Information-Theoretically Secret Reed-Muller Identification with Affine Designs

We consider the problem of information-theoretic secrecy in identification schemes rather than transmission schemes. In identification, large identities are encoded into small challenges sent with the sole goal of allowing at the receiver reliable verification of whether the challenge could have been generated by a (possibly different) identity of his choice. One of the reasons to consider identification is that it trades decoding for an exponentially larger rate, however this may come with such encoding complexity and latency that it can render this advantage unusable. Identification still bears one unique advantage over transmission in that practical implementation of information-theoretic secrecy becomes possible, even considering that the information-theoretic secrecy definition needed in identification is that of semantic secrecy. Here, we implement a family of encryption schemes, recently shown to achieve semantic-secrecy capacity, and apply it to a recently-studied family of identification codes, confirming that, indeed, adding secrecy to identification comes at essentially no cost. While this is still within the one-way communication scenario, it is a necessary step into implementing semantic secrecy with two-way communication, where the information-theoretic assumptions are more realistic.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, accepted at European Wireless 202

Reed-Muller Identification

Ahlswede and Dueck identification has the potential of exponentially reducing traffic or exponentially increasing rates in applications where a full decoding of the message is not necessary and, instead, a simple verification of the message of interest suffices. However, the proposed constructions can suffer from exponential increase in the computational load at the sender and receiver, rendering these advantages unusable. This has been shown in particular to be the case for a construction achieving identification capacity based on concatenated Reed-Solomon codes. Here, we consider the natural generalization of identification based on Reed-Muller codes and we show that, although without achieving identification capacity, they allow to achieve the exponentially large rates mentioned above without the computational penalty increasing too much the latency with respect to transmission.Comment: V3: capacity statement fixed; V2: published version in proceedings at International Zurich Seminar on Information and Communication (IZS) 2022 with wrong capacity statement; V1: wrong capacity statement (wrong proof that the codes do not achieve capacity while they do), submitted to 2021 IEEE Globecom: Workshop on Channel Coding beyond 5

A Novel Hybrid Silk Fibroin/Polyurethane Arteriovenous Graft for Hemodialysis: Proof-of-Concept Animal Study in an Ovine Model

To solve the problem of vascular access failure, a novel semi-degradable hybrid vascular graft, manufactured by electrospinning using silk fibroin and polyurethane (Silkothane), has been previously developed and characterized in vitro. This proof-of-concept animal study aims at evaluating the performances of Silkothane grafts in a sheep model of arteriovenous shunt, in terms of patency and short-term remodeling. Nine Silkothane grafts are implanted between the common carotid artery and the external jugular vein of nine sheep, examined by palpation three times per week, by echo-color Doppler every two weeks, and euthanized at 30, 60, and 90 days (N = 3 per group). At sacrifice, grafts are harvested and submitted for histopathology and/or scanning electron microcopy (SEM). No cases of graft-related complications are recorded. Eight of nine sheep (89%) show 100% primary unassisted patency at the respective time of sacrifice (flow rate 1.76 \ub1 0.61 L min 121, one case of surgery-related thrombosis excluded). Histopathology and SEM analysis evidence signs of inflammation and pseudointima inside the graft lumen, especially at the venous anastomosis; however, endoluminal stenosis never impairs the functionality of the shunt and coverage by endothelial cells is observed. In this model, Silkothane grafts grant safety and 100% patency up to 90 days