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• A feature selection method based on binary dandelion algorithm is proposed. • The algorithm applies a sine-cosine operator and a restart strategy. • Mutual information and quick bit mutation improve the performance of the algorithm. • The algorithm performs well on datasets with larger dimensions. Feature selection (FS) is an important data preprocessing technology for machine learning and data mining. Metaheuristic algorithm (MH) has been widely used in feature selection because of its powerful search function. This paper presents an improved Binary Dandelion Algorithm using Sine Cosine operator and Restart strategy (SCRBDA) for feature selection. First, the sine cosine operator is used in the radius formula of the core dandelions (CD), which significantly enhances the ability of algorithm development and exploration. Secondly, the algorithm uses a restart strategy to increase its ability to get rid of local optimum. Thirdly, mutual information is used to guide the generation of some dandelions, which pays more attention to the correlation between the selected features and categories. Finally, quick bit mutation is used as the mutation strategy to improve the diversity of the population. The SCRBDA proposed in this paper was tested on 18 datasets of different sizes from UCI machine learning database. The SCRBDA was compared with 8 other classical feature selection algorithms, and the performance of the proposed algorithm was evaluated through feature subset size, classification accuracy, fitness value, and F1-score. The experimental results show that SCRBDA achieves the best performance, which has stronger feature reduction ability and achieves better overall performance on most datasets. Especially on large-scale datasets, SCRBDA can obtain extremely smaller feature subsets while maintaining much higher classification accuracy, and satisfactory F1-score. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of rapid paper publications in various venues, automatic citation recommendations would be highly useful to researchers when they write papers. Local citation recommendation aims to recommend possible papers to cite given local citation contexts. Previous work mainly computes the similarity score between citation contexts and cited papers on a one-to-one basis, which is quite time-consuming. We train a pair of neural network encoders that map citation contexts and all possible cited papers to the same vector space, respectively. After that, we index the positions of all cited papers in the vector space. This makes our process for searching recommended papers considerably faster. On the other hand, existing methods tend to recommend papers that are highly similar to each other, which makes recommendations lack diversity. Therefore, we extend our algorithm to perform multi-topic recommendations. We generate multi-topic training examples based on the index we mentioned earlier. Furthermore, we specially design a multi-group contrastive learning method to train our model so that it can distinguish different topics. Empirical experiments show that our model outperforms previous methods by a wide margin. Our model is also light weighted and has been deployed online so that researchers can use it to obtain recommended citations for their own paper in real-time. • Proposed FLCR algorithm with sentence-transformer & k-d tree. • Introduced multi-topic citation recommendation for diverse contexts. • Developed large-scale dataset with 1.7 million citation contexts for evaluation. • Demonstrated significant performance improvement over previous methods. • Deployed demo for real-time citation recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intelligent Fault-Tolerant Control (IFTC) refers to the applications of machine learning algorithms for fault diagnosis and design of Fault-Tolerant Control (FTC). The overall goal of the FTC is to accommodate defects in the system components while they are in use and maintain stability with little to no performance reduction. These systems are crucial for mission-critical and safety-related applications where the safety of people is at stake and service continuity is crucial. In this review paper, a systematic study has been done for the development of FTC with machine learning, deep learning, and transfer learning algorithms. The challenges and limitations faced with their possible solutions through machine learning theories for the IFTC model are lined up. This paper guides researchers on the different possible types of machine learning algorithms and their advanced forms like deep learning and transfer learning. The differences among these are highlighted by the challenges and limitations of each. The paper is significant such that most of the important literature references from the Scopus database particularly related to important electrical and mechanical industrial problems have been discussed to guide the researchers who want to apply IFTC for specific industrial problems, being the research gap. Finally, future research directions for the development of IFTC are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Federated learning (FL) is a distributed machine learning method to protect users' privacy and security. It currently faces the following two problems (McMahan et al., 2017): (1) The performance of the global model degrades when dealing with Non-Independent Identically Distributed (Non-IID) data. Other existing classical methods do not have a rigorous theory based on error processing ; (2) In the process of global model aggregation, the classical FL algorithm either directly averages local models or solely considers the proportion of local data to assign weights to the models, without accounting for the discrepancies between the local models. In this paper, a federated aggregation algorithm Federated Maximum Mean Discrepancy (FedMMD) is proposed to address the deviation between the local models and Non-IID. First of all, this paper utilizes the Dilated Convolution Meet Transformer (DCMT) model for local model feature extraction. This approach aims to capture more feature information and minimize the impact of Non-IID scenarios. Secondly, the learning stability of the local model data participating in the aggregation is compared with Maximum Mean Discrepancy (MMD). The weights of the local models involved in the aggregation are determined using the SKNQ (Student–Keuls–Newman-Q) method and the entropy weight method. The SKNQ method calculates and compares the MMD across multiple clients, while the entropy weight method assigns different weights to clients based on their deviations. On the standard dataset, the FedAvg algorithm (McMahan et al., 2017), the FedProx algorithm (Li et al., 2020) and the FedMMD algorithm are compared. The experimental results demonstrate that the FedMMD algorithm, used in training the global model, not only enhances the accuracy of learning IID and Non-IID data but also improves the generalization capability of the global model. • An DCMT model is proposed to alleviate the model fluctuations caused by NonIID data. • An MMD method is proposed to compared horizontally before the model is aggregated. • Entropy weight method and the SKNQ method are combined to allocate local models' weight when they are fused into global model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 5G smart grid, battery liquid leakage negatively affects the safe storage and transportation of electricity. Image edge detection help locate the liquid leakage phenomenon. This paper proposes a digitalization-based algorithm that converts the image to the codeword and judges the edge by the code weight. Its main steps are image sampling, quantization, coding and judging. Compared with traditional Sobel and Canny operators, the algorithm dramatically enhances detection ability with machine learning. Moreover, this paper applies the algorithm to detect the leakage of infrared battery images in the 5G smart grid; The results show that it can accurately extract the liquid leakage location, improving fault diagnosis and early risk warning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Fault prediction improves the effectiveness of software quality assurance activities. • This paper focuses on building an effective fault prediction classifier. • Fault prediction model using Iterated feature selection algorithms with L-RNN. • We perform experiments on 19 open source projects. • Fault prediction model is best suitable for projects with faulty classes less than the threshold value. Abstract Software fault prediction (SFP) is typically used to predict faults in software components. Machine learning techniques (e.g., classification) are widely used to tackle this problem. With the availability of the huge amount of data that can be obtained from mining software historical repositories, it becomes possible to have some features (metrics) that are not correlated with the faults, which consequently mislead the learning algorithm and thus decrease its performance. One possible solution to eliminate those metrics is Feature Selection (FS). In this paper, a novel FS approach is proposed to enhance the performance of a layered recurrent neural network (L-RNN), which is used as a classification technique for the SFP problem. Three different wrapper FS algorithms (i.e, Binary Genetic Algorithm (BGA), Binary Particle Swarm Optimization (BPSO), and Binary Ant Colony Optimization (BACO)) were employed iteratively. To assess the performance of the proposed approach, 19 real-world software projects from PROMISE repository are investigated and the experimental results are discussed. Receiver operating characteristic - area under the curve (ROC-AUC) is used as a performance measure. The results are compared with other state-of-art approaches including Naïve Bayes (NB), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), logistic regression (LR), the k-nearest neighbors (k-NN) and C4.5 decision trees, in terms of area under the curve (AUC). Our results have demonstrated that the proposed approach can outperform other existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software Defect Prediction (SDP) plays a vital role in the software development life cycle as it helps identify and fix software defects. However, predicting software defects with irrelevant features and overlapping classes is challenging and can lead to lengthy training and low model accuracy. To address these challenges, this research introduces a novel Depth Linear Discrimination-Oriented Feature Selection Method based on Adaptive Sine Cosine Algorithm, named Depth Adaptive Sine Cosine Feature Selection (DASC-FS). DASC-FS integrates the Adaptive Sine Cosine Algorithm (ASCA) as a search algorithm to determine the relevant features and adopts Depth Linear Discriminant Analysis (D-LDA) to identify the discriminative features that maximize class separation. The paper proposes ASCA which is a metaheuristic algorithm meticulously designed to enhance the search capabilities of the standard Sine Cosine Algorithm (SCA). Combining the simplicity of the SCA with the efficiency of multiple mutation operators inspired by Genetic Algorithms (GA), ASCA enhances the diversity of the solutions and imparts remarkable adaptability to various situations. Furthermore, this study introduces a novel linear discriminant method, called Depth Linear Discriminant Analysis (D-LDA) to enhance the robustness of the original LDA. D-LDA systematically integrates the matrix depth concept into LDA, offering a systematic approach to address the challenges associated with scatter matrix estimation. As matrix depth measures how central or deep a particular matrix is within a distribution with respect to different directions, it is an efficient tool for computing a robust scatter matrix estimator that can handle outliers and complex data structures. The experimental results showed that DASC-FS consistently obtains the highest accuracy compared to most existing methods by integrating ASCA and D-LDA, thereby considering both accuracy optimization and class separation. The results also show that the use of multiple mutation operators in ASCA improves the search process capabilities. The results also show that the capacity of D-LDA to reduce data dimensionality and increase class separation yields highly competitive results compared to other LDAs. Finally, features related to code size and complexity have emerged as key factors for SDP because they consistently rank as important features across different classifiers and datasets. DASC-FS offers a valuable solution in domain knowledge for enhancing predictive accuracy and understanding factors contributing to software defects through enhanced search capabilities, robust scatter matrix estimation, and the ability to reduce data dimensionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• MMODE is developed as a new hybrid gene selection method for tumor identification. • MMODE combines multi-tasking and multi-objective frameworks. • MMODE uses a new elite strategy and a new guidance strategy. • MMODE selects a few genes and achieves high classification accuracy. A key preprocessing step in tumor recognition based on microarray expression profile data and machine learning is to identify tumor marker genes. Gene selection aims to select the most relevant gene subset from the original ultra-high dimensional microarray expression profile data to improve tumor identification performance. Inspired by evolutionary multitasking (EMT) and multi-objective optimization, this paper puts forward a novel multitasking multi-objective differential evolution gene selection algorithm (MMODE) which uses new elite and guidance strategies to select the best gene subsets. MMODE initializes two different populations according to different filtering criteria to increase the diversity of the search. These two populations guide their respective populations to search in the optimal direction through knowledge transfer in the evolutionary process. In addition, MMODE employs new elite and guidance strategies that enables individuals to narrow the search range and jump out of local optima. The proposed algorithm is validated on 13 publicly available microarray expression datasets in comparison with state-of-the-art gene selection algorithms. The experimental results show that MMODE can find smaller gene subsets and achieve higher classification accuracy compared with other algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optimal path planning is a fundamental problem in artificial intelligence (AI) and has wide applications in areas such as robotics, transportation, and logistics. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for ordering algorithms in pathfinding problems using the concept of shell layers. Our approach aims to improve the computational efficiency and distance cost of ordering algorithms. To evaluate the effectiveness of our approach, we compare it with five state-of-the-art techniques commonly used in the field of ordering algorithms on eight different scenarios with varying configurations. Our results show that our proposed approach outperformed the state-of-the-art techniques in terms of time-computational complexity and distance cost in most of the scenarios, demonstrating its potential as a new state-of-the-art technique for ordering algorithms. Specifically, our approach outperformed the nearest neighbor, A*, branch and bound, Christofides, and genetics ordering algorithms. However, we also identified two specific situations where our approach was outperformed by two state-of-the-art algorithms due to the specific distribution of the goal nodes. These findings highlight the importance of evaluating and comparing ordering algorithms in various scenarios. Our approach has significant implications for AI research and development, as it has the potential to improve the performance of pathfinding algorithms in various applications. We also discuss the limitations of our approach and potential areas for further research, such as investigating the effectiveness of our approach in different types of graphs and exploring the potential use of machine learning techniques to optimize the shell layer construction. The code for this study is available at https://github.com/abdullah1aloush1/MuGONA. • Equally-spaced nodes formed over workspace with obstacles, optimizing search process. • Efficient neighboring graph built for equally-spaced nodes, reducing complexity. • Path optimization for navigation by ordering goal nodes, reducing time and distance. • Path smoothing for navigation via interpolation to yield a trajectory on path nodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stochastic optimization (SO) algorithms based on the Powerball function, namely powered stochastic optimization (PoweredSO) algorithms, have been confirmed, effectively, and demonstrated great potential in the context of large-scale optimization and machine learning tasks. Nevertheless, the issue of how to determine the learning rate for PoweredSO is a challenge and still unsolved problem. In this paper, we propose a class of adaptive PoweredSO approaches that are efficient, scalable and robust. It takes advantage of the hypergradient descent (HD) technique to automatically acquire an online learning rate for PoweredSO-like methods. In the first part, we study the behavior of the canonical PoweredSO algorithm, the Powerball stochastic gradient descent (pbSGD) method, with HD. The existing PoweredSO algorithms also suffer from the high variance because they take the similar algorithmic framework to SO algorithms, arising from sampling tactics. Therefore, the second portion develops an adaptive powered variance-reduced optimization method via utilizing both variance-reduced technique and HD. Moreover, we present the convergence analysis of the proposed algorithms and explore their iteration complexity on non-convex cases. Numerical experiments are conducted on machine learning tasks, verifying the superior performance over modern SO algorithms. • We propose a type of adaptive powered stochastic optimization algorithms. • The theoretical analysis of the resulting algorithms is established. • Experiments on machine learning tasks verify the efficacy of the algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Max-cut is one of the most classic NP-hard combinatorial optimization problems. The symmetry nature of it leads to special difficulty in extracting meaningful configuration information for learning; none of the state-of-the-art algorithms has employed any learning operators. This paper proposes an original learning method for max-cut, namely post-flip edge-state learning (PF-ESL). Different from previous algorithms, PF-ESL regards edge-states (cut or not cut) rather than vertex-positions as the critical information of a configuration, and extracts their statistics over a population for learning. It is based on following observations. 1) Edges are the only factors considered by the objective function. 2) Edge-states keep invariant when rotating a local configuration to its symmetry position, but vertex-positions do not. These suggest that edge-states contain more meaningful information about a configuration than vertex-positions do. It is impossible to set the state of an edge without influencing some other edges' states due to their dependencies. Therefore, instead of setting edge-states directly, PF-ESL samples the flips on vertices. Flips on vertices are sampled according to their capacities in increasing the similarity on edge-states between the given solution and a population. PF-ESL is employed in an EDA (Estimation of Distribution Algorithm) perturbation operator and a path-relinking operator. Experimental results show that our algorithm is competitive, and show that edge-state learning is value-added for both the two operators. The main contributions of this paper are as follows. Firstly, previous state-of-the-art evolutionary algorithms for max-cut focus on vertex positions in their evolutionary operation, this paper proposes a new and more reasonable perspective suggesting that edge-states are the critical information of divided graphs rather than vertex positions, and introduces a novel method to measure and utilize their similarities based on it. Such a perspective is fundamental to learning based algorithms design for max-cut and other graph partitioning problems, and can shed lights on future researches. Furthermore, since max-cut is one of the most classic and fundamental NP hard problems, many real-world problems involve dividing graph data into different parts to optimize certain functions, this new perspective may inspire related or similar problems. Secondly, besides the original edge-states based perspective, and the post-flip edge-states learning (PFESL) operator based on it, our memetic algorithm also incorporates a novel evolutionary framework which alternates between EDA based Iterated Tabu search (ITS) and path relinking based genetic algorithm. Finally, the proposed algorithm provides competitive results on two mostly used benchmark sets and improves the best-known results of 6 most challenging instances. • An original edge-state perspective for design learning operators for max-cut. • A novel learning operator to learn edge states. • A new evolutionary framework for max-cut. • It provides competitive results on two mostly used benchmark sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuous malicious software (malware) attacks on smartphones pose a serious threat to the security of users, especially the dominant platform Android. Data-driven methods based on machine learning algorithms are a promising way to defend against that. In this paper, we explore the limitations of this kind of methods in improving the performance of malware detection, e.g., considering each feature in isolation and relying on balanced class data, and propose a multi-model ensemble framework MEFDroid by combining individual predictors, where hybrid deep learning based feature extraction methods are adopted to learn meaningful features from raw data. Besides, a novel fusion scheme is exploited to fuse multi-level representations and mine their correlations to maximize the utilization of original information. To evaluate the effectiveness of the MEFDroid framework, we conduct a step-by-step model justification experiment to investigate how the proposed algorithms (i.e., ESAES, EDAES and EDAFS) enhance the malware detection performance gradually. We also compare the proposed algorithms with classical machine learning methods, conventional sampling solutions for the imbalance problem. Besides, we investigate the reliability of our proposed methods using another public dataset. Our extensive experimental results demonstrate that the target model EDAFS in MEFDroid outperforms others in terms of most metrics, which means that it is an effective alternative solution to detect Android malware. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper focuses on quaternion neural networks (QNNs) - a type of neural network wherein the weights, biases, and input values are all represented as quaternion numbers. Previous studies have shown that QNNs outperform real-valued neural networks in basic tasks and have potential in high-dimensional problem spaces. However, research on QNNs has been fragmented, with contributions from different mathematical and engineering domains leading to unintentional overlap in QNN literature. This work aims to unify existing research by evaluating four distinct QNN backpropagation algorithms, including the novel GHR-calculus backpropagation algorithm, and providing concise, scalable implementations of each algorithm using a modern compiled programming language. Additionally, the authors apply a robust Design of Experiments (DoE) methodology to compare the accuracy and runtime of each algorithm. The experiments demonstrate that the Clifford Multilayer Perceptron (CMLP) learning algorithm results in statistically significant improvements in network test set accuracy while maintaining comparable runtime performance to the other three algorithms in four distinct regression tasks. By unifying existing research and comparing different QNN training algorithms, this work develops a state-of-the-art baseline and provides important insights into the potential of QNNs for solving high-dimensional problems. • Clifford Multilayer Perceptrons outperform other quaternion neural network methods. • Multilayer GHR Calc. networks approximate real nonlinear functions reasonably well. • Classic QNN backpropagation techniques are outdated and should be avoided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) has been successfully applied in many fields. In MARL, the policy evaluation problem is one of crucial problems. In order to solve this problem, distributed Temporal-Difference (TD) learning algorithm is one of the most popular methods in a cooperative manner. Despite its empirical success, however, the theory of the adaptive variant of distributed TD learning still remain limited. To fill this gap, we propose an adaptive distributed temporal-difference algorithm (referred to as MS - ADTD) under Markovian sampling over time-varying networks. Furthermore, we rigorously analyze the convergence of MS - ADTD , the theoretical results show that the local estimation can converge linearly to the optimal neighborhood. Meanwhile, the theoretical results are verified by simulation experiments. • This paper proposes a distributed adaptive TD learning algorithm under Markovian sampling. • It theoretically analyzes the non-asymptotic convergence performance of the proposed algorithm. • It verifies the performance of the proposed algorithm by experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale multi-objective optimization problems (LSMOPs) bring significant challenges due to their large number of decision variables. Most of the existing algorithms fail to obtain high-quality solutions for the LSMOPs. To remedy this issue, an algorithm named dual-stage large-scale multi-objective evolutionary algorithm with dynamic learning strategy (DLMOEA-DLS) is proposed in this paper. In the DLMOEA-DLS, the entire evolution process mainly includes two stages, and each stage plays a different role in the searching process. In the first stage, the decision variables are clustering into two categories to be optimized independently for the convergence of the population. In the second stage, a dynamic learning strategy is designed to generate new offspring, in which each solution learns from a leader with better fitness and coupled control parameter for each solution is adaptively updated by learning from the historical behaviors of the solution. Moreover, an environmental selection operator is adopted to reserve promising solutions for the next iteration. To verify the performance of the DLMOEA-DLS, five state-of-the-art algorithms are used for comparison on 36 LSMOP benchmark instances, 48 LMF benchmark instances, and 6 real-world TREE benchmark instances. The experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the DLMOEA-DLS over the five state-of-the-art algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Time burst characteristic is studied by 3 aspects in fake review identification. • A suspicion degree method of fake reviews is proposed from (1) by LOF algorithm. • A fake review identification framework is given including the suspicion degree. • The case study shows that the proposed method outperforms the existed methods. With the rapid development of e-commerce, online reviews have played an increasingly important role in consumers' shopping intentions and behaviors. Therefore, how to effectively identify fake reviews has become one of the important issues that need to be resolved. Since the existing methods do not fully consider the time burst characteristics of reviews, this paper proposes a suspicion degree determining method based on the three-dimensional time series. Besides, combining the suspicion degree feature, review text features, and reviewer's behavior features together, this paper proposes a more comprehensive fake review identification framework. The yelp and amazon public data sets are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, and the experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the most advanced methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, we propose a social approach for learning agents. In dynamic environments, smart agents should detect changes and adapt themselves, applying dynamic learning strategies and drift detection algorithms. Recent studies note that an ensemble of learners can be coordinated by simple protocols based on votes or weighted votes; however, they are not capable of determining the number of learners or the ensemble composition properly. Conversely, we show in this paper that Social Network Theory can provide the multi-agent learning community with sophisticated and well-founded reputation models that outperform well-known ensemble-based drift detection techniques, generating accurate and small ensembles of learning agents. Our approach is evaluated considering dynamic bilateral negotiation scenarios and benchmark databases, presenting statistically significant results that are better than those of other ensemble-based techniques. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper text segmentation in generic displays is proposed through learning the best binarization values for a commercial optical character recognition (OCR) system. The commercial OCR is briefly introduced as well as the parameters that affect the binarization for improving the classification scores. The purpose of this work is to provide the capability to automatically evaluate standard textual display information, so that tasks that involve visual user verification can be performed without human intervention. The problem to be solved is to recognize text characters that appear on the display, as well as the color of the characters’ foreground and background. The paper introduces how the thresholds are learnt through: (a) selecting lightness or hue component of a color input cell, (b) enhancing the bitmaps’ quality, and (c) calculating the segmentation threshold range for this cell. Then, starting from the threshold ranges learnt at each display cell, the best threshold for each cell is gotten. The input and output data sets for testing the algorithms proposed are described, as well as the analysis of the results obtained. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is one of the most important research topics on swarm intelligence. Existing PSO techniques, however, still contain some significant disadvantages. In this paper, we present a new QBL-PSO algorithm that uses QBL (query-based learning) to improve both the exploratory and exploitable capabilities of PSO. Here, we apply a QBL method proposed in our previous research to PSO, and then test this new algorithm on a real case study on problems of power conservation. Our algorithm not only broadens the search diversity of PSO, but also improves its precision. Conventional PSO often snag on local solutions when performing queries, instead of finding better global solutions. To resolve this limitation, when particles converge in nature, we direct some of them into an “ambiguous solution space” defined by our algorithm. This paper introduces two ways to invoke this QBL algorithm. Our experimental results confirm that the proposed method attains better convergence to the global best solution. Finally, we present a new PSO model for solving multi-objective power conservation problems. Overall, this model successfully reduces power consumption, and to our knowledge, this paper represents the first attempt within the literature to apply the QBL concept to PSO. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights • Feature selection over high-dimensional colon cancer Microarray Datasets. • Features selected from both Gene Expression and DNA-Methylation Microarray datasets. • Resultant six biomarker genes for colon cancer validated using Enrichment Analysis. • Biomarker genes validated on independent datasets with 99.9% classification accuracy. Abstract Cancer is a dangerous disease that causes death worldwide. Discovering few genes relevant to one cancer disease can result in effective treatments. The challenge associated with the Microarray datasets is its high dimensionality; the huge number of features compared to the modest number of samples in these datasets. Recent research efforts attempted to reduce this high-dimensionality using different feature selection techniques. This paper presents an ensemble feature selection technique based on t -test and genetic algorithm. After preprocessing the data using t -test, a Nested Genetic Algorithm, namely Nested-GA, is used to get the optimal subset of features by combining data from two different datasets. Nested-GA consists of two Nested Genetic Algorithms (outer and inner) that run on two different kinds of datasets. The Outer Genetic Algorithm (OGA-SVM) works on Microarray gene expression datasets, whereas the Inner Genetic Algorithm (IGA-NNW) runs on DNA Methylation datasets. Nested-GA is performed on a colon cancer dataset with 5-fold cross validation. After applying Nested-GA, the Incremental Feature Selection (IFS) strategy is used to get the smallest optimal genes subset. The genes subset has been validated on an independent dataset resulting in 99.9% classification accuracy. Consequently, the biological significance of the resulting optimal genes is validated using Enrichment Analysis. Moreover, the results of Nested-GA have been compared to the results of other feature selection algorithms that have been run on either Gene Expression or DNA Methylation datasets. From the experimental results, Nested-GA showed the highest classification performance with a small optimal feature subset compared to the other algorithms. Furthermore, by running Nested-GA on lung cancer datasets that contain two different cancer subtypes, it resulted in significantly better classification accuracy (98.4%) compared to the accuracy of a previous research (84.6%) that utilized lung cancer DNA-Methylation data only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Two binary variants of the butterfly optimization algorithm (BOA) are proposed. • Two transfer functions are used to map the continuous search space to discrete one. • Twenty one UCI datasets are utilized in the experiments. • A superior performance of the proposed binary variants is proved in the experiments. Abstract In this paper, binary variants of the Butterfly Optimization Algorithm (BOA) are proposed and used to select the optimal feature subset for classification purposes in a wrapper-mode. BOA is a recently proposed algorithm that has not been systematically applied to feature selection problems yet. BOA can efficiently explore the feature space for optimal or near-optimal feature subset minimizing a given fitness function. The two proposed binary variants of BOA are applied to select the optimal feature combination that maximizes classification accuracy while minimizing the number of selected features. In these variants, the native BOA is utilized while its continuous steps are bounded in a threshold using a suitable threshold function after squashing them. The proposed binary algorithms are compared with five state-of-the-art approaches and four latest high performing optimization algorithms. A number of assessment indicators are utilized to properly assess and compare the performance of these algorithms over 21 datasets from the UCI repository. The experimental results confirm the efficiency of the proposed approaches in improving the classification accuracy compared to other wrapper-based algorithms, which proves the ability of BOA algorithm in searching the feature space and selecting the most informative attributes for classification tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Quite often, in order to derive meaningful insights, accounting researchers have to analyze large bodies of text. Usually, this is done manually by several human coders, which makes the process time consuming, expensive, and often neither replicable nor accurate. In an attempt to mitigate these problems, we perform a feasibility study investigating the applicability of computer-aided content analysis techniques onto the domain of accounting research. defines an algorithm’s reliability as its stability, reproducibility and accuracy. Since in computer-aided text classification, which is inherently objective and repeatable, the first two requirements, stability and reproducibility, are not an issue, this paper focuses exclusively on the third requirement, the algorithm’s accuracy. It is important to note that, although inaccurate classification results are completely worthless, it is surprising to see how few research papers actually mention the accuracy of the used classification methodology. After a survey of the available techniques, we perform an in depth analysis of the most promising one, LPU (Learning from Positive and Unlabelled), which turns out to have an F-value and accuracy of about 90%, which means that, given a random text, it has a 90% probability of classifying it correctly. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Text classification has received more and more attention due to the enormous growth of digital content available on-line. This paper investigates the design of two-class text classifiers using positive and unlabeled data only. The specialty of this problem is that there is no labeled negative example for learning, which makes traditional text classification techniques inapplicable. In this paper, a novel semi-supervised classification algorithm based on tolerance rough set and ensemble learning is proposed. Tolerance rough set theory is used to approximate concepts existed in documents and extract an initial set of negative example. Then, SVM, Rocchio and Naive Bayes algorithms are used as base classifiers to construct an ensemble classifier, which runs iteratively and exploits margins between positive and negative data to progressively improve the approximation of negative data. Thus, the class boundary eventually converges to the true boundary of the positive class in the feature space. An experimental evaluation of different methods is carried out on two common text corpora, i.e., the Reuters-21578 collection and the WebKB collection. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method achieves significant performance improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transforming unstructured text into a formal representation is an important goal of the Semantic Web in order to facilitate the integration and retrieval of information. The construction of Knowledge Graphs (KGs) pursues such an idea, where named entities (real world things) and their relations are extracted from text. In recent years, many approaches for the construction of KGs have been proposed by exploiting Discourse Analysis, Semantic Frames, or Machine Learning algorithms with existing Semantic Web data. Although such approaches are useful for processing taxonomies and connecting beliefs, they provide several linguistic descriptions, which lead to semantic data heterogeneity and thus, complicating data consumption. Moreover, Open Information Extraction (OpenIE) approaches have been slightly explored for the construction of KGs, which provide binary relations representing atomic units of information that could simplify the querying and representation of data. In this paper, we propose an approach to generate KGs using binary relations produced by an OpenIE approach. For such purpose, we present strategies for favoring the extraction and linking of named entities with KG individuals, and additionally, their association with grammatical units that lead to producing more coherent facts. We also provide decisions for selecting the extracted information elements for creating potentially useful RDF triples for the KG. Our results demonstrate that the integration of information extraction units with grammatical structures provides a better understanding of proposition-based representations provided by OpenIE for supporting the construction of KGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Classification and localization of focal epileptic seizures provide a proper diagnostic procedure for epilepsy patients. Visual identification of seizure activity from long-term electroencephalography (EEG) is tedious, time-consuming and leads to human error. Therefore, there is a need for an automated classification system. Methods: In this paper, we introduce a tool called CADFES: computerized automated detection of focal epileptic seizures. For the study, total 41.66 hours of EEG data from the Bern-Barcelona database was used. Set of 28 features were extracted from time, frequency, and statistical domain and significant features were selected using neighborhood component analysis (NCA). In NCA, optimization of regularization parameter ensured better classification accuracy (less classification loss) with seven features. The performance of the algorithm was assessed using support vector machine (SVM), K-nearest neighbor (K-NN), random forest and adaptive boosting (AdaBoost) classifiers. Results: Experimental results revealed sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive rate, negative predictive rate, and area under the curve of 97.6%, 94.4%, 96.1%, 92.9%, 98.8% and 0.96 respectively using the SVM classifier. Finally, MATLAB based software tool referred to as CADFES was introduced for automated classification of focal and non-focal seizures. Comparison results ensure that proposed study is superior to existing methods. Hence, it is expected to perform better at the hospitals for automated classification of focal epileptic seizures in real-time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an improved version of the grasshopper optimization algorithm (GOA) based on the opposition-based learning (OBL) strategy called OBLGOA for solving benchmark optimization functions and engineering problems. The proposed OBLGOA algorithm consists of two stages: the first stage generates an initial population and its opposite using the OBL strategy; and the second stage uses the OBL as an additional phase to update the GOA population in each iteration. However, the OBL is applied to only half of the solutions to reduce the time complexity. To investigate the performance of the proposed OBLGOA, six sets of experiment series are performed, and they include twenty-three benchmark functions and four engineering problems. The experiments revealed that the results of the proposed algorithm were superior to those of ten well-known algorithms in this domain. Eventually, the obtained results proved that the OBLGOA algorithm can provide competitive results for optimization engineering problems compared with state-of-the-art algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, cyber-attacks against businesses and organizations have increased. Such attacks usually result in significant damage to the organization, such as the loss and/or leakage of sensitive and confidential information. Because email communication is an integral part of daily business operations, attackers frequently leverage email as an attack vector in order to initially penetrate the targeted organization. Email message allows the attacker to deliver dangerous content to the victim, such as malicious attachments or links to malicious websites. Existing email analysis solutions analyze only specific parts of the email using rule-based methods, while other important parts remain unanalyzed. Existing anti-virus engines primarily use signature-based detection methods, and therefore are insufficient for detecting new unknown malicious emails. Machine learning methods have been shown to be effective at detecting maliciousness in various domains and particularly in email. Previous works which used machine learning methods suggested sets of features which offer a limited perspective over the whole email message. In this paper, we propose a novel set of general descriptive features extracted from all email components (header, body, and attachments) for enhanced detection of malicious emails using machine learning methods. The proposed features are extracted just from the email itself; therefore, our features are independent, since the extraction process does not require an Internet connection or the use of external services or other tools, thereby meeting the needs of real-time detection systems. We conducted an extensive evaluation of our new novel features against sets of features suggested by previous academic work using a collection of 33,142 emails which contains 38.73% malicious and 61.27% benign emails. The results show that malicious emails can be detected effectively when using our novel features with machine learning algorithms. Moreover, our novel features enhance the detection of malicious emails when used in conjunction with features suggested by related work. The Random Forest classifier achieved the highest detection rates, with an AUC of 0.929, true positive rate (TPR) of 0.947, and false positive rate (FPR) of 0.03. We also present the IDR (integrated detection rate), a new measure which helps calibrate the threshold of a machine learning classifier in order to achieve the optimal TP and FP rates, which are the most important measures for a real-time and practical cyber-security application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Because of the varying and dynamic characteristics of network traffic, such as fast transfer, huge volume, shot-lived, inestimable and infinite, it is a serious challenge for network administrators to monitor network traffic in real time and judge whether the whole network works well. Currently, most of the existing techniques in this area are based on signature training, learning or matching, which may be too complicated to satisfy timely requirements. Other statistical methods including sampling, hashing or counting are all approximate methods and compute an incomplete set of results. Since the main objective of network monitoring is to discover and understand the active events that happen frequently and may influence or even ruin the total network. So in the paper we aim to use the technique of frequent pattern mining to find out these events. We first design a sliding window model to make sure the mining result novel and integrated; then, under the consideration of the distribution and fluidity of network flows, we develop a powerful class of algorithms that contains vertical re-mining algorithm, multi-pattern re-mining algorithm, fast multi-pattern capturing algorithm and fast multi-pattern capturing supplement algorithm to deal with a series of problems when applying frequent pattern mining algorithm in network traffic analysis. Finally, we develop a monitoring system to evaluate our algorithms on real traces collected from the campus network of Peking University. The results show that some given algorithms are effective enough and our system can definitely identify a lot of potentially very valuable information in time which greatly help network administrators to understand regular applications and detect network anomalies. So the research in this paper not only provides a new application area for frequent pattern mining, but also provides a new technique for network monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to construct a practical forensic steganalysis tool for audio signals that can properly analyze the statistics disturbed by stego embedding and classify them to selected current steganographic methods. The objective of this paper is to prove that the choice of effective stego sensitive features and a proficient machine learning paradigm enhances the detection accuracy of the steganalyser. In this paper a rule based approach with a family of six decision tree classifiers viz., Alternating Decision Tree, Decision Stump, J48, Logical Model Tree, Naïve Baye’s Tree and Fast Decision Tree learner, to perform the detection of audio subliminal channel is introduced. In particular the higher order statistics extracted from the Hausdorff distance are investigated for an improvement of the detection performance, as competent audio steganalytic features. The evaluation of the enhanced feature space and the decision tree paradigm, on a database containing 4800 clean and stego audio files is performed for classical steganographic as well as for watermarking algorithms. With this strategy it is shown how general forensic approach can detect information hiding techniques in the field of covert communication as well as for DRM applications. For the latter case, the detection of the presence of a potential watermark in a specific feature space can lead to new attacks or to a better design of the watermarking pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) refer to a broad class of optimization algorithms, which take some inspiration from evolutionary systems in the natural world. In recent years, a new class of EAs called estimation of distribution algorithms (EDAs) has emerged based on probabilistic modeling of the search space. Instances of EDAs include population based incremental learning (PBIL) algorithm. The PBIL algorithm is an easy to understand heuristic optimization technique that is inspired by the genetic algorithm and the competitive learning paradigm. PBIL includes many of the features from the genetic algorithm such as binary string representation, the notion of individuals, fitness measures and mutations. Contrary to the genetic algorithm it does not maintain a population of individuals but instead PBIL contains a probability vector. At each generation a new population of individuals is sampled according to the probabilities specified in the probability vector. The population is evaluated and the probability vector is updated by dragging it towards the best individual in the population. In recent years, the investigation of synchronization of chaotic systems has attracted much attention of researchers. Chaos synchronization has been applied in many fields such as secure communication, chemical, engineering, and biological systems, among others. This paper presents the synchronization of two identical discrete chaotic systems subject the different initial conditions by designing a proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controller. In addition, the tuning of the PID controller based on a modified PBIL algorithm using similarity analysis is also investigated in this paper. Simulation results show the good performance of the modified PBIL algorithm for synchronization of chaotic systems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A belief rule base inference methodology using the evidential reasoning (RIMER) approach has been developed recently. A belief rule base (BRB), which can be treated as a more generalized expert system, extends traditional IF-THEN rules, but requires the assignment of some system parameters including rule weights, attribute weights, and belief degrees. These parameters need to be determined with care for reliable system simulation and prediction. Some off-line optimization models have been proposed, but it is expensive to train and re-train these models in particular for large-scale systems. Moreover, the recursive algorithms are also proposed to fine tune a BRB online, which require less calculation time and satisfy the real-time requirement. However, the earlier mentioned learning algorithms are all based on a predetermined structure of the BRB. For a complex system, prior knowledge may not be perfect, which leads to the construction of an incomplete or even inappropriate initial BRB structure. Also, too many rules in an initial BRB may lead to over fitting, whilst too few rules may result in under fitting. Consequently, such a BRB system may not be capable of achieving overall optimal performance. In this paper, we consider one realistic and important case where both a preliminary BRB structure and system parameters assigned to given rules can be adjusted online. Based on the definition of a new statistical utility for a belief rule as investigated in this paper, a sequential learning algorithm for online constructing more compact BRB systems is proposed. Compared with the other learning algorithms, a belief rule can be automatically added into the BRB or pruned from the BRB, and our algorithm can also satisfy the real-time requirement. In addition, our algorithm inherits the feature of RIMER, i.e., only partial input and output information is required, which could be either incomplete or vague, either numerical or judgmental, or mixed. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, a practical case study about oil pipeline leak detection is studied and examined to demonstrate how the algorithm can be implemented. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper considers earliness/tardiness (ET) scheduling problem on a parallel machine environment with common due-date under the effects of time-dependent learning and linear and nonlinear deterioration. In this paper, the effects of learning and deterioration are considered simultaneously. By the effects of learning and deterioration, we mean that the processing time of a job is defined by increasing function of its execution start time and position in the sequence. This study shows that optimal solution for ET scheduling problem under effects of learning and deterioration is V-shape schedule under certain agreeable conditions. Furthermore, we present a mathematical model for the problem under study and an algorithm for solving large test problems. The algorithm can solve problems of 1000 jobs and four machines within 3s on average. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper provides a systematic review of previous software fault prediction studies with a specific focus on metrics, methods, and datasets. The review uses 74 software fault prediction papers in 11 journals and several conference proceedings. According to the review results, the usage percentage of public datasets increased significantly and the usage percentage of machine learning algorithms increased slightly since 2005. In addition, method-level metrics are still the most dominant metrics in fault prediction research area and machine learning algorithms are still the most popular methods for fault prediction. Researchers working on software fault prediction area should continue to use public datasets and machine learning algorithms to build better fault predictors. The usage percentage of class-level is beyond acceptable levels and they should be used much more than they are now in order to predict the faults earlier in design phase of software life cycle. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper proposes a self-generating fuzzy system with a learning ability from a combination of the on-line self-aligning clustering (OSAC) algorithm and ant and particle swarm cooperative optimization (APSCO). The proposed OSAC algorithm not only helps generate rules from on-line training data, but also helps avoid generating highly overlapping fuzzy sets. Once a new rule is generated, APSCO optimizes the corresponding antecedent and consequent parameters. In APSCO, ant colony and particle swarm coexist in a population, and both search for an optimal parameter solution simultaneously in each iteration. Ant paths not only help determine the consequent parameters of generated rules, they also help generate auxiliary particles. Well-performing particles are selected from the auxiliary particles and original particles. And these selected particles cooperate to find a better solution through particle swarm optimization. This paper applies the proposed self-generating fuzzy system to different fuzzy controller design problems, and compares it with other genetic and swarm intelligence algorithms and their hybrids to verify system performance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, we study the recommendation problem as formed by two tasks: (i) to filter useful/interesting items, (ii) to guide the user to good recommendations. The first task has been widely studied in the field of recommender systems. In fact, the most common characterization of these systems is based on the algorithms that select (filter) the items to be recommended (e.g. collaborative filtering, content-based, etc.). Through this paper, we will focus on the second task: the task of guiding the user. We claim that this task needs a closer attention. In this paper, we report an experiment to provide evidence for this fact. Actually, the experiment shows that machine learning algorithms commonly applied to the first task become useless when applied to the task of guiding. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• We proposed a deep learning model for electrocardiogram signals delineation. • An end-to-end model using CNN and LSTM were designed to extract high level features. • The model was trained and validated on two different publicly available databases. • DENS-ECG model shows a high performance in electrocardiogram signals delineation. With the technological advancements in the field of tele-health monitoring, it is now possible to gather huge amount of electro-physiological signals such as the electrocardiogram (ECG). It is therefore necessary to develop models/algorithms that are capable of analysing these massive amount of data in real-time. This paper proposes a deep learning model for real-time segmentation of heartbeats. The proposed DENS-ECG algorithm, combines convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) model to detect onset, peak, and offset of different heartbeat waveforms such as the P-waves, QRS complexes, T-waves, and No waves (NW). Using ECG as the inputs, the model learns to extract high level features through the training process, which, unlike other classical machine learning based methods, eliminates the feature engineering step. The proposed DENS-ECG model was trained and validated on a dataset with 105 ECG records of length 15 min each and achieved an average sensitivity and precision of 97.95% and 95.68%, respectively, using a stratified 5-fold cross validation. Additionally, the model was evaluated on an unseen dataset to examine its robustness in QRS detection, which resulted in a sensitivity of 99.61% and precision of 99.52%. The empirical results show the flexibility and accuracy of the combined CNN-LSTM model for ECG signal delineation. This paper proposes an efficient and easy to use approach using deep learning for heartbeat segmentation, which could potentially be used in real-time tele-health monitoring systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recommender systems use algorithms to provide users with product or service recommendations. Recently, these systems have been using machine learning algorithms from the field of artificial intelligence. However, choosing a suitable machine learning algorithm for a recommender system is difficult because of the number of algorithms described in the literature. Researchers and practitioners developing recommender systems are left with little information about the current approaches in algorithm usage. Moreover, the development of recommender systems using machine learning algorithms often faces problems and raises questions that must be resolved. This paper presents a systematic review of the literature that analyzes the use of machine learning algorithms in recommender systems and identifies new research opportunities. The goals of this study are to (i) identify trends in the use or research of machine learning algorithms in recommender systems; (ii) identify open questions in the use or research of machine learning algorithms; and (iii) assist new researchers to position new research activity in this domain appropriately. The results of this study identify existing classes of recommender systems, characterize adopted machine learning approaches, discuss the use of big data technologies, identify types of machine learning algorithms and their application domains, and analyzes both main and alternative performance metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expert and intelligent systems understand the underlying information behind the data by relying on a wide range of machine learning techniques. The interpretation of machine learning models is often the key to success in research areas such as business, finance, medical and health science, and bioinformatics; such research areas demand human understanding of the obtained model. The logistic model tree (LMT) algorithm is a popular classification method that combines a decision tree and logistic regression models. The combination of two complementary algorithms produces an accurate and interpretable classifier by combining the advantages of both logistic regression and tree induction. However, LMT has the disadvantage of high computational cost, which makes the algorithm undesirable in practice. In this paper, we propose an efficient method to learn the logistic regression models in the tree. We employ least angle regression to update the regression model in LogitBoost so that the algorithm efficiently learns sparse logistic regression models composed of relevant input variables. We compare the performance of our proposed method with the original LMT algorithm using 14 benchmark datasets and show that the training time dramatically decreases while the accuracy is preserved. Our proposed algorithm is not only accurate and intuitively interpretable but also computationally efficient. It helps users in making the best possible use of the data that are included in expert and intelligent systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many engineering and scientific problems in the real-world boil down to optimization problems, which are difficult to solve by using traditional methods. Meta-heuristics are appealing algorithms for solving optimization problems while keeping computational costs reasonable. The marine predators algorithm (MPA) is a modern optimization meta-heuristic, inspired by widespread Lévy and Brownian foraging strategies in ocean predators as well as optimal encounter rate strategies in biological interactions between predator and prey. However, MPA is not without its shortcomings. In this paper, a quasi-opposition based learning and Q-learning based marine predators algorithm (QQLMPA) is proposed. This offers multiple improvements over standard MPA. Primely, Q-learning allows MPA to fully use the information generated by previous iterations. And also, quasi-opposition based learning serves to increase population diversity, reducing the risk of convergence to inferior local optima. Numerical experiments demonstrate better performance by QQLMPA on 32 benchmark optimization functions and three engineering problems: designs of pressure vessel, hydro-static thrust bearing, and speed reducer. • Q-learning is introduced to MPA for adaptively choosing search mode. • Quasi-opposition learning is used to enhance the exploration of MPA. • The proposed optimizer can achieve great performance for continuous optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In fingerprint-based positioning methods, the received signal strength (RSS) vectors from access points are measured at reference points and saved in a database. Then, this dataset is used for the training phase of a pattern recognition algorithm. Several noise types impact the signals in radio channels, and RSS values are corrupted correspondingly. These noises can be mitigated by averaging the RSS samples. In real-time applications, the users cannot wait to collect uncorrelated RSS samples to calculate their average in the online phase of the positioning process. In this paper, we propose a solution for this problem by leveraging the distribution of RSS samples in the offline phase and the preceding state of the user in the online phase. In the first step, we propose a fast and accurate positioning algorithm using a deep neural network (DNN) to learn the distribution of available RSS samples instead of averaging them at the offline phase. Then, the similarity of an online RSS sample to the RPs' fingerprints is obtained to estimate the user's location. Next, the proposed DNN model is combined with a novel state-based positioning method to more accurately estimate the user's location. Extensive experiments on both benchmark and our collected datasets in two different scenarios (single RSS sample and many RSS samples for each user in the online phase) verify the superiority of the proposed algorithm compared with traditional regression algorithms such as deep neural network regression, Gaussian process regression, random forest, and weighted KNN. • Real-time positioning by considering the limitations of smartphones. • Extracting the RSS distribution in the offline phase. • Leveraging previous states of users in positioning. • Showing the robustness by extensive experiments on benchmark dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several algorithms have been proposed towards discovering the graphical structure of Bayesian networks. Most of these algorithms are restricted to observational data and some enable us to incorporate knowledge as constraints in terms of what can and cannot be discovered by an algorithm. A common type of such knowledge involves the temporal order of the variables in the data. For example, knowledge that event B occurs after observing A and hence, the constraint that B cannot cause A. This paper investigates real-world case studies that incorporate interesting properties of objective temporal variable order, and the impact these temporal constraints have on the learnt graph. The results show that most of the learnt graphs are subject to major modifications after incorporating incomplete temporal objective information. Because temporal information is widely viewed as a form of knowledge that is subjective, rather than as a form of data that tends to be objective, it is generally disregarded and reduced to an optional piece of information that only few of the structure learning algorithms may consider. The paper argues that objective temporal information should form part of observational data, to reduce the risk of disregarding such information when available and to encourage its reusability across related studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel weighted ensemble algorithm is proposed for indoor localization. • Obtained around 95% accuracy even when train and test conditions are different. • Incorporating mean and variance of RSSIs improve accuracy of the ensemble to 98%. • The algorithm works for varying granularity: room level grid and 1m × 1m grid. Indoor localization systems have the capability to change the way of providing location-based services in a closed environment. Though there is no agreed-upon technology that works best in indoor, WiFi signal is an important alternative as most of such places are covered by WiFi Access Points (APs). In this paper, the problem of indoor localization is investigated from the perspective of expert systems through applying machine learning techniques. The significant variation of WiFi signal strength with ambient conditions as well as device configuration badly affects the localization accuracy. Thus, the fingerprinting effort required to train a localization system subject to context heterogeneity is huge. The uncertainty in localization performance due to varying contexts is hardly investigated in the literature. Consequently, the main contribution of this paper is to propose a weighted ensemble classifier based on Dempster–Shafer belief theory to efficiently handle context heterogeneity. Here, the context is defined in terms of different smartphone configurations used for training and testing the system as well as temporal variation of signals. The method presented here utilizes the Dempster–Shafer theory of belief functions to calculate the weights of the base learners in the decision of the ensemble. Belief theory is applied here to handle the inherent uncertainty in WiFi signal variations due to heterogeneous context. Real life experiments are conducted for two datasets, JUIndoorLoc and UJIIndoorLoc at different granularity levels. For JUIndoorLoc, with state-of-the-art classifiers, 86–97% accuracy can be achieved for 10-fold cross-validation. However, when the training context differs from the test conditions, accuracy drops to 62–87%. In such a scenario, the proposed weighted ensemble technique is found to achieve almost 98% localization accuracy when RSSIs, mean and variance of RSSIs are considered as features. The technique can lead to an effective expert system for indoor localization at varying granularity levels. Such systems would be beneficial for pervasive indoor positioning applications as no dedicated infrastructure is needed for positioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dandelion Algorithm (DA) is a novel swarm intelligent optimization algorithm. In evolutionary process of DA, the quality of the seeds generated by dandelions is uneven, and the excellent seeds are expected to be retained and evaluated, while the poor seeds should be discarded without evaluation. In order to determine whether a seed is excellent or not, an improvement of evolution process of dandelion algorithm with extreme learning machine (ELMDA) is proposed in this paper. In ELMDA, firstly, the dandelion population can be partitioned into excellent dandelions and poor dandelions based on fitness values. Then, the excellent dandelions and poor dandelions are assigned corresponding labels (i.e. +1 if excellent or -1 if poor), which can be regarded as a training set, and the training model is built based on ELM. Finally, the model is applied to classify the seeds as excellent or poor, and the excellent seeds are chosen to participate in evolution process. Meanwhile, the robustness of the proposed algorithm is analyzed in this paper. Experimental results performed on test functions show that the proposed algorithm is competitive to its peers. Moreover, the proposed algorithm is demonstrated on three engineering designed problems, and the results indicate that the proposed algorithm has better performance in solving them. • An improvement of evolution process of dandelion algorithm is proposed. • Extreme learning machine is introduced to judge the quality of the solution. • The robustness of the proposed algorithm is analyzed. • The convergence analysis of the proposed algorithm is given. • Experimental results indicate a competitive performance of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Data Mining, during the preprocessing step, there is a considerable diversity of candidate algorithms to select important features, according to some criteria. This broad availability of algorithms that perform the Feature Selection task gives rise to the difficulty of choosing, a priori , between the algorithms at hand, the most promising one for a particular problem. In this paper, we present the proposal and evaluation of a new architecture for the recommendation of Feature Selection algorithms based on the use of Metalearning. Our framework is very flexible since the user can adapt it to its proper needs. This flexibility is one of the main advantages of our proposal over other approaches in the literature, which involve steps that cannot be adapted to the user’s local requirements. Furthermore, it combines several concepts of intelligent systems, including Machine Learning and Data Mining, with topics derived from expert systems, as user and data-driven knowledge, with meta-knowledge. This set of solutions coupled with leading-edge technologies allows our architecture to be integrated into any information system, which impact on the automation of services and in reducing human effort during the process. Regarding the Metalearning process, our framework considers several types of properties inherent to the data sets, as well as, Feature Selection algorithms based on many information, distance, dependence and consistency measures. The quality of the methods for Feature Selection was estimated according to a multicriteria performance measure, which guided the ranking process of these algorithms for the construction of data metabases. Proposed by the authors of this work, this multicriteria performance measure combines any three measurements on a single one, creating an interesting and powerful tool to evaluate not only FS algorithms but also to assess any context where it is necessary a combination to maximize a measure or minimize it. The recommendation models, represented by decision trees and induced from the training metabases, allowed us to see in what circumstances a Feature Selection algorithm outperforms the other and what aspects of the data present greater influence in determining the performance of these algorithms. Nevertheless, if the user wishes, any other learning algorithm may be used to induce the recommendation model. This versatility is another strong point of this proposal. Results show that with the characterization of data, through statistical, information and complexity measures, it is possible to reach an accuracy higher than 90%. Besides yielding recommendation models that are interpretable and robust to overfitting, the developed architecture is less computationally expensive than approaches recently proposed in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• 3 layer neural networks outperform other ML algorithms in automated assessments. • In subjective assignments, deep neural networks can improve score prediction. • Word embeddings and linguistic feature results in more precise text mining models. • Extraction and selection of appropriate features can improve results. Machine learning (ML) has recently gained popularity in a variety of domains for automating tasks. This has also been used in the evaluation of student responses/ assignments. This paper presents a qualitatively enhanced methodology for automated score prediction of subjective assignments. To consider all the major aspects of a human grader, 21 linguistic features related to syntactical, grammatical, sentimental, and readability are analyzed from the assignments. This study makes use of the ASAP competition dataset from Kaggle. The evaluation metric used is Quadratic Weighted Kappa (QWK), which measures the agreement between the human graded score and the predicted score. The effect of appropriate feature selection has been observed using Mutual Information Regression. Four ML algorithms are investigated on identified linguistic features. 3 Layer Neural Network with feature selection performed well among all chosen ML algorithms with average QWK of 0.678. To include the benefits of deep learning, a new hybrid model (LF-BiLSTM-att-FS) is proposed that combines a higher level deep neural network (DNN) with the selected features. Pre-trained Glove embedding is used to include contextual information of the text. The proposed model results demonstrated an improvement in overall accuracy, with an average QWK value of 0.768. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advent of Big Data, data is being collected at an unprecedented fast pace, and it needs to be processed in a short time. To deal with data streams that flow continuously, classical batch learning algorithms cannot be applied and it is necessary to employ online approaches. Online learning consists of continuously revising and refining a model by incorporating new data as they arrive, and it allows important problems such as concept drift or management of extremely high-dimensional datasets to be solved. In this paper, we present a unified pipeline for online learning which covers online discretization, feature selection and classification. Three classical methods—the k -means discretizer, the χ 2 filter and a one-layer artificial neural network—have been reimplemented to be able to tackle online data, showing promising results on both synthetic and real datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The costs of decommissioning high-voltage equipment due to insulation breakdown are associated to the substitution of the asset and to the interruption of service. They can reach millions of dollars in new equipment purchases, fines and civil lawsuits, aggravated by the negative perception of the grid utility. Thus, condition based maintenance techniques are widely applied to have information about the status of the machine or power cable readily available. Partial discharge (PD) measurements are an important tool in the diagnosis of power systems equipment. The presence of PD can accelerate the local degradation of insulation systems and generate premature failures. Conventionally, PD classification is carried out using the phase resolved partial discharge (PRPD) pattern of pulses. The PRPD is a two dimensional representation of pulses that enables visual inspection but lacks discriminative power in common scenarios found in industrial environments, such as many simultaneous PD sources and low magnitude events that can be hidden below noise. The literature shows several works that complement PRPD with machine learning detectors (neural networks and support vector machines) and with more sophisticated signal representations, like statistics captured in several modalities, wavelets and other transforms, etc. These methods improve the classification accuracy but obscure the interpretation of the results. In this paper, the use of a support vector machine (SVM) operating on the power spectrum density of signals is proposed to identify different pulses what could be used in an online tool in the maintenance decision-making of the utility. Particularly, the approach is based on an SVM endowed with a special kernel that operates in the frequency domain. The SVM is previously trained with pulses of different PD types (internal, surface and corona) and noise that are obtained with several test objects in the laboratory. The experimental results demonstrate that this technique is highly effective in identifying PD for cases where several sources are active or when the noise level is high. Thus, the early identification of critical events with this approach during normal operation of the equipment will help in the decision of decommissioning the asset with reduced costs and low impact to the grid reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generally, training images are essential for a computer vision model to classify specific object class accurately. Unfortunately, there exist countless number of different object classes in real world, and it is almost impossible for a computer vision model to obtain a complete training images for each of the different object class. To overcome this problem, zero-shot learning algorithm was emerged to learn unknown object classes from a set of known object classes information. Among these methods, attributes and image hierarchy are the widely used methods. In this paper, we combine both the strength of attributes and image hierarchy by proposing Attributes Relationship Model (ARM) to perform zero-shot learning. We tested the efficiency of the proposed algorithm on Animals with Attributes (AwA) dataset and manage to achieve state-of-the-art accuracy (50.61%) compare to other recent methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamically changing real world applications, demands for rapid and accurate machine learning algorithm. In neural network based machine learning algorithms, radial basis function (RBF) network is a simple supervised learning feed forward network. With its simplicity, this network is highly suitable to model and control the nonlinear systems. Existing RBF networks in literature are applied to static applications and also faces challenges such as increased model size, neuron removal, improper center selection etc leading to erroneous output. To overcome the challenges and handle complex real world problems, this paper proposes a new optimum steepest descent based higher level learning radial basis function network (OSDHL-RBFN). The proposed OSDHL-RBFN implements major components inspired from the human brain for efficient learning, adaptive structure and accurate classification. Higher level learning and thinking components of the proposed network are sample deletion, neuron addition, neuron migration, sample navigation and neuroplasticity. These components helps the classifier to think before learning the samples and regulates the learning strategy. The knowledge gained from the trained samples are used by the network to identify the incomplete sample, optimal center and bond strength of hidden & output neurons. Adaptive network structure is employed to minimize classification error. The proposed work also uses optimum steepest descent method for weight parameter update to minimize the sum square error. OSDHL-RBFN is tested and evaluated in both static and dynamic environments on nine benchmark classification (binary and multiclass) problems for balanced, unbalanced, small, large, low dimensional and high dimensional datasets. The overall and class wise efficiency of OSDHL-RBFN is improved when compared to other RBFN’s in the literature. The performance results clearly show that the proposed OSDHL-RBFN reduces the architecture complexity and computation time compared to other RBFN’s. Overall, the proposed OSDHL-RBFN is efficient and suitable for dynamic real world applications in terms of detection time and accuracy. As a case study, OSDHL-RBFN is implemented in real time remote health monitoring application for classifying the various abnormality levels in vital parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One in every eight women is susceptible to breast cancer, at some point of time in her life. Early detection and effective treatment is the only rescue to reduce breast cancer mortality. Accurate classification of a breast cancer tumor is an important task in medical diagnosis. Machine learning techniques are gaining importance in medical diagnosis because of their classification capability. In this paper, we propose a new, Genetically Optimized Neural Network (GONN) algorithm, for solving classification problems. We evolve a neural network genetically to optimize its architecture (structure and weight) for classification. We introduce new crossover and mutation operators which differ from standard crossover and mutation operators to reduce the destructive nature of these operators. We use the GONN algorithm to classify breast cancer tumors as benign or malignant. To demonstrate our results, we had taken the WBCD database from UCI Machine Learning repository and compared the classification accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, confusion matrix, ROC curves and AUC under ROC curves of GONN with classical model and classical back propagation model. Our algorithm gives classification accuracy of 98.24%, 99.63% and 100% for 50–50, 60–40, 70–30 training–testing partition respectively and 100% for 10 fold cross validation. The results show that our approach works well with the breast cancer database and can be a good alternative to the well-known machine learning methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]