Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Rationality, Parapsychology, And Artificial Intelligence In Military And Intelligence Research By The United States Government In The Cold War, Guy M. Lomeo

Theses and Dissertations

A study analyzing the roles of rationality, parapsychology, and artificial intelligence in military and intelligence research by the United States Government in the Cold War. An examination of the methodology behind the decisions to pursue research in two fields that were initially considered irrational.

The Utility Of Mobile Phones For Health Among Women Living With Hiv In Urban Malawi, Linda Marie Dietrich

Theses and Dissertations

The use of mobile phones are becoming ubiquitous with growing interest by healthcare providers to utilize mobile phone technology for various health-related applications, called mHealth. This is especially true in low-income countries such as those in sub-Saharan Africa. When implementing mHealth applications, it is important to understand the dynamic social, cultural and environmental factors where mHealth will be implemented to ensure that interventions developed are effective. A qualitative study to explore the sociotechnical factors experienced by women participating in an HIV support group in urban Malawi was conducted to enhance our understanding of women’s experience with mobile phone use and …

Feature-Sensitive And Adaptive Image Triangulation: A Super-Pixel-Based Scheme For Image Segmentation And Mesh Generation, Ming Xu

Theses and Dissertations

With increasing utilization of various imaging techniques (such as CT, MRI and PET) in medical fields, it is often in great need to computationally extract the boundaries of objects of interest, a process commonly known as image segmentation. While numerous approaches have been proposed in literature on automatic/semi-automatic image segmentation, most of these approaches are based on image pixels. The number of pixels in an image can be huge, especially for 3D imaging volumes, which renders the pixel-based image segmentation process inevitably slow. On the other hand, 3D mesh generation from imaging data has become important not only for visualization …

Design And Basic Verification Of A Discrete Event Simulator For Glucose Metabolism In Human Beings, Elizabeth Andrews

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes the design and basic verification of a discrete event simulator for glucose metabolism in human beings. The simulator implements the glucose metabolism related behavior of various organs in the human body and tracks the blood plasma glucose level as the human body goes through a sequence of diet and exercise events. The simulator can mimic insulin resistance in various organs as well as the loss of insulin production in the pancreas and the adverse impact of these changes on the metabolic behavior of various organs. Thus, the simulator can serve as a model for people with diabetes. …

Analizimi Dhe Zhvillimi I Modulit Të Orarit Në Wordpress, Gëzim Rexhepi

Theses and Dissertations

Përdorimi i një orari do të ishte një lehtësim i madh në menaxhimin e ngjarjeve të cilat ndodhin në një festival, si rezultat i kërkesave dhe nevojave për një orar i cili do të ishte lehtë i menaxhueshëm nga festivalet e ndryshme vendosa të zhvilloj ketë orar. Ky orar është dizajnuar dhe implementuar për festivalin “Dokufest”. Mirëpo ky orar mund të përdoret edhe nga festivale të tjera. Ky orar do ju ndihmoj festivaleve të ndryshme që të kenë më të lehtë shtimin e ngjarjeve të ndryshme e pastaj ato ngjarje ti shfaqin në këtë orar i cili është mjaft i …

Siguria Në Php, Shpat Ajvazi

Theses and Dissertations

Që të rezultojë me sukses një softuer duhet të përmbush shumë kritere, disa nga këto kriteret janë: efikasiteti, siguria dhe fleksibiliteti. Pavarësisht rëndësisë së softuerit çdo softuer duhet te ketë sigurinë në nivel të lartë duke mos lejuar të dhënat të përfundojnë në duar të personave të pa autorizuar. Pothuajse çdo ditë krijohen mundësi të reja për të sulmuar softuer-ët që funksionojnë përmes internet kjo tregon se siguria duhet të analizohet dhe që zhvilluesit gjithmonë duhet të ndjekin teknologjinë e fundit. Në pjesën kryesore shqyrtohen problemet dhe sulmet që bëhen në PHP sa i përket aspektit të sigurisë. Siguria e …

Zbatimi I Mpls Vpn Dhe Siguria, Fëllënza Bunjaku

Theses and Dissertations

Viteve të fundit, temat e nivelit bachelor po ballafaqohen me një nga trendet më të mëdha në botën e rrjetave kompjuterike duke zgjuar poashtu edhe interesimin tim për të studiuar dhe punuar këtë temë aktuale por duke marr në shqyrtim zbatimin e Multiprotocol Label Switching-Virtual Private Network dhe Siguria të cilës në vazhdim të këtij punimi do t’i referohemi si (MPLS VPN).

Objektivi kryesor i këtij punimi është të kuptuarit e teknologjisë MPLS VPN përmes përkufizimit të kësaj teknologjie, si dhe paraqitjes së një skenario ku shqyrtohen protokolle të ndryshme të komunikimit. Shumica e ofruesve të shërbimeve (angl. ISP) që …

Web Aplikacionet Dinamike Me Java Ee, Jetë Leci

Theses and Dissertations

Qëllimi i kësaj teze të shkallës bachelor është bërë për analizimi dhe studimin e platformës më të mirë për zhvillimin e web aplikacioneve dinamike, ky studim nuk paraqet bazat e programimit në Java apo zhvillimin e pjesës së bazës së shënimeve ky studim ofron një pasqyrë të teknologjive dhe framework-ëve për implementimin e aplikacioneve me platformën Java Enterprise Edition. Ky kapitull perfshinë një përmbledhje të shkurtë të studimit dhe përvojës sime së bashku, duke shfaqur një pasqyrë të zhvillimit të aplikacioneve dinamike në web me anë të shpjegimit të secilës pjesë përbërëse të platformës shumë të njohur për realizimin e …

Algorithms For Learning The Structure Of Monotone And Nonmonotone Sum-Product Networks, Aaron W. Dennis

Theses and Dissertations

The sum-product network (SPN) is a recently-proposed generative, probabilistic model that is guaranteed to compute any joint or any marginal probability in time linear in the size of the model. An SPN is represented as a directed, acyclic graph (DAG) of sum and product nodes, with univariate probability distributions at the leaves. It is important to learn the structure of this DAG since the set of distributions representable by an SPN is constrained by it. We present the first batch structure learning algorithm for SPNs and show its advantage over learning the parameters of an SPN with fixed architecture. We …

A Self-Organized Approach For Detecting Communities In Networks, Ben Collingsworth

Theses and Dissertations

The community structure of networks reveals hidden information about the whole network structure that cannot be discerned using other topological properties. Yet, the importance of identifying community structure in networks to many fields such as medicine, social sciences and national security, calls for better approaches for performing this identification. The prevalent community detection algorithms, such as the one proposed by Girvan and Newman, utilize a centralized approach that is unlikely to scale to very large networks and does not handle dynamic networks. Further, existing algorithms provide limited information regarding community overlap, where an individual participates in multiple communities. We propose …

Proactive Approach For The Prevention Of Ddos Attacks In Cloud Computing Environments, Brad Alshehry

Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary security systems attempt to provide protection against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks; however, they mostly use a variety of computing and hardware resources for load distribution and request delays. As a result, ordinary users and website visitors experience timeouts, captchas, and lowspeed connections. In this paper, we propose a new multilayer system for protection against DDoS in the cloud that utilizes Threat Intelligence techniques and a proactive approach to detect traffic behavior anomalies. The first layer of the model analyzes the source IP address in the header of incoming traffic packets and the second layer analyzes the speed of requests …

Investigation Of Sparsifying Transforms In Compressed Sensing For Magnetic Resonance Imaging With Fasttestcs, Christopher Adams Baker

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this contribution is to achieve higher reduction factors for faster Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans with better Image Quality (IQ) by using Compressed Sensing (CS). This can be accomplished by adopting and understanding better sparsifying transforms for CS in MRI. There is a tremendous number of transforms and optional settings potentially available. Additionally, the amount of research in CS is growing, with possible duplication and difficult practical evaluation and comparison. However, no in-depth analysis of the effectiveness of different redundant sparsifying transforms on MRI images with CS has been undertaken until this work. New theoretical sparsity bounds …

Radial Basis Functions: Biomedical Applications And Parallelization, Ke Liu

Theses and Dissertations

Radial basis function (RBF) is a real-valued function whose values depend only on the distances between an interpolation point and a set of user-specified points called centers. RBF interpolation is one of the primary methods to reconstruct functions from multi-dimensional scattered data. Its abilities to generalize arbitrary space dimensions and to provide spectral accuracy have made it particularly popular in different application areas, including but not limited to: finding numerical solutions of partial differential equations (PDEs), image processing, computer vision and graphics, deep learning and neural networks, etc.

The present thesis discusses three applications of RBF interpolation in biomedical engineering …

Stage-Specific Predictive Models For Cancer Survivability, Elham Sagheb Hossein Pour

Theses and Dissertations

Survivability of cancer strongly depends on the stage of cancer. In most previous works, machine learning survivability prediction models for a particular cancer, were trained and evaluated together on all stages of the cancer. In this work, we trained and evaluated survivability prediction models for five major cancers, together on all stages and separately for every stage. We named these models joint and stage-specific models respectively. The obtained results for the cancers which we investigated reveal that, the best model to predict the survivability of the cancer for one specific stage is the model which is specifically built for that …

An Open Source Approach To Serve A Large Number Of Computer Users Using Block-Level Streaming, Max D. Torres

Theses and Dissertations

There are several options for providing a large number of computers to users for their daily tasks. A typical setup may consist of a large number of computers where each relies on an HDD consisting of the required software, sufficient RAM, a capable CPU that meets the software requirements, and a stable network connection. This thesis proposes the use of the open-source AoE protocol to stream an OS to a user computer from a central server. Since the streaming is done from a well-protected central storage, the AoE protocol is less prone to failures compared to the traditional approach based …

Using Machine Learning To Predict Student Achievement On The State Of Texas Assessment Of Academic Readiness Examination In Charter Schools, Christopher D. Gonzalez

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to research and develop a way to use machine learning algorithms (MLAs) to predict student achievement on the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR), specifically in the charter school setting. Charter schools have the disadvantage of a constant influx in students, so providing historical student data in order to analyze trends proves difficult. This study expands on previous research done on students in secondary and post-secondary school and determining features that indicate success in these settings. The data used is from the district of IDEA Public Schools who focuses on providing education …

Soteria: A Persuasive Esecurity Assistant, Punica Bhardwaj

Theses and Dissertations

“…security is only as good as the weakest link, and people are the weakest link in the chain.” – B Schneier, 2002 Humans are often referred to as the “weakest link” in the security chain because of the poor security decisions taken by them. There can be many reasons for these decisions, such as lack of understandability of the software, lack of education, and lack of relevant information required to do that particular action. In this Thesis, we focus on the lack of relevant information required at the time of performing the action. In order to provide the user with …

Studies With Dynamic Nuclear Imaging Image Reconstruction Algorithm, Haoran Chang

Theses and Dissertations

Non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) is a useful method for those non-negative multivariate data. In nuclear imaging, NMF, which is also called factor analysis, is used to analyze the 4D image of positron emission tomography and single positron emission computed tomography. Normally, we use factor analysis of dynamic structure (FADS) for the dynamic reconstruction [1]. However, this reconstruction algorithm is extremely dependent on the initial data, which means the result may be unstable when the initial data is not good enough. There are several ways for the initializing, such as splined initialized (SIFADS) [2] and clustering initialized (CIFA) [3][4]. In this …

Gbann-V: Genetically Based Artificial Neural Network With Validation For Optimal Feature Selection And Data Mining, Eric W. Worden

Theses and Dissertations

In data mining and machine learning systems, highly predictive feature attributes help researchers and data analysts classify the problem space in the most optimal way. In this thesis paper, a feature subset selection classifier system for data mining and machine learning will be presented. This feature subset selection system will test data from the PIMA Indian Diabetes Data and the Breiman Waveform Data Set. The system collects the input features and then processes them through an evolutionary search process in order to reduce the feature space into an optimal feature set. Reducing irrelevant attributes can decrease the complexity and processing …

Digital Quorum Sensing For Self-Organizing Malware, Mark E. Fioravanti Ii

Theses and Dissertations

INTRODUCTION: Malware authors present an interesting problem for the security community as they evolve and adapt to overcome network and host defenses. The determined adversary is a special class of malware author who may attempt to disrupt national interests. These adversaries may seek potentially novel Command and Control (C2) channels to coordinate their activities. Isolated and air-gapped networks pose an interesting challenge that these adversaries must adapt to in order to maintain persistence on these networks. In this work we propose that a determined adversary may seek to implement a digital quorum sensing system inspired by the quorum sensing systems …

Robotic Arm Tracing Curves Recognized By Camera, Timothy Karl Findling

Theses and Dissertations

Applications such like soldering require robot arms to follow the soldering line as present on a surface. We assume here that the surface to be soldered is remote from the robotic arm, that the soldering is performed via a laser beam, and that the line to be followed can be a curve that may self-intersect (e.g. a crack in the material). We describe research conducted using a robotic arm pointing a laser for tracing a remote line on a smooth surface. The image of the line is converted to a one pixel width skeleton line generated from images using a …

Cross-Spectral Biometric Performance Analysis On High-Resolution Face Images, Praveen Kumar Pandian Shanmuganathan

Theses and Dissertations

Biometrics is increasingly being used to authenticate the identity of individuals in critical use case devices like smart phones, laptops, and several other access-control systems in our day-to-day lives. Additionally, biometrics is also used in forensic and security sensitive areas to detect and identify suspects involved in bombings, robberies, and several police investigations. In each of these critical scenarios, the high-quality full-frontal face images of the subjects are not accurately captured as those subjects do not intend to register their identity to the Closed-Circuit Cameras. Hence in such cases, identification of the suspects becomes difficult even though we have the …

Towards Using Certificate-Based Authentication As A Defense Against Evil Twins In 802.11 Networks, Travis S. Hendershot

Theses and Dissertations

Wireless clients are vulnerable to exploitation by evil twins due to flaws in the authentication process of 802.11 Wi-Fi networks. Current certificate-based wireless authentication protocols present a potential solution, but are limited in their ability to provide a secure and usable platform for certificate validation. Our work seeks to mitigate these limitations by exploring a client-side strategy for utilizing alternative trust models in wireless network authentication. We compile a taxonomy of various trust models for conducting certificate-based authentication of wireless networks and methodically evaluate each model according to desirable properties of security, usability, and deployability. We then build a platform …

Test Driven Development With Ruby On Rails, Argjend Xhigoli

Theses and Dissertations

Industria softuerike është duke u bërë më kërkuese në kohën zhvilluese dhe resurse. Shpesh, prodhimi i softuerit ka të bëjë me kërkesa që vazhdimisht ndryshojnë dhe me cikle zhvillimi që maten me javë ose muaj. Për t’iu përgjigjur këtyre kërkesave dhe që ende të prodhohet softuer i kualitetit të lartë, ndër vite, praktikuesit e softuerit kanë zhvilluar një numbër strategjish. Një nga to është edhe Test Driven Development (TDD). Kjo është një praktikë për zhvillim e orientuar në objekte që për qëllim ka të ndihmoj në prodhimin e softuerit kualitativ për një kohë të shkurtë. TDD është popullarizuar nëpërmjet programimit …

Deformimet E Sinjaleve, Medina Haliti

Theses and Dissertations

Qëllimi kryesor i kësaj teme diplome është që të përqendrohemi në përgjithësi tek sinjalet dhe deformimet e tyre. Në fillim të punimit do të bëhet fjalë në mënyrë të përgjithshme për sinjalet. Pastaj do të flasim për transmetimin e të dhenave, llojet e sinjalit, për mediumet transmetuese, ndarjen e mediumeve, për deformimet e sinjalit se si rrjedhin këto deformime dhe se0 si mund të reduktohen këto deformime. Gjithashtu do të flasim edhe për përshkrimin në detaje të qdo mediumi të mbyllur. Një vëmendje të posaqme në këtë punim do ti kushtohet fijeve optike duke cekur përparsitë dhe magësite e tyre. …

Krahasimi I Zhvillimit Të Mobile Aplikacioneve Ne Ios Dhe Android, Vlera Hoxha

Theses and Dissertations

Bota në të cilën po jetojmë dhe përdorimi i madh i telefonit, bën që aplikacionet mobile të kenë një rëndësi shumë të madhe. Shkurtesa “app” është një shkurtesë për fjalën aplikacion, kurse me aplikacion nënkuptojmë një program softuerik e në këtë rast një aplikacion softuerik, po për sistemet operative siç janë:iphone, android ose windows. Mënyra se si mund të kemi qasje në atë aplikacion është duke e shkarkuar atë nga programet e caktuara varësisht nga platforma të cilën e përdorni, përshembull në rastin e IOS është AppStore. Se si arrihet deri në fazën kur aplikacionet janë të gatshme për …

Laravel Vs Symfony, Valon Feka

Theses and Dissertations

Në kohën tonë teknologjia po ecën me hapa shumë të shpejtë, sidomos në fushën e paisjeve elektronike si: kompjuterë, telefona të mençur, televizorë të mençur, etj. Numri i përdorueseve të internetit dhe këtyre pajisjeve është në rritje të vazhdueshme. Tashmë çdo biznes, institucion, organizatë kanë web aplikacionin e tyre ku ju ndihmojnë përdoruesve të tyre në marrjen e informacionit dhe ofrimin e shërbimeve online. Për të lehtësuar procesin e krijimit të web faqeve përdoren backend fraemwork dhe front-end framework. Shumica e web faqeve përbëhen nga struktura shumë të ngjashme. Qëllimi i Framework është të ofrojnë një strukturë të përbashkët që …

A Common Misconception In Multi-Label Learning, Michael Benjamin Brodie

Theses and Dissertations

The majority of current multi-label classification research focuses on learning dependency structures among output labels. This paper provides a novel theoretical view on the purported assumption that effective multi-label classification models must exploit output dependencies. We submit that the flurry of recent dependency-exploiting, multi-label algorithms may stem from the deficiencies in existing datasets, rather than an inherent need to better model dependencies. We introduce a novel categorization of multi-label metrics, namely, evenly and unevenly weighted label metrics. We explore specific features that predispose datasets to improved classification by methods that model label dependence. Additionally, we provide an empirical analysis of …

Women On The Board Of Directors And Their Impact On The Financial Performance Of A Firm: An Empirical Investigation Of Female Directors In The United States Technology Sector, Obinna Mogbogu

Theses and Dissertations

This study uses a sample of S&P 500 firms in the United States technology sector to investigate the likely relationship between female directors and financial performance of firms measured by return on average assets and return on average equity as the two accounting based measures of performance. Reasonable theoretical arguments drawn from resource dependency, human capital, agency, and social psychology theory, suggests that the gender diversity of the board of directors may have either a positive, negative, or neutral effect on the financial performance of the firm. Using nonparametric statistics approach, we find a small negative relationship between female directors …

Verification Of Task Parallel Programs Using Predictive Analysis, Radha Vi Nakade

Theses and Dissertations

Task parallel programming languages provide a way for creating asynchronous tasks that can run concurrently. The advantage of using task parallelism is that the programmer can write code that is independent of the underlying hardware. The runtime determines the number of processor cores that are available and the most efficient way to execute the tasks. When two or more concurrently executing tasks access a shared memory location and if at least one of the accesses is for writing, data race is observed in the program. Data races can introduce non-determinism in the program output making it important to have data …