DRE-ip : A Verifiable E-Voting Scheme without Tallying Authorities

Nearly all verifiable e-voting schemes require trustworthy authorities to perform the tallying operations. An exception is the DRE-i system which removes this requirement by pre-computing all encrypted ballots before the election using random factors that will later cancel out and allow the public to verify the tally after the election. While the removal of tallying authorities significantly simplifies election management, the pre-computation of ballots necessitates secure ballot storage, as leakage of precomputed ballots endangers voter privacy. In this paper, we address this problem and propose DRE-ip (DRE-i with enhanced privacy). Adopting a different design strategy, DRE-ip is able to encrypt ballots in real time in such a way that the election tally can be publicly verified without decrypting the cast ballots. As a result, DRE-ip achieves end-to-end verifiability without tallying authorities, similar to DRE-i, but with a significantly stronger guarantee on voter privacy. In the event that the voting machine is fully compromised, the assurance on tallying integrity remains intact and the information leakage is limited to the minimum: only the partial tally at the time of compromise is leaked

Antiretroviral agents and acid-base balance at delivery of the neonate.

Limited evidence is available regarding antiretroviral (ARV) safety for uninfected infants exposed to these drugs in utero. Our objective was to determine if ARV administered to pregnant women is associated with decreasing umbilical arterial pH and base excess in uninfected infants. A prospective study was conducted on 57 neonates divided into three groups: ZDV group, born to mothers taking zidovudine (N = 20), triple therapy (TT) group, born to mothers taking zidovudine + lamivudine + nelfinavir (N = 25), and control group (N = 12), born to uninfected mothers. Umbilical cord blood was used to determine umbilical artery gases. A test was performed to calculate the sample by comparing means by the unpaired one-tailed t-test, with alpha = 0.05 and beta = 20%, indicating the need for a sample of 18 newborn infants for the study groups to detect differences higher than 20%. The control and ARV groups were similar in gestational age, birth weight, and Apgar scores. Values of pH, pCO2, bicarbonate, and base excess in cord arterial blood obtained at delivery from the newborns exposed to TT were 7.23, 43.2 mmHg, 19.5 mEq/L, and -8.5 nmol/L, respectively, with no significant difference compared to the control and ZDV groups. We conclude that intrauterine exposure to ARV is not associated with a pathological decrease in umbilical arterial pH or base excess. While our data are reassuring, follow-up is still limited and needs to be continued into adulthood because of the possible potential for adverse effects of triple antiretroviral agents

Transition readiness and anxiety among adolescents with a chronic condition and their parents: A cross-sectional international study

AIMS: To evaluate associations of age, transition readiness and anxiety in adolescents with chronic conditions and to compare perceptions of adolescents and their parents regarding health self-management and transition readiness. DESIGN: Cross-sectional international study, reported following STROBE guidelines. METHODS: Adolescents and young adults (N = 512, mean age 17.7) with a chronic medical condition and their parents (N = 322) from Finland and Australia. Data were collected through surveys (between September 2017 and December 2020). Adolescents reported the duration of their condition. Age at survey was defined by the response date of the questionnaires. Validated questionnaires were used to measure transition readiness (Am I ON TRAC? for Adult Care) and anxiety related to transition of care (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory short form). Perceptions of health self-management and transition readiness were compared in adolescent/parent dyads. Associations were explored using Spearman's correlation. RESULTS: Duration of condition and age at survey correlated weakly with transition readiness knowledge and behaviour. Higher transition readiness knowledge scores correlated with higher behaviour scores. Higher transition readiness behaviour scores were associated with lower levels of anxiety. Adolescents were less anxious than their parents and adolescents and parents mostly agreed about health self-management and transition readiness. CONCLUSION: Transition readiness should be determined by an assessment of knowledge, self-management and psychosocial skills instead of age alone. Further research should address how well transition readiness predicts positive health outcomes after the transfer of care. IMPLICATIONS FOR PATIENT CARE: Transition readiness and self-management skills should be formally assessed because positive feedback may decrease the anxiety of both adolescents and their parents regarding the transfer of care. REPORTING METHOD: We have adhered to the STROBE statement, using STROBE checklist for cross-sectional studies. PATIENT OR PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT STATEMENT: No patient or public involvement. TRIAL AND PROTOCOL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.org NCT04631965

Focus group views on Prêt à Voter 1.0

This paper discusses the findings of a series of four focus group sessions carried out on a variant of the original Prêt à Voter prototype implementation [2]. The aim of these sessions was to investigate users' ability to use the system, to discover any inadequacies of the system, and to gauge the participants' understanding of its security mechanisms. The groups also discussed general issues around security in election systems