Forging operations are widely used for manufacturing processes. Forging process is done hot, warm or cold. All three temperature ranges have advantages and disadvantages. The aim of this study is to combine the advantages of hot and cold forging in a flange forming process with cylindirical workpieces in a single step. The process idea is the partial heating of the workpiece at locations where large deformations occur and to keep the parts of the workpiece cold at regions where high precision forming is required. Firstly, the process idea has been investigated virtually by the finite element method supplying the theoretical verification of the feasibility of the novel process. By this analysis also the process limits have been estimated. All analysis are based on an elastoplastic large strain material law with thermomechanical coupling. The experimental part of the study served to realize the new process idea and to verify the process window. In the experimental study two different materials, three different part geometries and different initial conditions such as temperature field, lubrication etc. have been investigated. The specifimens are heated by induction.

The use of distributed systems, involving multiple components, has become a common industry practice. However, modeling the behaviour of such systems is a challenge, especially when the behavior consists of several collaborations of different parties, each involving possibly several starting (input) and ending (output) events of the involved components. Furthermore, the global behavior should be described as a composition of several sub-behaviours, in the following called collaborations, and each collaboration may be further decomposed into several sub-collaborations. We assume that the performance of the elementary sub-collaborations is known, and that the performance of the global behavior should be determined from the performance of the contained elementary collaborations and the form of the composition. A collaboration, in this thesis, is characterized by a partial order of input and output events, and the performance of the collaboration is defined by the minimum delays required for a given output event with respect to an input event. This is a generalization of the semantics of UML Activities, where all input events are assumed to occur at the same time, and all output events occur at the same time. We give a semantic definition of the dynamic behavior of composed collaborations using the composition operators for control flow from UML Activity diagrams, in terms of partial order relationships among the involved input and output events. Based on these semantics, we provide formulas for calculating the performance of composed collaborations in terms of the performance of the sub-collaborations, where each delay is characterized by (a) a fixed value, (b) a range of values, and (c) a distribution (in the case of stochastic behaviours). We also propose approximations for the case of stochastic behavior with Normal distributions, and discuss the expected errors that may be introduced due to ignoring of shared resources or possible dependencies in the case of stochastic behaviours. A tool has been developed for evaluating the performance of complex collaborations, and examples and case studies are discussed to illustrate the applicability of the performance analysis and the visual notation which we introduced for representing the partial-order relationships of the input and output events.

Voting is a fundamental decision making instrument in any consensus-based society. It is employed in various applications from student body elections, reality television shows, shareholder meetings, to national elections. With the motivation of better eciency, scalability, speed, and lower cost, voting is currently shifting from paper-based to the use of electronic medium. This is while aiming to achieve better security, such that voting result reflects true opinions of the voters. Our research focuses on the study of cryptographic voting protocols accommodating a flexible ballot structure as a foundation for building a secure electronic voting system with acceptable voting results. In particular, we search for a solution suitable for the preferential voting system employed in the Australian Federal Election. The outcomes of the research include: improvements and applications of batch proof and verication theorems and techniques, a proposed alternative homomorphic encryption based voting scheme, a proposed Extended Binary Mixing Gate (EBMG) mix-network scheme, a new threshold randomisation technique to achieve receipt-freeness property in voting, and the application of cryptographic voting protocol for preferential voting. The threats and corresponding requirements for a secure secret-ballot voting scheme are rst discussed. There are significant security concerns about the conduct of electronic voting, and it is essential that the voting results re ect the true opinions of the voters - especially in political elections. We examine and extend batch processing proofs and verifications theorems and proposed applications of the theorems useful for voting. Many instances of similar operations can be processed in a single instance using a batch technique based on one of the batch theorems. As the proofs and verications provide formal assurances that the voting process is secure, batch processing offers great efficiency improvements while retaining the security required in a real-world implementation of the protocol. The two main approaches in cryptographic voting protocols, homomorphic encryption based voting and mix-network based voting, are both studied in this research. An alternative homomorphic voting scheme using multiplicative homomorphism property, and a number of novel mix-network schemes are proposed. It is shown that compared to the mix-network approach, homomorphic encryption schemes are not scalable for straight-forward adaptation of preferential systems. One important requirement of secret-ballot voting is receipt-freeness. A randomisation technique to achieve receipt-freeness in voting is examined and applied in an ecient and practical voting scheme employing an optimistic mix-network. A more general technique using threshold randomisation is also proposed. Combination of the primitives, both the homomorphic encryption and mixnetwork approach, yields a hybrid approach producing a secure and ecient secret-ballot voting scheme accommodating a exible ballot structure. The resulting solution oers a promising foundation for secure and practical secret-ballot electronic voting accommodating any type of counting system.

The use of distributed systems, involving multiple components, has become a common industry practice. However, modeling the behaviour of such systems is a challenge, especially when the behavior consists of several collaborations of different parties, each involving possibly several starting (input) and ending (output) events of the involved components. Furthermore, the global behavior should be described as a composition of several sub-behaviours, in the following called collaborations, and each collaboration may be further decomposed into several sub-collaborations. We assume that the performance of the elementary sub-collaborations is known, and that the performance of the global behavior should be determined from the performance of the contained elementary collaborations and the form of the composition. A collaboration, in this thesis, is characterized by a partial order of input and output events, and the performance of the collaboration is defined by the minimum delays required for a given output event with respect to an input event. This is a generalization of the semantics of UML Activities, where all input events are assumed to occur at the same time, and all output events occur at the same time. We give a semantic definition of the dynamic behavior of composed collaborations using the composition operators for control flow from UML Activity diagrams, in terms of partial order relationships among the involved input and output events. Based on these semantics, we provide formulas for calculating the performance of composed collaborations in terms of the performance of the sub-collaborations, where each delay is characterized by (a) a fixed value, (b) a range of values, and (c) a distribution (in the case of stochastic behaviours). We also propose approximations for the case of stochastic behavior with Normal distributions, and discuss the expected errors that may be introduced due to ignoring of shared resources or possible dependencies in the case of stochastic behaviours. A tool has been developed for evaluating the performance of complex collaborations, and examples and case studies are discussed to illustrate the applicability of the performance analysis and the visual notation which we introduced for representing the partial-order relationships of the input and output events.

This thesis examines gender verifications issues in track and field from a feminist and antiracist perspective. In 2019 the international governing body for the sport of athletics (World Athletics) introduced limits on blood testosterone levels for women with some types of Differences in sex development (DSD) in races from 400 metres to 1 mile. According the eligibility rules Caster Semenya and other athletes with heightened testosterone levels need to lower their testosterone levels in order to be eligible to compete in middle distance running races in the women’s class. This thesis discuss the relationship between gender verifications in athletics and the protection of athletes right to privacy according to article 8 ECHR and prohibition of gender and race discrimination according to article 14 ECHR. The balance between the interests for fair competition in sports and the protection of athletes human rights is an ongoing discussion. Complex relationship between states accountability and international non-governmental sports organizations can put athletes in a vulnerable position.  This paper includes three research questions. Firstly, can the state parties to the ECHR be accountable if the eligibility rules infringe human rights? Secondly, is the eligibility rules in compliance with the right to respect for private and family life according to article 8 ECHR? Thirdly, is the eligibility rules in compliance with prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of sex and race according to article 14 ECHR.