Secure Selections on Encrypted Multi-writer Streams

Performing searches over encrypted data is a very current and active area. Several efficient solutions have been provided for the single-writer scenario in which all sensitive data originate with one party (the Data Owner ) that encrypts and uploads the data to a public repository. Subsequently, the Data Owner accesses the encrypted data through a Query Processor , which has direct access to the public encrypted repository. Motivated by the recent trend in pervasive data collection, we depart from this model and consider a multi-writer scenario in which the data originate with several and mutually untrusted parties, the Data Sources . In this new scenario, the Data Owner provides public parameters so that each Data Source can add encrypted items to the public encrypted stream; moreover, the Data Owner keeps some related secret information needed to generate tokens so that different Query Sources can decrypt different subsets of the encrypted stream, as specified by corresponding access policies. We propose security model for this problem that we call Secure Selective Stream ( SSS ) and give a secure construction for it based on hard problems in Pairing-Based Cryptography. The cryptographic core of our construction is a new primitive, Amortized Orthogonality Encryption , that is crucial for the efficiency of the proposed implementation for SSS .

Nickel-Catalyzed Reductive Cross-Coupling of Benzylic Sulfonium Salts with Aryl Iodides

A nickel-catalyzed cross-electrophile coupling of benzylic sulfonium salts with aryl iodides has been developed, providing direct access to diarylalkanes from readily available and stable coupling partners. Preliminary mechanistic studies suggest that the C–S bond cleavage proceeds through a single-electron transfer process to generate a benzylic radical.

Digitization, Prediction, and Market Efficiency: Evidence from Book Publishing Deals

Digitization has given creators direct access to consumers as well as a plethora of new data for suppliers of new products to draw on. We study how this affects market efficiency in the context of book publishing. Using data on about 50,000 license deals over more than 10 years, we identify the effects of digitization from quasi-experimental variation across book types. Consistent with digitization generating additional information for predicting product appeal, we show that the size of license payments more accurately reflects a product’s ex post success, and more so for publishers that invest more in data analytics. These effects cannot be fully explained by changes in bargaining power or in demand. We estimate that efficiency gains are worth between 10% and 18% of publishers’ total investments in book deals. Thus, digitization can have large impacts on the allocation of resources across products of varying qualities in markets in which product appeal has traditionally been difficult to predict ex ante. This paper was accepted by Joshua Gans, business strategy.

Third-party vocal intervention in the proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus)

Vocal intervention is a triadic social interaction, where a third party responds vocally to a conflict between group members, minimizing the costs of aggression in response to the intervention. Because there is little information on vocal third-party intervention in nonhuman mammals, we investigated whether adult male proboscis monkeys use the bray vocalization as a vocal third-party intervention signal to intervene in intragroup conflicts. First, we audio-recorded 1,811 vocalizations from 17 free-ranging proboscis monkey groups in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, analyzing 378 vocal responses of the adult male to agonistic vocal exchanges (shrieks) of group members. Second, we video- and audio-recorded five habituated groups in the Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary investigating the context of these vocalizations and the conflict dyads evoking vocal support. We found that adult males of one-male/multifemale groups mainly uttered bray vocalizations, whereas females, immatures, and infants uttered shrieks in intragroup conflicts or in response to other animal species. The adult male uttered significantly more often brays after agonistic shrieks than expected based on the overall occurrence of brays. Brays ended 65% of agonistic conflicts, which were accompanied by vocalizations of the conflict partners and occurred more often after conflicts between females than between offspring. This suggests that the bray functions as a vocal third-party intervention signal for intragroup conflict resolution. We suggest that living in the high canopies of the tropical rainforest might restrict direct access to conflict partners and prevent physical intervention, favoring the evolution of the bray as a third-party vocal intervention signal.

Visualising Iron Gall Ink Underdrawings In 16th Century Paintings In-Situ By Micro-XRF Scanning (MA-XRF) And LED-Excited IRR (LEDE-IRR)

Until today, iron gall ink is classified as an exceptional underdrawing material for paintings. A certain identification is always based on invasive analysis. This article presents a new non-destructive analysis approach using micro-X-ray fluorescence scanning (MA-XRF), LED-excited IRR (LEDE-IRR) using a narrow wavelength-range of infrared radiation (IR) and stereomicroscopy for visualising and identifying iron gall ink underdrawings. To assess possibilities and limits of this non-invasive approach, results were compared to invasive examinations on cross-sections using scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX). The approach is tested on panel paintings of Hans Holbein the Elder and Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano. The holistic setup could successfully visualise underdrawing lines made with iron gall inks, which formerly remained invisible by means of conventional IRR. For the first time, a direct access to a formerly invisible type of underdrawing is created, allowing to harness the whole iron gall ink underdrawing for interdisciplinary studies.

Computational reconstruction of mental representations using human behavior

Revealing the contents of mental representations is a longstanding goal of cognitive science. However, there is currently no general framework for providing direct access to representations of high-level visual concepts. We asked participants to indicate what they perceived in images synthesized from random visual features in a deep neural network. We then inferred a mapping between the semantic features of their responses and the visual features of the images. This allowed us to reconstruct the mental representation of virtually any common visual concept, both those reported and others extrapolated from the same semantic space. We successfully validated 270 of these reconstructions as containing the target concept in a separate group of participants. The visual-semantic mapping uncovered with our method further generalized to new stimuli, participants, and tasks. Finally, it allowed us to reveal how the representations of individual observers differ from each other and from those of neural networks.

Direct Access to Physical Therapy: Should Italy Move Forward?

Direct access to physical therapy (DAPT) is the patient’s ability to self-refer to a physical therapist, without previous consultation from any other professional. This model of care has been implemented in many healthcare systems since it has demonstrated better outcomes than traditional models of care. The model of DAPT mainly focuses on the management of musculoskeletal disorders, with a huge epidemiological burden and worldwide healthcare systems workload. Among the healthcare professionals, physical therapists are one of the most accessed for managing pain and disability related to musculoskeletal disorders. Additionally, the most updated guidelines recommend DAPT as a first-line treatment because of its cost-effectiveness, safety, and patients’ satisfaction compared to other interventions. DAPT was also adopted to efficiently face the diffuse crisis of the declining number of general practitioners, reducing their caseload by directly managing patients’ musculoskeletal disorders traditionally seen by general practitioners. World Physiotherapy organization also advocates DAPT as a new approach, with physical therapy in a primary care pathway to better control healthcare expenses. Thus, it is unclear why the Italian institutions have decided to recognize new professions instead of focusing on the growth of physical therapy, a long-established and autonomous health profession. Furthermore, it is unclear why DAPT is still not fully recognized, considering the historical context and its evidence. The future is now: although still preliminary, the evidence supporting DAPT is promising. Hard skills, academic paths, scientific evidence, and the legislature argue that this paradigm shift should occur in Italy.