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Hardware Implementation of the FAEST PQC Digital Signature Scheme
Get PDFQuantum computers are becoming increasingly powerful every day, and with each new
milestone, we are closer to a quantum computer capable of solving the mathematical problems
that form the basis of classical asymmetric cryptography. To prepare for this, experts
are developing new cryptographic schemes known as Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC),
which can be implemented with classical computers and are expected to be secure against
classical and quantum computers.
This thesis provides an overview of the current state of PQC, which is in a transition
period. The first standards for key encapsulation mechanisms (KEMs) and digital signatures
have been selected but are still being finalized, while an additional call to find different
candidates for PQC digital signatures has recently been published.
This situation presents a challenge for the cryptographic community because efforts must
be divided between finalizing decisions on existing standards and starting the evaluation of
new candidates.
The contributions of this thesis include a detailed examination of FAEST, a promising
symmetric-based candidate from the additional round of PQC digital signatures. This thesis
also provides valuable new data on FAEST’s performance when implemented in hardware,
allowing for a more comprehensive analysis and comparison with other candidates
BENCHMARKING AND CREATION OF A DEEP LEARNING COMPUTER VISION DATASET IN THE TAXONOMIC REVISION OF THE PALO SANTO TREE HERBARIUM SPECIMENS
Get PDFPremise of the studyHerbarium collections have historically been used as a manual data source for taxonomies and there are large collections that have been digitized since the start of the 21st century. Few have been curated for computer vision problems beyond image classification, and even fewer are available to the public. In this study, I investigated the steps and effort it takes both human and computer to create a publically-available data set that can be used for image classification, object detection, and segmentation. Secondly, while benchmarking the data set, I investigated the relationship between the algorithm class, data augmentation, and network size. Our hypothesis for the first research question is that, despite the tools and technology out there to help expedite the process, that it still requires a substantial amount of human effort to complete the task. Secondly, I believe that there will be signals within the data, and that there is a relationship between the class of algorithm, data augmentation, and network size. Methods: A team of three people, one botanist, a data scientist, and research assistant contributed to the creation of this benchmark data set. Data was collected both from historical and new field samples and digitized in Washington D.C. B. graveolens and B. penicillata were selected as the benchmarking species, as they are rare tree species to reduce variability and ensure and were able to collect most of the known herbarium samples around the world. Supervisely, a web-based tool to scale image annotations, was used to annotate objects such as plant features, and to track efforts [1]. Python 3.7 was used for post- processing and creation of the data sets from Supervisely [2]. Descriptive statistics for univariate and bivariate were conducted using mean (sd), frequency counts, and appropriate statistical graphing. Deep learning models were created via PyTorch and torchvision for classification (B.graveolens and B. penicillata), semantic segmentation (plant pixel versus non-plant pixel), and instance segmentation (index card, stamp, measurement bar, color bar, barcode, compound leaf, terminal leaf, and woody material), and evaluated over different augmentation strategies and network sizes [3], [4]. Results: 1,081 images were taken of 794 biologically unique samples. 115,279 actions across 1,200 human hours were taken to annotate data. 15 types of objects were annotated across the images, resulting in 19,834 objects. For classification, a model without pretrained weights based on VGG-11 performed best with an accuracy of .727, AUC of 0.685, specificity .742, and precision .265, as compared to the second best model of ResNet- 18 .565, .665, .530, and .201. FCN-100, without upsampling and a dilation factor of 1, recorded the highest dice coefficient 0.7566. MASK R-CNN V1.0 performed better for both the non-biologic and biological models with MAP full .846 and .736, respectively optimized at 50x and 25x upsampled. Classification and semantic segmentation of larger networks for ResNet and MASK R-CNN in comparison performed worse regardless of the upsample size.Conclusion: Although a substantial amount of time was spent creating this data set, it is a modular process, and the toolkits of the 21st century have made this a process tractable with a small research team. The amount of training data is different for each algorithm class despite it being a single set of images. The smaller the training data, the greater the impact of upsampling, and conversely network size. I hope that this newly-created benchmarking data and findings help researchers interested in computer vision in herbarium research make progress toward bridging known gaps in the field
Project 4b: Exploring Variations in Gut Microbiome Networks among Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)
Get PDFThis project included one student researcher who wishes to remain anonymous.Objective: The objective of this project is to analyze the gut microbiome ecosystems of patients with isolated CKD, CKD with comorbid liver diseases, or CKD with comorbid diabetes using a network-based approach, and to compare the differences in gut microbiome networks among these three groups of patients
A Simulation Study of SiC/Diamond & β-Ga2O3/Diamond Heterojunction Diodes
Get PDFWide and ultra-wide Band-Gap semiconductors allow for advanced electronics progress due to featuring physical and electrical properties beyond that of Silicon, and are essential for advancements in design and production of electric vehicles (EVs) and power electronics. Diamond has unique properties that are well-suited for high power applications. Combining the cost effectiveness of various semiconductors, Silicon Carbide and Beta-Phase Gallium Oxide, we can improve upon homogeneous designs using Diamond for a PN Heterojunction. Sentaurus TCAD was used to design 4H-SiC/Diamond and β-Ga2O3/Diamond Heterojunction Diodes with various dopant concentrations in the range of 1e16 cm-3 to 1e18 cm-3, along with defects, and with temperatures ranging from 270K to 400K to test diode performance, primarily in I-V characteristics, and with Breakdown voltage under reverse bias testing currently in progress. The dimensions, dopant choices, dopant concentrations, defects, and temperature ranges applied were chosen based on an extensive literature review to better reflect real-world parameters. Overall, the devices showed expectedly wide bandgaps with favorable properties, such as in the electric field, electrostatic potential, current density figures. They displayed saturation region MOSFET I-V characteristics beyond roughly 30V voltages in forward bias; this behavior was unexpected, but may serve the applications of power electronics well given all aspects of the device’s performance, especially given the prospect of future maturity of Diamond fabrication for electronics, paired with the benefits of a heterogeneous design
“A CROW IN A PIGEON’S NEST”: ZORA NEALE HURSTON, BLACK SCHOLARSHIP, AND THE FIELDS OF PEACE AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Get PDFThis dissertation positions Zora Neale Hurston and her contributions as vanguards. As a Black woman scholar typically researched as an outside Other, centering interdisciplinarian Hurston allows for further exploration of the ways of being an educated Black woman in perceived sacred spaces, including White institutions like colleges and universities. This positioning asserts that Hurston’s knowledge production can contribute to peace and conflict resolution (PaCR) as interdisciplinary fields if introduced broadly and specifically when examining Black communities. Her work in the United States and several short stories, three novels, and 141 letters written from 1925-1956 to those in the academy, ties to the academy, and the publishing establishment are historically contextualized and analyzed from various angles, including interpersonal and intra-racial interactions based on the social contract, offering unique perspectives on accessibility and humiliation. These works demonstrate how PaCR can disrupt the status quo by integrating Black scholarship, opening itself up to pedagogical changes like cognitive justice and dismantling Eurocentric monocultures of knowledge. Additionally, they stand as an extended invitation for PaCR to do what it has not done by permitting Black people, specifically Black women, into what has been perceived as a sacred space. To accomplish this, Hurston and her works serve as entry points for other Black scholarship and knowledge production to become central in the fields’ quests for expertise, cultural competency, equity, and social justice of communities they claim to serve. Tags: accessibility, anthropology, Black feminism, cognitive justice, humiliation, Hurston, knowledge production, peace and conflict resolution, plantation politics, social justic
Project 1: Using Large Language Models (LLMs) to Predict One-Year Hospitalization Rates in Kidney Transplant Recipients
Get PDFObjective: This study aimed to find the most successful LLM prompt strategy for health outcome predictions and compare the functioning of various LLMs in clinical predictions
Effects of Enrichment on Behavioral Aspects of hTau Mice Modeling Alzheimer’s Disease
Get PDFThis thesis investigated the effects of repeated exposure to a nesting task and different forms of enrichment on Alzheimer’s disease (AD)-modeling mice. Using hTau expressing AD mice from strain rTg4510, the nesting study examined if continual exposure to a nestlet could prevent the decay in nesting ability over time. Alternatively, the aggression study explored the efficacy of cardboard tubes and nestlets in attenuating aggression in the noncarrier/noncarrier mice from strain rTg4510. Behavioral assays and survival analyses were conducted to assess nesting ability and aggression levels, respectively. Two-way repeated-measures ANOVAs revealed no statistically significant effect of treatment in the nesting study but there was a significant effect of time; Chisquares revealed aggression levels varied across the aggression intervention groups with some significant effects of, and driven by, sex. Implications for animal welfare and future research are discussed, highlighting the need for further investigation into enrichment protocols and their behavioral impacts on laboratory animals
Ground-based Light Curve Follow-up Validation observations of TESS object of interest TOI 5907.01
Get PDF“The Transiting Exoplanet Surveillance Satellite (TESS), created in 2018, is an MIT-led mission to detect exoplanets. It has gathered data for 75% of the night sky and confirmed 542 exoplanets, with 7208 candidates (3). This observational study aims to verify the existence of TESS Object of Interest (TOI) 5907.01, one of these candidates. We used AstroImageJ (AIJ) to perform multi-aperture photometry on the 77 exposures taken using GMU’s 0.8 lens. Additionally, we conducted a Near Eclipsing Binary (NEB) check to verify that the transit caused was truly due to the planet, not a binary star close to the TOI. We found a clear transit at the expected times with the expected depth for TOI 5907.01. However, our NEB check was inconclusive, meaning we cannot fully rule out the possibility of a false positive.
Leading Others to Join: Influencing Nonprofit Sector Policy through Moral and Fact-based Messages
Get PDFAlthough the nonprofit sector serves as the cornerstone of American democracy, sector advocates often struggle to successfully influence public policy. Political psychology literature finds people make most of their political decisions based on their emotions and values, but nonprofits often highlight only facts in advocacy messages. This research examines the how moral and fact-based messages influence public support for nonprofit sector-wide issues. Findings show moral messages are more persuasive than fact-based messages, but the extent to which the values match those of the target audience influence the outcome. Unique contribution of research is application of theory to unfamiliar, nonpartisan policy issues and impact of different message designs on outcomes
Relationship between Community Structure of Frugivorous Mammals and the Provision of Ecosystem Services in the Peruvian Amazon
No full textThis work is embargoed by the author and will not be publicly available until May 2029.The southern Peruvian Amazon, one of the most biodiverse places on Earth and home to many indigenous communities, provides multiple ecosystem services (ES). Frugivorous mammals play an essential role in the functioning of the ecosystem as seed dispersers, contributing to the survival of many utilitarian plants. However, changes in forest demographics and technological developments increase pressure on these animals. Though changes in the community structure of large vertebrates affect ecosystem functioning, the relationship between mammal diversity and the benefits they provide is not well known, and trade-offs between provisioning ES have not yet been studied in the field. This dissertation aims to highlight the importance of the diversity of frugivorous mammals in relation to the provision of ES relevant to local communities in the Peruvian Amazon. I examine the relationship between the community structure of frugivorous mammals and the ES of wild meat, wild fruit, and raw material provision. To do this, I sampled arboreal and terrestrial mammals and wild edible and utilitarian (WEU) plants, and evaluated the ES through questionnaires in three indigenous communities: Infierno, Boca Pariamanu, and Masenawa, and three protected areas: Refugio Amazonas, Hoja Nueva 2, and Los Amigos in Madre de Dios, Peru. My results included the following. First, protected areas presented higher arboreal mammal diversity than Indigenous lands, but no difference was found in terrestrial mammals and WEU plants. The sapling density of WEU plants was positively related to frugivorous mammal diversity, both arboreal and terrestrial, and functional group richness. Second, the potential productivity of wild meat was similar in Indigenous and protected areas although protected areas presented more potential productivity of wild fruit and raw materials than Indigenous lands. The potential productivity of wild meat, wild fruit, and raw material increased with frugivorous mammal species and functional diversity. Third, my results showed no trade-offs between the provision of wild meat and the provision of wild fruit and raw material in any study site. In conclusion, the state of wild meat, wild fruits, and raw materials in Indigenous communities reveals the need to adopt sustainability management plans for heavily used plant and animal species. These results highlight the importance of frugivorous mammal diversity in plant regeneration and the provisioning of ES.2029-05-1