The effect of the laser-induced structures’ surface morphology on the luminescence of thermostable polybenzimidazoles

This study was performed in the framework of the RFBR grant Mol_а 18-33-00645

The Seventh International Olympiad in Cryptography: problems and solutions

The International Olympiad in Cryptography NSUCRYPTO is the unique Olympiad containing scientific mathematical problems for professionals, school and university students from any country. Its aim is to involve young researchers in solving curious and tough scientific problems of modern cryptography. In 2020, it was held for the seventh time. Prizes and diplomas were awarded to 84 participants in the first round and 49 teams in the second round from 32 countries. In this paper, problems and their solutions of NSUCRYPTO'2020 are presented. We consider problems related to attacks on ciphers and hash functions, protocols, permutations, primality tests, etc. We discuss several open problems on JPEG encoding, Miller -- Rabin primality test, special bases in the vector space, AES-GCM. The problem of a modified Miller -- Rabin primality test was solved during the Olympiad. The problem for finding special bases was partially solved

Examining SLV-323, a novel NK1 receptor antagonist, in a chronic psychosocial stress model for depression

Rationale: Substance P antagonists have been proposed as candidates for a new class of antidepressant compounds. Objectives: We examined the effects of SLV-323, a novel neurokinin 1 receptor (NK1R) antagonist, in the chronic psychosocial stress paradigm of adult male tree shrews. Methods: Animals were subjected to a 7 day period of psychosocial stress before being treated daily with SLV-323 ( 20 mg kg(-1) day(-1)). The psychosocial stress continued throughout the treatment period of 28 days. Brain metabolite concentrations were determined in vivo by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Norepinephrine excretion was monitored from daily urine samples, and serum testosterone concentrations were measured at the end of the experiment. All animals were videotaped daily to analyze scent-marking behavior and locomotor activity. Cell proliferation in the dentate gyrus and hippocampal volume were measured postmortem. Results: Stress significantly decreased cerebral concentrations of N-acetyl-aspartate, total creatine, and choline-containing compounds in vivo and resulted in an increase of urinary norepinephrine and decrease of serum testosterone concentrations. Moreover, stressed animals displayed activity. The proliferation rate of the granule precursor cells in the dentate gyrus was reduced, and hippocampal volume was mildly decreased. The stress-induced alterations in the central nervous system were partially prevented by concomitant administration of SLV-323, while drug treatment had only a minor effect on the stress-induced behavioral changes. Conclusions: The novel NK1R antagonist SLV-323 has certain antidepressant-like effects in a valid animal model of depression

Mathematical problems and solutions of the Ninth International Olympiad in Cryptography NSUCRYPTO

Every year the International Olympiad in Cryptography Non-Stop University CRYPTO (NSUCRYPTO) offers mathematical problems for university and school students and, moreover, for professionals in the area of cryptography and computer science. The mail goal of NSUCRYPTO is to draw attention of students and young researchers to modern cryptography and raise awareness about open problems in the field. We present problems of NSUCRYPTO'22 and their solutions. There are 16 problems on the following topics: ciphers, cryptosystems, protocols, e-money and cryptocurrencies, hash functions, matrices, quantum computing, S-boxes, etc. They vary from easy mathematical tasks that could be solved by school students to open problems that deserve separate discussion and study. So, in this paper, we consider several open problems on three-pass protocols, public and private keys pairs, modifications of discrete logarithm problem, cryptographic permutations and quantum circuits

Математические проблемы и решения Девятой международной олимпиады по криптографии NSUCRYPTO

Every year the International Olympiad in Cryptography Non-Stop University CRYPTO (NSUCRYPTO) offers mathematical problems for university and school students and, moreover, for professionals in the area of cryptography and computer science. The main goal of NSUCRYPTO is to draw attention of students and young researchers to modern cryptography and raise awareness about open problems in the field. We present problems of NSUCRYPTO'22 and their solutions. There are 16 problems on the following topics: ciphers, cryptosystems, protocols, e-money and cryptocurrencies, hash functions, matrices, quantum computing, S-boxes, etc. They vary from easy mathematical tasks that could be solved by school students to open problems that deserve separate discussion and study. So, in this paper, we consider several open problems on three-pass protocols, public and private keys pairs, modifications of discrete logarithm problem, cryptographic permutations, and quantum circuits