Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Rattus Norvegicus As A Biological Detector Of Clandestine Remains And The Use Of Ultrasonic Vocalizations As A Locating Mechanism, Gabrielle M. Johnston

Master's Theses

In investigations, locating missing persons and clandestine remains are imperative. One way that first responder and police agencies can search for the remains is by using cadaver dogs as biological detectors. Cadaver dogs are typically used due to their olfactory sensitivity and ability to detect low concentrations of volatile organic compounds produced by biological remains. Cadaver dogs are typically chosen for their stamina, agility, and olfactory sensitivity. However, what is not taken into account often is the size of the animal and the expense of maintaining and training the animal. Cadaver dogs are typically large breeds that cannot fit in …

Trace Dna Detection Using Diamond Dye: A Recovery Technique To Yield More Dna, Leah Davis

Master's Theses

This study aspires to find a new screening approach to trace DNA recovery techniques to yield a higher quantity of trace DNA from larger items of evidence. It takes the path of visualizing trace DNA on items of evidence with potential DNA so analysts can swab a more localized area rather than attempting to recover trace DNA through the general swabbing technique currently used for trace DNA recovery. The first and second parts consisted of observing trace DNA interaction with Diamond Dye on porous and non-porous surfaces.

The third part involved applying the Diamond Dye solution by spraying it onto …

Post Pandemic Cyberbiosecurity Threats From Terrorist Groups, Haley D. Dodge

Master's Theses

The research in this thesis explored the research question: Are United States (US) health systems accessible to cyber-bio terrorist attacks post-pandemic, within the context of the emerging discipline of cyberbiosecurity? Key findings of the analysis demonstrated how US health systems are more accessible to cyber-bio terrorist attacks specifically from cyber hacking groups based on the increasing sophistication of their cyber capabilities and the lack of cyber protection for biological systems. The concept of cyberbiosecurity was first introduced in 2018 by researchers exploring the converging threat landscape of the cyber and biology domains. As biology is growing more dependent upon vulnerable …

Mining Bitcoin To Avoid Sanctions, Tyler C. Lubin

Master's Theses

Though the world’s first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, was introduced over a decade ago, it was not until recently that it became a mainstream subject. While cryptocurrencies offer many advantages, a potential downside for governments, is that no central bank controls the monetary policy and new coins can be mined by anyone anywhere in the world. Governments have always been deeply involved with how a their countries’ currency is ran and the policies they create are meant to keep a currencies’ value stable and make sure other factors like inflation is under control. Even though as of 2021, there were well over …

The Affect Of Globalization On Terrorism, Philip R. Passante

Master's Theses

This thesis proposal will dive into the concept of terrorism and how it is an act of force and has proven to be detrimental to the modern world. In addition, this thesis will analyze the concept of terrorism as well as the rationale behind it. It is important to understand and study this as terrorism is a complex entity made up of different themes. The concentration of this thesis will highlight how globalization has affected the phenomena of terrorism in the past, present, and ultimately the future. Globalization and terrorism have a relationship that many scholars and researchers have noticed. …

Adaptive Discounting In Reinforcement Learning, Milan Zinzuvadiya

Master's Theses

In Markov Decision Process (MDP) models of sequential decision-making, it is common practice to account for temporal discounting by incorporating a constant discount factor. While the effectiveness of fixed-rate discounting in various Reinforcement Learning (RL) settings is well-established, the efficiency of this scheme has been questioned in recent studies. Another notable shortcoming of fixed-rate discounting stems from abstracting away the experiential information of the agent, which is shown to be a significant component of delay discounting in human cognition. To address this issue, this thesis proposes a novel method for adaptive discounting entitled State-wise Adaptive Discounting from Experience (SADE). This …

A Machine Learning Technology For Rapid Detection Of Carbon Nanotubes/Dna Hybridization In Biosensor Healthcare Applications, Steven K. Ang

Master's Theses

In molecular biology, the term “DNA hybridization” generally refers to the process of forming a double stranded nucleic acid from joining two complementary strands of DNA. The degree of genetic similarity of the DNA resulting from hybridization can be detected ei ther by using the chemical characteristics of DNA samples or by utilizing reliable biosensors which transform the chemical characteristics into a source of electrical measurements. In past research about such sensors, known as DNA Hybridization Detection Systems, the thermal and electrical characteristics of carbon nanotubes are utilized to detect whether hybridization takes place or not. However, human interpretation of …