Oncoplastic Breast Consortium consensus conference on nipple-sparing mastectomy.

Purpose Indications for nipple-sparing mastectomy (NSM) have broadened to include the risk reducing setting and locally advanced tumors, which resulted in a dramatic increase in the use of NSM. The Oncoplastic Breast Consortium consensus conference on NSM and immediate reconstruction was held to address a variety of questions in clinical practice and research based on published evidence and expert panel opinion. Methods The panel consisted of 44 breast surgeons from 14 countries across four continents with a background in gynecology, general or reconstructive surgery and a practice dedicated to breast cancer, as well as a patient advocate. Panelists presented evidence summaries relating to each topic for debate during the in-person consensus conference. The iterative process in question development, voting, and wording of the recommendations followed the modified Delphi methodology. Results Consensus recommendations were reached in 35, majority recommendations in 24, and no recommendations in the remaining 12 questions. The panel acknowledged the need for standardization of various aspects of NSM and immediate reconstruction. It endorsed several oncological contraindications to the preservation of the skin and nipple. Furthermore, it recommended inclusion of patients in prospective registries and routine assessment of patient-reported outcomes. Considerable heterogeneity in breast reconstruction practice became obvious during the conference. Conclusions In case of conflicting or missing evidence to guide treatment, the consensus conference revealed substantial disagreement in expert panel opinion, which, among others, supports the need for a randomized trial to evaluate the safest and most efficacious reconstruction techniques

Monomial and Quadratic Bent Functions over the Finite Fields of Odd Characteristic †

We consider p-ary bent functions of the form f(x) = Trn Ès i=0 aixd i¡. A new class of ternary monomial regular bent function with the Dillon exponent is discovered. The existence of Dillon bent functions in the general case is an open problem of deciding whether a certain Kloosterman sum can take on the value −1. Also described is the general Gold-like form of a bent function that covers all the previously known monomial quadratic cases. We also discuss the (weak) regularity of our new as well as of known monomial bent functions and give the first example of a not weakly regular bent function. Finally we prove some criteria for an arbitrary quadratic functions to be bent.

Cascade Jump Controlled Sequence Generator

Introduction Linear feedback shift registers (LFSR) are known to allow fast implementation and produce sequences with large period and good statistical properties (if the feedback polynomial is chosen appropriately). But inherent linearity of these sequences results in susceptibility to algebraic attacks. That is the prime reason why LFSR's are not used directly for key-stream generation. A well-known method for increasing the linear complexity preserving at the same time a large period and good statistical properties, is to apply clock control, i.e. to irregularly step the LFSR through successive states. Key-stream generators based on regularly clocked LFSR's are susceptible to basic and fast correlation attacks. Using irregular clocking reduces the danger from correlation attacks and provides practical immunity against fast correlation attacks. Due to the multiple clocking, key stream generators that use clock-controlled LFSRs have decreased rate of sequence generation since such