Succinct Arguments in the Quantum Random Oracle Model

Succinct non-interactive arguments (SNARGs) are highly efficient certificates of membership in non-deterministic languages. Constructions of SNARGs in the random oracle model are widely believed to be post-quantum secure, provided the oracle is instantiated with a suitable post-quantum hash function. No formal evidence, however, supports this belief. In this work we provide the first such evidence by proving that the SNARG construction of Micali is unconditionally secure in the *quantum* random oracle model. We also prove that, analogously to the classical case, the SNARG inherits the zero knowledge and proof of knowledge properties of the PCP underlying the Micali construction. We thus obtain the first zero knowledge SNARG of knowledge (zkSNARK) that is secure in the quantum random oracle model. Our main tool is a new lifting lemma that shows how, for a rich class of oracle games, we can *generically* deduce security against quantum attackers by bounding a natural classical property of these games. This means that in order to prove our theorem we only need to establish *classical* properties about the Micali construction. This approach not only lets us prove post-quantum security but also enables us to prove explicit bounds that are tight up to small factors. We additionally use our techniques to prove that SNARGs based on interactive oracle proofs (IOPs) with round-by-round soundness are unconditionally secure in the quantum random oracle model. This result establishes the post-quantum security of many SNARGs of practical interest

Treatment Protocols for Eating Disorders: Clinicians’ Attitudes, Concerns, Adherence and Difficulties Delivering Evidence-Based Psychological Interventions

There are several protocols in existence that guide clinicians in the implementation of effective, evidence-based psychological interventions for eating disorders. These have been made accessible in the form of treatment manuals. However, relatively few clinicians use those protocols, preferring to offer more eclectic or integrative approaches. Following a summary of the research that shows that these evidence-based approaches can be used successfully in routine clinical settings, this review considers why there is such poor uptake of these therapies in such settings. This review focuses on the role of service culture and on clinicians’ own attitudes, beliefs and emotions. Possible means of enhancing uptake are considered, but these cannot be considered to be ideal solutions at present

Aurora: Transparent Succinct Arguments for R1CS

We design, implement, and evaluate a zkSNARK for Rank-1 Constraint Satisfaction (R1CS), a widely-deployed NP-complete language that is undergoing standardization. Our construction uses a transparent setup, is plausibly post-quantum secure, and uses lightweight cryptography. A proof attesting to the satisfiability of n constraints has size $O(\log^2 n)$; it can be produced with $O(n \log n)$ field operations and verified with $O(n)$. At 128 bits of security, proofs are less than 130kB even for several million constraints, more than 20x shorter than prior zkSNARK with similar features. A key ingredient of our construction is a new Interactive Oracle Proof (IOP) for solving a *univariate* analogue of the classical sumcheck problem [LFKN92], originally studied for *multivariate* polynomials. Our protocol verifies the sum of entries of a Reed--Solomon codeword over any subgroup of a field. We also provide libiop, an open-source library for writing IOP-based arguments, in which a toolchain of transformations enables programmers to write new arguments by writing simple IOP sub-components. We have used this library to specify our construction and prior ones