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AUTOMATED FLAW DISCOVERY IN DECENTRALIZED SYSTEMS VIA SEMANTIC FUZZING TOOLS
Get PDFThis dissertation studies the security challenges of blockchain transaction processing before consensus. While prior work has focused on consensus protocols and smart contract bugs, the pre-consensus infrastructure, such as the mempool and off-chain batching, remain underexplored. This dissertation aims to bridge that gap by systematically analyzing both transaction processing in the mempool and off-chain transaction batching for cost-optimization. This dissertation focuses on two core contributions. First, it presents MPFUZZ, an automated software fuzzing tool designed to uncover denial-of-service vulnerabilities in Ethereum mempools. This work is the first to formally define the mempool fuzzing problem and introduce bug oracles that detect asymmetric DoS conditions. MPFUZZ successfully discovers 24 previously unknown vulnerabilities in major Ethereum clients. Second, the dissertation introduces iBatch, a secure and cost-efficient middleware for batching smart contract invocations against an untrusted off-chain relay server. iBatch addresses core security challenges in transaction batching by preventing invocation manipulation from untrusted servers. It significantly reduces invocation costs while maintaining lightweight and effective security validation. Together, these contributions improve the robustness and security of transaction processing before confirmation in blockchain systems
CURRICULAR RECONCILIATION: EQUITABLE, INCLUSIVE, AND ACCESSIBLE APPROACHES TO PROFESSIONAL WRITING THROUGH COALITION-LED TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION
Get PDFThis dissertation examines the process of revising a core professional writing course to integrate anti-ableist and anti-racist pedagogies throughout its design. Focusing on the pragmatic and theoretical aspects of this collaborative curriculum redesign, this dissertation examines how an intersectional, Black feminist approach to professional and technical communication curricula disrupts neoliberal legacies. In addition to limiting students’ critical thinking skills, interdependence, and imagination of workplace ethos, these legacies affect instructors\u27 experience of teaching professional and technical writing (PTW), particularly those individuals who hold (multiply) marginalized identities. Through archival research and interviews, this dissertation contextualizes these revisions by exploring the rhetorical history of the Writing Program at Syracuse University, analyzing the ideals that shape its orientation to PTW. Simultaneously, it highlights mechanisms of erasure within PTW instruction that perpetuate neoliberal patterns of dehumanization, demonstrating how intersectional, coalition-led scholarship in Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) broadens our collective imagination of what is achievable through PTW and provides the analytical foundation that drives meaningful change. Addressing broader issues within Writing Studies, which have historically revealed ambivalence toward technical communication curricula due to its non-humanist underpinnings, I demonstrate how this scholarship enables me in charting a path towards reconciling these tensions. Ultimately, this project advocates for a dynamic praxis that critically engages dominant narratives and dismantles systems of oppression through practical, nuanced strategies. By integrating Black Technical and Professional Communication (BTPC) into programmatic and professional practices, we make the social justice values of our field visible, advancing accessibility in writing instruction and fostering an inclusive culture that thoughtfully responds to the needs of the communities we exist within and serve
Assessing changes in emissions and atmospheric deposition of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides under policies to decarbonize the electricity sector in the US
Get PDFIn the United States, power generation significantly contributes to emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, two precursors to atmospheric reactive nitrogen and sulfur deposition. In this thesis, I explore the prospective changes associated with the decarbonization of the electricity sector in atmospheric emissions and deposition of nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), and ammonia (NH3), and the implications of these alterations for shifts in patterns of interstate air pollutant transport and exceedances of critical loads of nitrogen and sulfur deposition impacting the growth and mortality of tree species in the coterminous U.S. While existing research provides some understanding of potential improvements in air quality and health benefits through reductions in atmospheric emissions, few studies have investigated the future changes in atmospheric deposition, and critical load exceedances in relation to ecosystem benefits. In this study, the Integrated Planning Model (IPM) is utilized to forecast emission changes of key deposition pollutants under different decarbonization policy scenarios for 2020 to 2050. These emission forecasts serve as inputs for the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model (CMAQ), which is used to compute changes in atmospheric deposition of nitrate, sulfate, and ammonium/ammonia for the policies considered. Subsequently, projected deposition values are used to assess changes in interstate transport of air pollutants and exceedances in critical loads of nitrogen and sulfur, crucial for the growth and survival of tree species across the conterminous U.S. I found that high-ambition decarbonization policies can lead to meaningful reductions in national average total sulfur deposition (-0.25 to -0.30 kg-S ha-1yr-1) by 2040, with less for total nitrogen (-0.09 to -0.12 kg-N ha-1yr-1). While deposition reductions are projected for all states, the most significant decreases in comparison to a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario - nearly 20% for NO3- and 50% for SO42- - occur in the eastern U.S, specifically in the Mid-West, Eastern Seaboard, and Texas. Such policies also mitigate transboundary emission impacts, fostering greater equity for lower-polluting states like Michigan, New York, and Vermont. Lastly, hypothetical air quality controls related to these policies would yield substantial ecological benefits, primarily through sulfur reductions. The land area where over 20% of tree species exceed the sulfur critical loads to protect growth is projected to decrease from 9.9% under a business-as-usual scenario to 7.1% under an aggressive decarbonization policy (CES40B) in 2040. Similarly, the area of critical load exceedance for tree survival decreases from 15.1% to 13.6%. Smaller decreases in exceedances of critical loads of nitrogen deposition for tree growth and survival are anticipated due to the lower projected reductions
Factors Affecting Dissolved Organic Matter Concentrations and its Long-Term Change in Adirondack, NY, Lakes.
Get PDFLakes in Europe and North America have experienced increases in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations over the past few decades, a phenomenon called “browning”. Dissolved organic matter is a mixture of reduced organic compounds, such as humic and fulvic acids, derived from allochthonous organic matter from the watershed and autochthonous organic matter sources produced within surface waters. The long-term browning of lakes has far-reaching ecological consequences. First, changes in the attenuation of light and heat penetration affect thermal stratification, oxygen concentration gradient, biogeochemical cycling, and primary production in lake systems. Increases in colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) can shift the absorption of light higher in the water column, enhancing thermal stratification in lakes, while the reduction in light penetration to deeper layers alters the redox status and food web functioning. Research has attributed the increase in dissolved organic carbon concentrations and the browning phenomenon to many factors, including recovery from acid deposition, climatic factors such as increased precipitation and warmer temperatures, and changes in land management practices within lake-watersheds. Due to the spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the key drivers of browning, there is no universally accepted hypothesis. To address this gap, I leveraged a conceptual source-sink model, which outlines the sources of DOC to lake ecosystems and the sinks associated with DOC loss. I analyzed long-term data from 48 Adirondack lakes from the Adirondack Long-term Monitoring (ALTM) program using a combination of trend analysis, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and stepwise regression analysis to answer two key research questions: What are the drivers of spatial patterns of DOC concentration? What are the temporal patterns, long-term trends, and drivers of DOC change over the study period, and the seasonal patterns of DOC concentration and its change? My results show that spatial patterns in mean dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations across Adirondack lakes can be explained by the source-sink model, with wetlands being the primary source of spatial variability in the supply of dissolved organic matter, while photodegradation through solar radiation is the main sink. Wetlands contribute to DOC through DOC export to lakes, with factors such as precipitation and recovery from acid deposition acting as modulators. On the other hand, the photodegradation process is mainly modulated by retention time, which gives time for DOC processing. Long-term temporal changes in DOC are best explained by variables associated with recovery from acid deposition, such as pH and changes in aluminum speciation. Seasonal analyses further revealed distinct patterns in DOC dynamics, with summer, fall, and winter exhibiting the most consistently increasing trends in DOC. Climatic analyses showed that both mean DOC and its changes were significantly influenced by climate variables, particularly shortwave radiation and precipitation. Correlation analyses confirmed that increasing shortwave radiation supports DOC photodegradation, reducing DOC concentration, while increasing precipitation is positively associated with DOC concentrations. Overall, this work provided new insights into the spatiotemporal patterns of DOC in Adirondack lakes and the drivers of these patterns, consistent with a source-sink model. This work also provides new insights into the seasonality of DOC and its relationship with DOC patterns
The March Towards a Totalitarian Ecology: Making sense of \u27Ecofascism\u27 Through the Political Ecology of German Nazism
Get PDFIn recent years, the topic of ‘ecofascism’ has been increasingly engaged in both scholarly and popular contexts, but often with little clarity or consistency in how the term is defined—sometimes detaching the concept from historically-based understandings of ‘fascism’ altogether. This thesis intervenes on this front, thoroughly grounding the concept of ecofascism in fascism through an explication of the political ecology and economy of interwar and Nazi Germany. As this thesis shows, while it is inaccurate to speak of a cohesive ‘green-wing’ within the Nazi Party, the nascent German conservation movement played a key role in cultivating a range of ecologically-themed discourse—most notably ‘blood and soil’ and organic theories of state—which were then effectively utilized by the Nazi Party, particularly throughout their movement building phase. Critically, though, I argue that this interaction represented more than a mere opportunistic appropriation of ecological and conservationist discourse in pursuit of a specific, niche electoral constituency. Rather, as this thesis argues, these discourses that emanated from the German conservation movement were especially well-suited to aid the Nazi Party in their pursuit of cultivating a cross-class mass-based political movement. To conclude, I offer some reflections on how this history of the Nazi Party’s engagement with discourses cultivated and refined by Germany’s nascent conservation movement might inform our modern understanding of ‘ecofascism,’ highlighting the volatility of ‘ecology’ as a cultural and political concept and how the historical relationship between the German conservation movement, ecological discourse, and the Nazi Party demonstrate that ‘ecofascism’ can take a variety of forms
Logging on to act out: Understanding aggressive personality traits in cyberbullies and cyberbully-victims
Get PDFCyberbullying and harassment are pervasive issues online. Certain personality characteristics may make some individuals more inclined to cyberbully than others. This study explores whether aggressive personality characteristics and factors like gender and social media habits are predictive of whether a person cyberbullies, and to what extent. Responses from an online survey of adults distributed via MTurk (n = 189) found a majority of participants (81.5%) report being ridiculed online to some extent in the past year, though most report low levels of cyberbullying. There is a positive relationship between cyberbullying and aggression among adults; physical aggression was by far the most predictive aggression subscale. The study finds a relationship between cyberbullying and being a victim of cyberbullying. Aggression was higher among cyberbully-victims (those who bully after getting bullied online) versus the general sample, and men had higher cyberbullying scores compared to women. Time spent on social media was also predictive of cyberbullying to some extent. Given that aggressive personality traits may correlate with online bullying, and that personality traits are relatively fixed for adults, it’s critical for social media companies to implement standards to prevent online harassment
The Idiot\u27s Asylum: What better place to do it than from my own grave?
Get PDFThe Idiot\u27s Asylum: “What better place to do it than from my own grave?” is an essay that examines how vulnerability and collaboration operate as the throughlines of collective creativity. By utilizing live performance, large-scale installation, video, food, and humor, I explore how immersing my audience in a unique experience encourages them to bear witness to or physically engage in a social and vulnerable act of trust – especially within a state of uncertainty. I consider historical and cultural movements centered around radical play, humor, and participation such as Dada, Surrealism, Fluxus, Situationism, and feminist performance art to be foundational to my research. What does it mean to willingly engage in play inside an environment that is fallible, unpredictable, or chaotic? By entering a space that unravels conventional social order and invites confusion as a catalyst for creative collaboration, I seek to offer an earnest encounter—one where hierarchy dissolves and presence is shared freely among all who cross the threshold. What do these earnest encounters teach us about ourselves and our capacity to learn from and care for one another? Through my experiences as an artist and educator, along with personal grief and trauma, I have learned that survival is reciprocal, connected to radical acts of care and generosity, and inherently humorous. I recall a beautiful example of this through a saying from my great-grandmother: There are no strangers at a dinner table. Simply meaning, if I am eating, you are eating—I am here so you can be too
Discourses of fear around AI and their implications for library and information science
No full textIntroduction. Since its inception, the seemingly unlimited potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to alter human existence has evoked feelings of fear and amazement. Today, all sectors of industry, academia, and society are anticipating the potential changes new AI technologies are forecasted to bring and mitigate their harms. In this climate, there is a clear need to centre the complex interactions between discourse, power, and individual/institutional actors within sociotechnical systems and their material consequences.
Theoretical framing. While scholars have previously made connections between discourses of fear and library and information science (LIS), there has not yet been an attempt to understand how discourses of fear may currently be shaping the field\u27s response to AI. In this paper, we argue that focusing our critical gaze on the discourses of fear shaping the material interactions between LIS, technological artifacts, industry, and society better positions us to intervene in the predicted trajectory of AI innovation.
Conclusion. We posit that cultivating discourses of refusal – which are committed to the belief that more just worlds must be possible – requires both individual and collective consideration of how fear has and continues to shape our own responses to new technologies
