Modular Protocols Research Articles

Privacy-Preserving Attestation Scheme for Revocable UAV Charging Using Hybrid State Channels

Although widely applied in varied scenarios, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) suffer severe flight time and flight range limitations due to constrained onboard battery capacity, causing frequent battery recharging when performing persistent missions. The wireless power transfer technology is a promising solution for UAV charging by utilizing unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) equipped with wireless charging facilities, where charging time slots are auctioned and assigned to UAVs. However, UGVs themselves also have limited energy capacity, resulting in the need to revoke a UAV charging transaction after auction to satisfy their own demand if necessary. In addition, as UAVs and UGVs are mutually distrustful, inherent security and privacy concerns must be resolved during the revocation. In this paper, we resort to blockchain technology for secure and efficient revocable charging in vehicle-assisted wireless UAV networks. We present PAS, an efficient privacy-preserving attestation scheme for revocable UAV charging based on hybrid state channels, where UAVs and UGVs perform off-chain operations as blockchain users for privacy and efficiency, while security and fairness are guaranteed by the on-chain mechanism. PAS consists of a multi-party state channel and multiple two-party state channels responsible for charging scheduling and transaction revocation, respectively. PAS ensures fair and private revocation negotiation and compensation in a trust-free manner by developing a set of carefully designed modular protocols. We provide PAS’ constituent primitives in detail, prove its security properties following the universally composable (UC) framework, and present experimental results to demonstrate its feasibility and scalability.

A Pummerer Reaction-Enabled Modular Synthesis of Alkyl Quinoline-3-carboxylates and 3-Arylquinolines from Amino Acids.

Concise synthesis of functionalized quinolines has received continuous research attention owing to the biological importance and synthetic potential of bicyclic N-heterocycles. However, synthetic routes to the 2,4-unsubstituted alkyl quinoline-3-carboxylate scaffold, which is an important motif in drug design, remain surprisingly limited, with modular protocols that proceed from readily available materials being even more so. We herein report an acidic I2-DMSO system that converts readily available aspartates and anilines into alkyl quinoline-3-carboxylate. This method can be extended to a straightforward synthesis of 3-arylquinolines by simply replacing the aspartates with phenylalanines. Mechanistic studies revealed that DMSO was activated by HI via a Pummerer reaction to provide the C1 synthon, while the amino acid catabolized to the C2 synthon through I2-mediated Strecker degradation. A formal [3 + 2 + 1] annulation of these two concurrently generated synthons with aniline was responsible for the selective formation of the quinoline core. The synthetic utility of this protocol was illustrated by the efficient synthesis of human 5-HT4 receptor ligand. Moreover, an unprecedented chemoselective synthesis of 2-deuterated, 3-substituted quinoline, featuring this reaction, has been established.

Umpolung Asymmetric 1,5-Conjugate Addition via Palladium Hydride Catalysis.

Electronically matched nucleophilic 1,6-conjugate addition has been well studied and widely applied in synthetic areas. In contrast, nucleophilic 1,5-conjugate addition represents an electronically forbidden process and is considered unfeasible. Here, we describe modular protocols for 1,5-conjugate addition reactions via palladium hydride catalysis. Both palladium and synergistic Pd/organocatalyst systems are developed to catalyze 1,5-conjugate reaction, followed by inter- or intramolecular [3+2] cyclization. A migratory 1,5-addition protocol is established to corroborate the feasibility of this umpolung concept. The 1,5-addition products are conveniently transformed into a series of privileged enantioenriched motifs, including polysubstituted tetrahydrofuran, dihydrofuran, cyclopropane, cyclobutane, azetidine, oxetane, thietane, spirocycle and bridged rings. Preliminary mechanistic studies corroborate the involvement of palladium hydride catalysis.

Umpolung Asymmetric 1,5‐Conjugate Addition via Palladium Hydride Catalysis

AbstractElectronically matched nucleophilic 1,6‐conjugate addition has been well studied and widely applied in synthetic areas. In contrast, nucleophilic 1,5‐conjugate addition represents an electronically forbidden process and is considered unfeasible. Here, we describe modular protocols for 1,5‐conjugate addition reactions via palladium hydride catalysis. Both palladium and synergistic Pd/organocatalyst systems are developed to catalyze 1,5‐conjugate reaction, followed by inter‐ or intramolecular [3+2] cyclization. A migratory 1,5‐addition protocol is established to corroborate the feasibility of this umpolung concept. The 1,5‐addition products are conveniently transformed into a series of privileged enantioenriched motifs, including polysubstituted tetrahydrofuran, dihydrofuran, cyclopropane, cyclobutane, azetidine, oxetane, thietane, spirocycle and bridged rings. Preliminary mechanistic studies corroborate the involvement of palladium hydride catalysis.

A pilot study to evaluate feasibility and acceptability of training mental health workers in India to select case-specific intervention procedures within a dynamic modular treatment designed for a low-resource setting.

A key consideration in designing scalable solutions for improving global mental health involves balancing the need for interventions to be uncomplicated for mental health workers (MHWs) and the need for the intervention to be widely applicable to many clients. Often these needs are in competition, since interventions are routinely simplified by removing procedures or reducing their dynamic responsivity, which in turn lowers their overall utility in serving large, clinically diverse populations. The principal aim of this pilot study involved evaluating the feasibility and acceptability of a brief strategy designed to delegate problem classification and practice selection to MHWs operating within a flexible, modular, cognitive behavioural protocol. A secondary aim involved gathering data on which to base a hypothesis regarding the potential effectiveness of this strategy. Within an open trial, an educationally diverse sample of local MHWs in India (N=18) reviewed fictional case vignettes, classified mental health problems, and then selected practices before and after a two-hour training that included a one-page decision-making resource. Feasibility was measured by assessing the integrity of the study protocol and training, the measurement and administration of questionnaires as well as study recruitment and completion. Acceptability of the intervention was measured by MHW-perceived performance, ease of use, value, importance, and intention for continued use. Decision-making accuracy was assessed by comparing MHWs' clinical decisions with criteria established through consensus among psychologists with expertise in modular protocols. Results suggested high feasibility and acceptability on all metrics. Secondary analysis revealed that MHW's decision-making accuracy and confidence also significantly improved, providing a basis for the hypothesis that this brief approach is useful for building MHW capacity in low-resource settings. Overall these findings provide initial support for these methods and potential training outcomes to test within a larger, randomized controlled trial.

Psychological Treatments for Depression in Adolescents: More Than Three Decades Later.

Depression is a common and impairing disorder which is a serious public health problem. For some individuals, depression has a chronic course and is recurrent, particularly when its onset is during adolescence. The purpose of the current paper was to review the clinical trials conducted between 1980 and 2020 in adolescents with a primary diagnosis of a depressive disorder, excluding indicated prevention trials for depressive symptomatology. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the pre-eminent treatment and is well established from an evidence-based treatment perspective. The body of research on the remaining treatments is smaller and the status of these treatments is varied: interpersonal therapy (IPT) is well established; family therapy (FT) is possibly effective; and short-term psychoanalytic therapy (PT) is experimental treatment. Implementation of the two treatments that work well—CBT and IPT—has more support when provided individually as compared to in groups. Research on depression treatments has been expanding through using transdiagnostic and modular protocols, implementation through information and communication technologies, and indicated prevention programs. Despite significant progress, however, questions remain regarding the rate of non-response to treatment, the fading of specific treatment effects over time, and the contribution of parental involvement in therapy.

Membrane Protein Engineering with Rosetta.

Protein engineering can yield new molecular tools for nanotechnology and therapeutic applications through modulating physiochemical and biological properties. Engineering membrane proteins is especially attractive because they perform key cellular processes including transport, nutrient uptake, removal of toxins, respiration, motility, and signaling. In this chapter, we describe two protocols for membrane protein engineering with the Rosetta software: (1) ΔΔG calculations for single point mutations and (2) sequence optimization in different membrane lipid compositions. These modular protocols are easily adaptable for more complex problems and serve as a foundation for efficient membrane protein engineering calculations.

SAFE: A General Secure and Fair Auction Framework for Wireless Markets With Privacy Preservation

With the prosperity of wireless and mobile communications, the allocation of wireless resources, e.g., spectrum channels, femtocell access permissions, and resource blocks of D2D connections, has become a matter of great concern, which leads to the emergence and popularity of electronic auction. However, the lack of privacy protection and fairness guarantee in the existing market has posed great obstacles to user participation in electronic auctions. Without privacy protection, users will be worried about the unauthorized exposure of their commercial secrets, which may hurt their payoffs in the long run. Without fairness guarantee, selfish/malicious users may prematurely abort the auction to avoid unsatisfactory payment, thus causing loss to honest users and wasting system resources. Furthermore, the lack of fairness guarantee will incur an exchange dilemma, where mutually distrusting parties may refuse to initiate the goods/money exchange, hindering the market-clearing of auctions. Although extensive efforts have been made to develop privacy-preserving auction mechanisms for wireless markets, the fairness issue, to the best of our knowledge, has never been taken into account in the context of auctions. Moreover, a truly practical framework that can be applied to most mainstream auction formats is also missing in the literature. In this article, we present the first general framework, named SAFE, for representative auctions in (but not limited to) wireless markets. SAFE achieves a wide range of security goals with much higher efficiency than existing solutions. Furthermore, SAFE ensures auction fairness in a trust-free manner by developing a full set of carefully-designed modular protocols that can be easily adapted to any auction format. We implement the SAFE framework over a simulated Ethereum network. Extensive experimental results confirm that SAFE can indeed achieve high economic efficiency in terms of social welfare and participation satisfaction at very low computation and communication overheads.

When every particle matters: A QuEChERS approach to extract microplastics from environmental samples

The identification of microplastics (MP), especially small (<500 μm) MP, using automated surface-chemistry approaches requires the best possible reduction of natural particles whilst preserving the integrity of the targeted synthetic polymers particles. In general, both natural and synthetic particles can be highly diverse physically and chemically and MP extraction, particularly from complex matrices such as sediments, sludge and soils, requires efficient method pipelines. Our paper presents a universal framework of modular protocols (presented in a decision tree) that fulfil predefined user requirements (QuEChERS: Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, Safe) as well as providing best practises for reasonable MP working conditions within a standard laboratory. New procedures and technical innovations for density separation of particle-rich matrices are presented, such as a spiral conveyor developed and validated for MP recovery. In sharing such best-practice protocols, we aim to help in the push towards MP quantification method standardisation.•Publication of protocols of an entire MP extraction (10 μm – 5 mm) pipeline for particle-based analysis of various environmental matrices•Modularity: Optimised quantitative sample preparation adapted to particle sizes and sample matrices•New protocols and technical innovations (e.g. spiral conveyor) optimise MP extraction

N-Containing Heterocycles on Demand by Merging Ni Catalysis and Photoredox PCET

Nitrogen-containing heterocycles are among the most ubiquitous motifs in pharmaceuticals. Therefore, the design of mild, practical, and modular protocols for their synthesis is still in high demand. In this issue of Chem, Molander and co-workers report the merger of visible-light photoredox proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) with nickel catalysis as a vehicle for rapidly accessing privileged five-membered heterocyclic cores from simple precursors.

Terminating distributed construction of shapes and patterns in a fair solution of automata

In this work, we consider a solution of automata (or nodes) that move passively in a well-mixed solution without being capable of controlling their movement. Nodes can cooperate by interacting in pairs and every such interaction may result in an update of their local states. Additionally, the nodes may also choose to connect to each other in order to start forming some required structure. Such nodes can be thought of as small programmable pieces of matter, like tiny nanorobots or programmable molecules. The model that we introduce here is a more applied version of network constructors, imposing physical (or geometric) constraints on the connections that the nodes are allowed to form. Each node can connect to other nodes only via a very limited number of local ports. Connections are always made at unit distance and are perpendicular to connections of neighboring ports, which makes the model capable of forming 2D or 3D shapes. We provide direct constructors for some basic shape construction problems, like spanning line, spanning square, and self-replication. We then develop new techniques for determining the computational and constructive capabilities of our model. One of the main novelties of our approach is that of exploiting the assumptions that the system is well-mixed and has a unique leader, in order to give terminating protocols that are correct with high probability. This allows us to develop terminating subroutines that can be sequentially composed to form larger modular protocols. One of our main results is a terminating protocol counting the size n of the system with high probability. We then use this protocol as a subroutine in order to develop our universal constructors, establishing that it is possible for the nodes to become self-organized with high probability into arbitrarily complex shapes while still detecting termination of the construction.

Science in Practice in Cognitive Behavior Therapy

In honor of the ABCT’s 50th anniversary, I offer observations about the consumption and production of science in the clinical practice setting from the vantage point of my own professional development and the development of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) more generally. I describe advances in the field that will promote clinicians’ consumption and production of science. Two recent developments that promote practitioners’ consumption of science are the field’s shift from the study of disorders to the study of transdiagnostic mechanisms, and the advent of flexible modular protocols. Two advances that support practitioners’ production of science include the overlapping interests of practitioners and scientists in understanding the mechanisms of action of our effective treatments, and the emergence of software and online tools that make it easy for clinicians to collect and organize the data they obtain during the course of their clinical work. Innovations that can strengthen the role of science in practice include the publication of more single-case studies and increased access to evidence-based assessment tools; I describe ways the ABCT might contribute to both these initiatives.

Non-Interactive Anonymous Credential Based on Structure-Preserving Signature

ABSTRACTStructure-preserving signature, as a special kind of digital signature, provides a way to construct modular cryptographic protocols with reasonable efficiency while retaining conceptual simplicity. This feature makes it suitable to be applied in the construction of non-interactive anonymous credential systems, which allows the user to convince a verifier of the possession of a certificate issued by the trusted authority anonymously and efficiently without interaction. In this paper, we design a secure and efficient structure-preserving signature scheme (SPSIG), and combine the scheme with Groth–Sahai non-interactive zero-knowledge (GSNIZK) proof system to construct a non-interactive anonymous credential scheme. The SPSIG is based on q-ADH-SDH assumption and can resist existential forgery in the chosen message attack. The message, signature, and verification keys are group elements, which are fully compatible with the GSNIZK system. The SXDH assumption is employed to instantiate the certificate-proving process, which is considered to be the most efficient instantiation at the moment. We analyze the efficiency and formally prove the security in the standard model. The result shows that our scheme satisfies correctness, zero knowledge, and unforgeability, and achieves identity authentication in the way of anonymity. Besides, our scheme has stronger anonymity, traceability, and non-interaction, and has lower communication cost compared with the conventional schemes.

Structure-Preserving Signatures and Commitments to Group Elements

A modular approach to constructing cryptographic protocols leads to simple designs but often inefficient instantiations. On the other hand, ad hoc constructions may yield efficient protocols at the cost of losing conceptual simplicity. We suggest a new design paradigm, structure-preserving cryptography, that provides a way to construct modular protocols with reasonable efficiency while retaining conceptual simplicity. A cryptographic scheme over a bilinear group is called structure-preserving if its public inputs and outputs consist of elements from the bilinear groups and their consistency can be verified by evaluating pairing-product equations. As structure-preserving schemes smoothly interoperate with each other, they are useful as building blocks in modular design of cryptographic applications. This paper introduces structure-preserving commitment and signature schemes over bilinear groups with several desirable properties. The commitment schemes include homomorphic, trapdoor and length-reducing commitments to group elements, and the structure-preserving signature schemes are the first ones that yield constant-size signatures on multiple group elements. A structure-preserving signature scheme is called automorphic if the public keys lie in the message space, which cannot be achieved by compressing inputs via a cryptographic hash function, as this would destroy the mathematical structure we are trying to preserve. Automorphic signatures can be used for building certification chains underlying privacy-preserving protocols. Among a vast number of applications of structure-preserving protocols, we present an efficient round-optimal blind-signature scheme and a group signature scheme with an efficient and concurrently secure protocol for enrolling new members.

Greta, une plateforme d'agent conversationnel expressif et interactif

This paper presents a generic ,modular and interactive architecture for embodied conversational agent called Greta. It is 3D agent able to communicate with users using verbal and non verbal channels like gaze, head and torso movements, facial expressions and gestures. Our architecture follows the SAIBA framework that defines modular structure, functionalities and communication protocols for ECA systems. In this paper, we present our architecture, performance tests as well as several interactive applications.

Multiplexed immunophenotyping of human antigen-presenting cells in whole blood by polychromatic flow cytometry.

We describe two modular protocols for immunostaining and multiparameter flow cytometric analysis of major human antigen-presenting cells (APCs; e.g., dendritic cells, monocytes and B lymphocytes) in minimally manipulated whole blood samples. Simultaneous detection of up to eight colors is enabled by careful selection and testing of cell-subset-defining monoclonal antibodies (anchor markers) in the appropriate fluorochrome combinations, in order to show the quantification of surface expression levels of molecules involved in chemotaxis (e.g., CX(3)CR1 and CCR2), adhesion (e.g., CD11b and CD62L), antigen presentation (e.g., CD83, CD86 and CD209) and immune regulation (e.g., CD101) on circulating APCs. Each immunostaining reaction requires as little as 50-100 microl of peripheral whole blood and no density-gradient separation, and the entire procedure from preparation of reagents to flow cytometry can be completed in <5 h.

A model-based approach for self-adaptive Transport protocols

Self-adaptation of communication protocols is a major issue in the conception of future services for the ambient Internet. These protocols will have to provide adequate services to complex, mobile, cooperative application with dynamic requirements distributed in highly heterogeneous environments, partially wireless and ad hoc with variable and evolutive constraints. In this highly dynamic context, providing efficient solutions requires handling adaptability not only at the behavioral level, but also at the architectural level. End-to-end modular architecture protocols are a promising solution to support architectural self-adaptation to the context. Following this approach, the contributions presented in this paper address the automated choice of internal architecture for configurable Transport level protocols. Tackling this need by means of informal models may lead to non generic and suboptimal solutions due to the complexity of the problem. We propose to guide adaptation by an analytical model which is then evaluated against simulation results.

Modularity in the design and application of therapeutic interventions

This paper introduces the concept of modularity as an approach to therapeutic protocol design and application. Modularity is defined in terms of four key properties, and a detailed example of a modular psychotherapy protocol is presented. By explicitly outlining clinical strategies and algorithms, modular design of psychotherapy protocols provides a promising framework for testing many of the assumptions underlying traditional therapy protocols. Modular design also offers numerous potential advantages in terms of design efficiency (reusability of modules, ease of updating or reorganizing protocols) and effectiveness (e.g., greater adaptability for applied contexts, increased therapist satisfaction). Finally, preliminary evidence for the efficacy of modular protocols is encouraging, and suggests that such design should preserve and could even enhance the efficacy of existing therapy protocols.

The Emerging ISO10303 Modular Architecture

ISO10303 STEP (STandard for the Exchange of Product model data) released a suite of application protocols covering the most important product life-cycle activities. The maturity in the development and usage of these standard models was conducted to the redesign of the classical architecture of STEP application protocols to a more agile architecture in order to better fit the emergent technologies and facilitate the understanding, development, reuse, and implementation of normalized reference product data models. This paper introduces the new modular architecture of ISO10303, comparing it with the classic architecture of STEP. Then, it describes the structure of the new modular AP236, concluding with a proposal for a graphical framework for the design and development of normalized modules and new modular application protocols.

Applications of stable isotopes to pediatric nutrition and gastroenterology: measurement of nutrient absorption and digestion using 13C.

The naturally occurring, nonradioactive, stable isotopes, 2H, 15N, 18O, and in particular, 13C, are valuable tracers in studies of pediatric nutrition and gastroenterology. Techniques using these isotopes have been developed for the measurement of digestion, absorption, utilization, and excretion of nutrients in premature and term infants, as well as in young children. Compounds labeled with 13C enable quantitative measurements of nutrient oxidation rates and percent nutrient malabsorption. Illustrations of these applications are presented in studies of simple and complex carbohydrate metabolism, of medium- and long-chain triglyceride absorption and malabsorption, and of bile salt conservation and loss in the neonate. Modular protocols for the determination of nutrient absorption, oxidation, and loss now can be applied in longitudinal studies which involve comparisons of diet or which monitor recovery following malnutrition or disease. Instrumentation to be available in the future will simplify isotope ratio determinations and create ready access to the methodologies described.