Science and Technology Studies Commons^™

Code For Care: Hypertension Prediction In Women Aged 18-39 Years, Kruti Sheth

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The longstanding prevalence of hypertension, often undiagnosed, poses significant risks of severe chronic and cardiovascular complications if left untreated. This study investigated the causes and underlying risks of hypertension in females aged between 18-39 years. The research questions were: (Q1.) What factors affect the occurrence of hypertension in females aged 18-39 years? (Q2.) What machine learning algorithms are suited for effectively predicting hypertension? (Q3.) How can SHAP values be leveraged to analyze the factors from model outputs? The findings are: (Q1.) Performing Feature selection using binary classification Logistic regression algorithm reveals an array of 30 most influential factors at an …

A Design Science Approach To Investigating Decentralized Identity Technology, Janelle Krupicka

Cybersecurity Undergraduate Research Showcase

The internet needs secure forms of identity authentication to function properly, but identity authentication is not a core part of the internet’s architecture. Instead, approaches to identity verification vary, often using centralized stores of identity information that are targets of cyber attacks. Decentralized identity is a secure way to manage identity online that puts users’ identities in their own hands and that has the potential to become a core part of cybersecurity. However, decentralized identity technology is new and continually evolving, which makes implementing this technology in an organizational setting challenging. This paper suggests that, in the future, decentralized identity …

What Does One Billion Dollars Look Like?: Visualizing Extreme Wealth, William Mahoney Luckman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The word “billion” is a mathematical abstraction related to “big,” but it is difficult to understand the vast difference in value between one million and one billion; even harder to understand the vast difference in purchasing power between one billion dollars, and the average U.S. yearly income. Perhaps most difficult to conceive of is what that purchasing power and huge mass of capital translates to in terms of power. This project blends design, text, facts, and figures into an interactive narrative website that helps the user better understand their position in relation to extreme wealth: https://whatdoesonebilliondollarslooklike.website/

The site incorporates …

Executive Order On The Safe, Secure, And Trustworthy Development And Use Of Artificial Intelligence, Joseph R. Biden

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Section 1. Purpose. Artificial intelligence (AI) holds extraordinary potential for both promise and peril. Responsible AI use has the potential to help solve urgent challenges while making our world more prosperous, productive, innovative, and secure. At the same time, irresponsible use could exacerbate societal harms such as fraud, discrimination, bias, and disinformation; displace and disempower workers; stifle competition; and pose risks to national security. Harnessing AI for good and realizing its myriad benefits requires mitigating its substantial risks. This endeavor demands a society-wide effort that includes government, the private sector, academia, and civil society.

My Administration places the highest urgency …

Anatoview: Using Interactive 3d Visualizations With Augmented Reality Support For Laypersons’ Medical Education In Informed Consent Processes, Michelle Chen

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

AnatoView is an interactive multimedia educational application that visualizes medical procedures in three-dimensional (3D), augmented reality (AR) space. By providing visual and spatial information of medical procedures, AnatoView acts as a learning supplement for laypersons/patients in informed consent (IC) processes — wherein instructional content is traditionally limited to purely spoken explanations that lead to poor patient comprehension. We design a mixed study and conduct a randomized, controlled trial with 15 laypersons as participants: administering a traditional IC process to a control group, and an IC process supplemented by the use of AnatoView to experimental groups. As a primary outcome, medical …

Anonymity And Gender Effects On Online Trolling And Cybervictimization, Gang Lee, Annalyssia Soonah

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the anonymity of the internet and gender differences in online trolling and cybervictimization. A sample of 151 college students attending a southeastern university completed a survey to assess their internet activities and online trolling and cybervictimization. Multivariate analyses of logistic regression and ordinary least squares regression were used to analyze online trolling and cybervictimization. The results indicated that the anonymity measure was not a significant predictor of online trolling and cybervictimization. Female students were less likely than male students to engage in online trolling, but there was no gender …

The Dilemma Of Disclosure: Designing Interpersonal Informatics Tools For Mood Tracking, Daniel Earl Westphal

Computer Science Senior Theses

Mental health is a serious issue that affects people of all ages, but is especially prevalent amongst college age youth. In the 2020-2021 school year, researchers found that around 60% of college students met the criteria for at least one mental health condition, such as major depression or generalized anxiety disorder. Many digital interventions have been innovated in order to help address this issue. These range in type and functionality from teletherapy to medication tracking applications. Some of these digital interventions include social features that allow users to interact with other users, friends, family, or doctors; however, having social features …

Analyzing Motivation And Sense Of Belonging Belonging In Cs1 Review Sessions, Cory Longenecker

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

The Computer Science Department at James Madison University has a Teaching Assistant program which aims to help students succeed in early-level Computer Science courses. Part of this program is a review session, the Fourth Hour, which provides students extra help on the concepts taught each week in class. Historically, attendance at this review session has been low. Because of this, the study aimed to increase attendance by motivating students through interventions, primarily offering quiz retakes to students who attended. Additionally, this study looked at the reported sense of belonging for participants who attended.

We made three conclusions from survey data …

Predicting The Pebcak: A Quantitative Analysis Of How Cybersecurity Education, Literacy, And Awareness Affect Individual Preparedness., Annie Goodman

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This essay explores the relationship between individuals' cybersecurity education, literacy, awareness, and preparedness. While cybersecurity is often associated with complex hacking scenarios, the majority of data breaches and cyber-attacks result from individuals inadvertently falling prey to phishing emails and malware. The lack of standardized education and training in cybersecurity, coupled with the rapid expansion of technology diversity, raises concerns about individuals' cybersecurity preparedness. As individuals are the first line of defense and the weakest link in cybersecurity, understanding the influence of education, literacy, and awareness on their adherence to best practices is crucial. This work aims to survey a diverse …

Counterventions: A Reparative Reflection On Interventionist Hci, Rua Mae Williams, Louanne E. Boyd, Juan E. Gilbert

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Research in HCI applied to clinical interventions relies on normative assumptions about which bodies and minds are healthy, valuable, and desirable. To disrupt this normalizing drive in HCI, we define a “counterventional approach” to intervention technology design informed by critical scholarship and community perspectives. This approach is meant to unsettle normative assumptions of intervention as urgent, necessary, and curative. We begin with a historical overview of intervention in HCI and its critics. Then, through reparative readings of past HCI projects in autism intervention, we illustrate the emergent principles of a counterventional approach and how it may manifest research outcomes that …

Some Legal And Practical Challenges In The Investigation Of Cybercrime, Ritz Carr

Cybersecurity Undergraduate Research Showcase

According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), in 2021, the United States lost around $6.9 billion to cybercrime. In 2022, that number grew to over $10.2 billion (IC3, 2022). In one of many efforts to combat cybercrimes, at least 40 states “introduced or considered more than 250 bills or resolutions that deal significantly with cybersecurity” with 24 states officially enacting a total of 41 bills (National Conference on State Legislatures, 2022).

The world of cybercrime evolves each day. Nevertheless, challenges arise when we investigate and prosecute cybercrime, which will be examined in the following collection of essays that highlight …

A Graphical User Interface Using Spatiotemporal Interpolation To Determine Fine Particulate Matter Values In The United States, Kelly M. Entrekin

Honors College Theses

Fine particulate matter or PM2.5 can be described as a pollution particle that has a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or smaller. These pollution particle values are measured by monitoring sites installed across the United States throughout the year. While these values are helpful, a lot of areas are not accounted for as scientists are not able to measure all of the United States. Some of these unmeasured regions could be reaching high PM2.5 values over time without being aware of it. These high values can be dangerous by causing or worsening health conditions, such as cardiovascular and lung diseases. Within …

Para Cima Y Pa’ Abajo: Building Bridges Between Hci Research In Latin America And In The Global North, Pedro Reynolds-Cuéllar, Marisol Wong-Villacres, Karla A. Badillo-Urquiola, Mayra Donaji Barrera-Machuca, Franceli L. Cibrian, Marianela Ciolfi Felice, Carolina Fuentes, Laura Sanely Gaytán-Lugo, Vivian Genaro Motti, Monica Perusquía-Hernández, Oscar A. Lemus

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

The Human-computer Interaction (HCI) community has the opportunity to foster the integration of research practices across the Global South and North to begin overcoming colonial relationships. In this paper, we focus on the case of Latin America (LATAM), where initiatives to increase the representation of HCI practitioners lack a consolidated understanding of the practices they employ, the factors that influence them, and the challenges that practitioners face. To address this knowledge gap, we employ a mixed-methods approach, comprising a survey (66 respondents) and in-depth interviews (19 interviewees). Our analyses characterize a set of research perspectives on how HCI is practiced …

Chatgpt As Metamorphosis Designer For The Future Of Artificial Intelligence (Ai): A Conceptual Investigation, Amarjit Kumar Singh (Library Assistant), Dr. Pankaj Mathur (Deputy Librarian)

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this research paper is to explore ChatGPT’s potential as an innovative designer tool for the future development of artificial intelligence. Specifically, this conceptual investigation aims to analyze ChatGPT’s capabilities as a tool for designing and developing near about human intelligent systems for futuristic used and developed in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Also with the helps of this paper, researchers are analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of ChatGPT as a tool, and identify possible areas for improvement in its development and implementation. This investigation focused on the various features and functions of ChatGPT that …

Regulating Machine Learning: The Challenge Of Heterogeneity, Cary Coglianese

All Faculty Scholarship

Machine learning, or artificial intelligence, refers to a vast array of different algorithms that are being put to highly varied uses, including in transportation, medicine, social media, marketing, and many other settings. Not only do machine-learning algorithms vary widely across their types and uses, but they are evolving constantly. Even the same algorithm can perform quite differently over time as it is fed new data. Due to the staggering heterogeneity of these algorithms, multiple regulatory agencies will be needed to regulate the use of machine learning, each within their own discrete area of specialization. Even these specialized expert agencies, though, …

Alpha Phi-Shing Fraternity: Phishing Assessment In A Higher Education Institution, Marco Casagrande, Mauro Conti, Monica Fedeli, Eleonora Losiouk

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

Phishing is a common social engineering attack aimed to steal personal information. Universities attract phishing attacks because: 1) they store employees and students sensitive data, 2) they save confidential documents, 3) their infrastructures often lack security. In this paper, we showcase a phishing assessment at the University of Redacted aimed to identify the people, and the features of such people, that are more susceptible to phishing attacks. We delivered phishing emails to 1.508 subjects in three separate batches, collecting a clickrate equal to 30%, 11% and 13%, respectively. We considered several features (i.e., age, gender, role, working/studying field, email template) …

Finding Forensic Evidence In The Operating System's Graphical User Interface, Edward X. Wilson Mr.

LSU Master's Theses

A branch of cyber security known as memory forensics focuses on extracting meaningful evidence from system memory. This analysis is often referred to as volatile memory analysis, and is generally performed on memory captures acquired from target systems. Inside of a memory capture is the complete state of a system under investigation, including the contents of currently running as well as previously executed applications. Analysis of this data can reveal a significant amount of activity that occurred on a system since the last reboot. For this research, the Windows operating system is targeted. In particular, the graphical user interface component …

Robots Still Outnumber Humans In Web Archives In 2019, But Less Than In 2012, Himarsha R. Jayanetti, Kritika Garg, Sawood Alam, Michael L. Nelson, Michele C. Weigle

College of Sciences Posters

To identify robots and human users in web archives, we conducted a study using the access logs from the Internet Archive’s (IA) Wayback Machine in 2012 (IA2012), 2015 (IA2015), and 2019 (IA2019), and the Portuguese Web Archive (PT) in 2019 (PT2019). We identified user sessions in the access logs and classified them as human or robot based on their browsing behavior. In 2013, AlNoamany et al. [1] studied the user access patterns using IA access logs from 2012. They established four web archive user access patterns: single-page access (Dip), access to the same page at multiple archive times (Dive), access …

The Evolution Of Ai On The Commercial Flight Deck: Finding Balance Between Efficiency And Safety While Maintaining The Integrity Of Operator Trust, Mark Miller, Sam Holley, Leila Halawi

Publications

As artificial intelligence (AI) seeks to improve modern society, the commercial aviation industry offers a significant opportunity. Although many parts of commercial aviation including maintenance, the ramp, and air traffic control show promise to integrate AI, the highly computerized digital flight deck (DFD) could be challenging. The researchers seek to understand what role AI could provide going forward by assessing AI evolution on the commercial flight deck over the past 50 years. A modified SHELL diagram is used to complete a Human Factors (HF) analysis of the early use for AI on the commercial flight deck through introduction of the …

The Intersections Among Science, Technology, Policy And Law: In Between Truth And Justice, Paolo Davide Farah, Justo Corti Varela

Book Chapters

Different visions on the interaction between science, technology, policy and law have been presented. As common axe, we can detect the continuous search for truth and justice. Science and Law as social constructs, the distinction between truths and opinions through procedural method based on evidence and rationality, or how natural science “things” became facts, and consequently “truth”, are examples of this search. The evidence-gathering process that integrates scientific evidence into trial (sometimes by procedure and other times by a more substantive approach) is another possible approach. Of course, that the game of mutual influence among the four elements creates contradictions …

Science, Technology, Society, And Law, Paolo Davide Farah, Justo Corti Varela

Book Chapters

Traditionally, science and technology have been granted as sources of knowledge and objective truth. However, much more recently, they are also seen as human activities, conducted in a social environment. This new approach focuses on the intersections between science, technology and society, and particularly their regulation by the law. Concerns on how to best regulate the interaction come up in modern societies, and when either their use or their impacts are global, international law and international organizations become involved. The impact of the fourfold relation is so high that science and technology are seen as one of the reasons for …

Artificial Intelligence And Contract Formation: Back To Contract As Bargain?, John Linarelli

Book Chapters

Some say AI is advancing quickly. ChatGPT, Bard, Bing’s AI, LaMDA, and other recent advances are remarkable, but they are talkers not doers. Advances toward some kind of robust agency for AI is, however, coming. Humans and their law must prepare for it. This chapter addresses this preparation from the standpoint of contract law and contract practices. An AI agent that can participate as a contracting agent, in a philosophical or psychological sense, with humans in the formation of a con-tract will have to have the following properties: (1) AI will need the cognitive functions to act with intention and …

The Interlinkages Science-Technology-Law: Information And Communication Society, Knowledge-Based Economy And The Rule Of Law, Giovanni Bombelli, Paolo Davide Farah

Book Chapters

This chapter focuses on the circular and complex relationship between science, technology, society, and law. The technology/society connection focuses on the democratic deficit issue. The democratic deficit would be a consequence of the lack of adaptability of western democracy to complex (information) societies, where technology (and the increasing access to data that it permits) is separating the connection between information and knowledge (as well as the classical legitimacy couple of democracy-truth) moving these societies towards a technocracy. On one hand, the technology-law circle deals with the progressive reduction of law to a normative technique (since the law is always late …

Blockchain Securities Issues: Decentralized Identity System With Key Management Perspective, Olalekan O. Adaramola

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Blockchain was created many years ago to solve the problems of data transfer Integrity, several years later the issues persist. Blockchain securities are one of the most important considerations to be investigated, and data integrity is about ensuring the accuracy and validity of messages such that when they are read, they are the same as when they were first written. It is of the opinion that passing information across from one person to another cannot be the same as it was first said at the onset. Our work investigated Blockchain security issues, studying Integrity emanating from transactions across the blocks …

Path Choice Of Algorithm Intellectual Property Protection, Yulu Jin, Youdan Xiao

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Protection of algorithm by intellectual property is a powerful way to stimulate innovation and regulate the risk of the algorithm. Algorithm that can be protected by intellectual property right is the program algorithm, which is compiled in computer language, in the form of coded instruction sequence, run by the computer and produce independent rational value results. The article is combed out that there are drawbacks to the traditional path of IP to protect program algorithms:it has conflict between program algorithm and copyright law system; the trade secret path is at odds with program algorithmic governance; and program algorithm can hardly …

A Qualitative Look Into Repair Practices, Jumana Labib

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

This research poster is based on a working research paper which moves beyond the traditional scope of repair and examines the Right to Repair movement from a smaller, more personal lens by detailing the 6 categorical impediments as dubbed by Dr. Alissa Centivany (design, law, economic/business strategy, material asymmetry, informational asymmetry, and social impediments) have continuously inhibited repair and affected repair practices, which has consequently had larger implications (environmental, economic, social, etc.) on ourselves, our objects, and our world. The poster builds upon my research from last year (see "The Right to Repair: (Re)building a better future"), this time pulling …

Moving Toward Personalized Law, Cary Coglianese

All Faculty Scholarship

Rules operate as a tool of governance by making generalizations, thereby cutting down on government officials’ need to make individual determinations. But because they are generalizations, rules can result in inefficient or perverse outcomes due to their over- and under-inclusiveness. With the aid of advances in machine-learning algorithms, however, it is becoming increasingly possible to imagine governments shifting away from a predominant reliance on general rules and instead moving toward increased reliance on precise individual determinations—or on “personalized law,” to use the term Omri Ben-Shahar and Ariel Porat use in the title of their 2021 book. Among the various technological, …

Usability Of Health-Related Websites By Filipino-American Adults And Nursing Informatics Experts, Kathleen Begonia

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Filipino-Americans are an understudied minority group with high prevalence and mortality from chronic conditions, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Facing barriers to care and lack of culturally appropriate health resources, they frequently use the internet to obtain health information. It is unknown whether they perceive health-related websites to be useful or easy to use because there are no published usability studies involving this population. Using the Technology Acceptance Model as a theoretical framework, this study investigated the difference between website design ratings by experts and the perceptions of Filipino-American users to determine if usability guidelines influenced the perceived ease …

Algorithm Vs. Algorithm, Cary Coglianese, Alicia Lai

All Faculty Scholarship

Critics raise alarm bells about governmental use of digital algorithms, charging that they are too complex, inscrutable, and prone to bias. A realistic assessment of digital algorithms, though, must acknowledge that government is already driven by algorithms of arguably greater complexity and potential for abuse: the algorithms implicit in human decision-making. The human brain operates algorithmically through complex neural networks. And when humans make collective decisions, they operate via algorithms too—those reflected in legislative, judicial, and administrative processes. Yet these human algorithms undeniably fail and are far from transparent. On an individual level, human decision-making suffers from memory limitations, fatigue, …

More Amazon Than Mafia: Analysing A Ddos Stresser Service As Organised Cybercrime, Roberto Musotto, David S. Wall

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020, The Author(s). The internet mafia trope has shaped our knowledge about organised crime groups online, yet the evidence is largely speculative and the logic often flawed. This paper adds to current knowledge by exploring the development, operation and demise of an online criminal group as a case study. In this article we analyse a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) stresser (also known as booter) which sells its services online to enable offenders to launch attacks. Using Social Network Analysis to explore the service operations and payment systems, our findings show a central business model that is similar to …