Efficient Conditional Proxy Re-encryption with Chosen-Ciphertext Security

Recently, a variant of proxy re-encryption, named conditional proxy re-encryption (C-PRE), has been introduced. Compared with traditional proxy re-encryption, C-PRE enables the delegator to implement fine-grained delegation of decryption rights, and thus is more useful in many applications. In this paper, based on a careful observation on the existing definitions and security notions for C-PRE, we reformalize more rigorous definition and security notions for C-PRE. We further propose a more efficient C-PRE scheme, and prove its chosenciphertext security under the decisional bilinear Diffie-Hellman (DBDH) assumption in the random oracle model. In addition, we point out that a recent C-PRE scheme fails to achieve the chosen-ciphertext security

Signs of dynamical effects for Cd, Sn, Te, Xe, Ba and Sm nuclear charge radii

The experimental charge radius values along Cd, Sn, Te, Xe, Ba and Sm isotopic series have been extracted from isotope shift measurements using different methods to calibrate the electronic factor and mass shift effects. Static and dynamic charge radii have been calculated in the framework of a microscopic configuration mixing approach on the ground of Hartree–Fock–Bogoliubov solutions obtained with the D1S Gogny effective nucleon–nucleon interaction. Low-energy spectroscopic observables have also been obtained. The theoretical and experimental results are compared and discussed. It is shown that dynamical effects must be taken into account especially for γ-soft and weakly deformed nuclei

Low-lying quadrupole collective states of the light and medium Xenon isotopes

Collective low lying levels of light and medium Xenon isotopes are deduced from the Generalized Bohr Hamiltonian (GBH). The microscopic seven functions entering into the GBH are built from a deformed mean field of the Woods-Saxon type. Theoretical spectra are found to be close to the ones of the experimental data taking into account that the calculations are completely microscopic, that is to say, without any fitting of parameters.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Identification of a novel mechanism of blood-brain communication during peripheral inflammation via choroid plexus-derived extracellular vesicles

Here, we identified release of extracellular vesicles (EVs) by the choroid plexus epithelium (CPE) as a new mechanism of blood-brain communication. Systemic inflammation induced an increase in EVs and associated pro-inflammatory miRNAs, including miR-146a and miR-155, in the CSF. Interestingly, this was associated with an increase in amount of multivesicular bodies (MVBs) and exosomes per MVB in the CPE cells. Additionally, we could mimic this using LPS-stimulated primary CPE cells and choroid plexus explants. These choroid plexus-derived EVs can enter the brain parenchyma and are taken up by astrocytes and microglia, inducing miRNA target repression and inflammatory gene up-regulation. Interestingly, this could be blocked in vivo by intracerebroventricular (icv) injection of an inhibitor of exosome production. Our data show that CPE cells sense and transmit information about the peripheral inflammatory status to the central nervous system (CNS) via the release of EVs into the CSF, which transfer this pro-inflammatory message to recipient brain cells. Additionally, we revealed that blockage of EV secretion decreases brain inflammation, which opens up new avenues to treat systemic inflammatory diseases such as sepsis

The detached dust and gas shells around the carbon star U Ant

Context: Geometrically thin, detached shells of gas have been found around a handful of carbon stars. --Aims: Previous observations of scattered stellar light in the circumstellar medium around the carbon star U Ant were taken through filters centred on the resonance lines of K and Na. These observations could not separate the scattering by dust and atoms. The aim of this paper is to remedy this situation. --Methods: We have obtained polarization data on stellar light scattered in the circumstellar medium around U Ant through filters which contain no strong lines, making it possible to differentiate between the two scattering agents. Kinematic, as well as spatial, information on the gas shells were obtained through high-resolution echelle spectrograph observations of the KI and NaD lines. --Results: We confirm the existence of two detached shells around U Ant. The inner shell (at a radius of approx 43" and a width of approx 2") consists mainly of gas, while the outer shell (at a radius of approx 50" and a width of approx 7") appears to consist exclusively of dust. Both shells appear to have an over-all spherical geometry. The gas shell mass is estimated to be 2x10^-3 M(Sun), while the mass of the dust shell is estimated to be 5x10^-5 M(Sun). The derived expansion velocity, from the KI and NaD lines, of the gas shell, 19.5 km/s, agrees with that obtained from CO radio line data. The inferred shell age is 2700 years. There is structure, e.g. in the form of arcs, inside the gas shell, but it is not clear whether these are due to additional shells. --Conclusions: Our results support the hypothesis that the observed geometrically thin, detached shells around carbon stars are the results of brief periods of intense mass loss, probably associated with thermal pulses, and subsequent wind-wind interactions

Zero-Knowledge Arguments for Matrix-Vector Relations and Lattice-Based Group Encryption

International audienceGroup encryption (GE) is the natural encryption analogue of group signatures in that it allows verifiably encrypting messages for some anonymous member of a group while providing evidence that the receiver is a properly certified group member. Should the need arise, an opening authority is capable of identifying the receiver of any ciphertext. As introduced by Kiayias, Tsiounis and Yung (Asiacrypt'07), GE is motivated by applications in the context of oblivious retriever storage systems, anonymous third parties and hierarchical group signatures. This paper provides the first realization of group encryption under lattice assumptions. Our construction is proved secure in the standard model (assuming interaction in the proving phase) under the Learning-With-Errors (LWE) and Short-Integer-Solution (SIS) assumptions. As a crucial component of our system, we describe a new zero-knowledge argument system allowing to demonstrate that a given ciphertext is a valid encryption under some hidden but certified public key, which incurs to prove quadratic statements about LWE relations. Specifically, our protocol allows arguing knowledge of witnesses consisting of X ∈ Z m×n q , s ∈ Z n q and a small-norm e ∈ Z m which underlie a public vector b = X · s + e ∈ Z m q while simultaneously proving that the matrix X ∈ Z m×n q has been correctly certified. We believe our proof system to be useful in other applications involving zero-knowledge proofs in the lattice setting

Lattice-based Group Signature Scheme with Verifier-local Revocation

International audienceSupport of membership revocation is a desirable functionality for any group signature scheme. Among the known revocation approaches, verifier-local revocation (VLR) seems to be the most flexible one, because it only requires the verifiers to possess some up-to-date revocation information, but not the signers. All of the contemporary VLR group signatures operate in the bilinear map setting, and all of them will be insecure once quantum computers become a reality. In this work, we introduce the first lattice-based VLR group signature, and thus, the first such scheme that is believed to be quantum-resistant. In comparison with existing lattice-based group signatures, our scheme has several noticeable advantages: support of membership revocation, logarithmic-size signatures, and weaker security assumption. In the random oracle model, our scheme is proved to be secure based on the hardness of the SIVP_{SoftO(n^{1.5})}$ problem in general lattices - an assumption that is as weak as those of state-of-the-art lattice-based standard signatures. Moreover, our construction works without relying on encryption schemes, which is an intriguing feature for group signatures

Necrostatin-1 Analogues: Critical Issues on the Specificity, Activity and In Vivo Use in Experimental Disease Models

Necrostatin-1 (Nec-1) is widely used in disease models to examine the contribution of receptor-interacting protein kinase (RIPK) 1 in cell death and inflammation. We studied three Nec-1 analogs: Nec-1, the active inhibitor of RIPK1, Nec-1 inactive (Nec-1i), its inactive variant, and Nec-1 stable (Nec-1s), its more stable variant. We report that Nec-1 is identical to methyl-thiohydantoin-tryptophan, an inhibitor of the potent immunomodulatory enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO). Both Nec-1 and Nec-1i inhibited human IDO, but Nec-1s did not, as predicted by molecular modeling. Therefore, Nec-1s is a more specific RIPK1 inhibitor lacking the IDO-targeting effect. Next, although Nec-1i was ∼100 × less effective than Nec-1 in inhibiting human RIPK1 kinase activity in vitro, it was only 10 times less potent than Nec-1 and Nec-1s in a mouse necroptosis assay and became even equipotent at high concentrations. Along the same line, in vivo, high doses of Nec-1, Nec-1i and Nec-1s prevented tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-induced mortality equally well, excluding the use of Nec-1i as an inactive control. Paradoxically, low doses of Nec-1 or Nec-1i, but not Nec -1s, even sensitized mice to TNF-induced mortality. Importantly, Nec-1s did not exhibit this low dose toxicity, stressing again the preferred use of Nec-1s in vivo. Our findings have important implications for the interpretation of Nec-1-based data in experimental disease models

Short Group Signatures via Structure-Preserving Signatures: Standard Model Security from Simple Assumptions

International audienceGroup signatures are a central cryptographic primitive which allows users to sign messages while hiding their identity within a crowd of group members. In the standard model (without the random oracle idealization), the most efficient constructions rely on the Groth-Sahai proof systems (Euro-crypt'08). The structure-preserving signatures of Abe et al. (Asiacrypt'12) make it possible to design group signatures based on well-established, constant-size number theoretic assumptions (a.k.a. " simple assumptions ") like the Symmetric eXternal Diffie-Hellman or Decision Linear assumptions. While much more efficient than group signatures built on general assumptions, these constructions incur a significant overhead w.r.t. constructions secure in the idealized random oracle model. Indeed, the best known solution based on simple assumptions requires 2.8 kB per signature for currently recommended parameters. Reducing this size and presenting techniques for shorter signatures are thus natural questions. In this paper, our first contribution is to significantly reduce this overhead. Namely, we obtain the first fully anonymous group signatures based on simple assumptions with signatures shorter than 2 kB at the 128-bit security level. In dynamic (resp. static) groups, our signature length drops to 1.8 kB (resp. 1 kB). This improvement is enabled by two technical tools. As a result of independent interest, we first construct a new structure-preserving signature based on simple assumptions which shortens the best previous scheme by 25%. Our second tool is a new method for attaining anonymity in the strongest sense using a new CCA2-secure encryption scheme which is simultaneously a Groth-Sahai commitment