Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Case Study On Automated Fuzz Target Generation For Large Codebases, Matthew Kelly, Christoph Treude, Alex Murray

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Fuzz Testing is a largely automated testing technique that provides random and unexpected input to a program in attempt to trigger failure conditions. Much of the research conducted thus far into Fuzz Testing has focused on developing improvements to available Fuzz Testing tools and frameworks in order to improve efficiency. In this paper however, we instead look at a way in which we can reduce the amount of developer time required to integrate Fuzz Testing to help maintain an existing codebase. We accomplish this with a new technique for automatically generating Fuzz Targets, the modified versions of programs on which …

Ion Software-Defined Radio Metadata Standard Final Report, Sanjeev Gunawardena, Alexander Rugamer, Muhammad Subhan Hameed, Markel Arizabaleta, Thomas Pany, Javier Arribas

Faculty Publications

The ION GNSS SDR Metadata Standard describes the formatting and other essential PNT-related parameters of sampled data streams and files. This allows processors to seamlessly consume such data without the need to input these parameters manually. The technical development phase of the initial version of the standard has now been deemed complete and is currently undergoing the last remaining procedural steps towards adoption as a formal standard by the Institute of Navigation. This paper reports on the activities of the working group since September 2018 and summarizes the final products of the standard. It also reports on examples of early …

Reoptimization Of The Consensus Pattern Problem Under Pattern Length Modification, Jhoirene B. Clemente, Proceso L. Fernandez Jr, Richelle Ann B. Juayong, Jasmine A. Malinao, Ivy Ordanel, Henry N. Adorna

Department of Information Systems & Computer Science Faculty Publications

In Bioinformatics, finding conserved regions in genomic sequences remains to be a challenge not just because of the increasing size of genomic data collected but because of the hardness of the combinatorial model of the problem. One problem formulation is called the Consensus Pattern Problem (CPP). Given a set of t n-length strings S = {S₁,..., S_t} defined over some constant size alphabet Σ and an integer l, where l ≤ n, the objective of CPP is to find an l-length string v and a set of l-length substrings si of each Si in S such …

Computational Insights Into Mg-Cl Complex Electrolytes For Rechargeable Magnesium Batteries, Jared B. Moss, Liping Zhang, Kevin V. Nielson, Yujing Bi, Chao Wu, Steve Scheiner, Tianbiao Leo Liu

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

DFT calculations were conducted to provide insightful and unprecedented thermodynamic insights on tetrahydrofuran (THF) solvation, isomerization, chlorination, and complexation of possible Mg-Cl coordination species for the popular Mg-Cl electrolytes. Computational results using the M06-2x functional with the 6-31+G(d) basis set indicate trigonal bipyramidal e, e-cis-tbp-MgCl2(THF)3 dichloride species and octahedral [MgCl(THF)5]+ monochloride species are the dominant mononuclear species. These two can combine to form the active dinuclear species, [(μ-Cl)3Mg2(THF)6]+ with a free energy -6.30 kcal/mol, which is calculated to be the dominant Mg-Cl species in solution. Two mono-cation species, [(μ-Cl)3Mg2(THF)6]+ and [MgCl(THF)5]+ have comparable LUMO energies, thus both of them can …

Hypergraph Partitioning With Embeddings, Justin Sybrandt, Ruslan Shaydulin, Ilya Safro

Publications

The problem of placing circuits on a chip or distributing sparse matrix operations can be modeled as the hypergraph partitioning problem. A hypergraph is a generalization of the traditional graph wherein each "hyperedge" may connect any number of nodes. Hypergraph partitioning, therefore, is the NP-Hard problem of dividing nodes into k" role="presentation" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-table; line-height: normal; font-size: 16px; overflow-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; border: 0px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; color: rgb(93, 93, 93); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; position: relative;">kk similarly sized disjoint sets while …

Rural Shallow Water Dredging: Channel Assessment And Disposal Site Strategies, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Donna A. Milligan, Christine A. Wilcox

Reports

The goal of this report is to provide general considerations for localities on the dredging and disposal of material from shallow draft channels, in particular for those channels on the Middle Peninsula, Northern Neck, and Eastern Shore of Virginia (Figure 1-1). This report offers background on shallow draft channels, both federally and non-federally maintained, suggests procedures for the dredging and disposal process, and applies the process to an existing channel. Existing data on the Middle Peninsula, Northern Neck, and Eastern Shore channels are provided to assist localities with management decisions. In addition to data for most of the existing federal …

Quantitative Analysis Of Cerium-Gallium Alloys Using A Hand-Held Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy Device, Ashwin P. Rao, Matthew Cook, Howard L. Hall, Michael B. Shattan

Faculty Publications

A hand-held laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy device was used to acquire spectral emission data from laser-induced plasmas created on the surface of cerium-gallium alloy samples with Ga concentrations ranging from 0–3 weight percent. Ionic and neutral emission lines of the two constituent elements were then extracted and used to generate calibration curves relating the emission line intensity ratios to the gallium concentration of the alloy. The Ga I 287.4-nm emission line was determined to be superior for the purposes of Ga detection and concentration determination. A limit of detection below 0.25%was achieved using a multivariate regression model of the Ga I …

Sample Size Requirements And Considerations For Models To Assess Human-Machine System Performance, Jennifer S. G. Lopez

Theses and Dissertations

Hierarchical Linear Models (HLMs), also known as multi-level models, are an extension of multiple regression analysis and can aid in the understanding of human and machine workloads of a system. These models allow for prediction and testing in systems with hierarchies of two or more levels. The complex interrelated variability of these multi-level models exists in operational settings, such as the Air Force Distributed Common Ground System Full Motion Video (AF DCGS FMV) community which is composed of individuals (Level-1), groups (Level-2), units (Level-3), and organizations (Level-4). Through the development of sample size requirements and considerations for multi-level models, this …

Evaluation Of Α-Hydroxycinnamic Acids As Pyruvate Carboxylase Inhibitors, Daniel J. Burkett, Brittney N. Wyatt, Mallory Mews, Anson Bautista, Ryan Engel, Chris Dockendorff, William A. Donaldson, Martin St. Maurice

Chemistry Faculty Research and Publications

Through a structure-based drug design project (SBDD), potent small molecule inhibitors of pyruvate carboxylase (PC) have been discovered. A series of α-keto acids (7) and α-hydroxycinnamic acids (8) were prepared and evaluated for inhibition of PC in two assays. The two most potent inhibitors were 3,3′-(1,4-phenylene)bis[2-hydroxy-2-propenoic acid] (8u) and 2-hydroxy-3-(quinoline-2-yl)propenoic acid (8v) with IC₅₀ values of 3.0 ± 1.0 μM and 4.3 ± 1.5 μM respectively. Compound 8v is a competitive inhibitor with respect to pyruvate (K_i = 0.74 μM) and a mixed-type inhibitor with respect to ATP, indicating …

Puncturable Proxy Re-Encryption Supporting To Group Messaging Service, Tran Viet Xuan Phuong, Willy Susilo, Jongkil Kim, Guomin Yang, Dongxi Liu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This work envisions a new encryption primitive for many-to-many paradigms such as group messaging systems. Previously, puncturable encryption (PE) was introduced to provide forward security for asynchronous messaging services. However, existing PE schemes were proposed only for one-to-one communication, and causes a significant overhead for a group messaging system. In fact, the group communication over PE can only be achieved by encrypting a message multiple times for each receiver by the sender’s device, which is usually suitable to restricted resources such as mobile phones or sensor devices. Our new suggested scheme enables to re-encrypt ciphertexts of puncturable encryption by a …

Lightweight Fine-Grained Search Over Encrypted Data In Fog Computing, Yinbin Miao, Jianfeng Ma, Ximeng Liu, Jian Weng, Hongwei Li, Hui Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Fog computing, as an extension of cloud computing, outsources the encrypted sensitive data to multiple fog nodes on the edge of Internet of Things (IoT) to decrease latency and network congestion. However, the existing ciphertext retrieval schemes rarely focus on the fog computing environment and most of them still impose high computational and storage overhead on resource-limited end users. In this paper, we first present a Lightweight Fine-Grained ciphertexts Search (LFGS) system in fog computing by extending Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption (CP-ABE) and Searchable Encryption (SE) technologies, which can achieve fine-grained access control and keyword search simultaneously. The LFGS can shift …

Efficient Oblivious Transfer With Membership Verification, Weiwei Liu, Dazhi Sun, Yangguang Tian

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this article, we introduce a new concept of oblivious transfer with membership verification that allows any legitimate group users to obtain services from a service provider in an oblivious manner. We present two oblivious transfer with membership verification schemes, differing in design. In the first scheme, a trusted group manager issues credentials for a pre-determined group of users so that the group of users with a valid group credential can obtain services from the service provider, while the choices made by group users remain oblivious to the service provider. The second scheme avoids the trusted group manager, which allows …

Iowa Waste Reduction Center Newsletter, September 2019, University Of Northern Iowa. Iowa Waste Reduction Center.

Iowa Waste Reduction Center Newsletter

Inside this Issue:

--- Meet the IWRC's New Hire - Bret Lang
--- September's Green Brewery Feature
--- Paint Tracker- Free Online Program
--- EPA Waste Pharmaceutical Compliance Assistance Workshops

Air/Surface Exchange Of Gaseous Elemental Mercury At Different Landscapes In Mississippi, Usa, James V. Cizdziel, Yi Zhang, Divya Nallamothu, J. Stephen Brewer, Zhiqiang Gao

Faculty and Student Publications

© 2019 by the authors. Mercury (Hg) is a global pollutant with human health and ecological impacts. Gas exchange between terrestrial surfaces and the atmosphere is an important route for Hg to enter and exit ecosystems. Here, we used a dynamic flux chamber to measure gaseous elemental Hg (GEM) exchange over different landscapes in Mississippi, including in situ measurements for a wetland (soil and water), forest floor, pond, mowed field and grass-covered lawn, as well as mesocosm experiments for three different agricultural soils. Fluxes were measured during both the summer and winter. Mean ambient levels of GEM ranged between 0.93-1.57 …

Automatic Generation Of Non-Intrusive Updates For Third-Party Libraries In Android Applications, Yue Duan, Lian Gao, Jie Hu, Heng Yin

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Third-Party libraries, which are ubiquitous in Android apps,have exposed great security threats to end users as they rarelyget timely updates from the app developers, leaving manysecurity vulnerabilities unpatched. This issue is due to thefact that manually updating libraries can be technically nontrivialand time-consuming for app developers. In this paper,we propose a technique that performs automatic generationof non-intrusive updates for third-party libraries in Androidapps. Given an Android app with an outdated library and anewer version of the library, we automatically update the oldlibrary in a way that is guaranteed to be fully backward compatibleand imposes zero impact to the library’s interactionswith …

Be Sensitive And Collaborative: Analyzing Impact Of Coverage Metrics In Greybox Fuzzing, Jinghan Wang, Yue Duan, Wei Song, Heng Yin, Chengyu Song

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Coverage-guided greybox fuzzing has become one of the most common techniques for finding software bugs. Coverage metric, which decides how a fuzzer selects new seeds, is an essential parameter of fuzzing and can significantly affect the results. While there are many existing works on the effectiveness of different coverage metrics on software testing, little is known about how different coverage metrics could actually affect the fuzzing results in practice. More importantly, it is unclear whether there exists one coverage metric that is superior to all the other metrics. In this paper, we report the first systematic study on the impact …

A Lattice-Based Linkable Ring Signature Supporting Stealth Addresses, Zhen Liu, Khoa Nguyen, Guomin Yang, Huaxiong Wang, Duncan S. Wong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

First proposed in CryptoNote, a collection of popular privacy-centric cryptocurrencies have employed Linkable Ring Signature and a corresponding Key Derivation Mechanism (KeyDerM) for keeping the payer and payee of a transaction anonymous and unlinkable. The KeyDerM is used for generating a fresh signing key and the corresponding public key, referred to as a stealth address, for the transaction payee. The stealth address will then be used in the linkable ring signature next time when the payee spends the coin. However, in all existing works, including Monero, the privacy model only considers the two cryptographic primitives separately. In addition, to be …

A Common Approach For Consumer And Provider Fairness In Recommendations, Dimitris Sacharidis, Kyriakos Mouratidis, Dimitrios Kleftogiannis

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We present a common approach for handling consumer and provider fairness in recommendations. Our solution requires defining two key components, a classification of items and a target distribution, which together define the case of perfect fairness. This formulation allows distinct fairness concepts to be specified in a common framework. We further propose a novel reranking algorithm that optimizes for a desired trade-off between utility and fairness of a recommendation list.

Self-Refining Deep Symmetry Enhanced Network For Rain Removal, Hong Liu, Hanrong Ye, Xia Li, Wei Shi, Mengyuan Liu, Qianru Sun

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Rain removal aims to remove the rain streaks on rain images. Traditional methods based on convolutional neural network (CNN) have achieved impressive results. However, these methods are under-performed when dealing with tilted rain streaks, because CNN is not equivariant to object rotations. To tackle this problem, we propose the Deep Symmetry Enhanced Network (DSEN) that explicitly extracts and learns from rotation-equivariant features from rain images. In addition, we design a self-refining strategy to remove rain streaks in a coarse-to-fine manner. The key idea is to reuse DSEN with an information link which passes the gradient flow to the finer stage. …

Finding Flaws From Password Authentication Code In Android Apps, Siqi Ma, Elisa Bertino, Surya Nepal, Jianru Li, Ostry Diethelm, Robert H. Deng, Sanjay Jha

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Password authentication is widely used to validate users’ identities because it is convenient to use, easy for users to remember, and simple to implement. The password authentication protocol transmits passwords in plaintext, which makes the authentication vulnerable to eavesdropping and replay attacks, and several protocols have been proposed to protect against this. However, we find that secure password authentication protocols are often implemented incorrectly in Android applications (apps). To detect the implementation flaws in password authentication code, we propose GLACIATE, a fully automated tool combining machine learning and program analysis. Instead of creating detection templates/rules manually, GLACIATE automatically and accurately …

A Low-Cost Soft Robotic Hand Exoskeleton For Use In Therapy Of Limited Hand–Motor Function, Grant Rudd, Liam Daly, Vukica Jovanovic, Filip Cukov

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

We present the design and validation of a low-cost, customizable and 3D-printed anthropomorphic soft robotic hand exoskeleton for rehabilitation of hand injuries using remotely administered physical therapy regimens. The design builds upon previous work done on cable actuated exoskeleton designs by implementing the same kinematic functionality, but with the focus shifted to ease of assembly and cost effectiveness as to allow patients and physicians to manufacture and assemble the hardware necessary to implement treatment. The exoskeleton was constructed solely from 3D-printed and widely available of-the-shelf components. Control of the actuators was realized using an Arduino microcontroller, with a custom-designed shield …

A Harmless Wireless Quantum Alternative To Cell Phones Based On Quantum Noise, Florentin Smarandache, Robert Neil Boyd, Victor Christianto

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

In the meantime we know that 4G and 5G technologies cause many harms to human health. Therefore, here we submit a harmless wireless quantum alternative to cell phones. It is our hope that this alternative

Shape Equations For Two-Dimensional Manifolds Through A Moving Frame Variational Approach, Paul Bracken

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

A variational approach is given which can be applied to functionals of a general form to determine a corresponding Euler–Lagrange or shape equation. It is the intention to formulate the theory in detail based on a moving frame approach. It is then applied to a functional of a general form which depends on both the mean and Gaussian curvatures as well as the area and volume elements of the manifold. Only the case of a two-dimensional closed manifold is considered. The first variation of the functional is calculated in terms of the variations of the basic variables of the manifold. …

The Super Eight Galaxies: Properties Of A Sample Of Very Bright Galaxies At 7 < Z < 8, Joanna S. Bridge, Benne W. Holwerda, Mauro Stefanon, Rychard J. Bouwens, Pascal A. Oesch, Michele Trenti, Stephanie R. Bernard, Larry D. Bradley, Garth D. Illingworth, Samir Kusmic, Dan Magee, Takahiro Morishita, Guido W. Roberts-Borsani, Renske Smit, Rebecca L. Steele

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

We present the Super Eight galaxies - a set of very luminous, high-redshift (7.1 < z < 8.0) galaxy candidates found in the Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies (BoRG) Survey fields. The original sample includes eight galaxies that are Y-band dropout objects with H-band magnitudes of m H < 25.5. Four of these objects were originally reported in Calvi et al. Combining new Hubble Space Telescope (HST) WFC3/F814W imaging and Spitzer IRAC data with archival imaging from BoRG and other surveys, we explore the properties of these galaxies. Photometric redshift fitting places six of these galaxies in the redshift range of 7.1 < z < 8.0, resulting in three new high-redshift galaxies and confirming three of the four high-redshift galaxy candidates from Calvi et al. We calculate the half-light radii of the Super Eight galaxies using the HST F160W filter and find that the Super Eight sizes are in line with the typical evolution of size with redshift. The Super Eights have a mean mass of log (M ∗/M o) ∼10, which is typical for sources in this luminosity range. Finally, we place our sample on the UV z ∼ 8 luminosity function and find that the Super Eight number density is consistent with other surveys in this magnitude and redshift range.

Do It Like A Syntactician: Using Binary Gramaticality Judgements To Train Sentence Encoders And Assess Their Sensitivity To Syntactic Structure, Pablo Gonzalez Martinez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The binary nature of grammaticality judgments and their use to access the structure of syntax are a staple of modern linguistics. However, computational models of natural language rarely make use of grammaticality in their training or application. Furthermore, developments in modern neural NLP have produced a myriad of methods that push the baselines in many complex tasks, but those methods are typically not evaluated from a linguistic perspective. In this dissertation I use grammaticality judgements with artificially generated ungrammatical sentences to assess the performance of several neural encoders and propose them as a suitable training target to make models learn …

The Role Of Fluids In Ore Remobilization At The Balmat Zinc Deposit, Ny, Peter D. Matt

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Shear zone-hosted orebodies at the Balmat, NY, zinc deposit were remobilized at the kilometer scale during amphibolite facies regional metamorphism ca. 1180 Ma. Despite there being little evidence for interaction of hydrous fluids and ores during deformation, such translocation distances are considered unlikely without the assistance of fluids. Two independent research methods, SEM-EDS micro-petrography and zinc isotope geochemical analysis, demonstrate that anatectic sulfide and silicate melts were generated during metamorphism. Micro-petrography of the Fowler ore body reveals low melting-temperature micro-inclusions of sulfosalt and sulfide assemblages which occur predominantly in Qtz-Py and Kfs-Py domains that cross-cut peak metamorphic assemblages. These results …

Oldowan Tool Behaviors Through Time On The Homa Peninsula, Kenya, Emma M. Finestone

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The adaptive significance of tool use to genus Homo is a central theme in human origins. However, what we know from the early Oldowan sites suggests that persistent technology may have begun as an opportunistic behavior with minimal investment, rather than a habitual and widespread adaptive revolution. This dissertation seeks to investigate investment in Oldowan tool production on the Homa Peninsula, Kenya, considering raw material selection, transport, and lithic production at two newly discovered Oldowan localities: Nyayanga (ca. 2.6 Ma) and Sare River (ca. 1.7 Ma).

The first section of this dissertation outlines a method that enables the comparison of …

Minimalistic Peptide-Based Supramolecular Systems Relevant To The Chemical Origin Of Life, Daniela Kroiss

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

All forms of life are based on biopolymers, which are made up of a selection of simple building blocks, such as amino acids, nucleotides, fatty acids and sugars. Their individual properties govern their interactions, giving rise to complex supramolecular structures with highly specialized functionality, including ligand recognition, catalysis and compartmentalization. In this thesis, we aim to answer the question whether short peptides could have acted as precursors of modern proteins during prebiotic evolution. Using a combination of experimental and computational techniques, we screened a large molecular search space for peptide sequences that are capable of forming supramolecular complexes with adenosine …

Loss Of Scribble Confers Cisplatin Resistance During Nsclc Chemotherapy Via Nox2/Ros And Nrf2/Pd-L1 Signaling, Na Wang, Lele Song, Yi Xu, Longfu Zhang, Yanjun Wu, Jingyu Guo, Weiwei Ji, Li Li Ph.D., Jingya Zhao, Xin Zhang, Lixing Zhan

Faculty Works: BCES (1999-2023)

Background: Cisplatin resistance remains a major clinical obstacle to the successful treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Scribble contributes to ROS-induced inflammation and cisplatin-elevated toxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) promotes cell death. However, it is unknown whether and how Scribble is involved in the cisplatin-related cell death and the underlying mechanism of Scribble in response to chemotherapies and in the process of oxidative stress in NSCLC. Methods: We used two independent cohorts of NSCLC samples derived from patients treated with platinumcontaining chemotherapy and xenograft modeling in vivo. We analyzed the correlation between Scribble and Nox2 or Nrf2/PD-L1 both in …

Predictors Of Ransomware From Binary Analysis, Aaron M. Otis

Master's Theses

Ransomware, a type of malware that extorts payment from a victim by encrypting her data, is a growing threat that is becoming more sophisticated with each generation. Attackers have shifted from targeting individuals to entire organizations, raising extortions from hundreds of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars. In this work, we analyze a variety of ransomware and benign software binaries in order to identify indicators that may be used to detect ransomware. We find that several combinations of strings, cryptographic constants, and a large number loops are key indicators useful for detecting ransomware.