Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Cybersecurity And Business Analytics: Strengthening Financial And Governmental Digital Defenses, Bushra F. Malik, Ravindar Reddy Gopireddy

Accounting, Business Analytics, Economics, and Finance Department Faculty Articles

The rapid digitization of financial services and federal operations has significantly increased cybersecurity risks. Cybercriminals are continuously evolving their attack methodologies, targeting financial institutions and government agencies to exploit vulnerabilities in digital infrastructures. Business analytics has emerged as a powerful tool in combating these threats by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and big data analytics to detect, analyze, and prevent cyber threats in real time. This paper explores the convergence of cybersecurity and business analytics, emphasizing their combined role in strengthening threat intelligence, fraud detection, incident response, and regulatory compliance. The research provides insights into emerging security trends, …

Fusion-Based Utilization And Synthesis Of Efficient Detections, Ethan C. Rogers, Parker H. Liberatore, Thomas G. James

Endeavors: Mississippi State Undergraduate Research Journal

This study aimed to develop hardware and software for an object detection fusion system, using three different sensors. The system was built and studied with the motivating application of autonomous drones searching for and detecting people in a search-and-rescue scenario. The system’s performance was compared to that of individual sensors deployed for the same task. The focus of the research was to prove the competence and benefits of a decision-level fusion method as it was applied to a lightweight object detection architecture, and the driving motivators behind the study were simplicity in implementation and good computational performance. In short, the …

Modeling Trust And Deception In Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning Using The Werewolf Game, Pathikkumar Dharmeshbhai Patel

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

This thesis explores the emergence of trust, deception, and adaptive strategy in multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) environments using the social deduction game Werewolf as a simulation framework. In this environment, agents operate with hidden roles, incomplete information, and the need to reason about others’ intentions- mirroring the complexities of real-world social interactions. We present and evaluate two agent architectures: Agent vA, a symbolic, heuristic-based agent with probabilistic trust modeling and scalable memory structures; and Agent vB, a modular Q-learning agent that learns phase-specific policies through reinforcement. Agent vA relies on symbolic reasoning, bounded belief updates, and generalizable heuristics, while Agent …

Rearchitecting Aerial Omniverse Digital Twin For Script-Driven And Scalable Simulations, Sarath Chandra Viswanadh Nagadevara

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

The Nvidia Aerial Omniverse Digital Twin (AODT) platform provides a comprehensive framework for modeling radio network behavior under varying user mobility scenarios for 5G, 6G, and beyond. However, the current AODT implementation relies on a graphical user interface (GUI) to manually configure simulation parameters and initiate runs, which limits its capability to support automated, large-scale simulations that are needed by future cellular networks. In this study, we re-architect AODT to enable automation and control through scripts by decoupling its original simulation backend engine from the GUI. We adopt a client-server architecture, where the server runs the simulation backend engine controlled …

Centrality Algorithms For Weighted Homogeneous Multilayer Networks, Ayomide Ayowole-Obi

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Applications need to be modeled for analyses. With the availability of many alternate data Models, choosing one needs to be done carefully by considering the complexity of data to be modeled and its analyses requirements. Social networks and other newer applications are primarily relationship-oriented and also have multiple types of entities and relationships. Although simple and attributed graphs have been used historically for modeling these applications, recently, multilayer networks (or MLNs) have been shown to be more effective in preserving the semantics of the application better and further provide flexibility of analyses. However, choice of MLN as a data model …

Technology-Facilitated Abuse (Tfa): Analyzing Trends, Tactics, And Victim Responses On Reddit, Solomon G. Dandekar

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

The increasing integration of technology into daily life has provided numerous benefits but also significant risks, particularly when exploited by malicious actors in cases of technology facilitated abuse (TFA). Per- petrators can misuse technology to monitor, control, and intimidate their partners, random strangers, etc. exacerbating cycles of abuse. From location tracking and cellphone surveillance to smart device manipula- tion, spyware, and doxing, digital tools have become powerful instruments for coercion and control. This research project investigates the role of technology in stalking and harassment by analyzing discussions on a relevant subreddit where victims share their experiences, strategies for coping, and …

A Deep Reinforcement Learning Framework For Sequential Art Creation, Asmin Pothula

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Most computational art systems rely on generative models that produce a complete artwork in a single pass, without capturing the gradual, decision-driven process through which human artists construct visual pieces. Prior research in sequential, stroke-based image generation, including differentiable neural painters and model-based reinforcement learning agents, has explored step-by-step creation, but these systems typically aim to reconstruct the input image within the same visual representation space, closely matching brushstrokes, textures, or colors to the target. In contrast, this thesis investigates sequential art creation in a different artistic representation, where the final artwork does not share the same visual form as …

Scalable Approaches Towards Characterizing And Mitigating Emerging Phishing Scams, Sayak Saha Roy

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Phishing scams are among the most dangerous and persistent forms of cybercrime, leveraging social engineering to exploit human behavior and obtain sensitive information, leading to widespread identity theft and data breaches. In the past year, these attacks have resulted in financial losses exceeding $10 billion in the United States alone. As phishing scams continue to evolve, they have not only expanded in scale but also grown in sophistication, spreading rapidly across social media and employing adversarial techniques to evade detection by anti-scam tools. The situation is further exacerbated by the availability of advanced phishing kits, and more recently, generative AI, …

Fabrication Of Microscale Oxide Architectures On Silicon Via A Cmos-Compatible, Deposition-Last Process, Jamal A. Brown

Material Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

This work explores the feasibility of integrating complex oxide devices on silicon using a CMOS-compatible, deposition-last approach. While previous demonstrations of this method have succeeded at larger scales, this study focuses on extending the process to microscale features, with lateral dimensions as small as two microns. The fabrication sequence begins with photolithographic patterning and reactive ion etching of the silicon substrate, followed by the deposition of a silicon nitride mask to delineate device regions. We then epitaxially grew SrTiO3 and La-doped SrTiO3 layers on top of the nitride mask via molecular beam epitaxy. Electrical transport measurements of the La:STO layer …

An Evaluation On The Uncertainty For The Routine Of Dosimetry Calibration At The National Secondary Standard Dosimetry Laboratory, Albania, Klotilda Nikaj

International Journal of Nuclear Security

Every employer must, in relation to any work with ionizing radiation that they undertake, take all necessary steps to restrict so far as is reasonably practicable the extent to which their employees and other persons are exposed to ionizing radiation. This goal leads to an increased awareness about the proper maintenance and annual calibration of the personal dosimeters to ensure an accurate and precise radiation dose. The present work has described the performance of the radiation system of the ¹³⁷Cs source at the National Secondary Standard Dosimetry Laboratory (SSDL), located at the Institute of Applied Nuclear Physics at the …

Gaps In Knowledge: Topological Insights Into The Structure Of Science, Gavin Engelstad

Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science Honors Projects

Understanding scientific development is essential to ascertaining the mechanisms leading us into the future. Building this understanding requires both methodological developments and empirical research. This thesis contributes in both aspects using a topological approach to examine scientific knowledge. The first section presents a new algorithm to find optimal cycle representatives for homological features in complex networks, a context for which we demonstrate existing algorithms can be inadequate. The second section applies a number of topological methods, including our cycle optimization algorithm, to data on individual scientific fields, demonstrating the value of topological approaches and highlighting new insights about how science …

Detection Of Hybrid Optical Anapoles In Dielectric Microspheres, Uttam Manna, Iker Gómez-Viloria, Robert Sevik, Isaac Tribaldo, Mahua Biswas, Gabriel Molina-Terriza, Jorge Olmos-Trigo

Faculty publications – Physics

Nonradiating optical anapoles are special configurations of charge-current distributions that do not radiate. It was theoretically predicted that, for microspheres, electric and magnetic dipolar coefficients can simultaneously vanish by engineering the incident light, leading to the excitation of nonradiating hybrid optical anapoles. In this work, the experimental detection of hybrid optical anapoles in dielectric microspheres (TiO₂) is reported using dual detection optical spectroscopy, developed to enable sequential measurement of forward and backward scattering under tightly-focused Gaussian beam (TFGB) illumination. The results show that the excitation of TiO₂ microspheres (diameter, d ≈1 µm) under TFGB illumination leads to …

Existence And Uniqueness Of The Solution Of A Traffic Flow Partial Differential Equation On Multi-Lane Freeways, Sina Zareian

CGU Theses & Dissertations

In this dissertation, we shall prove the existence of a solution of the stochastic partial differential equation describing the density of cars on a multi-lane freeway using the operator splitting method. Furthermore, we shall prove the uniqueness of the solution of the stochastic differential equation which forms when we apply the operator splitting method to the traffic flow stochastic partial differential equation.

The Impact Of Llms Usage On Learning Outcomes For Software Development Students: A Focus On Prompt Engineering, Mohammed Owaidh Aljohani

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This study investigates the impact of large language model (LLM) usage, specifically ChatGPT, on student learning outcomes in programming education. The research adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative survey data from students and qualitative interviews with instructors. The study addresses three research questions: (1) the effect of LLM usage on undergraduate students' learning outcomes, (2) the influence of prompt engineering skills on this relationship, and (3) instructors' perceptions on these relationships. Quantitative data were collected from 159 students across two Saudi universities using a structured online survey with sections covering demographic information, LLM usage, self-reported programming understanding, and prompt engineering …

Diophantine Avoidance, Number Fields, And Quadratic Forms, Sehun Jeong

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Diophantine avoidance has been studied by several authors in recent years. This term refers to effective results on existence of points of bounded size (where size is measured by norm or height, depending on the context) in a given algebraic set avoiding some specified subsets. The application of avoidance conditions allows to understand how ``well distributed" are points of bounded size in a given set. If it is possible to find them outside of some prescribed collection of subsets of the set in question, then it suggests that they are evenly distributed, in some appropriate sense. Our first result investigates …

Classical And Quantum Computational Methods For Predicting Fluid Transport In Fracture Networks, John Kath

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the challenge of modeling complex geophysical systems by developing efficient surrogate models and scalable quantum algorithms. Our approaches provide uncertainty quantification, assessing confidence in estimates while accounting for subsurface heterogeneity. These innovations are designed to replace costly solvers with parsimonious emulators. In combination with multi-fidelity and quantum techniques, they make physics-informed modeling computationally feasible. One of our studies involves the use of Gaussian process regression to generate Bayesian predictions for gas transport in 3D discrete fracture networks. This provides accurate estimates while offering substantial savings over computationally intensive high-fidelity simulations. Additionally, we study multi-fidelity modeling through the …

Artificial Intelligence In Health Care: Business Opportunities And Ethical Challenges, Ankita Srivastava, Marco Marabelli, Jeffrey Moriarty

Computer Information Systems Faculty Publications

Artificial intelligence (AI), and in particular generative AI (GAI), are making incredible progress toward automation. The pervasive and invasive nature of these technologies are affecting every industry, and health care is no exception. This paper summarizes insights derived from a panel that the Hoffman Center for Business Ethics and the Center for Health and Business at Bentley University hosted in March 2024. The panel invited three qualified health care professionals: Evan Carey, Susan Persky and John Torous. The panelists are all active in multiple aspects of AI in health care but represent a focus on the key areas of policy …

Development And Characterization Of Polysaccharide-Based Controlled Drug Delivery Platforms, Amanda Pepler

Open Access Dissertations

Drug delivery research focuses on overcoming challenges in patient treatment. Most therapeutics are delivered systemically through oral or intravenous routes. However, these administration methods are often inefficient due to therapeutic hydrophobicity, poor bioavailability, and liver metabolic clearance, necessitating frequent dosing. When treatment plans require frequent dosing, patients experience significant fluctuations in therapeutic concentration in the bloodstream, which can increase adverse side effects. These factors contribute to low patient compliance. Therefore, the core focus of drug delivery research is to develop new administration routes for therapeutics. Drug delivery systems (DDS) that can target therapeutics to a localized region offer advantages over …

Quantifying Mixotrophy Potential As A Function Of Environmental And Biological Drivers In Coastal And Estuarine Plankton Communities, Erica Ewton

Open Access Dissertations

The discovery of mixotrophic plankton has bridged gaps in nutrient cycling budgets and altered the understanding of food webs and energy transfer. Mixotrophic plankton are capable of simultaneous or sequential photosynthesis and heterotrophy, providing multiple avenues of nutrition and thus reducing limitations that affect specialists. These energy dense cells provide increased biomass for higher trophic levels, which may increase organism sizes throughout the food web. Additionally, they may be physically denser, which alters biogeochemical cycling including carbon sequestration. The work presented here uses LysoTracker Green, an acidotropic stain that attaches to phagocytic vacuoles within potentially phagotrophic small (< 20 µm diameter) phytoplankton communities (‘mixoplankton’), to better understand their abundance, relative abundance, and growth rates in relation to the matrix of natural conditions they inhabit. Understanding the prevalence and drivers of mixoplankton is vital to better parameterize biogeochemical cycling and energy transfer in the ocean and for models that predict the fate of future oceans.In the first study, I compared the abundance of mixoplankton in the Northeast U.S. Shelf (NES) and Coastal California Current System (CCS) during two cruises in the NES in summer 2021 and one cruise in the CCS in summer 2022. These two contrasting coastal systems span the breadth of environmental conditions observed in temperate marine ecosystems and thus provided an opportunity to examine indicators of mixoplankton across temperate coastal regions. I discovered higher mixoplankton abundance in the NES than CCS yet similar population sizes of nanoeukaryotic photosynthesizers, resulting in higher relative abundance of mixoplankton in the NES than CCS. Across both systems, I found increased mixoplankton abundance associated with decreasing temperature and combined nitrate + nitrite concentrations (N+N), and increasing light intensity and Synechococcus abundance …

Investigating The Photophysical Dynamics Of Anthracene And Acridine Derivatives Using Time-Resolved Spectroscopy, Sophia Tiano

Open Access Dissertations

Anthracenes and acridines are among the simplest visible light absorbing heterocyclic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and as such are extensively used in a variety of applications including photosensitizers and fluorescent sensors. Although the photophysics of some derivatives have been studied in the past, there is still a lot of unknown fundamental information that is vital in order to optimize these molecules for particular applications. Transient absorption spectroscopy was used to study the photophysics of the 9-substituted methyl, hydroxymethyl and formyl derivatives of acridine and anthracene. The growth and decay of the triplet-triplet absorption peak were quantified for each dye in …

Ultra-Rapid Electrophilic Cysteine Arylation Using Pyridinium Salts, Bradley M. Lipka

Open Access Dissertations

Small molecule-based bioconjugation enables in vitro and in vivo functionalization of proteins and peptides, significantly expanding the chemical space of biomacromolecules. Among these transformations, nucleophilic aromatic substitution (S_NAr) of cysteine residues is a widely employed strategy for protein bioconjugation.

Although many reagents facilitate cysteine arylation, they are disadvantageous in two crucial aspects - limited synthetic modularity and undesired hydrophobicity. First, conventional cysteine arylating reagents are frequently activated by multiple electron-withdrawing groups (EWGs) on a single aromatic ring, leaving few synthetic handles to derivatize the reagents for advanced applications. Second, these labeling reagents are generally hydrophobic in nature and …

Generative Artificial Intelligence: Legal Ethics Issues, Kincaid Brown

Law Librarian Scholarship

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is transforming nearly every sector of society including the practice of law. Legal professionals are increasingly using AI tools for research, drafting, contract review, and even predicting judicial outcomes with as many as one third of respondents to a survey using GenAI daily. But with this rapid adoption come questions that go beyond efficiency and instead point to the core of legal ethics including issues such as competence, confidentiality, and professional judgment.

Ergodic Switching Control For Markov-Feller Processes Ii, Jose L. Menaldi, Maurice Robin

Mathematics Faculty Research Publications

This is the continuation of Part I [14], where we considered control problems with long term average (or ergodic) cost for Markov switching processes (zt , nt ), nt being a discrete component with values in a finite set N . The control acts only on this discrete component and consists of immediate switching actions. We solve the ergodic problem in several situations extending previous works, mainly when zt is a reflected diffusion with or without jumps and when the set of control values is strictly smaller than N . In this Part II, we conclude our theoretical analysis with …

Ergodic Switching Control For Markov-Feller Processes I, Jose L. Menaldi, Maurice Robin

Mathematics Faculty Research Publications

We consider control problems with long term average (or ergodic) cost for Markov switching processes (zt, nt ), nt being a discrete component with values in a finite set N . The control acts only on this discrete component and consists of immediate switching actions. We solve the ergodic problem in several situations extending previous works, mainly when zt is a reflected diffusion with or without jumps and when the set of control values is strictly smaller than N .

Optimization Of Free-Time Controlled Constrained Sweeping Processes And Applications, Thi Dai Trang Nguyen

Wayne State University Dissertations

Optimization and optimal control have a wide range of applications across fields like engineering, biology, data science, and economics. This dissertation is devoted to advanced optimal control problems discontinuous constrained differential inclusions of the sweeping type involving the duration of the dynamic process into optimization, which are truly challenging and underinvestigated in control theory while being highly important for various applications. To attack such problems, we use the method of discrete approximation while establishing its well-posedness and strong convergence to optimal solutions of the controlled sweeping process. This approach, married to advanced tools of variational analysis, enables this research to …

Neutron Star Low-Mass X-Ray Binaries In And Out Of Focus: Nustar Stray Light, Songwei Li

Wayne State University Dissertations

Neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries (NS LMXBs) provide crucial insights into the physics of accretion under extreme gravity. In this dissertation, we explore the capabilities of NuSTAR’s stray light (SL) observations to supplement, and in some cases, surpass focused data in spectral studies of bright LMXBs. Utilizing the use of SL datasets, we perform detailed spectral analyses of two Z sources: GX 340+0 and Sco X-1.

For GX 340+0, we compare 7 focused and 25 SL observations across multiple spectral states, demonstrating that SL data significantly expand temporal coverage and allow for the detection of long-term spectral evolution not evident …

Study On Motion Prediction Analysis Of Large Vessels Entering Kaohsiung Port Second Harbor, Li-Heng Cheng, Hsing-Yu Wang

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Pilotage is a primary service offered by ports, ensuring the safe passage of entering and exiting vessels. This study applied motion prediction analysis to large vessels navigating the constrained waterways of Kaohsiung Port’s second harbor. To address the needs of pilots and port operators, a simplified planar motion equation was developed that incorporated speed over ground and rate of turn (ROT) as primary variables. The model relied on inputs of limited navigational data, enabling pilots to predict changes in heading and position over time and determine the conditions for safe harbor entry. Vessel paths and turning angles were analyzed to …

Modeling Wild Rice Bed Health: A Dual Metric Approach For Bed Strength And Invasive Impact, Seth Sisneros-Martinez

Journal of Earth and Life Science

Wild rice (mannoomin; Zizania palustris) is an aquatic grain that grows in slow-moving rivers and shallow bays throughout northern Minnesota. In Headquarters Bay on Leech Lake, wild rice has served as a cultural staple for Indigenous communities for centuries. However, its population has declined in recent years due to multiple environmental issues. One potential contributor is Eurasian watermilfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum; EWM), an invasive species that forms dense mats capable of outcompeting native aquatic vegetation, including wild rice. EWM was first recorded on the southern shoreline of Leech Lake in 2005 and has since become widespread. This study …

Implementing Rsa Accumulators For Asynchronous And Permissionless Reliable Broadcasting, Eric Webb

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Asynchronous consensus protocols are essential for decentralized and trustless environments such as decentralized finance (DeFi), supply chain management, and voting systems. These protocols eliminate centralized authority and timing assumptions while improving resilience and security. However, as network sizes increase the communication overhead in these systems becomes a bottleneck that limits scalability and efficiency. One notable example is the Aleph protocol, which stands out as one of the first consensus protocols to be both asynchronous and permissionless while providing Byzantine Fault Tolerance. Unlike many existing asynchronous consensus mechanisms, Aleph is permissionless in nature and does not rely on a trusted dealer …

Force Of Nature (2024) By Ann E. Burg, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Middle Grades Books

Rachel Carson launched the modern environmental movement with books that combined detailed observations of the natural world, scientific research, and philosophical reflection on humanity’s relationship with nature — all conveyed in poetic language. Ann E. Burg’s fictional biography-in-verse Force of Nature shows how these habits of observation, questioning, reflection, and expression began in Carson’s childhood, and invites readers to follow her lines of inquiry. Can we provide for human well-being without sacrificing the well-being of non-human life? Can we provide for the well-being of certain human populations without sacrificing the well-being of others? Can we indulge our wonder about, and …