The widespread use of social media highlights the need to understand its impact, particularly the role of online social support. This study uses a dataset focused on online social support, which includes binary and multiclass classifications of social support content on social media. The classification of social support is divided into three tasks. The first task focuses on distinguishing between supportive and non-supportive. The second task aims to identify whether the support is directed toward an individual or a group. The third task categorizes the specific type of social support, grouping it into categories such as Nation, LGBTQ, Black people, Women, Religion, and Other (if it does not fit into the previously mentioned categories). To address data imbalances in these tasks, we employed K-means clustering for balancing the dataset and compared the results with the original unbalanced data. Using advanced machine learning techniques, including transformers and zero-shot learning approaches with GPT3, GPT4, and GPT4-o, we predict social support levels in various contexts. The effectiveness of the dataset is evaluated using baseline models across different learning approaches, with transformer-based methods demonstrating superior performance. Additionally, we achieved a 0.4\% increase in the macro F1 score for the second task and a 0.7\% increase for the third task, compared to previous work utilizing traditional machine learning with psycholinguistic and unigram-based TF-IDF values.

Musical instrument classification, a key area in Music Information Retrieval, has gained considerable interest due to its applications in education, digital music production, and consumer media. Recent advances in machine learning, specifically deep learning, have enhanced the capability to identify and classify musical instruments from audio signals. This study applies various machine learning methods, including Naive Bayes, Support Vector Machines, Random Forests, Boosting techniques like AdaBoost and XGBoost, as well as deep learning models such as Convolutional Neural Networks and Artificial Neural Networks. The effectiveness of these methods is evaluated on the NSynth dataset, a large repository of annotated musical sounds. By comparing these approaches, the analysis aims to showcase the advantages and limitations of each method, providing guidance for developing more accurate and efficient classification systems. Additionally, hybrid model testing and discussion are included. This research aims to support further studies in instrument classification by proposing new approaches and future research directions.

Cuneiform tablets, emerging in ancient Mesopotamia around the late fourth millennium BCE, represent one of humanity's earliest writing systems. Characterized by wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets, these artifacts provided insight into Mesopotamian civilization across various domains. Traditionally, the analysis and dating of these tablets rely on subjective assessment of shape and writing style, leading to uncertainties in pinpointing their exact temporal origins. Recent advances in digitization have revolutionized the study of cuneiform by enhancing accessibility and analytical capabilities. Our research uniquely focuses on the silhouette of tablets as significant indicators of their historical periods, diverging from most studies that concentrate on textual content. Utilizing an unprecedented dataset of over 94,000 images from the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative collection, we apply deep learning methods to classify cuneiform tablets, covering over 3,000 years of history. By leveraging statistical, computational techniques, and generative modeling through Variational Auto-Encoders (VAEs), we achieve substantial advancements in the automatic classification of these ancient documents, focusing on the tablets' silhouettes as key predictors. Our classification approach begins with a Decision Tree using height-to-width ratios and culminates with a ResNet50 model, achieving a 61% macro F1-score for tablet silhouettes. Moreover, we introduce novel VAE-powered tools to enhance explainability and enable researchers to explore changes in tablet shapes across different eras and genres. This research contributes to document analysis and diplomatics by demonstrating the value of large-scale data analysis combined with statistical methods. These insights offer valuable tools for historians and epigraphists, enriching our understanding of cuneiform tablets and the cultures that produced them.

Machine Learning can be used to derive a variety of insights as well as predict the future using data. This talk will go through a variety of advanced techniques in machine learning to produce better results. We will take a dive at various algorithms, problem resolutions and what to do if you don't have enough data. These techniques will work for you in SQL Server, Azure Machine Learning and more. Here's Why Cloud Adoption Is About To Shift Into High Gear Friday Spotlight: automated installation of Oracle VM Server x86 Here's Why Cloud Adoption Is About To Shift Into High Gear