Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Community Knowledge Of Shark Ecology, Abundance, And Species Composition In Wichubwala, Nalunega, And Porvenir Communities In The Guna Yala Comarca, Panamá, Kayley Jane Porter

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Sharks play a critical role in marine ecosystems as apex predators that exert top-down control of lower trophic levels. In recent decades, global shark populations have declined to unprecedented levels, triggering a cascade effect that threatens ecosystem functioning and, therefore, coastal community livelihoods that rely on marine resources for food and income. It is known that shark populations are vulnerable and on the decline due to anthropogenic stressors such as fishing and coastal development, but shark species composition and abundance are difficult to monitor due to the evasive nature of sharks, the often remote and inaccessible location of certain shark …

Exploring The Medicalization Of Menstruation: Analyzing Menstrual Hygiene Initiatives By Igos, Non-Profits And National Government In Switzerland, Victoria Wright

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Menstrual health serves as a critical indicator of reproductive health. It is pivotal in achieving various Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to women's and girls' comfort, agency, participation, safety, well-being, and dignity (Loughnan et al., 2020). This research investigates the medicalization of menstruation in Switzerland through a mixed-methods approach examining the strategies and roles of key stakeholders such as the WHO, local government initiatives, and NGOs in shaping the landscape of menstrual medicalization.

The findings reveal that while medicalization has brought about progressive changes, including the introduction of menstrual leave policies, it has resulted in a complex regulatory landscape, increased …

Assessing The Progress And Effects Of Exotic Plant Invasions In A Sustainably Used Littoral Forest Fragment In Southeastern Madagascar, Grant Gerhardt

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

While it is important to conserve Madagascar’s unique natural forest environments and the biodiversity they contain, it is also essential that populations reliant on these ecosystems for their income and survival have access to the resources they provide. Sustainable use forests, designated by the IUCN as category VI protected areas, are the solution to meeting both of these conditions. At the same time, it is often the case that the use of forests invites disturbance, which in turn encourages the introduction and establishment of nonnative or invasive plant species. This study examines the degree to which the intensity of use …

Quantum Realities: A Comparative Analysis Of Interpretations Addressing The Measurement Problem In Quantum Mechanics, Adib Kabir

Student Publications

This paper examines the measurement problem in quantum mechanics and evaluates three major interpretations: the Copenhagen interpretation, the Many-Worlds Interpretation (MWI), and the Pilot-Wave theory. The Copenhagen interpretation posits that particles exist in superposition until measured, at which point their wave functions collapse. MWI suggests that all possible outcomes occur in separate, non-interacting branches of the universe, eliminating wave function collapse but introducing an infinite number of unobservable universes. The Pilot-Wave theory reintroduces determinism through hidden variables, guiding particles along definite paths. The paper concludes that the Copenhagen interpretation is the most plausible, balancing empirical adequacy, ontological clarity, and simplicity.

Assessing The Impacts Of Anthropogenic Activities On Coral Reef Health In Ushongo, Tanzania Using Coral Diversity And Parrotfish Abundance As Indicators, Thao Mai

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Coral reefs, covering two-thirds of our oceans, are vital and diverse ecosystems, earning them the nickname of “rainforests of the sea”. Despite occupying only 1% of the ocean’s floor, they support 25% of all marine species, providing shelter, nursery ground and food, all the while also protecting the coast and providing job opportunities for local communities. Considered keystone species, coral reefs are highly sensitive to disturbances caused by pollution, climate change, but also anthropogenic activities such as coastal development, destructive fishing practices and tourism, endangering their existence and the entire marine ecosystem. Parrotfish, a crucial resident of these ecosystems, often …

Addressing Water Scarcity In Rural Areas Of The Souss-Massa Region Of Morocco: Comparative Analysis Of Desalination, Fog Harvesting, And Wastewater Treatment Methods With Considerations Of Technical Viability And Human Rights, Lina Migliore

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Water scarcity is one of the most pressing humanitarian challenges worldwide, most notably in arid and semi-arid regions like Morocco. This study conducts a comprehensive comparative analysis of three sustainable water management strategies currently being developed in the Souss Massa region of southern Morocco: fog harvesting, desalination, and wastewater treatment. Drawing upon empirical data, interviews, and existing scientific literature, the research explores the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of each approach. Fog harvesting is a locally driven solution that takes advantage of natural phenomena to collect water, albeit with limitations in reliability. Desalination is promising in addressing long-term water scarcity …

White-Fronted Capuchins (Cebus Albifrons Aequatorialis) In La Hesperia Cloud Forest Reserve: A Study Of Aggressive Behaviors In Response To Human Presence, Marin Lynch

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Ecuadorian white-fronted capuchin, Cebus albifrons aequatorialis, is a critically endangered primate species native to Ecuador and northern Peru. Their population consists of only a handful of surviving troops spread out across this region. One surviving population exists in La Hesperia Cloud Forest Reserve in Ecuador. This reserve serves as an education and volunteer site for dozens of international travelers every year. I studied the effect of the presence of humans and the lodging they have constructed. Specifically, I investigated the effect on behavior of the proximity of the troops alpha male to manmade structures in the reserve. I …

Variations In Salinity And Forest Structure Between Marginal And Cloistered Mangrove Forests In Boca Del Drago, Bocas Del Toro, Panama, Mary Elizabeth Hodge

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Mangroves are incredibly important ecosystems that have an outsized impact on their surroundings, providing crucial ecosystem services like carbon sequestration and coastal protection. At the same time, mangroves are some of the most threatened habitats due to their valuable position along tropical coastlines. Globally, mangrove forests are deforested and degraded by aquaculture, tourism developments, urbanization, and overharvesting. Due to high rates of mangrove loss, mangrove deforestation is now illegal in Panama, though this legislation is inconsistent and allows for exceptions, especially in tourism developments. This study aims to probe the impacts of localized coastal developments on a small mangrove forest …

Going Viral: Case Studies On The Impact Of Protestware, Youmei Fan, Dong Wang, Supastsara Wattanakriengkrai, Hathaichanok Damrongsiri, Christoph Treude, Hideaki Hata, Raula Gaikovina Kula

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Maintainers are now self-sabotaging their work in order to take political or economic stances, a practice referred to as "protestware". In this poster, we present our approach to understand how the discourse about such an attack went viral, how it is received by the community, and whether developers respond to the attack in a timely manner. We study two notable protestware cases, i.e., Colors.js and es5-ext, comparing with discussions of a typical security vulnerability as a baseline, i.e., Ua-parser, and perform a thematic analysis of more than two thousand protest-related posts to extract the different narratives when discussing protestware.

Creative And Correct: Requesting Diverse Code Solutions From Ai, Scott Blyth, Markus Wagner, Christoph Treude

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

AI foundation models have the capability to produce a wide array of responses to a single prompt, a feature that is highly beneficial in software engineering to generate diverse code solutions. However, this advantage introduces a significant trade-off between diversity and correctness. In software engineering tasks, diversity is key to exploring design spaces and fostering creativity, but the practical value of these solutions is heavily dependent on their correctness. Our study systematically investigates this trade-off using experiments with HumanEval tasks, exploring various parameter settings and prompting strategies. We assess the diversity of code solutions using similarity metrics from the code …

Minimon: Minimizing Android Applications With Intelligent Monitoring-Based Debloating, Jiakun Liu, Zicheng Zhang, Xing Hu, Thung Ferdian, Shahar Maoz, Debin Gao, Eran Toch, Zhipeng Zhao, David Lo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The size of Android applications is getting larger to fulfill the requirements of various users. However, not all the features of the applications are needed and desired by a specific user. The unnecessary and non-desired features can increase the attack surface and consume system resources such as storage and memory. To address this issue, we propose a framework, MiniMon, to debloat unnecessary features from an Android app based on the logs of specific users' interactions with the app.However, rarely used features may not be recorded during the data collection, and users' preferences may change slightly over time. To address these …

Streamlining Java Programming: Uncovering Well-Formed Idioms With Idiomine, Yanming Yang, Xing Hu, Xin Xia, David Lo, Xiaohu Yang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Code idioms are commonly used patterns, techniques, or practices that aid in solving particular problems or specific tasks across multiple software projects. They can improve code quality, performance, and maintainability, and also promote program standardization and reuse across projects. However, identifying code idioms is significantly challenging, as existing studies have still suffered from three main limitations. First, it is difficult to recognize idioms that span non-contiguous code lines. Second, identifying idioms with intricate data flow and code structures can be challenging. Moreover, they only extract dataset-specific idioms, so common idioms or well-established code/design patterns that are rarely found in datasets …

Towards Speedy Permission-Based Debloating For Android Apps, Thung Ferdian, Jiakun Liu, Pattarakrit Rattanukul, Shahar Maoz, Eran Toch, Debin Gao, David Lo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Android apps typically include many functionalities that not all users require. These result in software bloat that increases possible attack surface and app size. Common functionalities that users may not require are related to permissions that they intend to disallow in the first place. As these permissions are disallowed, their related code would never be executed and therefore can be safely removed. Existing work has proposed a solution to debloat Android apps according to the disallowed permissions. However, for large and complex applications, the debloating process could take hours, typically due the long time that may be needed to construct …

Environmental, Social, And Governance (Esg) And Artificial Intelligence In Finance: State-Of-The-Art And Research Takeaways, Tristan Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The rapidly growing research landscape in finance, encompassing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) topics and associated Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications, presents challenges for both new researchers and seasoned practitioners. This study aims to systematically map the research area, identify knowledge gaps, and examine potential research areas for researchers and practitioners. The investigation focuses on three primary research questions: the main research themes concerning ESG and AI in finance, the evolution of research intensity and interest in these areas, and the application and evolution of AI techniques specifically in research studies within the ESG and AI in finance domain. Eight archetypical …

Unleashing The Power Of Clippy In Real-World Rust Projects, Chunmiao Li, Yijun Yu, Haitao Wu, Luca Carlig, Shijie Nie, Lingxiao Jiang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The error messages generated by the Rust compiler (rustc) are useful for developers to identify and diagnose suspicious code segments. Complementing the compiler, linters can also play an important role in promoting the adherence to certain coding style conventions and best practices. Prominent linters utilized in the Rust ecosystem include Clippy [1] and Rustfmt [2]. Among them, the Rust community particularly emphasizes on the importance of heeding the warnings provided by Clippy to mitigate common errors and promote the adoption of idiomatic conventions. Clippy provides a set of more than 600 lints in addition to the built-in rustc lints. These …

Bidirectional Paper-Repository Tracing In Software Engineering, Daniel Garijo, Miguel Arroyo, Esteban González Guardia, Christoph Treude, Nicola Tarocco

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

While computer science papers frequently include their associated code repositories, establishing a clear link between papers and their corresponding implementations may be challenging due to the number of code repositories used in research publications. In this paper we describe a lightweight method for effectively identifying bidirectional links between papers and repositories from both LaTeX and PDF sources. We have used our approach to analyze more than 14000 PDF and Latex files in the Software Engineering category of Arxiv, generating a dataset of more than 1400 paper-code implementations and assessing current citation practices on it.

The Impact Of Bug Localization Based On Crash Report Mining: A Developers' Perspective, Marcos Medeiros, Uirá Kulesza, Roberta Coelho, Rodrigo Bonifacio, Christoph Treude, Eiji Adachi Barbosa

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Developers often use crash reports to understand the root cause of bugs. However, locating the buggy source code snippet from such information is a challenging task, mainly when the log database contains many crash reports. To mitigate this issue, recent research has proposed and evaluated approaches for grouping crash report data and using stack trace information to locate bugs. The effectiveness of such approaches has been evaluated by mainly comparing the candidate buggy code snippets with the actual changed code in bug-fix commits—which happens in the context of retrospective repository mining studies. Therefore, the existing literature still lacks discussing the …

Githubinclusifier: Finding And Fixing Non-Inclusive Language In Github Repositories, Liam Todd, John Grundy, Christoph Treude

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Non-inclusive language in software artefacts has been recognised as a serious problem. We describe a tool to find and fix non-inclusive language in a variety of GitHub repository artefacts. These include various README files, PDFs, code comments, and code. A wide variety of non-inclusive language including racist, ageist, ableist, violent and others are located and issues created, tagging the artefacts for checking. Suggested fixes can be generated using third-party LLM APIs, and approved changes made to documents, including code refactorings, and committed to the repository. The tool and evaluation data are available from: https://github. com/LiamTodd/github-inclusifier

Analyzing Deaths From Extreme Weather Events And Their Relevance To The Life Insurance Industry, Erika Roof

Honors Projects in Biological and Biomedical Sciences

This study aims to discover the effect of extreme weather events on the life insurance industry. As climate change progresses and global temperatures increase, extreme weather events, which are separated into drought, freeze, severe storms, tropical cyclones, wildfires, and winter storms are expected to occur more often. Extreme weather events not only impact the local economies but increase local death rates as well. Using data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NOAA NCEI), this study uses regression analysis to examine the correlation between extreme weather and mortality data. Time series regression analysis suggests that …

How Can Morocco’S Crisis Management And Disaster Response Be Optimized? Lessons From The Al Haouz Earthquake Response, Clara Normand

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Morocco’s disaster management strategy has evolved in reaction to historical crises. On September 8th, 2023, the Al Haouz region of Morocco was struck by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. The area was especially vulnerable to such a disaster due to its underdeveloped infrastructure, remote location, and lack of services. As the last phase of the disaster management cycle is unfolding, seven months after the earthquake, this research assesses the successes and challenges of the response and establishes areas of improvement to implement in national policies to optimize future crisis management across all four stages of the disaster management cycle.

Guna Community Perspectives On Attributes, Changes, And Revitalization Of Nainu Agroecological Practices In Isla Tigre, Guna Yala Comarca, Panama, Neshima Vitale-Penniman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Indigenous agroecological systems are gaining international recognition for their capacity to conserve biodiversity while promoting food security and sovereignty. Nainu is the ancestral agriculture of the Guna people of eastern Panama, and it is characterized by a successional growing system that imitates the regeneration of the tropical forest in which it is practiced. This research aimed to (a) characterize how nainu is practiced by farmers in Isla Tigre, a community in Guna Yala, (b) characterize how nainu practices have changed over time, and (c) describe how farmers and community members in Isla Tigre are envisioning and actualizing the revitalization of …

Avian Diversity And Abundance Among Agricultural Land, Forested Land, And Their Ecotone In Guadalupe, Cerro Punta, Chiriquí Province, Republic Of Panamá., Stella Rae Kinard

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As the human population increases, finding the balance between modifying land use for resources and protecting areas to preserve species that are threatened by anthropogenic disturbance is an ever growing problem. Guadalupe is a town in the Western Highlands of Panamá that struggles in this balance as its primary income source is agriculture, but it is located on the border of two protected areas, Parque Nacional La Amistad and Parque Nacional Volcán Barú. By understanding the unique ways in which avifauna utilize distinct vegetative landscapes, recommendations can be made for management styles of farms in Guadalupe to implement practices that …

The Impacts Of Covid-19 On The U.S. Life Insurance Industry: A Study Of Pandemic Mortality Rates, Allison Wheaton

Honors Projects in Mathematics and Economics

The COVID-19 pandemic has had substantial and widespread impacts around the world that are not yet completely understood but will likely be experienced for years to come. This research seeks to analyzed and quantify the pandemic’s effects on the life insurance industry in the United States through the use of mortality models. Because the life insurance industry relies on the ability to accurately predict an individual’s mortality, it is necessary to investigate the impacts of the pandemic on mortality predictions and accuracy. Impairment factors were developed using pandemic mortality data and applied to existing mortality tables to compare expected and …

Socioecological Assessment Of Birds In Ngezi-Vumawimbi Nature Forest Reserve, Eli Taub

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Effective management of natural resources requires consideration of the environment through both a physical and a sociological lens. In this study, the birds in Ngezi-Vumawimbi Nature Forest Reserve were examined through both a biological mist-net survey and a socioecological series of interviews with people living in the surrounding villages. The mist-net survey compared the understory species in undisturbed and disturbed area of the forest, as well as analyzing birds caught for biologically meaningful information on subspecies and sexual dimorphism. While the mist-net survey was largely unsuccessful, highlighting the need for alternative bird capture methods in Ngezi, it found a decrease …

The Effect Of Sample Grinding On Color-Based Predictions Of Soil Organic Carbon, Mason Rutgers

Honors Theses

Measurements of soil color are widely accessible and can be used as indirect measures of soil organic carbon (SOC). Sensor-based soil color measurements, frequently used in quantitative studies to predict SOC, often use ground and sieved soil samples for color analysis. However, it is unknown whether the extra steps of drying, crushing, and sieving a sample improve the quantitative relationship between color and SOC. This study was conducted to evaluate color-based predictions of SOC using intact, sieved (<2 mm), and fine-ground soil samples from northwest Oklahoma. Moist soil color was measured using Munsell color charts (MCCs) and a Nix Mini 3™ portable color sensor (PCS). The color of the soil samples was measured before processing, after crushing to pass through a 2-mm sieve, and after mechanical grinding to less than 0.25-mm. Using Munsell value (from the MCC) and CIEL* (from the PCS) as predictor variables, regression analyses were conducted to develop SOC predictive functions for each physical state. The resulting coefficients of determination (R2) and root mean squared errors (RMSE) were used to assess model fits for predicting SOC. Model contrasts were calculated to evaluate significant differences between each predictive model. All models exhibited strong relationships (0.56 < R2 < 0.70, 0.20 < RMSE < 0.25) between soil lightness and predicted SOC. Models built using aggregated samples measured with both MCCs (R2= 0.70, RMSE= 0.20) and the PCS (R2= 0.69, RMSE= 0.21) produced the best results. Models built using intact samples measured using the PCS did perform significantly better on samples dark in color (CIEL* < 30). These results suggest that grinding soil samples does not improve color-based predictions of SOC using MCCs and the PCS.

Groundwater In Nebraska, Troy E. Gilmore, Jesse T. Korus Dr.

Conservation and Survey Division

What is groundwater? Groundwater is water that fills and moves between spaces in underground rocks, gravel, sand, or other materials.

“It’S A No Brainer”: Ensuring Just Transitions In Iceland’S Fishing Industry, Olivia Bowers

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Iceland’s government intends to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040, aiming to target various economic sectors and industries for increased renewable-energy usage. One of its most important plans revolves renewable-energy usage in the fishing industry, which accounts for almost 12% of the country’s GHG emissions. This study aims to understand the perspectives of different stakeholders concerning renewable energy in the fishing industry, using these opinions and existing literature to provide recommendations for a just, equitable, and achievable energy transition. Additionally, this study particularly focuses on the opinions of actors in Vestmannaeyjar, an island community of 4,300 with an especially vibrant, significant, …

Feasibility Study Of Coral Farming In Southwest Madagascar: In-Situ And Ex-Situ Approaches, Raquel Reis

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The southwest coast of Madagascar is home to hundreds of miles of coral reefs that for decades have been susceptible to intense degradation due to anthropogenic influences on marine environments. For reasons involving economic opportunity, conservation strategies, human health safeguarding and advancements to coral research, coral aquaculture in the Toliara region presents an opportunity to restore quality of life and the environment. Other countries in the west Indian ocean have seen great success in coral aquaculture; however, Madagascar, despite having ideal natural circumstances, has not deeply explored coral aquaculture. This review presents an investigation into the feasibility of coral farming, …

Tools For Biomolecular Modeling And Simulation, Xin Yang

Mathematics Theses and Dissertations

Electrostatic interactions play a pivotal role in understanding biomolecular systems, influencing their structural stability and functional dynamics. The Poisson-Boltzmann (PB) equation, a prevalent implicit solvent model that treats the solvent as a continuum while describes the mobile ions using the Boltzmann distribution, has become a standard tool for detailed investigations into biomolecular electrostatics. There are two primary methodologies: grid-based finite difference or finite element methods and body-fitted boundary element methods. This dissertation focuses on developing fast and accurate PB solvers, leveraging both methodologies, to meet diverse scientific needs and overcome various obstacles in the field.

Shutting Out Noise And Understanding Artificial Intelligence, Lauren J. Yu

Michigan Law Review

A review of Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment. By Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass R. Sunstein, and You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: How Artificial Intelligence Works and Why It’s Making the World a Weirder Place. By Janelle Shane.