Efficient secure comparison in the dishonest majority model

Secure comparison (SC) is an essential primitive in Secure Multiparty Computation (SMC) and a fundamental building block in Privacy-Preserving Data Analytics (PPDA). Although secure comparison has been studied since the introduction of SMC in the early 80s and many protocols have been proposed, there is still room for improvement, especially providing security against malicious adversaries who form the majority among the participating parties. It is not hard to develop an SC protocol secure against malicious majority based on the current state-of-the-art SPDZ framework. SPDZ is designed to work for arbitrary polynomially-bounded functionalities; it may not provide the most efficient SMC implementation for a specific task, such as SC. In this thesis, we propose a novel and efficient compiler specifically designed to convert most existing SC protocols with semi-honest security into the ones secure against the dishonest majority (malicious majority). We analyze the security of the proposed solutions using the real-ideal paradigm. Moreover, we provide computation and communication complexity analysis. Comparing to the current state-of-the-art SC protocols Rabbit and edaBits, our design offers significant performance gain. The empirical results show that the proposed solution is at least 5 and 10 times more efficient than Rabbit in run-time and communication cost respectively.Includes bibliographical references

Entre performativité et altérité : les traductions québécoises du théâtre irlandais

Le rapport entre le Québec et l’Irlande constitue la base d’une enquête sur la manière dont les stratégies et les pratiques de traduction ont filtré l’irlandicité vis-à-vis d’une sensibilité québécoise. Cette thèse analyse le rapport entre la performativité, l’identité, et l’appropriation dans le théâtre québécois. Comme constructions, l’identité et la traduction exigent de repenser la façon dont l’idéologie que nous attachons à l’identité, à la traduction, et au langage sur scène influence les moyens par lesquels nous comprenons les rapports culturels en Irlande et au Québec. La présence performative de l’altérité, construite au moyen du français québécois offre une opportunité pour interroger l’imaginaire québécois filtré à travers le théâtre irlandais. La force performative des traductions de Pygmalion de Bernard Shaw, La Reine de beauté de Leenane de Martin McDonagh, Howie le Rookie de Mark O’Rowe, et Limbes (Purgatoire, Calvaire et La Résurrection) de W.B. Yeats, témoigne de l’attraction et l’affinité des traducteurs québécois pour un large éventail de sujets qui, dans la culture de départ, interroge directement ou indirectement l’irlandicité tout au long du XXe siècle. Chaque chapitre analyse des textes sources par rapport à leurs traductions mais examine également les facteurs atténuants de la réception de ces pièces par des spécialistes du théâtre au Québec et en Irlande, en offrant une perspective culturelle transnationale et comparative. Les questions critiques abordées dans cette thèse incluent le rapport de Bernard Shaw avec son lieu de naissance irlandais, la relation souvent tendue de Martin McDonagh avec l’Irlande qui résulte de la réception internationale de ses pièces, de la subversion de la forme narrative par Mark O’Rowe à travers la pièce monologue, et de l’appropriation du théâtre Noh par Yeats. Cette thèse place ces oeuvres dans un nouveau contexte analytique en examinant les processus et les moyens par lesquels les oeuvres sont situées de façon linguistique et dramaturgique dans la traduction québécoise. Le théâtre irlandais en traduction au Québec met en scène l’agencement potentiel de l’altérité irlandaise par une mise en parallèle du français québécois et de l’hibernoanglais, car elles subvertissent les normes linguistiques. Ce rapport aide à combler le vide dans le discours traductologique et théâtral. Comparer les traductions québécoises aux textes sources ne constitue pas une mise en valeur des traductions ; toutefois, celles-ci ne représentent pas non plus une version diminuée de l’originalité du champ littéraire québécois. Les traductions québécoises du théâtre irlandais ne fonctionnent pas en tant que monolithe culturel; elles ne représentent pas une version figée de l’irlandicité ou de la québécité. Chacune traite le français québécois en fonction des stratégies de traduction proactives afin de souligner les perspectives différentes qui parlent de l’expérience francophone en Amérique du Nord. En problématisant la notion de performativité en ce qui concerne l’identité et sa performance, nous pouvons voir comment l’objectif ultime de la mise en scène, la performance, suggère un processus d’authentification plutôt que celui d’une représentation intrinsèquement inférieure au texte source parce que le premier offre une version figée et potentiellement stéréotypée d’identités qui sont le produit d’influences culturelles et linguistiques qui se chevauchent et se superposent. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, j’analyse, à partir de la traduction québécoise d'oeuvres irlandaises, le rapport à l’irlandicité et à l’esthétique du champ théâtral irlandais qui reflète le même genre d’évolution d’une société ayant expérimenté des changements à grande échelle par rapport à l’identité culturelle et linguistique.The relationship between Quebec and Ireland forms the basis for an inquiry into how translation strategies and practices have filtered Irishness through a Québécois sensibility. This thesis analyses the relationship between performativity, identity, and appropriation in Quebec theatre. As constructions, identity and translation require rethinking how the ideology attached to identity, translation, and language on stage influences the cultural power relationships in and between Ireland and Quebec. The performative presence of alterity on stage, in this case, of Irishness, as constructed through Québécois-French offers an opportunity through which I question Quebec’s literary imaginary as it is filtered through modern Irish theatre. The performative and linguistic forms of the Québécois translations of Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw, The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh, Howie the Rookie by Mark O’Rowe, as well as Calvary, The Resurrection, and Purgatory by W.B. Yeats, demonstrate the attraction to and affinity for a wide range of subjects felt by Québécois translators that directly and indirectly question Irishness in the source culture throughout the twentieth century. Each chapter features an analysis of the source texts against their translations, but also studies the mitigating factors in the reception of these plays by theatrical scholars in Quebec and Ireland, offering a transnational and comparative cultural perspective. The critical questions addressed in this thesis include Bernard Shaw’s complex relationship with his Irish birthplace, Martin McDonagh’s often strained relationship with Ireland resulting from how his plays are received internationally, Mark O’Rowe’s subversion of the storytelling form through the monologue play, and Yeats’s appropriation of Noh theatre. This thesis places these works in a new analytical context by examining the processes and means through which the plays and the translations are linguistically and dramaturgically situated within the Québécois theatrical field. Translated Irish theatre performed in Quebec reveals the potential agency of Irish alterity through a comparison of Québécois-French and the English language as it is spoken in Ireland, and as both languages subvert linguistic norms. This relationship helps to fill a void in the discourse surrounding translation and theatre studies. Comparing Québécois translations to their source texts does not constitute an attempt to privilege the translations over the source texts; however, these translations also do not represent a vilification of the originality of the Québécois literary field. Québécois translations of Irish theatre do not function as cultural monoliths, which is to say, they do not represent fixed versions of Irishness or Québécité. Instead, each harnesses Québécois-French via proactive translation strategies to highlight the different perspectives that speak to the Francophone experience in North America. In problematising the notion of performativity, as it relates to identity and the performance thereof, we can see how the ultimate goal of staged performance, the mise en scène, suggests a process of authentication rather than a representation that is inherently inferior to the source text, owing to a perception that the former offers a fixed and potentially stereotypical version of identities that are products of overlapping and layering cultural and linguistic influences. Within this thesis, I explore the relationship to Irishness and aesthetics of the Irish theatrical field as it reflects a similar evolution within a Quebec society that has also experienced large-scale changes in cultural and linguistic identity in modern times

A survey on reconfigurable intelligent surfaces: wireless communication perspective

Using reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) to improve the coverage and the data rate of future wireless networks is a viable option. These surfaces are constituted of a significant number of passive and nearly passive components that interact with incident signals in a smart way, such as by reflecting them, to increase the wireless system's performance as a result of which the notion of a smart radio environment comes to fruition. In this survey, a study review of RIS-assisted wireless communication is supplied starting with the principles of RIS which include the hardware architecture, the control mechanisms, and the discussions of previously held views about the channel model and pathloss; then the performance analysis considering different performance parameters, analytical approaches and metrics are presented to describe the RIS-assisted wireless network performance improvements. Despite its enormous promise, RIS confronts new hurdles in integrating into wireless networks efficiently due to its passive nature. Consequently, the channel estimation for, both full and nearly passive RIS and the RIS deployments are compared under various wireless communication models and for single and multi-users. Lastly, the challenges and potential future study areas for the RIS aided wireless communication systems are proposed