On Byzantine Broadcast in Loosely Connected Networks

We consider the problem of reliably broadcasting information in a multihop asynchronous network that is subject to Byzantine failures. Most existing approaches give conditions for perfect reliable broadcast (all correct nodes deliver the authentic message and nothing else), but they require a highly connected network. An approach giving only probabilistic guarantees (correct nodes deliver the authentic message with high probability) was recently proposed for loosely connected networks, such as grids and tori. Yet, the proposed solution requires a specific initialization (that includes global knowledge) of each node, which may be difficult or impossible to guarantee in self-organizing networks - for instance, a wireless sensor network, especially if they are prone to Byzantine failures. In this paper, we propose a new protocol offering guarantees for loosely connected networks that does not require such global knowledge dependent initialization. In more details, we give a methodology to determine whether a set of nodes will always deliver the authentic message, in any execution. Then, we give conditions for perfect reliable broadcast in a torus network. Finally, we provide experimental evaluation for our solution, and determine the number of randomly distributed Byzantine failures than can be tolerated, for a given correct broadcast probability.Comment: 1

A Scalable Byzantine Grid

Modern networks assemble an ever growing number of nodes. However, it remains difficult to increase the number of channels per node, thus the maximal degree of the network may be bounded. This is typically the case in grid topology networks, where each node has at most four neighbors. In this paper, we address the following issue: if each node is likely to fail in an unpredictable manner, how can we preserve some global reliability guarantees when the number of nodes keeps increasing unboundedly ? To be more specific, we consider the problem or reliably broadcasting information on an asynchronous grid in the presence of Byzantine failures -- that is, some nodes may have an arbitrary and potentially malicious behavior. Our requirement is that a constant fraction of correct nodes remain able to achieve reliable communication. Existing solutions can only tolerate a fixed number of Byzantine failures if they adopt a worst-case placement scheme. Besides, if we assume a constant Byzantine ratio (each node has the same probability to be Byzantine), the probability to have a fatal placement approaches 1 when the number of nodes increases, and reliability guarantees collapse. In this paper, we propose the first broadcast protocol that overcomes these difficulties. First, the number of Byzantine failures that can be tolerated (if they adopt the worst-case placement) now increases with the number of nodes. Second, we are able to tolerate a constant Byzantine ratio, however large the grid may be. In other words, the grid becomes scalable. This result has important security applications in ultra-large networks, where each node has a given probability to misbehave.Comment: 17 page

OVERVIEW OF TICK-ASSOCIATED RICKETTSIALES BACTERIA IN JAPAN

Rickettsiales bacteria are obligatory intracellular parasites in vertebrates and/or invertebrates, and some cause severe febrile illness in humans as well as livestock. In Japan, "Rickettsia japonica" and "Orientia tsutsugamushi" are well known as causative agents for "Japanese spotted fever" transmitted by ticks and. "Tsutsugamushi disease" transmitted by mites, respectively. In recent years, many researchers have reported the presence of several tick-associated. Rickettsiales bacteria in Japan, mostly by molecular-based analyses. Some of these might be public health or veterinary significance. Such. Rickettsiales bacteria include spotted fever group rickettsiae other than R. japonica, Ehrlichia spp., Anaplasma spp., and. Neoehrlichia sp. We will summarize and. introduce the representatives of these Rickettsiales bacteria present in Japan

Measurement of a small atmospheric νμ/νe\nu_\mu/\nu_e ratio

From an exposure of 25.5~kiloton-years of the Super-Kamiokande detector, 900 muon-like and 983 electron-like single-ring atmospheric neutrino interactions were detected with momentum $p_e > 100$ MeV/$c$, $p_\mu > 200$ MeV/$c$, and with visible energy less than 1.33 GeV. Using a detailed Monte Carlo simulation, the ratio $(\mu/e)_{DATA}/(\mu/e)_{MC}$ was measured to be $0.61 \pm 0.03(stat.) \pm 0.05(sys.)$, consistent with previous results from the Kamiokande, IMB and Soudan-2 experiments, and smaller than expected from theoretical models of atmospheric neutrino production.Comment: 14 pages with 5 figure

Measurements of the DsJD_{sJ} resonance properties

We report measurements of the properties of the $D_{sJ}^+(2317)$ and $D_{sJ}^+(2457)$ resonances produced in continuum $e^+ e^-$ annihilation near $\sqrt{s}=10.6 \mathrm{GeV}$. The analysis is based on an $86.9 \mathrm{fb^{-1}}$ data sample collected %at and 60 MeV below the $\Upsilon(4S)$ resonance with with the Belle detector at KEKB. We determine the masses to be $M(D_{sJ}^+(2317)) = 2317.2 \pm 0.5(\mathrm{stat}) \pm 0.9(\mathrm{syst}) \mathrm{MeV}/c^2$ and $M(D_{sJ}^+(2457))=2456.5 \pm 1.3(\mathrm{stat}) \pm 1.3(\mathrm{syst}) \mathrm{MeV}/c^2$. We observe the radiative decay mode $D_{sJ}^+(2457) \to D_s^+ \gamma$ and the dipion decay mode $D_{sJ}^+(2457) \to D_s^+ \pi^+ \pi^-$, and determine their branching fractions. No corresponding decays are observed for the $D_{sJ}(2317)$ state. These results are consistent with the spin-parity assignments of $0^+$ for the $D_{sJ}(2317)$ and $1^+$ for the $D_{sJ}(2457)$.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures; Added content, updated and paper submitted to PR

Measurement of Time-Dependent CP-Violating Asymmetries in B0 --> phi Ks0, K+ K- Ks0, and eta' Ks0 Decays

We present an improved measurement of CP-violation parameters in B0 --> phi Ks0, K+ K- Ks0, and eta' Ks0 decays based on a 140 fb-1 data sample collected at the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB energy-asymmetric e+e- collider. One neutral B meson is fully reconstructed in one of the specified decay channels, and the flavor of the accompanying B meson is identified from its decay products. CP-violation parameters for each of the three modes are obtained from the asymmetries in the distributions of the proper-time intervals between the two B decays. We find that the observed CP asymmetry in the B0 --> phi Ks0 decay differs from the standard model (SM) expectation by 3.5 standard deviations, while the other cases are consistent with the SM.Comment: 10 pages, 4 postscript figures, submitted to Physical Review Letters, also contributed to the XXI International Symposium on Lepton and Photon Interactions at High Energies, Aug 11-16, 2003, Fermilab, Illinois US

Self-Stabilizing Byzantine Asynchronous Unison

We explore asynchronous unison in the presence of systemic transient and permanent Byzantine faults in shared memory. We observe that the problem is not solvable under less than strongly fair scheduler or for system topologies with maximum node degree greater than two. We present a self-stabilizing Byzantine-tolerant solution to asynchronous unison for chain and ring topologies. Our algorithm has minimum possible containment radius and optimal stabilization time

Observation of B→K∗ℓ+ℓ−B \to K^* \ell^+ \ell^-

We report the first observation of the flavor-changing neutral current decay $B \to K^* \ell^+ \ell^-$ and an improved measurement of the decay $B \to K \ell^+ \ell^-$, where $\ell$ represents an electron or a muon, with a data sample of 140 fb${}^{-1}$ accumulated at the $\Upsilon(4S)$ resonance with the Belle detector at KEKB. The results for the branching fractions are ${\cal B}(B \to K^* \ell^+ \ell^-)=(11.5^{+2.6}_{-2.4} \pm 0.8 \pm 0.2) \times 10^{-7}$ and ${\cal B}(B \to K \ell^+ \ell^-)=(4.8^{+1.0}_{-0.9} \pm 0.3 \pm 0.1) \times 10^{-7}$, where the first error is statistical, the second is systematic and the third is from model dependence.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, submitted to PR