Electromagnetic effects of lightning currents during a direct hit to tall communication towers, other instrumented towers and chimneys can be hazardous to associated cables, as well as, electrical and electronics systems. The standard practice in telecommunication and other related fields is to bond the cable sheath to the tower and ground connection is made before it enters the base station. However, in some specific cases when power, signal and data logging cables are to be supported on the same tower, isolation of power cables is demanded. In a totally different situation, attempts are also made to have a dedicated isolated down conductor. A critical review of the situation demanded a more quantitative answer to the following questions: (i) whether it is possible to electrically isolate a dedicated down conductor, (ii) is it possible to electrically isolate the cables and their terminal equipment both mounted on towers serving as down conductor and if so, what will be the nature of current induced in the cables and (iii) as per the standard practice, if the cable sheaths are connected to the tower/structure, what will be the nature of the current shared by them. Addressing these important issues formed the scope of the present work. For the tall structures considered in this work, for the critical time periods, wave nature of the current dominates. This called for electromagnetic modeling covering Transverse Magnetic (TM) mode of the wave propagation. Owing to the complex geometrical features involved with the problem, both experiments on electromagnetically scaled laboratory models, as well as, theoretical simulation is attempted. An electromagnetically scaled laboratory model is employed for the time domain experimental investigation. This approach, which has been validated earlier, is further scrutinized to ensure its adequacy. In order to achieve generality and noting the fact that the associated parameters are rather difficult to be varied in the experimentation, theoretical investigation is also employed. For this, both NEC-2, as well as, an in-house thin wire time domain code developed for this work is employed. NEC-2 could handle multi-wire multi-radius junctions, while in-house time domain code could handle proximity and non-cylindrical shapes encountered with tower lattice elements. The investigation of induction to isolated cables on simple down conductors and towers is considered first. The induced current is shown to be bipolar oscillatory with the period of oscillation governed by the length of the cable. It is shown that the level of induction for good earth termination is below 5 – 10 % while that with moderate inductance in the earth termination can enhance the induction to higher levels. The level of induction is shown to be not critically dependent on the length of the cable, gap between cable and down conductor/tower. When multiple cables are mounted, they seem to influence each other and individually carry currents of lower amplitude. Also, the effect of shape and proximity of the tower lattice elements on induction is investigated. If the cable is housed inside a metallic tray, the amplitude of induced current is shown to be quite small. Subsequently, the evaluation of electrical stress between the isolated down conductor on tower and simplified representation of the structure is considered. A suitable definition of the electric stress for the wave regime is evolved and then it is shown that, at present, the voltage difference defined by the path integral of electric field across shortest path between the two entities is the best indicator for the stress. The electrical stress in the case of isolated down conductor on tower, as well as, down conductor with isolated cable is shown to reach very dangerous levels. On the other hand, the stress on the isolated cables on towers also serving as down conductors is shown to be relatively moderate. Interestingly, it is shown that the electrical stress and the voltage difference is dependent on the gap and for the critical time period, can be much lower than that calculated as a product of equivalent tower surge impedance and the stroke current, even before the arrival of ground end reflections. Finally, the current shared by cables connected to the down conductor is investigated. For the case of simple cylindrical down conductor with cable connected to it at the top, it is shown that the amount of current shared by the cable is not dependent on its length and the relative radii (cross section) have only a weak influence. For the case with down conductor formed by L and + angles, it is shown that the placement of cable at their interior corner can reduce the initial current shared by the cable. In order to model best possible situation with towers, experiments are conducted with cable inside an aluminum pipe. Even in this case, cable current builds up with successive reflections to become comparable with the current through the pipe itself. Subsequent investigation with 1:40 and 1:20 tower models lead to several interesting observations. Cables running along leg/face of the tower whether placed inside or outside the tower, always shares good amount of current. Further, frequent bonding of the sheath to the tower increases the current shared by the cable. Cable when housed in a metallic tray shares less than 50% of the current shared without the tray. Even though a complete quantification is not to be achieved in this work, it has made a good beginning with some significant contribution towards lightning protection issues pertaining to tall towers and structures.

The current research aims to integrate previous research on the host of negative consequences associated with women’s experience of stereotype threat in a science context. Using an expectancy-value framework, the current research explores potential indirect effects of a communal goal affordance intervention on science motivation, via stereotype threat, state anxiety, communal goal affordances, and belonging in science. Building upon the previous literature, the current research attempts to link stereotype threat to science motivation via communal goal affordances and state anxiety’s effect on belonging in science. Additionally, the current research attempts to illustrate the efficacy of a communal goal affordance intervention by increasing perceptions of communal goal affordances and reducing anxiety in a science context. The current study found no evidence of a successful implementation of the communal goal affordance intervention, as evident by non-significant results on parametric and non-parametric tests of central tendencies between interaction type. Additionally, no indirect effects on science motivation were discovered within either tested pathway. However, a significant positive relationship between stereotype threat and state anxiety, communal goal affordances and belonging in science, and belonging in science and science motivation were found. Limitations to the current study and the communal goal affordance intervention, as well as the implications for these findings and future directions for research are discussed.

Boko Haram est un groupe terroriste dont l’épicentre se situe au nord du Nigéria. Ce groupe qui avait au départ comme activité la dénonciation des tares de la société nigériane a plongé dans actions de terrorisme à partir de 2009 suite à la répression militaire de l’armée nigériane. Face à la difficulté du Nigéria de contenir Boko Haram, ce groupe s’est régionalisé, faisant ainsi ressortir les problèmes de coopération sécuritaire régionale dans le Bassin du Lac Tchad et au-delà. Malgré l’application de ces mécanismes régionaux de sécurité, Boko Haram a continué ses activités avec un bilan lourd : plus de 30 000 morts en sept années de conflit armé, plus 1.5 million de réfugiés et déplacés, 4.2 millions de personnes en situation d’insécurité alimentaire et sanitaire. Ceci nous amène à qualifier Boko Haram comme étant un des groupes terroristes islamistes les plus féroces des temps contemporains. En s’appuyant sur des ressources documentaires, ce mémoire vise à expliquer pourquoi les mécanismes régionaux de sécurité n’ont pas permis d’endiguer la menace Boko Haram. Ma démonstration se base sur deux arguments : tout d’abord, l’absence de leadership dans la lutte contre Boko Haram, manifesté par l’attitude du Nigéria au niveau régional et le manque d’intérêt du Tchad, a causé une difficulté d’alliance régionale. Le second argument stipule que la multiplication des organisations régionales dans le Bassin du Lac Tchad a créé des difficultés de coordination entre elles et des problèmes de monopole institutionnel empêchant à ces organisations d’agir efficacement contre le groupe terroriste Boko Haram. / Boko Haram is a terrorist group from northern Nigeria. This group promoting the application of Sharia in northern Nigeria, became a terrorist group in 2009 after military repression by the Nigerian state. With the inability of the Nigerian army to contain this terrorist threat, Boko Haram increased its activities around the Lake Chad Basin and beyond. During several years of Boko Haram's atrocities, one of the most important problems comes from the failure of regional security mechanisms to stem this group. Despite the implementation of these regional security mechanisms, Boko Haram remains a serious threat that has taken a heavy toll: more than 20,000 deaths in seven years of armed conflict, more than 1.5 million refugees and displaced persons, 4.2 million facing health problems and food insecurity. This leads us to consider Boko Haram one of the most ferocious Islamist terrorist groups in modern times. Using resources such as books, scientific articles, newspapers, governments and NGO reports and documents published by international organizations, this thesis seeks to explain why the regional security mechanisms failed to contain Boko Haram. I focus on two arguments: first, the lack of leadership in the fight against Boko Haram, manifested by Nigeria's regional attitude and the lack of interest of Chad, led to the failure of collective action against the Boko Haram phenomenon. Then, the second argument states that the multiplication of regional organizations in the Lake Chad Basin created difficulties of coordination between them and problems of institutional monopoly, preventing these organizations from acting effectively against the terrorist group Boko Haram.

This dissertation seeks to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the political pressure group the Committee on the Present Danger (CPD), which formed in 1976. The group's establishment, attainment of credibility, and influence in critical national security debates during the late 1970s has not yet been given sufficient attention. The Committee on the Present Danger has often been interpreted as a disingenuous propaganda group that dishonestly compiled an alarmist message to deceive politicians and journalists of the threat posed by the Soviet Union. However, the dissertation argues that the Committee's alarmism was genuine. The fact that CPD board members themselves became so fearful of the Soviet threat is the most striking aspect of the group's first four years of operation, and is the primary focus of this study. An examination of the group's formation and activities from 1976 to 1980 permits a more sophisticated appreciation of the group's goals, the promotion of its views, and the effects of its campaign on national security debates during this period. The dissertation adopts a chronological approach that recognises the creeping alarmism of the CPD over these years: warning of the dangers of détente gave way to prophesising an imminent Soviet invasion of Western Europe. Keeping the CPD as the focus of study in this period permits one to argue that the Committee's members, as a private citizens' group without government oversight and a shared worst-case methodology for assessing national security risks, sincerely came to believe in the veracity of their analysis of imminent Soviet military expansion. Committee experts generated and publicised a number of metrics that purported to demonstrate a military imbalance between the Soviet Union and the United States. Over time, and seemingly confirmed by alleged Soviet global aggression, the Committee came to believe that their worst-case estimates reflected reality.

Magister Legum - LLM

L’analyse de la controverse sur le gaz de schiste en France et au Québec à un niveauintermédiaire (méso) permet de souligner les processus de construction et contestation sociale etpolitique des différents cadrages soutenus par les réseaux d’acteurs en concurrence. Lesdynamiques d’intéressement à l’intérieur et à l’extérieur de l’action publique illustrent lesmultiples scènes et forums dans lesquels se déploie la controverse. L’analyse de la construction dece problème public et ses diverses redéfinitions démontre le rôle central du cadrage politique descontroverses. Les solutions retenues définissent tout autant qu’elles tentent de réduire le risquerelatif à cette nouvelle industrie gazière (face à un risque cadré comme technologique en France,on observe un cadrage sur l’acceptabilité sociale au Québec). Il s’agit alors d’insisterparticulièrement sur la dimension procédurale de problématisation des enjeux au regard du recoursà la participation publique et à l’expertise scientifique. Les multiples acteurs de cette controversesont interrogés : les participants à la mobilisation sociale mais aussi les acteurs de l’industrie et desstructures politiques et administratives, afin de dresser la cartographie de leur position mais ausside leurs discours depuis les prémices de cette nouvelle activité industrielle d’exploration du gaz deschiste (2008) jusqu’aux derniers rebondissements politiques (2015). Cette recherche s’appuie surun corpus d’entretiens qualitatifs (40) mais aussi d’articles de presse écrite (2 400) ainsi que surl’analyse qualitative et quantitative des divers rapports et commissions de travail sur le gaz deschiste. / The analysis of the shale gas controversy in France and Quebec at an intermediate (meso)level stresses the social and political construction and dispute processes of the various framingssupported by contesting actors’ networks. “Interestment” dynamics both inside and outside publicpolicies show the multiple scenes and forums in which the controversy unfold. The analysis ofhow this public problem is built and its various redefinitions shows the core role of politicalframing of controversies. The solutions define as well as they reduce the risk related to this newindustry (a technological risk in France and a frame on social acceptability in Quebec). It is thenimportant to stress the procedural dimension of problematizing the stakes regarding publicparticipation and scientific expertise. This study questions the various actors of the controversy,those of social mobilization, the industry and the political and administrative structures, to mapboth their position and their discourses since the beginnings of the new industrial activity ofexploring for shale gas (2008) to the latest political developments (2015). This study is based on acorpus of qualitative interviews (40), press articles (2 400) and a qualitative and quantitativeanalysis of the various reports and committees on shale gas.

Stereotype threat (Steele & Aronson, 1995) refers to the risk of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s group in a particular performance domain. The theory assumes that performance in the stereotyped domain is most negatively affected when individuals are more highly identified with the domain in question. As federal law has increased the importance of standardized testing at the elementary level, it can be reasonably hypothesized that the standardized test performance of African American children will be depressed when they are aware of negative societal stereotypes about the academic competence of African Americans. This sequential mixed-methods study investigated whether the standardized testing experiences of African American children in an urban elementary school are related to their level of stereotype awareness. The quantitative phase utilized data from 198 African American children at an urban elementary school. Both ex-post facto and experimental designs were employed. Experimental conditions were diagnostic and non-diagnostic testing experiences. The qualitative phase utilized data from a series of six focus group interviews conducted with a purposefully selected group of 4 African American children. The interview data were supplemented with data from 30 hours of classroom observations. Quantitative findings indicated that the stereotype threat condition evoked by diagnostic testing depresses the reading test performance of stereotype-aware African American children (F[1, 194] = 2.21, p < .01). This was particularly true of students who are most highly domain-identified with reading (F[1, 91] = 19.18, p < .01). Moreover, findings indicated that only stereotype-aware African American children who were highly domain-identified were more likely to experience anxiety in the diagnostic condition (F[1, 91] = 5.97, p < .025). Qualitative findings revealed 4 themes regarding how African American children perceive and experience the factors related to stereotype threat: (1) a narrow perception of education as strictly test preparation, (2) feelings of stress and anxiety related to the state test, (3) concern with what “others” think (racial salience), and (4) stereotypes. A new conceptual model for stereotype threat is presented, and future directions including implications for practice and policy are discussed.

This master thesis deals with the current issue of immigration within the EU while applying the social constructivist theory. It seems that the humanitarian, human rights and economic dimension of the European immigration policy is disappearing and immigration is increasingly viewed through the lens of security. The aim of this thesis is to apply the constructivist concept of securitization (constructing an object as a threat) to the current phenomenon of immigration to the EU in order to see the ways of securitization of immigration at the European level and identify its impact and related problems. The first theoretical part of the thesis introduces the links between immigration and security and also thoroughly explains the theoretical and methodological concept of securitization which is then used in the context of the current EU migration policy. The final chapter is devoted to the negative impacts of successfully securitized immigration and it suggests some alternative ways for the EU migration policy which should be seen through other (not only security) dimensions.

This dissertation thesis is dedicated to on-line services security management from service provider's and service consumer's viewpoints. The main goal is to propose a framework for on-line services security risk management, to develop a supporting software tool prototype and to validate them through a case study performed in a real-world environment. The key components of the proposed framework are a threat model and a risk model. These models are designed to fit specific features of on-line services and the surrounding environment. A risk management process is an integral part of the framework. The process is suitable for frequent and recurrent risk assessments. The process comprises of eight steps, related roles and responsibilities are defined for each step. The process execution results in identification and execution of proper tasks which contribute to treatment of identified security risks and deficiencies. Documentation and reporting of an overall level of on-line services security over time is possible if the process is executed on a regular basis. The proposed framework was validated through a case study performed in a large enterprise environment.

Women in leadership positions may experience stereotype threat when explicitly or implicitly reminded of gender and leader stereotypes. Increased worry about potentially confirming the stereotype should affect their behavior and perceptions in leadership situations. I used a 3 (article) x 2 (confederate gender) between-participants design. Female participants read an article that either made stereotypes explicit (explicit threat), countered stereotypes (threat nullification), or did not include stereotype-relevant information (implicit threat) and were assigned to lead a male or female confederate through the construction of a Lego model. I hypothesized that women in the implicit threat conditions (implicit article; male confederate) would objectively and subjectively perform worse than women in the explicit and nullification article conditions and those working with a female confederate. Women should experience the situation more negatively in conditions of threat (explicit and implicit articles; male confederate). Confederate perceptions of the participants should be more negative, except competence, when participants performed well (explicit and nullification article; female confederate). Results partially supported the hypotheses. Women who led men objectively performed worse, perceived their own performance as worse, were perceived as less competent and overall less favorably by their employees, and experienced the situation more negatively than women who led women. The article had little impact on participants and outcomes. The findings suggest that female leaders may be unintentionally undermining themselves when stereotype reminders are present, such as when asked to lead a man in a masculine task. Experiencing stereotype threat may influence women to opt out of leadership due to their negative experiences and they may not earn promotions due to poor performance and coworkers’ negative perceptions of their behavior.