No description available.

L'érosion hydrique constitue un phénomène complexe très répandu en contexte méditerranéen du fait d'une combinaison de facteurs souvent défavorables. Elle constitue une menace pour les potentialités en eau et en sol de ces régions. Si les facteurs déterminants de l'érosion hydrique sont aujourd'hui bien identifiés, la hiérarchie des processus en jeu en fonction des échelles d'espace et de temps est encore très mal connue. Les sols vertiques, qui occupent des surfaces importantes dans la région Méditerranéenne, apportent un degré supplémentaire de complexité du fait de la forte dynamique structurale de ces sols. Dans ce contexte, cette étude cherche à mieux appréhender la variabilité spatio-temporelle des processus et facteurs affectant les transferts latéraux d’eau et de sédiments dans un bassin versant agricole dominés par les vertisols. Pour cela, 7 années de mesures (2005-2012) des ruissellements et transferts de matières en suspension au sein du bassin versant de Kamech (ORE OMERE, 263 ha, Cap Bon, Tunis) ont été analysées au niveau de 4 stations hydrologiques: 1/ l'exutoire d'une parcelle (1,32 ha) ; 2/ l'exutoire d'une ravine (0,17 ha) alimentée par une parcelle de 1,20 ha ; 3/ l'exutoire du versant (15,2 ha) intégrant les deux stations précédentes, et 4/ la station de l’oued (175 ha) située dans le drain principal alimentant la retenue de Kamech. L’analyse des données a permis de mettre en évidence le rôle majeur des fentes de retrait sur la dynamique saisonnière des flux hydro-sédimentaires avec comme résultat un décalage entre le pic de flux de sédiments observé entre octobre et décembre et le pic de flux de ruissellement observé entre décembre et mars, et ce quel que soit l’échelle spatiale considérée. Les données expérimentales ont également permis de mettre en évidence une légère augmentation du ruissellement moyen annuel avec l’accroissement de l’échelle spatiale avec 95 mm/an pour la parcelle, 105 mm/an pour la ravine et 120 mm/an pour le versant. Cette augmentation peut s'expliquer par l'apparition de petites surfaces moins infiltrantes lorsque l'on passe de la parcelle aux autres stations. Les différences de taux d'érosion moyens annuels observées entre les échelles spatiales ont pu être été expliquées par un simple modèle linéaire combinant un taux unique d'érosion des surfaces cultivées (17 t ha-1 an-1) et un taux unique d'érosion ravinaire (80 t ha-1 an-1), pondérés par les surfaces respectives de ces deux éléments. La technique de traçage des sources de sédiments mise en place sur des sédiments prélevés au cours de quelques crues au niveau des différentes stations a permis de montrer que la contribution des processus responsables du transfert de sédiments était relativement stable au cours de l'année. L’application de la fonction de production de Morel-Seytoux a permis de reproduire les hydrogrammes mesurés à la parcelle pour la plupart des crues, indépendamment de la présence ou non des fentes de retrait. Par contre l’évolution des deux paramètres de ce modèle (conductivité hydraulique à saturation et facteur de stockage et de succion) en fonction de la présence des fentes de retrait, de l’état de surface du sol et du degré d’humidité reste à modéliser. Ce travail permet de conclure que le bassin versant de Kamech est caractérisé par une très forte connectivité hydro-sédimentaire, que les processus d’érosion diffuse y prédominent et que les actions de lutte anti-érosive doivent être ciblées avant tout au niveau des parcelles agricoles avec une attention particulière pour la période d’octobre à décembre. Ce travail a également permis de mettre en évidence le rôle déterminant des fentes de retrait sur la dynamique hydro-sédimentaire des bassins sur sol vertique et la nécessité de poursuivre l’étude de leur impact pour des fins de modélisation et d’aide à la gestion de ces milieux. / As one of the major types of land degradation, soil erosion by water induced large-scale environmental deterioration and declines in land productivity, especially in the Mediterranean area. If water erosion factors are now well known, the complex hierarchy of erosion processes over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales still needs to be studied. Shrink–swell soils that are widespread under Mediterranean climate, imply additional changes in terms of hydrological and erosive responses in relation to the changing soil water conditions. In this context, this study aims to better understand the processes and factors affecting the lateral transfers of water and sediments in an agricultural catchment dominated by vertisols under a range of spatial and temporal scales. A detailed monitoring investigation was conducted in the Kamech catchment (ORE OMERE, Tunisia) that includes continuous runoff and suspended sediment load measurement between 2005 and 2012 at the outlet of a four hydrological gauging stations: 1/ a plot (1.32 ha), 2/ a gully (0.17 ha) in which drains a 1.20 ha plot; 3/ a micro-catchment (15.2 ha) integrating the two previous stations and 4/ the oued station (175 ha) located in the main drain just upstream the Kamech reservoir. Data analysis showed that topsoil cracks appeared to seriously affect the seasonal dynamics of water and sediment delivery whatever the considered spatial scale. A similar time lag in the seasonality between water and sediments delivery was observed: although the runoff rates were globally low during the presence of topsoil cracks in autumn, most sediment transport occurred during this period because of very high sediment concentrations. Mean annual runoff proved to slightly increase with the scale area with 95 mm/year for the plot, 105 mm/ year for the gully and 120mm/year for the micro-catchment station. Increase of area with low infiltration capacity when moving from plot to micro-catchment has been identified as a major explanation of this increase. A simple linear model combining a single rate of topsoil erosion (17 t ha-1 yr-1) and a single rate of gully erosion (80 t ha-1 yr-1) -weighted by their respective surface area- has successfully reproduced the differences observed in the mean annual erosion rates between the spatial scales. The sediment fingerprinting method applied on sediments collected during four flood events at the different stations showed that the apportionment of the processes responsible for the transfer of sediments was relatively stable during the year. The application of the Morel-Seytoux infiltration model has allowed reproducing runoff measured at the parcel outlet for most of the events, whatever the presence of cracks or not. However, the evolution of the two parameters in this model (the saturated hydraulic conductivity and the storage-suction factor) as a function of the presence of the cracks, of the soil surface conditions and of the degree of humidity still need to be modelled. This work allows concluding that the Kamech catchment is characterized by a very high hydro-sedimentary connectivity and a predominance of topsoil erosion processes and that the implementation of erosion control measures should incentivize farming conservation practices focusing especially on the autumn period. This work also highlights the crucial role of the cracks on the catchment runoff and sediment dynamics in Mediterranean vertisol context and the need to better understand and model both the runoff and soil erosion processes associated with cracking soils environment.

The primary objectives of this project were: 1. to develop improved methods for extraction of DNA from human skeletal remains, 2. to improve STR profiling success of low-copy DNA samples by employing whole genome amplification to amplify the total pool of DNA prior to STR analysis, and 3. to improve STR profiling success of damaged DNA templates by using DNA repair enzymes to reduce the number/severity of lesions that interfere with STR profiling. The data from this study support the following conclusions. Inhibitory compounds must be removed prior to enzymatic amplification; either during bone section pretreatment or by the DNA extraction method. Overall, bleach outperformed UV as a pretreatment and DNA extraction using silica outperformed microconcentration and organic extraction. DNA repair with PreCR™ A outperformed both whole genome amplification and repair with PreCR™ T6. Superior DNA extraction results were achieved using the A6 PMB columns (20 ml capacity column with 6 layers of type A glass fiber filter), and DNA repair with PreCR™ A led to an overall improvement in profile quality in most cases, although whole genome amplification was unsuccessful. Rapid, robust DNA isolation, successful amplification of loci from the sample-derived DNA pool, and an elimination of DNA damage and inhibitors may assist in providing sufficient genetic information from cases that might otherwise lie on the fringe of what is possible to obtain today.

A cornerstone in the industry's ongoing digital revolution, which is sometimes referred to as Industry 4.0, is the ability to trace products not only within the own production line but also throughout the remaining lifetime of the products. Traditionally, this is done by labeling products with, for instance, bar codes or radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags. In recent years, using the structure of the product itself as a unique identifier, a "fingerprint", has become a popular area of research. The purpose of this work was to develop software for an identification system using laser speckles as a unique identifier of steel components. Laser speckles, or simply speckles, are generated by illuminating a rough surface with coherent light, typically laser light. As the light is reflected, the granular pattern known as speckles can be seen by an observer. The complex nature of a speckle pattern together with its sensitivity to changes in the setup makes it robust against false-positive identifications and almost impossible to counterfeit. Because of this, speckles are suitable to be used as unique identifiers. In this work, three different identification algorithms have been tested in both simulations and experiments. The tested algorithms included one correlation-based, one method based on local feature extraction, and one method based on global feature extraction. The results showed that the correlation-based identification is most robust against speckle decorrelation, i.e changes in the speckle pattern, while being quite computationally expensive. The local feature-based method was shown to be unfit for this current application due to its sensitivity to speckle decorrelation and erroneous results. The global feature extraction method achieved high accuracy and fast computational speed when combined with a clustering method based on overlapping speckle patterns and a k-nearest neighbours (k-NN) search. In all the investigated methods, parallel calculations can be utilized to increase the computational speed.

Users of internet browsers are constantly monitored, without their consent. By using the JavaScript APIs, it is possible to obtain various information about the browser, which together form a browser fingerprint, which can then be misused. Therefore, the goal of this work is to use a robust fingerprint protection solution of Brave browser and port it to the JavaScript Restrictor extension. In this work, the problematics of obtaining an fingerprint and countermeasures in the Brave browser are analyzed and then compared with the current protection in the JSR extension. The method of porting of Brave's countermeasures is presented and subsequently the procedure of implementation of these defense elements into the browser extension is described. The resulting implementation has been tested and evaluated, with the new protection appearing to be effective.

Le développement des activités humaines, notamment industrielles, depuis le 19ième siècle a engendré une contamination massive de l’atmosphère à la rivière, en passant par la biosphère et les sols. Si les contaminations ont fortement diminué depuis la fin des années 1960, elles persistent notamment en milieu urbain, où se concentrent un grand nombre d’activités humaines. Afin de pouvoir gérer au mieux la pollution, il est nécessaire de comprendre la dynamique de transfert des contaminants, ainsi que leurs sources, à l’échelle du continuum atmosphère – sol – rivière. Cette étude a donc pour objectif d’évaluer les variations temporelles et spatiales de deux types de contaminants historiques, les hydrocarbures aromatiques polycycliques (HAP) et certains éléments traces (ET), à l’échelle du bassin versant de l’Orge (950 km2), présentant une urbanisation croissante d’amont en aval. Plusieurs approches ont été utilisées pour tracer les transferts de particules en rivière (radionucléides ⁷Be, ²¹⁰Pb, ¹³⁷Cs), et déterminer les sources de Pb (isotopes du Pb), et les sources de HAP (rapports de molécules).Les résultats ont mis en évidence un impact important des zones urbaines sur la qualité de la rivière Orge en aval du bassin : contamination importante en métaux (Cu, Zn, Sb, Pb) et en HAP de la phase particulaire, et des niveaux élevés en SO42⁻, Na⁺ et Cl⁻, Cu, Zn et Pb dans la phase dissoute. Le traçage des sédiments par les radionucléides a permis d’observer un apport de particules provenant du ruissellement urbain en aval, et d’identifier les particules de route (ou Road Deposited Sediment) comme source principale. Les signatures isotopiques du Pb ainsi que les signatures en HAP permettent de confirmer que le ruissellement urbain est le principal vecteur de contamination. Les estimations des flux d’ET et HAP annuels et saisonniers entrants (retombées atmosphériques) et sortants (exportés par la rivière) ont mis en évidence une accumulation globale à l’échelle du bassin, qui comporte déjà un stock important de contaminants dans ses sols. Cette étude montre ainsi l’importance d’étudier la Zone Critique dans son ensemble afin d’évaluer la dynamique des contaminations au sein et entre ses différents compartiments, et met en évidence l’efficacité du couplage de plusieurs approches afin de comprendre le système entier. Ces résultats pourraient à terme permettre l’établissement d’un modèle de transfert de contaminations au sein d’un bassin urbain. / The development of human societies since the 19th century has led to deleterious impacts on the Critical Zone (from atmosphere to river, including biosphere and soils). Despite the decrease of pollutions since the late 1960’s, contaminations remain especially in urban environment, concentrating human activities. To better manage this pollution, it is necessary to understand the dynamics and pathways of contaminants through the atmosphere – soil – river continuum. The goal of this study in thus to evaluate the temporal and spatial variations of two contaminants (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and trace elements (TE)) in the Orge River catchment (900 km2, France) being under increasing urban pressure from up to downstream. Several fingerprinting approaches were used to trace sediment dynamics in the river (radionuclides: ⁷Be, ²¹⁰Pb, ¹³⁷Cs), to identify lead sources (lead isotopes) and PAH sources (PAH molecular ratios). The results demonstrated the strong influence of downstream urban areas on the river quality, with an increasing contamination for Cu, Zn, Sb, Pb and PAH in the particulate phase, and for SO42⁻, Na⁺ et Cl⁻, Cu, Zn and Pb in the dissolved phase. The sediment fingerprinting using radionuclides revealed a significant input of particles originating from urban areas and transferred through urban runoff, and identified road deposited sediments as the major source of contaminated particles downstream. Source tracking of Pb and PAH confirmed urban runoff as the main pathway of river contamination. In addition, annual and seasonal PAH and TE fluxes were estimated respectively for the atmospheric inputs, and riverine exports and revealed a global accumulation of contaminant over the catchment, already containing a significant stock of pollutants in its soils. Finally, this study highlights the need to integrate the Critical Zone and the potential of coupling multiples tracking approaches to properly evaluate the contaminant dynamics. These results may be used to establish a model of contaminants transfer in urban catchments.

In this report it is evaluated whether a higher dimensional fingerprint vector increases accuracy of an algorithm for indoor localisation. Many solutions use a Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) to estimate a position. It was studied if the use of the Channel State Information (CSI), i.e. the channel’s frequency response, is beneficial for the accuracy.The localisation algorithm estimates the position of a new measurement by comparing it to previous measurements using k-Nearest Neighbour (k-NN) regression. The mean power was used as RSSI and 100 samples of the frequency response as CSI. Reduction of the dimension of the CSI vector with statistical moments and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was tested. An improvement in accuracy could not be observed by using a higher dimensional fingerprint vector than RSSI. A standardised Euclidean or Mahalanobis distance measure in the k-NN algorithm seemed to perform better than Euclidean distance. Taking the logarithm of the frequency response samples before doing any calculation also seemed to improve accuracy. / I denna rapport utvärderas huruvida data av högre dimension ökar noggrannheten hos en algoritm för inomhuspositionering. Många lösningar använder en indikator för mottagen signalstyrka (RSSI) för att skatta en position. Det studerades studerade om användningen av kanalens fysikaliska tillstånd (CSI), det vill säga kanalens frekvenssvar, är fördelaktig för noggrannheten.Positioneringsalgoritmen skattar positionen för en ny mätning genom att jämföra den med tidigare mätningar med k-Nearest Neighbour (k-NN)-regression. Medeleffekten användes som RSSI och 100 sampel av frekvenssvaret som CSI. Reducering av CSI vektornsdimension med statistiska moment och Principalkomponentanalys(PCA) testades. En förbättring av noggrannheten kunde inte observeras genom att använda data med högre dimension än RSSI. Ett standardiserat Euklidiskt eller Mahalanobis avståndsåatt i k-NN-algoritmen verkade prestera bättre än Euklidiskt avstånd. Att ta logaritmen av frekvenssvarets sampel innan andra beräkningar gjordes verkade också förbättra noggrannheten.

Currently, there is a lack of research behind the security of Virtual Reality against fingerprinting attacks and how these affect the Quality of Experience (QoE) and Quality of Service (QoS) for a user. With practical testing in a game which implements traffic shaping methods as security defences, this thesis aims to take the first step towards changing this. Here, tests were made testing QoS and QoE of countermeasures in a VR game using the game-engine Unity. The countermeasures utilized were random padding, random delays and VPNs. The conclusion reached was that using a delay had a significant impact on QoE, creating a high Round-Trip Time, while changing the packet size had minimal impact to both QoE and QoS. Additionally, utilizing a VPN yielded a minimal impact to both the QoE and QoS.

Chiplets have become an increasingly popular technology for extending Moore's Law and improving the reliability of integrated circuits. They do this by placing several small, interacting chips on an interposer rather than the traditional, single chip used for a device. Like any other type of integrated circuit, chiplets are in need of a physical layer of security to defend against hardware Trojans, counterfeiting, probing, and other methods of tampering and physical attacks. Power distribution networks are ubiquitous across chiplet and monolithic ICs, and are essential to the function of the device. Thus, we propose a method of fingerprinting transient signals within the PDN to identify individual chiplet systems and physical-layer threats against these devices. In this work, we describe a Python-wrapped HSPICE model we have built to automate testing of our proposed PDN fingerprinting methods. We also document the methods of analysis used- wavelet transforms and time-domain measurements- to identify unique characteristics in the voltage response signals to transient stimuli. We provide the true positive and false positive rates of these methods for a simulated lineup of chips across varying operating conditions to determine uniqueness and reliability of our techniques. Our simulations show that, if characterized at varying supply voltage and temperature conditions in the factory, and the sensors used for identification meet the sample rates and voltage resolutions used in our tests, our protocol provides sufficient uniqueness and reliability to be enrolled. We recommend that experimentation be done to evaluate our methods in hardware and implement sensing techniques to meet the requirements shown in this work.

No description available.