Past research has indicated that the visual presence of credit card images and monetary primes has an impact on an individual's actions. Feinburg (1986) reported that the magnitude and probability of spending were increased in the presence of credit card stimuli, and Vohs et al.'s (2006) series of studies demonstrated that exposed to monetary images, individuals became more self-sufficient and less willing to help others. The present study examined influence of money primes on materialism, consumer purchase intentions, and consumer attitudes. Materialism, was measured by the Richins and Dawson (1992) Material Values Scale (MVS), and was treated as both an independent variable. Consumer purchase intentions and behaviors were assessed using Attitude Toward the Ad (Henthorne, Tony, LaTour, & Nataraajan, 1993), Willingness to Buy (Dodds, Monroe, & Grewal, 1991), Willingness to Pay (Fienburg, 1986), and Attitude Toward the Brand in the Ad (Gardner, 1985). In addition, participants completed the Credit Card Use Scale (Roberts & Jones, 2001), and the Conformity Motivation Scale (Kahle). A total of 172 participants, enrolled in both undergraduate and graduate courses at SIUC, completed a two-part internet survey for extra credit. Results indicated that materialism levels were not increased when exposed to money primes (credit card and money symbols) when compared to the control group, rather the study found a significant decrease in materialism in the unhypothesized direction. In addition, the findings were unsupportive of the hypothesis that the inclusion of money primes (either credit card stimuli or monetary images) would increase an ii individual's purchase intentions and behaviors. Finally, an examination of the moderating effect of materialism produced non-significant findings, when comparing the influence of money primes between high and low materialism levels taken prior to the study's manipulations.

DoD EO/IR applications continue to push imaging technology. Next generation advances require new material systems, novel device structures, as well as the improvement and development of read out integrated circuits. The common methodology used to assess devices and materials is to process test chip structures and focal plane arrays. Test chips have advantages over focal plane arrays; such as, variable area and stand alone devices and can be measured as a function of bias and temperature; however, focal plane arrays are the heart of the imager, but are measured through the read out integrated circuits, which can add complexity to the measurement and to the extraction of properties. Differences between a test chip and a focal plane array make it difficult to relate test chip characterization with focal plane array performance and the interaction of defects and the impact they have to the image. Therefore, it is vital to be able to characterize the detector array directly from 77 to 300 K. This thesis presents the design for a transparent cryogenic probe card based on a silicon carbide substrate. An inspection into the design for the bonding printed circuit board and its compliant structures is included. The design for the silicon carbide probe die is explored. The design and process for fabricating tungsten probe tips is discussed. Results on research efforts are presented showing the validity of the design based upon fabrication outcomes. It is recommended that future work explore additional tungsten tip fabrication methods.

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International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 28-31, 1996 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / Navigation is the means by which a craft is given guidance from one known location to another. Since the global positioning system (GPS) is very accurate positioning system, a personal navigation system based on GPS is very effective. From the user point of view, the function of this system is to provide real-time positioning and timing data to the user. The system consists of 6-channel GPS oncore receiver, a system controller & processor (SC&P) card, a programmable liquid crystal display (LCD) and a keyboard. The 6-channel GPS OEM card receives GPS signal from six different satellites at a time. After processing the received GPS signal, it gives the result & status message to its output port in a typical data format. The system controller & processor card receives this message from the GPS OEM card and extracts the useful positioning & timing information in binary form. After that it processes the data and displays it on the LCD display. The keyboard has used to select the desired positioning & timing information on the display.

Inkjet-printed memory cards have been developed previously by re-searchers at Mid Sweden University but, these did possess some limita-tions, as each resistive memory cell required one physical contact and the resistances were designed to be electrically programmed.This work overcomes the above limitations by developing chemically programmed printed memory cards and a PC connected memory card reader. Printed memory cards are inexpensive and are developed by inkjet printing the nano-silver ink onto the photo paper substrate. A matrix readout method is used to increase the num-ber of memory cells and, by using a chemical solvent, the resistances were programmed to the desired resistance values and, for which, each resistance value represents data on the cards, called, write once read many (WORM) memories. The memory card reader was developed to access the data (resistance value) of the memory card and also to trans-mit the data to a LabVIEW graphical user interface for displaying the resistance values. By using multiple resistance steps, in which each step represents a different state, it is possible to create a number of possible selectable combinations which can be programmed at a later stage for developing applications.

Quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) was used in this study to describe cognitive processing, particularly brain locations used, during performance of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). The hypothesis was that significant cognitive functioning is not limited to the frontal lobes. Significant EEG activity was found in non-frontal areas as well as frontal areas.

Plasmodium falciparum est un protozoaire parasite responsable du paludisme causant la mort d’environ un million de personnes par an. La résistance médicamenteuse du parasite augmente la pathogénicité de cette maladie. Il est question ici d’explorer les mécanismes moléculaires impliqués dans la mort cellulaire programmée (apoptose) du parasite en présence de chloroquine (CQ) et de tester l’hypothèse qu’une résistance à la CQ peut s’expliquer en partie par une défaillance de ce mécanisme de mort. Dans un premier temps l’étude des marqueurs de l’apoptose (TUNEL, JC1, formes pyknotiques) montre qu’une souche sensible de parasite (3D7) à la CQ peut subir une apoptose en présence de CQ alors qu’une souche résistante (7G8) présente un défaut d’apoptose. Dans un deuxième temps nous montrons que la protéine PfMCA1 (P. falciparum métacaspase 1) présente une structure et une maturation protéolytique proche de celui des caspases faisant de cette protéine un candidat potentiellement impliqué dans l’apoptose du parasite. Dans un troisième temps nous montrons que l’expression du domaine catalytique de PfMCA1 dans la levure induit une mort cellulaire et un retard de croissance de la levure. Nous montrons également que PfMCA1 présente une activité enzymatique de type arginase alors que les effets induit par sa surexpression peuvent être inhibés par l’ajout d’un inhibiteur de protéases spécifiques des aspartates. Ces résultats suggèrent que PfMCA1 pourrait agir comme une protéine initiatrice induisant l’action d’une protéase effectrice spécifique des aspartates conduisant à la mort cellulaire. Cette hypothèse testée chez la levure reste à confirmée chez P. falciparum / Plasmodium falciparum is a protozoan parasite responsible for malaria causing one million deaths per year. Drug resistance of the parasite increases the pathogenicity of this disease. In this thesis, it is question to explore the molecular pathway involved in programmed cell death (apoptosis) of the parasite in the presence of chloroquine (CQ) and to test the hypothesis that CQ resistance could be partly explained by a failure of such a mechanism. In a first step, we showed that a sensitive clone (3D7) exhibited the classical hallmarks of apoptosis (DNA fragmentation, mitochondrial depolarization) under a CQ pressure while a resistance clone failed to undergo apoptosis. In a second step we show that the protein PfMCA1 (P. falciparum metacaspase 1) has a structure and a processing similar to the well known caspases which are the key effectors of apoptosis for higher eukaryotic cells. In a third step we show that expression of the catalytic domain of PfMCA1 in yeast induces cell death and growth retardation of yeast. We show that PfMCA1 presented an arginine-specific protease activity while the effects induced by its overexpression were inhibited by an aspartate-specific protease inhibitor (z-VAD-fmk). These results suggest that PfMCA1 might act as an initiator protein inducing an aspartate-specific protease effector leading to cell death. This hypothesis tested in yeast remains to be confirmed in P. falciparum

Seasoned players of free to play trading card games or players that invest large amount of money in digital or physical trading card games, end up having superfluous cards that hold no value to them. The purpose of this thesis is to create designs that would counter this problem. We analysed a selection of popular games on the market to get a better understanding about the depth of the problem and existing designs and mechanics to counter said problem. With the knowledge gained from the research, we intended design several systems that would give cards a polymorphic value. To validate those designs we decided to conduct qualitative interviews with highly experienced players of the genre. We discovered from our research and interviews that the problem with superfluous cards was larger than we had anticipated, and few games had taken steps to counter the problem. The systems we designed gave cards a polymorphic value, and the designs were proven successful through our validation. Our research and interviews suggest that by implementing polymorphic attributes to cards it could lessen or even remove the problem of superfluous cards, and at the same time increase the sales figures on booster packs. / <p>Jerry Jonsson går speldesign och programmering och Lina Tonegran går speldesign och grafik.</p>

Smart cards are small, portable, tamper-resistant computers used in security-sensitive applications ranging from identification and access control to payment systems. Side-channel attacks, which use clues from timing, power consumption, or even electromagnetic (EM) signals, can compromise the security of these devices and have been an active research area since 1996. Newer ``contactless'' cards communicate using radio frequency (RF), without physical contact. These contactless smart cards are sometimes grouped with radio frequency identification (RFID) devices in popular usage of the term. This thesis investigates devices that use the ISO 14443 (proximity card) protocol, a large class of contactless/RFID devices. Although contactless smart cards are increasingly common, very few reproducible practical attacks have been published. Presently, there are no known documented side-channel attacks against contactless Java Cards (open standard multi-application cards) using generic unmodified hardware. This thesis develops a research-friendly platform for investigating side-channel attacks on ISO 14443 contactless smart cards. New techniques for measurement and analysis, as well as the first fully documented EM side-channel monitoring procedure, are presented for a contactless Java Card. These techniques use unmodified, commercial off-the-shelf hardware and are both practical and broadly applicable to a wide range of ISO 14443 devices, including many payment cards and electronic passports.