Analysing the Security of Google's implementation of OpenID Connect

Many millions of users routinely use their Google accounts to log in to relying party (RP) websites supporting the Google OpenID Connect service. OpenID Connect, a newly standardised single-sign-on protocol, builds an identity layer on top of the OAuth 2.0 protocol, which has itself been widely adopted to support identity management services. It adds identity management functionality to the OAuth 2.0 system and allows an RP to obtain assurances regarding the authenticity of an end user. A number of authors have analysed the security of the OAuth 2.0 protocol, but whether OpenID Connect is secure in practice remains an open question. We report on a large-scale practical study of Google's implementation of OpenID Connect, involving forensic examination of 103 RP websites which support its use for sign-in. Our study reveals serious vulnerabilities of a number of types, all of which allow an attacker to log in to an RP website as a victim user. Further examination suggests that these vulnerabilities are caused by a combination of Google's design of its OpenID Connect service and RP developers making design decisions which sacrifice security for simplicity of implementation. We also give practical recommendations for both RPs and OPs to help improve the security of real world OpenID Connect systems

Accurate evaluation of the interstitial KKR-Green function

It is shown that the Brillouin zone integral for the interstitial KKR-Green function can be evaluated accurately by taking proper care of the free-electron singularities in the integrand. The proposed method combines two recently developed methods, a supermatrix method and a subtraction method. This combination appears to provide a major improvement compared with an earlier proposal based on the subtraction method only. By this the barrier preventing the study of important interstitial-like defects, such as an electromigrating atom halfway along its jump path, can be considered as being razed.Comment: 23 pages, RevTe

Severe Asthma in the Era of COVID-19: A Narrative Review

Introduction and objectives: Severe asthma management during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a challenge and will continue to be, at least in the next few months, as herd immunity is still a mirage. A lot has to be learned about how COVID-19 affects underlying diseases, and severe asthma is no exception. Methods: Narrative review of papers available until February 2021 in PubMed and Google Scholar, relating severe asthma and COVID-19. Four main research topics were reviewed: SARS-CoV-2 infection: immunology and respiratory pathology; interrelationship of severe asthma endotypes and COVID-19 disease mechanisms; severe asthma epidemiology and COVID-19; and biologics for severe asthma in the context of COVID-19. Results: COVID-19 disease mechanisms start with upper respiratory cell infection, and afterwards several immunological facets are activated, contributing to disease severity, namely cell-mediated immunity and antibody production. Although infrequent in the COVID-19 course some patients develop a cytokine storm that causes organ damage and may lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome or multiorgan failure. Regarding severe asthma endotypes, type2-high might have a protective role both in infection risk and disease course. There is conflicting data regarding the epidemiological relationship between COVID-19 among severe asthma patients, with some studies reporting increased risk of infection and disease course, whereas others the other way round. Biologics for severe asthma do not seem to increase the risk of infection and severe COVID-19, although further evidence is needed. Conclusions: Globally, in the era of COVID-19, major respiratory societies recommend continuing the biologic treatment, preferably in a self-home administration program.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

CART - a chemical annotation retrieval toolkit

MOTIVATION: Data on bioactivities of drug-like chemicals is rapidly accumulating in public repositories, creating new opportunities for research in computational systems pharmacology. However, integrative analysis of these data sets is difficult due to prevailing ambiguity between chemical names and identifiers and a lack of cross-references between databases. RESULTS: To address this challenge, we have developed CART, a Chemical Annotation Retrieval Toolkit. As a key functionality, it matches an input list of chemical names into a comprehensive reference space to assign unambiguous chemical identifiers. In this unified space, bioactivity annotations can be easily retrieved from databases covering a wide variety of chemical effects on biological systems. Subsequently, CART can determine annotations enriched in the input set of chemicals and display these in tabular format and interactive network visualizations, thereby facilitating integrative analysis of chemical bioactivity data

Broken-Bond Rule for the Surface Energies of Noble Metals

Using two different full-potential ab-initio techniques we introduce a simple, universal rule based on the number of broken first-neighbor bonds to determine the surface energies of the three noble metals Cu, Ag and Au. When a bond is broken, the rearrangement of the electronic charge for these metals does not lead to a change of the remaining bonds. Thus the energy needed to break a bond is independent of the surface orientation. This novel finding can lead to the development of simple models to describe the energetics of a surface like step and kink formation, crystal growth, alloy formation, equilibrium shape of mesoscopic crystallites and surface faceting.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Internal Friction of Amorphous Silicon in a Magnetic Field

The internal friction of e-beam amorphous silicon was measured in a magnetic field between 0 and 6 T, from 1.5-20 K, and was found to be independent of the field to better than 8%. It is concluded that the low energy excitations observed in this experiment are predominantly atomic in nature.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, REVTe

Novel drug candidates for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer through global inverse gene-expression profiling

Drug-induced gene-expression profiles that invert disease profiles have recently been illustrated to be a starting point for drug repositioning. In this study, we validate this approach and focus on prediction of novel drugs for colorectal cancer, for which there is a pressing need to find novel antimetastatic compounds. We computationally predicted three novel and still unknown compounds against colorectal cancer: citalopram (an antidepressant), troglitazone (an antidiabetic), and enilconazole (a fungicide). We verified the compounds by in vitro assays of clonogenic survival, proliferation, and migration and in a subcutaneous mouse model. We found evidence that the mode of action of these compounds may be through inhibition of TGF{beta} signaling. Furthermore, one compound, citalopram, reduced tumor size as well as the number of circulating tumor cells and metastases in an orthotopic mouse model of colorectal cancer. This study proposes citalopram as a potential therapeutic option for patients with colorectal cancer, illustrating the potential of systems pharmacology

Conceptual framework for scenarios development in the Water futures and Solutions project

The major purpose of the Water Futures & Solutions (WFaS) initiative is to develop a set of adaptable resilient and robust solutions and a framework to facilitate access to and guidance through them by decision makers facing a variety of water-related challenges to sustainable evelopment, and a set of optional pathways to achieve plausible sustainable development goals by 2050. The WFaS Initiative addresses the multidimensional aspects of the water system and is guided by stakeholders representing these various aspects. The Initiative views freshwater systems as being strongly interweaved with human activities (Economy, Society) and Nature as a whole. Dynamics and health of freshwater systems is critical to human well- being. The Initiative will go beyond scenario production and model comparisons and will focus on exploring solutions and necessary innovations to address the growing water challenges. Solutions can be combinations of technological innovations, regulatory approaches, manageent or institutional changes that improve the balance of water supply and demand, improve water quality, or reduce water-related risks for society. Solutions will often be embedded in and cut across all sectors of social and economic activities. In order to represent the aspirations and interdependencies as described above, the conceptual framework has been developed, to communicate project results to the target audiences. This document describes this conceptual framework that will be used: -to support development of qualitative water scenarios -to identify and select critical dimensions of the water scenarios -to guide integration of scenarios with quantitative models -to guide integration of information from various data sources into the scenarios -to support development and assessment of solutions -to support collaboration between project and stakeholder groups -to facilitate presentation of results to target audiences The WFaS conceptual framework is developed using the 'concept maps' technique (Caqas and Carff, 2005; Novak and Caqas, 2006b). Concept maps method was develop to represent knowledge in an organized way. It allows practitioners to represent concepts and specific relationships between concepts. It is flexible enough to adapt to different knowledge domains to support better understanding and communication between individuals and groups from different backgrounds

United in Separation? Lozi Secessionism in Zambia and Namibia

Secessionism perseveres as a complex political phenomenon in Africa, yet often a more in-depth analysis is overshadowed by the aspirational simplicity of pursuing a new state. Using historical and contemporary approaches, this edited volume offers the most exhaustive collection of empirical studies of African secessionism to date. The respected expert contributors put salient and lesser known cases into comparative perspective, covering Biafra, Katanga, Eritrea and South Sudan alongside Barotseland, Cabinda, and the Comoros, among others. Suggesting that African secessionism can be understood through the categories of aspiration, grievance, performance, and disenchantment, the book's analytical framework promises to be a building block for future studies of the topic