Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Science Pubs Will Focus On Climate Related Resilience And Communication, Amy Matzke-Fawcett

News Items

No abstract provided.

Estuarine Dissolved Organic Carbon Flux From Space: With Application To Chesapeake And Delaware Bays, Sergio R. Signorini, Antonio Mannino, Marjorie A.M. Friedrichs, Pierre St-Laurent, John Wilkin, Aboozar Tabatabai, Raymond G. Najjar, Eileen E. Hofmann, Fei Da, Hanqin Tian, Yuanzhi Yao

CCPO Publications

This study uses a neural network model trained with in situ data, combined with satellite data and hydrodynamic model products, to compute the daily estuarine export of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) at the mouths of Chesapeake Bay (CB) and Delaware Bay (DB) from 2007 to 2011. Both bays show large flux variability with highest fluxes in spring and lowest in fall as well as interannual flux variability (0.18 and 0.27 Tg C/year in 2008 and 2010 for CB; 0.04 and 0.09 Tg C/year in 2008 and 2011 for DB). Based on previous estimates of total organic carbon (TOCexp) exported by …

Effects Of Pulse Width On He Plasma Jets In Contact With Water Evaluated By Oh(A-X) Emission And Ohaq Production, Shutong Song, Esin B. Sözer, Chunqi Jiang

Bioelectrics Publications

Nanosecond pulsed helium plasma jets impinging on water produce hydroxyl radicals both in gas- and liquid-phase. In this study, the effects of pulse width on a repetitively pulsed plasma jet in contact with water are evaluated via OH(A-X) emission and OH_aq production in water for various pulse widths ranging from 200 to 5000 ns. The maximal energy efficiency of OH(A-X) emission is obtained for pulse widths of 600-800 ns whereas the maximal efficiency of OH_aq production is at 200 ns. Temporally-resolved emission spectroscopy shows that more than 40% of OH(A-X) emission is produced during the first 200 ns …

Factorization Of Jet Cross Sections In Heavy-Ion Collisions, Jian-Wei Qiu, Felix Ringer, Nobuo Sato, Pia Zurita

Physics Faculty Publications

We propose a new phenomenological approach to establish QCD factorization of jet cross sections in the heavy-ion environment. Starting from a factorization formalism in proton-proton collisions, we introduce medium modified jet functions to capture the leading interaction of jets with the hot and dense QCD medium. A global analysis using a Monte Carlo sampling approach is performed in order to reliably determine the new jet functions from the nuclear modification factor of inclusive jets at the LHC. We find that gluon jets are significantly more suppressed due to the presence of the medium than quark jets. In addition, we observe …

Next-Generation Rainfall Idf Curves For The Virginian Drainage Area Of Chesapeake Bay, Xixi Wang, Xiaomin Yang, Zhaoyi Cai

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Probability-based intensity-duration-frequency IDF curves are needed but currently lacking for Department of Defense DoD to construct and manage its infrastructure in changing climate. The objectives of this project were to 1 develop an innovative approach for considering rainfall non-stationarity in developing such IDF curves and 2 apply this approach to the state of Virginia. In this regard, the observed data on 15-min rainfall at 57 gauges and the precipitations projected by twelve pairs of Regional Climate Model RCM and Global Circulation Model GCM were used. For a given gauge or watershed, in terms of fitting the empirical exceedance probabilities, a …

Protocol Measuring Horizontal Gene Transfer From Algae To Non-Photosynthetic Organisms, James Weifu Lee

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is a natural process for an organism to transfer genetic material to another organism that is a completely different species, for example, from a blue-green alga to a non-photosynthetic bacterium. The phenomenon of HGT is not only of an interest to the science of molecular genetics and biology, but also to the biosafety issue of genetic engineering. The novel protocol reported here for the first time teaches how to measure HGT from a genetically engineered (GE) blue-green alga (gene donor) to wild-type E. coli (recipient). This novel protocol can be used to measure HGT frequency for …

Mementomap: An Archive Profile Dissemination Framework, Sawood Alam, Michele C. Weigle, Michael L. Nelson

Computer Science Faculty Publications

We introduce MementoMap, a framework to express and disseminate holdings of web archives (archive profiles) by themselves or third parties. The framework allows arbitrary, flexible, and dynamic levels of details in its entries that fit the needs of archives of different scales. This enables Memento aggregators to significantly reduce wasted traffic to web archives.

Impact Of Http Cookie Violations In Web Archives, Sawood Alam, Michele C. Weigle, Michael L. Nelson

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Certain HTTP Cookies on certain sites can be a source of content bias in archival crawls. Accommodating Cookies at crawl time, but not utilizing them at replay time may cause cookie violations, resulting in defaced composite mementos that never existed on the live web. To address these issues, we propose that crawlers store Cookies with short expiration time and archival replay systems account for values in the Vary header along with URIs.

Hacking The Extended Mind: The Security Implications Of The New Metaphysics, Robin L. Zebrowski

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

Computer security expert Paul Syverson has argued that there is a computer security equivalent of gaslighting: where a clever adversary could convince some system that some component that is not really a part of the system is in fact a part of the system. If non-biological items from our environments (or even pieces of our environments themselves) can be part of our minds (the standard Extended Mind hypothesis, EM), they are therefore part of our selves, and therefore subject to Syverson’s worry about boundary in a way that has not been explored before. If some version of EM holds, then …

Confucian Robot Ethics, Qin Zhu, Tom Williams, Ruchen Wen

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

In the literature of artificial moral agents (AMAs), most work is influenced by either deontological or utilitarian frameworks. It has also been widely acknowledged that these Western “rule-based” ethical theories have encountered both philosophical and computing challenges. To tackle these challenges, this paper explores a non-Western, role-based, Confucian approach to robot ethics. In this paper, we start by providing a short introduction to some theoretical fundamentals of Confucian ethics. Then, we discuss some very preliminary ideas for constructing a Confucian approach to robot ethics. Lastly, we briefly share a couple of empirical studies our research group has recently conducted that …

Rethinking Algorithmic Bias Through Phenomenology And Pragmatism, Johnathan C. Flowers

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

In 2017, Amazon discontinued an attempt at developing a hiring algorithm which would enable the company to streamline its hiring processes due to apparent gender discrimination. Specifically, the algorithm, trained on over a decade’s worth of resumes submitted to Amazon, learned to penalize applications that contained references to women, that indicated graduation from all women’s colleges, or otherwise indicated that an applicant was not male. Amazon’s algorithm took up the history of Amazon’s applicant pool and integrated it into its present “problematic situation,” for the purposes of future action. Consequently, Amazon declared the project a failure: even after attempting to …

Information Privacy: Not Just Gdpr, Danilo Bruschi

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

The "information rush" which is characterizing the current phase of the information age calls for actions aimed at enforcing the citizens' right to privacy. Since the entire information life-cycle (collection, manipulation, storing) is now carried out by digital technologies, most of such actions consists of the adoption of severe measures (both organizational and technological) aimed at improving the security of computer systems, as in the case of the EU General Data Protection Regulation. Usually, data processors which comply with these requirements are exempted by any other duty. Unfortunately recent trends in the computer attack field show that even the adoption …

What To Do When Privacy Is Gone, James Brusseau

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

Today’s ethics of privacy is largely dedicated to defending personal information from big data technologies. This essay goes in the other direction. It considers the struggle to be lost, and explores two strategies for living after privacy is gone. First, total exposure embraces privacy’s decline, and then contributes to the process with transparency. All personal information is shared without reservation. The resulting ethics is explored through a big data version of Robert Nozick’s Experience Machine thought experiment. Second, transient existence responds to privacy’s loss by ceaselessly generating new personal identities, which translates into constantly producing temporarily unviolated private information. The …

Responding To Some Challenges Posed By The Re-Identification Of Anonymized Personal Data, Herman T. Tavani, Frances S. Grodzinsky

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

In this paper, we examine a cluster of ethical controversies generated by the re-identification of anonymized personal data in the context of big data analytics, with particular attention to the implications for personal privacy. Our paper is organized into two main parts. Part One examines some ethical problems involving re-identification of personally identifiable information (PII) in large data sets. Part Two begins with a brief description of Moor and Weckert’s Dynamic Ethics (DE) and Nissenbaum’s Contextual Integrity (CI) Frameworks. We then investigate whether these frameworks, used together, can provide us with a more robust scheme for analyzing privacy concerns that …

Human Supremacy As Posthuman Risk, Daniel Estrada

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

Human supremacy is the widely held view that human interests ought to be privileged over other interests as a matter of public policy. Posthumanism is an historical and cultural situation characterized by a critical reevaluation of anthropocentrist theory and practice. This paper draws on Rosi Braidotti’s critical posthumanism and the critique of ideal theory in Charles Mills and Serene Khader to address the use of human supremacist rhetoric in AI ethics and policy discussions, particularly in the work of Joanna Bryson. This analysis leads to identifying a set of risks posed by human supremacist policy in a posthuman context, specifically …

Autonomous Vehicles And The Ethical Tension Between Occupant And Non-Occupant Safety, Jason Borenstein, Joseph Herkert, Keith W. Miller

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

Autonomous vehicle manufacturers, people inside an autonomous vehicle (occupants), and people outside the vehicle (non-occupants) are among the distinct stakeholders when addressing ethical issues inherent in systems that include autonomous vehicles. As responses to recent tragic cases illustrate, advocates for autonomous vehicles tend to focus on occupant safety, sometimes to the exclusion of non-occupant safety. Thus, we aim to examine ethical issues associated with non-occupant safety, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, and riders of motorized scooters. We also explore the ethical implications of technical and policy ideas that some might propose to improve non-occupant safety. In addition, if safety (writ large) …

Difference Between Algorithmic Processing And The Process Of Lifeworld (Lebenswelt), Domenico Schneider

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

The following article compares the temporality of the life-world with the digital processing. The temporality of the life-world is determined to be stretched and spontaneous. The temporality of the digital is given by discrete step-by-step points of time. Most ethical issues can be traced back to a mismatch of these two ways of processing. This creates a foundation for the ethics of the digital processing. Methodologically, phenomenological considerations are merged with media-philosophical considerations in the article.

Keeping Anonymity At The Consumer Behavior On The Internet: Proof Of Sacrifice, Sachio Horie

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

The evolution of the Internet and AI technology has made it possible for the government and the businesses to keep track of their personal lives. GAFA continues to collect information unintended by the individuals. It is a threat that our privacy is violated in this way. In order to solute such problems, it is important to consider a mechanism that enables us to be peaceful lives while protecting privacy in the Internet society.

This paper focuses on the consumption behavior on the Internet and addresses anonymity. We consider some network protocols that enable sustainable consensus by combining anonymity methods such …

On The Responsibility For Uses Of Downstream Software, Marty J. Wolf, Keith W. Miller, Frances S. Grodzinsky

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

In this paper we explore an issue that is different from whether developers are responsible for the direct impact of the software they write. We examine, instead, in what ways, and to what degree, developers are responsible for the way their software is used “downstream.” We review some key scholarship analyzing responsibility in computing ethics, including some recent work by Floridi. We use an adaptation of a mechanism developed by Floridi to argue that there are features of software that can be used as guides to better distinguish situations where a software developer might share in responsibility for the software’s …

Legal And Technical Issues For Text And Data Mining In Greece, Maria Kanellopoulou - Botti, Marinos Papadopoulos, Christos Zampakolas, Paraskevi Ganatsiou

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

Web harvesting and archiving pertains to the processes of collecting from the web and archiving of works that reside on the Web. Web harvesting and archiving is one of the most attractive applications for libraries which plan ahead for their future operation. When works retrieved from the Web are turned into archived and documented material to be found in a library, the amount of works that can be found in said library can be far greater than the number of works harvested from the Web. The proposed participation in the 2019 CEPE Conference aims at presenting certain issues related to …

The Right To Human Intervention: Law, Ethics And Artificial Intelligence, Maria Kanellopoulou - Botti, Fereniki Panagopoulou, Maria Nikita, Anastasia Michailaki

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

The paper analyses the new right of human intervention in use of information technology, automatization processes and advanced algorithms in individual decision-making activities. Art. 22 of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provides that the data subject has the right not to be subject to a fully automated decision on matters of legal importance to her interests, hence the data subject has a right to human intervention in this kind of decisions.

Dynamic Attribute-Level Best Worst Discrete Choice Experiments, Amanda Working, Mohammed Alqawba, Norou Diawara

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Dynamic modelling of decision maker choice behavior of best and worst in discrete choice experiments (DCEs) has numerous applications. Such models are proposed under utility function of decision maker and are used in many areas including social sciences, health economics, transportation research, and health systems research. After reviewing references on the study of such experiments, we present example in DCE with emphasis on time dependent best-worst choice and discrimination between choice attributes. Numerical examples of the dynamic DCEs are simulated, and the associated expected utilities over time of the choice models are derived using Markov decision processes. The estimates are …

Fostering University Collaboration And Building Capacity To Respond To Coastal Resilience Challenges In Virginia: Findings From The Rotating Resilience Roundtables Workshop Spring 2019, Wie Yusuf, Michelle Covi, Anamaria Bukvic, Tom Allen, Taiwo Oguntuyo

Presentations, Lectures, Posters, Reports

[from Background and Overview]

Communities in coastal Virginia, particularly in the urban region of Hampton Roads and the rural Eastern Shore peninsula, are experiencing the impacts of climate change as part of everyday life. Among the most apparent impacts are sea level rise and associated flooding, but increasingly residents of the region are observing changing ecosystems, health impacts and complex social challenges are made more difficult. The region is experiencing the fastest rate of relative sea level rise on the U.S. east coast due to interactions between ocean currents, global sea level rise, high-water tables and ground subsidence (Adapt Virginia …

Circulation, Vol. 24, No. 2, Center For Coastal Physical Oceanography, Old Dominion University, Tal Ezer

CCPO Circulation

Spring 2019 issue of CCPO Circulation featuring article "Hurricanes and the Gulf Stream: A Double Whammy Impact on Coastal Flooding" by Dr. Tal Ezer.

Rates Of Relative Sea Level Rise Along The United States East Coast, Jesse N. Beckman, Joseph E. Garcia

Virginia Journal of Science

Recent studies have indicated that some coastal areas, including the East Coast of the United States, are experiencing higher rates of sea level rise than the global average. Rates of relative sea level rise are affected by changes in ocean dynamics, as well as by surface elevation fluctuations due to local land subsidence or uplift. In this study, we derived long-term trends in annual mean relative sea level using tide gauge data obtained from the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level for stations along the United States East Coast. Stations were grouped by location into the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeast …

Detecting Change: Observations Of Temperature And Precipitation Across Virginia’S Climate Divisions, Jeremy S. Hoffman, Michael J. Allen, Christopher F. Labosier

Virginia Journal of Science

Modern global climate change is primarily attributable to human activities and the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Climate change impacts span a range of sectors, including agriculture, forestry, public health, and water resource management. The Commonwealth of Virginia has already and will continue to deal with many of these impacts, yet lacks concentrated effort to detect, document, and adapt to local climate changes. This study documents observed changes in temperature and precipitation across Virginia’s six climate divisions. Mean seasonal anomalies of minimum temperature, maximum temperature, and precipitation from 1986 to 2016 are examined relative to a long-term 1895-2000 …

Variables Associated With Thermal Emittance Of Wall Mural Art In Richmond, Virginia, Sarah Kwon, Eugene G. Maurakis

Virginia Journal of Science

The objectives of this research are to determine the factors associated with the minimum, maximum, and average thermal emittance temperatures of wall murals in Richmond, Virginia, and make recommendations for color and location of wall murals. Data for 17 parameters were collected for 64 art murals in downtown Richmond, VA from 28 June 2018 – 19 July 2018. Date, time, solar exposure duration, solar elevation, latitude, longitude, air temperature (C), lux, color, solar cardinal minutes, cardinal direction, minimum, maximum, and average surface thermal emittance temperatures of mural face were recorded for each mural. We reject the hypothesis that minimum, maximum, …

Precipitation Trends Across The Commonwealth Of Virginia (1947 – 2016), Michael J. Allen, Thomas R. Allen

Virginia Journal of Science

Water is an important resource for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Too much water increases runoff, disrupt transportation networks, and contributes to school closures. Too little water may adversely impact agricultural operations. To improve climate-related information to Virginia citizens, this study assesses means and changes in precipitation across the Commonwealth of Virginia (1947 – 2016). Using daily station-level precipitation data from the Global Historical Climate Network (GHCN), descriptive statistics were calculated for 43 locations in terms of total precipitation (inches decade^-1), precipitation days (x>0”), and heavy precipitation days (x>1.0”). On average, locations showed an overall increase in …

The Messy Nuclear Landscape: Using Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping To Explore Plausible Nuclear Disarmament Scenarios, Ryan M. Nixon

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Nuclear weapons are seemingly permanent fixtures in international relations. Although nuclear abolitionists and actors within the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have taken significant steps towards designing a world without nuclear weapons, the longstanding realist logic that suggests nuclear disarmament is nonviable has born more fruit. On the other hand, some proponents of realism have suggested global nuclear disarmament is feasible, given that certain international instabilities are stabilized and that special care is taken during diplomatic negotiations. This presents an opportunity to test these predictions using fuzzy cognitive mapping, a computational modeling technique that identifies …

Enhancing Portability In High Performance Computing: Designing Fast Scientific Code With Longevity, Jason Orender

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Portability, an oftentimes sought-after goal in scientific applications, confers a number of possible advantages onto computer code. Portable code will often have greater longevity, enjoy a broader ecosystem, appeal to a wider variety of application developers, and by definition will run on more systems than its pigeonholed counterpart. These advantages come at a cost, however, and a rational approach to balancing costs and benefits requires a systemic evaluation. While the benefits for each application are likely situation-dependent, the costs in terms of resources, including but not limited to time, money, computational power, and memory requirements, are quantifiable. This document will …