AI approaches to understand human deceptions, perceptions, and perspectives in social media

Social media platforms have created virtual space for sharing user generated information, connecting, and interacting among users. However, there are research and societal challenges: 1) The users are generating and sharing the disinformation 2) It is difficult to understand citizens\u27 perceptions or opinions expressed on wide variety of topics; and 3) There are overloaded information and echo chamber problems without overall understanding of the different perspectives taken by different people or groups. This dissertation addresses these three research challenges with advanced AI and Machine Learning approaches. To address the fake news, as deceptions on the facts, this dissertation presents Machine Learning approaches for fake news detection models, and a hybrid method for topic identification, whether they are fake or real. To understand the user\u27s perceptions or attitude toward some topics, this study analyzes the sentiments expressed in social media text. The sentiment analysis of posts can be used as an indicator to measure how topics are perceived by the users and how their perceptions as a whole can affect decision makers in government and industry, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is difficult to measure the public perception of government policies issued during the pandemic. The citizen responses to the government policies are diverse, ranging from security or goodwill to confusion, fear, or anger. This dissertation provides a near real-time approach to track and monitor public reactions toward government policies by continuously collecting and analyzing Twitter posts about the COVID-19 pandemic. To address the social media\u27s overwhelming number of posts, content echo-chamber, and information isolation issue, this dissertation provides a multiple view-based summarization framework where the same contents can be summarized according to different perspectives. This framework includes components of choosing the perspectives, and advanced text summarization approaches. The proposed approaches in this dissertation are demonstrated with a prototype system to continuously collect Twitter data about COVID-19 government health policies and provide analysis of citizen concerns toward the policies, and the data is analyzed for fake news detection and for generating multiple-view summaries

Disruptive Technologies with Applications in Airline & Marine and Defense Industries

Disruptive Technologies With Applications in Airline, Marine, Defense Industries is our fifth textbook in a series covering the world of Unmanned Vehicle Systems Applications & Operations On Air, Sea, and Land. The authors have expanded their purview beyond UAS / CUAS / UUV systems that we have written extensively about in our previous four textbooks. Our new title shows our concern for the emergence of Disruptive Technologies and how they apply to the Airline, Marine and Defense industries. Emerging technologies are technologies whose development, practical applications, or both are still largely unrealized, such that they are figuratively emerging into prominence from a background of nonexistence or obscurity. A Disruptive technology is one that displaces an established technology and shakes up the industry or a ground-breaking product that creates a completely new industry.That is what our book is about. The authors think we have found technology trends that will replace the status quo or disrupt the conventional technology paradigms.The authors have collaborated to write some explosive chapters in Book 5:Advances in Automation & Human Machine Interface; Social Media as a Battleground in Information Warfare (IW); Robust cyber-security alterative / replacement for the popular Blockchain Algorithm and a clean solution for Ransomware; Advanced sensor technologies that are used by UUVs for munitions characterization, assessment, and classification and counter hostile use of UUVs against U.S. capital assets in the South China Seas. Challenged the status quo and debunked the climate change fraud with verifiable facts; Explodes our minds with nightmare technologies that if they come to fruition may do more harm than good; Propulsion and Fuels: Disruptive Technologies for Submersible Craft Including UUVs; Challenge the ammunition industry by grassroots use of recycled metals; Changing landscape of UAS regulations and drone privacy; and finally, Detailing Bioterrorism Risks, Biodefense, Biological Threat Agents, and the need for advanced sensors to detect these attacks.https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/1038/thumbnail.jp

Advances in quantitative microscopy

Microscopy allows us to peer into the complex deeply shrouded world that the cells of our body grow and thrive in. With the emergence of automated digital microscopes and software for anlysing and processing the large numbers of image that they produce; quantitative microscopy approaches are now allowing us to answer ever larger and more complex biological questions. In this thesis I explore two trends. Firstly, that of using quantitative microscopy for performing unbiased screens, the advances made here include developing strategies to handle imaging data captured from physiological models, and unsupervised analysis screening data to derive unbiased biological insights. Secondly, I develop software for analysing live cell imaging data, that can now be captured at greater rates than ever before and use this to help answer key questions covering the biology of how cells make the decision to arrest or proliferate in response to DNA damage. Together this thesis represents a view of the current state of the art in high-throughput quantitative microscopy and details where the field is heading as machine learning approaches become ever more sophisticated.Open Acces

Using Twitter data to provide qualitative insights into pandemics and epidemics

Background: One area of public health research specialises in examining public views and opinions surrounding infectious disease outbreaks. Although interviews and surveys are valid sources of this information, views and opinions are necessarily generated by the context, rather than spontaneous. As such, social media has increasingly been viewed as legitimate source of pragmatic, unfiltered public opinion. Objectives: This research attempts to better understand how users converse about infectious disease outbreaks on the social media platform Twitter. The study was undertaken in order to address a gap in knowledge because previous empirical studies that have analysed infectious disease outbreaks on Twitter have focused on employing quantitative methods as the primary form of data analysis. After analysing individual cases on Ebola, Zika, and swine flu, the study performs an important comparison in the types of discussions taking place on Twitter and is the first empirical study to do so. Methods: A number of pilot studies were initially designed and conducted in order to help inform the main study. The study then manually labels tweets on infectious disease outbreaks assisted by the qualitative analysis programme NVivo, and performs an analysis using the Health Belief Model, concepts around information theory, and a number of sociological principles. The data were purposively sampled according to when Google Trends Data showed a heightened interest in the respective outbreaks, and a case study approach was utilised. Results: A substantial number of themes were uncovered which were not reported in previous literature, demonstrating the potential of qualitative methodologies for extracting greater insight into public health opinions from Twitter data. The study noted several limitations of Twitter data for use in qualitative research. However, results demonstrated the potential of Twitter to identify discussions around infectious diseases that might not emerge in an interview and/or which might not be included in a survey

Cyber Law and Espionage Law as Communicating Vessels

Professor Lubin\u27s contribution is Cyber Law and Espionage Law as Communicating Vessels, pp. 203-225. Existing legal literature would have us assume that espionage operations and “below-the-threshold” cyber operations are doctrinally distinct. Whereas one is subject to the scant, amorphous, and under-developed legal framework of espionage law, the other is subject to an emerging, ever-evolving body of legal rules, known cumulatively as cyber law. This dichotomy, however, is erroneous and misleading. In practice, espionage and cyber law function as communicating vessels, and so are better conceived as two elements of a complex system, Information Warfare (IW). This paper therefore first draws attention to the similarities between the practices – the fact that the actors, technologies, and targets are interchangeable, as are the knee-jerk legal reactions of the international community. In light of the convergence between peacetime Low-Intensity Cyber Operations (LICOs) and peacetime Espionage Operations (EOs) the two should be subjected to a single regulatory framework, one which recognizes the role intelligence plays in our public world order and which adopts a contextual and consequential method of inquiry. The paper proceeds in the following order: Part 2 provides a descriptive account of the unique symbiotic relationship between espionage and cyber law, and further explains the reasons for this dynamic. Part 3 places the discussion surrounding this relationship within the broader discourse on IW, making the claim that the convergence between EOs and LICOs, as described in Part 2, could further be explained by an even larger convergence across all the various elements of the informational environment. Parts 2 and 3 then serve as the backdrop for Part 4, which details the attempt of the drafters of the Tallinn Manual 2.0 to compartmentalize espionage law and cyber law, and the deficits of their approach. The paper concludes by proposing an alternative holistic understanding of espionage law, grounded in general principles of law, which is more practically transferable to the cyber realmhttps://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/facbooks/1220/thumbnail.jp

Island Dreaming: Applied Epidemiology in the Pacific Region

This bound volume describes four significant public health problems in Australia and the Pacific Island Countries of Fiji and American Samoa. The four main epidemiological components are: 1) Australian vaccine preventable disease epidemiological review series: varicella-zoster virus infections, 1998–2015. The review was conducted to assess the impact of the national varicella immunisation program and provide a baseline for monitoring the impact of the national herpes zoster immunisation program. The national varicella immunisation program led to significant reductions in varicella. In Australia, the burden of herpes zoster is substantial, and high quality and timely surveillance will be crucial to assess the impact of the national herpes zoster immunisation program. 2) Investigation into increased lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) in New South Wales, Australia. LGV is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) caused by L1-L3 serovars of chlamydia, and can lead to irreversible complications. LGV is notifiable condition in New South Wales (NSW). Following a noticeable increase in number of LGV notifications, I conducted a retrospective case series of all cases diagnosed between 1 January 2016 and 31 March 2017. During this period, all reported cases were among men who have sex with men. This chapter examines factors contributing to increase in LGV cases in NSW in 2016. It also describes the challenges associated with investigating STI outbreaks in NSW. 3) An evaluation of an early warning alert and response system (EWARS in a Box) implemented after Cyclone Winston, Fiji 2016. The World Health Organization recommends implementation of early warning systems for timely disease surveillance and early detection of outbreaks during humanitarian emergencies. This chapter describes the EWARS system, and its usefulness at timely monitoring of communicable diseases trends during a national health emergency. Findings include strengths and limitations of the system at conducting surveillance, along with practical recommendations for improving surveillance using EWARS. 4) Identifying residual transmission of lymphatic filariasis in post-mass drug administration surveillance phase: Comparing school-based versus community-based surveys – American Samoa, 2016. This study compares the effectiveness of two cross-sectional survey designs, a school-based and a community-based survey, for assessing transmission of lymphatic filariasis. Under the Global Programme for Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis, American Samoa conducted seven rounds of mass drug administration (MDA) from 2000-2006. The World Health Organization recommends systematic post-MDA surveillance for epidemiological assessment of recent lymphatic filariasis transmission. Finger prick blood samples were collected from study participants to measure the prevalence of circulating filarial antigen (CFA). I recruited 1143 grade 1 and 2 school students from 29 elementary schools. For the community survey, 30 out of 70 villages were randomly selected, from which 2507 community members were recruited. The school survey was cheaper and logistically easier to implement. The estimated CFA prevalence by school survey was 0.7%, and was significantly lower than the community survey (6.2%). The community survey was more effective for collecting information required for identifying residual transmission of lymphatic filariasis. Both surveys provided evidence of ongoing lymphatic filariasis transmission in American Samoa

Journey of Artificial Intelligence Frontier: A Comprehensive Overview

The field of Artificial Intelligence AI is a transformational force with limitless promise in the age of fast technological growth This paper sets out on a thorough tour through the frontiers of AI providing a detailed understanding of its complex environment Starting with a historical context followed by the development of AI seeing its beginnings and growth On this journey fundamental ideas are explored looking at things like Machine Learning Neural Networks and Natural Language Processing Taking center stage are ethical issues and societal repercussions emphasising the significance of responsible AI application This voyage comes to a close by looking ahead to AI s potential for human-AI collaboration ground-breaking discoveries and the difficult obstacles that lie ahead This provides with a well-informed view on AI s past present and the unexplored regions it promises to explore by thoroughly navigating this terrai

Tradition and Innovation in Construction Project Management

This book is a reprint of the Special Issue 'Tradition and Innovation in Construction Project Management' that was published in the journal Buildings