Endemic Oblivious Transfer via Random Oracles, Revisited

The notion of Endemic Oblivious Transfer (EOT) was introduced by Masny and Rindal (CCS\u2719). EOT offers a weaker security guarantee than the conventional random OT; namely, the malicious parties can fix their outputs arbitrarily. The authors presented a 1-round UC-secure EOT protocol under a tailor-made and non-standard assumption, Choose-and-Open DDH, in the RO model. In this work, we systematically study EOT in the UC/GUC framework. We present a new 1-round UC-secure EOT construction in the RO model under the DDH assumption. Under the GUC framework, we propose the first 1-round EOT construction under the CDH assumption in the Global Restricted Observable RO (GroRO) model proposed by Canetti et al. (CCS\u2714). We also provide an impossibility result, showing there exist no 1-round GUC-secure EOT protocols in the Global Restricted Programmable RO (GrpRO) model proposed by Camenisch et al. (Eurocrypt\u2718). Subsequently, we provide the first round-optimal (2-round) EOT protocol with adaptive security under the DDH assumption in the GrpRO model. Finally, we investigate the relations between EOT and other cryptographic primitives. As side products, we present the first 2-round GUC-secure commitment in the GroRO model as well as a separation between the GroRO and the GrpRO models, which may be of independent interest

Malaria card: an empowering tool for patients and for epidemiological recording

Malaria places a substantial burden on the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. World Malaria Report 2020 showed that the progress in global malaria control has come to a plateau. On the other hand, India has shown considerable progress in reducing its malaria burden. Malaria surveillance system mainly depends upon health workers who are also involved with other national health programs. Community participation can play significant role in success of any control/elimination programme. Epidemiological monitoring and record keeping of disease occurrence and control programmes is important. We have designed and proposed a simple booklet called "Malaria card" which when deployed in the community, can potentially result in improved malaria tracking and record-keeping. The malaria card like immunization card for under-five children, can be utilized to capture information on important aspects of malaria and co-morbidities. It will help communities in maintaining their own record and also will give easy access to health care workers to episodes of malaria and for epidemiological tracking

A Macro Policy for Poverty Eradication through Structural Change

Bangladesh, cooperatives, institutions, land, micro-credit, women

Brazilian Development: This Time for Real?

Wirtschaftswachstum; Strukturwandel; Wirtschaftliche Anpassung; Brasilien

A Scalable Architecture for Electronic Payments

We present a scalable architecture for electronic retail payments via central bank digital currency and offer a solution to the perceived conflict between robust regulatory oversight and consumer affordances such as privacy and control. Our architecture combines existing work in payment systems and digital currency with a new approach to digital asset design for managing unforgeable, stateful, and oblivious assets without relying on either a central authority or a monolithic consensus system. Regulated financial institutions have a role in every transaction, and the consumer affordances are achieved through the use of non-custodial wallets that unlink the sender from the recipient in the transaction channel. This approach is fully compatible with the existing two-tiered banking system and can complement and extend the roles of existing money services businesses and asset custodians.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figures, 2 table

Wales, the Enlightenment and the New British History

There is no electronic version of this article.PostprintPeer reviewe

Reflections on Asset-Based Pre-College Engineering Education to Promote Equity: An Introduction to the Special Issue

In our call for proposals, we argued that engineering education is in need of a paradigm shift that takes students’ assets as epistemologically primary to our conception of what engineering, and engineering education, can and should be. The 12 papers collected in this special issue show how a focus on youth assets can realign engineering education to be more humane, more inclusive, and just as meaningful as that of a traditional model. The papers offer both theoretical argumentation and empirical evidence to support their answers to the question of how asset-based approaches can improve engineering education. An emergent theme in these papers is that relationships and community are central to what it means to attend to and leverage youth assets for learning. In this introduction, we reflect on the papers, their individual and collective findings, and we offer a call to action to the field of engineering education