CSA pass rates

On superstable CSA-groups

We prove that a non-abelian superstable CSA-group has an infinite definable simple subgroup all of whose proper definable subgroups are abelian. This imply in particular that the existence of non-abelian CSAgroup of finite Morley rank is equivalent to the existence of a simple bad group all whose definable proper subgroups are abelian. We give a new proof of a result of E. Mustafin and B. Poiza...

A closer look at recertification candidate pass rates.

We continue to receive a number of inquiries from physicians regarding the low pass rate statistics for recertification candidates for the reporting periods from 2010 to 2012. Many physicians fear the examination has changed in some way, putting those attempting to maintain their certification at a distinct disadvantage. Others worry that the passing score criteria for recertifiers are greater ...

Optimal Rates for Multi-pass Stochastic Gradient Methods

We analyze the learning properties of the stochastic gradient method when multiple passes over the data and mini-batches are allowed. In particular, we consider the square loss and show that for a universal step-size choice, the number of passes acts as a regularization parameter, and optimal finite sample bounds can be achieved by early-stopping. Moreover, we show that larger step-sizes are al...

Rethinking First-Time Pass Rates as an Academic Quality Metric.

Breaking DVB-CSA

Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is a set of standards for digital television. DVB supports the encryption of a transmission using the Common Scrambling Algorithm (DVB-CSA). This is commonly used for PayTV or for other conditional access scenarios. While DVB-CSA support 64 bit keys, many stations use only 48 bits of entropy for the key and 16 bits are used as a checksum. In this paper, we outli...