Computer Sciences Commons^™

A Curriculum For Teaching Information Technology Investigative Techniques For Auditors, Grover S. Kearns

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Recent prosecutions of highly publicized white-collar crimes combined with public outrage have resulted in heightened regulation of financial reporting and greater emphasis on systems of internal control. Because both white-collar and cybercrimes are usually perpetrated through computers, internal and external auditors’ knowledge of information technology (IT) is now more vital than ever. However, preserving digital evidence and investigative techniques, which can be essential to fraud examinations, are not skills frequently taught in accounting programs and instruction in the use of computer assisted auditing tools and techniques – applications that might uncover fraudulent activity – is limited. Only a few university-level …

Development Of A National Repository Of Digital Forensic Intelligence, Mark Weiser, David P. Biros, Greg Mosier

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Many people do all of their banking online, we and our children communicate with peers through computer systems, and there are many jobs that require near continuous interaction with computer systems. Criminals, however, are also “connected”, and our online interaction provides them a conduit into our information like never before. Our credit card numbers and other fiscal information are at risk, our children's personal information is exposed to the world, and our professional reputations are on the line.

The discipline of Digital Forensics in law enforcement agencies around the nation and world has grown to match the increased risk and …

Electronic Data Discovery: Integrating Due Process Into Cyber Forensic Practice, John W. Bagby, John C. Ruhnka

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Most organizations and government agencies regularly become engaged in litigation with suppliers, customers, clients, employees, competitors, shareholders, prosecutors or regulatory agencies that nearly assures the need to organize, retain, find and produce business records and correspondence, emails, accounting records or other data relevant to disputed issues. This article discusses some high visibility cases that constrain how metadata and content is routinely made available to opposing parties in civil litigation, to prosecutors in criminal prosecutions and to agency staff in regulatory enforcement litigation. Public policy, as implemented in the rules of evidence and pretrial discovery, restrict electronic data discovery (EDD) as …

Forensic Tools For Mobile Phone Subscriber Identity Modules, Wayne Jansen, Rick Ayers

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Mobile phones and other handheld devices incorporating cellular capabilities, such as Personal Digital Assistants, are ubiquitous. Besides placing calls, these devices allow users to perform other useful tasks, including text messaging and phonebook entry management. When cell phones and cellular devices are involved in a crime or other incident, forensic specialists require tools that allow the proper retrieval and speedy examination of data present on the device. For devices conforming to the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) standards, certain data such as dialed numbers, text messages, and phonebook entries are maintained on a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM). This paper …

What's Wrong With Inclusive Fitness?, Jeffrey Fletcher, Martin Zwick, Michael Doebeli, David Sloan Wilson

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

In lieu of an abstract, here is the first paragraph:

In a recent issue of TREE, Foster et al. [1] defend inclusive fitness theory [2] from recent challenges [3,4]. The main author of these challenges, E.O. Wilson, argues that inclusive fitness (also called kin selection [5]) may not be the main explanation for the evolution of altruism and eusociality. In contrast, Foster et al. claim that inclusive fitness is not only the most prominent explanation for altruism, but that genetic “relatedness is always required for altruism to evolve” [1, p. 59]. Here we take issue with their claim about …

Polygons Flip Finitely: Flaws And A Fix, Erik D. Demaine, Blaise Gassend, Joseph O’Rourke, Godfried T. Toussaint

Computer Science: Faculty Publications

Every simple planar polygon can undergo only a finite number of pocket flips before becoming convex. Since Erdős posed this as an open problem in 1935, several independent purported proofs have been published. However, we uncover a plethora of errors and gaps in these arguments, and remedy these problems with a new (correct) proof.

Use Of Pen-Based Technology In Calculus Courses, John R. Hubbard

Department of Math & Statistics Faculty Publications

The author and his students used Tablet computers in Calculus I and Calculus II classes, providing students with dynamic digital transcripts that they could replay at their convenience. He and his students agreed that these graphic replays provide an effective alternative to the static explanations found in textbooks and in traditional course notes. Two specific examples are given in this paper.

Model Checking Control Communication Of A Facts Device, David Andrew Cape

Masters Theses

"This thesis concerns the design and verification of a real-time communication protocol for sensor data collection and processing between an embedded computer and a DSP. In such systems, a certain amount of data loss without recovery may be tolerated. The key issue is to design and verify the correctness in the presence of these lost data frames under real-time constraints. This thesis describes a temporal verification that if the end processes do not detect that too many frames are lost, defined by comparison of error counters against given threshold values, then there will be a bounded delay between transmission of …

Evaluating Lookup-Based Monocular Human Pose Tracking On The Humaneva Test Data, Nicholas Howe

Computer Science: Faculty Publications

This work presents an evaluation of several lookup-based methods for recovering three-dimensional human pose from monocular video sequences. The methods themselves are largely described elsewhere [1, 2], although the work presented here incorporates a few minor enhancements. The primary contribution of this work is the evaluation of the results on a data set with ground truth available, which allows for quantitative comparisons with other techniques. Methods relying upon silhouettes produced via background subtraction tend to act as a “straw man” in relation to the current state of the art; many recently proposed techniques work without reliance upon background subtraction and …

Incremental Generation Of Spatial Referring Expressions In Situated Dialogue, John D. Kelleher, Geert-Jan Kruijff

Conference papers

This paper presents an approach to incrementally generating locative expressions. It addresses the issue of combinatorial explosion inherent in the construction of relational context models by: (a) contextually defining the set of objects in the context that may function as a landmark, and (b) sequencing the order in which spatial relations are considered using a cognitively motivated hierarchy of relations, and visual and discourse salience.

Interface Design Requirements For Playing Pong With A Single Switch Device, Brian Mac Namee, John Gilligan

Conference papers

Motivated by a desire for increased accessibility in digital games, in this paper we consider the design requirements for an interface to a variation of the game Pong for single-switch users. We consider the issues in the design of accessible interfaces for games and propose a set of interface configurations for playing Pong, using this as a proof of concept for more elaborate games.

A Computational Model Of The Referential Semantics Of Projective Prepositions, John D. Kelleher, Josef Van Genabith

Conference papers

In this paper we present a framework for interpreting locative expressions containing the prepositions in front of and behind. These prepositions have different semantics in the viewer-centred and intrinsic frames of reference (Vandeloise, 1991). We define a model of their semantics in each frame of reference. The basis of these models is a novel parameterized continuum function that creates a 3-D spatial template. In the intrinsic frame of reference the origin used by the continuum function is assumed to be known a priori and object occlusion does not impact on the applicability rating of a point in the spatial template. …

Automated Photo-Identification Of Cetaceans : An Integrated Software Solution, Daniel Griggs

Theses : Honours

This study investigates current techniques used for automated photo-identification of cetaceans (i.e. dolphins and whales). The primary focus constitutes various techniques that can be applied to identify and extract dorsal fins from digital photographs. A comprehensive analysis of these techniques demonstrates the most effective software solution. To further support this analysis, four prototypes are developed to demonstrate the effectiveness of each technique in a practical environment. The analysis bases its final conclusions on test results generated from these prototype software examples. Final conclusions provide recommendations for an effective, accurate, and practical software solution. This software solution allows dorsal fins to …

Typography Behind The Arabetic Calligraphy Veil, Saad D. Abulhab

Publications and Research

In the change from scriptural writing systems to textual mechanical systems and most recently to digital, computer generated text, some languages and their typographic representations have suffered. One such language, along with its visible language representation, that has not made a smooth transition is Arabic. The author argues that misinterpreting language tradition prevents what he calls Arabetic typography from embracing an appropriate technological adaptation. Putting forth an evolutionary argument, he critiques the notion that calligraphic styles must prevail and that legibility and readability of Arabic characters is objective. He further states that the resulting typefaces when abandoning the so called …

Samats : Semi-Automated Modelling And Texturing System, Joe Hegarty

Masters

The creation of detailed 3D (three-dimensional) building models has become an area of considerable research over the last couple of decades. The accurate modelling of buildings offers LBS (Location Based Services) applications in planning, cultural heritage, tourism and e-commerce among others. The approach taken by the majority of contemporary modelling systems that use terrestrial imagery taken from arbitrary locations requires the user to carry out manual correspondences across the image set. These correspondences are used for two purposes. Firstly, the correspondences are used to determine the exterior orientation parameters (position and orientation) of the cameras used to capture each image. …

Investigating The Male-Driven Evolution Hypothesis Using Human AluRepeat Elements, Sridhar Ramachandran

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Thousands of copies of short interspersed repeats (SINEs) are scattered essentially ran-domly through the human genome. Although copies of each repeat subfamily are identical at the time of their insertion, they become subject to individual substitutions after insertion. As the relative time of insertion is known for many of these repeats, such "junk DNA" can be used to provide a sizeable number of time-series data points for studying substitution effects in a variety of genomic contexts. This dissertation specifically discusses the usefulness of the Alufamily of SINE repeats towards addressing open problems in genomics, population genetics, and biology in …

A Computational Framework For Analyzing Chemical Modification And Limited Proteolysis Experimental Data Used For High Confidence Protein Structure Prediction, Paul E. Anderson

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Prediction of protein tertiary structure based on amino acid sequence is one of the most challenging open questions in computational molecular biology. Experimental methods for protein structure determination remain relatively time consuming and expensive, and are not applicable to all proteins. While a diverse array of algorithms have been developed for prediction of protein structure from amino acid sequence information, the accuracy and reliability of these methods are not yet comparable to experimental structure determination techniques. Computational models of protein structure can, however, be improved by the incorporation of experimental information. Relatively rapid and inexpensive protein modification experiments can be …

Journey To The Center Of The Core: Computers And The Internet In The Core Curriculum, Jorge Pérez, Meg C. Murray

Faculty Articles

Computers, digitalization and the Internet have transformed modern society. Commerce, education, communication and socialization will never be the same. Surprisingly, many universities do not require a computing course in the core curriculum. Critical information technology (IT) competencies are often taken for granted, to the detriment of students who lack computing and Internet skills. This paper describes an initiative undertaken by a computer science and information systems department to assess and remediate IT skills needed by all university students, regardless of major. The project is evolving along several dimensions: identification of discipline-independent IT competencies, assessment of IT skills among current and …

Analysis Of Aircraft Arrival Delay And Airport On-Time Performance, Yuqiong Bai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While existing grid environments cater to specific needs of a particular user community, we need to go beyond them and consider general-purpose large-scale distributed systems consisting of large collections of heterogeneous computers and communication systems shared by a large user population with very diverse requirements. Coordination, matchmaking, and resource allocation are among the essential functions of large-scale distributed systems. Although deterministic approaches for coordination, matchmaking, and resource allocation have been well studied, they are not suitable for large-scale distributed systems due to the large-scale, the autonomy, and the dynamics of the systems. We have to seek for nondeterministic solutions for …

Unsymmetrical And Symmetrical Sparse Iterative Algorithm With Multiple Right-Hand-Sides Strategies, D. T. Nguyen, A. P. Honrao, G. Hou, O. Akan, O. Baysal

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Unified unsymmetrical and symmetrical iterative solvers for handling multiple right-hand-side vectors are examined in this work. Efficient computer implementation strategies (to reduce computational time and in-core memory requirements) are proposed. In-core, out-of-core, linear, multiple right hand side (RHS) vectors, non-linear, symmetrical, and unsymmetrical capabilities of the developed software are demonstrated by solving variety of problems selected form different engineering disciplines. Results indicate that the developed algorithm and software is reliable and efficient.

An Approach To Resolve Data Model Heterogeneities In Multiple Data Sources, Chaiyaporn Chirathamjaree

Research outputs pre 2011

To gain a competitive advantage, it is imperative for executives to be able to obtain one unique view of information, normally scattered across disparate data sources, in an accurate and timely manner. To interoperate data sources which differ structurally and semantically, particular problems occur, for example, problems of changing schema in data sources affect the integrated schema. This paper presents an approach to resolve data model heterogeneities in databases and legacy systems through mediation and wrapping techniques. The system is well supported by the mediated data model (MDM), a semantically-rich data model which can describe and represent heterogeneous data schematically …

The Hydra Filesystem: A Distrbuted Storage Famework, Benjamin Gonzalez, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Hydra File System (HFS) is an experimental framework for constructing parallel and distributed filesystems. While parallel and distributed applications requiring scalable and flexible access to storage and retrieval are becoming more commonplace, parallel and distributed filesystems remain difficult to deploy easily and configure for different needs. HFS aims to be different by being true to the tradition of high-performance computing while employing modern design patterns to allow various policies to be configured on a per instance basis (e.g. storage, communication, security, and indexing schemes). We describe a working prototype (available for public download) that has been implemented in the Python …

Specific Antibodies To Recombinant Allergens Of Aspergillus Fumigatus In Cystic Fibrosis Patients With Abpa, Viswanath P. Kurup, Alan P. Knutsen, Richard B. Moss, Naveen K. Bansal

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Background

Aspergillus fumigatus, a widely distributed fungus, has been implicated in causing life threatening infections as well as severe asthma and allergic diseases in man. Allergic affliction like allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) is a disabling lung disease frequently seen in patients with asthma and cystic fibrosis. Immunodiagnosis of the former is comparatively easier due to the availability of purified antigens and sensitive methods. However, this is not true with cystic fibrosis patients where the prevalence of ABPA is fairly high and the morbidity and mortality are significant.

Methods

In the present study, we have evaluated purified recombinant allergens from …

The Chang-Los-Suszko Theorem In A Topological Setting, Paul Bankston

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

The Chang-Łoś-Suszko theorem of first-order model theory characterizes universal-existential classes of models as just those elementary classes that are closed under unions of chains. This theorem can then be used to equate two model-theoretic closure conditions for elementary classes; namely unions of chains and existential substructures. In the present paper we prove a topological analogue and indicate some applications.

Transfer Of Training From Flight Training Devices To Flight For Ab-Initio Pilots, Nickolas D. Macchiarella, Pamela K. Arban, Shawn M. Doherty

Publications

The application of flight simulation to meet pilot training needs continues to evolve. Flight simulations built with powerful and inexpensive computers are making high fidelity simulation available as a medium for training ab-initio pilots at Pilot Schools and Training Centers. The researchers conducted an 18-month study that applied an experimental flight-training curriculum comprised of 60% flight training device (FTD) flight and 40% airplane flight to certify Private Pilots under Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) Part 142. The results from the research provided data to ascertain the effective transfer for each flight-training task. Ab-initio student pilots practiced each task to standard in …

Implementation Of Labcreator And The Integration Of Cyberlab, Kang Zhao

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

With the development of the World Wide Web, online courses are becoming more and more popular in modern science education. CyberLab aims to solve an important issue in distance science education -- laboratory experiments in online courses. It is a toolkit that handles creation, exportation, and execution of virtual experiments (within web browsers). It consists of LabCreator and LabExecutor. With LabCreator, instructors can create virtual experiments and export them into intermediate files. Students can download those files from online course websites and execute them in LabExecutor on their own computers.

The paper reports on the completion of two important tasks …

Use Of A Classroom Response System To Enhance Classroom Interactivity, Keng Siau, Hong Sheng, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah

Business and Information Technology Faculty Research & Creative Works

Classroom interactivity is a critical component of teaching and learning. This paper reports on the use of a classroom response system to enhance classroom interactivity in a systems analysis and design course. The success of the project was assessed using both quantitative and qualitative data. A pretest/posttest design was used to examine the effects of a classroom response system on interactivity. The results show that a classroom response system can significantly improve classroom interactivity. Qualitative data was also collected to identify the strengths and weaknesses of using a classroom response system to enhance classroom interaction. Based on the quantitative and …

Authoring Xml Documents With Xhtml And Mathml Support, Xiaoheng Wu

Master's Projects

Since the late 1970s, a large number of scientific documents have been authored in TeX or its derivations such as LaTeX. These typesetting systems allow anybody to write highquality books and articles. But the TeX syntax is not compatible with HTML or XML. So the WWW consortium's answer is MathML. The primary goal of MathML is to enable mathematical documents to be communicated, exchanged, and processed on the Web. Therefore, MathML documents are usually embedded with XHTML documents. Currently, there are several XHTML+MathML editors. The most popular editors use two common approaches. The first approach offers a WhatYouSeeIsWhatYouGet (WYSIWYG) interface. …

Analysis And Detection Of Metamorphic Computer Viruses, Wing Wong

Master's Projects

Virus writers and anti-virus researches generally agree that metamorphism is the way to generate undetectable viruses. Several virus writers have released virus creation kits and claimed that they possess the ability to automatically produce morphed virus variants that look substantially different from one another. To see how effective these code morphing engines are, and how much difference exists between variants of a same virus, we measured the similarity between virus variants generated by four virus generators downloaded from the Internet. Our result shows that the effectiveness of these generators varies widely. While the best generator, NGVCK, is able to create …

Implementing Built-In Properties For The Java Programming Language, Alexandre Alves

Master's Projects

The purpose of this project is to improve the programming experience of using the Java language by implementing properties as a built-in facility. In this project, the Java compiler tool, and the Java documentation tool were modified. In addition, a new Java annotation processor that generates Java BeanInfo source files was created. These new features result in a more productive development environment for the Java programming language.