Bacillus thuringiensis crystal (Cry) proteins are the most widely used biological insecticides in the world. Their value in safely controlling insects that destroy crops and transmit human diseases is well established.Here, we reviewB. thuringiensisCry proteins as novel anthelmintics with a unique mode of action. In laboratory studies, Cry proteins are highly effective against a broad range of ...

We extend the study of non-interactive statistical zeroknowledge proofs. Our main focus is to compare the class NISZK of problems possessing such non-interactive proofs to the class SZK of problems possessing interactive statistical zero-knowledge proofs. Along these lines, we first show that if statistical zero knowledge is non-trivial then so is non-interactive statistical zero knowledge, whe...

This paper studies general properties of quantum zeroknowledge proof systems. Among others, the following properties are proved on quantum computational zero-knowledge proofs: – Honest-verifier quantum zero-knowledge equals general quantum zero-knowledge. – Public-coin quantum zero-knowledge equals general quantum zeroknowledge. – Quantum zero-knowledge with perfect completeness equals general ...

In this paper we propose a definition for (honest verifier) quantum statistical zero-knowledge interactive proof systems and study the resulting complexity class, which we denote QSZKHV . We prove several facts regarding this class, including: The following problem is a complete promise problem for QSZKHV : given instructions for preparing two mixed quantum states, are the states close together...

An oracle machine is called monotonous, if after a negative answer the machine does not ask further queries to the oracle. For example, one truth-table, conjunctive, and Hausdorr reducibilities are monotonous. We study the consequences of the existence of sparse hard sets for diierent complexity classes under monotonous and randomized reductions. We prove trade-oos between the randomized time c...

We give and prove an optimal exact quantum query algorithm with complexity k+ 1 for computing the promise problem (i.e., symmetric and partial Boolean function) DJ n defined as: DJ k n(x) = 1 for |x| = n/2, DJ n(x) = 0 for |x| in the set {0, 1, . . . , k, n − k, n − k + 1, . . . , n}, and it is undefined for the rest cases, where n is even, |x| is the Hamming weight of x. The case of k = 0 is t...

A majority of the world’s impoverished lack adequate access to financial services. Typically, formal banks do not target the poor because lending without collateral is considered too risky. Poor households seeking credit are subsequently forced into informal markets where the prices are high, the quantities limited, and the methods of insuring repayment can be brutal. Since the poor arguably ne...