From the time of the Greeks, primality testing and factoring have fascinated mathematicians, and for centuries following the Greeks primality testing and factorization were pursued by enthusiasts and professional mathematicians for their intrisic value. There was little practical application. One example application was to determine whether or not the Fermat numbers, that is, numbers of the form F;, = 2'" + 1 were prime. Fermat conjectured that for all n they were prime. For n = 1,2,3,4, the Fermat numbers are prime, but Euler showed that F; was not prime and to date no F,, n 2 5 has been found to be prime. Thus, for nearly 2000 years primality testing and factorization was largely pure mathematics. This all changed in the mid 1970's with the advent of public key cryptography. Large prime numbers are used in generating keys in many public key cryptosystems and the security of many of these cryptosystems depends on the difficulty of factoring numbers with large prime factors. Thus, the race was on to develop new algorithms to determine the primality or otherwise of a given large integer and to determine the factors of given large integers. The development of such algorithms continues today. This thesis develops both of these themes. The first part of this thesis deals with primality testing and after a brief introduction to primality testing a new probabilistic primality algorithm, ALI, is introduced. It is analysed in detail and compared to Fermat and Miller-Rabin primality tests. It is shown that the ALI algorithm is more efficient than the Miller-Rabin algorithm in some aspects. The second part of the thesis deals with factoring and after looking closely at various types of algorithms a new algorithm, RAK, is presented. It is analysed in detail and compared with Fermat factorization. The RAK algorithm is shown to be significantly more efficient than the Fermat factoring algorithm. A number of enhancements is made to the basic RAK algorithm in order to improve its performance. The RAK algorithm with its enhancements is known as IMPROVEDRAK. In conjunction with this work on factorization an improvement to Shor's factoring algorithm is presented. For many integers Shor's algorithm uses a quantum computer multiple times to factor a composite number into its prime factors. It is shown that Shor's alorithm can be modified in a way such that the use of a quantum computer is required just once. The common thread throughout this thesis is the application of factoring and primality testing techniques to integer types which commonly occur in public key cryptosystems. Thus, this thesis contributes not only in the area of pure mathematics but also in the very contemporary area of cryptology.

This thesis examines the reinvention of jihād ideology in twelfth‑century al‑Shām. In modern scholarship there is a tendency to speak of a revival of jihād in the twelfth century, but discussion of this revival has been dominated by study of the practice of jihād rather than of the ideology of jihād. This thesis addresses this imbalance by studying two twelfth‑century Damascene works: the Kitāb al‑jihād (Book of Jihād) of ʿAlī b. Ṭāhir al‑Sulamī (d. 500/1106), and the al‑Arbaʿūn ḥadīthan fī al‑ḥathth ʿala al‑jihād (Forty Hadiths for Inciting Jihād) of Abū al‑Qāsim Ibn ʿAsākir (d. 571/1176). Through discussion of these texts, this thesis sheds light on twelfth‑century perceptions of jihād by asking what their authors meant when they referred to jihād, and how their perceptions of jihād related to the broader Islamic discourse on jihād. A holistic approach is taken to these works; they are discussed not only in the context of the 'master narrative' of jihād, wherein juristic sources have been privileged over other non‑legal genres and corpora, but also in the context of the Sufi discourse of jihād al‑nafs, and the earliest traditions on jihād which thrived from the eighth century onwards on the Muslim‑Byzantine frontier. This thesis argues that both al‑Sulamī and Ibn ʿAsākir integrated elements from these different traditions of jihād in order to create models of jihād suited to their own political contexts, and that it is only in the context of a more nuanced appreciation of jihād ideology that their attempts can be properly understood. At the same time, this thesis argues against the model of the 'counter‑crusade', which holds that the revival of jihād began in earnest only in the middle of the twelfth century, by stressing that there was no delay between the arrival of the Franks and attempts to modify jihād ideology.

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In semi-arid regions subject to rising temperatures and drought, palaeoecological insights into past vegetation dynamics under a range of boundary conditions are needed to develop our understanding of environmental responses to climatic changes. Here, we present a new high-resolution record of vegetation history and fire activity spanning the last 12,000 years from Lake Sidi Ali in the southern Middle Atlas Mountains, Morocco. The record is underpinned by a robust AMS radiocarbon and 210Pb/137Cs chronology and multi-proxy approach allowing direct comparison of vegetation, hydroclimate, and catchment tracers. The record reveals the persistence of steppic landscapes until 10,340 cal yr BP, prevailing sclerophyll woodland with evergreen Quercus until 6,300 cal yr BP, predominance of montane conifers (Cedrus and Cupressaceae) until 1,300 cal yr BP with matorralization and increased fire activity from 4,320 cal yr BP, and major reduction of forest cover after 1,300 cal yr BP. Detailed comparisons between the pollen record of Lake Sidi Ali (2,080m a.s.l.) and previously published data from nearby Tigalmamine (1,626m a.s.l.) highlight common patterns of vegetation change in response to Holocene climatic and anthropogenic drivers, as well as local differences relating to elevation and bioclimate contrasts between the sites. Variability in evergreen Quercus and Cedrus at both sites supports a Holocene summer temperature maximum between 9,000 and 7,000 cal yr BP in contrast with previous large-scale pollen-based climate reconstructions, and furthermore indicates pervasive millennial temperature variability. Millennial-scale cooling episodes are inferred from Cedrus expansion around 10,200, 8,200, 6,100, 4,500, 3,000, and 1,700 cal yr BP, and during the Little Ice Age (400 cal yr BP). A two-part trajectory of Late Holocene forest decline is evident, with gradual decline from 4,320 cal yr BP linked to synergism between pastoralism, increased fire and low winter rainfall, and a marked reduction from 1,300 cal yr BP, attributed to intensification of human activity around the Early Muslim conquest of Morocco. This trajectory, however, does not mask vegetation responses to millennial climate variability. The findings reveal the sensitive response ofMiddle Atlas forests to rapid climate changes and underscore the exposure of the montane forest ecosystems to future warming.

Drawing on archetypical aspects of human characteristics and personalities, I create images that illustrate our connection to memory, media, and culture. My work is informed by pop culture, including television, movies, cartoons and comic books as it relates to characters in our own physical world and society. The grid is used to represent both childhood games and the frames of a comic strip, where each panel equals an exact moment of time.

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No description available.

The story of Joseph (in the Bible), Yusuf (in the Quran), has inspired literatures in many languages. This paper explores how some Swahili writers and translators have dealt with this inspiration, the implications for their language use and the way they have interpreted Yusuf as a theme for their writings. After a brief introduction on the importance of the story itself and putting the focus on a major theme of the plot, the following works are discussed: the new Quran translation by Sh Ali Muhsin (1995), a short novel by Mzee Salim A. Kibao (1975), two short stories by Amur bin Nasur il-Omeiri (1894), the utenzi Qissat-il Yusuf (l913) and Abdulrazak Gurnah\'s English written novel Paradise (1995). The paper concludes with the observation that in analyzing how these Swahili writers have integrated the story of Yusuf in their writings, prose as well as poetry, it becomes clear that attempts in defining what is ‘foreign’ (or ‘Oriental’) and what is ‘indigenous’ (or ‘African’) are bound to fail.

La ville de Constantine (Algérie) a connu depuis quelques décennies un étalement urbain considérable de ses périphéries urbanisées. Cet étalement a donné naissance à la Ville Nouvelle Ail Mendjeli qui constitue aujourd’hui, sans nul doute, l’un des principaux théâtres des dynamiques territoriales de la périphérie constantinoise. Créée ex nihilo, sa mise en place par les seules autorités locales a été difficile et il lui a fallu presque dix ans pour que son développement atteigne son rythme de croisière. Cette thèse analyse la fabrique de la Ville Nouvelle, puis les rôles respectifs des acteurs publics et privés dans l’évolution de sa centralité. Si l’impulsion de départ était bien le fait des responsables politiques, le système d’acteurs s’est rapidement complexifié, du fait des stratégies des commerçants et des pratiques des résidents, “citadins ordinaires”. Aujourd’hui, l’action combinée de tous ces acteurs fait que s’inventent à Ail Mendjeli de nouvelles formes d’urbanité. / The city of Constantine (Algeria) has been known for several decades a considerable urban sprawl of its urban peripheries. This urban sprawl has given birth to the New Town ALi Mendjeli. This is one of the man theaters of territorial dynamics of the periphery of Constantine. Creating its establishment only by the local authorities was difficults and it took nearly ten years to make its development reaches its cruising speed. This thesis analyzes the fabric of New Town, and the respective roles of public and private actors in the development of its centrality. If the impulse departure was indeed the work of the political responsables, relayed by urbain planners to their services, the actors’ system was rapidly complexified due to the tradors strategies and pratices of residents (ordinary city, today, the combined action of all these actors, have invented to “Ali Mendjeli” new froms of urbanity.

The story of Joseph (in the Bible), Yusuf (in the Quran), has inspired literatures in many languages. This paper explores how some Swahili writers and translators have dealt with this inspiration, the implications for their language use and the way they have interpreted Yusuf as a theme for their writings. After a brief introduction on the importance of the story itself and putting the focus on a major theme of the plot, the following works are discussed: the new Quran translation by Sh Ali Muhsin (1995), a short novel by Mzee Salim A. Kibao (1975), two short stories by Amur bin Nasur il-Omeiri (1894), the utenzi Qissat-il Yusuf (l913) and Abdulrazak Gurnah\''s English written novel Paradise (1995). The paper concludes with the observation that in analyzing how these Swahili writers have integrated the story of Yusuf in their writings, prose as well as poetry, it becomes clear that attempts in defining what is ‘foreign’ (or ‘Oriental’) and what is ‘indigenous’ (or ‘African’) are bound to fail.