Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Improving Xrd Analysis With Machine Learning, Rachel E. Drapeau

Theses and Dissertations

X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) is an inexpensive method to quantify the relative proportions of mineral phases in a rock or soil sample. However, the analytical software available for XRD requires extensive user input to choose phases to include in the analysis. Consequently, analysis accuracy depends greatly on the experience of the analyst, especially as the number of phases in a sample increases (Raven & Self, 2017; Omotoso, 2006). The purpose of this project is to test whether incorporating machine learning methods into XRD software can improve the accuracy of analyses by assisting in the phase-picking process. In order to provide …

The Influence Of Allostery Governing The Changes In Protein Dynamics Upon Substitution, Joseph Hess

All Dissertations

The focus of this research is to investigate the effects of allostery on the function/activity of an enzyme, human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) protease, using well-defined statistical analyses of the dynamic changes of the protein and variants with unique single point substitutions ¹. The experimental data¹ evaluated here only characterized HIV-1 protease with one of its potential target substrates. Probing the dynamic interactions of the residues of an enzyme and its variants can offer insight of the developmental importance for allosteric signaling and their connection to a protein’s function. The realignment of the secondary structure elements can …

Cyber Attack Surface Mapping For Offensive Security Testing, Douglas Everson

All Dissertations

Security testing consists of automated processes, like Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) and Static Application Security Testing (SAST), as well as manual offensive security testing, like Penetration Testing and Red Teaming. This nonautomated testing is frequently time-constrained and difficult to scale. Previous literature suggests that most research is spent in support of improving fully automated processes or in finding specific vulnerabilities, with little time spent improving the interpretation of the scanned attack surface critical to nonautomated testing. In this work, agglomerative hierarchical clustering is used to compress the Internet-facing hosts of 13 representative companies as collected by the Shodan search …

Mathematics Behind Machine Learning, Rim Hammoud

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a broad field of study that involves developing intelligent
machines that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. Machine
learning (ML) is often used as a tool to help create AI systems. The goal of ML is
to create models that can learn and improve to make predictions or decisions based on given data. The goal of this thesis is to build a clear and rigorous exposition of the mathematical underpinnings of support vector machines (SVM), a popular platform used in ML. As we will explore later on in the thesis, SVM can be implemented …

Increasing The Efficiency And Accuracy Of Collective Intelligence Methods For Image Classification, Md Mahmudulla Hassan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Collective intelligence has emerged as a powerful methodology for annotating and classifying challenging data that pose difficulties for automated classifiers. It works by leveraging the concept of "wisdom of the crowds" which approximates a ground truth after aggregating experts' feedback and filtering out noise. However, challenges arise when certain applications, such as medical image classification, security threat detection, and financial fraud detection, demand accurate and reliable data annotation. The unreliability of experts due to inconsistent expertise and competencies, coupled with the associated cost and time-consuming judgment extraction, presents additional challenges.

Input aggregation is the process of consolidating and combining multiple …

Multi-Granularity Detector For Vulnerability Fixes, Truong Giang Nguyen, Cong, Thanh Le, Hong Jin Kang, Ratnadira Widyasari, Chengran Yang, Zhipeng Zhao, Bowen Xu, Jiayuan Zhou, Xin Xia, Ahmed E. Hassan, David Lo, David Lo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the increasing reliance on Open Source Software, users are exposed to third-party library vulnerabilities. Software Composition Analysis (SCA) tools have been created to alert users of such vulnerabilities. SCA requires the identification of vulnerability-fixing commits. Prior works have proposed methods that can automatically identify such vulnerability-fixing commits. However, identifying such commits is highly challenging, as only a very small minority of commits are vulnerability fixing. Moreover, code changes can be noisy and difficult to analyze. We observe that noise can occur at different levels of detail, making it challenging to detect vulnerability fixes accurately. To address these challenges and …

Evaluating Chatgpt For Recommendation: How Does The Ability To Converse Impact Recommendation?, Kyle Spurlock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recommendation algorithms have become an absolute necessity in the modern world to avoid information overload. However, the interaction between the human and the system is largely superficial and without any real contact. If you are given poor recommendations, you have no choice but to sift through mountains of content on your own until the model learns to accommodate your tastes more. This is bad for business as well as the consumer. Recently, large language models like ChatGPT have seen a significant rise in popularity due to their ease of use and wide range of knowledge. It has now become nearly …

On Phishing: Proposing A Host-Based Multi-Layer Passive/Active Anti-Phishing Approach Combating Counterfeit Websites, Wesam Harbi Fadheel

Dissertations

Phishing is the starting point of most cyberattacks, mainly categorized as Email, Websites, Social Networks, Phone calls (Vishing), and SMS messaging (Smishing). Phishing refers to an attempt to collect sensitive data, typically in the form of usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, bank account information, etc., or other crucial facts, intending to use or sell the information obtained. Similar to how a fisherman uses bait to catch a fish, an attacker will pose as a trustworthy source to attract and deceive the victim.

This study explores the efficacy of host-side APT (Anti-Phishing Techniques) based onWebsite features like Lexical, Host-Based, or Content-Based …

Liquid Flow And Gas Diffusion In Natural Rocks: Experimental And Simulation Studies, Xuewei Ning

Earth & Environmental Sciences Dissertations

Natural rocks, as key components in energy and environmental geosciences, play crucial roles in groundwater extraction, geological storage of high-level nuclear waste, geothermal energy mining, and petroleum exploration in both conventional and unconventional reservoirs. Unconventional reservoirs, specifically the tight shale formations, have seen a significant usage in petroleum production in recent decades, largely due to advances in fracturing stimulation techniques which counter the inherently low permeability and connectivity of shale reservoirs by expanding natural fractures and creating artificial ones for an enhanced petroleum production. However, the low mobility (liquid flow and gas diffusion) of stored fluids in naturally fractured formations …

A Predictive Flood Model For Urban Karst Groundwater Systems, Trayson Lawler

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Urban karst environments are often plagued by groundwater flooding, which occurs when water rises from the subsurface to the surface through the underlying caves and other karst features. The heterogeneity and interconnectedness of karst systems often makes them very unpredictable, especially during intense storm events; urbanization exacerbates the problem with the addition of many impervious surfaces. Residents in such areas are frequently disturbed and financially burdened by the effects of karst groundwater flooding. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offers limited protection to citizens living near flood-prone areas as they primarily focus on the areas near surface bodies of water. …

Benchmarking And Practical Evaluation Of Machine And Statistical Learning Methods In Credit Scoring: A Method Selection Perspective, Gwen Verbeck

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Predictive models are important tools used in all scientific fields. Machine learning (ML) algorithms and statistical models are widely used for decision-making because of their capability to tackle intricate and unique problems. In domains where data are high-dimensional and contain irrelevant and redundant features, ML algorithms are known to have superior performance over traditional (statistical) learning methods. However, researchers and analysts are often faced with a myriad of techniques to choose from, with no clear consensus on which will perform best for their specific task. Considering resource limitations, exhaustive exploration of all available methods is impractical and often fails to …

Characterization And Estimation Of Musculoskeletal Pain Using Machine Learning, Boluwatife Faremi

Master's Theses

Traditional scales utilized for recording pain are known to be highly subjective and biased due to inaccuracies in recollecting actual pain intensities. As a result, machine learning (ML) models that are trained using these scores as ground truth are reported to have low performance for objective pain classification because of the huge disparity between what was felt in moments of pain and the scores recorded afterward.

In the present study, two devices were designed for gathering real-time, continuous in-session subjective pain scores and the recording of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) altered endodermal (EDA) activity. 24 participants were recruited to …

Artificial Intelligence Frameworks To Detect And Investigate The Pathophysiology Of Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome (Sans), Joshua Ong, Ethan Waisberg, Mouayad Masalkhi, Sharif Amit Kamran, Kemper Lowry, Prithul Sarker, Nasif Zaman, Phani Paladugu, Alireza Tavakkoli, Andrew G Lee

Student Papers, Posters & Projects

Spaceflight associated neuro-ocular syndrome (SANS) is a unique phenomenon that has been observed in astronauts who have undergone long-duration spaceflight (LDSF). The syndrome is characterized by distinct imaging and clinical findings including optic disc edema, hyperopic refractive shift, posterior globe flattening, and choroidal folds. SANS serves a large barrier to planetary spaceflight such as a mission to Mars and has been noted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as a high risk based on its likelihood to occur and its severity to human health and mission performance. While it is a large barrier to future spaceflight, the underlying …

Predictive Modeling Of Cave Entrance Locations: Relationships Between Surface And Subsurface Morphology, William Blitch, Adia R. Sovie, Benjamin W. Tobin

International Journal of Speleology

Cave entrances directly connect the surface and subsurface geomorphology in karst landscapes. Understanding the spatial distribution of these features can help identify areas on the landscape that are critical to flow in the karst groundwater system. Sinkholes and springs are major locations of inflow and outflow from the groundwater system, respectively, however not all sinkholes and springs are equally connected to the main conduit system. Predicting where on the landscape zones of high connectivity exist is a challenge because cave entrances are difficult to detect and imperfectly documented. Wildlife research has a similar issue of understanding the complexities of where …

Face Readers: The Frontier Of Computer Vision And Math Learning, Beverly Woolf, Margrit Betke, Hao Yu, Sarah Adel Bargal, Ivan Arroyo, John J. Magee Iv, Danielle Allessio, William Rebelsky

Computer Science

The future of AI-assisted individualized learning includes computer vision to inform intelligent tutors and teachers about student affect, motivation and performance. Facial expression recognition is essential in recognizing subtle differences when students ask for hints or fail to solve problems. Facial features and classification labels enable intelligent tutors to predict students’ performance and recommend activities. Videos can capture students’ faces and model their effort and progress; machine learning classifiers can support intelligent tutors to provide interventions. One goal of this research is to support deep dives by teachers to identify students’ individual needs through facial expression and to provide immediate …

A Unified Optimization Framework Of Ann-Snn Conversion: Towards Optimal Mapping From Activation Values To Firing Rates, Haiyan Jiang, Srinivas Anumasa, Giulia De Masi, Huan Xiong, Bin Gu

Machine Learning Faculty Publications

Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) have gained significant attention for their energy-efficient and fast-inference capabilities, but training SNNs from scratch can be challenging due to the discrete nature of spikes. One alternative method is to convert an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) into an SNN, known as ANN-SNN conversion. Currently, existing ANN-SNN conversion methods often involve redesigning the ANN with a new activation function, rather than utilizing the traditional ReLU, and converting it to an SNN. However, these methods do not take into account the potential performance loss between the regular ANN with ReLU and the tailored ANN. In this work, we …

An Ml Based Digital Forensics Software For Triage Analysis Through Face Recognition, Gaurav Gogia, Parag H. Rughani

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Since the past few years, the complexity and heterogeneity of digital crimes has increased exponentially, which has made the digital evidence & digital forensics paramount for both criminal investigation and civil litigation cases. Some of the routine digital forensic analysis tasks are cumbersome and can increase the number of pending cases especially when there is a shortage of domain experts. While the work is not very complex, the sheer scale can be taxing. With the current scenarios and future predictions, crimes are only going to become more complex and the precedent of collecting and examining digital evidence is only going …

High-Probability Bounds For Stochastic Optimization And Variational Inequalities: The Case Of Unbounded Variance, Abdurakhmon Sadiev, Marina Danilova, Eduard Gorbunov, Samuel Horváth, Gauthier Gidel, Pavel Dvurechensky, Alexander Gasnikov, Peter Richtárik

Machine Learning Faculty Publications

During recent years the interest of optimization and machine learning communities in high-probability convergence of stochastic optimization methods has been growing. One of the main reasons for this is that high-probability complexity bounds are more accurate and less studied than in-expectation ones. However, SOTA high-probability non-asymptotic convergence results are derived under strong assumptions such as the boundedness of the gradient noise variance or of the objective's gradient itself. In this paper, we propose several algorithms with high-probability convergence results under less restrictive assumptions. In particular, we derive new high-probability convergence results under the assumption that the gradient/operator noise has bounded …

A Practical Framework For Early Detection Of Diabetes Using Ensemble Machine Learning Models, Qusay Saihood, Emrullah Sonuç

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

The diagnosis of diabetes, a prevalent global health condition, is crucial for preventing severe complications. In recent years, there has been a growing effort to develop intelligent diagnostic systems for diabetes utilizing machine learning (ML) algorithms. Despite these efforts, achieving high accuracy rates using such systems remains a significant challenge. Recent advancements in ensemble ML methods offer promising opportunities for early detection of diabetes, as they are known to be faster and more cost-effective than traditional approaches. Therefore, this study proposes a practical framework for diagnosing diabetes that involves three stages. The data preprocessing stage encompasses several crucial tasks, including …

Dos/Ddos-Mqtt-Iot: A Dataset For Evaluating Intrusions In Iot Networks Using The Mqtt Protocol, Alaa Alatram, Leslie F. Sikos, Mike Johnstone, Patryk Szewczyk, James Jin Kang

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Adversaries may exploit a range of vulnerabilities in Internet of Things (IoT) environments. These vulnerabilities are typically exploited to carry out attacks, such as denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, either against the IoT devices themselves, or using the devices to perform the attacks. These attacks are often successful due to the nature of the protocols used in the IoT. One popular protocol used for machine-to-machine IoT communications is the Message Queueing Telemetry Protocol (MQTT). Countermeasures for attacks against MQTT include testing defenses with existing datasets. However, there is a lack of real-world test datasets in this area. For this reason, this paper …

System-Characterized Artificial Intelligence Approaches For Cardiac Cellular Systems And Molecular Signature Analysis, Ziqian Wu

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

The dissertation presents a significant advancement in the field of cardiac cellular systems and molecular signature systems by employing machine learning and generative artificial intelligence techniques. These methodologies are systematically characterized and applied to address critical challenges in these domains. A novel computational model is developed, which combines machine learning tools and multi-physics models. The main objective of this model is to accurately predict complex cellular dynamics, taking into account the intricate interactions within the cardiac cellular system. Furthermore, a comprehensive framework based on generative adversarial networks (GANs) is proposed. This framework is designed to generate synthetic data that faithfully …

Probing As A Technique To Understand Abstract Spaces, Ashlen A. Plasek

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

Machine learning models, while very powerful, have their operation obfuscated behind millions of parameters. This obfuscation can make deriving a human meaningful process from a machine learning model very difficult. However, while the intermediate states of a machine learning model are similarly obfuscated, using probing, we can start to explore looking at possible structure in those intermediate states. Large language models are a prime example of this obfuscation, and probing can begin to allow novel experimentation to be performed.

Numerical Simulation Of The Korteweg–De Vries Equation With Machine Learning, Kristina O. F. Williams *, Benjamin F. Akers

Faculty Publications

A machine learning procedure is proposed to create numerical schemes for solutions of nonlinear wave equations on coarse grids. This method trains stencil weights of a discretization of the equation, with the truncation error of the scheme as the objective function for training. The method uses centered finite differences to initialize the optimization routine and a second-order implicit-explicit time solver as a framework. Symmetry conditions are enforced on the learned operator to ensure a stable method. The procedure is applied to the Korteweg–de Vries equation. It is observed to be more accurate than finite difference or spectral methods on coarse …

Towards An Experimental Bibliography Of Hemispheric Reconstruction Newspapers, Joshua Ortiz Baco, Benjamin Charles Germain Lee, Jim Casey, Sarah H. Salter

Criticism

Digital collections of newspapers have drawn broader attention to the fragmented and scattered print histories of minoritized communities. Attempts to survey these histories through bibliography, however, quickly meet with a fundamental problem: the practice of bibliographic description calls for creating a static record of social affiliations. Given the overwhelming scholarly consensus that categories such as race, ethnicity, and language are socially constructed, this article introduces an experimental bibliographic method for mapping the vast landscape of historical newspapers. This method extends the machine learning affordances of a recent project called Newspaper Navigator to enumerate the newspapers in Chronicling America according to …

Sarcasm Detection In English And Arabic Tweets Using Transformer Models, Rishik Lad

Computer Science Senior Theses

This thesis describes our approach toward the detection of sarcasm and its various types in English and Arabic Tweets through methods in deep learning. There are five problems we attempted: (1) detection of sarcasm in English Tweets, (2) detection of sarcasm in Arabic Tweets, (3) determining the type of sarcastic speech subcategory for English Tweets, (4) determining which of two semantically equivalent English Tweets is sarcastic, and (5) determining which of two semantically equivalent Arabic Tweets is sarcastic. All tasks were framed as classification problems, and our contributions are threefold: (a) we developed an English binary classifier system with RoBERTa, …

Artificial Intelligence Cad Tools In Trauma Imaging: A Scoping Review From The American Society Of Emergency Radiology (Aser) Ai/Ml Expert Panel, David Dreizin, Pedro V Staziaki, Garvit D Khatri, Nicholas M Beckmann, Zhaoyong Feng, Yuanyuan Liang, Zachary S Delproposto, Maximiliano Klug, J Stephen Spann, Nathan Sarkar, Yunting Fu

Student and Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: AI/ML CAD tools can potentially improve outcomes in the high-stakes, high-volume model of trauma radiology. No prior scoping review has been undertaken to comprehensively assess tools in this subspecialty.

PURPOSE: To map the evolution and current state of trauma radiology CAD tools along key dimensions of technology readiness.

METHODS: Following a search of databases, abstract screening, and full-text document review, CAD tool maturity was charted using elements of data curation, performance validation, outcomes research, explainability, user acceptance, and funding patterns. Descriptive statistics were used to illustrate key trends.

RESULTS: A total of 4052 records were screened, and 233 full-text …

Why Softmax? Because It Is The Only Consistent Approach To Probability-Based Classification, Anatole Lokshin, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In many practical problems, the most effective classification techniques are based on deep learning. In this approach, once the neural network generates values corresponding to different classes, these values are transformed into probabilities by using the softmax formula. Researchers tried other transformation, but they did not work as well as softmax. A natural question is: why is softmax so effective? In this paper, we provide a possible explanation for this effectiveness: namely, we prove that softmax is the only consistent approach to probability-based classification. In precise terms, it is the only approach for which two reasonable probability-based ideas -- Least …

An Investigation Into Machine Learning Techniques For Designing Dynamic Difficulty Agents In Real-Time Games, Ryan Adare Dunagan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Video games are an incredibly popular pastime enjoyed by people of all ages world wide. Many different kinds of games exist, but most games feature some elements of the player overcoming some challenge, usually through gameplay. These challenges are insurmountable for some people and may turn them off to video games as a pastime. Games can be made more accessible to players of little skill and/or experience through the use of Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (DDA) systems that adjust the difficulty of the game in response to the player’s performance. This research seeks to establish the effectiveness of machine learning techniques …

A Survey On Security Analysis Of Machine Learning-Oriented Hardware And Software Intellectual Property, Ashraful Tauhid, Lei Xu, Mostafizur Rahman, Emmett Tomai

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Intellectual Property (IP) includes ideas, innovations, methodologies, works of authorship (viz., literary and artistic works), emblems, brands, images, etc. This property is intangible since it is pertinent to the human intellect. Therefore, IP entities are indisputably vulnerable to infringements and modifications without the owner’s consent. IP protection regulations have been deployed and are still in practice, including patents, copyrights, contracts, trademarks, trade secrets, etc., to address these challenges. Unfortunately, these protections are insufficient to keep IP entities from being changed or stolen without permission. As for this, some IPs require hardware IP protection mechanisms, and others require software …

Statistical And Biological Analyses Of Acoustic Signals In Estrildid Finches, Moises Rivera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Acoustic communication is a process that involves auditory perception and signal processing. Discrimination and recognition further require cognitive processes and supporting mechanisms in order to successfully identify and appropriately respond to signal senders. Although acoustic communication is common across birds, classical research has largely disregarded the perceptual abilities of perinatal altricial taxa. Chapter 1 reviews the literature of perinatal acoustic stimulation in birds, highlighting the disproportionate focus on precocial birds (e.g., chickens, ducks, quails). The long-held belief that altricial birds were incapable of acoustic perception in ovo was only recently overturned, as researchers began to find behavioral and physiological evidence …