGOLite - A High Sensitivity Balloon-Borne Soft Gamma-ray Polarimeter

We describe a new balloon-borne instrument (PoGOLite) capable of detecting 10% polarisation from 200mCrab point-like sources between 25 and 80keV in one 6 hour flight. Polarisation measurements in the soft gamma-ray band are expected to provide a powerful probe into high-energy emission mechanisms as well as the distribution of magnetic fields, radiation fields and interstellar matter. At present, only exploratory polarisation measurements have been carried out in the soft gamma-ray band. Reduction of the large background produced by cosmic-ray particles has been the biggest challenge. PoGOLite uses Compton scattering and photo-absorption in an array of 217 well-type phoswich detector cells made of plastic and BGO scintillators surrounded by a BGO anticoincidence shield and a thick polyethylene neutron shield. The narrow FOV (1.25msr) obtained with well-type phoswich detector technology and the use of thick background shields enhance the detected S/N ratio. Event selections based on recorded phototube waveforms and Compton kinematics reduce the background to that expected for a 40-100mCrab source between 25 and 50keV. A 6 hour observation on the Crab will differentiate between the Polar Cap/Slot Gap, Outer Gap, and Caustic models with greater than 5 sigma; and also cleanly identify the Compton reflection component in the Cygnus X-1 hard state. The first flight is planned for 2010 and long-duration flights from Sweden to Northern Canada are foreseen thereafter.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, 2 table

Inflammation and neutrophil extracellular traps in cerebral cavernous malformation

Correction: Volume79, Issue7 Article Number: 388 DOI: 10.1007/s00018-022-04418-8Cerebral Cavernous Malformation (CCM) is a brain vascular disease with various neurological symptoms. In this study, we describe the inflammatory profile in CCM and show for the first time the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) in rodents and humans with CCM. Through RNA-seq analysis of cerebellum endothelial cells from wild-type mice and mice with an endothelial cell-specific ablation of the Ccm3 gene (Ccm3(iECKO)), we show that endothelial cells from Ccm3(iECKO) mice have an increased expression of inflammation-related genes. These genes encode proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines, as well as adhesion molecules, which promote recruitment of inflammatory and immune cells. Similarly, immunoassays showed elevated levels of these cytokines and chemokines in the cerebellum of the Ccm3(iECKO) mice. Consistently, both flow cytometry and immunofluorescence analysis showed infiltration of different subsets of leukocytes into the CCM lesions. Neutrophils, which are known to fight against infection through different strategies, including the formation of NETs, represented the leukocyte subset within the most pronounced increase in CCM. Here, we detected elevated levels of NETs in the blood and the deposition of NETs in the cerebral cavernomas of Ccm3(iECKO) mice. Degradation of NETs by DNase I treatment improved the vascular barrier. The deposition of NETs in the cavernomas of patients with CCM confirms the clinical relevance of NETs in CCM.Peer reviewe

Considerations towards a roadmap for collection, handling and storage of blood extracellular vesicles

There is an increasing interest in exploring clinically relevant information that is present in body fluids, and extracellular vesicles (EVs) are intrinsic components of body fluids (?liquid biopsies?). In this report, we will focus on blood. Blood contains not only EVs but also cells, and non-EV particles including lipoproteins. Due to the high concentration of soluble proteins and lipoproteins, blood, plasma and serum have a high viscosity and density, which hampers the concentration, isolation and detection of EVs. Because most if not all studies on EVs are single-centre studies, their clinical relevance remains limited. Therefore, there is an urgent need to improve standardization and reproducibility of EV research. As a first step, the International Society on Extracellular Vesicles organized a biomarker workshop in Birmingham (UK) in November 2017, and during that workshop several working groups were created to focus on a particular body fluid. This report is the first output of the blood EV work group and is based on responses by work group members to a questionnaire in order to discover the contours of a roadmap. From the answers it is clear that most respondents are in favour of evidence-based research, education, quality control procedures, and physical models to improve our understanding and comparison of concentration, isolation and detection methods. Since blood is such a complex body fluid, we assume that the outcome of the survey may also be valuable for exploring body fluids other than blood.Non peer reviewe

In Vivo Delivery of RNA Gene Writers to the Liver and Beyond

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