A framework to better understand emotional experiences with portable interactive devices : preliminary trial

Two longitudinal experiments were conducted exploring emotional experiences with PIDs over six months including media and medial Portable Interactive Devices (PIDs). Results identifying the impact of negative social and personal interactions on the overall emotional experience as well as different task categories (Features, Functional, Mediation and Auxiliary) and their corresponding emotional responses have previously been reported [2,3,4,5]. This paper builds on these findings and presents the Designing for Evolving Emotional Experience (DE3) framework promoting positive (and deals with negative) emotional experiences with PIDs including a set of principles to better understand emotional experiences. To validate the DE3 framework a preliminary trial was conducted with five practicing industrial designers. The trial required them to consider initial design concepts using the DE3 framework followed by a questionnaire asking about their use of the framework for concept development. The trial aimed to analyse the effectiveness, efficiency and usefulness of the framework in assisting in the development of initial concepts for PIDs taking into account emotional experiences. Common themes regarding the framework are outlined including the ease of use, the effectiveness in focusing on the personal and social contexts and positive ratings regarding its use. Overall the feedback from the preliminary trial was encouraging with responses suggesting that the framework was accessible, rated highly and most importantly permitted designers to consider emotional experiences during concept development. The paper concludes with a discussion regarding the future development of the DE3 framework and the potential implications to design theory and the design discipline.

Implementation of an integrated, technology-based, discovery mode assessment item involving an incubation period to enhance learning outcomes for engineering maths students

In this paper we discuss our current efforts to develop and implement an exploratory, discovery mode assessment item into the total learning and assessment profile for a target group of about 100 second level engineering mathematics students. The assessment item under development is composed of 2 parts, namely, a set of "pre-lab" homework problems (which focus on relevant prior mathematical knowledge, concepts and skills), and complementary computing laboratory exercises which are undertaken within a fixed (1 hour) time frame. In particular, the computing exercises exploit the algebraic manipulation and visualisation capabilities of the symbolic algebra package MAPLE, with the aim of promoting understanding of certain mathematical concepts and skills via visual and intuitive reasoning, rather than a formal or rigorous approach. The assessment task we are developing is aimed at providing students with a significant learning experience, in addition to providing feedback on their individual knowledge and skills. To this end, a noteworthy feature of the scheme is that marks awarded for the laboratory work are primarily based on the extent to which reflective, critical thinking is demonstrated, rather than the amount of CBE-style tasks completed by the student within the allowed time. With regard to student learning outcomes, a novel and potentially critical feature of our scheme is that the assessment task is designed to be intimately linked to the overall course content, in that it aims to introduce important concepts and skills (via individual student exploration) which will be revisited somewhat later in the pedagogically more restrictive formal lecture component of the course (typically a large group plenary format). Furthermore, the time delay involved, or "incubation period", is also a deliberate design feature: it is intended to allow students the opportunity to undergo potentially important internal re-adjustments in their understanding, before being exposed to lectures on related course content which are invariably delivered in a more condensed, formal and mathematically rigorous manner. In our presentation, we will discuss in more detail our motivation and rationale for trailing such a scheme for the targeted student group. Some of the advantages and disadvantages of our approach (as we perceived them at the initial stages) will also be enumerated. In a companion paper, the theoretical framework for our approach will be more fully elaborated, and measures of student learning outcomes (as obtained from eg. student provided feedback) will be discussed.

A different algebraic analysis of the ZUC stream cipher

Existing algebraic analyses of the ZUC cipher indicate that the cipher should be secure against algebraic attacks. In this paper, we present an alternative algebraic analysis method for the ZUC stream cipher, where a combiner is used to represent the nonlinear function and to derive equations representing the cipher. Using this approach, the initial states of ZUC can be recovered from 2^97 observed words of keystream, with a complexity of 2^282 operations. This method is more successful when applied to a modified version of ZUC, where the number of output words per clock is increased. If the cipher outputs 120 bits of keystream per clock, the attack can succeed with 219 observed keystream bits and 2^47 operations. Therefore, the security of ZUC against algebraic attack could be significantly reduced if its throughput was to be increased for efficiency.

Algebraic analysis of Trivium-like ciphers

Trivium is a bit-based stream cipher in the final portfolio of the eSTREAM project. In this paper, we apply the approach of Berbain et al. to Trivium-like ciphers and perform new algebraic analyses on them, namely Trivium and its reduced versions: Trivium-N, Bivium-A and Bivium-B. In doing so, we answer an open question in the literature. We demonstrate a new algebraic attack on Bivium-A. This attack requires less time and memory than previous techniques which use the F4 algorithm to recover Bivium-A's initial state. Though our attacks on Bivium-B, Trivium and Trivium-N are worse than exhaustive keysearch, the systems of equations which are constructed are smaller and less complex compared to previous algebraic analysis. Factors which can affect the complexity of our attack on Trivium-like ciphers are discussed in detail.

Algebraic analysis of Trivium-like ciphers

Trivium is a bit-based stream cipher in the final portfolio of the eSTREAM project. In this paper, we apply the algebraic attack approach of Berbain et al. to Trivium-like ciphers and perform new analyses on them. We demonstrate a new algebraic attack on Bivium-A. This attack requires less time and memory than previous techniques to recover Bivium-A's initial state. Though our attacks on Bivium-B, Trivium and Trivium-N are worse than exhaustive keysearch, the systems of equations which are constructed are smaller and less complex compared to previous algebraic analyses. We also answer an open question posed by Berbain et al. on the feasibility of applying their technique on Trivium-like ciphers. Factors which can affect the complexity of our attack on Trivium-like ciphers are discussed in detail. Analysis of Bivium-B and Trivium-N are omitted from this manuscript. The full paper is available on the IACR ePrint Archive.

Algebraic attacks on SOBER-t32 and SOBER-t16 without stuttering

This paper presents algebraic attacks on SOBER-t32 and SOBER-t16 without stuttering. For unstuttered SOBER-t32, two different attacks are implemented. In the first attack, we obtain multivariate equations of degree 10. Then, an algebraic attack is developed using a collection of output bits whose relation to the initial state of the LFSR can be described by low-degree equations. The resulting system of equations contains 2^69 equations and monomials, which can be solved using the Gaussian elimination with the complexity of 2^196.5. For the second attack, we build a multivariate equation of degree 14. We focus on the property of the equation that the monomials which are combined with output bit are linear. By applying the Berlekamp-Massey algorithm, we can obtain a system of linear equations and the initial states of the LFSR can be recovered. The complexity of attack is around O(2^100) with 2^92 keystream observations. The second algebraic attack is applicable to SOBER-t16 without stuttering. The attack takes around O(2^85) CPU clocks with 2^78 keystream observations.