On the Social Desirability of Patents for Sequential Innovations in a Vertically Differentiated Market.

We consider a market for vertically differentiated goods where firms enter over time, after having developed innovations characterized by different quality levels. We show that the adaptation of a patent system limiting the quality range available to later entrants is socially undesirable, in that it builds a barrier to entry to the advantage of the first innovators

SpreadMeNot: A Provably Secure and Privacy-Preserving Contact Tracing Protocol

A plethora of contact tracing apps have been developed and deployed in several countries around the world in the battle against Covid-19. However, people are rightfully concerned about the security and privacy risks of such applications. To this end, the contribution of this work is twofold. First, we present an in-depth analysis of the security and privacy characteristics of the most prominent contact tracing protocols, under both passive and active adversaries. The results of our study indicate that all protocols are vulnerable to a variety of attacks, mainly due to the deterministic nature of the underlying cryptographic protocols. Our second contribution is the design and implementation of SpreadMeNot, a novel contact tracing protocol that can defend against most passive and active attacks, thus providing strong (provable) security and privacy guarantees that are necessary for such a sensitive application. Our detailed analysis, both formal and experimental, shows that SpreadMeNot satisfies security, privacy, and performance requirements, hence being an ideal candidate for building a contact tracing solution that can be adopted by the majority of the general public, as well as to serve as an open-source reference for further developments in the field

Satellite-Based Communications Security: A Survey of Threats, Solutions, and Research Challenges

Satellite-based Communication systems are gaining renewed momentum in Industry and Academia, thanks to innovative services introduced by leading tech companies and the promising impact they can deliver towards the global connectivity objective tackled by early 6G initiatives. On the one hand, the emergence of new manufacturing processes and radio technologies promises to reduce service costs while guaranteeing outstanding communication latency, available bandwidth, flexibility, and coverage range. On the other hand, cybersecurity techniques and solutions applied in SATCOM links should be updated to reflect the substantial advancements in attacker capabilities characterizing the last two decades. However, business urgency and opportunities are leading operators towards challenging system trade-offs, resulting in an increased attack surface and a general relaxation of the available security services. In this paper, we tackle the cited problems and present a comprehensive survey on the link-layer security threats, solutions, and challenges faced when deploying and operating SATCOM systems.Specifically, we classify the literature on security for SATCOM systems into two main branches, i.e., physical-layer security and cryptography schemes.Then, we further identify specific research domains for each of the identified branches, focusing on dedicated security issues, including, e.g., physical-layer confidentiality, anti-jamming schemes, anti-spoofing strategies, and quantum-based key distribution schemes. For each of the above domains, we highlight the most essential techniques, peculiarities, advantages, disadvantages, lessons learned, and future directions.Finally, we also identify emerging research topics whose additional investigation by Academia and Industry could further attract researchers and investors, ultimately unleashing the full potential behind ubiquitous satellite communications.Comment: 72 page

URANUS: Radio Frequency Tracking, Classification and Identification of Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles

Safety and security issues for Critical Infrastructures are growing as attackers adopt drones as an attack vector flying in sensitive airspaces, such as airports, military bases, city centers, and crowded places. Despite the use of UAVs for logistics, shipping recreation activities, and commercial applications, their usage poses severe concerns to operators due to the violations and the invasions of the restricted airspaces. A cost-effective and real-time framework is needed to detect the presence of drones in such cases. In this contribution, we propose an efficient radio frequency-based detection framework called URANUS. We leverage real-time data provided by the Radio Frequency/Direction Finding system, and radars in order to detect, classify and identify drones (multi-copter and fixed-wings) invading no-drone zones. We adopt a Multilayer Perceptron neural network to identify and classify UAVs in real-time, with $90$% accuracy. For the tracking task, we use a Random Forest model to predict the position of a drone with an MSE $\approx0.29$, MAE $\approx0.04$, and $R^2\approx 0.93$. Furthermore, coordinate regression is performed using Universal Transverse Mercator coordinates to ensure high accuracy. Our analysis shows that URANUS is an ideal framework for identifying, classifying, and tracking UAVs that most Critical Infrastructure operators can adopt

Development and validation of the ID-EC - The ITALIAN version of the identify chronic migraine

Background: Case-finding tools, such as the Identify Chronic Migraine (ID-CM) questionnaire, can improve detection of CM and alleviate its significant societal burden. We aimed to develop and validate the Italian version of the ID-CM (ID-EC) in paper and as a smart app version in a headache clinic-based setting. Methods: The study investigators translated and adapted to the Italian language the original ID-CM questionnaire (ID-EC) and further implemented it as a smart app. The ID-EC was tested in its paper and electronic version in consecutive patients referring to 9 Italian tertiary headache centers for their first in-person visit. The scoring algorithm of the ID-EC paper version was applied by the study investigators (case-finding) and by patients (self-diagnosis), while the smart app provided to patients automatically the diagnosis. Diagnostic accuracy of the ID-EC was assessed by matching the questionnaire results with the interview-based diagnoses performed by the headache specialists during the visit according to the criteria of International Classification of Headache Disorders, III edition, beta version. Results: We enrolled 531 patients in the test of the paper version of ID-EC and 427 in the validation study of the smart app. According to the clinical diagnosis 209 patients had CM in the paper version study and 202 had CM in the smart app study. 79.5% of patients returned valid paper questionnaires, while 100% of patients returned valid and complete smart app questionnaires. The paper questionnaire had a 81.5% sensitivity and a 81.1% specificity for case-finding and a 30.7% sensitivity and 90.7% specificity for self-diagnosis, while the smart app had a 64.9% sensitivity and 90.2% specificity. Conclusions: Our data suggest that the ID-EC, developed and validated in tertiary headache centers, is a valid case-finding tool for CM, with sensitivity and specificity values above 80% in paper form, while the ID-EC smart app is more useful to exclude CM diagnosis in case of a negative result. Further studies are warranted to assess the diagnostic accuracy of the ID-EC in general practice and population-based settings

Evidence for a Prehypertensive Water Dysregulation Affecting the Development of Hypertension: Results of Very Early Treatment of Vasopressin V1 and V2 Antagonism in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

In addition to long-term regulation of blood pressure (BP), in the kidney resides the initial trigger for hypertension development due to an altered capacity to excrete sodium and water. Betaine is one of the major organic osmolytes, and its betaine/gamma-aminobutyric acid transporter (BGT-1) expression in the renal medulla relates to interstitial tonicity and urinary osmolality and volume. This study investigated altered water and sodium balance as well as changes in antidiuretic hormone (ADH) activity in female spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) and normotensive Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats from their 3-5 weeks of age (prehypertensive phase) to SHR's 28-30 weeks of age (established hypertension-organ damage). Young prehypertensive SHRs showed a reduced daily urine output, an elevated urine osmolarity, and higher immunostaining of tubule BGT-1, alpha-1-Na-K ATPase in the outer medulla vs. age-matched WKY. ADH circulating levels were not different between young prehypertensive SHR and WKY, but the urine aquaporin2 (AQP2)/creatinine ratio and labeling of AQP2 in the collecting duct were increased. At 28-30 weeks, hypertensive SHR with moderate renal failure did not show any difference in urinary osmolarity, urine AQP2/creatinine ratio, tubule BGT-1, and alpha-1-Na-K ATPase as compared with WKY. These results suggest an increased sensitivity to ADH in prehypertensive female SHR. On this basis, a second series of experiments were set to study the role of ADH V1 and V2 receptors in the development of hypertension, and a group of female prehypertensive SHRs were treated from the 25th to 49th day of age with either V1 (OPC21268) or V2 (OPC 41061) receptor antagonists to evaluate the BP time course. OPC 41061-treated SHRs had a delayed development of hypertension for 5 weeks without effect in OPC 21268-treated SHRs. In prehypertensive female SHR, an increased renal ADH sensitivity is crucial for the development of hypertension by favoring a positive water balance. Early treatment with selective V2 antagonism delays future hypertension development in young SHRs

Eribulin in male patients with breast cancer: The first report of clinical outcomes

Background. Evidence on the management and treatment of male breast cancer is scant. We report the analysis of a multicenter Italian series of patients with male breast cancer treated with eribulin. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the use or eribulin in this setting. Patients and Methods. Patients were retrospectively identified in 19 reference centers. All patients received eribulin treatment, according to the standard practice of each center. Data on the identified patients were collected using a standardized form and were then centrally reviewed by two experienced oncologists. Results. A total of 23 patients (median age, 64 yearsrange, 42–80) were considered. The median age at the time of diagnosis of breast cancerwas 57 years (range, 42–74).HER2 status was negative in 14 patients (61%), and 2 patients (9%) had triple-negative disease. The most common metastatic sites were the lung (n 5 1461%) and bone (n 5 1356%). Eribulin was administered for a median of 6 cycles (range, 3–15). All patients reported at least stable diseasetwo complete responses (9%) were documented. Eribulin was well-tolerated, with only four patients (17%) reporting grade 3 adverse events and two (9%) with treatment interruptions because of toxicity. Eight subjects (35%) did not report any adverse event during treatment. For patients with a reported fatal event, the median overall survival from the diagnosis of metastatic disease was 65 months (range, 22–228). Conclusion. Although hampered by all the limitations of any retrospective case series, the results of the present study suggest, for the first time, the use of eribulin as therapy for male breast cancer