Abstract

Abstract
A Learning management system (LMS) is considered appropriate for company training. It is increasingly used in companies or organizations as a tool to manage their online training. The company or organization should consider the implementation of an LMS that provides ease in training content selection to achieve the best use and satisfaction of its employees in the learning process. From this perspective, the present study aims to investigate the implementation of a personalized LMS to facilitate the formative content selection tailored to employees’ roles. A Survey research methodology was used to achieve this objective. Based on the literature and survey results, we propose an approach to reach the personalization of content selection.

Abstract
Text readability is vital for effective communication and learning, especially for those with lower information literacy. This research aims to assess Llama 3's ability to grade readability and compare its alignment with established metrics. For that purpose, we create a new dataset of article lead sections from English and Simple English Wikipedia, covering nine categories. The model is prompted to rate the readability of the texts on a grade-level scale, and an in-depth analysis of the results is conducted. While Llama 3 correlates strongly with most metrics, it may underestimate text grade levels.

Abstract
Handheld controllers are standard in immersive virtual reality (iVR), but the rise of natural hand-based interactions exposes the limitations of hand gestures, especially for point-and-click tasks with graphical user interfaces (GUI). This shows the need to explore alternative hands-free selection methods. Unlike most studies focusing on the selection task itself, this work evaluates the impact of such methods on multiple dimensions when selections occur alongside another primary task. The tested methods were: head gaze + dwell, leaning, and voice; eye gaze + dwell, leaning, blinking, and voice; and voice-only. Controllers served as the baseline. Methods were further analyzed by pointing and confirming mechanisms. Four dimensions were analyzed: (1) iVR experience, (2) user satisfaction, (3) usability, and (4) efficiency and effectiveness. With 72 participants, results show hands-free methods provide comparable experiences to controllers, suggesting selection methods have a lower impact on the user experience when users focus on a primary task.

Abstract
We present Keigo, a concurrency- and workload-aware storage middleware that enhances the performance of log-structured merge key-value stores (LSM KVS) when they are deployed on a hierarchy of storage devices. The key observation behind Keigo is that there is no one-size-fits-all placement of data across the storage hierarchy that optimizes for all workloads. Hence, to leverage the benefits of combining different storage devices, Keigo places files across different devices based on their parallelism, I/O bandwidth, and capacity. We introduce three techniques - concurrency-aware data placement, persistent read-only caching, and context-based I/O differentiation. Keigo is portable across different LSMs, is adaptable to dynamic workloads, and does not require extensive profiling. Our system enables established production KVS such as RocksDB, LevelDB, and Speedb to benefit from heterogeneous storage setups. We evaluate Keigo using synthetic and realisticworkloads, showing that it improves the throughput of production-grade LSMs up to 4× for write- and 18× for read-heavy workloads when compared to general-purpose storage systems and specialized LSM KVS. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Abstract
SPHINCS+ is a post-quantum signature scheme that, at the time of writing, is being standardized as SLH-DSA. It is the most conservative option for post-quantum signatures, but the original tight proofs of security were flawed- as reported by Kudinov, Kiktenko and Fedorov in 2020. In this work, we formally prove a tight security bound for SPHINCS+ using the EasyCrypt proof assistant, establishing greater confidence in the general security of the scheme and that of the parameter sets considered for standardization. To this end, we reconstruct the tight security proof presented by Hulsing and Kudinov (in 2022) in a modular way. A small but important part of this effort involves a complex argument relating four different games at once, of a form not yet formalized in EasyCrypt (to the best of our knowledge). We describe our approach to overcoming this major challenge, and develop a general formal verification technique aimed at this type of reasoning. Enhancing the set of reusable EasyCrypt artifacts previously produced in the formal verification of stateful hash-based cryptographic constructions, we (1) improve and extend the existing libraries for hash functions and (2) develop new libraries for fundamental concepts related to hash-based cryptographic constructions, including Merkle trees. These enhancements, along with the formal verification technique we develop, further ease future formal verification endeavors in EasyCrypt, especially those concerning hash-based cryptographic constructions.