Type-Based Verification of Electronic Voting Protocols

E-voting protocols aim at achieving a wide range of sophisticated security properties and, consequently, commonly employ advanced cryptographic primitives. This makes their design as well as rigorous analysis quite challenging. As a matter of fact, existing automated analysis techniques, which are mostly based on automated theorem provers, are inadequate to deal with commonly used cryptographic primitives, such as homomorphic encryption and mix-nets, as well as some fundamental security properties, such as verifiability. This work presents a novel approach based on refinement type systems for the automated analysis of e-voting protocols. Specifically, we design a generically applicable logical theory which, based on pre- and post-conditions for security-critical code, captures and guides the type-checker towards the verification of two fundamental properties of e-voting protocols, namely, vote privacy and verifiability. We further develop a code-based cryptographic abstraction of the cryptographic primitives commonly used in e-voting protocols, showing how to make the underlying algebraic properties accessible to automated verification through logical refinements. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by developing the first automated analysis of Helios, a popular web-based e-voting protocol, using an off-the-shelf type-checker

Working against the clock: A model for rural STEMI triage

Residents in rural communities have higher incident of cardiac death and risk factors associated with cardiac disease. Living in a rural region can add precious time that amplifies cardiac death during a ST-elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI) episode. The consensus is that improved efficiencies can increase myocardial salvage and decrease STEMI mortality rates. This article identifies issues that may impact pre-hospital STEMI triage of patients in a rural region of the United States (U.S.). A qualitative research design was chosen to gain insight into emergency personnel perceptions of pre-hospital STEMI triage. The participants (n=18) were obtained from a convenience sample in rural Northeast Texas, U.S. Data were gathered by individual and group semi-structured interviews. Themes were identified, synthesized, and oriented to offer a basis for understanding opportunities to improve the delivery of rural STEMI care. This study demonstrated that quality improvement initiatives aimed at achieving pre-hospital STEMI triage efficiencies have dependencies on teamwork, technology, and training in the context of three stages a) pre-transport, b) door-to-door, and c) post-transport. A pre-hospital STEMI triage model is considered. By incorporating this model, emergency medical coordinators in rural communities have a better opportunity to facilitate timely reperfusion therapy for this high risk populous

Detection chain and electronic readout of the QUBIC instrument

The Q and U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology (QUBIC) Technical Demonstrator (TD) aiming to shows the feasibility of the combination of interferometry and bolometric detection. The electronic readout system is based on an array of 128 NbSi Transition Edge Sensors cooled at 350mK readout with 128 SQUIDs at 1K controlled and amplified by an Application Specific Integrated Circuit at 40K. This readout design allows a 128:1 Time Domain Multiplexing. We report the design and the performance of the detection chain in this paper. The technological demonstrator unwent a campaign of test in the lab. Evaluation of the QUBIC bolometers and readout electronics includes the measurement of I-V curves, time constant and the Noise Equivalent Power. Currently the mean Noise Equivalent Power is ~ 2 x 10⁻¹⁶ W/√Hz

Detection chain and electronic readout of the QUBIC instrument

The Q and U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology (QUBIC) Technical Demonstrator (TD) aiming to shows the feasibility of the combination of interferometry and bolometric detection. The electronic readout system is based on an array of 128 NbSi Transition Edge Sensors cooled at 350mK readout with 128 SQUIDs at 1K controlled and amplified by an Application Specific Integrated Circuit at 40K. This readout design allows a 128:1 Time Domain Multiplexing. We report the design and the performance of the detection chain in this paper. The technological demonstrator unwent a campaign of test in the lab. Evaluation of the QUBIC bolometers and readout electronics includes the measurement of I-V curves, time constant and the Noise Equivalent Power. Currently the mean Noise Equivalent Power is ~ 2 x 10⁻¹⁶ W/√Hz

Signalling of Arabidopsis thaliana response to Pieris brassicae eggs shares similarities with PAMP-triggered immunity.

Insect egg deposition activates plant defence, but very little is known about signalling events that control this response. In Arabidopsis thaliana, oviposition by Pieris brassicae triggers salicylic acid (SA) accumulation and induces the expression of defence genes. This is similar to the recognition of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), which are involved in PAMP-triggered immunity (PTI). Here, the involvement of known signalling components of PTI in response to oviposition was studied. Treatment with P. brassicae egg extract caused a rapid induction of early PAMP-responsive genes. In addition, expression of the defence gene PR-1 required EDS1, SID2, and, partially, NPR1, thus implicating the SA pathway downstream of egg recognition. PR-1 expression was triggered by a non-polar fraction of egg extract and by an oxidative burst modulated through the antagonistic action of EDS1 and NUDT7, but which did not depend on the NADPH oxidases RBOHD and RBOHF. Searching for receptors of egg-derived elicitors, a receptor-like kinase mutant, lecRK-I.8, was identified which shows a much reduced induction of PR-1 in response to egg extract treatment. These results demonstrate the importance of the SA pathway in response to egg-derived elicitor(s) and unravel intriguing similarities between the detection of insect eggs and PTI in Arabidopsis

QUBIC: the Q&U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology. A novel way to look at the polarized Cosmic Microwave Background.

In this paper we describe QUBIC, an experiment that takes up the challenge posed by the detection of primordial gravitational waves with a novel approach, that combines the sensitivity of state-of-the art bolometric detectors with the systematic effects control typical of interferometers. The so-called 'self-calibration' is a technique deeply rooted in the interferometric nature of the instrument and allows us to clean the measured data from instrumental effects. The first module of QUBIC is a dual band instrument (150 GHz and 220 GHz) that will be deployed in Argentina during Fall 2018