Digital Commons Network^™

Eavesdropping-Driven Profiling Attacks On Encrypted Wifi Networks: Unveiling Vulnerabilities In Iot Device Security, Ibrahim A. Alwhbi

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Abstract—This dissertation investigates the privacy implications of WiFi communication in Internet-of-Things (IoT) environments, focusing on the threat posed by out-of-network observers. Recent research has shown that in-network observers can glean information about IoT devices, user identities, and activities. However, the potential for information inference by out-of-network observers, who do not have WiFi network access, has not been thoroughly examined. The first study provides a detailed summary dataset, utilizing Random Forest for data summary classification. This study highlights the significant privacy threat to WiFi networks and IoT applications from out-of-network observers. Building on this investigation, the second study extends the research …

A Multimodal Framework For Automated Content Moderation Of Children's Videos, Syed Hammad Ahmed

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Online video platforms receive hundreds of hours of uploads every minute, making manual moderation of inappropriate content impossible. The most vulnerable consumers of malicious video content are children from ages 1-5 whose attention is easily captured by bursts of color and sound. Prominent video hosting platforms like YouTube have taken measures to mitigate malicious content, but these videos often go undetected by current automated content moderation tools that are focused on removing explicit or copyrighted content. Scammers attempting to monetize their content may craft malicious children's videos that are superficially similar to educational videos, but include scary and disgusting characters, …

Analytical And Experimental Verification Of Bistable Composite Laminates For Aerospace Applications, Maxwell J. Booth

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Composite laminate structures offer promising aerospace applications owing to their multi-functional capabilities. These composites exhibit the unique ability to transition between stable geometries, passing through an intermediate, predicted unstable geometry. Actuation is achieved through the application of external loading conditions, encompassing both mechanical and thermal stimuli, with a particular emphasis on the latter. The nonlinear response induced by such transitions experimentally motivates this research due to the minimal amount of data on the transition section between geometries. Application of these composites under loading conditions proves interesting for a thermal management application with additional thermal loading present. This use would require …

A Near Field Lagrangian Particle Modeling For The Multiphase Flow Of Reaction Control System Thrusters In Space Environments, Janice Zou

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

In the current age of space exploration, the push to reach further to deep space presents a greater need for analysis and verification and validation of rocketry components in the space environment. Due to the nature of space, firings of rocket thrusters in space is a multi-regime problem. With the low density, pressure, and temperature of the environment, the resultant plume structure, seeded with unburnt fuel droplets, extends up to multiple orders of magnitude in distance as compared to a plume structure in the Earth’s atmosphere. The frozen droplets, or particles, create concerns including surface contamination and erosion, calling a …

Video Action Understanding: Action Classification, Temporal Localization, And Detection, Praveen Tirupattur

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Video action understanding involves comprehending actions performed by humans, depicted in videos. Central to the task of video action understanding are four fundamental questions: What, When, Where, and Who. These questions encapsulate the essence of action classification, temporal action localization, action detection, and actor recognition. Despite notable progress in research related to these tasks, many challenges persist and in this dissertation, we propose innovative solutions to tackle these challenges head-on.

First, we address the challenges in action classification (``What?"), specifically related to multi-view action recognition. We propose a novel transformer decoder-based model, with learnable view and action queries, to enforce …

Advances In High Performance Computing Through Concurrent Data Structures And Predictive Scheduling, Kenneth M. Lamar

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Modern High Performance Computing (HPC) systems are made up of thousands of server-grade compute nodes linked through a high-speed network interconnect. Each node has tens or even hundreds of CPU cores each, with counts continuing to grow on newer HPC clusters. This results in a need to make use of millions of cores per cluster. Fully leveraging these resources is difficult. There is an active need to design software that scales and fully utilizes the hardware. In this dissertation, we address this gap with a dual approach, considering both intra-node (single node) and inter-node (across node) concerns. To aid in …

The Narratives Of Successful Conflict Resolution Entrepreneurs: Evolving Career Pathways And Determinants Of Business Success, Eileen Paige Petzold-Bradley

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

The study explores the narratives and best practices of 33 Successful Conflict Resolution Entrepreneurs (SCREs) in the United States. In doing so, the study helps to fill an essential gap in the literature, where research on conflict resolution entrepreneurship with experienced practitioners is rare. Given the focus of the study on narrative inquiry and thematic analysis, this methodological approach achieved an in-depth qualitative analysis of conflict resolution entrepreneurial experiences. The narrative insights gathered from the 33 SCREs provided detailed descriptions of the career pathways, personal motivations, business challenges, and successes of running a conflict resolution business. The research illuminates the …

Getting To Disability Justice: A Critical Conceptual Review Of Disability Models In U.S. Social Work, Kathryn M. Wright

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In 1983, scholar Mike Oliver coined the term the “social model of disability.” While the medical model presents disability as an inherent, immutable, and pathological defect, the social model suggests that disability emerges from external and social barriers (Oliver, 1983). Little research within social work has engaged with sociocultural paradigms of disability and how they might impact social work practice. American social workers generally approach disability as a biological category and an obvious deficit. This paper draws attention to the need to analyze the category of disability through social and cultural lenses in social work research and practice. Via a …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Volume 51, Issue 1&2 (2024)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

No abstract provided.

Arab Refugees With Physical Disabilities: An Exploration Of Barriers Within The Resettlement Process, Qusay S. Hussein Msw, Lailea Noel Phd

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A series of global crises—the war on terror and its subsequent geopolitical disruptions, climate change, and political and economic instability —have created new waves of refugees, primarily from the Middle East, North Africa, and Latin America. Among these refugees are people with sensory disabilities (PWD). While all refugees require support and encounter challenges to adapting to their resettlement countries, those with physical disabilities face additional barriers to successful resettlement and integration into their resettlement communities. These additional barriers include access to accessibility services for alternative communication methods, orientation and mobility assistance, disability-specific medical support, as well as social support to …

Ad 161-001: History Of Art And Design I, Amanda Kogle

School of Art and Design Syllabi

No abstract provided.

The Mandatory Victims Restitution Act: The Court’S Authority To Redirect Disclaimed Payments, Kaeli M. Whalley

Western New England Law Review

Consider a situation where a defendant has committed a crime that in some way harmed a victim. The court then decided to enter a judgment ordering the defendant to pay restitution to the victim as part of their criminal sentence. Typically, the victim participates in the restitution order and receives the funds they are owed. But what happens in those rare circumstances where the victim does not want to accept these payments? Where do those unclaimed funds go?

These situations are governed by the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act of 1996 (MVRA), 18 U.S.C. §§ 3663A–3664. The MVRA requires restitution and …

Uncommon Carriage, Blake Reid

Publications

As states have begun regulating the carriage of speech by “Big Tech” internet platforms, scholars, advocates, and policymakers have increasingly focused their attention on the law of common carriage. Legislators have invoked common carriage to defend social media regulations against First Amendment challenges, making arguments set to take center stage in the Supreme Court’s impending consideration of the NetChoice saga.

This Article challenges the coherence of common carriage as a field and its utility for assessing the constitutionality and policy wisdom of internet regulation. Evaluating the post-Civil War history of common carriage regimes in telecommunications law, this Article illustrates that …

Russian Chemical And Biological Weapons: Limiting The Effects Of Russian Cbw Programs On Nato Security Through 2035, Jason Gregory Porter

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This thesis uses qualitative research methods to: (1) assess the extent and capabilities of Russia’s modern chemical and biological weapons programs, (2) assess Russian compliance with arms control agreements, (3) determine the threats Russian chemical and biological weapons pose to NATO security, (4) assess NATO’s existing strategy against the modern chemical and biological threat, and (5) provide recommendations for U.S. and NATO policies and programs to mitigate the threat of these programs in the short and medium term. This project demonstrates that Russian chemical and biological weapons programs have remained consistently in violation of international arms control agreements since the …

Venezuela Claims To Guyana Territory And Its Regional Destabilization Threats, Anissa L. Rodriguez

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

As global tensions escalate over territorial disputes, Venezuela's assertion of claims over the Essequibo territory in Guyana threaten to destabilize a pivotal region in South America known for its abundant natural resources and prospering economy. This thesis will highlight the key distinctions between different European explorers and how they diversified the legacy of colonialism, changed historical and political trajectory, and shaped modern-day Guyana and Venezuela. It will highlight the critical roles that natural resources and international law play in territorial contention and sculpting of the geopolitical landscape within this crucial region. This thesis will scrutinize the potential fallout of the …

Word Reimagined: Analyzing Fanfiction's Transformative Force And Relationship With The Young Adult Literary Landscape, Megan Louise Reaves

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

In exploring the reciprocal relationship between fanfiction and Young Adult (YA) literature, this thesis investigates how these two forms of storytelling, influenced by authors such as Marissa Meyer and Rainbow Rowell, have profoundly impacted the literary landscape. Marissa Meyer's The Lunar Chronicles series and Rainbow Rowell's novels Fangirl and Carry On serve as prime examples of this dynamic interaction. Drawing from the rich traditions of oral storytelling and folklore, fanfiction and YA literature have undergone significant development and popularity, particularly in the twenty-first century, thanks to technological advancements and the rise of online communities. This thesis contends that despite their …

Exploring Band Students' Motivations Regarding Instrument Selection, Aaron S. Morley

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

When choosing a beginning band instrument, students are faced with a choice that may be influenced by a variety of factors. These factors also interest band directors, who want students to choose an instrument that will be a good fit for their strengths while also being engaging to them. To assist directors in guiding students through instrument selection it is helpful to know what factors could influence students when they are choosing an instrument. To identify the factors that students report as impactful, beginning band students in five northwest Missouri school districts were surveyed about the influence of selected factors. …

Road Extraction On Remote Sensing Imagery: Historical Mapping Of The Brazilian Amazon, Jonas Paiva Botelho Jr

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This work proposes an artificial intelligence model based on U-Net architecture to map road networks in the Brazilian Amazon. Over the years, the Amazon region has been heavily exploited, leading to increased deforestation rates, contributing to CO2 emissions, amplifying global warming, and causing a disturbance in local fauna and flora. The expansion into the forest by illegal miners, loggers, and land grabbers can be tracked down by the construction of roads, which we can refer to as the arteries of deforestation. Previous works on the matter proposed algorithms that use high-resolution imagery to map roads precisely. However, this work approach …

Towards Dynamic Context Detection From Voice Commands And Conversations With Smart Assistants In Smart Homes, Jeniya Sultana

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Voice-enabled interactions have become increasingly popular with the rise of voice assistants. Identifying contexts or meanings from voice commands and conversations with smart assistants can contribute to the autonomous control of smart home devices and appliances. To improve automation, there is a growing need for efficient context detection that eliminates the need to memorize voice commands. To address this need, I followed a two-step approach in my research. In the first step, I developed a unique context recognition model using a transformer, an attention mechanism, and a fully connected neural network. I trained this model on a conversational dataset of …

Empowered Womanhood In Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain’S “Sultana’S Dream” And Greta Gerwig’S Barbie: Keys To The Ideal World, Tasnuva Tabassum

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain’s “Sultana’s Dream” (1905) and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (2023) present feminist utopias separated by more than a century. Despite the temporal gap, both works introduce worlds where traditional gender roles are reversed. This thesis explores Hossain’s and Gerwig’s suggestions to create ideal worlds through empowerment of women. Considering evolution of feminist utopian thought from the beginning of the twentieth century to the beginning of the twenty-first, and the differences in feminisms from East to West, this thesis analyzes the narrative structures, thematic elements, and cultural contexts of these works. Despite differences, both authors seek not just female but …

Outside Inside: Poems, Emma Jane Sullivan

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This creative thesis includes thirty-four poems and thirteen illustrations that investigate the topic of self-exploration, creative freedom, and liberatory pleasure. My poems are souvenirs from a failed ethical standard, a trove of misogynic micro-aggressions, a spotlight on the backward- ness of gender norms, and a surprisingly strong thread that links women to the planet and to shared language, a thread humankind continuously tries to cut. The methods of research were largely a self- study and one that required consistent reflection. The results were a collection of writings that had to be revised and edited with the guidance of my thesis …

Sixth Grade Music Ensemble Exploratories: Promoting Accessibility In Music Education, Michaela Marie Chybowski

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

School music ensemble participation has many benefits for students, including social well-being and improving academic performance; however, a variety of barriers, such as fear or lack of interest prevent many students from participating. To improve recruitment in music ensemble classes, Pittsburg Community Middle School created an exploratory class schedule that commenced with the 2022-2023 school year during which almost all sixth-grade students enrolled in three-week rotations of band, choir, and orchestra with the option to choose one option for the rest of the school year. This action research examined this new curriculum and the self-motivations of students who enrolled in …

Unified Resource Browser: An Interactive And Reconfigurable Web Framework For Biomedical Metadata Exploration, Visualization, And Management, Shiwei Lin, Ling Tong, Kimberly A Smith, Lydia Ng, Tyler Mollenkopf, Yan Huang, Rashmie Abeysinghe, Wei-Chun Chou, Antarr T Byrd, Licong Cui, Guo-Qiang Zhang, Xiaojin Li, Shiqiang Tao

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

We present Unified Resource Browser, a web-based framework designed to optimize the configuration, exploration, visualization, and dissemination of complex biomedical metadata. As a core component of Neuroanatomy-Anchored Information Management Platform (NIMP), Unified Resource Browser enables researchers to efficiently access donor information, brain tissue samples, and sequencing data through structured resource tables and advanced search and filtering capabilities. The platform allows users to customize data views, share configurations via direct links, and seamlessly export data for further analysis. Integrated visualization tools offer immediate insights through customizable charts, enhancing data interpretation. By improving the accessibility and usability of biomedical data resources, Unified …

Compton Scattering Of Mammographic Soft X-Ray Beams By Alkali And Transition Metal Salt Filters Produce X-Ray Interference Zones That May Have Treatment Potential For Localized Cancer Lesions, Subhendra N. Sarkar, Eric Lobel, Sabina Rakhmatova, Derbie Desir, Somdat Kissoon, Daler Djuraev, Katie Tam

Publications and Research

In breast x-ray imaging scattered radiation adds 50% of harmful radiation dose from anisotropic Compton scattering mechanism. We have been working with double layered inorganic salt materials that can induce Compton scattering to the incident mammographic x ray beams (in 20-30 kVp range) with adequate isotropy (angular control). Typically metal nitrates and alkali halide salt layers are shown here to cause low energy radiation interference zones with high and low photon intensities and local flux heterogeneity in terms of flux covariance. Spatial variation of low energy photon flux creates concentrated and sparse radiation zones that may be used to induce …

32. Using Generative Ai In The Music History Classroom, Reba Wissner

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

Generative Al affords students and college teaching both challenges and opportunities, though faculty mainly focus on the challenges, as most discussion centers on assignment modification to prevent plagiarism and concentrate on text-generating Al. However, there is an entire world of Al tools that are not text limited that can be used to create non-text-based outputs and can be used for information recall and transferability of student knowledge; these tools are well-suited to the arts. One discipline in which these tools can be used is music; specifically, music history. Al generation tools not specifically created for music, such as chatbots, can …

31. Collaborative Writing And Ai: A Research Assignment For An Undergraduate Professional Communication Course, Beth Buyserie

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

This chapter contextualizes and describes a collaborative Al research assignment for an in-person 2000-level Professional Communication general education course. This "Collaborative Writing and Al" assignment asks teams of students to 1) conduct their own secondary research on a specific topic connected to Al, 2) conduct primary research using Al itself, and 3) make recommendations to their peers and future colleagues in the profession or community on how to navigate and respond to a range of interdisciplinary conversations and perspectives on the technology. Within this chapter, the author provides a rationale for the assignment, includes suggestions for background readings included in …

30. Revising Llm Text To (Re)Discover Rhetoric In A Graduate Seminar, Clancy Ratliff

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

In this essay, I share an assignment that asks students to engage in rhetorical revision of LLM text using a changelog table as a tool to document the revision. To demonstrate to the students what I was asking them to do, I did the assignment myself, and my example is included in this chapter as well. I argue that the style of generated text from LLMs calls for increased resistance to the norms and conventions of school writing and an embrace of writing that's more rhetorical: a bit more personal, risky, rule-breaking, creative, and experimental, intentionally centering purpose and audience. …

29. An Ai Workshop For The Overwhelmed And Uninterested, Ritamarie Hensley

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

The impact of ChatGPT and other Generative Al technologies on the role of an Instructional Designer prompted a quest to understand the pros and cons of Al for course development. Despite initial enthusiasm from some educators, many instructors resisted Al, expressing concerns about assignments, academic integrity, and Al-induced hallucinations. The workshop is designed for faculty members who may feel overwhelmed by the myriad uses of Al in education or simply lack interest in Al tools. It offers nuanced approaches to assignments, emphasizes fostering digital literacy for academic integrity, and explores turning Al-induced hallucinations into teaching tools. The workshop also underscores …

25. Using The Ai Explainpaper To Help Students Better Understand Journal Articles, Erin Jensen, Daniel Hutchinson

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

We have students use the Al Explainpaper to be able to read and understand journal articles as this is a common assignment in many core classes. In our experiences, students often struggle to understand the content of journal articles and then struggle to use the journal article as a source in their writing. The Al Explainpaper provides an opportunity for students to use the bot to better understand the journal article and have an opportunity to ask the program additional questions about the article. We have found Explainpaper to provide help to students in being able to read and understand …

24. Revisioning A Bibliography Assignment To Center Discovery And Critical Source Engagement, Lillian Campbell, Jenna Green, Nicole Bungert

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

This chapter shares context, assignment details, and impact of revisions of a research journal assignment in our first-year writing program at a mid-sized private university in the Midwest. With the rise of access to large language processing models like ChatGPT in Spring 2023, we reviewed our curriculum to consider what assignments might be most vulnerable to Al-generated writing. Our bibliography assignment was an obvious contender, since it focused on summary of individual sources. Thus, we worked with our research librarian liaison to reimagine this assignment, guided by a conversation about learning goals. After reviewing relevant scholarship on source use and …