An efficient protocol for the problem of secure two-party vector dominance

The problem of secure two-party vector dominance requires the comparison of two vectors in an "all-or-nothing" way. In this paper we provide a solution to this problem based on the semi-honest model. It is reduced to the problem of privacy preserving prefix test, and an additive threshold homomorphic encryption is used to protect those privacies while computing the results of all of the prefix tests. Our solution has advantages of efficiency and security in comparison with other solutions.Yingpeng Sang, Hong Shen, Zonghua Zhan

Testing mechanisms of compensatory fitness of dioecy in a cosexual world

Questions: All else being equal, populations of dioecious species with a 50:50 sex ratio have only half the effective reproductive population size of bisexual species of equal abundance. Consequently, there is a need to explain how dioecious and bisexual species coexist. Increased mean individual seed mass, fecundity, and population density have all been proposed as attributes of unisexual individuals or populations that may contribute to the persistence or resilience of dioecious species. To date, no studies have compared sympatric dioecious and cosexual species with respect to all three components of fitness. In this study, we sought evidence for these compensatory advantages (higher seed mass, greater seed production per unit basal area, and higher population density) in dioecious species. Location: Five 20–25 ha forest dynamic plots spanning a latitudinal gradient in China, including two temperate, two subtropical, and one tropical forest. Methods: We used a phylogenetically corrected generalized linear modelling approach to assess the phylogenetic dependence and joint evolution of sexual system, seed mass and production, and ecological abundances among 48–333 species and 32,568–136,237 individuals per forest. Results: Across all five forests, we detected no consistent advantage for dioecious relative to sympatric cosexual species with respect to mean individual seed mass, seed production or the density of stems in any size class. Conclusions: Our study suggests that seed traits may provide compensatory mechanisms in some forests, but most often the coexistence of sexual systems cannot be explained by advantages of dioecy related to seed quality and demographic parameters. Future investigations of the factors that promote coexistence may increase our understanding by expanding the search to include attributes such as lifespan and tolerance or resistance to herbivores

Collinear Factorization for Single Transverse-Spin Asymmetry in Drell-Yan Processes

We study the scattering of a single parton state with a multi-parton state to derive the complete results of perturbative coefficient functions at leading order, which appear in the collinear factorization for Single transverse-Spin Asymmetry(SSA) in Drell-Yan processes with a transversely polarized hadron in the initial state. We find that the factorization formula of SSA contains hard-pole-, soft-quark-pole- and soft-gluon-pole contributions. It is interesting to note that the leading order perturbative coefficient functions of soft-quark-pole- and soft-gluon-pole contributions are extracted from parton scattering amplitudes at one-loop, while the functions of hard-pole contributions are extracted from the tree level amplitudes at tree-level. Our method to derive the factorization of SSA is different than the existing one in literature. A comparison of our results with those obtained by other method is made.Comment: 27 pages, 14 figures, text improved, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Influence of uniaxial tensile stress on the mechanical and piezoelectric properties of short-period ferroelectric superlattice

Tetragonal ferroelectric/ferroelectric BaTiO3/PbTiO3 superlattice under uniaxial tensile stress along the c axis is investigated from first principles. We show that the calculated ideal tensile strength is 6.85 GPa and that the superlattice under the loading of uniaxial tensile stress becomes soft along the nonpolar axes. We also find that the appropriately applied uniaxial tensile stress can significantly enhance the piezoelectricity for the superlattice, with piezoelectric coefficient d33 increasing from the ground state value by a factor of about 8, reaching 678.42 pC/N. The underlying mechanism for the enhancement of piezoelectricity is discussed

Influence of temperature, light and plant growth regulators on germination of black pepper (Piper nigrum L.) seeds

Effects of temperature, light and different concentrations of plant growth regulators on germination of Piper nigrum L. seeds was studied under controlled environmental conditions. Black pepper seeds were placed inPetri dishes with filtration papers and the germination and radical  development followed during eighteen days periods. The seeds generally germinated within six or seven days. There was no difference in percentgermination between dark and light treatments, but the development of radical length was significantly influenced by both light and temperature. Germination was highest at 30°C, but seeds also germinated at 25and 35°C. No germination was observed at low (20°C) and high (40 and 45°C) temperatures. The plant growth regulators enhanced the seeds germination and radical length different degree. The results are consistent with the Piper nigrum L. being recalcitrant species need a certain environment condition to germinate

Observation of Flux Reversal in a Symmetric Optical Thermal Ratchet

We demonstrate that a cycle of three holographic optical trapping patterns can implement a thermal ratchet for diffusing colloidal spheres, and that the ratchet-driven transport displays flux reversal as a function of the cycle frequency and the inter-trap separation. Unlike previously described ratchet models, the approach we describe involves three equivalent states, each of which is locally and globally spatially symmetric, with spatiotemporal symmetry being broken by the sequence of states.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, submitted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Magneto-transport and electronic structures in MoSi2_2 bulks and thin films with different orientations

We report a comprehensive study of magneto-transport properties in MoSi$_2$ bulk and thin films. Textured MoSi$_2$ thin films of around 70 nm were deposited on silicon substrates with different orientations. Giant magnetoresistance of 1000% was observed in sintered bulk samples while MoSi$_2$ single crystals exhibit a magnetoresistance (MR) value of 800% at low temperatures. At the low temperatures, the MR of the textured thin films show weak anti-localization behaviour owing to the spin orbit coupling effects. Our first principle calculation show the presence of surface states in this material. The resistivity of all the MoSi$_2$ thin films is significantly low and nearly independent of the temperature, which is important for electronic devices

Evaporation, infiltration and storage of soil water in different vegetation zones in the Qilian Mountains: a stable isotope perspective

The processes of water storage have not been fully understood in different vegetation zones of mountainous areas, which is the main obstacle to further understanding hydrological processes and improving water resource assessments. To further understand the process of soil water movement in different vegetation zones (alpine meadow (AM), coniferous forest (CF), mountain grassland (MG) and deciduous forest (DF)) of mountainous areas, this study monitored the temporal and spatial dynamics of hydrogen- and oxygen-stable isotopes in the precipitation and soil water of the Xiying River basin. The results show that the order of soil water evaporation intensities in the four vegetation zones was MG (SWLslop: 3.4) &gt;  DF (SWLslop: 4.1) &gt;  CF (SWLslop: 4.7) &gt;  AM (SWLslop: 6.4). The soil water in the AM and CF evaporated from only the topsoil, and the rainfall input was fully mixed with each layer of soil. The evaporation signals of the MG and DF could penetrate deep into the middle and lower layers of the soil as precipitation quickly flowed into the deep soil through the soil matrix. Each vegetation zone's water storage capacity of the 0–40 cm soil layer followed the order of AM (46.9 mm) &gt;  DF (33.0 mm) &gt;  CF (32.1 mm) &gt;  MG (20.3 mm). In addition, the 0–10 cm soil layer has the smallest soil water storage capacity (AM: 43.0 mm; CF: 28.0 mm; MG: 17.5 mm; DF: 29.1 mm). This work will provide a new reference for understanding soil hydrology in arid headwater areas.</p

Quantum Entanglement and Teleportation in Higher Dimensional Black Hole Spacetimes

We study the properties of quantum entanglement and teleportation in the background of stationary and rotating curved space-times with extra dimensions. We show that a maximally entangled Bell state in an inertial frame becomes less entangled in curved space due to the well-known Hawking-Unruh effect. The degree of entanglement is found to be degraded with increasing the extra dimensions. For a finite black hole surface gravity, the observer may choose higher frequency mode to keep high level entanglement. The fidelity of quantum teleporation is also reduced because of the Hawking-Unruh effect. We discuss the fidelity as a function of extra dimensions, mode frequency, black hole mass and black hole angular momentum parameter for both bosonic and fermionic resources.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures,contents expande

Selenium Yeast Alleviates Dextran Sulfate Sodium-Induced Chronic Colitis in Mice by Reducing Proinflammatory Cytokines and Regulating the Gut Microbiota and Their Metabolites

Zeyu Wu,1,&ast; Yan Li,1,&ast; Min Jiang,1 Lixuan Sang,2 Bing Chang1 1Department of Gastroenterology, First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Gastroenterology, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Lixuan Sang, Department of Gastroenterology, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected] Bing Chang, Department of Gastroenterology, First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic recurrent gastrointestinal inflammatory disease. Selenium has been reported to have therapeutic potential in IBD. Selenium yeast is a common selenium supplement that is convenient to access. This study explored the effect of selenium yeast on dextran sulfate sodium- (DSS-)induced chronic colitis in mice.Methods: Mice were randomly divided into four groups: the control group, selenium yeast group, chronic colitis group, and chronic colitis+selenium yeast group (n=6). Mice were killed on the 26th day. The disease activity index (DAI) score and histological damage score were calculated. Cytokines, serum selenium, colonic tissue selenium, gut microbiota and their metabolites short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) were evaluated.Results: Selenium yeast lowered IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, IL-17A, IL-22 and IFN-γ (P< 0.05). In addition, selenium yeast significantly elevated Turicibacter, Bifidobacterium, Allobaculum, Prevotella, Halomonas, Adlercreutzia (P< 0.05), and butyric acid (P< 0.05).Conclusion: Selenium yeast could improve DSS-induced chronic colitis in mice by regulating cytokines, gut microbiota and their metabolites.Keywords: selenium yeast, chronic colitis, gut microbiota, metabolis