RANDAO-based RNG: Last Revealer Attacks in Ethereum 2.0 Randomness and a Potential Solution

Ethereum 2.0 is a major upgrade to improve its scalability, throughput, and security. In this version, RANDAO is the scheme to randomly select the users who propose, confirm blocks, and get rewards. However, a vulnerability, referred to as the `Last Revealer Attack' (LRA), compromises the randomness of this scheme by introducing bias to the Random Number Generator (RNG) process. This vulnerability is first clarified again in this study. After that, we propose a Shamir's Secret Sharing (SSS)-based RANDAO scheme to mitigate the LRA. Through our analysis, the proposed method can prevent the LRA under favorable network conditions

Analyzing Effects of Institutional Quality on Banking Stability: Evidence from Asean Countries

Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine the effect of institutional quality on bank stability using bank-level data from 2010 to 2020.   Theoretical framework: The study considers institutions from the perspective of governance institutions. Accordingly, the concept of government institutions is related to the country's organizational foundation in terms of governance, implying institutional quality.   Design/methodology/approach: The study uses GMM method and also choose the Zscore as the primary variable for bank stability.   Findings: The results show that institutional quality increases the stability of banks. Moreover, with the threshold model, the results show that countries with institutional quality above the threshold will increase the stability of banks. In addition, macroeconomic and banking characteristics variables such as total assets, income diversification, quality of control, inflation, and GDP growth rate have a high significance in the model.   Research, Practical & Social implications: The study shows The study's empirical results have specific policy implications for the Government in implementing policies related to institutional quality to improve bank stability.   Originality/value:   there are not many researches done to investigate institutional quality to improve bank stability. Moreover, from economic crisis, the matter of banking stability is among main concerns of many researches. Second, previous researches just focus on the aspect of corruption and ignore other aspects or other factors. That’s why authors conduct this research

A Novel Missense Variant Located Within the Zinc Finger Domain of the GLI3 Gene Was Identified in a Vietnamese Pedigree With Index Finger Polydactyly

BACKGROUND: Polydactyly, particularly of the index finger, remains an intriguing anomaly for which no specific gene or locus has been definitively linked to this phenotype. In this study, we conducted an investigation of a three-generation family displaying index finger polydactyly. METHODS: Exome sequencing was conducted on the patient, with a filtration to identify potential causal variation. Validation of the obtained variant was conducted by Sanger sequencing, encompassing all family members. RESULTS: Exome analysis uncovered a novel heterozygous missense variant (c.1482A\u3eT; p.Gln494His) at the zinc finger DNA-binding domain of the GLI3 protein within the proband and all affected family members. Remarkably, the variant was absent in unaffected individuals within the pedigree, underscoring its association with the polydactyly phenotype. Computational analyses revealed that GLI3 p.Gln494His impacts a residue that is highly conserved across species. CONCLUSION: The GLI3 zinc finger DNA-binding region is an essential part of the Sonic hedgehog signaling pathway, orchestrating crucial aspects of embryonic development through the regulation of target gene expression. This novel finding not only contributes valuable insights into the molecular pathways governing polydactyly during embryonic development but also has the potential to enhance diagnostic and screening capabilities for this condition in clinical settings

A Murnaghan-Nakayama rule for Grothendieck polynomials of Grassmannian type

We consider the Grothendieck polynomials appearing in the K-theory of Grassmannians, which are analogs of Schur polynomials. This paper aims to establish a version of the Murnaghan-Nakayama rule for Grothendieck polynomials of the Grassmannian type. This rule allows us to express the product of a Grothendieck polynomial with a power sum symmetric polynomial into a linear combination of other Grothendieck polynomials.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

Level of Factors impact on the Buyers’ Intention in Buying Private Health Insurance with the Case of Vietnam Non-Life Insurance Companies

The study aims to determine the influence of factors affecting the intention to purchase private health insurance at non-life insurance companies in Vietnam. The samples were surveyed from 500 people from many areas but mostly in Hanoi. The study identified and clarified 5 independent factors affecting the intention to buy private health insurance at non-life health insurance companies in Vietnam. The analysis results show 5 variables: "Past experience", "Perception of service quality of insurance companies", "Perceived behavioral control", "Attitude towards risks and private health insurance ", and the variable "Subjective norms on private health insurance" affect people's intention to buy private health insurance. Several policies have been proposed to increase customers' intention to buy private health insurance at non-life insurance companies from the analysis. To raise customer's intention to purchase private health insurance, the research team recommends non-life insurance company to improve service quality, especially after-sales service, the quality and expertise of staff, and the government to complete policies and legal framework on private health insurance. Moreover, the research team also recommend to renovate the quality of organizing the private health insurance regime and form the basis of the entire population pathology record. Keywords: private health insurance, intention to purchase, non-life insurance company. DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-27-06 Publication date:September 30th 202

Chemical composition and antibacterial activities of the ethanol extracts from the leaves and tubers of Amorphophallus pusillus

Amorphophallus pusillus is a rare species which is found only in Binh Chau-Phuoc Buu Nature Reserve. In this study, we determined 7 flavonoid compounds in tuber and leaf of A. pusillus, including of vitexin, orientin, vitexin 2?-O-glucoside, cyanidin 3-O-rutinoside, pelargonidin 3-O-glucoside, schaftoside, and peonidin 3-O-rutinoside via liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Furthermore, we have proved the antibacterial activities of ethanol extracts obtained from A. pusillus leaves and tubers in the first time. The data revealed that ethanol extracts could inhibit the growth of 6 tested microorganisms, such as Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella enteritidis, Salmonella typhimurium, and Staphylococcus aureus. These data suggested the potential application of ethanol extracts isolated from this species as natural antimicrobial agents for treatment of infection caused by bacteria, especially in dermatologic and enteric infections

Solving Continual Combinatorial Selection via Deep Reinforcement Learning

We consider the Markov Decision Process (MDP) of selecting a subset of items at each step, termed the Select-MDP (S-MDP). The large state and action spaces of S-MDPs make them intractable to solve with typical reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms especially when the number of items is huge. In this paper, we present a deep RL algorithm to solve this issue by adopting the following key ideas. First, we convert the original S-MDP into an Iterative Select-MDP (IS-MDP), which is equivalent to the S-MDP in terms of optimal actions. IS-MDP decomposes a joint action of selecting K items simultaneously into K iterative selections resulting in the decrease of actions at the expense of an exponential increase of states. Second, we overcome this state space explo-sion by exploiting a special symmetry in IS-MDPs with novel weight shared Q-networks, which prov-ably maintain sufficient expressive power. Various experiments demonstrate that our approach works well even when the item space is large and that it scales to environments with item spaces different from those used in training.Comment: Accepted to IJCAI 2019,14 pages,8 figure

Prevalence of Accidents and Injuries and Related Factors of Fishermen Fishing Offshore in the North of Vietnam

Introduction: Seafaring, particularly offshore fishing, exposes fishermen to various occupational risks leading to diseases and injuries. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of occupational risks, injury accidents, and contributing factors among offshore fishers in North Vietnam, to develop evidence-based recommendations to enhance their safety and well-being. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 420 fishermen with a minimum of two years of experience. Interviews were conducted between 2018 and 2020. Results: The findings indicated that there is a 41.7% prevalence of accidents and an average injury rate of 280.2 per person per year. Most incidents occurred at night with 104 cases (59.4%), slips and falls 48 cases (27.4%), broken winch lines 40 cases (22.9%), and ship collisions 14 cases (8.0%) being the primary causes. The most common injuries included soft wounds in 92 cases (52.5%) and sprains/dislocations in 14 cases (8.0%). Fishermen with fewer than 10 years of experience exhibited a higher accident risk (odds ratio = 1.54; 95% confidence interval: 1.05-2.72), as did those in the role of a fisherman (odds ratio: 1.68; CI: 0.97-2.94) and those working without labor protection (odds ratio: 3.68; CI: 1.05-12.93). Conclusion: Lack of labor protection equipment increased the risk by 3.68 times, and fishermen in the friend group had a 2.02 times higher risk of injury. Addressing these risks requires adherence to labor protection regulations and safe working procedures