Callisto: a cryptographic approach to detecting serial perpetrators of sexual misconduct

Sexual misconduct is prevalent in workplace and education settings but stigma and risk of further damage deter many victims from seeking justice. Callisto, a non-profit that has created an online sexual assault reporting platform for college campuses, is expanding its work to combat sexual assault and harassment in other industries. In this new product, users will be invited to an online "matching escrow" that will detect repeat perpetrators and create pathways to support for victims. Users submit encrypted data about their perpetrator, and this data can only be decrypted by the Callisto Options Counselor (a lawyer), when another user enters the identity of the same perpetrator. If the perpetrator identities match, both users will be put in touch independently with the Options Counselor, who will connect them to each other (if appropriate) and help them determine their best path towards justice. The client relationships with the Options Counselors are structured so that any client-counselor communications would be privileged. A combination of client-side encryption, encrypted communication channels, oblivious pseudo-random functions, key federation, and Shamir Secret Sharing keep data confidential in transit, at rest, and during the matching process with the guarantee that only the lawyer ever has access to user submitted data, and even then only when a match is identified.Accepted manuscrip

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Nations within a nation: variations in epidemiological transition across the states of India, 1990–2016 in the Global Burden of Disease Study

18% of the world's population lives in India, and many states of India have populations similar to those of large countries. Action to effectively improve population health in India requires availability of reliable and comprehensive state-level estimates of disease burden and risk factors over time. Such comprehensive estimates have not been available so far for all major diseases and risk factors. Thus, we aimed to estimate the disease burden and risk factors in every state of India as part of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2016

The Role of the Ribsomal RNA in Translation Quality Control in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

From the Washington University Office of Undergraduate Research Digest (WUURD), Vol. 13, 05-01-2018. Published by the Office of Undergraduate Research. Joy Zalis Kiefer, Director of Undergraduate Research and Associate Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences; Lindsey Paunovich, Editor; Helen Human, Programs Manager and Assistant Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences Mentor(s): Hani Zahe

Talacchanda

An exhibition catalogue with commissioned essays elaborating on the themes of the Talalcchanda exhibition that took place at The Tramway, Glasgow October 2002

Index Coded PSK Modulation

In this paper, noisy index coding problems over AWGN channel are considered. For a given index coding problem and a chosen scalar linear index code of length N, we proppse to transmit the N index coded bits as a single signal from a 2(N) -PSK constellation. By transmitting the index coded bits in this way, there is an N/2 - fold reduction in the required bandwidth. Also, by transmitting the index coded bits as a PSK signal, receivers with side information satisfying certain conditions get coding gain relative to a receiver with no side information. This coding gain obtained by the receivers is due to proper utilization of their side information and hence is called ``PSK side information coding gain (PSK-SICG)''. We state and prove a necessary and sufficient condition for a receiver to get PSK-SICG. An algorithm to map the index coded bits to PSK signal set such that the PSK-SICG obtained is maximized for the receiver with maximum side information is given. Further, we show that if index coded bits are transmitted as a PSK signal, it is not always necessary to minimize the length of index code used as there are index coding problems where use of a longer index code will give a better performance in terms of probability of error

Index Coded PSK Modulation

In this paper, noisy index coding problems over AWGN channel are considered. For a given index coding problem and a chosen scalar linear index code of length N, we proppse to transmit the N index coded bits as a single signal from a 2(N) -PSK constellation. By transmitting the index coded bits in this way, there is an N/2 - fold reduction in the required bandwidth. Also, by transmitting the index coded bits as a PSK signal, receivers with side information satisfying certain conditions get coding gain relative to a receiver with no side information. This coding gain obtained by the receivers is due to proper utilization of their side information and hence is called ``PSK side information coding gain (PSK-SICG)''. We state and prove a necessary and sufficient condition for a receiver to get PSK-SICG. An algorithm to map the index coded bits to PSK signal set such that the PSK-SICG obtained is maximized for the receiver with maximum side information is given. Further, we show that if index coded bits are transmitted as a PSK signal, it is not always necessary to minimize the length of index code used as there are index coding problems where use of a longer index code will give a better performance in terms of probability of error