Damiano Di Francesco Maesa, Andrea Lisi, Paolo Mori, Laura Ricci ¡ 5 authors
Recent years have witnessed, especially in Europe, a shift aimed at bringing users back at the center of digital systems. This has driven innovation towards the affirmation of decentralized systems, in line with the Self Sovereign Identity paradigm. User control over the consumption and disclosure of their data is a key topic of such drive. In this paper we show how it is possible to apply this increasingly popular concept to a traditionally centralized and opaque digital process: Access Control systems. To this aim we expand the XACML standard for Attribute Based Access Control systems with the novel concept of private attributes, i.e. attributes whose values should not be disclosed while still contributing to a policy evaluation result after user consent. Basing our proposal on blockchain systems, we show how to leverage smart contracts and zero knowledge proofs to allow for transparent policies evaluation without disclosing the value of such sensible attributes. Beside formalizing our goals, presenting the system architecture, and discussing its advantages and drawbacks with respect to the traditional model, we provide a reference example to show our proposal innovative capabilities and provide a prototype experimental evaluation to prove its feasibility.
Xin Liu, Xiaofen Tu, Dan Luo, Gang Xu ¡ 6 authors
In recent years, with the development of information security, secure multi-party computation has gradually become a research hotspot in the field of privacy protection. The intersection and union computation of graphs is an important branch of secure computing geometry. At present, the intersection and union of graphs are almost designed under the semi-honest model, and few solutions are proposed under the malicious model. However, the solution under the malicious model is more secure and has important theoretical and practical significance. In this paper, the possible malicious behaviors of computing the intersection and union of graphs are analyzed. Using the Lifted-ElGamal threshold cryptosystem and zero-knowledge proof method, the secure multi-party computation algorithm of graphsâ intersection and union under the malicious model is designed. The real/ideal model paradigm is used to prove the security of the algorithm, the efficiency of the algorithm is analyzed in detail, and the feasibility is verified through experiment.
Internet of Vehicles (IoV) has become an indispensable technology to bridge vehicles, persons, and infrastructures and is promising to make our cities smarter and more connected. It enables vehicles to exchange vehicular data (e.g., GPS, sensors, and brakes) with different entities nearby. However, sharing these vehicular data over the air raises concerns about identity privacy leakage. Besides, the centralized architecture adopted in existing IoV systems is fragile to single point-of-failure and malicious attacks. With the emergence of blockchain technology, there is the chance to solve these problems due to its features of being tamper-proof, traceability, and decentralization. In this article, we propose a privacy-preserving vehicular data sharing framework based on blockchain. In particular, we design an anonymous and auditable data sharing scheme using Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) technology so as to protect the identity privacy of vehicles while preserving the vehicular data auditability for Trusted Authorities (TAs). In response to high mobility of vehicles, we design an efficient multi-sharding protocol to decrease blockchain communication costs without compromising the blockchain security. We implement a prototype of our framework and conduct extensive experiments and simulations on it. Evaluation and analysis results indicate that our framework can not only strengthen system security and data privacy but also reduce communication complexity by \(O(\frac{n\sqrt {m}}{m^2})\) times compared to existing sharding protocols.
Santiago CuÊllar Gempeler, Bill Harris, James Parker, Stuart Pernsteiner ¡ 6 authors
Currently, when a security analyst discovers a vulnerability in critical software system, they must navigate a fraught dilemma: immediately disclosing the vulnerability to the public could harm the systemâs users; whereas disclosing the vulnerability only to the softwareâs vendor lets the vendor disregard or deprioritize the security risk, to the detriment of unwittingly-affected users. A compelling recent line of work aims to resolve this by using Zero Knowledge (ZK) protocols that let analysts prove that they know a vulnerability in a program, without revealing the details of the vulnerability or the inputs that exploit it. In principle, this could be achieved by generic ZK techniques. In practice, ZK vulnerability proofs to date have been restricted in scope and expressibility, due to challenges related to generating proof statements that model real-world software at scale and to directly formulating violated properties. This article presents Cheesecloth , a novel proof-statement compiler, which proves practical vulnerabilities in ZK by soundly-but-aggressively preprocessing programs on public inputs, selectively revealing information about executed control segments, and formalizing information leakage using a novel storage-labeling scheme. Cheesecloth âs practicality is demonstrated by generating ZK proofs of well-known vulnerabilities in (previous versions of) critical software, including the Heartbleed information leakage in OpenSSL, a memory vulnerability in the FFmpeg multimedia encoding framework, a cryptographic implementation bug in the Secure Scuttlebutt decentralised social network, and a denial of service vulnerability in OpenSSL.
Several emerging areas, such as sensor networks, the Internet of Things (IoT), and distributed networks are gaining traction where resource-constrained devices communicate by sharing privacy-preserving information. Due to heavy cryptographic components, standard cryptographic algorithms do not fit these IoT devices. In this article, we propose an efficient zero-knowledge blockchain-based privacy-preserving decentralized healthcare finance system that is suitable for lightweight computer devices. The proposed design mainly focuses on noninteractive zero-knowledge proof, which substantially reduces the cost of communication between two devices. We explain the system framework and its use case for a healthcare financial system at a micro-level. However, it can also be extended easily to more general financial systems. Our system framework is efficient and lightweight, using more efficient zero-knowledge-based proofs; validation of the transactions is done in milliseconds. As an advancement to our work, the proposed healthcare financial system for lightweight computer devices is also auditable without leaking any extra information than required.
Today, digital identity management for individuals is either inconvenient and error-prone or creates undesirable lock-in effects and violates privacy and security expectations. These shortcomings inhibit the digital transformation in general and seem particularly concerning in the context of novel applications such as access control for decentralized autonomous organizations and identification in the Metaverse. Decentralized or self-sovereign identity (SSI) aims to offer a solution to this dilemma by empowering individuals to manage their digital identity through machine-verifiable attestations stored in a "digital wallet" application on their edge devices. However, when presented to a relying party, these attestations typically reveal more attributes than required and allow tracking end users' activities. Several academic works and practical solutions exist to reduce or avoid such excessive information disclosure, from simple selective disclosure to data-minimizing anonymous credentials based on zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs). We first demonstrate that the SSI solutions that are currently built with anonymous credentials still lack essential features such as scalable revocation, certificate chaining, and integration with secure elements. We then argue that general-purpose ZKPs in the form of zk-SNARKs can appropriately address these pressing challenges. We describe our implementation and conduct performance tests on different edge devices to illustrate that the performance of zk-SNARK-based anonymous credentials is already practical. We also discuss further advantages that general-purpose ZKPs can easily provide for digital wallets, for instance, to create "designated verifier presentations" that facilitate new design options for digital identity infrastructures that previously were not accessible because of the threat of man-in-the-middle attacks.
Jillian Bommarito, Michael James Bommarito, Jessica Katz, Daniel Martin Katz
The global economy is increasingly dependent on knowledge workers to meet the needs of public and private organizations. While there is no single definition of knowledge work, organizations and industry groups still attempt to measure individualsâ capability to engage in it. The most comprehensive assessment of capability readiness for professional knowledge workers is the Uniform CPA Examination developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). In this paper, we experimentally evaluate OpenAIâs text-davinci-003 and prior versions of GPT on both a sample Regulation (REG) exam and an assessment of over 200 multiple-choice questions based on the AICPA Blueprints for legal, financial, accounting, technology, and ethical tasks.First, we find that text-davinci-003 achieves a correct rate of 14.4% on a sample REG exam section, significantly underperforming human capabilities on quantitative reasoning in zero-shot prompts. Second, text-davinci-003 appears to be approaching human-level performance on the Remembering & Understanding and Application skill levels in the Exam absent calculation. For best prompt and parameters, the model answers 57.6% of questions correctly, significantly better than the 25% guessing rate, and its top two answers are correct 82.1% of the time, indicating strong non-entailment. Finally, we find that recent generations of GPT-3 demonstrate material improvements on this assessment, rising from 30% for text-davinci-001 to 57% for text-davinci-003. These findings strongly suggest that large language models have the potential to transform the quality and efficiency of future knowledge work.
Knowledge representation is becoming an effective way of information extraction. However, considerable studies ignored its application scenarios in the zero-shot setting. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for prompt language models based on external ontology knowledge called Knowledge-Based Prompt Tuning for the Zero-shot Relation Triplet Extraction (KBPT), which encourages further investigation in low-resource regimes to address the data scarcity problem in Relation Triplet Extraction (RTE). The major task of relation triplet extraction in zero-shot learning is to extract multiple triplets that are consisted of head entities, tail entities, and relation labels from an input sentence where the extracted relation labels do not exist in the training set. The fundamental idea of prompt tuning is to construct a prompt template, then append it behind the input text as the pre-trained language models (PLMs) input, thus, transforming the classification task into a masked language model prediction. However, our proposed model does not involve the mask language model prediction but a well-designed prompt template in a structured text format to generate synthetic training data containing the unseen relation category. Concretely, we utilize the relation labels and incorporate virtual tokens sources from the relation semantics to construct a structured prompt template for generating synthetic training instances. Moreover, to further enrich and supplement prior knowledge, we draw on ontology schema based on external knowledge bases to enhance the capability of semantic representation in the prompt template. To address the problem of knowledge heterogeneity, we synergistically optimize these embedding representations by way of collective training. In addition, we carefully design a Multiple Triplets Decoding (MTD) algorithm to break through the limitation of extracting multiple relation triplets in a sentence, and our proposed model is model-agnostic and can be orthogonal to any kind of PLMs. Extensive experimental results on four publicly available datasets with low-resource and zero-shot settings demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method. Moreover, our model achieves better performance compared with the current State-Of-The-Art (SOTA) model in terms of ${\rm F_{1}}$ score, precision-recall (PâR) curves and AUC.
In his 1932 Norton lectures, reflecting on Johnson as poet-critic, that other poet-critic T. S. Eliot argued that âit is surely by unconscious irony that we speak of an âage of Johnsonâ as we do of an âage of Drydenâ or an âage of Addison.â Lonely in his life, Johnson seems to me still more lonely in his intellectual and moral existence.â A great mountain towering above foothills such as Gray and Collins, Johnson was âtheir superior as a poet, not in sensibility, not in metrical dexterity or aptness of phrase, but in a moral elevation just short of sublimity.â Yet, a third of the way into the twentieth century, the Harvard audience still had to be convinced that Johnson was superior to these âmeditative-Miltonizingâ poets of sensibility, as Eliot's admirer F. R. Leavis would call them in his influential Revaluation: Tradition and Development in English Poetry (1936). Johnson, Eliot told his audience, âcould not even very much like the poetry of his age with which admirers of the eighteenth century now âthink it necessary to be pleased.â â1Leavis in Revaluation acted even more decisively to move Gray, Collins, and company to the margins of the post-Pope, pre-Romantic canon. This age (still âAugustanâ for Leavis) âhad not favoured any very interesting use of minor talents. . . . And since unconvinced and undistinguished verse in Augustan modes . . . is pretty obviously uninteresting, minor talents took largely to the meditative-Miltonizing poetical modes.â Johnson, however, not only towered above the minor talents, but also achieved meaningful innovation, renewing Augustan idiom and style, Leavis argued. As âa professional writer and a scholar,â Johnson, unlike Pope, âtransmitted no pressure of Good Form, no polite social code, through his pen,â which was driven instead by a moral elevation just short of sublimity. Thus, âboth the professional and the moralist are felt in the characteristic weight that makes his verse so unmistakable for Pope's.â2These moves by Eliot and Leavis to revalue Johnson's poetry and critical prose, especially The Lives of the Poets, were timely. They were made when the scholarly labors of R. W. Chapman, L. F. Powell, David Nichol Smith, and others to edit and publish the Johnsonian and Boswellian corpus, building on George Birkbeck Hill's foundation, had gotten under way. This revaluation of Johnson's imaginative writing and criticism, undertaken in tandem by editors and professional critics, was to bear much fruit, notably, in the Yale Edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson (1955â2019) and the Yale Boswell Editions, officially launched in 1949. The impressive body of scholarship that has grown from this modernist and mid-twentieth-century critical and editorial flowering is already well known to many readers of this journal. Suffice it to say the good work goes on. Celia Barnes and Jack Lynch's new edition of Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides in the Oxford World's Classics series, for instance, was released in January 2020, keeping these perennial texts accessible for the undergraduate student and (one hopes) common readers.Criticism and literary history still proceed in tandem with editing, of course, as in Eliot and Leavis's time, and so, three volumes of new essays on Johnson and writers connected with him, both admiring and less admiring, have appeared in the last two years. (As The Age of Johnson has been publishing scholarship on Johnson, his circle, and their time annually for more than thirty years now, it seems safe to overrule Eliot on this point and use the titular term. It usefully describes evenâperhaps especiallyâthe writers and thinkers in that age who disliked or disputed Johnson.) These three volumes, each edited by Anthony Lee, are Samuel Johnson among the Modernists (2019), and on Johnson's (2019), and on Samuel Revaluation In a of for the The Johnson, and the an Age of this and to have a third of the in the three This is not to the the of is of to this with two essays in Samuel Johnson among the T. S. and the and Jack Lynch's to Eliot's critical prose, great of any and any when in by be in well like Boswell to Johnson and to each other to the a Johnson's of on and Eliot's of the is not as The but The of is that and have an the by two the as the of their for the of their This the of has a Eliot the through the it also the of the as much of his by to the poets of especially and Johnson, the through the of and in a and Eliot in with Johnson a of the of that seems of for both their . . . this in their it was already their The of their Johnson and and in in Johnson's it on as for that and such that their . . . be as a of to this is a of or of as to or as to as in each of these and the was a in and social through and the of the or Johnson in and Eliot in not had already the of these and so of of the of the Johnson and Eliot have no but to the new of and but the and of is no to it through the who of is is just as as in the to in as and not that Johnson and of the which in Yet, as . . . is no irony in would Johnson have Eliot and poet, as David has of and of of the but Eliot to that the was as well have this into his the seems to a to the it the the to This from his and Eliot's that is a and from is the of so that to an in the to be a as a social and of the this from by and his with a of in to and in their edition of Eliot's this with of in that a of such that of Johnson's even this by three of the last . . . and and are by a to the modernist are we to in the as is to in as in the or of which be by of this is not to as Johnson's of and social it is to that these of move and by and and are no of or their is years of Johnson's the of in the or in Eliot's the and of Johnson and Eliot is their their to the of their . . . we are and . . . 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Johnson were also The Johnson of in the in had by âa . . . on the of the and and the for were of the the . . . were with was his by George in the on Johnson and of the literary of the were also to as These who the and in was in in George The of the with that Johnson from a and in a the eighteenth in literary and common readers to of as âa of and but in the of and the that were to it to of and a into for a from the and of the twentieth in which were in and by and was this of Johnson's to the and a of . . . to have been with in of Boswell's were the such was and of The Johnson was the R. W. Chapman, who the for the and on the the were a . . . a in a and . . . the three of the Tour to the or A Journey to the Western Islands in the of a of the readers of Johnson however, with his him, of and the in of and As this of Johnson's The Oxford for in The Johnson Samuel Johnson for in the to This Johnson on the to that for on the of had not it and was not to the in and for to were many under the In a the Johnson S. Johnson on in which that Johnson on which the of the Johnson, it had been an for the and only and the had the time, as his be of to a also be as an These of the that it was from and the even more of on and in on the this have been in the or These and were to use by such as of and and even and the . . . and of an in of through that Johnson into an of social were convinced that to in when the had been of in and that of Johnson was in short the of Johnson to their the who through the and the were more to speak through than to to the . . . . . . the had even to the the . . . had any of have been less by less than years And to would be by this but not The that so many to to . . . in which Johnson was as both and to Johnson in with Eliot and and to the and by of him, the to on Samuel Revaluation Leavis's of Johnson and his critical and imaginative writing the of English and on Johnson, however, in are not in or by the with Johnson as and which is for Johnson's in the by Eliot and Leavis) as an be in a or even his is well to Johnson's and his and not only by In has in which and a of in the audience by in and it is it than the Johnson would have as with the common in great which a in and with to which an the writer Samuel Johnson is the very of in his and in for of as a Johnson in the and As his for Johnson was a of and in that was a and Johnson's and were in his and poetry were in more poetical as it was more from common Gray was . . . to and in the century than was as now, the was that in âa and common readers such as Johnson such or this was that were or with the common in Lives of the also to for poetry that and as moral and in the of in for and and for to Johnson's for the under which with of and which is a of for him, and that is is of interesting work on Johnson and the which for Johnson in a unlike the and of the this critical a moral and in his his meditative-Miltonizing in the Johnson them the of the in intellectual and moral are not with an moral and intellectual but of and the of a in This was not just a social but an intellectual and moral Johnson, as has that it was on to use their instead of it to is a with the to Johnson's poetry the with such in his and in his both and In the of two with Johnson so by in than . . . and of of life, . . . to under in and of Johnson's are also and as Leavis on Johnson's and in by the and of the . . . is much more of in is in that it many and who . . . and are and by the of the The and are in a the meditative-Miltonizing poets The to And the of for instance, is and . . . in of the of the body . . . that it is of and are and Thus, the is much a . . . as a of . . . the of is with or for these as to of and as the of and English of the that . . . a good of this Johnson's as a in his writing to his critical of moral and and In Johnson's the of for the of and and is the of the of like in the of of the is also that both the and the of the the to Johnson's intellectual and As Leavis's as literary and was his . . . not only his but his his for the and and his also . . . his for in is well to with that as a student and not only of Johnson's and Boswell's essays and but also of S. and his makes to Johnson and the of especially Johnson in interesting each was a Oxford Johnson's by in by with a by in were in or for the also Johnson's by or A this was not but a . . . which Johnson was his and with his the in the Yale and In are the of his as a that of Johnson's or have and his These like Boswell's an of the had to a and Boswell's is to with which with a in Johnson, by we even call a of and . . . his of . . . as the that was in the of Johnson made these on thirty or more thirty them by in and of each The three are to or to or on a and to be and of course, was a or in to it in The and of and would to this of A to a and as an and an of The only that are in the of to Johnson . . . which were to be a and especially and the who were well on Johnson's This not as a for a of it surely of these are in a or of of like which the . . . it for to to his . . . a of a of is of from Johnson's do the of an are also the of a to . . . Johnson to have the from the or even and it his characteristic of of as and The and other and was but the was the since it was on to the of Johnson's than the in Johnson's as a of we it as a of of as on the we it as a in the As the the way to a is to to for the or of the Johnson the of his and to the only of that was largely his to his As on in with do to is necessary and is in of the of Johnson in the and with Johnson's of and of the from with the that Johnson's was not only it but also an felt for the of his have and for by such as and the but in his reflecting as in the of are to in the of or of it was for that and with in not on or however, but on as a of in which with that these a . . . . . . in the of . . . . . . and and and and It is that Johnson this with in is no that made to that with the George of Johnson's to the a also of the that to the such as Johnson's not only for but to the more for their as in and as and others have and other texts for were the of the for the in the age of as of literary as that in the poetry and and not with these in is with and of in Johnson's other and also a since to the century, of or were to their in and of the in more the eighteenth century, such that the and makes use of still the of for it is of the and a of an to would that Johnson a verse from of as the to The to to the with to the told the that was more a than a many of Johnson's are in from the of and so, especially in his a by his use of the it and to an and to more and his modes more with on that are with this with of and by A Age be by more work by and on and other of which the of as and Johnson also the of and to so that and the and in the of this in The of that is to be a more than much a more than much and the of the of more than the that Johnson's writing with . . . in the and not . . . a of writing in his such as the to of This is not only but also since the . . . the in the in his The of the a of a an of and an to and is and with as it to of and it or of and of that like is in of . . . and it for to and both a to and an of in the of the to and on Johnson's to Johnson in and with literary and even The with Johnson's to and is a not only for and prose, but Johnson's to was by the writer of this his an also on Johnson's and Boswell's to to in of the of by Johnson's to Boswell with the well as and to when Johnson to the and of and to of an had been in three years and Oxford The to Johnson had in from for and to of in of for of the The to Johnson had also in much less than to were much more in the Johnson that an of which so to and Johnson for not as had to do with was a to as a The to also than to to such as of now of the time Johnson on these the two had in in to however, from any had and that but like Johnson to Johnson was to this the of in which their in it was It is no that the that Johnson on than two to Boswell's from it was but a for as much to as to his on and that not this good . . . from that in the of Johnson writing and only years would Boswell as had and especially from the and more and to of the three in or and in in each of the three each two to a and that had a and was more of As in years had to would Johnson like both a and a and with was or not to have now of and an to Johnson's literary the that had to that point to these in Johnson's and however, the and of Johnson's that was had as and Boswell as and not with a on but In was still Boswell of in which more and this has a In however, Johnson the time felt no not as Boswell two âhad Johnson's that a to not a of with more than and more and with this in Boswell to Johnson's the Hebrides Johnson Boswell a more than any had had from the In it Boswell's of the on to and a of his as a of the and more not for more not Boswell would to for a which Boswell to for his Good . . . to . . . his to the and . . . to the Hebrides Johnson of with Boswell that and would their which his of to in the for years a The that had been and for a that had been a of had the since The of Johnson has appeared of the and were not to such as the but his with such as the have less with Johnson, and the of is a to scholarship on writers in Johnson's by and It much to Johnson and with into the when these were was that January of literary of the Johnson was in the of writing Lives of the and not only the but decisively literary and as Johnson's in to of the and of the literary had been to by to Johnson to that was the was and the of was to . . . is no . . . with when to . . . . . . 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It is not that his not the of Johnson's literary on for his his on his to or In the new to the of and than who a was a . . . the of literary unlike Johnson, who and that not only had the but the to And this literary and not with his in in as and . . . with their . . . into literary and a that has for a in the even an admirer of Johnson, not his still less other writers in his or just as in Johnson and and for instance, Johnson and both his and and his to and the which This was that both from Johnson and that both as well as on their such as âtheir of and their of in their to which both their and the their of Johnson, as has a and to it not as an of in but as a by and with and as well as to as a of for be for these on A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland a of and on Johnson's of and and social into the or for it was a by the and the modes of that which the of and and in Johnson, however, these in the of a that was in and and in the of the to and by and to the by the and other by the the of his on the and that have made Johnson his and as their and that and a with them be as or in the who and on the of from a be into a Johnson the only in the of the when to on the him, and or on the and of is . . . Johnson is to to his but is his for a the his of that in such as Johnson, great of is and âa with was . . . it on or as when the of to in and his readers the of that Johnson or to for to me in of mountain was was by or more like many of . . . was for a short In as was the Johnson also through Scotland by and Boswell's but or of the in Boswell's Journal is Johnson's in when Boswell in the two just as and their for the was to and was by Johnson's of for Leavis's of Gray and his as a âmeditative-Miltonizingâ by Johnson, as the of the for to with of Johnson, of course, was by the for the his to any have many many and many for the and in and their and social not to the we of the not the with In on with Johnson, the of as a and of of sensibility, and of Johnson to the of in his as Eliot him, when not his in of and no to and to is Johnson's of of the that in a for the The Johnson, and the an Age and age of The is well and Yale for of by and a of the It is also with and by and especially are well of Boswell a with is by the of the The is also as an by for who to their and Johnsonian for and The is and not only the of Johnson and Boswell from to but a on Smith, and is much to but has a for the and the like Boswell and by the for the it and in the of the in such as makes The a in for the of disputed or are more than in of and with a The for of Johnson's and as of that more than This Johnsonian the to with a of is minor and not to the A of into The are told that Johnson's is an of on In it on the of the They are also told that Johnson's with the through and were only time was of This readers who the three Johnson in and his of them in A Journey to the Western Islands of The on Johnson, in his is from readers who to Johnson's that not have his this would have for the and the to They are however, on his by Boswell in the that of the of and are by three a which is Johnson's from George Boswell this with is is but Johnson were a by which no to a great who in with Johnson for was . . . a or any of his was to on the is now to the not from of but of course, like these be on both of the and have been many in and the last thirty years. The this and the scholarship on it in just two or three A
We have come a long way in our fight against leprosy. The skeletal evidence of leprosy from 2000 B.C. in Rajasthan, India, predates similar evidence from the other parts of the world1. From these ancient times to the beginning of 2023, the fight against leprosy has been hard and relentless, the pace accelerating rapidly at the turn of the 21st century. However, India still holds the undesirable distinction of being the leading nation harbouring human leprosy2. Reflections on the future of leprosy must hence consider the enormous work done in the past, often unrecognized through scientific publications. It would be impossible to generate a comprehensive list of all those who served in the field of leprosy, but it will not be amiss to cite a few â Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Manohar Dewan, Baba Raghav Das, Abdul Kalam, Robert Cochrane, Dharmendra, H. Srinivasan and Charles K. Job. Although there is a worldwide decline in the various statistics of leprosy, increasing new cases, childhood cases and grade 2 deformity (G2D) in 2021 compared to 2020, in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic when much of leprosy surveillance was reduced, is a cause for concern2. In India, new cases of leprosy increased from 65,147 in 2020 to 75,394 in 2021 and G2D increased from 1572 to 18632. In southeast Asia, new child cases were 5664 in 2020 as compared to 5380 in 20212. Leprosy misdiagnosis All aspects of leprosy, including epidemiological data, depend on the accurate diagnosis of the disease. Leprosy symptoms are often ambiguous, and apart from diseases that closely mimic leprosy, replacing the Ridley-Jopling classification with the WHO Paucibacillary (PB) - Multibacillary (MB) classification, necessary for employing large-scale treatment with multidrug therapy (MDT), has resulted in the unintended consequence of an increase in misdiagnosis3. In Brazil, among 574,181 new leprosy cases, 7477 (1.3%) were misdiagnosed, more common among females, children, PB and indeterminate forms, and in neural leprosy without skin lesions4. The consequences of misdiagnosis are serious and can impact treatment, physical and mental circumstances and ruin the economic productivity of individuals and families. Therefore, finding solutions to reduce the level of misdiagnosis should be a top priority. To end this, experienced leprologists should be retained in tertiary institutions where laboratory facilities exist to evaluate uncertain cases. Their comprehensive knowledge in diagnosing and treating leprosy should be passed on to the next generation. Educational material should be freely and easily accessible. Translating these into local languages is important. Furthermore, adding interactive blogs that relate to these leprosy digital textbooks will be helpful. Tele-leprology The doctrine of early diagnosis, effective treatment and monitoring has not changed over the years and rapidly evolving technologies hold possibilities of preventing damage from the disease. Over the past several decades, telemedicine has gained popularity in several disciplines and the COVID-19 pandemic has solidified its use further5. With widespread internet coverage and smartphones, tele-dermatology is an effective tool even in remote rural areas with inadequate health care. Establishing remote reading centres for diagnosing and monitoring leprosy should be a top priority. These centres could be a part of tertiary leprosy hospitals staffed with experienced leprologists or act as conduits between the field and the leprologists wherever and whenever available. Ideally, image evaluation would require stations with similar computers and calibrated monitors under regulated ambient lighting. A crucial aspect of this system is training workers to take good, gradable images of leprosy lesions. An imaging protocol giving guidelines for standardizing the imaging (magnification, distance from the smartphone and lighting parameters (natural daylight outside the dwellings) should be made available to all workers. Training should include methods of safely and securely transferring uniquely labelled images and patient data to the central reading centre. Certifying the imagers by requesting sample images and giving feedback on the quality of images would make the system more robust. These images would be a permanent record over time and can be evaluated retrospectively as well as be a repository amenable to artificial intelligence investigations6,7. Biomarkers for early diagnosis Predicting the development of the disease or its reactions can mitigate its subsequent deleterious consequences. Some intriguing reports on biomarkers have been published recently including. One on the transcriptional risk signature for predicting the development of leprosy using blood 4-61 months before the actual clinical diagnosis8. Other biomarkers for detecting leprosy include the repetitive element RLEP which is a highly specific target for detecting Mycobacterium leprae, a recombinant multi-epitope antigen and a multiplex real-time quantitative PCR assay9,10. A five gene signature has been reported to predict type 1 reactions at least two weeks before the actual onset of the disease/symptoms11. Anti-LID-1 serology at diagnosis has been shown to have prognostic value for type 2 reaction in M. leprae positive patients12. In the future, more biomarkers may be discovered and once these undergo further evaluations for repeatability and economic feasibility, these will become ready for transfer from laboratory to field. Newer drugs for treating leprosy and its reactions Treatment efficacy and safety of newer drugs to treat the disease, newer combinations of drugs and the myriad periods of interventions that have reported the need for careful investigations for validity and repeatability. The specter of dangerous amounts of drug resistance to M. leprae is of concern and there is a constant need for innovative drugs and drug combinations to successfully kill the bacilli. Newer anti-inflammatory drugs used in other diseases may hence be explored particularly for recalcitrant type 1 and type 2 reactions. Some drugs, such as cyclosporin A, infliximab and methotrexate, have been used in controlling reactions in leprosy, but their efficacy needs to be replicated in larger studies. Lessons to be learnt from other diseases that have signs in common with leprosy The hallmark of leprosy is a decrease or abolition of tactile sensation. Various other conditions cause hypoesthesia, but two important ones, diabetes mellitus, which is a metabolic disease and HIV, which is a viral disease, have both undergone extensive research to prevent hypoesthesia, identify early peripheral nerve dysfunction and regenerate peripheral nerves to restore sensation. Great strides have been made in imaging techniques of peripheral nerves, bioengineering of neural tissue and in deciphering the mechanisms involved in the regeneration of peripheral nerves. Limb prosthesis with robust functions like never before is now becoming available, but few have been used and tested in deformed leprosy patients13. Shoes that are prescribed for patients with diabetic neuropathy are highly functional, more effective in preventing ulcers and aesthetically pleasing compared to the footwear offered to leprosy patients. In the current age of intensive national and global travel, it is important to study the risk and course of MB leprosy with co-existing morbidities such as HIV, tuberculosis, COVID-19 and monkeypox. Both HIV and tuberculosis as co-morbidities with leprosy are of concern because of the resistance the virus and bacteria are acquiring. Surveillance would play a critical role in this context. Specialized areas that require training While physicians, physio and occupational therapists receive reasonable training in leprosy, it is generally not the case with paediatrics, nursing, dentistry and nutrition. Childhood leprosy, besides being a marker for recent transmission, warrants accurate, early diagnosis by paediatricians who are generally poorly trained in leprosy14. When leprosy patients are admitted to a hospital, nursing becomes the focal point of caregiving. Publications related to leprosy nursing are scarce. Gingival recession, tooth loss, chronic pulpitis, periodontitis and dental caries, fissuring and atrophic glossitis, fibrosis and loss of uvula are commonly seen in patients belonging to the pre-MDT era and a substantial number of them have limb deformities15,16. Can leprosy patients with deformed hands maintain oral hygiene? This is an area lacking important information. Malnutrition is common in children of leprosy contacts as well as adults with leprosy, but only a few studies focus on nutrition in leprosy patients in the post-MDT era17. Modifying curriculum in dentistry, paediatrics and nursing must hence be undertaken to remedy these shortcomings. Nurses trained in specialized care of patients with deformity and acute reactions will be better prepared to learn on the job in caring for leprosy patients. Zero leprosy M. leprae has been detected in a wide variety of wild animals. Leprosy-like lesions have been reported in wild chimpanzees and sooty mangabey monkeys (Cercocebus atys)18,19. Armadillos infected with M. leprae are found in the southern United States and in South American countries and play a small role as reservoirs for the transmission of leprosy to humans20. As long as, this type of transmission exists, a world with zero leprosy is unlikely. However, infection of M. leprae in laboratory animals has opened up opportunities for in-depth investigations on the bacilli. M. leprae-infected armadillos have become extremely useful in leprosy neuropathy research, providing insights into the reprogramming and fate of Schwann cells when denervation occurs, thereby granting opportunities to discover novel therapeutic targets for delaying or preventing nerve destruction21,22. Leprosy stigma Leprosy stigma remains a problem in several parts of India. There have been plenty of reports on stigma and ways to measure it, but reports on successful outcomes are few23. Future focus should be on investigating and promoting factors that have proved useful in bringing down the level of stigma. Poverty, illiteracy, ageing and visible deformities enhance stigma24. Integrating leprosy into the general healthcare system appears to have brought down the level of stigma25. Integration appears to have worked more successfully in a relatively poor and illiterate state than in an affluent and literate state26. Stigma reduction that is a byproduct in specialized hospitals of excellence where service is sought by wealthier populations and where discounted care is provided to leprosy patients needs reporting. Leprosy prophylaxis The WHO advocates administering a single dose of rifampicin to reduce the risk of leprosy, in contacts of leprosy patients, after excluding leprosy and tuberculosis in them27. It is an attractive concept, especially when the risk of inducing resistance in Mycobacteriumtuberculosis is small28. Reports on long-term microbiological consequences of a single-dose antibiotic are scarce. A short-term study on the effects of a single-dose antibiotic prophylaxis on normal oral microflora reported that it can induce selection of resistant strains29. In the recent past, antimicrobial resistance to leprosy and tuberculosis has been growing30-32. It is critical to continue to evaluate the long-term beneficial effect of this chemoprophylaxis against the risk of microbiological consequences. However, it may not be wise to extend this chemoprophylaxis to other populations where comorbidity with tuberculosis and HIV is substantial. M. leprae, armadillos and liver regeneration M. leprae has some amazing properties â it is the only bacillus that selectively invades human peripheral nervous tissue, it has an extraordinarily lengthy doubling time, a long incubation period and it defies culture in a laboratory medium. It has added one more surprising property in conjunction with 9-banded armadillos. It regenerates liver tissue. M. leprae induces hepatocyte proliferation and a proportionate increase of vasculature, and the biliary system. It does so without accompanying fibrosis or tumorigenesis. This hepatogenesis, if it can be replicated in human beings, holds promise for patients with liver destruction awaiting organ transplants, conditions such as cirrhosis33. Conclusions An excerpt from Dr. Abdul Kalam, a wise ex-President of India, addressing a national conference on the elimination of leprosy gives the ultimate solution in eliminating leprosy â âReal cure for the elimination of leprosy lies in the development of the region, that means developing the district, and the State. The development approach would provide for the people better amenities, clean drinking water, better hygiene and sanitation, better education and awareness, better healthcare and nutritious food resulting in a livable environment. This holistic approach is the vital need for eliminating leprosy in endemic regionsâ34. The proof that this has worked can be found in the developed nations of the world. The current Prime Minister of India envisions that India would become a developed nation in 25 years and once that vision is realized, the end to leprosy in India would become a reality. Financial support & sponsorship: None. Conflicts of Interest: None.
In 1957, Cambodia's Prince Norodom Sihanouk fled to a monastery near Angkor Wat to become a monk. As it turned out, this was just a maneuver aimed at proving his indispensability rather a fulfilment of his lasting monastic vows. Within a fortnight, he was back in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, launching an attack on his political enemies within the Democrat Party, pitting soldiers against party leaders. He then initiated new elections and won 99 percent of the vote against the only rival party, the socialist Pracheachon. The Communists, realizing that they could not compete against the omnipotent Sangkum, decided to go underground. This is just one episode in Sihanouk's long political biography, but it provides an excellent outlet to understanding this complex political figure, who did not shy from engaging in long-winded, controversial moves in pursuit of Cambodia's independence.Sihanouk's political career, known for its remarkable longevity, spanned eight decades, undergoing myriad transformations. The âPrince of Lightâ of the 1940s turned into the âPrince of Darknessâ in the late 1960s, to borrow Milton E. Osborne's apt metaphors in his Sihanouk Prince of Light, Prince of Darkness (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994). But Sihanouk's career did not end there. He came back to the Cambodian throne in the 1990s as the King Father and eventually departed the scene in the 2010s as the progenitor of a whole nation. Sihanouk's diplomatic initiatives, which were as convoluted and imaginative as his domestic political antics, bemused his counterparts from Washington to Delhi and Moscow to Beijing. Seeing Sihanouk as the political figure at the center of a proud kingdom, defending its right for existence while surrounded by inimical neighbors and the great powers is the interpretative vignette and point of departure for this study.Although William J. Rust's Eisenhower & Cambodia pays intellectual homage to the motivations underpinning the political life of one of the most recognizable monarchs of the twentieth century, it is not intended as yet another biography of Sihanouk. Instead, this diplomatic history of U.S.-Cambodian relations during the Eisenhower administration completes Rust's examination of U.S.-Indochina relations prior to the start of the U.S. war in Vietnam, following up on his research into U.S. policy toward Vietnam and Laos in the 1960s. The book offers the fullest coverage to date of the back-and-forth between Washington and Phnom Penh in the 1950s. Rust rightly understands, however, that a nuanced contextual reading of those relations would be impossible without delving into Sihanouk's image as âa great man in a small countryâ as seen by U.S. diplomats in Phnom Penh and Saigon, U.S. State Department officials, and two U.S. presidentsâDwight D. Eisenhower, at the center of the story, and John F. Kennedy on its fringes. Additionally, Rust convincingly employs center-periphery Cold War optics, which helps to situate the book as a comprehensive case study, portraying the uneasy search for mutually acceptable terms of engagement between the great powers and their smaller local counterparts, limited by their own interests and agendas.The center-periphery framework puts the story into an international context, explaining the mismatch between the two sidesâ expectations of each other. Seen from Washington, the small, formerly French-ruled Cambodia was just a dot on the world map, sitting very low on the U.S. national security agenda. Seen from Phnom Penh, the world seemed an appendage to all social and political problems plaguing the old and proud Khmer empire in its present territorial incarnation. U.S. officials saw Cambodia's internal politics through an anti-Communist lens, a view that, for Cambodian leaders, bore little resemblance to the country's real problems. On the other hand, Sihanouk's obsession with Cambodia's territorial integrity vis-Ă -vis its neighbors Thailand and South Vietnam rubbed up against U.S. diplomatic calculations regarding regional allies.By outlining the ebb and flow of Washington's relations with Phnom Penh during the Eisenhower years, Rust focuses on both covert and overt channels, demonstrating that the former permeated into the latter, hindering it as a result. Rust's event-driven account shows that the difficult relationships of U.S. diplomats in Phnom Penhâfrom Robert McClintock through Carl Strom to William Trimbleâfollowed a recurring pattern. Despite different personalities, managerial styles, and degrees of local knowledge, all U.S. envoys invariably clashed with Sihanouk's idiosyncratic persona. As a State Department's Bureau of Research and Intelligence desk officer noted, Sihanouk was âvolatile, vain, egotistical and sensitiveâ (p. 6). In Phnom Penh, opinions were not much at odds with Ambassador McClintock, who eventually made fun of Sihanouk by referring to him as âSnookyâ (p. 93). These characterizations resemble earlier observations of the Cambodian leader's complex mixture of personality traits, as exhaustively detailed by Ross Marlay and Clark Neher in Patriots and Tyrants: Ten Asian Leaders (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999): âDepending upon the situation, Sihanouk can be charming, tenacious, revengeful, ebullient, stubborn, wily, intolerant, megalomaniacal, autocratic, shill, or playfulâ (p. 151).In line with the book's subtitle, the other conspicuous themes in Rust's account are the U.S. government tendency to play âfootsieâ with Sihanouk's non-Communist rivals and the âdoctrine of plausible denial.â Rust convincingly shows that covert actions affecting Cambodia's internal political affairs proved to be, as with the Laotian case in 1958â1960, counterproductive in advancing U.S. anti-Communist goals (p. 3). The book suggests that the failure of the 1959 Dap Chhuon Plot against Sihanouk and the ensuing rebuff of U.S. involvement in the coup irreversibly damaged U.S. relations with the Cambodian ruler but also further strengthened Eisenhower's âdubious legacy of relying heavily onâ the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) âto remove worrisome national leadersâ (p. 252).In the prologue, which reads as an epilogue, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Relations and former Director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research Roger Hilsman, Jr., speaking with President Kennedy, claimed that during the âEisenhower administration the CIA âdid things the State Department didn't know aboutââ (p. 2). This quotation may serve as an excellent tag line for the book, whetting the reader's appetite, but the subsequent development of the narrative falls flat, failing to provide concrete documentary proof. Those who have had the chance to wade through the released CIA papers of the period will hardly be surprised by this. Instead, by weaving a detailed narrative based on conjecture, memoirs, and oral histories, Rust paints a nuanced story of clandestine U.S. assistance to rebel leader SĆĄn Ngáťc ThĂ nh and his Khmer Serei militia against Sihanouk. However, as Rust notes, scholarsâ diverging views about the degree of U.S. involvement in the Dap Chhoun affair cannot be adjudicated without more âenlightened declassification of fifty-five-year-old government documentsâ (p. 183). This gap, however, does not prevent Rust from offering yet another case showing the relationship, or lack thereof, between U.S. overt and covert involvement in distant local actors at the crossroads between the Communist bloc and the âfree world.â The Cambodian case thus puts in context other U.S. clandestine operations in the region in the 1950s, such as those in Laos and Indonesia, which would indeed need further documentary evidence.Another important theme in the book is Sihanouk's treatment of neutrality in the increasingly polarized international relations of the early Cold War. For U.S. officials, questions about Sihanouk's neutrality and nationalism were intertwined. Local considerations meant that Cambodia's national interest did not coincide with U.S. interests in the region, and, in Machiavellian fashion, the Cambodian leader took a principled approach toward accepting aid on a no-strings-attached-basis as he sought to preserve his country's neutrality. As Rust demonstrates, this approach did not meet with approval in Washington, especially when local overtures were being made by Communist China. The Eisenhower administration was unimpressed with Sihanouk's âindifference to the global ideological struggle between the âcommunist blocâ and the âfree worldââ (p. 4). Sihanouk believed that an orientation toward either of the blocs equated to submissiveness and that such a posture would contradict Cambodia's linkage of its neutrality with foreign non-interference in its domestic affairs. In McClintock's words, Cambodian neutrality was âprimarily an expression of the country's intense nationalism.â Cambodia, in the American diplomat's view, therefore sought to protect independence âby judiciously balancing Eastern and Western influenceâ (p. 111). This, as Rust points out, served domestic purposes, as â[p]oliticians on the left and right unanimously endorsed Sihanouk's policy of neutralityâ (p. 111).Rust argues that the United States overplayed the salience of Communist ideology in international relations while downplaying the history, people, and politics of individual states. U.S. officials in the 1950s tended to reduce the complexity of relations within and among foreign countries to a zero-sum game in which a country was either lost to or won from an international Communist conspiracy efficiently directed by the Soviet Union (p. 18). This challenged Phnom Penh's overarching security concerns, which had developed independent of global Cold War imperatives and were instead focused on the local rivalry with Saigon and Bangkok. The Eisenhower administration's reluctance to oppose South Vietnam's plotting against Sihanouk, whose neutralist tint was deemed less pertinent to U.S. interests, was in agreement with Washington's desire to maintain Saigon as âa strong anti-Communist bastion in Southeast Asiaâ (p. 200). Therefore, Cambodia and United States seemed to have reached an impasse in which visions of neutrality and independence from below clashed with the seemingly all-engulfing zero-sum calculus from above.Rust's book is a valuable, well-researched, and lucidly written case study demonstrating the pitfalls that can develop in diplomatic relations between a superpower and a small state when local imperatives and global interests are mismatched. The added value Rust provides to our understanding of the Cold War's spread into locales hitherto thought of as insignificant is that it puts similar experiences in perspective. As I read Rust's findings with rapt interest, I could not help but draw parallels with my earlier study of the Soviet Union's involvement in the Horn of Africa. The Soviet Union, like the United States, had to deal with rival local actors that almost invariably put their own narrowly defined interests above and before vague and broadly drawn global prerogatives, more often than not managing to elevate the status of their localized cleavages into international crises. Although Rust's new book may not add much in the way of novel interpretations of the studied periodâfor that, see Kenton Clymer's The United States and Cambodia 1870â1969: From Curiosity to Confrontation (RoutledgeCurzon, 2004) and The United States and Cambodia, 1969â2000: A Troubled Relationship (RoutledgeCurzon, 2004)âit undoubtedly enriches our knowledge by offering clear and concise analysis of primary material that will interest not only students of Indochina but also those who seek to develop a wider understanding of center-periphery relations during the Cold War.
The decisions that students make about their educational attainment have profound impacts on their future economic, demographic, and social outcomes. These decisions, however, do not happen in a vacuum. There is a long tradition of research that studies inequality in educational decisionmaking and the various factors that contribute to creating, or reducing, this inequality. However, inequality in educational attainment persists. This dissertation takes a multimethod approach to identifying sources of inequality and evaluating policies aimed at reducing it. In three distinct empirical chapters, this dissertation extends the literature on educational decision making, expanding our knowledge of how inequality is created and maintained. The first empirical paper, evaluates two âfree tuitionâ policy designs, informing policy conversations about how to reduce economic inequality in selective college attendance. Proposed âfree collegeâ policies vary widely in design. The simplest set tuition to zero for everyone. More targeted approaches limit free tuition to those who demonstrate need through an application process. We experimentally test the effects of these two models on the schooling decisions of low-income students. An unconditional free tuition offer from a large public university substantially increases application and enrollment rates. A free tuition offer contingent on proof of need has a much smaller effect on application and none on enrollment. These results are consistent with students placing a high value on financial certainty when making schooling decisions. The second paper focuses on the role of social context in shaping student decision making. There is a long history of sociological research that identifies the essential role of social forces in shaping educational attainment; however, siblings have been understudied as a direct mechanism contributing to educational decision making, overshadowed by the focus on parents and institutions. Using longitudinal qualitative interviews with 36 high-achieving high school seniors from families with low incomes, I explore the unique role that older siblings play in shaping the postsecondary decision making of their younger siblings. I find that the support provided by siblings is distinct from other social resources. The intensity of the relationship, and the internal and external relevance, or the fact the information shared is recent and personalized to the studentsâ circumstances, each make this relationship unique. By studying only parents or considering only the role of parent educational or economic circumstances in contributing to inequality, we ignore an important source of heterogeneity in the lives of students from families with low incomes. The final empirical chapter describes gaps in postsecondary educational attainment between urban, rural, and suburban communities using student-level longitudinal data from the full population of Michigan public high school students. Using several recent high school cohorts, I document rates of college attendance, college selectivity, and bachelorâs degree completion overall and within subgroups, providing updated estimates for urbanicity gaps in college attainment. I find that there is less racial and economic inequality in college outcomes within rural areas; however, it does not come from improved outcomes among racially minoritized students or those from families with low incomes. Students in rural areas from traditionally advantaged groups have substantially lower rates of college attainment than their suburban and city peers. Therefore, while media narratives about White, rural students falling behind are not inaccurate, they tell an incomplete story. This chapter highlights some key areas for policy intervention to better target the distinct needs of students.
The UK Government's Climate Change Act (CCA) aims to achieve a net zero greenhouse gas emission by 2050. Supermarkets, being among the most energy-intensive non-residential buildings, play a pivotal role in this endeavour. This research delves into the influence of climate change on supermarket buildings, exploring methodologies to mitigate its impact and assessing its effects on operational energy and carbon emissions. The United Nations has emphasized the built environment's significant contribution to global CO2 emissions, necessitating urgent action. Using a quantitative approach, this study employs the TAS â EDSL software to simulate energy consumption, carbon emission, and building regulations for various supermarket case studies. The research also evaluates the performance of these buildings across different UK climates and emission scenarios, incorporating EU Zebra2020 tool metrics. The primary challenge encountered was the scarcity of literature specifically targeting the UK supermarket industry in the context of climate change. The research underscores the importance of balancing energy consumption, carbon emissions, and future climate adaptations, especially given the industry's nZEB target by 2050. The findings of this study serve as a beacon for all non-residential buildings, bridging the knowledge gap between climate change, building futureproofing, and emission reduction strategies. The research underscores the importance of long-term planning, continuous monitoring of energy-intensive buildings, and the holistic approach of reducing emissions across a building's lifespan. This research aims to guide policymakers and building designers in future-proofing structures, emphasizing the need for energy-efficient measures and the integration of renewable technologies. The overarching goal is to foster the creation of sustainable, climate-resilient buildings for future generations.
Nikita Konstantinovich Chistousov, Igor A. Kalmykov, Daniil Vyacheslavovich Dukhovnyj, I. D. Efremenkov ¡ 5 authors
Low-orbit satellite communication systems (LOSCS) should have the property of noise immunity, which is based on informational, structural and energetic secrecy, as well as noise resistance. One of the directions associated with increasing of informational secrecy is based on the use of a satellite identification system. This system is designed to prevent the imposition of someone else's content on the subscriber through the use of an authentication protocol based on zero-knowledge proof. In a number of works it is proposed to use modular codes (MC) for a reduction of the time of identification of the applicant as MC give the possibility for parallelizing the process of calculations in the protocol. It is known that MC can increase the fault tolerance of the identification system as they are able to eliminate the consequences of failures during operation. But they can also be used to increase the noise immunity of the LOSCS. Thus, the use of a single algebraic system in the construction of MC that are capable of correcting errors caused not only by failures during operation of the identification system, but also by interference in the communication channel, will allow us to abandon cascade codes. Therefore, the development of a method for constructing a modular turbo code for a noise-proof satellite authentication system is an urgent task.
Economic, Social, and Public Health Issues in Russia and Globally
In this paper, we ďŹrst trace the evolution of cryptography from symmetric- and public-key primitives to the emerging paradigm of privacy computing. We systematically examine three pillars, namely, zero-knowledge proofs, fully homomorphic encryption, and secure multi-party computation, by highlighting their models, algorithms, and performance frontiers. The second half narrows the lens to recent deployed systems. In particular, we introduce the Plonk zk-SNARK powering Ethereum layer-2 roll-ups, and present a state-of-the-art privacy-preserving Vickrey auction algorithm. These case studies illustrate how privacy-computing techniques are transitioning from theory to production-grade blockchain applications.