Quantum Symmetric Private Information Retrieval with Secure Storage and Eavesdroppers

We consider both the classical and quantum variations of $X$-secure, $E$-eavesdropped and $T$-colluding symmetric private information retrieval (SPIR). This is the first work to study SPIR with $X$-security in classical or quantum variations. We first develop a scheme for classical $X$-secure, $E$-eavesdropped and $T$-colluding SPIR (XSETSPIR) based on a modified version of cross subspace alignment (CSA), which achieves a rate of $R= 1 - \frac{X+\max(T,E)}{N}$. The modified scheme achieves the same rate as the scheme used for $X$-secure PIR with the extra benefit of symmetric privacy. Next, we extend this scheme to its quantum counterpart based on the $N$-sum box abstraction. This is the first work to consider the presence of eavesdroppers in quantum private information retrieval (QPIR). In the quantum variation, the eavesdroppers have better access to information over the quantum channel compared to the classical channel due to the over-the-air decodability. To that end, we develop another scheme specialized to combat eavesdroppers over quantum channels. The scheme proposed for $X$-secure, $E$-eavesdropped and $T$-colluding quantum SPIR (XSETQSPIR) in this work maintains the super-dense coding gain from the shared entanglement between the databases, i.e., achieves a rate of $R_Q = \min\left\{ 1, 2\left(1-\frac{X+\max(T,E)}{N}\right)\right\}$

Association of serum fetuin-A and fetuin-A gene polymorphism in relation to mineral and bone disorders in patients with chronic kidney disease

Disorders of bone and mineral metabolism contribute to an increased prevalence of vascular calcification (VC) with its adverse clinical outcomes in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The pathogenesis of VC is not fully understood. Fetuin-A is one of the inhibitors of calcification whose level is lowered in patients with CKD. In addition fetuin-A 256Ser/Ser (allele G) might affect serum fetuin-A levels. The aim of this work was to study the association betweenKeywords: Chronic kidney disease; Fetuin-A; Fetuin-A gene; Vascular calcification; Bone mineral diseas

Inhibition of neurite outgrowth in differentiating mouse N2a neuroblastoma cells by phenyl saligenin phosphate: Effects on MAP kinase (ERK 1/2) activation, neurofilament heavy chain phosphorylation and neuropathy target esterase activity

Sub-lethal concentrations of the organophosphate phenyl saligenin phosphate (PSP) inhibited the outgrowth of axon-like processes in differentiating mouse N2a neuroblastoma cells (IC50 2.5 μM). A transient rise in the phosphorylation state of neurofilament heavy chain (NFH) was detected on Western blots of cell extracts treated with 2.5 μM PSP for 4 h compared to untreated controls, as determined by a relative increase in reactivity with monoclonal antibody Ta51 (anti-phosphorylated NFH) compared to N52 (anti-total NFH). However, cross-reactivity of PSP-treated cell extracts was lower than that of untreated controls after 24 h exposure, as indicated by decreased reactivity with both antibodies. Indirect immunofluorescence analysis with these antibodies revealed the appearance of neurofilament aggregates in the cell bodies of treated cells and reduced axonal staining compared to controls. By contrast, there was no significant change in reactivity with anti-a tubulin antibody B512 at either time point. The activation state of the MAP kinase ERK 1/2 increased significantly after PSP treatment compared to controls, particularly at 4 h, as indicated by increased reactivity with monoclonal antibody E-4 (anti-phosphorylated MAP kinase) but not with polyclonal antibody K-23 (anti-total MAP kinase). The observed early changes were concomitant with almost complete inhibition of the activity of neuropathy target esterase (NTE), one of the proposed early molecular targets in organophosphate-induced delayed neuropathy (OPIDN)

Substituted Imidazole of 5-Fluoro-2-[4-[(2-phenyl-1H-imidazol-5- yl)methyl]-1-piperazinyl]pyrimidine Inactivates Cytochrome P450 2D6 by Protein Adduction

detected by mass spectrometry indicate that the phenyl group on the imidazole ring of SCH 66712 is one site of oxidation by CYP2D6 and could lead to methylene quinone formation. Three other metabolites were also observed. For understanding the metabolic pathway that leads to CYP2D6 inactivation, metabolism studies with CYP2C9 and CYP2C19 were performed because neither of these enzymes is significantly inhibited by SCH 66712. The metabolites formed by CYP2C9 and CYP2C19 are the same as those seen with CYP2D6, although in different abundance. Modeling studies with CYP2D6 revealed potential roles of various active site residues in the oxidation of SCH 66712 and inactivation of CYP2D6 and showed that the phenyl group of SCH 66712 is positioned at 2.2 Å from the heme iron

Cyclic and Sleep-Like Spontaneous Alternations of Brain State Under Urethane Anaesthesia

Background: Although the induction of behavioural unconsciousness during sleep and general anaesthesia has been shown to involve overlapping brain mechanisms, sleep involves cyclic fluctuations between different brain states known as active (paradoxical or rapid eye movement: REM) and quiet (slow-wave or non-REM: nREM) stages whereas commonly used general anaesthetics induce a unitary slow-wave brain state. Methodology/Principal Findings: Long-duration, multi-site forebrain field recordings were performed in urethaneanaesthetized rats. A spontaneous and rhythmic alternation of brain state between activated and deactivated electroencephalographic (EEG) patterns was observed. Individual states and their transitions resembled the REM/nREM cycle of natural sleep in their EEG components, evolution, and time frame (,11 minute period). Other physiological variables such as muscular tone, respiration rate, and cardiac frequency also covaried with forebrain state in a manner identical to sleep. The brain mechanisms of state alternations under urethane also closely overlapped those of natural sleep in their sensitivity to cholinergic pharmacological agents and dependence upon activity in the basal forebrain nuclei that are the major source of forebrain acetylcholine. Lastly, stimulation of brainstem regions thought to pace state alternations in sleep transiently disrupted state alternations under urethane. Conclusions/Significance: Our results suggest that urethane promotes a condition of behavioural unconsciousness tha

Machine Learning Based Critical Resource Allocation in Mixed-Traffic Cellular Networks

The proliferation of cellular networks over the past two decades has encouraged the expansion of their use in many modern applications. These applications involve the use of data traffic of different quality of service (QoS) requirements. Some of these requirements are quite stringent such as in the case of critical Internet of Things (IoT) health care, military and homeland security applications. This situation resulted in imposing a variety of resource allocation requirements on the cellular network operation in a simultaneous manner. In this thesis, we consider the challenging problem of mixed-traffic resource allocation, or scheduling, in cellular networks. We focus our attention on 5G network as the most recent version currently being deployed worldwide. In this regard, there are generally two, separate, scheduling problems in communication systems, namely, the down-link (DL) scheduling and the up-link (UL) scheduling. Each of these problems has separate requirements, even if they both share some similarities. The DL focuses on scheduling the already received packets to the intended receivers and informing the receivers with enough information to receive the data correctly. This kind of scheduling is completely implemented by and controlled at the base station of the system. On the other hand, the UL problem focuses on providing enough resources to user devices to send their data, when they have any. In this thesis, we consider the problem of uplink scheduling in 5G networks for mixed traffic that includes Ultra-Reliable Low and Latency Communications (URLLC) devices and enhanced Mobile Broad-Band (eMBB) users. Each of these types has different requirements and therefore a different mathematical model based on the scheduling technique. There are three main scheduling techniques to be considered in this case, namely, the grant-based (GB), semi-persistent, and grant-free (GF) techniques. Each of these scheduling techniques is suitable for a certain type of traffic and has its own mathematical model that describes the associated traffic behavior. Furthermore, there are three different techniques used in grant-free scheduling, namely, the reactive scheme, the k-repetitions scheme and the proactive scheme. It has been concluded, in this study, that the grant-based scheduling is the best scheme for the eMBB traffic while the grant-free scheduling is best suitable for the URLLC traffic. For this purpose, we devise a mathematical model for the GF services using the k-repetitions Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) as the first model to define such traffic in a single cell. In addition, the GB scheduling model for eMBB traffic is adapted to fit our problem. We formulate the scheduling problem as a mixed-integer non-linear programming optimization problem. This type of problem is, in general, a complex problem due to its combinatorial nature. We introduce a complete system model that includes GF and GB subsystems. We introduce a novel mixed scheduler that combines the advantages of two well-known schedulers in the literature. We then introduce novel machine-learning based scheduling algorithms and evaluate them in comparison to some well-known algorithms in the literature in addition to the optimal bound that we also derive in this study. The results show that the proposed algorithms produce near-optimal results in real-time

Viewing habits and preferences of central Iowa farm operators for televised agricultural information programs

The purpose of the study was to identify the viewing habits and preferences of farm operators living in central counties in the state of Iowa, U.S.A., based on four weekly televised agricultural information programs (TAIP). The objectives of the study focused on demographic and background characteristics of the farm operators; their viewership potential; size of the audience; farm viewer preferences; feelings about TV as a source of agricultural information; reasons for watching (or not watching) such programs; and TV agricultural programs and TV stations' general information;The research procedure in this study involved a random multi-stage sample of 285 farm operators living in six counties in the overlapping viewing area in central Iowa;Two different mail questionnaires were developed to collect the research data: one for the four TV station program directors and one for the farm operators;Data collection took place during the period of May through August of 1980. An original and two follow-up copies from the farm operators' questionnaire for non-responders with different cover letters were sent by mail during this period. The response rate was 53.2 percent;In general, the findings were that a majority of the farm operators were over 45 years of age, had graduated from high school or beyond, were reared on farms, and had more than 22 years experience in farming. They were full time farmers who owned all or some of the land farmed and had at least 200 acres. They tended to be diversified farmers with 51 to 100 percent of their families' total net income from farming;About 45 percent of the respondents were not familiar with (or knew about but never watched) at least three of the four TAIP studied. However, about 53 percent watched at least two programs of the four at least once a month;The study indicated also that farmers' chief reason for watching the programs was for farm market reports and forecasts. The main reason respondents gave for not watching the programs was that programs were televised at inconvenient times which affected their level of viewing such programs. They suggested weekday evening scheduling of farm programs, grain and livestock market information on the programs, and more repetition of the programs as ways of improving televised agricultural programs;There were 16 null hypotheses for the study: nine of these were nonsignificant; 4 were significant; and 3--the number of TV sets farm operators have at home, years of experience in farming, and feelings about TV as a source of information at the trial stage of the adoption process--were highly or very highly significant in relation to viewing TAIP among groups of farm operators;From the results obtained in this study, a set of nine recommendations was suggested for practice and further research.</p