A Hardware Security Protection Method for Conditional Branches of Embedded Systems.

The branch prediction units (BPUs) generally have security vulnerabilities, which can be used by attackers to tamper with the branches, and the existing protection methods cannot defend against these attacks. Therefore, this article proposes a hardware security protection method for conditional branches of embedded systems. This method calculates the number of branch target buffer (BTB) updates every 80 clock cycles. If the number exceeds the set threshold, the BTB will be locked and prevent any process from tampering with the BTB entries, thereby resisting branch prediction analysis (BPA) attacks. Moreover, to prevent attackers from stealing the critical information of branches, the method designs the hybrid arbiter physical unclonable function (APUF) circuit to encrypt and decrypt the directions, addresses, and indexes of branches. This circuit combines the advantages of double APUF and Feed-Forward APUF, which can enhance the randomness of output response and resist machine learning attacks. If attackers still successfully tamper with the branches and disrupt the control flow integrity (CFI), this method detects tampering with the instruction codes, jump addresses, and jump directions in a timely manner through dynamic and static label comparison. The proposed method is implemented and tested on FPGA. The experimental results show that this method can achieve fine-grained security protection for conditional branches, with about 5.4% resource overhead and less than 5.5% performance overhead.

Ethylene response factor ERF022 is involved in regulating Arabidopsis root growth.

Ethylene response factors (ERFs) are involved in the regulation of plant development processes and stress responses. In this study, we provide evidence for the role of ERF022, a member of the ERF transcription factor group III, in regulating Arabidopsis root growth. We found that ERF022-loss-of-function mutants exhibited increased primary root length and lateral root numbers, and also morphological growth advantages compared to wild-type. Further studies showed that mutants had enhanced cell size in length in the root elongation zones. These results were accompanied by significant increase in the expression of cell elongation and cell wall expansion related genes SAUR10, GASA14, LRX2, XTH19 in mutants. Moreover, ERF022-mediated root growth was associated with the enhanced endogenous auxin and gibberellins levels. Our results suggest that loss-of-function of ERF022 up-regulated the expression of cell elongation and cell wall related genes through auxin and gibberellins signal in the regulation of root growth. Unexpectedly, ERF022 overexpression lines also showed longer primary roots and more lateral roots compared to wild-type, and had longer root apical meristematic zone with increased cell numbers. Overexpression of ERF022 significantly up-regulated cell proliferation, organ growth and auxin biosynthesis genes EXO, HB2, GALK2, LBD26, YUC5, which contribute to enhanced root growth. Altogether, our results provide genetic evidence that ERF022 plays an important role in regulating root growth in Arabidopsis thaliana.

A bibliometric analysis based on Web of Science from 2012 to 2021: Current situation, hot spots, and global trends of medullary thyroid carcinoma.

Background: Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a special type of thyroid carcinoma derived from the C cell of the thyroid gland. Because of the poor prognosis of MTC, a large number of studies on MTC have been conducted in the last 10 years. To better comprehend, it is necessary to clarify and define the dominant countries, organizations, core journals, important authors, and their cumulative research contributions, as well as the cooperative relationships between them. Method: English publications with article type article or review about MTC from January 2012 to December 2021 was retrieved from Web of Science core collection, and VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and Microsoft Excel were applied for bibliometric study. Result: A total of 1208 articles and reviews were included in this study. The 1208 papers were written by 6364 authors from 1734 organizations in 67 countries, published in 408 journals, and cited 24118 references from 3562 journals. The number of publications was essentially flat from 2012-2021, with the largest proportion of publications coming from the U.S., followed by Italy and China. Thyroid was the most productive journal, and Journal of clinical endocrinology & metabolism was the most cited journal. University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center was the most productive institution and Luca Giovanella, was the most productive author. Diagnostic tools, surgical treatment, non-surgical treatment, genetics and relationship with other endocrine diseases were the main research interests in this field. Prognosis has been a cutting-edge topic since 2017. Conclusion: As a thyroid cancer with poor prognosis, MTC has received continuous attention in recent years. Current MTC studies mainly focused on disease intervention, mechanism research and prognosis. The main point of this study is to provide an overview of the development process and hot spots of MTC in the last decade. These might provide ideas for further research in the MTC field.

Hydrothermal synthesis, structures and magnetic studies of transition metal sulfates containing hydrazine.

By employing hydrothermal method, six transition metal sulfates containing hydrazine (N(2)H(4)) have been obtained: [M(SO(4))(2)(N(2)H(5))(2)](n) (M = Mn(1), Co(2), Ni(3)) and [M(N(2)H(4))SO(4)](n) (M = Mn(4), Co(5), Ni(6)). Their crystal structures and magnetic properties have been investigated experimentally and theoretically. Compounds 1-3 consist of one-dimensional sulfate bridged homometallic chains with protonated hydrazine molecule as terminal ligand, and compounds 4-6 are hydrazing-sulfate mixed bridged homometallic three-dimensional frameworks. Compounds 1-6 exhibit antiferromagnetic coupling between M(2+) ions, but their magnetic properties differ at low temperatures because of the different single-ion anisotropy and crystal structures. The magnetostructural correlations and the magnetic coupling mechanism are analyzed by density functional theory calculations (DFT).

Two EE-azido-bridged nickel(II) layered compounds: vigorous twisted torsion angle Ni-N3-Ni results in ferromagnetic behavior.

Two coordination polymers, Ni(endi)(N(3))(2) (endi = 1,2-bis(tetrazol-1-yl)ethane) (1) and Ni(4-acpy)(2)(N(3))(2) (4-acpy = 4-acetylpyridine) (2), are obtained by employing a couple of cobalt complex as references. Both compounds have similar 2D (4,4) EE azide-nickel layer structures, but different interlayer separations. Their EE azide bridges are vigorously twisted, with the torsion angle tau value 88.3 degrees and 107.6 degrees for 1 and 89.2 degrees for 2. Different from most EE azide compounds, ferromagnetism is distinctly present, ordering below T(c) = 25 K for 1 and T(c) = 23 K for 2. Fitting of magnetic susceptibility data using the spin Hamiltonian H = -2J SigmaS(1)S(2) gives the ferromagnetic intralayer coupling J = 14.70(6) cm(-1) for 1 and 14.32(0) cm(-1) for 2, respectively. The magnetostructural correlations of 1 have been calculated using the density function theory based method. The computational results are consistent with the trend of the experimental data. One possible mechanism was proposed to explain the emergence of ferromagnetism based on the theoretical studies, and the ferromagnet construction approach was also proposed accordingly.

Synthesis, structure, and magnetism of three azido-bridged Co2+ compounds with a flexible coligand 1,2-(tetrazole-1-yl)ethane.

By utilizing suitable coligand endi (1,2-(tetrazole-1-yl)ethane)) with variable conformations, we synthesized three new azido-bridged Co(2+) compounds with molecular formulas Co(endi)(N3)2 (1, 3) and Co(endi)2(N3)2 (2) by tuning the stoichiometric ratio of ligand/metal and the concentration of the solution. All of the compounds have been characterized structurally and magnetically. In all three structures, the azide ions use the end-to-end mode to link the Co(2+) centers to the 1D chain (1) and 2D (4,4) layers (2 and 3). The endi coligands adopt a trans conformation in compound 1 and a gauche conformation in compounds 2 and 3. Linked by bridging endi, the 1D chains in compound 1 and 2D layers in compound 3 are extended, resulting in the final 2D layer for compound 1 and the 3D network for compound 3, whereas in compound 2, the endi acts as only a terminal ligand to separate the 2D layers. Compound 1 consists of dual end-to-end azido-bridged 1D Co(2+) chains that are linked by trans endi into a 2D layer and are further extended to a 3D framework through H bonds. Compound 2 is a 2D (4,4) layer that is connected by end-to-end azido ions. The gauche endi ligands act as terminal ligands to separate the neighboring layers thoroughly. Compound 3 has a (4,4) 2D layer that is similar to that of compound 2, and these layers are further extended to a 3D network through gauche endi. The magnetic investigation shows that compound 3 is antiferromagnetically coupled and compound 2 is a weak ferromagnet with a critical temperature of 22 K, which is quite high compared with that of the previously reported 2D azido-bridged Co(2+) compounds.