Search Results (12)

Information is pivotal in contemporary society, highlighting the necessity for a secure cryptographic system. The emergence of quantum algorithms and the swift advancement of specialized quantum computers will render traditional cryptography susceptible to quantum attacks in the foreseeable future. The lattice-based Saber key encapsulation protocol holds significant value in cryptographic research and practical applications. In this paper, we propose three types of polynomial multipliers for various application scenarios including lightweight Schoolbook multiplier, high-throughput multiplier based on the TMVP-Schoolbook algorithm and improved pipelined NTT multiplier. Other principal modules of Saber are designed encompassing the hash function module, sampling module and functional submodule. Based on our proposed multiplier, we implement the overall hardware circuits of the Saber key encapsulation protocol. Experimental results demonstrate that our overall hardware circuits have different advantages. Our lightweight implementation has minimal resource consumption. Our high-throughput implementation only needs 23.28 $\mathsf{\mu }$s to complete the whole process, which is the fastest among the existing works. The throughput rate is 10,988 Kbps and the frequency is 416 MHz. Our hardware implementation based on the improved pipelined NTT multiplier achieved a good balance between area and performance. The overall frequency can reach 357 MHz. Full article

This article has proposed an efficient area-optimized elliptic curve cryptographic processor architecture over $GF\left(2^{409}\right)$ and $GF\left(2^{571}\right)$. The proposed architecture employs Lopez-Dahab projective point arithmetic operations. To do this, a hybrid Karatsuba multiplier of 4-split polynomials is proposed. The proposed multiplier uses general Karatsuba and traditional schoolbook multiplication approaches. Moreover, the multiplier resources are reused to implement the modular squares and addition chains of the Itoh-Tsujii algorithm for inverse computations. The reuse of resources reduces the overall area requirements. The implementation is performed in Verilog (HDL). The achieved results are provided on Xilinx Virtex 7 device. In addition, the performance of the proposed design is evaluated on ASIC 65 nm process technology. Consequently, a figure-of-merit is constructed to compare the FPGA and ASIC implementations. An exhaustive comparison to existing designs in the literature shows that the proposed architecture utilizes less area. Therefore, the proposed design is the right choice for area-constrained cryptographic applications. Full article

Virology has gained much attention in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other recurrent epidemics/pandemics such as Ebola, zika, or now, monkeypox. We have analysed all recent biology schoolbooks for secondary school approved for the Austrian market. Our aim was to find out whether virological content was presented comprehensively, comprehensibly, and in an error-free manner. This also relates to visual representations of viruses, processes related to virology (e.g., replication), and references to daily life. Furthermore, we looked for tasks related to virology that may help students to deepen their newly acquired knowledge and/or to put it into practice, either by hands-on experimentation or transfer tasks. We examined 97 books (76 books for lower secondary and 21 books for upper secondary school). For this analysis, we developed and tested a coding matrix accompanied with a comprehensive coding guide to facilitate reproducible and reliable ratings. Since inter-rater reliability was found to be very high, both the coding matrix and guide can be recommended for further studies in this field. Overall, the virological content provided was free of errors, with the text and illustrations being mostly comprehensive and comprehensible. This was expected, since all Austrian school books must be approved by a governmental commission. However, individual books even for the same target (age) group differed widely in content and detail. In particular, few books clearly differentiated between viruses and bacteria, clarified that viruses are non-living and emphasized that antibiotics are ineffective against viruses. Yet precisely such knowledge is essential to enable students to make scientifically based decisions in health-related situations, especially for the prevention and treatment of viral diseases (e.g., whether to take antibiotics when suffering from a viral disease). Full article

This article presents an efficient crypto processor architecture for point multiplication acceleration of side-channel secured Binary Huff Curves (BHC) on FPGA (field-programmable gate array) over $GF\left(2^{233}\right)$. We have implemented six finite field polynomial multiplication architectures, i.e., (1) schoolbook, (2) hybrid Karatsuba, (3) 2-way-karatsuba, (4) 3-way-toom-cook, (5) 4-way-toom-cook and (6) digit-parallel-least-significant. For performance evaluation, each implemented polynomial multiplier is integrated with the proposed BHC architecture. Verilog HDL is used for the implementation of all the polynomial multipliers. Moreover, the Xilinx ISE design suite tool is employed as an underlying simulation platform. The implementation results are presented on Xilinx Virtex-6 FPGA devices. The achieved results show that the integration of a hybrid Karatsuba multiplier with the proposed BHC architecture results in lower hardware resources. Similarly, the use of a least-significant-digit-parallel multiplier in the proposed design results in high-speed (in terms of both clock frequency and latency). Consequently, the proposed BHC architecture, integrated with a least-significant-digit-parallel multiplier, is 1.42 times faster and utilizes 1.80 times lower FPGA slices when compared to the most recent BHC accelerator architectures. Full article

The structural changes brought about by the collapse of the communist system also included the reconfiguration of social memory, so that future generations have a more objective imagining of the impact of the communist period on the societies from Central and Eastern Europe. In this view, the depoliticization of recent history is a top priority. The present study aims to highlight the way in which the schoolbooks in Romania bring into the memory of the young generation a strictly secret episode in recent (pre-1990) history: anti-communist dissent. Two categories of methods were used: researching the data and information contained in history textbooks and other bibliographic sources on anti-communist dissent in Romania in the overall socio-political context of that era; and assessing—with the help of a set of surveys—the degree of assimilation by young people in Romania of the knowledge about communism conveyed through textbooks. Research points to the conclusion that the Romanian curriculum and textbooks provide an objective picture of the communist period in this country, but young people’s perception of communism in general and of Romanian communism in particular tends to be distorted by poor education, poverty and surrounding mentalities rooted in that period. Full article

This paper presents a Point Multiplication (PM) architecture of Elliptic-Curve Cryptography (ECC) over $GF\left(2^{163}\right)$ with a focus on the optimization of hardware resources and latency at the same time. The hardware resources are reduced with the use of a bit-serial (traditional schoolbook) multiplication method. Similarly, the latency is optimized with the reduction in a critical path using pipeline registers. To cope with the pipelining, we propose to reschedule point addition and double instructions, required for the computation of a PM operation in ECC. Subsequently, the proposed architecture over $GF\left(2^{163}\right)$ is modeled in Verilog Hardware Description Language (HDL) using Vivado Design Suite. To provide a fair performance evaluation, we synthesize our design on various FPGA (field-programmable gate array) devices. These FPGA devices are Virtex-4, Virtex-5, Virtex-6, Virtex-7, Spartan-7, Artix-7, and Kintex-7. The lowest area (433 FPGA slices) is achieved on Spartan-7. The highest speed is realized on Virtex-7, where our design achieves 391 MHz clock frequency and requires 416 $\mathsf{\mu }$s for one PM computation (latency). For power, the lowest values are achieved on the Artix-7 (56 $\mathsf{\mu }$W) and Kintex-7 (61 $\mathsf{\mu }$W) devices. A ratio of throughput over area value of 4.89 is reached for Virtex-7. Our design outperforms most recent state-of-the-art solutions (in terms of area) with an overhead of latency. Full article

This work presents an Elliptic-curve Point Multiplication (ECP) architecture with a focus on low latency and low area for radio-frequency-identification (RFID) applications over $GF\left(2^{163}\right)$. To achieve low latency, we have reduced the clock cycles by using: (i) three-shift buffers in the datapath to load Elliptic-curve parameters as well as an initial point, (ii) the identical size of input/output interfaces in all building blocks of the architecture. The low area is preserved by using the same hardware resources of squaring and multiplication for inversion computation. Finally, an efficient controller is used to control the inferred logic. The proposed ECP architecture is modeled in Verilog and the synthesis results are given on three different 7-series FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) devices, i.e., Kintex-7, Artix-7, and Virtex-7. The performance of the architecture is provided with the integration of a schoolbook multiplier (implemented with two different logic styles, i.e., combinational and sequential). On Kintex-7, the combinational implementation style of a schoolbook multiplier results in power-optimized, i.e., 161 $\mathsf{\mu }$W, values with an expense of (i) hardware resources, i.e., 3561 look-up-tables and 1527 flip-flops, (ii) clock frequency, i.e., 227 MHz, and (iii) latency, i.e., 11.57 $\mathsf{\mu }$s. On the same Kintex-7 device, the sequential implementation style of a schoolbook multiplier provides, (i) 2.88 $\mathsf{\mu }$s latency, (ii) 1786 look-up-tables and 1855 flip-flops, (iii) 647 $\mathsf{\mu }$W power, and (iv) 909 MHz clock frequency. Therefore, the reported area, latency and power results make the proposed ECP architecture well-suited for RFID applications. Full article

In classical computation, Toom–Cook is one of the multiplication methods for large numbers which offers faster execution time compared to other algorithms such as schoolbook and Karatsuba multiplication. For the use in quantum computation, prior work considered the Toom-2.5 variant rather than the classically faster and more prominent Toom-3, primarily to avoid the nontrivial division operations inherent in the latter circuit. In this paper, we investigate the quantum circuit for Toom-3 multiplication, which is expected to give an asymptotically lower depth than the Toom-2.5 circuit. In particular, we designed the corresponding quantum circuit and adopted the sequence proposed by Bodrato to yield a lower number of operations, especially in terms of nontrivial division, which is reduced to only one exact division by 3 circuit per iteration. Moreover, to further minimize the cost of the remaining division, we utilize the unique property of the particular division circuit, replacing it with a constant multiplication by reciprocal circuit and the corresponding swap operations. Our numerical analysis shows that the resulting circuit indeed gives a lower asymptotic complexity in terms of Toffoli depth and qubit count compared to Toom-2.5 but with a large number of Toffoli gates that mainly come from realizing the division operation. Full article

In this paper, we present a high-speed, unified elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) processor for arbitrary Weierstrass curves over $GF\left(p\right)$, which to the best of our knowledge, outperforms other similar works in terms of execution time. Our approach employs the combination of the schoolbook long and Karatsuba multiplication algorithm for the elliptic curve point multiplication (ECPM) to achieve better parallelization while retaining low complexity. In the hardware implementation, the substantial gain in speed is also contributed by our n-bit pipelined Montgomery Modular Multiplier (pMMM), which is constructed from our n-bit pipelined multiplier-accumulators that utilizes digital signal processor (DSP) primitives as digit multipliers. Additionally, we also introduce our unified, pipelined modular adder/subtractor (pMAS) for the underlying field arithmetic, and leverage a more efficient yet compact scheduling of the Montgomery ladder algorithm. The implementation for 256-bit modulus size on the 7-series FPGA: Virtex-7, Kintex-7, and XC7Z020 yields 0.139, 0.138, and 0.206 ms of execution time, respectively. Furthermore, since our pMMM module is generic for any curve in Weierstrass form, we support multi-curve parameters, resulting in a unified ECC architecture. Lastly, our method also works in constant time, making it suitable for applications requiring high speed and SCA-resistant characteristics. Full article

The phenotypic plasticity of plants in response to change in their light environment, and in particularly, to shade is a schoolbook example of ecologically relevant phenotypic plasticity with evolutionary adaptive implications. Epigenetic variation is known to potentially underlie plant phenotypic plasticity. Yet, little is known about its role in ecologically and evolutionary relevant mechanisms shaping the diversity of plant populations in nature. Here we used a reference-free reduced representation bisulfite sequencing method for non-model organisms (epiGBS) to investigate changes in DNA methylation patterns across the genome in snapdragon plants (Antirrhinum majus L.). We exposed plants to sunlight versus artificially induced shade in four highly inbred lines to exclude genetic confounding effects. Our results showed that phenotypic plasticity in response to light versus shade shaped vegetative traits. They also showed that DNA methylation patterns were modified under light versus shade, with a trend towards global effects over the genome but with large effects found on a restricted portion. We also detected the existence of a correlation between phenotypic and epigenetic variation that neither supported nor rejected its potential role in plasticity. While our findings imply epigenetic changes in response to light versus shade environments in snapdragon plants, whether these changes are directly involved in the phenotypic plastic response of plants remains to be investigated. Our approach contributed to this new finding but illustrates the limits in terms of sample size and statistical power of population epigenetic approaches in non-model organisms. Pushing this boundary will be necessary before the relationship between environmentally induced epigenetic changes and phenotypic plasticity is clarified for ecologically relevant mechanisms with evolutionary implications. Full article

Research Highlights: This is the first study that has considered forest management and wildfires in the balance of living biomass and carbon stored in Mediterranean forests. Background and Objectives: The Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement request countries to estimate and report carbon emissions and removals from the forest in a transparent and reliable way. The aim of this study is to forecast the carbon stored in the living biomass of Spanish forests for the period 2000–2050 under two forest management alternatives and three forest wildfires scenarios. Materials and Methods: To produce these estimates, we rely on data from the Spanish National Forest Inventory (SNFI) and we use the European Forestry Dynamics Model (EFDM). SNFI plots were classified according to five static (forest type, known land-use restrictions, ownership, stand structure and bioclimatic region) and two dynamic factors (quadratic mean diameter and total volume). The results were validated using data from the latest SNFI cycle (20-year simulation). Results: The increase in wildfire occurrence will lead to a decrease in biomass/carbon between 2000 and 2050 of up to 22.7% in the medium–low greenhouse gas emissions scenario (B2 scenario) and of up to 32.8% in the medium–high greenhouse gas emissions scenario (A2 scenario). Schoolbook allocation management could buffer up to 3% of wildfire carbon loss. The most stable forest type under both wildfire scenarios are Dehesas. As regards bioregions, the Macaronesian area is the most affected and the Alpine region, the least affected. Our validation test revealed a total volume underestimation of 2.2% in 20 years. Conclusions: Forest wildfire scenarios provide more realistic simulations in Mediterranean forests. The results show the potential benefit of forest management, with slightly better results in schoolbook forest management compared to business-as-usual forest management. The EFDM harmonized approach simulates the capacity of forests to store carbon under different scenarios at national scale in Spain, providing important information for optimal decision-making on forest-related policies. Full article

The “super-gun” class of weaponry has been around for a long time. However, its unusual physics is largely ignored to this day in mainstream physics. We study an example of such a “super gun”, the “Paris gun”. We first look into the historic accounts of the firing distance of such a gun and try to reconcile it with our physical understanding of ballistics. We do this by looking into the drag component in the equations of motion for ballistic movement, which is usually neglected. The drag component of the equations of motion is the main reason for symmetry breaking in ballistics. We study ballistics for several air density profiles and discuss the results. We then proceed to look into the effects of muzzle velocity as well as mass and ground temperature on the optimal firing angle and firing range. We find that, even in the simplest case of fixed air density, the effects of including drag are far reaching. We also determine that in the “sensible” range of projectile mass, the muzzle velocity is the most important factor in determining the maximal firing range. We have found that even the simplest of complications that include air density, shifts the optimal angle from the schoolbook’s 45-degree angle, ground temperature plays a major role. While the optimal angle changes by a mere two degrees in response to a huge change in ground temperature, the maximal distance is largely affected. Muzzle velocity is perhaps the most influential variable when working within a sensible projectile mass range. In the current essay, this principle is described and examples are provided where students can apply them. For each problem, we provide both the force consideration solution approach and the energy consideration solution approach. Full article