An Efficient Side-Channel Protected AES Implementation with Arbitrary Protection Order

Passive physical attacks, like power analysis, pose a serious threat to the security of digital circuits. In this work, we introduce an efficient sidechannel protected Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) hardware design that is completely scalable in terms of protection order. Therefore, we revisit the private circuits scheme of Ishai et al. [13] which is known to be vulnerable to glitches. We demonstrate how to achieve resistance against multivariate higher-order attacks in the presence of glitches for the same randomness cost as the private circuits scheme. Although our AES design is scalable, it is smaller, faster, and less randomness demanding than other side-channel protected AES implementations. Our first-order secure AES design, for example, requires only 18 bits of randomness per S-box operation and 6 kGE of chip area. We demonstrate the flexibility of our AES implementation by synthesizing it up to the 15th protection order

Occupational closure and wage inequality: How occupational closure effects vary between workers

Occupational closure continuously establishes, contests, or reinforces institutional boundaries around occupations. Occupational closure thereby interferes with wage-setting processes in the labor market. Recent research shows a substantial impact of occupational closure on wage determination processes in Germany. However, research on occupational closure is based on the assumption that all incumbents of an occupation benefit in the same way. We challenge this assumption by showing that occupational closure works differently for different workers. Using the 2006 sample of the German Structure of Earnings Survey, we distinguish nine worker profiles (three educational groups crossed with three career stages). For each of these profiles we investigate the effects of five closure sources (credentialism, standardization, licensure, representation by occupational associations, and unionization) on the expected mean wages of occupations, employing a two-step multilevel regression model. Our results show that occupational closure does indeed differ between workers. We can show that closure plays out differently throughout employees’ careers. For example, representation through occupational associations pays off the most as employees’ careers advance. Closure sources are unequally distributed across occupations and benefit employees with tertiary degrees more than employees with vocational qualifications. Credentialism also yields the largest advantages for workers with tertiary degrees regarding wage rents. However, our analyses also point to complex interactions between credentialism and standardization, demanding further research, to investigate the interplay between individual worker characteristics and the various sources of occupational closure.Berufliche Schließung etabliert, verändert und verstärkt institutionelle Barrieren, die den Zugang zu Berufen regeln. Damit beeinflusst berufliche Schließung auch den Prozess der Lohndeterminierung im Arbeitsmarkt, wie jüngere Studien auch für Deutschland mehrfach nachgewiesen haben. Allerdings geht diese Forschung in der Regel von der Annahme aus, dass berufliche Schließung alle Inhaber eines Berufes in der gleichen Weise bevor- oder benachteiligt. Im Gegensatz dazu zeigt dieser Aufsatz, dass sich berufliche Schließung für verschiedene Arbeitnehmergruppen in unterschiedlicher Weise auswirkt. Mit den Daten der Verdienststrukturerhebung 2006 unterscheiden wir neun Arbeitnehmerprofile (drei Bildungsgruppen in drei unterschiedlichen Karrierestufen), für die wir jeweils mittels eines zweistufigen Multilevel-Regressionsmodells den Effekt von fünf Schließungsmechanismen (Credentialismus, Standardisierung, Lizensierung, Repräsentation durch Berufsverbände und Repräsentation durch Berufsgewerkschaften) auf die mittleren Löhne in den Berufen untersuchen. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich die Effekte beruflicher Schließung in der Tat zwischen Arbeitnehmergruppen unterscheiden. 1) Wir können zeigen, dass sich Schließungseffekte zwischen Karrierestufen unterscheiden. Beispielsweise zahlt sich die Repräsentation durch Berufsverbände besonders für Arbeitnehmer in späteren Karrierestufen aus. 2) Die Quellen der beruflichen Schließung sind zwischen Berufen ungleich verteilt und bevorteilen Arbeitnehmer mit tertiären Bildungsabschlüssen stärker als Arbeitnehmer mit beruflichen Bildungsabschlüssen. 3) Credentialismus verhilft vor allem den Arbeitnehmern mit tertiären Abschlüssen zu Einkommensvorteilen. Allerdings weisen unsere Analysen auch auf komplexe Interaktionen zwischen Credentialismus und Standardisierung hin, die weitere Untersuchungen erfordern, welche das Zusammenspiel von individuellen Arbeitnehmercharakteristiken und den unterschiedlichen Quellen beruflicher Schließung offen legen

EmoCycling – Analysen von Radwegen mittels Humansensorik und Wearable Computing

Radfahren erfreut sich einer zunehmenden Wertschätzung. Einerseits als neuer Lifestyle, andererseits als wichtiges Thema der städtischen Mobilitätsplanung: Bike-Sharing-Angebote, Radwegekonzepte und Förderung eines umweltfreundlichen Mobilitätsmix sind hierbei wichtige Stichworte. Daher fördern zunehmend mehr Städte den Ausbau der Radwege-Infrastruktur, um das Radfahren attraktiver zu gestalten. Wie stark Radfahren aber tatsächlich angenommen und praktiziert wird, hängt von ganz verschiedenen Faktoren ab: Verkehrslage, Quantität und Qualität der Infrastruktur, Topografie sowie das subjektive Sicherheitsempfinden z.B. an unübersichtlichen Kreuzungen beeinflussen die Verkehrsmittelwahl. Insbesondere die Erfassung und Analyse des subjektiven Sicherheitsempfindens stellt hierbei eine große Herausforderung dar – wird aber durch neue Methoden der Humansensorik (Exner et al. 2012) möglich. Entwicklungen in den Bereichen des Wearable Computing sowie der Geoinformatik ermöglichen es, das subjektive Sicherheitsempfinden während der Fahrt genauer zu analysieren. Anknüpfend an Projekte zur emotionalen Stadtkartierung (Höffken et al. 2008, Zeile et al. 2010) erfolgt ein Live-Monitoring der Probanden während der Fahrt. Mittels eines Sensorarmbands (Smartband) zur Erfassung psychophysiologischer Reaktionen des Körpers in Kombination mit Video-Kamera-Daten und GPS-Koordinaten wird der emotionale Zustand der Probanden sekundengenau gemessen. Dadurch lassen sich Emotionen, insbesondere Stress, interpretieren und auf einer Karte verorten sowie die Auslöser (Trigger) identifizieren. Zudem kann auf diese Weise der Verkehr kontinuierlich erfasst und in die Analyse mit aufgenommen werden, um Gefahrenstellen zu lokalisieren. Nach einer Einführung in das Thema Radfahren in der Untersuchungsgemeinde Kaiserslautern, gibt das Paper einen Überblick über den aktuellen Stand der Methodik, die Konzeptionierung der Teststrecken sowie die Methodik im konkreten Projekt EmoCycling. Darauf basierend werden die Ergebnisse des Projektes vorgestellt und daraus resultierende weiterführende Fragenstellungen aufgezeigt

Match-related physical performance in professional soccer: Position or player specific?

The purpose of this study was to examine to what extent the physical match performance of professional soccer players is both position and player specific. First, official match data from the 2019/20 German Bundesliga season was used to search for players that met the inclusion criteria of playing a minimum of four entire matches in at least two different playing positions. Overall, 25 players met the criteria prior to the COVID-19 induced break, playing a minimum of eight matches. Second, the physical match performance of these players was analyzed separately for each position they played. The following four parameters were captured: total distance, high-intensity distance, sprinting distance, and accelerations. Third, the 25 players’ physical match performance data was then compared to normative data for each position they played to understand whether players adapted their physical performance (position dependent), or maintained their performance regardless of which position they were assigned to (position independent). When switching the position, the change in physical match performance of the respective players could be explained by 44–58% through the normative positional data. Moreover, there existed large individual differences in the way players adapted or maintained their performance when acting in different positions. Coaches and practitioners should be aware that some professional soccer players will likely incur differences in the composition of physical match performance when switching positions and therefore should pay special consideration for such differences in the training and recovery process of these players

Adaptations and transformations of hunter-gatherers in forest environments: New archaeological and anthropological insights

Like any other living being, humans constantly influence their environment, be it intentionally or unintentionally. By extracting natural resources, they shape their environment and also that of plants and other animals. A great difference setting people apart from all other living beings is the ability to construct and develop their own niche intentionally, and the unique tool for this is cultural behaviour. Here, we discuss anthropogenic environmental changes of hunter-gatherers and present new palaeoecological and palynological data. The studies are framed with ethnoarchaeological data from Western Siberia to gain a better understanding of how different triggers lead to coping mechanisms. For archaeological implication, we use two Mesolithic case studies from Germany: One of them focuses on hazelnut economy around ancient Lake Duvensee, and the other broaches the issue of selective roe deer hunt and its consequences at the site of Friesack. We address the archaeological evidence from the perspective of active alteration and its consequences, starting our argumentation from a perspective of niche construction theory. This approach has rarely been applied to early Holocene hunter-gatherers in Northern Europe even though the available data render possible to discuss human–environment interaction from such a perspective. It is demonstrated that archaeological research has tools at hand that enables to detect anthropogenic niche construction. However, the ethnoarchaeological example shows limitations and archaeologically invisible triggers and consequent results of human adaptations. The critical revision of such perspectives based on empirical data provides a better understanding of social and environmental transformations in the early- and mid-Holocene

Psychedelic Experiences During the Early COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings From an International Online Survey

Introduction: The current corona virus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a serious global health crisis that has affected large parts of the public and private life worldwide, including the use of psychoactive substances. In this study, we investigated the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the use of serotonergic psychedelics, i.e., the settings in which people use psychedelics, the motives of usage, and the subjective quality of psychedelic experiences. Methods: The study was part of an international, cross-sectional, internet-based survey (N = 5,049) available in five languages (English, German, Spanish, Italian, and Korean) carried out during the early phase of the pandemic from April to August 2020. Participants were asked to retrospectively rate settings and motives of psychedelic substance use before the pandemic and in the last 4 weeks during the pandemic, as well as changes in psychedelic experiences. Results: Of n = 1,375 participants that reported the use psychedelics in 2019 or 2020, n = 642 (46.6%) also took psychedelics during the pandemic. During the pandemic, participants used psychedelics significantly less often in settings that were outside their home. Top motives to use psychedelics were comparable before and during the pandemic, but participants consumed less out of curiosity, to celebrate, or because friends took it, and more out of boredom. An increase in positively connoted, often pro-social experiences was observed. Two thirds of participants who used psychedelics during the pandemic claimed that psychedelics had helped them to deal better with the corona pandemic at least slightly. Discussion: Changes in setting and motives were mostly in line with restrictions caused by control measures to contain the spread of the virus. The unexpected increase in positively connoted experiences possibly reflects a favorable interaction of environmental macro- and individual micro-contexts during the pandemic (e.g., by reducing the use in more uncontrolled recreational settings or by encouraging a strong self-selection of substance users due to the expectation of "bad trips"). Increased pro-social feelings under psychedelics might reflect a desire for social interactions in times of social distancing and pandemic-related stress and anxiety