Introduction

Note: This issue includes four articles that began as papers in a 2007 doctoral seminar taught by Professor Laird, who also edited the issue

Leonard Bernstein: Eclecticism and Vernacular Elements in Chichester Psalms

This is the published version, available online from the Society of American Music

Structure and Metamorphism from Jamaica to the Athens Dome, Vermont

Guidebook for field trips in southwestern New Hampshire, southeastern Vermont, and north-central Massachusetts: New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference, 80th annual meeting, October 14, 15 and 16, 1988, Keene, New Hampshire: Trip C-

Inhibition of gap junction and adherens junction assembly by connexin and A-CAM antibodies

We examined the roles of the extracellular domains of a gap junction protein and a cell adhesion molecule in gap junction and adherens junction formation by altering cell interactions with antibody Fab fragments. Using immunoblotting and immunocytochemistry we demonstrated that Novikoff cells contained the gap junction protein, connexin43 (Cx43), and the cell adhesion molecule, A-CAM (N-cadherin). Cells were dissociated in EDTA, allowed to recover, and reaggregated for 60 min in media containing Fab fragments prepared from a number of antibodies. We observed no cell-cell dye transfer 4 min after microinjection in 90% of the cell pairs treated with Fab fragments of antibodies for the first or second extracellular domain of Cx43, the second extracellular domain of connexin32 (Cx32) or A-CAM. Cell-cell dye transfer was detected within 30 s in cell pairs treated with control Fab fragments (pre-immune serum, antibodies to the rat major histocompatibility complex or the amino or carboxyl termii of Cx43). We observed no gap junctions by freeze-fracture EM and no adherens junctions by thin section EM between cells treated with the Fab fragments that blocked cell-cell dye transfer. Gap junctions were found on approximately 50% of the cells in control samples using freeze-fracture EM. We demonstrated with reaggregated Novikoff cells that: (a) functional interactions of the extracellular domains of the connexins were necessary for the formation of gap junction channels; (b) cell interactions mediated by A-CAM were required for gap junction assembly; and (c) Fab fragments of antibodies for A-CAM or connexin extracellular domains blocked adherens junction formation

Multiparty computations in varying contexts

Recent developments in the automatic transformation of protocols into Secure Multiparty Computation (SMC) interactions, and the selection of appropriate schemes for their implementation have improved usabililty of SMC. Poor performance along with data leakage or errors caused by coding mistakes and complexity had hindered SMC usability. Previous practice involved integrating the SMC code into the application being designed, and this tight integration meant the code was not reusable without modification. The progress that has been made to date towards the selection of different schemes focuses solely on the two-party paradigm in a static set-up, and does not consider changing contexts. Contexts, for secure multiparty computation, include the number of participants, link latency, trust and security requirements such as broadcast, dishonest majority etc. Variable Interpretation is a concept we propose whereby specific domain constructs, such as multiparty computation descriptions, are explicitly removed from the application code and expressed in SMC domain representation. This mirrors current practice in presenting a language or API to hide SMC complexity, but extends it by allowing the interpretation of the SMC to be adapted to the context. It also decouples SMC from human co-ordination by introducing a rule-based dynamic negotiation of protocols. Experiments were carried out to validate the method, running a multiparty computation on a variable interpreter for SMC using different protocols in different contexts

On Two Round Rerunnable MPC Protocols

Two-rounds are minimal for all MPC protocols in the absence of a trusted PKI, however certain protocols allow the reuse of inputs for different functions, or the re-evaluation of the same function on different inputs without the re-distribution of public key information. These can achieve an amortised round complexity of below two rounds per computation. Function rerunnable MPC has been achieved using FHE, while additive homomorphic properties of DH-based cryptosystems have been used to allow input rerunnable protocols. These differ in properties such as computational cost per execution, collusion tolerance and number of rounds supported. We discuss the characteristics of some rerunnable protocols, and present a proof of the rerunnable aggregation protocol of Kursawe, Danezis and Katz from the Decisional Bilinear Diffie Hellman Assumption