All or Nothing at All

We continue a study of unconditionally secure all-or-nothing transforms (AONT) begun in \cite{St}. An AONT is a bijective mapping that constructs s outputs from s inputs. We consider the security of t inputs, when s-t outputs are known. Previous work concerned the case t=1; here we consider the problem for general t, focussing on the case t=2. We investigate constructions of binary matrices for which the desired properties hold with the maximum probability. Upper bounds on these probabilities are obtained via a quadratic programming approach, while lower bounds can be obtained from combinatorial constructions based on symmetric BIBDs and cyclotomy. We also report some results on exhaustive searches and random constructions for small values of s.Comment: 23 page

Massive malignant pleural effusion due to lung adenocarcinoma in 13-year-old boy

A 13-year-old boy with no risk factors for lung cancer presented with a massive left-sided pleural effusion and a mediastinal shift on chest radiography and computed tomography. A chest tube drained bloody pleural fluid with an exudative pattern. A pleural biopsy and wedge biopsy of the left lower lobe revealed mucinous adenocarcinoma in the left lower lobe wedge biopsy and metastatic adenocarcinoma in the pleural biopsy. The patient is currently undergoing chemotherapy. Radiotherapy is planned after shrinkage of the tumor. Adenocarcinoma of the lung is very rarely seen in teenagers or children, especially in the absence of risk factors. © SAGE Publications

Towards the exploration of Gender awareness in Human-centred design

The primary aim of the human-centred design (HCD) approach is to identify the user needs. However, we argue that there is a lack of understanding of, and even awareness of, gender in HCD. This approach sees gender as static and stable regarding male or female such that the implication of principles in products, systems or services appeals to one gender or another linking gender differences, and stereotypes. To illustrate this, the investigation was conducted in the context of fostering sun protection behaviour in young men. Participatory design sessions were deployed to investigate the role of gender in the HCD and how it can be used to foster sun protection behaviour. We have concluded with the development of a novel gender aware HCD approach which opens avenues for design research and practice for increasing emphasis on the influence of the designer’s own gender and their gendered perceptions in their designs

THE EFFECTS OF FIELD EMITTED ELECTRONS ON RF SURFACE

The ever-growing demand for higher RF gradients has considerably increased the risk of breakdown in accelerating structures. Field emission is the most common form of RF breakdown that generates free electrons capable of inflicting irreversible damages on the RF surface. This paper presents a systematic experimental and simulation programme to understand possible sources and their influence on RF cavity operatio

On Security Properties of All-or-nothing Transforms

All-or-nothing transforms have been defined as bijective mappings on all s-tuples over a specified finite alphabet. These mappings are required to satisfy certain "perfect security" conditions specified using entropies of the probability distribution defined on the input s-tuples. Alternatively, purely combinatorial definitions of AONTs have been given, which involve certain kinds of "unbiased arrays". However, the combinatorial definition makes no reference to probability definitions. In this paper, we examine the security provided by AONTs that satisfy the combinatorial definition. The security of the AONT can depend on the underlying probability distribution of the s-tuples. We show that perfect security is obtained from an AONT if and only if the input s-tuples are equiprobable. However, in the case where the input s-tuples are not equiprobable, we still achieve a weaker security guarantee. We also consider the use of randomized AONTs to provide perfect security for a smaller number of inputs, even when those inputs are not equiprobable

Cloning and expression of codon-optimized recombinant darbepoetin alfa in Leishmania tarentolae T7-TR

Darbepoetin alfa is an engineered and hyperglycosylated analog of recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO) which is used as a drug in treating anemia in patients with chronic kidney failure and cancer. This study desribes the secretory expression of a codon-optimized recombinant form of darbepoetin alfa in Leishmania tarentolae T7-TR. Synthetic codon-optimized gene was amplified by PCR and cloned into the pLEXSY-I-blecherry3 vector. The resultant expression vector, pLEXSYDarbo, was purified, digested, and electroporated into the L. tarentolae. Expression of recombinant darbepoetin alfa was evaluated by ELISA, reverse-transcription PCR (RT-PCR), Western blotting, and biological activity. After codon optimization, codon adaptation index (CAI) of the gene raised from 0.50 to 0.99 and its GC content changed from 56 to 58. Expression analysis confirmed the presence of a protein band at 40 kDa. Furthermore, reticulocyte experiment results revealed that the activity of expressed darbepoetin alfa was similar to that of its equivalent expressed in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. These data suggested that the codon optimization and expression in L. tarentolae host provided an efficient approach for high level expression of darbepoetin alfa. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Constructions and bounds for codes with restricted overlaps

Non-overlapping codes have been studied for almost 60 years. In such a code, no proper, non-empty prefix of any codeword is a suffix of any codeword. In this paper, we study codes in which over-laps of certain specified sizes are forbidden. We prove some general bounds and we give several constructions in the case of binary codes. Our techniques also allow us to provide an alternative, elementary proof of a lower bound on non-overlapping codes due to Levenshtein [9] in 1964