Papers by Botambu Collins
The book explains the dynamics of security challenges in the Central African sub-region. The ten ... more The book explains the dynamics of security challenges in the Central African sub-region. The ten member-states of ECCAS in theory possess billions of dollars in natural resources but a contradiction characterized the sub-region as it's one of the poorest in the world amid bad governance, persistent coup d'etats and above all growing insecurity which had plunged the sub-region into chaos. Due to this security challenges, the agendas of the Regional economic cooperation of the Central African block referred to as ECCAS has shifted from economic matters (area of low politics) to security issues (area of high politics).
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2020
The recurrent nature of terrorist attacks in recent times has ushered in a new wave of study in t... more The recurrent nature of terrorist attacks in recent times has ushered in a new wave of study in the field of terrorism known as social network analysis (SNA). Terrorist groups operate as a social network in a stealthy manner to enhance their survival thereby making sure their activities are unperturbed. Graphical modeling of the terrorist network in order to uncloak their target is an NP-complete problem. In this study, we assume that the terrorist group usually confine themselves in a neighborhood that is conducive or regarded as a safe haven. The conducive nature of the environment ramified the terrorist action process from areas of low action (soft target) to areas of high action (maximally lethal target). It is the desired of every terrorist to be maximally lethal, therefore curbing terrorist activities becomes a crucial issue. This study explores the 9/11 event and examines the M-19 network that carried out the attack. We use a combination of methods to rank vertices in the network to show their role. Using the 4-centrality measures, we rank the vertices to get the most connected nodes in the network. The betweenness centrality and traversing graph shortest path are calculated as well. We opine that in curbing terrorist network activities, the removal of a vertex with high centrality measures is a condition sine qua non. We further examine the lethality of the network as well as network bonding to get the degree of cohesiveness which is a crucial determinant for network survival. The experimental results show that M-01 is the most important vertex in the network and that timing is a salient feature in unveiling network lethality. We posit that more study is required to include the global network that was involved in the 9/11 event.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2021
Social networks are increasingly proving to be the core of today's web. Identifying the influence... more Social networks are increasingly proving to be the core of today's web. Identifying the influence on social networks is an area of research that presents many open issues. The challenge is finding ways that can effectively calculate and classify users according to criteria that suit them closer to reality. In this paper, we proposed a new method for measuring user influence on social networks. The influence of a user measures by taking into account the activity and the popularity of the user. We use Twitter as a case study for our method. Experiments show that our method achieves promising results in comparison to other methods.
IEEE Access, 2022
The perennial nature of terrorist attacks in recent times has ushered in a new wave of study in t... more The perennial nature of terrorist attacks in recent times has ushered in a new wave of study in the field of terrorism known as social network analysis (SNA). Terrorist groups operate as a social network stealthily to enhance their efficacy rate, thereby making sure their activities are cloaked. This study proposes a new method to uncover and dismantle a terror network by applying a 4-centrality measure. After establishing link prediction using centrality measures, we dismantle the network based on Galton-Watson extinction probability. This study examines the 9/11 incident and measures the link prediction of the M-19 network. In curbing terrorist network activities, the elimination of a highly ranked node in the network is a condition sine qua non. We further examine the lethality of the network as well as network bonding to obtain the degree of cohesiveness, which is a crucial determinant for network survival. Our experimental results indicate that link prediction is vital in uncloaking a terror network, which is the core of counterterrorism. INDEX TERMS Modeling terrorist network, network bonding, modeling lethality, terrorist network cohesiveness, M-19 network, 4-centrality measures, Galton-Watson extinction.
Advances in intelligent systems and computing, Dec 20, 2019
The security and welfare of any country are very crucial with states investing heavily to protect... more The security and welfare of any country are very crucial with states investing heavily to protect their territorial integrity from external aggression. However, the increase in the act of terrorism has given birth to a new form of security challenges. Terrorism has caused untold suffering and damages to civilian lives and properties and hence, finding a lasting solution to terrorism becomes inevitable. Until recently, the discourse on the nature and means of combating terrorism have largely been debated by politicians or statesmen. This study attempts an appraisal of machine learning survey on models in preventing terrorism via forecasting. Since the act of terrorism is dynamic in nature, i.e. their strategies change as counterterrorism methods are improved thereby requiring a more sophisticated way of predicting their moves. Some models discussed in this study include the Hawkes process, STONE, SNA, TGPM, and Dynamic Bayesian Network (DBN) which are all geared towards predicting the likelihood of a terrorist attack.
Cybernetics and Systems, Jan 20, 2021
Abstract Reviewing is the most important step in the quality accreditation of scientific works, r... more Abstract Reviewing is the most important step in the quality accreditation of scientific works, requires the professional expertise of the reviewer as well as there is no conflict of interest in the evaluation process. However, we also acknowledge that reviewers have limited knowledge, experience and opinions about the work of others, so they may misinterpret the author’s point of view, leading to the rejection of excellent scientific work or a potentially successful project proposal. Manually selecting reviewers can lead to bias and time-consuming. To solve these problems, we have developed a support system for selecting a group of reviewers to evaluate a particular problem, such as a proposal or a research paper. Our support system consists of three main modules: data collection, reviewer identification and group prediction of reviewers. The Data Collection module collects data from a variety of sources to create the scientist profile database. The reviewer identification module recognizes reviewers on a specific topic. The reviewer prediction module provides a group of exp reviewers to evaluate a submitted paper or a proposal. Experiments on the DBLP computer science bibliography dataset showed that our system achieves better results in terms of accuracy in comparison to other methods.
Communications in computer and information science, 2020
Fake news has gained prominence since the 2016 US presidential election as well as the Brexit ref... more Fake news has gained prominence since the 2016 US presidential election as well as the Brexit referendum. Fake news has abused not only the press but also the democratic rules. Therefore, the need to restrict and eliminate it becomes inevitable. The popularity of fake news on social media has made people unwilling to engage in sharing positive news for fear that the information is false. The main problem with fake news is how quickly it spreads to social media.
Journal of information and telecommunication, Nov 27, 2020
ABSTRACT Social media following its introduction has witnessed a lot of scholarly attention in re... more ABSTRACT Social media following its introduction has witnessed a lot of scholarly attention in recent years due to its growing popularity. These various social media sites have become the mecca of information because of their less costly and easy accessibility. Although these sites were developed to enhance our lives, they are seen as both angelic and vicious. Growing misinformation and fake content by malicious users have not only plagued our online social media ecosystem into chaos, but it also meted untold suffering to humankind. Recently, social media has witnessed a reverberation amid the proliferation of fake news which has made people reluctant to engage in genuine news sharing for fear that such information is false. Consequently, there is a dire need for these fake content to be detected and removed from social media. This study explores the various methods of combating fake news on social media such as Natural Language Processing, Hybrid model. We surmised that detecting fake news is a challenging and complex issue, however, it remains a workable task. Revelation in this study holds that the application of hybrid-machine learning techniques and the collective effort of humans could stand a higher chance of fighting misinformation on social media.
IEEE Access
The perennial nature of terrorist attacks in recent times has ushered in a new wave of study in t... more The perennial nature of terrorist attacks in recent times has ushered in a new wave of study in the field of terrorism known as social network analysis (SNA). Terrorist groups operate as a social network stealthily to enhance their efficacy rate, thereby making sure their activities are cloaked. This study proposes a new method to uncover and dismantle a terror network by applying a 4-centrality measure. After establishing link prediction using centrality measures, we dismantle the network based on Galton-Watson extinction probability. This study examines the 9/11 incident and measures the link prediction of the M-19 network. In curbing terrorist network activities, the elimination of a highly ranked node in the network is a condition sine qua non. We further examine the lethality of the network as well as network bonding to obtain the degree of cohesiveness, which is a crucial determinant for network survival. Our experimental results indicate that link prediction is vital in uncloaking a terror network, which is the core of counterterrorism. INDEX TERMS Modeling terrorist network, network bonding, modeling lethality, terrorist network cohesiveness, M-19 network, 4-centrality measures, Galton-Watson extinction.
Computational Collective Intelligence, 2020
The introduction of the online social media system has unquestionably facilitated communication a... more The introduction of the online social media system has unquestionably facilitated communication as well as being a prime and cheap source of information. However, despite these numerous advantages, the social media system remains a double-edged sword. Recently, the online social media ecosystem although fast becoming the primary source of information has become the medium for misinformation and other malicious attacks. These malicious attacks are further exacerbated by the use of social bots that have implacable consequences to victims. In this study, we examine the various methods employed by experts and academia to detect and curb Sybils attack. We define and explain three types of social bots such as the good, the bad and the ugly. We surmised that although the various social media giants have peddled in orthogonal techniques to uncloak and perturb Sybils activities, the adversaries are also working on a robust method to evade detection, hence, a heuristic approach including hybrid crowdsourced-machine learning technique is required to avert future attacks.
Intelligent Information and Database Systems, 2021
Social networks are increasingly proving to be the core of today's web. Identifying the influence... more Social networks are increasingly proving to be the core of today's web. Identifying the influence on social networks is an area of research that presents many open issues. The challenge is finding ways that can effectively calculate and classify users according to criteria that suit them closer to reality. In this paper, we proposed a new method for measuring user influence on social networks. The influence of a user measures by taking into account the activity and the popularity of the user. We use Twitter as a case study for our method. Experiments show that our method achieves promising results in comparison to other methods.
The book explains the dynamics of security challenges in the Central African sub-region. The ten ... more The book explains the dynamics of security challenges in the Central African sub-region. The ten member-states of ECCAS in theory possess billions of dollars in natural resources but a contradiction characterized the sub-region as it's one of the poorest in the world amid bad governance, persistent coup d'etats and above all growing insecurity which had plunged the sub-region into chaos. Due to this security challenges, the agendas of the Regional economic cooperation of the Central African block referred to as ECCAS has shifted from economic matters (area of low politics) to security issues (area of high politics).
The recurrent nature of terrorist attacks in recent times has ushered in a new wave of study in t... more The recurrent nature of terrorist attacks in recent times has ushered in a new wave of study in the field of terrorism known as social network analysis (SNA). Terrorist groups operate as a social network in a stealthy manner to enhance their survival thereby making sure their activities are unperturbed. Graphical modeling of the terrorist network in order to uncloak their target is an NP-complete problem. In this study, we assume that the terrorist group usually confine themselves in a neighborhood that is conducive or regarded as a safe haven. The conducive nature of the environment ramified the terrorist action process from areas of low action (soft target) to areas of high action (maximally lethal target). It is the desired of every terrorist to be maximally lethal, therefore curbing terrorist activities becomes a crucial issue. This study explores the 9/11 event and examines the M-19 network that carried out the attack. We use a combination of methods to rank vertices in the net...
Journal of Information and Telecommunication, 2020
ABSTRACT Social media following its introduction has witnessed a lot of scholarly attention in re... more ABSTRACT Social media following its introduction has witnessed a lot of scholarly attention in recent years due to its growing popularity. These various social media sites have become the mecca of information because of their less costly and easy accessibility. Although these sites were developed to enhance our lives, they are seen as both angelic and vicious. Growing misinformation and fake content by malicious users have not only plagued our online social media ecosystem into chaos, but it also meted untold suffering to humankind. Recently, social media has witnessed a reverberation amid the proliferation of fake news which has made people reluctant to engage in genuine news sharing for fear that such information is false. Consequently, there is a dire need for these fake content to be detected and removed from social media. This study explores the various methods of combating fake news on social media such as Natural Language Processing, Hybrid model. We surmised that detecting fake news is a challenging and complex issue, however, it remains a workable task. Revelation in this study holds that the application of hybrid-machine learning techniques and the collective effort of humans could stand a higher chance of fighting misinformation on social media.
Reviewing is the most important step in the quality accreditation of scientific works, requires t... more Reviewing is the most important step in the quality accreditation of scientific works, requires the professional expertise of the reviewer as well as there is no conflict of interest in the evaluation process. However, we also acknowledge that reviewers have limited knowledge, experience and opinions about the work of others, so they may misinterpret the author’s point of view, leading to the rejection of excellent scientific work or a potentially successful project proposal. Manually selecting reviewers can lead to bias and time-consuming. To solve these problems, we have developed a support system for selecting a group of reviewers to evaluate a particular problem, such as a proposal or a research paper. Our support system consists of three main modules: data collection, reviewer identification and group prediction of reviewers. The Data Collection module collects data from a variety of sources to create the scientist profile database. The reviewer identification module recognizes...
Advanced Computational Methods for Knowledge Engineering
The security and welfare of any country are very crucial with states investing heavily to protect... more The security and welfare of any country are very crucial with states investing heavily to protect their territorial integrity from external aggression. However, the increase in the act of terrorism has given birth to a new form of security challenges. Terrorism has caused untold suffering and damages to civilian lives and properties and hence, finding a lasting solution to terrorism becomes inevitable. Until recently, the discourse on the nature and means of combating terrorism have largely been debated by politicians or statesmen. This study attempts an appraisal of machine learning survey on models in preventing terrorism via forecasting. Since the act of terrorism is dynamic in nature, i.e. their strategies change as counterterrorism methods are improved thereby requiring a more sophisticated way of predicting their moves. Some models discussed in this study include the Hawkes process, STONE, SNA, TGPM, and Dynamic Bayesian Network (DBN) which are all geared towards predicting the likelihood of a terrorist attack.
Communications in Computer and Information Science
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Papers by Botambu Collins