Non-malleable codes for space-bounded tampering

Non-malleable codes—introduced by Dziembowski, Pietrzak and Wichs at ICS 2010—are key-less coding schemes in which mauling attempts to an encoding of a given message, w.r.t. some class of tampering adversaries, result in a decoded value that is either identical or unrelated to the original message. Such codes are very useful for protecting arbitrary cryptographic primitives against tampering attacks against the memory. Clearly, non-malleability is hopeless if the class of tampering adversaries includes the decoding and encoding algorithm. To circumvent this obstacle, the majority of past research focused on designing non-malleable codes for various tampering classes, albeit assuming that the adversary is unable to decode. Nonetheless, in many concrete settings, this assumption is not realistic

Feasibility of inguinal hernioplasty under local anaesthesia in elderly patients.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and the safety of hernioplasty under local anaesthesia in elderly patients with significant comorbidity. METHODS: A total of 218 patients underwent inguinal hernia repair with mesh between June 2009 and July 2012. Presence of comorbid conditions and complications were compared between patients younger and older than 70 years. RESULTS: Hernia repair in older patients were more likely associated with comorbid conditions than in their younger counterparts ( hypertension: 25% vs 8.16%; cardiovascular diseases: 50% vs 22%; benign prostatic hypertrophy 60% vs 30%). The most common postoperative complications in both groups were recurrence, wound infection, urinary retention. There was a slightly higher rate of complication in elderly group. CONCLUSIONS: Inguinal hernia repair with local anaesthesia is quite safe and results in a good success rate in elderly patients despite a higher rate of comorbidity typical of this kind of patient

Quantum correlations in Newtonian space and time: arbitrarily fast communication or nonlocality

We investigate possible explanations of quantum correlations that satisfy the principle of continuity, which states that everything propagates gradually and continuously through space and time. In particular, following [J.D. Bancal et al, Nature Physics 2012], we show that any combination of local common causes and direct causes satisfying this principle, i.e. propagating at any finite speed, leads to signalling. This is true even if the common and direct causes are allowed to propagate at a supraluminal-but-finite speed defined in a Newtonian-like privileged universal reference frame. Consequently, either there is supraluminal communication or the conclusion that Nature is nonlocal (i.e. discontinuous) is unavoidable.Comment: It is an honor to dedicate this article to Yakir Aharonov, the master of quantum paradoxes. Version 2 contains some more references and a clarified conclusio

Causality - Complexity - Consistency: Can Space-Time Be Based on Logic and Computation?

The difficulty of explaining non-local correlations in a fixed causal structure sheds new light on the old debate on whether space and time are to be seen as fundamental. Refraining from assuming space-time as given a priori has a number of consequences. First, the usual definitions of randomness depend on a causal structure and turn meaningless. So motivated, we propose an intrinsic, physically motivated measure for the randomness of a string of bits: its length minus its normalized work value, a quantity we closely relate to its Kolmogorov complexity (the length of the shortest program making a universal Turing machine output this string). We test this alternative concept of randomness for the example of non-local correlations, and we end up with a reasoning that leads to similar conclusions as in, but is conceptually more direct than, the probabilistic view since only the outcomes of measurements that can actually all be carried out together are put into relation to each other. In the same context-free spirit, we connect the logical reversibility of an evolution to the second law of thermodynamics and the arrow of time. Refining this, we end up with a speculation on the emergence of a space-time structure on bit strings in terms of data-compressibility relations. Finally, we show that logical consistency, by which we replace the abandoned causality, it strictly weaker a constraint than the latter in the multi-party case.Comment: 17 pages, 16 figures, small correction

Peripheral blood mono-nuclear cells implantation in patients with Peripheral Arterial Disease: a pilot study for clinical and biochemical outcome of neoangiogenesis.

BACKGROUND: Substantial progresses in the management of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) have been made in the past two decades. Progress in the understanding of the endothelial-platelet interaction during health and disease state has resulted in better antiplatelet drugs that can prevent platelet aggregation, activation and thrombosis during angioplasty and stenting. A role in physiological and pathological angiogenesis in adults has been recently shown in bone marrow–derived circulating endothelial progenitors (BM-DCEPs) identified in the peripheral blood. These findings have paved the way for the development of therapeutic neovascularization techniques using endothelial progenitors. METHODS: This pilot study includes five patients, aged 60 to 75, with a history of claudication and recruited from September 2010 to February 2011 at the A.O.U. Federico II of Naples. PBMNCs have been implanted three times in the limb with the worst ABI value in all the patients included in the study. The clinical follow up was performed during the subsequent 12 months from the beginning of the treatment. RESULTS: In four patients there was a regression of ulcerative lesions. One patient’s condition improved after the first implantation but later did not respond to the further treatments. All patients achieved a pain relief as judged by the numeric pain scale. Pain relief remained satisfactory in three patients for one year. Pain gradually returned to the pre-treatment level in two patients. All patients referred an ameliorating in their quality of life expressed even by an improvement in claudication free walking distance. These improvements are reflected also by intra-arterial digital subtraction angiography (IADSA) that shows an improvement of arterial vascularization. CONCLUSIONS: The data from this study suggest an efficacy of BM-DCEPs implantation in terms of improvement of the vascularization and quality of life in patients affected by Peripheral Arterial Disease. Nevertheless a double-blind placebo-controlled study is needed to confirm our findings

Fluctuation relations for systems in a constant magnetic field

The validity of the fluctuation relations (FRs) for systems in a constant magnetic field is investigated. Recently introduced time-reversal symmetries that hold in the presence of static electric and magnetic fields and of deterministic thermostats are used to prove the transient FRs without invoking, as commonly done, inversion of the magnetic field. Steady-state FRs are also derived, under the t-mixing condition. These results extend the predictive power of important statistical mechanics relations. We illustrate this via the nonlinear response for the cumulants of the dissipation, showing how the alternative FRs enable one to determine analytically null cumulants also for systems in a single magnetic field

Erratum: Fluctuation relations for systems in a constant magnetic field (Physical Review E (2020) 102 (030101R) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.102.030101)

Erratum. After the publication of this paper, we found an inconsequential mistake in the derivation of the dissipation function for the Nosé-Hoover thermostatted system, Eq. (17) of the original paper. A complete and correct derivation for O(0)(X) is now reported in Appendix B of Ref. [1], where, in particular, it is shown that (Formula Presented) (Figure Presented)