Digital Commons Network^™

An Empirical Study Of Automatic Program Repair Techniques For Injection Vulnerabilities, Tingwei Zhu, Tongtong Xu, Kui Liu, Jiayuan Zhou, Xing Hu, Xin Xia, Tian Zhang, David Lo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Injection vulnerabilities are among the most serious and dangerous security defects, as they can be exploited by attackers to inject malicious inputs and carry out cybercrimes. Timely fixing of injection vulnerabilities is crucial. However, manual repairs of injection vulnerabilities often require specialized knowledge and are prone to errors, posing a challenge and a heavy burden on developers. In recent years, Automated Program Repair (APR) techniques have shown promising momentum in automatically fixing general defects. Yet, there has been no research on how APR techniques perform in repairing injection vulnerabilities. Therefore, in this paper, we conduct an empirical study. We first …

Constrained Assortment Optimization Under The Cross-Nested Logit Model, Cuong Le, Tien Mai

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We study the assortment optimization problem under general linear constraints, where the customer choice behavior is captured by the cross-nested logit model. In this problem, there is a set of products organized into multiple subsets (or nests), where each product can belong to more than one nest. The aim is to find an assortment to offer to customers so that the expected revenue is maximized. We show that, under the cross-nested logit model, the unconstrained assortment problem is NP-hard even when there are only two nests, and the problem is generally NP-hard to approximate to any constant factors. To tackle …

Pvp-Ssd: Point-Voxel Fusion With Partitioned Point Cloud Sampling For Anchor-Free Single-Stage Small 3d Object Detection, Xinlin Wu, Yibin Tian, Yin Pan, Zhiyuan Zhang, Xuesong Wu, Ruisheng Wang, Zhi Zeng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Single-stage object detection from 3D point clouds in autonomous driving faces significant challenges, particularly in accurately detecting small objects. To address this issue, we propose a novel method called Point-Voxel dual-branch feature extraction with Partitioned point cloud sampling for anchor-free Single-Stage Detection of 3D objects (PVP-SSD). The network comprises two branches: a point branch and a voxel branch. In the point branch, a partitioned point cloud sampling strategy leverages axial features to divide the point cloud. Then, it assigns different sampling weights to various segments to enhance the sampling accuracy. Additionally, a local feature enhancement module explicitly calculates the correlation …

Predicting The Limits: Tailoring Unnoticeable Hand Redirection Offsets In Virtual Reality To Individuals' Perceptual Boundaries, Martin Feick, Kora Persephone Regitz, Lukas Gehrke, André Zenner, Anthony Tang, Tobias Patrick Jungbluth, Maurice Rekrut, Antonio Krüger

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Many illusion and interaction techniques in Virtual Reality (VR) rely on Hand Redirection (HR), which has proved to be effective as long as the introduced offsets between the position of the real and virtual hand do not noticeably disturb the user experience. Yet calibrating HR offsets is a tedious and time-consuming process involving psychophysical experimentation, and the resulting thresholds are known to be affected by many variables—limiting HR’s practical utility. As a result, there is a clear need for alternative methods that allow tailoring HR to the perceptual boundaries of individual users. We conducted an experiment with 18 participants combining …

Joint Weakly Supervised Image Emotion Analysis Based On Interclass Discrimination And Intraclass Correlation, Xinyue Zhang, Zhaoxia Wang, Guitao Cao, Seng-Beng Ho

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Regional information-based image emotion analysis has recently garnered significant attention. However, existing methods often focus on identifying region proposals through layered steps or merely rely on visual saliency. These approaches may lead to an underestimation of emotional categories and a lack of comprehensive interclass discrimination perception and emotional intraclass contextual mining. To address these limitations, we propose a novel approach named InterIntraIEA, which combines interclass discrimination and intraclass correlation joint learning capabilities for image emotion analysis. The proposed method not only employs category-specific dictionary learning for class adaptation, but also models intraclass contextual relationships and perceives correlations at the channel …

Navigating Governance Paradigms: A Cross-Regional Comparative Study Of Generative Ai Governance Processes & Principle, Jose Luna, Ivan Tan, Xiaofei Xie, Lingxiao Jiang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

As Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) technologies evolve at an unprecedented rate, global governance approaches struggle to keep pace with the technology, highlighting a critical issue in the governance adaptation of significant challenges. Depicting the nuances of nascent and diverse governance approaches based on risks, rules, outcomes, principles, or a mix across different regions around the globe is fundamental to discern discrepancies and convergences and to shed light on specific limitations that need to be addressed, thereby facilitating the safe and trustworthy adoption of GenAI. In response to the need and the evolving nature of GenAI, this paper seeks to provide …

Temporal Relational Graph Convolutional Network Approach To Financial Performance Prediction, Jeyaraman Brindha Priyadarshini, Bing Tian Dai, Yuan Fang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Accurately predicting financial entity performance remains a challenge due to the dynamic nature of financial markets and vast unstructured textual data. Financial knowledge graphs (FKGs) offer a structured representation for tackling this problem by representing complex financial relationships and concepts. However, constructing a comprehensive and accurate financial knowledge graph that captures the temporal dynamics of financial entities is non-trivial. We introduce FintechKG, a comprehensive financial knowledge graph developed through a three-dimensional information extraction process that incorporates commercial entities and temporal dimensions and uses a financial concept taxonomy that ensures financial domain entity and relationship extraction. We propose a temporal and …

Brushbuds: Toothbrushing Tracking Using Earphone Imus, Qiang Yang, Yang Liu, Jake Stuchbury-Wass, Kayla-Jade Butkow, Dong Ma, Cecilia Mascolo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Inadequate toothbrushing habits are a leading cause of oral health problems such as tooth decay. Many individuals are uncertain if they are brushing effectively or over-focusing on specific areas. While high-end electric toothbrushes can address these concerns, manual toothbrushes remain widely used due to their simplicity and affordability. In this paper, we introduce BrushBuds, an earphone-based toothbrushing monitoring system aimed at tracking brushing areas, which leverages the ubiquitous presence of earphones to enhance manual toothbrushing. BrushBuds utilizes Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) in earphones to detect subtle head movements incurred by toothbrushing. By capturing distinct motion patterns specific to brushing for …

Audio Description Customization, Rosiana Natalie, Ruei-Che Chang, Sheshadri Smitha, Anhong Guo, Kotaro Hara

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Blind and low-vision (BLV) people use audio descriptions (ADs) to access videos. However, current ADs are unalterable by end users, thus are incapable of supporting BLV individuals’ potentially diverse needs and preferences. This research investigates if customizing AD could improve how BLV individuals consume videos. We conducted an interview study (Study 1) with fifteen BLV participants, which revealed desires for customizing properties like length, emphasis, speed, voice, format, tone, and language. At the same time, concerns like interruptions and increased interaction load due to customization emerged. To examine AD customization’s effectiveness and tradeoffs, we designed CustomAD, a prototype that enables …

Risurconv : Rotation Invariant Surface Attention-Augmented Convolutions For 3d Point Cloud Classification And Segmentation, Zhiyuan Zhang, Licheng Yang, Xiang Zhiyu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Despite the progress on 3D point cloud deep learning, most prior works focus on learning features that are invariant to translation and point permutation, and very limited efforts have been devoted for rotation invariant property. Several recent studies achieve rotation invariance at the cost of lower accuracies. In this work, we close this gap by proposing a novel yet effective rotation invariant architecture for 3D point cloud classification and segmentation. Instead of traditional pointwise operations, we construct local triangle surfaces to capture more detailed surface structure, based on which we can extract highly expressive rotation invariant surface properties which are …

Employing Expressive Art To Explore Mexican Americans’ Grief Experiences Of Loss Due To Covid-19, Leyla Feize, Varesh Gorabi, Vanessa Garza, Christian Baggett, Cassandra Sarmiento, Margarita Tirado, Angela Maldonado, Melissa Daniels

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic changed people’s lives and resulted in tremendous pain, loss and suffering. The Rio Grande Valley (RGV), in the state of Texas in the U.S., was one of the regions with the highest number of infections and deaths during the pandemic. However, individuals’ bereavement in the RGV is rarely addressed. In this qualitative study, a snowball sample of 47 individuals who had lost their loved ones during the years 2020–2021 were interviewed and invited to engage in an art activity. The findings revealed four themes: peculiar funeral, grieving confusion, loved ones’ memories, and connection to self and the …

The Compass - Volume 93 Issue 2 - Complete Issue, Scott R. Beason

The Compass: Earth Science Journal of Sigma Gamma Epsilon

No abstract provided.

My Soul, She Walks Behind Me, Sanyukta Shiv Kumar

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

This thesis reimagines the consequences of my great-grandmother’s life. It is an attempt to demystify women’s conditioned roles within private and public spaces and note how, through this conditioning, their identity is repressed to the point of diffidence and eventually, abhorrence towards their own bodies and the physical spaces they occupy. This is portrayed in poetry form through the voice of my great-grandmother as the primary speaker, and is interspersed with the voices of the grandmother, the mother, and the great-granddaughter.

My great-grandmother’s lived experience consisted mostly of her life as a young wife, mother, devotee, and storyteller. She told …

2024 Fall Vol. 41 No. 2, Alumni Affairs School Of Medicine

Medicinews

No abstract provided.

Viability Discrimination Of Bacterial Microbiomes In Home Kitchen Dish Sponges Using Propidium Monoazide Treatment, Christina K Carstens, Joelle K Salazar, Shreela Sharma, Wenyaw Chan, Charles Darkoh

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Dish sponges are known to support the proliferation of human bacterial pathogens, yet they are commonly used by consumers. Exposure to foodborne pathogens via sponge use may lead to illness, a serious concern among susceptible populations. The extent of exposure risks from sponge use has been limited by constraints associated with culture-independent or dependent methods for bacterial community characterization. Therefore, five used dish sponges were characterized to evaluate the presence of viable bacterial foodborne pathogens using the novel application of propidium monoazide (PMA) treatment and targeted 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Select pathogen viability was confirmed using targeted selective enrichment. …

Regulation Of Fibrinogen Synthesis, Dre'von A Dobson, Richard J Fish, Paul S De Vries, Alanna C Morrison, Marguerite Neerman-Arbez, Alisa S Wolberg

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The plasma protein fibrinogen is encoded by 3 structural genes (FGA, FGB, and FGG) that are transcribed to mRNA, spliced, and translated to 3 polypeptide chains (Aα, Bβ, and γ, respectively). These chains are targeted for secretion, decorated with post-translational modifications, and assembled into a hexameric “dimer of trimers” (AαBβγ)2. Fully assembled fibrinogen is secreted into the blood as a 340 kDa glycoprotein. Fibrinogen is one of the most prevalent coagulation proteins in blood, and its expression is induced by inflammatory cytokines, wherein circulating fibrinogen levels may increase up to 3-fold during acute inflammatory events. Abnormal …

Ficture: Scalable Segmentation-Free Analysis Of Submicron-Resolution Spatial Transcriptomics, Yichen Si, Changhee Lee, Yongha Hwang, Jeong H Yun, Weiqiu Cheng, Chun-Seok Cho, Miguel Quiros, Asma Nusrat, Weizhou Zhang, Goo Jun, Sebastian Zöllner, Jun Hee Lee, Hyun Min Kang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Spatial transcriptomics (ST) technologies have advanced to enable transcriptome-wide gene expression analysis at submicron resolution over large areas. However, analysis of high-resolution ST is often challenged by complex tissue structure, where existing cell segmentation methods struggle due to the irregular cell sizes and shapes, and by the absence of segmentation-free methods scalable to whole-transcriptome analysis. Here we present FICTURE (Factor Inference of Cartographic Transcriptome at Ultra-high REsolution), a segmentation-free spatial factorization method that can handle transcriptome-wide data labeled with billions of submicron-resolution spatial coordinates and is compatible with both sequencing-based and imaging-based ST data. FICTURE uses the multilayered Dirichlet model …

Clonal Hematopoiesis Of Indeterminate Potential Is Associated With Reduced Risk Of Cognitive Impairment In Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease, Cissy Xiao, Manjula Kurella Tamura, Yang Pan, Varun Rao, Celestin Missikpode, Caitlyn Vlasschaert, Tetsushi Nakao, Xiao Sun, Changwei Li, Zhijie Huang, Amanda Anderson, Md Mesbah Uddin, Do-Kyun Kim, Jonathan Taliercio, Rajat Deo, Zeenat Bhat, Dawei Xie, Panduranga Rao, Jing Chen, James P Lash, Jiang He, Pradeep Natarajan, James E Hixson, Kristine Yaffe, Tanika N Kelly, Cric Study Investigators

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Introduction: Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) and dementia disproportionately burden patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The association between CHIP and cognitive impairment in CKD patients is unknown.

Methods: We conducted time-to-event analyses in up to 1452 older adults with CKD from the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort who underwent CHIP gene sequencing. Cognition was assessed using four validated tests in up to 6 years mean follow-up time. Incident cognitive impairment was defined as a test score one standard deviation below the baseline mean.

Results: Compared to non-carriers, CHIP carriers were markedly less likely to experience impairment in attention (adjusted …

Sentiment Analysis Of Harry Potter: Exploring Ai Versus Human Interpretation, Xander Newman, Katherine Elkins

IPHS 200: Programming Humanity

The project starts by examining whether a smaller window size of 5% allows the algorithm to determine cruxes and their sentiment more accurately than the standard 10% window size, using the passages identified by the crux report to assist me. I find that the smaller window size seems to be more accurate for the most part, but this is not always the case. Moreover, regardless of window size, the algorithm struggled with definitively assessing ambivalent sentiment, much like how a reader has their own interpretation of emotionally charged moments. Moreover, using the results of the 5% and 10% window size …

Human-Chatbot Interaction Patterns: A Topic Modeling Analysis Of 3,275 Conversations With Chatgpt, Hannah Sussman

IPHS 200: Programming Humanity

This research presents a topic modeling analysis of the WILDCHAT-FULL dataset, examining user interactions with ChatGPT across over one million conversations. The study focused specifically on extended conversations (five or more exchanges) between U.S.-based users and ChatGPT in English. Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), I identified 50 distinct conversational topics with coherence scores ranging from -1.5 to -14.92 (mean: -4.47). The analysis revealed diverse interaction patterns spanning creative writing, jailbreaking (attempting to get ChatGPT to do something against its guidelines), technical discussions, business applications, and educational queries. A particularly striking finding was that creative writing and role-play scenarios dominated the …

Intertextual Sentiments In Ulysses And The Odyssey, Aidan Jordan, Katherine Elkins

IPHS 200: Programming Humanity

James Joyce’s masterpiece novel Ulysses is a text built upon its relationship to other texts. The very title is a reference to the Greek hero Odysseus and the epic poem that contains his story. The form of Ulyssesrelies heavily on the structure of the Odyssey for its movement. With chapters taking key events from the Odyssey as inspiration for their themes, characters, and events. One chapter for example is based on the episode where Odysseus travels into the underworld and Joyce’s stand-in character Bloom goes to a funeral. These structural and tonal suggestions have lead me to ask if this …

Hippocampal Gray Matter Volume In Young Adulthood Varies With Adolescent Alcohol Use, Juliann B Purcell, Nathaniel G Harnett, Sylvie Mrug, Marc N Elliott, Susan Tortolero Emery, Mark A Schuster, David C Knight

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Adolescent substance use is linked with negative future outcomes (e.g., depression, anxiety, substance use disorder). Given that the brain undergoes significant maturation during adolescence, this developmental period may represent a time of particular vulnerability to substance use. Neuroimaging research has largely focused on heavy or binge patterns of substance use; thus, relatively less is known about the neural impact of a broader range of adolescent substance use. Characterizing the neural impact of a broader range of adolescent substance use may inform prevention and treatment efforts. The present study investigated relationships between adolescent substance use trajectories (i.e., alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis) …

Pparγ/Etv2 Axis Regulates Endothelial-To-Mesenchymal Transition In Pulmonary Hypertension, Dong Hun Lee, Minseong Kim, Sarah S Chang, Raham Lee, Andrew J Jang, Juyoung Kim, Jing Ma, Michael J Passineau, Raymond L Benza, Harry Karmouty-Quintana, Wilbur A Lam, Benjamin T Kopp, Roy L Sutliff, C Michael Hart, Changwon Park, Bum-Yong Kang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndoMT) plays an important role in pulmonary hypertension (PH) but the molecular mechanisms regulating EndoMT remain to be defined. We demonstrate that the axis of the transcription factors PPARγ (Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor gamma) and ETV2 (ETS variant 2) play important roles in the pathogenesis of PH. Decreased levels of the expression of PPARγ and ETV2 along with reduced endothelial and increased EndoMT markers are consistently observed in lungs and pulmonary artery endothelial cells (PAECs) of idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension patients, in hypoxia-exposed mouse lungs, human PAECs, and in induced-EndoMT cells. Etv2 +/- mice spontaneously developed PH and right …

Measuring Anxiety Among Latino Immigrant Populations: Within-Country And Between-Country Comparisons, Sumeyra Sahbaz, Ronald B Cox, Pablo Montero-Zamora, Christopher P Salas-Wright, Mildred M Maldonado-Molina, Melissa M Bates, Augusto Pérez-Gómez, Juliana Mejía-Trujillo, Saskia R Vos, Carolina Scaramutti, Patrizia A Perazzo, Maria Duque, Maria Fernanda Garcia, Eric C Brown, Seth J Schwartz

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Anxiety is the most prevalent mental health disorder among adults worldwide. Given its increased prevalence among migrants due to their marginalized position in the societies where they reside, psychometric evaluations of anxiety measures such as the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) are needed for use with migrants. The present study is the first attempt to compare the structure of GAD-7 scores for (a) different Latino groups in the same country and (b) the same Latino group in two different countries. Using three samples of Mexican and Venezuelan migrants (total N = 933), we provide reliability and validity evidence of the GAD-7 …

Effects Of Social-Emotional Learning On Student Perceptions Of Themselves, Their Academics, And Their Behaviors, Tera Broderick

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Schools across the country are working with students who face numerous challenges in their daily lives, often leading to disengagement and a lack of readiness to learn. This study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of integrating social-emotional learning (SEL) into the school day and its impact on students’ academic and social-emotional development. A literature review of existing literature on SEL’s influence on student well-being provided the foundation for this research. Based on this review a self-assessment was given to fourth grade students in a public school in Iowa. Analysis of the results, following the implementation of SEL, revealed that increased …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Restorative Practices In The Classroom, Susan Brown

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This inquiry-based research project evaluates the effectiveness of restorative practices in addressing student misbehavior and improving school culture within elementary classrooms. The study examines the impact of restorative practices, such as restorative circles and conferences, on reducing reported behaviors and exclusionary disciplinary measures such as suspensions, while fostering an inclusive and supportive school environment. The research was conducted at Libby Booth Elementary School, with a focus on two classrooms during the 2023- 2024 academic year. Using a mixed-methods approach, both quantitative data on student behavior and qualitative surveys from a teacher survey were collected and analyzed. The findings reveal that …

Do The Winners Really Get To Write History? The Use Of Perspective-Taking Journaling In Teaching Multiperspectivity, Rylie Stanton

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Understanding multiple perspectives is an essential skill students in a Social Studies classroom need to understand historical events. It is vital for students to understand how these different perspectives drive the cause-and-effect relationship of history. Research notes the importance of teaching multiperspectivity, however, multiperspectivity can be a difficult task for teachers to address and teach effectively. While there are some pedagogical methods to effectively teach multiperspectivity, more methods are needed. This study aims to examine if the use of perspective-taking journal activities can help students understand those multiple perspectives leading to a greater understanding of the causes and effects of …

Cooperative Learning And The Effects On Knowledge Retention And Positive Peer Relationships, Cathy Ray

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Teachers have long utilized different classroom collaborative learning strategies such as think-pair-share, partner work, or group projects to enhance student engagement and learning. However, effective implementation remains a challenge, requiring teachers to balance collaborative efforts with individual accountability. Teachers need to balance effective group work while maintaining an expectation of individual work. This study investigates the impact of cooperative learning on knowledge retention and the development of positive peer relationships among students. Based on a literature review about the effectiveness of cooperative learning in education, research was done with two groups of fourth-grade students in a rural, public school in …

Problem-Based Learning Vs. Direct Instruction: A Case For Independence, Nicholas Heider

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This research study compares problem-based learning (PBL) and direct instruction, to determine which teaching method will increase fourth grade students’ learning independence and problem-solving ability. This quantitative study analyzed pre-test and post-test results, alongside survey responses from two separate fourth-grade classes. One class was taught a unit using problem-based learning, while the other received instruction on the same unit using a direct instruction approach. The statistical analysis revealed no major differences between the two teaching methods, suggesting that teachers should consider their students’ learning styles before selecting a teaching method for a given unit. Although the sample size was small, …

Enhancing 4th Grade Classroom Engagement Through Flexible Seating And Interactive Learning Strategies., Hannah Goetler

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This inquiry-based research study explores the impact of flexible seating and interactive learning strategies on student engagement and academic performance in a fourth-grade classroom. The study utilized a mixed-methods approach, using both pre- and post-surveys and classroom observations, over four weeks to assess changes in student comfort, focus, and collaboration. The findings showed significant improvements in engagement, with students self-reporting higher levels of comfort and collaboration, as well as reduced off-task behavior. Flexible seating options included wobble stools and floor cushions and fostered autonomy and enhanced focus during lessons. Additionally, interactive learning strategies complementing flexible seating setups, further promote active …