Syftet med denna uppsats är att beskriva fem personers erfarenheter av andrahandsmarknaden för spelkorten till Magic: The Gathering, för att sedan föreslå vad som är kortens symboliska värde. Utifrån ett kvalitativt material som har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer beskrivs olika sätt informanterna interagerar med denna marknad, vilka motiv de har för att jaga kort, och hur de ser på förfalskningar. Resultatet visar att informanterna lägger ner en hel del arbete på att leta efter korten de är ute efter, och att de ser på förfalskningar som någonting som bör undvikas. Analysen utgår ifrån olika teorier om värde, där det föreslås att korten fungerar som symboliska former för betydelsen av arbetet som lagts ner på att hitta dem. Utifrån detta föreslås det att informanterna inte vill använda förfalskningar eftersom de förminskar betydelsen av deras egna arbete som lagts ner på att hitta de äkta korten. / This essay aims to describe five people’s experiences with the second-hand market for the cards used in Magic: The Gathering, and to suggest the symbolic value of the cards. Based on qualitative material gathered through semi-structured interviews it is shown how the informants interact with the second-hand market, what motives they have when looking for cards, and how they perceive counterfeit cards. The result shows that searching for cards can require quite some work by the informants, and that they see counterfeits as something to avoid. The analysis is based on theories of value, where it is proposed that the cards function as the symbolic forms of the importance of the work that has been put into finding them, and that the informants are opposed to counterfeits because they diminish the importance of their own work that has been put into finding the authentic cards.

A project report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering. Johannesburg 1990 / A debit-card is a form of payment, The card is pre-charged with a value, monetary or otherwise, before distribution to the user, and is therefore a pre-payment card . It is then 'used up, its value being decremented until it is valueless. At this point, it is either discarded or re-charged by the administration authority, It is distinct from a credit card, which provides a post-payment facility. The aim of this project is to investigate the security aspects of a debit-card reader system for use as an unattended fee-collecting subsystem in such applications as public telephones, parking meters and vending machines. Card technology and attributes of debit card systems are discussed, an overview of cryptology is given, and an implementation of a magnetic card system is described.

O avanço na ciência trouxe novas descobertas sobre mecanismos celulares, o que permitiu o desenvolvimento de novos produtos e serviços acerca do melhoramento genético animal. A tecnologia genômica, embora recente, traz para a atividade leiteira a possibilidade de aumentar os ganhos em seleção genética e a rentabilidade econômica. No Brasil, já são comercializados testes genômicos que possibilitam, por meio da coleta de material genético, uma predição das características genéticas dos bovinos jovens com a identificação de características produtivas dos animais, antes da sua expressão. No entanto, por se tratar de uma tecnologia nova, ainda não se sabe a opinião dos pecuaristas sobre a tecnologia, sobre o melhoramento genético, nem se conhece o nível de conhecimento e tecnificação do produtor. Portanto, a presente pesquisa levantou informações sobre o perfil das propriedades de atividade leiteira passíveis de utilizarem os testes genômicos, identificando suas principais necessidades frente à utilização do serviço. Os dados foram coletados com questionários quantitativos e qualitativos, aplicados de forma aleatória a 100 propriedades produtoras de leite, distribuídas na região do Triângulo Mineiro. Após a coleta, foram realizados testes estatísticos de análise descritiva com tabelas de contingência e correlação, com os dados não paramétricos obtidos. Através destes, identificou-se que as propriedades são heterogêneas, com níveis de tecnificação crescentes e que contam cada vez mais com o apoio da assistência técnica. Parte dos pecuaristas ainda não utilizam ferramentas para melhoria da seleção genética como: inseminação artificial, IATF, TE ou outras e embora os testes genômicos já estejam disponíveis comercialmente, apenas 25% dos entrevistados dizem ter conhecimentos básicos sobre a técnica. Para que os testes genômicos atendam às necessidades do consumidor final e sejam comercializados, é importante que além do aumento na disseminação de conhecimento sobre o produto, o seu preço seja acessível, o produtor sinta confiança no resultado e que os grupo de animais a ser avaliado atenda aos requisitos mínimos exigidos pela tecnologia, para assim, se conseguir utilizar o produto com mais alta acurácia. / The breakthrough in science has brought new discoveries about cellular mechanisms, allowing the development of new products and services about animal genetic improvement. Genomic technology, although recent, brings to dairy activity the possibility of increasing gains in genetic selection and economic profitability. In Brazil, genomic tests are already commercialized, which make it possible, through the collection of genetic material, to predict the genetic characteristics of young cattle with the identification of productive characteristics of the animals before their expression. However, because it is a new technology, the opinion of cattle ranchers about technology, genetic improvement, and the level of knowledge and technification of the producer is not yet known. Therefore, the present research raised information on the profile of dairy activity properties that could use genomic tests, identifying their main needs in relation to the use of the service. The data were collected with quantitative and qualitative questionnaires, randomly applied to 100 milk properties, distributed in the Triângulo Mineiro region. After the collection, statistical tests of descriptive analysis and contingency and correlation tables were performed with the non-parametric data obtained. Through these, it was identified that the properties are heterogeneous, with increasing levels of technification and increasingly rely on the support of technical assistance. Some of the cattle ranchers still do not use tools to improve genetic selection such as artificial insemination, IATF, ET or others, and although genomic tests are already commercially available, only 25% of the interviewees have a basic knowledge of the technique. To sell the genomic tests, is important to understand the needs of the final consumer and to be marketed, it is important that the costumer increases the knowledge of the product, the price need to be accessible, the producer feels confidence in the result and that the groups of animals to be evaluated meet the minimum requirements required by the technology in order to be able to use the product with the highest accuracy.

by Liu Kai Sui. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-71). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Security and E-commerce --- p.3 / Chapter 1.2 --- E-commerce: More than Commercial Activities --- p.4 / Chapter 1.3 --- What This Thesis Contains --- p.5 / Chapter 2. --- Introduction to Cryptographic Theories --- p.7 / Chapter 2.1 --- Six Cryptographic Primitives --- p.7 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Symmetric Encryption --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Asymmetric Encryption --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Digital Signature --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1.4 --- Message Digest --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1.5 --- Digital Certificate and Certificate Authority --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1.6 --- Zero-Knowledge Proof --- p.11 / Chapter 2.2 --- The RSA Public Key Cryptosystem --- p.12 / Chapter 2.3 --- The ElGamal Public Key Encryption Scheme --- p.13 / Chapter 2.4 --- Elliptic Curve Cryptosystem --- p.14 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- The Algorithm of Elliptic Curve Cryptosystem --- p.15 / Chapter 2.5 --- Different kinds of Digital Signature --- p.16 / Chapter 2.5.1 --- RSA Digital Signature --- p.16 / Chapter 2.5.2 --- Elliptic Curve Nyberg-Rueppel Digital Signature --- p.16 / Chapter 2.6 --- Blind Signature --- p.17 / Chapter 2.7 --- Cut-and-choose protocol --- p.18 / Chapter 2.8 --- Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange --- p.19 / Chapter 3. --- "Introduction to E-commerce, M-commerce and Rich Media M-commerce" --- p.20 / Chapter 3.1 --- 1st Generation of E-commerce --- p.21 / Chapter 3.2 --- 2nd Generation of E-commerce ´ؤ M-commerce --- p.21 / Chapter 3.3 --- 3rd Generation of E-commerce - Rich Media M-commerce --- p.23 / Chapter 3.4 --- Payment Systems used in E-commerce --- p.23 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Electronic Cash --- p.23 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Credit Card --- p.24 / Chapter 3.4.3 --- Combined Payment System --- p.24 / Chapter 4. --- Introduction to Smart Card --- p.25 / Chapter 4.1 --- What is Smart Card? --- p.25 / Chapter 4.2 --- Advantages of Smart Cards --- p.26 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Protable Device --- p.26 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Multi-applications --- p.26 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Computation Power --- p.26 / Chapter 4.2.4 --- Security Features --- p.27 / Chapter 4.3 --- What can Smart Cards Do? --- p.27 / Chapter 4.4 --- Java Card --- p.28 / Chapter 5. --- A New Smart Card Certificate System --- p.30 / Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.31 / Chapter 5.2 --- Comparison between RSA and ECC --- p.32 / Chapter 5.3 --- System Architecture --- p.33 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- System Setup --- p.33 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Apply for a certificate --- p.34 / Chapter 5.3.3 --- Verification of Alice --- p.35 / Chapter 5.3.4 --- "Other Certificates ´ؤ the ""Hyper-Link"" concept" --- p.36 / Chapter 5.3.4.1 --- "Generation of the ""hyper-link""" --- p.37 / Chapter 5.3.4.2 --- "Verification ofAlice using the ""hyper-link""" --- p.37 / Chapter 5.3.5 --- Multiple Applications --- p.38 / Chapter 5.4 --- Security Analysis --- p.39 / Chapter 5.4.1 --- No Crypto-processor is needed --- p.40 / Chapter 5.4.2 --- PIN Protect --- p.40 / Chapter 5.4.3 --- Digital Certificate Protect --- p.40 / Chapter 5.4.4 --- Private Key is never left the smart card --- p.41 / Chapter 5.5 --- Extensions --- p.41 / Chapter 5.5.1 --- Biometrics Security --- p.41 / Chapter 5.5.2 --- E-Voting --- p.41 / Chapter 5.6 --- Conclusion --- p.42 / Chapter 6. --- Introduction to Electronic Cash --- p.44 / Chapter 6.1 --- Introduction --- p.44 / Chapter 6.2 --- The Basic Requirements --- p.45 / Chapter 6.3 --- Advantages of Electronic Cash over other kinds of payment systems --- p.46 / Chapter 6.3.1 --- Privacy --- p.46 / Chapter 6.3.2 --- Off-line payment --- p.47 / Chapter 6.3.3 --- Suitable for Small Amount Payment --- p.47 / Chapter 6.4 --- Basic Model of Electronic Cash --- p.48 / Chapter 6.5 --- Examples of Electronic Cash --- p.49 / Chapter 6.5.1 --- eCash --- p.49 / Chapter 6.5.2 --- Mondex --- p.49 / Chapter 6.5.3 --- Octopus Card --- p.50 / Chapter 7. --- A New Recoverable and Untraceable Electronic Cash --- p.51 / Chapter 7.1 --- Introduction --- p.52 / Chapter 7.2 --- The Basic Idea --- p.52 / Chapter 7.3 --- S. Brand's Single Term E-cash Protocol --- p.54 / Chapter 7.3.1 --- The Setup of the System --- p.54 / Chapter 7.3.2 --- The Withdrawal Protocol --- p.54 / Chapter 7.3.3 --- The Payment Protocol --- p.55 / Chapter 7.3.4 --- The Deposit Protocol --- p.56 / Chapter 7.4 --- The Proposed Protocol --- p.57 / Chapter 7.4.1 --- The Withdrawal Protocol --- p.57 / Chapter 7.4.2 --- The Payment Protocol --- p.58 / Chapter 7.4.3 --- The Deposit Protocol --- p.58 / Chapter 7.4.4. --- The Recovery Protocol --- p.59 / Chapter 7.5 --- Security Analysis --- p.60 / Chapter 7.5.1 --- Conditional Untraceability --- p.60 / Chapter 7.5.2 --- Cheating --- p.60 / Chapter 7.6 --- Extension --- p.60 / Chapter 7.7 --- Conclusion --- p.62 / Chapter 8. --- Conclusion --- p.63 / Appendix: Paper derived from this thesis --- p.66 / Bibliography --- p.67

Cheong Chi Hong. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-86). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgement --- p.v / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Problem statement --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Major contributions --- p.4 / Chapter 1.3 --- Thesis organization --- p.4 / Chapter 2 --- Smart Card System --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.7 / Chapter 2.2 --- Related Work --- p.11 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Mining Customer Behaviors --- p.11 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Privacy Preserving Data Mining --- p.12 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Definitions of Privacy --- p.13 / Chapter 2.3 --- Model --- p.14 / Chapter 2.4 --- Algorithms --- p.17 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- Baseline Algorithm --- p.17 / Chapter 2.4.2 --- Privacy Equation --- p.19 / Chapter 2.4.3 --- Random Subsequence Selection Algorithm (RSSA) --- p.20 / Chapter 2.4.4 --- Popular Item Selection Algorithm (PISA) --- p.21 / Chapter 2.5 --- Analysis --- p.26 / Chapter 2.5.1 --- Accuracy --- p.26 / Chapter 2.5.2 --- Analysis of RSSA: Determine te values --- p.27 / Chapter 2.5.3 --- Analysis of RSSA: Accuracy --- p.30 / Chapter 2.5.4 --- Analysis of PISA --- p.33 / Chapter 2.5.5 --- Theoretical Proof of PISA --- p.41 / Chapter 2.5.6 --- Privacy Protection --- p.42 / Chapter 2.6 --- Simulations --- p.45 / Chapter 3 --- Transportation System --- p.48 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.49 / Chapter 3.2 --- Related Work --- p.51 / Chapter 3.3 --- Model --- p.56 / Chapter 3.4 --- Algorithms --- p.60 / Chapter 3.5 --- Simulations --- p.63 / Chapter 4 --- Enhanced Features in a Smart Card System --- p.67 / Chapter 4.1 --- Adding Time Information --- p.68 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- Motivation --- p.68 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Time Intervals --- p.68 / Chapter 4.1.3 --- Original Graph --- p.69 / Chapter 4.1.4 --- New Graph --- p.70 / Chapter 4.1.5 --- Adding the New Graph into the Model --- p.72 / Chapter 4.1.6 --- Rewriting the Definition of a Path --- p.73 / Chapter 4.1.7 --- Drawback of Adding Time Information --- p.73 / Chapter 4.2 --- Generalization --- p.75 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Motivation --- p.75 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Generalization --- p.75 / Chapter 4.3 --- Specialization vs. Generalization --- p.75 / Chapter 5 --- Conclusion --- p.79 / Bibliography --- p.81

A indústria de cartões de pagamento é definida pela literatura acadêmica como um mercado de dois lados. Um dos lados é o mercado de emissão, que realiza a comercialização de cartões para os portadores. O outro lado é o mercado de credenciamento, que efetua a afiliação de estabelecimentos comerciais para que estes aceitem pagamentos com cartões. O foco deste trabalho é o mercado de credenciamento no Brasil. O objetivo do estudo foi analisar a concentração do mercado brasileiro de credenciamento no período entre 2010, quando houve o início da intervenção governamental na indústria de cartões, e 2016. Com a imposição do fim do monopólio no credenciamento das principais marcas mundiais, Visa e Mastercard, os órgãos reguladores buscavam estimular a entrada de novos concorrentes, a fim de obter uma melhor eficiência econômica e maior bem-estar social. Os resultados deste trabalho evidenciaram redução na concentração do mercado com a entrada de novos concorrentes, embora os índices permaneçam elevados. O trabalho buscou analisar, também, a variação das taxas cobradas dos estabelecimentos comerciais neste período. Neste aspecto, os resultados mostram que as taxas médias anunciadas pelas credenciadoras, cobradas normalmente de pequenos estabelecimentos, aumentaram para as transações de débito, ao contrário do que se esperava para um mercado com mais concorrentes, e se mantiveram estáveis para transações de crédito. As elevadas taxas de intercâmbio, a falta de interoperabilidade dos sistemas de captura das transações e a continuidade de contratos de exclusividade para aceitação de cartões entre emissores e credenciadores representaram dificuldades para que os objetivos dos órgãos reguladores fossem plenamente alcançados no período analisado. / The payment cards industry is a two-sided market, as defined by the academic literature. In one side there is the card issuing market that accomplishes the commercialization of cards for the cardholders. The other side is the acquiring market that makes the affiliation of merchants to accept payments with cards. The focus of this work is the acquiring market in Brazil. The objective of the study is to analyze the concentration of the Brazilian acquiring market in the period between 2010, when there was the beginning of the government intervention in the card industry, to 2016. With the mandate to end the acquiring monopoly of the main world brands, Visa and Mastercard, the regulatory agencies sought to stimulate the entrance of new competitors, in order to obtain a better economic efficiency and greater social welfare. The study results showed a reduction in market concentration with the entry of new competitors, although the concentration remains high. The work also aimed to analyze the variation of prices charged to merchants in this period. In this respect, the results show that the average rates announced by the acquirers, applied normally to small businesses, increased for debit transactions, contrary to what was expected for a market with more competitors and remained stable for credit transactions. The high interchange rates, the lack of interoperability of transaction capture systems and the continuation of exclusivity agreements for the acceptance of cards between issuers and acquirers represented difficul,ties for the objectives of the regulatory bodies to be fully achieved in the period under review.

This report shows the value of knowing your processes inside a company. The methods used in to do this have been first of all through process mapping and for in depth study, process cards were used to measure the process time and total lead time. This showed the location of bottlenecks and overall process capacity. With the data collected, suggestion on how to decrease storage, throughput time and total lead time is given.The study has been conducted at Intelbras in San Jose, Santa Catarina, Brazil. Intelbras is a telecommunication company which produces telephones, security cameras and switchboards. Two production processes is studied, the Telefone Sem fio, SFL, which produce cordless telephones and Central, CAL, which produce switchboards.Through simulation this paper shows improvement suggestions on how to better handle the flow of material by introducing sequencing into the production and FIFO in the storage handling, everything in order to decrease total lead time and increasing throughput time.Process mapping has proved to be a great tool in order to understand how a production process works and integrates with other departments. In supplement of process cards, valuable data is collected and used for analysing further improvements such as making a balancing program and calculating where and how big buffers is needed at different processes. / Program: Industriell ekonomi - arbetsorganisation och ledarskap

Este trabalho apresenta uma análise de sistemas alternativos de pagamento de energia elétrica enfocando principalmente a utilização de pré-pagamento como forma de diminuir perdas comerciais de empresas distribuidoras. Adicionalmente enfoca o seu uso como forma de cobrança em sistemas isolados, rurais e urbano-rurais e comunidades de baixa renda. A análise inclui uma breve síntese de experiências no uso de pré-pagamento no mercado internacional de ?utilities? e no mercado nacional em setores como telefonia e distribuição de água. Além disso, esse trabalho descreve o desenvolvimento de um sistema de pagamento de energia elétrica utilizando cartões com tecnologia indutiva e unidades leitoras/gravadores com circuito de desconexão de linha e interface para medidores existentes no mercado nacional. Apresenta, ainda, o Cartão Vale Energia como alternativa ao subsídio para a subclasse residencial de baixa renda evitando, dessa forma, a necessidade do cadastramento do usuário junto às empresas concessionárias e racionalizando os procedimentos contábeis. São mostrados os resultados experimentais desse sistema e as análises de viabilidade econômica. / This work presents an analysis of alternative systems of electric energy payment focusing the pre-payment used mainly as a form to decrease commercial losses of local energy companies and an alternative form of payment in countryside areas, isolated electric installations and in poor areas for social purposes. The analysis includes one brief synthesis of international experiences in the daily pre-payment use in the utilities segment and national experiences in other areas such as telephony and water distribution. Moreover, this work develops an alternative form of payment of electric energy using cards with inductive technology and read/write units with circuit breakers and interfaces for electric measurement equipments. The experimental results show the technical and commercial viability of implantation in the commercial operation.

<p>Zero knowledge protocols is a lesser known type of protocol that can be used for identification. These protocols are especially designed not to reveal any information during an identification process that can be misused later on, neither by the one who should be convinced of the identity of the user, nor by anyone else that is eavesdropping. Many of these protocols are also especially designed for implementation in smart cards. The more common type of card with a magnetic stripe has during the last few years become more susceptible to attacks since they are easily copied. Smart cards combined with a secure identification protocol has been predicted to be the solution to this problem. Zero knowledge protocols are one of several types of protocols that can be used for this purpose. </p><p>In this thesis a number of zero knowledge protocols are examined that have been presented since the introduction of the concept in the 1980's. In addition to the protocol descriptions information is also given about how to choose parameter values, and what progress and discoveries have been made concerning the security of the protocols. Some assumptions that are easy to overlook in an implementation are also highlighted, and an evaluation of the protocol performances is made. </p><p>The conclusion is that zero knowledge protocols are both efficient and adaptable, while they at the same time provide high security. Because of this it may not be necessary to compromise between these properties even for simpler types of smart cards.</p>

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>