Universiẗat, Diss., 2005--Kassel. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-212).

Une carte combinatoire est un modèle topologique qui permet de représenter les subdivisions de l’espace en cellules et les relations d’adjacences et d’incidences entre ces cellules en n dimensions. Cette structure de données est de plus en plus utilisée en traitement d’images, mais elle manque encore d’outils pour les analyser. Notre but est de définir de nouveaux outils pour les cartes combinatoires nD. Nous nous intéressons plus particulièrement à l’extraction de sous-cartes fréquentes dans une base de cartes. Nous proposons deux signatures qui sont également des formes canoniques de cartes combinatoires. Ces signatures ont chacune leurs avantages et leurs inconvénients. La première permet de décider de l’isomorphisme entre deux cartes en temps linéaire, en contrepartie le coût de stockage en mémoire est quadratique en la taille de la carte. La seconde signature a un coût de stockage en mémoire linéaire en la taille de la carte, cependant le temps de calcul de l’isomorphisme est quadratique. Elles sont utilisables à la fois pour des cartes connexes, non connexes, valuées ou non valuées. Ces signatures permettent de représenter une base de cartes combinatoires et de rechercher un élément de manière efficace. De plus, le temps de recherche ne dépend pas du nombre de cartes présent dans la base. Ensuite, nous formalisons le problème de recherche de sous-cartes fréquentes dans une base de cartes combinatoires nD. Nous implémentons deux algorithmes pour résoudre ce problème. Le premier algorithme extrait les sous-cartes fréquentes par une approche en largeur tandis que le second utilise une approche en profondeur. Nous comparons les performances de ces deux algorithmes sur des bases de cartes synthétiques. Enfin, nous proposons d’utiliser les motifs fréquents dans une application de classification d’images. Chaque image est décrite par une carte qui est transformée en un vecteur représentant le nombre d’occurrences des motifs fréquents. À partir de ces vecteurs, nous utilisons des techniques classiques de classification définies sur les espaces vectoriels. Nous proposons des expérimentations en classification supervisée et non supervisée sur deux bases d’images. / A combinatorial map is a topological model that can represent the subdivisions of space into cells and their adjacency relations in n dimensions. This data structure is increasingly used in image processing, but it still lacks tools for analysis. Our goal is to define new tools for combinatorial maps nD. We are particularly interested in the extraction of submaps in a database of maps. We define two combinatorial map signatures : the first one has a quadratic space complexity and may be used to decide of isomorphism with a new map in linear time whereas the second one has a linear space complexity and may be used to decide of isomorphism in quadratic time. They can be used for connected maps, non connected maps, labbeled maps or non labelled maps. These signatures can be used to efficiently search for a map in a database.Moreover, the search time does not depend on the number of maps in the database. Then, we formalize the problem of finding frequent submaps in a database of combinatorial nD maps. We implement two algorithms for solving this problem. The first algorithm extracts the submaps with a breadth-first search approach and the second uses a depth-first search approach. We compare the performance of these two algorithms on synthetic database of maps. Finally, we propose to use the frequent patterns in an image classification application. Each image is described by a map that is transformed into a vector representing the number of occurrences of frequent patterns. From these vectors, we use standard techniques of classification defined on vector spaces. We propose experiments in supervised and unsupervised classification on two images databases.

En 2004, motivés par des constructions de quasimorphismes sur des groupes d'homéomorphismes et de difféomorphismes, Gambaudo et Ghys démontrèrent une formule liant les ω-signatures d'un entrelacs et les propriétés symplectiques d'une représentation du groupe de tresses.Le but de la thèse est d’étendre le résultat de Gambaudo et Ghys en termes d’un invariant algébrique associé à une tresse : la classe de Witt de sa forme de Blanchfield. Il est en effet possible de définir des invariants d'entrelacs en étudiant l'homologie des revêtements cycliques. Les groupes d’homologie et de cohomologie mis en jeu sont munis de structures de modules sur l’anneau du groupe Λ = Z[π].La forme de Blanchfield d’un entrelacs est ainsi la généralisation de la forme d’enlacement définie sur la partie de torsion du premier groupe d’homologie d’une variété fermée de dimension 3. Elle définit alors pour chaque tresse β une classe L(β) dans un groupe de Witt WT(Λ) .Théorème. Soit α et β deux tresses. On a l’égalité suivante, dans WT(Λ) : L(αβ) － L(α) － L(β) = －∂ Meyer(Burau(α), Burau(β)), où le cocycle de Meyer est maintenant défini sur le sous-groupe des éléments de GLn(Λ) préservant la forme de Squier, à valeurs dans le groupe de Witt W(Q(t)). On retrouve essentiellement le résultat original en spécifiant t = ω dans la formule précédente. / In 2004, Gambaudo and Ghys proved a formula establishing a connection between the ω-signatures of a link and the symplectic features of a representation of the braid group. Their main motivation was the construction on quasimorphisms on homeomorphism and diffeomorphism groups.The main goal of this thesis is to extend this result in terms of an algebraic invariant of a braids: the Witt class of the Blanchfield form. Some link invariants are defined through the cyclic covering spaces of their exterior. (Co)homology groups are then equipped with module structures over the ring Λ = Z[π]. For example, the Blanchfield form of a link is a generalisation of the linking form of a 3-manifold, which is a bilinear form on the torsionpart of its first homology group. In particular, every braid β defines a class L(β) in a Witt group WT(Λ) .Theorem. Let α and β be two braids. Then, in WT(Λ):L(αβ) － L(α) － L(β) = －∂ Meyer(Burau(α), Burau(β)),where the Meyer cocycle is defined on the sub group of GLn(Λ) whose elements preserve the Squier form.The result by Gambaudo and Ghys can essentially be recovered from this equality.

Orientador: Lee Luan Ling / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-18T06:12:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Zimmer_Alessandro_D.pdf: 5470836 bytes, checksum: d921f7565d292e8ab4908c12ab13e3ce (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Resumo: Com este documento é descrito o desenvolvimento de um novo sistema de verificação de assinaturas híbrido on/off-line, em que os dados dinâmicos de referência são adquiridos a partir de um dispositivo especial de entrada de dados e servem de suporte ao sinal estático (imagem) correspondente. As assinaturas são segmentadas segundo a complexidade de seus traços constituintes, baseando-se em um modelo psicofísico delta-lognormal de reprodução da escrita manuscrita. Focos de atenção na imagem (janelas) são gerados e a partir de tais regiões um envelope estático personalizado composto pelos traços simples das assinaturas de um dado escritor é criado. Tal invólucro visa a focalizar a extração das primitivas locais, obtidas a partir de estimadores da estatística de dados direcionais aplicados sobre funções de distribuição de probabilidade extraídas da imagem e do esqueleto interpolado. Primitivas representando a distribuição espacial dos pixels também são calculadas. O envelope protótipo representativo da classe é gerado com os respectivos limiares de decisão durante a fase de aprendizagem através de um critério de minimização da distância intraclasse e delimita através de sua forma o escopo usado para a extração das primitivas locais. Características globais são extraídas, complementando o rol das primitivas utilizadas. Durante o processo de verificação uma imagem é apresentada ao sistema juntamente com o seu número de identificação. O envelope protótipo correspondente à assinatura original é lido da base de dados e superposto à imagem de teste. As primitivas são obtidas e a decisão sobre a autenticidade da assinatura é tomada baseando-se em um classificador limiarizado a voto. Tal projeto é essencialmente inovador pois procura conciliar vantagens das duas correntes existentes na área de verificação de assinaturas (on-line e off-line). Ao contrário dos sistemas puramente on-line, que apresentam de uma forma geral índice de desempenho superior mas que ao mesmo tempo são de aplicação limitada, um sistema híbrido tem aplicação direta no meio bancário e cartorário em que a aquisição supervisionada dos exemplares de referência pode ser solicitada sem maiores dificuldades e a verificação feita a posteriori sem a presença necessária do autor da firma. Também original é o conceito de criação de um envelope estático gerado automaticamente segundo critérios estabelecidos por um modelo de reprodução da escrita manuscrita, bem como a sua personalização por protótipos visando à redução da distância intraclasse / Abstract: Through this document the development of a new hybrid on/off-line signature verification system is described, where the dynamic reference data is acquired by either a tablet or an instrumented pen and it is used to support the corresponding static signal (image). The signatures are segmented according to the complexity of their constituent strokes based upon a delta-lognormal psychophysical handwritten reproduction scheme. Foci of attention in the image (windows) are generated and from those regions a personalized static envelope is created. Such envelope helps in localizing the extraction of the local features, obtained through circular data statistics applied over directional probability distribution functions which are extracted from the image and from the interpolated skeleton. Other measures representing the spatial distribution of pixels are also used. The class representative envelope prototype is generated with the respective decision thresholds during the learning stage through an inter-class minimization criterion and its boundaries spatially limit the extraction of local features. Global features are also used, complementing the group of characteristics thence extracted. During the verification process an image is presented to the system with its identification key. The corresponding prototype envelope of the original signature is then read from the database and placed over the test image. The features are obtained and the decision about the authenticity of the specimen is made by a threshold classifier. Such project is original in its essence, since it tries to conciliate advantages of both signature verification methodologies (on-line and off-line). Differently from purely on-line systems, which generally present a better performance, but are of limited use, a hybrid system has direct application on the bank industry, where the supervised acquisition of the reference specimen can be asked without difficulties and the verification is done without author's presence. Other new features include the concept behind the creation of an automatically generated static envelope, inspired by a handwritten reproduction model, as well as its personalization by prototypes, in order to reduce the within-class variation / Doutorado / Telecomunicações e Telemática / Doutor em Engenharia Elétrica

abstract: Many researchers have seen the value blockchain can add to the field of voting and many protocols have been proposed to allow voting to be conducted in a way that takes advantage of blockchains distributed and immutable structure. While blockchains immutable structure can take the place of paper records in preventing tampering it by itself is insufficient to construct a trustworthy voting system with eligibility, privacy, verifiability, and fairness requirements. Many of the protocols which strive to keep voters votes confidential, but also allow for verifiability and eligibility requirements rely on either a blind signature provided by a central authority to provide compliance with these requirements or ring signatures to prove membership in the set of voters. A blind signature issued by a central authority introduces a potential vulnerability as it allows a corrupt central authority to pass a large number of forged ballots into the mix without any detection. Ring signatures on the other hand tend to be overly resource intensive to allow for practical usage in large voting sets. The research in this thesis focuses on improving the trustworthiness of electronic voting systems by providing possible ways of avoiding or detecting corrupt central authorities while still relying upon the benefits of efficiency the blind signature provides. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2020

Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are charged devices often used by terrorists and criminals to create public panic. When the general public is targeted by an act of terrorism, people who are not injured or killed in the explosion remain in fear until the perpetrator(s) has been apprehended. Methods that can provide investigators and first responders with prompt investigative information are required in such cases. However, information is generally not provided quickly, in part because of time-consuming techniques employed in many forensic laboratories. As a result, case report turnaround time is longer. Direct analysis in real time - mass spectrometry (DART-MS) is a promising analytical technique that can address this challenge in the Forensic Science community by permitting rapid trace analysis of energetic materials. The builder of an IED will often charge the device with materials that are readily available. The most common materials employed in the construction of IEDs are black and smokeless powder. However, other materials may include ammonia- or peroxide-based materials such as common household detergents. Smokeless powder is a propellant that is readily available to civilians. They are typically used for reloading ammunition and are sold in large quantities each year in the United States. Some states have stricter regulations than others but typically a firearms license is all that’s required to possess smokeless powder. Smokeless powder is considered a low explosive which is capable of causing an explosion if a sufficient quantity is deflagrated inside a confined container. The most commonly employed confirmatory techniques for the analysis of smokeless powder are gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) or liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). These methods often require extensive and time-consuming sample preparation procedures to prepare the powders for analysis. In addition to lengthy sample preparation procedures, GC-MS and LC-MS often require chromatographic separations that can range anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes or longer per sample. Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) is widely used for the field analysis of smokeless powder and can provide faster results in comparison to GC-MS or LC-MS. However, identification is limited to drift time and no structural information is provided unless coupled to a mass spectrometer. In an effort to accelerate the speed of collection and characterization of smokeless powder, an analytical approach that utilizes novel wire mesh coated with CarbopackTM X, dynamic headspace concentration and DART-MS was evaluated to determine if the approach could generate information rich chemical attribute signatures (CAS) for smokeless powder. CarbopackTM X is a graphitized carbon material that has been employed for the collection of various volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds. The goal of using CarbopackTM X coated wire mesh was to increase the collection efficiency of smokeless powder in comparison to traditional swabbing and swiping methods. DART is an ambient ionization technique that permits analysis of a variety of samples in seconds with minimal to no sample preparation and offers several advantages over conventional methods. Heating time, heating temperature and flow rate for dynamic headspace concentration were optimized using Hodgdon Lil’ Gun smokeless powder. DART-MS was compared to GC-MS and validated using the National Institute of Standards and Technology reference material 8107 (NIST RM 8107) smokeless powder standard. Additives and energetic materials from unburnt and burnt smokeless powders were rapidly and efficiently captured by the CarbopackTM X coated wire mesh and successfully detected and identified using DART-MS. The DART source temperature was evaluated with the goal of providing the most efficient desorption of the analytes adsorbed onto the wire mesh. For this to be a robust approach in forensic analysis, chemometric analysis employing predictive models was used to simplify the data and increase the confidence of assigning a mass spectrum to a particular powder. Predictive models were constructed using the machine learning techniques available in Analyze IQ Lab and evaluated for their performance in classifying three smokeless powders: Alliant Reloder 19, Hodgdon LEVERevolution and Winchester Ball 296. The models were able to accurately predict the presence or absence of these three powders from burnt residues with error rates that were less than 4%. This approach has demonstrated the capability of generating comparable data and sensitivity in a significantly shorter amount of time in comparison to GC-MS. In addition, DART-MS also permits the detection of targeted analytes that are not amenable to GC-MS. The speed and efficiency associated with both the sample preparation technique and DART-MS, and the ability to employ chemometric analysis to the generated data demonstrate an attractive and viable alternative to conventional techniques for smokeless powder analysis.

E-commerce has developed through the use of digital signatures, employing various forms of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to ensure the secure usage of digital signatures. Digital signatures are designed to facilitate the functions of traditional seals and handwritten signatures for the purposes of authentication, data integrity, and non-repudiation within the e-commerce environment. Historically, the authenticity of documentation has always been verified by the application of a recognisable visual stimulus to the document; however, the current digital signature regime overlooks the importance of this analogous sense of visualisation. One of the primary problems with existing digital signatures is that a digital signature does not "feel" like, or resemble, a traditional seal to the human observer, as it does not have a personal, recognisable, or aesthetic sense of visualisation. Currently, digital signatures, such as the OpenPGP (Pretty Good Privacy) digital signature, are attached to the end of an electronic document as a stream of printable ASCII characters. (RFC2440) This appears to the average user as a long, incomprehensible string of random characters offering no sense of identity or ownership by simple visual inspection. Additionally, digital signatures change each time they are applied, in contrast to traditional seals that remain consistent personal identifiers associated with individual signatories. The goal of this research is to promote enhancements to existing digital signature schemes in order to bridge the cultural gap between traditional seals and digital signatures. Culturally friendly features integrated into the digital signature have the potential to increase user acceptability of global e-commerce. This research investigates traditional seal cultures within the context of modern digital signatures, identifying the need to develop a new, culturally friendly, visualised digital signature scheme. The principles behind digital signatures are reviewed and the essential roles and responsibilities of a PKI are addressed. A practical analysis of PKI implementation is also essential. Taiwan is selected as the focus of this research since its heritage is deeply rooted in, and strongly adheres to the Chinese seal culture. The Taiwanese government is in the process of adapting the traditional seal certificate system to the electronic digital signature system. Therefore it is pertinent to review the PKI implementation and digital signatures applications in Taiwan in this study. The purpose of this research is to make the intangible digital signature virtually tangible; i.e., to incorporate visualisation into the current digital signature practice. This research defines new private extensions to the X.509 v3 certificate, recommending that conforming visualised digital signature applications should then be developed to generate and/or recognise visual digital certificates in support of the proposed visualised digital signature scheme. The processes of visualised digital signature creation and of verification through the application of the visualised digital certificate are then explained. This is accompanied by a model of system analysis for developers of conforming implementations of this specification. This allows developers the freedom to select appropriate developing tools. An analysis of this research evaluates the quality of integrity, security, interoperability, performance, and flexibility offered by this proposal.Future directions for furthering research development conclude this dissertation.

Au Québec, la viticulture commerciale ou artisanale n’a que 35 ans. Cependant, le Québec est soumis à de nombreuses pressions climatiques comme la présence de gel hâtif à l’automne et tardif au printemps. La période de croissance (la différence entre le dernier gel au printemps et le premier gel à l’automne) est donc très limitée par la présence du froid. Dans un contexte de réchauffement climatique, cette période de croissance sera portée à s’allonger. Une plus longue période de croissance pourrait inciter les vignerons à modifier leurs cépages ou à augmenter la superficie cultivée. Trois vignobles ont fait l’objet d’étude et des prises de mesures spectrales des ceps y ont été effectuées. Des indices climatiques appliqués à la viticulture y ont été calculés sur une période de 30 ans avec les données du NARR et validés avec les données des stations météorologiques d’Environnement Canada. La moyenne de certains indices permet de les comparer à ceux des régions viticoles renommées comme Bordeaux et Dijon en France. L’étude des indices climatiques des 30 dernières années puis des 10 dernières années permet de découvrir qu’il existe un réel potentiel pour l’implantation de cépages nobles dans le sud du Québec. Ainsi, on remarque que l’énergie thermique est suffisante pour faire la culture de ces cépages. Cependant, la période sans gel est très variable et vient tempérer ces résultats. L’analyse des signatures spectrales de données de réalité de terrain permet de faire une différenciation entre les cépages en fonction des étapes de développement et de la vitesse d’adaptation des ceps aux pratiques culturales et au climat. Les longueurs d’onde entre 720-740 nm (proche infrarouge) et 550 nm (vert) sont les plus touchées par le changement. L’analyse dérivative permet d’éliminer les facteurs d’éclairement. De plus, il est possible de rehausser les différences dans les longueurs d’onde du pic de réflectance de la chlorophylle (≈720 nm). Avec toutes ses informations, il devient possible d’identifier les principaux cépages dans les vignobles grâce à des mesures spectrales temporelles. L’utilisation d’une image hyperspectrale et de données de réalité de terrain ont permis de différencier les cépages et d’en faire l’évolution phénologique entre deux saisons de croissance. Ainsi, avec l’extraction des signatures des pixels d’un secteur n’ayant pas subi de changement physiologique majeur (secteur de vieux ceps), la signature spectrale mesurée par le capteur est comparable à celles des données de réalité de terrain. L’analyse a permis de confirmer que l’énergie thermique acquise pour le 9 juillet 2009 (422 ∘C) est comparable à celle du 27 juin 2011 (419 ∘C). L’énergie thermique cumulée à ces deux dates suppose un développement comparable des cépages. Les similarités dans les signatures spectrales reflètent ce développement comparable.

Recent morphologic and molecular genetic studies have led to a paradigm shift in our conceptualization of the carcinogenesis and histogenesis of pelvic (non-uterine) serous carcinomas. It appears that both low-grade and high-grade pelvic serous carcinomas that have traditionally been classified as ovarian in origin, actually originate, at least in a significant subset, from the distal fallopian tube. Clonal expansions of the tubal secretory cell probably give rise to serous carcinomas, and the degree of ciliated conversion is a function of the degree to which the genetic hits deregulate normal differentiation. In this article, the authors review the evidentiary basis for aforementioned paradigm shift, as well as its potential clinical implications.

In this thesis we study how hash chains and other hash structures can be used in various cryptographic applications. In particular we focus on the applications of entity authentication, signatures and key establishment. We study recursive application of hash functions to create hash chains, hash trees and other hash structures. We collate all these to form a catalogue of structures that we apply to various cryptographic applications. We study existing work on authentication and create many entity authentication schemes based on structures from our catalogue. We present a novel algorithm to find efficient signature schemes from any given hash structure. We study some suggestions for suitable hash structures and define a particular scalable hash structure complete with a simple message to signature map that is the most efficient such scheme of which we know. We explore k-time signature schemes and identify two new properties, which we call perforated and porous. We look at the application of hash structures to key establishment schemes. We compare the existing schemes and make improvements on many. We present a new key establishment scheme, and show a link between certain k-time signatures and certain key establishment schemes. We look at the other applications of hash structures, and suggest areas in which our catalogue could be used for further development.