Databases and Information Systems Commons^™

Recommendations With Minimum Exposure Guarantees: A Post-Processing Framework, Ramon Lopes, Rodrigo Alves, Antoine Ledent, Rodrygo L. T. Santos, Marius Kloft

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Relevance-based ranking is a popular ingredient in recommenders, but it frequently struggles to meet fairness criteria because social and cultural norms may favor some item groups over others. For instance, some items might receive lower ratings due to some sort of bias (e.g. gender bias). A fair ranking should balance the exposure of items from advantaged and disadvantaged groups. To this end, we propose a novel post-processing framework to produce fair, exposure-aware recommendations. Our approach is based on an integer linear programming model maximizing the expected utility while satisfying a minimum exposure constraint. The model has fewer variables than previous …

The Value Of Official Website Information In The Credit Risk Evaluation Of Smes, Cuiqing Jiang, Chang Yin, Qian Tang, Zhao Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The official websites of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) not only reflect the willingness of an enterprise to disclose information voluntarily, but also can provide information related to the enterprises’ historical operations and performance. This research investigates the value of official website information in the credit risk evaluation of SMEs. To study the effect of different kinds of website information on credit risk evaluation, we propose a framework to mine effective features from two kinds of information disclosed on the official website of a SME—design-based information and content-based information—in predicting its credit risk. We select the SMEs in the software …

Self-Supervised Pseudo Multi-Class Pre-Training For Unsupervised Anomaly Detection And Segmentation In Medical Images, Yu Tian, Fengbei Liu, Guansong Pang, Yuanhong Chen, Yuyuan Liu, Johan W. Verjans, Rajvinder Singh, Gustavo Carneiro

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Unsupervised anomaly detection (UAD) methods are trained with normal (or healthy) images only, but during testing, they are able to classify normal and abnormal (or disease) images. UAD is an important medical image analysis (MIA) method to be applied in disease screening problems because the training sets available for those problems usually contain only normal images. However, the exclusive reliance on normal images may result in the learning of ineffective low-dimensional image representations that are not sensitive enough to detect and segment unseen abnormal lesions of varying size, appearance, and shape. Pre-training UAD methods with self-supervised learning, based on computer …

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DePaul Magazine

A new JD certificate program in information technology, cybersecurity and data privacy provides DePaul University students with proficiency in both law and tech.

A Dynamic Online Dashboard For Tracking The Performance Of Division 1 Basketball Athletic Performance, Erica Juliano, Chelsea Thakkar, Christopher Taber, Mehul S. Raval, Kaya Tolga, Samah Senbel

School of Computer Science & Engineering Undergraduate Publications

Using Data Analytics is a vital part of sport performance enhancement. We collect data from the Division 1 'Women's basketball athletes and coaches at our university, for use in analysis and prediction. Several data sources are used daily and weekly: WHOOP straps, weekly surveys, polar straps, jump analysis, and training session information. In this paper, we present an online dashboard to visually present the data to the athletes and coaches. R shiny was used to develop the platform, with the data stored on the cloud for instant updates of the dashboard as the data becomes available. The performance of athletes …

Service-Oriented Framework For Developing Interoperable E-Health Systems In A Low-Income Country, Bonface Abima, Agnes Nakakawa, Geoffrey Mayoka Kituyi

The African Journal of Information Systems

e-Health solutions in low-income countries are fragmented, address institution-specific needs, and do little to address the strategic need for inter-institutional exchange of health data. Although various e-health interoperability frameworks exist, contextual factors often hinder their effective adoption in low-income countries. This underlines the need to investigate such factors and to use findings to adapt existing e-health interoperability models. Following a design science approach, this research involved conducting an exploratory survey among 90 medical and Information Technology personnel from 67 health facilities in Uganda. Findings were used to derive requirements for e-health interoperability, and to orchestrate elements of a service oriented …

Your Cursor Reveals: On Analyzing Workers’ Browsing Behavior And Annotation Quality In Crowdsourcing Tasks, Pei-Chi Lo, Ee-Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this work, we investigate the connection between browsing behavior and task quality of crowdsourcing workers performing annotation tasks that require information judgements. Such information judgements are often required to derive ground truth answers to information retrieval queries. We explore the use of workers’ browsing behavior to directly determine their annotation result quality. We hypothesize user attention to be the main factor contributing to a worker’s annotation quality. To predict annotation quality at the task level, we model two aspects of task-specific user attention, also known as general and semantic user attentions . Both aspects of user attention can be …

Integrating Human Expert Knowledge With Openai And Chatgpt: A Secure And Privacy-Enabled Knowledge Acquisition Approach, Ben Phillips

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Advanced Large Language Models (LLMs) struggle to produce accurate results and preserve user privacy for use cases involving domain-specific knowledge. A privacy-preserving approach for leveraging LLM capabilities on domain-specific knowledge could greatly expand the use cases of LLMs in a variety of disciplines and industries. This project explores a method for acquiring domain-specific knowledge for use with GPT3 while protecting sensitive user information with ML-based text-sanitization.

Sentiment Analysis Of Public Perception Towards Elon Musk On Reddit (2008-2022), Daniel Maya Bonilla, Samuel Iradukunda, Pamela Thomas

The Cardinal Edge

As Elon Musk’s influence in technology and business continues to expand, it becomes crucial to comprehend public sentiment surrounding him in order to gauge the impact of his actions and statements. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of comments from various subreddits discussing Elon Musk over a 14-year period, from 2008 to 2022. Utilizing advanced sentiment analysis models and natural language processing techniques, we examined patterns and shifts in public sentiment towards Musk, identifying correlations with key events in his life and career. Our findings reveal that public sentiment is shaped by a multitude of factors, including his …

Blended Learning In The Wake Of Ict Infrastructure Deficiencies: The Case Of A Zimbabwean University, Lucia Makwasha, Sam Jnr Takavarasha, Hazel Mubango

African Conference on Information Systems and Technology

In the wake of debates between actors in the Zimbabwean higher education sector about the effectiveness of e-learning models, it is important to investigate the effectiveness of using blended learning at a time when infrastructure challenges are disrupting ICT access. This paper aims to address this quest for a deeper understanding by investigating students' perceptions of blended learning at a selected Zimbabwean university. Twelve in-depth interviews were conducted with students from a Zimbabwean university that employs blended learning under an interpretivist paradigm. Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) was used for conceptualising students' cognitive development and Engestrom's (2003) Third-generation Activity …

On Predicting Esg Ratings Using Dynamic Company Networks, Gary Ang, Zhiling Guo, Ee-Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations play an increasingly important role due to the growing focus on sustainability globally. Entities, such as banks and investors, utilize ESG ratings of companies issued by specialized rating agencies to evaluate ESG risks of companies. The process of assigning ESG ratings by human analysts is however laborious and time intensive. Developing methods to predict ESG ratings could alleviate such challenges, allow ESG ratings to be generated in a more timely manner, cover more companies, and be more accessible. Most works study the effects of ESG ratings on target variables such as stock prices or …

Models And Algorithms For Promoting Diverse And Fair Query Results, Md Mouinul Islam

Dissertations

Ensuring fairness and diversity in search results are two key concerns in compelling search and recommendation applications. This work explicitly studies these two aspects given multiple users' preferences as inputs, in an effort to create a single ranking or top-k result set that satisfies different fairness and diversity criteria. From group fairness standpoint, it adapts demographic parity like group fairness criteria and proposes new models that are suitable for ranking or producing top-k set of results. This dissertation also studies equitable exposure of individual search results in long tail data, a concept related to individual fairness. First, the dissertation focuses …

Diversification And Fairness In Top-K Ranking Algorithms, Mahsa Asadi

Dissertations

Given a user query, the typical user interfaces, such as search engines and recommender systems, only allow a small number of results to be returned to the user. Hence, figuring out what would be the top-k results is an important task in information retrieval, as it helps to ensure that the most relevant results are presented to the user. There exists an extensive body of research that studies how to score the records and return top-k to the user. Moreover, there exists an extensive set of criteria that researchers identify to present the user with top-k results, and result diversification …

Human-Ai Complex Task Planning, Sepideh Nikookar

Dissertations

The process of complex task planning is ubiquitous and arises in a variety of compelling applications. A few leading examples include designing a personalized course plan or trip plan, designing music playlists/work sessions in web applications, or even planning routes of naval assets to collaboratively discover an unknown destination. For all of these aforementioned applications, creating a plan requires satisfying a basic construct, i.e., composing a sequence of sub-tasks (or items) that optimizes several criteria and satisfies constraints. For instance, in course planning, sub-tasks or items are core and elective courses, and degree requirements capture their complex dependencies as constraints. …

Data-Driven 2d Materials Discovery For Next-Generation Electronics, Zeyu Zhang

Dissertations

The development of material discovery and design has lasted centuries in human history. After the concept of modern chemistry and material science was established, the strategy of material discovery relies on the experiments. Such a strategy becomes expensive and time-consuming with the increasing number of materials nowadays. Therefore, a novel strategy that is faster and more comprehensive is urgently needed. In this dissertation, an experiment-guided material discovery strategy is developed and explained using metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as instances. The advent of 7r-stacked layered MOFs, which offer electrical conductivity on top of permanent porosity and high surface area, opened up new …

On Digital Productivity Base Of Policies For Cross-Border Data Flows Between Rcep Parties And Its Influences—Taking Digital Integration Index As A Reference, Gui Huang, Ru Tao

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

This study reviews the newest legislation and policies of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) participating countries on cross-border data flow, and then categorized them according to the ban on data transfer, local storage of data, permission-based regulation, and standards-based regulation. By referring to the indexes in the ASEAN Digital Integration Index, the subject and object factors of digital productivity in RCEP parities are sorted out, as well as the status quo of digital economy. Through the introduction of data value chain theory, the decisive impact of digital productivity factors on the policy formulation of cross-border data flow is expounded; by …

Paradigm Review Of Data Localization In India And Its Implications For China, Ying Fan

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Data localization is a focal point of global data governance and its impact on global data governance is no longer confined to a single country. Over the years, India has followed a unique policy framework in terms of cross-border data flows and data localization, and its insistence on data sovereignty reflects its position in the international arena. This study uses the Indian data localization paradigm as a research base to discuss the common phenomenon of disconnect between policy motivations and practical effects of data localization, and as an entry point to introduce the latest Indian research findings in this area. …

Research On Multi-Source Heterogeneous Big Data Fusion Based On Wsr, Aihua Li, Weijia Xu, Yong Shi

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

In the era of multi-source heterogeneous big data, big data presents new features such as cross, diversity and variability. The applications of big data in a wider range of fields have new requirements for data fusion. Under this background, the connotation of data fusion is enriched and expanded. The generalized data fusion includes the fusion of data resources, the fusion of model methods, and the fusion of decision-makers' knowledge and experience. This study analyzes the characteristics of multi-source heterogeneous data fusion at three different fusion levels: data level, information level and decision level, and discusses challenges for data fusion in …

Data Heterogeneity And Its Implications For Fairness, Ghazaleh Noroozi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Data heterogeneity, referring to the differences in underlying generative processes that produce the data, presents challenges in analyzing and utilizing datasets for decision-making tasks. This thesis examines the impact of data heterogeneity on biases and fairness in predictive models. The research investigates the correlation between heterogeneity and protected attributes, such as race and gender, and explores the implications of such heterogeneity on biases that may arise in downstream applications.

The contributions of this thesis are fourfold. Firstly, a comprehensive definition of data heterogeneity based on differences in underlying generative processes is provided, establishing a conceptual framework for understanding and quantifying …

On Computing Optimal Repairs For Conditional Independence, Alireza Pirhadi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis focuses on the concept of Conditional Independence (CI) and its testing, which holds immense significance across various fields, including economics, social sciences, and biomedical research. Notably, within computer science, CI has become an integral part of building probabilistic and causal models. It aids efficient inference and plays a key role in uncovering causal relationships.

The primary aim of this thesis is to broaden the scope of CI beyond its testing aspect. We introduce the pioneering problem of data repair, designed to adhere to particular CI constraints. The value and pertinence of this problem are highlighted through two contrasting …