The p-Adic Numbers and Conic Sections

This thesis introduces the p-adic metric on the rational numbers. We then present the basic properties of this metric. Using this metric, we explore conic sections, viewed as equidistant sets. Lastly, we move on the sequences and series, and from there, we define p-adic expansions and the analytic completion of Q with respect to the p-adic metric, which leads to exploring some arithmetic properties of Qp

L’iconodulie cinématographique ou la nouvelle offrande du monde (à propos de Cinéma 1 et 2 de Gilles Deleuze)

En deçà ou au-delà des pouvoirs de fascination ou de capture anesthésiante propres aux mauvais films, d’où provient la puissance singulière des images cinématographiques, capables d’offrir « le » monde, entendu comme ouverture sur un dehors qui serait à la fois extérieur à notre expérience quotidienne et pourtant doté de sens, donc perceptible et descriptible ? Comment, entre tous les arts de l’image, le cinéma parvient-il à nous libérer des images toutes faites, des clichés, pour nous rendre à un tel dehors ? Ces questions constituent le fil directeur que l’on peut trouver au double ouvrage, L’image-mouvement et L’image-temps, que Gilles Deleuze a consacré au cinéma : montrer comment l’histoire du grand cinéma, et non simplement tel ou tel film, peut articuler un projet-de-monde d’inspiration phénoménologique et une « manière de faire des mondes » d’inspiration plus analytique ; autrement dit, montrer combien le cinéma peut nous éveiller à l’unité du monde tout en le reconstruisant techniquement et à la manière propre de son réalisateur dans chaque film singulier. Pour donner au fil conducteur traversant l’ouvrage de Deleuze toute son extension, il nous faut toutefois voir à quoi il se rattache. D’abord, en montrant en quoi la cinéphilie moderne peut effectivement être considérée comme une nouvelle « iconodulie », au sens byzantin du terme : une sauvegarde du monde par l’image. Ensuite, en montrant de quelle manière, chez Deleuze, un tel monde, étrangement donné et fabriqué à la fois, un et multiple, en vient de lui-même à changer de sens, en particulier en se constituant non plus à partir de l’espace mais du temps, non plus à partir des choses mais des signes, non plus à partir des communautés nationales mais des devenirs minoritaires. Enfin, en montrant que le cinéma est par conséquent justiciable de bien davantage que d’une nouvelle esthétique : d’une nouvelle ontologie, d’une nouvelle pédagogie et d’une nouvelle politique.Beyond the power of fascination and the anaesthetizing effect of bad films, where does the singular power of film images come from? These images are capable of offering us “the” world, understood as an opening onto an outside which is both external to our everyday experience and yet laden with meaning, and therefore perceptible and describable. How is the cinema, of all the image arts, able to liberate us from ready-made images and clichés and to take us to this outside? These questions are the guiding threads of Gilles Deleuze’s two-volume work on cinema, The Movement-Image and The Time-Image: to show how the history of cinema as a whole, and not just one film or another, can articulate a world-project inspired by phenomenology and a more analytical “way of making worlds.” In other words, to show to what extent the cinema can awaken us to the unity of the world while at the same time technically reconstructing it according to each director’s style in every single film. To give the guiding thread of Deleuze’s work its complete ramification, we have to see what it is attached to. First, by showing how cinephilia today can be seen as a new form of “iconoduly,” in the Byzantine sense of the term: the world saved by the image. Next, by showing how in Deleuze’s work such a world, strangely rendered and fabricated at one and the same time, singular and multiple, comes itself to change meaning, in particular by establishing itself no longer out of space but rather out of time, no longer out of things but rather out of signs, no longer out of national communities but rather out of minority situations. Finally, by showing as a result that the cinema is amenable to much more than a new aesthetic: it is open to a new ontology, a new pedagogy and a new politics

WHICH “KIND” OF TRUST FOR BUYING ONLINE? AN INTERCULTURAL STUDY

Although there has been rapid growth in the use of the Internet around the world, many issues remain for the development of the online transactions. Many studies have shown that one of the inhibiting factors of online transactions is the lack of confidence in the seller. But, as the Internet itself is an open technology and not a familiar environment, online customers face another problem that results from the vulnerabilities of the Internet upon which e-commerce is based, and raises doubts about another type of trust: technological trust. Confidence in e-commerce request that the technical system and the partner are trustworthy. This study analyses the effect of online trust on online buying intention. More specifically, it investigates the impact of the two types of trust, online vendor trust and technological trust on intention to buy online. Moreover, we have compared this effect for Tunisians and French and to try to explain the differences, if any, according to Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. The study establishes the online trust as an important independent variable influencing intention to engage in online purchase transactions. The results suggest that for the French, only technological trust has an effect on intentions to buy online, even when they have previously buy online. For the Tunisians, Technological trust, vendor trust and previous online purchase influence intention to buy online. However, the results suggest that technological trust has the largest effect. The results also show that some of Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture may explain the differences between French and Tunisians

A Lossy Compression Experiment of Telemac Data

Hydrodynamic

Inverse Problem in Nondestructive Testing Using Arrayed Eddy Current Sensors

A fast crack profile reconstitution model in nondestructive testing is developed using an arrayed eddy current sensor. The inverse problem is based on an iterative solving of the direct problem using genetic algorithms. In the direct problem, assuming a current excitation, the incident field produced by all the coils of the arrayed sensor is obtained by the translation and superposition of the 2D axisymmetric finite element results obtained for one coil; the impedance variation of each coil, due to the crack, is obtained by the reciprocity principle involving the dyadic Green’s function. For the inverse problem, the surface of the crack is subdivided into rectangular cells, and the objective function is expressed only in terms of the depth of each cell. The evaluation of the dyadic Green’s function matrix is made independently of the iterative procedure, making the inversion very fast

The Central Role of the State in the Governance of Sport and the Olympic Movement in Tunisia, from 1956 to the Present Day

This paper examines the relationship between sport and the Tunisian state, focusing on the issues of governance and regulation. Identified are three periods: from independence to the coup d’état (20 March 1956–7 November 1987), where sport was a component of national identity; Ben Ali’s regime taking control of the Olympic Movement, 1987–2011; and post-2011, which witnessed attempts to achieve democracy. Descriptions of the situation in each of the three periods are followed by analyses of sports policies (objectives, resources, and results), legislation, turning points, and tensions