Existence of Local Saddle Points for a New Augmented Lagrangian Function

We give a new class of augmented Lagrangian functions for nonlinear programming problem with both equality and inequality constraints. The close relationship between local saddle points of this new augmented Lagrangian and local optimal solutions is discussed. In particular, we show that a local saddle point is a local optimal solution and the converse is also true under rather mild conditions

Influence of Helicobacter pylori culture supernatant on the ecological balance of a dual-species oral biofilm

Dental caries is a chronic progressive disease occurring in the tooth hard tissue due to multiple factors, in which bacteria are the initial cause. Both Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcus sanguinis are main members of oral biofilm. Helicobacter pylori may also be detected in dental plaque, playing an important role in the development of dental caries. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of H. pylori culture supernatant on S. mutans and S. sanguinis dual-species biofilm and to evaluate its potential ability on affecting dental health. Material and methods The effect of H. pylori supernatant on single-species and dual-species biofilm was measured by colony forming units counting and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assay, respectively. The effect of H. pylori supernatant on S. mutans and S. sanguinis extracellular polysaccharides (EPS) production was measured by both confocal laser scanning microscopy observation and anthrone-sulfuric acid method. The effect of H. pylori supernatant on S. mutans gene expression was measured by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) assays. Results H. pylori supernatant could inhibit both S. mutans and S. sanguinis biofilm formation and EPS production. S. sanguinis inhibition rate was significantly higher than that of S. mutans. Finally, S. mutans bacteriocin and acidogenicity related genes expression were affected by H. pylori culture supernatant. Conclusion Our results showed that H. pylori could destroy the balance between S. mutans and S. sanguinis in oral biofilm, creating an advantageous environment for S. mutans, which became the dominant bacteria, promoting the formation and development of dental caries

Association between High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein and N-Terminal Pro-B-Type Natriuretic Peptide in Patients with Hepatitis C Virus Infection

Background. Prior study showed HCV-infected patients have increased serum N-Terminal Pro-B-Type Natriuretic Peptide (NT-proBNP) and a possible left ventricular diastolic dysfunction. The objectives of the present paper were to investigate the characteristics of hs-CRP and its correlation with clinical profiles including NT-proBNP and echocardiographic variables in HCV-infected patients. Methods and Results. A total of 106 HCV-infected patients and 106 control healthy individuals were enrolled. The level of serum hs-CRP (median 1.023 mg/L, range 0.03∼5.379 mg/L) was significantly lower in all 106 patients than that in controls (median 3.147 mg/L, range 0.08~7.36 mg/L, P = 0.012). Although hs-CRP did not correlate significantly with NT-proBNP when all patients and controls were included (r = 0.169, P = 0.121), simple regression analysis demonstrated a statistically significant linear correlation between hs-CRP and NT-proBNP in HCV-infected patients group (r = 0.392, P = 0.017). Independent correlates of hs-CRP levels (R2 = 0.13) were older age (β′ = 0.031, P = 0.025) and NT proBNP (β′ = 0.024, P = 0.017). Conclusions. Although the level of serum hs-CRP decreased significantly, there was a significant association between hs-CRP and NT-proBNP in HCV-infected patients

Differential Cryptanalysis of SMS4 Block Cipher

SMS4 is a 128-bit block cipher used in the WAPI standard for wireless networks in China. In this paper, we analyze the security of SMS4 block cipher against differential cryptanalysis. Firstly, we prove three theorems and one corollary that reflect relationships of 5- and 6-round SMS4. Nextly, by these relationships, we clarify the minimum number of differentially active S-boxes in 6-, 7- and 12-round SMS4 respectively. Finally, based on the above results, we present a family of about $2^{14}$ differential characteristics for 19-round SMS4, which leads to an attack on 23-round SMS4 with $2^{115}$ chosen plaintexts and $2^{124.3}$ encryptions. Our attack is the best known attack on SMS4 so far

Maternally encoded stem-loop-binding protein is degraded in 2-cell mouse embryos by the co-ordinated activity of two separately regulated pathways

AbstractOocytes accumulate mRNAs and proteins that direct early embryonic development. Although subsequent development requires the timely degradation of these maternal products, little is known of the underlying mechanisms. The stem-loop-binding protein (SLBP), which regulates the stability and translation of mRNAs encoding histones and is synthesized during S-phase and degraded during G2 in somatic cells, accumulates during oogenesis. Maternal SLBP is required for mouse embryos to develop beyond the 2-cell stage, but must be degraded to allow the cell-cycle-regulated expression of somatic cells to be established. We report that the quantity of maternal SLBP changes little following fertilization until 44–52 h post-hCG, corresponding to mid-/late G2 of the 2-cell stage, when it decreases by 75%. Efficient degradation requires two pathways. The first requires activity of cyclin-dependent kinases (cdk) and embryonic transcription, preferentially targets nuclear SLBP, and likely corresponds to the pathway that degrades SLBP at G2 in somatic cells. The second does not require cdk activity or transcription and becomes active at 44–52 h post-hCG independently of cell-cycle progression to mid-/late G2, but is not solely regulated by the time elapsed since hCG injection. Thus, the co-ordinated activity of two separately regulated pathways eliminates maternally encoded SLBP from early mouse embryos

Security on Generalized Feistel Scheme with SP Round Function

This paper studies the security against differential/linear cryptanalysis and the pseudorandomness for a class of generalized Feistel scheme with SP round function called $GFSP$. We consider the minimum number of active s-boxes in some consecutive rounds of $GFSP$,i.e., in four, eight and sixteen consecutive rounds, which provide the upper bound of the maximum differential/linear probabilities of 16-round $GFSP$ scheme, in order to evaluate the strength against differential/linear cryptanalysis. Furthermore, We investigate the pseudorandomness of $GFSP$, point out 7-round $GFSP$ is not pseudorandom for non-adaptive adversary, by using some distinguishers, and prove that 8-round $GFSP$ is pseudorandom for any adversaries

Improved Integral Cryptanalysis of FOX Block Cipher

FOX is a new family of block ciphers presented recently, which is based upon some results on proven security and has high performances on various platforms. In this paper, we construct some distinguishers between 3-round FOX and a random permutation of the blocks space. By using integral attack and collision-searching techniques, the distinguishers are used to attack on 4, 5, 6 and 7-round of FOX64, 4 and 5-round FOX128. The attack is more efficient than previous integral attack on FOX. The complexity of improved integral attack is $2^{77.6}$ on 4-round FOX128, $2^{205.6}$ against 5-round FOX128 respectively. For FOX64, the complexity of improved integral attack is $2^{45.4}$ on 4-round FOX64, $2^{109.4}$ against 5-round FOX64, $2^{173.4}$ against 6-round FOX64, $2^{237.4}$ against 7-round FOX64 respectively. Therefore, 4-round FOX64/64, 5-round FOX64/128, 6-round FOX64/192, 7-round FOX64/256 and 5-round FOX128/256 are not immune to the attack in this paper

The impact of the digital economy on enterprise innovation behavior: Based on CiteSpace knowledge graph analysis

IntroductionAs a new trend, the digital economy will promote “digital industrialization” in the process of promoting “industrial digitalization.” It can accelerate technological innovation by adjusting managerial behavior and strategic decisions, promoting and protecting technological research and development, and providing technological infrastructure. While technological innovation, which generally occurs in enterprises, will promote a new round of upgrading, optimization, and even reshaping of the whole industry. The two are highly synergistic. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to study the impact of the digital economy era on enterprise innovation behavior.MethodsWe analyzed the impact of the digital economy era on corporate innovation behavior in the Web of Science database from 2010 to 2020 through bibliometric and scientific knowledge mapping methods.Results and discussionOur study found that: the research on enterprise innovation behavior in the digital economy era has formed eight research directions, such as expertise, human capital FSA, integration in global value chains, financial innovation, fintech, people preference shift, internet of everything, and consumer co-creation. In addition, the research hotspots on enterprise innovation behavior in the digital economy era range from enterprises’ perception of digital economy contact, to enterprises’ familiarity with digital technology and its application, to enterprises’ attempted evolution of digital transformation, reflecting the potential of both theoretical and practical characteristics. Finally, we present an outlook on the future cross-sectional development of research on enterprise innovative behavior in the digital economy era and propose a research trend based on the Chinese context

Some Observations on TWIS Block Cipher

The 128-bit block cipher TWIS was proposed by Ojha et al in 2009. It is a lightweight block cipher and its design is inspired from CLEFIA. In this paper, we first study the properties of TWIS structure, and as an extension we also considered the generalized TWIS-type structure which can be called G-TWIS cipher, where the block size and round number can be arbitrary values. Then we present a series of 10-round differential distinguishers for TWIS and a n-round differential distinguisher for G-TWIS whose probabilities are all equal to 1. Therefore, by utilizing these kinds of differential distinguishers, we can break the full 10-round TWIS cipher and n-round G-TWIS cipher