Digital Communications and Networking Commons^™

Confidence Inference In Defensive Cyber Operator Decision Making, Graig S. Ganitano

Theses and Dissertations

Cyber defense analysts face the challenge of validating machine generated alerts regarding network-based security threats. Operations tempo and systematic manpower issues have increased the importance of these individual analyst decisions, since they typically are not reviewed or changed. Analysts may not always be confident in their decisions. If confidence can be accurately assessed, then analyst decisions made under low confidence can be independently reviewed and analysts can be offered decision assistance or additional training. This work investigates the utility of using neurophysiological and behavioral correlates of decision confidence to train machine learning models to infer confidence in analyst decisions. Electroencephalography …

[Accepted Article Manuscript Version (Postprint)] Distributed Data-Gathering And -Processing In Smart Cities: An Information-Centric Approach, Reza Tourani, Abderrahmen Mtibaa, Satyajayant Misra

Computer Science Faculty Works

The technological advancements along with the proliferation of smart and connected devices (things) motivated the exploration of the creation of smart cities aimed at improving the quality of life, economic growth, and efficient resource utilization. Some recent initiatives defined a smart city network as the interconnection of the existing independent and heterogeneous networks and the infrastructure. However, considering the heterogeneity of the devices, communication technologies, network protocols, and platforms the interoperability of these networks is a challenge requiring more attention. In this paper, we propose the design of a novel Information-Centric Smart City architecture (iSmart), focusing on the demand of …

Internet Of Things In Smart Agriculture: Enabling Technologies, Abdul Salam, Syed Shah

Faculty Publications

In this paper, an IoT technology research and innovation roadmap for the field of precision agriculture (PA) is presented. Many recent practical trends and the challenges have been highlighted. Some important objectives for integrated technology research and education in precision agriculture are described. Effective IoT based communications and sensing approaches to mitigate challenges in the area of precision agriculture are presented.

The Global Disinformation Order: 2019 Global Inventory Of Organised Social Media Manipulation, Samantha Bradshaw, Philip N. Howard

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Executive Summary

Over the past three years, we have monitored the global organization of social media manipulation by governments and political parties. Our 2019 report analyses the trends of computational propaganda and the evolving tools, capacities, strategies, and resources.

1. Evidence of organized social media manipulation campaigns which have taken place in 70 countries, up from 48 countries in 2018 and 28 countries in 2017. In each country, there is at least one political party or government agency using social media to shape public attitudes domestically.

2.Social media has become co-opted by many authoritarian regimes. In 26 countries, computational propaganda …

Facepet: Enhancing Bystanders' Facial Privacy With Smart Wearables/Internet Of Things, Alfredo J. Perez, Sherali Zeadally, Luis Y. Matos Garcia, Jaouad A. Mouloud, Scott Griffith

Information Science Faculty Publications

Given the availability of cameras in mobile phones, drones and Internet-connected devices, facial privacy has become an area of major interest in the last few years, especially when photos are captured and can be used to identify bystanders’ faces who may have not given consent for these photos to be taken and be identified. Some solutions to protect facial privacy in photos currently exist. However, many of these solutions do not give a choice to bystanders because they rely on algorithms that de-identify photos or protocols to deactivate devices and systems not controlled by bystanders, thereby being dependent on the …

Deep Unsupervised Pixelization, Chu Han, Qiang Wen, Shengfeng He, Qianshu Zhu, Yinjie Tan, Guoqiang Han, Tien-Tsin Wong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we present a novel unsupervised learning method for pixelization. Due to the difficulty in creating pixel art, preparing the paired training data for supervised learning is impractical. Instead, we propose an unsupervised learning framework to circumvent such difficulty. We leverage the dual nature of the pixelization and depixelization, and model these two tasks in the same network in a bi-directional manner with the input itself as training supervision. These two tasks are modeled as a cascaded network which consists of three stages for different purposes. GridNet transfers the input image into multi-scale grid-structured images with different aliasing …

Exploring The Role Of Sentiments In Identification Of Active And Influential Bloggers, Mohammad Alghobiri, Umer Ishfaq, Hikmat Ullah Khan, Tahir Afzal Malik

International Journal of Business and Technology

The social Web provides opportunities for the public to have social interactions and online discussions. A large number of online users using the social web sites create a high volume of data. This leads to the emergence of Big Data, which focuses on computational analysis of data to reveal patterns, and associations relating to human interactions. Such analyses have vast applications in various fields such as understanding human behaviors, studying culture influence, and promoting online marketing. The blogs are one of the social web channels that offer a way to discuss various topics. Finding the top bloggers has been a …

Perfect Metamaterial Absorber Based Energy Harvesting Application In Ism Band, Furkan Dincer, Mehmet Bakir, Muharrem Karaaslan, Kemal Delihacioglu, Cumali Sabah

International Journal of Business and Technology

An electromagnetic (EM) energy harvesting application based on metamaterial absorber (MA) is introduced and discussed in this paper. This application is operating at ISM band (2.40 GHz) which is especially chosen due to its wide usage area. Square ring resonator (SRR) which has two gaps and resistors across the gaps on it is used. Chips resistors are used to deliver power to any active component. Transmission and reflection characteristics of metamaterial absorber (MA) for energy harvesting application are investigated. 83.6% efficient for energy harvesting application is realized in this study.

The Analytic Hierarchic Process: A Model To Evaluate The Risk Of Getting Cancer, Daniela (Halidini) Qendraj, Markela Muça

International Journal of Business and Technology

The aim of this study is to classify the risk factors of being with a type of cancer by applying the AHP (analytic hierarchy process) scale. The Saaty’s analytic hierarchy process is applied for computing weights for the factors, is a modeling for classification. A case study of QSUT Tirana hospital data base is presented to rank four cancer types. By the data collect from the hospital during the years 2011-2015, the results show that lung cancer is mostly spread in humans, and the prostate cancer is lower spread in humans.

Internet Of Things: From Applications, Challenges And Standardization To Industry Implementations, Xhafer Krasniqi

International Journal of Business and Technology

The Internet of Things that is defined as anything that can be accessible anytime and anywhere provides connectivity to different objects and sensors around us and which will enable the transfer of different data between these objects and devices. A thing in the Internet of Things can be any natural or man-made object that can be assigned an IP address with a capability to exchange date over a network. There is a huge number of applications of IoT to benefit users, such as health monitors, smart homes, connected cars etc.

If everything around us is connected and information about these …

Hybrid Modelling In System Simulation, Andreas Körner

International Journal of Business and Technology

In times of increasing power and capacity in computer, simulation mathematical models are getting more and more important. For different technical applications and in natural science but also in economic systems and management processes appropriate mathematical model descriptions are necessary. Hybrid modelling is a special technique for more complex model descriptions in order to reduce the degree of complexity. In different fields of interest, the behavior of a model is dependent on the active state. When the model description is changing from one state to another, a so-called state event takes place. State event modelling is the overall term to …

E-Learning Systems In Higher Education Institutions: An Outlook Of Their Use In The Western Balkan Region, Blerta Abazi Chaushi, Agron Chaushi, Florije Ismaili

International Journal of Business and Technology

This study provides a review of the literature on e-learning systems evolution and environments. The argument is that e-learning systems should be embedded in the core strategy of the institution. To support this premise, studies for e-learning are analyzed and six recommendations are drawn for universities to follow in order to have successful e-learning environments. The main contribution of this study, however, is the identification of the trends and statistics regarding the e-learning usage in the Balkan region. These stats are identified through a survey conducted in 40 universities in 10 countries from this region. The results show that more …

Definition, Validation And Comparison Of Two Population Models For Austria, Martin Bicher, Barbara Glock, Florian Miksch, Niki Popper, Günter Schneckenreither

International Journal of Business and Technology

In this work we present two structurally different mathematical models for the prognostic simulation of Austria’s population: A time-continuous, macroscopic system dynamics approach and a time-discrete, microscopic agent-based approach. Both models were developed as case studies of a series of population concepts in order to support models for decision-support in Austria’s health care system. In the present work we want to focus on the definition, the parametrisation as well as especially the validation process of both population-models. The latter was of special interest as it included a cross-model validation with Statistics Austria’s own prognostic model SIKURS.

Case Studies For A Markov Chain Approach To Analyze Agent-Based Models, Florian Kitzler, Martin Bicher

International Journal of Business and Technology

Agent-Based Models have become a widely used tool in social sciences, health care management and other disciplines to describe complex systems from a bottom-up perspective. Some reasons for that are the easy understanding of Agent-Based Models, the high flexibility and the possibility to describe heterogeneous structures. Nevertheless problems occur when it comes to analyzing Agent-Based Models. This paper shows how to describe Agent-Based Models in a macroscopic way as Markov Chains, using the random map representation. The focus is on the implementation of this method for chosen examples of a Random Walk and Opinion Dynamic Models. It is also shown …

Microsimulation Models For Simulating Pathways Of Patients With Mental Diseases, Andreas Bauer, Felix Breitenecker, Christoph Urach

International Journal of Business and Technology

Predicting demand for care is necessary to provide sufficient capacities in hospitals and enable better planning to cope with challenges like changes in the structure of the population. Emphasis in this work is put on the analysis of the data and on the parametrization of a simulation model for the paths of patients with mental diseases through the health care system. Survival analysis and model selection methods are used for this purpose. Data on patients and their treatments is analyzed with methods of survival analysis. Different methods for modelling the survival and hazard function are presented and compared. Hereby, the …

Implementation Of The Aodv Routing In An Energy-Constrained Mesh Network, Altin Zejnullahu, Zhilbert Tafa

International Journal of Business and Technology

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) compose the fundamental platform for a number of Internet of Things (IoT) applications, especially those related to the environmental, health, and military surveillance. While being autonomous in power supply, the main challenge in node’s processing and communication architecture design remains the energy efficiency. However, this goal should not limit the main functionality of the system which is often related to the network coverage and connectivity.

This paper shows the implementation of the Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing algorithm in an XBee based platform. As shown, the network can achieve low power consumption per node primarily …

Security Concerns Of New Alternative Telecommunication Services, Arbnora Hyseni, Krenare Pireva, Miranda Kajtazi

International Journal of Business and Technology

With the advancing new era of communication, the so-called era of ‘being always online’ many providers offer their services for free. In that sense a small company or a virtual company becomes a huge competitor for different traditional telecommunication providers. Using the same services such as: voice calls, video calls, chat and similar services, the internet technology has made huge changes how users make use of such services . Instead of using these services, users shall install applications that are specialized for offering these services via applications, such as: Viber, WhatsApp, Facebook, Google Talk etc.. During the installation and update …

Labeled-Image Captcha: Concept Of A Secured And Universally Useful Captcha, Mokter Hossain, Ken Nguyen, Muhammad Asadur Rahman

International Journal of Business and Technology

Captcha (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) is a widely used online security tool that ensures that a computer program is not posing as a human user. While smart programs with advanced image processing capability have already cracked picture based captcha systems there is a need for making the test harder. This paper presents a design prototype of a simplified type of labeled-image captcha where a picture of a common animal or household item is marked with a number of different labels and the users will be asked to provide the correct label for specific …

A Policeless Traffic Ticketing System With Autonomous Vehicles, Mükremin Özkul, Ilir Çapuni

International Journal of Business and Technology

Besides being expensive, traffic violation monitoring systems rely heavily on a huge infrastructure that incurs installation, operational, and maintenance costs.

Developing countries — where people do exhibit less traffic safety aware- ness — deployment of such systems becomes a daunting task. A police- men cannot be everywhere, and a policeman can also be bribed.

With the above goals in mind, in this paper we present an infrastructure- less and police-less traffic violation detection system that relies solely on the broadcast messages between the vehicles and secure communication of the vehicles with the transportation authority. Each vehicle should be equipped with …

Analyzing And Modeling Users In Multiple Online Social Platforms, Roy Lee Ka Wei

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation addresses the empirical analysis on user-generated data from multiple online social platforms (OSPs) and modeling of latent user factors in multiple OSPs setting.

In the first part of this dissertation, we conducted cross-platform empirical studies to better understand user's social and work activities in multiple OSPs. In particular, we proposed new methodologies to analyze users' friendship maintenance and collaborative activities in multiple OSPs. We also apply the proposed methodologies on real-world OSP datasets, and the findings from our empirical studies have provided us with a better understanding on users' social and work activities which are previously not uncovered …

Multithreading Technique Improvement In Processing Client Server Communication By Utilizing Object Oriented Language, Eda Tabaku, Kliv Shapllo, Senada Bushati

UBT International Conference

A comparison of an application’s performance, when a program is executed through multiple threads and only a thread to complete a specified task by using Java techniques. In this paper will be expounded how a Java programmer can profit by technology facilities. How to create a program that executes in a parallel way, that solves independent tasks not one after the other, but all at the same time. The application that is developed(the environment used is Eclipse) aims to speed up the time needed to download images from a specific website, but it is flexible for downloading images also from …

Performance Analysis Of Java Persistence Api Providers, Besart Pllana

UBT International Conference

Nowadays, fast and accurate access to data is very important. Usually data is managed and processed through software applications. In recent years, the most preferred programming model by most application developers is Object Oriented Programming (OOP) where data is represented through objects. These data must be persistent and therefore needs to be stored, and storage can be done on a variety of databases. The most common databases are Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS). While persistence of objects in RDBMS is limited by object-relational mismatch which is the inconsistency of the direct interaction between two components based on different approaches, OOP …

The Moving Object Reflected Under Matlab Test-Bench (Simulation Model Through Buit-In Functions), Virtyt Lesha, Jozef Bushati, Dea Strica

UBT International Conference

Digital image processing is an area that finds many applications in three-dimensional graphics. One of the subjects considered in image processing is detection of moving objects. In this paper, we have analyzed the performance of an algorithm that detects a moving object. The performance relates to the speed of moving object during a pre-determined time interval. The methodology supports Matlab integrated with built-in functions. Specifically, as input of the simulation model is a video material containing moving objects. The model reads a video file presenting moving objects; after the model is executed in Matlab, the output emits moving objects associated …

Nb-Iot: A Network Slice For Massive Iot, Xhafer Krasniqi

UBT International Conference

Network virtualisation is a concept that has been around for some time now, but the concept of network slicing is more recent and only started to be mentioned in the context of 5G. In essence, network slicing is a specific form of network virtualisation that enables sharing of physical resources by multiple logical network slices used to serve different applications and use cases. One such a use case would be to allocate network resources to small things, e.g. sensors and very low power consumption objects. To allow these small objects access to network resources or to a slice of such …

Review Of Cloud Migration Strategies And Providers – An Iaas Migration Strategy, Florinda Imeri, Agon Memeti

UBT International Conference

Companies are addressing the Cloud Computing issue more actively recently, as a part of a move towards a more agile and flexible IT infrastructure since benefitting from an IT infrastructure that is flexible, scalable, high-performance and up-to-date is no longer a luxury or the exception to a rule. The issue they address is “Which is the best strategy?” Of course, this is not a simple issue given that the cloud can impact an organization’s application picture across several dimensions. When an organizations made the decision to consider cloud services for its application or infrastructure deployment, it’s important to understand the …

Simulation Based Optimisation Of Ground Crews: Case Of A Regional Airport, Blaz Rodic, Alenka Baggia

UBT International Conference

Paper presents the simulation models built within an airport ground crew scheduling automatization project at a regional airport. Our goal was to develop robust ground crew task scheduling and shift generation algorithms that would improve on existing heuristic rules. We have utilized simulation modeling to develop and validate the algorithms, starting with a model of the existing scheduling process coded and visualized in spreadsheet software and ending with a hybrid Discrete Event and Agent Based model used for the visualization and verification of the optimized processes. Explicit and tacit expert knowledge was recorded through meetings with airport personnel managers and …

An Implementation Of Weighted Least Squares Method In Central Bank Twitter Accounts Grew Prediction, Goran Bjelobaba, Ana Savic, Radosav Veselinovic, Hana Stefanovic

UBT International Conference

This paper presents some advantages of using social media and social networks as an efficient way of Central Banks communication with target audience. The statistics given in this paper presents some leading banks based on number of followers on Twitter in 2018, showing that Indonesia’s Central Bank has more Twitter followers than any other monetary authority, beating out the Banco de Mexico, Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Reserve Bank of India. In this paper some prediction of number of Twitter followers in Central Bank communication is also contributed, based on Weighted Least Squares method. An algorithm is implemented in …

Efficiency Of Calculating Gcd Through Computer With Help Of Modified Euclidean Algorithm, Emin Emini, Azir Jusufi, Ruhada Emini

UBT International Conference

Euclid’s algorithm remains to be the most efficient method for finding greatest common divisor of two full numbers. By using the meaning of congruences this research paper will make a modification in the note of the Euclid’s algorithm. Here are discussed both classic and modified methods, by putting appropriate codes and observe the duration of the calculation through the computer.

Combining Cryptographic Primitives According To Security Metrics And Vulnerabilities In Real Systems, Blerina Çeliku, Rafail Prodani, Emis Simo

UBT International Conference

There are so many applications and data that flow during our daily activities, either personal or institutional ones. Also the companies and business do transactions or their real operations through the Web and other Internet facilities. Security breaches are costing individuals or companies millions so information security has to be a major priority. There are several forms of security technology available, but encryption is one that everyday computer users should know about. Encryption and the performance of cryptographic algorithms are variable according to implemented platforms, software and hardware components or application scenarios. According to specific security metrics and requirements we …

Technology Mediated Nudging In A Mobile Health Context, My Zetterholm, Päivi Jokela, Lina Nilsson

UBT International Conference

According to a vision for eHealth that was launched in 2016 by the Swedish Government, Sweden will be leading the way in using the potential of digitalization and eHealth to help people achieve a good and equal health. To achieve this vision, we argue that initiatives in eHealth need to augment the traditional health perspective. This implies a more preventive approach that transforms the health concept to a continuous participative process over the life course. A stronger emphasis is needed to develop high quality mobile and web based systems in order to empower people to pursue a healthy lifestyle. A …