The More The Merrier: Reducing the Cost of Large Scale MPC

Secure multi-party computation (MPC) allows multiple parties to perform secure joint computations on their private inputs. Today, applications for MPC are growing with thousands of parties wishing to build federated machine learning models or trusted setups for blockchains. To address such scenarios we propose a suite of novel MPC protocols that maximize throughput when run with large numbers of parties. In particular, our protocols have both communication and computation complexity that decrease with the number of parties. Our protocols build on prior protocols based on packed secret-sharing, introducing new techniques to build more efficient computation for general circuits. Specifically, we introduce a new approach for handling linear attacks that arise in protocols using packed secret-sharing and we propose a method for unpacking shared multiplication triples without increasing the asymptotic costs. Compared with prior work, we avoid the $\log |C|$ overhead required when generically compiling circuits of size $|C|$ for use in a SIMD computation, and we improve over folklore ``committee-based\u27\u27 solutions by a factor of $O(s)$, the statistical security parameter. In practice, our protocol is up to $10X$ faster than any known construction, under a reasonable set of parameters

Building Babies - Chapter 16

In contrast to birds, male mammals rarely help to raise the offspring. Of all mammals, only among rodents, carnivores, and primates, males are sometimes intensively engaged in providing infant care (Kleiman and Malcolm 1981). Male caretaking of infants has long been recognized in nonhuman primates (Itani 1959). Given that infant care behavior can have a positive effect on the infant’s development, growth, well-being, or survival, why are male mammals not more frequently involved in “building babies”? We begin the chapter defining a few relevant terms and introducing the theory and hypotheses that have historically addressed the evolution of paternal care. We then review empirical findings on male care among primate taxa, before focusing, in the final section, on our own work on paternal care in South American owl monkeys (Aotus spp.). We conclude the chapter with some suggestions for future studies.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (HU 1746/2-1) Wenner-Gren Foundation, the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation (BCS-0621020), the University of Pennsylvania Research Foundation, the Zoological Society of San Dieg

The Power of Play: A Pediatric Role in Enhancing Development in Young Children

Children need to develop a variety of skill sets to optimize their development and manage toxic stress. Research demonstrates that developmentally appropriate play with parents and peers is a singular opportunity to promote the social-emotional, cognitive, language, and self-regulation skills that build executive function and a prosocial brain. Furthermore, play supports the formation of the safe, stable, and nurturing relationships with all caregivers that children need to thrive

Sexual Differences in Chimpanzee Sociality

Scientists usually attribute sexual differences in sociality to sex-specific dispersal patterns and the availability of kin within the social group. In most primates, the dispersing sex, which has fewer kin around, is the less social sex. Chimpanzees fit well into the pattern, with highly social philopatric males and generally solitary dispersing females. However, researchers in West Africa have long suggested that female chimpanzees can be highly social. We investigated whether chimpanzees in the Taï Forest (Côte d’Ivoire) exhibit the expected sexual differences in 3 social parameters: dyadic association, party composition, and grooming interactions. Though we found a significant sexual difference in each of the 3 parameters, with males being more social than females, the actual values do not reveal striking differences between the sexes and do not support the notion of female chimpanzees as asocial: females had dyadic association indices comparable to mixed-sex dyads, spent ca. 82% of their time together with other adult chimpanzees, and had a comparable number of grooming partners. Further, female associations can be among the strongest bonds within the community, indicating that both sexes can have strongly favored association partners. The findings are in contrast to reports on East African chimpanzees, the females of which are mainly solitary and rarely interact with other females. Our results suggest that researchers cannot generally regard chimpanzee females as asocial and need to redefine models deriving patterns of sociality from dispersal patterns to integrate the possibility of high female sociality in male philopatric systems

Flight Performance of UV Filters on the ALEXIS Satellite

The ALEXIS (Array of Low-Energy X-ray Imaging Sensors) mission, serving as the first dedicated all-sky monitor in the extreme UV, has been collecting data since its launch in 1993. ALEXIS operates in a 70{degree} inclination orbit at an altitude of 800 km. The ALEXIS science mission is to observe the cosmic UV background and to study variability of EUV sources. The ALEXIS experiment is composed of six telescopes. Although the telescopes were only designed for a one-year technology verification mission, they are still functioning with much the same effectiveness as at the beginning of the mission. The telescopes comprise: (1) layered synthetic microstructure (LSM) spherical mirrors, (2) thin foil filters, and (3) microchannel plate (MCP) detectors, all enshrouded within the telescope body. The LSM mirrors select the bandpass for each telescope, while rejecting some of the HeII 304{angstrom} geocoronal radiation. The filters, constructed either from aluminum/carbon or Lexan/titanium/boron, serve to strongly reject the geocoronal radiation, as well as longer wavelength emission from bright OB stars. Each telescope detector consists of two plates, the outermost of which is curved to accurately match the spherical focal surface of the mirror. By reviewing the ground and flight histories, this paper analyzes the flight performance of the filters, including the effects of long term exposure and the formation of pinholes

Licensing Behavior Analysts: Risks and Alternatives

Under certain conditions, obtaining state laws to license practitioners of behavior analysis might be feasible and could produce benefits for practitioners and consumers. Those conditions are not yet in place in most states, however, and pursuing licensure prematurely carries substantial risks for the entire field. We describe the most serious risks and the conditions that make it more or less likely that licensure initiatives will succeed. Finally, we recommend strategies for securing recognition of practitioners of behavior analysis in laws, regulations, and policies that can minimize risks

A Primer on Professional Credentialing: Introduction to Invited Commentaries on Licensing Behavior Analysts

Questions have arisen recently about the relative merits of certification and licensure for protecting practitioners of behavior analysis and consumers of their services. The two approaches to credentialing have short- and long-term implications for practitioners, consumers, and the field. To provide background for the invited commentaries on these issues, we describe similarities and differences in the two types of professional credentials