Reviewerly/exHarmony huggingface dataset:
Metamobility: Connecting Future Mobility With the Metaverse

The metaverse is a perpetual, immersive, and shared digital universe that is linked to but is beyond the physical reality, and this emerging technology is attracting enormous attention from different industries. In this article, we define the first holistic realization of the metaverse in the mobility domain, coined as <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">metamobility</i> . We present our vision of what metamobility will be and describe its basic architecture. We also propose two use cases, tactile live maps and metaempowered advanced driver-assistance systems (ADASs), to demonstrate how metamobility will benefit and reshape future mobility systems. Each use case is discussed from the perspective of the technology evolution, future vision, and critical research challenges. Finally, we identify multiple concrete open research issues.
The Future of Cloud Computing: Benefits and Challenges

The purpose of this paper is to provide a better knowledge of the cloud computing as well as to suggest relevant research paths in this growing field.Also, we will go through the future benefits of cloud computing and the upcoming possible challenges we will have.Intext Cloud, performance, cloud computing, architecture, scale-up, and big data are all terms used in this context.Cloud computing offers a wide range of architectural configurations, including the number of processors, memory, and nodes.Cloud computing has already changed the way we store, process, and access data, and it is expected to continue to have a significant impact on the future of information technology.Cloud computing enables organizations to scale their IT resources up or down quickly and easily, without the need for costly hardware upgrades.This can help organizations to respond more quickly to changing business needs and market conditions.By moving IT resources to the cloud, organizations can reduce their IT infrastructure costs and improve their operational efficiency.Cloud computing also allows organizations to pay only for the resources they use, rather than investing in expensive hardware and software licenses.Cloud providers invest heavily in security and compliance measures, which can help to protect organizations from cyber threats and ensure regulatory compliance.Cloud computing provides a scalable platform for AI and machine learning applications, enabling organizations to build and deploy these technologies more easily and cost-effectively.A task, an application, and its input can take up to 20 times longer or cost 10 times more than optimal.Cloud products' ready adaptability has resulted in a paradigm change.Previously, an application was optimized for a specific cluster; however, in the cloud, the architectural configuration is tuned for the workload.The evolution of cloud computing from the era of mainframes and dumb terminals has been significant, but there are still many advancements to come.As we look towards the future, IT leaders and the companies they serve will face increa-
Truncated Boomerang Attacks and Application to AES-Based Ciphers

The boomerang attack is a cryptanalysis technique that combines two short differentials instead of using a single long differential. It has been applied to many primitives, and results in the best known attacks against several AES-based ciphers (Kiasu-BC, Deoxys-BC). In this paper, we introduce a general framework for boomerang attacks with truncated differentials. We show that the use of truncated differentials provides a significant improvement over the best boomerang attacks in the literature. In particular, we take into account structures on the plaintext and ciphertext sides, and include an analysis of the key recovery step. On 6-round AES, we obtain a competitive structural distinguisher with complexity $$2^{87}$$ and a key recovery attack with complexity $$2^{61}$$ . The truncated boomerang attack is particularly effective against tweakable AES variants. We apply it to 8-round Kiasu-BC, resulting in the best known attack with complexity $$2^{83}$$ (rather than $$2^{103}$$ ). We also show an interesting use of the 6-round distinguisher on the full TNT-AES, a tweakable block cipher using 6-round AES as a building block. Finally, we apply this framework to Deoxys-BC, using a MILP model to find optimal trails automatically. We obtain the best attacks against round-reduced versions of all variants of Deoxys-BC.
Almost Tight Multi-user Security Under Adaptive Corruptions &amp; Leakages in the Standard Model

In this paper, we consider tight multi-user security under adaptive corruptions, where the adversary can adaptively corrupt some users and obtain their secret keys. We propose generic constructions for a bunch of primitives, and the instantiations from the matrix decisional Diffie-Hellman (MDDH) assumptions yield the following schemes: As byproducts, our SIG and SC naturally derive the first strongly secure message authentication code (MAC) and the first authenticated encryption (AE) schemes achieving almost tight multi-user security under adaptive corruptions in the standard model. We further optimize constructions of SC, MAC and AE to admit better efficiency. Furthermore, we consider key leakages besides corruptions, as a natural strengthening of tight multi-user security under adaptive corruptions. This security considers a more natural and more complete “all-or-part-or-nothing” setting, where secret keys of users are either fully exposed to adversary (“all”), or completely hidden to adversary (“nothing”), or partially leaked to adversary (“part”), and it protects the uncorrupted users even with bounded key leakages. All our schemes additionally support bounded key leakages and enjoy full compactness. This yields the first SIG, PKE, SC, MAC, AE schemes achieving almost tight multi-user security under both adaptive corruptions and leakages.
Meet-in-the-Middle Preimage Attacks on Sponge-Based Hashing

The Meet-in-the-Middle (MitM) attack has been widely applied to preimage attacks on Merkle-Damgård (MD) hashing. In this paper, we introduce a generic framework of the MitM attack on sponge-based hashing. We find certain bit conditions can significantly reduce the diffusion of the unknown bits and lead to longer MitM characteristics. To find good or optimal configurations of MitM attacks, e.g., the bit conditions, the neutral sets, and the matching points, we introduce the bit-level MILP-based automatic tools on Keccak, Ascon and Xoodyak. To reduce the scale of bit-level models and make them solvable in reasonable time, a series of properties of the targeted hashing are considered in the modelling, such as the linear structure and CP-kernel for Keccak, the Boolean expression of Sbox for Ascon. Finally, we give an improved 4-round preimage attack on Keccak-512/SHA3, and break a nearly 10 years' cryptanalysis record. We also give the first preimage attacks on 3-/4-round Ascon-XOF and 3-round Xoodyak-XOF.
From Farfalle to Megafono via Ciminion: The PRF Hydra for MPC Applications

The area of multi-party computation (MPC) has recently increased in popularity and number of use cases. At the current state of the art, Ciminion, a Farfalle-like cryptographic function, achieves the best performance in MPC applications involving symmetric primitives. However, it has a critical weakness. Its security highly relies on the independence of its subkeys, which is achieved by using an expensive key schedule. Many MPC use cases involving symmetric pseudo-random functions (PRFs) rely on secretly shared symmetric keys, and hence the expensive key schedule must also be computed in MPC. As a result, Ciminion's performance is significantly reduced in these use cases. In this paper we solve this problem. Following the approach introduced by Ciminion's designers, we present a novel primitive in symmetric cryptography called Megafono. Megafono is a keyed extendable PRF, expanding a fixed-length input to an arbitrary-length output. Similar to Farfalle, an initial keyed permutation is applied to the input, followed by an expansion layer, involving the parallel application of keyed ciphers. The main novelty regards the expansion of the intermediate/internal state for "free", by appending the sum of the internal states of the first permutation to its output. The combination of this and other modifications, together with the impossibility for the attacker to have access to the input state of the expansion layer, make Megafono very efficient in the target application. As a concrete example, we present the PRF Hydra, an instance of Megafono based on the Hades strategy and on generalized versions of the Lai–Massey scheme. Based on an extensive security analysis, we implement Hydra in an MPC framework. The results show that it outperforms all MPC-friendly schemes currently published in the literature.
The Effectiveness of E-Learning on Learning Activities and Achievements Arabic Students | Faa’iliyyah At Ta’lim Al Iliktruniy Fii Muwajahah Ansyithoh Wa Injjaazaat Ath Thulaab Lita’lim Al Lughoh Al ‘Arobiyyah

The background of this research is that learning Arabic is a lesson that is full of memorization, so it is likely that boredom will arise, and in learning activities and student achievement is still low. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of implementing e-learning media on students' Arabic learning activities and achievements at MAN 2 Bandar Lampung. The type of research used is quantitative research with an associative approach, namely research that looks for a causal relationship between one x variable and 2 y variables. The population in this study were students of class X. The sample in this study used the Proportionate Stratified Random Sampling technique. The samples in this study were 84 students. Data collection techniques, observation, questionnaires, tests and documentation. The results of the study show that there is an influence of the application of e-learning media on student learning activities and achievements. Research results show the normality and homogeneity prerequisite tests: the significance value of Asiymp. Sig (2-tailed) for e-learning 0.200 is greater than 0.05, the value of learning activities is 0.066 greater than 0.05 and for learning achievement 0.200 is greater than 0, 05. It is concluded that the data is normally distributed. The results of the homogeneity test of the probability value of distributing the questionnaire before using e-learning is sig. 0.308 which means greater than 0.05 while the distribution of questionnaires after the use of e-learning is 0.434 which means greater than 0.05. And the probability value of the questionnaire before using e-learning for learning activities is sig. 0.926 which means greater than 0.05 while the distribution of questionnaires after using e-learning produces a value of 0.678 which means greater than 0.05.
Lower Bound Framework for Differentially Private and Oblivious Data Structures

In recent years, there has been significant work in studying data structures that provide privacy for the operations that are executed. These primitives aim to guarantee that observable access patterns to physical memory do not reveal substantial information about the queries and updates executed on the data structure. Multiple recent works, including Larsen and Nielsen [Crypto’18], Persiano and Yeo [Eurocrypt’19], Hubáček et al. [TCC’19] and Komargodski and Lin [Crypto’21], have shown that logarithmic overhead is required to support even basic RAM (array) operations for various privacy notions including obliviousness and differential privacy as well as different choices of sizes for RAM blocks b and memory cells $$\omega $$ . We continue along this line of work and present the first logarithmic lower bounds for differentially private RAMs (DPRAMs) that apply regardless of the sizes of blocks b and cells $$\omega $$ . This is the first logarithmic lower bounds for DPRAMs when blocks are significantly smaller than cells, that is $$b \ll \omega $$ . Furthermore, we present new logarithmic lower bounds for differentially private variants of classical data structure problems including sets, predecessor (successor) and disjoint sets (union-find) for which sub-logarithmic plaintext constructions are known. All our lower bounds extend to the multiple non-colluding servers setting. We also address an unfortunate issue with this rich line of work where the lower bound techniques are difficult to use and require customization for each new result. To make the techniques more accessible, we generalize our proofs into a framework that reduces proving logarithmic lower bounds to showing that a specific problem satisfies two simple, minimal conditions. We show our framework is easy-to-use as all the lower bounds in our paper utilize the framework and hope our framework will spur more usage of these lower bound techniques.
Short Signatures from Regular Syndrome Decoding in the Head

We introduce a new candidate post-quantum digital signature scheme from the regular syndrome decoding (RSD) assumption, an established variant of the syndrome decoding assumption which asserts that it is hard to find $$w $$ -regular solutions to systems of linear equations over $$\mathbb {F}_2$$ (a vector is regular if it is a concatenation of $$w $$ unit vectors). Our signature is obtained by introducing and compiling a new 5-round zero-knowledge proof system constructed using the MPC-in-the-head paradigm. At the heart of our result is an efficient MPC protocol in the preprocessing model that checks correctness of a regular syndrome decoding instance by using a share ring-conversion mechanism. The analysis of our construction is non-trivial and forms a core technical contribution of our work. It requires careful combinatorial analysis and combines several new ideas, such as analyzing soundness in a relaxed setting where a cheating prover is allowed to use any witness sufficiently close to a regular vector. We complement our analysis with an in-depth overview of existing attacks against RSD. Our signatures are competitive with the best-known code-based signatures, ranging from 12.52 KB (fast setting, with signing time of the order of a few milliseconds on a single core of a standard laptop) to about 9 KB (short setting, with estimated signing time of the order of 15 ms).
Lower Bounds for (Batch) PIR with Private Preprocessing

In this paper, we study (batch) private information retrieval with private preprocessing. Private information retrieval (PIR) is the problem where one or more servers hold a database of n bits and a client wishes to retrieve the i-th bit in the database from the server(s). In PIR with private preprocessing (also known as offline-online PIR), the client is able to compute a private r-bit hint in an offline stage that may be leveraged to perform retrievals accessing at most t entries. For privacy, the client wishes to hide index i from an adversary that has compromised some of the servers. In the batch PIR setting, the client performs queries to retrieve the contents of multiple entries simultaneously. We present a tight characterization for the trade-offs between hint size r and number of accessed entries t during queries. For any PIR scheme that enables clients to perform batch retrievals of k entries, we prove a lower bound of $$tr = \varOmega (nk)$$ when $$r \ge k$$ . When $$r < k$$ , we prove that $$t = \varOmega (n)$$ . Our lower bounds hold when the scheme errs with probability at most 1/15 and against PPT adversaries that only compromise one out of $$\ell $$ servers for any $$\ell = O(1)$$ . Our work also closes the multiplicative logarithmic gap for the single query setting $$(k = 1)$$ as our lower bound matches known constructions. Our lower bounds hold in the model where each database entry is stored without modification but each entry may be replicated arbitrarily. Finally, we show connections between PIR and the online matrix-vector ( $$\textsf{OMV}$$ ) conjecture from fine-grained complexity. We present barriers for proving lower bounds for two-server PIR schemes in general computational models as they would immediately imply the $$\textsf{OMV}$$ conjecture.
Exploring Challenges to Inclusion in Participatory Design From the Perspectives of Global North Practitioners

Participatory Design (PD) aims to promote inclusivity by involving users throughout the design process. However, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and social computing research have pointed to instances where PD as practiced can, paradoxically, be exclusive. We aim to understand some of the challenges that could lead to exclusivity in order to design more inclusive PD practices. To investigate this, we conducted interviews with ten expert PD practitioners based in the Global North whose focus is on inclusion. Synthesizing practitioners' accounts, we advance understandings of challenges surrounding: 1) instantiating shared spaces that empower partners; 2) developing common ground among stakeholders; and 3) balancing funding needs with open-ended PD. We contribute theoretical and empirical insights into these challenges and close by articulating potential implications for addressing these challenges to inclusion in PD.
A Deep Dive into User's Preferences and Behavior around Mobile Phone Sharing

Users share their personal devices with different entities in various circumstances. While prior research shed light on the broad reasons behind the sharing of mobile phones, there is a dearth of systematic study to understand the user's decision-making process and the underlying preferences and concerns in the context of phone sharing. To address these gaps, we designed a prototype that we leveraged to investigate the interplay between a user's relationship with sharees, preferences of sharing a subset of apps with a certain entity, perceived sensitivity of the apps being shared, and how these factors relate to their authentication behavior. We conducted a multi-session study with 50 participants from three countries (USA, Turkey, and Nepal), where the participants interacted with our prototype and took part in semi-structured interviews. The findings from our study revealed the need for phone sharing at a granular level, where we identified the factors that could influence a user's decision-making process in sharing. Our analysis unpacked the relation between a user's perceived sensitivity of apps being shared, and authentication behavior to protect information from unauthorized access. Overall, our findings advance the CSCW community's understanding of how the user attains a balance between privacy protection and the need for phone sharing.
Can augmented reality (AR) applications enhance students’ experiences? Gratifications, engagement and learning styles

Purpose The use of augmented reality (AR) and experiential learning go hand in hand. Although AR learning opportunities have been well discussed, there is limited empirical research on the use of AR within higher education settings. Drawing from the uses and gratifications theory (U&amp;GT), this study aims to explore the use of AR for learning satisfaction and student engagement, while also examining differences in learning styles. Design/methodology/approach This study used experiments with higher education students in the UK to explore the use of AR as part of the learning experience. Data from 173 students who experienced AR as part of their learning experience were analysed using partial least square analysis. Findings The authors found that hedonic, utilitarian, sensual and modality gratifications influence AR learning satisfaction and student engagement. Furthermore, the authors found differences between active and passive learners with regards to utilitarian (information seeking, personalisation) and sensual gratifications (immersion, presence) and effects on learning satisfaction. Originality/value This study developed and validated a U&amp;GT framework incorporating different learning styles rooted in Kolb’s learning cycle. Findings provide important implications for the use of commercial AR applications as part of the learning experience within higher education settings.
DIdM-EIoTD: Distributed Identity Management for Edge Internet of Things (IoT) Devices

The Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm aims to enhance human society and living standards with the vast deployment of smart and autonomous devices, which requires seamless collaboration. The number of connected devices increases daily, introducing identity management requirements for edge IoT devices. Due to IoT devices' heterogeneity and resource-constrained configuration, traditional identity management systems are not feasible. As a result, identity management for IoT devices is still an open issue. Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and blockchain-based security solutions are becoming popular in different application domains. This paper presents a novel DLT-based distributed identity management architecture for edge IoT devices. The model can be adapted with any IoT solution for secure and trustworthy communication between devices. We have comprehensively reviewed popular consensus mechanisms used in DLT implementations and their connection to IoT research, specifically identity management for Edge IoT devices. Our proposed location-based identity management model is generic, distributed, and decentralized. The proposed model is verified using the Scyther formal verification tool for security performance measurement. SPIN model checker is employed for different state verification of our proposed model. The open-source simulation tool FobSim is used for fog and edge/user layer DTL deployment performance analysis. The results and discussion section represents how our proposed decentralized identity management solution should enhance user data privacy and secure and trustworthy communication in IoT.
Assessing Students’ Awareness of 4Cs Skills after Mobile-Technology-Supported Inquiry-Based Learning

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is essential to Science Education since it improves students’ conceptual comprehension, higher-order thinking abilities, and interpersonal skills. Mobile technology (mIBL) promotes active learning, facilitates access to learning materials, and enhances IBL in terms of mobility and rapid feedback. This study assesses the 9th grade students’ awareness of 4Cs skills (Collaboration, Communication, Critical thinking and problem solving, and Creativity) after participating in mobile-technology-supported inquiry-based Teaching Learning Sequence (TLS). Additionally, the study investigates the qualities/characteristics students cite before and after the TLS in relation to these skills. The results of a questionnaire administered to students indicate that their awareness of these skills has increased as a result of the TLS. Specifically, the TLS seems to have a greater impact on Collaboration and Communication than on Critical thinking and problem solving, and Creativity. An additional qualitative investigation of students’ written answers to explanatory open-ended questions before and after the entire procedure found intriguing data confirming their shift in 4Cs awareness.
Semi-Empirical Satellite-to-Ground Quantum Key Distribution Model for Realistic Receivers

Satellite-based link analysis is valuable for efficient and secure quantum communication, despite seasonal limits and restrictions on transmission times. A semi-empirical quantum key distribution model for satellite-based systems was proposed that simplifies simulations of communication links. Unlike other theoretical models, our approach was based on the experimentally-determined atmospheric extinction coefficient typical for mid-latitude ground stations. The parameter was measured for both clear and foggy conditions, and it was validated using published experimental data from the Micius satellite. Using this model, we simulated secure QKD between the Micius satellite and ground stations with 300 mm and 600 mm aperture telescopes.