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Many complex physical systems exhibit a rich variety of discrete behavioural modes. Often, the system complexity limits the applicability of standard modelling tools. Hence, understanding the underlying physics of different behaviours and distinguishing between them is challenging. Although traditional machine learning techniques could predict and classify behaviour well, typically they do not provide any meaningful insight into the underlying physics of the system. In this paper we present a novel method for extracting physically meaningful clusters of discrete behaviour from limited experimental observations. This method obtains a set of physically plausible functions that both facilitate behavioural clustering and aid in system understanding. We demonstrate the approach on the V-shaped falling paper system, a new falling paper type system that exhibits four distinct behavioural modes depending on a few morphological parameters. Using just 49 experimental observations, the method discovered a set of candidate functions that distinguish behaviours with an error of 2.04%, while also aiding insight into the physical phenomena driving each behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Semantic Link Network is a general semantic model for modeling the structure and the evolution of complex systems. Various semantic links play different roles in rendering the semantics of complex system. One of the basic semantic links represents cause-effect relation, which plays an important role in representation and understanding. This paper verifies the role of the Semantic Link Network in representing the core of text by investigating the contribution of cause-effect link to representing the core of scientific papers. Research carries out with the following steps: (1) Two propositions on the contribution of cause-effect link in rendering the core of paper are proposed and verified through a statistical survey, which shows that the sentences on cause-effect links cover about 65% of key words within each paper on average. (2) An algorithm based on syntactic patterns is designed for automatically extracting cause-effect link from scientific papers, which recalls about 70% of manually annotated cause-effect links on average, indicating that the result adapts to the scale of data sets. (3) The effects of cause-effect link on four schemes of incorporating cause-effect link into the existing instances of the Semantic Link Network for enhancing the summarization of scientific papers are investigated. The experiments show that the quality of the summaries is significantly improved, which verifies the role of semantic links. The significance of this research lies in two aspects: (1) it verifies that the Semantic Link Network connects the important concepts to render the core of text; and, (2) it provides an evidence for realizing content services such as summarization, recommendation and question answering based on the Semantic Link Network, and it can inspire relevant research on content computing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction between phenotypic plasticity, e.g. learning, and evolution is an important topic both in Evolutionary Biology and Machine Learning. The evolution of learning is commonly studied in Evolutionary Biology, while the use of an evolutionary process to improve learning is of interest to the field of Machine Learning. This paper takes a different point of view by studying the effect of learning on the evolutionary process, the so-called Baldwin effect. A well-studied result in the literature about the Baldwin effect is that learning affects the speed of convergence of the evolutionary process towards some genetic configuration, which corresponds to the environment-induced plastic response. This paper demonstrates that learning can change the outcome of evolution, i.e., lead to a genetic configuration that does not correspond to the plastic response. Results are obtained both analytically and experimentally by means of an agent-based model of a foraging task, in an environment where the distribution of resources follows seasonal cycles and the foraging success on different resource types is conditioned by trade-offs that can be evolved and learned. This paper attempts to answer a question that has been overlooked: whether learning has an effect on what genotypic traits are evolved, i.e. the selection of a trait that enables a plastic response changes the selection pressure on a different trait, in what could be described as co-evolution between different traits in the same genome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several lifetime distributions have played an important role to fit survival data. However, for some of these models, the computation of maximum likelihood estimators is quite difficult due to presence of flat regions in the search space, among other factors. Several well-known derivative-based optimization tools are unsuitable for obtaining such estimates. To circumvent this problem, we introduce the AdequacyModel computational library version 2.0.0 for the R statistical environment with two major contributions: a general optimization technique based on the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) method (with a minor modification of the original algorithm) and a set of statistical measures for assessment of the adequacy of the fitted model. This library is very useful for researchers in probability and statistics and has been cited in various papers in these areas. It serves as the basis for the Newdistns library (version 2.1) published in an impact journal in the area of computational statistics, see . It is also the basis of the Wrapped library (version 2.0), see . A third package making use of the AdequacyModel library can be found in . In addition, the proposed library has proved to be very useful for maximizing log-likelihood functions with complex search regions. The library provides a greater control of the optimization process by introducing a stop criterion based on a minimum number of iterations and the variance of a given proportion of optimal values. We emphasize that the new library can be used not only in statistics but in physics and mathematics as proved in several examples throughout the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In clinical neuropsychology the cognitive abilities of neurological patients are commonly estimated using well-established paper-based tests. Typically, scores on some tests remain relatively well preserved, whilst others exhibit a significant and disproportionate decline. Scores on those tests that measure preserved cognitive functions (so-called ‘hold’ tests) may be used to estimate premorbid abilities, including scores in non-hold tests that would have been expected prior to the onset of cognitive impairment. Many hold tests entail word reading, with each word being graded as correctly or incorrectly pronounced. Inevitably, such tests are likely to contain words that provide little or no diagnostic power (i.e., can be eliminated without negatively affecting prediction accuracy). In this paper, a genetic algorithm is developed and demonstrated, using n = 92 neurologically healthy participants, to identify optimal word subsets from the National Adult Reading Test that minimize the mean error in predicting the most widely used clinical measure of IQ and cognitive ability, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Fourth Edition IQ. In addition to requiring only 17–20 of the original 50 words (suggesting that this test could be revised to be up to 66% shorter) and minimizing mean prediction error, the algorithm increases the proportion of the variance in the predicted variable explained in comparison to using all words (from r2 = 0.46 to r2 = 0.61). In a clinical setting this would improve estimates of premorbid cognitive function and, if an abbreviated revision to this test were to be adopted, reduce the arduousness of the test for patients. The proposed method is evaluated with jackknifing and leave one out cross validation. The general approach may be used to optimize the relationship between any two psychological tests by finding the question subset in one test that minimizes the prediction error in a second test by training the genetic algorithm using data collected from participants upon whom both tests have been administered. This approach may also be used to develop new predictive tests, since it provides a method to identify an optimal subset of a set of candidate questions (for which empirical data have been collected) that maximizes prediction accuracy and the proportion of variance in the predicted variable that can be explained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1997 a considerable effort has been spent on the study of the swap (switch) Markov chains on graphic degree sequences. All of these results assume some kind of regularity in the corresponding degree sequences. Recently, Greenhill and Sfragara published a breakthrough paper about irregular normal and directed degree sequences for which rapid mixing of the swap Markov chain is proved. In this paper we present two groups of results. An example from the first group is the following theorem: let be a directed degree sequence on n vertices. Denote by Δ the maximum value among all in- and out-degrees and denote by the number of edges in the realization. Assume furthermore that . Then the swap Markov chain on the realizations of is rapidly mixing. This result is a slight improvement on one of the results of Greenhill and Sfragara. An example from the second group is the following: let d be a bipartite degree sequence on the vertex set U ⊎ V, and let 0 < c1 ≤ c2 < |U| and 0 < d1 ≤ d2 < |V| be integers, where c1 ≤ d(v) ≤ c2: ∀v ∈ V and d1 ≤ d(u) ≤ d2: ∀u ∈ U. Furthermore assume that (c2 − c1 − 1)(d2 − d1 − 1) < max{c1(|V| − d2), d1(|U| − c2)}. Then the swap Markov chain on the realizations of d is rapidly mixing. A straightforward application of this latter result shows that when a random bipartite or directed graph is generated under the Erdős—Rényi G(n, p) model with mild assumptions on n and p then the degree sequence of the generated graph has, with high probability, a rapidly mixing swap Markov chain on its realizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the convergence of various broadcasting systems, the amount of content available in mobile terminals including IPTV has significantly increased. In this paper, we propose a system that enables users to schedule programs considering both section video clips and full video clips based on the user detection method with similar preference. And, since the system constituting the contents can be classified according to the program, the proposed method can store a program desired by the user, and thus create and schedule a kind of individual channel. Experimental results show that the proposed method has a higher prediction accuracy; this is accomplished by comparing existing channel recommendation methods with the program recommendation methods proposed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In business replenishment, discount offers of multi-item may either provide different discount schedules with a single discount type, or provide schedules with multiple discount types. The paper investigates the joint effects of multiple discount schemes on the decisions of multi-item joint replenishment. In this paper, a joint replenishment problem (JRP) model, considering three discount (all-unit discount, incremental discount, total volume discount) offers simultaneously, is constructed to determine the basic cycle time and joint replenishment frequencies of multi-item. To solve the proposed problem, a heuristic algorithm is proposed to find the optimal solutions and the corresponding total cost of the JRP model. Numerical experiment is performed to test the algorithm and the computational results of JRPs under different discount combinations show different significance in the replenishment cost reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public transport (PT) is a key element in most major cities around the world. With the development of smartphones, available journey planning information is becoming an integral part of the PT system. Each traveler has specific preferences when undertaking a trip, and these preferences can also be reflected on the smartphone. This paper considers transit assignment in urban public-transport networks in which the passengers receive smartphone-based information containing elements that might influence the travel decisions in relation to line loads, as well as passenger benefits, and the paper discusses the transition from the current widespread choosing approach to a personalized decision-making approach based on smartphone information. The approach associated with smartphone guidance that considers passengers’ preference on travel time, waiting time and transfer is proposed in the process of obtaining his/her preferred route from the potential travel routes generated by the Deep First Search (DFS) method. Two other approaches, based on the scenarios reflecting reality, include passengers with access to no real time information, and passengers that only have access to the arrival time at the platform are used as comparisons. For illustration, the same network proposed by Spiess and Florian is utilized on the experiments in an agent-based model. Two experiments are conducted respectively according to whether each passenger’s choosing method is consistent. As expected, the results in the first experiment showed that the travel for consistent passengers with smartphone guidance was clearly shorter and that it can reduce travel time exceeding 15% and weighted cost exceeding 20%, and the average saved time approximated 3.88 minutes per passenger. The second experiment presented that travel cost, as well as cost savings, gradually decreased by employing smartphone guidance, and the maximum cost savings accounted for 14.2% of the total weighted cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In practical research, it was found that most people made health-related decisions not based on numerical data but on perceptions. Examples include the perceptions and their corresponding linguistic values of health risks such as, smoking, syringe sharing, eating energy-dense food, drinking sugar-sweetened beverages etc. For the sake of understanding the mechanisms that affect the implementations of health-related interventions, we employ fuzzy variables to quantify linguistic variable in healthcare modeling where we employ an integrated system dynamics and agent-based model. Methodology: In a nonlinear causal-driven simulation environment driven by feedback loops, we mathematically demonstrate how interventions at an aggregate level affect the dynamics of linguistic variables that are captured by fuzzy agents and how interactions among fuzzy agents, at the same time, affect the formation of different clusters(groups) that are targeted by specific interventions. Results: In this paper, we provide an innovative framework to capture multi-stage fuzzy uncertainties manifested among interacting heterogeneous agents (individuals) and intervention decisions that affect homogeneous agents (groups of individuals) in a hybrid model that combines an agent-based simulation model (ABM) and a system dynamics models (SDM). Having built the platform to incorporate high-dimension data in a hybrid ABM/SDM model, this paper demonstrates how one can obtain the state variable behaviors in the SDM and the corresponding values of linguistic variables in the ABM. Conclusions: This research provides a way to incorporate high-dimension data in a hybrid ABM/SDM model. This research not only enriches the application of fuzzy set theory by capturing the dynamics of variables associated with interacting fuzzy agents that lead to aggregate behaviors but also informs implementation research by enabling the incorporation of linguistic variables at both individual and institutional levels, which makes unstructured linguistic data meaningful and quantifiable in a simulation environment. This research can help practitioners and decision makers to gain better understanding on the dynamics and complexities of precision intervention in healthcare. It can aid the improvement of the optimal allocation of resources for targeted group (s) and the achievement of maximum utility. As this technology becomes more mature, one can design policy flight simulators by which policy/intervention designers can test a variety of assumptions when they evaluate different alternatives interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In political campaigns, perceived candidate credibility influences the persuasiveness of messages. In campaigns aiming to influence people’s beliefs, micro-targeted campaigns (MTCs) that target specific voters using their psychological profile have become increasingly prevalent. It remains open how effective MTCs are, notably in comparison to population-targeted campaign strategies. Using an agent-based model, the paper applies recent insights from cognitive models of persuasion, extending them to the societal level in a novel framework for exploring political campaigning. The paper provides an initial treatment of the complex dynamics of population level political campaigning in a psychologically informed manner. Model simulations show that MTCs can take advantage of the psychology of the electorate by targeting voters favourable disposed towards the candidate. Relative to broad campaigning, MTCs allow for efficient and adaptive management of complex campaigns. Findings show that disliked MTC candidates can beat liked population-targeting candidates, pointing to societal questions concerning campaign regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pruning is applied in order to combat over-fitting problem where the tree is pruned back with the goal of identifying decision tree with the lowest error rate on previously unobserved instances, breaking ties in favour of smaller trees with high accuracy. In this paper, pruning with Bayes minimum risk is introduced for estimating the risk-rate. This method proceeds in a bottom-up fashion converting a parent node of a subtree to a leaf node if the estimated risk-rate of the parent node for that subtree is less than the risk-rates of its leaf. This paper proposes a post-pruning method that considers various evaluation standards such as attribute selection, accuracy, tree complexity, and time taken to prune the tree, precision/recall scores, TP/FN rates and area under ROC. The experimental results show that the proposed method produces better classification accuracy and its complexity is not much different than the complexities of reduced-error pruning and minimum-error pruning approaches. The experiments also demonstrate that the proposed method shows satisfactory performance in terms of precision score, recall score, TP rate, FP rate and area under ROC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing an efficient association rule mining (ARM) algorithm for multilevel knowledge-based transactional databases that is appropriate for real-world deployments is of paramount concern. However, dynamic decision making that needs to modify the threshold either to minimize or maximize the output knowledge certainly necessitates the extant state-of-the-art algorithms to rescan the entire database. Subsequently, the process incurs heavy computation cost and is not feasible for real-time applications. The paper addresses efficiently the problem of threshold dynamic updation for a given purpose. The paper contributes by presenting a novel ARM approach that creates an intermediate itemset and applies a threshold to extract categorical frequent itemsets with diverse threshold values. Thus, improving the overall efficiency as we no longer needs to scan the whole database. After the entire itemset is built, we are able to obtain real support without the need of rebuilding the itemset (e.g. Itemset list is intersected to obtain the actual support). Moreover, the algorithm supports to extract many frequent itemsets according to a pre-determined minimum support with an independent purpose. Additionally, the experimental results of our proposed approach demonstrate the capability to be deployed in any mining system in a fully parallel mode; consequently, increasing the efficiency of the real-time association rules discovery process. The proposed approach outperforms the extant state-of-the-art and shows promising results that reduce computation cost, increase accuracy, and produce all possible itemsets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traffic surveillance systems are interesting to many researchers to improve the traffic control and reduce the risk caused by accidents. In this area, many published works are only concerned about vehicle detection in normal conditions. The camera may vibrate due to wind or bridge movement. Detection and tracking of vehicles is a very difficult task when we have bad weather conditions in winter (snowy, rainy, windy, etc.), dusty weather in arid and semi-arid regions, at night, etc. Also, it is very important to consider speed of vehicles in the complicated weather condition. In this paper, we improved our method to track and count vehicles in dusty weather with vibrating camera. For this purpose, we used a background subtraction based strategy mixed with an extra processing to segment vehicles. In this paper, the extra processing included the analysis of the headlight size, location, and area. In our work, tracking was done between consecutive frames via a generalized particle filter to detect the vehicle and pair the headlights using the connected component analysis. So, vehicle counting was performed based on the pairing result, with Centroid of each blob we calculated distance between two frames by simple formula and hence dividing it by the time between two frames obtained from the video. Our proposed method was tested on several video surveillance records in different conditions such as dusty or foggy weather, vibrating camera, and in roads with medium-level traffic volumes. The results showed that the new proposed method performed better than our previously published method and other methods, including the Kalman filter or Gaussian model, in different traffic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In developing nations, many expanding cities are facing challenges that result from the overwhelming numbers of people and vehicles. Collecting real-time, reliable and precise traffic flow information is crucial for urban traffic management. The main purpose of this paper is to develop an adaptive model that can assess the real-time vehicle counts on urban roads using computer vision technologies. This paper proposes an automatic real-time background update algorithm for vehicle detection and an adaptive pattern for vehicle counting based on the virtual loop and detection line methods. In addition, a new robust detection method is introduced to monitor the real-time traffic congestion state of road section. A prototype system has been developed and installed on an urban road for testing. The results show that the system is robust, with a real-time counting accuracy exceeding 99% in most field scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries have some kind of energy-system transformation either planned or ongoing for various reasons, such as to curb carbon emissions or to compensate for the phasing out of nuclear energy. One important component of these transformations is the overall reduction in energy demand. It is generally acknowledged that the domestic sector represents a large share of total energy consumption in many countries. Increased energy efficiency is one factor that reduces energy demand, but behavioral approaches (known as “sufficiency”) and their respective interventions also play important roles. In this paper, we address citizens’ heterogeneity regarding both their current behaviors and their willingness to realize their sufficiency potentials—that is, to reduce their energy consumption through behavioral change. We collaborated with three Swiss cities for this study. A survey conducted in the three cities yielded thematic sets of energy-consumption behavior that various groups of participants rated differently. Using this data, we identified four groups of participants with different patterns of both current behaviors and sufficiency potentials. The paper discusses intervention types and addresses citizens’ heterogeneity and behaviors from a city-based perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to optimize a desirable fare structure for the public transit service along a bus-subway corridor with the consideration of those factors related to equity in trip, including travel distance and comfort level. The travel distance factor is represented by the distance-based fare strategy, which is an existing differential strategy. The comfort level one is considered in the area-based fare strategy which is a new differential strategy defined in this paper. Both factors are referred to by the combined fare strategy which is composed of distance-based and area-based fare strategies. The flat fare strategy is applied to determine a reference level of social welfare and obtain the general passenger flow along transit lines, which is used to divide areas or zones along the corridor. This problem is formulated as a bi-level program, of which the upper level maximizes the social welfare and the lower level capturing traveler choice behavior is a variable-demand stochastic user equilibrium assignment model. A genetic algorithm is applied to solve the bi-level program while the method of successive averages is adopted to solve the lower-level model. A series of numerical experiments are carried out to illustrate the performance of the models and solution methods. Numerical results indicate that all three differential fare strategies play a better role in enhancing the social welfare than the flat fare strategy and that the fare structure under the combined fare strategy generates the highest social welfare and the largest resulting passenger demand, which implies that the more equity factors a differential fare strategy involves the more desirable fare structure the strategy has. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban spaces have a great impact on how people’s emotion and behaviour. There are number of factors that impact our brain responses to a space. This paper presents a novel urban place recommendation approach, that is based on modelling in-situ EEG data. The research investigations leverages on newly affordable Electroencephalogram (EEG) headsets, which has the capability to sense mental states such as meditation and attention levels. These emerging devices have been utilized in understanding how human brains are affected by the surrounding built environments and natural spaces. In this paper, mobile EEG headsets have been used to detect mental states at different types of urban places. By analysing and modelling brain activity data, we were able to classify three different places according to the mental state signature of the users, and create an association map to guide and recommend people to therapeutic places that lessen brain fatigue and increase mental rejuvenation. Our mental states classifier has achieved accuracy of (%90.8). NeuroPlace breaks new ground not only as a mobile ubiquitous brain monitoring system for urban computing, but also as a system that can advise urban planners on the impact of specific urban planning policies and structures. We present and discuss the challenges in making our initial prototype more practical, robust, and reliable as part of our on-going research. In addition, we present some enabling applications using the proposed architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Slope one is a popular recommendation algorithm due to its simplicity and high efficiency for sparse data. However, it often suffers from under-fitting since the global information of all relevant users/items are considered. In this paper, we propose a new scheme called enhanced slope one recommendation through local information embedding. First, we employ clustering algorithms to obtain the user clusters as well as item clusters to represent local information. Second, we predict ratings using the local information of users and items in the same cluster. The local information can detect strong localized associations shared within clusters. Third, we design different fusion approaches based on the local information embedding. In this way, both under-fitting and over-fitting problems are alleviated. Experiment results on the real datasets show that our approaches defeats slope one in terms of both mean absolute error and root mean square error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, with the development of computer science, deep learning is held as competent enough to solve the problem of inference and learning in high dimensional space. Therefore, it has received unprecedented attention from both the academia and the business community. Compared with CPU/GPU, FPGA has attracted much attention for its high-energy efficiency, short development cycle and reconfigurability in the aspect of deep learning algorithm. However, because of the limited research on OpenCL optimization on FPGA of deep learning algorithms, OpenCL tools and models applied to CPU/GPU cannot be directly used on FPGA. This makes it difficult for software programmers to use FPGA when implementing deep learning algorithms for a rewarding performance. To solve this problem, this paper proposed an OpenCL computational model based on FPGA template architecture to optimize the time-consuming convolution layer in deep learning. The comparison between the program applying the computational model and the corresponding optimization program provided by Xilinx indicates that the former is 8-40 times higher than the latter in terms of performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporal hierarchies have been widely used during the past few years as they are capable to provide more accurate coherent forecasts at different planning horizons. However, they still display some limitations, being mainly subject to the forecasting methods used for generating the base forecasts and the particularities of the examined series. This paper deals with such limitations by considering three different strategies: (i) combining forecasts of multiple methods, (ii) applying bias adjustments and (iii) selectively implementing temporal hierarchies to avoid seasonal shrinkage. The proposed strategies can be applied either separately or simultaneously, being complements to the method considered for reconciling the base forecasts and completely independent from each other. Their effect is evaluated using the monthly series of the M and M3 competitions. The results are very promising, displaying lots of potential for improving the performance of temporal hierarchies, both in terms of accuracy and bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the Hybrid Scalable-Minimized-Butterfly-Fat-Tree (H-SMBFT) topology for on-chip communication. Main aspects of this work are the description of the architectural design and the characteristics as well as a comparative analysis against two established indirect topologies namely Butterfly-Fat-Tree (BFT) and Scalable-Minimized-Butterfly-Fat-Tree (SMBFT). Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed topology outperforms its predecessors in terms of performance, area and power dissipation. Specifically, it improves the link interconnectivity between routing levels, such that the number of required links isreduced. This results into reduced router complexity and shortened routing paths between any pair of communicating nodes in the network. Moreover, simulation results under synthetic as well as real-world embedded applications workloads reveal that H-SMBFT can reduce the average latency by up-to35.63% and 17.36% compared to BFT and SMBFT, respectively. In addition, the power dissipation of the network can be reduced by up-to33.82% and 19.45%, while energy consumption can be improved byup-to32.91% and 16.83% compared to BFT and SMBFT, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic loops are one of the most popular and used traffic sensors because of their widely extended technology and simple mode of operation. Nevertheless, very simple models have been traditionally used to simulate the effect of the passage of vehicles on these loops. In general, vehicles have been considered simple rectangular metal plates located parallel to the ground plane at a certain height close to the vehicle chassis. However, with such a simple model, it is not possible to carry out a rigorous study to assess the performance of different models of vehicles with the aim of obtaining basic parameters such as the vehicle type, its speed or its direction in traffic. For this reason and because computer simulation and analysis have emerged as a priority in intelligent transportation systems (ITS), this paper aims to present a more complex vehicle model capable of characterizing vehicles as multiple metal plates of different sizes and heights, which will provide better results in virtual simulation environments. This type of modeling will be useful when reproducing the actual behavior of systems installed on roads based on inductive loops and will also facilitate vehicle classification and the extraction of basic traffic parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Filter or screening methods are often used as a preprocessing step for reducing the number of variables used by a learning algorithm in obtaining a classification or regression model. While there are many such filter methods, there is a need for an objective evaluation of these methods. Such an evaluation is needed to compare them with each other and also to answer whether they are at all useful, or a learning algorithm could do a better job without them. For this purpose, many popular screening methods are partnered in this paper with three regression learners and five classification learners and evaluated on ten real datasets to obtain accuracy criteria such as R-square and area under the ROC curve (AUC). The obtained results are compared through curve plots and comparison tables in order to find out whether screening methods help improve the performance of learning algorithms and how they fare with each other. Our findings revealed that the screening methods were useful in improving the prediction of the best learner on two regression and two classification datasets out of the ten datasets evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the fast speed of data generation and collection from advanced equipment, the amount of data obviously overflows the limit of available memory space and causes difficulties achieving high learning accuracy. Several methods based on discard-after-learn concept have been proposed. Some methods were designed to cope with a single incoming datum but some were designed for a chunk of incoming data. Although the results of these approaches are rather impressive, most of them are based on temporally adding more neurons to learn new incoming data without any neuron merging process which can obviously increase the computational time and space complexities. Only online versatile elliptic basis function (VEBF) introduced neuron merging to reduce the space-time complexity of learning only a single incoming datum. This paper proposed a method for further enhancing the capability of discard-after-learn concept for streaming data-chunk environment in terms of low computational time and neural space complexities. A set of recursive functions for computing the relevant parameters of a new neuron, based on statistical confidence interval, was introduced. The newly proposed method, named streaming chunk incremental learning (SCIL), increases the plasticity and the adaptabilty of the network structure according to the distribution of incoming data and their classes. When being compared to the others in incremental-like manner, based on 11 benchmarked data sets of 150 to 581,012 samples with attributes ranging from 4 to 1,558 formed as streaming data, the proposed SCIL gave better accuracy and time in most data sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analyses of large volumes of metagenomic data extracted from aggregate populations of microscopic organisms residing on and in the human body are advancing contemporary understandings of the integrated participation of microbes in human health and disease. Next generation sequencing technology facilitates said analyses in terms of diversity, community composition, and differential abundance by filtering and binning microbial 16S rRNA genes extracted from human tissues into operational taxonomic units. However, current statistical tools restrict study designs to investigations of limited numbers of host characteristics mediated by limited numbers of samples potentially yielding a loss of relevant information. This paper presents a Bayesian hierarchical negative binomial model as an efficient technique capable of compensating for multivariable sets including tens or hundreds of host characteristics as covariates further expanding analyses of human microbiome count data. Simulation studies reveal that the Bayesian hierarchical negative binomial model provides a desirable strategy by often outperforming three competing negative binomial model in terms of type I error while simultaneously maintaining consistent power. An application of the Bayesian hierarchical negative binomial model using subsets of the open data published by the American Gut Project demonstrates an ability to identify operational taxonomic units significantly differentiable among persons diagnosed by a medical professional with either inflammatory bowel disease or irritable bowel syndrome that are consistent with contemporary gastrointestinal literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a new approach for learning node embeddings for weighted undirected networks. We perform a random walk on the network to extract the latent structural information and perform node embedding learning under a similarity-based framework. Unlike previous works, we apply a different criterion to capture the proximity information between nodes in a network, and use it for improved modeling of similarities between nodes. We show that the mean commute time (MCT) between two nodes, defined as the average time a random walker takes to reach a target node and return to the source, plays a crucial role in quantifying the actual degree of proximity between two nodes of the network. We then introduce a novel definition of a similarity matrix that is based on the pair-wise mean commute time captured, which enables us to adequately represent the connection of similar nodes. We utilize pseudoinverse of the Laplacian matrix of the graph for calculating such a proximity measure, capturing rich structural information out of the graph for learning more adequate node representations of a network. The results of different experiments on three real-world networks demonstrate that our proposed method outperforms existing related efforts in classification, clustering, visualization as well as link prediction tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The estimation of the correct number of dimensions is a long-standing problem in psychometrics. Several methods have been proposed, such as parallel analysis (PA), Kaiser-Guttman’s eigenvalue-greater-than-one rule, multiple average partial procedure (MAP), the maximum-likelihood approaches that use fit indexes as BIC and EBIC and the less used and studied approach called very simple structure (VSS). In the present paper a new approach to estimate the number of dimensions will be introduced and compared via simulation to the traditional techniques pointed above. The approach proposed in the current paper is called exploratory graph analysis (EGA), since it is based on the graphical lasso with the regularization parameter specified using EBIC. The number of dimensions is verified using the walktrap, a random walk algorithm used to identify communities in networks. In total, 32,000 data sets were simulated to fit known factor structures, with the data sets varying across different criteria: number of factors (2 and 4), number of items (5 and 10), sample size (100, 500, 1000 and 5000) and correlation between factors (orthogonal, .20, .50 and .70), resulting in 64 different conditions. For each condition, 500 data sets were simulated using lavaan. The result shows that the EGA performs comparable to parallel analysis, EBIC, eBIC and to Kaiser-Guttman rule in a number of situations, especially when the number of factors was two. However, EGA was the only technique able to correctly estimate the number of dimensions in the four-factor structure when the correlation between factors were .7, showing an accuracy of 100% for a sample size of 5,000 observations. Finally, the EGA was used to estimate the number of factors in a real dataset, in order to compare its performance with the other six techniques tested in the simulation study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ICD-10(International Classification of Diseases 10th revision) is a classification of a disease, symptom, procedure, or injury. Diseases are often described in patients’ medical records with free texts, such as terms, phrases and paraphrases, which differ significantly from those used in ICD-10 classification. This paper presents an improved approach based on the Longest Common Subsequence (LCS) and semantic similarity for automatic Chinese diagnoses, mapping from the disease names given by clinician to the disease names in ICD-10. LCS refers to the longest string that is a subsequence of every member of a given set of strings. The proposed method of improved LCS in this paper can increase the accuracy of processing in Chinese disease mapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Mesh topology is one of the most promising architecture due to its regular and simple structure for on-chip communication. Performance of mesh topology degraded greatly by increasing the network size due to small bisection width and large network diameter. In order to overcome this limitation, many researchers presented modified Mesh design by adding some extra links to improve its performance in terms of network latency and power consumption. The Cross-By-Pass-Mesh was presented by us as an improved version of Mesh topology by intelligent addition of extra links. This paper presents an efficient topology named Cross-By-Pass-Torus for further increase in the performance of the Cross-By-Pass-Mesh topology. The proposed design merges the best features of the Cross-By-Pass-Mesh and Torus, to reduce the network diameter, minimize the average number of hops between nodes, increase the bisection width and to enhance the overall performance of the network. In this paper, the architectural design of the topology is presented and analyzed against similar kind of 2D topologies in terms of average latency, throughput and power consumption. In order to certify the actual behavior of proposed topology, the synthetic traffic trace and five different real embedded application workloads are applied to the proposed as well as other competitor network topologies. The simulation results indicate that Cross-By-Pass-Torus is an efficient candidate among its predecessor’s and competitor topologies due to its less average latency and increased throughput at a slight cost in network power and energy for on-chip communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a human action recognition method using HOIRM (histogram of oriented interest region motion) feature fusion and a BOW (bag of words) model based on AP (affinity propagation) clustering. First, a HOIRM feature extraction method based on spatiotemporal interest points ROI is proposed. HOIRM can be regarded as a middle-level feature between local and global features. Then, HOIRM is fused with 3D HOG and 3D HOF local features using a cumulative histogram. The method further improves the robustness of local features to camera view angle and distance variations in complex scenes, which in turn improves the correct rate of action recognition. Finally, a BOW model based on AP clustering is proposed and applied to action classification. It obtains the appropriate visual dictionary capacity and achieves better clustering effect for the joint description of a variety of features. The experimental results demonstrate that by using the fused features with the proposed BOW model, the average recognition rate is 95.75% in the KTH database, and 88.25% in the UCF database, which are both higher than those by using only 3D HOG+3D HOF or HOIRM features. Moreover, the average recognition rate achieved by the proposed method in the two databases is higher than that obtained by other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The user interaction in online social networks can not only reveal the social relationships among users in e-commerce systems, but also imply the social preferences of a target user for recommendation services. However, the current research has rarely explored the impact of social interaction on recommendation performance, especially now that recommender systems face increasing challenges and suffer from poor efficiency due to social data overload. Therefore, applied research on user interaction has become increasingly necessary in the field of social recommendation. In this paper, we develop a novel social recommendation method based on the user interaction in complex social networks, called the SRUI model, to present a basis for improving the efficiency of the recommender systems. Specifically, a weighted social interaction network is first mapped to represent the interactions among social users according to the gathered information about historical user behavior. Thereafter, the complete path set is mined by the complete path mining (CPM) algorithm to find social similar neighbors with tastes similar to those of the target user. Finally, the social similar tendencies of the users on the complete paths are obtained to predict the final ratings of items through the SRUI model. A series of experimental results based on two real public datasets show that our approach performs better than other state-of-the-art methods in terms of recommendation performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: System science approaches are increasingly used to explore complex public health problems. Quantitative methods, such as participatory dynamic simulation modelling, can mobilise knowledge to inform health policy decisions. However, the analytic and practical steps required to turn collaboratively developed, qualitative system maps into rigorous and policy-relevant quantified dynamic simulation models are not well described. This paper reports on the processes, interactions and decisions that occurred at the interface between modellers and end-user participants in an applied health sector case study focusing on diabetes in pregnancy. Methods: An analysis was conducted using qualitative data from a participatory dynamic simulation modelling case study in an Australian health policy setting. Recordings of participatory model development workshops and subsequent meetings were analysed and triangulated with field notes and other written records of discussions and decisions. Case study vignettes were collated to illustrate the deliberations and decisions made throughout the model development process. Results: The key analytic objectives and decision-making processes included: defining the model scope; analysing and refining the model structure to maximise local relevance and utility; reviewing and incorporating evidence to inform model parameters and assumptions; focusing the model on priority policy questions; communicating results and applying the models to policy processes. These stages did not occur sequentially; the model development was cyclical and iterative with decisions being re-visited and refined throughout the process. Storytelling was an effective strategy to both communicate and resolve concerns about the model logic and structure, and to communicate the outputs of the model to a broader audience. Conclusion: The in-depth analysis reported here examined the application of participatory modelling methods to move beyond qualitative conceptual mapping to the development of a rigorously quantified and policy relevant, complex dynamic simulation model. The analytic objectives and decision-making themes identified provide guidance for interpreting, understanding and reporting future participatory modelling projects and methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DIBR-3D technology has evolved over the past few years with the demands of consumers increasing in recent times for future free-view 3D videos on their home televisions. The main issue in 3D technology is the lack of 3D content available to watch using the traditional TV systems. Although, some sophisticated devices like stereoscopic cameras have been used to fill the gap between the 3D content demand and 3D content supply. But the content generated through these sophisticated devices can not be displayed on the traditional TV systems, so there needs to be some mechanism which is inline with the traditional TV. Furthermore, the huge collection of existing 2D content should be converted to 3D using depth image-based rendering techniques. This conversion technique can highly contribute in overcoming the shortage problem of the 3D content. This paper presents a novel approach for converting 2D degraded image for DIBR 3D-TV view. This degraded or noisy/blur image is enhanced through image dehazing and Directional Filter Bank (DFB). This enhancement is necessary because of the occlusion effect or hole filling problem that occurs due to imperfect depth map. The enhanced image is then segmented into the foreground image and the background image. After the segmentation, the depth map is generated using image profiles. Moreover, Stereoscopic images are finally produced using the DIBR procedure which is based on the 2D input image and the corresponding depth map. We have verified the results of the proposed approach by comparing the results with the existing state-of-the-art techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital public displays installed in various locations provide valuable information for the passers-by. However, the static characteristic of the digital public display limits the consumption of the displayed content to a small area. Personal mobile devices such as smartphones are now capable of interacting with digital public displays, which enables the passers-by to “take-away” the content and consume it on-the-go. This process requires device binding, content selection, and transfer between the two devices. In this paper, we propose a device binding method which utilizes the content brightness changing pattern as a unique content ID on the public display and an illuminance sensor on the mobile to bind and transfer between two devices. We conducted performance evaluations for binding algorithm robustness in different conditions. Also comparative studies among other binding interaction methods were conducted. Our results show that our proposed method performed stably across the various conditions and overall performance in interaction completion time and error rate was similar or superior to the existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feature subspace learning plays a significant role in pattern recognition, and many efforts have been made to generate increasingly discriminative learning models. Recently, several discriminative feature learning methods based on a representation model have been proposed, which have not only attracted considerable attention but also achieved success in practical applications. Nevertheless, these methods for constructing the learning model simply depend on the class labels of the training instances and fail to consider the essential subspace structural information hidden in them. In this paper, we propose a robust feature subspace learning approach based on a low-rank representation. In our approach, the low-rank representation coefficients are considered as weights to construct the constraint item for feature learning, which can introduce a subspace structural similarity constraint in the proposed learning model for facilitating data adaptation and robustness. Moreover, by placing the subspace learning and low-rank representation into a unified framework, they can benefit each other during the iteration process to realize an overall optimum. To achieve extra discrimination, linear regression is also incorporated into our model to enforce the projection features around and close to their label-based centers. Furthermore, an iterative numerical scheme is designed to solve our proposed objective function and ensure convergence. Extensive experimental results obtained using several public image datasets demonstrate the advantages and effectiveness of our novel approach compared with those of the existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ex-ante online risk assessment for building emergency evacuation is essential to protect human life and property. Current risk assessment methods are limited by the tradeoff between accuracy and efficiency. In this paper, we propose an online method that overcomes this tradeoff based on multimedia data (e.g. videos data from surveillance cameras) and deep learning. The method consists of two parts. The first estimates the evacuee position as input for training the assessment model to then perform risk assessment in real scenarios. The second considers a social force model based on the evacuation simulation for the output of training model. We verify the proposed method in simulation and real scenarios. Model sensitivity analyses and large-scale tests demonstrate the usability and superiority of the proposed method. By the method, the computation time of risk assessment could be decreased from 10 minutes (by traditional simulation method) to 2.18 s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orienteering problem (OP) is a routing problem, where the aim is to generate a path through set of nodes, which would maximize total score and would not exceed the budget. In this paper, we present an extension of classic OP—Orienteering Problem with Functional Profits (OPFP), where the score of a specific point depends on its characteristics, position in the route, and other points in the route. For solving OPFP, we developed an open-source framework for solving orienteering problems, which utilizes four core components of OP in its modular architecture. Fully-written in Go programming language our framework can be extended for solving different types of tasks with different algorithms; this was demonstrated by implementation of two popular algorithms for OP solving—Ant Colony Optimization and Recursive Greedy Algorithm. Computational efficiency of the framework was shown through solving four well-known OP types: classic Orienteering Problem (OP), Orienteering Problem with Compulsory Vertices (OPCV), Orienteering Problem with Time Windows (OPTW), and Time Dependent Orienteering Problem (TDOP) along with OPFP. Experiments were conducted on a large multi-source dataset for Saint Petersburg, Russia, containing data from Instagram, TripAdvisor, Foursquare and official touristic website. Our framework is able to construct touristic paths for different OP types within few seconds using dataset with thousands of points of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given a real-world graph, how can we measure relevance scores for ranking and link prediction? Random walk with restart (RWR) provides an excellent measure for this and has been applied to various applications such as friend recommendation, community detection, anomaly detection, etc. However, RWR suffers from two problems: 1) using the same restart probability for all the nodes limits the expressiveness of random walk, and 2) the restart probability needs to be manually chosen for each application without theoretical justification. We have two main contributions in this paper. First, we propose R W E R (RWER), a random walk based measure which improves the expressiveness of random walks by using a distinct restart probability for each node. The improved expressiveness leads to superior accuracy for ranking and link prediction. Second, we propose SR (pervised start for RWER), an algorithm for learning the restart probabilities of RWER from a given graph. SR eliminates the need to heuristically and manually select the restart parameter for RWER. Extensive experiments show that our proposed method provides the best performance for ranking and link prediction tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temperament and Psychological Types can be defined as innate psychological characteristics associated with how we relate with the world, and often influence our study and career choices. Furthermore, understanding these features help us manage conflicts, develop leadership, improve teaching and many other skills. Assigning temperament and psychological types is usually made by filling specific questionnaires. However, it is possible to identify temperamental characteristics from a linguistic and behavioral analysis of social media data from a user. Thus, machine-learning algorithms can be used to learn from a user’s social media data and infer his/her behavioral type. This paper initially provides a brief historical review of theories on temperament and then brings a survey of research aimed at predicting temperament and psychological types from social media data. It follows with the proposal of a framework to predict temperament and psychological types from a linguistic and behavioral analysis of Twitter data. The proposed framework infers temperament types following the David Keirsey’s model, and psychological types based on the MBTI model. Various data modelling and classifiers are used. The results showed that Random Forests with the LIWC technique can predict with 96.46% of accuracy the Artisan temperament, 92.19% the Guardian temperament, 78.68% the Idealist, and 83.82% the Rational temperament. The MBTI results also showed that Random Forests achieved a better performance with an accuracy of 82.05% for the E/I pair, 88.38% for the S/N pair, 80.57% for the T/F pair, and 78.26% for the J/P pair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The understanding of human mobility patterns in different transportation modes is an interdisciplinary research field with a direct impact in aspects as varied as urban planning, traffic optimization, sustainability, the reduction of operating costs as well as the mitigation of pollution in urban areas. In this paper, we study the global activity of users in bike-sharing systems operating in the cities of Chicago and New York. For this transportation mode, we explore the temporal and spatial characteristics of the mobility of cyclists. In particular, through the analysis of origin-destination matrices, we characterize the spatial structure of the displacements of users. We apply a mobility model for the global activity of the system that classifies the displacements between stations in local and non-local transitions. In local transitions, cyclists move in a region around each station whereas, in the non-local case, bike users travel with long-range displacements in a similar way to Lévy flights. We reproduce the spatial dynamics by using Monte Carlo simulations. The obtained results are similar to the observed in real data and reveal that the model implemented captures important characteristics of the global spatial dynamics in the systems analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To flexibly meet users’ demands in cloud computing, it is essential for providers to establish the efficient virtual mapping in datacenters. Accordingly, virtualization has become a key aspect of cloud computing. It is possible to consolidate resources based on the single objective of reducing energy consumption. However, it is challenging for the provider to consolidate resources efficiently based on a multiobjective optimization strategy. In this paper, we present a novel migration algorithm to consolidate resources adaptively using a two-level scheduling algorithm. First, we propose the grey relational analysis (GRA) and technique for order preference by similarity to the ideal solution (TOPSIS) policy to simultaneously determine the hotspots by the main selected factors, including the CPU and the memory. Second, a two-level hybrid heuristic algorithm is designed to consolidate resources in order to reduce costs and energy consumption, mainly depending on the PSO and ACO algorithms. The improved PSO can determine the migrating VMs quickly, and the proposed ACO can locate the positions. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the two-level scheduling algorithm performs the consolidation strategy efficiently during the dynamic allocation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recurrent criticism concerning the use of online social media data in political science research is the lack of demographic information about social media users. By employing a face-recognition algorithm to the profile pictures of Facebook users, the paper derives two fundamental demographic characteristics (age and gender) of a sample of Facebook users who interacted with the most relevant British parties in the two weeks before the Brexit referendum of 23 June 2016. The article achieves the goals of (i) testing the precision of the algorithm, (ii) testing its validity, (iii) inferring new evidence on digital mobilisation, and (iv) tracing the path for future developments and application of the algorithm. The findings show that the algorithm is reliable and that it can be fruitfully used in political and social sciences both to confirm the validity of survey data and to obtain information from populations that are generally unavailable within traditional surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel unequal error protection (UEP) technique is proposed for video streaming over multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) systems. Based on the concept of hierarchical quadrature amplitude modulation (HQAM) UEP and multi-antenna UEP, the proposed technique combines the relative protection levels (PLs) of constellation symbols and the differentiated PLs of the transmit antennas. In the proposed technique, standard square quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellations are used instead of HQAM so that the QAM mapper at the transmitter side and the soft decision calculation at the receiver side remain unchanged, but the UEP benefit of HQAM is retained. The superior performance of the proposed technique is explained by the improved connections between data with various priorities and data paths with various PLs. The assumed video compression method is H.264/AVC, which is known to be commercially successful. The IEEE802.16m system is adopted as a data transmission system. With the aid of realistic simulations in strict accordance with the standards of IEEE802.16m systems and H.264/AVC video compression systems, the proposed technique HQAM-multi-antenna UEP is shown to improve the video quality significantly for a given average bit error rate when compared with previous techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose an agent-based model leading to a decrease or an increase of hostility between agents after a major cultural threat such as a terrorist attack. The model is inspired from the Terror Management Theory and the Social Judgement Theory. An agent has a cultural identity defined through its acceptance segments about each of three different cultural worldviews (i.e., Atheist, Muslim, Christian) of the considered society. An agent’s acceptance segment is composed from its acceptable positions toward a cultural worldview, including its most acceptable position. An agent forms an attitude about another agent depending on the similarity between their cultural identities. When a terrorist attack is perpetrated in the name of an extreme cultural identity, the negatively perceived agents from this extreme cultural identity point of view tend to decrease the width of their acceptance segments in order to differentiate themselves more from the threatening cultural identity. We generated a set of populations with cultural identities compatible with data from a survey on attitudes among a large sample representative of the population of France; we then simulated the reaction of these agents facing a terrorist attack from Muslim extremists. For most populations, the average attitude toward Muslims becomes more negative. However, for some specific populations, we noticed the opposite effect as the average attitude of the population toward Muslims becomes less negative. In these populations, the Muslim agents strongly differentiate themselves from the terrorists’ extreme cultural identity, and the other agents are aware of these changes. These reactions are due to particular properties of their cultural identities that are identified in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within this paper we explore the idea of a critical value representing the proportion of majority members within a group that affects dramatic changes in influence targets’ conformity. We consider the threshold q-voter model when the responses of the Willis-Nail model, a well-established two-dimensional model of social response, are used as a foundation. Specifically, we study a generalized threshold q-voter model when all basic types of social response described by Willis-Nail model are considered, i.e. conformity, anticonformity, independence, and uniformity/congruence. These responses occur in our model with complementary probabilities. We introduce independently two thresholds: one needed for conformity, as well as a second one for anticonformity. In the case of conformity, at least r individuals among q neighbors have to share the same opinion in order to persuade a voter to follow majority’s opinion, whereas in the case of anticonformity, at least w individuals among q neighbors have to share the same opinion in order to influence voters to take an opinion that goes against that of their own reference group. We solve the model on a complete graph and show that the threshold for conformity significantly influences the results. For example, there is a critical threshold for conformity above which the system behaves as in the case of unanimity, i.e. displays continuous and discontinuous phase transitions. On the other hand, the threshold for anticonformity is almost irrelevant. We discuss our results from the perspective of theories of social psychology, as well as the philosophy of agent-based modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Certificateless aggregate signature (CLAS) is a crucial cryptosystem. It can not only compress multiple signatures into a short signature, but also ensure the validity of each signature participating in the aggregation by verifying the validity of an resulting aggregate signature. Therefore, a secure and efficient CLAS scheme is very useful for resource-constrained environments because it greatly reduces the overall length of the signature and the verifier’s computational overhead. Cheng et al. presented an efficient CLAS scheme and proved its security in the random oracle model. However, we find that their scheme has security flaws. In this paper, we demonstrate that Cheng et al.’s CLAS scheme is vulnerable to coalition attacks from internal signers. To overcome these attacks, we present an improved CLAS scheme and prove that it is existentially unforgeable under the computational Diffie-Hellman assumption. In addition, our CLAS scheme can not only resist coalition attacks but also generate a very short aggregate signature. The performance analysis results show that our improved CLAS scheme is lower than the related CLAS schemes in terms of communication overhead and computation cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radio frequency identification (RFID) has recently experienced unprecedented development. Among many other areas, it has been widely applied in blood station management, automatic supermarket checkout, and logistics. In the application of RFID for large-scale passive tags, tag collision is inevitable owing to the non-cooperation mechanism among tags. Therefore, a tag anti-collision method is a key factor affecting the identification efficiency. In this paper, we propose a tag anti-collision method based on Aloha technology for RFID. It estimates the number of remaining tags using the secant iteration method. To achieve optimal identification efficiency, it adaptively and dynamically adjusts the lengths of the subsequent frames according to the principle that the length of a frame should be the same as the number of tags to be identified. For pseudo-solutions of tag population estimation while using secant iteration, we present an elimination method by two probing frames. The simulation results show that the estimation precision of our method can reach above 97%. Thus, it can meet the requirement of the tag anti-collision estimation accuracy. Its global throughput is obviously superior to the Q algorithm adopted by the current international standard, and it is close to the ideal system. It consequently outperforms existing schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a novel Bayesian adaptive dual controller (ADC) for autonomously programming deep brain stimulation devices. We evaluated the Bayesian ADC’s performance in the context of reducing beta power in a computational model of Parkinson’s disease, in which it was tasked with finding the set of stimulation parameters which optimally reduced beta power as fast as possible. Here, the Bayesian ADC has dual goals: (a) to minimize beta power by exploiting the best parameters found so far, and (b) to explore the space to find better parameters, thus allowing for better control in the future. The Bayesian ADC is composed of two parts: an inner parameterized feedback stimulator and an outer parameter adjustment loop. The inner loop operates on a short time scale, delivering stimulus based upon the phase and power of the beta oscillation. The outer loop operates on a long time scale, observing the effects of the stimulation parameters and using Bayesian optimization to intelligently select new parameters to minimize the beta power. We show that the Bayesian ADC can efficiently optimize stimulation parameters, and is superior to other optimization algorithms. The Bayesian ADC provides a robust and general framework for tuning stimulation parameters, can be adapted to use any feedback signal, and is applicable across diseases and stimulator designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modelling of deceptions in game theory and decision theory has not been well studied, despite the increasing importance of this problem in social media, public discourse, and organisational management. This paper presents an improved formulation of the extant information-theoretic models of deceptions, a framework for incorporating these models of deception into game and decision theoretic models of deception, and applies these models and this framework in an agent based evolutionary simulation that models two very common deception types employed in “fake news” attacks. The simulation results for both deception types modelled show, as observed empirically in many social systems subjected to “fake news” attacks, that even a very small population of deceivers that transiently invades a much larger population of non-deceiving agents can strongly alter the equilibrium behaviour of the population in favour of agents playing an always defect strategy. The results also show that the ability of a population of deceivers to establish itself or remain present in a population is highly sensitive to the cost of the deception, as this cost reduces the fitness of deceiving agents when competing against non-deceiving agents. Diffusion behaviours observed for agents exploiting the deception producing false beliefs are very close to empirically observed behaviours in social media, when fitted to epidemiological models. We thus demonstrate, using the improved formulation of the information-theoretic models of deception, that agent based evolutionary simulations employing the Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma can accurately capture the behaviours of a population subject to deception attacks introducing uncertainty and false perceptions, and show that information-theoretic models of deception have practical applications beyond trivial taxonomical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]