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Behavioral Model Anomaly Detection in Automatic Identification Systems (AIS)
Get PDFOver 90% of all goods in the world, at some point in their life, are on a vessel at sea. Currently, the maritime industry relies on the Automatic Identification System (AIS) for collision avoidance and vessel tracking. AIS is an unencrypted, unauthenticated protocol that is vulnerable to various types of cyber attacks allowing malicious actors to alter the location of vessels. With the advent of the Ocean of Things (OoT), vessels are sharing more information than vessel location alone at sea. Increasingly, more information is becoming critical for safe and efficient operation at sea. This method is a novel approach of applying machine learning to build vessel behavior models that exploits such information. These models will allow vessels to detect anomalous communication from vessels nearby. This will enable vessels to determine the quality of the message shared between each other and, more critically, identify malicious actors
Prevailing facets of Spanish colonialism: the roots of exploitation and inequality in Latin America
Get PDFFour main facets characterized Spanish colonialism in Latin America and contributed to the persistence of inequality and exploitation in colonial institutions – conversion, easy money, centralism, and political violence. The facets of conversion, easy money, centralism, and political violence are not institutions in themselves, but rather practices and logics of Spanish colonialism whose presence can be seen in social, political, and economic institutions and traced throughout history despite changes and developments in institutions. These facets’ entrenched presence in the foundations of Latin American social, political, and economic institutions has manifested throughout the shared and unique histories of Latin American countries. The facets’ lingering impacts and logics can be traced in key shared events in Latin American countries’ histories, namely the Independence Wars in the 1800s, the latifundia land ownership system, and the debt crisis in the 1980s. Additionally, the facets are visible in the notorious Dirty Wars in Chile and Argentina, periods of terror and abuse perpetrated by the militarized state
Mock jurors\u27 perceptions of I don\u27t know answers in child testimony
Get PDFAttorneys questioning child witnesses often ask complex questions that negatively impact children’s accuracy and consistency. Research has shown that instructing children to answer confusing questions with “I don’t know” can improve their accuracy, but little research has examined the impact of using this strategy on jurors’ perceptions of child witness credibility. The present study assessed 702 mock jurors’ perceptions of a 4- or 10-year-old child witness in a fabricated sexual assault trial transcript. Number of “don’t know” responses were manipulated, and half the jurors were told about the “I don’t know” instruction. Results demonstrated that greater numbers of “I don’t know” answers during questioning negatively impacted mock jurors’ perceptions of children’s honesty and cognitive ability, but making jurors aware of the “I don’t know” instruction mitigated some of these negative effects. Findings from this study can be used to further inform legal and forensic strategies to protect child witnesses
Where the Zigzags go: a microhabitat analysis for the Plethodon dorsalis complex within the Tennessee River gorge
Get PDFUnderstudied high-biomass animals such as the Northern Zigzag salamander (Plethodon dorsalis) are known contributors to essential nutrient cycles within their respective habitats. Knowing that these sensitive creatures serve as bioindicators for the overall health and quality of many ecosystems, we should aim to comprehend their habitat requirements. Doing so could ultimately allow conservationists to set more accurate baselines for various mitigation and land management practices. Due to our location within the southeast amphibian biodiversity hot spot, sampling of P. dorsalis is conducted in the Tennessee River Gorge (TRG). Sampling of survey polygons began on October 28, 2018 and concluded on June 8, 2019. Three 2,000 m² sites are selected based on presence of target species and a GIS processed land cover dataset in an attempt to best represent the diverse landscape of selected slopes within the 27,000 acre TRG. Specimens are located using a time based natural cover object survey method. Microhabitat is analyzed within 1 m² of each location containing a P. dorsalis specimen along an elevation gradient (250-300, 300-350 and 350-400 m). For each animal-present location, a randomly selected animal-absent plot is analyzed. This assessment attempts to identify differences in microhabitat preference based on selected versus available habitat using predictive geospatial models and AICc values. These AICс values demonstrate the performance of covariates measured and model fit in relation to salamander presence. Results suggest that different factors influence the distribution of P. dorsalis with respect to microhabitat selection
Parental Perceptions of Children With and Without Learning Disabilities
Get PDFThe present study examined differences in how parents of children with and without learning disabilities perceive their children academically. Of 235 participants, all recruited through Amazon’s MTurk platform, 124 (52%) had a child with a learning disability. Compared to parents of children without learning disabilities, parents who had children with learning disabilities reported that their children were less motivated and that their children cared less about getting good grades. Parents of children with a disability reported lower parental satisfaction compared to parents of children without learning disabilities. Among parents of children with learning disabilities, greater perception of stigma was negatively related to parents’ report of children’s motivation and to parental satisfaction. These results suggest that parents of children with disabilities perceive their children as less motivated and less likely to improve. Further, parents who experience stigma have more negative perceptions than parents of children with disabilities who do not perceive stigma
Writing about one\u27s best possible self to influence task persistence
Get PDFPrevious research has identified a correlation between optimism and increased persistence. Existing research also suggests that optimism can be manipulated to induce a mindset of positive outcome expectancies. Writing about and imagining one’s best possible self (BPS) has resulted in an increase in an individual’s positive outcome expectancies, but the effect of BPS on related constructs has yet to be examined. Thirty university students participated in a study to investigate whether participants primed with optimism using BPS would persist longer on an impossible anagram task. A t-test revealed that participants primed with BPS spent significantly longer on the anagrams than control participants. These results suggest that priming optimism using BPS can successfully bolster persistence
Validating a measurement culture survey for use in improving analytics readiness
Get PDFOrganizations lean more heavily on large quantities of data to base their decisions using analytics. However, analytics using big data relies heavily on data quality, which can be compromised by a lack of data variability. A major obstacle is the reduced variability in these reports due to the measurement culture of an organization. If employees perceive they may be reprimanded if near miss data is reported then they may record inaccurate data or even hide the incident by not reporting. Additionally, if employees perceive that their participation in safety measurement is met with management inaction, they are far less likely to spend effort on reporting safety incidents. These perceptions have a pronounced effect on data quality. To assess employee perceptions that impact data quality a Measurement Culture Survey was developed to assess factors impacting employee participation and management action in safety measurement. This study will attempt to assess the reliability, factor structure, and validity of the Measurement Culture Survey
Clustering algorithms to further enhance predictable situational data in vehicular ad-hoc networks
Get PDFThe modern world is constantly in a state of technological revolution. Everyday some new technological idea, invention, or threat emerges. With modern computer software and hardware advancements, we have the emergence of more internet-enabled devices - or, Internet of Things (IoT) devices. We can now create large networks with any device to gather real-time information about an environment. In conjunction, modern car companies across the board have a push from public demand for a fully-autonomous car. In order to accomplish autonomy safely and effectively, Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANETs) must be established for a local group of cars and their environment to ensure all correct and relevant information is communicated throughout the network. The data collected in a VANET can be passed to machine learning models in order to predict possible conditions and detect anomalies. This thesis explores different ways of clustering local groups of vehicles along with machine learning algorithms to predict where vehicles are likely to be and detect false or impossible information
Distributed online algorithms for energy management in smart grids
Get PDFThe 21st-century electric power grid is transitioning from a centralized structure designed for bulk-power transfer to a distributed paradigm that integrates the variable renewable energy (VRE) resources spatially distributed across the grid. This work proposes algorithmic solutions for distributed economic dispatch based on Subgradient method and Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM), both designed to be agnostic with any initialization vector. The proposed distributed online solutions leverage a dynamic average consensus algorithm to track the time-variant linearly coupled constraint that allows an abrupt change in power demand of the network because of the high penetration of VRE resources. The problems are modeled as discrete dynamic systems to investigate the stability and convergence of the algorithm. The update procedures are designed such that the iterates converge to the optimal solution of the original optimization problem, steered by the gain parameter corresponding to the second largest eigenvalue of the system matrix
Student Perceptions of Stress and Relaxation at the Beginning and End of the Week
Get PDFThis study examined whether student perceptions of stress, their level of relaxation remorse, and their health symptoms varied at the beginning verses the end of the week. We also examined how stress and relaxation remorse correlate with health symptoms at the beginning verses the end of the week. The findings of this study indicate that students have more relaxation remorse, perceived stress, and health symptoms on Monday than on Friday; additionally, students reported fewer coping activities on Monday than on Friday. Our results also indicate that students’ level perceived stress and relaxation remorse relate to their level of health symptoms. These findings could be used to inform future interventions to promote healthy stress management among college students