Increased success probability in Hardy's nonlocality: Theory and demonstration

Depending on the way one measures, quantum nonlocality might manifest more visibly. Using basis transformations and interactions on a particle pair, Hardy logically argued that any local hidden variable theory leads to a paradox. Extended from the original work, we introduce a quantum nonlocal scheme for n-particle systems using two distinct approaches. First, a theoretical model is derived with analytical results for Hardy's nonlocality conditions and probability. Second, a quantum simulation using quantum circuits is constructed that matches very well to the analytical theory. When demonstrated on real quantum computers for n=3, we obtain reasonable results compared to theory. Even at macroscopic scales as n grows, the success probability asymptotes 15.6%, which is stronger than previous results.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

New primitives of controlled elements F2/4 for block ciphers

This paper develops the cipher design approach based on the use of data-dependent operations (DDOs). A new class of DDO based on the advanced controlled elements (CEs) is introduced, which is proven well suited to hardware implementations for FPGA devices. To increase the hardware implementation efficiency of block ciphers, while using contemporary FPGA devices there is proposed an approach to synthesis of fast block ciphers, which uses the substitution-permutation network constructed on the basis of the controlled elements F2/4 implementing the 2 x 2 substitutions under control of the four-bit vector. There are proposed criteria for selecting elements F2/4 and results on investigating their main cryptographic properties. It is designed a new fast 128-bit block cipher MM-128 that uses the elements F2/4 as elementary building block. The cipher possesses higher performance and requires less hardware resources for its implementation on the bases of FPGA devices than the known block ciphers. There are presented result on differential analysis of the cipher MM-12

Isolation and production of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) from Bacillus pumilus NMG5 strain for bioplastic production and treatment of wastewater from paper factories

Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) has the potential to replace traditional plastics and limit environmental pollution caused by plastic waste. This study combined wastewater treatment with PHB production to reduce costs. Bacteria capable of synthesizing PHB were isolated from paper mill wastewater and identified using Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization–Time of Flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry and 16S rRNA gene analysis. Bacillus pumilus NMG5 strain was found to have a good yield in modified Nutrient Broth culture, reaching 42.28% of dry biomass. The PHB product was analyzed using FTIR spectroscopy and 1H NMR spectroscopy. The bacterial strain was also tested for its ability to treat paper mill wastewater, and it showed impressive results in terms of biochemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen, and total phosphorus, with efficiencies of 95.93%, 79.36%, and 83.55%, respectively. The study found that wastewater treatment combined with PHB production was a promising solution to reduce costs and limit environmental pollution. The bacterial strain B. pumilus NMG5 had a high yield of PHB, and the PHB product was of high quality, as confirmed by FTIR and 1H NMR spectroscopy. Furthermore, the bacterial strain showed impressive results in treating paper mill wastewater with high COD, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus efficiencies. These results suggest that this harmless bacterium could be used in paper mill wastewater treatment systems to produce PHB, providing a sustainable and environmentally friendly solution

Disinfection performance of an ultraviolet lamp: a CFD investigation

Ultraviolet (UV)-based devices have shown their effectiveness on various germicidal purposes. To serve their design optimisation, the disinfection effectiveness of a vertically cylindrical UV lamp, whose wattage ranges from P = 30 − 100 W, is numerically investigated in this work. The UV radiation is solved by the Finite Volume Method together with the Discrete Ordinates model. Various results for the UV intensity and its bactericidal effects against several popular virus types, i.e., Corona-SARS, Herpes (type 2), and HIV, are reported and analysed in detail. Results show that the UV irradiance is greatly dependent on the lamp power. Additionally, it is indicated that the higher the lamp wattage employed, the larger the bactericidal rate is observed, resulting in the greater effectiveness of the UV disinfection process. Nevertheless, the wattage of P ≤ 100W is determined to be insufficient for an effective disinfection performance in a whole room; higher values of power must hence be considered in case intensive sterilization is required. Furthermore, the germicidal effect gets reduced with the viruses less sensitive to UV rays, e.g, the bactericidal rate against the HIV virus is only ∼8.98% at the surrounding walls

On the Out of Distribution Robustness of Foundation Models in Medical Image Segmentation

Constructing a robust model that can effectively generalize to test samples under distribution shifts remains a significant challenge in the field of medical imaging. The foundational models for vision and language, pre-trained on extensive sets of natural image and text data, have emerged as a promising approach. It showcases impressive learning abilities across different tasks with the need for only a limited amount of annotated samples. While numerous techniques have focused on developing better fine-tuning strategies to adapt these models for specific domains, we instead examine their robustness to domain shifts in the medical image segmentation task. To this end, we compare the generalization performance to unseen domains of various pre-trained models after being fine-tuned on the same in-distribution dataset and show that foundation-based models enjoy better robustness than other architectures. From here, we further developed a new Bayesian uncertainty estimation for frozen models and used them as an indicator to characterize the model's performance on out-of-distribution (OOD) data, proving particularly beneficial for real-world applications. Our experiments not only reveal the limitations of current indicators like accuracy on the line or agreement on the line commonly used in natural image applications but also emphasize the promise of the introduced Bayesian uncertainty. Specifically, lower uncertainty predictions usually tend to higher out-of-distribution (OOD) performance.Comment: Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) 2023, Workshop on robustness of zero/few-shot learning in foundation model

TextANIMAR: Text-based 3D Animal Fine-Grained Retrieval

3D object retrieval is an important yet challenging task, which has drawn more and more attention in recent years. While existing approaches have made strides in addressing this issue, they are often limited to restricted settings such as image and sketch queries, which are often unfriendly interactions for common users. In order to overcome these limitations, this paper presents a novel SHREC challenge track focusing on text-based fine-grained retrieval of 3D animal models. Unlike previous SHREC challenge tracks, the proposed task is considerably more challenging, requiring participants to develop innovative approaches to tackle the problem of text-based retrieval. Despite the increased difficulty, we believe that this task has the potential to drive useful applications in practice and facilitate more intuitive interactions with 3D objects. Five groups participated in our competition, submitting a total of 114 runs. While the results obtained in our competition are satisfactory, we note that the challenges presented by this task are far from being fully solved. As such, we provide insights into potential areas for future research and improvements. We believe that we can help push the boundaries of 3D object retrieval and facilitate more user-friendly interactions via vision-language technologies.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2304.0573

Genetic Interaction Between Two VNTRs in the SLC6A4 Gene Regulates Nicotine Dependence in Vietnamese Men

Nicotine dependence is an addiction to tobacco products and a global public health concern. Association between the SLC6A4 polymorphisms and nicotine dependence is controversial. Two variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) domains, termed HTTLPR and STin2, in the SLC6A4 gene are well characterized transcriptional regulatory elements. Their polymorphism in the copy number of the repeat correlates with the particular personality and psychiatric traits. We analyzed nicotine dependence in 1,804 participants from Central Vietnam. The Fagerström Test (FTND) was used to evaluate the nicotine dependence and PCR was used to determine the SLC6A4 HTTLPR and STin2 VNTRs. The HTTLPR VNTR was associated with difficulties to refrain from smoking in a prohibiting environment. The STIn2 10/10 genotype was associated with (1) years of smoking, (2) difficulties to quit the first cigarette, and (3) higher number of cigarettes smoked per day (CPD). Stratification analysis was used to find the genetic interaction between these two VNTRs in nicotine dependence as they may synergistically regulate the SLC6A4 expression. Smokers with the S/S HTTLPR genotypes showed a much stronger association between STin2 10/10 variant and CPD. This finding is consistent with the molecular evidence for the functional interaction between HTTLPR and STin2 in cell line models, where STin2 has described as a stronger expressional regulator. Similarly, we found that STin2 is a much stronger modifier of smoking with 10/10 genotype related to higher nicotine dependence. The present study supports genetic interaction between HTTLPR and STin2 VNTRs in the regulation of nicotine dependence with the dominance of the STin2 effects. This finding could be explained by their differential effect on the SLC6A4 expression

Genetic Interaction Between Two VNTRs in the SLC6A4 Gene Regulates Nicotine Dependence in Vietnamese Men

Nicotine dependence is an addiction to tobacco products and a global public health concern. Association between the SLC6A4 polymorphisms and nicotine dependence is controversial. Two variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) domains, termed HTTLPR and STin2, in the SLC6A4 gene are well characterized transcriptional regulatory elements. Their polymorphism in the copy number of the repeat correlates with the particular personality and psychiatric traits. We analyzed nicotine dependence in 1,804 participants from Central Vietnam. The Fagerström Test (FTND) was used to evaluate the nicotine dependence and PCR was used to determine the SLC6A4 HTTLPR and STin2 VNTRs. The HTTLPR VNTR was associated with difficulties to refrain from smoking in a prohibiting environment. The STIn2 10/10 genotype was associated with (1) years of smoking, (2) difficulties to quit the first cigarette, and (3) higher number of cigarettes smoked per day (CPD). Stratification analysis was used to find the genetic interaction between these two VNTRs in nicotine dependence as they may synergistically regulate the SLC6A4 expression. Smokers with the S/S HTTLPR genotypes showed a much stronger association between STin2 10/10 variant and CPD. This finding is consistent with the molecular evidence for the functional interaction between HTTLPR and STin2 in cell line models, where STin2 has described as a stronger expressional regulator. Similarly, we found that STin2 is a much stronger modifier of smoking with 10/10 genotype related to higher nicotine dependence. The present study supports genetic interaction between HTTLPR and STin2 VNTRs in the regulation of nicotine dependence with the dominance of the STin2 effects. This finding could be explained by their differential effect on the SLC6A4 expression

An evaluation of purified Salmonella Typhi protein antigens for the serological diagnosis of acute typhoid fever.

OBJECTIVES: The diagnosis of typhoid fever is a challenge. Aiming to develop a typhoid diagnostic we measured antibody responses against Salmonella Typhi (S. Typhi) protein antigens and the Vi polysaccharide in a cohort of Bangladeshi febrile patients. METHODS: IgM against 12 purified antigens and the Vi polysaccharide was measured by ELISA in plasma from patients with confirmed typhoid fever (n = 32), other confirmed infections (n = 17), and healthy controls (n = 40). ELISAs with the most specific antigens were performed on plasma from 243 patients with undiagnosed febrile disease. RESULTS: IgM against the S. Typhi protein antigens correlated with each other (rho > 0.8), but not against Vi (rho 0.85, respectively. Applying a dynamic cut-off to patients with undiagnosed febrile disease suggested that 34-58% had an IgM response indicative of typhoid. CONCLUSIONS: We evaluated the diagnostic potential of several S. Typhi antigens; our assays give good sensitivity and specificity, but require further assessment in differing patient populations

Safety and efficacy of fluoxetine on functional outcome after acute stroke (AFFINITY): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Background Trials of fluoxetine for recovery after stroke report conflicting results. The Assessment oF FluoxetINe In sTroke recoverY (AFFINITY) trial aimed to show if daily oral fluoxetine for 6 months after stroke improves functional outcome in an ethnically diverse population. Methods AFFINITY was a randomised, parallel-group, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial done in 43 hospital stroke units in Australia (n=29), New Zealand (four), and Vietnam (ten). Eligible patients were adults (aged ≥18 years) with a clinical diagnosis of acute stroke in the previous 2–15 days, brain imaging consistent with ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke, and a persisting neurological deficit that produced a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of 1 or more. Patients were randomly assigned 1:1 via a web-based system using a minimisation algorithm to once daily, oral fluoxetine 20 mg capsules or matching placebo for 6 months. Patients, carers, investigators, and outcome assessors were masked to the treatment allocation. The primary outcome was functional status, measured by the mRS, at 6 months. The primary analysis was an ordinal logistic regression of the mRS at 6 months, adjusted for minimisation variables. Primary and safety analyses were done according to the patient's treatment allocation. The trial is registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, ACTRN12611000774921. Findings Between Jan 11, 2013, and June 30, 2019, 1280 patients were recruited in Australia (n=532), New Zealand (n=42), and Vietnam (n=706), of whom 642 were randomly assigned to fluoxetine and 638 were randomly assigned to placebo. Mean duration of trial treatment was 167 days (SD 48·1). At 6 months, mRS data were available in 624 (97%) patients in the fluoxetine group and 632 (99%) in the placebo group. The distribution of mRS categories was similar in the fluoxetine and placebo groups (adjusted common odds ratio 0·94, 95% CI 0·76–1·15; p=0·53). Compared with patients in the placebo group, patients in the fluoxetine group had more falls (20 [3%] vs seven [1%]; p=0·018), bone fractures (19 [3%] vs six [1%]; p=0·014), and epileptic seizures (ten [2%] vs two [<1%]; p=0·038) at 6 months. Interpretation Oral fluoxetine 20 mg daily for 6 months after acute stroke did not improve functional outcome and increased the risk of falls, bone fractures, and epileptic seizures. These results do not support the use of fluoxetine to improve functional outcome after stroke