KALwEN+: Practical Key Management Schemes for Gossip-Based Wireless Medical Sensor Networks

The constrained resources of sensors restrict the design of a key management scheme for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In this work, we first formalize the security model of ALwEN, which is a gossip-based wireless medical sensor network (WMSN) for ambient assisted living. Our security model considers the node capture, the gossip-based network and the revocation problems, which should be valuable for ALwEN-like applications. Based on Shamir's secret sharing technique, we then propose two key management schemes for ALwEN, namely the KALwEN+ schemes, which are proven with the security properties defined in the security model. The KALwEN+ schemes not only fit ALwEN, but also can be tailored to other scalable wireless sensor networks based on gossiping

Employer Assessment of Strike Costs

Les grèves comportent des couts. Même s'il ne s'agit guère plus qu'un énoncé de principe, il est surprenant de voir combien peu d'informations sont disponibles à l'heure actuelle sur la nature et sur la gravite du cout des grèves subies par les entreprises prises individuellement. Le premier objectif de cet article vise à évaluer le cout des grèves subies par les employeurs au Canada. Aux fins du présent article, les couts des grèves comprennent à la fois des couts pécuniaires et des couts non pécuniaires qui sont reliés à une grève ou à un lock-out. Les couts pécuniaires comprennent les pertes de vente attribuables à l'impossibilité de répondre aux commandes, aux couts encourus dans le cours du processus de médiation et d'arbitrage et ainsi de suite. Les couts non pécuniaires peuvent inclure la perte de la clientèle, la mauvaise publicité et la di munition de confiance de la part des investisseurs et des créanciers. Les données de l'enquête ont été recueillies en 1980 à la suite de l'envoi de questionnaires par voie postale. L'échantillon comprenait des entreprises manufacturières et minières qui avaient subi une grève ou un lock-out impliquant plus de 100 travailleurs dans les deux années précédentes, soit un total de 278 entreprises. Les entreprises où il y avait eu plus d'une grève devaient faire rapport sur le conflit qui avait entraine le plus de jours-personne perdus.Le questionnaire répertoriait vingt couts possibles attribuables à la grève selon qu'ils la précédaient, l'accompagnaient ou la suivaient ainsi que trois possibilités d'économie ou d'avantages qu'on pouvait en tirer. Concernant chaque point, on a demandé aux répondants d'indiquer si le cout (ou l'économise) avait été extrêmement important (code 4), très important, modérément important, sans aucune importance ou qu'il n'ait donne lieu à aucune perte (code 0) eu égard à la grève spécifique pour laquelle il était fait rapport. Des 278 entreprises auxquelles on s'était adressé, 127 ont retourné des questionnaires utilisables pour un taux de réponses valables de 46 pour cent. Quatre-vingts pour cent des entreprises redondantes appartenaient à l'industrie manufacturière. Leur revenu médian annuel s'établissait approximativement à 50 millions de dollars, cependant que leur personnel médian tournait autour de 500 employés. Ces entreprises devaient négocier avec trois syndicats en moyenne et le tiers d'entre elles étaient contrôlées par des investisseurs américains.En conformité avec les études empiriques antérieures, les couts les plus importants qu'on attribuait à la grève consistaient en dépenses générales et en pertes de ventes. Seuls ces deux couts étaient considérés comme extrêmement ou très importants par la majorité des entreprises. Des couts moins importants comprenaient la publicité auprès de la population, les amendes pour retard de livraison, des frais d'assurance supplémentaires et le sabotage. Une réponse inattendue consistait dans l'importance relative que l'on portait au temps consacre par les bureaux de direction des compagnies aux négociations collectives à la fois avant et durant un arrêt de travail. Il est aussi intéressant d'observer combien on attachait peu d'importance aux possibilités d'économie qui pouvaient résulter d'un arrêt de travail.On a formulé l'hypothèse que les couts (ou les économies) d'une grève pourraient être reliés à trois séries de variables : 1) les caractéristiques de l'entreprise; 2) les particularités internes des relations du travail dans l'entreprise et 3) les particularités de l'arrêt de travail au cours duquel on a eu à encourir les couts. Les résultats indiquent que ces trois séries de variables étaient rattachées à l'évaluation que l'employeur faisait du cout de la grève.Étant donné l'absence de recherche empirique antérieure sur la question des couts d'une grève, dans la présente étude, on a adopté une approche exploratoire qui ne comprenait que peu d'hypothèses explicites préétablies. Dans l'avenir, les chercheurs auront à développer et à vérifier des modèles prévisionnels. On suggère aussi d'entreprendre des recherches dans d'autres domaines se rapportant aux couts des grèves.This paper examines the importance employers attach to a variety of potential costs and savings which might be incurred in the course of a work stoppage

Use of capsule endoscopy in the emergency department as a triage of patients with GI bleeding

Background and Aims: Upper GI bleeding (UGIB) still constitutes one of the major hospital admissions through emergency departments (EDs). This feasibility study aims to test whether capsule endoscopy (CE) can reduce unnecessary hospital admissions in patients with suspected UGIB. Methods: This was a prospective randomized controlled trial in which patients who presented with symptoms or signs suggestive of UGIB were randomized to receive either the standard treatment (ST) of hospital management or receive CE, after which hospital admission was determined by the findings of CE. Patients were also graded by Glasgow Blatchford score (GBS) at the ED for assessment of need of hospital admission. Results: Seventy-one patients fulfilled the recruitment criteria, with 37 subjects enrolled into the CE group and 34 subjects into the ST group. Seven CE patients with active bleeding or significant endoscopic findings were admitted to the hospital compared with the ST group in which all 34 patients were admitted. There was no difference in the clinical outcome in terms of recurrent bleeding and 30-day mortality. Hospital admission was also greatly reduced if CE instead of GBS was used to triage patients in the ED. Conclusions: This feasibility study shows that CE offers a safe and effective method in triaging patients presenting with symptoms of UGIB that do not require hospital admission. (Clinical trial registration number: NCT02446678.

Increased Mutation Rate Is Linked to Genome Reduction in Prokaryotes

The evolutionary processes that drive variation in genome size across the tree of life remain unresolved. Effective population size (Ne) is thought to play an important role in shaping genome size [1, 2, 3]—a key example being the reduced genomes of insect endosymbionts, which undergo population bottlenecks during transmission [4]. However, the existence of reduced genomes in marine and terrestrial prokaryote species with large Ne indicate that genome reduction is influenced by multiple processes [3]. One candidate process is enhanced mutation rate, which can increase adaptive capacity but can also promote gene loss. To investigate evolutionary forces associated with prokaryotic genome reduction, we performed molecular evolutionary and phylogenomic analyses of nine lineages from five bacterial and archaeal phyla. We found that gene-loss rate strongly correlated with synonymous substitution rate (a proxy for mutation rate) in seven of the nine lineages. However, gene-loss rate showed weak or no correlation with the ratio of nonsynonymous/synonymous substitution rate (dN/dS). These results indicate that genome reduction is largely associated with increased mutation rate, while the association between gene loss and changes in Ne is less well defined. Lineages with relatively high dS and dN, as well as smaller genomes, lacked multiple DNA repair genes, providing a proximate cause for increased mutation rates. Our findings suggest that similar mechanisms drive genome reduction in both intracellular and free-living prokaryotes, with implications for developing a comprehensive theory of prokaryote genome size evolution

Strangeness nuclear physics: a critical review on selected topics

Selected topics in strangeness nuclear physics are critically reviewed. This includes production, structure and weak decay of $\Lambda$--Hypernuclei, the $\bar K$ nuclear interaction and the possible existence of $\bar K$ bound states in nuclei. Perspectives for future studies on these issues are also outlined.Comment: 63 pages, 51 figures, accepted for publication on European Physical Journal

The water lily genome and the early evolution of flowering plants

Water lilies belong to the angiosperm order Nymphaeales. Amborellales, Nymphaeales and Austrobaileyales together form the so-called ANA-grade of angiosperms, which are extant representatives of lineages that diverged the earliest from the lineage leading to the extant mesangiosperms1–3. Here we report the 409-megabase genome sequence of the blue-petal water lily (Nymphaea colorata). Our phylogenomic analyses support Amborellales and Nymphaeales as successive sister lineages to all other extant angiosperms. The N. colorata genome and 19 other water lily transcriptomes reveal a Nymphaealean whole-genome duplication event, which is shared by Nymphaeaceae and possibly Cabombaceae. Among the genes retained from this whole-genome duplication are homologues of genes that regulate flowering transition and flower development. The broad expression of homologues of floral ABCE genes in N. colorata might support a similarly broadly active ancestral ABCE model of floral organ determination in early angiosperms. Water lilies have evolved attractive floral scents and colours, which are features shared with mesangiosperms, and we identified their putative biosynthetic genes in N. colorata. The chemical compounds and biosynthetic genes behind floral scents suggest that they have evolved in parallel to those in mesangiosperms. Because of its unique phylogenetic position, the N. colorata genome sheds light on the early evolution of angiosperms.Supplementary Tables: This file contains Supplementary Tables 1-21.National Natural Science Foundation of China, the open funds of the State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement (ZW201909) and State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, the Fujian provincial government in China, the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under European Research Council Advanced Grant Agreement and the Special Research Fund of Ghent University.http://www.nature.com/naturecommunicationsam2021BiochemistryGeneticsMicrobiology and Plant Patholog

ϒ production in p–Pb collisions at √sNN=8.16 TeV

ϒ production in p–Pb interactions is studied at the centre-of-mass energy per nucleon–nucleon collision √sNN = 8.16 TeV with the ALICE detector at the CERN LHC. The measurement is performed reconstructing bottomonium resonances via their dimuon decay channel, in the centre-of-mass rapidity intervals 2.03 < ycms < 3.53 and −4.46 < ycms < −2.96, down to zero transverse momentum. In this work, results on the ϒ(1S) production cross section as a function of rapidity and transverse momentum are presented. The corresponding nuclear modification factor shows a suppression of the ϒ(1S) yields with respect to pp collisions, both at forward and backward rapidity. This suppression is stronger in the low transverse momentum region and shows no significant dependence on the centrality of the interactions. Furthermore, the ϒ(2S) nuclear modification factor is evaluated, suggesting a suppression similar to that of the ϒ(1S). A first measurement of the ϒ(3S) has also been performed. Finally, results are compared with previous ALICE measurements in p–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV and with theoretical calculations.publishedVersio

(Anti-)deuteron production in pp collisions at 1as=13TeV

The study of (anti-)deuteron production in pp collisions has proven to be a powerful tool to investigate the formation mechanism of loosely bound states in high-energy hadronic collisions. In this paper the production of (anti-)deuterons is studied as a function of the charged particle multiplicity in inelastic pp collisions at s=13 TeV using the ALICE experiment. Thanks to the large number of accumulated minimum bias events, it has been possible to measure (anti-)deuteron production in pp collisions up to the same charged particle multiplicity (d Nch/ d \u3b7 3c 26) as measured in p\u2013Pb collisions at similar centre-of-mass energies. Within the uncertainties, the deuteron yield in pp collisions resembles the one in p\u2013Pb interactions, suggesting a common formation mechanism behind the production of light nuclei in hadronic interactions. In this context the measurements are compared with the expectations of coalescence and statistical hadronisation models (SHM)

Multiplicity dependence of inclusive J/psi production at midrapidity in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV

Measurements of the inclusive J/psi yield as a function of charged-particle pseudorapidity density dN(ch)/d eta in pp collisions at root s = 13 TeV with ALICE at the LHC are reported. The J/psi meson yield is measured at midrapidity (vertical bar y vertical bar <0.9) in the dielectron channel, for events selected based on the charged-particle multiplicity at midrapidity (vertical bar eta vertical bar <1) and at forward rapidity (-3.7 <eta <-1.7 and 2.8 <eta <5.1); both observables are normalized to their corresponding averages in minimum bias events. The increase of the normalized J/psi yield with normalized dN(ch)/d eta is significantly stronger than linear and dependent on the transverse momentum. The data are compared to theoretical predictions, which describe the observed trends well, albeit not always quantitatively. (C) 2020 European Organization for Nuclear Research. Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe