Anonymous AE

The customary formulation of authenticated encryption (AE) requires the decrypting party to supply the correct nonce with each ciphertext it decrypts. To enable this, the nonce is often sent in the clear alongside the ciphertext. But doing this can forfeit anonymity and degrade usability. Anonymity can also be lost by transmitting associated data (AD) or a session-ID (used to identify the operative key). To address these issues, we introduce anonymous AE, wherein ciphertexts must conceal their origin even when they are understood to encompass everything needed to decrypt (apart from the receiver\u27s secret state). We formalize a type of anonymous AE we call anAE, anonymous nonce-based AE, which generalizes and strengthens conventional nonce-based AE, nAE. We provide an efficient construction for anAE, NonceWrap, from an nAE scheme and a blockcipher. We prove NonceWrap secure. While anAE does not address privacy loss through traffic-flow analysis, it does ensure that ciphertexts, now more expansively construed, do not by themselves compromise privacy

Post graduate survey and evaluation of role of animal experimentation, status and relevance of current syllabus, and challenges for alignment with requirements of the pharmaceutical industry

Background: The current scenario has brought the validity of animal experimentation (AE) under scrutiny. The requirements from an academician in the pharmaceutical industry are not sufficiently handled. A gnawing need was felt to conduct a study amongst the post graduate MD pharmacologists regarding the role of AE, relevance of current syllabus and challenges faced in the pharmaceutical industry.Methods: This questionnaire-based survey was carried out amongst post graduate (PG) residents pursuing MD pharmacology. Students were enrolled via social contacts, email, and in 2 workshops/conferences. The survey questionnaire consisted of 20 questions in total. 47 completed questionnaires were returned from a total 60. The data was collected in an anonymous fashion to avoid bias.Results: From the study we observe that PG residents were aware of the current MCI/University guidelines on AE. Only 42.5% (n=20) of the volunteers replied that they had access to simulator software. Participants were of the opinion that the current PG teaching curriculum is ill-adapted to tackle challenges encountered in the pharmaceutical industry. Compulsory industry rotation (31.9%) was one of the favoured suggested changes. Overall satisfaction with MD pharmacology was obtained in the positive.Conclusions: We conclude that the importance of AE in pharmacology is irrefutable, although advent of alternatives is the direction to be headed in. The curriculum is archaic at times, thus warrants changes. Preparedness for pharmaceutical industry is also low and needs to be addressed

Characterization of wheat/Aegilops ventricosa introgression and addition lines corresponding to the Mv genome.

Stable wheat-Aegilops introgression lines with 42 chromosomes (H-93), derived by repeated selfing from a cross (Triticum turgidum x Aegilops ventricosa) x T. aestivum, have been characterized using the following DNA probes and isozyme markers: (1) single or low-copy DNA fragments from Ae. ventricosa; (2) known cDNA probes corresponding to 1-thionin, monomeric -amylase inhibitor, the CM3 subunit of tetrameric -amylase inhibitor, and sucrose synthase from wheat; (3) anonymous cDNA probes from wheat that have been mapped by Sharp et al. (1989); (4) isozyme markers corresponding to aconitase, shikimate dehydrogenase, adenylate kinase, and endopeptidase. Meiotic metaphases of appropriate hybrids involving selected H-93 lines have been investigated by the Giemsa C-banding technique. The substitution of whole chromosomes [(5A) 5Mv; (4D) 4Mv; (5D) 5Mv; (7D) 7Mv] and chromosomal segments (1Mv; 3Mv; 5Mv; 7Mv) from the Mv genome of Aegilops ventricosa has been demonstrated. The distribution of selected markers among putative wheat-Ae. ventricosa addition lines has also been investigated. The 7Mv addition has been characterized for the first time, while the identity of the previously reported 5Mv and 6Mv additions has been confirmed

Regulation Awareness and Experience of Additional Monitoring Among Healthcare Professionals in Finland

Background: Challenges in post-marketing adverse event reporting are generally recognized. To enhance reporting, the concept of additional monitoring was introduced in 2012. Additional monitoring aims to enhance reporting of adverse events (AE) for medicines for which the clinical evidence base is less well developed. Purpose: The purpose was to get a deeper understanding of the underlying reasons why additional monitoring has not increased AE reporting as much as initially hoped. We examined how healthcare professionals (HCPs) in Finland perceive additional monitoring, why they do or do not report AEs more readily for these medicines and how they interact with patients treated with additionally monitored medicines. Methods: An anonymous, open questionnaire was developed and made available online at the e-form portal of University of Helsinki. Physicians, nurses, and pharmacists were invited to complete the questionnaire via their respective trade or area unions. Content analysis of answers to open-ended questions was performed by two independent coders. Results: Pharmacists have the best understanding about additional monitoring but at the same time do not recognize their role in enhancing monitoring. Only 40% of HCPs working with patients knows always or often if a specific medicine is additionally monitored. Half (53%) of HCPs do not tell or tell only rarely patients about additional monitoring. 18% of HCPs reported having received additional monitoring training whereas 29% had received general AE reporting training. AE reporting was more common among HCPs who had received training. Conclusions: Additional monitoring awareness among HCPs and patients should be increased by organizing regular educational events and making additional monitoring more visible. Educational events should emphasize the significance additional monitoring has on patient safety and promote a reporting culture among HCPs.Peer reviewe

On the efficiency of revocation in RSA-based anonymous systems

© 2016 IEEEThe problem of revocation in anonymous authentication systems is subtle and has motivated a lot of work. One of the preferable solutions consists in maintaining either a whitelist L-W of non-revoked users or a blacklist L-B of revoked users, and then requiring users to additionally prove, when authenticating themselves, that they are in L-W (membership proof) or that they are not in L-B (non-membership proof). Of course, these additional proofs must not break the anonymity properties of the system, so they must be zero-knowledge proofs, revealing nothing about the identity of the users. In this paper, we focus on the RSA-based setting, and we consider the case of non-membership proofs to blacklists L = L-B. The existing solutions for this setting rely on the use of universal dynamic accumulators; the underlying zero-knowledge proofs are bit complicated, and thus their efficiency; although being independent from the size of the blacklist L, seems to be improvable. Peng and Bao already tried to propose simpler and more efficient zero-knowledge proofs for this setting, but we prove in this paper that their protocol is not secure. We fix the problem by designing a new protocol, and formally proving its security properties. We then compare the efficiency of the new zero-knowledge non-membership protocol with that of the protocol, when they are integrated with anonymous authentication systems based on RSA (notably, the IBM product Idemix for anonymous credentials). We discuss for which values of the size k of the blacklist L, one protocol is preferable to the other one, and we propose different ways to combine and implement the two protocols.Postprint (author's final draft

Quantum Anonymous Transmissions

We consider the problem of hiding sender and receiver of classical and quantum bits (qubits), even if all physical transmissions can be monitored. We present a quantum protocol for sending and receiving classical bits anonymously, which is completely traceless: it successfully prevents later reconstruction of the sender. We show that this is not possible classically. It appears that entangled quantum states are uniquely suited for traceless anonymous transmissions. We then extend this protocol to send and receive qubits anonymously. In the process we introduce a new primitive called anonymous entanglement, which may be useful in other contexts as well.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX. Substantially updated version. To appear at ASIACRYPT '0

Risk Assessment and Comparative Effectiveness of Left Ventricular Assist Device and Medical Management in Ambulatory Heart Failure Patients The ROADMAP Study 2-Year Results

OBJECTIVES The authors sought to provide the pre-specified primary endpoint of the ROADMAP (Risk Assessment and Comparative Effectiveness of Left Ventricular Assist Device and Medical Management in Ambulatory Heart Failure Patients) trial at 2 years. BACKGROUND The ROADMAP trial was a prospective nonrandomized observational study of 200 patients (97 with a left ventricular assist device [LVAD], 103 on optimal medical management [OMM]) that showed that survival with improved functional status at 1 year was better with LVADs compared with OMM in a patient population of ambulatory New York Heart Association functional class IIIb/IV patients. METHODS The primary composite endpoint was survival on original therapy with improvement in 6-min walk distance \u3e= 75 m. RESULTS Patients receiving LVAD versus OMM had lower baseline health-related quality of life, reduced Seattle Heart Failure Model 1-year survival (78% vs. 84%; p = 0.012), and were predominantly INTERMACS (Interagency Registry for Mechanically Assisted Circulatory Support) profile 4 (65% vs. 34%; p \u3c 0.001) versus profiles 5 to 7. More LVAD patients met the primary endpoint at 2 years: 30% LVAD versus 12% OMM (odds ratio: 3.2 [95% confidence interval: 1.3 to 7.7]; p = 0.012). Survival as treated on original therapy at 2 years was greater for LVAD versus OMM (70 +/- 5% vs. 41 +/- 5%; p \u3c 0.001), but there was no difference in intent-to-treat survival (70 +/- 5% vs. 63 +/- 5%; p = 0.307). In the OMM arm, 23 of 103 (22%) received delayed LVADs (18 within 12 months; 5 from 12 to 24 months). LVAD adverse events declined after year 1 for bleeding (primarily gastrointestinal) and arrhythmias. CONCLUSIONS Survival on original therapy with improvement in 6-min walk distance was superior with LVAD compared with OMM at 2 years. Reduction in key adverse events beyond 1 year was observed in the LVAD group. The ROADMAP trial provides risk-benefit information to guide patient- and physician-shared decision making for elective LVAD therapy as a treatment for heart failure. (Risk Assessment and Comparative Effectiveness of Left Ventricular Assist Device and Medical Management in Ambulatory Heart Failure Patients [ROADMAP]; NCT01452802