Symplectic 4-manifolds on the Noether line and between the Noether and half Noether lines

We construct simply connected, minimal, symplectic 4-manifolds with exotic smooth structures and each with one Seiberg-Witten basic class up to sign, on the Noether line and between the Noether and half Noether lines by star surgeries introduced by Karakurt and Starkston, and by using complex singularities. We also construct certain configurations of complex singularities in the rational elliptic surfaces geometrically, without using any monodromy arguments. By using these configurations, we give symplectic embeddings of star shaped plumbings inside (some blow-ups of) elliptic surfaces

On the BV structure on the cohomology of moduli space

The question of vanishing of the BV operator on the cohomology of the moduli space of Riemann surfaces is investigated. The BV structure, which comprises a BV operator and an antibracket, is identified, vanishing theorems are proven, and a counterexample is provided

Generalized chain surgeries and applications

We describe the Stein handlebody diagrams of Milnor fibers of Brieskorn singularities $x^p + y^q + z^r = 0$. We also study the natural symplectic operation by exchanging two Stein fillings of the canonical contact structure on the links in the case $p = q = r$, where one of the fillings comes from the minimal resolution and the other is the Milnor fiber. We give two different interpretations of this operation, one as a symplectic sum and the other as a monodromy substitution in a Lefschetz fibration

Reply to the letter to the editor ‘‘in response to: a better design is needed for clinical studies of chronic tympanic membrane perforations using biological materials’’ 10.1007/s00405-016-4019-0

[No abstract available

A new involutory 4×4 MDS matrix for the AES-like block ciphers

Maximum Distance Separable (MDS) codes are used as diffusion layers in the design of the well known block ciphers like the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and Khazad. The reason for the use of MDS codes in the design of block ciphers is that they provide optimal diffusion effect to meet security of a round function of a block cipher. On the other hand, the constructions of these diffusion layers are various. For example, while the AES use a 4×4 MDS matrix over GF(28), Khazad use an 8×8 involutory MDS matrix over GF(28). In this study, a new involutory 4×4 MDS matrix for the AES-like block ciphers is proposed and an efficient software implementation of this matrix is given. The new involutory matrix replaces Mix Columns operation used in the AES cipher in order to provide equally good performance for both encryption and decryption operations. In the design of our involutory MDS matrix, we use Hadamard matrix construction instead of circulant matrices such as in the AES. © 2011 Praise Worthy Prize S.r.l.2-s2.0-7995317020

de Sitter swampland conjecture in string field inflation

Abstract In this paper, we study a particular type of inflation by using non-local Friedman equations that are derived from the zero levels of string field theory and express a tachyonic action. Then, we challenge it by further refining de Sitter (dS) swampland conjecture (FRdSSC) monitoring. Therefore, we investigate some quantities, such as potential and Hubble parameters. We also consider slow-roll parameters to examine quantities such as the scalar spectrum index and the tensor-to-scalar ratio. Using straightforward calculations, we investigate this model from the swampland conjecture perspective in terms of the cosmological parameters, i.e., ( $$n_s$$ n s ), (r), and observable data such as Planck 2018, by constructing some structures such as $$(c_{1,2}-n_s)$$ ( c 1 , 2 - n s ) and $$(c_{1,2}-r_s)$$ ( c 1 , 2 - r s ) . Then, we make a new restriction for this conjecture as $$c_1^2c_2^2$$ c 1 2 c 2 2 and get a limit for this model in the range $$c0$$ a , b > 0 , $$a+b=1$$ a + b = 1 , and $$q>2$$ q > 2 . By setting these parameters, we examine the compatibility of the mentioned conjecture with this inflationary model. Finally, we infer from this string field inflation (SFI) model that it satisfies the FRdSSC with the constraint of its free parameters a, b, and q

An attribution-value model of prejudice: Anti-fat attitudes in six nations

The authors propose an Attribution-Value model of prejudice, which hypothesizes that people are prejudiced against groups that they feel have some negative attribute for which they, are held responsible. The structure of prejudice against fat people was compared in six nations: Australia, India, Poland, Turkey, the United States of America, and Venezuela. Both a negative cultural value for fatness and a tendency to hold people responsible predicts anti-fat prejudice. Most important, a multiplicative hypothesis was supported-people with both a negative value for fatness and a tendency to hold people responsible were more anti-fat than could be predicted from cultural value and attributions alone. These effects were more pronounced in individualist cultures. The authors develop the Attribution-Value model of prejudice that can apply to prejudice of many sorts across many cultures