The plant hormone, abscisic acid (ABA), has previously been shown to have an impact on the resistance or susceptibility of plants to pathogens. In this thesis, it was shown that ABA had a regulatory effect on an extensive array of plant defence responses in three different plant and pathogen interaction combinations as well as following the application of an abiotic elicitor. In unique studies using ABA deficient mutants of Arabidopsis, exogenous ABA addition or ABA biosynthesis inhibitor application and simulated drought stress, ABA was shown to have a profound effect on the outcome of interactions between plants and pathogens of differing lifestyles and from different kingdoms. The systems used included a model plant and an important agricultural species: Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) and Peronospora parasitica (a biotrophic Oomycete pathogen), Arabidopsis and Pseudomonas syringae pathovar tomato (a biotrophic bacterial pathogen) and an unrelated plant species, soybean (Glycine max) and Phytophthora sojae (a hemibiotrophic Oomycete pathogen), Generally, a higher than basal endogenous ABA concentration within plant tissues at the time of avirulent pathogen inoculation, caused an interaction shift towards what phenotypically resembled susceptibility. Conversely, a lower than basal endogenous ABA concentration in plants inoculated with a virulent pathogen caused a shift towards resistance. An extensive suppressive effect of ABA on defence responses was revealed by a range of techniques that included histochemical, biochemical and molecular approaches. A universal effect of ABA on suppression or induction of the phenylpropanoid pathway via regulation of the key entry point gene, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), when stimulated by biotic or abiotic elicitors was shown. ABA also influenced a wide variety of other defence-related components such as: the development of a hypersensitive response (HR), the accumulation of the reactive oxyden species, hydrogen peroxide and the cell wall strengthening compounds lignin and callose, accumulation of SA and the phytoalexin, glyceollin and the transcription of the SA-dependent pathogenesis- related gene (PR-1). The near genome-wide microarray gene expression analysis of an ABA induced susceptible interaction also revealed an yet unprecedented insight into the great diversity of defence responses that were influenced by ABA that included: disease resistance like proteins, antimicrobial proteins as well as phenylpropanoid and tryptophan pathway enzymes. Subtle differences were found in the number and type of defence responses that were regulated by ABA in each type of plant and pathogen interaction that was studied. This thesis has clearly identified in plant/pathogen interactions previously unknown and important roles for ABA in the regulation of many defence responses.

Aerodynamic devices, such as wings, are used in higher levels of motorsport (Formula-1 etc.) to increase the contact force between the road and tyres (i.e. to generate downforce). This in turn increases the performance envelope of the race car. However the extra downforce increases aerodynamic drag which (apart from when braking) is generally detrimental to lap-times. The drag acts to slow the vehicle, and hinders the effect of available drive power and reduces fuel economy. Wings, in automotive use, are not constrained by the same parameters as aircraft, and thus higher angles of attack can be safely reached, although at a higher cost in drag. Variable geometry aerodynamic devices have been used in many forms of motorsport in the past offering the ability to change the relative values of downforce and drag. These have invariably been banned, generally due to safety reasons. The use of active aerodynamics is currently legal in both Formula SAE (engineering compet ition for university students to design, build and race an open-wheel race car) and production vehicles. A number of passenger car companies are beginning to incorporate active aerodynamic devices in their designs. In this research the effect of ground proximity on the lift, drag and moment coefficients of inverted, two-dimensional aerofoils was investigated. The purpose of the study was to examine the effect ground proximity on aerofoils post stall, in an effort to evaluate the use of active aerodynamics to increase the performance of a race car. The aerofoils were tested at angles of attack ranging from 0° - 135°. The tests were performed at a Reynolds number of 2.16 x 105 based on chord length. Forces were calculated via the use of pressure taps along the centreline of the aerofoils. The RMIT Industrial Wind Tunnel (IWT) was used for the testing. Normally 3m wide and 2m high, an extra contraction was installed and the section was reduced to form a width of 295mm. The wing was mounted between walls to simulate 2-D flow. The IWT was chosen as it would allow enough height to reduce blockage effect caused by the aerofoils when at high angles of incidence. The walls of the tunnel were pressure tapped to allow monitoring of the pressure gradient along the tunnel. The results show a delay in the stall of the aerofoils tested with reduced ground clearance. Two of the aerofoils tested showed a decrease in Cl with decreasing ground clearance; the third showed an increase. The Cd of the aerofoils post-stall decreased with reduced ground clearance. Decreasing ground clearance was found to reduce pitch moment variation of the aerofoils with varied angle of attack. The results were used in a simulation of a typical Formula SAE race car.

<p>Trådlösa nätverk är något som växer och breder ut sig mer och mer i det moderna samhället. Allt fler personer har bärbara enheter som kan ansluta till dessa nät. Därför måste de nätverk som inte skall vara publika skyddas från obehöriga. Viktig information kan annars hamna i fel händer. I denna rapport kommer olika trådlösa nätverk och säkerhetslösningar till dessa att undersökas.</p><p>Genom att använda olika säkerhetslösningar så som kryptering med hjälp av t.ex . WPA och även tillämpar Pfleeger’s teorier om datasäkerhet så kan ett trådlöst nätverk vara förhållandevis säkert mot de flesta angripare.</p>

This thesis will analyze the 2012 presidential campaign strategies, and their impact on the election. Specifically it will look at whether attack ads had an impact on the swing state polls. It will also examine the influence of technology, social media and grassroots campaigning on voter turnout. From my research I conclude that the Obama Campaign outdid the Romney Campaign in all sectors previously mentioned. However, one cannot definitely claim that these factors solely decided the election outcome. What one can conclude is that these strategies, particularly technology applications and websites, social media networks and grassroots campaigning will play major roles in future elections, as well as promoting democracy and enriched voter participation.

Under mina tre år på Konstfack har jag arbetat fram en värld av ickefigurativa mönster. I mitt examensarbete låter jag mönstren röra sig bortom skolans väggar och ut i det offentliga rummet. Genom att titta på hur reklamen idag tar plats i staden, på gator, väggar, tidningar och i kollektivtrafiken har jag hittat en för mig ny exponeringsyta. Mitt arbete består av två delar: I min processbeskrivning utforskar jag ickefigurativa mönsterbilders värde och roll i både konstnärliga och vetenskapliga sammanhang. Jag har också studerat hur reklamen tar plats i vårt offentliga rum. I mitt praktiska konstnärliga arbete har jag använt dessa teoretiska kunskaper tillsammans med en grupp tillvägagångssätt som jag gett samlingsnamnet PATTERN ATTACK. I mitt konstnärliga arbete presenterar jag hur olika PATTERN ATTACKs kan gå tillväga.

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The latest evidence indicates that 50,000 Canadians will experience a stroke in 2013. The hospital care, rehabilitation, and long term care associated with a stroke places a significant burden on our health care system. Lost productivity and premature death have an immeasurable impact on communities in our province as well as the rest of the country. Small, less populated regions such as Saskatchewan may be underrepresented in national data utilized in the development of national prevention and treatment strategies across the country. The absence of local research has necessitated the use of national information to guide prevention, treatment education and programming in Saskatchewan. The goals of this study was to provide a descriptive profile of stroke and transient ischemic attack cases admitted to Royal University Hospital over the period of April 1, 2009 to March 31st, 2010 and to assess the acute management of these cases as defined in the Canadian Best Practice Recommendations for Stroke Care (Strategy, 2010). A randomized sample of 200 cases 55 years and older was selected for a retrospective descriptive study involving review of adult stroke case records. Personal demographics and healthcare performance through the use of measures provided in The Canadian Best Practice Recommendations for Stroke Care (Canadian Stroke Network (CSN) and Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (HSFC), 2010) were evaluated. The results indicated many similarities to available national information on type of stroke, risk factors, gender, and age. Hospital adherence to national guidelines comparing selected indicators was exceeded in some areas, and met in most. The remaining indicators provide an opportunity for improvement and possibly more research. This regional information supplements the available Canadian information and could be used to guide planning and care strategically targeting Saskatchewan residents and increasing their potential for success.

In modern cryptanalysis, an active attacker may induce errors during the computation of a cryptographic algorithm and exploit the faulty results to extract information about the secret key in embedded systems. This kind of attack is called a fault attack. There have been various attack mechanisms with diff erent fault models proposed in the literature. Among them, clock glitch faults support practically dangerous fault attacks on cryptosystems. This thesis presents an FPGA-based practical testbed for characterizing exploitable clock glitch faults and uniformly evaluating cryptographic systems against them. Concentrating on Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), simulation and experimental results illustrates proper features for the clock glitches generated by the implemented on-chip glitch generator. These glitches can be injected reliably with acceptably accurate timing. The produced faults are random but their eff ect domain is finely controllable by the attacker. These features makes clock glitch faults practically suitable for future possible complete fault attacks on AES. This research is important for investigating the viability and analysis of fault injections on various cryptographic functions in future embedded systems.

The traditional model of cryptography examines the security of cryptographic primitives as mathematical functions. This approach does not account for the physical side effects of using these primitives in the real world. A more realistic model employs the concept of a <I>side channel</I>. A side channel is a source of information that is inherent to a physical implementation of a primitive. Research done in the last half of the 1990s has shown that the information transmitted by side channels, such as execution time, computational faults and power consumption, can be detrimental to the security of ciphers like DES and RSA. This thesis surveys the techniques of side channel cryptanalysis presented in [Kocher1996], [Boneh1997], and [Kocher1998] and shows how side channel information can be used to break implementations of DES and RSA. Some specific techniques covered include the timing attack, differential fault analysis, simple power analysis and differential power analysis. Possible defenses against each of these side channel attacks are also discussed.

In this thesis we develop, evaluate and implement a security solution for Open Controllers wireless sensor network platform. A scenario is used to describe an exemplar application showing how our system is supposed to function. The security of the platform is analyzed using a well-established threat modeling process and attack trees which result in the identification of a number of risks, which could be security weaknesses. These attack trees visualize the security weaknesses in an easy to access way even for individuals without special security expertise. We develop a security solution to counter these identified risks. The developed security solution consists of three different security levels together with a number of new security policies. Each additional level applies different security mechanisms to provide increasingly improved security for the platform. The new security policies ensure that the security solution is continuously secure during its operating time. We implement part of the security solution in the Contiki operating system to assess its function in practice. Finally we evaluate the developed security solution by looking back to the previously identified weaknesses and the implementation proving that the security solution mitigates the risks.