Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Veriﬁcation of security protocols – application to e-voting –

Context. Security protocols are distributed programs that aim at securing all kinds of communications, by using cryptography to ensure security properties, such as confidentiality, authentication or anonymity. Such protocols are widely deployed, e.g. for electronic commerce on the Internet, in banking networks, mobile phones and more recently online elections (evoting systems). As the goal is to provide security guarantees even when communicating over an untrusted network – typically the Internet – it turns out that these protocols are extremely difficult to get right. Formal methods have proved to be a very useful tool to detect errors, and verify the correctness of security protocols. Traditionally two approaches have been used: the computational one, which captures strong notions of security and offers guarantees against all probabilistic polynomial-time attackers, and the symbolic one in which things are modelled more abstractly and which is more amenable to automation. Different properties have been proposed to characterise the security guarantees an electronic voting protocol should provide. We consider here vote privacy. This property can informally be described as the guarantee that votes remain secret – no one should know who I voted for. Several definitions formalising this idea have already been proposed, both in the computational model and in the symbolic one. Vote privacy is typically formalised as an indistinguishability property between two scenarios, e.g. one where Alice votes for v0 whereas Bob votes for v1, and one where their votes are exchanged (Alice votes for v1 and Bob for v0) – the intuition being that an attacker can learn that the votes are {v0, v1} as a set, but must not be able to determine who voted for which candidate. Other formalisations, expressing different flavours of vote privacy, have been proposed in the literature. These definitions may notably consider different trust assumptions regarding the authorities (ballot box, talliers, etc.). Regarding verification, even though indistinguishability properties have received a lot of attention, they are still difficult to check for several reasons. Nevertheless, several verification tools (e.g. Deepsec, ProVerif, Tamarin) exist even if they suffer from some limitations.
Molecular determinants of (cid:2) -conotoxin potency for inhibition of human and rat (cid:2) 6 (cid:3) 4 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors

Nicotinic receptors (nAChRs) containing 6 and (cid:3) 4 subunits are expressed by dorsal root ganglion neurons and have been implicated in neuropathic pain. Rodent models are often used to evaluate the efficacy of analgesic compounds, but species differences may affect the activity of some nAChR ligands. A previous candidate (cid:2) -conotoxin-based therapeutic yielded promising results in rodent models, but failed in human clinical trials, emphasizing the importance of understanding species differences in ligand activity. Here, we show that human and rat (cid:2) 6/ (cid:2) 3 (cid:3) 4 nAChRs expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes exhibitdifferentialsensitivityto (cid:2) -conotoxins.Sequencehomo-logy comparisons of human and rat (cid:2) 6
BIROn - Birkbeck Institutional Research Online Independent mechanisms control the activation of tactile and working memory

Working memory (WM) is limited in capacity, but it is controversial whether these capacity limitations are domain-general or are generated independently within separate 22 modality-specific memory systems. These alternative accounts were tested in bimodal 23 visual/tactile WM tasks. In Experiment 1, participants memorized the locations of 24 simultaneously presented task-relevant visual and tactile stimuli. Visual and tactile WM load 25 was manipulated independently (1, 2 or 3 items per modality), and one modality was 26 unpredictably tested after each trial. To track the activation of visual and tactile WM 27 representations during the retention interval, the visual and tactile contralateral delay activity 28 (CDA and tCDA) were measured over visual and somatosensory cortex, respectively. CDA 29 and tCDA amplitudes were selectively affected by WM load in the corresponding (tactile or 30 visual) modality. The CDA parametrically increased when visual load increased from 1 to 2 and 31 to 3 items. The tCDA was enhanced when tactile load increased from 1 to 2 items, and 32 showed no further enhancement for 3 tactile items. Critically, these load effects were strictly 33 modality-specific, as substantiated by Bayesian statistics. Increasing tactile load did not affect the visual CDA, and increasing visual load did not modulate the tCDA. Task performance at 35 memory test was also unaffected by WM load in the other (untested) modality. This was 36 confirmed in a second behavioral experiment where tactile and visual loads were either two or 37 four items, unimodal baseline conditions were included, and participants performed a color 38 change detection task in the visual modality. These results show that WM capacity is not 39 limited by a domain-general mechanism that operates across sensory modalities. They 40 suggest instead that WM storage is mediated by distributed modality-specific control 41 mechanisms that are activated independently and in parallel during multisensory WM.
EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES WITH TIDAL DEBRIS AND THEIR SCALING RELATIONS IN THE SPITZER SURVEY OF STELLAR STRUCTURE IN GALAXIES (S4G)

Tidal debris around galaxies can yield important clues on their evolution. We have identified tidal debris in 11 early-type galaxies (T ⩽ 0) from a sample of 65 early types drawn from the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G). The tidal debris includes features such as shells, ripples, and tidal tails. A variety of techniques, including two-dimensional decomposition of galactic structures, were used to quantify the residual tidal features. The tidal debris contributes ∼3%–10% to the total 3.6 μm luminosity of the host galaxy. Structural parameters of the galaxies were estimated using two-dimensional profile fitting. We investigate the locations of galaxies with tidal debris in the fundamental plane and Kormendy relation. We find that galaxies with tidal debris lie within the scatter of early-type galaxies without tidal features. Assuming that the tidal debris is indicative of recent gravitational interaction or merger, this suggests that these galaxies have either undergone minor merging events so that the overall structural properties of the galaxies are not significantly altered, or they have undergone a major merging events but already have experienced sufficient relaxation and phase mixing so that their structural properties become similar to those of the non-interacting early-type galaxies.
Asymptotic giant branch variables as extragalactic distance indicators

Abstract Large-amplitude asymptotic giant branch variables potentially rival Cepheid variables as fundamental calibrators of the distance scale, particularly if observations are made in the infrared, or where there is substantial interstellar obscuration. They are particularly useful for probing somewhat older populations, such as those found in dwarf spheroidal galaxies, elliptical galaxies or in the haloes of spirals. Calibration data from the Galaxy and new observations of various Local Group galaxies are described and the outlook for the future, with a calibration from Gaia and observations from the next generation of infrared telescopes, is discussed.
Source Apportionment and Risk Assessment of Polycyclic Source Apportionment and Risk Assessment of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in the Atmospheric Environment of Aromatic Hydrocarbons in the Atmospheric Environment of Alexandria, Egypt Alexandria,

16 17 In this study, three receptor models [factor analysis/multiple linear regression (FA/MLR), 18 positive matrix factorization (PMF) and UNMIX] were applied seasonally to investigate 19 the source apportionment of PAHs in the atmospheric environment of Alexandria, and a 20 lifetime cancer risk was assessed. ∑ 44 (gas + particle) PAH concentrations varied from 21 330 - 1770 ng/m 3 and 170 - 1290 ng/m 3 in the summer and winter seasons respectively. 22 PAH concentrations at the industrial sites were significantly higher than the traffic and 23 residential sites during the winter season (p < 0.001). Summer PAH concentrations were 24 significantly higher than the winter season at the traffic sites (p = 0.027). Results obtained 25 from the three receptor models were comparable. Vehicle emissions, both diesel and 26 gasoline contributed on average 36.0-49.0 % and 19.0-34.0 % respectively, natural gas 27 combustion 11.0-27.0 % and, during the summer only, also evaporative/uncombusted 28 petroleum sources 8.00-18.0 %. Seasonal trends were found for the gasoline emission 29 source. Overall, PMF and UNMIX models afforded better source identification than did 30 FA/MLR. The lifetime cancer risk assessment showed that incremental lifetime cancer 31 risks (ILTCRs) were greater than the acceptable level of 10 -6 through dermal and ingestion routes at all the investigated sites and through the inhalation route at the industrial and traffic sites only. Total ILTCRs (6.64×10 -3 - 4.42×10 -2 ) were much greater than the range of 10 -6 , indicating high potential health risk to the local residents.
Rate of Melt Ascent Beneath Iceland From the Magmatic Response to Deglaciation

Observations of the time lag between the last deglaciation and a surge in volcanic activity in Iceland constrain the average melt ascent velocity to be ≥50 m/year. Although existing theoretical work has explained why the surge in eruption rates increased 5–30‐fold from the steady‐state rates during the last deglaciation, they cannot account for large variations of Rare Earth Element (REE) concentrations in the Icelandic lavas. Lavas erupted during the last deglaciation are depleted in REEs by up to 70%; whereas existing models, which assume instantaneous melt transport, can only produce at most 20% depletion. Here we develop a numerical model with finite melt ascent velocity and show that the variations of REEs are strongly dependent on the melt ascent velocity. When the average melt ascent velocity is 100 m/year, the variation of La calculated by our model is comparable to that of the observations. In contrast, when the melt ascent velocity is 1,000 m/year or above, the model variation of La becomes significantly lower than observed, which explains why previous models with instantaneous melt transport did not reproduce the large variations. We provide the first model that takes account of the diachronous response of volcanism to deglaciation. We show by comparing our model calculations of the relative volumes of different eruption types (subglacial, finiglacial, and postglacial) and the timing of the bursts in volcanic eruptions with the observations across different volcanic zones that the Icelandic average melt ascent velocity during the last deglaciation is likely to be ∼100 m/year.
Stimulated neutrino transformation through turbulence on a changing density profile and application to supernovae

We apply the model of stimulated neutrino transitions to neutrinos travelling through turbulence on a non constant density profile. We describe a method to predict the location of large amplitude transitions and demonstrate the effectiveness of this method by comparing to numerical calculations using a model supernova (SN) profile. The important wavelength scales of turbulence, both those that stimulate neutrino transformations and those that suppress them, are presented and discussed. We then examine the effects of changing the parameters of the turbulent spectrum, specifically the root-mean-square amplitude and cutoff wavelength, and show how the stimulated transitions model offers an explanation for the increase in both the amplitude and number of transitions with large amplitude turbulence, as well as a suppression or absence of transitions for long cutoff wavelengths. The method can also be used to predict the location of transitions between anti-neutrino states which, in the normal hierarchy we are using, will not undergo Mikheev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein transitions. Lastly, the stimulated neutrino transitions method is applied to a turbulent 2D supernova simulation and explains the minimal observed effect on neutrino oscillations in the simulation as being due to excessive long wavelength modes suppressing transitions and the absence of modes that fulfill themore » parametric resonance condition. « less
The impact of (cid:0)flood management policies on individual adaptation actions: insights from a French case stud(cid:92)

Floods can be managed at the collective and individual level. Knowing the interaction between measures taken at both scales can help design more e(cid:30)cient (cid:29)ood risk management policies. Here, we combine the data collected during a survey of 331 inhabitants of (cid:29)ood-prone areas in the South of France and spatial databases to empirically examine the interaction between individual adaptation measures and three types of collective management tools: a national insurance scheme, dikes, and zoning instruments. In line with the levee e(cid:27)ect hypothesis, we found that dike protection reduces the probability to have or take individual adaptation measures and that this e(cid:27)ect could be mitigated by zoning instruments. Moreover, we found that the national insurance scheme does not crowd out individual adaptation. case
KIT: Testing OS-Level Virtualization for Functional Interference Bugs

Container isolation is implemented through OS-level virtualization, such as Linux namespaces. Unfortunately, these mechanisms are extremely challenging to implement correctly and, in practice, suffer from functional interference bugs, which compromise container security. In particular, functional interference bugs allow an attacker to extract information from another container running on the same machine or impact its integrity by modifying kernel resources that are incorrectly isolated. Despite their impact, functional interference bugs in OS-level virtualization have received limited attention in part due to the challenges in detecting them. Instead of causing memory errors or crashes, many functional interference bugs involve hard-to-catch logic errors that silently produce semantically incorrect results. This paper proposes KIT, a dynamic testing framework that discovers functional interference bugs in OS-level virtualization mechanisms, such as Linux namespaces. The key idea of KIT is to detect inter-container functional interference by comparing the system call traces of a container across two executions, where it runs with and without the preceding execution of another container. To achieve high efficiency and accuracy, KIT includes two critical components: an efficient algorithm to generate test cases that exercise inter-container data flows and a system call trace analysis framework that detects functional interference bugs and clusters bug reports. KIT discovered 9 functional interference bugs in Linux kernel 5.13, of which 6 have been confirmed. All bugs are caused by logic errors, showing that this approach is able to detect hard-to-catch semantic bugs.
Evidence of Outflow-induced Soft Lags of Galactic Black Holes

The nature of lag variation of Galactic black holes remains enigmatic mostly because of nonlinear and nonlocal physical mechanisms which contribute to the lag of the photons coming from the region close to the central black holes. One of the widely accepted major sources of the hard lag is the inverse Comptonization mechanism. However, the exact reason, or reasons, for soft lags has yet to be identified. In this paper, we report a possible correlation between radio intensities of several outbursting Galactic black hole candidates and amounts of soft lag. The correlation suggests that the presence of major outflows or jets changes the disk morphology along the line of sight of the observer which produces soft lags.
More about Birkhoff's invariant and Thorne's hoop conjecture for horizons

A recent precise formulation of the hoop conjecture in four spacetime dimensions is that the Birkhoff invariant β (the least maximal length of any sweepout or foliation by circles) of an apparent horizon of energy E and area A should satisfy β ⩽ 4πE. This conjecture together with the cosmic censorship or isoperimetric inequality implies that the length ℓ of the shortest non-trivial closed geodesic satisfies ℓ2 ⩽ πA. We have tested these conjectures on the horizons of all four-charged rotating black hole solutions of ungauged supergravity theories and found that they always hold. They continue to hold in the presence of a negative cosmological constant, and for multi-charged rotating solutions in gauged supergravity. Surprisingly, they also hold for the Ernst–Wild static black holes immersed in a magnetic field, which are asymptotic to the Melvin solution. In five spacetime dimensions we define β as the least maximal area of all sweepouts of the horizon by two-dimensional tori, and find in all cases examined that , which we conjecture holds quiet generally for apparent horizons. In even spacetime dimensions D = 2N + 2, we find that for sweepouts by the product S1 × SD − 4, β is bounded from above by a certain dimension-dependent multiple of the energy E. We also find that ℓD − 2 is bounded from above by a certain dimension-dependent multiple of the horizon area A. Finally, we show that ℓD − 3 is bounded from above by a certain dimension-dependent multiple of the energy, for all Kerr–AdS black holes.
One Nanometer Thin Carbon Nanosheets with Tunable Conductivity and Stiffness

Atomically thin (similar to 1 nm) carbon films and membranes whose electrical behavior can be tuned from insulating to conducting are fabricated by a novel route. These films present arbitrary size and shape based on molecular self-assembly, electron irradiation, and pyrolysis, and their technical applicability is demonstrated by their incorporation into a microscopic pressure sensor.
The first VLBI image of the young, oxygen-rich supernova remnant in NGC 4449

We report on sensitive 1.4-GHz VLBI radio observations of the unusually luminous supernova remnant SNR 4449-1 in the galaxy NGC 4449, which gave us the first well-resolved image of this object. The remnant's radio morphology consists of two approximately parallel bright ridges, suggesting similarities to the barrel shape seen for many older Galactic supernova remnants or possibly to SN 1987A. The angular extent of the remnant is 65 x 40 mas, corresponding to (3.7 x 2.3) x 10 18 (D/3.8 Mpc) cm. We also present a new, high signal-to-noise ratio optical spectrum. By comparing the remnant's linear size to the maximum velocities measured from optical lines, as well as using constraints from historical images, we conclude that the supernova explosion occurred between ~1905 and 1961, likely around 1940. The age of the remnant is therefore likely ~70 yr. We find that SNR 4449-1's shock wave is likely still interacting with the circumstellar rather than interstellar medium.
Fundamental limits of radio interferometers: calibration and source parameter estimation

We use information theory to derive fundamental limits on the capacity to calibrate next-generation radio interferometers, and measure parameters of point sources for instrument calibration, point source subtraction, and data deconvolution. We demonstrate the implications of these fundamental limits, with particular reference to estimation of the 21cm Epoch of Reionization power spectrum with next-generation low-frequency instruments (e.g., the Murchison Widefield Array -- MWA, Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization -- PAPER), where short time scale instrumental calibration is required due to the impact of the ionosphere on the signal wavefront. Finally, we explore the optimal point source precision available by using a combination of current and prior information. Estimation schemes that incorporate prior information may be advantageous when the measurement precision is comparable to the characteristic refraction scale of the ionosphere.
Can Dust Injected by SNe Explain the NIR–MIR Excess in Young Massive Stellar Clusters?

We present a physically motivated model involving the different processes affecting supernova dust grains as they are incorporated into the thermalized medium within young massive star clusters. The model is used to explain the near- to mid-infrared (NIR–MIR) excess found in such clusters and usually modeled as a blackbody with temperature ∼ ( 400 – 1000 ) K. In our approach, dust grains are efficiently produced in the clumpy ejecta of core-collapse supernovae, shattered into small pieces ( ≲ 0.05 μm) as they are incorporated into the hot and dense ISM, heated via frequent collisions with electrons and the absorption of energetic photons. Grains with small sizes can more easily acquire the high temperatures (∼1000 K) required to produce an NIR–MIR excess with respect to the emission of foreground PAHs and starlight. However, the extreme conditions inside young massive clusters make it difficult for these small grains to have a persistent manifestation at NIR–MIR wavelengths as they are destroyed by efficient thermal sputtering. Nevertheless, the chances for a persistent manifestation are increased by taking into account that small grains become increasingly transparent to their impinging ions as their sizes decrease. For an individual SN event, we find that the NIR–MIR excess lasts longer if the time required to incorporate all the grains into the thermalized medium is also longer, and, in some cases, comparable to the characteristic interval between supernova explosions. Our models can successfully explain the near-infrared excesses found in the star clusters observed in M33 assuming a low heating efficiency and mass loading. In this scenario, the presence of the NIR–MIR excess is an indication of efficient dust production in SNe and its subsequent destruction.
The Relationship between Precipitation and Aerosol: Evidence from Satellite Observation

The interaction of aerosol-cloud-precipitation has an important impact on the global climate. The understanding of this issue is related to the uncertainty of climate change prediction. The traditional indirect effect of aerosols suggests that when the number of aerosols increases, it will act to suppress precipitation. However, recent studies on satellite observations have found that aerosols are positively correlated with precipitation, which is contrary to conventional views. This study attempts to use the A-Train satellite product to verify the correlation between aerosol and precipitation, and further reveals the possible physical mechanism of the positive relationship between aerosols and precipitation in satellite observations through the three-dimensional structure of clouds. The study found that the precipitation intensity is positively correlated with the aerosol optical depth, while the relationship between the cloud droplet concentration and the precipitation intensity is related to the liquid water path; and when the number of aerosols increases, the radar reflectance spectrum is widened, and the precipitation increases, while the cloud droplet concentration shows the opposite phenomenon. It can be concluded that the possible cause of positive correlation between aerosol and precipitation is the negative correlation between CDNC and AOD.