Mok, King Keung. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-79). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.1 / Contents --- p.5 / List of Figures --- p.7 / List of Tables --- p.10 / Acknowledgments --- p.11 / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.12 / Chapter 1.1. --- Low Power Design --- p.12 / Chapter 1.2. --- Power Consumption in Conventional CMOS Logic --- p.13 / Chapter 1.2.1. --- Dynamic Power --- p.13 / Chapter 1.2.2. --- Short-Circuit Power --- p.15 / Chapter 1.2.3. --- Leakage Power --- p.17 / Chapter 1.2.4. --- Static Power --- p.19 / Chapter 1.3. --- Smart Card / RFID --- p.21 / Chapter 1.3.1. --- Applications --- p.21 / Chapter 1.3.2. --- Operating Principle --- p.22 / Chapter 1.3.3. --- Conventional Architecture --- p.23 / Chapter 2. --- Adiabatic Logic --- p.25 / Chapter 2.1. --- Adiabatic Switching --- p.25 / Chapter 2.2. --- Energy Recovery --- p.27 / Chapter 2.3. --- Adiabatic Quasi-Static CMOS Logic --- p.29 / Chapter 2.3.1. --- Logic Structure --- p.29 / Chapter 2.3.2. --- Clocking Scheme --- p.31 / Chapter 2.3.3. --- Flip-flop --- p.33 / Chapter 2.3.4. --- Layout Techniques --- p.38 / Chapter 3. --- Adiabatic RFID --- p.41 / Chapter 3.1. --- System Architecture --- p.41 / Chapter 3.2. --- Circuit Design --- p.42 / Chapter 3.2.1. --- Voltage Limiter --- p.43 / Chapter 3.2.2. --- Substrate Bias Generation Circuit --- p.45 / Chapter 3.2.3. --- Ring Oscillator --- p.46 / Chapter 3.2.4. --- ROM and Control Logic --- p.48 / Chapter 3.2.5. --- Load Modulator --- p.52 / Chapter 3.2.6. --- Experimental Results --- p.53 / Chapter 4. --- Adiabatic Smart Card --- p.59 / Chapter 4.1. --- System Architecture --- p.59 / Chapter 4.2. --- Circuit Design --- p.61 / Chapter 4.2.1. --- ASK Demodulator --- p.61 / Chapter 4.2.2. --- Clock Recovery Circuit --- p.63 / Chapter 4.3. --- Experimental Results --- p.67 / Chapter 5. --- Conclusion --- p.74 / Chapter 6. --- Future Works --- p.76 / Reference --- p.77 / Appendix --- p.80

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of relationship between selected socio-economic factors and the average monthly unpaid credit card balance subject to a finance charge. The socio-economic factors chosen were: 1) family and per capita income; 2) education of husband; 3) education of wife; 4) gainful employment of wife; 5) amount of savings; and 6) number of children. The sample consisted of 80 couples, married in the year 1971, currently residing in the Logan, Utah, area. A questionnaire was used to measure the six variables. The statistical tests used were the chi square and the gamma analysis. It was found that the six variables tested had no significant relationship upon the amount of the average monthly unpaid credit card balance.

Attitudes of husband and wife regarding the use of the bank credit card were compared and related to the couple's marital happiness rating. The sample consisted of 40 young married couples residing in campus married student housing at Utah State University during Fall Quarter 1970. Subjects had at least one child and we r e U. S. born citizens between the ages of 20 and 35. The instruments used we r e: (1) a background questionnaire, (2) a marital happiness rating scale, and (3) a series of eight case study situations . The statistical tests us ed were the paired-comparison t-test and the Pearson r. No significant difference was found between attitudes of husband and wife regarding the use of the bank credit card. There was no significant relationship between attitudes of husband and wife regarding the use of the bank credit card and couples expressing a "Very Happy" marital happiness rating or couples expressing other than a "Very Happy" marital happiness rating.

Due to low computation cost and convenient portability, smart cards are usually adopted to store the personal secret information of users for remote authentication. Although many remote authentication schemes using smart cards have been introduced in the literatures, they still suffer from some possible attacks or cannot guarantee the quality of performance for smart cards. In this thesis, we classify the security criteria of remote authentication and propose a new remote login scheme using smart cards to satisfy all of these criteria. Not only does the proposed scheme achieve the low computation requirement for smart cards, but it can withstand the replay and the off-line dictionary attacks as well. Moreover, our scheme requires neither any password table for verification nor clock synchronization between each user and the server while providing both mutual authentication and the uniqueness of valid cards.

The technology of electronic cash makes it possible to transmit digital money over communication networks during electronic transactions. Owing to the untraceability and unforgeability properties, electronic cash can protect the privacy of customers and guarantee the security of payments in the transactions. This manuscript introduces an efficient electronic cash protocol where it only requires minimal storage for each customer to withdraw w dollars from the bank and spend the w dollars in a sequence of transactions. Compared with traditional electronic cash protocols, the proposed method greatly reduces not only the storage required for the customers but the communication traffic in the transactions as well. Furthermore, the computation cost of the entire protocol is lower than the traditional ones and it also achieves the customer efficiency property. It turns out that the proposed protocol is much more suitable for the storage-limited or hardware-limited environments, such as smart card computing or mobile commerce, than the traditional electronic cash protocols in a sequence of payments. In addition, we examine the security of the proposed electronic cash protocol from the customer¡¦s, the shop¡¦s, and the bank¡¦s points of view, respectively. Since the proposed protocol is based on a generic partially blind signature scheme, it can be implemented by any partially blind signature scheme as long as it is secure and user efficient.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-112).

A review of British Columbia’s legislation and annual reports from the Ministries responsible for K-12 education in BC has found six different purposes of the report card over time. They include: teacher accountability; assisting the child to evaluate growth; encouragement of parents to co-operate with the teacher; improvement of home and school relationship; easy comparison of students to each other and to standards; and transferability of student achievement information. Four teachers interviewed identified the purpose of the report card as communicating to parents what their child is doing in the classroom and they are using e-portfolios to do so. They found that e-portfolios can allow for more personalized reporting for teachers and students and can address many of the legislated purposes of the report card but do not easily address comparison of students to each other and to standards or transferability of student achievement information. / Graduate / 0515 / 0520 / sbeloin@uvic.ca

Electronic structure calculations of organic molecules are an important set of tools to gain understanding of molecular structures. This thesis presents two separate contributions to applying quantum chemistry to organic molecules. In the first section, the computational cost of a post-Hartree-Fock method is improved for large molecules by using graphical processing units. In this work, the resolution-of-the-identity second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (RI-MP2) algorithm was adapted to send the large matrix multiplication steps to be run on a graphics co-processor. As a result, the calculations were performed up to 15x faster than a standard implementation for large molecules such as taxol. In the second section of the thesis, density functional theory is used to predict the molecular dipole moments of molecules that form self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on metal surfaces. The dipole moment of the molecule that is aligned perpendicular to the surface in a SAM changes the work function of the surface. The calculated dipole moments correlate with the current density measured for the junctions by experimental collaborators. This result holds for a series of alkane chains with even and odd numbers of carbons and for molecules that have an amide group substituted for an ethylene unit. / Chemistry and Chemical Biology

In 2004, Métis Nation offices began to register and issue identification cards to Métis citizens who met certain criteria. While many Métis people did register, and are registering, there are many who have not, and will not. As a result, some question the validity of the registry because it is unclear how it can reflect an accurate picture of the culture when not all Métis are represented. Through in-depth, unstructured interviews, my reflexive ethnography traces the accounts of six Métis citizens in southern Saskatchewan. I explore their stories about their Métis-ness, and their experiences with the registry. I also explore my own experiences with the registry and my journey to un/discover my own Métis-ness. The findings are presented in a creative non-fiction essay. The conclusions suggest that identification cards cannot grant someone admission to a culture; rather, cultural identity requires time, effort, intent, active participation, and meaningful connection with others.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the way in which regular users of Tarot cards employ the cards and the focus was on the participants', or co-researchers', use of Tarot for self-reflection rather than for divination. Although Tarot cards have been in existence for at least 700 years (Beal, 1975; Cavendish, 1975) and there are over 1000 different Tarot decks, and the related oracle decks, in existence (Aeclectic Tarot, 2009) there is a paucity of academic research on Tarot use (Crocker, 2004). Studies that have been done on Tarot have focused on its effectiveness as a divination tool (Blackmore, 1983) and the susceptibility of individuals to the Barnum effect (Glick, 1989; Ivtzan, 2007). A few studies have looked at psychological correlates of Tarot use (Crocker, 2004; Sjoberg, 2002) and have offered general descriptions of its use in a therapeutic setting (Coulter, 2004; Kopp, 1984). Research has not investigated the way in which Tarot is being used, nor has it given detailed descriptions of its potential usage in therapy sessions. This study sought to investigate the way in which Tarot is being used and based on the results, outline clear and concrete ways in which Tarot can be employed in therapeutic sessions. This study adopted a postmodern approach to the pursuit of knowledge, such that knowledge was viewed as a social and linguistic construction. The methodology employed was qualitative in nature and the general research design was heuristic (Moustakas, 1990). Interviews were conducted with four female co-researchers who used Tarot cards regularly and in a self-reflective manner. The interviews were transcribed and common qualities and themes that existed between them were extracted. The results indicated that the co-researchers use Tarot as a way to gain insight into current situations and possible action plans. The cards were used most often in difficult times, at which point, they offered comfort. This comfort involved confirmation that things were ok and that life was not without order. Tarot was also used as positive reinforcement for what the co-researchers were seeking in life and cards were drawn both intentionally, such as in positive reinforcement activities, and at random, in instances when novel insights were sought. The co-researchers sometimes pulled one card, a few cards, and sometimes used an entire spread. Just as different Tarot decks were used for different purposes, so different Tarot spreads were used in different circumstances. The nature of the co-researchers’ use of Tarot supports the utilization of Tarot in a therapeutic context and this study explored various ways in which this can be done, including as a means of acquiring new perspectives and of identifying wishes or goals.