Search

The demand for resources-constrained devices of 8-bit and 32-bit microcontrollers has increased due to the requirements of different applications such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Internet of Things (IoT) and Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). Applying efficient security in these applications and their microcontroller platform is one of the significant concerns for its limited acceptance. In fact, public key cryptography (PKC), RSA and Elliptic Curve Cryptography, are generally considered the most powerful cryptosystems that could provide a high level of security. However, RSA involves very intensive computational arithmetic with a key size of 1024-2048 bits. Therefore, ECC could be a feasible solution to provide a similar level of security with a smaller key size and lesser arithmetic computations. However, the highly effective ECC implementations in microcontroller devices remain as a concern, due to some drawbacks of the microcontrollers. This thesis illustrates the technique for achieving highly efficient ECC on microcontroller devices that could be used in applications such as IoT, WSN and RFID. We implement an efficient ECC cryptosystem in single-core microcontroller and a homogenous multicore microcontroller. The Elliptic Curve Digital Signature is implemented on an 8-bit and 32-bit microcontrollers and its performance is evaluated for the possible combination of finite field arithmetic, point doubling, point addition and scalar point algorithms. The developed technique reduced the time required for generating EDSA key from 83ms in 32bit microcontroller to 263ms in 8bit microcontroller. The parallelization of the Comba multiplication in GF(2¹⁶³) implemented in a homogenous multicore microcontroller, obtained a performance enhancement of 85% in comparison to a single core microcontroller. The feasibility of the algorithms and the advantages of adopting parallelization is validated by using these algorithms to implement ECC scalar point multiplication over GF(2m) using the Xmos multi-core microcontroller. Also it is believed that our proposed solutions for a multicore microcontroller that could be used in applications like IoT, WSN and RFID is the first of its kind.

The E989 muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab seeks to measure the anomalous magnetic moment moment of the muon, aμ, to the precision of 140 ppb. The most precise measurement of aμ to date was obtained by the E821 muon g-2 experiment at BNL at the beginning of this century, which reported a greater than 3s discrepancy between the experimental measurement and the theoretical prediction of the Standard Model, hinting at the possible existence of new physics. In an effort to investigate this discrepancy, E989 aims to repeat the aμ measurement with a 21-fold increase in statistics and a four-fold reduction in systematic uncertainties. If the experimental goals are fulfilled and the central measurement remains the same, then the discrepancy will be confirmed at greater than 5s level and will provide strong evidence for the existence of new physics beyond the Standard Model. E989 uses the same experimental methodology as E821 which relies on injecting an intense μ⁺ beam into a magnetic storage ring and measuring the rate of spin precession experienced by the μ⁺ as they orbit the storage ring. One key improvement to the experimental hardware to reduce the systematic uncertainties is the use of straw tracking detectors which measure the μ⁺ beam profile around the storage ring throughout the experiment. This thesis outlines the motivation for, and experimental principles behind, the E989 muon g - 2 experiment. The main body describes the design, construction and testing of the straw tracking detectors that occurred at the University of Liverpool along with their installation and commissioning at Fermilab. The thesis will also present a blinded analysis of data obtained from the first physics run.

This thesis investigates the impact of formal and informal institutional constraints and social capital aspects on the economic performance of privatised firms in Tunisia. Also, this study underlines the role of the institutional constraints in the Tunisian business environment that may create two categories of firms, insiders and outsiders, which face unequal business opportunities and uneven associated transaction costs. There has been little empirical work that explores whether institutional constraints and social capital aspects affect the performance of the firms after privatisation. In addition, very few studies have tested the insider-outsider phenomenon. In fact, a very limited number of studies have considered investigating such issues in the region of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This thesis seeks to fill these gaps by empirically investigating the real effect of the institutional constraints and the social capital aspects on the sales and investment growth of the privatised firms. This research is therefore focused on the relationship between formal, informal institutional constraints and social capital aspects and the performance of the privatised firms in Tunisia as well as the insider-outsider phenomenon in the Tunisian business environment.

The purpose of the study was to investigate both Saudi tertiary teachers’ and students’ attitudes toward Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). Moreover, the study also explored the factors that promote or hinder the implementation of the CLT approach in English language classrooms from their point of view. Ajzen’s (2005) theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and the cultural dimensions framework developed by Hofstede (1980, 2001) and Hofstede et al. (2010) provided a theoretical foundation on which this study was based. The TPB was used to understand teachers’ and students’ attitudes toward the CLT approach in Saudi context. A mixed-method research approach was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data. The sample of this study included students and teachers from the English Language Department of the College of Arts and Sciences at a Saudi University in Saudi Arabia. The results showed that there is a mismatch between the expressed attitudes (teachers) and the actual behaviour in classrooms. For example, teachers showed awareness of the importance of the CLT approach and development of learners’ communicative ability. However, their actual classroom practice did not include sufficient communicative activities if any and their focus was merely on grammar, error correction, and vocabulary memorisation. These mismatches could be caused by the influence of hierarchical Saudi culture on the classroom practice, for example, high power distance between students and teachers. Also, students were reserved in their classroom interactions. Students, on the other hand, showed a positive attitude toward the CLT activities and suggested that teachers should create a comfortable atmosphere in classrooms to encourage interaction. Students believed that a wide range of activities should be used (i.e. pair and group work) to provide real-world situations for practising meaningful communication in classrooms. The findings also highlighted factors that inhibited effective CLT, such as the paucity of resources and teachers’ lack of training in implementing the CLT approach appropriately. Other highlighted barriers include large class size and the prevalence of grammar-based examinations. The Saudi culture is very collectivistic, with several features of significant power distance society that has resulted in pair and group work becoming problematic to be considered as an effective classroom activity.