Necessary detection efficiencies for secure quantum key distribution and bound randomness

In recent years, several hacking attacks have broken the security of quantum cryptography implementations by exploiting the presence of losses and the ability of the eavesdropper to tune detection efficiencies. We present a simple attack of this form that applies to any protocol in which the key is constructed from the results of untrusted measurements performed on particles coming from an insecure source or channel. Because of its generality, the attack applies to a large class of protocols, from standard prepare-and-measure to device-independent schemes. Our attack gives bounds on the critical detection efficiencies necessary for secure quantum distribution, which show that the implementation of most partly device independent solutions is, from the point of view of detection efficiency, almost as demanding as fully device-independent ones. We also show how our attack implies the existence of a form of bound randomness, namely non-local correlations in which a non-signalling eavesdropper can find out a posteriori the result of any implemented measurement.Comment: 5 pages. v2: new title, published versio

Estudio y diseño del sistema de refrigeración de un supermercado que utiliza CO2 como refrigerante secundario

Con el fin de hacer frente a las nuevas legislaciones que buscan minimizar el impacto ambiental, en la actualidad se están llevando a cabo diversos estudios en el entorno de los sistemas de refrigeración, que buscan nuevas alternativas a los refrigerantes tradicionales. Una de la alternativas que más se está analizando en los últimos años consiste en la utilización del dióxido de carbono (CO2) ya que, además de ser un residuo fácilmente recuperable de muchos procesos industriales, posee unas características que lo hacen comparable a nivel de prestaciones con otros fluidos utilizados actualmente. El proyecto consiste en el diseño del sistema de refrigeración de un supermercado CONDIS en Sta Coloma de Gramanet, puesto que dicho sistema consta de un circuito primario que utiliza un refrigerante tradicional (R404A), y un circuito secundario con CO2. El Proyecto se ha centrado en el circuito secundario, por lo que se han elaborado unos programas en Excel que calculan los parámetros de diseño de todos los componentes fundamentales del circuito de CO2 (evaporador, intercambiador de calor con el R404A, tuberías, bomba de recirculación y recipiente de líquido). Asimismo, se ha elaborado un cálculo de las prestaciones de este sistema para poder compararlas con las de algunos de los refrigerantes más comunes, obteniendo de esta forma valores competitivos con los fluidos tradicionales. La utilización de CO2 como refrigerante está aún en vías de desarrollo, pero representa una buena alternativa para reducir el impacto ambiental en los sistemas de refrigeración, especialmente en aquellos en que sea prioritaria la necesidad de minimizar los riesgos ante una eventual fuga

Estudio y diseño del sistema de refrigeración de un supermercado que utiliza CO2 como refrigerante secundario

Con el fin de hacer frente a las nuevas legislaciones que buscan minimizar el impacto ambiental, en la actualidad se están llevando a cabo diversos estudios en el entorno de los sistemas de refrigeración, que buscan nuevas alternativas a los refrigerantes tradicionales. Una de la alternativas que más se está analizando en los últimos años consiste en la utilización del dióxido de carbono (CO2) ya que, además de ser un residuo fácilmente recuperable de muchos procesos industriales, posee unas características que lo hacen comparable a nivel de prestaciones con otros fluidos utilizados actualmente. El proyecto consiste en el diseño del sistema de refrigeración de un supermercado CONDIS en Sta Coloma de Gramanet, puesto que dicho sistema consta de un circuito primario que utiliza un refrigerante tradicional (R404A), y un circuito secundario con CO2. El Proyecto se ha centrado en el circuito secundario, por lo que se han elaborado unos programas en Excel que calculan los parámetros de diseño de todos los componentes fundamentales del circuito de CO2 (evaporador, intercambiador de calor con el R404A, tuberías, bomba de recirculación y recipiente de líquido). Asimismo, se ha elaborado un cálculo de las prestaciones de este sistema para poder compararlas con las de algunos de los refrigerantes más comunes, obteniendo de esta forma valores competitivos con los fluidos tradicionales. La utilización de CO2 como refrigerante está aún en vías de desarrollo, pero representa una buena alternativa para reducir el impacto ambiental en los sistemas de refrigeración, especialmente en aquellos en que sea prioritaria la necesidad de minimizar los riesgos ante una eventual fuga

Coastal altimetry products in the Strait of Gibraltar

This paper analyzes the availability and accuracy of coastal altimetry sea level products in the Strait of Gibraltar. All possible repeats of two sections of the Envisat and AltiKa ground-tracks were used in the eastern and western portions of the strait. For Envisat, along-track sea level anomalies (SLAs) at 18-Hz posting rate were computed using ranges from two sources, namely, the official Sensor Geophysical Data Records (SGDRs) and the outputs of a coastal waveform retracker, the Adaptive Leading Edge Subwaveform (ALES) retracker; in addition, SLAs at 1 Hz were obtained from the Centre for Topographic studies of the Ocean and Hydrosphere (CTOH). For AltiKa, along-track SLA at 40 Hz was also computed both from SGDR and ALES ranges. The sea state bias correction was recomputed for the ALES-retracked Envisat SLA. The quality of these altimeter products was validated using two tide gauges located on the southern coast of Spain. For Envisat, the availability of data close to the coast depends crucially on the strategy followed for data screening. Most of the rejected data were due to the radar instrument operating in a low-precision nonocean mode. We observed an improvement of about 20% in the accuracy of the Envisat SLAs from ALES compared to the standard (SGDR) and the reprocessed CTOH data sets. AltiKa shows higher accuracy, with no significant differences between SGDR and ALES. The use of products from both missions allows longer times series, leading to a better understanding of the hydrodynamic processes in the study area

Targeted lipidomics distinguishes patient subgroups in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and late onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD)

AbstractBackgroundDiverse research approaches support the concept that a clinical diagnosis of Late-Onset Alzheimer's Disease (LOAD) does not distinguish between subpopulations with differing neuropathologies, including dementia patients with amyloid deposition and dementia patients without amyloid deposition but with cortical thinning. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is generally considered the prodromal phase for LOAD, however, while a number of studies have attempted to define plasma biomarkers for the conversion of MCI to LOAD, these studies have not taken into account the heterogeneity of patient cohorts within a clinical phenotype.MethodsStudies of MCI and LOAD in several laboratories have demonstrated decrements in ethanolamine plasmalogen levels in plasma and brain and increased levels of diacylglycerols in plasma and brain. To further extend these studies and to address the issue of heterogeneity in MCI and LOAD patient groups we investigated the levels of diacylglycerols and ethanolamine plasmalogens in larger cohorts of patients utilizing, high-resolution (0.2 to 2ppm mass error) mass spectrometry.ResultsFor the first time, our lipidomics data clearly stratify both MCI and LOAD subjects into 3 different patient cohorts within each clinical diagnosis. These include i) patients with lower circulating ethanolamine plasmalogen levels; ii) patients with augmented plasma diacylglycerol levels; and iii) patients with neither of these lipid alterations.ConclusionsThese represent the first serum biochemical data to stratify MCI and LOAD patients, advancing efforts to biochemically define patient heterogeneity in cognitive disorders.General significanceLipidomics offers a new approach for identifying biomarkers and biological targets in cognitive disorders

Wind-induced cross-strait sea level variability in the Strait of Gibraltar from coastal altimetry and in-situ measurements

Coastal altimetry products are available and are being extensively validated. Their accuracy has been assessed in many coastal zones around the world and they are ready for exploitation near the shore. This opens a variety of applications of the sea level data obtained from the specific reprocessing of radar altimeter signals in the coastal strip. In this work, we retracked altimeter waveforms of the European Space Agency satellites: ERS-2 RA and Envisat RA-2 from descending track (#0360) over the eastern side of the Strait of Gibraltar using the Adaptive Leading Edge Sub-waveform (ALES) retracker. We estimated along-track Sea Level Anomaly (AT_SLA) profiles (RA-2) at high posting rate (18 Hz) using improved range and geophysical corrections. Tides were removed with a global model (DTU10) that displays a good performance in the study area: the mean root square sum (RSS) of the main constituents obtained with DTU10 and 11 tide gauge stations was 4.3 cm in agreement with the RSS using a high-resolution local hydrodynamic model (UCA2.5D) (4.2 cm). We also estimated a local mean sea surface by reprocessing ERS-2/Envisat waveforms (track #0360) with ALES.This work was partially funded by the European Union's Interreg V-A España – Portugal (POCTEP) 2014-2020 project: OCASO under grant agreement: GA 0223_OCASO_5_E

The shed P2X7 receptor is an index of adverse clinical outcome in COVID-19 patients

Introduction: The pathophysiology of the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is incompletely known. A robust inflammatory response caused by viral replication is a main cause of the acute lung and multiorgan injury observed in critical patients. Inflammasomes are likely players in COVID-19 pathogenesis. The P2X7 receptor (P2X7R), a plasma membrane ATP-gated ion channel, is a main activator of the NLRP3 inflammasome, of the ensuing release of inflammatory cytokines and of cell death by pyroptosis. The P2X7R has been implicated in COVID-19-dependent hyperinflammation and in the associated multiorgan damage. Shed P2X7R (sP2X7R) and shed NLRP3 (sNLRP3) have been detected in plasma and other body fluids, especially during infection and inflammation. Methods: Blood samples from 96 patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection with various degrees of disease severity were tested at the time of diagnosis at hospital admission. Standard haematological parameters and IL-6, IL-10, IL-1β, sP2X7R and sNLRP3 levels were measured, compared to reference values, statistically validated, and correlated to clinical outcome. Results: Most COVID-19 patients included in this study had lymphopenia, eosinopenia, neutrophilia, increased inflammatory and coagulation indexes, and augmented sNLRP3, IL-6 and IL-10 levels. Blood concentration of sP2X7R was also increased, and significantly positively correlated with lymphopenia, procalcitonin (PCT), IL-10, and alanine transaminase (ALT). Patients with increased sP2X7R levels at diagnosis also showed fever and respiratory symptoms, were more often transferred to Pneumology division, required mechanical ventilation, and had a higher likelihood to die during hospitalization. Conclusion: Blood sP2X7R was elevated in the early phases of COVID-19 and predicted an adverse clinical outcome. It is suggested that sP2X7R might be a useful marker of disease progression

Voices of the great war: A richly annotated corpus of Italian texts on the first world war

Voci della Grande Guerra (“Voices of the Great War”) is the first large corpus of Italian historical texts dating back to the period ofFirst World War. This corpus differs from other existing resources in several respects. First, from the linguistic point of view it givesaccount of the wide range of varieties in which Italian was articulated in that period, namely from a diastratic (educated vs. uneducatedwriters), diaphasic (low/informal vs. high/formal registers) and diatopic (regional varieties, dialects) points of view. From the historicalperspective, through a collection of texts belonging to different genres it represents different views on the war and the various styles ofnarrating war events and experiences. The final corpus is balanced along various dimensions, corresponding to the textual genre, thelanguage variety used, the author type and the typology of conveyed contents. The corpus is annotated with lemmas, part-of-speech,terminology, and named entities. Significant corpus samples representative of the different “voices” have also been enriched withmeta-linguistic and syntactic information. The layer of syntactic annotation forms the first nucleus of an Italian historical treebankcomplying with the Universal Dependencies standard. The paper illustrates the final resource, the methodology and tools used to buildit, and the Web Interface for navigating it

Host genetics impact on SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-induced immunoglobulin levels and dynamics: The role of TP53, ABO, APOE, ACE2, HLA-A, and CRP genes

Background: Development and worldwide availability of safe and effective vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) to fight severe symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and block the pandemic have been a great achievement and stimulated researchers on understanding the efficacy and duration of different vaccine types. Methods: We investigated the levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (IgG) and neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) in 195 healthy adult subjects belonging to the staff of the University-Hospital of Ferrara (Italy) starting from 15 days up to 190 days (about 6 months) after the second dose of the BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) mRNA-based vaccine (n = 128) or ChAdOx1 (AstraZeneca) adenovirus-based vaccine (n = 67) using a combined approach of serological and genomics investigations. Results: A strong correlation between IgG and NAb levels was detected during the 190 days of follow-up (r 2 = 0.807; p < 0.0001) and was confirmed during the first 90 days (T1) after vaccination (r 2 = 0.789; p = 0.0001) and 91-190 days (T2) after vaccination (r 2 = 0.764; p = 0.0001) for both vaccine types (r 2 = 0.842; p = 0.0001 and r 2 = 0.780; p = 0.0001 for mRNA- and adenovirus-based vaccine, respectively). In addition to age (p < 0.01), sex (p = 0.03), and type of vaccine (p < 0.0001), which partially accounted for the remarkable individual differences observed in the antibody levels and dynamics, interesting genetic determinants appeared as significant modifiers of both IgG and NAb responses among the selected genes investigated (TP53, rs1042522; APOE, rs7412/rs429358; ABO, rs657152; ACE2, rs2285666; HLA-A rs2571381/rs2499; CRP, rs2808635/rs876538; LZTFL1, rs35044562; OAS3, rs10735079; SLC6A20, rs11385942; CFH, rs1061170; and ACE1, ins/del, rs4646994). In detail, regression analysis and mean antibody level comparison yielded appreciable differences after genotype stratification (P1 and P2, respectively, for IgG and NAb distribution) in the whole cohort and/or in the mRNA-based vaccine in the following genes: TP53, rs1042522 (P1 = 0.03; P2 = 0.04); ABO, rs657152 (P1 = 0.01; P2 = 0.03); APOE, rs7412/rs429358 (P1 = 0.0018; P2 = 0.0002); ACE2, rs2285666 (P1 = 0.014; P2 = 0.009); HLA-A, rs2571381/rs2499 (P1 = 0.02; P2 = 0.03); and CRP, rs2808635/rs876538 (P1 = 0.01 and P2 = 0.09). Conclusion: High- or low-responsive subjects can be identified among healthy adult vaccinated subjects after targeted genetic screening. This suggests that favorable genetic backgrounds may support the progression of an effective vaccine-induced immune response, though no definite conclusions can be drawn on the real effectiveness ascribed to a specific vaccine or to the different extent of a genotype-driven humoral response. The interplay between data from the polygenic predictive markers and serological screening stratified by demogeographic information can help to recognize the individual humoral response, accounting for ethnic and geographical differences, in both COVID-19 and anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations

Computerized cognitive training and brain derived neurotrophic factor during bed rest: Mechanisms to protect individual during acute stress

Acute stress, as bed rest, was shown to increase plasma level of the neurotrophin brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in older, but not in young adults. This increase might represent a protective mechanism towards acute insults in aging subjects. Since computerized cognitive training (CCT) is known to protect brain, herein we evaluated the effect of CCT during bed rest on BDNF, muscle mass, neuromuscular function and metabolic parameters. The subjects that underwent CCT did not show an increase of BDNF after bed rest, and showed an anti-insular modification pattern in metabolism. Neuromuscular function parameters, already shown to beneficiate from CCT, negatively correlated with BDNF in research participants undergoing CCT, while positively correlated in the control group. In conclusion, BDNF increase can be interpreted as a standardized protective mechanism taking place whenever an insult occurs; it gives low, but consistent preservation of neuromuscular function. CCT, acting as an external protective mechanism, seems to modify this standardized response, avoiding BDNF increase or possibly modifying its time course. Our results suggest the possibility of differential neuroprotective mechanisms among ill and healthy individuals, and the importance of timing in determining the effects of protective mechanism