Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Great Scrape: The Clash Between Scraping And Privacy, Daniel J. Solove, Woodrow Hartzog

Faculty Scholarship

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems depend on massive quantities of data, often gathered by “scraping” – the automated extraction of large amounts of data from the internet. A great deal of scraped data is about people. This personal data provides the grist for AI tools such as facial recognition, deep fakes, and generative AI. Although scraping enables web searching, archival, and meaningful scientific research, scraping for AI can also be objectionable or even harmful to individuals and society.

Organizations are scraping at an escalating pace and scale, even though many privacy laws are seemingly incongruous with the practice. In this Article, …

The Geodetic Strain Rates From Gnss In The North American-Carribean-Cocos Triple Junction In Guatemala And Implications For Seismic Hazard, Tanaya Kashyap

Masters Theses

"Geodetic velocity data are pivotal for deciphering seismic risks, providing initial constraints for crustal surface strain rates. Gaining an understanding of the 2D surface strain tensor across an entire area necessitates knowledge of the surface velocity field, yet geodetic data such as measurements from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) are dispersed across the Earth’s surface. In the current scope of study, we have employed various methodologies to estimate strain rates in Guatemala, utilizing GNSS velocity data and leveraging the open-source Python tool Strain_2D. Strain_2D facilitates the computation of strain rates through diverse methods applied to the same dataset and …

The Exponential Function In Discrete Fractional Calculus Under The Delta Operator, Brayton James Link

Masters Theses

"Previously the exponential problem in discrete fractional calculus under the nabla operator was solved with the discrete Mittag--Leffler function. We now show the solution to the exponential problem in discrete fractional calculus under the delta operator, providing multiple derivations of the solution with recursion and Laplace transforms. We also share some computational and numerical results of experiments with different orders of difference to display the nature of the solution" -- Abstract, p. iii

Ontogenetically Driven Changes In The Endocranial Anatomy Of Maiasaura Peeblesorum And Its Implications For Sensory Functions, Emma Puetz

Masters Theses

"Hadrosaurids exhibited extreme morphological diversity and behavioral characteristics that can be compared with other, closely related members of Dinosauria – particularly through the study of neuroanatomy. X-ray CT generated endocrania of the Late Cretaceous saurolophine hadrosaur Maiasaura peeblesorum, known as the “good mother” dinosaur, offers a unique opportunity to compare complex ecological behaviors between non-avian dinosaurs and their modern archosaur relatives. The 3D reconstruction software ORS Dragonfly provided linear and volumetric measurements taken from the digital cranial endocast and endosseous labyrinths of three ontogenetically varied M. peeblesorum specimens from the Two Medicine Formation in Montana that were used to …

The Impact Of Environmental Policy On Renewable Energy Innovation: A Systematic Literature Review And Research Directions, Hiva Rastegar, Gabriel Eweje, Aymen Sajjad

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Renewable energy innovations are imperative to tackle the climate change crisis. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding the effectiveness of environmental policies in promoting renewable energy innovations. To bridge this gap, we have adopted a systematic literature review process covering the period from 2005 to 2023. We identified and analysed 29 articles in our final sample. Further, we employ two levels of analysis (individual-policy and policy-mix levels) for analysing the extant research. Our findings show that fiscal incentives and emissions trading policies such as the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading System (ETS) consistently promote renewable energy innovations. …

Understanding The Impact Of Environmental Impact Assessment Research On Policy And Practice, Angus Morrison-Saunders, Annette Nykiel, Nicole Atkins

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

There is an enormous and ever-growing body of environmental impact assessment (EIA) research, much of which is grounded in practice or seeks to advance it. In this paper we show how the impact of EIA research on policy and practice might be conceptualised and how to set about evidencing it. A framework is developed through literature review to account for impact in four areas pertaining to instrumental impact, conceptual impact, capacity building and knowledge brokerage and co-production. Methods for implementing the framework include citations within policy documents along with content analysis to determine influence and interviews or surveys with policy …

Development Of A Regional Climate Change Model For Aedes Vigilax And Aedes Camptorhynchus (Diptera: Culicidae) In Perth, Western Australia, Kerry Staples, Peter J. Neville, Steven Richardson, Jacques Oosthuizen

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Mosquito-borne disease is a significant public health issue and within Australia Ross River virus (RRV) is the most reported. This study combines a mechanistic model of mosquito development for two mosquito vectors; Aedes vigilax and Aedes camptorhynchus, with climate projections from three climate models for two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs), to examine the possible effects of climate change and sea-level rise on a temperate tidal saltmarsh habitat in Perth, Western Australia. The projections were run under no accretion and accretion scenarios using a known mosquito habitat as a case study. This improves our understanding of the possible implications of sea-level …

Simulating Compatible Solute Biosynthesis Using A Metabolic Flux Model Of The Biomining Acidophile, Acidithiobacillus Ferrooxidans Atcc 23270, Himel N. Khaleque, Hadi Nazem-Bokaee, Yosephine Gumulya, Ross P. Carlson, Anna H. Kaksonen

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Halotolerant, acidophilic, bioleaching microorganisms are crucial to biomining operations that utilize saline water. Compatible solutes play an important role in the adaptation of these microorganisms to saline environments. Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans ATCC 23270, an iron- and sulfur-oxidizing acidophilic bacterium, synthesizes trehalose as its native compatible solute but is still sensitive to salinity. Recently, halotolerant bioleaching bacteria were found to use ectoine as their key compatible solute. Previously, bioleaching bacteria were recalcitrant to genetic manipulation; however, recent advancements in genetic tools and techniques allow successful genetic modification of A. ferrooxidans ATCC 23270. Therefore, this study aimed to test, in silico, the effect …

Data Quality Based Intelligent Instrument Selection With Security Integration, Sergei Chuprov, Raman Zatsarenko, Leon Reznik, Igor Khokhlov

School of Computer Science & Engineering Faculty Publications

We propose a novel Data Quality with Security (DQS) integrated instrumentation selection approach that facilitates aggregation of multi-modal data from heterogeneous sources. As our major contribution, we develop a framework that incorporates multiple levels of integration in finding the best DQS-based instrument selection: data fusion from multi-modal sensors embedded into heterogeneous platforms, using multiple quality and security metrics and knowledge integration. Our design addresses the security aspect in the instrumentation design, which is commonly overlooked in real applications, by aggregating it with other metrics into an integral DQS calculus. We develop DQS calculus that formalizes the problem of finding the …

Experimental Investigation On Hydrogen-Rich Syngas Production Via Gasification Of Common Wood Pellet In Bangladesh: Optimization, Mathematical Modeling, And Techno-Econo-Environmental Feasibility Studies, Md Sanowar Hossain, Mujahidul Islam Riad, Showmitro Bhowmik, Barun K. Das

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Since hydrogen produces no emissions, there is increasing interest in its production throughout the world as the need for clean and sustainable energy grows. Bangladesh has an abundance of biomass, particularly wood pellets, which presents a huge opportunity for gasification to produce hydrogen. Gasification of mahogany (Swietenia mahagoni-SM) and mango (Mangifera indica-MI) wood is performed in a downdraft gasifier to evaluate the impact of particle size, equivalence ratio, and temperature on hydrogen gas composition and gasifier performance. Under the optimal conditions determined by central composite design-response surface methodology (CCD-RSM) optimization, gasification of SM and MI wood can greatly increase hydrogen …

Towards Blockchain-Based Secure Bgp Routing, Challenges And Future Research Directions, Qiong Yang, Li Ma, Shanshan Tu, Sami Ullah, Muhammad Waqas, Hisham Alasmary

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is a standard inter-domain routing protocol for the Internet that conveys network layer reachability information and establishes routes to different destinations. The BGP protocol exhibits security design defects, such as an unconditional trust mechanism and the default acceptance of BGP route announcements from peers by BGP neighboring nodes, easily triggering prefix hijacking, path forgery, route leakage, and other BGP security threats. Meanwhile, the traditional BGP security mechanism, relying on a public key infrastructure, faces issues like a single point of failure and a single point of trust. The decentralization, anti-tampering, and traceability advantages of blockchain offer …

Cyberbullying Text Identification: A Deep Learning And Transformer-Based Language Modeling Approach, Khalid Saifullah, Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, Suhaima Jamal, Iqbal H. Sarker

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In the contemporary digital age, social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube serve as vital channels for individuals to express ideas and connect with others. Despite fostering increased connectivity, these platforms have inadvertently given rise to negative behaviors, particularly cyberbullying. While extensive research has been conducted on high-resource languages such as English, there is a notable scarcity of resources for low-resource languages like Bengali, Arabic, Tamil, etc., particularly in terms of language modeling. This study addresses this gap by developing a cyberbullying text identification system called BullyFilterNeT tailored for social media texts, considering Bengali as a test case. The …

From Grain To Malt: Tracking Changes Of Ultra-Low-Gluten Barley Storage Proteins After Malting, Mahya Bahmani, Angéla Juhász, Utpal Bos, Mitchell G. Nye-Wood, Malcolm Blundell, Crispin A. Howitt, Michelle L. Colgrave

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is a major cereal crop produced globally. Hordeins, the major storage proteins in barley, can trigger immune responses leading to celiac disease or symptoms associated with food allergy. Here, proteomics approaches were employed to investigate the proteome level changes of grain and malt from the malting barley cultivar, Sloop, and single-, double- and triple hordein-reduced lines. The triple hordein-reduced line is an ultra-low gluten barley cultivar, Kebari®. Using discovery proteomics, 2,688 and 3,034 proteins in the barley and malt samples were detected respectively. Through the application of targeted proteomics, a significant reduction in the quantity …

Economic Material For Large-Scale H2 Storage And H2-Co2 Separation, Hussein R. Abid, Alireza Keshavarz, Header Jaffer, Basim K. Nile, Stefan Iglauer

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Hydrogen is a clean fuel that can potentially completely decarbonize the energy supply chain and mitigate global warming. Hydrogen – a highly volatile gas – however, needs to be separated from CO2 during H2 production, and also from cushion gas in H2 geo-storage projects; in addition, large-scale H2 storage is a key obstacle. We thus tested and chemically upgraded common sub-bituminous coal as a material for H2-CO2 separation and H2 storage. The coal adsorbed significant amounts of H2 and CO2 and demonstrated an excellent H2-CO2 separation efficiency if chemically modified. The work presented here thus provides fundamental data required for …

Analysis Of Element Yield, Bacterial Community Structure And The Impact Of Carbon Sources For Bioleaching Rare Earth Elements From High Grade Monazite, Melissa K. Corbett, April Gifford, Nick Fimognari, Elizabeth L. J. Watkin

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Rare earth element (REE) recovery from waste streams, mine tailings or recyclable components using bioleaching is gaining traction due to the shortage and security of REE supply as well as the environmental problems that occur from processing and refining. Four heterotrophic microbial species with known phosphate solubilizing capabilities were evaluated for their ability to leach REE from a high-grade monazite when provided with either galactose, fructose or maltose. Supplying fructose resulted in the greatest amount of REE leached from the ore due to the largest amount of organic acid produced. Gluconic acid was the dominant organic acid identified produced by …

Malware Detection With Artificial Intelligence: A Systematic Literature Review, Matthew G. Gaber, Mohiuddin Ahmed, Helge Janicke

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In this survey, we review the key developments in the field of malware detection using AI and analyze core challenges. We systematically survey state-of-the-art methods across five critical aspects of building an accurate and robust AI-powered malware-detection model: malware sophistication, analysis techniques, malware repositories, feature selection, and machine learning vs. deep learning. The effectiveness of an AI model is dependent on the quality of the features it is trained with. In turn, the quality and authenticity of these features is dependent on the quality of the dataset and the suitability of the analysis tool. Static analysis is fast but is …

Agricultural Groundcover Update December 2023, Justin Laycock

Natural resources published reports

Summary

• About 96% of the grainbelt had adequate vegetative groundcover (more than 50%) to prevent wind erosion in December 2023.
• In the northern half of the grainbelt, a larger-than-average area has 51–60% groundcover, which is expected to decrease to below 50% over the summer.
• Just under 4% of the grainbelt (553,000 ha) had less than 50% groundcover, which is inadequate to prevent wind erosion. West Midlands Ag Soil Zone had the highest risk of wind erosion and 11.4% of this farmland had inadequate groundcover.
• Less than 0.5% of the grainbelt had a high to very high risk of wind erosion …

Gans And Synthetic Financial Data: Calculating Var*, David E. Allen, Leonard Mushunje, Shelton Peiris

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Generative Adversarial Neural nets (GANs) are a new branch of machine learning techniques. A GAN learns to generate new data from the training data set. We examine the characteristics of the fake financial data using GANs trained on samples of daily S&P 500 and FTSE 100 index values. GANs feature two competing neural networks in a game theoretic context. The Generator net generates pseudo data that is presented to the discriminator net which then attempts to distinguish between the real and the fake data. This facilitates unsupervised learning on the dataset. The generative network generates data sets, while the discriminative …

Secrecy Rate Maximization For Active Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Assisted Mimo Systems, Bin Gao, Jingru Zhao, Shihao Yan, Shaozhang Xiao

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is a promising technology for future 6G communications and has been used to enhance secrecy performance. However, the performance improvement is restricted by the 'double fading' effect of the reflection channel link. To address this issue, we introduce an active RIS design, where the reflecting elements of RIS not only adjust the phase shift but also amplify the reflected signal through the amplifier integrated into its elements. To obtain a satisfactory solution to the non-convex problem resulting from this design, the penalty dual decomposition based alternating gradient projection (PDDAPG) method is proposed. We compare the proposed …

Unleashing The Power Of Internet Of Things And Blockchain: A Comprehensive Analysis And Future Directions, Abderahman Rejeb, Karim Rejeb, Andrea Appolloni, Sandeep Jagtap, Mohammad Iranmanesh, Salem Alghamdi, Yaser Alhasawi, Yasanur Kayikci

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

As the fusion of the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain technology advances, it is increasingly shaping diverse fields. The potential of this convergence to fortify security, enhance privacy, and streamline operations has ignited considerable academic interest, resulting in an impressive body of literature. However, there is a noticeable scarcity of studies employing Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) to dissect and categorize this field. This review paper endeavours to bridge this gap by meticulously analysing a dataset of 4455 journal articles drawn solely from the Scopus database, cantered around IoT and blockchain applications. Utilizing LDA, we have extracted 14 distinct topics …

Enhancing Water Safety: Exploring Recent Technological Approaches For Drowning Detection, Salman Jalalifar, Andrew Belford, Eila Erfani, Amir Razmjou, Rouzbeh Abbassi, Masoud Mohseni-Dargah, Mohsen Asadnia

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Drowning poses a significant threat, resulting in unexpected injuries and fatalities. To promote water sports activities, it is crucial to develop surveillance systems that enhance safety around pools and waterways. This paper presents an overview of recent advancements in drowning detection, with a specific focus on image processing and sensor-based methods. Furthermore, the potential of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning algorithms (MLAs), and robotics technology in this field is explored. The review examines the technological challenges, benefits, and drawbacks associated with these approaches. The findings reveal that image processing and sensor-based technologies are the most effective approaches for drowning detection …

Performance Evaluation Of A Dual-Chamber Plant Microbial Fuel Cell Developed For Electricity Generation And Wastewater Treatment, Mahmood Golzarian, M. Ghiasvand, S. Shokri, M. Bahreini, Fatemeh Kazemi

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Plant microbial fuel cells (PMFC) have attracted great scholarly attention as a renewable energy source. These cells have three main components: anode, cathode chambers, and a proton exchange membrane. In this study, a dual-chamber plant microbial fuel cell system was designed using Cyperus papyrus and Shewanella oneidensis. The effects of various factors, including the size of the electrodes, the distance between the electrodes, and the inoculation volume of Shewanella oneidensis, on the ability of electricity generation, were scrutinized. The results indicated that increasing the size area of the electrodes from 2 × 2 to 4 × 4 and 6 × …

Region-Specific Drivers Cause Low Organic Carbon Stocks And Sequestration Rates In The Saltmarsh Soils Of Southern Scandinavia, Carmen Leiva-Dueñas, Anna E. L. Graversen, Gary T. Banta, Jeppe N. Hansen, Marie L. K. Schrøter, Pere Masqué, Marianne Holmer, Dorte Krause-Jensen

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Saltmarshes are known for their ability to act as effective sinks of organic carbon (OC) and their protection and restoration could potentially slow down the pace of global warming. However, regional estimates of saltmarsh OC storage are often missing, including for the Nordic region. To address this knowledge gap, we assessed OC storage and accumulation rates in 17 saltmarshes distributed along the Danish coasts and investigated the main drivers of soil OC storage. Danish saltmarshes store a median of 10 kg OC m−2 (interquartile range, IQR: 13.5–7.6) in the top meter and sequester 31.5 g OC m−2 yr−1 (IQR: 41.6–15.7). …

Pdf Malware Detection: Toward Machine Learning Modeling With Explainability Analysis, G. M.Sakhawat Hossain, Kaushik Deb, Helge Janicke, Iqbal H. Sarker

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The Portable Document Format (PDF) is one of the most widely used file types, thus fraudsters insert harmful code into victims' PDF documents to compromise their equipment. Conventional solutions and identification techniques are often insufficient and may only partially prevent PDF malware because of their versatile character and excessive dependence on a certain typical feature set. The primary goal of this work is to detect PDF malware efficiently in order to alleviate the current difficulties. To accomplish the goal, we first develop a comprehensive dataset of 15958 PDF samples taking into account the non-malevolent, malicious, and evasive behaviors of the …

Trends In Monitoring Of Australia’S Threatened Birds (1990–2020): Much Improved But Still Inadequate, Simon J. Verdon, Robert A. Davis, Ayesha Tulloch, Sarah M. Legge, David M. Watson, John C. Z. Woinarski, G. Barry Baker, Joris Driessen, Hayley M. Geyle, Hugh Possingham, Stephen T. Garnett

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Monitoring is vital to conservation, enabling conservation scientists to detect population declines, identify threats and measure the effectiveness of interventions. However, not all threatened taxa are monitored, monitoring quality is variable, and the various components of monitoring are likely to differ in their rates of improvement over time. We assessed the presence of monitoring and monitoring quality, using a range of metrics, for all Australia’s threatened bird taxa from 1990 to 2020 (four assessments spanning 30 years). We used our assessments to understand decadal trends in the number of taxa monitored; monitoring quality; and the groups that conduct monitoring. The …

Opportunities And Challenges Posed By Disruptive And Converging Information Technologies For Australia's Future Defence Capabilities: A Horizon Scan, Pi-Shen Seet, Anton Klarin, Janice Jones, Mike Johnstone, Helen Cripps, Jalleh Sharafizad, Violetta Wilk, David Suter, Tony Marceddo

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Introduction: The research project's objective was to conduct a comprehensive horizon scan of Network Centric Warfare (NCW) technologies—specifically, Cyber, IoT/IoBT, AI, and Autonomous Systems. Recognised as pivotal force multipliers, these technologies are critical to reshaping the mission, design, structure, and operations of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), aligning with the Department of Defence (Defence)’s offset strategies and ensuring technological advantage, especially in the Indo-Pacific's competitive landscape.

Research process: Employing a two-pronged research approach, the study first leveraged scientometric analysis, utilising informetric mapping software (VOSviewer) to evaluate emerging trends and their implications on defence capabilities. This approach facilitated a broader understanding …

Consequences Of Group-Based Misperceptions Of Climate Concern For Efficacy And Action, Zoe Leviston, Tanvi Nangrani, Samantha K. Stanley, Iain Walker

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

People tend to underestimate others’ environmental values, including when judging the values of minority-status groups. Using a large national sample (N = 5110), we test whether these misperceptions extend to concern about climate change in Australia, and differ depending on immigrant status, ethnicity, and where one is located (i.e., in or outside capital cities). We also examine the consequences of misperceptions for self-efficacy and pro-environmental behaviour. We find personal climate concern is high, but perceptions of others’ concern is lower. Immigrants and Australian-born participants have similarly high concern, but both groups underestimate how concerned immigrants are. Southern-Central-Asian identifiers are the …

Microbes Of Biotechnological Importance In Acidic Saline Lakes In The Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia, Katelyn Boase, Talitha Santini, Elizabeth Watkin

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Acidic salt lakes are environments that harbor an array of biologically challenging conditions. Through 16S rRNA, 18S rRNA, and ITS amplicon sequencing of eight such lakes across the Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia, we aim to understand the microbial ecology of these lakes with a focus on iron- and sulfur-oxidizing and reducing microorganisms that have theoretical application in biomining industries. In spite of the biological challenges to life in these lakes, the microbial communities were highly diverse. Redundancy analysis of soil samples revealed sulfur, ammonium, organic carbon, and potassium were significant diversities of the microbial community composition. The most abundant …

Developing A Novel Ontology For Cybersecurity In Internet Of Medical Things-Enabled Remote Patient Monitoring, Kulsoom S. Bughio, David M. Cook, Syed A. A. Shah

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

IoT has seen remarkable growth, particularly in healthcare, leading to the rise of IoMT. IoMT integrates medical devices for real-time data analysis and transmission but faces challenges in data security and interoperability. This research identifies a significant gap in the existing literature regarding a comprehensive ontology for vulnerabilities in medical IoT devices. This paper proposes a fundamental domain ontology named MIoT (Medical Internet of Things) ontology, focusing on cybersecurity in IoMT (Internet of Medical Things), particularly in remote patient monitoring settings. This research will refer to similar-looking acronyms, IoMT and MIoT ontology. It is important to distinguish between the two. …

A Systematic Review Of K-12 Cybersecurity Education Around The World, Ahmed Ibrahim, Marnie Mckee, Leslie F. Sikos, Nicola F. Johnson

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This paper presents a systematic review of K-12 cybersecurity education literature from around the world. 24 academic papers dated from 2013-2023 were eligible for inclusion in the literature established within the research protocol. An additional 19 gray literature sources comprised the total. A range of recurring common topics deemed as aspects of cybersecurity behavior or practice were identified. A variety of cybersecurity competencies and skills are needed for K-12 students to apply their knowledge. As may be expected to be the case with interdisciplinary fields, studies are inherently unclear in the use of their terminology, and this is compounded in …