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We prove strong security guarantees for a wide array of computational and decisional problems, both in hidden-order groups and in bilinear groups, within the algebraic group model (AGM) of Fuchsbauer, Kiltz and Loss (CRYPTO '18). As our first contribution, we put forth a new fine-grained variant of the Uber family of assumptions in hidden-order groups. This family includes in particular the repeated squaring function of Rivest, Shamir and Wagner, which underlies their time-lock puzzle as well as the main known candidates for verifiable delay functions; and a computational variant of the generalized BBS problem, which underlies the timed commitments of Boneh and Naor (CRYPTO '00). We then provide two results within a variant of the AGM, which show that the hardness of solving problems in this family in a less-than-trivial number of steps is implied by well-studied assumptions. The first reduction may be applied in any group (and in particular, class groups), and is to the RSA assumption; and our second reduction is in RSA groups with a modulus which is the product of two safe primes, and is to the factoring assumption. Additionally, we prove that the hardness of any computational problem in the Uber family of problems in bilinear groups is implied by the hardness of the q-discrete logarithm problem. The parameter q in our reduction is the maximal degree in which a variable appears in the polynomials which define the specific problem within the Uber family. This improves upon a recent result of Bauer, Fuchsbauer and Loss (CRYPTO '20), who obtained a similar implication but for a parameter q which is lower bounded by the maximal total degree of one of the above polynomials. We discuss the implications of this improvement to prominent group key-exchange protocols.

Finger dexterity is a fundamental movement skill of humans and the ability to individuate fingers imparts high motor flexibility. Disruption of dexterity due to brain injury reduces quality of life. Thus, understanding the neurological mechanisms responsible for recovery is critical to effective neurorehabilitation. Two neuronal pathways have been proposed to play crucial roles in finger individuation: the corticospinal tract, originating from primary motor cortex and premotor areas, and the subcortical reticulospinal tract, originating from the reticular formation in the brainstem. Finger individuation in patients with lesions to these pathways may recover. However, it remains an open question how the cortical-reticular network reorganizes and contributes to this recovery following a stroke. We hypothesized that interactive connections between cortical and subcortical neurons reflect dynamics appropriate for generating outgoing commands for finger movement. To test this hypothesis, we developed an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) representing a premotor planning input layer, a cortical layer including excitatory and inhibitory neurons and, a reticular layer that control motoneurons eliciting unilateral flexion of two fingers. The ANN was trained to reproduce “normal” activity of finger individuation and strength. Analysis of the trained ANN revealed that the natural dynamical solution was a near-linear relationship between the force of the instructed and uninstructed finger, resembling individuation patterns in humans. A simulated stroke lesion was then applied to the ANN and the resulting finger dexterity was assessed at multiple stages post stroke. Analysis revealed: (1) increased unintended force produced by uninstructed fingers (i.e., enslaving) and (2) weakening of the force in the instructed finger immediately after stroke, (3) improved finger control during recovery that typically occurs early after stroke, and (4) association of this behavior with increased neural plasticity of the residual neurons, as reflected by strengthening of connectivity weights between premotor and focal cortical excitatory and inhibitory neurons, but reduction in connectivity in shared cortical neurons. Interestingly, the network solution predicted that the reticulospinal pathway also contributed to the improved behavior. Lastly, the ANN also predicts the effect of cortical lesion size on finger individuation. Our model provides a framework by which to understand a number of experimental findings. The model solution suggests that a key mechanism of finger individuation is establishment of an interactive relationship between cortical and subcortical regions, appropriate to produce desired finger movement.

There is a paucity of global data on cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevalence in people with type 2 diabetes (T2D). The primary objective of the CAPTURE study was to estimate the prevalence of established CVD and its management in adults with T2D across 13 countries from five continents. Additional objectives were to further characterize the study sample regarding demographics, clinical parameters and medication usage, with particular reference to blood glucose-lowering agents (GLAs: glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists and sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors) with demonstrated cardiovascular benefit in randomized intervention trials.Data were collected from adults with T2D managed in primary or specialist care in Australia, China, Japan, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Israel, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Turkey in 2019, using standardized methodology. CVD prevalence, weighted by diabetes prevalence in each country, was estimated for the overall CAPTURE sample and participating countries. Country-specific odds ratios for CVD prevalence were further adjusted for relevant demographic and clinical parameters.The overall CAPTURE sample included 9823 adults with T2D (n = 4502 from primary care; n = 5321 from specialist care). The overall CAPTURE sample had median (interquartile range) diabetes duration 10.7 years (5.6-17.9 years) and glycated hemoglobin 7.3% (6.6-8.4%) [56 mmol/mol (49-68 mmol/mol)]. Overall weighted CVD and atherosclerotic CVD prevalence estimates were 34.8% (95% confidence interval [CI] 32.7-36.8) and 31.8% (95% CI 29.7-33.8%), respectively. Age, gender, and clinical parameters accounted for some of the between-country variation in CVD prevalence. GLAs with demonstrated cardiovascular benefit were used by 21.9% of participants, which was similar in participants with and without CVD: 21.5% and 22.2%, respectively.In 2019, approximately one in three adults with T2D in CAPTURE had diagnosed CVD. The low use of GLAs with demonstrated cardiovascular benefit even in participants with established CVD suggested that most were not managed according to contemporary diabetes and cardiology guidelines. Study registration NCT03786406 (registered on December 20, 2018), NCT03811288 (registered on January 18, 2019).

Genomic DNA is packed by histone proteins that carry a multitude of post-translational modifications that reflect cellular transcriptional state. Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is derived from fragmented chromatin in dying cells, and as such it retains the histones markings present in the cells of origin. Here, we pioneer chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing of cell-free nucleosomes (cfChIP-seq) carrying active chromatin marks. Our results show that cfChIP-seq provides multidimensional epigenetic information that recapitulates the epigenetic and transcriptional landscape in the cells of origin. We applied cfChIP-seq to 268 samples including samples from patients with heart and liver pathologies, and 135 samples from 56 metastatic CRC patients. We show that cfChIP-seq can detect pathology-related transcriptional changes at the site of the disease, beyond the information on tissue of origin. In CRC patients we detect clinically-relevant, and patient-specific information, including transcriptionally active HER2 amplifications. cfChIP-seq provides genome-wide information and requires low sequencing depth. Altogether, we establish cell-free chromatin immunoprecipitation as an exciting modality with potential for diagnosis and interrogation of physiological and pathological processes using a simple blood test. The dataset contains several directories in gziped tar files. SetupFiles.tgz - directory with the files needed to define the regions of the genome used in the analysis. Analysis.tgz - analysis directory with the BED files in the paper. See https://github.com/nirfriedman/cfChIP-seq for code and for detailed instructions on setting up the directories.

This summary focuses on how the English courts appear to have shifted towards an increased preoccupation for settlement, particularly during the past 20 years. The focus is mainly on ordinary civil (nonCfamily) courts, which hear cases in first instance (rather than appeals) (Part A), although similar practices can be found in criminal cases (Part B). For civil cases, the most relevant English courts are local county courts, as well as the High Court (including the Commercial Court and the Technology and Construction Court within the Queen’s Bench Division). For criminal cases, the focus is on first instance cases in Magistrates’ Courts and the Crown Court. The last section summarises the main reasons that are typically used by English scholars and policymakers in supporting settlement in civil and criminal cases.

Primary data for DOI: 10.1016/j.jmr.2019.01.001 Title: Hyperpolarized [15N]nitrate as a potential long lived hyperpolarized contrast agent for MRI Authors: Ayelet Gamliel, Sivaranjan Uppala, Gal Sapir, Talia Harris, Atara Nardi-Schreiber, David Shaul, Jacob Sosna, J. Moshe Gomori, Rachel Katz-Brull Description: The primary datasets in this archive contain data presented in the above publication and consist of 15N-NMR spectra in solutions. Please consult the Archive Guide.

Many critical and unexpected situations are handled by people that have never met. In the literature, development of immediate trust has been identified as a prerequisite for such temporary groups and leadership to function well. Limited experimental research has studied what leadership stimulates immediate trust between strangers. The present study investigate how four leadership styles, combining autocratic or democratic leadership behavior with low or high emotional stability, is related to immediate trust in a leader displayed through a 45-s video vignette of a car accident. A sample of 280 adults, randomly assigned to one of four conditions (1, autocratic/stable; 2, autocratic/unstable; 3, democratic/stable; 4, democratic/unstable) rated immediate trust after watching the vignette. The results show that autocratic and emotionally stable leaders were on average rated higher on immediate trust than all other leadership styles, after controlling for generalized trust.

In the Single Source Replacement Paths (SSRP) problem we are given a graph $G = (V, E)$, and a shortest paths tree $\widehat{K}$ rooted at a node $s$, and the goal is to output for every node $t \in V$ and for every edge $e$ in $\widehat{K}$ the length of the shortest path from $s$ to $t$ avoiding $e$. We present an $\tilde{O}(m\sqrt{n} + n^2)$ time randomized combinatorial algorithm for unweighted directed graphs. Previously such a bound was known in the directed case only for the seemingly easier problem of replacement path where both the source and the target nodes are fixed. Our new upper bound for this problem matches the existing conditional combinatorial lower bounds. Hence, (assuming these conditional lower bounds) our result is essentially optimal and completes the picture of the SSRP problem in the combinatorial setting. Our algorithm extends to the case of small, rational edge weights. We strengthen the existing conditional lower bounds in this case by showing that any $O(mn^{1/2-ε})$ time (combinatorial or algebraic) algorithm for some fixed $ε>0$ yields a truly subcubic algorithm for the weighted All Pairs Shortest Paths problem (previously such a bound was known only for the combinatorial setting).

Prof Michal Alberstein, PI of the European Research Council-funded project ‘Judicial Conflict Resolution’, discusses her view on the future of the judicial role

Article in contemporary scientific newspaper online; The article recalls the meetings and the relationship between the national Cuban poet Nancy Morejón and the South African exiled poet Keorapetse Kgositsile. A consideration of Morejón s engagement with Kgositsile as a fellow poet and her visit to South Africa shed new light on her poetic practice. It allows too, a reaffirmation of Kgositsile's uniquely South African voice and to highlight the reach and impact of his transnational status.The co-author of the article, Cynthia Gabbay, translated here some of Morejón´s texts related to South Africa in solidarity with the Anti-Apartheid struggle.