Labels are used for managing warehouse environments by collecting information from existing items on shelves and racks. Labels enable description and identification of items accurately in a short time. Although lot of research have been done in the field of barcode detection, the present methods for detection are applicable at a short distance from the camera and with a clear background. Therefore, label detection from captured images is challenging especially with a large and complex background. Once a label is detected, it is ready for next process of recognition, to read out the stored information in texts and barcodes. In this thesis, we compared methods from previous works and implemented the most suitable one for detecting one-dimensional (1D) barcodes available on the captured images by standard lens. We created a dataset for label detection with an assumption on background color and we continued processing by K-means clustering and classification. After localizing label regions, a projection for determining a different candidate area is done. We have worked on two types of barcodes, one-dimensional (1D) and Data Matrix as a two-dimensional (2D) barcode. The results show a good performance of the system in terms of images, which are the most important issue in terms of industrial detection.

Master of Science / Department of Mathematics / Nathan Albin / This thesis is focused on the use of networks to identify potentially malicious Android applications. There are many techniques that determine if an application is malicious, and they are ever-changing. Techniques to identify malicious applications must be robust as the schemes of creating malicious applications are changing as well. We propose the use of a network-based approach that is potentially effective at separating malicious from benign apps, given a small and noisy training set. The applications in our data set come from the Google Play Store and have been scanned for malicious behavior using Virus Total to produce a ground truth dataset. The apps in the resulting dataset have been represented as binary feature vectors (where the features represent permissions, intent actions, discriminative APIs, obfuscation signatures, and native code signatures). We use the feature vectors corresponding to apps to build a weighted network that captures the \closeness" between applications. We propagate labels, benign or malicious, from the labeled applications that form the training set to unlabeled applications (which we aim to label), and evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in terms of precision, recall and F1-measure. We outline the algorithms for propagating labels that were used in our research and discuss the fine tuning of hyper-parameters. We compare our results to known supervised learning algorithms, such as k-nearest-neighbors and Naive Bayes, that can be used to learn classifiers from the training labeled data and subsequently use the classifiers to label the unlabeled test data. We discuss potential improvements on our methods and ways to further this research.

Daptomycin (Dap) is a cyclic lipodepsipeptide antibiotic that is currently used in the treatment of bacterial infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus including the strains that are methicillin-resistant (MRSA), as well as vancomycin-resistant (VRSA). Although it is known that daptomycin inserts into the membrane of the bacteria causing cell death very few details of its specific mechanism of action have been elucidated. Studies on Dap-resistant bacteria suggest that Dap may interact with specific proteins as well as specific lipids. It is anticipated that a photoaffinity label (PAL) of daptomycin (Dap-PAL) will be useful in determining what bacterial membrane components interact with Dap. The objective of this proposal is to prepare a photoaffinity label of daptomycin. Starting from 4,4’-dimethylbenzophenone, a benzophenone derivative was prepared that contained a 4-aldehyde moiety and a 4’-alkyl tail which contained a terminal alkyne group. This derivative was attached to the Orn residue in Dap via reductive amination to give the desired Dap-PAL. The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the Dap-PAL with Bacillus subtillus was determined to be 1.5 μg/mL which is only two times greater than the MIC of Dap.

“Off-label” use occurs when a medication is prescribed for non-approved purposes. This case study explored physician experiences with prescribing gabapentin off-label. Semi-structured interviews with 10 specialists in the Greater Toronto Area provided data that were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Specialists described prescribing gabapentin off-label as common practice and few expressed concerns about its safety. Knowledge from various interconnected sources influenced off-label prescribing decisions. These included: social knowledge, scientific knowledge, knowledge of the drug, knowledge of the patient, and experiential knowledge. Findings were similar to previous studies examining physician prescribing behaviour. Furthermore, lack of provincial-government reimbursement for off-label uses of gabapentin (knowledge of drug coverage) was a significant barrier to prescribing. Off-label prescribing differs from other types of prescribing since there is often a lack of scientific evidence for off-label uses. The complexities of the off-label prescribing process and the degree of importance between the various influences require further exploration.

“Off-label” use occurs when a medication is prescribed for non-approved purposes. This case study explored physician experiences with prescribing gabapentin off-label. Semi-structured interviews with 10 specialists in the Greater Toronto Area provided data that were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Specialists described prescribing gabapentin off-label as common practice and few expressed concerns about its safety. Knowledge from various interconnected sources influenced off-label prescribing decisions. These included: social knowledge, scientific knowledge, knowledge of the drug, knowledge of the patient, and experiential knowledge. Findings were similar to previous studies examining physician prescribing behaviour. Furthermore, lack of provincial-government reimbursement for off-label uses of gabapentin (knowledge of drug coverage) was a significant barrier to prescribing. Off-label prescribing differs from other types of prescribing since there is often a lack of scientific evidence for off-label uses. The complexities of the off-label prescribing process and the degree of importance between the various influences require further exploration.

Cristais de mioglobina tipo A foram dopados por processo de difusão com o marcador 2, 2, 6, 6 - tetrametil-l-oxil (TEMPO). Observa-se a existência de uma espécie de marcador isotrópica e outra anisotrópica, que exibe uma simetria axial com A// = 23,4 G, A&#8869 = 20, 6 G e g = 2,0056. São estimados os tempos de correlação rotacional &#964// = 7,2.10-9s e &#964&#8869 = 4,8.10-9s. Uma análise do grau de hidrofobicidade dos resíduos, situados na parte interna da molécula, sugere como um possível sitio de localização para o TEMPO o bolso formado na região da tirosina 103 - hélice H e 151 - terminal 3HC. Este bolso tem tamanho suficiente para abrigar o radical e posição coerente com a heme, o que não acontece com outros sítios. Observa-se uma mudança conformacional da proteína, induzida pela temperatura na região 20-30&#176. Esta pode ser atribuída a um movimento da hélice H. Este resultado somado ao de outros autores indica uma mudança conformacional de grande extensão na molécula. / Type A myoglobin single crystals were doped with the 2, 2, 6, 6 -tetramethyl - 1 - oxyl (TEMPO) spin label by a diffusion process. We observed one isotropic spin label type, and another anisotropic type which shows an axial symmetry with A// = 23,4 G, A&#8869 = 20, 6 G and g = 2,0056. The rotational correlation times are estimated to be a &#964// = 7,2.10-9s and &#964&#8869 = 4,8.10-9s. A quantitative analysis on the hydrophobic nature of the residues situated inside the molecule suggests, as a possible site for the TEMPO, the pocket formed in the region of tyrosine 103-helix H and tyrpsine 151 - terminal 3HC. This pocket is of sufficient size to contain the radical and is positioned in such fashion as to be a compatible with the heme group, this not holding for other sites. A temperature induced conformational change in the protein is observed in the region 20-30&#176, which may be ascribed to a shift of the H helix. This fact, together with the finds of other authors, seems to indicate a generalized temperature induced conformational alteration in the molecule.

Performing evidence-based reviews (EBR) is a growing and important area of research, and more graduate students should be educated in this area. EBRs provide conclusions based on science and follow a specific methodology to decrease bias, consider all pertinent science on the topic, and have transparency. This thesis is two-fold and includes: 1) a faculty course manual on how to facilitate a college course on EBR and 2) an EBR manuscript on the utility of nutrition labeling to affect consumers’ ability to select more nutritious products and whether or not nutrition labeling can affect purchase and consumption of more nutritious products. This EBR is timely in that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has called for a moratorium on Front-of-Pack labeling (FOP) until two Institute of Medicine Committees have produced their reports and FDA has interpreted those reports. The intention of the manuscript is that it will aid in this interpretation. Of 978 articles collected, 699 were excluded using exclusion/inclusion criteria, 253 were identified as secondary articles, and 26 were used for the EBR. Results: Ten studies answered question #1 on whether or not consumers can pick a more nutritious product by reading labels and 21 answered question #2 on whether consumers actually change their purchasing and/or eating behavior by using labels. Studies ranged from simple cross-sectional studies that used survey data to more complex studies that collected sales data or performed in-store observations. In conclusion, consumers are able to use food labels to pick more nutritious products. Preliminary evidence suggests that a subset of health conscious consumers will read food labels to select a healthier product within a product category. Less evidence exists that reading labels actually results in a change of food intake. More intervention rather than survey studies are required to address this issue. In addition, the next stages of investigation should include looking at the whole diet, rather than just individual foods, and finally what affect the whole diet may have on overall health.

Cristais de mioglobina tipo A foram dopados por processo de difusão com o marcador 2, 2, 6, 6 - tetrametil-l-oxil (TEMPO). Observa-se a existência de uma espécie de marcador isotrópica e outra anisotrópica, que exibe uma simetria axial com A// = 23,4 G, A&#8869 = 20, 6 G e g = 2,0056. São estimados os tempos de correlação rotacional &#964// = 7,2.10-9s e &#964&#8869 = 4,8.10-9s. Uma análise do grau de hidrofobicidade dos resíduos, situados na parte interna da molécula, sugere como um possível sitio de localização para o TEMPO o bolso formado na região da tirosina 103 - hélice H e 151 - terminal 3HC. Este bolso tem tamanho suficiente para abrigar o radical e posição coerente com a heme, o que não acontece com outros sítios. Observa-se uma mudança conformacional da proteína, induzida pela temperatura na região 20-30&#176. Esta pode ser atribuída a um movimento da hélice H. Este resultado somado ao de outros autores indica uma mudança conformacional de grande extensão na molécula. / Type A myoglobin single crystals were doped with the 2, 2, 6, 6 -tetramethyl - 1 - oxyl (TEMPO) spin label by a diffusion process. We observed one isotropic spin label type, and another anisotropic type which shows an axial symmetry with A// = 23,4 G, A&#8869 = 20, 6 G and g = 2,0056. The rotational correlation times are estimated to be a &#964// = 7,2.10-9s and &#964&#8869 = 4,8.10-9s. A quantitative analysis on the hydrophobic nature of the residues situated inside the molecule suggests, as a possible site for the TEMPO, the pocket formed in the region of tyrosine 103-helix H and tyrpsine 151 - terminal 3HC. This pocket is of sufficient size to contain the radical and is positioned in such fashion as to be a compatible with the heme group, this not holding for other sites. A temperature induced conformational change in the protein is observed in the region 20-30&#176, which may be ascribed to a shift of the H helix. This fact, together with the finds of other authors, seems to indicate a generalized temperature induced conformational alteration in the molecule.

Multi-label learning addresses the problem that one instance can be associated with multiple labels simultaneously. Understanding and exploiting the Label Dependency (LD) is well accepted as the key to build high-performance multi-label classifiers, i.e., classifiers having abilities including but not limited to generalizing well on clean data and being robust under evasion attack. From the perspective of generalization on clean data, previous works have proved the advantage of exploiting LD in multi-label classification. To further verify the positive role of LD in multi-label classification and address previous limitations, we originally propose an approach named Prototypical Networks for Multi- Label Learning (PNML). Specially, PNML addresses multi-label classification from the angle of estimating the positive and negative class distribution of each label in a shared nonlinear embedding space. PNML achieves the State-Of-The-Art (SOTA) classification performance on clean data. From the perspective of robustness under evasion attack, as a pioneer, we firstly define the attackability of an multi-label classifier as the expected maximum number of flipped decision outputs by injecting budgeted perturbations to the feature distribution of data. Denote the attackability of a multi-label classifier as C∗, and the empirical evaluation of C∗ is an NP-hard problem. We thus develop a method named Greedy Attack Space Exploration (GASE) to estimate C∗ efficiently. More interestingly, we derive an information-theoretic upper bound for the adversarial risk faced by multi-label classifiers. The bound unveils the key factors determining the attackability of multi-label classifiers and points out the negative role of LD in multi-label classifiers’ adversarial robustness, i.e. LD helps the transfer of attack across labels, which makes multi-label classifiers more attackable. One step forward, inspired by the derived bound, we propose a Soft Attackability Estimator (SAE) and further develop Adversarial Robust Multi-label learning with regularized SAE (ARM-SAE) to improve the adversarial robustness of multi-label classifiers. This work gives a more comprehensive understanding of LD in multi-label learning. The exploiting of LD should be encouraged since its positive role in models’ generalization on clean data, but be restricted because of its negative role in models’ adversarial robustness.

<p>Denna uppsats handlar om hur ungdomar med lågt deltagande på NUEVO upplever hinder och möjligheter i normaliseringsprocessen. NUEVO är en institution som hjälper arbetslösa ungdomar som länge har varit arbetslösa eller som har speciellt svårt att få eller lyckas behålla ett jobb. Min studie är inriktad på de ungdomar som inte deltar så aktivt på NUEVO och varför det är så. Varför normaliseringsprocessen och avstämplingen av dessa ungdomar hindras av en lång avvikarkarriär som dessa ungdomar har. Det jag fick fram är att stämplingen historia har en stor påverkan på ungdomarnas nuvarande situation. Det skapar en större problematik att hjälpa dessa ungdomar att integreras i samhället. Sen fick jag även fram ett antal hinder som även dessa sätter käppar i hjulet för att avstämpla och normalisera ungdomarna. Även att det finns många positiva aspekter på NUEVO som är en motpol till det negativa. NUEVO har kommit en bit på vägen för att möta dessa ungdomar men ännu är det en bit kvar att gå. Av de sex intervjuerna jag gjorde fick jag fram kategorier för hinder för avstämpling, men även kategorier till försök till avstämpling, där ungdomarna förut språkade att NUEVO gjorde väldigt bra jobb. Det är de här ungdomarna och deras upplevelse som är det central i denna undersökning.</p>