Isoflavone content in

I dedicate this dissertation to my parents. iii Acknowledgments I would like to thank the following people who made this possible, my advisors, and my committee members. Without their guidance, I would never be able to finish my PhD work. First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my two advisors, Prof. Carlotta Domeniconi, and Prof. Kathryn B. Laskey. Prof. Domeniconi introduced me to the research area of machine learning, and gave me the environment and guidance to do research. Prof. Laskey guided me through the challenges and difficulties of Bayesian statistics. Further, both Prof. Domeniconi and Prof. Laskey helped me to develop crucial research-related abilities, writing and presenting, which greatly increased my research capability. I am very grateful to the two other members in my committee, Prof. Jana Kosecka and Prof. Huzefa Rangwala. Prof. Kosecka helped me understand computer vision problems, and convinced me that a researcher should be more data-driven than model-driven. Prof. Rangwala taught me bioinformatics, and showed me how to conduct comprehensive experiments. I obtained valuable research experience from them, and with their help I learned how to apply my knowledge to solve practical problems. Also, I am very thankful to Prof. Sean Luke. Prof. Luke kept giving me advice on programming, engineering and other aspects, such American culture. It is Prof. Luke who showed me how to be a good researcher and a good engineer at the same time. Additionally, I must thank all the members of the Data Mining lab and all the participants in the Krypton seminar. They gave me a lot of valuable comments on my dissertation and defense. Finally, I would like to thank my parents. They always supported me and encouraged me with their best wishes. i