Digital Commons Network^™

Structural Exploration And Inference Of The Network, Ruihua Cheng

Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two parts. In the first part, a learning-based method for classification of online reviews that achieves better classification accuracy is extended. Automatic sentiment classification is becoming a popular and effective way to help online users or companies to process and make sense of customer reviews. The method combines two recent developments. First, valence shifters and individual opinion words are combined as bigrams to use in an ordinal margin classifier. Second, relational information between unigrams expressed in the form of a graph is used to constrain the parameters of the classifier. By combining these two components, it …

Representations And Models For Large-Scale Video Understanding, Du Le Hong Tran

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

In this thesis, we investigate different representations and models for large-scale video understanding. These methods include a mid-level representation for action recognition, a deep-learned representation for video analysis, a generic convolutional network architecture for video voxel prediction, and a new high-level task and benchmark of video comprehension. First, we present EXMOVES, a mid-level representation for scalable action recognition. The entries in EXMOVES representation are the calibrated outputs of a set of movement classifiers over spatial-temporal volumes of the input video. Each movement classifier is a simple exemplar-SVM trained on low-level features. Our EXMOVES requires a minimal amount of supervision while …

Tianjin Port Emissions Control Area, Yongming Zhang

Maritime Safety & Environment Management Dissertations (Dalian)

No abstract provided.

Ship Emission Control And Onboard Management, Yongjian Yang

Maritime Safety & Environment Management Dissertations (Dalian)

No abstract provided.

On The Expression Of Higher Mathematics In American Sign Language, John Tabak

Journal of Interpretation

Abstract

The grammar and vocabulary of higher mathematics are different from the grammar and vocabulary of conversational English and conversational American Sign Language (ASL). Consequently, mathematical language presents interpreters with a unique set of challenges. This article characterizes those aspects of mathematical grammar that are peculiar to the subject. (A discussion of mathematical vocabulary and its expression in ASL can be found elsewhere (Tabak, 2014).) An increased awareness of the grammar of mathematical language will prove useful to those interpreters for the deaf and deaf mathematics professionals seeking to express higher mathematics in ASL.

In this article one will, for …

Topic Extraction From Microblog Posts Using Conversation Structures, Jing Li, Ming Liao, Wei Gao, Yulan He, Kam-Fai Wong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Conventional topic models are ineffective for topic extraction from microblog messages since the lack of structure and context among the posts renders poor message-level word co-occurrence patterns. In this work, we organize microblog posts as conversation trees based on reposting and replying relations, which enrich context information to alleviate data sparseness. Our model generates words according to topic dependencies derived from the conversation structures. In specific, we differentiate messages as leader messages, which initiate key aspects of previously focused topics or shift the focus to different topics, and follower messages that do not introduce any new information but simply echo …

Thermal Decomposition Of Electronic Cigarette Liquids, Robert Paul Jensen

Dissertations and Theses

Electronic cigarette liquid (e-liquid) is a solution of propylene glycol and/or glycerol with varying concentrations of nicotine and flavorants. Inhalation of vaporized e-liquid is a method of nicotine delivery that is growing in popularity and is commonly regarded as safe relative to smoking traditional tobacco products. The thermal decomposition of glycerol and propylene glycol is typical of alcohols and has been investigated, although not exhaustively. In this work, samples of propylene glycol and glycerol were vaporized using an electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) and were analyzed for evidence of decomposition using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. E-cigarettes are shown to degrade glycerol …

Profiling Social Media Users With Selective Self-Disclosure Behavior, Wei Gong

Dissertations and Theses Collection

Social media has become a popular platform for millions of users to share activities and thoughts. Many applications are now tapping on social media to disseminate information (e.g., news), to promote products (e.g., advertisements), to manage customer relationship (e.g., customer feedback), and to source for investment (e.g., crowdfunding). Many of these applications require user profile knowledge to select the target social media users or to personalize messages to users. Social media user profiling is a task of constructing user profiles such as demographical labels, interests, and opinions, etc., using social media data. Among the social media user profiling research works, …

Analyzing Clinical Depressive Symptoms In Twitter, Amir Hossein Yazdavar, Hussein S. Al-Olimat, Tanvi Banerjee, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

350 million people are suffering from clinical depression worldwide.

The Phraseworthy App, Dallin D. Oaks

BYU Research Development Office Research Networking Conference

Brainstorming software that provides ideas about potential word plays for headlines, slogans, product names, titles, and more.

Anti-Forensics: Furthering Digital Forensic Science Through A New Extended, Granular Taxonomy, Kevin Conlan, Ibrahim Baggili, Frank Breitinger

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

Anti-forensic tools, techniques and methods are becoming a formidable obstacle for the digital forensic community. Thus, new research initiatives and strategies must be formulated to address this growing problem. In this work we first collect and categorize 308 antidigital forensic tools to survey the field. We then devise an extended anti-forensic taxonomy to the one proposed by Rogers (2006) in order to create a more comprehensive taxonomy and facilitate linguistic standardization. Our work also takes into consideration anti-forensic activity which utilizes tools that were not originally designed for antiforensic purposes, but can still be used with malicious intent. This category …

A Classification Of Representable T-Norm Operators For Picture Fuzzy Sets, Bui Cong Cuong, Vladik Kreinovich, Roan Thi Ngan

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

T-norms and t-conorms are basic operators of fuzzy logics. The classifications of these operators are significant problems. Some results of the classifications of fuzzy logics operators for fuzzy sets are known. In 2013, we defined the picture fuzzy sets, and in 2015 some representable t-norms operators and t-conorms operators were defined. In this paper, we investigate the classification of representable picture t-norms and picture t-conorms operators for picture fuzzy sets.

Concepts Of Solutions Of Uncertain Equations With Intervals, Probabilities And Fuzzy Sets For Applied Tasks, Boris Kovalerchuk, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

The focus of this paper is to clarify the concepts of solutions of linear equations in interval, probabilistic, and fuzzy sets setting for real world tasks. There is a fundamental difference between formal definitions of the solutions and physically meaningful concepts of solution in applied tasks, when equations have uncertain components. For instance, a formal definition of the solution in terms of Moore interval analysis can be completely irrelevant for solving a real world task. We show that formal definitions must follow a meaningful concept of the solution in the real world. The paper proposed several formalized definitions of the …

Stylometry With R: A Package For Computational Text Analysis, Maciej Eder, Jan Rybicki, Mike Kestemont

The R Journal

This software paper describes ‘Stylometry with R’ (stylo), a flexible R package for the high level analysis of writing style in stylometry. Stylometry (computational stylistics) is concerned with the quantitative study of writing style, e.g. authorship verification, an application which has considerable potential in forensic contexts, as well as historical research. In this paper we introduce the possibilities of stylo for computational text analysis, via a number of dummy case studies from English and French literature. We demonstrate how the package is particularly useful in the exploratory statistical analysis of texts, e.g. with respect to authorial writing style. …

Tool Comparison Of Semantic Parsers, Robert Hinh

Open Access Theses

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a vital aspect for artificial intelligence systems to achieve integration into human lives, which has been a goal for researchers in this industry. While NLP focuses on an array of problems, semantic parsing will be specifically focused on throughout this paper. These parsers have been considerably targeted for improvement through the scientific community and demand for semantic parsers that achieve high accuracy has increased. There have been many approaches developed for this specific purpose and in this paper, a deep analysis was performed to compare the performance of semantic parsing systems. The implications of this …

Knowledge Modeling Of Phishing Emails, Courtney Falk

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation investigates whether or not malicious phishing emails are detected better when a meaningful representation of the email bodies is available. The natural language processing theory of Ontological Semantics Technology is used for its ability to model the knowledge representation present in the email messages. Known good and phishing emails were analyzed and their meaning representations fed into machine learning binary classifiers. Unigram language models of the same emails were used as a baseline for comparing the performance of the meaningful data. The end results show how a binary classifier trained on meaningful data is better at detecting phishing …

Cufa: A More Formal Definition For Digital Forensic Artifacts, Vikram S. Harichandran, Daniel Walnycky, Ibrahim Baggili, Frank Breitinger

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

The term “artifact” currently does not have a formal definition within the domain of cyber/ digital forensics, resulting in a lack of standardized reporting, linguistic understanding between professionals, and efficiency. In this paper we propose a new definition based on a survey we conducted, literature usage, prior definitions of the word itself, and similarities with archival science. This definition includes required fields that all artifacts must have and encompasses the notion of curation. Thus, we propose using a new term e curated forensic artifact (CuFA) e to address items which have been cleared for entry into a CuFA database (one …

Fuzzy Logic In Health Care Settings: Moral Math For Value-Laden Choices, Sarah Voss

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This essay is intended as an example of “moral math”, i.e., ideas culled from mathematics which can positively impact social behavior. Specifically, it combines fuzzy logic with the ethical decisions which hospital staff and others are sometimes forced to make about health care (e.g., euthanasia issues following Hurricane Katrina). The assumption is that such decisions involve value-laden choices which lend themselves to “fuzzy” or “smart” protocols. The article discusses the history of fuzzy logic – what it is, how it is used, and how it might be even better-used as a support basis for making difficult choices …

Comparison Of Formulations Of Applied Tasks With Intervals, Fuzzy Sets And Probability Approaches, Boris Kovalerchuk, Vladik Kreinovich

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

The focus of this paper is to clarify the concepts of solutions in linear equations in interval, probabilistic and fuzzy sets setting for real word tasks. There is a fundamental difference between formal definitions of the solutions and physically meaningful concept of solution in applied tasks when equations have uncertain components. For instance, a formal definition of the solution in terms of Moore interval analysis can be completely irrelevant for solving a real world task. We show that formal definitions must follow meaningful concept of the solution in the real world. The paper proposed several formalized definitions of the concept …

Latent Semantic Indexing In The Discovery Of Cyber-Bullying In Online Text, Jacob L. Bigelow

Computer Science Summer Fellows

The rise in the use of social media and particularly the rise of adolescent use has led to a new means of bullying. Cyber-bullying has proven consequential to youth internet users causing a need for a response. In order to effectively stop this problem we need a verified method of detecting cyber-bullying in online text; we aim to find that method. For this project we look at thirteen thousand labeled posts from Formspring and create a bank of words used in the posts. First the posts are cleaned up by taking out punctuation, normalizing emoticons, and removing high and low …

Detection Of Cyberbullying In Sms Messaging, Bryan W. Bradley

Computer Science Summer Fellows

Cyberbullying is a type of bullying that uses technology such as cell phones to harass or malign another person. To detect acts of cyberbullying, we are developing an algorithm that will detect cyberbullying in SMS (text) messages. Over 80,000 text messages have been collected by software installed on cell phones carried by participants in our study. This paper describes the development of the algorithm to detect cyberbullying messages, using the cell phone data collected previously. The algorithm works by first separating the messages into conversations in an automated way. The algorithm then analyzes the conversations and scores the severity and …

A Model For Attention-Driven Judgements In Type Theory With Records, Simon Dobnik, John D. Kelleher

Conference papers

This paper makes three contributions to the discussion on the applicability of Type Theory with Records (TTR) to embodied dialogue agents. First, it highlights the problem of type assignment or judgements in practical implementations which is resource intensive. Second, it presents a judgement control mechanism, which consists of grouping of types into clusters or states by their thematic relations and selection of types following two mechanisms inspired by the Load Theory of selective attention and cognitive control (Lavie et al., 2004), that addresses this problem. Third, it presents a computational framework, based on Bayesian inference, that offers a basis for …

Response To Sbp-Brims Data Challenge: Agent-Based Approach To Human Migration Movement, Lin Junjie, Larry, Kathleen M. Carley

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this work, we attempt to address the social question of international migration, and the resulting shifts in country populations. This is achieved through the development of a country-level agent-based dynamic network model to examine shifts in population given network relations among countries, which inuences overall population change.

Using A Virtual Computing Laboratory To Foster Collaborative Learning For Information Security And Information Technology Education, Abdullah Konak, Michael R. Bartolacci

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

Virtual computer laboratories have been an excellent technological solution to the problem of providing students with hands-on experimentation in information technology fields such as information security in a cost effective and secure manner. A virtual computer laboratory was utilized in this work as a collaborative environment for student learning with the goal of measuring its effect on student learning and attitudes toward laboratory assignments. Experiments were carried out utilizing specially-designed computer-based laboratory activities that included student assessments and surveys upon their completion. The experiments involved both small groups and individual students completing their respective laboratory activities and subsequent assessments/surveys. …

Data-Driven Synthesis And Evaluation Of Syntactic Facial Expressions In American Sign Language Animation, Hernisa Kacorri

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Technology to automatically synthesize linguistically accurate and natural-looking animations of American Sign Language (ASL) would make it easier to add ASL content to websites and media, thereby increasing information accessibility for many people who are deaf and have low English literacy skills. State-of-art sign language animation tools focus mostly on accuracy of manual signs rather than on the facial expressions. We are investigating the synthesis of syntactic ASL facial expressions, which are grammatically required and essential to the meaning of sentences. In this thesis, we propose to: (1) explore the methodological aspects of evaluating sign language animations with facial expressions, …

Qcri At Semeval-2016 Task 4: Probabilistic Methods For Binary And Ordinal Quantification, Giovanni Da San Martino, Wei Gao, Fabrizio Sebastiani

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

. (2016). n. In , pages 58—63, San Diego, California, USA. Association for Computational Linguistics. (1st place in sub-task E of Sentiment Analysis in Twitter)

Using Perceptually Grounded Semantic Models To Autonomously Convey Meaning Through Visual Art, Derrall L. Heath

Theses and Dissertations

Developing advanced semantic models is important in building computational systems that can not only understand language but also convey ideas and concepts to others. Semantic models can allow a creative image-producing-agent to autonomously produce artifacts that communicate an intended meaning. This notion of communicating meaning through art is often considered a necessary part of eliciting an aesthetic experience in the viewer and can thus enhance the (perceived) creativity of the agent. Computational creativity, a subfield of artificial intelligence, deals with designing computational systems and algorithms that either automatically create original and functional products, or that augment the ability of humans …

User Behavior Mining In Microblogging, Tuan Anh Hoang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation addresses the modeling of factors concerning microblogging users' content and behavior. We focus on two sets of factors. The first set includes behavioral factors of users and content items driving content propagation in microblogging. The second set consists of latent topics and communities of users as the users are engaged in content generation and behavior adoptions. These two sets of factors are extremely important in many applications, e.g., network monitoring and recommender systems. In the first part of this dissertation, we identify user virality, user susceptibility, and content virality as three behavioral factors that affect users' behaviors in …

Skewer: Sentiment Knowledge Extraction With Entity Recognition, Christopher James Wu

Master's Theses

The California state legislature introduces approximately 5,000 new bills each legislative session. While the legislative hearings are recorded on video, the recordings are not easily accessible to the public. The lack of official transcripts or summaries also increases the effort required to gain meaningful insight from those recordings. Therefore, the news media and the general population are largely oblivious to what transpires during legislative sessions.

Digital Democracy, a project started by the Cal Poly Institute for Advanced Technology and Public Policy, is an online platform created to bring transparency to the California legislature. It features a searchable database of state …

Categorizing Blog Spam, Brandon Bevans

Master's Theses

The internet has matured into the focal point of our era. Its ecosystem is vast, complex, and in many regards unaccounted for. One of the most prevalent aspects of the internet is spam. Similar to the rest of the internet, spam has evolved from simply meaning ‘unwanted emails’ to a blanket term that encompasses any unsolicited or illegitimate content that appears in the wide range of media that exists on the internet.

Many forms of spam permeate the internet, and spam architects continue to develop tools and methods to avoid detection. On the other side, cyber security engineers continue to …