Multi-Prover Commitments Against Non-Signaling Attacks

We reconsider the concept of multi-prover commitments, as introduced in the late eighties in the seminal work by Ben-Or et al. As was recently shown by Cr\'{e}peau et al., the security of known two-prover commitment schemes not only relies on the explicit assumption that the provers cannot communicate, but also depends on their information processing capabilities. For instance, there exist schemes that are secure against classical provers but insecure if the provers have quantum information processing capabilities, and there are schemes that resist such quantum attacks but become insecure when considering general so-called non-signaling provers, which are restricted solely by the requirement that no communication takes place. This poses the natural question whether there exists a two-prover commitment scheme that is secure under the sole assumption that no communication takes place; no such scheme is known. In this work, we give strong evidence for a negative answer: we show that any single-round two-prover commitment scheme can be broken by a non-signaling attack. Our negative result is as bad as it can get: for any candidate scheme that is (almost) perfectly hiding, there exists a strategy that allows the dishonest provers to open a commitment to an arbitrary bit (almost) as successfully as the honest provers can open an honestly prepared commitment, i.e., with probability (almost) 1 in case of a perfectly sound scheme. In the case of multi-round schemes, our impossibility result is restricted to perfectly hiding schemes. On the positive side, we show that the impossibility result can be circumvented by considering three provers instead: there exists a three-prover commitment scheme that is secure against arbitrary non-signaling attacks

Physician Experiences and Understanding of Genomic Sequencing in Oncology

The amount of information produced by genomic sequencing is vast, technically complicated, and can be difficult to interpret. Appropriately tailoring genomic information for nonâ geneticists is an essential next step in the clinical use of genomic sequencing. To initiate development of a framework for genomic results communication, we conducted eighteen qualitative interviews with oncologists who had referred adult cancer patients to a matched tumorâ normal tissue genomic sequencing study. In our qualitative analysis, we found varied levels of clinician knowledge relating to sequencing technology, the scope of the tumor genomic sequencing study, and incidental germline findings. Clinicians expressed a perceived need for more genetics education. Additionally, they had a variety of suggestions for improving results reports and possible resources to aid in results interpretation. Most clinicians felt genetic counselors were needed when incidental germline findings were identified. Our research suggests that more consistent genetics education is imperative in ensuring the proper utilization of genomic sequencing in cancer care. Clinician suggestions for results interpretation resources and results report modifications could be used to improve communication. Cliniciansâ perceived need to involve genetic counselors when incidental germline findings were found suggests genetic specialists could play a critical role in ensuring patients receive appropriate followâ up.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147187/1/jgc40187.pd

Quality of life among Latina breast cancer patients: a systematic review of the literature

Introduction The Latino population is the most rapidly growing ethnic minority in the United States and Latinas have higher rates of advanced breast cancer and more rigorous treatments than White women. However, the literature lacks reviews on quality of life among this population of breast cancer patients. Methods A systematic review of the breast cancer quality of life (QOL) literature was conducted among studies that provided a comparison of mental, physical, social, or sexual QOL between Latinas and other racial/ethnic groups. Of the 375 studies reviewed, 20 quantitative studies and two qualitative studies met criteria for inclusion. Results Latinas were more likely to report poor mental, physical, and social QOL, relative to non-Latinas. Only four studies assessed sexual QOL, making it difficult to draw any conclusions. Of these four QOL domains, the largest disparity was found in the area of mental health in which Latinas reported poorer QOL compared to non-Latina Whites and Blacks. Discussion/conclusions Most quantitative studies revealed either that Latinas consistently evidenced significantly lower QOL than non-Latinas on all measures (6 studies) or reported mixed findings in which Latinas generally demonstrated significantly worse QOL on most, but not all, measures (12 studies) included in the study. Explanatory mechanisms including socio-demographic, treatment-related, and culturally-relevant factors are discussed. Implications for research design, measurement, and clinical work are also included. Implications for cancer survivors Although not entirely consistent, data suggest that Latina breast cancer survivors on average experience worse QOL than non-Latina Whites. Understanding ethnic differences in QOL among breast cancer survivors can inform interventions targeted at improving health status for Latinas

Measuring Multi-Joint Stiffness during Single Movements: Numerical Validation of a Novel Time-Frequency Approach

This study presents and validates a Time-Frequency technique for measuring 2-dimensional multijoint arm stiffness throughout a single planar movement as well as during static posture. It is proposed as an alternative to current regressive methods which require numerous repetitions to obtain average stiffness on a small segment of the hand trajectory. The method is based on the analysis of the reassigned spectrogram of the arm's response to impulsive perturbations and can estimate arm stiffness on a trial-by-trial basis. Analytic and empirical methods are first derived and tested through modal analysis on synthetic data. The technique's accuracy and robustness are assessed by modeling the estimation of stiffness time profiles changing at different rates and affected by different noise levels. Our method obtains results comparable with two well-known regressive techniques. We also test how the technique can identify the viscoelastic component of non-linear and higher than second order systems with a non-parametrical approach. The technique proposed here is very impervious to noise and can be used easily for both postural and movement tasks. Estimations of stiffness profiles are possible with only one perturbation, making our method a useful tool for estimating limb stiffness during motor learning and adaptation tasks, and for understanding the modulation of stiffness in individuals with neurodegenerative diseases