Issues of this thesis are focused on side-channel cryptanalysis. Particularly attention is paid to differential power analysis, when is simulated an attack on the cryptographic module for different conditions and for different structural features of this module. As the cryptographic module is used a PIC microcontroller, which is operating with AES symmetric encryption algorithm. For this purpose, a design of experimental printed circuit board was created. Then, this PCB was equipped only with the necessary components for the function of the cryptographic module. Cryptanalysis is aimed on current consumption of crypto module that is caused by execution of AddRoundKey instructions. Power consumption of PIC microcontroller is measured in depending on the size of power supply voltage, size of serial resistor, size of bypass capacitor, and this thesis also examines the influence of ambient temperature on power consumption of PIC. The measured values are graphically presented and then discussed.

La destruction des cellules ciliées de la cochlée entraine des surdités sensorielles. Chez les mammifères ces cellules ne se régénèrent pas et les déficits auditifs occasionnés sont définitifs. Aucune thérapie visant à remplacer les cellules ciliées détruites n'est actuellement proposée.L'objectif de cette thèse est de contribuer au développement d'une thérapie cellulaire basée sur la greffe de cellules souches / progénitrices cochléaires et destinée à promouvoir la régénération des cellules ciliées.Au cours de nos travaux, nous avons isolé une population de cellules souches cochléaires chez des souris néonatales appartenant à la « side population » (Savary et al. 2007). Nous avons également montré, par des expériences de perte et de gain de fonction in vitro, que la voie de signalisation Notch est nécessaire pour l'auto-renouvellement et la différenciation de ces cellules (Savary et al., 2008). Des lignées de souris transgéniques exprimant la GFP sous le promoteur de la GFAP et de la Nestine nous ont permis de suivre l'expression de ces marqueurs de cellules souches dans des cochlées de souris P3 et adultes. En étudiant l'expression combinée d'autres marqueurs comme Sox2 et Abcg2, nous avons montré que les cellules progénitrices cochléaires sont réparties différemment chez les souris néonatales et les souris adultes (Smeti, Savary et al 2010).Nos expériences préliminaires de transplantation in vitro dans un modèle murin de surdité génétique humaine de type DFNA15 démontrent que les cellules souches / progénitrices greffées sont capables d'intégrer l'épithélium sensoriel lésé et de se différencier en cellules exprimant un marqueur de cellules ciliées. / The destruction of cochlear hair cells causes sensory deafness. In Mammals these cells do not regenerate and damages are irreversible. Currently, there is no proposed therapy to replace the destroyed hair cells.The focus of this thesis is to develop a novel cell therapy based on transplantation of cochlear progenitor cells in order to promote regeneration of hair cells.We first isolated a population of cochlear stem cells from neonatal mice by using the side population analysis technique (Savary et al. 2007). Then, we showed, by in vitro loss and gain of function experiments, that the Notch signaling pathway is necessary for cellular self-renewal and differentiation (Savary et al., 2008).Transgenic mice strains expressing GFP under the control of GFAP and Nestin promotors allowed us to monitor the expression of these markers of stem cells in the P3 and adult mice cochleae. By studying the combined expression of other stem cells markers such as Sox2 and ABCG2, we showed that the niches of cochlear progenitor cells are differently distributed in neonatal and adult mice (Smati, Savary et al 2010).Our preliminary in vitro transplantation experiments in a mouse model that mimics human genetic deafness DFNA15 show that the transplanted stem / progenitor cells are able to migrate to the lesion site, to integrate the damaged sensory epithelium and to differentiate into cells expressing a marker of hair cells.

Au cours de la précédente décennie et avant la crise financière de l’automne 2008, les marchés financiers internationaux ont connu un développement considérable et l’émergence d’une véritable industrie de l’investissement institutionnel. Au sein de cette industrie, les analystes financiers sell side employés par les sociétés de courtage apparaissent comme des acteurs majeurs, autour desquels se forment l’évaluation des sociétés cotées et les recommandations d’investissement à destination de leurs clients gestionnaires de fonds amenés à passer leurs ordres de bourse auprès de ces sociétés de courtage. La recherche présentée vise à identifier les modes de gestion des analystes financiers dans le champ de l’industrie de l’investissement institutionnel et l’influence qu’ils exercent sur les représentations, pratiques et productions des analystes. La première partie de cette thèse, après avoir étudié la construction du métier d’analyste et son contexte, met en débat les cadres de références théoriques et les disciplines qui s’impliquent dans l’analyse de la gestion du travail de quelques-uns des principaux acteurs de la finance, en général, et des analystes financiers en particulier. La seconde partie mobilise une approche contextualiste, interdisciplinaire et multi-méthodes au service d’une investigation empirique. Celle-ci met en relief le rôle du droit dans des dimensions coercitives et normatives très prégnantes, encourageant aussi bien la concurrence entre structures que l’homogénéisation et la standardisation de l’organisation du travail. Elle montre comment, sous l’effet de la concurrence des banques d’investissement anglo-saxonnes et de l’introduction d’un nouveau mode de financement de l’analyse financière par les volumes de courtage, les sociétés de « brokerage » ont adopté des stratégies de niche et intégré dans leurs configurations organisationnelles plutôt professionnelles de fortes dimensions mécanistes. Enfin, elle constate une uniformisation des modes de gestion des quatre principales sociétés de courtage françaises filiales de banques d’investissement. Les analystes français sont soumis à des modes de gestion qui privilégient clairement les dimensions marketing du métier qu’il s’agisse des modalités d’organisation du travail, des pratiques de recrutement, de communication interne, d’évaluation et de rémunération. Un des rôles essentiels assigné aux analystes consiste alors à accroitre les volumes de courtage ce qui les conduit à privilégier les activités aval de leur fonction. Mais cette dimension marketing qui caractérise la production des analystes doit être relativisée. En fonction de leur histoire professionnelle et des ressources qu’ils peuvent mobiliser, les analystes développent en effet des stratégies et des identités au travail différenciées. / Over the last decade and before the October 2008 credit crunch, international financial markets have witnessed a considerable development with the emergence of an important industry of institutional investment. Within this industry, financial analysts hired by brokerage firms play a major role while contributing to the assessment of listed companies through investment recommendations to asset managers, thereby obtaining from these clients orders for execution. The objective of this research is to pinpoint the role played by research analysts in the financial industry, and their influence over the representations and practices. The first part of this study, once constructed the analyst’s activity as a category, challenges the referential and theoretical grounds, as well as the fields involved in the work of some financial functions, and draws the attention to research analysts. The second part focuses on a contextual, multidisciplinary and multi-methodological approach to support an empirical investigation, which highlights the role played by law in both its coercive and prescriptive aspects, whether stimulating competition between structures or promoting the homogenization and standardization of work arrangements. We demonstrate how competition from Anglo-Saxon investment banks, as well as the adoption of a new business model resting on commissions generated by trading volumes, has led to the development of niche strategies, and introduced an important mechanistic dimension to the organizational configurations of brokerage firms. Lastly, it sheds light on the standardization of the managerial modes of the four main French brokerage firms, which are all subsidiaries of investment banks. French analysts are subject to management modes which clearly favor the marketing dimensions of the activity, as can be seen through the way their work is organized, the recruitment practices, the internal communication flows, their assessments and salaries. One of the roles assigned to analysts is thus to generate higher brokerage volumes, which as a consequence drives them towards marketing activities. This marketing dimension however needs to must be into perspective. Depending on their professional backgrounds and the resources they access, research analysts develop specific strategies and differentiated identities.

Analistas do mercado financeiro (conhecidos como sell-side analysts, mas aqui designados apenas como analistas) são importantes intermediários da informação contábil/financeira. Seus relatórios são amplamente disponíveis e utilizados por investidores institucionais e não profissionais. É sabido que os analistas possuem conflitos de interesse e sofrem pressões quando processam as informações financeiras e escrevem seus relatórios de recomendações. Como consequência, analistas costumam escrever relatórios extensos e com um tom e recomendação muito otimistas. Assim, existe uma extensa literatura que examina o detalhe e o tom nos relatórios dos analistas. É sabido também que, em face a esse cenário, o investidor \"ajusta\" a recomendação do analista e utilizado de outros dados, além do relatório do analista, para tomar a decisão de investir, como o tamanho da empresa. Porém, um campo pouco explorado diz respeito às heurísticas e vieses que o analista está propenso a ter. Assim, pouco se sabe em que extensão tais atributos cognitivos influenciam o processo de escrita do analista, bem como a reação do mercado acionário. Por conta dessa incerteza, acadêmicos usualmente atribuem o processo de escrita do analista como sendo uma \"caixa-preta\" (BARKER, 1999b; BROWN, CALL, et al., 2015) e o uso do tamanho da empresa como fator de decisão de investimento como firm size effect (SHEFRIN, 2002). O objetivo principal desta tese é entender se as heurísticas e vieses influenciam o processo de escrita do analista. Também procura aqui determinar se esses mesmos atributos, inseridos nos relatórios dos analistas, funcionam como um gatilho, fazendo o investidor negociar. Como objetivo secundário, espera-se verificar se o efeito tamanho da empresa contribui na decisão do investidor negociar ações dentro de uma janela curta de 3 dias (D-1, D 0, D+1). Logo, esta tese visa contribuir para a rica literatura que trata sobre o papel dos analistas no mercado acionário, no entanto, também espera-se dar um passo adiante ao analisar o papel das heurísticas e vieses na escrita do analista. Como expectativa final, espera-se incentivar novas pesquisas que envolvam processos de julgamento dos analistas e das finanças comportamentais. Para tanto, esta tese procura responder a seguinte questão: Qual é o grau de influência das heurísticas e vieses no detalhe e no tom do relatório do analista e como o mercado acionário reage a tais atributos qualitativos? Esta tese espera também atender ao chamado de Schipper (1991) e Brown (1993) no que diz respeito a mais pesquisas que explorem os atributos qualitativos do relatório do analista. A metodologia que será aplicada aqui será o mixed-methods, em que serão coletados dados qualitativos dos relatórios dos analista e interpretados com análises quantitativas. A análise qualitativa envolverá análise de discurso com o uso de dicionários de termos amplamente utilizados na academia. A análise quantitativa envolverá, além de regressões simples e multivariadas, a aplicação da correlação canônica para analisar como as variáveis qualitativas interagem entre si. A base de dados a ser utilizada será os relatórios completos dos analistas que foram classificados como \"melhores\" analistas pela revista Institutional Investor Magazine por 3 anos consecutivos. Para alcançar esses objetivos, foram coletados 4.593 relatórios completos e analisados mais de 47 mil páginas de relatórios publicados entre os anos de 2012 a 2016. Como achados, descobriu-se que as heurísticas e vieses exercem uma influência positiva (na ordem de grandeza de 64,8%) na forma como o analista escreve, especialmente no que diz respeito ao detalhe. Também notou-se que tais relatórios explicam parte da negociação das ações no período, medida pelo volume negociado numa janela de 3 dias da data de publicação do relatório (D-1, D 0, D+1). Como achado final, foi demonstrado que tais atributos qualitativos isolados funcionam como um gatilho, fazendo o investidor negociar. Quando incluído o tamanho da empresa na análise notou-se um ponto interessante, essa variável, em conjunto com os achados das heurísticas e vieses, demonstra que o investidor não negocia rapidamente. / Financial market analysts (known as sell-side analysts, but here designated only as analysts) are important intermediaries of accounting / financial information. Its reports are widely available and used by institutional and non-professional investors. Analysts are known to have conflicts of interest and are pressured when they process financial information and write their recommendations reports. As a consequence, analysts often write lengthy reports with a very optimistic tone and recommendation. Thus, there is extensive literature that examines detail and tone in analysts\' reports. It is also known that, in the face of this scenario, the investor \"adjusts\" the analyst\'s recommendation and used other data, in addition to the analyst\'s report, to make the decision to invest, such as the size of the company. However, an unexplored field concerns the heuristics and biases the analyst is likely to have. Thus, little is known to what extent such cognitive attributes influence the analyst\'s writing process as well as the stock market reaction. Because of this uncertainty, scholars usually attribute the analyst\'s writing process as a \"black box\" (Barker, 1999b; Brown, Call, et al., 2015) and the use of firm size as an investment decision factor as firm size effect (SHEFRIN, 2002). The main objective of this thesis is to understand if the heuristics and biases influence the writing process of the analyst. It also seeks to determine if these same attributes, inserted in analysts\' reports, act as a trigger, causing the investor to negotiate. As a secondary objective, it is expected to verify whether the size effect of the firm contributes to the investor\'s decision to trade stocks within a 3-day window (D-1, D 0, D + 1). Therefore, this thesis aims to contribute to the rich literature that deals with the role of analysts in the stock market, however, it is also expected to take a step forward by analysing the role of heuristics and bias in analyst writing. As a final expectation, it is hoped to encourage further research that involves judgments of analysts and behavioural finance. To that end, this thesis tries to answer the following question: What is the degree of influence of heuristics and biases on the detail and tone of the analyst\'s report and how does the stock market respond to such qualitative attributes? This thesis also hopes to meet the call of Schipper (1991) and Brown (1993) for more research exploring the qualitative attributes of the analyst\'s report. The methodology that will be applied here will be the mixed-methods, in which qualitative data will be collected from the analyst reports and interpreted with quantitative analyses. Qualitative analysis will involve discourse analysis with the use of term dictionaries widely used in academia. The quantitative analysis will involve, besides simple and multivariate regressions, the application of canonical correlation to analyse how the qualitative variables interact with each other. The database to be used will be the full analyst reports that have been ranked \"best\" analysts by Institutional Investor Magazine for 3 consecutive years. To achieve these objectives, 4,593 complete reports were collected, and almost 48,000 pages of reports published between the years 2012 to 2016 were collected. As a result, heuristics and biases were found to exert a positive influence (in the order of magnitude of 64,8%) in the way the analyst writes, especially with regard to detail. It was also noted that such reports explain part of the trading of the shares in the period, measured by the volume traded in a 3 days window from the date of publication of the report (D-1, D 0, D + 1). As a final finding, it has been demonstrated that such isolated qualitative attributes act as a trigger, causing the investor to negotiate. When we included the size of the company in the analysis we noticed an interesting point, this variable, together with the heuristic and bias findings, demonstrated that investors do not trade quickly, they prefer to wait before to start trading.

LÉtranger e Le Mythe de Sisyphe fazem parte do que Camus nomeou de ciclo do absurdo,no qual se unem sob esse mesmo tema a escrita literária e a reflexão filosófica. O absurdo é essencialmente definido como um divórcio do homem com o mundo, mas encontramos no percurso filosófico do autor uma noção anterior a essa, as núpcias. A análise de todos os textos anteriores ao ciclo do absurdo nos mostra, porém, que núpcias e absurdo sempre fizeram parte da reflexão camusiana. Essas duas noções opostas sempre conviveram juntas, formando o que chamamos de o avesso e o direito, ideia que se reflete no título da primeira recolha de ensaios do autor. O objetivo dessa dissertação é, através de todos os escritos anteriores à narrativa, definir o avesso e o direito como um tema fundamental para a escritura de LÉtranger, onde se conjugam as núpcias e o absurdo, a literatura e a filosofia. / LÉtranger and Le Myth de Sisyphe make part of what Camus named as the absurd cycle, where the literary writing and the philosophical reflection are joined together under the same theme. The absurd is essentially definite as a divorce of man with the world, but we meet in the authors philosophical course a previous notion to it, the nuptials. The analysis of all former texts to the absurd cycle, show us, nevertheless, that nuptials and absurd always were part of camusian reflection. These two opposite notions always lived together, shaping what we call the wrong side and the right side, the title of the authors first reunion of essays. The purpose of this dissertation is, through the all writings written before the narrative, definite the wrong side and the right side as a fundamental theme to the scripture of LÉtranger, where the nuptials and the absurd, the literature and philosophy are joined together.

Smart cards are widely used in different areas of modern life including identification, banking, and transportation cards. Some types of cards are able to store data and process information as well. A number of them can run cryptographic algorithms to enhance the security of their transactions and it is usually believed that the information and values stored in them are completely safe. However, this is generally not the case due to the threat of the side channel. Side channel analysis is the process of obtaining additional information from the internal activity of a physical device beyond that allowed by its specifications. There exist different techniques to attempt to obtain information from a cryptosystem using other ways than the normally permitted. This thesis presents a series of experiments intended to study the side channel from a particular type of smart card, known as Java Cards. This investigation uses the well known technique, Correlation Analysis, and a new type of side channel attack called fast correlation in the frequency domain to study the side channel of Java Cards. This research presents a giant magnetoresistor (GMR) probe and for the first time, this type of sensor is used to investigate the side channel. A novel setup designed for studying the side channel of smart cards is described and two metrics used to evaluate the analysis results are presented. After testing the GMR probe and methodology on electronic devices executing the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), such as 8 bit microcontrollers and 128 bit AES implementations on FPGAs, these techniques were applied to analyse two different models of Java Cards working in the contactless mode. The results show that successful attacks on a software implementation of AES running on both models of Java Cards are possible.

Extreme Value Theory (EVT) is used to analyze the peak sidelobe level distribution for array element positions with arbitrary probability distributions. Computations are discussed in the context of linear antenna arrays using electromagnetic energy. The results also apply to planar arrays of random elements that can be transformed into linear arrays. / Engineering and Applied Sciences

Various commercial software packages are available for simulating compressed air network operations. However, none of these software packages are able to dynamically prioritise compressor selection on large compressed air networks in the mining industry. In this dissertation, a dynamic compressor selector (DCS) will be developed that will actively and continuously monitor system demand. The software will ensure that the most suitable compressors, based on efficiency and position in the compressed air network, are always in operation. The study will be conducted at a platinum mine. Compressed air flow and pressure requirements will be maintained without compromising mine safety procedures. Significant energy savings will be realised. DCS will receive shaft pressure profiles from each of the shafts’ surface compressed air control valves. These parameters will be used to calculate and predict the compressed air demand. All pipe friction losses and leaks will be taken into account to determine the end-point pressure losses at different flow rates. DCS will then prioritise the compressors of the compressed air network based on the overall system requirement. This software combines the benefits of supply-side and demand-side management. Potential energy savings with DCS were proven and compressor cycling reduced. A DCS user-friendly interface was created to easily set up any mine’s compressed air network. / Thesis (MIng (Mechanical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

Various commercial software packages are available for simulating compressed air network operations. However, none of these software packages are able to dynamically prioritise compressor selection on large compressed air networks in the mining industry. In this dissertation, a dynamic compressor selector (DCS) will be developed that will actively and continuously monitor system demand. The software will ensure that the most suitable compressors, based on efficiency and position in the compressed air network, are always in operation. The study will be conducted at a platinum mine. Compressed air flow and pressure requirements will be maintained without compromising mine safety procedures. Significant energy savings will be realised. DCS will receive shaft pressure profiles from each of the shafts’ surface compressed air control valves. These parameters will be used to calculate and predict the compressed air demand. All pipe friction losses and leaks will be taken into account to determine the end-point pressure losses at different flow rates. DCS will then prioritise the compressors of the compressed air network based on the overall system requirement. This software combines the benefits of supply-side and demand-side management. Potential energy savings with DCS were proven and compressor cycling reduced. A DCS user-friendly interface was created to easily set up any mine’s compressed air network. / Thesis (MIng (Mechanical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

Elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) has played a significant role on secure devices since it was introduced by Koblitz and Miller more than three decades ago. The great demand for ECC is created by its shorter key length while it provides an equivalent security level in comparison to previously introduced public-key cryptosystems (e.g.RSA). From an implementation point of view a shorter key length means a higher processing speed, smaller power consumption, and silicon area requirement. Scalar multiplication is the main operation in Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH), which is a key-agreement protocol using ECC. As shown in the prior literature, this operation is both vulnerable to Power Analysis attack and requires a large amount of time. Therefore, a lot of research has focused on enhancing the performance and security of scalar multiplication. In this work, we describe three schemes to counter power analysis cryptographic attacks. The first scheme provides improved security at the expense of a very small cost of additional hardware overhead; its basic idea is to randomize independent field operations in order to have multiple power consumption traces for each point operation. In the second scheme, we introduce an atomic block that consists of addition, multiplication and addition [A-M-A]. This technique provides a very good scalar multiplication protection but with increased computation cost. The third scheme provides both security and speed by adopting the second tech- nique and enhancing the instruction-level parallelism at the atomic level. As a result, the last scheme also provides a reduction in computing time. With these schemes the users can optimize the trade-off between speed, cost, and security level according to their needs and resources. / Graduate / 0544 / 0984 / z.mohaimeed@gmail.com