Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Secure Authenticated Key Exchange For Enhancing The Security Of Routing Protocol For Low-Power And Lossy Networks, Sarah Mohammed Alzahrani

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The current Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) standard provides three security modes Unsecured Mode (UM), Preinstalled Secure Mode (PSM), and Authenticated Secure Mode (ASM). The PSM and ASM are designed to prevent external routing attacks and specific replay attacks through an optional replay protection mechanism. RPL's PSM mode does not support key replacement when a malicious party obtains the key via differential cryptanalysis since it considers the key to be provided to nodes during the configuration of the network. This thesis presents an approach to implementing a secure authenticated key exchange mechanism for RPL, which ensures …

Locality Analysis Of Patched Php Vulnerabilities, Luke N. Holt

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The size and complexity of modern software programs is constantly growing making it increasingly difficult to diligently find and diagnose security exploits. The ability to quickly and effectively release patches to prevent existing vulnerabilities significantly limits the exploitation of users and/or the company itself. Due to this it has become crucial to provide the capability of not only releasing a patched version, but also to do so quickly to mitigate the potential damage. In this thesis, we propose metrics for evaluating the locality between exploitable code and its corresponding sanitation API such that we can statistically determine the proximity of …

Design, Analysis, And Optimization Of Traffic Engineering For Software Defined Networks, Mohammed Ibrahim Salman

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Network traffic has been growing exponentially due to the rapid development of applications and communications technologies. Conventional routing protocols, such as Open-Shortest Path First (OSPF), do not provide optimal routing and result in weak network resources. Optimal traffic engineering (TE) is not applicable in practice due to operational constraints such as limited memory on the forwarding devices and routes oscillation. Recently, a new way of centralized management of networks enabled by Software-Defined Networking (SDN) made it easy to apply most traffic engineering ideas in practice. \par Toward creating an applicable traffic engineering system, we created a TE simulator for experimenting …

Detection Of Benzotriazole And Related Analogues In Surface Samples Collected Near An Ohio Airpark, Clara Leedy

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Benzotriazoles are a class of contaminant of emerging concern which are commonly used as anticorrosive agents in aircraft deicer and anti-icing fluids (ADAFs). The analogues 1H-benzotriazole (BTZ), 4-methyl-1H-benzotrizole (4m-BTZ), and 5-methyl-1H-benzotriazole (5m-BTZ) are commonly found in environmental occurrence together. The two methylated isomers, collectively known as tolytriazole (TTZ), have different toxicity and stability. These contaminants are highly water soluble and resistant to biodegradation, making them persistent through water treatment. Benzotriazoles have been detected worldwide; this investigation focuses on monitoring three sites near a small airpark in Wilmington, Ohio. Two sites that receive runoff from the airpark, Lytle Creek and Indian …

Evaluating Energy-Based Trait Shifts And Population Level Impacts Of Big Brown Bats (Eptesicus Fuscus) With Long-Term Exposure To Pseudogymnoascus Destructans, Molly C. Simonis

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Disturbances in environment can lead to a wide range of host physiological responses. These responses can either allow hosts to adjust to new conditions in their environment or can reduce their survival, and can subsequently cause host traits to shift. Small mammals are particularly vulnerable to stochastic disturbances, like a pathogen introduction, because of their high energy demands. Studies examining host responses to pathogens often focus on species highly susceptible to infection that typically have high mortality rates, leading to a gap in understanding the responses of less susceptible species. My dissertation evaluates the energy balance of Eptesicus fuscus (big …

Covalent Attachment Of Tadf Chromophores To Thermally Stable Poly(Arylene Ether)S, Samuel Farrar

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The covalent attachment of a blue emitting, benzothiazole based TADF chromophore into poly(arylene ether) backbone polymers was explored. A benzothiazole derivative, 2-(2,4-difluorophenyl)-benzothiazole (2,4-diF-BTZ), was synthesized to form the electrophilic component of the host polymer. Two polymers were synthesized to have chromophore incorporated, using 2,4-diFBTZ and 4,4-dihydroxydiphenyl ether (DPE) or 4,4’-biphenol (BP). The chromophore was covalently incorporated at a 10% molar ratio into the polymer backbone by copolymerization with 2,4-diF-BTZ and BP, utilizing nucleophilic aromatic substitution (NAS). Structural characterization was provided via NMR spectroscopy and GC/MS analysis. The polymer syntheses provided high molecular weight materials that were able to be cast …

Development Of Enhanced User Interaction And User Experience For Supporting Serious Role-Playing Games In A Healthcare Setting, Mark Lee Alow

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Education about implicit bias in clinical settings is essential for improving the quality of healthcare for underrepresented groups. Such a learning experience can be delivered in the form of a serious game simulation. WrightLIFE (Lifelike Immersion for Equity) is a project that combines two serious game simulations, with each addressing the group that faces implicit bias. These groups are individuals that identify as LGBTQIA+ and people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The project presents healthcare providers with a training tool that puts them in the roles of the patient and a medical specialist and immerses them in social and clinical …

Few-Shot Malware Detection Using A Novel Adversarial Reprogramming Model, Ekula Praveen Kumar

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The increasing sophistication of malware has made detecting and defending against new strains a major challenge for cybersecurity. One promising approach to this problem is using machine learning techniques that extract representative features and train classification models to detect malware in an early stage. However, training such machine learning-based malware detection models represents a significant challenge that requires a large number of high-quality labeled data samples while it is very costly to obtain them in real-world scenarios. In other words, training machine learning models for malware detection requires the capability to learn from only a few labeled examples. To address …

Supporting Mastery Learning Through A Multiple-Submission Policy For Assignments In A Purely Online Programming Class, Joseph Benjamin R. Ilagan, Marianne Kayle Amurao, Jose Ramon Ilagan

Quantitative Methods and Information Technology Faculty Publications

The Learning Edge Momentum (LEM) theory suggests that once students fall behind, it gets more difficult to catch up with the course material. It then becomes increasingly more difficult to connect new, higher-level concepts to those solid edges of knowledge with mastery of basic concepts. Learning for Mastery (LFM) acknowledges that students learn at different paces by allowing students unable to master tests the first time to catch up eventually. This paper describes how an online introductory Python programming course offered to business students followed a multiple-submission policy for assignments to support LFM. The multiple submission policy contributed to the …

Stream Recovery Post Channelization: A Case Study Of Low-Gradient Streams In Central Illinois, Usa, Joseph P. Becker, Eric W. Peterson

Faculty Publications-- Geography, Geology, and the Environment

Stream channelization, which entails reducing the sinuosity of a stream, widening, and in some cases deepening the stream channel, is a widespread practice in agricultural regions. Channelization efforts in central Illinois have significant impacts on the geomorphology, flow regime, and sediment transport both in and adjacent to modified reaches. The goal of this study was to characterize the changes in stream channels by comparing three streams that are at various stages of recovery post channelization, 5 years (1900N), 7 years (Frog), and 35 years (Bray), to an unmodified stream reach (Crooked) and estimate a recovery rate. Measured channel slopes within …

Affinity Of Cadmium Versus Zinc For The Carbonic Anhydrase Active Site, Rachel Phan

Honors Scholars Collaborative Projects

Cadmium is a heavy metal found in tobacco plants, nickel-cadmium batteries, and as a byproduct of metal mining. The similarities between the properties of zinc ions and cadmium ions in proteins due to their 2+ charges may cause displacement of zinc by cadmium if encountered and has been shown to do so in several transcription factors. Cadmium’s ability to replace zinc- a metal found in around 3,000 human proteins- is a cause for concern, especially due to its toxicity, long half-life in the body, and larger size.

Carbonic anhydrase is an important metalloprotein protein that relies on a central zinc(II) …

Effects Of Vacancies And Electron Temperature On The Electron Phonon Coupling In Cubic Silicon Carbide And Their Connection To The Inelastic Thermal Spike, Salah Al-Smairat

Doctoral Dissertations

“The electron-phonon interaction is an important interaction in many solids as it influences transport phenomena and related quantities such as the electrical and thermal conductivities, especially in nuclear and space applications. The importance of the electron-phonon interaction in primary damage production in 3C-SiC is the subject of this research.

The electron-phonon coupling factor was calculated using a hybrid Density Functional Perturbation Theory - Classical Electron Gas model. The coupling factor was calculated as a function of electron temperature in pristine and defective 3C-SiC, and relaxed defective cells. The electron-phonon coupling is found to depend strongly on the electronic temperature and …

Evaluating The Relationship Between Floodplain Topography And Channel Avulsion: Evidence From The Devonian Catskill Formation, North-Central Pennsylvania, Usa, Molly O'Halloran

Honors Theses

Topographic complexity on floodplains can route flow, control sediment dispersal, and influence channel behavior, but studying floodplain-channel interactions in modern rivers is challenging because of human modifications and the short timescales of observable data. This project assesses the link between different types of floodplain microtopography and avulsion style in the Devonian Catskill Formation, north-central Pennsylvania, where thick stacks of fluvial strata provide a lengthy record of channel-floodplain interaction. Using a combination of field observations and computer modeling, this study identifies sedimentary features indicative of floodplain complexity and analyzes their impact on avulsion style at fourteen Catskill Formation outcrops.

Based on …

A Contraction Based Approach To Tensor Isomorphism, Anh Kieu

Honors Theses

Tensor isomorphism is a hard problem in computational complexity theory. Tensor isomorphism arises not just in mathematics, but also in other applied fields like Machine Learning, Cryptography, and Quantum Information Theory (QIT). In this thesis, we develop a new approach to testing (non)-isomorphism of tensors that uses local information from "contractions" of a tensor to detect differences in global structures. Specifically, we use projective geometry and tensor contractions to create a labelling data structure for a given tensor, which can be used to compare and distinguish tensors. This contraction labelling isomorphism test is quite general, and its practical potential remains …

Using Neural Networks To Model Guitar Distortion, Caleb Koch, Scott Hawley, Andrew Fyfe

Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

Guitar players have been modifying their guitar tone with audio effects ever since the mid-20th century. Traditionally, these effects have been achieved by passing a guitar signal through a series of electronic circuits which modify the signal to produce the desired audio effect. With advances in computer technology, audio “plugins” have been created to produce audio effects digitally through programming algorithms. More recently, machine learning researchers have been exploring the use of neural networks to produce audio effects that yield strikingly similar results to their analog counterparts. Recurrent Neural Networks and Temporal Convolutional Networks have proven to be exceptional at …

Establishing A Biochemical System For The Purification And Atpase Activity Of Gst-Dbp5, Sarah R. Utley, Rachel E. Rigsby Phd, Rebecca L. Adams Phd

Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

The export of mRNA out of the nucleus is a crucial step for eukaryotic gene expression. The export of mRNA transcripts is aided by Mex67, which allows export through the nuclear pore complex doorways in the nuclear envelope. Once out of the nucleus, a protein known as Dbp5, bound to ATP, Gle1, and Nup42 aids in the directionality of mRNA export by helping remove Mex67 from the mRNA strand. Following interaction with RNA, Dbp5 then hydrolyzes ATP so that it unbinds the mRNA, allowing for enzyme recycling. Previous efforts worked towards the purification of Dbp5, but the attempts were unsuccessful …

Human-Controlled Fuzzing With Afl, Maxim Grishin, Igor Korkin, Phd

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Fuzzing techniques are applied to reveal different types of bugs and vulnerabilities. American Fuzzy Lop (AFL) is a free most popular software fuzzer used by many other fuzzing frameworks. AFL supports autonomous mode of operation that uses the previous step output into the next step, as a result fuzzer spends a lot of time analyzing minor code sections. By making fuzzing process more focused and human controlled security expert can save time and find more bugs in less time. We designed a new module that can fuzz only the specified functions. As a result, the chosen ones will be inspected …

Indoor Air Quality Through The Lens Of Outdoor Atmospheric Chemistry, Jonathan P.D. Abbatt, Douglas B. Collins

Faculty Contributions to Books

Outdoor atmospheric chemistry and air quality have been the topic of research that intensified in earnest around the mid-20^th century, while indoor air quality research has only been a key focus of chemical researchers over the last 30 years. Examining practices and approaches employed in the outdoor atmospheric chemistry research enterprise provides an additional viewpoint from which we can chart new paths to increase scientific understanding of indoor chemistry. This chapter explores our understanding of primary chemical sources, homogeneous and multiphase reactivity, gas-surface partitioning, and the coupling between the chemistry and dynamics of indoor air through the lens of …

Groundwater Potential Model Using Statistics And Hybrid Machine Learning Approaches, Ngoc Thanh Nguyen

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

The present study was conducted to delineate the groundwater potential in Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand based on groundwater yield, groundwater contamination risk, and groundwater quality. In this study, an ensemble model was created by combining Analytical Hierarchy Process, Frequency Ratio, and Random Forest to evaluate the spatial distribution map of the groundwater resources. Additionally, a new hybrid approach was developed based on maximum entropy and analytical hierarchy process to delineate the Ni contamination risk in groundwater. Finally, four machine-learning models, including Random Forest - Cross validation, Random Forest – Bootstrap, Artificial Neural Network - Cross validation, and Artificial Neural Network - …

Synthesis And In Situ Characterization Of Intercalated Transition Metal Oxide Nanomaterials Investigated For Novel Cathode Applications, Ahamed Ullah

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

To develop an effective battery cathode material that can be useful for future batteries, the thermal stability and ion diffusion dynamics need to be well understood. In situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a popular and proven technique to study the evolution of local structures during the dynamic processes in the cathode materials. This dissertation will demonstrate the application of high-resolution imaging and in situ heating and biasing in the TEM to study the structure and composition, morphology change, and ion diffusion in the cathode materials.

The three chapters in this dissertation will be focused on the two cathode materials: …

The Design And Synthesis Of New Organic Dithiols For Environmental Applications, Shashika Nadishani Bandara

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

A thiol molecule, 2,6-pyridinediamidoethanethiol (PB9), was synthesized based on the pyridine-2,6-dicarboxamide scaffold with appended cysteamine groups. PB9 acts as an effective chelator for Pb(II) due to multiple binding sites (N₃S₂) through irreversible binding precipitating Pb(II). Removal of aqueous Pb(II) from solution was demonstrated by exploring the effects of time, initial PB9:Pb(II) ratios, pH, exposure time, and solution temperature. After 15 min the Pb(II) concentrations were reduced from 50.00 ppm to 0.30 ppm (99.4%) and 0.25 ppm (99.5%) for PB9:Pb ratios of 1:1 and 2:1, respectively. Removal of > 93% Pb(II) was observed over multiple pH values with …

Development Of Fluorescence Based Approaches To Understand Astrocyte Biology In The Context Of Nicotine And Nicotinic Receptor Activity, Surya P. Aryal

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

Smoking and tobacco use (STU) is a major global health problem and worldwide more than six million people die due to tobacco related diseases each year. Although majority of smokers try to quit smoking several times in their life, traditional therapeutic approaches, which focus only on neuronal cells, have a very low success rate. Understanding the effect of nicotine on glial cells, synaptic communication and blood vasculature in the brain can provide further insights on the neurobiology of substance abuse and can potentially help to design better therapeutic approaches. Glial cells are non-excitable cells in the brain which do not …

Preparation Of Cellulose Micro- And Nano Fibers From Bagasse Through Deep Eutectic Solvent System, Worapoj Phuckpetch

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study aimed to prepare the cellulose micro- and nanofibers (CMNFs) using green chemistry viewpoint. The CMNFs were fabricated from sugarcane bagasse (SCB) pulp through treatment with zinc chloride (ZnCl2) - lactic acid (LA) in deep eutectic solvent (ZnCl2-LA DES) followed by short time ultrasonication of the DES-treated fibers in water. Under the optimum condition, the SCB pulp at high solid loading of 6.25% was treated with ZnCl2-LA DES. Lactate functionalized CMNFs with 230-270 nm length and 15-16 nm width were resulted in more than 90% yield and up to 62.2% crystallinity. The results showed that ZnCl2-LA DES was a …

Lamellae Preparation For Atomic-Resolution Stem Imaging From Ion-Beam-Sensitive Topological Insulator Crystals, Abdulhakim Bake, Weiyao Zhao, David Mitchell, Xiaolin Wang, Mitchell Nancarrow, David Cortie

Australian Institute for Innovative Materials - Papers

Good specimen quality is a key factor in achieving successful scanning transmission electron microscope analysis. Thin and damage-free specimens are prerequisites for obtaining atomic-resolution imaging. Topological insulator single crystals and thin films in the chalcogenide family such as Sb₂Te₃ are sensitive to electron and ion beams. It is, therefore, challenging to prepare a lamella suitable for high-resolution imaging from these topological insulator materials using standard focused ion-beam instruments. We have developed a modified method to fabricate thin focused ion-beam (FIB) lamellae with minimal ion-beam damage and artifacts. The technique described in the current study enables the reliable …

Integrating Carbon Pricing Approaches, Amay Shah

CMC Senior Theses

Concerns about global climate change and its effects have been steadily growing around the world in recent years. The Paris Agreement has laid out ambitious targets for countries to cut their emissions in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees and to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Carbon pricing mechanisms are an inventive instrument that can help achieve these emissions reductions by placing a price on greenhouse gas emissions, creating incentives for organizations to reduce their emissions. These mechanisms can also help enable the transfers from wealthy nations to developing nations that will be essential for ensuring a …

Using Short Bursts To Optimize Redistricting In Georgia, Vedika Vishweshwar

CMC Senior Theses

Identifying extreme outliers in large state spaces is a difficult prob-
lem. I consider this problem in the context of finding political district-
ing plans that maximize the number of districts in which the majority
of the population is from a minority group, such as African Americans.
Since the set of all possible districting plans is enormous and unfeasi-
ble to examine in practice, this paper proposes a sampling method to
find these outlying plans. Specifically, this paper experiments with short
bursts in the context of minority voting rights in Georgia. Short bursts
are a type of Markov Chain in …

Parallels Of Quantum Mechanics And Mahāyāna Buddhist Philosophy: An Argument For Relational Quantum Mechanics, Axel I. Palapa

CMC Senior Theses

Western orthodoxy philosophy is based on the principle of noncontradiction and thus, the philosophy of science is as well. The most prominent interpretations of quantum mechanics, since its inception, have followed this principle. In this paper, two quantum phenomena, the Observer Problem (measurement problem) and quantum entanglement will be analyzed from a Mahayana Buddhism ontological perspective. I will analyze the mathematical and philosophical arguments proposed by Graham Priest and Jay Garfield, based on dialethism, pertaining to Nagarjuna and the Net of Indra. Demonstrating the parallels and adaptability of the arguments to further the philosophical groundwork for Carlo Reveille’s Relational Quantum …

Spatial Geochemical Changes In Central And East Texas Soils Over Time Resulting From Human Decomposition, Isabela Marisol Overturf

CMC Senior Theses

Human decomposition is studied to aid forensic investigations and better understand the impact of cemeteries on urban resources like soil and groundwater. The purpose of this study was to identify changes in soil geochemistry at and around a human grave to search for lateral nutrient movement and possibly identify new patterns in elemental concentrations that could be used in estimating post-mortem intervals (PMIs). At the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility (FARF) at Texas State San Marcos, soil samples were collected from a shallow grave over the course of 54 days to conduct analysis for organic matter content, texture, pH, and bulk …

Dynamic Nonlinear Gaussian Model For Inferring A Graph Structure On Time Series, Abhinuv Uppal

CMC Senior Theses

In many applications of graph analytics, the optimal graph construction is not always straightforward. I propose a novel algorithm to dynamically infer a graph structure on multiple time series by first imposing a state evolution equation on the graph and deriving the necessary equations to convert it into a maximum likelihood optimization problem. The state evolution equation guarantees that edge weights contain predictive power by construction. After running experiments on simulated data, it appears the required optimization is likely non-convex and does not generally produce results significantly better than randomly tweaking parameters, so it is not feasible to use in …

Drought Tolerant Landscaping Trends In Claremont, California, Serena Myjer

CMC Senior Theses

The environmental impacts of turf grass lawns are particularly important to consider in California, because of its unique Mediterranean climate and ongoing problems with chronic drought. While California is ideal for agriculture, recreation, and year-round living, the occurrence of drought is natural and not uncommon, evident in historical human and paleoclimate records. Drought impacts humans and wildlife including water scarcity, crop failure, water quality, reduced streamflow, and wetland availability. Diverting water from these critical sources for growing turf grass lawns is inappropriate and harmful. This project is the first analysis of landscaping patterns, trends, and changes in Claremont, California using …