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Spam Detection Using Machine Learning And Deep Learning, Olubodunde Agboola Nov 2022

Spam Detection Using Machine Learning And Deep Learning, Olubodunde Agboola

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Text messages are essential these days; however, spam texts have contributed negatively to the success of this communication mode. The compromised authenticity of such messages has given rise to several security breaches. Using spam messages, malicious links have been sent to either harm the system or obtain information detrimental to the user. Spam SMS messages as well as emails have been used as media for attacks such as masquerading and smishing ( a phishing attack through text messaging), and this has threatened both the user and service providers. Therefore, given the waves of attacks, the need to identify and remove …


Efficient Information Retrieval For Software Bug Localization, Saket Khatiwada Mar 2022

Efficient Information Retrieval For Software Bug Localization, Saket Khatiwada

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Software systems are often shipped with defects. When a bug is reported, developers use the information available in the associated report to locate source code fragments that need to be modified to fix the bug. However, as software systems evolve in size and complexity, bug localization can become a tedious and time-consuming process. Contemporary bug localization tools utilize Information Retrieval (IR) methods for automated support to minimize the manual effort. IR methods exploit the textual content of bug reports to capture and rank relevant buggy source files. However, for an IR-based bug localization tool to be useful, it must achieve …


Evolution Of Computational Thinking Contextualized In A Teacher-Student Collaborative Learning Environment., John Arthur Underwood May 2020

Evolution Of Computational Thinking Contextualized In A Teacher-Student Collaborative Learning Environment., John Arthur Underwood

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The discussion of Computational Thinking as a pedagogical concept is now essential as it has found itself integrated into the core science disciplines with its inclusion in all of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS, 2018). The need for a practical and functional definition for teacher practitioners is a driving point for many recent research endeavors. Across the United States school systems are currently seeking new methods for expanding their students’ ability to analytically think and to employee real-world problem-solving strategies (Hopson, Simms, and Knezek, 2001). The need for STEM trained individuals crosses both the vocational certified and college degreed …


Strategies For Prioritizing Needs For Accelerated Construction After Hazard Events, Fernando Moreu, Chao Wang, Xinxing Yuan, Laleh Ghanbari, Claudia Garrido Aug 2019

Strategies For Prioritizing Needs For Accelerated Construction After Hazard Events, Fernando Moreu, Chao Wang, Xinxing Yuan, Laleh Ghanbari, Claudia Garrido

Publications

There is a need for rapid and responsive infrastructure repair and construction after natural disaster events such as hurricanes, wildfires, and tornadoes. These natural disasters often shut down basic infrastructure systems, as experienced recently in several Region 6 states as well as in other states around the country. Accelerated construction practices are often used in these situations to speed up the traditional, and often slow, project delivery process. However, after a natural disaster, several and different types of transportation infrastructure components are in need of inspection, rehabilitation or reconstruction, and transportation agencies are challenged with the task of prioritizing these …


Effective Methods And Tools For Mining App Store Reviews, Nishant Jha Oct 2018

Effective Methods And Tools For Mining App Store Reviews, Nishant Jha

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Research on mining user reviews in mobile application (app) stores has noticeably advanced in the past few years. The main objective is to extract useful information that app developers can use to build more sustainable apps. In general, existing research on app store mining can be classified into three genres: classification of user feedback into different types of software maintenance requests (e.g., bug reports and feature requests), building practical tools that are readily available for developers to use, and proposing visions for enhanced mobile app stores that integrate multiple sources of user feedback to ensure app survivability. Despite these major …


Context Aware Textual Entailment, Soha Arab-Khazaeli Jan 2015

Context Aware Textual Entailment, Soha Arab-Khazaeli

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In conversations, stories, news reporting, and other forms of natural language, understanding requires participants to make assumptions (hypothesis) based on background knowledge, a process called entailment. These assumptions may then be supported, contradicted, or refined as a conversation or story progresses and additional facts become known and context changes. It is often the case that we do not know an aspect of the story with certainty but rather believe it to be the case; i.e., what we know is associated with uncertainty or ambiguity. In this research a method has been developed to identify different contexts of the input raw …


Spectrum Allocation In Networks With Finite Sources And Data-Driven Characterization Of Users' Stochastic Dynamics, Ahsan-Abbas Ali Jan 2015

Spectrum Allocation In Networks With Finite Sources And Data-Driven Characterization Of Users' Stochastic Dynamics, Ahsan-Abbas Ali

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

During emergency situations, the public safety communication systems (PSCSs) get overloaded with high traffic loads. Note that these PSCSs are finite source networks. The goal of our study is to propose techniques for an efficient allocation of spectrum in finite source networks that can help alleviate the overloading of PSCSs. In a PSCS, there are two system segments, one for the system-access control and the other for communications, each having dedicated frequency channels. The first part of our research, consisting of three projects, is based on modeling and analysis of finite source systems for optimal spectrum allocation, for both access-control …


Automated Conversion Of Text Instructions To Human Motion Animation, Ravikumar Vishwanath Chimmalgi Jan 2015

Automated Conversion Of Text Instructions To Human Motion Animation, Ravikumar Vishwanath Chimmalgi

LSU Master's Theses

Text to animation is the conversion of textual instructions to animations following and depicting those instructions. Text to animation is important to fields such as crime scene investigation, military special operations and storytelling where text is utilized. It is also useful for physical therapy where a doctor can factor in disability parameters in the 3D models and determine the safest therapy exercises for patients. It can be used in robotics, where robot assistants can be instructed to perform tasks through text instructions. In this research, a system was created to generate 3D animation of workouts from their textual instructions. An …


The Effects Of Concurrent Driving And In-Vehicle Tasks: A Multivariate Statistical Analysis Of Driver Distraction In A High-Fidelity Driving Simulator, Julius A. Codjoe Jan 2014

The Effects Of Concurrent Driving And In-Vehicle Tasks: A Multivariate Statistical Analysis Of Driver Distraction In A High-Fidelity Driving Simulator, Julius A. Codjoe

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Distracted driving continues to remain a cause of concern for a number of bodies, including government agencies, traffic safety advocacy groups and law enforcement agencies, because of its traffic safety risks. The driving simulator continues to be popular with researchers in collecting data on performance variables that provide scientific knowledge of the effects of distracted driving. Several of these performance variables can be used to quantify a single distracting effect, resulting in a multivariate dataset. A literature review of related studies revealed that researchers overwhelmingly use univariate (single and multiple) tests to analyze the resulting dataset. Performing multiple univariate tests …


Automated Semantic Content Extraction From Images, Mahdi Arab Khazaeli Jan 2013

Automated Semantic Content Extraction From Images, Mahdi Arab Khazaeli

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this study, an automatic semantic segmentation and object recognition methodology is implemented which bridges the semantic gap between low level features of image content and high level conceptual meaning. Semantically understanding an image is essential in modeling autonomous robots, targeting customers in marketing or reverse engineering of building information modeling in the construction industry. To achieve an understanding of a room from a single image we proposed a new object recognition framework which has four major components: segmentation, scene detection, conceptual cueing and object recognition. The new segmentation methodology developed in this research extends Felzenswalb's cost function to include …


Resolving Pronominal Anaphora Using Commonsense Knowledge, Seyedeh Leili Javadpour Jan 2013

Resolving Pronominal Anaphora Using Commonsense Knowledge, Seyedeh Leili Javadpour

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Coreference resolution is the task of resolving all expressions in a text that refer to the same entity. Such expressions are often used in writing and speech as shortcuts to avoid repetition. The most frequent form of coreference is the anaphor. To resolve anaphora not only grammatical and syntactical strategies are required, but also semantic approaches should be taken into consideration. This dissertation presents a framework for automatically resolving pronominal anaphora by integrating recent findings from the field of linguistics with new semantic features. Commonsense knowledge is the routine knowledge people have of the everyday world. Because such knowledge is …


Geodatabase-Assisted Storm Surge Modeling, Sait Ahmet Binselam Jan 2013

Geodatabase-Assisted Storm Surge Modeling, Sait Ahmet Binselam

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Tropical cyclone-generated storm surge frequently causes catastrophic damage in communities along the Gulf of Mexico. The prediction of landfalling or hypothetical storm surge magnitudes in U.S. Gulf Coast regions remains problematic, in part, because of the dearth of historic event parameter data, including accurate records of storm surge magnitude (elevation) at locations along the coast from hurricanes. While detailed historical records exist that describe hurricane tracks, these data have rarely been correlated with the resulting storm surge, limiting our ability to make statistical inferences, which are needed to fully understand the vulnerability of the U.S. Gulf Coast to hurricane-induced storm …


Efficacy Of Multifunctionalized Saccharide Constructs For The Attenuation Of Amyloid-Beta Toxicity, Dhruva Dilip Dhavale Jan 2012

Efficacy Of Multifunctionalized Saccharide Constructs For The Attenuation Of Amyloid-Beta Toxicity, Dhruva Dilip Dhavale

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

There is evidence that amyloid-beta (Aβ) toxicity is mediated through interactions and binding with neuronal surface sialic acids in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The binding affinity is higher if the sialic acids are clustered and toxicity of Aβ was attenuated by removal of neuronal sialic acids. Thus, interfering with cell membrane-Aβ binding using biomimetics that could reproduce the clustered sialic acid structure could present us with a potential target for therapeutic intervention in AD. Based on this hypothesis, we developed several multifunctionalized sialic acid labeled chitosan compounds of different valency, or number of sialic acid per chitosan molecule, to attenuate Aβ …


Improving Discourse Structure Identification, Jamie Allison Guidry Jan 2012

Improving Discourse Structure Identification, Jamie Allison Guidry

LSU Master's Theses

Rhetorical Structure Theory (Mann et al. 1988), a popular approach for analyzing discourse coherence, suggests that coherent text can be placed into a hierarchical organization of clauses. Identification of a text’s rhetorical structure through automatic discourse analysis is a crucial element for many of today’s Natural Language Processing tasks, but no sufficient tool is available. The current state-of -the-art discourse parser, SPADE (Soricut et al. 2003), is limited to parsing discourse within a single sentence. HILDA (Hernault et al. 2010) extends the parsing abilities of SPADE to the document level, but with a decrease in performance. This study achieved document-level …


Network Traffic Data Analysis, Harish Kapri Jan 2011

Network Traffic Data Analysis, Harish Kapri

LSU Master's Theses

The desire to conceptualize network traffic in a prevailing communication network is a facet for many types of network research studies. In this research, real traffic traces collected over trans-Pacific backbone links (the MAWI repository, providing publicly available anonymized traces) are analyzed to study the underlying traffic patterns. All data analysis and visualization is carried out using Matlab (Matlab is a trademark of The Mathworks, Inc.). At packet level, we first measure parameters such as distribution of packet lengths, distribution of protocol types, and then fit following analytical models. Next, the concept of flow is introduced and flow based analysis …


Study Of Microstructure Effect On The Thermal Properties Of Yttria-Stabilized-Zirconia Thermal Barrier Coatings Made By Atmospheric Plasma Spray And Pressing Machine, Monica Bohorquez De Silva Jan 2010

Study Of Microstructure Effect On The Thermal Properties Of Yttria-Stabilized-Zirconia Thermal Barrier Coatings Made By Atmospheric Plasma Spray And Pressing Machine, Monica Bohorquez De Silva

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) are used in gas turbine engines to achieve a higher working temperature and thus lead to better efficiency. Yttria-Stabilized-Zirconia (YSZ), a material with low thermal conductivity, is commonly used as the top coat layer to provide the thermal barrier effect. In this dissertation the thermo-physical properties of a variety of TBCs samples made out of different fabrication techniques were investigated and compared. The first set of samples was fabricated using a pressing machine device to fabricate 0.5 inch diameter disk shaped YSZ-Al2O3 samples. The YSZ-Al2O3 powder mixture was made of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and …


Prioritization Of Safety Countermeasures For The State Of Louisiana Using Fuzzy Inference Systems, Meisam Akbarzadeh Jan 2009

Prioritization Of Safety Countermeasures For The State Of Louisiana Using Fuzzy Inference Systems, Meisam Akbarzadeh

LSU Master's Theses

In this study a fuzzy inference system is proposed for prioritization of countermeasures aimed at improving safety in the state of Louisiana. Countermeasures are prioritized based on their collective performance on cost, expected crash reduction and the severity of the problem they address. These three decision parameters can have six permutations in terms of their relative importance in decision making. In order to make the prioritization procedure handier for decision makers, the inference system is capable of being run under all six possible cases. Current safety standards influence the importance attached to crash reduction performance and severity of the problem …


Sialic Acid Conjugated Chitosan For The Attenuation Of Amyloid-Beta Toxicity, Dhruva Dilip Dhavale Jan 2009

Sialic Acid Conjugated Chitosan For The Attenuation Of Amyloid-Beta Toxicity, Dhruva Dilip Dhavale

LSU Master's Theses

Amyloid-beta (Aβ), a 39 to 43 amino acid long peptide, is the primary species identified in senile plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and has been implicated in the neurotoxicity associated with AD. It is believed that Aβ toxicity is mediated through the interaction with neuronal membranes. A variety of evidence indicates that 1) Aβ may bind to the cell surface sialic acids, 2) the affinity of this interaction is higher if the gangliosides or sialic acids on the cell surface are clustered, 3) the removal of the surface sialic acids attenuate Aβ toxicity. Based on this data, we hypothesized …


A Study Of Regret And Rejoicing And A New Mcdm Method Based On Them, Xiaoting Wang Jan 2008

A Study Of Regret And Rejoicing And A New Mcdm Method Based On Them, Xiaoting Wang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) is one of the most widely used decision methodologies in the sciences, business, and engineering worlds. MCDM methods aim at improving the quality of decisions by making the process more explicit, rational, and efficient. One controversial problem is that some well-known MCDM methods, like the additive AHP methods and the ELECTRE II and III methods, may cause some types of rank reversal problems. Rank reversal means that the ranking between two alternatives might be reversed after some variation occurs to the decision problem, like adding a new alternative, dropping an old alternative or replacing a non-optimal alternative …


Computer Model Of Hybrid Compensator Of Fast Varying Loads, Veronica Bohorquez Jan 2007

Computer Model Of Hybrid Compensator Of Fast Varying Loads, Veronica Bohorquez

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A computer model of the hybrid compensator of fast varying loads was developed in this dissertation. The computer model was implemented in MFC Visual C++ compiler version 6.0. The classification of fast varying loads and effects of their operation in distribution systems were described in this dissertation. The power properties of fast varying loads were expressed in terms of the Currents' Physical Components Theory. Therefore, the Currents' Physical Components Theory was applied to systems with non-periodic voltages and currents. The supply current of the fast varying loads was decomposed into the useful and the useless components using an algorithm based …


Computer-Aided Weld Inspection By Fuzzy Modeling With Selected Features, Sean Najm Ghazavi Jan 2007

Computer-Aided Weld Inspection By Fuzzy Modeling With Selected Features, Sean Najm Ghazavi

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis develops a computer-aided weld inspection methodology based on fuzzy modeling with selected features. The proposed methodology employs several filter feature selection methods for selecting input variables and then builds fuzzy models with the selected features. Our fuzzy modeling method is based on a fuzzy c-means (FCM) variant for the generation of fuzzy terms sets. The implemented FCM variant differs from the original FCM method in two aspects: (1) the two end terms take the maximum and minimum domain values as their centers, and (2) all fuzzy terms are forced to be convex. The optimal number of terms and …


Production Well Operations Optimization In Water Distribution System Using Genetic Algorithm, Vineet Katiyar Jan 2007

Production Well Operations Optimization In Water Distribution System Using Genetic Algorithm, Vineet Katiyar

LSU Master's Theses

The City of Chandler, Arizona lies in semi-arid area and the water resources management has been a major concern by the State citizen. There is always a need of optimizing the available water resources when the rate of demand constantly beats the rate of replenishment. In this study we have developed a management model to link the Chandler water distribution model (EPANET) with the Chandler groundwater flow model (MODFLOW) under an optimization framework (Genetic algorithm). The EPANET model supplied by the Chandler city municipal authority has several improper setting (pumping schedules, valves settings, pressure zones etc.). The original model has …


Distribution Dynamics Of Complex Systems, Young-Pyo Jeon Jan 2006

Distribution Dynamics Of Complex Systems, Young-Pyo Jeon

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A complex system is defined as a system with many interdependent parts having emergent self-organization; analyzing and designing such complex systems is a new challenge. A common observable structure of many complex systems is the network, which is connections among nodes, and thus inherently difficult to describe. The goal of this research is to introduce an effective methodology to describe complex systems, and thus we will construct a population balance (distribution kinetics) model based on the association-dissociation process to describe the evolution of complex systems. Networks are commonly observed structures in complex systems with interdependent parts that self-organize. How networks …


Cognitive Memory Effects On Non-Linear Video-Based Learning, Katherine Renee Comeaux Jan 2005

Cognitive Memory Effects On Non-Linear Video-Based Learning, Katherine Renee Comeaux

LSU Master's Theses

During an informative learning process, information, material, facts and ideas are typically conveyed in a linear arrangement. Individuals are frequently distracted during this process with their attention being diverted to an interruption (Internet, phone call, etc). When presented with any new information, the mind evolves through problem solving and evaluation procedures. The way in which that information is processed and perceived depends on: (a) original presentation (b) examination of material and (c) an individualistic measurement of success. However, when faced with an interruption, the person is forced to deal with non-linear arrangement of information. This research investigates nonlinear presentation or …


Fuzzifying [Sic] Markov Decision Process, Ahmed Syed Irshad Jan 2005

Fuzzifying [Sic] Markov Decision Process, Ahmed Syed Irshad

LSU Master's Theses

Markov decision processes have become an indispensable tool in applications as diverse as equipment maintenance, manufacturing systems, inventory control, queuing networks and investment analysis. Typically we have a controlled Markov chain on a suitable state space in which transitional probabilities depend on the policy (or decision maker) which comes from a set of possible actions. The main problem of interest would be to find an optimal policy that minimizes the associated cost. Linear Programming has been widely used to find the optimal Markov decision policy. It requires solutions of large systems of simultaneous linear equations. By the fact that the …


A Variable Response Time Lag Module For Car Following Models Using Fuzzy Set Theory, Yilmaz Hatipkarasulu Jan 2002

A Variable Response Time Lag Module For Car Following Models Using Fuzzy Set Theory, Yilmaz Hatipkarasulu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Since the 1950s, car following phenomena have been studied and analyzed, resulting in various models and algorithms. In general, the car following process has been defined as a stimulus-response relationship in which the driver of the following vehicle reacts to the actions of the lead vehicle after a time lag. One of the fundamental assumptions that underlie car following theory is that the driver response time lag is always a constant value for the driver at all times, regardless of level of detail of the model. Assumption of a constant time lag value introduces a number of broad assumptions however, …


The Effect Of Initial Selections In Estimating The Missing Comparisons In An Incomplete Ahp Matrix, Sugeng Setiawan Jan 2002

The Effect Of Initial Selections In Estimating The Missing Comparisons In An Incomplete Ahp Matrix, Sugeng Setiawan

LSU Master's Theses

One of the most widely used methods in decision-making is the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). With its technique of comparing the alternatives by means of a sequence of pairwise comparison matrices, the AHP is both easy to understand and very versatile. This research aims at contributing some insights on this method, in particular, regarding to what is known as the incomplete AHP. The core of this research is to investigate whether the initial comparisons used to extract the data for a multi-criteria decision making problem, will play a role in producing a relatively accurate estimation of the ranking of the …