An Artificial Immune System for Fake News Classification

Det har blitt observert en eksplosiv vekst av upålitelige nyhetsartikler de siste årene. Disse nyhetsartiklene blir ofte referert til som ”fake news” og det har blitt vist at disse kan ha alvorlige innvirkninger på demokratiske prosesser. Behovet for nøyaktige, adaptive og effektive filtreringsmodeller har dermed blitt mer og mer tydelig. Det biologiske immunforsvaret består av naturlige prosesser som beskytter kroppen mot fremmede smittestoffer. Disse smittestoffene kan være virus, bakterier, sopp eller parasitter. En sentral del av dette er å skille disse fremmedstoffene fra kroppens egne celler, et problem som er tett knyttet til klassifisering. Videre er immunforsvaret kjent for å være både tilpasningsdyktig, selvorganiserende og robust, noe som har inspirert mange forskere til å hente inspirasjon fra immunforsvaret når de designer klassifiseringsmodeller. Slike modeller er ofte kjent som kunstige immunsystemer (Artificial Immune System, AIS). Disse forsøker å etterape de bakenforliggende prosessene til biologiske immunsystemer, for å oppnå lignende grader av effektivitet. Et kjent applikasjonsdomene er filtrering av spam e-post, hvor AIS-modeller har oppnådd lovende resultater. Denne oppgaven har vært rettet mot å undersøke om et kunstig immunsystem kan brukes på klassifisering av fake news, med samme suksess som for e-post spam. En klassifiseringsmodell ble designet fra bunnen av, basert på diverse eksisterende AIS-modeller. Modelldesignet har vært vridd spesifikt opp imot fake news klassifisering. Videre ble omfattende uthentingsstrategier implementert, for å hente ut tall (som videre kan brukes til klassifisering) fra nyhetsartiklene. Disse strategiene er basert på skrivestilen som er brukt i nyhetsartiklene. Til slutt ble modellen testet på tre ulike fake news datasett. De oppnådde resultatene er kompetitive med flere moderne klassifiseringsmodeller, selv om modellen har noe problemer med å forbedre nøyaktigheten over tid. Likevel indikerer disse resultatene at å bruke en AIS-modell på dette applikasjonsdomenet har betydelig potensial.An explosive growth of misleading and untrustworthy news articles has been observed over the last years. These news articles are often referred to as fake news and have been found to severely impact fair elections and democratic values. As such, the need for accurate, adaptive and computationally effective classification models is clear. The biological immune system is a network of biological processes which protects its host from foreign pathogens, distinguishing them from the host’s own cells. The immune system is inherently adaptive, self-organising and robust, which has inspired several computational classification models. Such models are known as Artificial Immune Systems (AIS), which seek to utilize the underlying principles and properties of the biological immune system to produce similar levels of effectiveness on computational applications. One such application is e-mail spam detection, for which the nature of immune systems is inherently suited. Such applications, which apply AIS models to text classification, have shown promising potential. This thesis investigates whether an Artificial Immune System could be applied to the classification of fake news articles with similar success as found for e-mail spam detection. An AIS fake news classification model was designed, based on various existing models – tuned to the needs of fake news classification. Further, comprehensive feature extraction strategies were implemented and analyzed, based on the linguistic writing styles of the news articles. Finally, the model was tested on three distinct fake news datasets. Notably, the accuracy scores obtained beat those of several state of the art models, suggesting there is considerable potential in this AIS application

Colonization of experimentally arranged resource patches - a case study of fungivorous beetles

The study focuses on a colonization experiment of beetles, using sporocarps of tinder fungus Fomes fomentarius. Initially, a mapping of all sporocarps of F. fomentarius and its inhabitants was made in a 225 ha area of boreal forest in southern Norway (control dataset). 62% of the sporocarps contained one or more beetle individuals. Experimental sporocarps were then placed out for three years, collected and dissected. 21% of these were colonized. The comparison between control and experiment showed that species assemblages were rather similar. Successful between-tree colonization and reproduction in experimental sporocarps by the darkling beetle Bolitophagus reticulatus was observed. Cis jacquemartii colonized 14% of the experimental sporocarps, and there was no effect of distance from known dispersal sources on colonization for this species. This indicates that C. jacquemartii was well able to locate and colonize new substrate within the scale covered in the study

Ecotourism in Marine Protected Areas: A Social-Ecological Resilience-based Analysis of the Galapagos Marine Reserve

The current status of the Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR), a vulnerable state characterized by multi-stakeholder conflict and environmental degradation, suggests that a thorough investigation of the interconnected and multifaceted impacts of ecotourism in the GMR on the Galapagos as a coupled social-ecological system is needed. To approach this, the thesis asks the following research question: What are the social-ecological opportunities, risks, and limits of ecotourism in marine protected areas? Building upon secondary sources, this thesis argues that approaching ecotourism using a resilience conceptual framework of social- ecological systems can provide insights into the ways various components of a complex system interact across scales. Applying resilience theory to the case of the GMR, the thesis addresses certain limits of ecotourism that may contribute to the erosion of the system’s social and ecological resilience, as well as opportunities to strengthen or maintain it. The findings from this thesis suggest that ecotourism in marine protected areas presents opportunities for encouraging marine conservation and environmental awareness, increasing funds for further conservation initiatives, benefitting the local economy, and for forming a participatory, equitable, and sustainable approach to tourism. Further, the thesis argues that the room for failure is substantial and that if not conducted in a holistic, just, and sustainable manner, “ecotourism” may contribute to environmental degradation, lead to the concentrating of funds from tourism in the hands of foreign companies, and result in a situation characterized by top-down decision-making and low levels of local participation. This, in turn, can negatively impact local people’s rights, livelihoods, and economies. The thesis concludes that a Galapagos system in the latter state will be less resilient and, hence, less able to adapt to changes and perturbations that tourism inevitably brings. Invoking an adaptive co- management approach to MPAs and ecotourism is suggested as a potential conceptual tool for achieving the goal of ecotourism being both ecologically and socially sustainable

Modeling and Simulation of an Active Hydraulic Heave Compensation System for Offshore Cranes

This thesis deals with the mathematical modeling of hydraulic heave compensation systems. When performing operations such as launch and recovery of remote operated vehicles and lowering subsea installation parts to the sea floor, it is important to attenuate unwanted load motion caused by elongation of the cable and heave motion of the vessel. Quite often, such operations must be put off while waiting for the weather to calm down. Extending the window of operations by developing equipment that can handle varying sea states can result in significant cost savings. There exist both electric and hydraulic heave compensation devices, but the main focus of this thesis is on the hydraulic configurations. A mathematical model is developed in Simulink, and simulations are performed for long-crested seas with values corresponding to the average sea conditions in the North Sea

Chapter 8 Boycotts of Europe in Xi Jinping’s New Era

This book offers a sustained, historically grounded analysis of the identity factor in China-Europe relations. The identity of the modern Chinese state was forged in the context of European emissaries, gunboats, and books. The effects still shape China’s policies towards Europe today, as it becomes a focal point in the great power competition between the US and China. The author argues that identity dilemmas are central to Chinese Europe policies, both past and present. This is reflected in the two-pronged composition of the book; one historical section, combined and complemented with one contemporary section. Case studies of three key political flashpoints between the EU, individual European countries, and China over the last two decades, demonstrates the contemporary relevance of a set of identity issues whose deep roots are uncovered through analysing Chinese political texts from the preceding two centuries. Aimed primarily at scholars and students of Chinese and European international relations, this book will also be of interest to scholars of ontological security theory, constructivism, and other identity-driven approaches to international politics

Chapter 1 Introducing the China-Europe Identity Issue

This book offers a sustained, historically grounded analysis of the identity factor in China-Europe relations. The identity of the modern Chinese state was forged in the context of European emissaries, gunboats, and books. The effects still shape China’s policies towards Europe today, as it becomes a focal point in the great power competition between the US and China. The author argues that identity dilemmas are central to Chinese Europe policies, both past and present. This is reflected in the two-pronged composition of the book; one historical section, combined and complemented with one contemporary section. Case studies of three key political flashpoints between the EU, individual European countries, and China over the last two decades, demonstrates the contemporary relevance of a set of identity issues whose deep roots are uncovered through analysing Chinese political texts from the preceding two centuries. Aimed primarily at scholars and students of Chinese and European international relations, this book will also be of interest to scholars of ontological security theory, constructivism, and other identity-driven approaches to international politics

Chapter 2 Ontological Security with Chinese Characteristics?

This book offers a sustained, historically grounded analysis of the identity factor in China-Europe relations. The identity of the modern Chinese state was forged in the context of European emissaries, gunboats, and books. The effects still shape China’s policies towards Europe today, as it becomes a focal point in the great power competition between the US and China. The author argues that identity dilemmas are central to Chinese Europe policies, both past and present. This is reflected in the two-pronged composition of the book; one historical section, combined and complemented with one contemporary section. Case studies of three key political flashpoints between the EU, individual European countries, and China over the last two decades, demonstrates the contemporary relevance of a set of identity issues whose deep roots are uncovered through analysing Chinese political texts from the preceding two centuries. Aimed primarily at scholars and students of Chinese and European international relations, this book will also be of interest to scholars of ontological security theory, constructivism, and other identity-driven approaches to international politics