Accurate rainfall forecasting using weather radar imagery has always been a crucial and predominant task in the field of meteorology [1], [2], [3] and [4]. Competitive Radial Basis Function Neural Networks (CRBFNN) [5] is one of the methods used for weather radar image based forecasting. Recently, an alternative CRBFNN based approach [6] was introduced to model the precipitation events. The difference between the techniques presented in [5] and [6] is in the approach used to model the rainfall image. Overall, it was shown that the modified CRBFNN approach [6] is more computationally efficient compared to the CRBFNN approach [5]. However, both techniques [5] and [6] share the same prediction stage. In this thesis, a different GRBFNN approach is presented for forecasting Gaussian envelope parameters. The proposed method investigates the concept of parameter dependency among Gaussian envelopes. Experimental results are also presented to illustrate the advantage of parameters prediction over the independent series prediction.

Cosmic rays at energies 10^18 eV and above are known as Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR). UHECR are charged particles that are accelerated by the biggest accelerators in our universe. Candidate accelerators generating these UHECR are super novas, black holes and neutron stars. But where and what these intergalactic accelerators is at large still unknown. One of the experiments in the forefront of research in this eld is JEM-EUSO, a planed space based telescope for detecting UHECR particles as they enter Earth's atmosphere. Made possible by the advances in photon detectors and light weighted Fresnel lenses. A ground based path nder experiment was carried out in 2015 called EUSO-TA to test the optics and photomultiplier technologies. When the UHECR enters the atmosphere it collides with the atoms generating a number of secondary particles which in turn interacts with other atoms in the atmosphere generating a cascade of secondary particles. These trails are known as Extensive Air Showers (EAS). Mostly electrons are generated and in turn they excites the nitrogen atoms in the atmosphere which generate a isotropic characteristic uorescence light. The JEM-EUSO telescope is designed to detect and measure the photon ux. From the photon ux it will be able to estimate the energy of the initial UHECR. JEM-EUSO will cover the largest area of EAS search and increase statistics of UHECR data. This thesis describes the method and development of algorithms made for EAS analysis and detection based on EUSO-TA data. A simulation of EUSO-TA focal surface was developed, simulating background, stars and EAS. The algorithms developed involves a background subtracting lter, line detection using Hough transform and a neural network for decision making. The Hough transform is used in computer vision and is a method used to detect lines in the pictures. It successfully identi ed both simulated and captured UHECR incoming direction with small errors. Neural network are a machine learning method used classi cation and regression problems. With the use of know example data simulated or real captured data a neural network can without explicit programing it, adjust its parameters to t the data. Based on method called supervised learning. The algorithms was programed in Python and using ROOT software to build the neural network. The resulting algorithm was able to successfully detect simulated data. Test on the EUSO-TA captured data shows a promising result but has to be developed and tested further.

Today, there is a substantial number of software and research groups that focus on the development of image processing software to extract useful information from medical images, in order to assist and improve patient diagnosis. The work presented in this thesis is centred on processing of images of blood and bone marrow smears of patients suffering from leukaemia, a common type of cancer. In general, cancer is due to aberrant gene expression, which is caused by either mutations or epigenetic changes in DNA. Poor diet and unhealthy lifestyle may trigger or contribute to these changes, although the underlying mechanism is often unknown. Importantly, many cancer types including leukaemia are curable and patient survival and treatment can be improved, subject to prompt diagnosis. In particular, this study focuses on Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML), which can be of eight distinct types (M0 to M7), with the main objective to develop a methodology to automatically detect and classify leukaemia cells into one of the above types. The data was collected from the Department of Haematology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, in Malaysia. Three main methods, namely Cellular Automata, Heuristic Search and classification using Neural Networks are facilitated. In the case of Cellular Automata, an improved method based on the 8-neighbourhood and rules were developed to remove noise from images and estimate the radius of the potential blast cells contained in them. The proposed methodology selects the starting points, corresponding to potential blast cells, for the subsequent seeded heuristic search. The Seeded Heuristic employs a new fitness function for blast cell detection. Furthermore, the WEKA software is utilised for classification of blast cells and hence images, into AML subtypes. As a result accuracy of 97.22% was achieved in the classification of blasts into M3 and other AML subtypes. Finally, these algorithms are integrated into an automated system for image processing. In brief, the research presented in this thesis involves the use of advanced computational techniques for processing and classification of medical images, that is, images of blood samples from patients suffering from leukaemia.

Millions of somatic mutations in human cancers have been identified by sequenc- ing. Identifying and distinguishing cancer driver genes amongst the millions of candi- date mutations remains a major challenge. Accurate identification of driver genes and mutations is essential for the progress of cancer research and personalizing treatment based on accurate stratification of patients. Because of inter-tumor genetic hetero- geneity, numerous driver mutations within a gene can be found at low frequencies. This makes them difficult to differentiate from other non-driver mutations. Inspired by these challenges, we devised a novel way of identifying cancer driver genes. Our approach utilizes multiple complementary types of information, specifically cellular phenotypes, cellular locations, function, and whole body physiological phenotypes as features. We demonstrate that our method can accurately identify known cancer driver genes and distinguish between their role in different types of cancer. In ad- dition to identifying known driver genes, we identify several novel candidate driver genes. We provide an external evaluation of the predicted genes using a dataset of 26 nasopharyngeal cancer samples that underwent whole exome sequencing. We find that the predicted driver genes have a significantly higher rate of mutation than non-driver genes, both in publicly available data and in the nasopharyngeal cancer samples we use for validation. Additionally, we characterize sub-networks of genes that are jointly involved in specific tumors.

During several decades the stock market has been an area of interest forresearchers due to its complexity, noise, uncertainty and nonlinearity of thedata. Most of the studies regarding this area use a classical stochastics method,an example of this is ARIMA which is a standard approach for time seriesprediction. There is however another method for prediction of the stock marketthat is gaining traction in the recent years; Artificial Neural Network (ANN).This method has mostly been used in research on the American and Asian stockmarkets so far. Therefore, the purpose of this essay was to explore if ArtificialNeural Network could be used instead of ARIMA to predict the Swedish stockmarket (OMXS30). The study used data from the Swedish Stock Marketbetween 1991-07-09 to 2018-12-28 for the training of the ARIMA model anda forecast data that ranged between 2019-01-02 to 2019-04-26. The forecastdata of the ANN was composed of 80% of the data between 1991-07-09 to2019-04-26 and the evaluation data was composed of the remaining 20%. TheANN architecture had one input layer with chunks of 20 consecutive days asinput, followed by three Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) hidden layers with128 neurons in each layer, followed by another hidden layer with RectifiedLinear Unit (ReLU) containing 32 neurons, followed by the output layercontaining 2 neurons with softmax activation. The results showed that theANN, with an accuracy of 0,9892, could be a successful method to forecast theSwedish stock market instead of ARIMA.

To combat fake news, researchers mostly focused on detecting fake news and journalists built and maintained fact-checking sites (e.g., Snopes.com and Politifact.com). However, fake news dissemination has been greatly promoted by social media sites, and these fact-checking sites have not been fully utilized. To overcome these problems and complement existing methods against fake news, in this thesis, we propose a deep-learning based fact-checking URL recommender system to mitigate impact of fake news in social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. In particular, our proposed framework consists of a multi-relational attentive module and a heterogeneous graph attention network to learn complex/semantic relationship between user-URL pairs, user-user pairs, and URL-URL pairs. Extensive experiments on a real-world dataset show that our proposed framework outperforms seven state-of-the-art recommendation models, achieving at least 3~5.3% improvement.

The quantitative study of conflict management is concerned with finding models which are accurate and also capable of providing a causal interpretation of results. This dissertation applies computational intelligence methods to study interstate disputes. Both multilayer perceptron neural networks and Takagi-Sugeno neuro-fuzzy models are used to model interstate interactions. The multilayer perceptron neural network is trained in the Bayesian framework, using the Hybrid Monte Carlo method to sample from the posterior probabilities. It is found that the network is able to forecast conflict with an accuracy of 77.3%. A hybrid machine learning method using the neural network and the genetic algorithm is then presented as a method of suggesting how conflict can be brought under control. The automatic relevance determination approach and the sensitivity analysis are used as methods of extracting causal information from the neural network. The Takagi-Sugeno neuro-fuzzy model is optimised, using the Gustafson-Kessel clustering algorithm to partion the input space. It is found that the neuro-fuzzy model predicts conflict with an accuracy of 80.1%. The neuro-fuzzy model is also incorporated into the hybrid machine learning method to suggest how the identified conflict cases can be avoided. The casual interpretation is then formulated by a linguistic approximation of the fuzzy rules extracted from the neuro-fuzzy model. The major finding in this work is that the interpretations drawn from both the neural network and the neuro-fuzzy model are consistent.

A monitoração de variáveis e o diagnóstico de falhas é um aspecto importante a se considerar seja em plantas nucleares ou indústrias de processos, pois um diagnóstico precoce de falha permite a correção do problema proporcionando a não interrupção da produção e a segurança do operador e, assim, não causando perdas econômicas. O objetivo deste trabalho é, dentro do universo de todas as variáveis monitoradas de um processo, construir um conjunto de variáveis, não necessariamente mínimo, que será a entrada de uma rede neural e, com isso, conseguir monitorar, o maior número possível de variáveis. Esta metodologia foi aplicada ao reator de pesquisas IEA-R1 do IPEN. Para isso, as variáveis Potência do reator, Vazão do primário, Posição de barras de controle/segurança e Diferença de pressão no núcleo do reator D P, foram agrupadas, pois por hipótese quase todas as variáveis monitoradas em um reator nuclear tem relação com alguma dessas ou pode ser resultado da interação de duas ou mais. Por exemplo, a Potência está relacionada ao aumento e diminuição de algumas temperaturas bem como à quantidade de radiação devido à fissão do urânio; as Barras são reguladoras de potência e, por conseqüência podem influenciar na quantidade de radiação e/ou temperaturas; a Vazão do Circuito Primário, responsável pelo transporte de energia e pela conseqüente retirada de calor do núcleo. Assim, tomando o grupo de variáveis mencionadas, calculamos a correlação existente entre este conjunto B e todas as outras variáveis monitoradas (coeficiente de correlação múltipla), isto é, através do cálculo da correlação múltipla, que é uma ferramenta proposta pela teoria das Correlações Canônicas, foi possível calcular o quanto o conjunto B pode predizer cada uma das variáveis monitoradas. Uma vez que não seja possível uma boa qualidade de predição com o conjunto B, é acrescentada uma ou mais variáveis que possuam alta correlação com a variável melhorando a qualidade de predição. Finalmente, uma rede pode ser treinada com o novo conjunto e os resultados quanto a monitoração foram bastante satisfatórios quanto às 64 variáveis monitoradas pelo sistema de aquisição de dados do reator IEA-R1 através de sensores e atuadores , pois com um conjunto de 9 variáveis foi possível monitorar 51 variáveis. / The monitoring of variables and diagnosis of sensor fault in nuclear power plants or processes industries is very important because an early diagnosis allows the correction of the fault and, like this, do not cause the production interruption, improving operators security and its not provoking economics losses. The objective of this work is, in the whole of all variables monitor of a nuclear power plant, to build a set, not necessary minimum, which will be the set of input variables of an artificial neural network and, like way, to monitor the biggest number of variables. This methodology was applied to the IEA-R1 Research Reactor at IPEN. For this, the variables Power, Rate of flow of primary circuit, Rod of control/security and Difference in pressure in the core of the reactor ( D P) was grouped, because, for hypothesis, almost whole of monitoring variables have relation with the variables early described or its effect can be result of the interaction of two or more. The Power is related to the increasing and decreasing of temperatures as well as the amount radiation due fission of the uranium; the Rods are controls of power and influence in the amount of radiation and increasing and decreasing of temperatures and the Rate of flow of primary circuit has function of the transport of energy by removing of heat of the nucleus Like this, labeling B= {Power, Rate of flow of Primary Circuit, Rod of Control/Security and D P} was computed the correlation between B and all another variables monitoring (coefficient of multiple correlation), that is, by the computer of the multiple correlation, that is tool of Theory of Canonical Correlations, was possible to computer how much the set B can predict each variable. Due the impossibility of a satisfactory approximation by B in the prediction of some variables, it was included one or more variables that have high correlation with this variable to improve the quality of prediction. In this work an artificial neural network was trained and the results were satisfactory since the IEA-R1 Data Acquisition System reactor monitors 64 variables and, with a set of 9 input variables resulting from the correlation analysis, it was possible to monitor 51 variables using neural networks.

Os estudos na área de Monitoração e Diagnóstico de Falhas têm sido estimulados devido ao aumento crescente em qualidade, confiabilidade e segurança nos processos de produção, onde a interrupção da produção por alguma anomalia imprevista pode colocar em risco a segurança do operador, além de provocar perdas econômicas, aumentando os custos com a reparação de algum equipamento danificado. Tendo em vista estes dois fatores, o fator econômico e a própria questão de segurança do operador, torna-se necessário a implementação de Sistemas de Monitoração e Detecção de Falhas. Neste trabalho foi desenvolvido um Sistema de Monitoração e Detecção de Falhas usando a metodologia de Redes Neurais Artificiais que foi aplicado ao reator de pesquisas IEA-R1. O desenvolvimento deste sistema foi dividido em três etapas: sendo a primeira etapa dedicada à monitoração, a segunda a detecção, e a terceira ao diagnóstico de falhas. Na primeira etapa, foram treinadas diversas Redes Neurais Artificiais para a monitoração das variáveis de temperatura, potência e taxa de dose. Para tanto foram utilizadas duas bases dados: uma contendo dados gerados por um modelo teórico do reator, e outra contendo dados referentes a uma semana típica de operação. Na segunda etapa, as redes treinadas para realizar a monitoração das variáveis, foram testadas com uma base de dados contendo falhas inseridas artificialmente nos sensores de temperatura. Como o limite máximo de erro de calibração para termopares especiais é de , foram inseridas falhas de ± nos sensores responsáveis pela leitura das variáveis T3 e T4. Na terceira etapa foi desenvolvido um Sistema Fuzzy para realizar o diagnóstico de falhas, onde foram consideradas 3 condições possíveis de falhas: condição normal, falha de −, e falha de , sendo que o sistema desenvolvido indicará qual o sensor de temperatura está com falha. Cº5,0±Cº1Cº1Cº1+ / The increasing demand on quality in production processes has encouraged the development of several studies on Monitoring and Diagnosis Systems in industrial plant, where the interruption of the production due to some unexpected change can bring risk to the operator\'s security besides provoking economic losses, increasing the costs to repair some damaged equipment. Because of these two points, the economic losses and the operator\'s security, it becomes necessary to implement Monitoring and Diagnosis Systems. In this work, a Monitoring and Diagnosis Systems was developed based on the Artificial Neural Networks methodology. This methodology was applied to the IEA-R1 research reactor at IPEN. The development of this system was divided in three stages: the first was dedicated to monitoring, the second to the detection and the third to diagnosis of failures. In the first stage, several Artificial Neural Networks were trained to monitor the temperature variables, nuclear power and dose rate. Two databases were used: one with data generated by a theoretical model and another one with data to a typical week of operation of the IEA-R1 reactor. In the second stage, the neural networks used to monitor the variables was tested with a fault database. The faults were inserted artificially in the sensors signals. As the value of the maximum calibration error for special thermocouples is , it had been inserted faults of in the sensors for the reading of the variables T3 and T4. In the third stage a Fuzzy System was developed to carry out the faults diagnosis, where were considered three conditions: a normal condition, a fault of , and a fault of . This system will indicate which thermocouple is faulty. Cº5,0±Cº1Cº1±−Cº1+

Thesis advisor: John P. Christianson / Accurate discrimination between safety and danger is necessary for survival, but is aberrant in individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Despite its clinical relevance, very little is known about the cognitive and neural processes that underlie safety learning. Understanding how cues become safety signals is critical to understanding the impairments in fear modulation observed in individuals with PTSD. PTSD is more prevalent in women than men, and while research on sex differences in safety learning is limited, there is substantial evidence that males and females acquire and utilize safety signals differently. The aim of this dissertation is to describe behavioral sex differences in learning and recall of fear discrimination and explore the neural circuitry that allows this discrimination to occur. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Psychology.