Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 13 of 13
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Learning And Decision Making In Social Media Networks, Zhecheng Qiang
Learning And Decision Making In Social Media Networks, Zhecheng Qiang
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Social media is a virtual community where users share news, ideas, interests, and information. Learning the information diffusion dynamics and making decisions correspondingly, e.g., selecting the seed nodes to maximize the influence, have been widely applied to the areas of viral marketing and cyber security. In this dissertation, we study the problem of learning diffusion process, i.e., infection prediction, in social media networks utilizing both feature-based machine learning methods and mathematical model-based methods. For feature-based machine learning methods, the neighborhood information is treated as an important feature together with user profile and content similarity features. For model-based methods, two distinctive …
Complex Quantum Contagion: A Quantum-Like Approach For The Analysis Of Co-Evolutionary Dynamics Of Social Contagion, Ece Mutlu
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Modeling the dynamics of social contagion processes has recently attracted a substantial amount of interest from researchers due to its wide applicability in network science, multi-agent systems, information science, and marketing. Unlike in biological spreading, the existence of a reinforcement effect in social contagion necessitates considering the complexity of individuals in the systems. Although many studies acknowledged the heterogeneity of the individuals in their adoption of information (or behavior), there are no studies that take into account the individuals' uncertainty during their decision-making despite its theoretical and experimental evidence in behavioral economics, decision science, cognitive science, or multi-agent systems. This …
A Contingent Approach To Studying Technical Programs In The Public Aerospace Industry, Laura Segarra
A Contingent Approach To Studying Technical Programs In The Public Aerospace Industry, Laura Segarra
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Bibliometric evaluation of the literature indicates that a unified theory of program management does not yet exist. The vastly different definitions and implementations of programs across organizations and industries indicate that program management as an organizational concept is not well understood. As researchers have tried to make sense of various perspectives and definitions, it becomes clear that different kinds of programs exist, and further attention to their context is needed. While relationships between structural and environmental variables have been extensively researched in organizational studies, studies in program management are scant, lack incorporation of environmental variables relevant to programs and projects, …
Air Force Pilot's Recognition About The Effectiveness Of Active Noise Cancellation On Hearing Health, Performance, And Aviation Safety, Kyungtaek Hwang
Air Force Pilot's Recognition About The Effectiveness Of Active Noise Cancellation On Hearing Health, Performance, And Aviation Safety, Kyungtaek Hwang
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
The purpose of this thesis is to suggest the application of Active Noise Cancellation in Air Force pilot headset and helmet not only to reduce noise-induced hearing damage, but also to enhance pilot performance and aviation safety. Despite the recent advances of sound treatment technology, the interior sounds of a military aircraft exceed the damage risk criterion of 8 hrs/day exposure. Air Force pilots are flying under the extreme condition where noise is severe and prevalent. The exposure to noise can lead to permanent hearing loss, stress and fatigue, unintelligible communication, and deterioration of speech perception and recall. With all …
Examining The Relationship Between Six Sigma Failures And The Utilization Of Cost Engineering Approaches, Dennis Tribby
Examining The Relationship Between Six Sigma Failures And The Utilization Of Cost Engineering Approaches, Dennis Tribby
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
The purpose of the quantitative non-experimental research study is to analyze the relationship between the impact of using cost engineering approaches and the success rate of Six Sigma projects in the manufacturing industry. This study focuses on the relationship between Six Sigma project failures and whether skilled cost engineering professionals, methods or a cost management system was used to ensure that accurate cost data was utilized during the design project's lifecycle. Many companies using Six Sigma and related methodologies for product design have implemented with great success yet there are studies indicating that only 13% of firms reported achieving their …
Investigating The Effects Of Negative Influence Gradients And Emotion Contagion On The Information Processing Capacity Of Social Media Users: Information Diffusion Modeling Approach, Nisha Baral
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
With the growing use of Online social media (OSM), users are observing a substantial amount of information in their social feeds. Moreover, people often use multiple OSM platforms because of each platform's unique features. Because of the huge volume of information present in social feeds, it restricts a user's ability to process the relevant information since the most important information may be overwhelmed by unimportant information. For information to diffuse in OSM, the receiver's attention is the most important condition. Cognition plays an important role in determining a user's attention/responsiveness. If OSM users receive the information above their cognition limits …
Not All Influence Is Born Equal: On The Effects Of Various Types Of Behavioral Influence Relationships On Social Media, Chathurani Senevirathna
Not All Influence Is Born Equal: On The Effects Of Various Types Of Behavioral Influence Relationships On Social Media, Chathurani Senevirathna
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Typically, online social influence is analyzed using a single metric approach. However, social influence is not monolithic; different users exercise different influences in different ways, and influence is correlated with the user and content-specific attributes. One such attribute could be whether the action is an initiation of a new post, a contribution to a post, or a sharing of an existing post. Thus, this dissertation uses this platform-independent action classification and models the influence as multiple entities and examines social networks through the perspective of behavioral influence propagation. Two empirical studies are present in this dissertation. The first study presents …
Development Of A Multivariate Poisson Hidden Markov Model For Application In Educational Data Mining, Shahab Boumi
Development Of A Multivariate Poisson Hidden Markov Model For Application In Educational Data Mining, Shahab Boumi
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Managers and policymakers in higher education institutions try to improve graduation rates and decrease halt rates. To achieve this goal, it is important to understand academic and demographic factors that correlate with academic performance. Many studies in the field of education analytics have identified student grade point averages (GPA) as an important indicator and predictor of final academic outcomes (graduating or halting their studies). While semester-to-semester fluctuations in GPA are considered normal, significant changes in academic performance may warrant more thorough investigation and consideration, particularly with regard to final academic outcomes. However, it is challenging to represent complex academic trajectories …
Decoding Task-Based Fmri Data Using Graph Neural Networks, Considering Individual Differences, Maham Saeidi
Decoding Task-Based Fmri Data Using Graph Neural Networks, Considering Individual Differences, Maham Saeidi
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a non-invasive technology that provides high spatial resolution in determining the human brain's responses and measures regional brain activity through metabolic changes in blood oxygen consumption associated with neural activity. Task fMRI provides an opportunity to analyze the working mechanisms of the human brain during specific task performance. Over the past several years, a variety of computational methods have been proposed to decode task fMRI data that can identify brain regions associated with different task stimulations. Despite the advances made by these methods, several limitations exist due to graph representations and graph embeddings transferred …
Assessing Patient Safety Culture In United States' Hospitals, Abdulmajeed Azyabi
Assessing Patient Safety Culture In United States' Hospitals, Abdulmajeed Azyabi
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Patient safety is founded on continuous learning because there is an urgent need to report and learn from errors, accidents, near misses, and adverse events. The traditional approach to patient safety, based on forming mortality committees and investigating accidents, will no longer be effective. Frameworks, surveys, and assessment tools have been developed over the last decade to assist organizations in measuring and understanding their culture. This a retrospective cross-sectional study included 67,010 respondents from Agency for Health care Research and Quality (AHRQ) 2018 comparative database was analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). This research explored whether the …
Mixed-Integer Programming Methods For Modeling And Optimization Of Cascading Processes In Complex Networked Systems, Cheng-Lung Chen
Mixed-Integer Programming Methods For Modeling And Optimization Of Cascading Processes In Complex Networked Systems, Cheng-Lung Chen
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Dynamics and growth of many natural and man-made systems can be represented by large-scale complex networks. Entity interactions and community interconnections within complex networks increase the level of difficulty for the investigation on structural network properties such as robustness, vulnerability and resilience. In this dissertation, we develop methodologies based on mixed-integer programming techniques to solve challenging optimization problems that model cascading processes in complex networked systems. In particular, we seek to provide decision making recommendations for problems related to different types of cascading processes in networks commonly considered in a variety of applications: interdependent infrastructure networks and social networks. In …
An Experimental Investigation Of Creativity In Relation To Extracurricular Activity And Gpa In Undergraduate Engineering Students, Maria Gonzalez
An Experimental Investigation Of Creativity In Relation To Extracurricular Activity And Gpa In Undergraduate Engineering Students, Maria Gonzalez
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Measuring creativity for engineering is paramount; previous research has shown that creativity diminishes as students advance through college. This study intends to find possible predictors for creativity in these students. These predictors include GPA, Hobbies, and Extracurriculars while using the Test of Creativity Thinking – Drawing Production (TCT-DP) as a benchmark for creativity. Participants were Junior and Senior year engineering students in Spring 2021. All eligible study participants were provided a TCT-DP and survey to complete. Individual creative ability was assessed from the resulting TCT-DP using a 13 categorical scoring matrix by independently trained evaluators using the scoring guidelines. The …
Humans In Algorithms, Algorithms In Humans: Understanding Cooperation And Creating Social Ai With Causal Generative Models, Lux Miranda
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Cooperation is the hallmark human trait which has allowed us to congregate into the vast, continent-sprawling societies we live in today. Yet, the precise social, environmental, and cognitive mechanisms which enable this cooperation are not fully understood. Toward this, lucrative insights have been borne through the use of formal computational models of socio-cognitive phenomena: In simulating our own cooperative behavior, we can better deduce the exact factors which cause it. The combined knowledge of these factors and ability to computationally simulate them allows us to further two goals: First, it empowers us with the knowledge of how to modify our …