Blockchain Papers

Robert Steffen

With the economic recovery gaining momentum, travel experts predict that tourism in all regions will increase in 2010 by an estimated 3% to 4%. 1 This increase in travel is forecasted to exceed 5% in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, where the risk of acquiring meningococcal disease or becoming a carrier is higher. 2 When evaluating the need for vaccination in travelers, particularly for those traveling to developing world countries, it is important to consider not only the incidence rate but also the impact of the respective infection (Figure 1). 3 As an example, meningococcal disease is rarely reported in travelers, but the impact of this infection can be as devastating for travelers as for any other individual. With its rapid clinical course and narrow window for diagnosis, the potential for negative outcomes from meningococcal disease may be increased particularly in travelers to remote locations where access to adequate health care facilities and antibiotics is limited. There is an additional public health concern with meningococcal infection, as travelers who are carriers may spread the infection in the society back home. Impact and incidence of vaccine‐preventable diseases in travelers to developing countries. 3 PPD = purified protein derivative, a tuberculin test. Outbreaks of meningococcal disease frequently occurred among Hajj pilgrims, their contacts, and thereafter even in persons without known contacts prior to 2002, when authorities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia issued a quadrivalent meningococcal vaccination requirement to obtain a Hajj visa. 4,5 Otherwise meningococcal disease usually has been considered to be rare among travelers (Figure 2). 6 A single retrospective survey has attempted to quantify the risk of meningococcal disease among international travelers originating in industrialized countries. 7 Health authorities in 56 of 108 contacted countries (51.9%) completed questionnaires concerning reported cases of meningococcal disease, and tourism data were derived from statistics provided by the World Tourism Organization and national tourism authorities for the study period (1986–1989). On the basis of 13 cases imported to 56 countries, a monthly incidence rate of 0.4 per million was extrapolated, which corresponds to approximately 0.4 per 100,000 population per year. 7 When this rate is compared with the commonly quoted annual incidence rate of 0.5 to 10 cases per 100,000 population in industrialized countries, 8,9 it appears that ordinary travel does not result in an increased risk for meningococcal disease. Incidence rate per month of vaccine‐preventable diseases in developing countries—2010. 4 CFR = case fatality rate. As in the general population, infections in travelers can occur in healthy persons without any apparent risk factors and regardless of the type of traveling or the travel destination. In the past few years, a number of anecdotal reports of meningococcal disease among travelers have been published (Table 1). 10–15 An additional six cases, which so far are unpublished, have been detected in the GeoSentinel, a worldwide communication and data collection network for the surveillance of travel‐related morbidity. 16 Among them, two occurred after a visit to Disney World (Pat Schlagenhauf, personal communication). This demonstrates that, among travelers, meningococcal disease may occur in all parts of the world and in various types of travelers—trekkers, leisure and business travelers, students, and pilgrims—and in all age groups. As in the population affected at home, children and young travelers were most frequently affected. Some of the cases of meningococcal disease in travelers reported in recent years confirm what we know from data in other populations: environmental risk is increased by staying in dormitories, 11,15 educational or military institutions, 17,18 and refugee camps 19 and by attending sporting events 20,21 and discotheques. 22 Clusters of meningococcal disease caused by the same strain have occurred in children whose connection was riding the same school bus, 23 which indicates there could be potential for transmission aboard tour buses. Almost 30 years ago during an outbreak situation, six trekkers fell ill in Nepal. 24 The sum of these examples illustrates that the risk of meningococcal disease in travelers can vary based on destination, mode of transport, type of accommodation, and reason for travel/destination activities. While high‐risk groups can be determined primarily on theoretical and general epidemiological considerations, there is no zero risk in any traveler. Anecdotal cases of meningococcal disease in travelers, 1996 to 2008 10–15 Anecdotal cases of meningococcal disease in travelers, 1996 to 2008 10–15 International travelers can also facilitate the global spread of meningococcal disease. Until 2002, this occurred almost annually after the Hajj. However, potentially risks may still occur, as illustrated by a 2009 case of an individual aged 43 years who contracted a fluoroquinolone‐resistant strain of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup A. 12 The patient developed symptoms within 24 hours of returning to Italy after traveling to Delhi and Chennai in India, with a stopover of a few hours in Frankfurt, Germany. Although the patient had no known contact with anyone in India with previous or current meningococcal disease, testing revealed the strain was the same that had caused epidemics in the area in 2005 to 2006. Fortunately, no known secondary cases have been reported in Italy. 12 During epidemics of meningococcal disease in sub‐Saharan Africa, the so‐called African meningitis belt that stretches from Senegal to Ethiopia, as many as 1,000 per 100,000 population may be affected. 25 Recently, the epidemic‐susceptible area has been expanded to Guinea‐Bissau, Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Togo, the Central African Republic, and Eritrea. 8 Countries around the Rift Valley and Great Lakes regions are also now considered to be at risk (Figure 3).26,27 Predicted probability of epidemic experience of meningococcal meningitis. 26 The risk of meningococcal disease in the population in this area is particularly elevated during the dry season between December and June because of dust winds and background upper respiratory tract infections. However, due to the dynamics of climate variability, risk exists somewhat all year. Population displacements, such as when nomads and farmers congregate in traditional market areas, and overcrowded living conditions can increase the risk of transmission and contribute to epidemics of disease. 28 According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in the 2009 epidemic season, 78,416 suspected cases of meningococcal disease, including 4,053 deaths, were reported in 14 African countries implementing enhanced surveillance techniques. 28 This represents the largest number of cases and deaths since the previous large meningococcal disease epidemic in this region in 1996 to 1997, during which >25,000 people died. 25 However, to our knowledge, there has not been a single case published about a traveler having been affected in the African meningitis belt. At the least, to some extent, this may be due to the fact that, following essentially congruent vaccination recommendations, a fair proportion of high‐risk travelers may have been protected appropriately. This may also be, in part, because active surveillance is limited in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, 25 which may result in an underestimation of burden. Finally, an important proportion of travelers has a different behavior and far more social distancing as compared to the local population. During the annual Hajj pilgrimage, >2 million Muslims from across the globe travel to Mecca and Medina. 29 The congregation of such a large population of individuals from such a wide variety of regions, as well as the crowded conditions at the destination, creates a good environment for meningococcal disease transmission, and the international spread of meningococcal disease resulting in outbreaks and epidemics in several countries has been linked to pilgrims returning from the Hajj prior to the institution of current vaccination protocols. 30–33 In 1987, outbreaks in the United States and a large epidemic in Africa of meningococcal serogroup A disease were associated with returning pilgrims. 33,34 More recently, in 2001 to 2002, outbreaks of serogroup W‐135 disease in Europe, the United States, the Middle East, and Asia, as well as a large epidemic in Burkina Faso in Africa, were linked to returning pilgrims. 30–32 One study assessing the risk for meningococcal disease spread as a result of the Hajj‐evaluated N meningitidis carriage in US pilgrims traveling through John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, NY, in February 2001. 31 The prevalence of N meningitidis carriage was higher in those returning from the Hajj (2.6% of 844) than in departing pilgrims (0.9% of 425). Although none of the outbound study participants tested were carriers of serogroup W‐135, nine of those tested inbound were positive for the serogroup (1.3%; p = 0.01). 31 After the 2001 Hajj, a 15% serogroup W‐135 carriage rate also was observed in 171 pilgrims returning to Singapore, with evidence of spread to household contacts. 35 In comparison, data from 2001 indicate that the risk of the international spread of meningococcal disease is much lower for Umrah pilgrimage, which is shorter, occurs all year, and involves much smaller groups of travelers. 29 Fortunately, as a consequence of enforced implementation of the meningococcal vaccine requirements issued by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia health authorities, no exportation of meningococcal disease by Hajj pilgrims has been reported since 2004. There is, however, some concern about serogroup B meningococcal disease for the future. 36 Approximately every 6 weeks, the CDC investigates an incident of possible transmission of meningococcal disease on an aircraft. 37,38 Many other national institutions have similar queries, and passengers have been diagnosed with meningococcal disease after arrival, such as a journalist with serogroup W‐135 in Singapore and an Israeli student in the United States. 9,29 On the other hand, to our knowledge, only two reports of in‐flight transmission have been published. The first occurred on a 14.5‐hour flight from Los Angeles to Sydney. Two individuals who had been sitting 12 rows apart were diagnosed with serogroup B meningococcal disease of the same allelic profile. Both patients were women aged >65 years, and both recovered after treatment with antibiotics. One patient reported walking around the plane with some frequency, whereas the other, seated in an aisle seat, only got up a few times to use the rest room. It remains unknown whether transmission occurred from one passenger to the other or whether a third carrier infected them both. 39 In the second report, one passenger and one crew member were infected on an 11‐hour military charter flight from the Southwestern United States to Frankfurt. One of the individuals had serogroup B disease; the serogroup in the other individual was undetermined. 40 Vaccination against meningococcal disease is not required for individuals traveling into any country except for Hajj and Umrah pilgrims to Saudi Arabia. 5,41 This visa requirement for Saudi Arabia has been extended to all nationals of many countries in tropical Africa arriving by air. 42 Proof of immunization is needed for all Hajj and Umrah visa applicants of all ages; depending on the age group and origin, other vaccinations may also be required (yellow fever, poliomyelitis, and influenza). 5 Applicants must have been immunized more than 10 days and less than 3 years before entering Saudi Arabia. 5 Because of this requirement for periodic vaccination, waning immunity due to immunologic hyporesponsiveness after repeat administration of meningococcal polysaccharide vaccines can be a concern. 6 A study on residents of Mecca and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, aged 10 to 29 years found that repeated administration of the AC polysaccharide vaccine resulted in immunologic hyporesponsiveness to serogroup C. 6 Hyporesponsiveness is not a factor with conjugate quadrivalent meningococcal vaccines, 43 and they should therefore be preferred for use for instance in Hajj pilgrims. Several national health authorities as well as the WHO have issued guidance on vaccinating travelers against meningococcal disease based on environmental factors, such as travel destination, time of year, and type of contact with the local population (Table 2). Although not all the recommendations are consistent—especially in terms of the strength of the recommendation—many overlap to some degree, and all recommend vaccination for all travelers visiting destinations with current outbreaks or epidemic situations. Synopsis of meningococcal vaccine recommendations in travelers WHO = World Health Organization; CDC = Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; CATMAT = Canadian Committee to Advise on Tropical Medicine and Travel; NaTHNac = National Travel Health Network and Centre; ECTM = Expert Committee for Travel Medicine. Synopsis of meningococcal vaccine recommendations in travelers WHO = World Health Organization; CDC = Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; CATMAT = Canadian Committee to Advise on Tropical Medicine and Travel; NaTHNac = National Travel Health Network and Centre; ECTM = Expert Committee for Travel Medicine. In its 2010 edition of International Travel and Health, the WHO lists meningococcal disease vaccination as being of selective use in travelers, along with hepatitis A vaccine, for example. 44 For travelers to industrialized nations, where they may be exposed to sporadic cases of meningococcal disease, WHO cautions that risk is increased in locations where large groups of adolescents and young adults congregate, such as in schools and college dormitories, and recommends considering vaccination for college students. Vaccination should also be considered in “all travelers to countries in the sub‐Saharan meningitis belt.” The risk of infection may be greater in those traveling during the dry season or those staying in the area for longer periods and living with or being in close contact with the local population. 44 Vaccination is also to be considered in “all travelers … to areas with current epidemics.” 44 The WHO, US, UK, and German/Swiss recommendations are very similar (Table 2). Essentially, vaccination is considered or recommended in similar at‐risk groups as those mentioned in the WHO guidance, including travelers to the African meningitis belt and those with prolonged contact with indigenous populations. The UK recommendations also specify meningococcal vaccination for health care workers and travelers visiting friends and relatives due to the close contact these activities involve. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the German/Swiss guidelines explicitly recommend vaccination with a quadrivalent meningococcal vaccine. The preferred vaccine in the United States for individuals aged 2 to 55 years is a glycoconjugate vaccine, with the polysaccharide quadrivalent meningococcal vaccine currently still recommended for those aged >55 years. Children who received either vaccine at age 2 to 6 years who remain at risk should be revaccinated 3 years later with the indicated glycoconjugate quadrivalent meningococcal vaccine, and then every 5 years thereafter. Recommendations are similar for those aged 7 to 55 years who remain at increased risk, except that the period from the initial vaccination to the first revaccination is 5 instead of 3 years. 8 Travelers to or residents of countries where meningococcal disease is hyperendemic or epidemic are one of the groups considered to have prolonged increased risk for meningococcal disease (along with those with increased susceptibility to infection and those with anatomic or functional asplenia). 45 Although the CDC travelers' guidelines do not include a recommendation for college students studying abroad in endemic areas (eg, Europe), general guidelines from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommend all college freshman living in dormitories in the United States who were vaccinated with the quadrivalent polysaccharide vaccine more than 5 years ago be revaccinated with a glycoconjugate quadrivalent meningococcal vaccine. 45 According to the American College Health Association adolescents and young adults account for nearly 30% of all cases of meningitis in the United States. Some 100 to 125 cases of meningococcal disease occur on college campuses each year, and 5 to 15 students will die as a result. Evidence shows 70% to 80% of cases in the college age group are caused by serogroup C, W‐135, or Y, which are potentially vaccine preventable. 46 One could extrapolate that this recommendation would hold whether the student was entering college in the United States or abroad. However, national recommendations differ according to the indicated age groups and of the vaccine. as vaccines are country recommendations should be Recently, the Canadian Committee to Advise on Tropical Medicine and Travel issued guidance on the and recommendations for meningococcal disease vaccination in travelers. In the guidelines recommend a to the to Vaccination should be considered for any individuals traveling to a region of meningococcal disease caused by one of the in the include not only the African meningitis belt countries guidelines that the dry season from country to country and the time to to but also those countries in sub‐Saharan Africa the traditional meningitis belt where recent epidemics have including the and The guidelines also recommend vaccination for the groups of travelers who may have prolonged close contact with the local population in these areas, but specify this may include and those public In to areas with active vaccination may also be for travelers to areas with disease including industrialized where sporadic cases of disease have been reported in the previous 6 In developed countries, travelers should the recommendations of the Although vaccination against serogroup with a vaccine is required for all Canadian CATMAT that this vaccination does not to individuals traveling to destinations where disease due to other is serogroup is due to this risk, and the preferred vaccine is a glycoconjugate quadrivalent meningococcal vaccine due to its polysaccharide vaccines including longer of of hyporesponsiveness with and possible of carriage For the of travelers, those not to Saudi Arabia or those not entering college where vaccination is required in the United the to is based essentially on an of the risk to the individual of developing disease of becoming a carrier of This must account for destination, and of potential and background health of the traveler (Figure Because meningococcal vaccines are associated with few events and these need to be vaccination for travelers. = = Kingdom of Saudi UK = United US = United = visiting friends and vaccination should be recommended for all travelers visiting destinations with outbreaks or epidemic that be, except those who have been vaccinated within the past 3 years. There are that can on active areas, such as developed by a As most groups recommend vaccination against meningococcal disease for at some travelers with destinations in the African meningitis belt. There is whether this recommendation should be limited to the dry season, by various as from to June or only December to 8 or in of the no to be in the WHO and 44 experts also consider parts of the Rift Valley in Africa, including parts of and to as many risks as the traditional meningitis but not the destinations in Recommendations may also differ based on risk of to meningococcal disease in the high‐risk countries as in the A meningococcal vaccine that all is for travelers to the African meningitis belt due to the need to against that disease in the the general factors, we must also consider that personal living and and social behavior a or for (eg, in refugee may be at higher In the African meningitis any health should consider not only the of but also whether there will be close contact to the local population in the the and type of public in dormitories or similar may an increased risk of transmission, and meningococcal vaccination at to be Finally, factors need to be into There is that, for persons with and some with or should meningococcal vaccination regardless of This factor is and a is an for vaccination in such however, infection is not an for meningococcal vaccination, such patients these patients may only have received a vaccine against serogroup and may quadrivalent Some health care will also consider that children are at higher risk of that travelers may be and at higher risk of As with many other immunization in the general population, the of vaccinating travelers is to both the individual from meningococcal disease and society from its In of the large variety of against all vaccine‐preventable is and therefore meningococcal vaccines are to be preferred vaccines for travelers. meningococcal glycoconjugate vaccines should be preferred polysaccharide vaccines due to their in terms of in of immunologic longer of apparent of hyporesponsiveness with repeat and in carriage of N 43 vaccines are particularly considering that the of immunization in travelers is to the risk of disease in the individual as well as the of transmission to and the international spread of At there are two glycoconjugate meningococcal vaccines that against disease caused by C, W‐135, and for use in individuals aged to 55 one also to Although these vaccines are and well remain in our against meningococcal disease. There currently is no vaccine that against of N meningitidis serogroup which is a of meningococcal disease outbreaks and epidemics in many regions in the the of the serogroup in recent years, in must be as there is no vaccine for Finally, there is no vaccine currently indicated for against meningococcal disease in 2 years of However, there is for the future. A glycoconjugate meningococcal vaccine is now in various countries that can be from the age of 2 against serogroup B are in national travel recommendations may travel with an to meningococcal vaccination as a to and spread of disease by International is has for and on for attending for from and

O. V. Kazarin

Commitment schemes, secret sharing schemes, interactive zero-knowledge proofs which underlie the offered interactive secrete sharing schemes are considered. Such schemes are one of the main computing primitives in the theory of secure computations. Base elements of the theory of secure computations and schemes of construction of synchronous verifiable secrete sharing as schemes of secure function evaluation are resulted.

Ning Ding, Dawu Gu

No abstract is available for this record.

Lifeng Sang

A sensor network typically refers to a collection of sensor nodes equipped with sensing, communication and processing capabilities. It brings an opportunity to solve many difficult problems including real time monitoring, tracking, and controlling. While the applications of sensor networking become many and varied, security has always been one of the major concerns in real deployments. In this dissertation, we design physical primitives for secure communication in wireless sensor networks, and develop a wireless security framework to provide conventional security services. We investigate the feasibility of achieving perfect secrecy and information authenticity without shared secrets via two physical primitives: (i) cooperative jamming primitive, where we introduce a secure coding problem in which not only the sender but also the receiver participates in the coding. In essence, the receiver’s role is to selectively jam the sender’s transmission at the level of bits, bytes, or packets. We then design a class of secure codes, called “dialog codes”, for diverse channel models and receiver models. (ii) spatial verification primitive, where we exploit the spatial signature induced by the radio communications of a node on its neighboring nodes, and design a spatial primitive that robustly and efficiently validates the authenticity of the source of messages. To address trust initialization, we propose a zero knowledge proof alternative that allows bootstrapping trust among individuals in a distributed way.

Pablo Andrés García, Igor Santos

As the use of Internet grows beyond all boundaries, the number of menaces rises to become subject of concern and increasing research. Against this, Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS) monitor local networks to separate legitimate from dangerous behaviours. According to their capabilities and goals, NIDS are divided into misuse detection systems (which aim to detect well-known attacks) and anomaly detection systems (which aim to detect zero-day attacks). So far, no system to our knowledge combines advantages of both without any of their disadvantages. Moreover, the use of historical data for analysis or sequential adaptation is usually ignored, missing in this way the possibility of anticipating the behaviour of the target system. ESIDE-Depian, a Bayesian-networks-based misuse and anomaly detection system. In another work, we detailed the composition of the Bayesian network, its training methodology and showed general performance results. Here we have focused on evaluating the integration of misuse and anomaly detection. To this end, we have adopted Snort (a well-known misuse detector) as misuse detector trainer so the Bayesian Network of five experts is able to react against both misuse and anomalies. The Bayesian experts are devoted to the analysis of different network protocol aspects and obtain the common knowledge model by means of separated Snort-driven automated learning process Since ESIDE-Depian has passed the experiments brilliantly, it is possible to conclude that ESIDE-Depian using of Bayesian Networking concepts allows to confirm an excellent basis for paradigm unifying Network Intrusion Detection, providing not only stable Misuse Detection but also effective Anomaly Detection capabilities, with one only flexible knowledge representation model and a well-proofed inference and adaptation bunch of methods. On the other hand, the Bayesian approach also enables to implement powerful features over it, such as Dynamic-Bayesian-Network-based full representation of time, in order to accomplish totally-characterised connection tracking and low level chronological event correlation, or explanation tracking of the inferred cause-effect reasoning processes. Furthermore, contrary to other approaches such as Neural Networks, Bayesian networks allow administrative managing of inner information structures, so specific relationships among packet detection parameters and final conclusion can be explained, in a white-box manner. Moreover, it is not only possible to recover reasoning information, but also to act on both Bayesian network

Gary Gaddis

In 2000, the first Academic Emergency Medicine consensus conference was convened. The topic, “Errors in Emergency Medicine,” was interposed between two well-known Institute of Medicine (IOM) reports of direct relevance: To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System1 (1999) and Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century2 (2001). This foreshadowed the great degree of relevance and timeliness that would characterize future consensus conferences, each of which has as its primary goal the development of a research agenda that will guide the science of the topic at hand. This year, Academic Emergency Medicine convened its 11th consensus conference, “Beyond Regionalization: Integrated Networks of Emergency Care,” in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine in Phoenix, Arizona. The proceedings will appear in the December issue of this journal. In this fashion, another timely research agenda will be developed, refined, and disseminated. These consensus conferences have not occurred in a vacuum. They have, to a demonstrable degree, had their intended effect of stimulating research. This month’s issue of the journal is the first to be devoted primarily to dissemination of research and concepts that have grown from prior consensus conferences. There is every reason to believe that a new and useful tradition has been established. The topics of the prior AEM consensus conferences have been: 2000: Errors in Emergency Medicine 2001: The Unraveling Safety Net 2002: Assuring Quality 2003: Disparities in Emergency Care 2004: Emergency Medicine Information Technology 2005: Ethical Conduct of Resuscitation Research 2006: The Science of Surge 2007: Knowledge Translation in Emergency Medicine: Establishing a Research Agenda and Guide Map for Evidence Uptake 2008: The Science of Simulation in Health Care: Defining and Developing Clinical Expertise 2009: Public Health in the Emergency Department: Surveillance, Screening, and Intervention 2010: Beyond Regionalization: Integrated Networks of Emergency Care A number of the consensus conferences have received significant financial support from Canadian, American federal, other public, and various private sources. Focusing on the conferences of 2007, 2008, and 2009 is illustrative. The 2007 conference received financial support from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and among the featured speakers who took time from their busy schedules to join us in Chicago was Carolyn Clancy, the director of the AHRQ since 2003. Support also came from the National Center for Research Resources, an organization promoting the Clinical and Translational Science Awards program within the United States National Institutes of Health, and the Knowledge Translation Workshops and Symposia Grant Program of the Canadian Institutes of Health.3 The 2008 conference received primary financial support from AHRQ, the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, MedEdPORTAL (an electronic publication of the American Association of Medical Colleges), and the Risk Management Foundation of the Harvard Medical Institutions. Over 30 other medical organizations and academic departments nationwide provided smaller degrees of support. In addition, unrestricted educational grants were received from major manufacturers of medical simulator hardware and software.4 The 2009 conference was primarily supported by a grant from AHRQ and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health, with secondary support from the National Institute of Mental Health; the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA); “Join Together” of the Boston University School of Public Health; and the Departments of Emergency Medicine of Boston University, Brown University, Emory University, George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, the University of Michigan, and Yale University. This conference featured participation from Dr. Richard Denisco from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Dr. Ralph Hingson from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Dr. Amy Goldstein from the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. James Heffelfinger from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Richard Saitz from Boston University, and Dr. Jack Stein, director of SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Treatment.5 Given the significant and continuing financial support of the agencies and foundations that have supported our consensus conferences, it seems prudent to provide them with proof that their efforts have been followed by meaningful responses to the numerous calls for research contained within the consensus conference summary statements and proceedings. In other words, this issue of our journal can be thought of as the first installment of a series of “itemized receipts” that will document how the financial support provided to enable the consensus conferences has been worthwhile. The first several consensus conferences did not enjoy such external financial support, but as the size and scope of the sessions grew, so did the need for funding. Our journal will continue to present these annual consensus conferences into the foreseeable future, and they will require the expenditure of significant resources of time and finances. To be able to document, from the pages of our own journal, that prior consensus conferences have had the desired effect of stimulating relevant research may increase the likelihood that the organizers of future conferences can continue to achieve similar external financial support. Looking forward, it is hoped that an even greater number of research efforts will be inspired by our consensus conferences and that much of that research will appear in our journal. It must be noted that not all of this month’s articles were submitted by authors who had the express intent that they appear in this special consensus conference follow-up issue. The Associate Editors and Senior Associate Editors, as well as Kathleen Seal, our Technical Editor, have referred a number of manuscripts submitted to the journal, but not submitted specifically for appearance in this issue, to the attention of the consensus conference guest editors group. In other words, our work group had to “prime the pump” somewhat. It is hoped that this will not be necessary in the future and that a greater number of manuscripts will be submitted with the goal that they appear in the consensus conference follow-up proceedings. A suggestion going forward relates to the probability that the research agendas set forth at a given consensus conference may eventually become “dated.” Toward that end, it is possible that future consensus conference follow-up issues might only accept manuscripts inspired by consensus conferences of the past 3 to 5 years. This issue contains a total of 15 manuscripts, with the following representation: 2002: one manuscript 2003: two manuscripts 2004: two manuscripts 2005: zero manuscripts 2006: two manuscripts 2007: three manuscripts 2008: one manuscripts 2009: four manuscripts I would be remiss not to thank several people without whom this edition of the journal would not have been possible. The Guest Assistant Editors, who functioned most capably as decision editors, included Gail D’Onofrio, Nicole Deiorio, Lynne Richardson, and Terri Schmidt. I am indebted to them for their efforts. It would be misleading to state that this process evolved exactly as first envisioned, and I must also thank these Guest Assistant Editors for their patience with the evolving processes. David Cone gave me the opportunity to more truly understand the extreme degree of knowledge and organization he brings to his role as Editor-in-Chief. Finally, but most importantly, I thank Kathleen Seal for her most capable guidance and patience. I have learned to an even greater degree than before what a valuable resource she is to our journal.

William G. Lycan

Quine (1966) offered his classic characterization of the notion of paradox, a taxonomy for paradoxical arguments and some vocabulary for discussing them. In this article, I shall generalize Quine’s taxonomy and defend a simpler characterization. The simpler characterization will have the virtue or the flaw (as might be) of making paradox a matter of degree. For Quine, a paradox is an apparently successful argument having as its conclusion a statement or proposition that seems obviously false or absurd. That conclusion he calls ‘the proposition of’ the paradox in question. What is paradoxical is of course that, if the argument is indeed successful as it seems to be, its conclusion must be true. On this view, to resolve the paradox is (i) to show either that (and why) despite appearances the conclusion is true after all, or that the argument is fallacious, and (ii) if the former, to explain away the deceptive appearances. Quine divides paradoxes into three groups. A ‘veridical’ paradox is one whose ‘proposition’ or conclusion is in fact true despite its air of absurdity. We decide that a paradox is veridical when we look carefully at the argument and it convinces us, i.e. it manages to show us how it is that the conclusion is true after all and appearances to the contrary were misleading. Quine’s two main examples of this are the puzzle of Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance (who has reached the age of 21 after passing only five birthdays) and the Barber Paradox, which Quine considers simply a sound proof that there can be no such barber as is described.1 A ‘falsidical’ paradox is one whose ‘proposition’ or conclusion is indeed obviously false or self-contradictory, but which contains a fallacy that is detectably responsible for delivering the absurd conclusion. We decide that a paradox is falsidical when we look carefully at the argument and spot the fallacy. Quine’s leading example here is De Morgan’s trick argument for the proposition that 2 = 1.2 Oddly, Quine does not mention a third related category, the obverse of a veridical paradox: the argument in question could have an obviously false or self-contradictory conclusion, yet rest on no error of reasoning however subtle – so long as it has a premiss that looks for all the world true until we let the argument itself show us that, and how, the premiss is false after all. For example, the Barber is classified as veridical because its conclusion is the truth that there is no barber who shaves all and only those who do not shave themselves; but turn it on its head, so that its conclusion is rather the absurdity that there is a barber who both does and does not shave her-/himself. There is still no fallacy, but only the innocent-seeming premiss that there is a barber who shaves all and only those who do not shave themselves.3 We might call this sort of paradox, for want of better, ‘premiss-flawed.’ Finally (returning to Quine), an ‘antinomy’ is an intractable paradox, one that we cannot see how to resolve in either of the foregoing two ways: the argument does not succeed in convincing us that its conclusion is true-despite-appearances (often because the conclusion is overtly contradictory or otherwise incoherent, yet we can find no fallacious move in the argument; nor is there a premiss that is shown false-despite-appearances. Antinomies, Quine says, ‘bring on the crises in thought’ (5); they show the need of drastic revision in our customary ways of looking at things. My main problem with Quine’s taxonomy is its heavy dependence on the current state of one’s knowledge and on one’s ability to figure things out. Let me explain. All a valid deductive argument shows, just in virtue of its validity, is that a certain set of propositions is internally inconsistent. If all we know about an argument is that it is valid, we do not thereby have even the slightest reason to believe that the conclusion C is true, even though doubtless the person who constructed the argument was reasoning, from P1, P2, … taken as premisses, to C. For unless we are independently moved to accept those premisses, their jointly implying C is of little interest; and even if we do already accept them, seeing that they imply C may make us reconsider one or more of them, rather than inclining us any the more strongly to endorse C as well.4 In this sense, an argument has no intrinsic direction; its direction has been imparted to it rhetorically by a speaker who has recruited it for a particular dialectical purpose. Intrinsically, the argument is just the inconsistent set {P1, P2, …, ∼C}. The relevance of that (I hope uncontroversial) point for Quine is that, faced with an apparently inconsistent set of plausible statements, anyone may choose which of the statements’ denials to single out as ‘the proposition’ or ‘conclusion’ of the corresponding paradoxical argument, either arbitrarily or on a ground of some sort. (Remember that a paradox in Quine’s sense has an already appalling conclusion, so there is not initially any epistemic reason, as opposed to expository reasons, why the conclusion appears as such rather than being negated and taken as a premiss.) And given a paradoxical argument, two theorists might well disagree on whether the paradox is veridical, because they may disagree as to which component propositions are more plausible than which; in particular, one theorist may find the argument veridical while the other finds the ‘conclusion’’s denial more plausible than one of the ‘premisses’. In Quine’s examples of veridical and falsidical arguments, the comparison of plausibility is sufficiently obvious and uncontroversial that in fact no one would dispute his judgements about them. But we should bear in mind that that is because we all think roughly alike on issues of Leap Year and birthdays and barbers and arithmetic; a person who for whatever reason had different background beliefs and very different interests might resist Quine’s judgements. In short, to classify a paradox as veridical is to assume that one’s own preferred way of resolving the paradox is the correct way. More generally, then, a Paradox (I mark my own proposed usage with the capital letter) is an inconsistent set of propositions, each of which is very plausible.5 And to resolve a Paradox is to decide on some principled grounds which of the propositions to abandon. One might then think of saying that when that decision is comparatively easy, we could call the Paradox either veridical or falsidical, depending on which of the component propositions have been designated as ‘premisses’ and which has been denied by way of ‘conclusion’, though when the choice of culprit is difficult or controversial, we call the Paradox an antinomy, as Quine does. But that translation of Quine’s terminology into mine would not be accurate, for in regard to my notion of Paradox, Quine’s ‘veridical’ and ‘falsidical’ are not natural opposites. A Paradox would count as veridical in the proposed new sense just in case (a) one of its members turns out to be clearly less plausible than the others, and (b) the Paradox is already (for whatever reason) cast in the form of a deductive argument having the culprit’s denial as its conclusion. But there would be no such thing as a falsidical Paradox, for a falsidical argument in Quine’s sense is fallacious, and the apparent inconsistency corresponding to it is not real. In my terms, then, a falsidical paradox in Quine’s sense is only an apparent Paradox.6 But on my view the ‘veridical’/‘falsidical’ distinction really loses its point. Rather, there are inconsistent sets containing identifiable culprits – call those ‘tractable’ Paradoxes – and there are the antinomies. It is better just to drop Quine’s terms. There is a further complication. I have defined ‘Paradox’ in terms of actual inconsistency, namely, as a set of propositions that is in fact inconsistent. But (a) a set can be inconsistent without anyone’s knowing that it is or even being able to know that it is; and more importantly, (b) we may have reason to think that a set is inconsistent when actually it is not. Case (b), Quine’s falsidical again, is not uncommon; we have some plausible premisses and we use what seems to be a sound principle of reasoning to deduce our absurdity, but in fact the absurdity does not follow and the fault is in the principle of reasoning rather than in any of the premisses. (De Morgan divides through by a number that is covertly equal to 0; elsewhere (Lycan 1993, 2001) I have argued that when one is reasoning in English rather than in a truth-functional calculus, reliance on the rule Modus Ponens can lead from perfectly acceptable premisses to contradictory conclusions and so must be rejected.) Now, to circumvent this complication and keep the terminology neat, let us dispense with every even faintly dubious principle of reasoning. That is, let us require that for a Paradox to be worthy of its capital ‘P’, it must be formulated truth-functionally, with every initially non-truth-functional principle of reasoning replaced by that principle’s corresponding material conditional inserted as a member of the inconsistent set that constitutes the Paradox in question; thus we shall make every possibly controversial inference principle explicit. And, owing to the semantical completeness of the propositional calculus, any Paradox is provably as well as model-theoretically inconsistent.7 It must be conceded that, in at least three ways, even the propositional calculus is ‘controversial’. First, there is the question of relevant implication. Relevance logicians8 brand the truth-functional calculus as libertine, charging that some of the inferences it sanctions (notably Disjunctive Syllogism) introduce informational irrelevancies and are therefore not ones that English speakers would or should make. But however we feel about this as a complaint against the analysis of English or any other natural language in truth-functional terms, it does not apply to my idea of reconstructing paradoxes into Paradoxes; I am here using the propositional calculus and its libertine notion of validity only as a tool for strict truth-preservation in inferential moves between propositions that are already formulated in the truth-functional idiom. Disjunctive Syllogism may not be a valid principle in the logic of English (any more than are Antecedent-Strengthening and Modus Ponens), but it is valid trivially and by definition for the tilde and the vel. Second, paraconsistent systems have been offered as rivals to standard contradiction-shunning logic,9 and in particular dialetheists led by Graham Priest (1987, 1995) have maintained that there are actually true contradictions. Indeed, Priest cites some familiar paradoxes as examples; there is nothing to ‘resolve,’ because the contradictions simply are true. But this view is no opponent of my characterization of a Paradox. It merely takes a refreshing attitude toward Paradoxes once they are identified. Third, Quine, Putnam and others have suggested that even elementary logic may be brought into question by exotic scientific developments such as in quantum mechanics. Once again we must distinguish between logical laws intended as representing the logic of English and the theorems of a formal system whose truth-theoretic semantics has been officially and stipulatively assigned. My notion of Paradox is tied to the latter, and has no implications regarding the former. But if(!) I understand quantum logicians correctly, they mean to impugn even standard propositional logic understood as formulated in terms of the traditional truth-defined connectives. Depending on one’s view of analyticity,10 and once we have distinguished the matter of epistemic revisability from the metaphysical issue of truth by virtue of stipulated meaning, this may not make sense. But even if it does and we are thereby forced to admit a notion of falsidical Paradox after all, at least my format will make the point of contention as explicit as anything could. Two objections have been made to me; oddly (but fortunately) they oppose each other. The first11 is that most or at least many people think of paradoxes as arguments, hence, contrary to my conception, as being intrinsically directional, from premisses to conclusion. It may be that many people do so; and that way of thinking is well represented by Quine’s model. But I have pointed out that arguments themselves are not intrinsically directional, save by prior commitments of their proponents. To repeat, the speaker who has deployed the argument has chosen to present one or more propositions as its premisses and infer another proposition as its conclusion, but that is rhetoric; we can equally argue from the ‘conclusion’s’ negation to that of one of the ‘premisses’, and nothing about the argument itself tells us which should be preferred. The second objection is that paradigmatic paradoxes are single sentences or statements such as the Liar, hence not inconsistent sets of propositions (and, n.b., not arguments either).12 Whether or not the Liar is paradigmatic, it is a single sentence rather than an inconsistent set, and it does suggest mild readjustment of our formula. I said that a Paradox is an inconsistent set of propositions ‘each of which is very plausible,’ but on its face the Liar cannot be so described. It can be expressed as an inconsistent set, {‘(L) is true,’ ‘(L) is false,’ ‘(L) is either true or false but not both’}, but none of those three propositions has great intuitive appeal. What is true is at best that each of the propositions has a strong argument in its defence.13 Those three arguments have premisses, such as ‘What (L) says is that (L) is false’ and ‘If S says that P then S is true iff P,’ so a Paradox as I originally defined it would feature those undefended premisses, not the lemmas as above. So, either we can say that the Paradox is that more complicated set, which is not very natural (also, we would get different versions depending on exactly how the ultimate premisses were formulated), or we can liberalize the definition by replacing ‘each of which is very plausible’ by ‘each of which either is very plausible in its own right or has a seemingly conclusive argument for it’. If we stick by my notion of Paradox, we will regard the distinction between ‘tractable’ Paradoxes and antinomies as theory-infected and somewhat presumptuous, but above all a distinction of degree. There are actually two matters of degree involved: the disparity in plausibility between a putative culprit proposition and the other, more plausible propositions in the set, and the average degree of plausibility all around. The higher both of these degrees go, the more readily we will see a Paradox as intractable; we get a real antinomy when the first is near zero and the second is still high. If the second is low, we have only a mild Paradox, and I am loath to call it antinomic, but only an array of competing theories.14

Matteo Maffei, Giulio Malavolta, Manuel Reinert, Dominique Schröder

The existing (election) voting systems, e.g., representative democracy, have many limitations and often fail to serve the best interest of the people in collective decision making. To address this issue, the concept of liquid democracy has been emerging as an alternative decision-making model to make better use of "the wisdom of crowds". Very recently, a few liquid democracy implementations, e.g. Google Votes and Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), are released; however, those systems only focus on the functionality aspect, as no privacy/anonymity is considered. In this work, we, for the first time, provide a rigorous study of liquid democracy under the Universal Composability (UC) frame- work. In the literature, liquid democracy was achieved via two separate stages -- delegation and voting. We propose an efficient liquid democracy e-voting scheme that uni es these two stages. At the core of our design is a new voting concept called statement voting, which can be viewed as a natural extension of the conventional voting approaches. We remark that our statement voting can be extended to enable more complex voting and generic ledger-based non-interactive multi-party computation. We believe that the statement voting concept opens a door for constructing a new class of e-voting schemes.

Jerry P. Nolan

A recent meta-analysis of 79 studies involving 142 740 patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest of presumed cardiac aetiology documented a survival-to-hospital discharge rate of 7.6% (95% CI 6.7–8.4) [1]. This analysis showed that survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest has changed little over the last 30 years, although a few recent studies report improving survival rates [2, 3]. Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) increases the chances of long-term survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest [1, 4] but bystander CPR rates are low: in England in 2004–2006 the bystander CPR rate was 36% (unpublished data, National Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Project), which is consistent with the 32% documented in the recent international meta-analysis [1]. Reasons for bystanders’ not attempting CPR include: no previous training [5]; panic; concern about causing harm; and unwillingness to perform mouth-to-mouth ventilation (rescue breathing) [6]. Is ventilation of the lungs absolutely necessary during CPR? Intuitively, the provision of oxygen, even if in the form of expired air (approximately 17% oxygen) ought to be essential if full neurological recovery is to be achieved after anything but a very brief period of cardiac arrest. Yet many animal studies of cardiac arrest have shown either no difference in survival [7] or reduced survival [8, 9] with the addition of ventilation to chest compressions. A limitation of these studies is that, in contrast to humans, the airways of the animals are generally patent when supine, which may enable chest compressions alone to generate some ventilation. In animal studies, frequent gasping occurs during good quality CPR and this provides significant ventilation [10]. Gasping is also common after cardiac arrest in humans but it decreases rapidly with time. Only 7.1% of patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest were noted to be gasping on arrival of emergency medical services (EMS) personnel in Japan [11], but in another study, gasping was present in 39 of 119 (33%) cardiac arrests that were witnessed by EMS personnel [12]. When the EMS arrival time was more than 9 min after cardiac arrest, gasping was present in just 25 of 338 (7%) patients [12]. Not surprisingly, gasping is associated with survival [13]. Animal models that incorporate an obstructed airway [14, 15] or paralysis of the animals [16] may better reflect the clinical situation: they show worse outcomes with compression-only CPR – in these studies arterial oxygenation decreased substantially with compression-only CPR. If airway patency is maintained, do chest compressions generate adequate ventilation in human cardiac arrest? A study of 17 patients in an emergency department who were undergoing chest compressions using a mechanical compression device (Lund University Cardiopulmonary Assist System – LUCAS), their tracheas intubated, documented a median tidal volume per compression of just 42 ml – considerably less than the dead space [17]. These patients had been in cardiac arrest for more than 40 min, which implies that their lung compliance was probably poor (lung compliance decreases with prolonged CPR). Almost five decades ago, Peter Safar [18] showed that following failed prolonged attempts at CPR, chest compressions alone produced zero ventilation in 10 out of 12 patients with intubated tracheas. To my knowledge, there are no human data on tidal volumes produced with chest compressions immediately after the onset of cardiac arrest, but high-quality compressions may prolong gasping, probably adding significantly to any ventilation achieved with compressions alone. Aside from the reluctance by laypeople and healthcare professionals to provide mouth-to-mouth ventilation [19-21], the latter has other disadvantages. Mouth-to-mouth ventilation is associated with a significantly increased risk of regurgitation compared with no CPR or compression-only CPR [22]. The time taken to attempt two rescue breaths, which may be as long as 14–16 s [23, 24], represents a significant interruption to chest compressions and contributes to the ‘no-flow’ time. In comparison with conventional CPR, compression-only CPR is easier to learn [25]. In a study of dispatch-assisted CPR (the caller is given instructions by the ambulance controller on how to do CPR), full instructions were more likely to be delivered completely when the ventilation component was omitted and survival was non-significantly higher in the compression-only group [26]. There are no prospective randomised trials comparing compression-only CPR with conventional CPR. However, eight observational studies have showed similar survival rates when bystanders delivered compression-only CPR instead of conventional CPR, and all showed that survival to hospital discharge was higher with compression-only CPR compared with no CPR [11, 27-33]. The methodology in all these studies was similar: on arrival at the scene, EMS personnel observed and documented the technique of bystander resuscitation (none, compression-only, or conventional CPR). Although compression-only CPR was not associated with statistically higher survival rates overall compared with conventional CPR, one of the studies documented subgroups in which the outcome was significantly better for the compression-only group, for example response times less than 4 min and shockable rhythms [11]. The interpretation of observational studies such as these is fraught with difficulties because of the strong possibility of undetected confounders. Despite this, there has been a strong plea from some experts for compression-only CPR to be incorporated into international guidelines [34, 35] and the American Heart Association has published an advisory statement on ‘hands-only’ CPR – this advocates compression-only CPR if the bystander is not trained in CPR or is not confident in the ability to provide high-quality conventional CPR with minimal interruptions for rescue breaths [36]. Should we stop teaching rescue breathing to laypeople, and instead teach them to perform compression-only CPR? The strongest reason to adopt this approach is that it ought to (although we have no proof) increase the chance of a bystander’s providing CPR – we know that ‘any CPR is better than no CPR’. This strategy should produce at least equivalent outcomes (compared with conventional CPR) for those patients in cardiac arrest from a cardiac cause and where EMS response times are short. Approximately 58% (Japan) [2] to 80% (Scotland) [37] of out-of-hospital EMS-treated cardiac arrests are of primary cardiac aetiology. Those with asphyxial cardiac arrests (e.g. children or drowning victims), or where response times are long, are likely to need early ventilation if they are to have any chance of surviving. The findings of a recent observational study (using the methodology described above) of outcome among children in Japan with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest impact significantly on the compression-only CPR debate [38]. Of 5170 paediatric (aged 17 years and younger) out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in Japan from 2005 to 2007, 71% were from non-cardiac causes. Within this subgroup, conventional CPR produced more favourable neurological outcome than did compression-only CPR (7.2% (45/624) vs 1.6% (1/380); odds ratio 5.54 (95% CI 2.52–16.99)). Among those children who had arrests from cardiac causes, favourable neurological outcome did not differ between conventional and compression-only CPR (9.9% (28/282) vs 8.9% (14/158), respectively; odds ratio 1.20 (95% CI 0.55–2.66)). New cardiopulmonary resuscitation guidelines will be published in October 2010; what should be advised in relation to CPR by laypeople? The 2005 International Consensus on CPR Science already includes the recommendation that: ‘Rescuers should be encouraged to do compression-only CPR if they are unwilling to do airway and breathing manoeuvres or if they are not trained in CPR or are uncertain how to do CPR’ [39]. This message is consistent with the advisory statement that was published later by the American Heart Association [36] and remains reasonable in the face of data published since then. This stance should encourage bystanders at least to attempt some CPR. More controversial is the suggestion that laypeople should be taught to provide compression-only CPR in preference to conventional CPR for witnessed, sudden collapse (even if they have been trained in conventional CPR) [40]; all the available data indicate that this is likely to be beneficial only if the EMS response times are short (4 min or less). If we want laypeople to provide conventional CPR for victims of asphyxial cardiac arrest (including most children), it implies that everyone still needs to be trained to provide mouth-to-mouth ventilation, which takes us back to where we are now. Handley has described a solution that would, at a minimum, get everyone trained to do compression-only CPR, while encouraging as many as possible to learn conventional CPR as well [41]. In this very sensible, staged approach, compression-only CPR is taught to the whole community; the training would be simple and brief and, with the use of a variety of media, could even be self-directed. Those completing this training could then be encouraged to attend ‘follow-up training’ where they would be taught conventional CPR. Those with a duty of care, for example lifeguards and healthcare professionals, should continue to be trained in conventional CPR. Whether or not this strategy is adopted in the 2010 European Resuscitation Council and Resuscitation Council (UK) Guidelines will be made known later this year.

Gilles Barthe, Daniel Hedin, Santiago Zanella-Béguelin, Benjamin Grégoire · 5 authors

Zero-knowledge proofs have a vast applicability in the domain of cryptography, stemming from the fact that they can be used to force potentially malicious parties to abide by the rules of a protocol, without forcing them to reveal their secrets. Σ-protocols are a class of zero-knowledge proofs that can be implemented efficiently and that suffice for a great variety of practical applications. This paper presents a first machine-checked formalization of a comprehensive theory of Σ-protocols. The development includes basic definitions, relations between different security properties that appear in the literature, and general composability theorems. We show its usefulness by formalizing—and proving the security—of concrete instances of several well-known protocols. The formalization builds on CertiCrypt, a framework that provides support to reason about cryptographic systems in the Coq proof assistant, and that has been previously used to formalize security proofs of encryption and signature schemes.

Sonam Samkang, Paolo Dorigo

Ein E- Voting System muss einerseits sicher sein andererseits muss es gewährleisten dass jede Wahl berücksichtigt und anonym ausgewertet wird.
\nDieses Projekt befasst sich mit der Aufgabe, ein solch sicheres, stabiles und transparentes Wahlsystem anzubieten. Das Ziel der Arbeit ist es, einen Web Client zu entwickeln, der mit Hilfe einer Big- Integer Library und JavaScript Funktionen das für E- Voting geeignete Damgård- Jurik Kryptosystem zu implementiert. Weiter galt es, die Verfügbarkeit von echten Zufallszahlen in JavaScript abzuklären. Die generierten Datensätze sind in der JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) an den Server weiterzuleiten. In einem optionalen Teil der Arbeit sollte die Wohlgeformtheit der verschlüsselten Stimmzettel mittels eines Zero-Knowledge Proofs Protokoll nachgewiesen werden können.
\nDer verwendete asymmetrische Damgård- Jurik Verschlüsselungsalgorithmus, hat die homomorphe Eigenschaft, dass die Multiplikation chiffrierter Werte gleich der verschlüsselten Summe der entsprechenden Klartexte entspricht. Da nur das aufkumulierte Schlussresultat der Abstimmung entschlüsselt wird, ist dadurch die Anonymität der einzelnen Stimmen gewährleistet. Um die Gültigkeit eines verschlüsselten Wahlzettels zu überprüfen, wird ein Zero-Knowledge Proofs Protokoll verwendet. Da JavaScript nur mit Zahlen bis 53 Bit rechnen kann, ist für die Berechnungen eine JavaScript Big- Integer Library notwendig. Es wurden verschiedene Bibliotheken getestet und im Detail ausgewertet. Ebenfalls wurde die Möglichkeit echte Zufallszahlen plattformunabhängig zu generieren abgeklärt.
\nDie Wahl der Big-Integer Library ist auf jsbn.js der Stanford University gefallen und für die Generierung von Zufallszahlen auf jscrypto.js, welche durch die Auswertung von Mausbewegungen Entropie gewinnt. Der implementierte JavaScript Client verschlüsselt erfolgreich Stimmzettel mittels Damgård- Jurik Verschlüsselungsalgorithmus und leitet das Chiffrat mit zusätzlichen, für den Zero-Knowledge Proofs Protokoll notwendigen Parametern im JSON Format an den Server weiter, der die empfangenen Daten auf ihre Wohlgeformtheit prüft. Die Messungen haben ergeben, dass der Google Chrome Browser am optimalsten mit den angewendeten Libraries läuft. Bei der Verwendung eines 1024 Bit RSA Modulus benötigt der Google Chrome Browser 1.7 Sekunden für die Damgård- Jurik Verschlüsselung und zusätzlich 8.8 Sekunden für die Generierung der Zero-Knowledge Proofs Protokoll notwendigen Parametern.

Ed Biffin, Robert S. Hill, Andrew J. Lowe

New Zealand (NZ) is both a Gondwanan continental fragment and a geologically active oceanic island, and hence, unravelling the origins and diversification of its biota has been considered important to biogeographic theory more generally (Nelson 1975). For instance, given this dual nature, the modern NZ land mass provides an ideal setting to consider the relative contribution of vicariance (NZ is believed to have separated from the Gondwanan supercontinent c. 80 Ma; but see, e.g., Ladiges and Cantrill 2007, who suggest more recent terrestrial connections between Australia and NZ) versus more recent transoceanic long-distance dispersal in shaping biogeographic patterns (Crisp 2008, Wallis and Trewick 2008). Following its rifting from Gondwana, crustal thinning resulted in progressive submergence of the plate that carried NZ culminating in the “Oligocene drowning” (c. 34–24 Ma) when the emergent landmass of what would become NZ was reduced to a small fraction of the modern area or was submerged entirely (Campbell and Landis 2003; Trewick et al. 2006, Landis et al. 2008). The fossil record of NZ indicates a very high rate of biotic turnover since the Cretaceous (Pole 1994, Pole and Vajda 2009). The importance of Tertiary oceanic long-distance dispersal in the assembly of the modern biota has been widely demonstrated (e.g., Fleming 1979, Mildenhall 1980, Pole 1994, Macphail 1997, Winkworth et al. 2002, Cook and Crisp 2005, Knapp et al. 2005). In light of these data, it has been argued that the burden of proof rests with biogeographers to demonstrate in situ Gondwanan (vicariant) heritage, or indeed, a continuous pre-Oligocene link for the modern NZ biota (Waters and Craw 2006, Landis et al. 2008). Here, we review the claim that Kauri (Agathis australis), the sole extant NZ representative of the predominantly Southern Hemisphere conifer family Araucariaceae, survived the Oligocene drowning (Stöckler et al. 2002, Knapp et al. 2007). Stöckler et al. (2002) present a molecular (plastid rbcL sequences) phylogenetic hypothesis for Agathis and Araucariaceae in which A. australis is resolved as sister to all other Agathis spp. included in their study and is separated by a long branch leading to the Australian, New Caledonian, and Malesian representatives of that genus. We find no substantive evidence from this study to support their claim that A. australis represents a lineage that has continuously occupied NZ since before the Oligocene and potentially since the Cretaceous. Specifically, they argue that the phylogenetic position of A. australis rejects the hypothesis of Pole (1994) “that most if not all New Zealand plant taxa have been derived by long-distance dispersal from Australia during the Tertiary” (Stöckler et al. 2002, p. 830; but see Pole 2008, for an alternative interpretation of Pole 1994). However, the topology of Stöckler et al. (2002) is still consistent with Tertiary long-distance dispersal of the A. australis lineage from Australia to NZ. The tree does not reject the possibility that A. australis is more closely related to extinct Australian Agathis, which are known from well-substantiated macrofossils of southern Australia from the Palaeocene to the Miocene (Hill and Brodribb 1999, Hill et al. 2008). Possibly stronger evidence for the scenario of Stöckler et al. (2002) comes from the antediluvian fossil record of NZ, including putative (then undescribed) Agathis fossils from the Cenomanian (c. 100 Ma) of NZ that would suggest a continuous presence since at least the Late Cretaceous. Pole (2008) has compared morphological variation within “A. seymouricum” and “A. clarencianum” of the NZ Cenomanian with that of extant Agathis and finds no support from these fossils for a presence of Agathis in NZ prior to the Cainozoic (<65.5 Ma). Lee et al. (2007) cast further doubt on the affinities of these Cretaceous fossils, noting that the original illustrations did not contain characters that have been used to define the genus. Hill et al. (2008) believe that the oldest organically preserved fossils that can be unequivocally assigned to Agathis date to the Late Palaeocene in southeast Australia, and even they have some unusual features compared with living Agathis. Furthermore, it has recently been suggested that Araucariaceae may have been extirpated from NZ at the Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary (c. 65 Ma; Pole 2008; Pole and Vajda 2009) corresponding to probable global deforestation following the asteroid impact in Yucatan (Vajda et al. 2001). Knapp et al. (2007) used a plastid DNA sequence data set with integrated fossil time constraints to infer a Late Cretaceous–Eocene divergence of A. australis from a sister clade comprising Agathis from Australia, the southwestern Pacific and Malesia. On this basis, Knapp et al. (2007) hypothesis that NZ Agathis is derived from a lineage that survived the Oligocene marine transgression, although they are cautious with respect to Cretaceous in situ vicariance and consider alternative hypotheses, including possible pre-Oligocene long-distance oceanic dispersal in the context of the Australian fossil record. Our major concern with the analyses of Knapp et al. (2007) rests largely in their treatment of the fossil data to calibrate molecular rates for Araucariaceae. Knapp et al. (2007) applied “conservative” age constraints to internal nodes for their divergence time estimation (i.e., older node age constraints could be justified on the basis of fossil evidence, which could result in older estimates of divergence times for A. australis), although their treatment also implies a high level of confidence with respect to the taxonomic placement of the fossil Araucariaceae. Specifically, they assume that the fossils belong within the Araucariaceae crown group radiation, disregarding the possibility that they are stem group lineages (i.e., the root of their topologies excludes the outgroup). Below, we demonstrate that this approach has strong implications for molecular evolution among araucarians, and using alternative calibration constraints, we question the strength of evidence for a pre-Oligocene presence of Agathis in NZ. We assembled a data set comprising partial plastid rbcL and matK sequences for 24 taxa including 15 Araucariaceae and 9 outgroup taxa representing the conifer families Podocarpaceae, Cupressaceae, Taxaceae, Sciadiopityaceae, and Pinaceae. Sequences were sourced from GenBank, and alignment was performed manually. The aligned sequence length (including two indels in matK) was 1965 nucleotides. Taxa sampled and GenBank accession numbers are indicated in Table 1, and the aligned data matrix is available as Supplementary material at http://www.sysbio.oxfordjournals.org. Taxa sampled and GenBank accession numbers for sequences used in this study Taxa sampled and GenBank accession numbers for sequences used in this study We used the Bayesian relaxed clock implementation BEAST (v1.4.8; Drummond and Rambaut 2007; BEAST input files available at http://www.sysbio.oxfordjournals.org) that implements a number of theoretical advances in molecular clock methods relative to those employed by Knapp et al. (2007, penalized likelihood, Sanderson 2002, and the Bayesian relaxed clock implementation, Multidivtime, Thorne et al. 1998; Thorne and Kishino 2002) including the simultaneous estimation of topology and branch lengths (divergence times) from the aligned DNA sequences, no a priori assumption of rate autocorrelation among adjacent branches of the tree and flexible priors on model parameters (such as parametric calibration priors; Drummond et al. 2006). For these analyses, we used a GTR + I + Γ model of sequence evolution, a Yule prior on branch rates and uncorrelated lognormal (UCLN) prior distribution of branch rates, that is, rate variation among lineages was assumed to be uncorrelated and lognormally distributed (Drummond et al. 2006). Using essentially the same sequences, Stöckler et al. (2002) and Knapp et al. (2007) identified a GTR + I + Γ submodel as providing the best overall fit to their Araucariaceae data sets and found that divergence time estimates were reasonably insensitive to the choice of substitution model (Knapp et al. 2007). We favored the UCLN model of branch rates because it includes a variance parameter (UCLN standard deviation), providing an estimate of among lineage rate variation. Using simulated data, Drummond et al. (2006) found that the UCLN implementation in BEAST performed well (in terms of accuracy and precision) when the data were clocklike or showed significant rate heterogeneity among lineages. Relative to an uncorrelated exponential prior distribution of branch rates, the UCLN model had similar accuracy but greater precision and could better accommodate data that were nearly clocklike because it includes the variance of the lognormal distribution as a parameter (Drummond et al. 2006). We estimated araucarian phylogenies using 2 different sets of constraints on node age. Firstly, we sought to approximate the hypothesis of divergence times for Araucariaceae of Knapp et al. (2007) that was originally derived from 4 fossil constraints and a prior assumption on the age of the root (their Araucariaceae crown node; Table 2; hereafter referred to as crown group scenario). We used lognormal priors with a zero offset providing lower node age constraints equivalent to those applied by Knapp et al. (2007) for their 4 constraints. The prior probability distribution of node ages had a median value (peak prior probability) approximating the mean node age estimates for each of the constraints reported by Knapp et al. (2007) for their Bayesian relaxed clock analyses of their concatenated data set (their table 3, p. 867). The upper limit of node age has a “soft” bound, that is, much older ages are possible but are associated with decreasing probabilities (Sanders and Lee 2007). In addition, we placed a maximum age on the root (i.e., the most recent common ancestor, MRCA, of Araucariaceae and the outgroup taxa; Fig. 1) of 320 Ma, approximating the appearance of conifers in the fossil record (Rothwell and Scheckler 1988; Gaultier et al. 1992; Miller 1999; Hernandez-Castillo et al. 2009). Constraints used to estimate divergence times, the posterior divergence time estimates (median [95%HPD], millions of years before present), and the coefficient of rate variation estimated from the data (median [95%HPD]) under scenarios (a) and (b) Notes: The UCLN mean rate (substitutions site−1 million years−1) and its standard deviation are also indicated for each scenario. Constraints used to estimate divergence times, the posterior divergence time estimates (median [95%HPD], millions of years before present), and the coefficient of rate variation estimated from the data (median [95%HPD]) under scenarios (a) and (b) Notes: The UCLN mean rate (substitutions site−1 million years−1) and its standard deviation are also indicated for each scenario. Tree topologies (maximum clade credibility trees) and divergence time estimates for Araucariaceae under 2 calibration schemes: (a) crown group scenario and (b) stem group scenario. The crown group scenario used 4 fossil constraints (1, Araucariaceae crown; 2, MRCA Agathis + Wollemia; 3, MRCA Section Bunya + Araucaria; and 4, MRCA Section Bunya + Eutacta), whereas for the stem group scenario, 2 age constraints (1, Araucariaceae stem node and 2, MRCA of Agathis + Wollemia) were used to estimate divergence times among Araucariaceae (see Table 2, and text, for details). Branch support (posterior probability) is 1.0 unless indicated adjacent to that branch. The horizontal bars indicate the 95% HPD of divergence times associated with each node and the timescale is in millions of years. The alternative approach (hereafter referred to as stem group scenario) used the same maximum age to constrain the root and additionally used lognormal calibration priors to constrain: First, the MRCA of Araucariaceae and Podocarpaceae based upon the oldest well-assigned fossils for both these families from the Mid-Jurassic (Hill and Brodribb 1999). Putative fossils of Araucariaceae and Podocarpaceae have been recorded from the Triassic, although the affinities of these are tentative (Hill 1995; Hill and Brodribb 1999). However, note that a Triassic age for this node is not ruled out a priori (Table 2) and, secondly, the MRCA of Agathis + Wollemia based upon the recent reviews of the macrofossil record of Agathis (Lee et al. 2007; Hill et al. 2008; Pole 2008). Currently, the oldest unequivocal fossils of Agathis are from southeastern Australia of the Late Palaeogene (c. 55–50 Ma; Hill et al. 2008). We designed the prior to include a mid-Cretaceous age within the 95% confidence interval in light of the description of A. victoriensis (Cantrill, 1992) from Cretaceous (c. 120–100 Ma) sediments of southern Australia (Table 2). However, this species lacks organic preservation, and its generic identity is considered doubtful (Hill and Brodribb 1999; Hill et al. 2008; Pole 2008). Initially, we analyzed the data with each of these fossil constraints singly to consider their internal consistency. As these analyses returned comparable posterior divergence time estimates (Supplementary material; model priors as and as both fossil constraints were included to estimate divergence times among Araucariaceae under the stem group scenario. For each scenario, were each of topology and parameter and Drummond was used to between and estimate an the median and 95% posterior of parameters sampled from the posterior distribution of the and to that the was to estimates of model parameter variance (i.e., see Drummond et al. an fraction the topologies estimated from the 4 were and topology and parameter were Drummond and Rambaut on the credibility The sister group of Araucariaceae and Podocarpaceae was not from these data 1) but is in other analyses sequence data for sampled plant lineages (e.g., et al. 2008). we estimated topologies for the alternative as with the of Araucariaceae and Podocarpaceae or and found no substantive in divergence time estimates or of rates among lineages not The reported to the set of The among Araucariaceae derived from the Bayesian of plastid rbcL and matK sequences are largely consistent with those of including et al. Stöckler et al. and Knapp et al. is resolved as as are the and whereas Bunya and are resolved as sister Wollemia and Agathis are resolved as Agathis, the divergence is that of A. australis from NZ from the Agathis species included in analyses We divergence time estimates for Araucariaceae under the two calibration 1) using 4 internal node age constraints to approximate the hypothesis of Knapp et al. (2007) group scenario) and 2) using two alternative constraints singly (Supplementary or in group Table 2 and Fig. For under the stem group scenario, the estimated age of the Araucariaceae crown group is an of the age suggested by the crown group scenario, whereas the extant lineages of Araucariaceae are of versus predominantly under the stem and crown group (Table 2 and Fig. the stem group scenario a hypothesis of araucarian evolution that the widely (e.g., and and is with of the fossil record of Araucariaceae. For instance, fossil taxa assigned to Bunya and are known from fossils, Section fossils have been reported from the Cretaceous (Hill and Brodribb and is known from the Late Cretaceous (c. Ma; Macphail et al. However, the stem group scenario the affinities of Araucariaceae and in to the crown group scenario provides an of the record. Below, we consider the implications of the alternative calibration with respect to rates of molecular evolution among Araucariaceae. We estimated phylogenies using a UCLN relaxed clock model that the distribution of branch rates to from clocklike rate variation among to in branch rate (Drummond et al. 2006). this the of rate variation among branches can be by the standard deviation of the UCLN relaxed clock In Table (see also Fig. we the estimated value of this for two calibration scenarios (see and Lee 2007). In both is significant from a molecular the standard deviation in the clock rate includes although the of from group scenario) to group indicate that the standard deviation the value of the clock rate branch rate estimates for two calibration scenarios are indicated in For the crown group scenario, the branch rate estimates are associated with the For instance, the Araucariaceae stem group lineage has an estimated median rate of 4 million years In the median branch rate estimates are associated with the Araucariaceae crown from c. to 4 million years 1, that is, to an of lower the estimated stem group the stem group scenario, median branch rate estimates for Araucariaceae from to 4 million years and are comparable to rates for the conifer 4 million years et al. 2007). For the crown group scenario, we find that the in molecular rate c. from the to the Araucariaceae within the Araucariaceae crown is a and strong to lower rates including an c. times lower rate the branches both the and the Agathis + Wollemia crown relative to the stem group rate 2). For the stem group scenario, we find branch rate estimates and in rates from to lineages the of the tree 2). to median molecular branch length to topologies with median node estimates as 1) the rate for each branch branches have a posterior probability in the phylogenies under (a) crown group and (b) stem group calibration that two in terms of constraints, it that the of Araucariaceae fossils is the of the patterns molecular rates between crown and stem group scenarios 2). 1) the fossil constraints in the study of Knapp et al. (2007) are and rates have been the timescale of araucarian evolution or 2) the Araucariaceae are by of rate which would to the that the fossil record of Araucariaceae is rate variation has been widely the tree of and has been to a of including in the of DNA and level of that species are to and reasonably it has been that time may be a major to rate whereas other (e.g., are more important for rate variation among related lineages For the with molecular rate variation demonstrated in (e.g., et al. 1992; et al. and 2008). For instance, based upon and were found to on times and 2008; maximum from their data set was a times in rate in a from a to and time with are to strong rate variation the of species are as is the for all extant Araucariaceae. alternative for the of among lineage rate variation is that the calibration is Specifically, Knapp et al. (2007) assume that the crown group is but no to this The in rate variation could be by the of the calibration a of some branches instance, the Araucariaceae stem which would be between the lower age by the fossil and the upper maximum age set on the and a of (i.e., the crown group internal and branches have in to fit the data to the an would not be in the original analyses of Knapp et al. (2007) because they did not their a scenario most of these constraints were As an of the we divergence times for Araucariaceae using equivalent to those used for the crown group scenario (Table 2) but in the of an upper root age (i.e., 320 Ma, approximating the appearance of the this is a of rate variation among branches (UCLN clock standard 95% although the estimated age of the root is to Ma, 95% not the assumption of an for extant lineages of Araucariaceae (Knapp et al. is associated with entirely estimates for the divergence times of extant conifer families given of land plant evolution (e.g., and Scheckler 1988; and a that it is the calibration approach that is this all internal constraints for Araucariaceae that the number of constraints has a on the value of the rate variation when compared with the assumption that the crown group is we the divergence time estimates for the crown group by the stem group scenario, the is that the fossil record for the family The from the stem group scenario was to find that the fossil are much older their associated lineages. However, if the Araucariaceae crown group a maximum of and Table all these older fossil belong within crown can be stem Araucariaceae not to living In light of the molecular age an alternative is that the affinities of Araucariaceae with extant lineages are an of could result if fossils extinct lineages with extant putative for the extant lineages that are more among extinct For the most the fossil record of Araucariaceae a of that have been in terms of on the basis of partial fossils as and or The extant lineages instance, the extant of are using sets of from the plant (e.g., et al. whereas it is that extinct lineages a greater of morphological is in the present and Hill et al. 1995; Hill and Brodribb 1999; Cantrill and 2006). the of and are characters from may be to taxonomic has been suggested for et al. et al. 2007). have been the affinities of known from material et al. and some putative fossil of and Crisp 2005). The of is of concern for of the between fossil and extant taxa because to as a clade ages provides a review of the of extant Southern Hemisphere conifers including Araucariaceae and found that at the of living taxa could be to the that a of fossil material is as The recent of the extant Wollemia has a of of the fossil record of Araucariaceae of which et al. p. that of Wollemia fossil and of this would be as would be assigned to et al. Section to include extinct from the of based on the of that included that are similar to those of Section whereas the closely to those of doubt as to the of fossils that have been assigned to Section et al. et al. also question the affinities of fossils assigned to Section given that the sole extant representative was resolved in a derived position in their molecular and has at least that is in the The hypothesis of Knapp et al. (2007) the divergence of Section Bunya at not more and doubt as to the of Bunya Lee et al. (2007) and preserved Agathis from the Miocene from the in the of the of New Zealand as affinities with the extant A. However, Hill et al. (2008) that these fossils are unusual for Agathis in a and the the from the is not leading to a as in extant Lee et al. (2007) that these fossils, which they believe affinities with extant Agathis support to the hypothesis of Knapp et al. However, this support is on a phylogenetic between the fossils and the extant A. which is doubt by Hill et al. In light of the evidence we believe that (Stöckler et al. Knapp et al. that the in situ of a lineage to NZ Agathis since before the Oligocene marine are not well Specifically, even if their topology and assumed divergence times are the tree of Stöckler et al. (2002) is still consistent with the possibility that the A. australis lineage from Australia to NZ whereas fossil evidence for the of this lineage in NZ is in light of recent analyses (Hill et al. 2008; Pole 2008; Pole and Vajda 2009). The for the age of A. of Knapp et al. (2007) upon a set of the taxonomic of fossils that rate variation among branches of their (Table 2 and Fig. 2). We believe that the of confidence in the fossil data by the treatment of Knapp et al. (2007) is and, for instance, a of fossil and living Araucariaceae (e.g., et al. 2009) has not been we these the of araucarians, the estimated age of the A. australis lineage is and does not reject the alternative hypothesis of long-distance dispersal to NZ. the divergence time estimates under the stem group scenario suggest the to biogeographic and for Araucariaceae. The ages of nodes suggest an family that has as well as recent diversification in to the that is to extant Supplementary accession number was under the Australian number to We and an for their and on

Karen Hovde

Books, and the libraries that house them, for all their staid reputation, stand as major players in the plots of a substantial number of science fiction works. Books burn in the fires of Fahrenheit 451 and teach apocalypse survivors essential skills in Dies the Fire. In Earth Abides, Ish, a survivor of the Great Disaster and now an old man, sits on the steps of the long-abandoned university library, pondering its useless legacy for a population that lives by the bow and arrow. Global catastrophe and apocalypse are surely the stuff of fiction and where lesser cataclysmic events such as earthquakes and severe storms interrupt the lives of contemporary, industrialized populations, they have been on a scale for which the rest of the infrastructure compensates. But catastrophe can build in subtle, slow trickles that presage a torrent, a cumulative event with implications fully as severe as the sudden tsunami. Those trickles are running now, and their names are energy and digital information. The energy element has several tributaries, the two most significant being climate change and peak oil. They share the factor of being mildly controversial, in that the scientific and expert communities regard them as givens (with a range of potential future scenarios), while numerous doubters give voice in the governmental, business and general populations. Climate change is most evident in an accelerating global warming trend, with its significant and deleterious effects on water and resource availability. Peak oil, perhaps less well known, is the premise – well established in geochemical science – that the world's petroleum and natural gas reserves are in the process of depletion. Decline of yields mirrors a corresponding world oil discovery peak (discovery peaked in the 1960s), and while the debate rages over the precise year of peak oil (estimated to be somewhere between 2005 and 2020), the concern should be with the realities of the slide down the other side of the peak [1], [2]. It is not the place of this essay to deal with the pros and cons of substitutes for oil. Suffice it to say that alternative energy sources come nowhere near providing the cheap, safe, uncomplicated and overwhelmingly available benefits of oil. And the unfortunate factor that intrudes on any discussion of new fuels and new technologies is that of the zero sum game. The natural and economic resources are finite. Those diverted to one form of substitution steal from something else. So why should the digital information industry care about water and tar sands? Electricity. Remember the electricity aliens from old science fiction movies? The Internet is an electricity being. It was born, lives and dies with electricity. It eats electricity and, like any good alien, eats it exponentially. Item – Feb. 2010: Severe drought in Venezuela causes an electricity shortage that is expected to lead to higher oil prices. The worst drought in 10 years has dried up the water that generates hydroelectric power. In an effort to stem the hours-long blackouts that have gripped the nation for months, President Hugo Chavez has indicated that he may divert electricity from oil-producing and -refining operations. Venezuela owns 3.5% of the world's known oil supplies [3]. Item: The western states of California, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada have had their eye on Washington's mighty Columbia River for years. Giant waterworks projects were proposed as long ago as 1968; one of the more current plans is for an undersea pipeline that would carry water to Southern California from the Columbia [4]. Item – January 2010: Google Energy LLC, subsidiary of Google, Inc., has requested permission from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to buy and sell energy [5]. Electricity is provided by hydroelectric power, the burning of oil or coal and nuclear power plants. Worldwide water and oil resources are compromised by current supply and increasing global demand. Climate change restricts the availability of water and limits the ramping up of coal use. Nuclear power plants need abundant supplies of cheap water, and cheap oil underpins the construction of all these plants and the infrastructure that delivers it to homes and businesses. Google knows that its energy alien, housed in an estimated 24 or more data centers, consumes hundreds of megawatts of energy a day – day in and day out. Internet companies are fully aware of the current and projected energy needs of their burgeoning businesses. A smaller data center might consume as much as a large university, about 31 megawatts, including everything from stadium lights to its medical school. A larger complex −180 megawatts – would be enough to provide energy for a city of 900,000 inhabitants. Data centers on average use about as much electricity as large oil refineries. Data centers, or server farms, are a billion dollar business. They are composed of buildings and entire warehouse-sized complexes crammed with computer servers, and for every dollar spent on power, an additional dollar goes for temperature control. According to Department of Energy estimates, data center power requirements will increase from 1.2 percent to 4 percent of all power consumption in the United States in the next few years [6]. As the software industry moves increasingly to a web environment, Internet companies are building their own data centers. Initially concentrated in California and suburban Washington DC, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are all headed for the hills – the hills in this case being those of Washington State and the generators of the Columbia River [8]. Local utilities are hard-pressed to handle current demand in the context of existing exigencies such as infrastructure failures and weather-related outages (storms or air-conditioning draws). Add the double whammy of realistic, projected shortages and/or soaring costs for oil and water. Then consider that the rivers that provide the water for agriculture and hydroelectric power and for filling all the reservoirs and Sigg bottles have their genesis in the mountain snow packs, and that global warming is quietly working on the mountains. The disappearance of more than 80% of Mount Kilimanjaro's fabled snows is predicted to have worldwide implications for drought. And in the Yakima basin in Washington, this winter's reduced snow pack spells problems for irrigation [9]. The Yakima River is a tributary of the Columbia River. The first premise of this construction is that the Internet, those massive layers of data and code residing in increasingly energy-hungry warehouses around the economically beleaguered United States (and elsewhere) is going to reach a point where growth will be constrained by energy limits. “With the possible exclusion of nuclear fusion energy, there are no rational expectations that significant unknown sources of energy can be unlocked through advances in science and technology. Depletion of fossil fuel resources can only be mitigated by a combination of efficiency gains, conservation and substitution of renewable and nuclear fission energy” [10]. The second premise is that the success of the effort to divert, conserve and find substitutes for fossil fuel resources will be severely impacted by the already demonstrable effects of climate change, particularly with respect to water. Is it wise for the information world to dedicate itself unreservedly to the digital format? (And we haven't even mentioned sunspots; a new 11-year cycle of heightened solar activity brings increased risks for power grids, cyber warfare or sharks, which gnaw underwater cables.) The publishing industry, willingly or not, has committed itself irreversibly to digitization [11]. It can neither sustain a physical inventory of backlists nor withstand the storm surge of the worldwide digital marketplace. Libraries are constrained by materials supply, linked as they inextricably are to the publishing industry and also by the access and format preferences of their patrons. Academic libraries subscribe to indexing products that are overwhelmingly digital, to associated digital text, to independent digital serials titles and to an increasing array of electronic books, archives and other full-text products. The legacy that was once restricted to paper stored in physical buildings, on the steps of which our fictional hero sat, is flowing ever faster to the hard drives in the servers in the data centers. Hard drives were not intended to be long-term storage devices in the event of prolonged power outages [12]. How they might perform in that capacity remains to be seen. Can we really delude ourselves that the electricity and the water and the oil will be sufficient to sustain indefinitely the infrastructure of the digital medium? There is an ever more visible thread running through the writings of those concerned with the fragility of the information universe – a thread that is at once both more rational and thus more worrisome than the alarmist prophecies of fiction and doomsayers. From the ruminations of thoughtful and articulate workers in the industry to feature articles in New Scientist, the question is being asked – what happens to our stored knowledge “if something goes wrong?” Or, as is the theme of this essay, what happens when the something that goes wrong is the simple projection of prohibitive parameters of energy and climate factors? There is an analog for knowledge and concern for its fate in an uncertain future. Deep inside a sandstone mountain lined with permafrost on the Norwegian Arctic island of Spitsbergen is a vault designed to hold and preserve around 2 million seeds. The three million dollar project was initiated by the Norwegian government to safeguard the world's seed heritage (the world's food supply) from nuclear war, climate change, terrorism, rising sea levels, earthquakes and the collapse of electricity supplies. It has meter-thick reinforced concrete walls, airlocks and blast-proof doors. It is a seed depository, not a seed bank, and it is not an apocalypse film set. It is real – designed and constructed by a government that was willing to do something more than whine and fret about uncertainty. Museums hold a publicly accepted mandate to preserve the artifacts of cultural heritage, and libraries follow a similar conservation mandate, albeit for a lesser galaxy of objects. It would be silly and pointless to envision a second doomsday vault on Spitsbergen housing copies of the world's literary and scientific heritage. But it is not silly to be realistic about the vicissitudes of the path we tread as we purchase, utilize and store for future use the hard-won body of knowledge on which civilization as we know it depends. Libraries need to hold to that stewardship mandate, to preserve and celebrate the integrity of print formats. They should preserve in print form the world's literary canon and seminal philosophical and scientific works. They should keep in book form the kind of functional information people take so easily now from the web: basic tenets of health and education, instructional literature for building and maintaining essential services, for the raising of plants and animals – a body of print back-up tapes so that when the lights flicker and the blackouts roll, there will be some place to go, and something to hold onto – so that the human heritage of both the practical and the esoteric will not go also into the blackness.

Mohammad Mahmoody, David Xiao

We prove new results regarding the complexity of various complexity classes under randomized oracle reductions. We first prove that BPPPSZK⊆ AM ∩ coAM, where PSZK is the class of promise problems having statistical zero knowledge proofs. This strengthens the previously known facts that PSZK is closed under NC1truth-table reductions (Sahai and Vadhan, J. ACM '03) and that PPSZK⊆ AM ∩ coAM (Vadhan, personal communication). Our proof relies on showing that a certain class of real-valued functions that we call ℝ-TUAM can be approximated using an AM protocol. Then we investigate the power of randomized oracle reductions with relation to the notion of instance checking (Blum and Kannan, J. ACM '95). We observe that a theorem of Beigel implies that if any problem in TFNP such as Nash equilibrium is NP-hard under randomized oracle reductions, then SAT is checkable. We also observe that Beigel's theorem can be extended to an average-case setting by relating checking to the notion of program testing (Blum et al., JCSS '93). From this, we derive that if one-way functions can be based on NP-hardness via a randomized oracle reduction, then SAT is checkable. By showing that NP has a non-uniform tester, we also show that worst-case to average-case randomized oracle reduction for any relation (or language) R E NP implies that R has a nonuniform instance checker. These results hold even for adaptive randomized oracle reductions.

Claudio Maccone

No abstract is available for this record.

Gennady Lyubeznik

Let k be a field, let R be a ring of polynomials in a finite number of variables over k, let D be the ring of k-linear differential operators of R and let f be a non-zero element of R. It is well-known that R_f, with its natural D-module structure, has finite length in the category of D-modules. We give a characteristic-free proof of this fact. To the best of our knowledge this is the first characteristic-free proof.

Sławomir Grzonkowski

Recently we have observed a growing demand for secure technologies for e-commerce that do not put customers at risk of identity theft. We have also experienced the advent of Web 2.0 which has led to new business models and which has changed the way users interact with the Web. This thesis proposes a set of strategies and enhancements towards providing improved security and privacy in such new settings. We introduce a novel concept: Fair Rights Management (FRM). It can be classified as a usage control solution. FRM enables a flexible way of managing digital content. There was a need to provide additional security extensions to keep such a flexible model applicable. Thus, in our approach we take advantage of trust obtained from social networks. This is also the reason why we created an efficient zero-knowledge proof protocol that is lightweight enough to be deployed within existing web-applications. The proposed protocol is also successfully integrated with Semantic Web architecture and associated components. It enables practical Web and mobile applications which employ trust-based transactions as part of their workflow. This core contribution overcomes various disadvantages of prior art and enables a range of new applications and potentially new business models. We show that compared to existing Usage Control Models (UCON) (i) FRM is a step towards fair use in the digital world and we also argue that our approach is enforced by law; (ii) the participants of the proposed solution do not put their privacy at risk. Our research shows that existing infrastructure is sufficient to support ZKP-based solutions; and thus, it is feasible to offer the users enhanced privacy within existing deployed solutions.

Abhilasha Bhargav-Spantzel, Anna Squicciarini, Rui Xue, Elisa Bertino

The problem of identity theft, that is, the act of impersonating others' identities by presenting stolen identifiers or proofs of identities, has been receiving increasing attention because of its high financial and social costs. In this paper, we address the problem of verification of such identifiers and proofs of identity. Our approach is based on the concept of privacy preserving multifactor verification of such identifiers and proofs achieved by the development of a new cryptographic primitive, which uses aggregate signatures on commitments that are then used for aggregate zero-knowledge proof of knowledge (ZKPK) protocols. The resultant signatures are very short and the ZKPs are succinct and efficient. We prove the security of our scheme under the co-gap Diffie-Hellman (co-GDH) assumption for groups with bilinear maps. Our cryptographic scheme is an improvement in terms of the performance, flexibility, and storage requirements than the existing efficient ZKPK techniques that may be used to prove under zero knowledge and the knowledge of multiple secrets.

Abhilasha Bhargav-Spantzel, Anna Squicciarini, Elisa Bertino, Xiangwei Kong · 5 authors

We present algorithms to reliably generate biometric identifiers from a user's biometric image which in turn is used for identity verification possibly in conjunction with cryptographic keys. The biometric identifier generation algorithms employ image hashing functions using singular value decomposition and support vector classification techniques. Our algorithms capture generic biometric features that ensure unique and repeatable biometric identifiers. We provide an empirical evaluation of our techniques using 2569 images of 488 different individuals for three types of biometric images; namely fingerprint, iris and face. Based on the biometric type and the classification models, as a result of the empirical evaluation we can generate biometric identifiers ranging from 64 bits up to 214 bits. We provide an example use of the biometric identifiers in privacy preserving multi-factor identity verification based on zero knowledge proofs. Therefore several identity verification factors, including various traditional identity attributes, can be used in conjunction with one or more biometrics of the individual to provide strong identity verification. We also ensure security and privacy of the biometric data. More specifically, we analyze several attack scenarios. We assure privacy of the biometric using the one-way hashing property, in that no information about the original biometric image is revealed from the biometric identifier.

Kristie Trousdale, Joyce Martin, Laura Abulafia, Claire Barnett · 5 authors

Since the government action on the removal of lead from gasoline in the 1970s, children's environmental health research and policy measures have expanded greatly. Education and outreach campaigns urge parents to ensure their homes are lead free and to check for the presence of radon, mold, and other potential environmental hazards. However, children also spend a good portion of their days in school environments, with the conditions of many schools being so poor that Lloyd Kolbe, founding and former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Division of Adolescent and School Health, has referred to them as “America's largest unaddressed children's health crisis” (Healthy Schools Network, 2005, p. ii.).According to 2008 National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data, there are approximately 132,000 public and private schools in the United States, employing over 7 million adults and enrolling 56 million children (NCES, 2008). Twenty percent of the U.S. population attends elementary and secondary schools, many of which are very densely occupied (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], 2002).In 2006, a national collaborative report entitled Lessons Learned (Healthy Schools Network, 2006) estimated that 32 million U.S. children were at risk due solely to school conditions. These conditions include the presence of old and peeling paint, asbestos, mold, poor indoor air quality, and pesticides, as well as possible preexisting on-site or off-site contamination. According to the EPA (2002), one half of U.S. schools have indoor environmental quality problems. Indoor concentrations of pollutants are commonly three to five times higher than outdoor concentrations due to chemicals found in some conventional cleaning products, improper cleaning procedures, defective or ineffective climate control (HVAC) systems, interior finishes, exterior pollutants, personal care products, and renovation projects (EPA, 2002). Contamination is portable as well and can be brought inside from outdoor exposures.Childhood exposures to environmental toxins have been associated with various cognitive and behavioral impairments, immune dysfunction, adverse reproductive and developmental effects, cardio-respiratory illnesses, and cancer (Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility [GBPSR], 2000; Landrigan, Needleman, &amp; Landrigan, 2002; Rudant et al., 2007; Salam, Li, Langholz, &amp; Gilliland, 2004). One out of every 10 school-aged children, or over 6.7 million children under 18 years of age, has asthma, and between 1977 and 1994 the number of children in special education increased 191% (Akinbami, 2006; American Lung Assocation, 2009; GBPSR, 2000). The prevalence of diagnosed learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children has increased dramatically nationwide (GBPSR, 2000). Environmental contaminants, especially those that affect indoor air quality, have also been linked to increased allergies and sensitivities, rashes, headaches, and other symptoms, often referred to as sick building syndrome (EPA, 2008).Environmental toxic exposures have also been linked with decreased IQ. One study reported that, on average, a 1-µg/dL increase in blood lead results in a decrease of 0.46 IQ points (Canfield et al., 2003). This rate of decline in intellectual functioning appears even greater (1.37 IQ points lost per 1-µg/dL increase in blood lead) among children with blood lead levels below, rather than above, the CDC recommended level of 10 µg/dL (Canfield et al., 2003). Taking into account this increased effect at lower body burdens, more children may be at greater risk of harm from lead exposure than previously believed.Lead has been relatively well researched with regard to its adverse effect on IQ. Yet, other toxicants and combinations of chemicals have also been associated with lowered cognitive functioning. For example, a 2009 Columbia University study found that exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, chemicals released into the air from burning of coal, diesel, oil, gas, and other substances, such as tobacco, can also inversely impact IQ in the developing brain. Schools that have idling buses or are close to major highways may have higher levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the indoor air (Perera et al., 2009).Researchers have found that lowered IQ, even by just a few points, negatively impacts an individual's future earnings (Schwartz, 1994). Other hidden expenses of unaddressed children's environmental health concerns include parents' lost wages due to medical and therapeutic expenses and missed work and the costs to school districts and taxpayers of postconstruction remediation efforts, which often far exceed the costs of precautionary or proactive measures (Center for Health Environment and Justice [CHEJ], 2005). Additonal expenses may arise from lawsuits brought against school districts by affected families. Indeed, the adverse effects of childhood environmental exposures, such as lead poisoning–induced aggression and violence, affect society as a whole. It is estimated that anywhere from $4.6 to $18.4 billion in costs of neurobehavioral disorders alone in the U.S. are attributable to environmental toxicants (Landrigan, Schechter, Lipton, Fahs, &amp; Schwartz, 2002).Between 1976 and 1994, the average blood lead levels of U.S. children plunged from 16 µg/dL to 3.2 µg/dL, primarily as a result of the removal of lead from products such as gasoline and paint in the 1970s (Gilbert &amp; Weiss, 2006). Grosse, Matte, Schwartz, and Jackson (2002) estimated that U.S. preschool-aged children in the late 1990s had IQs that were, on average, 2.2–4.7 points higher than they would have been had their blood lead distribution matched that observed among U.S. preschool-aged children in the late 1970s. Each 1-point increase in an individual's IQ has been associated with a 1.76% to 2.37% increase in future earning potential, and the researchers estimated that the economic benefit for each year's cohort of 3.8 million 2-year-old children ranged from $110 billion to $319 billion (in 2000 dollars; Gross et al., 2002). This represents a truly significant public health triumph in the United States, yet the problems of lead exposure continue to persist for many children. The CDC estimates that there remain approximately 310,000 children aged 1–5 years with BLLs greater than 10 µg/dL, the upper limit of what is considered an acceptable level, which is arguably too high (CDC, 2005; Gilbert &amp; Weiss, 2006).Although adults also work in school environments, the deleterious health impacts of environmental hazards may be greater for children. The unique physical and behavioral characteristics of children as well as the paucity of research, policy, and regulation with regard to school environments and children's health underscore the need to recognize and address school children as a particularly vulnerable population.Children are not “little adults,” and, therefore, assessments of their exposures to, and outcomes resulting from, environmental toxicants using adult-based toxicological models are insufficient. Children breathe more, eat more, and drink more per pound of body weight than adults, increasing their risk of exposures. Their behaviors also expose them to more possible contaminants (e.g., hand-to-mouth behaviors, more time spent on the ground), and they cannot always identify and protect themselves against hazards (Guzelian, 1992; National Research Council, 1993).Not only are children generally exposed to toxins at higher levels than adults, they may also absorb the toxins more readily than adults, placing them at even greater risk of harm. The efficiency of detoxification and elimination of toxins from the body may differ in children and adults. For example, young children may lack sufficient amounts of a key enzyme needed to metabolize and excrete a particular contaminant quickly, resulting in longer residency time of the contaminant in the body, leading potentially to greater toxicity and harm.Children's organ systems continue developing through early childhood and are, thus, more vulnerable to adverse effect. Longer exposures to some toxins, such as those experienced since early childhood, leads to greater body burdens, with potentially more detrimental health outcomes. Those with existing disabilities may be more vulnerable, both with regard to exposure and absorption, and, thus, at even greater risk.Public sector employees (including teachers and others working within the public school system) in 25 states are protected from environmental and occupational hazards through state-adopted, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)–approved standards. All but 4 of these states also provide protection to private sector employees, such as private school staff and administrators (Healthy Schools Network, 2005). Injured workers may also be eligible for, and receive, worker's compensation, sick leave, union support, and access to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services–funded occupational health clinics; they may also be able to switch their job locations. Thus, there exists protection for some of the adults employed in schools in the United States.However, OSHA standards do not exist for any of the children attending these schools who are exposed to the same environmental hazards and are more vulnerable to their effects. In addition, chemical regulations under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 1976 in the U.S. do not guarantee adequate protection to children because they are based upon risk assessment models derived from adult populations and other inherently limited assumptions (Environmental Working Group [EWG], 2005).Whereas the health effects of some contaminants, such as lead, tobacco, and asbestos, have been well studied, barely any of the approximately 80,000 chemicals inventoried by the TSCA have been fully tested for their impacts on human health (U.S. General Accounting Office, 2005). In fact, only 7% of the 2,863 most commonly used chemicals have undergone complete toxicological testing, and few of these have been studied for neurodevelopmental effects (EPA, 1998).Research of children's environmental health issues at school is either minimal or nonexistent. In fact a seemingly noncontagious outbreak of rashes in 2001–2002, which affected approximately 1,000 children in 27 states, could not be meaningfully investigated due to the lack of baseline data of children's environmental health measures at schools (Healthy Schools Network, 2005).The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) performed a workplace evaluation of a school near “ground zero” in New York City and found evidence of new-onset diseases among school staff. However, no agency offered a similar service for students, including children with special needs, in the dust-contaminated school (Bartlett &amp; Petrarca, 2002). Furthermore, had any investigations been conducted, meaningful assessment would have been difficult due to the lack of any baseline data on students' health.A NIOSH Healthy Hazard Evaluation (HHE) evaluates worker health and safety on site based on previous and current individual medical conditions. The same type of evaluation could have been done for school children but was not, thus depriving children (who outnumber adults in schools), their families, schools, IEO sciences, and NIOSH of important information. Children are the work product, or “output,” of schools, so not having any assessment of them erodes the educational mission.Some environmental concerns, such as the prevention of urban sprawl, the creation of walkable and bikable communities, the need for safe routes to school, and the selection of a locale conducive to high-performing schools, are often considered when choosing a school site; however, the presence of on- or off-site sources of pollution are usually not considered. This is mainly due to considerations of land cost and availability (CHEJ, 2005). School districts seek out inexpensive land due to declining school budgets and rising, unfunded mandates, such as the No Child Left Behind Act (legislation enacted in 2002 that ties federal funding for schools to states' performances in standards-based assessments). Contaminated land is inexpensive because it is unsuitable for housing and most types of businesses.Availability of land is another factor in site selection. School districts in rural areas look to site schools on inexpensive, unused agricultural land, which is often contaminated with pesticides, whereas urban school districts, limited in their siting choices due to the shortage of undeveloped land, often turn to sites on or near abandoned landfills or abandoned industrial sites, such as brownfields, or near heavily polluting industries (CHEJ, 2005). Furthermore, urban school districts, motivated to save money or to devote greater percentages of their budgets to hiring highly qualified teachers and improving schools' technology and curriculum, may be unwilling to invest in proper clean up of contaminated sites. There are 1,100 public schools, and over 600,000 students attending public schools, within half a mile of contaminated sites (CHEJ, 2005). This issue directly affects children's health, especially low-income and non-White children, who may have less access to health care and who have higher rates of asthma and lead poisoning (CHEJ, 2005).According to a 50-state siting laws survey detailed in a 2005 report entitled Building Safe Schools: Invisible Threats, Visible Actions, only 10 states have laws that prohibit the siting of a school on or near sources of pollution or other environmental hazards (CHEJ, 2005). These hazards include sites affected by air, motor vehicle, and rail traffic; sites near utility transmission lines; sites impacted by air and noise pollution; sites where hazardous or solid waste was disposed; and sites especially vulnerable to natural hazards, such as flooding or earthquakes.The report indicated that only 6 states require environmental investigation of potential school sites, such as the preparation of Phase I or Phase II environmental assessments or environmental impact statements for school projects. A Phase I environmental assessment is a cursory evaluation of the site, in which surveyors check for obvious of hazards, such as those that can be or Phase II assessments would be based on the of a Phase I assessment and would of site (e.g., Environmental impact statements or the and environmental effects of a such as the building of a school, and states require public or public school sites, and states require or the creation of school siting report also that states have no laws that either prohibit or the siting of a school on or near or environmental hazards and that states do not require school districts to potential school sites for the presence of pollutants or other environmental hazards or to environmental impacts associated with potential school toxicants at contaminated sites include such as lead, and such as and from and gasoline and from at which often at sites where has been in and many more (CHEJ, of the most lead and are and IQ (U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease IQ leads to cognitive and attention and is linked to behaviors, and and also affect the are also both associated with adverse reproductive effects, and in is associated with are also of cognitive functioning in children, more on its health effects are needed is a need for school siting laws that would siting on or near sources of environmental hazards and require investigation and assessment of hazards on potential school sites or impacts to future of proper clean and of contaminated and public in siting of a siting is in public education is also to a siting The of laws and federal on school siting is not In addition, chemical are and often not well by the Thus, parents and school may often be of on-site the need for a educational as of the safety data by a cleaning do not always provide complete on the health hazards of the and are not at for products &amp; cleaning products may and that affect the the such as and and &amp; Landrigan, 2006; et al., 2006; 2002; &amp; et al., U.S. National 2000). commonly found in such as and have been linked with as have some found in such as and including of Occupational and Environmental 2000; et al., 2000; &amp; 1994). and found in cleaning products also are associated with 2000; &amp; chemicals are commonly found in cleaning products and can be to the human body in very The and many of the of other body systems the of chemical to on into the and also can either from to their proper or and with the either important are and adverse health outcomes may The are in cleaning and found in care products and and found in and 2000; et al., 2006; et al., 2005). conventional cleaning chemicals and some less toxic 2005 the public schools a cleaning policy (Environmental Institute New York an the of cleaning products and the New York for public and private schools similar in and a in New to of states had cleaning In addition, many school districts have to or have cleaning even in the of and cleaning not only on the of toxic chemical but for the of more and the of proper for the cleaning staff. cleaning both for and for cleaning (e.g., and are A and human and environmental health its to In a cleaning the of cleaning can be with just one the number of chemicals in and and are also to their conventional in such as care and and indoor air cleaning include on proper and the of the cleaning products, as well as on and chemical these would be in a where the of is another important of cleaning The of and may be of &amp; can be with and be to clean to and to in areas such as those areas by regulations and those where body may be and can most and may be for points, rather than to a cleaning need only their to a free of cleaning products on to staff and a by products and to based on the unique of the For schools that to the of a cleaning an evaluation of the current products, and used on site be conducted, and baseline such as the number of to the be Schools may also to an environmental health and safety to staff other than and to and schools would policy that would staff and However, it is most important that schools it is to a cleaning school an for a number of various and are and within school and and areas may also and among and other educational within schools (Healthy Schools Network, 2006). associated with include the of diseases from and allergies and asthma by and and to some or (EPA, from and may also physical hazards to (EPA, However, conventional control may hazards of their is often the of prevention and control in U.S. schools, and are used on school to control and are to and and and are often to enzyme or (EPA, are potentially toxic to children, and adults. Indeed, with the EPA are not to be safe for human health (Landrigan, Needleman, &amp; Landrigan, 2002). of the enzyme in pesticides, in and in against remain in children through at 7 et al., Thus, this of to school-aged children as well as the of in a to regulation rather than a more precautionary have not been tested by standards and are commonly the complete of each at 10 years University Furthermore, most in have not been tested for their health effects on children (Landrigan, Needleman, &amp; Landrigan, toxicological found that many harm the developing and as resulting in and and many are or (Landrigan, Needleman, &amp; Landrigan, 2002). human health problems associated with exposure include and upper and even and in et al., 2005; for exposure to some has also been associated with health such as childhood such as and developmental and behavioral and disorders &amp; &amp; Rudant et al., 2007; Salam, Li, Langholz, &amp; Gilliland, Weiss, &amp; no federal regulations exist for in schools, the EPA that schools to the risk of exposure to children. is a and usually less for within schools, it not of A school of including the and of when However, a on measures and toxic such as to sources of and for within school and school include the and are at from and in and are either or and are and at a and are by the of each and are is and of at a are times the rather than one the or is to and rather than of are used when are needed (EPA, can and have been found as far as from the of for 2003). Thus, of particularly for schools near agricultural is also and be school schools to their school and and and provide when are used in the United are densely and often and by or budgets are often the to be when budgets In to poor availability of school sites and the lack of research and policy these unaddressed health hazards to the need to for school sites, and schools need to the and of the schools an environmental health to report on conditions and to provide to and the of school projects and the public to protect to from and air out areas to to such as to cleaning and to and clean out such as the National and primarily by the National Institute of Child Health and Human exposures in and Health by the a to these exposures. that and federal a for children's health at by the

Chunming Tang, Zhifeng Hao

Based on the interactive proof of Hamiltonian Cycle (HC) of large directed graph, which is a $\Sigma$-protocol, we construct a perfectly hiding and computationally binding trapdoor commitment in 2-round from any one-way permutation. Then, based on this trapdoor commitment, we construct perfect zero-knowledge argument of knowledge with negligible error probability in 2-round for $\mathcal{NP}$, assuming only the existence of a one-way permutation.

Hongda Li, Haixia Xu, Bao Li, Dengguo Feng

No abstract is available for this record.

Carrie Printz

Many cancer centers reach out to their elected officials by meeting with them on Capitol Hill and inviting them to tour their institutions. But few go as far as the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC). At this National Cancer Institute-designated center based in Columbus, Ohio, elected officials and their staffs take on the roles of patients, researchers, or healthcare providers to gain a more personalized understanding of the importance of translational research and its impact on patient care. “At the end of their visit, we have roundtable discussions, and the feedback is always, ‘we never knew how complex cancer care and research is’,” says Jennifer Carlson, director of government relations for OSUCCC. As further proof of the program's success, legislators discussing cancer-related legislation at government hearings have referred to their participation in Project Cancer Education and the knowledge they gained from it, Carlson notes. “This hands-on program literally takes policymakers from the bench to the bedside and helps them understand some of the challenges we face,” she says, adding that it also helps illustrate some of the lost opportunities that can occur with lack of government investment or support of medical research and care. Because Project Cancer Education has been so successful in Ohio, OSUCCC Director Michael Caligiuri, MD, who was recently elected president of the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI), proposed making it available to member centers across the country. The program is “the cornerstone of our advocacy efforts this year,” he notes. “We have had amazing success in seeing important anticancer legislation move forward in Ohio because of the impact Project Cancer Education has had on our elected officials,” Dr. Caligiuri says. “We are asking the community of American cancer centers through the AACI to implement this best practice at their centers because it will help to justify the greater investment in cancer research and make our elected officials and staff aware of why our cause is such an urgent one.” Participants in Project Cancer Education learn about the challenges of cancer care through role-playing scenarios. Carlson is chairing the committee within the AACI that is developing a toolkit based on her center's existing collateral materials for all member centers to refine and adopt to fit their specific needs. They plan to have the materials available this spring. Additionally, they are working with the National Cancer Institute to roll out a similar program for congressional committee staffers who are based in Washington, DC. The toolkits will include different “tracks,” such as a patient scenario or a researcher scenario. The program can range from 2 hours, geared mainly toward the elected officials, to a half-day or full day, which is designed for their staff members. Participants also receive graduation certificates and pose for a photograph, which is later E-mailed to them to reinforce the program's messages. The program that supported your research has been eliminated because of federal budget cuts. Your second- and third-year budgets have been zeroed out. The institutional review board determined that you did not plan to have enough research nurses for your proposed phase 1 study. Wait 6 months and try again. Due to cuts in federal funding line for your grant, your budget has been reduced by 30% for the next 3 years. Visits to cancer care and research facilities allow participants to see the intricacies of discovery and treatment firsthand. Participants encounter positive results too, such as, “The drug you developed is ready to come to market and is expected to bring in large profits to the university during its patent lifetime. The new science building on campus will be named in your honor.” In the patient scenario, some of the challenges participants learn about are lack of insurance coverage for clinical-trial patient-care costs, the importance of proper insurance authorization for specific treatments, and the intensive recovery that occurs with an allogeneic marrow transplant for acute myeloid leukemia. In some cases, policymakers get a chance to talk with patients participating in clinical trials who are living proof of research's value, Carlson notes. She is confident that cancer centers across the country will find the program beneficial. “By partnering with our elected officials, we can take cancer care to the next level,” she says. The Ohio legislative cancer education program, Project Cancer Education, is set to roll out nationwide. The program gives elected officials a chance to walk in the shoes of researchers and patients. Legislators and their staffs experience firsthand the challenges faced by cancer centers. Cancer centers will receive toolkits from AACI to help tailor their own programs.

Yanbin Sun, Lize Gu, Sihan Qing, Shihui Zheng · 7 authors

In ESS2008, Yang et al. suggested a key-exposure-free chameleon hashing scheme, and it can be used to design signature and some other cryptography mechanism. In this paper, we construct a new timeliness optimistic fair exchange protocol based on this key-exposure-free chameleon hashing scheme. The new scheme does not require the use of interactive zero-knowledge proofs in the exchange phase. In our scheme, both parties can contact the trusted third party and settle the argument before the deadline. Moreover, the new scheme achieves fairness and timeliness.