Computer Sciences Commons^™

Sistemi Menaxhues I Trafikut Urban Në Kohë Reale Në Komunën E Prishtinës, Armir Kuçi

Theses and Dissertations

Duke marrë parasysh vonesat e shpeshta të autobusëve të transportit publik në qytetin e Prishtinës, të cilat paraqesin një shqetësim të madh për qytetarët, është konceptuar, dizajnuar, realizuar dhe demostruar një sistem informues për qytetarët dhe menaxhues për Qendrën Menaxhuese të Transportit Publik mbi gjendjen reale të autobusëve në teren. Ky punim shkencor, paraqet një zgjidhje të Internet of Things (IoT) për përmirësimin e transportit publik. Qëllimi i këtij sistemi është informimi i qytetarëve në kohë reale për arritjen e autobusëve në stacionet përkatëse si dhe të bëjë transportin publik më lehtë të menaxhueshëm në qytetin e Prishtinës. Përfituesit direkt …

The Use Of Recommender Systems In Web Applications – The Troi Case, Donjeta Mulaj

Theses and Dissertations

Avoiding digital marketing, surveys, reviews and online users behavior approaches on digital age are the key elements for a powerful businesses to fail, there are some systems that should preceded some artificial intelligence techniques. In this direction, the use of data mining for recommending relevant items as a new state of the art technique is increasing user satisfaction as well as the business revenues. And other related information gathering approaches in order to our systems thing and acts like humans. To do so there is a Recommender System that will be elaborated in this thesis. How people interact, how to …

Performanca E Makinave Kerkuese Duke Perdorur Cloud Shërbimet “Elasticsearch” Dhe “Algolia”, Besnik Korça

Theses and Dissertations

Ueb Aplikacionet me data-set të mëdha në kohën e tanishme janë shumë më të përhapura. Kërkimet e të dhënave në data-set të tilla për shkak të performances bëhen duke përdorur makinat kërkuese. Provider të ndryshëm ofrojnë makina kërkuese si Software as a Service(SaaS) shërbime të cilat kanë për avantazh konfigurimin minimal që duhet bërë makinave kërkuese për t’i vënë në funksion. Nëpërmjet këtij punimi synohet që së pari të analizohen shërbimet cloud computing që ofrohen nga provider të ndryshem. Pastaj pasi që fokusi i makinave kërkuese ndodhet në “information retrieval” është bë analizimi i disa teknikave të “information retrieval”. Makinat …

Towards 'Verifying' A Water Treatment System, Jingyi Wang, Jun Sun, Yifan Jia, Shengchao Qin, Zhiwu Xu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Modeling and verifying real-world cyber-physical systems is challenging, which is especially so for complex systems where manually modeling is infeasible. In this work, we report our experience on combining model learning and abstraction refinement to analyze a challenging system, i.e., a real-world Secure Water Treatment system (SWaT). Given a set of safety requirements, the objective is to either show that the system is safe with a high probability (so that a system shutdown is rarely triggered due to safety violation) or not. As the system is too complicated to be manually modeled, we apply latest automatic model learning techniques to …

The R Journal (July 2018) 10(1): Complete Issue, The R Foundation

The R Journal

Editorial, John Verzani

Contributed Research Articles

A System for an Accountable Data Analysis Process in R, Jonathan Gelfond, Martin Goros, Brian Hernandez and Alex Bokov

RealVAMS: An R Package for Fitting a Multivariate Value-added Model (VAM), Jennifer Broatch, Jennifer Green, and Andrew Karl

InfoTrad: An R Package for Estimating the Probability of Informed Trading, Duygu Çelik and Murat Tiniç

RatingScaleReduction Package: Stepwise Rating Scale Item Reduction without Predictability Loss, Waldemar W. Koczkodaj, Feng Li, and Alicja Wolny-Dominiak

mmpf: Monte-Carlo Methods for Prediction Functions, Zachary M. Jones

Generalized Additive Model Multiple Imputation by Chained Equations with Package ImputeRobust, Daniel Salfran and …

A Recommender System For Improving Program Security Through Source Code Mining And Knowledge Extraction, Fitzroy Nembhard

Theses and Dissertations

The security of computer programs and systems is a very critical issue. Threats against computer networks and software are on the rise. Therefore, businesses and IT professionals should take steps to ensure that their information systems are as secure as possible. However, many programmers and software engineers do not think about adding security to their programs until their projects are near completion, which results in vulnerable and insecure systems that could be exploited by attackers. This dissertation presents a recommender system to help programmers write more secure code. We created a model that mines and categories source code from existing …

Application Memory Isolation On Ultra-Low-Power Mcus, Taylor Hardin, Ryan Scott, Patrick Proctor, Josiah Hester, Jacob Sorber, David Kotz

Dartmouth Scholarship

The proliferation of applications that handle sensitive user data on wearable platforms generates a critical need for embedded systems that offer strong security without sacrificing flexibility and long battery life. To secure sensitive information, such as health data, ultra-low-power wearables must isolate applications from each other and protect the underlying system from errant or malicious application code. These platforms typically use microcontrollers that lack sophisticated Memory Management Units (MMU). Some include a Memory Protection Unit (MPU), but current MPUs are inadequate to the task, leading platform developers to software-based memory-protection solutions. In this paper, we present our memory isolation technique, …

Ethics For Administrative And Technical Managers, Sheryne Southard, Christie Burton, Bryan Labrecque, Xueyu Cheng, Elnora Farmer

Computer Science and Information Technology Grants Collections

This Grants Collection for Ethics for Administrative and Technical Managers was created under a Round Ten ALG Textbook Transformation Grant.

Affordable Learning Georgia Grants Collections are intended to provide faculty with the frameworks to quickly implement or revise the same materials as a Textbook Transformation Grants team, along with the aims and lessons learned from project teams during the implementation process.

Documents are in .pdf format, with a separate .docx (Word) version available for download. Each collection contains the following materials:

• Linked Syllabus
• Initial Proposal
• Final Report

Applied Economics (Clayton), Sheryne Southard, Christie Burton, Bryan Labrecque, Xueyu Cheng, Elnora Farmer

Computer Science and Information Technology Grants Collections

This Grants Collection for Applied Economics was created under a Round Ten ALG Textbook Transformation Grant.

Affordable Learning Georgia Grants Collections are intended to provide faculty with the frameworks to quickly implement or revise the same materials as a Textbook Transformation Grants team, along with the aims and lessons learned from project teams during the implementation process.

Documents are in .pdf format, with a separate .docx (Word) version available for download. Each collection contains the following materials:

• Linked Syllabus
• Initial Proposal
• Final Report

Supervision In The Workplace (Clayton), Sheryne Southard, Christie Burton, Bryan Labrecque, Xueyu Cheng, Elnora Farmer

Computer Science and Information Technology Grants Collections

This Grants Collection for Supervision in the Workplace was created under a Round Ten ALG Textbook Transformation Grant.

Affordable Learning Georgia Grants Collections are intended to provide faculty with the frameworks to quickly implement or revise the same materials as a Textbook Transformation Grants team, along with the aims and lessons learned from project teams during the implementation process.

Documents are in .pdf format, with a separate .docx (Word) version available for download. Each collection contains the following materials:

• Linked Syllabus
• Initial Proposal
• Final Report

Introduction To Reconstructability Analysis, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

This talk will introduce Reconstructability Analysis (RA), a data modeling methodology deriving from the 1960s work of Ross Ashby and developed in the systems community in the 1980s and afterwards. RA, based on information theory and graph theory, is a member of the family of methods known as ‘graphical models,’ which also include Bayesian networks and log-linear techniques. It is designed for exploratory modeling, although it can also be used for confirmatory hypothesis testing. RA can discover high ordinality and nonlinear interactions that are not hypothesized in advance. Its conceptual framework illuminates the relationships between wholes and parts, a subject …

Global Technology (Clayton), Sheryne Southard, Christie Burton, Bryan Labrecque, Xueyu Cheng, Elnora Farmer

Computer Science and Information Technology Grants Collections

This Grants Collection for Global Technology was created under a Round Ten ALG Textbook Transformation Grant.

Affordable Learning Georgia Grants Collections are intended to provide faculty with the frameworks to quickly implement or revise the same materials as a Textbook Transformation Grants team, along with the aims and lessons learned from project teams during the implementation process.

Documents are in .pdf format, with a separate .docx (Word) version available for download. Each collection contains the following materials:

• Linked Syllabus
• Initial Proposal
• Final Report

Web Technologies (Ggc), Shuting Xu, Shuhua Lai

Computer Science and Information Technology Grants Collections

This Grants Collection for Web Technologies was created under a Round Nine ALG Textbook Transformation Grant.

Affordable Learning Georgia Grants Collections are intended to provide faculty with the frameworks to quickly implement or revise the same materials as a Textbook Transformation Grants team, along with the aims and lessons learned from project teams during the implementation process.

Documents are in .pdf format, with a separate .docx (Word) version available for download. Each collection contains the following materials:

• Linked Syllabus
• Initial Proposal
• Final Report

Exposing The Science In Citizen Science: Fitness To Purpose And Intentional Design, Julia K. Parrish, Hillary Burgess, Jale F. Weltzin, Lucy Fortson, Andrea Wiggins, Brooke Simmons

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications

Citizen science is a growing phenomenon. With millions of people involved and billions of in-kind dollars contributed annually, this broad extent, fine grain approach to data collection should be garnering enthusiastic support in the mainstream science and higher education communities. However, many academic researchers demonstrate distinct biases against the use of citizen science as a source of rigorous information. To engage the public in scientific research, and the research community in the practice of citizen science, a mutual understanding is needed of accepted quality standards in science, and the corresponding specifics of project design and implementation when working with a …

A Study Of Cloud Haskell With Applications To Mapreduce, Shreyas Ramnath

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we developed a MapReduce application for performing word count in files. We compared the performance of the implementations done using Control.Parallel - built-in Haskell library for parallel/concurrent computations, Cloud Haskell - a distributed framework/DSL for Haskell and the Java Streams API (immutable datatypes). During profiling of our implementations, we found that for a lower number of words in input files the difference in speed of the Control.Parallel and Cloud Haskell implementations were negligible. So to get a better idea we profiled the implementations 12 times for each word size (excluded the highest and lowest values) in the …

Preliminary Results Of Bayesian Networks And Reconstructability Analysis Applied To The Electric Grid, Marcus Harris, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reconstructability Analysis (RA) is an analytical approach developed in the systems community that combines graph theory and information theory. Graph theory provides the structure of relations (model of the data) between variables and information theory characterizes the strength and the nature of the relations. RA has three primary approaches to model data: variable based (VB) models without loops (acyclic graphs), VB models with loops (cyclic graphs) and state-based models (nearly always cyclic, individual states specifying model constraints). These models can either be directed or neutral. Directed models focus on a single response variable whereas neutral models focus on all relations …

Beyond Spatial Autocorrelation: A Novel Approach Using Reconstructability Analysis, David Percy, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Raster data are digital representations of spatial phenomena that are organized into rows and columns that typically have the same dimensions in each direction. They are used to represent image data at any scale. Common raster data are medical images, satellite data, and photos generated by modern smartphones.
Satellites capture reflectance data in specific bands of wavelength that correspond to red, green, blue, and often some infrared and thermal bands. These composite vectors can then be classified into actual land use categories such as forest or water using automated techniques. These classifications are verified on the ground using hand-held sensors. …

Autonomous Agents In Snake Game Via Deep Reinforcement Learning, Zhepei Wei, Di Wang, Ming Zhang, Ah-Hwee Tan, Chunyan Miao, You Zhou

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Since DeepMind pioneered a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) model to play the Atari games, DRL has become a commonly adopted method to enable the agents to learn complex control policies in various video games. However, similar approaches may still need to be improved when applied to more challenging scenarios, where reward signals are sparse and delayed. In this paper, we develop a refined DRL model to enable our autonomous agent to play the classical Snake Game, whose constraint gets stricter as the game progresses. Specifically, we employ a convolutional neural network (CNN) trained with a variant of Q-learning. Moreover, we …

Web Technologies (Ggc), Shuting Xu, Shuhua Lai

Computer Science and Information Technology Ancillary Materials

This complete set of course materials contains all files used for in-class activities and labs, a full set of lecture slides, project assignments, and a test bank. Topics covered include:

• HTML Basics
• CSS
• Images
• Page Layout
• Tables
• Forms
• Multimedia
• JavaScript

This course materials set was created under a Round Nine Textbook Transformation Grant.

Mining Temporal Activity Patterns On Social Media, Nikan Chavoshi

Computer Science ETDs

Social media provide communication networks for their users to easily create and share content. Automated accounts, called bots, abuse these platforms by engaging in suspicious and/or illegal activities. Bots push spam content and participate in sponsored activities to expand their audience. The prevalence of bot accounts in social media can harm the usability of these platforms, and decrease the level of trustworthiness in them. The main goal of this dissertation is to show that temporal analysis facilitates detecting bots in social media. I introduce new bot detection techniques which exploit temporal information. Since automated accounts are controlled by computer programs, …

Reality Versus Grant Application Research “Plans”, Linda Burhansstipanov, Linda U. Krebs, Daniel Petereit, Mark Dignan, Sheikh Iqbal Ahamed, Michele Sargent, Krisin Cina, Kimberly Crawford, Doris Thibeault, Simone Bordeaux, Shalini Kanekar, Golam Mushih Tanimul Ahsan, Drew Williams, Ivor D. Addo

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

This article describes the implementation of the American Indian mHealth Smoking Dependence Study focusing on the differences between what was written in the grant application compared to what happened in reality. The study was designed to evaluate a multicomponent intervention involving 256 participants randomly assigned to one of 15 groups. Participants received either a minimal or an intense level of four intervention components: (1) nicotine replacement therapy, (2) precessation counseling, (3) cessation counseling, and (4) mHealth text messaging. The project team met via biweekly webinars as well as one to two in-person meetings per year throughout the study. The project …

A Note On Sum, Difference, Product And Ratio Of Kumaraswamy Random Variables, Avishek Mallick, Indranil Ghosh, Gholamhossein G. Hamedani

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Explicit expressions for the densities of S = X₁ + X₂ , D = X₁ − X₂ , P = X₁X₂ and R= X₁/X₂ are derived when X₁ and X₂ are independent or sub-independent Kumaraswamy random variables. The expressions appear to involve the incomplete gamma functions. Some possible real life scenarios are mentioned in which such quantities might be of interest.

Towards Predicting Risky Behavior Among Veterans With Ptsd By Analyzing Gesture Patterns, Tanvir Roushan

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Risky behavior including violence and aggression, self-injury, anger outburst, domestic violence along with self-injury, sexual abuse, rule breaking, use of drugs and alcohol, suicide etc. are alarming issues among US military veterans who return from combat zone deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan. Veterans are exposed to trauma in war zones which affect most of them with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other metal health problems to some degree. Studies have shown that veterans have much higher rates of PTSD than civilians and are more likely to engage in risky behavior. One of the form of displaying and engaging in risky …

An Algorithm For Symbolic Computing Of Singular Limits Of Dynamical Systems, Dane Jordan Bjork

Theses and Dissertations

The manifold boundary approximation method, MBAM is a new technique used in approximating systems of equations using parameter reduction. This method and other approximation methods are introduced and described. Several current issues in performing MBAM are discussed in further detail. These issues significantly slow down the process of MBAM and create a barrier of entry for those wishing to use the method without a strong background in mathematics. A solution is proposed to automatically reparameterize models and evaluate specific types of variables approaching limits -- significantly speeding up the process of MBAM. An implementation of the solution is discussed.

New Methods To Improve Protein Structure Modeling, Maha Abdelrasoul

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Proteins are considered the central compound necessary for life, as they play a crucial role in governing several life processes by performing the most essential biological and chemical functions in every living cell. Understanding protein structures and functions will lead to a significant advance in life science and biology. Such knowledge is vital for various fields such as drug development and synthetic biofuels production.

Most proteins have definite shapes that they fold into, which are the most stable state they can adopt. Due to the fact that the protein structure information provides important insight into its functions, many research efforts …

Inference And Analysis Of Multilayered Mirna-Mediated Networks In Cancer, Duc Do

Dissertations (1934 -)

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding transcripts that can regulate gene expression, thereby controlling diverse biological processes. Aberrant disruptions of miRNA expression and their interactions with other biological agents (e.g., coding and noncoding transcripts) have been associated with several types of cancer. The goal of this dissertation is to use multidimensional genomic data to model two different gene regulation mechanisms by miRNAs in cancer. This dissertation results from two research projects. The first project investigates a miRNA-mediated gene regulation mechanism called competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) interactions, which suggests that some transcripts can indirectly regulate one another's activity through their interactions with …

Time Advancement And Bounds Intersection Checking For Faster Broad-Phase Collision Detection Of Paired Object Trajectories, Proceso L. Fernandez Jr, Mary Aveline Germar

Department of Information Systems & Computer Science Faculty Publications

For self-driving mechanisms, the motion planning requires a reasonably fast algorithm for collision detection along the trajectories. We present three algorithms for the detection of collision among objects with predefined trajectories. The first algorithm uses the intersection of the path’s bounding box. The second algorithm sequentially checks for intersection between each pair of corresponding axis-aligned bounding boxes (AABB) from the trajectories of the two paths. Lastly, the latter algorithm is modified using iterative time advancement to an estimated earliest possible collision time. Simulation experiments on a variety of pair trajectories demonstrate a significant speedup of the proposed algorithms over the …

Enhancing And Reinforcing Security And Usability Of User Account Authentication Using Fingerprints As Username Credential, Mohammad Hassan Algarni

Theses and Dissertations

With the process of logging in, the users gain access to a computer system after identifying and authenticating themselves. The user credentials are required to login, and they are typically some form of a username and a matching password. The username for logging in an account is textual. This text can be either email address or some alphanumeric or numeric or characters chosen by the user. However, if the email account of a user is compromised, the attacker can click on Forgot Password link available on the user interface of the target account. If the compromised email account has the …

Lattice-Based Dual Receiver Encryption And More, Daode Zhang, Kai Zhang, Bao Li, Xianhui Lu, Haiyang Xue, Jie Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Dual receiver encryption (DRE), proposed by Diament et al. at ACM CCS 2004, is a special extension notion of public-key encryption, which enables two independent receivers to decrypt a ciphertext into a same plaintext. This primitive is quite useful in designing combined public key cryptosystems and denial of service attack-resilient protocols. Up till now, a series of DRE schemes are constructed with bilinear pairing groups. In this work, we introduce the first construction of lattice-based DRE. Our scheme is secure against chosen-ciphertext attacks from the standard Learning with Errors (LWE) assumption with a public key of bit-size about 2nmlog⁡q, where …

Context Recovery In Location-Based Social Networks, Wen Haw Chong

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation addresses context recovery in Location-Based Social Networks (LBSN), which are platforms where users post content from various locations. With this general LBSN definition, many existing social media platforms that support user-generated location relevant content using mobile devices could also qualify as LBSNs. Context recovery for such user posts refers to recovering the venue and the semantic contexts of these user posts. Such information is useful for user profiling and to support various applications such as venue recommendation and location- based advertising.