University of Nebraska Omaha

About: University of Nebraska Omaha is a education organization based out in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 4526 authors who have published 8905 publications receiving 213914 citations. The organization is also known as: UNO & University of Omaha.

Facilitator-in-a-Box: Process Support Applications to Help Practitioners Realize the Potential of Collaboration Technology

Abstract: The potential benefits of collaboration technologies are typically realized only in groups led by collaboration experts. This raises the facilitator-in-the-box challenge: Can collaboration expertise be packaged with collaboration technology in a form that nonexperts can reuse with no training on either tools or techniques? We address that challenge with process support applications (PSAs). We describe a collaboration support system (CSS) that combines a computer-assisted collaboration engineering platform for creating PSAs with a process support system runtime platform for executing PSAs. We show that the CSS meets its design goals: (1) to reduce development cycles for collaboration systems, (2) to allow nonprogrammers to design and develop PSAs, and (3) to package enough expertise in the tools that nonexperts could execute a well-designed collaborative work process without training.

Ramp loss K-Support Vector Classification-Regression; a robust and sparse multi-class approach to the intrusion detection problem

Abstract: A robust and sparse multi-class approach for Multi-Class classification is proposed.The proposed method is based on Ramp loss K-Support Vector Classification-Regression.The CCCP procedure is used to solve a non-differentiable non-convex optimization problem.ADMM is adopted to make our model well-adapted for the large-scale setting.The results of Ramp-KSVCR show superior generalization power and low computational cost. Network intrusion detection problem is an ongoing challenging research area because of a huge number of traffic volumes, extremely imbalanced data sets, multi-class of attacks, constantly changing the nature of new attacks and the attackers methods. Since the traditional network protection methods fail to adequately protect the computer networks, the need for some sophisticated methodologies has been felt. In this paper, we develop a precise, sparse and robust methodology for multi-class intrusion detection problem based on the Ramp Loss K-Support Vector Classification-Regression, named Ramp-KSVCR. The main objectives of this research are to address the following issues; 1) Highly imbalanced and skewed attacks distribution; hence, we utilized the K-SVCR model as a core of our model; 2) Sensitivity of SVM and its extensions to the presence of noises and outliers in the training sets, to cope with this problem, Ramp loss function is implemented to our model; 3) and since the proposed Ramp-KSVCR model is a non-differentiable non-convex optimization problem, we took ConcaveConvex Procedure (CCCP) to solve this model. Furthermore, we introduced Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) procedure to make our model well-adapted to be applicable in the large-scale setting and to reduce the training time. The performance of the proposed method has been evaluated by some artificial data and also by conducting some experiments with the NSL-KDD data set and UNSW-NB15 as a recently published intrusion detection data set. Experimental results not only demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method over the traditional approaches tested against it in terms of generalization power and sparsity but also saving a considerable amount of computational time.

Long-run equilibrium and total expenditures in rent-seeking

Abstract: How important rent-seeking is as a part of the total monopolistic waste hinges on the size of the total expenditures induced by a given level of excess profits.1 Posner (1975) and Becker (1968) assert that total expenditures in the rent-seeking process will just equal the value of the rents to be gained although neither is specific about how this result would occur. This hypothesis has been adopted by those writing about rent-seeking and, more recently, it appears to have attained the status of an axiom (Foster, 1981). If rent-seeking could fit within the perfectly competitive model one would expect—in the long run—the equality of total expenditures and total revenues. The analogy with perfect competition, however, is not accurate. One difference is that the expenditures in rent-seeking are made to influence the probability of winning, not to cover the cost of production. Another is that in the case of one payoff only one competitor wins and obtains a positive return on his investment, the rest lose everything. Tullock (1980) shows that in a simple two-player lottery each player will maximize his expected value by investing one-quarter of the payoff at stake, not one-half, where total expenditures would equal the payoff. He goes on to show that the total expenditures can be greater, equal, or less than the payoff; the result depends upon the number of players and the marginal cost of influencing the probability of winning. Thus, it cannot be assumed, as first thought, that a given rental payoff will give rise to wasteful expenditures of equal value.

Adrenocorticotropin production by the intermediate lobe of the rat pituitary. An electron microscopic-immunohistochemical study

Abstract: Adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) was localized in the intermediate lobes of normal rat pituitaries with unlabeled antibody and the soluble peroxidase-antiperoxidase complex at the electron microscopic level. All of the intermediate lobe cells (light and dark cells) stained positively for ACTH. Stain of varying intensity was found on secretory granules and vesicles. Structures which resembled rough endoplasmic reticulum stained where the secretory granules and vesicles were most numerous. No stain was on mitochondria, in nuclei, in cisternae and granules of Golgi complexes, or in rough endoplasmic reticulum where there were few secretory granules. There were distinct immunohistochemical differences between the pars intermedia and anterior lobe ACTH cells. In the ACTH cells of the anterior lobe, the Golgi complex and its granules stained strongly, but not at all in the pars intermedia cells. This suggests that ACTH may not be packaged or condensed in the Golgi region of the latter.