Thesis (M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering) Naval Postgraduate School, June 1997. / Thesis advisor, Robert E. Ball. AD-A329 367. Includes bibliographical references (p. 52-53).

The collecting behaviour of specific animals is increasingly becoming of interest to a variety of scientific disciplines. Collectors can be found in the rodent and carnivore mammal populations, as well as certain avian species. Of the carnivores it is hyaenids and leopards (Panthera pardus) that appear to be the most prolific collectors of faunal remains. Of the four species in the hyaena family, three are known to collect various quantities of faunal material in their prospective dens; they are spotted hyaenas (Crocuta crocuta), brown hyaenas (Parahyaena brunnea) and striped hyaenas (Hyaena hyaena). The question surrounding the collector of faunal remains in the archaeological record is as important as it is old. This is an in depth examination of the bone collections of all three extant hyaenids and the related taphonomy corresponding to each species. New collections were made from various dens and locations in southern Africa for both Parahyaena and Crocuta. Additionally previous collections of Parahyaena were reanalysed and data from Hyaena collections in Jordan reviewed. In all a total of 23,324 bones and bone fragments were examined during this study, specifically looking at species collected, skeletal elements, minimum number of individuals (MNI), number of identified specimens (NISP), fusion data, fragmentation, weathering and an assortment of taphonomic characteristics. Specific taphonomic characteristics recorded were crenulated edges, striations, punctate depressions and punctures, scouring, acid etching and all combinations thereof. The main thrust of this research is to determine if hyaenids in general can be positively identified from other collectors as the collector of a specific assemblage of faunal remains and to determine if the three species of hyaena can be distinguished from one another by studying the faunal collections alone. / Thesis (PhD (Anatomy))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Anatomy and Physiology / PhD / unrestricted

Thesis (M.M. (ICT Policy and Regulation))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, 2013. / This is a study of the effectiveness of e-signature regulation in South Africa. The primary objective is to analyse South Africa’s e-signature regulatory frameworks and approaches in order to produce findings on its current status and its effectiveness. To do this, the research included the development of a conceptual framework that identifies key themes of analysis for effective electronic signature regulation and a research approach that produces findings from qualitative analysis of multiple sources of data. The report specifically considers the effectiveness of the regulation in rendering electronic signatures a legally valid, secure and trustworthy method of concluding electronic transactions as the key tenets of effectiveness. The report concludes that the regulation is ineffective in various aspects including outdated legislative approaches and technical standards as well as various delays and inefficiencies in implementing the regulations which detract from the regulatory intent.

No description available.

No / The remote robotic exploration of extraterrestrial scenarios for evidence of biological colonization in 'search for life' missions using Raman spectroscopy is critically dependent on two major factors: firstly, the Raman spectral recognition of characteristic biochemical spectral signatures in the presence of mineral matrix features; and secondly, the positive unambiguous identification of molecular biomaterials which are indicative of extinct or extant life. Both of these factors are considered here: the most important criterion is the clear definition of which biochemicals truly represent biomarkers, whose presence in the planetary geological record from an analytical astrobiological standpoint will unambiguously be indicative of life as recognized from its remote instrumental interrogation. Also discussed in this paper are chemical compounds which are associated with living systems, including biominerals, which may not in themselves be definitive signatures of life processes and origins but whose presence provides an indicator of potential life-bearing matrices.

The advent of large-scale genomic sequencing is providing researchers with an unparalleled wealth of information which can be used to elucidate the evolutionary relationships of living organisms. The newly available genome sequence data have enabled the use of comparative genomic techniques for the identification of novel molecular signatures, shared uniquely by evolutionarily related groups of organisms: conserved signature indels (CSIs) and conserved signature proteins (CSPs). These signatures allow for the unambiguous delineation of the prokaryotic taxa, independent of gene and genome based phylogenetic trees, and provide insights into novel aspects of their evolutionary relationships. The phylum Spirochaetes and the class Betaproteobacteria are large, diverse groups of bacteria, containing many important pathogenic and environmental organisms, which are classified primarily on the basis of 16S rRNA gene analysis. Here, I describe phylogenetic analyses of the phylum Spirochaetes based on genome derived molecular signatures. These analyses have yielded substantial evidence for differentiation between the three main sequenced groups of organisms within the phylum Spirochaetes and between the genus Borrelia from other closely related Spirochaetes. These findings have prompted a proposal to create three new orders and a new family within the phylum. These analyses have also supported the differentiation of two clinically distinct groups within the genus Borrelia and a proposal to divide the genus Borrelia into two genera. The use of molecular signatures and phylogenetic analysis of major groups within the class Betaproteobacteria are also described. The analyses of the order Neisseriales within this class resulted in a division of the order into two families, while the analyses of the genus Burkholderia supported the differentiation of the clinically relevant members of the genus Burkholderia from the plant-beneficial and environmental Burkholderia and a proposal to divide the genus into two genera. I also describe the use of phylogenomic techniques and molecular signatures to differentiate the seven main groups within the order Enterobacteriales and the integrated software pipeline used to produce the supermatrix based phylogenomic tree and genome distance calculations in the analysis of the order Enterobacteriales. The molecular signatures described in this thesis represent powerful new tools for evolutionary and systematic studies. Additionally, due to their taxon specificity, these molecular signatures are novel diagnostic markers for their specified group. Further analyses of these molecular signatures should lead to the discovery of novel functions and biological characteristics, mediated by CSIs and CSPs, which will provide important insights into the physiology, evolution, and adaptations of these groups. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

No description available.

Providing a security proof is always an important issue in the process of designing a cryptographic scheme or protocol. We often show the security of a cryptosystem via ¡§problem reduction.¡¨ In this thesis, lots of emphasis was put on the review of techniques for proving the security of cryptosystems. These techniques consist of Random Oracle Model and Forking Lemma. We also introduced some well-known cryptographic schemes which can be proved secure using these techniques. Then we offered a security proof of a blind signature scheme based on the one proposed by Fan. In the end, we made a comparison between our proof and the proof of another blind signature scheme provided by David Pointcheval and Jacques Stern. Some arguments and discussions about using the Random Oracle Model to prove the security of a cryptosystem were also included.

Due to the flush development of academic research, a great deal research results have been published in conference proceedings and journals. However, these articles need to be inspected by some professionals in specific fields. It is the most important that fairness must be guaranteed during the entire process of reviewing. Nevertheless, the privacy of reviewers may be leaked out because that the reviewers must sign their comments on the reviewed papers. The leakage of the reviewers' privacy may affect the judgement of the reviewers on the papers. In addition, the authors of a paper have to show their names to the editor of a conference proceedings or a journal when submitting the paper, so that it may also affect the decision of the editor on this paper. The major reason of the above problems is that the privacy or anonymity of the reviewers and the authors is not protected well, such that the reviewers and the editor cannot perform the reviewing processes without disturbance. In order to cope with the problems, we deeply analyze the privacy issue in the paper review system and then propose a generic idea, which is independent of the underlying cryptographic components, to achieve the anonymity property and other key requirements in a secure paper review scheme.

Thesis (M.S.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Dr. Mike Burmester, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Computer Science. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 13, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 35 pages. Includes bibliographical references.