Digital Commons Network^™

"Who Can Help Me?'': Knowledge Infused Matching Of Support Seekers And Support Providers During Covid-19 On Reddit, Manas Gaur, Kaushik Roy, Aditya Sharma, Biplav Srivastava, Amit Sheth

Publications

During the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, subreddits on Reddit, such as r/Coronavirus saw a rapid growth in user's requests for help (support seekers - SSs) including individuals with varying professions and experiences with diverse perspectives on care (support providers - SPs). Currently, knowledgeable human moderators match an SS with a user with relevant experience, i.e, an SP on these subreddits. This unscalable process defers timely care. We present a medical knowledge-infused approach to efficient matching of SS and SPs validated by experts for the users affected by anxiety and depression, in the context of with COVID-19. After matching, each SP to …

Enabling Machine Learning On The Edge Using Sram Conserving Efficient Neural Networks Execution Approach, Bharath Sudharsan, Pankesh Patel, John G. Breslin, Muhammad Intizar Ali

Publications

Edge analytics refers to the application of data analytics and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms on IoT devices. The concept of edge analytics is gaining popularity due to its ability to perform AI-based analytics at the device level, enabling autonomous decision-making, without depending on the cloud. However, the majority of Internet of Things (IoT) devices are embedded systems with a low-cost microcontroller unit (MCU) or a small CPU as its brain, which often are incapable of handling complex ML algorithms.

In this paper, we propose an approach for the ecient execution of already deeply compressed, large neural networks (NNs) on tiny …

Semantics Of The Black-Box: Can Knowledge Graphs Help Make Deep Learning Systems More Interpretable And Explainable?, Manas Gaur, Keyur Faldu, Amit Sheth

Publications

The recent series of innovations in deep learning (DL) have shown enormous potential to impact individuals and society, both positively and negatively. The DL models utilizing massive computing power and enormous datasets have significantly outperformed prior historical benchmarks on increasingly difficult, well-defined research tasks across technology domains such as computer vision, natural language processing, signal processing, and human-computer interactions. However, the Black-Box nature of DL models and their over-reliance on massive amounts of data condensed into labels and dense representations poses challenges for interpretability and explainability of the system. Furthermore, DLs have not yet been proven in their ability to …

Short-Range Forecasting Of Covid-19 During Early Onset At County, Health District, And State Geographic Levels Using Seven Methods: Comparative Forecasting Study, Christopher Lynch, Ross Gore

VMASC Publications

BACKGROUND:

Forecasting methods rely on trends and averages of prior observations to forecast COVID-19 case counts. COVID-19 forecasts have received much media attention, and numerous platforms have been created to inform the public. However, forecasting effectiveness varies by geographic scope and is affected by changing assumptions in behaviors and preventative measures in response to the pandemic. Due to time requirements for developing a COVID-19 vaccine, evidence is needed to inform short-term forecasting method selection at county, health district, and state levels.

OBJECTIVE:

COVID-19 forecasts keep the public informed and contribute to public policy. As such, proper understanding of forecasting purposes …

Simulation For Cybersecurity: State Of The Art And Future Directions, Hamdi Kavak, Jose J. Padilla, Daniele Vernon-Bido, Saikou Y. Diallo, Ross Gore, Sachin Shetty

VMASC Publications

In this article, we provide an introduction to simulation for cybersecurity and focus on three themes: (1) an overview of the cybersecurity domain; (2) a summary of notable simulation research efforts for cybersecurity; and (3) a proposed way forward on how simulations could broaden cybersecurity efforts. The overview of cybersecurity provides readers with a foundational perspective of cybersecurity in the light of targets, threats, and preventive measures. The simulation research section details the current role that simulation plays in cybersecurity, which mainly falls on representative environment building; test, evaluate, and explore; training and exercises; risk analysis and assessment; and humans …

Internet-Of-Things Devices In Support Of The Development Of Echoic Skills Among Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Krzysztof J. Rechowicz, John B. Stull, Michelle M. Hascall, Saikou Y. Diallo, Kevin J. O'Brien

VMASC Publications

A significant therapeutic challenge for people with disabilities is the development of verbal and echoic skills. Digital voice assistants (DVAs), such as Amazon’s Alexa, provide networked intelligence to billions of Internet-of-Things devices and have the potential to offer opportunities to people, such as those diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), to advance these necessary skills. Voice interfaces can enable children with ASD to practice such skills at home; however, it remains unclear whether DVAs can be as proficient as therapists in recognizing utterances by a developing speaker. We developed an Alexa-based skill called ASPECT to measure how well the DVA …

6g Enabled Smart Infrastructure For Sustainable Society: Opportunities, Challenges, And Research Roadmap, Abotinam Lucky Imoize, Oluwadara Adedeji, Nistha Tandiya, Sachin Shetty

VMASC Publications

The 5G wireless communication network is currently faced with the challenge of limited data speed exacerbated by the proliferation of billions of data-intensive applications. To address this problem, researchers are developing cutting-edge technologies for the envisioned 6G wireless communication standards to satisfy the escalating wireless services demands. Though some of the candidate technologies in the 5G standards will apply to 6G wireless networks, key disruptive technologies that will guarantee the desired quality of physical experience to achieve ubiquitous wireless connectivity are expected in 6G. This article first provides a foundational background on the evolution of different wireless communication standards to …

"Do Users Need Human-Like Conversational Agents?" - Exploring Conversational System Design Using Framework Of Human Needs, Souvick Ghosh, Satanu Ghosh

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

The fascinating story of human evolution can be attributed to our ability to speak, write, and communicate complex thoughts. When researchers envision a perfect, artificially intelligent conversational system, they want the system to be human-like. In other words, the system should converse with the same intellect and cognition as humans. Now, the question which we need to ask is if we need a human-like conversational system? Before we engage in the complex endeavor of implementing human-like characteristics, we should debate if the pursuit of such a system is logical and ethical. We analyze some of the system-level characteristics and discuss …

Criticality Based Optimal Cyber Defense Remediation In Energy Delivery Systems, Kamrul Hasan, Sachin Shetty, Md. Sharif Ullah, Amin Hassanzadeh, Tariqul Islam

VMASC Publications

A prioritized cyber defense remediation plan is critical for effective risk management in Energy Delivery System (EDS). Due to the complexity of EDS in terms of heterogeneous nature blending Information Technology (IT) and Operation Technology (OT) and Industrial Control System (ICS), scale and critical processes tasks, prioritized remediations should be applied gradually to protect critical assets. In this work, we propose a methodology for a prioritized cyber risk remediation plan by detecting and evaluating paths to critical nodes in EDS. We propose critical nodes characteristics evaluation based on nodes’ architectural positions, a measure of centrality based on nodes’ connectivity and …

Malware Classification With Gmm-Hmm Models, Jing Zhao, Samanvitha Basole, Mark Stamp

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Discrete hidden Markov models (HMM) are often applied to malware detection and classification problems. However, the continuous analog of discrete HMMs, that is, Gaussian mixture model-HMMs (GMM-HMM), are rarely considered in the field of cybersecurity. In this paper, we use GMM-HMMs for malware classification and we compare our results to those obtained using discrete HMMs. As features, we consider opcode sequences and entropy-based sequences. For our opcode features, GMM-HMMs produce results that are comparable to those obtained using discrete HMMs, whereas for our entropy-based features, GMM-HMMs generally improve significantly on the classification results that we have achieved with discrete HMMs.

A New Dataset For Smartphone Gesture-Based Authentication, Elliu Huang, Fabio Di Troia, Mark Stamp, Preethi Sundaravaradhan

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

In this paper, we consider the problem of authentication on a smartphone, based on gestures. Specifically, the gestures consist of users holding a smartphone while writing their initials in the air. Accelerometer data from 80 subjects was collected and we provide a preliminary analysis of this data using machine learning techniques. The machine learning techniques considered include principal component analysis (PCA) and support vector machines (SVM). The results presented here are intended to provide a baseline for additional research based on our dataset.

Artificial Neural Networks For Asymmetric Selective Harmonic Current Mitigation-Pwm In Active Power Filters To Meet Power Quality Standards, Amirhossein Moeini, Morteza Dabbaghjamanesh, Jonathan W. Kimball, Jie Zhang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The main objective of an active power filter (APF) is to control the harmonics of nonlinear loads in power systems. In addition, the reactive power (fundamental component of the AC power) at the point of common coupling (PCC) can be compensated by using an APF. This paper investigates a technique for the modulation technique of the active power filters. Using the artificial neural network (ANN) technique, real-time fundamental and harmonic compensations can be achieved for the low-frequency modulation techniques such as asymmetric selective harmonic elimination/mitigation-pulse width modulation (ASHE/ASHM-PWM) and asymmetric selective harmonic current mitigation-PWM (ASHCM-PWM). This means that different phases …

Detection Of Gaussian Attacks In Power Systems Under A Scalable Kalman Consensus Filter Framework, Arnold Fernandes, Rui Bo, Jonathan W. Kimball, Bruce M. Mcmillin

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The dynamic non-linear state-space model of a power-system consisting of synchronous generators, buses, and static loads has been linearized and a linear measurement function has been considered. A distributed dynamic framework for estimating the state vector of the power system has been designed here. This framework employs a type of distributed Kalman filter (DKF) known as a Kalman consensus filter (KCF) which is located at distributed control centers (DCCs) that fuse locally available noise ridden measurements, state vector estimates of neighboring control centers, and a prediction obtained by the linearized model to obtain a filtered state vector estimate. Further, the …

Using Gated Recurrent Units For Selective Harmonic Current Mitigation-Pwm In Grid-Tied Cascaded H-Bridge Converters, Morteza Dabbaghjamanesh, Amirhossein Moeini, Jonathan Kimball, Jie Zhang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Grid-tied converters become more popular for electric vehicle, renewable energy, and energy storage systems applications. Different modulation techniques such as low-frequency (e.g., selective harmonic elimination-PWM, selective harmonic mitigation-PWM, and selective harmonic current mitigation-PWM (SHCM-PWM)) and high-frequency modulation techniques (e.g., phase shift-PWM and space vector modulation) are used in the literature for grid-tied converters. Low-frequency modulation techniques have a high-efficiency due to the low-switching power losses. One of the main challenges of low-frequency modulation techniques such as SHCM-PWM is how to implement the proposed technique in real-time, due to the transcendental Fourier equations of SHCM-PWM. In this paper, a deep learning …

Why You’Re Not Worthy: The Superiority Theory Of Humor, Sophia A. Stone

Faculty and Staff Publications & Presentations

No abstract provided.

Adapting Sustenance: Indigenous People Preserve Traditional Food Sources, Mary Katherine Auld

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

Traditional foodways of Indigenous people around the world are being changed by human-caused climate change, environmental policy, and land management. For Indigenous people in interior Alaska and Montana, culture and survival are tied tightly to hunted and gathered food. The average American gets their food from a grocery store and thus is somewhat insulated from the impact of climate change on their diet. But climate change has its hand directly in the pantries, dinner plates, and seasonal practices of Indigenous people. I believe food is a central way people are tied to the earth, and thus creating narratives about impacts …

The Wild That Remains: A Once In A Generation Forest Plan Reignites The Wilderness Debate In Montana’S Gallatin Range, Anthony Stephen Pavkovich

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

The movement to preserve Montana’s Gallatin Mountains, which stretch north from Yellowstone National Park, has been ongoing since the passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964. Largely undeveloped, the range’s sinuous, rocky crest, fertile meadows and thick lodgepole forests are vital to one of the earth’s last intact temperate ecosystems. The landscape provides refuge to rare populations of grizzly bears, elk, bighorn sheep, wolves and wolverines. Yet, the Gallatins remain the last major mountain range bordering the nation’s first and most iconic national park without congressionally designated wilderness. The closest the Gallatins came to being protected as wilderness was in …

Surviving Education: The Untold Story Of American Indian Boarding Schools, Sandra Su'sana (Redpath) Ashley

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

The history of federally-mandated American Indian boarding schools is one that is long overdue in the chronicles of American history. In North America, the original settlers did most of the speaking and precious little listening. In doing so, the traditional education of Native peoples was ignored, degraded, and labeled as “heathen.” Simply said, the Anglo-European considered his way “of life and learning” to be the only way to have value and direction. Consequently, social and political objectives aimed at wiping out any trace of Native American life. Today, Native voices work to reconfigure the position of the perceiver in relation …

The Americanization Of Sport For Development And Peace: Examining American Sdp Intern Experiences, Michael S. Dao, Jessica W. Chin

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

This study expands the Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) research focusing on the impact of national values and ideas on SDP program implementation. As SDP interns are instrumental in implementing many SDP programs, it is important to identify how their national values and ideas affect their work in the field. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the experiences of Americans who had worked as SDP interns. Through the lens of Americanization, we examine the reproduction and distribution of values and ideas of American SDP interns working abroad. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 11 former American SDP …

The Dialectic Of Presence And Interpretation In Everyday Aesthetics: Applying Heidegger And Gumbrecht To A Walk In One’S Neighborhood, Thomas Leddy

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Gumbrecht’s Heidegger-inspired book, Production of Presence, provides valuable tools for resolving issues in everyday aesthetics. Gumbrecht distinguishes between “presence cultures” and “interpretation cultures.” (Gumbrecht 2004) We live in an interpretation culture, and yet even in our culture there are presence effects. Gumbrecht understands aesthetic experience in terms of the idea of presence. His paradigms are great works of art and great athletic events, all of which take us away from the everyday. I argue that his theory can be adapted, ironically, to everyday aesthetics, in particular to the experience of taking a walk. Much of what we experience aesthetically while …

A Theory Of Reciting As Asian American Buddhist Practice: The Young Buddhist Editorial As A Discursive Site Of Recitation, Funie Hsu

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

This article contributes a theory of reciting as Asian American Buddhist practice. I argue that when Asian American Buddhists share their stories and experiences, they perform a critical form of religious reciting. This reciting articulates the reality of Asian American Buddhist existence amidst ongoing legacies of exclusion. It displaces the predominance of narratives about Asian American Buddhists told by others. Moreover, reciting forges networks of knowledge, recognition, and sangha amongst Asian American Buddhists. This article then investigates the recently established web platform, The Young Buddhist Editorial (YBE), as an example of the layered reciting practices amongst young Asian American Buddhists. …

“I Shall Watch Their Progress”: The Observer Effect And Information Theory In Literary Systems, Michael L. Shohet

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This treatise will fully embrace the interdisciplinary approach and will attempt to apply theoretical physics to works of literature. There is no escape from the search for an ultimate connection between all disciplines of human thought. Culture, progress, their relationships with material things are all inevitably connected, even if this connection is its all-prevalent absence. Recent developments in quantum physics and post-human philosophy have provided the key to the intimate substance of all things – information. Although, the numerous branches of information structures are to be studied separately to grasp, appreciate and use their manifestations, to truly understand reality it …

Piercing The Veil: Examining Demographic And Political Variables In State Foi Law Administration, A.Jay Wagner

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

State and local governments play an important, and growing, role in everyday lives. The exploratory study positions FOI laws as a central mechanism in providing transparency to these more proximate governments. It is premised on a FOI audit, or field experiment, of 1002 requests across 9 U.S. state laws and 334 jurisdictions. The sample represents a broad cross-section of geographic, demographic and political variables, and the study analyzes these variables predictive and correlative value in determining outcomes, timeliness and communication in FOI requests. The results suggest significance in race and political variables in FOI outcomes and processes. The study's strongest …

Rust Preventative Spray Varnish Verification And Nozzle Development, Dakota Snyder, Collin Whitely, Stephen Patrick, William Mccullough

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This document details the research and selection of five rust preventative spray varnishes that were to be tested. These varnishes are known as the five materials. The materials underwent rust testing and in-depth analysis to see which protects against rust the best. In addition, the document reports on the construction of a prototype self-contained, automated spray varnishing unit.

Serving The Nation Through The Height Of A Pandemic: An In-Depth Look At Five Large U.S. Cities’ Budgets And Crime Incidents Over The Course Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Daniel Cooper

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Police departments, like all public agencies, are limited by their budgets and may struggle to recruit and retain qualified officers. In policing, a majority of the budget is spend on salaries, pensions, and benefits. This is increasingly important to look because we have seen calls for defunding the police over the summer of 2020 and certain localities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City have made cuts to their police department. With a loss of budget, some departments had to downsize on specialized units, which played a role in an increase in crime rates. In the case of New …

Identifying Molecular Pathways Underlying Noise-Induced Tinnitus, Mckenzie Rice

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Tinnitus is a serious neurological condition effecting 10-15% of adults, and can lead to other symptoms such as difficulty concentrating and sleeping, anxiety, and depression. Currently there are no FDA approved drugs to prevent or treat tinnitus, mainly due to a lack of understanding of its cellular and molecular pathways. T- and L- type calcium channels have been implicated in the modulation of tinnitus, as well as the dysfunction of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) neurons. This study used the sound-based avoidance detection (SBAD) method in order to detect tinnitus and determine whether pharmacological treatments had an effect in mediating tinnitus. T-type …

Towards Effective Detection Of Botnet Attacks Using Bot-Iot Dataset, Subiksha Srinivasa Gopalan

Theses

In the world of cybersecurity, intrusion detection systems (IDS) have leveraged the power of artificial intelligence for the efficient detection of attacks. This is done by applying supervised machine learning (ML) techniques on labeled datasets. A growing body of literature has been devoted to the use of BoT-IoT dataset for IDS based ML frameworks. A few number of related works have recognized the need for a balanced dataset and applied techniques to alleviate the issue of imbalance. However, a significant amount of related research works failed to treat the imbalance in the BoT-IoT dataset. A lack of unanimity was observed …

Towards Enhancement Of Machine Learning Techniques Using Cse-Cic-Ids2018 Cybersecurity Dataset, Dharshini Ravikumar

Theses

In machine learning, balanced datasets play a crucial role in the bias observed towards classification and prediction. The CSE-CIC IDS datasets published in 2017 and 2018 have both attracted considerable scholarly attention towards research in intrusion detection systems. Recent work published using this dataset indicates little attention paid to the imbalance of the dataset. The study presented in this paper sets out to explore the degree to which imbalance has been treated and provide a taxonomy of the machine learning approaches developed using these datasets. A survey of published works related to these datasets was done to deliver a combined …

Focus Stacking Images Of Morphological Character States For Differentiating The Adults Of Ixodes Affinis And Ixodes Scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae) In Areas Of Sympatry, Robyn M. Nadolny, Marcée Toliver, Holly D. Gaff, John G. Snodgrass, Richard G. Robbins

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Adult females and males of Ixodes affinis and Ixodes scapularis are illustrated by focus stacking image photography, and morphological character states are described that reliably differentiate the two species. In conjunction with other environmental cues, such as the questing phenology of adults, these characteristics will enable the rapid identification of adults of either sex along the southern Coastal Plain of the United States, where these species are sympatric.

Global Extinction Risk For Seahorses, Pipefishes And Their Near Relatives (Syngnathiformes), Riley A. Pollom, Gina M. Ralph, Caroline M. Pollock, Amanda C.J. Vincent

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Few marine taxa have been comprehensively assessed for their conservation status, despite heavy pressures from fishing, habitat degradation and climate change. Here we report on the first global assessment of extinction risk for 300 species of syngnathiform fishes known as of 2017, using the IUCN Red List criteria. This order of bony teleosts is dominated by seahorses, pipefishes and seadragons (family Syngnathidae). It also includes trumpetfishes (Aulostomidae), shrimpfishes (Centriscidae), cornetfishes (Fistulariidae) and ghost pipefishes (Solenostomidae). At least 6% are threatened, but data suggest a mid-point estimate of 7.9% and an upper bound of 38%. Most of the threatened species are …