Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Roli I Forenzikës Kompjuterike Në Hetimin E Rasteve Me Krime Kibernetike, Amir Hyseni

Theses and Dissertations

Interneti është duke u rritur me hapa të shpejtë, ashtu siç është duke u rritur edhe numri i krimeve kibernetike të kryera kundër përdorimit të kompjuterëve. Gjurmët e letrës janë bërë gjurmë elektronike. Si përgjigje ndaj rritjes së krimit kibernetik, është shfaq fusha e forenzikës kompjuterike. Forenzika Kompjuterike përfshin mbledhjen dhe ekzaminimin e provave digjitale, që jo vetëm që e vlerësojne dëmin në një kompjuter si rezultat i një krimi apo sulmi kibernetik, por gjithashtu bën ri-kthimin (ri-marrjen) e të dhënave të humbura apo të fshehura nga një sistem i tillë për të ndjekur penalisht një kriminel kibernetik apo një …

Testimi I Sigurisë Së Web Aplikacionit “Slack” Bazuar Në Standardin Owasp, Florid Canolli

Theses and Dissertations

Ueb aplikacionet janë duke u përdorur çdo ditë e më shumë dhe modernizimi, shfrytëzimi i shpeshtë i tyre si rrjedhojë ka shkaktuar rritjen e vëmendjes së personave keqbërës të cilët tentojnë në mënyra të ndryshme të ndërhyjnë në këto ueb aplikacione apo interferojnë në funksionimin adekuat të tij dhe pastaj të shkaktojnë dëme të riparueshme. .

Shpejtimi i proceseve ndërtuese të ueb aplikacioneve dhe përdorimi i teknologjive të gatshme, shkakton gabime më të shpeshta gjatë ndërtimit të ueb aplikacioneve, e të cilat individët e caktuar edhe mos qofshin profesional, të kenë mundësi ti gjejnë ato e të arrijnë deri në …

Komunikimi I Rrjetave Pa Tela Dhe Siguria, Dokleat Veseli

Theses and Dissertations

Sistemet e komunikimit mund të jenë me tel ose me valë (pa tela) dhe mediumi i përdorur për komunikim mund të jetë ‘guided’ ose ‘unguided’. Në komunikimin me tela, mediumi është një rrugë fizike si kabllot co-axial, kabllot me çiftore të përdredhur dhe kabllot me fibrave optike etj. Termi “wireless” i referohet komunikimit ose transmetimit të informacionit në një distancë pa pranin fizike të telave, kabllo ose ndonjë mediumi tjetër përcjellës elektrik. Komunikimi pa tel është një nga mediumet e rëndësishme të transmetimit të të dhënave ose informacionit në pajisjet e tjera. Tel komunikimi pa tela informacioni transmetohet përmes ajrit, …

Post Covid-19 Water And Waste Water Management To Protect Public Health And Geoenvironment, Ken Cornell, Arvin Farid

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has posed severe threats to humans and the geoenvironment. The findings of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (Sars-CoV-2) traces in waste water and the practice of disinfecting outdoor spaces in several cities in the world, which can result into the entry of disinfectants and their by-products into storm drainage systems and their subsequent discharge into rivers and coastal waters, raise the issue of environmental, ecological and public health effects. The aims of the current paper are to investigate the potential of water and waste water to operate as transmission routes for Sars-CoV-2 and the …

The Effect Of Initial Conditions On The Weather Research And Forecasting Model, Aaron D. Baker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Modeling our atmosphere and determining forecasts using numerical methods has been a challenge since the early 20th Century. Most models use a complex dynamical system of equations that prove difficult to solve by hand as they are chaotic by nature. When computer systems became more widely adopted and available, approximating the solution of these equations, numerically, became easier as computational power increased. This advancement in computing has caused numerous weather models to be created and implemented across the world. However a challenge of approximating these solutions accurately still exists as each model have varying set of equations and variables to …

Characterization And Delineation Of Potential Evaporite Geohazards Using Electrical Resistivity Methods Along Fm 2185, Culberson County, Texas, Lenora Diane Perkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Extensive karst development within the Delaware Basin of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico poses a significant geohazard threat to infrastructure. Dissolution of regional evaporite strata have led to manifestations of karst geohazard phenomena including sinkholes, subsidence features, and caves. The study area is located within the Gypsum Plain in Culberson County, Texas, and includes outcrops of Castile and Rustler strata that host gypsum karst geohazards. Land reconnaissance surveys conducted during the summer of 2019 documented numerous surficial manifestations of karst features proximal to Farm to Market Road 2185 (FM 2185). In combination with traditional survey techniques, electrical resistivity methods …

Architectural-Element Analysis And Depositional Models For Pre-Vegetation Braidplain And Braid-Delta Environments, With Modern Analogues, Jason Gerhard Muhlbauer

Doctoral Dissertations

Pre-vegetation landscapes that blanketed the continents before the emergence vascular plants in the late-Silurian are proposed habitats for the earliest terrestrial biota and are analogous to martian setting thought to have potentially hosted life. Analysis of the middle member of the Wood Canyon Formation, a Cambrian age sandstone, reveal new details about terrestrial pre-vegetation environments. In fluvial middle-member stratigraphy, units are defined by stacking patterns of three facies associations (FA1-3). In FA1, stacked cosets, interpreted as braidplain barforms and channel fills, preserve vertical- and downstream-accretion elements under unimodal paleoflow. Floodplains, represented by FA2, include red-orange intervals of fine- to medium-grained …

Connectivity: Insights From The U.S. Long Term Ecological Research Network, David M. Iwaniec, Michael Gooseff, Katharine Suding, David Samuel Johnson, Daniel C. Reed, Debra Peters, Byron Adams, John E. Barrett, Brandon Bestelmeyer, Max C.N. Castorani, Elizabeth M. Cook, Melissa J. Davidson, Peter F. Groffman, Niall Hanan, Laura Huenneke, Pieter T.J. Johnson, Diane Mcknight, Robert J. Miller, Gregory Okin, Daniel Preston, Andrew Rassweiler, Chris Ray, Osvaldo Sala, Robert L. Schooley, Timothy Seastedt, Marko Spasojevic, Enrique R. Vivoni

Sustainable Futures Lab Publications

Ecosystems across the United States are changing in complex and surprising ways. Ongoing demand for critical ecosystem services requires an understanding of the populations and communities in these ecosystems in the future. This paper represents a synthesis effort of the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) network addressing the core research area of “populations and communities.” The objective of this effort was to show the importance of long-term data collection and experiments for addressing the hardest questions in scientific ecology that have significant implications for environmental policy and management. Each LTER site developed at least one compelling case …

Museum Exploration Club, Celeste Kenworthy, Aurora Kenworthy

Honors Expanded Learning Clubs

Afterschool club that virtually visits museums in order to help students gain an appreciation for museums and learn about concepts related to art, history, and science.

Temporal Convolutional Neural Network For Intrusion Detection, Luis Javier Romo Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Intrusion detection is an important endeavor for large organizations who are constantly targeted by malicious actors. The nature of network traffic data creates many challenges for researchers that want to create an accurate and efficient system for detecting attacks on networks. Many machine learning algorithms have been developed to take on this task. In this paper, we will review some of these techniques, some data sets used to test these techniques, and an experiment where we developed an intrusion detection system that uses a convolution neural network that can perform sequence modeling. This convolutional neural network outperformed a long-shorted term …

Factors That Influence Teachers' Utilization Of Siop Learning Strategies When Teaching English Language Learners, Courtney R. Stuart

Theses and Dissertations

Despite standardized certification tests and popular English Language Learner trainings, the strategies and methods used in two educators’ classes would not be identical. In this case-study we look to see what variables cause teachers to utilize certain strategies and how these variables affect the number of strategies used consistently when teaching ELLs. We study the effect of teachers’ language experiences, certifications, participation in SIOP trainings, education levels, perceived preparedness, and years spent in the classroom.

Using quantitative and qualitative data we conclude that dual-language fluency and professional advancements can lead to teachers using more ELL learning strategies in their classrooms, …

Topologically Robust Bulk State In Non-Hermitian Acoustic System, Jannatul Ferdous

Theses and Dissertations

A closed system associated with Hermitian Hamiltonian allows real eigenvalues. However, the behavior and dynamics an open system (with gain and loss) will be addressed through the Non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. Though a non-Hermitian operator can allow only imaginary eigenvalues, if the Hamiltonian of a non-Hermitian operator obey the combined parity time (PT)-reversal symmetry it exhibits the real eigenvalues or energy spectrum. That is where the topology comes into account. If we add gain, loss or disorder in the system in such a way that the topology of the system does not change and keeping the …

Enhanced Detection Efficiencies And Reduced False Alarms In Searching For Gravitational Waves From Core Collapse Supernovae, Gaukhar Nurbek

Theses and Dissertations

A supernova is a star that flares up very suddenly and then slowly returns to its former luminosity or, explodes violently with energy $10^{52}$ erg. There are stars which are 10 times or more massive than the Sun, which usually end their lives going supernova. When there is no longer enough fuel for the fusion process in the core of the star and inward gravitational pull of the star’s great mass takes place, the star starts to explode. A series of nuclear reactions starts taking place after the star begins shrinking due to gravity. In the final phase of this …

Optimal Quantization For Mixtures Of Two Uniform Distributions, Eduardo Orozco

Theses and Dissertations

The basic goal of quantization for probability distribution is to reduce the number of values, which is typically uncountable, describing a probability distribution to some finite set and thus approximation of a continuous probability distribution by a discrete distribution. Mixtures of probability distributions, also known as mixed distributions, are an exciting new area for optimal quantization. In this thesis, for a mixed distribution we determine the optimal sets of n-means and the nth quantization errors for all positive integers n.

Limits Of Variationality In Full Configuration Interaction For The H2 Model System, Oscar Obed Rodriguez Vargas

Theses and Dissertations

We proposed a framework for exploring the limits of variationality in full configuration interaction (FCI) calculation of molecular electronic structure. We performed FCI calculations on the minimal basis (STO-3G) H2 model for the energy, gradient, and derivative coupling. These calculations were validated by finite difference. These quantities were recalculated with controlled injection of error in the FCI coefficient. The gradient was observed to be highly sensitive to error, while the energy and derivative coupling were robust to errors in the coefficients of nearly 10%. This study lays the groundwork for calculation of other derived quantities, such as the Hessian, adiabatic …

Absolute Power Measurements For Advanced Ligo Photon Calibrator, Francisco Llamas Villarreal

Theses and Dissertations

Since its first detection in 2015, the Light Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory has been notably recognized for the successful measurement of gravitational waves. The successful detection of gravitational-waves comes from the effort of more than a thousand scientist working in collaboration. To characterize the change in displacement of the ETMs, LIGO uses several methods of calibration. The Photon Calibrator has gained significance to the point of becoming the primary calibration tool for the Advanced LIGO detectors. Relying on photon radiation pressure to calibrate the interferometer, the photon calibrator measures the change in displacement of the ETM in relation to the power …

Flexible And Surface Modified Znsno3 Nanocubes For Enhanced Piezoelectric Power Generation And Wireless Sensory Application, Sk Md Ali Zaker Shawon

Theses and Dissertations

Piezoelectric systems and their mechanisms are held in high regard, due to their cost-effective structure and mechanical proficiency to harvest renewable energy. In the present article, we propose an aluminum-doped zinc stannate (ZnSnO3) piezoelectric nanogenerator that can be employed for the harvest of energy and sensory applications. In order to ensure and further enrich the piezoelectric mechanics and product outcome in our device, ZnSnO3 was doped with 1 wt% to 5 wt% of aluminum nanoparticles. We reported that 2 wt% of aluminum-doped ZnSnO3 showed the highest electrical output in terms of open circuit voltages and short circuit current.

The nanogenerator …

Numerical Modeling For Patch Antennas, Luis Mario Bres Castro

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will focus on creating a number of designs that will be tested in a simulation environment using an electromagnetic solver software called Computer Simulation Technology(CST) as well as we are going to develop our own model to be able to simulate more complex design due to the limitations of CST licensing. The simulations will help us optimize the parameters of gain-frequency allocation for future projects of antenna building. After doing a parametric study of a patch antenna we will develop a model for the return signal of a signal patch antenna, we will present four potential models. The …

Gupta, Ramanujan, Dyson And Ehrhart: Formulas For Partition Functions, Congruences, Cranks, And Polyhedral Geometry, Joselyne Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

We will revisit Gupta's result regarding properties of a formula for restricted partitions and generalize this. We will then use this result to prove an infinite family of congruences for a certain restricted partition function. We find and prove combinatorial witnesses, also known as cranks, for the congruences using polyhedral geometry.

Unravelling The Role Of Pgpr "Pseudomonas Fluorescens" In Semi- Arid Soils Of The Rio Grande Valley, Mandip Tamang

Theses and Dissertations

Chapter 1: In this chapter, we have provided a review on the components of rhizosphere engineering and the potential use of PGPR and its challenges to serve as an efficient component for sustainable agriculture.

Chapter 2: In this chapter, we isolated 35 different strains of a PGPR, Pseudmonas fluorescens and characterized various plant growth promoting traits such as production of ammonia, protease, Indole acitic acid (IAA), 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase (ACC) deaminase, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide (HCN), and souliblization of zinc and phosphate.

Chapter 3: In this chapter, we tested the influence of plant beneficial soil microbe, P. fluorescens, on the growth and …

An Intelligent Framework To Assess Embodied Cognition From Physical Activities In Children, Ashwin Ramesh Babu

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations

Cognition refers to "The mental actions or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses many aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as attention, working memory, response inhibition, motor functions, and more. Humans start to develop these cognitive skills right from their childhood and become fully developed through their adulthood. Impairments in these cognitive functions, specifically in Executive Functions (Higher-order cognitive functions), disrupt their everyday life leading to a troubled childhood and lifelong difficulties in family, employment, and community functioning leading to socio-economic repercussions. Identifying such impairments at the right age (early childhood) …

Towards Efficient Testing And Debugging Of Emerging Software Applications, Huadong Feng

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations

Big Data and Smart Contract are among the top emerging technologies tipped to revolutionize the way businesses and organizations are run. Testing and debugging are the most important tasks during the development of any software application. Big data and smart contract applications possess unique characteristics. There is an urgent need to develop efficient techniques for testing and debugging these applications. The first part of the dissertation addresses the problem of how to debug big data applications. When a failure occurs in big data applications, debugging at the system-level can be expensive due to the large amount of data being processed. …

The Effects Of Materials And Profiles Of Gratings On Diffraction Spectra, Brock Halling

Physics Capstone Projects

Diffraction patterns can be made either by transmitting or reflecting light from a grating which is an array of parallel lines (rulings) with a fixed periodicity. Elementary optical treatment of diffraction gratings only describes diffraction angles as a function of periodicity of the grating. However, we have observed that the profile and materials of the grating do affect the diffraction pattern. In this study, I investigated the correlation between the grating profiles obtained by scanning electron microscopy and the materials of the grating (polymer and silicon dioxide) and the spectra as a function of the diffraction angle. An optical spectrometer …

Developing Electron Beam Lithography At Nanoscale Device Laboratory, Din Pašić

Physics Capstone Projects

At the Nanoscale Device Laboratory, we can routinely create patterns with a minimum linewidth of 800 nm using photolithography. However, to create photonic devices, the pattern size must be smaller than the wavelength of visible light (400 to 800 nm). Dedicated electron beam writers can achieve a sub-10 nm linewidth, but this system is beyond our reach. In this project, we plan to use a Nanometer Pattern Generation System connected to a Quanta 650 scanning electron microscope to perform e-beam lithography. After setting up a computer to run the NPGS system, and establishing communications with the SEM, we experimented with …

Comparisons Of Mesospheric Temperatures Between 70 And 110 Km: Usu Lidar, Nasa's Timed Satellite, And The Msis2 Empirical Model, David M. Collins

Physics Capstone Projects

Earth’s atmosphere can be characterized by its temperature structure, dividing the atmosphere into natural discrete regions. The mesosphere (50 to ~100 km) has been the least studied. Rayleigh-scatter lidars (RSL) and rockets can obtain local, high-resolution measurements above one spot, while satellites looking almost horizontally obtain global measurements. These two methods of measuring atmospheric conditions are compared using the USU RSL and the SABER instrument on NASA’s TIMED satellite. These measurements were graphed to show four sets of temperatures from several sources in the atmospheric region 70 km to 110 km above USU. The results show similar temperatures for many …

Efficient Inversion Of 2.5d Electrical Resistivity Data Using The Discrete Adjoint Method, Diego Domenzain, John Bradford, Jodi Mead

Mathematics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We have developed a memory and operation-count efficient 2.5D inversion algorithm of electrical resistivity (ER) data that can handle fine discretization domains imposed by other geophysical (e.g, ground penetrating radar or seismic) data. Due to numerical stability criteria and available computational memory, joint inversion of different types of geophysical data can impose different grid discretization constraints on the model parameters. Our algorithm enables the ER data sensitivities to be directly joined with other geophysical data without the need of interpolating or coarsening the discretization. We have used the adjoint method directly in the discretized Maxwell’s steady state equation to compute …

Three Centuries Of Vegetation Change In The William & Mary College Woods Reconstructed Using Phytoliths, Timothy Terlizzi

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The College Woods, west of William & Mary’s campus, consists of ~900 acres of protected southern mixed hardwood forest. The woods surround Lake Matoaka, a former millpond established in ~1700. Despite the rich history of the area, little is known about how the dominant vegetative landcover has shifted over the last 300 years. This study set out to quantify the modern vegetation within the College Woods via the phytolith assemblages within the soil and identify shifts in the assemblages since the creation of Lake Matoaka and whether these changes are distinct from the vegetation that existed in the area before …

Do You Need A Break From Environmental Duties? Apply The Norm Activation Theory To Examine Pro Environmental Behaviors, Yanjia Yang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study aimed at examining how social environmental norms affect tourists’ pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) in the destination and home contexts by employing the focus theory of normative conduct and norm activation theory. It also tested the moderating effects of the belief of a vacation break from environmental duties and the mediating effect of personal norms in the relationships between social-environmental norms and PEBs. A total of 400 usable surveys was collected through an online survey. Both t-test and regression analysis techniques were employed to analyze the data. There were two major findings from this study. First, PEBs became weaker when …