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Early detection of risk of failure on interactive tasks comes with great potential for better understanding how examinees differ in their initial behavior as well as for adaptively tailoring interactive tasks to examinees' competence levels. Drawing on procedures originating in shopper intent prediction on e-commerce platforms, we introduce and showcase a machine learning-based procedure that leverages early-window clickstream data for systematically investigating early predictability of behavioral outcomes on interactive tasks. We derive features related to the occurrence, frequency, sequentiality, and timing of performed actions from early-window clickstreams and use extreme gradient boosting for classification. Multiple measures are suggested to evaluate the quality and utility of early predictions. The procedure is outlined by investigating early predictability of failure on two PIAAC 2012 Problem Solving in Technology Rich Environments (PSTRE) tasks. We investigated early windows of varying size in terms of time and in terms of actions. We achieved good prediction performance at stages where examinees had, on average, at least two thirds of their solution process ahead of them, and the vast majority of examinees who failed could potentially be detected to be at risk before completing the task. In-depth analyses revealed different features to be indicative of success and failure at different stages of the solution process, thereby highlighting the potential of the applied procedure for gaining a finer-grained understanding of the trajectories of behavioral patterns on interactive tasks., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

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In traditional construction safety assessment, it is difficult to describe the safety status of different construction stages. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a digital twin modeling theory for construction safety assessment. Firstly, this paper analyzes the requirements of a digital twin model. Secondly, the required information is collected by IoT. Finally, the DT model is established based on the collected information. This DT model analyzes the collected information by ML, which aims to conducting the assessments of construction safety. To verify this method, this paper analyzes the vault settlement during tunnel construction. The analysis results show that the DT model can predict the settlement value with high accuracy. Moreover, the safety state is assessed dynamically based on the settlement value by DT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) has a problem with feature loss when recognizing small targets underwater. At present, algorithms usually use multi-scale feature extraction to solve the problem, but this method increases the computational effort of the algorithm. In addition, low underwater light and turbid water result in incomplete information on target features. This paper proposes an enhanced dilated convolution framework (EHDC) for underwater blurred target recognition. Firstly, this paper extracts small target features through hybrid dilated convolution networks, increasing the perceptive field of the algorithm without increasing the computational power of the algorithm. Secondly, the proposed algorithm learns spatial semantic features through an adaptive correlation matrix and compensates for the missing features of the target. Finally, this paper fuses spatial semantic features and visual features for the recognition of small underwater blurred targets. Experiments show that the proposed method improves the recognition accuracy by 1.04% compared to existing methods when recognizing small underwater blurred targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Allowing members of the crowd to propose novel microtasks for one another is an effective way to combine the efficiencies of traditional microtask work with the inventiveness and hypothesis generation potential of human workers. However, microtask proposal leads to a growing set of tasks that may overwhelm limited crowdsourcer resources. Crowdsourcers can employ methods to utilize their resources efficiently, but algorithmic approaches to efficient crowdsourcing generally require a fixed task set of known size. In this paper, we introduce cost forecasting as a means for a crowdsourcer to use efficient crowdsourcing algorithms with a growing set of microtasks. Cost forecasting allows the crowdsourcer to decide between eliciting new tasks from the crowd or receiving responses to existing tasks based on whether or not new tasks will cost less to complete than existing tasks, efficiently balancing resources as crowdsourcing occurs. Experiments with real and synthetic crowdsourcing data show that cost forecasting leads to improved accuracy. Accuracy and efficiency gains for crowd-generated microtasks hold the promise to further leverage the creativity and wisdom of the crowd, with applications such as generating more informative and diverse training data for machine learning applications and improving the performance of user-generated content and question-answering platforms., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

As an important part of the bridge structure system, the underwater pile-pier structure usually occurs various defects on its surfaces due to its complex hydrological environment. The existing conventional defect detection approaches exist two aspects of problems: (1) insufficient definition and color distortion of the underwater images, and (2) low efficiency and error-prone. To solve these problems, this paper proposed the target defect detection model by integrating the image-fusion enhancement algorithm and the deep learning algorithm. Firstly, by analyzing the reasons for the degradation of the underwater images, the ACE (automatic color equalization) and CLAHE (contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization) algorithms are selected to enhance the image, respectively. Secondly, the two enhanced images are fused based on the point sharpness weight, and then the fusion results are further sharpened by the USM (unsharp mask) algorithm, thus obtaining the final fused images. Thirdly, 3,200 fused images are taken as the training set, by adopting the YOLOv3 algorithm to train the detection model, and then the training model is validated and tested by the other each 400 fused images, thus building up the target automatic detection model of underwater pile-pier surface defects. Finally, a series of comparison and discussion were conducted to validate the effectiveness of image-fusion and the robustness and effectiveness of the target detection model. The results found that the target detection model has excellent robustness against noise and effectiveness in the surface defect detection. This indicates that the image-fusion approach proposed in this paper can effectively enhance the image features, and the target detection model is feasible, robust, and effective in the automatic detection of surface defects on underwater pile-pier structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the performance of the spectral moment estimation algorithm commonly used in engineering degrades under the conditions of low SNR, this paper introduces the Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) to the spectral moment estimation of weather signals based on the correlation of the signals of adjacent range cells. To solve the problem that the hidden layer nodes of ELM algorithm are difficult to be determined, the Bidirectional Extreme Learning Machine (B-ELM) algorithm is applied to achieve the high resolution of spectral moments. Firstly, to improve the SNR of the training samples, time-domain pulse signals are converted into weather power spectrum by Welch method. Then, the parameters of the B-ELM hidden layer nodes are directly calculated by backpropagation of network residuals. The model parameters are optimized according to the least-squares solution, where the optimal number of hidden layer nodes is determined adaptively. Finally, the optimized B-ELM model is employed for the spectral moment estimation of weather signals. The algorithm is validated to be fast and accurate for spectral moment estimation using the measured IDRA weather radar data and is easy to implement in engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, semantic segmentation algorithms based on deep learning have been widely used in building extraction, which requires large sample data and does not consider the geometric features of the building, and the effect of the extraction is greatly affected by the data scene, while the traditional methods are difficult to extract the remote sensing buildings accurately because they only consider their greyscale features when extracting them. To solve this problem, we propose a method for building classification extraction from remote sensing images that combine over-pixel and maximum interclass variance. The method combines superpixel and maximum interclass variance (OTSU). First, a number of superpixel subregions with different shapes and sizes are generated based on the watershed transform. Then, the superpixels of buildings are merged using the spectral features of buildings, so the first extraction of buildings is achieved by this method.Then, the noise is suppressed with median filtering. Finally, the post-extraction of buildings is performed according to the OTSU algorithm. In this paper, seven images of buildings located in different landscapes were selected. The experimental results show that the algorithm is more advantageous than the classical algorithm and the deep learning algorithm.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Machine Learning (ML) algorithms have been increasingly replacing people in several application domains—in which the majority suffer from data imbalance. In order to solve this problem, published studies implement data preprocessing techniques, cost-sensitive and ensemble learning. These solutions reduce the naturally occurring bias towards the majority sample through ML. This study uses a systematic mapping methodology to assess 9927 papers related to sampling techniques for ML in imbalanced data applications from 7 digital libraries. A filtering process selected 35 representative papers from various domains, such as health, finance, and engineering. As a result of a thorough quantitative analysis of these papers, this study proposes two taxonomies—illustrating sampling techniques and ML models. The results indicate that oversampling and classical ML are the most common preprocessing techniques and models, respectively. However, solutions with neural networks and ensemble ML models have the best performance—with potentially better results through hybrid sampling techniques. Finally, none of the 35 works apply simulation-based synthetic oversampling, indicating a path for future preprocessing solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the SASC (Sentiment Analysis based on Sentiment Clustering) method is proposed to solve the problems of low accuracy and poor stability in the review sentiment clustering methods. Through two-stage sentiment clustering, the hidden sentiment information among the review texts is obtained to improve the accuracy and stability of the results. Specifically, in the first stage, the review representation vector construction method is put forward through the topic model LDA. Then the second stage uses K-means algorithm to achieve further optimization of the sentiment clustering results. In the experiment part, the evaluation methods of sentiment clustering are firstly introduced, and then a series of experiments are carried out on two widely used datasets Large Movie Review Dataset v1.0 and Multi-Domain Sentiment Dataset. Experiment results indicate that compared with other methods, the SASC method proposed in this paper has better clustering accuracy and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) is one of the most intensively studied combinatorial optimisation problems for which numerous models and algorithms have been proposed. To tackle the complexities, uncertainties and dynamics involved in real-world VRP applications, Machine Learning (ML) methods have been used in combination with analytical approaches to enhance problem formulations and algorithmic performance across different problem solving scenarios. However, the relevant papers are scattered in several traditional research fields with very different, sometimes confusing, terminologies. This paper presents a first, comprehensive review of hybrid methods that combine analytical techniques with ML tools in addressing VRP problems. Specifically, we review the emerging research streams on ML-assisted VRP modelling and ML-assisted VRP optimisation. We conclude that ML can be beneficial in enhancing VRP modelling, and improving the performance of algorithms for both online and offline VRP optimisations. Finally, challenges and future opportunities of VRP research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In stock trading, a common phenomenon is that the trends of stocks in the same industry are very similar. In contrast, the movements of stocks in different industries are often different. Therefore, applying the same model to all stock trading is inappropriate without distinguishing the industries in which the stocks belong. However, recommending an optimal industry stock trading model is very challenging based on performance evaluation indicators. First, the indicators of the trading model are diverse. Second, the ranking of multiple indicators is often inconsistent. In the paper, we model the problem to be solved as a multi-criteria decision-making process. Therefore, we first divide stock dataset into nine industries according to their main business. Then, we apply several machine learning algorithms as candidate models to generate trading signals. Second, we conduct daily trading backtesting based on the trading signals to obtain multiple performance evaluation indicators. Third, we propose an optimal recommendation algorithm for the industry stock trading model with TODIM. The experimental results in the US stock market and China's A-share market show that the proposed algorithm can get a better trading model out-of-sample industry stock. Moreover, we effectively evaluate the generalization ability of the algorithm based on the proposed metrics. Finally, the proposed long–short portfolios based on the algorithm have achieved returns exceeding the benchmark on most out-of-sample datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) play a prominent role in solving problems in various domains such as pattern recognition, image tasks, and natural language processing. In recent years, neural architecture search (NAS), which is the automatic design of neural network architectures as an optimization algorithm, has become a popular method to design CNN architectures against some requirements associated with the network function. However, many NAS algorithms are characterised by a complex search space which can negatively affect the efficiency of the search process. In other words, the representation of the neural network architecture and thus the encoding of the resulting search space plays a fundamental role in the designed CNN performance. In this paper, to make the search process more effective, we propose a novel compact representation of the search space by identifying network blocks as elementary units. The study in this paper focuses on a popular CNN called DenseNet. To perform the NAS, we use an ad-hoc implementation of the particle swarm optimization indicated as PSO-CNN. In addition, to reduce size of the final model, we propose a segmentation method to cut the blocks. We also transfer the final model to different datasets, thus demonstrating that our proposed algorithm has good transferable performance. The proposed PSO-CNN is compared with 11 state-of-the-art algorithms on CIFAR10 and CIFAR100. Numerical results show the competitiveness of our proposed algorithm in the aspect of accuracy and the number of parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of a stabilisation system synthesis for the motion of a control object along a given spatial trajectory is considered. The complexity of the problem is that the preset trajectory is defined in the state subspace and not in time. This paper describes a stabilisation system synthesis for motion along a trajectory specified in time and along a trajectory specified in the form of a manifold in a state space. In order to construct a stabilisation system, it is necessary to determine a distance between an object and the given trajectory at each moment in time. For trajectories that are not given in time, the determination of this distance can be ambiguous. An object may be exactly on a trajectory but at a different time. This paper proposes some approaches to solve the problem. One of the approaches is to transform a given trajectory in a state subspace into a trajectory given in time. A description of a universal method to perform this transformation is presented. In order to solve the synthesis problem automatically, without having to analyse the mathematical model of the control object, it is suggested that machine learning control by symbolic regression is used. In computational experiments, examples of stabilisation system syntheses for quadcopter motion along a given spatial trajectory are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broadcasting gateway equipment generally uses a method of simply switching to a spare input stream when a failure occurs in a main input stream. However, when the transmission environment is unstable, problems such as reduction in the lifespan of equipment due to frequent switching and interruption, delay, and stoppage of services may occur. Therefore, applying a machine learning (ML) method, which is possible to automatically judge and classify network-related service anomaly, and switch multi-input signals without dropping or changing signals by predicting or quickly determining the time of error occurrence for smooth stream switching when there are problems such as transmission errors, is required. In this paper, we propose an intelligent packet switching method based on the ML method of classification, which is one of the supervised learning methods, that presents the risk level of abnormal multi-stream occurring in broadcasting gateway equipment based on data. Furthermore, we subdivide the risk levels obtained from classification techniques into probabilities and then derive vectorized representative values for each attribute value of the collected input data and continuously update them. The obtained reference vector value is used for switching judgment through the cosine similarity value between input data obtained when a dangerous situation occurs. In the broadcasting gateway equipment to which the proposed method is applied, it is possible to perform more stable and smarter switching than before by solving problems of reliability and broadcasting accidents of the equipment and can maintain stable video streaming as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on ML algorithm, this paper puts forward a method that can search instructional resources through keyword indexing technology, and then cluster and recombine the related results and present them centrally. In this paper, the semantic processing of user query based on the subject index of educational resources is adopted to make up for the deficiency of query semantics, solve the problem of mismatch between query words and document words, and improve the recall and precision of resource retrieval. It is proposed to select the category feature items manually and establish the category feature model. In the environment of small sample set, the weight of category feature items is trained by ML method. The research shows that the user rating of this system is ideal, reaching 93.21% at the highest. In addition, the stability of the system can still reach 89.31% under the condition of relatively large usage, and its performance is excellent. This system can effectively solve the problem of scattered distribution of English instructional resources and make the presentation of knowledge more in line with the needs of users, thereby further improving the utilization rate of English instructional resources and users' satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The purpose of this paper is to effectively and accurately identify weed species in crop fields in complex environments. There are many kinds of weeds in the detection area, which are densely distributed. Methods: The paper proposes the use of local variance pre-processing method for background segmentation and data enhancement, which effectively removes the complex background and redundant information from the data, and prevents the experiment from overfitting, which can improve the accuracy rate significantly. Then, based on the optimization improvement of DenseNet network, Efficient Channel Attention (ECA) mechanism is introduced after the convolutional layer to increase the weight of important features, strengthen the weed features and suppress the background features. Results: Using the processed images to train the model, the accuracy rate reaches 97.98%, which is a great improvement, and the comprehensive performance is higher than that of DenseNet, VGGNet-16, VGGNet-19, ResNet-50, DANet, DNANet, and U-Net models. Discussion: The experimental data show that the model and method we designed are well suited to solve the problem of accurate identification of crop and weed species in complex environments, laying a solid technical foundation for the development of intelligent weeding robots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reinforcement learning is one of the promising approaches for algorithmic trading in financial markets. However, in certain situations, buy or sell orders issued by an algorithmic trading program may not be fulfilled entirely. By considering the actual scenarios from the financial markets, in this paper, we propose a novel framework named Supervised Actor-Critic Reinforcement Learning with Action Feedback (SACRL-AF) for solving this problem. The action feedback mechanism of SACRL-AF notifies the actor about the dealt positions and corrects the transitions of the replay buffer. Meanwhile, the dealt positions are used as the labels for the supervised learning. Recent studies have shown that Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) and Twin Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (TD3) are more stable and superior to other actor-critic algorithms. Against this background, based on the proposed SACRL-AF framework, two reinforcement learning algorithms henceforth referred to as Supervised Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient with Action Feedback (SDDPG-AF) and Supervised Twin Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient with Action Feedback (STD3-AF) are proposed in this paper. Experimental results show that SDDPG-AF and STD3-AF achieve the state-of-art performance in profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contributions in the Special Issue: The special issue assembles papers centring around log data analysis, natural language processing, and machine learning used to advance educational assessment. They demonstrate how semi‐ and unstructured data such as log and text data can, despite their challenging nature, be handled appropriately to benefit educational assessment. In this editorial, we contextualize the special issue's contributions within the diverse field of modern technology‐based assessments. Reflection on Terminology: Moreover, we raise concerns about nowadays' use of the term artificial intelligence (AI) in scientific communication. While the contribution of AI to scientific progress is indisputable, the mere use of methods that have evolved within AI research does not necessarily render tools or studies AI‐related. We argue that academics have the social responsibility to adopt accurate terminology, given it is integral to scientific rigour and proper scientific communication. Implications: In view of the inflationary use of the term AI in science, we propose a scheme to locate one's research in the field by focusing on (1) the type of data, (2) the processing involved, and (3) the output of a study and the actions derived from it, which are situated within the (4) scope of a study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applying parallel-in-time algorithms to multiscale Hamiltonian systems to obtain stable long-time simulations is very challenging. In this paper, we present novel data-driven methods aimed at improving the standard parareal algorithm developed by Lions et al. in 2001, for multiscale Hamiltonian systems. The first method involves constructing a correction operator to improve a given inaccurate coarse solver through solving a Procrustes problem using data collected online along parareal trajectories. The second method involves constructing an efficient, high-fidelity solver by a neural network trained with offline generated data. For the second method, we address the issues of effective data generation and proper loss function design based on the Hamiltonian function. We show proof-of-concept by applying the proposed methods to a Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) problem. The numerical results demonstrate that the Procrustes parareal method is able to produce solutions that are more stable in energy compared to the standard parareal. The neural network solver can achieve comparable or better runtime performance compared to numerical solvers of similar accuracy. When combined with the standard parareal algorithm, the improved neural network solutions are slightly more stable in energy than the improved numerical coarse solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) is increasing the scale and complexity of ransomware attacks. Understanding the internal operations behind RaaS has been a challenge due to the illegality of such activities. The recent chat leak of the Conti RaaS operator, one of the most infamous ransomware operators on the international scene, offers a key opportunity to better understand the inner workings of such organizations. This paper analyzes the main discussion topics in the Conti chat leak using machine learning techniques such as Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), as well as visualization strategies. Five discussion topics are found: (1) Business, (2) Technical, (3) Internal tasking/Management, (4) Malware, and (5) Customer Service/Problem Solving. Moreover, the distribution of topics among Conti members shows that only 4% of individuals have specialized discussions while almost all individuals (96%) are all-rounders, meaning that their discussions revolve around the five topics. The results also indicate that a significant proportion of Conti discussions are non-tech related. This study thus highlights that running such large RaaS operations requires a workforce skilled beyond technical abilities, with individuals involved in various tasks, from management to customer service or problem solving. The discussion topics also show that the organization behind the Conti RaaS operator shares similarities with a large firm. We conclude that, although RaaS represents an example of specialization in the cybercrime industry, only a few members are specialized in one topic, while the rest runs and coordinates the RaaS operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With remarkable learning capabilities and swift operational speeds, artificial intelligence (AI) can assist researchers in swiftly extracting valuable patterns, trends, and associations from subjective information. Tribological behaviors are characterized by dependence on systems, evolution with time, and multidisciplinary coupling. The friction process involves a variety of phenomena, including mechanics, thermology, electricity, optics, magnetics, and so on. Hence, tribological information possesses the distinct characteristics of being multidisciplinary, multilevel, and multiscale, so that the application of AI in tribology is highly extensive. To delineate the scope, classification, and recent trends of AI implementation in tribology, this review embarks on exploration of the tribology research domain. It comprehensively outlines the utilization of AI in basic theory of tribology, intelligent tribology, component tribology, extreme tribology, bio-tribology, green tribology, and other fields. Finally, considering the emergence of "tribo-informatics" as a novel interdisciplinary field, which combines tribology with informatics, this review elucidates the future directions and research framework of "AI for tribology". In this paper, tribo-system information is divided into 5 categories: input information (I), system intrinsic information (S), output information (O), tribological state information (Ts), and derived state information (Ds). Then, a fusion method among 5 types of tribo-system information and different AI technologies (regression, classification, clustering, and dimension reduction) has been proposed, which enables tribo-informatics methods to solve common problems such as tribological behavior state monitoring, behavior prediction, and system optimization. The purpose of this review is to offer a systematic comprehension of tribo-informatics and to inspire new research ideas of tribo-informatics. Ultimately, it aspires to enhance the efficiency of problem-solving in tribology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the ℓ 1 , ∞ -norm ball constrained multi-task learning problem, which has received extensive attention in many research areas such as machine learning, cognitive neuroscience, and signal processing. To address the challenges of solving large-scale multi-task Lasso problems, this paper develops an inexact semismooth Newton-based augmented Lagrangian (Ssnal) algorithm. When solving the inner problems in the Ssnal algorithm, the semismooth Newton (Ssn) algorithm with superlinear or even quadratic convergence is applied. Theoretically, this paper presents the global and asymptotically superlinear local convergence of the Ssnal algorithm under standard conditions. Computationally, we derive an efficient procedure to construct the generalized Jacobian of the projector onto ℓ 1 , ∞ -norm ball, which is an important component of the Ssnal algorithm, making the computational cost in the Ssn algorithm very cheap. Comprehensive numerical experiments on the multi-task Lasso problems demonstrate that the Ssnal algorithm is more efficient and robust than several existing state-of-the-art first-order algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facial expression recognition based on residual networks is important for technologies related to space human-robot interaction and collaboration but suffers from low accuracy and slow computation in complex network structures. To solve these problems, this paper proposes a multiscale feature fusion attention lightweight wide residual network. The network first uses an improved random erasing method to preprocess facial expression images, which improves the generalizability of the model. The use of a modified depthwise separable convolution in the feature extraction network reduces the computational effort associated with the network parameters and enhances the characterization of the extracted features through a channel shuffle operation. Then, an improved bottleneck block is used to reduce the dimensionality of the upper layer network feature map to further reduce the number of network parameters while enhancing the network feature extraction capability. Finally, an optimized multiscale feature lightweight attention mechanism module is embedded to further improve the feature extractability of the network for human facial expressions. The experimental results show that the accuracy of the model is 73.21%, 98.72%, and 95.21% on FER2013, CK+ and JAFFE, respectively, with a covariance of 10.14 M. Compared with other networks, the model proposed in this paper has faster computing speed and better accuracy at the same time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the problem of generating balanced training samples from an unlabeled data set with an unknown class distribution. While random sampling works well when the data are balanced, it is very ineffective for unbalanced data. Other approaches, such as active learning and cost-sensitive learning, are also suboptimal as they are classifier-dependent and require misclassification costs and labeled samples, respectively. We propose a new strategy for generating training samples, which is independent of the underlying class distribution of the data and the classifier that will be trained using the labeled data. Our methods are iterative and can be seen as variants of active learning, where we use semi-supervised clustering at each iteration to perform biased sampling from the clusters. We provide several strategies to estimate the underlying class distributions in the clusters and to increase the balancedness in the training samples. Experiments with both highly skewed and balanced data from the UCI repository and a private data set show that our algorithm produces much more balanced samples than random sampling or uncertainty sampling. Further, our sampling strategy is substantially more efficient than active learning methods. The experiments also validate that, with more balanced training data, classifiers trained with our samples outperform classifiers trained with random sampling or active learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The widespread use of the internet and the exponential growth in small hardware diversity enable the development of Internet of things (IoT)-based localization systems. We review machine-learning-based approaches for IoT localization systems in this paper. Because of their high prediction accuracy, machine learning methods are now being used to solve localization problems. The paper's main goal is to provide a review of how learning algorithms are used to solve IoT localization problems, as well as to address current challenges. We examine the existing literature for published papers released between 2020 and 2022. These studies are classified according to several criteria, including their learning algorithm, chosen environment, specific covered IoT protocol, and measurement technique. We also discuss the potential applications of learning algorithms in IoT localization, as well as future trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The goal of this work is to develop a digital version of a standard cognitive assessment, the Trail Making Test (TMT), and assess its utility.Objective: This paper introduces a novel digital version of the TMT and introduces a machine learning based approach to assess its capabilities.Methods: Using digital Trail Making Test (dTMT) data collected from (N = 54) older adult participants as feature sets, we use machine learning techniques to analyze the utility of the dTMT and evaluate the insights provided by the digital features.Results: Predicted TMT scores correlate well with clinical digital test scores (r = 0.98) and paper time to completion scores (r = 0.65). Predicted TICS exhibited a small correlation with clinically derived TICS scores (r = 0.12 Part A, r = 0.10 Part B). Predicted FAB scores exhibited a small correlation with clinically derived FAB scores (r = 0.13 Part A, r = 0.29 for Part B). Digitally derived features were also used to predict diagnosis (AUC of 0.65).Conclusion: Our findings indicate that the dTMT is capable of measuring the same aspects of cognition as the paper-based TMT. Furthermore, the dTMT's additional data may be able to help monitor other cognitive processes not captured by the paper-based TMT alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The opportunity for large amounts of open-for-public and available data is one of the main drivers of the development of an information society at the beginning of the 21st century. In this sense, acquiring knowledge from these data using different methods of machine learning is a prerequisite for solving complex problems in many spheres of human activity, starting from medicine to education and the economy, including traffic as today's important economic branch. Having this in mind, this paper deals with the prediction of the risk of traffic incidents using both historical and real-time data for different atmospheric factors. The main goal is to construct an ensemble model based on the use of several machine learning algorithms which has better characteristics of prediction than any of those installed when individually applied. In global, a case-proposed model could be a multi-agent system, but in a considered case study, a two-agent system is used so that one agent solves the prediction task by learning from the historical data, and the other agent uses the real time data. The authors evaluated the obtained model based on a case study and data for the city of Niš from the Republic of Serbia and also described its implementation as a practical web citizen application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the promotion of artificial intelligence in agriculture and the popularization of plug tray seedling-raising technology, seedling raising and transplanting have become the most popular planting modes. Miss-seeding is one of the most serious problems affecting seedling raising and transplanting. It not only affects the germination rate of seeds but also reduces the utilization rate of the plug tray. The experimental analysis of traditional machine vision-based miss-seeding showed that because of uneven lighting, the plug tray was wrongly identified as a seed under bright light, but the seeds in the dark were not easy to identify. When using the seeding area to identify seeds and noise, sweet corn seeds in a small area can be easily screened out. This paper proposes a method using the ResNet network with an attention mechanism to solve the above-mentioned problems. In this paper, the captured image was segmented into the images of a single plug tray, and a residual attention network was built; the detection scheme of miss-seeding was also converted into a dichotomous picture recognition task. This paper demonstrates that the residual attention network can effectively recognize and detect the seed images of sweet corn with very high accuracy. The results of the experiment showed that the average accuracy of this recognition model was 98%. The feature visualization method was used to analyze the features, further proving the effectiveness of the classification method of plug tray seedlings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the traditional deep learning cannot solve the fog, coastal background interference, and the difficulty of small ships recognition, a multi-scale deep learning training model is proposed in this paper. Based on Faster R-CNN, this paper uses guided filtering to remove fog, as well as combined with negative sample enhancement learning to train the model, thus solving recognition of ship in complex sea conditions. And with multi-scale training strategy, the multi-scale ship samples are produced and sent to the network for training, so as to solve the problem of small target recognition. The experimental results show that compared with the Faster R-CNN, the precision and recall of our method increase by 6.43% and by 4.68% respectively. It solves the difficulty of ships recognition under complex sea conditions and small ship recognition that cannot be solved by traditional deep learning methods, the trained model has good generalization ability and robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on non-iterative approaches in training feed-forward neural networks, this special issue includes 12 papers to share the latest progress, current challenges, and potential applications of this topic. This editorial presents a background of the special issue and a brief introduction to the 12 contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In the presence of noise in communication systems, constellation diagram points are scattered to the extent that may make the modulation classification a difficult task. With the plethora of applications of machine and deep learning, several communication systems have adopted machine and deep learning to solve some classical detection and classification problems. Casting the modulation order detection as a pattern classification of the constellation images opens the door for application of mature machine learning and image processing tools to solve the classification problem, efficiently. This paper presents a system based on a wavelet‐aided convolutional neural network (CNN) classifier to efficiently detect the modulation type and order in the presence of noise. The proposed system depends on a pretrained CNN setup, which is trained with a set of constellation diagrams for each modulation scheme and used after that for testing. In addition, discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is investigated to generate representative patterns from constellation diagrams to be used for the training and testing tasks as well. The wavelet approximation images and their corresponding wavelet sub‐bands across all predefined scales are used in the dataset. Several pretrained networks including AlexNet, VGG‐16, and VGG‐19 are used as classifiers for the modulation type from the DWTs for different constellation diagrams. Several simulation experiments are presented in this paper to compare different scenarios for modulation classification at different signal‐to‐noise ratios (SNRs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pipe bursts in water distribution networks (WDNs) pose significant threats to the safety of distribution networks, driving attention to deep learning-based burst detection and localization. However, the applicability of different pressure features still needs to be compared and verified. A large number of nodes challenges deep learning with the excessive number of classification categories and low recognition accuracy. To address these problems, this paper extracts different burst pressure features, including pressure value, pressure difference, and pressure fluctuation ratio, and inputs one of these features into a Burst Diagnosis Multi-Stage Model (BDMM) based on three CS-LSTMs (a combination of the Cuckoo Search algorithm and a long short-term memory network). The first model addresses a binary classification problem, outputting labels indicating whether a pipe burst has occurred. The second one solves a multi-classification problem, outputting the label of the burst partition, and the third model also solves a multi-classification problem, outputting the ID of the bursting junction. The model is tested on a real network and outperforms ELM. For basic burst identification tasks using CS-LSTM, differences among the three features are minimal, while pressure difference and pressure fluctuation ratio exhibit superior performance to pressure value when resolving more complex problems like burst junction localization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the federated learning (FL) framework, the client collaboratively trains the model in coordination with a central server, while the training data can be kept locally on the client. Thus, the FL framework mitigates the privacy disclosure and costs related to conventional centralized machine learning. Nevertheless, current surveys indicate that FL still has problems in terms of communication efficiency and privacy risks. In this paper, to solve these problems, we develop an FL framework with communication-efficient and privacy-preserving (FLCP). To realize the FLCP, we design a novel compression algorithm with efficient communication, namely, adaptive weight compression FedAvg (AWC-FedAvg). On the basis of the non-independent and identically distributed (non-IID) and unbalanced data distribution in FL, a specific compression rate is provided for each client, and homomorphic encryption (HE) and differential privacy (DP) are integrated to provide demonstrable privacy protection and maintain the desirability of the model. Therefore, our proposed FLCP smoothly balances communication efficiency and privacy risks, and we prove its security against "honest-but-curious" servers and extreme collusion under the defined threat model. We evaluate the scheme by comparing it with state-of-the-art results on the MNIST and CIFAR-10 datasets. The results show that the FLCP performs better in terms of training efficiency and model accuracy than the baseline method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entropy-regularized quadratic optimization problems are a special class of optimization problems with wide applications in various fields, such as transportation and machine learning. In this paper, we apply the augmented Lagrangian method to this problem with its subproblem solved by the block coordinate descent method. Under certain mild conditions, we analyze the global convergence of this algorithm. Numerical experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of this algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many methods exist for solving the problem of evaluating efficiency in different processes. They are divided into two basic groups, parametric and non-parametric methods, which can have significant differences in the results. In this study, the authors consider the process of assessing the business climate depending on realized foreign investments. Due to the expected difference in efficiency assessment using different approaches, the goal of this paper is to create an optimization model of an ensemble for efficiency assessment that uses both types of methods with the aim of creating a symmetrical approach that achieves better results than each type of method individually. The proposed solution simultaneously analyzes the impact of different factors on foreign investments in order to determine the most important factors and thus enable each local government to ensure the best possible efficiency in this process. The innovative idea of this study is in the inclusion of classification and feature selection methods of machine learning to fulfill the set goal. Our research, focused on a specific case study in various cities across the Republic of Serbia, evaluated the effectiveness of that process. This study extends previous research and confirms the published results, highlighting the advantages of the newly proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A longer battery life is a highly sought-after feature for most smartphone users when considering their next device. However, with the emergence of new hardware technology and software applications that require heavy processing, the demand for battery power has significantly increased. Unfortunately, the development of battery technology has not kept up with the rapid advancements in smartphone hardware and software, which rely heavily on battery power. To address this issue, several approaches have been proposed to regulate battery consumption and the charging process on smartphones. In this paper, we summarize the different approaches related to this problem that managed to achieve up to a 61% increase in battery daily usage in simulation testing, highlighting their strengths, limitations, and current challenges. Furthermore, we provide a comprehensive review of various open-source datasets that have the potential to be used in developing new approaches to improve battery drainage and degradation in smartphones. We also discuss the methodology for collecting each dataset. Finally, we propose a new approach to address the current limitations and challenges to solving the problem of battery drainage and degradation that could be developed using the currently available datasets. These new approaches may involve incorporating Machine Learning (ML) techniques to predict battery charging patterns and minimize battery drainage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When performing classification tasks on high-dimensional data, traditional machine learning algorithms often fail to filter out valid information in the features adequately, leading to low levels of classification accuracy. Therefore, this paper explores the high-dimensional data from both the data feature dimension and the model ensemble dimension. We propose a high-dimensional ensemble learning classification algorithm focusing on feature space reconstruction and classifier ensemble, called the HDELC algorithm. First, the algorithm considers feature space reconstruction and then generates a feature space reconstruction matrix. It effectively achieves feature selection and reconstruction for high-dimensional data. An optimal feature space is generated for the subsequent ensemble of the classifier, which enhances the representativeness of the feature space. Second, we recursively determine the number of classifiers and the number of feature subspaces in the ensemble model. Different classifiers in the ensemble system are assigned mutually exclusive non-intersecting feature subspaces for model training. The experimental results show that the HDELC algorithm has advantages compared with most high-dimensional datasets due to its more efficient feature space ensemble capability and relatively reliable ensemble operation performance. The HDELC algorithm makes it possible to solve the classification problem for high-dimensional data effectively and has vital research and application value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In numerous scientific disciplines and practical applications, addressing optimization challenges is a common imperative. Nature-inspired optimization algorithms represent a highly valuable and pragmatic approach to tackling these complexities. This paper introduces Dendritic Growth Optimization (DGO), a novel algorithm inspired by natural branching patterns. DGO offers a novel solution for intricate optimization problems and demonstrates its efficiency in exploring diverse solution spaces. The algorithm has been extensively tested with a suite of machine learning algorithms, deep learning algorithms, and metaheuristic algorithms, and the results, both before and after optimization, unequivocally support the proposed algorithm's feasibility, effectiveness, and generalizability. Through empirical validation using established datasets like diabetes and breast cancer, the algorithm consistently enhances model performance across various domains. Beyond its working and experimental analysis, DGO's wide-ranging applications in machine learning, logistics, and engineering for solving real-world problems have been highlighted. The study also considers the challenges and practical implications of implementing DGO in multiple scenarios. As optimization remains crucial in research and industry, DGO emerges as a promising avenue for innovation and problem solving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dealing with imbalanced data is crucial and challenging when developing effective machine-learning models for data classification purposes. It significantly impacts the classification model's performance without proper data management, leading to suboptimal results. Many methods for managing imbalanced data have been studied and developed to improve data balance. In this paper, we conduct a comparative study to assess the influence of a ranking technique on the evaluation of the effectiveness of 66 traditional methods for addressing imbalanced data. The three classification models, i.e., Decision Tree, Random Forest, and XGBoost, act as classification models. The experimental settings have been divided into two segments. The first part evaluates the performance of various imbalanced dataset handling methods, while the second part compares the performance of the top 4 oversampling methods. The study encompasses 50 separate datasets: 20 retrieved from the UCI repository and 30 sourced from the OpenML repository. The evaluation is based on F-Measure and statistical methods, including the Kruskal-Wallis test and Borda Count, to rank the data imbalance handling capabilities of the 66 methods. The SMOTE technique is the benchmark for comparison due to its popularity in handling imbalanced data. Based on the experimental results, the MCT, Polynom-fit-SMOTE, and CBSO methods were identified as the top three performers, demonstrating superior effectiveness in managing imbalanced datasets. This research could be beneficial and serve as a practical guide for practitioners to apply suitable techniques for data management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to solve the problems of low learning efficiency and slow convergence speed when mobile robot uses reinforcement learning method for path planning in complex environment, a reinforcement learning method based on each round path planning result is proposed. Firstly, the algorithm adds obstacle learning matrix to improve the success rate of path planning; and introduces heuristic reward to speed up the learning process by reducing the search space; then proposes a method of dynamically adjusting the exploration factor to balance the exploration and utilization in path planning, so as to further improve the performance of the algorithm. Finally, the simulation experiment in grid environment shows that compared with Q-learning algorithm, the improved algorithm not only shortens the average path length of the robot to reach the target position, but also speeds up the learning efficiency of the algorithm, so that the robot can find the optimal path more quickly. The code of EPRQL algorithm proposed in this paper has been published to GitHub: https://github.com/panpanpanguoguoqian/mypaper1.git. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the abundance of data, machine learning applications engaged increased attention in the last decade. An attractive approach to robustify the statistical analysis is to preprocess the data through clustering. This paper develops a low-complexity Riemannian optimization framework for solving optimization problems on the set of positive semidefinite stochastic matrices. The low-complexity feature of the proposed algorithms stems from the factorization of the optimization variable $\mathbf {X}=\mathbf {Y}\mathbf {Y}^{\mathrm{T}}$ X = Y Y T and deriving conditions on the number of columns of $\mathbf {Y}$ Y under which the factorization yields a satisfactory solution. The paper further investigates the embedded and quotient geometries of the resulting Riemannian manifolds. In particular, the paper explicitly derives the tangent space, Riemannian gradients and Hessians, and a retraction operator allowing the design of efficient first and second-order optimization methods for the graph-based clustering applications of interest. The numerical results reveal that the resulting algorithms present a clear complexity advantage as compared with state-of-the-art euclidean and Riemannian approaches for graph clustering applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the heterogeneity of program language and natural language query, it is difficult to identify the semantic relationship between them, which leads to the low efficiency of code recommendation. In order to solve the problems of the above code recommendation technology, a code recommendation method based on joint embedded attention network (JEAN) is proposed in this paper. The method uses GRU Network to embed code snippets and describe queries into vector representation, which solves the problem of heterogeneous code snippets and natural language queries. The Attention mechanism is then used to distribute totally different weights to different components of every mode of the code snippet. The reason for the Attention mechanism is that different components of every mode of the code snippet contribute differently to the semantic vector of the final code snippet, making it interpretable. Finally, two commonly used evaluation indexes of information retrieval, SuccessRate@k and MRR, are used for experimental comparison with other baseline models. The experimental results show that the code recommendation method based on joint embedded attention network proposed in this paper can effectively recommend appropriate code snippets according to the needs of developers, and its performance is better than other baseline methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Federated learning (FL) is a distributed machine learning framework that solves the problem of data island while ensuring the privacy of users' data. FL only collects midway parameters with relevant features to train a learning model. The parameters of the exchange model, however, may implicitly reveal specific characteristics or sensitive data of the user, as the gradient may be cracked. Several kinds of literature have noted the problem and proposed solutions such as homomorphic encryption, differential privacy, and secure multi-party computation. Some researchers have discussed FL, but they have some limitation to the summary of privacy protection and application. Based on that, this paper aims to provide a systematic literature review for current approaches of privacy protection methods in FL. The paper presents and discusses the differences between the various solutions, and classifies and analyses the solutions in different practical application scenarios. Moreover, some suggestions for trade-offs in privacy protection are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of machine learning, data-driven mechanical fault diagnosis methods have been widely used in the field of PHM. Due to the limitation of the amount of fault data, it is a difficult problem for fault diagnosis to solve the problem of unbalanced data sets. Under unbalanced data sets, faults with little historical data are always difficult to diagnose and lead to economic losses. In order to improve the prediction accuracy under unbalanced data sets, this paper proposes MeanRadius-SMOTE based on the traditional SMOTE oversampling algorithm, which effectively avoids the generation of useless samples and noise samples. This paper validates the effectiveness of the algorithm on three linear unbalanced data sets and four step unbalanced data sets. Experimental results show that MeanRadius-SMOTE outperforms SMOTE and LR-SMOTE in various evaluation indicators, as well as has better robustness against different imbalance rates. In addition, MeanRadius-SMOTE can take into account the prediction accuracy of the overall and minority class, which is of great significance for engineering applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve the problem of low accuracy in the traditional FunkSVD recommendation algorithm, an improved FunkSVD algorithm (RM-FS) is proposed. RM-FS is an improvement of the traditional FunkSVD algorithm, using RMSProp, a deep learning optimization algorithm. The RM-FS algorithm can not only solve the problem of reduced accuracy of the traditional FunkSVD algorithm because of iterative oscillations but also alleviate the impact of data sparseness on the accuracy of the algorithm, achieving the effect of improving the accuracy of the traditional algorithm. The experimental results show that the RM-FS algorithm proposed in this paper effectively improves the accuracy of the recommendation algorithm, which is better than the traditional FunkSVD recommendation algorithm and other improved FunkSVD algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]