350 research outputs found
Robust Coin Flipping
Alice seeks an information-theoretically secure source of private random
data. Unfortunately, she lacks a personal source and must use remote sources
controlled by other parties. Alice wants to simulate a coin flip of specified
bias , as a function of data she receives from sources; she seeks
privacy from any coalition of of them. We show: If , the
bias can be any rational number and nothing else; if , the bias
can be any algebraic number and nothing else. The proof uses projective
varieties, convex geometry, and the probabilistic method. Our results improve
on those laid out by Yao, who asserts one direction of the case in his
seminal paper [Yao82]. We also provide an application to secure multiparty
computation.Comment: 22 pages, 1 figur
Water requirements and footprint of a super intensive olive grove under Mediterranean climate
Abstract
The water footprint of a product can be described as the volume of
freshwater used to produce it, associated to a geographic and temporal resolution. For crops, the water footprint relates crop water requirements and yield. The components of water footprint, blue, green and grey water footprints, refer to the volumes of respectively, surface and groundwater, rainfall, and water required to assimilate pollution, used to produce the crop yield. The global standard for crop water footprint assessment relies on evapotranspiration models to estimate green and blue water evapotranspiration. This approach has been used in the present study to estimate the water footprint of a very high density drip irrigated olive grove and further compared with data obtained from evapotranspiration measurements or from its components: the eddy covariance method to quantify latent heat flux, a heat dissipation sap flow technique to determine transpiration and microlysimeters to evaluate soil evaporation. The eddy covariance technique was used for short periods in 2011 and 2012, while sap flow measurements were performed continuously, hence allowing the extension of the data series. Measurements of evapotranspiration with the eddy covariance method provided an average close to 3.4 mm d-1 (2011) and 2.5 mm d-1 (2012). The ratio of evapotranspiration to reference evapotranspiration approached 0.6 and 0.4 for the respective periods. The water footprint of the olive crop under study, calculated with field data, was higher than the water footprint simulated using the global standard assessment and was lower than that reported in literature for olives. Lower values are probably related to differences in cultural practices, e.g., the density of plantation, harvesting techniques and irrigation management. The irrigated high-density olive grove under study had a high yield, which compensates for high water consumption, thus leading to a water footprint lower than the ones of rainfed or less dense groves. Other differences may relate to the procedures used to determine evapotranspiration
Reduction of blood nitric oxide levels is associated with clinical improvement of the chronic pelvic pain related to endometriosis
The objective of this prospective study was to determine the plasma levels of nitric oxide (NO) in women with chronic pelvic pain secondary to endometriosis (n=24) and abdominal myofascial pain syndrome (n=16). NO levels were measured in plasma collected before and 1 month after treatment. Pretreatment NO levels (μM) were lower in healthy volunteers (47.0±12.7) than in women with myofascial pain (64.2±5.0, P=0.01) or endometriosis (99.5±12.9, P<0.0001). After treatment, plasma NO levels were reduced only in the endometriosis group (99.5±12.9 vs 61.6±5.9, P=0.002). A correlation between reduction of pain intensity and reduction of NO level was observed in the endometriosis group [correlation = 0.67 (95%CI = 0.35 to 0.85), P<0.0001]. Reduction of NO levels was associated with an increase of pain threshold in this group [correlation = -0.53 (-0.78 to -0.14), P<0.0001]. NO levels appeared elevated in women with chronic pelvic pain diagnosed as secondary to endometriosis, and were directly associated with reduction in pain intensity and increase in pain threshold after treatment. Further studies are needed to investigate the role of NO in the pathophysiology of pain in women with endometriosis and its eventual association with central sensitization.484363369CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQSem informaçã
Phenomenology of Supersymmetric Theories with and without R-Parity
We review supersymmetry models with and without R-parity. After briefly
describing the Minimal Supersymetric Standard Model and its particle content we
move to models where R-parity is broken, either spontaneously or explicitly. In
this last case we consider the situation where R-parity is broken via bilinear
terms in the superpotential. The radiative breaking of these models is
described in the context of -- and ---- unification.
Finally we review the phenomenology of these R-parity violating models.Comment: 9 pages, 5 Figures in Postscript. Talk given at the EuroConference on
Frontiers in Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, San Feliu de Guixols,
Spain, 30 September - 5 October, 200
Terapêutica intravesical com bacilo de Calmette-Guérin no tratamento do carcinoma da bexiga / o que sabemos até agora
AbstractIntroductionThe use of intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guérin is a valid option in the treatment of non-muscle invasive bladder tumors, making it the main subject of a lot of publications. The aim of the present study is to review and consolidate the data available about this subject.MethodsA review of the data available was made on PubMed with the keywords: “intravesical BCG” and “non-muscle invasive bladder cancer”. Original and review articles written in English or Portuguese were selected. We present the discussion alongside the results for structural purposes.Results and discussionScientific evidence strongly advises in favor of BCG use on intermediate and high risk tumors, due to its impact on the recurrence and possibly on the progression rates. It is important to be watchful for possible local and systemic side effects, that when detected call for a rightful therapeutically decision alongside the recommended schemes.ConclusionThe use of intravesical BCG with therapeutically purposes has strong evidence on the non-muscle invasive bladder tumors. More studies are needed in order to better understand the best administration scheme and its mechanism of action
Model Independent Higgs Boson Mass Limits at LEP
We derive model-independent constraints on Higgs mass and couplings from
associated signals for higher masses, accessible at LEP2. This work is
motivated by the fact that, in many extensions of the standard model, the Higgs
boson can have substantial "invisible" decay modes, for example, into light or
massless weakly interacting Goldstone bosons associated to the spontaneous
violation of lepton number below the weak scale.Comment: FTUV/93-19, 13 pag + 2 figures(not included but available upon
request), Late
Scaling critical behavior of superconductors at zero magnetic field
We consider the scaling behavior in the critical domain of superconductors at
zero external magnetic field. The first part of the paper is concerned with the
Ginzburg-Landau model in the zero magnetic field Meissner phase. We discuss the
scaling behavior of the superfluid density and we give an alternative proof of
Josephson's relation for a charged superfluid. This proof is obtained as a
consequence of an exact renormalization group equation for the photon mass. We
obtain Josephson's relation directly in the form , that
is, we do not need to assume that the hyperscaling relation holds. Next, we
give an interpretation of a recent experiment performed in thin films of
. We argue that the measured mean field like
behavior of the penetration depth exponent is possibly associated with a
non-trivial critical behavior and we predict the exponents and
for the correlation lenght and specific heat, respectively. In the
second part of the paper we discuss the scaling behavior in the continuum dual
Ginzburg-Landau model. After reviewing lattice duality in the Ginzburg-Landau
model, we discuss the continuum dual version by considering a family of
scalings characterized by a parameter introduced such that
, where is the bare mass of the magnetic
induction field. We discuss the difficulties in identifying the renormalized
magnetic induction mass with the photon mass. We show that the only way to have
a critical regime with is having , that
is, with having the scaling behavior of the renormalized photon mass.Comment: RevTex, 15 pages, no figures; the subsection III-C has been removed
due to a mistak
Anomalous dimensions and phase transitions in superconductors
The anomalous scaling in the Ginzburg-Landau model for the superconducting
phase transition is studied. It is argued that the negative sign of the
exponent is a consequence of a special singular behavior in momentum space. The
negative sign of comes from the divergence of the critical correlation
function at finite distances. This behavior implies the existence of a Lifshitz
point in the phase diagram. The anomalous scaling of the vector potential is
also discussed. It is shown that the anomalous dimension of the vector
potential has important consequences for the critical dynamics in
superconductors. The frequency-dependent conductivity is shown to obey the
scaling . The prediction is
obtained from existing Monte Carlo data.Comment: RevTex, 20 pages, no figures; small changes; version accepted in PR
Two-Loop Helicity Amplitudes for Quark-Quark Scattering in QCD and Gluino-Gluino Scattering in Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Theory
We present the two-loop QCD helicity amplitudes for quark-quark and
quark-antiquark scattering. These amplitudes are relevant for
next-to-next-to-leading order corrections to (polarized) jet production at
hadron colliders. We give the results in the `t Hooft-Veltman and
four-dimensional helicity (FDH) variants of dimensional regularization and
present the scheme dependence of the results. We verify that the finite
remainder, after subtracting the divergences using Catani's formula, are in
agreement with previous results. We also provide the amplitudes for
gluino-gluino scattering in pure N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. We
describe ambiguities in continuing the Dirac algebra to D dimensions, including
ones which violate fermion helicity conservation. The finite remainders after
subtracting the divergences using Catani's formula, which enter into physical
quantities, are free of these ambiguities. We show that in the FDH scheme, for
gluino-gluino scattering, the finite remainders satisfy the expected
supersymmetry Ward identities.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:hep-ph/030416
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