Mining a medieval social network by kernel SOM and related methods

This paper briefly presents several ways to understand the organization of a large social network (several hundreds of persons). We compare approaches coming from data mining for clustering the vertices of a graph (spectral clustering, self-organizing algorithms. . .) and provide methods for representing the graph from these analysis. All these methods are illustrated on a medieval social network and the way they can help to understand its organization is underlined

IU-Advise: A Web Based Advising Tool For Academic Advisors and Students

Thesis (M.S.) -- Indiana University South Bend, 2009.Academic advising is an important activity of an academic institution. It guides the students to explore potential careers, academic disciplines and opportunities in the college environment. An accurate and full featured advising system can be an effective tool to both students and faculty advisors. The dynamic nature of academic programs, especially in regards to changes in the general education and other degree requirements, poses a continuous challenge to faculty advisors to remain up-to-date. The goal of this thesis is to implement a web-based advising system which facilitates academic advisors in their efforts to providing quality, accurate and consistent advising services to their students. The proposed system was implemented using a set of open source software packages to create a low cost, flexible, and customizable system

Application of poly-β-hydroxybutyrate accumulating bacteria in crustacean larviculture

This PhD research was first illustrated that the use of amorphous PHB contained in whole cells of the bacterium Alcaligenes eutrophus in lyophilized and freshly grown cell forms induced similar and even better beneficial effects on the growth performance or disease resistance of Artemia nauplii or M. rosenbergii larvae than crystalline PHB particles. In the second part, the change in carbonaceous compounds (trehalose, glycerol, glycogen and total organic carbon) and total nitrogen in the axenic hatching medium of decapsulated Artemia fransicana cysts was determined throughout the hatching process. Three different salinities (5, 12 and 35 g/L) of the incubation medium were applied. Trehalose appeared in the medium in small quantities (maximally 2.6 mg C/g incubated dry cysts) as compared to glycerol and glycogen (maximally 28.5 ± 1.2 and 13.8 ± 1.0 mg C/g incubated dry cysts, respectively). Overall, the C/N ratio in Artemia hatching medium at a salinity of 12 g/L (which is most relevant for practice) was about 10 throughout incubation. In the final part of this work, the reuse of the hatching medium of Artemia was investigated as a cost-efficient strategy to culture the PHB accumulating bacterium Bacillus sp. LT12 and supply it to Artemia nauplii or M. rosenbergii laviculture as an antimicrobial agent. The PHB level in Bacillus sp. LT12 was increased about 2-fold when this bacterium was cultured in the axenic hatching medium of Artemia (AHMA) harvested at the different times points during the incubation process (16, 20 & 24 h). Adding the bacterium which was cultured in AHMA harvested at 16 or 20 h, into the culture water of Artemia nauplii challenged with Vibrio campbellii LMG21363 showed to completely protect the nauplii when they were added at a density of 5 x 107 CFU/mL. Moreover, the disease resistance of M. rosenbergii larvae in the challenge test with Vibrio harveyi BB120 was significantly increased when feeding Artemia nauplii enriched with 109 CFU/mL of Bacillus sp. LT12 grown as well in the hatching medium of Artemia harvested at 16, 20 or 24 h. When Bacillus sp. LT12 was co-cultured with Artemia during cyst incubation and supplementary glycerol was added at 0.17 and 0.51 g/L, the results showed that the PHB content in the bacteria and the disease resistance of M. rosenbergii larvae were significantly increased as compared to control treatment (without adding extra glycerol). The results in this PhD work illustrate that whole bacterial cells containing amorphous PHB are more promising to use as a disease control strategy in crustacean larviculture than crystalline PHB. The reuse of Artemia hatching medium in crustacean hatcheries as the nutrient medium to culture PHB accumulating bacteria to be fed to the cultured animals does not only result in an increased culture efficiency of the larvae but also reduces the load on the environment by reducing the volume of waste water originating from crustacean hatcheries

COVALENT CONJUGATION OF ANTIBODY AND GOLD NANOPARTICLE FOR DEVELOPMENT OF LATERAL FLOW IMMUNOASSAY TEST STRIP

Nanotechnology is one of the fastest growing technologies in this era. Gold nanoparticle (AuNP) based immunoassays have been performed on the basis of antigen-antibody interaction using AuNP antibody conjugates. Lateral flow immunoassays(LFA) which are also based on AuNP antibody conjugates are useful innovation in nanotechnology and widely applied in medicine and research fields. However, there are some limitations of the present LFA kits such as sensitivity and stability. In the study, we showed the result of covalent conjugation of anti-rotavirus antibody and AuNP for generating a lateral flow immunoassay strip to detect rotavirus in fecal samples. The suitable conditions for coating polyethylene glycol (PEG) on the surface of AuNP were 10.0 mM PEG for 3 hours at room temperature (25 oC). Optimized conditions for covalent conjugation of antibody and AuNP were pH 4.0, 0.1 mg antibody/conjugate, 0.01 mM reactant EDC/NHS [1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide hydrochloride/(N-hydroxy sulfosuccinimide]. The coupling reaction was carried out at room temperature for 90 min. The conjugate pad, antibody immobilized nitrocellulose membrane strip were created with investigated conditions for generating an LFA test strip. The limit of detection of LFA test strip was determined by 1.6 × 105 virus particles/ml, three times lower than that of Rotaclone kit (UK). The generated strip could be used to detect rotavirus in fecal sample of patient.

Artificial intelligence in the cyber domain: Offense and defense

Artificial intelligence techniques have grown rapidly in recent years, and their applications in practice can be seen in many fields, ranging from facial recognition to image analysis. In the cybersecurity domain, AI-based techniques can provide better cyber defense tools and help adversaries improve methods of attack. However, malicious actors are aware of the new prospects too and will probably attempt to use them for nefarious purposes. This survey paper aims at providing an overview of how artificial intelligence can be used in the context of cybersecurity in both offense and defense.Web of Science123art. no. 41