A context of increased competition between territories for attracting investments and people has led the cities to implement Marketing and Branding strategies. Those strategies should be adapted in order to fit the cities’ requirements and needs, consequently city managers and planners have to be initiated to those techniques. The city’s image is a central item here. Every possible asset of the city should be enhanced to improve people’s perception of the city (residents but also potential residents and visitors).   The purpose of the present study was to identify the main points that Umeå can develop to improve its image. We needed then an insight of people’s perception of the city. Also we wanted to investigate how city planners of Umeå could use the event of hosting the European Capital of Culture event in 2014 by observing people’s perception of the event. Accordingly we designed a questionnaire and got 250 valid responses including 70 from Swedish respondents and 180 from non-Swedish respondents. The findings can be used as simple pieces of advice for the city managers and planners of the city of Umeå and also to the Umeå Capital of Culture event’s staff.   To conduct our survey, we used a quantitative method and a non-probability sampling technique: the convenience one. The two versions of our questionnaire (in English and in Swedish) are composed of 28 questions divided identically in 3 parts (the first one being about the general image of the city, the second one being about the city’s performances in specific areas and the third one being about the European Capital of Culture event). We used mainly Likert-scales questions (composed of 5 items with 1 being “Totally Disagree” or “Not important at all” and 5 being “Totally Agree” or “Very Important”).   We found that among the areas investigated, culture had the greater impact on people’s perception of the city. So promoting cultural activity is a great ingredient in the “city-marketing mix”. Also the perception of the city’s economy can influence the image of this same city. Finally tourism is also a significant element of the “city-marketing mix” since it allows the image of the city to be spread all over the world.

The OPERA experiment is designed to perform first direct observation of $nu_{tau}$ appearance in an almost pure $nu_{mu}$ beam. The OPERA detector is a hybrid set-up which combines a lead/emulsion target with various electronic detectors. It is located in Gran Sasso Laboratory (LNGS), 730 km away from CERN where neutrino beam is produced. A good electron identification in the ECC brick would also allow OPERA to search for $nu_{mu}rightarrownu_{e}$ oscillations. We have studied electron identification in the Emulsion Cloud Chamber (ECC) brick which was exposed to CERN SPS H4 electron beam. Emulsion scanning was performed in LNGS scanning laboratory. FEDRA framework was used for the data analysis. In total, we have found 30 electron showers in the brick. The characteristics of each shower have been studied. The background base-track contamination in the shower was estimated as $20pm 4$. This is mainly due to shower overlap of electrons and passing through cosmic rays.

The study is mainly focused on Monte Carlo simulation of carbon fragmentation in nuclear emulsion. The carbon ion is selected as a remarkable candidate for the cancer therapy usages due to its high efficiency in depositing majority of its energy in the narrow region which is called Bragg Peak. On the other hand, the main side effect of heavy-ion therapy is the radiation dose beyond the Bragg Peak which damages the healthy tissues. Therefore the use of heavy-ion in cancer therapy requires accurate understanding of ion-matter interactions which result in the production of secondary particles. A Geant4 based simulation of carbon fragmentation has been done considering 400 MeV/n carbon beam directed to the detector which is made of nuclear emulsion films, interleaved with lexan layers. Four different models in Geant4 are compared with recent real data. Among the four different models, Binary Cascade Model (BIC) shows a better agreement with real data.

Detaliai apžvelgėme pagrindines schemų [Ste90] ir [Ste94] idėjas: tiek teorines, kurios buvo pasiūlytos aukščiau išvardintuose darbuose, tiek ir praktines, t.y. schemų realizacijos aspektus. Ištyrėme schemų saugumo aspektus: galimas atakas, įveikimo laiką esant vienodom pradinėm sąlygom. Palyginome nagrinėjamas schemas su kitomis žinomomis kriptografinėmis schemomis. Pateikėme schemų su prasmingais schemų parametrais veikimo greičių įvertinimus. Išvardijome nagrinėjamų schemų patobulinimo būdus. Aprašėme patobulintų schemų realizacijos pricipus. Ištyrėme patobulintų schemų saugumo aspektus. / In this paper we discussed [Ste90] and [Ste94] identification schemes theoretical and practical aspects, such as: security aspect – main attack types, time needed to break any of discussed schemes (with the same parameter values). We compared the discussed identification schemes with other identification schemas based on other mathematical problems. In this paper we computed user identification time with practical parameters of all presented schemas, described possible improvements of our schemes, and examined proposed improvement of schemes.

Since their rediscovery in 1995, low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes have received wide-spread attention as practical capacity-approaching code candidates. It has been shown that the class of codes can perform arbitrarily close to the channel capacity, and LDPC codes are also used or suggested for a number of important current and future communication standards. However, the problem of implementing an energy-efficient decoder has not yet been solved. Whereas the decoding algorithm is computationally simple, withuncomplicated arithmetic operations and low accuracy requirements, the random structure and irregularity of a theoretically well-defined code does not easily allow efficient VLSI implementations. Thus the LDPC decoding algorithm can be said to be communication-bound rather than computation-bound. In this thesis, a modification to the sum-product decoding algorithm called early-decision decoding is suggested. The modification is based on the idea that the values of the bits in a block can be decided individually during decoding. As the sum-product decoding algorithm is a soft-decision decoder, a reliability can be defined for each bit. When the reliability of a bit is above a certain threshold, the bit can be removed from the rest of the decoding process, and thus the internal communication associated with the bit can be removed in subsequent iterations. However, with the early decision modification, an increased error probability is associated. Thus, bounds on the achievable performance as well as methods to detect graph inconsistencies resulting from erroneous decisions are presented. Also, a hybrid decoder achieving a negligible performance penalty compared to the sum-product decoder is presented. With the hybrid decoder, the internal communication is reduced with up to 40% for a rate-1/2 code with a length of 1152 bits, whereas increasing the rate allows significantly higher gains. The algorithms have been implemented in a Xilinx Virtex 5 FPGA, and the resulting slice utilization andenergy dissipation have been estimated. However, due to increased logic overhead of the early decision decoder, the slice utilization increases from 14.5% to 21.0%, whereas the logic energy dissipation reduction from 499 pJ to 291 pJ per iteration and bit is offset by the clock distribution power, increased from 141 pJ to 191 pJ per iteration and bit. Still, the early decision decoder shows a net 16% estimated decrease of energy dissipation.

A product turbo code (PTC) decoder application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) is designed in 0.18μm 1P6M CMOS with embedded SRAM. From simulation, an operating frequency of 73.1 MHz at typical conditions is obtained, yielding a throughput of 3.8 Mbps with 4 decoding iterations, while consuming 103.4 mW. The total area is 5.13 mm2. Assuming the ASIC would be used as a hard macro, the area could be reduced to 1.7 mm2. The ASIC was tested at 20 MHz under typical conditions, which resulted in a throughput of 1.0 Mbps at 1.8V supply while consuming 36.6 mW. By making a slight modification, this design can be easily scaled to support IEEE 802.16d WiMAX. Allow for this, and moving to a 45nm process an estimated throughput of 9.44 Mbps with 4 iterations can be obtained. Total macro area would be approximately 0.11 mm2.

A product turbo code (PTC) decoder application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) is designed in 0.18μm 1P6M CMOS with embedded SRAM. From simulation, an operating frequency of 73.1 MHz at typical conditions is obtained, yielding a throughput of 3.8 Mbps with 4 decoding iterations, while consuming 103.4 mW. The total area is 5.13 mm2. Assuming the ASIC would be used as a hard macro, the area could be reduced to 1.7 mm2. The ASIC was tested at 20 MHz under typical conditions, which resulted in a throughput of 1.0 Mbps at 1.8V supply while consuming 36.6 mW. By making a slight modification, this design can be easily scaled to support IEEE 802.16d WiMAX. Allow for this, and moving to a 45nm process an estimated throughput of 9.44 Mbps with 4 iterations can be obtained. Total macro area would be approximately 0.11 mm2.

Στην παρούσα διπλωματική υλοποιήθηκε η σχεδίαση και υλοποίηση ασφαλούς υπηρεσίας με χρήση ελλειπτικής κρυπτογραφίας. Τα κρυπτογραφικά συστήματα που βασίζονται στις ελλειπτικές καμπύλες αποτελούν ένα πολύ σημαντικό κομμάτι της κρυπτογραφίας δημόσιου κλειδιού και τα τελευταία χρόνια όλο και περισσότεροι επιστήμονες ασχολούνται με τη μελέτη τους. Το πλεονέκτημα των συστημάτων αυτών σε σχέση με τα συμβατικά κρυπτογραφικά συστήματα είναι ότι χρησιμοποιούν μικρότερες παραμέτρους και κλειδιά, προσφέροντας τα ίδια επίπεδα ασφάλειας. Σχετικά με το πρόβλημα της προστασίας ευαίσθητων δεδομένων σκληρού δίσκου ή άλλου αποθηκευτικού μέσου διευθυνσιοδοτούμενου κατά τομείς (sector-adressed storage media), χρησιμοποιείται η τεχνική της κρυπτογράφησης δίσκου (disk encryption). Ορισμένα από τα υπεύθυνα για την υλοποίηση της κρυπτογράφησης λογισμικά (disk encryption software) χρησιμοποιούν την μέθοδο κρυπτογράφησης σε πραγματικό χρόνο (on-the-fly/real-time encryption). Ο όρος on-the-fly έγκειται στο γεγονός ότι τα αρχεία γίνονται προσβάσιμα αμέσως μόλις προσφερθεί το κλειδί κρυπτογράφησης (encryption key) όλο το διαμέρισμα (volume) «προσαρτάται» (mounted) σαν να ήταν ένας φυσικός δίσκος κάνοντας τα αρχεία να «φαίνονται» αποκρυπτογραφημένα. Στην πλαίσιο αυτό τοποθετείται ο σκοπός του ερευνητικού μέρους της παρούσας εργασίας, που εντοπίζεται το ερώτημα της προσαρμογής βιβλιοθηκών που υλοποιούν κρυπτογραφία ελλειπτικών καμπυλών σε λογισμικό ικανό να κρυπτογραφεί «on the fly» φακέλους αρχείων και κατ΄ επέκταση σκληρούς δίσκους / -

The rheological behavior analysis of Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) is key to understand how the different preparation techniques affect the composite mechanical performance. However, the rheological assessment of reinforced materials becomes more complex since fibers usually cause flow disturbances not found in nonreinforced cementitious materials. Besides that, simple workability measurement techniques are not able to fully understand the composite behavior in the fresh state creating the need for more precise techniques to be employed. The main objectives of this study were to evaluate the ECC rheological behavior using different rheometer devices (Vane system and Ball measuring system) and investigate the influence of mixing processes on the fiber homogenization and rheological behavior. Additionally to this, a link between rheological behavior and mechanical performance was investigated. In the end, the ball measuring system revealed to be more efficient than the vane system when evaluating the composite rheological behavior. In addition, the mixing process influenced the rheological behavior of PVA-ECC especially regarding the moment which fibers are added. Fiber addition after mortar mixture improved fibers homogenization and reduced mixing energy by around 8%. Moreover, a correlation between rheological and mechanical properties showed that a 2-times variation in either yield stress or viscosity can lead to a variation of more than 50% in flexural strength without significantly affecting the composite compressive strength. It was also found that the lower the composite yield stress and viscosity the higher was its ultimate strain. To conclude, all those parameters contributed to understand the composite rheological behavior and globally optimize its performance. / Sem resumo

The aim of this diploma thesis is to present the methodology that is used, to test the design and implementation of internal application controls in environment of large companies using ERP systems, especially in the environment of companies using SAP ECC. This methodology is described in the thesis. Practical task which is aimed at verifying the security level of SAP ECC in real business environment is also part of the thesis. The practical part is composed of a detailed description of IT auditors individual steps of the testing procedure, a list of security elements, which are subject to an audit procedures and documents required for verification of the control effectiveness implemented in clients environment. Furthermore, there is a summary and evaluation of the risk level associated with identified deficiencies. Part of the evaluation is a list of recommendations, which the company should apply to increase the efficiency of internal controls and thus achieve the optimal security level of SAP ECC. In the final section of the diploma thesis there is an analysis of the deficiencies elaborated. These deficiencies have been identified during the audit season in 2016 in environment of 20 large companies using this ERP system. Identified findings are classified according to the risk level. Another part of analysis are comprehensive recommendations that IT auditors provide to their clients in order to increase the security level of IT environment, especially in connection with the management and other activities related to financial data.