Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Lightweight End-To-End Cryptographic Framework With Semantic Qos For Ar-Based Telesurgery, Pavan Kumar Satram

Masters Theses

This thesis presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of a lightweight end-to-end cryptographic framework integrated with a semantic quality-of-service classification system for augmented reality based telesurgery. Telesurgery can deliver expert surgical care to underserved populations, but adoption has been limited by unresolved cybersecurity, network performance, and resilience challenges. The core tension is that strong encryption adds latency that may exceed the clinical safety threshold, while unencrypted systems remain vulnerable to attacks that could endanger patients during live procedures.

The framework addresses this tension through a dual-edge security middlebox that performs per-flow encryption using semantically selected ciphers: AES-128-GCM for latency-critical haptic …

Emerging Catalysts And System Designs For High-Current-Density Co2 Electroreduction To Multicarbon Fuels And Chemicals Toward Industrial-Scale Applications, Godwin Uche Edor

Masters Theses

Electrochemical CO2 reduction (eCO2RR) offers a sustainable route to convert CO2 into value-added fuels and chemicals, particularly multicarbon (C2+) products due to their higher energy density and economic value compared to C1 counterparts. Industrial adoption of eCO2RR technology is hindered by the difficulty in stably reaching superior Faradaic efficiency (FE) for C2+ products at ≥ 200 mA cm-2 at low applied overpotential due to sluggish C–C coupling kinetics, competing reactions, and catalyst instability. Hence, we examine the recent advances in eCO2RR catalyst engineering strategies, such as nanostructural and electronic modifications of Cu-based catalysts (e.g., interfacial, surface, facet, and defect engineering, …

Micro-Hyperspectral Imaging Of Phytoplankton Enables Deconvolution Of Mixed Communities For Spaceborne Hyperspectral Remote Sensing, Chisom Okwuchi Emeghiebo

Masters Theses

Characterizing phytoplankton diversity is critical for large-scale biodiversity monitoring and harmful algal bloom (HAB) detection. Here, we present a micro hyperspectral imaging method to characterize reflectance signatures, for the first time across major phytoplankton groups. Spectral variability among taxa in laboratory cultures is interpreted using algal pigment and absorption analyses, demonstrating that pigment composition and absorption govern reflectance features. Chlorophytes and cryptophytes exhibit distinct spectral signatures and are readily distinguishable, whereas diatoms and dinoflagellates show greater spectral similarity, with differentiation relying on subtle reflectance features associated with chlorophyll c₁c₂ near ~463 nm and within 620–650 nm. We further applied this …

Linking Greenhouse Gas Fluxes And Plant Responses To Saltwater Intrusion Events Using Remote Sensing, Madeline Jean Moore

Masters Theses

As sea level rise and coastal subsidence increase coastal Louisiana's vulnerability to saltwater intrusion (SWI) events, accurate and rapid monitoring of vegetation responses to these events is becoming increasingly important. In this study, we utilized unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) multispectral imagery to assess short-term vegetation responses to simulated SWI events in the Visser’s Experimental Wetland Complex in Saint Martinville, Louisiana. Vegetation patches of two common freshwater wetland species, Panicum hemitomon (Maidencane) and Typha domingensis (Southern Cattail), were exposed to 5 ppt salinity for 6-, 10-, and 17-day durations. Multispectral imagery of both species was collected before and after each SWI …

Classifying Storm Surges Along Louisiana Coast Using Machine Learning, Faith Ewere Okunbor

Masters Theses

Storm surges are among the most significant threats to coastal wetlands, causing flooding and saltwater intrusion that alter hydrology, vegetation structure, and long-term ecosystem resilience. Along the Louisiana coast, storm surge effects vary depending on storm behavior, shoreline geometry, and marsh hydrologic connectivity, yet are commonly characterized using broad storm metrics rather than site-specific environmental responses. This study develops a data-driven framework to classify storm surges across coastal Louisiana wetlands using observations from the Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS). Hourly water-level and salinity time series from twelve hurricanes (2007-2024) were analyzed using a 40-day storm-centered window. Hydrologic and salinity metrics …

Regioselective Tellurination Reactions And Their Utilities, Itunu Comfort Olanrewaju

Masters Theses

This thesis provides a comprehensive study of regioselective tellurination and its applications by integrating experimental and computational techniques, with an aim of synthesizing libraries of organotellurium heterocycles. This study addresses existing challenges in regioselective tellurination, such as unpredictable regioselectivity and avoidance of toxic reagents by harnessing intramolecular Te…O coordination and electrophilic aromatic tellurination. This strategy enables the development of previously poorly accessible compounds including benzotellurazinones, 2-acylaminobenzotellurazoles, and previously unknown 2,3-dihydrobenzo [b] oxatelluranes, which were prepared by antiMarkovnikov anti-addition of TeCl4 to C-C triple bonds. Experimental studies were complemented by computational DFT analyses to provide mechanistic and energetic insight into the …

Stratigraphic Distribution Of Pleistocene Aves At Fossil Lake In Lake County, Oregon, Cole Bradley Phillips

Masters Theses

The Fossil Lake locality in south-central Oregon is rich in many species of fossil remains and is also home to packages of sandstone that grade upward into finer siltstone or claystone. These packages have been interpreted to represent rising and falling lake levels as a result of glacial transgressive and regressive sequences. The fossil vertebrates and invertebrates have also fluctuated because of the different climates at Fossil Lake. Although the stratigraphic distribution of most classes of animals have been determined, fossil birds have not. Here, the distribution of 329 avian fossils is presented in the stratigraphic framework. The species were …

Disparities In The Identification Of Vulnerable Communities Due To Design Storm Methods: A Case Study In The Vermilion River Watershed, South Louisiana, Usa, Claire Orgeron

Masters Theses

Accurately identifying socially vulnerable populations at-risk of flooding is critical for equitable disaster mitigation and planning. This study investigates how the selection of design storm method, which is fundamental to developing flood risk maps used for this identification, influences which socially vulnerable populations are recognized as being at elevated flood risk. The most widely used design storm approach relies on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Atlas 14 point-based rainfall frequency estimates. These estimates are typically applied spatially using areal reduction factors, thereby disregarding rainfall spatial variability in real storms. Stochastic Storm Transposition (SST), an alternative design storm approach that …

Material Costs, Karima Weinman

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates how migration fatality and disappearance data can be reinterpreted through material craft to create a more reflective encounter with information. Working with the Missing Migrants Project's dataset, this project asks how design can communicate dimensions of human loss that conventional data visualization cannot reach.

The work situates contemporary border violence within a longer colonial history, arguing that the logics of surveillance and quantification that structured European imperial expansion persist in the databases that govern mobility in the Mediterranean today.

Terrazzo is a 15th-century Venetian flooring technique built from discarded fragments bound together into a unified surface. This …

1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, ..., Annemarie Torresen

Masters Theses

1

I invite you to see it and feel it and sit in it and breathe it in and

hold it in your lap. Art isn’t too scary, and neither is math.

2

bouncing between bounds of a binary

bippity boppity! let’s break brains and bread

balance or belly flop, what’s mine is yours:

bumptious and bumbling and barely able

i offer it broken and let you like it that way

Finding A Way Out Of The Filter Bubble: The Confusion Of A Heavy Social Media User, Longwen Miao

Masters Theses

This thesis studies how algorithmic recommendation systems reshape visual perception, aesthetic judgment, and the construction of selfhood within contemporary digital culture.

Everything begins with the experience of repeatedly encountering algorithmically recommended content on everyday digital platforms. On these platforms, images, sounds, and social interactions are continuously selected, repeated, and reorganized by predictive systems, forming an environment in which perception is constantly structured and adjusted.

From this observation, the research raises two central questions: how do algorithmic recommendation systems reshape visual perception, aesthetic judgment, and self-recognition, and how might these systems be intervened in or made perceptible through artistic practice? Within …

Somatic Prosthetics For Planetary Resonance, Disha Dharesh Kumar R

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates how industrial design can transcend extractive technological paradigms in favor of relational interfaces that foster planetary attunement. Framing the climate crisis as a 'crisis of imagination', the research challenges the Western bifurcation of nature and culture by drawing on Indic cosmologies- which recognize stones, plants, and ecosystems as conscious at different levels and participants in a shared cosmic field. By synthesizing research in Biosemiotics, Quantum Information Pansycishm, and Neuroscience, the project redefines intelligence as a distributed, more-than-human phenomenon.

The research materializes as a speculative design artifact: a device that functions as a somatic prosthetic for planetary resonance. …

Frictional Intelligence, Posheng Cheng

Masters Theses

This is an experimental interaction design project that challenges anthropomorphism in human-computer interaction. In particular, the recent advancement of artificial intelligence technologies like Large Language Models has taken anthropomorphism to new heights. The conversational chatbot interface of AI prioritizes mimicking an inherently human communication medium to maximize human-likeness. However, anthropomorphism has several downsides. Conversational interfaces obscure the limitations and the tangible cost of the technology. They also imply fictional moral status and human-level cognitive capabilities, which means general public sentiment focuses on the ``overhyped'' excitement and fear rather than on other socio-ethical and capacity questions that are far more urgent …

Productive Armature, Gabriel Ofem Peter

Masters Theses

What if water was all you had, what if your only source of survival was a body of water? I shudder to think that some people get to be put in this situation in the world we live in. As I understand the importance of water to survival, it is obvious that water can be the only lifeline of survival for a community. This is the experience for residents of Makoko, Lagos. Their survival depends on the Lagos Lagoon, a large body of water flowing in from the Atlantic Ocean. This research looks beyond the surface of what this community …

Empirical-Based Model Of Spatio-Temporal Errors, Godwin Naaba Ndaa

Masters Theses

This research develops an empirical model to characterize spatial-temporal InSAR errors and improve the accuracy of deformation time-series analysis. Using standardized Sentinel-1 HyP3 products and MintPy, the study quantifies how correlated noise affects velocity precision and validates the results against continuous GNSS velocities.

Residual velocities are near-Gaussian, with σ ~0.92–2.04 cm/yr and ~1 cm/yr on average. Variograms show power-law spatial structure with a non-zero nugget implicating troposphere and decorrelation while errors drop exponentially with more acquisitions; spatial uncertainty is strongly affected by unwrapping errors, coherence, and tropospheric noise, not simply troposphere.

A comparative assessment of on-demand cloud processing with other …

Analyzing Sleep Architecture And Brain State Transitions Via Hidden Markov Models On Fmri Data, Brileigh Jay Cates

Masters Theses

Sleep is associated with systematic changes in brain activity and functional connectivity observable in functional magnetic resonance imagining (fMRI) signals. Because subjects often fall asleep during resting-state experiments, the absence of vigilance monitoring can confound the interpretation of resting-state dynamics. Although electroencephalography (EEG) is the gold standard for sleep staging, simultaneous EEG-fMRI acquisition is not always feasible.

This study investigates whether sleep stages can be inferred directly from fMRI using a probabilistic latent-state framework. Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) are applied to blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) time series to identify latent brain states and their temporal transitions. Inferred states are aligned with EEG-derived …

Assessing Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Michigan’S Drowned River Mouths Using In Situ And Remote Sensing Methods, Jillian A. Greene

Masters Theses

Freshwater estuaries are natural contributors to the carbon cycle including production and emission of methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2), potent greenhouse gases (GHGs); however, estimates of their contribution to regional and global GHG emissions is largely unconstrained. Few studies have examined the quantification and drivers of lake CH4 and CO2 production in the Great Lakes region and how it may differ in response to anthropogenic development. In this study, CH4 and CO2 emissions were measured from three drowned river mouth estuaries (DRMs) along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan in 2024. The DRMs exist along a latitudinal gradient ranging …

Optimizing Sensor Placement For Drone Detection According To A Grid Pattern, António Martinho Do Rosário Marçal

Masters Theses

In applications such as drone detection, it’s essential to place sensors efficiently, not only considering the cost of placement and operation, but also the maximization of the area covered.

This study presents an algorithmic approach to a placement strategy, which can be applied over any arbitrary area by defining the parameters of the grid according to which the sensors will be placed. The problem is framed as a multi-objective optimization task, considering trade-offs between sensor count and coverage.

One of the principal decision variables chosen is the shape of the cell blocks of the grid, for which two different values …

Understanding The Fluid Source During Alteration Of Former Oceanic Lithosphere In The Polygenetic Ingalls Ophiolite Complex, Washington, Usa, Zachary Russell Stevens

Masters Theses

The Ingalls Ophiolite Complex is an ophiolite of Jurassic age in central WA, USA. Much of the complex formed in a supra-subduction zone setting in a back-arc ocean basin during subduction of the Farallon plate beginning 192 Ma. Between formation and obduction, mafic and ultramafic lithologies experienced alteration in the presence of water, which previous studies inferred to be seawater. Previously published δ¹⁸O and δD data from the Ingalls indicates isotopic depletion possibly caused by interaction with meteoric water at current latitude (~47.5 °N). The current study reports new δD, δ¹⁸O, and Δ ′¹⁷O measurements from mafic and ultramafic lithologies …

Pfas In Naturally Occurring Surface Water Foams, Donovan S. Vitale

Masters Theses

Surface Water Foam (SWF) and underlying Surface Water (SW) were collected from six distinct sites across Michigan using a novel sampling device. PFAS were detected in all SWF samples with total PFAS concentrations (Σ41 compounds, n=14) varying widely from 2,693 to 402,172 ng/L .SWF samples were enriched in high and intermediate molecular volume PFAS relative to SW samples (n=10) which were dominated by low molecular volume, short-chain PFAS with total PFAS concentrations ranging from 4.4 to 31 ng/L. Wet and dry SWFs were distinguished by appearance, liquid content, and PFAS composition. Dry SWFs had higher total PFAS concentrations than wet …

A Climatological Analysis Of Drought And Flood In California, Kristen Faith Coston

Masters Theses

This research is investigating the climate states that produce droughts and floods and seeks to explain how a sudden shift from persistent drought to drought-alleviating flood is possible. Objectives include investigating how drought and flood in California are influenced by temperature and climate patterns, whether there are any correlation between climate/ocean indices and the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), and whether Atmospheric Rivers (ARS) are influenced by certain atmospheric/oceanic states.

All data is collected for 41 years, between 1983 and 2024. The SPI dataset is obtained by coding to filter for the mean value of all pixels in Sacramento County. Monthly …

Tree Story, Jia Hu

Masters Theses

What is Nature?

Nature is a system of intelligence. It means designing for efficiency—often by learning from strategies that have evolved over time. In my research, I use patterns to interpret and decode nature.

To explore nature, I began with the red cedar tree, aiming to simulate and predict its growth patterns—forms shaped by both internal biology and external forces. By analyzing its geometry, I sought to understand how trees embody the dynamic relationship between organism and environment. These patterns reveal the adaptive logic of life.

Patterns are central to understanding nature. While tree geometry may appear chaotic, it follows …

Revealing Watery Geologies: Softening The Mississippi River Bluffs In Saint Paul, Minnesota, Chloe Kahn

Masters Theses

How is a place shaped by the geologies beneath it? In Saint Paul, Minnesota, the geologic ground tells the story of the different forces and processes that shaped it through time, but in the most recent geologic period of the anthropocene, industrialization and urban development have covered up these stories. On the edge of downtown, where the city meets the Mississippi River, an eighty foot concrete wall replaces the natural form of the bluff shaped by glacial and riverine activity. This thesis peels back the anthropogenic materials we encounter every day and explores Saint Paul through deep time– exploring how …

The Limits Of Knowing: Determinism, Uncertainty, And What’S Beyond The Human Gaze, Xilong T. Zhang

Masters Theses

This essay traces a personal philosophical and artistic journey from rigid belief in scientific determinism to an evolving embrace of uncertainty, subjectivity, and computational perception. Raised in an atheist, scientifically grounded household in China, the author initially adopted Newtonian determinism and Laplace’s thought experiment of a fully predictable universe as guiding principles. These beliefs informed early artistic practices rooted in Constructivism, geometry, and rule-based aesthetics. However, a failed attempt to fully optimize life through deterministic control led to physical and mental collapse, prompting deeper exploration into Cartesian dualism, quantum mechanics, and the limits of reason. Through Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle and …

Field Journal: The Excluded Middle, Carrie E. Kouts

Masters Theses

What does it look like to engage with organisms and landscapes at the periphery of anthropocentric value structures? How does one break the internalized myth that the “built” environment is excluded from the natural world? When does a hyper-mobile and hyper-commodified society confront the exponential crisis of animal death? Within this series of journal entries, field notes, collection observations, weird prose, and sensory musings, one will find questions on the nature of being human and the complex narratives of care we encounter in a world shared with more-than-humans. Each handwritten vignette and photograph from daily life weaves a non-linear and …

Experimental Evaluation Of Friedel’S Salt For Chloride Removal In Road Salt-Impacted Stormwater And Lakes, Marwan Alhinaai

Masters Theses

Road salt (e.g., NaCl) application in cold-temperature regions has increased Cl- concentrations in freshwater. Removing Cl- from water is challenging because it’s highly soluble. This paper is the first to demonstrate and characterize the removal of Cl- from stormwater by Friedel’s salt (Ca4Al2(OH)12Cl2(H2O)4) precipitation (FSP), achieved by adding calcium oxide (CaO) and sodium aluminate (NaAlO2). Laboratory tests were done on Cl- removal with FSP using a range of Ca/Al/Cl ratios in deionized (DI) water and in stormwater samples impacted by road salt. Even the lowest doses resulted in significant removal of Cl- with maximum removal rates for comparable Ca/Al/Cl ratios …

Estimating Climate Risk In Financial Markets, Olanrewaju Oluwadamilare Olaniyan

Masters Theses

The growing impact of climate change on financial markets necessitates a rigorous approach to climate risk assessment. This thesis examines methods for quantifying climate-related financial risks, with a focus on distinguishing climate risk from broader market movements (represented by S&P 500). Using a factor model, we isolate climate risk factors to better understand sector-specific volatility. The insurance sector is used as a proxy for climate risk exposure, given its sensitivity to climate-related losses and regulatory changes. We apply Extreme Value Theory (EVT); the Block Maxima Method and the Peaks Over Threshold Method, to identify excess risk patterns in financial portfolios. …

Automated Generation Of Malware Metadata Signatures, Joel Schott

Masters Theses

In advanced, targeted malware attacks, the custom software tools used to package and send malicious files and messages can lead to distinctive metadata values that facilitate creation of a malware metadata signature. Manual creation of these signatures requires expert domain knowledge and is time-consuming and error-prone. Our goal is to automate this process. We created several methods of automatically generating malware metadata signatures for ZIP files and emails. We evaluated these methods by comparing signatures generated with these methods to existing expert-created signatures. We found automated methods for ZIP files and emails that are capable of generating metadata signatures that …

Hyper B-Ary Representations Of A Number, Mingway Wang

Masters Theses

In this work, we summarize combinatorial, analytical, and computational properties of Stern's diatomic sequence, and do the same for a generalization of a combinatorial property of this sequence to higher bases. We then construct special ``bit conversion'' functions $g_{b}$ that allows us to find a semi-explicit formula for the generalized sequences. Lastly, we analyze some of the properties of these $g_{b}$ functions.

Augmentation Of Quality Of Service, Security, And Trust In Edge-Enhanced Iot Networks Leveraging Blockchain, Kyle Matthew Whitlatch

Masters Theses

The meteoric rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) has led to multiple architectural schemas to handle the data these devices create. Edge-enhancement is a technique where groups of IoT report to a median layer to aggregate the data before relaying to the endpoint. These edges also open opportunities to perform more operations to ensure devices are behaving properly before committing the data to long term storage. By interconnecting these edges with a technology like blockchain, it is possible to have an interconnected and responsive system to ensure the Quality of Service (QoS) of the IoT devices within the architecture …