Digital Commons Network^™

Content Subversion Against 1 Information-Based Systems, Junjie Xiong, Ian Markwood, Dakun Shen, Yao Liu, Zhuo Lu

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

We present a novel class of content subversion attacks against information-based services, causing documents to appear to humans dissimilar to the underlying content extracted by information-based services. We demonstrate the significant impact of these attacks on real-world systems through five distinct variants. Our first attack allows academic paper writers and reviewers to collude via subverting the automatic reviewer assignment systems in current use by academic conferences including INFOCOM, which we reproduced. Our second attack renders ineffective plagiarism detection software, particularly Turnitin, targeting specific small plagiarism similarity scores to appear natural and evade detection. In our third attack, we place masked …

Message From Workshop Chairs, Sushil K. Prasad, Srishti Srivastava, Satish Puri, David Bunde, Shubbhi Taneja, Buddhi Ashan Mallika Kankanamalage

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Real-Time Testbed For Studying Cyberattacks And Defense In Der-Integrated Smart Inverter Systems, M. Maliha, A. Oluyomi, M. Booge, S. Bhattacharjee, N. Braasch, P. Gomez, Sajal K. Das

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, we propose a Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation testbed suitable for the implementation and testing of realistic cyberattacks on grid-tied smart inverter systems integrated with Distributed Energy Resources (DER) that use the Distributed Network Protocol-3 (DNP3) protocol for communications between grid components. Specifically, our testbed combines a Real-Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) NovaCor device, outfitted with GNETx2 network interface cards, a grid-tied DER topology implemented via the RTDS software package RSCAD, and a custom virtual network that emulates a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacker. The MITM attacker captures DNP3 traffic and falsifies telemetry data in DNP3 packets to trigger unwarranted commands from …

Grace-Fl: Green Resource-Aware Communication-Efficient Federated Learning, Dipanwita Thakur, Antonella Guzzo, Giancarlo Fortino, Sajal K. Das

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Federated Learning (FL) enables collaborative model training across distributed clients while preserving data privacy, but its deployment on resource-constrained devices is hindered by high communication overhead, inefficient energy usage, and poor convergence under non-IID data distributions. To address these challenges, we propose GRACE-FL: a Green Resource-Aware Communication-Efficient Federated Learning framework that explicitly incorporates device energy capacity into training. Each client adapts its learning rate, number of local epochs, and gradient quantization bit-width based on its available energy, allowing high-capacity devices to sustain more intensive training while low-capacity devices operate with lighter configurations. A novel energy-weighted aggregation strategy ensures that clients …

Alertble: Alert Workzone Hazards Using Hybrid Filtering And Machine-Learning-Enabled Ble, Samuel Akinyede, Sejun Song

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Collision hazard detection in industrial work zones faces challenges from signal instability, mobility-induced fluctuations, and nonline-of-sight (NLOS) conditions. While Bluetooth low energy (BLE) offers cost-effective proximity sensing, its received signal strength indicator (RSSI) variability - fluctuating by ±10 dBm even at fixed distances - limits reliability in safety-critical applications. This article presents AlertBLE, a hybrid BLE-based hazard detection system that combines extended Kalman filter (EKF) and adaptive moving average (AMA) algorithms to achieve up to 94% RSSI variance reduction in static NLOS conditions. The system introduces speed-aware safety thresholds based on reaction time and braking distance models, dynamically expanding hazard …

Should Hate Speech Be Criminalized? Lessons From The Canadian Experience In R V. Zundel And R V. Keegstra, Kenneth Grad

FIU Law Review

There is a global trend toward increased use of criminal law to combat hate speech. In assessing this trend, one should be mindful of the experience of countries that have long had criminal laws targeting harmful expression. Canada is one such country. Using the leading Canadian cases of R v. Zundel and R v. Keegstra, this article argues that the Canadian experience suggests the criminal law is a flawed mechanism for countering harmful expression. This is so for at least three reasons. First, hate-speech prosecutions may undermine the group dignity and sense of inclusion of minority groups. Second, criminal laws …

Confronting The Challenges Of Regulating Artificial Intelligence, Amy B. Cyphert

FIU Law Review

Public opinion polls conclude that the American public is in favor of regulating artificial intelligence (“AI”), and many technology companies publicly claim that they would welcome regulation. And yet the United States has struggled to enact federal comprehensive AI regulations beyond a short-lived Executive Order. Why? Part I of this Article explains why regulating AI is so difficult, focusing on six key reasons: AI is a global issue; AI is not one discrete issue; AI is developing at a speed that is unprecedented; lawmakers largely lack the technical expertise effective AI regulation requires; the stakes of getting the regulation wrong …

Nevada’S Blockchain Gamble: Can A State Embracing Web3 Technology Lead Probate Courts Into The Digital Age?, Ariel Sweeney

FIU Law Review

Probate stands as a bastion of legal formalism, seemingly resistant to the transformative currents of digital innovation that have swept through other domains of American law. While financial transactions, real property conveyances, and contract execution have increasingly begun exploring the use of Web3 technologies such as blockchain and smart contracts, estate and probate law remain tethered to paper-based procedures and rigid execution requirements. Nevada was the first state to provide legal support for Web3 technology, amending its Uniform Electronic Transactions Act statutes in 2017 to recognize blockchain-based transactions as valid and judicially enforceable. Yet despite this progressive legislative framework, the …

Electrochemically Active Molybdenum Phosphate With Open-Framework Structure, Sutapa Bhattacharya, Milad Aghayi-Anaraki, Nikolay Gerasimchuk, Steven P. Kelley, Amitava Choudhury

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

Somewhat less investigated, lithium ion containing molybdenum phosphate compounds are synthesized via simple template free hydrothermal method. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD) study reveals that the compounds Li_0.89Mo₂O_1.89F_0.11(PO₄)2(H₂PO₄)·xH₂O (x ≈1) and Li₃Mo₂O₂(PO₄)₃·xH₂O (x ≈1) crystallize in monoclinic C2/m and C2/c space group, respectively. The structures are built of alternate corner-sharing of MoO₆ octahedra and PO₄ tetrahedra forming layers, which are pillared by phosphate groups creating a 3D framework with channels. These …

Atomistic Mechanisms Of Ti3alc2 Etching: Oxidation, Surface Stability, And Selectivity, Valentina Nesterova, Ana Maria Stratulat, Walter Malone, Vadym Mochalin, Majid Beidaghi, Konstantin Klyukin

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

Mechanisms governing MAX-phase etching set the properties and stability of resulting MXenes, yet the details of this complex process remain poorly understood. Combining thermodynamic analysis of surface chemistries with ab initio molecular dynamics and enhanced free-energy sampling, we directly model elementary steps at the MAX/etching solution interface. We find that purely thermodynamic analysis overestimates etching selectivity, which is governed by the kinetics of elementary reaction steps. Our calculations reveal that initial exposure to water drives localized, thermodynamically favored edge oxidation that seeds MXene-like terminations into the uppermost layers of Ti₃AlC₂ with oxygen occupying the interlayer space between …

Impact Of Surface And Physical Property On Multiphase Flow In Sealed Vessel: Liquid Dropdown Performance, Mehedi Hasan Tusar, Palash K. Bhowmik, Kazuma Kobayashi, Syed Bahauddin Alam, Shoaib Usman

Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study explores multi-phase (i.e., liquid-gas) and multi-fluid (i.e., air-water, and water-silicone oil) flow-pattern and flow-blockage physics phenomena for wall wettability conditions ranging from superhydrophilic to superhydrophobic cases in sealed vessels utilizing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation tools and volume-of-fluid (VOF) method with sharp interface modeling. Detailed modeling and simulation (M&S) of such physics phenomena—in which liquid (e.g., water) stands over top of gas (e.g., air or steam) in a closed channel and exhibited flow blockage, flow reversal related challenges—are pivotal for design, analysis, and qualification of component-level (e.g., heat pipes, heat exchangers) to system-level (e.g., emergency core cooling systems …

Joint 3d Beamforming-And-Trajectory Design For Uav-Satellite Uplink Covert Communication, Jihong Yu, Yuting Cai, Shihao Yan, Yun Li, Jingjing Wang, Jiahao Liu, Jianping An

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In this paper,we study uplink covert communication in a space-air system,where an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) transmits sensitive data to a Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite while preventing the transmission action from being discovered by a warden. We derive the optimal decision threshold of the warden. We investigate the 3-dimensional (3D) beamformer and 3D trajectory design for the transmitter UAV against this optimum warden to maximize the covert transmission rate in the presence of imperfect channel state information and uncertain noise. Due to the non-convex structure and dependence between beamforming vectors and locations of the transmitter UAV,we develop a decoupling …

System Dynamics With Insight Maker, Steven D'Alessandro, Fons Wijnhoven

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This book offers a practical, model-driven pathway for reasoning about uncertain futures in business and public policy using system dynamics with Insight Maker. It begins by motivating why historical data alone often fail to predict social change, and it introduces the core language of system dynamics—stocks, flows, feedbacks, delays, and auxiliary variables—alongside the complementary use of agent-based modeling. Through business-relevant cases (e.g., park management trade-offs, epidemic–economy interactions, and industry competition), the book demonstrates how non-linear structure generates counter-intuitive dynamics, why scenario analysis is essential, and how to translate causal loop diagrams into stock-and-flow simulations. Readers are guided step-by-step to build, …

Developing Memory And Understanding Skills For Subject-Specific Knowledge Processing And To Face High-Stakes Exams: A Case Study, Jabbar Al Muzzamil Fareen

Journal of Educational and Psychological Studies

University students possess different levels of language and cognitive abilities in gaining their subject knowledge and face tremendous challenges to get through the exams in distinction. The present education system expects the students to possess excellent subject knowledge and outstanding results in their exams. In light of this context, this paper attempts to address how students are engrossed in learning difficulties while subject knowledge processing and facing their examinations. Qualitative case study approach has been undertaken to analyze the language and cognitive skills of the students in memory processing of their subject knowledge to face the exams. Their language learning …

Corporate Scenarios: Drawing Lessons From History, Madison Condon

Faculty Scholarship

As corporations are increasingly pressed to reveal information about their exposure to climate-related risks, they are often asked to undertake and disclose the outcome of “scenario analysis.” In this exercise, corporations, including financial institutions, examine how their business would fare under different pathways the future may take. One oft-used scenario, for example, is the International Energy Agency’s “Net-Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Energy Sector.” This Essay presents a history of the use of scenarios as a corporate planning tool, particularly in the oil industry, arguing that it is key for understanding our present moment and the role of …

The Complex And Marginalized Experiences Of Bipoc Trafficked Women: An Examination Of Disabilities, Aces, Discrimination, And Racism, Jacquelyn C. A. Meshelemiah, Fabian Arroyo Rojas, Hannah Ruth Steinke, Marlene Carson, Justin A. Haegele

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine the lived experiences and multiple identities of disabled BIPOC trafficked women. The findings from this study help to identify a carousel of victimization experienced by disabled BIPOC trafficked women, starting with adverse childhood experiences, onto trafficking victimization that differed between Black and White women, and later while seeking services. These findings highlight the need for providers and researchers to think beyond monolithic identities and consider the intersecting ways in which various forms of oppression (ableism and racism) influence the experiences of disabled trafficked BIPOC women.

Toward Embodied Navigation Through Vision And Language, Muraleekrishna Gopinathan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Embodied AI is a challenging but exciting field in which a robot learns to interact with human-living spaces to perform various tasks. This thesis studies the embodied navigation problem in which a robotic agent navigates in a previously unseen indoor environment based on a challenging task. In particular, the Vision-and-Language Navigation (VLN) task requires a robot to navigate based on a descriptive human-language instruction. This thesis aims to improve VLN agents on four key aspects - their understanding of the environment, training via additional data, correcting navigational errors, and predicting the layout of the environment for better planning.

First, we …

The Rise Of Women In Mining - How To Improve Inclusion And Diversity Through Organisational Programs, Ashley Mcgrath

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The inclusion and diversity (I&D) of women has become a priority for organisations due to the positive association with business performance and rising expectations of employees and shareholders for fair outcomes for all genders. Improving the I&D of women is also being driven by the evolving Australian legal framework which has heightened the responsibility of organisations regarding psychological safety and the prevention of sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination. Companies operating in male dominated industries in Western Australia (WA) are under particular pressure due to lagging performance in addressing equity issues at a state level. Existing research correlates the I&D of …

Embodied Ai For Challenging Rearrangement Tasks In The Context Of Service And Assistive Robots, Mariia Khan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Embodied AI explores intelligent agents that learn through interaction with their environment, aiming to replicate human-like learning processes. Achieving this requires agents capable of understanding a scene via various sensors, reasoning about their actions, and reacting accordingly. These abilities are necessary for service domestic robots to assist humans in their day-to-day activities. Embodied AI tasks can include but are not limited to: visual exploration, visual navigation, instruction following and embodied question answering, which typically consider static (unchanging) environments, where objects do not move over time. This thesis addresses one of the most challenging Embodied AI tasks – visual room rearrangement, …

Anomaly Detection Of Seasonal Vessel Activity, Travis Rybicki

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Monitoring maritime traffic is essential for ensuring the safety of vessels, safeguarding transported goods or persons, and preventing illicit or hazardous activity at sea. Increasingly, researchers have explored data-driven approaches to model expected vessel behaviour and detect deviations or anomalies. These anomalies—such as course deviations, unauthorised area entries, or unexpected operational patterns—can indicate emergencies, regulatory breaches, or unlawful intent. Data broadcast by vessels provides a valuable resource for such analyses; however, the inherent complexity and context-dependency of maritime behaviour present persistent modelling challenges. One critical yet underutilised factor in this context is seasonality. For certain vessel types, for example, fishing …

Estimating The Carbon Footprint Of Sheep Production In Western Australia, Tafesse Estifanos, Christophe D'Abbadie, Johnny Machon, Amir Abadi Abadi Ghadim, Gus Manatsa, Paul Mattingley, Ross Kingwell, Kevin Foster

Farm Systems and Economics published reports

Western Australia’s broadacre mixed farming systems combine cropping and sheep production and are the largest component of the state’s agricultural sector. The south west Western Australia (WA) agricultural area hosts about 98% of the state's sheep flock. The sheep industry contributed $1.5 billion to the state’s economy in 2021-22 and accounts for about a quarter of on-farm greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Most sheep industry emissions (over 80%) come from methane produced by the sheep. Despite this environmental impact, only 9.9% of Australian sheep producers have estimated their emissions, which limits the industry's ability to monitor and manage carbon footprints effectively. …

The Impact Of Covid-19 Pandemic On Economic Convergence Between Developed And Developing Nations, Lucile Sabas, Williams Kwasi Peprah [email protected], Carmelita Troy, Quentin Sahly

Faculty Publications

This study investigates convergence between developed and developing countries’ GDP during the pre-COVID-19 era (1960-2019) and post-COVID-19 era (2020-2023) using World Bank data and the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test. For the pre-COVID period, results show no significant convergence, with an ADF statistic of −1.78 and a P = 0.39, likely due to disparities in industrialization and governance. Similarly, post-COVID results (ADF statistic −1.2, P = 0.67) also suggest no convergence, possibly exacerbated by pandemic-related challenges. The study highlights that structural barriers and the pandemic have hindered economic convergence.

A Brief Look At Authoritarianism And Totalitarianism Through A Perspective Of Jewish Law And Tradition, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

A view of authoritarianism and totalitarianism through a perspective of Jewish law and tradition might take various forms and draw upon different approaches, depending on a number of components, including definitions of terms, modes of analysis, and the scope of disciplines and materials to be incorporated. Rather than attempting to present a comprehensive or determinative presentation of historical and philosophical considerations of these issues, this essay will briefly explore conceptual lessons from narrative, political, and legal sources of Jewish tradition, suggesting that Jewish thought recognizes, at once, both the importance of unity and authority and the dangers of authoritarianism and …

Stream Response To A Dam Removal: Mill Creek, Davenport, Ca, Jessica J. Williamson

Master's Theses

Dams have many effects on stream morphology and ecology, including a loss of sediment supply downstream, reduced access to the entire stream for aquatic fauna, and a flooded area upstream of the dam. Dams are a hurdle for migrating organisms such as anadromous fish, which is a group of concern. An over 100-year-old dam on Mill Creek, a stream draining a coastal watershed in central California, was removed in the fall of 2021. The site is in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where endangered salmonids such as steelhead, Oncorhynchus mykiss, have historically lived. To study the change in the stream from …

Hymate: A Hybrid Mamba And Transformer Model For Ehr Representation Learning, Md Mozaharul Mottalib, Thao-Ly Phan, Rahmatollah Beheshti

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

Electronic health Records (EHRs) have become a cornerstone in modern-day healthcare. They are a crucial part for analyzing the progression of patient health; however, their complexity, characterized by long, multivariate sequences, sparsity, and missing values-poses significant challenges in traditional deep learning modeling. While Transformer-based models have demonstrated success in modeling EHR data and predicting clinical outcomes, their quadratic computational complexity and limited context length hinder their efficiency and practical applications. On the other hand, State Space Models (SSMs) like Mamba present a promising alternative offering linear-time sequence modeling and improved efficiency for handling long sequences, but focus mostly on mixing …

Utilizing Technology To Support Collaborative Problem-Solving Of K-12 Students In Stem Education: A Multivariate Multi-Level Meta-Analysis, Marzieh Dehghan-Chaleshtori

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

As classrooms in the 21st -century increasingly incorporate digital tools, educators and researchers have turned their attention to the promising potential of technology in enhancing essential competencies such as collaborative problem-solving (CPS) skills (OECD, 2017). CPS skills, including joint decision-making and coordinated problem resolution, are necessary for success in both academic and real-world contexts. While many studies have investigated individual problem-solving in technology-enhanced learning environments, the collaborative dimension remains underexplored (Graesser et al. 2018b). This dissertation addresses that gap by conducting a multivariate multi-level meta-analysis to examine the overall effects of technology use on K–12 students’ CPS skills in STEM …

A Strength-Based Approach To Understanding The Impact Of Experiences Of Discrimination Related To Identity-Based Stressors On Disordered Eating Among A Sample Of Sexual And Gender Diverse Individuals, Susana Cruz Garcia

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Empirical research investigating eating disorder (ED) behaviors among sexual and gender minorities has grown substantially in recent decades, though notable gaps call for further work to clarify mixed findings regarding the experiences of this heterogeneous population. This study sought to add to our understanding of disordered eating behaviors in LGBTQIA+ participants, with a specific focus on differences between lesbian and gay (LG) versus bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and other identities (BTQIA+), with the latter group remaining especially underrepresented in the literature. Study aims were firstly, to quantify ED incidence and the frequency of experiences of identity-based discrimination in sexual …

Self-Preservation: Autobiography As A Form Of Archivization As Seen Through The Life And Poetic Works Of John Clare, Meghan J. Slaff

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This paper will look at how the processing efforts of an archivist mirror that of an autobiographer through the shared motivation of adding to the cultural memory or textual canon of a society. For archival purposes, the typical steps of ingesting, preparing, and presenting a collection are creation, capture, arrangement/description, and pluralization. To create an autobiography, writers take the memories that have been created and experienced due to events in their lives and capture those memories via recording in the literary form known as autobiography. These autobiographers then arrange and describe their memories in a way that shows vast similarities …

Two Computational Problems On String Rewriting Systems, Wei Du

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

String rewriting systems are widely used computational models in theoretical computer science research such as artificial intelligence, software and hardware verification, and symbolic cryptographic protocol analysis. In this dissertation, we investigate two interesting problems concerning these systems, namely the common left multiplier problem and the SYMBOL-ORDER problem.

First, we consider the common left multiplier problem for forward-closed convergent string rewriting systems. The task is to discover, given two distinct strings α and β, a target string W such that W α and W β will be equivalent with respect to the provided forward-closed convergent string rewriting system. We describe an …

Influence Of Cloud-Radiative Forcing On Tropical Cyclone Development In Moderate Vertical Wind Shear, Jannetta C. Richardson

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This research seeks to better understand how cloud–radiative forcing (CRF) influences the structural evolution and intensity change of tropical cyclones (TCs) during the organizaional stage, with a particular focus on environments characterized by moderate vertical wind shear. While CRF has been shown to impact TC development during genesis and mature stages, its role during the transitional post-genesis phase—when TCs exhibit disorganized convection and are highly sensitive to environmental influences—remains poorly understood. Moreover, forecasting TC intensity in moderate shear environments continues to present substantial challenges, underscoring the need for focused investigation of TC development in the moderate-shear regime.

The Weather Research …