Engineering Commons^™

User Profiling Through Zero-Permission Sensors And Machine Learning, Ahmed Elhussiny

Theses and Dissertations

With the rise of mobile and pervasive computing, users are often ingesting content on the go. Services are constantly competing for attention in a very crowded field. It is only logical that users would allot their attention to the services that are most likely to adapt to their needs and interests. This matter becomes trivial when users create accounts and explicitly inform the services of their demographics and interests. Unfortunately, due to privacy and security concerns, and due to the fast nature of computing today, users see the registration process as an unnecessary hurdle to bypass, effectively refusing to provide …

Advancing Automated Methods For Microrna Profiling, Kia N. Zellars

Theses and Dissertations

The widespread influence of miRNAs in many biological processes and characteristic changes in expression profiles make them potential biomarkers for a range of diseases. With recent discoveries highlighting the enrichment of particular circulating miRNAs in plasma under pathological conditions, there has been a push for technological advances in miRNA profiling studies as a diagnostic tool. A standardized, automated, high-throughput method for miRNA isolation from human plasma samples was developed in this study. Samples were subject to full miRNome profiling utilizing RT-qPCR. These unique findings demonstrate that developing a distinct miRNA biomarker profile for heart failure patients is feasible and holds …

Using Internet Artifacts To Profile A Child Pornography Suspect, Marcus K. Rogers, Kathryn C. Seigfried-Spellar

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Digital evidence plays a crucial role in child pornography investigations. However, in the following case study, the authors argue that the behavioral analysis or “profiling” of digital evidence can also play a vital role in child pornography investigations. The following case study assessed the Internet Browsing History (Internet Explorer Bookmarks, Mozilla Bookmarks, and Mozilla History) from a suspected child pornography user’s computer. The suspect in this case claimed to be conducting an ad hoc law enforcement investigation. After the URLs were classified (Neutral; Adult Porn; Child Porn; Adult Dating sites; Pictures from Social Networking Profiles; Chat Sessions; Bestiality; Data Cleaning; …

Reducing Complexity Of Processor Front Ends With Static Analysis And Selective Preloading, Santhosh Verma

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

General purpose processors were once designed with the major goal of maximizing performance. As power consumption has grown, with the advent of multi-core processors and the rising importance of embedded and mobile devices, the importance of designing efficient and low cost architectures has increased. This dissertation focuses on reducing the complexity of the front end of the processor, mainly branch predictors. Branch predictors have also been designed with a focus on improving prediction accuracy so that performance is maximized. To accomplish this, the predictors proposed in the literature and used in real systems have become increasingly complex and larger, a …

Spot Off: The Gao Takes On The Tsa’S Behavior Detection Program, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recently Issued Efforts to Validate TSA’s Passenger Screening Behavior Detection Program Underway, but Opportunities Exist to Strengthen Validation and Address Operational Problems (May 2010, GAO-10-763). This IBPP article will describe and comment on the main GAO findings and additional data on which the findings are based. The article will end with some basic challenges to behavior detection as a useful security measure.

Health Prognisis Of Electronics Via Power Profiling, Jonathan Amilcar Cervantes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The objective of this research is to investigate a new approach for the early detection of latent defects in electronic devices in the field. Reliability is assessed through the non-traditional approach of recording and evaluating the power profile of electronic devices within a deterministic state of operation. Traditionally, measuring the quiescent current (Iddq) of a device has been employed in manufacturing tests to detect defective parts prior to deployment to the field. However, the monitoring of the deterministic power signature (i.e. boot up or during a self-test routine) has never been exploited to monitor the health of a device in …

A Latent Variable Model For Chemogenomic Profiling, Patrick Flaherty

Patrick Flaherty

A Latent Variable Model For Chemogenomic Profiling, Patrick Flaherty

Mathematics and Statistics Department Faculty Publication Series

Motivation: In haploinsufficiency profiling data, pleiotropic genes are often misclassified by clustering algorithms that impose the constraint that a gene or experiment belong to only one cluster. We have developed a general probabilistic model that clusters genes and experiments without requiring that a given gene or drug only appear in one cluster. The model also incorporates the functional annotation of known genes to guide the clustering procedure. Results: We applied our model to the clustering of 79 chemogenomic experiments in yeast. Known pleiotropic genes PDR5 and MAL11 are more accurately represented by the model than by a clustering procedure that …

Chemogenomic Profiling: Identifying The Functional Interactions Of Small Molecules In Yeast, Patrick Flaherty

Patrick Flaherty

Chemogenomic Profiling: Identifying The Functional Interactions Of Small Molecules In Yeast, Patrick Flaherty

Mathematics and Statistics Department Faculty Publication Series

We demonstrate the efficacy of a genome-wide protocol in yeast that allows the identification of those gene products that functionally interact with small molecules and result in the inhibition of cellular proliferation. Here we present results from screening 10 diverse compounds in 80 genome-wide experiments against the complete collection of heterozygous yeast deletion strains. These compounds include anticancer and antifungal agents, statins, alverine citrate, and dyclonine. In several cases, we identified previously known interactions; furthermore, in each case, our analysis revealed novel cellular interactions, even when the relationship between a compound and its cellular target had been well established. In …

Biometric, Psychometric, And Sociometric Profiling, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article articulates basic Issues in developing security-based profiling technologies.

Cappsii: Caveats On Progress, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article identifies potential security shortfalls even in the context of improvements in counterterrorist profiling.

Trends. Terrorism, Behavioral Profiling, And Aviation Security, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses the quest to improve aviation security by identifying behavioral indicators for terrorism.

Functional Profiling Of The Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Genome, Patrick Flaherty

Patrick Flaherty

Special Article: Outline On Status Of Post-9/11 Aviation Security Initiatives, Part I, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article provides a commentary in an outline format on post-9/11 aviation security initiatives within the United States (US).

Functional Profiling Of The Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Genome, Patrick Flaherty

Mathematics and Statistics Department Faculty Publication Series

Determining the effect of gene deletion is a fundamental approach to understanding gene function. Conventional genetic screens exhibit biases, and genes contributing to a phenotype are often missed. We systematically constructed a nearly complete collection of gene-deletion mutants (96% of annotated open reading frames, or ORFs) of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. DNA sequences dubbed 'molecular bar codes' uniquely identify each strain, enabling their growth to be analysed in parallel and the fitness contribution of each gene to be quantitatively assessed by hybridization to high-density oligonucleotide arrays. We show that previously known and new genes are necessary for optimal growth …