Digital Commons Network^™

A Comparative Analysis Of Malware Written In The C And Rust Programming Languages, Meghna Koorikkattil Praveen

Theses

The use of malware as a tool for cybercrime has become increasingly prevalent in recent years, resulting in significant economic losses and security threats. Conventionally, malware is written in C/C++. However, a recent trend has been observed where other languages are being used to write malware. One such language is the Rust programming language. This thesis aims to explore the aspects of the Rust programming language that contribute to its preference for the development of malware, limitations in current analysis tools and remediation for the same. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was conducted to identify the trends of current research …

Netzero Insight: The Role Of Data Analytics And Machine Learning In Combating Climate Change, Tariq Najar, Chrissie Aldo

Theses

Countries must act urgently to achieve the SDGs and make significant progress for the planet and people by 2030. But there are some key challenges that the world must address. Climate change is one of the most significant challenges of our time, and its impacts can undermine the ability of all countries to achieve sustainable development. However, countries committed to limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre- industrial levels in the Paris Agreement. Member nations pledge to take urgent action on climate change to save the planet from global warming.

Using data analysis techniques and methodologies, such as CRISP-DM, and …

Harnessing Crispr-Cas12a And Nanotechnology For The Rapid And Accurate Detection Of Dna Viruses, Mengdi Bao

Theses

In recent years, the world has faced numerous pandemics caused by viral diseases, leading to considerable morbidity, mortality, and economic disruptions. Developing vaccines for pandemics can be a challenging task due to the rapid mutation of viruses and the significant investment of time required for their development. While real-time polymerase chain reaction and immunoassay techniques are frequently utilized for viral diagnostics, they possess inherent limitations. Therefore, there is a pressing need to rapidly and accurately identify viral infections to manage diseases effectively. This work explores the use of nanotechnology and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-associated (Cas) proteins to …

A Microchemical Analysis To Assess Contributions Of Stocked And Wild Channel Catfish (Ictalurus Punctatus) To State-Owned Lakes In Arkansas, Morgan Reeves Winstead

Theses

Channel Catfish are broadly distributed in the U.S. and are important commercially and recreationally in many rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and streams. Since they are a popular sportfish, many state-owned lakes are stocked with a variety of sizes to enhance population sizes and provide angling opportunities. The goals of this study were to determine the contributions of stocked fish, determine the fish size at stocking, and to assess the contribution of yearling and catchable sizes to the stocked percentage. Fish samples were obtained from three hatcheries and six lakes within different ecoregions across Arkansas to assess whether chemical signatures were different …

Potential For Bioaccumulation And Biotransformation Of Bifenthrin And 4, 4’-Ddt Through Sediment Exposure To Chironomus Dilutus, Eleni K. Robinson

Theses

The ecological role of chironomids has been described as an abundant and ubiquitous prey item for not only aquatic species, but terrestrial and avian species as well. Global use of pesticides in urban and agricultural applications have introduced a potential threat not only to chironomid populations, but to the individuals that prey on chironomids. Chironomids direct contact with the sediment has resulted in both legacy and current-use pesticides being detected in the individuals throughout their life cycle. The capacity for contaminant uptake and biotransformation among each midge life stage and from larvae to adults, however, is poorly understood. The lipophilic …

Multi-Species Trophic Response In Tributaries Of The Ohio River Along A Gradient Of An Invasive Planktivore, Justin Kowalski

Theses

1. Aquatic invasive species often have a gradient of abundance along connected systems as invasion occurs. Invading species effects on native species may not be apparent when the species first colonizes a new area but as abundance of the invader increases they may have detrimental effects to native ecosystems even when not fully established. 2. A gradient of Silver Carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) abundance in the Ohio River exists as invasion has been slowed by the many navigation dams that exist on the river. I examined how the isotopic niche of four native species differed along the Silver Carp gradient in …

Implementation Of Model-Free Sliding Mode Control On A Multi-Input Multi-Output System, Walker Hare

Theses

Bioinspired flight serves to balance the advantages of fixed-wing flight as well as traditional rotary systems. A flapping wing aerial system exhibits high maneuverability at low speeds like a rotary system and the higher efficiency that fixed-wing systems exhibit in forward flight. A method to actuate a flapping wing structure is using piezoelectric elements. Using flapping wings to perform aerial maneuvers and facilitate stable flight will require precise control of the piezoelectric elements and control surfaces. The focus of the research is the construction of a feedback control platform for the flapping wing aerial system. For any type of feedback …

Tourism, Mapping, Retail And Recreational Trails: A Case Study Of Connectivity Between Trails And Adjacent Downtowns In Anniston, Alabama, Usa, Jennifer Green

Theses

This study examines the estimated increase in economic impact on a geography’s local economy by creating cross-marketing efforts between expanding an established outdoor recreation trail to a closely located city downtown commerce district. This research will analyze the resulting potential rise in sales/lodging tax revenues for that city by mapping the trail and downtown district, and cross-marketing the other to users of both or either venue. Potential increase in economic impact will be estimated utilizing IMPLAN methodology by assessing the economic impact on the local economy that a percentage range of increased spending resulting from this cross-marketing effort could generate.

The Psychogeographic Relationship With Memories, Popular Music, And Identity: A Case Study From 1995-2022 Of The Grateful Dead, Margaret Lane Walton

Theses

This paper will explore sonic geography and its impact on human and cultural geography through popular music, specifically the Grateful Dead, from 1995 to 2022. This research focuses on the eventization of the band and popular music post-Jerry Garcia’s death, whereas previous research has focused primarily on the band from 1965 to 1995. The infamous psychedelic rock and roll band was widely known for the created and imagined communities that it forged over their 30-year run. Recent research on soundscapes and music’s role in the study of geography precipitated the need for more attention to music geography. This paper explores …

Potential Of Flow Energy Reduction By Coral Reef: Hydrodynamic Analysis On Acropora Species, Faisal Karim

Theses

One of the most crucial components of the ocean ecology is coral reefs. Being environmentally sustainable, natural structures like coral reefs have recently drawn a lot of attention as a means of reducing the flow energy. The absence of scientific validations on the potential of coral reefs in reducing high-energy flow limits engineering applications of coral reefs to the benefit of civilization. In this research, extensive experimental studies were carried out to investigate the capabilities of coral reefs, to reduce high-energy flows. To determine the high-energy wave reduction by coral reefs, the coral roughness coefficient along with the coral structure …

Valuation Of Asian Options In A High Volatility Market With Jumps, Zeeshan Khalid

Theses

The evaluation of financial derivatives represents a central part of financial risk management. There are many types of derivatives among other path-dependent options. In this study, we aim at valuing Asian options. They are path dependent and have several benefits. For instance, their values are habitually lower than European options. Also, an Asian option on a commodity drops the risk value close to maturity. Though, the disadvantage is that they are in general difficult to value since the distribution of the payoff is usually unknown. It is agreed in the literature that a stochastic process with a jumps model for …

Cheating Detection In Online Exams Based On Captured Video Using Deep Learning, Aysha Sultan Alkalbani

Theses

Today, e-learning has become a reality and a global trend imposed and accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are many risks and challenges related to the credibility of online exams which are of widespread concern to educational institutions around the world. Online exam system continues to gain popularity, particularly during the pandemic, due to the rapid expansion of digitalization and globalization. To protect the integrity of the examination and provide objective and fair results, cheating detection and prevention in examination systems is a must. Therefore, the main objective of this thesis is to develop an effective way of detection …

The Reproducing Kernel Method For Solving Integro-Differential And Volterra Integral Equations, Khulood Gamal Qaid

Theses

Integro-differential equations are a class of mathematical equations that involve both derivatives and integrals. They have applications in a wide range of fields, including physics, engineering, finance, and biology such as the spread of diseases, population dynamics, and the behavior of financial markets. The study of these equations requires advanced mathematical techniques, including functional analysis, approximation methods, and numerical analysis. They are a rich area of research with many open questions and challenges.
In this thesis, we will develop and implement the reproducing kernel method to solve a class of integro-differential and Volterra integral equations. We discuss both cases when …

Biohydrogen Production Of A Co-Culture Consisting Of Halophytic Cyanobacterium Phormidium Keutzingianum And Activated Sludge Bacteria Using Different Exogenous Carbon Substrates And Salt Concentrations, Maitha Mohammed Al Nuaimi

Theses

Various studies have proved the ability of different types of cyanobacteria and algae to produce hydrogen (H₂) by splitting water molecules into H₂ and oxygen (O₂) using specialized enzymes (hydrogenase and nitrogenase enzymes) through the biophotolysis process. However, the production of O₂ acts as the main process inhibitor. Several researchers studied this O₂ sensitivity and proposed effective solutions to regulate O₂ concentration. By co-culturing algae with aerobic bacteria, the consumption of the resulting oxygen could be attained and thus reducing the sensitivity of the enzyme to the evolved O₂. In …

Content Analysis Of Activities Of The Emirati Science Textbooks For The Fifth Grade In Light Of Science Process Skills, Teba Abdulazeez Al-Faiadh

Theses

Similar to several other countries, the United Arab Emirates places a high value on the use of science textbooks in the process of teaching and learning science. Therefore, the content of science textbooks must always be evaluated and analyzed in light of scientific knowledge and skills. Providing science process skills in the activities of science textbooks is essential and has a significant role in pushing students toward balanced scientific knowledge because attention to skills is a tool that enables the student to succeed in understanding the nature of science. However, based on the literature, there is a scarcity of scientific …

Unsupervised Progressive And Continual Learning Of Disentangled Representations, Zhiyuan Li

Theses

Unsupervised representation learning is an important task in machine learning that identifies and models underlying explanatory factors hidden in the observed data. In recent years, unsupervised representation learning has been attracting increasing attention for its abilities to improve interpretability, extract useful features without expert annotations, and enhance downstream tasks, which has been successful in many machine learning topics, such as Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing, and Anomaly Detection. Unsupervised representation learning has many desirable abilities, including disentangling generative factors, generalization between different domains, and incremental knowledge accumulation. However, existing works had faced two critical challenges. First, the unsupervised representation learning …

Look At The Bigger Picture: Analyzing Eye Tracking Data With Multi-Dimensional Visualization, Anjali Jogeshwar

Theses

Eye tracking has proven to be a valuable tool for a number of disciplines such as imaging science, vision science, psychology, and neurology. They have used eye-tracking to study the human visual system and to understand how humans attend to their environment for different tasks. Analyzing the gaze data obtained from eye-trackers begins with visualizing the gaze point. By monitoring gaze we can answer questions including, ‘where was the person looking?’ and ‘what image region or object was the person looking at?’ Traditional methods aimed at answering such questions from gaze data: required frame-by-frame analysis of videos, manually annotating gaze. …

Intrinsic Programmed Death Ligand 1 (Pd-L1) Role In Promoting Triple Negative Breast Cancer (Tnbc) Progression, Duaa Salem Alkaabi

Theses

This thesis is concerned with Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC), which is characterized by lack of estrogen, progesterone, and HER2 receptors expression, making targeted drugs ineffective. TNBC has a high proliferative rate, which results in a poor prognosis. Chemotherapy, the primary treatment for metastatic breast cancer, is not an ideal choice due to its toxicity towards normal cells. Therefore, Cancer-targeted therapy has been developed to improve the specificity and strength of the immune system against cancer cells. PD-L1 is an immunosuppressive protein that inactivates T cells by binding to the inhibitory receptor PD-1. The clinical use of PD-L1 blockade agents …

Understanding Environmental Art: A Case Study Of Jason Decaires Taylor's Coral Greenhouse (2019), Laura Dean Hinson

Theses

This thesis highlights the need for a new way to analyze environmental art. In the past, environmental artwork has been discussed in terms of the abstract concepts that drove their creation and the role they played in moving artists outside of the gallery space in the1960s and 70s. However, in recent years environmental artists are increasingly driven by themes of environmental conservation and preservation, using scientific research as the basis of their designs. Because of the shift in focus, developing a new way to discuss environmental art that takes into consideration the influence scientific research has on art production and …

Using Switchable Solvents For Enhanced Biodiesel Production, Eyad Abdel Rahman Sowan

Theses

This thesis presents a sustainable approach to biodiesel production using in-situ technology for direct conversion of microalgae-to-biodiesel. The proposed method operates on wet, untreated microalgae, thereby eliminating the cost/energy intensive drying and cell disruption steps. Owing to their favorable properties, the use of enzymes, specifically lipase, as a catalyst for the process was suggested over acid/base catalysts. However, the high cost of the enzyme necessitates its reuse at sustained activity for the process to be economically feasible. The use of non-toxic green solvents, such as switchable solvents, as an alternative to conventional organic solvents was a significant challenge for the …

Molecular Characterization Of Germination Of Date Palm Seeds Maintained At Microgravity In Outer Pace (International Space Station), Wesam Izzeldeen Khader

Theses

Over the past decade, the UAE has experienced unprecedented innovations in the space sector. Collaborating closely with universities and space agencies around the world, the country's efforts have advanced steadily but quietly under the public radar. The proposed research focuses on basic research to complement the UAE initiative to send date palms to Mars for future space missions. Plant growth analysis of date palm seeds was performed after maintaining at zero gravity in outer space in the International Space Station (ISS) and simultaneously under normal gravity at ground level. In this context, this work was carried out to analyze the …

Application Of E-Learning In The Smart City Projects, Asma Ghanim Al Arai

Theses

The concept of smart city is getting popular over time. It uses communication of technology and information to maximize operational organization. It shares information among the public to improve citizen welfare and the services of the government. Smart learning or E-learning is also one of the components of a smart city. Cities are the crucible hub of human innovation. Through smart cities, the community strives to integrate and cover environmental, bio, digital and financial technologies to solve urban problems. The E-learning process is based on formalized teaching, and it enhances with the help of electronic resources. Internet and computers play …

First-Principles Calculations On The Electronic Structure, Mechanical, Vibrational, And Thermal Properties Of The Ca₃Bin Antiperovskite Alloy, Reem Maher Mohamad

Theses

Antiperovskites are the counterparts of perovskites. They have diverse properties that make them physically rich and technologically relevant. In the recent years, the alkaline earth based antiperovskites, especially the ones with small semiconductor bandgap, have captured tremendous attention due to their properties which make them efficient to be used in optoelectronic and thermoelectric applications. In this thesis, we are shading light on the alkaline antiperovskite ����₃������ due to its narrow bandgap. Thus, it can be considered as a promising candidate for thermoelectric and optoelectronic applications. Specifically, it is used to harvest waste thermal energy into electricity at low …

Predicting Food Safety Compliance For Food-Serving Establishments Inspections, Huda Amin Al Zarooni

Theses

There is an enormous increase in the number of food-serving establishments with the growing urbanization, which increases the challenges for government organizations in supervising their compliance with the food safety code. Food-borne illnesses could result in severe health and economic impacts and require efficient surveillance to ensure public safety and eliminate the negative impacts. This challenge can be addressed by applying data analytics in supporting the government supervision role.

The inspections conducted by the Government generate a huge amount of data that can be leveraged by data analytics and improve the efficiency of the operations and optimize the service provided …

Using Decision-Tree Analysis For Predicting Wildfires Impact On Vegetation In Australia, Saif Al-Khuraisat

Theses

This research aims to use machine learning algorithm to predict wildfires impact on green landscape based on weather conditions while exploring factors that could influence the possibility. By utilizing the generated results, it could help decision-makers and authorities to come-up with best possible strategy to prepare for and respond to wildfires. Being prepare will work toward the economy best interest by saving unintended expenditure in time of crises also saves the cash liquidity along the economy on the long-term. For example, back in East cost of United States of America in Florida, in 1998, the estimated economical losses because of …

What Drives Larval Condition For Northern Anchovy (Engraulis Mordax)? Implications For Coastal Pelagic Species Recruitment Fluctuations And Fishery Management Practices, Michelle Robidas

Theses

Discerning the causes of population boom and bust cycles for coastal pelagic species (CPS) has been a major focus of fisheries management research for over a century. Year-class strength is contingent on larval survival and condition, which can be influenced by larval size at age and growth rate. These two factors, in turn, can be affected by maternal investment and environmental variables such as water temperature, salinity, oxygen, and chlorophyll a. We evaluated each of these factors from 127 two to eight week-old Northern Anchovy (Engraulis mordax) larvae off the coast of San Diego to San Francisco, …

Assessing Ecosystem Health Through Contaminants In The Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve, Nancy Torres

Theses

Although the Tijuana River Estuary (TRE) remains the largest, most-intact coastal wetland in Southern California, it has a history of major changes, much of this related to its location immediately north of the US / Mexico Border. One of the primary challenges is cross-border flows from the rapidly growing city of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, and the delivery of wastewater, debris, and sediment to sensitive coastal wetland ecosystems. There is a need to more fully investigate these environmental changes to assess the ecosystem health of the Tijuana River Estuary over time, especially related to pollution impacts. This can inform an …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture For Growing West Coast Venus Clams, Avery Wallace

Theses

With demand for sustainable sources of seafood on the rise, California is looking to expand aquaculture with a focus on innovative culturing methods and use of native or resident species. Therefore, this study examined the potential for culturing native North American west coast venus clams (Chione californiensis and Chione undatella) using integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA). An ITMA approach was chosen because it is a culture method that uses species from different but functionally complementary trophic levels that have been found to reduce the potential negative effects of traditional monoculture. California sea cucumber (Parastichopus californicus) and the seaweeds red ogo (Gracilaria …

Improving Cervical Spine Fracture Detection In Ct Imaging With Yolov5 Data Augmentation Strategies, Salem Ghanem Ali Al-Ali

Theses

Cervical spine fractures are the most common type of spinal injury, with over 17,730 spinal cord injuries occurring annually in the United States alone. The prevalence of spinal fractures is highest among the elderly, and these fractures are often difficult to detect due to the possibility of coexisting degenerative illnesses and osteoporosis. Computed Tomography (CT) is increasingly being used for the imaging diagnosis of adult spine fractures, replacing traditional radiography. An accurate and timely diagnosis is critical to preventing neurological degeneration and paralysis following trauma. Machine learning algorithms, such as the YOLO series developed by Ultralytics, have emerged as valuable …

Modelling The Relationship Between Personality Traits And Basic Emotions: A Multi-Modal And Affective Computing Approach, Brendan Ryan Donovan

Theses

In the field of Psychology, it has long been assumed that one’s personality traits are linked to one’s emotional states. Yet there is a scarce amount of research that has directly quantified the relationships between basic emotional states and Big Five personality traits. Most empirical research has investigated how attributes of emotional states map to a narrow selection of personality traits (Extraversion and Neuroticism) via a single modality (questionnaires). This narrow focus restricts the field’s understanding of the relationship between emotional states and personality traits.

In this research, the Personality Emotion Mapping (PEM) model was developed to map the relationships …