A Generic attack on CubeHash, a SHA-3 candidate

A secure cryptographic hashing function should be resistant to three different scenarios: First, a cryptographic hashing function must be preimage resistant, that is, it should be infeasible for an attacker to construct a message such that it produces a known hash output value. Second, a cryptographic hashing function must be second preimage resistant, or it should be infeasible for an attacker to construct a message such that it has the same hash output value as another known message. Third, a cryptographic hashing function must be collision resistant, which means that it should be infeasible for an attacker to find any two different messages such that their hash output values are the same. The current Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) family, namely SHA-1 and SHA-2, were designed by the National Security Agency (NSA) and published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Recent advances in cryptanalysis of hash functions have led to concerns about the collision resistance in the SHA family. To address these concerns, NIST has opened a public worldwide competition known as the SHA-3 competition to find the new hash function, which will become SHA-3. Each candidate hash function is scrutinized by the public, and candidates with found weaknesses are dropped from advancing to the next rounds of the competition. The goal is that the strongest hash function will emerge at the end of the competition, and this hash function will be free for everyone to use. This thesis implemented a generic attack against the collision resistance of small variants of one candidate in the SHA-3 competition, CubeHash. A unique hash-chaining approach was used to find the collisions, and the parallelization of several FPGAs lead to parallelization measurements and analysis to see if a linear speedup could be obtained

Delivering High Stakes Assessments in a Computerized Testing Center

In August 2005, the University of Kansas Medical Center launched its new 135 seat Computerized Testing Center (CTC). Since that time, the facility has successfully hosted over 30,000 individual high-stakes test sessions using LXR. This presentation will discuss the challenges involved in planning and managing such a facility including pilot testing, security, reliability, scalability, scheduling and support. It will also address the impact the CTC has had on paper/pencil testing

The participation of P in welfare cases in the court of protection

This report considers the participation of P – an individual who is alleged to lack mental capacity – in proceedings concerning his health, welfare or deprivation of liberty in the Court of Protection (CoP) under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). We argue that the CoP was established on a model of ‘low participation’ that is no longer compatible with developments in international human rights law under the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The European Court of Human Rights has developed a threefold ‘right to participate’ in proceedings concerning deprivation of liberty and deprivation of legal capacity, emphasising individual dignity, and adversarial and evidential principles. Support for, and participation in, decision making are also central elements of the MCA

The participation of P in welfare cases in the court of protection

This report considers the participation of P – an individual who is alleged to lack mental capacity – in proceedings concerning his health, welfare or deprivation of liberty in the Court of Protection (CoP) under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). We argue that the CoP was established on a model of ‘low participation’ that is no longer compatible with developments in international human rights law under the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The European Court of Human Rights has developed a threefold ‘right to participate’ in proceedings concerning deprivation of liberty and deprivation of legal capacity, emphasising individual dignity, and adversarial and evidential principles. Support for, and participation in, decision making are also central elements of the MCA

One-year outcomes after transcatheter insertion of an interatrial shunt device for the management of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction

Background—Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction has a complex pathophysiology and remains a therapeutic challenge. Elevated left atrial pressure, particularly during exercise, is a key contributor to morbidity and mortality. Preliminary analyses have demonstrated that a novel interatrial septal shunt device that allows shunting to reduce the left atrial pressure provides clinical and hemodynamic benefit at 6 months. Given the chronicity of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, evidence of longer-term benefit is required. Methods and Results—Patients (n=64) with left ventricular ejection fraction ≥40%, New York Heart Association class II–IV, elevated pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (≥15 mm Hg at rest or ≥25 mm Hg during supine bicycle exercise) participated in the open-label study of the interatrial septal shunt device. One year after interatrial septal shunt device implantation, there were sustained improvements in New York Heart Association class (P<0.001), quality of life (Minnesota Living with Heart Failure score, P<0.001), and 6-minute walk distance (P<0.01). Echocardiography showed a small, stable reduction in left ventricular end-diastolic volume index (P<0.001), with a concomitant small stable increase in the right ventricular end-diastolic volume index (P<0.001). Invasive hemodynamic studies performed in a subset of patients demonstrated a sustained reduction in the workload corrected exercise pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (P<0.01). Survival at 1 year was 95%, and there was no evidence of device-related complications. Conclusions—These results provide evidence of safety and sustained clinical benefit in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction patients 1 year after interatrial septal shunt device implantation. Randomized, blinded studies are underway to confirm these observations