Noise diodes as a source of entropy for hardware random number generators

The purpose of this article is to describe the use of digital noise generators based on semiconductor noise diodes as part of systems for generating key numerical sequences used in cryptographic security methods. The classification of modern methods of cryptographic protection and the algorithms underlying them are considered. It is shown that ensuring high information entropy in systems for generating encryption keys is possible by using generators of truly random number sequences and cryptographically secure generators of pseudo-random number sequences. A number of disadvantages inherent in widely used sources of physical noise are described, namely: low spectral density of broadband noise, limited frequency range, nonlinearity of the noise spectrum, difficulties in technical implementation when using some methods, especially under conditions of extreme temperatures and exposure to special factors. It has been confirmed that the noise properties of semiconductor noise diodes depend on the composition and constancy of the defect-impurity structure, and defect engineering makes it possible to control their electrical parameters. The study of inhomogeneities and defects in noise diodes and the development on this basis of methods for controlling the level of structural defects made it possible to create technologies for their generation and annealing, and to improve a number of electrical and statistical properties of noise diodes

Commercial articulated collaborative in situ 3D bioprinter for skin wound healing

In situ bioprinting is one of the most clinically relevant techniques in the emerging bioprinting technology because it could be performed directly on the human body in the operating room and it does not require bioreactors for post-printing tissue maturation. However, commercial in situ bioprinters are still not available on the market. In this study, we demonstrated the benefit of the originally developed first commercial articulated collaborative in situ bioprinter for the treatment of full-thickness wounds in rat and porcine models. We used an articulated and collaborative robotic arm from company KUKA and developed original printhead and correspondence software enabling in situ bioprinting on curve and moving surfaces. The results of in vitro and in vivo experiments show that in situ bioprinting of bioink induces a strong hydrogel adhesion and enables printing on curved surfaces of wet tissues with a high level of fidelity. The in situ bioprinter was convenient to use in the operating room. Additional in vitro experiments (in vitro collagen contraction assay and in vitro 3D angiogenesis assay) and histological analyses demonstrated that in situ bioprinting improves the quality of wound healing in rat and porcine skin wounds. The absence of interference with the normal process of wound healing and even certain improvement in the dynamics of this process strongly suggests that in situ bioprinting could be used as a novel therapeutic modality in wound healing.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Ultraviolet stimulated emission in AlGaN layers grown on sapphire substrates using ammonia and plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

Ammonia and plasma‐assisted (PA) molecular beam epitaxy modes are used to grow AlN and AlGaN epitaxial layers on sapphire substrates. It is determined that the increase of thickness of AlN buffer layer grown by ammonia‐MBE from 0.32 μm to 1.25 μm results in the narrowing of 101 X‐Ray rocking curves whereas no clear effect on 002 X‐Ray rocking curve width is observed. It is shown that strong GaN decomposition during growth by ammonia‐MBE causes AlGaN surface roughening and compositional inhomogeneity, which leads to deterioration of its lasing properties. AlGaN layers grown by ammonia‐MBE at optimized temperature demonstrate stimulated emission (SE) peaked at λ = 330 nm, 323 nm, 303 nm and 297 nm with the SE threshold values of 0.7 MW cm−2, 1.1 MW cm−2, 1.4 MW cm−2 and 1.4 MW cm−2, respectively. In comparison to these, AlGaN layer grown using PA‐MBE pulsed modes (migration‐enhanced epitaxy, metal‐modulated epitaxy, and droplet elimination by thermal annealing) shows a SE with a relatively low threshold (0.8 MW cm−2) at the considerably shorter wavelength of λ = 267 nm

AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor heterostructures grown by ammonia and combined plasma-assisted ammonia molecular beam epitaxy

The structural properties and surface morphology of AlN epitaxial layers grown by ammonia (NH3) and plasma-assisted (PA) molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) at different growth conditions on (0001) sapphire were investigated. The lowest RMS roughness of ~0.7 nm was achieved for the sample grown by NH3 MBE at a substrate temperature of 1085 °C and NH3 flow of 100 standard cm3 min−1. Atomic force microscopy measurements demonstrated a terrace-monolayer step-like surface morphology. Furthermore, the optimal substrate temperature for growth of GaN and AlGaN layers was determined from analysis of the GaN thermal decomposition rate. Using the optimized growth conditions, high electron mobility transistor heterostructures were grown by NH3 MBE on different types of AlN nucleation layer deposited by NH3 MBE or PA MBE. The grown heterostructures demonstrated comparable two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) properties. The maximum 2DEG mobility of ~2000 cm2 V–1 s–1) at a 2DEG density of ~1.17 × 1013 cm−2 was achieved for the heterostructure with a PA MBE-grown AlN nucleation layer. The obtained results demonstrate the possibility of successful combination of different epitaxial approaches within a single growth process, which will contribute to the development of a new type of hybrid epitaxy that exploits the advantages of several technologies

Insights into corn genes derived from large-scale cDNA sequencing

We present a large portion of the transcriptome of Zea mays, including ESTs representing 484,032 cDNA clones from 53 libraries and 36,565 fully sequenced cDNA clones, out of which 31,552 clones are non-redundant. These and other previously sequenced transcripts have been aligned with available genome sequences and have provided new insights into the characteristics of gene structures and promoters within this major crop species. We found that although the average number of introns per gene is about the same in corn and Arabidopsis, corn genes have more alternatively spliced isoforms. Examination of the nucleotide composition of coding regions reveals that corn genes, as well as genes of other Poaceae (Grass family), can be divided into two classes according to the GC content at the third position in the amino acid encoding codons. Many of the transcripts that have lower GC content at the third position have dicot homologs but the high GC content transcripts tend to be more specific to the grasses. The high GC content class is also enriched with intronless genes. Together this suggests that an identifiable class of genes in plants is associated with the Poaceae divergence. Furthermore, because many of these genes appear to be derived from ancestral genes that do not contain introns, this evolutionary divergence may be the result of horizontal gene transfer from species not only with different codon usage but possibly that did not have introns, perhaps outside of the plant kingdom. By comparing the cDNAs described herein with the non-redundant set of corn mRNAs in GenBank, we estimate that there are about 50,000 different protein coding genes in Zea. All of the sequence data from this study have been submitted to DDBJ/GenBank/EMBL under accession numbers EU940701–EU977132 (FLI cDNA) and FK944382-FL482108 (EST)

Chronic fibrosing progressing interstitial lung disease: a decision of Multidisciplinary Expert Board

The natural course of some interstitial lung diseases (ILD) is characterized by progressive fibrosing phenotype resembling idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Until recently, the antifibrotic drug nintedanib was approved for treatment of the only fibrosing ILD which was IPF. A new indication for this drug which has been registered in Russian Federation in 2021 includes other fibrosing ILDs with progressive phenotype (PF-ILDs) and ILD associated with systemic scleroderma (SS-ILD). The aim of this publication is to describe general considerations of the decision of Multidisciplinary Expert Board on diagnosis and treatment of PF-ILDs including SS-ILD. Results. According to the extension in nintedanib use mentioned above, the Expert Board created an algorithm for diagnosis and treatment of patients with PF-ILDs and criteria for nuntedanib administration in PF-ILDs. Conclusion. Antifibrotic therapy is needed for patients with PF-ILDs with the failure of the stanrard therapy. In those patients antifibrotic treatment should be initiated as early as possible to better preserve the lung functionПри формировании фибротических изменений в легких многие интерстициальные заболевания легких (ИЗЛ) могут приобретать прогрессирующее течение. По прогнозу выживаемости, риску летальности и обострений такой фенотип ИЗЛ при отсутствии антифибротической терапии очень близок к идиопатическому легочному фиброзу. В 2020 г. в Российской Федерации разрешено использование антифибротического препарата нинтеданиб при фиброзирующих ИЗЛ с прогрессирующим фиброзным фенотипом (ПФФ) и при ИЗЛ, связанных с системной склеродермией. Целью работы Междисциплинарного Совета экспертов явилось ознакомление с основными положениями резолюции Междисциплинарного Совета экспертов о диагностике и лечении ИЗЛ ПФФ. Результаты. В декабре 2020 г. состоялся Междисциплинарный Совет экспертов, по результатам работы которого разработаны алгоритм диагностики и ведения пациентов с ИЗЛ ПФФ и критерии отбора больных для назначения антифибротической терапии. Заключение. Установлено, что в случае когда при стандартной терапии ИЗЛ ПФФ клиническое состояние пациента и легочная функция и / или фибротические изменения в легких по данным компьютерной томографии высокого разрешения не стабилизируются, показана антифибротическая терапия нинтеданибом. Начиная антифибротическую терапию в возможно более ранние сроки заболевания, можно замедлить прогрессирующее снижение легочной функции при более сохранных исходных показателях

"Feed from the Service": Corruption and Coercion in the State-University Relations in Central Eurasia

Education in Central Eurasia has become one of the industries, most affected by corruption. Corruption in academia, including bribery, extortions, embezzlement, nepotism, fraud, cheating, and plagiarism, is reflected in the region’s media and addressed in few scholarly works. This paper considers corruption in higher education as a product of interrelations between the government and academia. A substantial block of literature considers excessive corruption as an indicator of a weak state. In contrast to standard interpretations, this paper argues that in non-democratic societies corruption is used on a systematic basis as a mechanism of direct and indirect administrative control over higher education institutions. Informal approval of corrupt activities in exchange for loyalty and compliance with the regime may be used in the countries of Central Eurasia for the purposes of political indoctrination. This paper presents the concept of corruption and coercion in the state-university relations in Central Eurasia and outlines the model which incorporates this concept and the “feed from the service” approach. It presents implications of this model for the state-university relations and the national educational systems in Central Eurasia in general and offers some suggestions on curbing corruption

Les droits disciplinaires des fonctions publiques : « unification », « harmonisation » ou « distanciation ». A propos de la loi du 26 avril 2016 relative à la déontologie et aux droits et obligations des fonctionnaires

The production of tt‾ , W+bb‾ and W+cc‾ is studied in the forward region of proton–proton collisions collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.98±0.02 fb−1 . The W bosons are reconstructed in the decays W→ℓν , where ℓ denotes muon or electron, while the b and c quarks are reconstructed as jets. All measured cross-sections are in agreement with next-to-leading-order Standard Model predictions.The production of $t\overline{t}$, $W+b\overline{b}$ and $W+c\overline{c}$ is studied in the forward region of proton-proton collisions collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.98 $\pm$ 0.02 \mbox{fb}^{-1}. The $W$ bosons are reconstructed in the decays $W\rightarrow\ell\nu$, where $\ell$ denotes muon or electron, while the $b$ and $c$ quarks are reconstructed as jets. All measured cross-sections are in agreement with next-to-leading-order Standard Model predictions

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis