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This study emphasizes the explainability of machine learning (ML) models in predicting the seismic response of rigid rocking structures, specifically using the LightGBM algorithm. By employing SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP), partial dependence plots (PDP), and accumulated local effects (ALE), a comprehensive feature importance analysis has been performed. This revealed that ground motion parameters, particularly peak ground acceleration (PGA), are critical for predicting small rotations, while structural parameters like slenderness and frequency are more significant for larger rotations. Utilizing an extensive dataset generated from nonlinear time history analyses, the trained LightGBM model demonstrated high accuracy in estimating the maximum rotation angle of rigid blocks under natural ground motions. The study also examined the sensitivity of model performance to lower bound thresholds of the target variable, revealing that reduced feature sets can maintain predictive performance effectively. These findings advance ML-based modeling of seismic rocking responses, providing interpretable and accurate models that enhance our understanding of rocking structures' dynamic behavior, which is crucial for designing resilient structures and improving seismic risk assessments. Future research will focus on incorporating additional parameters and exploring advanced ML techniques to further refine these models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seismic vulnerability assessment is one of the most impactful engineering challenges faced by modern societies. Thus, authorities require a reliable tool that has the potential to rank given structures according to their seismic vulnerability. Various countries and organizations over the past decades have developed Rapid Visual Screening (RVS) tools aiming to efficiently estimate vulnerability indices. In general, RVS tools employ a set of structural features and their associated weights to obtain a vulnerability index, which can be used for ranking. In this paper, Machine Learning (ML) models are implemented within this framework. The proposed formulation is used to train binary classifiers in conjunction with ad hoc rules, employing the features of various Codes (e.g., the Federal Emergency Management Agency, New Zealand, and Canada). The efficiency of this modeling effort is evaluated for each Code separately and it is clearly demonstrated that ML-based models are capable of outperforming currently established engineering practices. Furthermore, in the spirit of the aforementioned Codes, a linearization of the fully trained ML model is proposed. ML feature attribution techniques, namely SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) are employed to introduce weights similar to engineering practices. The promising results motivate the potential applicability of this methodology towards the recalibration of the RVS procedures for various types of cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structures inevitably suffer damage after an earthquake, with severity ranging from minimal damage of nonstructural elements to partial or even total collapse, possibly with loss of human lives. Thus, it is essential for engineers to understand the crucial factors that drive a structure towards suffering higher degrees of damage in order for preventative measures to be taken. In the present study, we focus on three well-known damage thresholds: the Collapse Limit State, Ultimate Limit State, and Serviceability Limit State. We analyze the features obtained via Rapid Visual Screening to determine whether or not a given structure crosses these thresholds. To this end, we use machine learning to perform binary classification for each damage threshold, and use explainability to quantify the effect of each parameter via SHAP values (SHapley Additive exPlanations). The quantitative results that we obtain demonstrate the potential applicability of ML methods for recalibrating the computation of structural vulnerability indices using data from recent earthquakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A variety of structural members and non-structural components, including bridge piers, museum artifacts, furniture, or electrical and mechanical equipment, can uplift and rock under ground motion excitations. Given the inherently non-linear nature of rocking behavior, employing machine learning algorithms to predict rocking response presents a notable challenge. In the present study, the performance of supervised ML algorithms in predicting the maximum seismic response of free-standing rigid blocks subjected to ground motion excitations is evaluated. As such, both regression and classification algorithms were developed and tested, aiming to model the finite rocking response and rocking overturn. From this point of view, it is essential to estimate the maximum rocking rotation and to efficiently classify its magnitude by successfully assigning respective labels. To this end, a dataset containing the response data of 1100 rigid blocks subjected to 15,000 ground motion excitations, was employed. The results showed high accuracy in both the classification ( 95 % accuracy) and regression (coefficient of determination R 2 = 0.89 ) tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pursuing "intelligent justice" necessitates an impartial, productive, and technologically driven methodology for judicial determinations. This scholarly composition proposes a framework that harnesses Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovations such as Natural Language Processing (NLP), ChatGPT, ontological alignment, and the semantic web, in conjunction with blockchain and privacy techniques, to examine, deduce, and proffer recommendations for the administration of justice. Specifically, through the integration of blockchain technology, the system affords a secure and transparent infrastructure for the management of legal documentation and transactions while preserving data confidentiality. Privacy approaches, including differential privacy and homomorphic encryption techniques, are further employed to safeguard sensitive data and uphold discretion. The advantages of the suggested framework encompass heightened efficiency and expediency, diminished error propensity, a more uniform approach to judicial determinations, and augmented security and privacy. Additionally, by utilizing explainable AI methodologies, the ethical and legal ramifications of deploying intelligent algorithms and blockchain technologies within the legal domain are scrupulously contemplated, ensuring a secure, efficient, and transparent justice system that concurrently protects sensitive information upholds privacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detecting anomalies in data streams from smart communication environments is a challenging problem that can benefit from novel learning techniques. The Attention Mechanism is a very promising architecture for addressing this problem. It allows the model to focus on specific parts of the input data when processing it, improving its ability to understand the meaning of specific parts in context and make more accurate predictions. This paper presents a Cross-Modal Dynamic Attention Neural Architecture (CM-DANA) by expanding on state-of-the-art techniques. It is a novel dynamic attention mechanism that can be trained end-to-end along with the rest of the model using multimodal data streams. The attention mechanism calculates attention weights for each position in the input data based on the model's current state by a hybrid method called Cross-Modal Attention. Specifically, the proposed model uses multimodal learning tasks where the input data comes from different cyber modalities. It combines the relevant input data using these weights to produce an attention vector in order to detect suspicious abnormal behavior. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on a cyber security anomalies detection task using multiple data streams from smart communication environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently developed Machine Learning (ML) interpretability techniques have the potential to explain how predictors influence the dependent variable in high-dimensional and non-linear problems. This study investigates the application of the above methods to damage prediction during a sequence of earthquakes, emphasizing the use of techniques such as SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP), Partial Dependence Plots (PDPs), Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanations (LIME), Accumulated Local Effects (ALE), permutation and impurity-based techniques. Following previous investigations that examine the interdependence between predictors and the cumulative damage caused by a seismic sequence using classic statistical methods, the present study deploy ML interpretation techniques to deal with this multi-parametric and complex problem. The research explores the cumulative damage during seismic sequences, aiming to identify critical predictors and assess their influence on the cumulative damage. Moreover, the predictors contribution with respect to the range of final damage is evaluated. Non-linear time history analyses are applied to extract the seismic response of an eight-story Reinforced Concrete (RC) frame. The regression problem's input variables are divided into two distinct physical classes: pre-existing damage from the initial seismic event and seismic parameters representing the intensity of the subsequent earthquake, expressed by the Park and Ang damage index ( D I P A ) and Intensity Measures (IMs), respectively. In addition to the interpretability analysis, the study offers also a comprehensive review of ML methods, hyperparameter tuning, and ML method comparisons. A LightGBM model emerges as the most efficient, among 15 different ML methods examined. Among the 17 examined predictors, the initial damage, caused by the first shock, and the IMs of the subsequent shock— I F V F and S I H —emerged as the most important ones. The novel results of this study provide useful insights in seismic design and assessment taking into account the structural performance under multiple moderate to strong earthquake events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Byzantine religious tradition includes Greek Orthodox Church hymns, which significantly differ from other cultures' religious music. Since the deep learning revolution, audio and music signal processing are often approached as computer vision problems. This work trains from scratch three different novel convolutional neural networks on a hymns dataset to perform hymns classification for mobile applications. The audio data are first transformed into Mel-spectrograms and then fed as input to the model. To study in more detail our models' performance, two state-of-the-art (SOTA) deep learning models were trained on the same dataset. Our approach outperforms the SOTA models both in terms of accuracy and their characteristics. Additional statistical analysis was conducted to validate the results obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence is the branch of computer science that attempts to model cognitive processes such as learning, adaptability and perception to generate intelligent behavior capable of solving complex problems with environmental adaptation and deductive reasoning. Applied research of cutting-edge technologies, primarily computational intelligence, including machine/deep learning and fuzzy computing, can add value to modern science and, more generally, to entrepreneurship and the economy. Regarding the science of civil engineering and, more generally, the construction industry, which is one of the most important in economic entrepreneurship both in terms of the size of the workforce employed and the amount of capital invested, the use of artificial intelligence can change industry business models, eliminate costly mistakes, reduce jobsite injuries and make large engineering projects more efficient. The purpose of this paper is to discuss recent research on artificial intelligence methods (machine and deep learning, computer vision, natural language processing, fuzzy systems, etc.) and their related technologies (extensive data analysis, blockchain, cloud computing, internet of things and augmented reality) in the fields of application of civil engineering science, such as structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, hydraulics and water resources. This review examines the benefits and limitations of using computational intelligence in civil engineering and the challenges researchers and practitioners face in implementing these techniques. The manuscript is targeted at a technical audience, such as researchers or practitioners in civil engineering or computational intelligence, and also intended for a broader audience such as policymakers or the general public who are interested in the civil engineering domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the promises of AI in the military domain that seems to guarantee its adoption is its broad applicability. In a military context, the potential for AI is present in all operational domains (i.e., land, sea, air, space, and cyber-space) and all levels of warfare (i.e., political, strategic, operational, and tactical). However, despite the potential, the convergence between needs and AI technological advances is still not optimal, especially in supervised machine learning for military applications. Training supervised machine learning models requires a large amount of up-to-date data, often unavailable or difficult to produce by one organization. An excellent way to tackle this challenge is federated learning by designing a data pipeline collaboratively. This mechanism is based on implementing a single universal model for all users, trained using decentralized data. Furthermore, this federated model ensures the privacy and protection of sensitive information managed by each entity. However, this process raises severe objections to the effectiveness and generalizability of the universal federated model. Usually, each machine learning algorithm shows sensitivity in managing the available data and revealing the complex relationships that characterize them, so the forecast has some severe biases. This paper proposes a holistic federated learning approach to address the above problem. It is a Federated Auto-Meta-Ensemble Learning (FAMEL) framework. FAMEL, for each user of the federation, automatically creates the most appropriate algorithm with the optimal hyperparameters that apply to the available data in its possession. The optimal model of each federal user is used to create an ensemble learning model. Hence, each user has an up-to-date, highly accurate model without exposing personal data in the federation. As it turns out experimentally, this ensemble model offers better predictability and stability. Its overall behavior smoothens noise while reducing the risk of a wrong choice resulting from under-sampling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Timely and rational prediction of coseismic landslides is crucial for the design and development of key infrastructure capable to protect human lives in seismically active regions. This research introduces the novel Hybrid Coseismic Landslide Forecasting model (COLAFOS) that takes into consideration three parameters namely: The Average Slope of the Active Areas, the Slope Aspect and the types of Geological forms. The developed model was tested on two datasets from the island of Lefkada Greece, for years 2003 and 2015. COLAFOS is a hybrid model, employing the Fuzzy c-Means clustering, the Ensemble Adaptive Boosting (ENS_AdaBoost) and the Ensemble Subspace k-Nearest Neighbour (ENSUB k-NN) algorithms. The introduced model managed to correctly classify the coseismic landslides according to their severity, with a success rate of 70.07% and 72.88% for 2003 and 2015, respectively. The algorithm has shown very good performance for the classes of major severity, reaching an accuracy up to 92%. Accuracy, Sensitivity, Specificity, Precision and F-1 Score, were used to evaluate the performance of the model. Given the fact that this is a multi-class classification problem, 'One Versus All' Strategy was used in the evaluation process. Although the datasets were relatively unbalanced, the evaluation indices sealed the efficiency of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Training a model using batch learning requires uniform data storage in a repository. This approach is intrusive, as users have to expose their privacy and exchange sensitive data by sending them to central entities to be preprocessed. Unlike the aforementioned centralized approach, training of intelligent models via the federated learning (FEDL) mechanism can be carried out using decentralized data. This process ensures that privacy and protection of sensitive information can be managed by a user or an organization, employing a single universal model for all users. This model should apply average aggregation methods to the set of cooperative training data. This raises serious concerns for the effectiveness of this universal approach and, therefore, for the validity of FEDL architectures in general. Generally, it flattens the unique needs of individual users without considering the local events to be managed. This paper proposes an innovative hybrid explainable semi-personalized federated learning model, that utilizes Shapley Values and Lipschitz Constant techniques, in order to create personalized intelligent models. It is based on the needs and events that each individual user is required to address in a federated format. Explanations are the assortment of characteristics of the interpretable system, which, in the case of a specified illustration, helped to bring about a conclusion and provided the function of the model on both local and global levels. Retraining is suggested only for those features for which the degree of change is considered quite important for the evolution of its functionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a diagnostic model that effectively diagnoses in fourteen different stages, by fusing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and structural MRI (sMRI) information. Georgios Theodoridis and Athanasios Tsadiras from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, have authored the seventh paper which is entitled "Applying machine learning techniques to predict and explain subscriber churn of an online drug information platform." Machine learning (ML) and more specifically deep learning (DL) algorithms are considered among the most paramount technologies of both artificial intelligence (AI) and 4 SP th sp industrial revolution. This paper provides an in-depth comparison of various machine learning (ML) techniques and advanced preprocessing methods, in an effort to successfully perform online subscriber churn prediction. [Extracted from the article]

The growing need to use online services has made it necessary to ensure protection against all kinds of cyber-threats. This research effort aims to tackle network security problems as follows: It introduces the hybrid intrusion detection system COREM2 that successfully detects nine cyber-attacks. Its architecture comprises of a two-dimensional convolutional neural network (2-D CNN), a recurrent neural network with long short-term memory layers and a multilayer perceptron. The COREM2 was successfully tested against the timely Kitsune Network Attack Dataset, achieving an overall accuracy of 98.64% and 98.92% in the training and testing phases, respectively. Since this is a multiclass classification effort, the "one-versus-all strategy" was employed to validate the introduced model, which has proved its ability to generalize. COREM2 outperforms other state-of-the-art approaches achieving overall accuracy above 98%, rare for field cyber-security intrusion. We strongly suggest that it can be safely used as a prototype for further research on network security enhancement. Furthermore, this research introduces a holistic approach for cyber intrusion detection, using the COREM2 in order to classify network traffic as benign or malicious. It captures network flow packets in the form of PCAP files (packet capture), and it stores them in.csv files and it evaluates them in order to perform classification in ten classes as provided by the Kitsune Dataset. If the malicious traffic exceeds a certain limit, the model notifies the user to take all necessary actions. The proposed method has an average processing power of 10,000 packets per 8 s. It potentially can be used in any device that has Internet access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data-driven methods are implemented using particularly complex scenarios that reflect in-depth perennial knowledge and research. Hence, the available intelligent algorithms are completely dependent on the quality of the available data. This is not possible for real-time applications, due to the nature of the data and the computational cost that is required. This work introduces an Automatic Differentiation Variational Inference (ADVI) Restricted Boltzmann Machine (RBM) to perform real-time anomaly detection of industrial infrastructure. Using the ADVI methodology, local variables are automatically transformed into real coordinate space. This is an innovative algorithm that optimizes its parameters with mathematical methods by choosing an approach that is a function of the transformed variables. The ADVI RBM approach proposed herein identifies anomalies without the need for prior training and without the need to find a detailed solution, thus making the whole task computationally feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human activity recognition (HAR) is vital in a wide range of real-life applications such as health monitoring of olderly people, abnormal behaviour detection and smart home management. HAR systems can employ smart human-computer interfaces and be parts of active, intelligent surveillance systems. The increasing use of high-tech mobile and wearable devices, such as smart phones, smart watches and smart bands, can be the key elements in building high accuracy models, as they can provide a tremendous number of signals. This research aims to develop and test a machine learning (ML) model, which can successfully recognize a performed activity using raw signals obtained by wearable devices. Photoplethysmography – Daily Life Activities (PPG-DaLiA) dataset contains data related to 15 individuals wearing physiological and motion sensors. PPG-DaLiA was used as an input to a custom data segmentation model to obtain the respective training and testing dataset. Overall, 23 ML well-established models were employed. The weighted and the fine k-nearest neighbours, the fine Gaussian support vector machines and the bagged trees were the algorithms that achieved the best performance with a very high accuracy level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fifth generation (5G) of telecommunications networks is currently commercially deployed. One of their core enabling technologies is cellular Massive Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (M-MIMO) systems. However, future wireless networks are expected to serve a very large number of devices and the current MIMO networks are not scalable, highlighting the need for novel solutions. At this moment, Cell-free Massive MIMO (CF M-MIMO) technology seems to be the most promising idea in this direction. Despite their appealing characteristics, CF M-MIMO systems face their own challenges, such as power allocation and channel estimation. Deep Learning (DL) has been successfully employed to a wide range of problems in many different research areas, including wireless communications. In this paper, a review of the state-of-the-art DL methods applied to CF M-MIMO communications systems is provided. In addition, the basic characteristics of Cell-free networks are introduced, along with the presentation of the most commonly used DL models. Finally, future research directions are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advanced machine learning algorithms have the potential to be successfully applied to many areas of system modelling. In the present study, the capability of ten machine learning algorithms to predict the structural damage of an 8-storey reinforced concrete frame building subjected to single and successive ground motions is examined. From this point of view, the initial damage state of the structural system, as well as 16 well-known ground motion intensity measures, are adopted as the features of the machine-learning algorithms that aim to predict the structural damage after each seismic event. The structural analyses are performed considering both real and artificial ground motion sequences, while the structural damage is expressed in terms of two overall damage indices. The comparative study results in the most efficient damage index, as well as the most promising machine learning algorithm in predicting the structural response of a reinforced concrete building under single or multiple seismic events. Finally, the configured methodology is deployed in a user-friendly web application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graph signal processing has recently emerged as a field with applications across a broad spectrum of fields including brain connectivity networks, logistics and supply chains, social media, computational aesthetics, and transportation networks. In this paradigm, signal processing methodologies are applied to the adjacency matrix, seen as a two-dimensional signal. Fundamental operations of this type include graph sampling, the graph Laplace transform, and graph spectrum estimation. In this context, topology similarity metrics allow meaningful and efficient comparisons between pairs of graphs or along evolving graph sequences. In turn, such metrics can be the algorithmic cornerstone of graph clustering schemes. Major advantages of relying on existing signal processing kernels include parallelism, scalability, and numerical stability. This work presents a scheme for training a tensor stack network to estimate the topological correlation coefficient between two graph adjacency matrices compressed with the two-dimensional discrete cosine transform, augmenting thus the indirect decompression with knowledge stored in the network. The results from three benchmark graph sequences are encouraging in terms of mean square error and complexity especially for graph sequences. An additional key point is the independence of the proposed method from the underlying domain semantics. This is primarily achieved by focusing on higher-order structural graph patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis along with the modeling of passenger demand dynamic, which deem to have vital implications on the management and the operation within the entire aviation industry, are regarded to be an extreme challenge. However, air passenger demand introduces reliably complex non-linearity and non-stationarity. In this paper, we have tried to forecast aviation demand with the use of time series and deep learning techniques. We have developed air travel demand estimation and forecasting models, using classical Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average methods (ARIMA), Seasonal approaches (SARIMA) and Deep Learning Neural Networks (DLNN). Moreover, this research has performed a qualitative comparison of the aforementioned techniques aiming to serve as a guideline toward the choice of the optimal modeling approach. The experimental results have shown that the proposed approaches can provide significant assistance in forecasting air travel demand, by producing both accurate and robust results. Therefore, this approach can be utilized as a tool to be reliably employed for air passenger demand forecasting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a fact that natural disasters often cause severe damage both to ecosystems and humans. Moreover, man-made disasters can have enormous moral and economic consequences for people. A typical example is the large deadly and catastrophic explosion in Beirut on 4 August 2020, which destroyed a very large area of the city. This research paper introduces a Geo-AI disaster response computer vision system, capable to map an area using material from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). SAR is a unique form of radar that can penetrate the clouds and collect data day and night under any weather conditions. Specifically, the Memory-Augmented Deep Convolutional Echo State Network (MA/DCESN) is introduced for the first time in the literature, as an advanced Machine Vision (MAV) architecture. It uses a meta-learning technique, which is based on a memory-augmented approach. The target is the employment of Deep Reservoir Computing (DRC) for domain adaptation. The developed Deep Convolutional Echo State Network (DCESN) combines a classic Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), with a Deep Echo State Network (DESN), and analog neurons with sparse random connections. Its training is performed following the Recursive Least Square (RLS) method. In addition, the integration of external memory allows the storage of useful data from past processes, while facilitating the rapid integration of new information, without the need for retraining. The proposed DCESN implements a set of original modifications regarding training setting, memory retrieval mechanisms, addressing techniques, and ways of assigning attention weights to memory vectors. As it is experimentally shown, the whole approach produces remarkable stability, high generalization efficiency and significant classification accuracy, significantly extending the state-of-the-art Machine Vision methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time-series analysis and forecasting problems are generally considered as some of the most challenging and complicated problems in data mining. In this work, we propose a new complete framework for enhancing deep learning time-series models, which is based on a data preprocessing methodology. The proposed framework focuses on conducting a sequence of transformations on the original low-quality time-series data for generating high-quality time-series data, "suitable" for efficiently training and fitting a deep learning model. These transformations are performed in two successive stages: The first stage is based on the smoothing technique for the development of a new de-noised version of the original series in which every value contains dynamic knowledge of the all previous values. The second stage of transformations is performed on the smoothed series and it is based on differencing the series in order to be stationary and be considerably easier fitted and analyzed by a deep learning model. A number of experiments were performed utilizing time-series datasets from the cryptocurrency market, energy sector and financial stock market application domains on both regression and classification problems. The comprehensive numerical experiments and statistical analysis provide empirical evidence that the proposed framework considerably improves the forecasting performance of a deep learning model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensemble learning constitutes one of the most fundamental and reliable strategies for building powerful and accurate predictive models, aiming to exploit the predictions of a number of multiple learners. In this paper, we propose two ensemble prediction models which exploit the classification performance of weight-constrained neural networks (WCNNs). The proposed models are based on Bagging and Boosting, which constitute two of the most popular strategies, to efficiently combine the predictions of WCNN classifiers. We conducted a series of experiments using a variety of benchmarks from UCI repository in order to evaluate the performance of the two proposed models against other state-of-the-art ensemble classifiers. The reported experimental results illustrate the prediction accuracy of the proposed models providing empirical evidence that the hybridization of ensemble learning and WCNNs can build efficient and powerful classification models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complexity of threats in the ever-changing environment of modern industry is constantly increasing. At the same time, traditional security systems fail to detect serious threats of increasing depth and duration. Therefore, alternative, intelligent solutions should be used to detect anomalies in the operating parameters of the infrastructures concerned, while ensuring the anonymity and confidentiality of industrial information. Blockchain is an encrypted, distributed archiving system designed to allow for the creation of real-time log files that are unequivocally linked. This ensures the security and transparency of transactions. This research presents, for the first time in the literature, an innovative Blockchain Security Architecture that aims to ensure network communication between traded Industrial Internet of Things devices, following the Industry 4.0 standard and based on Deep Learning Smart Contracts. The proposed smart contracts are implementing (via computer programming) a bilateral traffic control agreement to detect anomalies based on a trained Deep Autoencoder Neural Network. This architecture enables the creation of a secure distributed platform that can control and complete associated transactions in critical infrastructure networks, without the intervention of a single central authority. It is a novel approach that fuses artificial intelligence in the Blockchain, not as a supportive framework that enhances the capabilities of the network, but as an active structural element, indispensable and necessary for its completion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tensor clustering is a knowledge management technique which is well known as a major algorithmic and technological driver behind a broad applications spectrum. The latter ranges from multimodal social media analysis and geolocation processing to analytics tailored for large omic data. However, known exact tensor clustering problems when reduced to tensor factorization are provably NP hard. This is attributed in part to the volume of data contained in a tensor, proportional to the product of its dimensions, as well as to the increased interdependency between the tensor entries across its dimensions. One well studied way to circumvent this inherent difficulty is to resort to heuristics. This article presents an enhanced version of a genetic algorithm tailored for community discovery structure in tensors containing spatiosocial data, namely linguistic and geolocation data. The objective function as well as the chromosome fitness functions by design take into account elements of linguistic propagation models. The genetic operators of selection, crossover, and mutation as well as the newly added double mutation operator work directly on the community level. Moreover, various policies for maintaining gene variability across generations are studied in an extensive simulation powered by Google TensorFlow. As with its predecessor, the proposed genetic algorithm has been applied to a dataset consisting of a large number of Tweets and their associated geolocations from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, a historically and de facto trilingual country. The results are compared with those obtained from the original genetic algorithm and their differences are interpreted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The offline evaluation of recommender systems is typically based on accuracy metrics such as the Mean Absolute Error and the Root Mean Squared Error for error rating prediction and Precision and Recall for measuring the quality of the top-N recommendations. However, it is difficult to reproduce the results since there are various libraries that can be used for running experiments and also within the same library there are many different settings that if not taken into consideration when replicating the results might vary. In this paper, we show that within the use of the same library an explanation-based approach can be used to assist in the reproducibility of experiments. Our proposed approach has been experimentally evaluated using a wide range of recommendation algorithms ranging from collaborative filtering to complicated fuzzy recommendation approaches that can solve the filter bubble problem, a real dataset, and the results show that it is both practical and effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the boundless expansion of the Web in the last decade, the research community has paid significant attention to the problem of effective searching in the vast information available. In this paper, we introduce a novel framework for improving information retrieval results. Initially, relevant documents are organized in clusters utilizing several metrics combined with language modelling tools. In following, a produced ranked list of the documents is returned to the user for a specific query. This is implemented as the scores between the clusters and the query representations are extracted; next in line, the internal rankings of the documents, per cluster, using these scores as weighting factor, are combined. Our proposed methodology is based on the exploitation of the inter-documents similarities (lexical and/or semantics) after a sophisticated pre-processing step. Our experimental evaluation demonstrates that the proposed algorithm can efficiently improve the quality of the retrieved results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The backbone of the economy, security and sustainability of a state is inseparably linked to the security of its critical infrastructure. Critical infrastructures define goods, systems or subsystems that are essential to maintain the vital functions of society, health, physical protection, security plus economic and social well-being of citizens. The digital security of critical infrastructures is a very important priority for the well-being of every country, especially nowadays, because of the direct threats dictated by the current international conjuncture and due to the emerging interactions or interconnections developed between the National Critical Infrastructures, internationally. The aim of this research is the development and testing of an Anomaly Detection intelligent algorithm that has the advantage to run very fast with a small portion of the available data and to perform equally well with the existing approaches. Such a system must be characterized by high efficiency and very fast execution. Thus, we present the Gryphon advanced intelligence system. Gryphon is a Semi-Supervised Unary Anomaly Detection System for big industrial data which is employing an evolving Spiking Neural Network (eSNN) One-Class Classifier (eSNN-OCC). This machine learning algorithm corresponds to a model capable of detecting very fast and efficiently, divergent behaviors and abnormalities associated with cyberattacks, which are known as Advanced Persistent Threat (APT). The training process is performed on data related to the normal function of a critical infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Security Operations Center (SOC) is a central technical level unit responsible for monitoring, analyzing, assessing, and defending an organization's security posture on an ongoing basis. The SOC staff works closely with incident response teams, security analysts, network engineers and organization managers using sophisticated data processing technologies such as security analytics, threat intelligence, and asset criticality to ensure security issues are detected, analyzed and finally addressed quickly. Those techniques are part of a reactive security strategy because they rely on the human factor, experience and the judgment of security experts, using supplementary technology to evaluate the risk impact and minimize the attack surface. This study suggests an active security strategy that adopts a vigorous method including ingenuity, data analysis, processing and decision-making support to face various cyber hazards. Specifically, the paper introduces a novel intelligence driven cognitive computing SOC that is based exclusively on progressive fully automatic procedures. The proposed λ-Architecture Network Flow Forensics Framework (λ-NF3) is an efficient cybersecurity defense framework against adversarial attacks. It implements the Lambda machine learning architecture that can analyze a mixture of batch and streaming data, using two accurate novel computational intelligence algorithms. Specifically, it uses an Extreme Learning Machine neural network with Gaussian Radial Basis Function kernel (ELM/GRBFk) for the batch data analysis and a Self-Adjusting Memory k-Nearest Neighbors classifier (SAM/k-NN) to examine patterns from real-time streams. It is a forensics tool for big data that can enhance the automate defense strategies of SOCs to effectively respond to the threats their environments face. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biosafety is defined as a set of preventive measures aimed at reducing the risk of infectious diseases' spread to crops and animals, by providing quarantine pesticides. Prolonged and sustained overheating of the sea, creates significant habitat losses, resulting in the proliferation and spread of invasive species, which invade foreign areas typically seeking colder climate. This is one of the most important modern threats to marine biosafety. The research effort presented herein, proposes an innovative approach for Marine Species Identification, by employing an advanced intelligent Machine Hearing Framework (MHF). The final target is the identification of invasive alien species (IAS) based on the sounds they produce. This classification attempt, can provide significant aid towards the protection of biodiversity, and can achieve overall regional biosecurity. Hearing recognition is performed by using the Online Sequential Multilayer Graph Regularized Extreme Learning Machine Autoencoder (MIGRATE_ELM). The MIGRATE_ELM uses an innovative Deep Learning algorithm (DELE) that is applied for the first time for the above purpose. The assignment of the corresponding class 'native' or 'invasive' in its locality, is carried out by an equally innovative approach entitled 'Geo Location Country Based Service' that has been proposed by our research team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest fires are one of the most serious natural disasters for the countries of the Mediterranean basin and especially for Greece. Studying the climate change effect on the maximization of the problem is a constant objective of the scientific community. This research initially proposes an innovative hybrid version of the statistical Chi-Square test that employs Soft Computing methods. More specifically it introduces the Fuzzy Chi Square Independence test that fuzzifies p values using proper Risk Linguistics, based on Fuzzy Membership functions. In the second stage, it proposes a new Hybrid approach that models the evolution of burned areas in Greece. First it analyzes the parameters and determines the way they affect the problem, by constructing Fuzzy cognitive maps. The system projects into the future and forecasts the evolution of the problem through the years till 2100, based on the variance of average monthly temperature and average rain height (due to climate change) for the months May-October based on various climate models. Historical data for the period 1984-2004 were used to test the system for the areas of Chania and Ilia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The upgrade of energy infrastructures by the incorporation of communication and Internet technologies might introduce new risks for the security and for the smooth operation of electricity networks. Exploitation of the potential vulnerabilities of the heterogeneous systems used in smart energy grids (SEGs) may lead to the loss of control of critical electronic devices and, moreover, to the interception of confidential information. This may result in the disruption of essential services or even in total power failures. Addressing security issues that can ensure the confidentiality, the integrity, and availability of energy information is the primary objective for a transition to a new energy shape. This research paper presents an innovative system that can effectively offer SEG cybersecurity. It employs soft computing approaches, fuzzy cognitive maps, and a Mamdani fuzzy inference system in order to model overall security level. Three of the 27 scenarios considered herein have low overall security level, 21 of them have middle overall security, whereas only 3 are characterized as secure. The system automates the strategic planning of high security standards, as it allows a thorough audit of digital systems related to potential infrastructures and it contributes towards accurate decision-making in cases of threats. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mining hidden knowledge from available datasets is an extremely time-consuming and demanding process, especially in our era with the vast volume of high-complexity data. Additionally, validation of results requires the adoption of appropriate multifactor criteria, exhaustive testing and advanced error measurement techniques. This paper proposes a novel Hybrid Fuzzy Semi-Supervised Forecasting Framework. It combines fuzzy logic, semi-supervised clustering and semi-supervised classification in order to model Big Data sets in a faster, simpler and more essential manner. Its advantages are clearly shown and discussed in the paper. It uses as few pre-classified data as possible while providing a simple method of safe process validation. This innovative approach is applied herein to effectively model the air quality of Athens city. More specifically, it manages to forecast extreme air pollutants’ values and to explore the parameters that affect their concentration. Also it builds a correlation between pollution and general climatic conditions. Overall, it correlates the built model with the malfunctions caused to the city life by this serious environmental problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a fact that more and more users are adopting the online digital payment systems via mobile devices for everyday use. This attracts powerful gangs of cybercriminals, which use sophisticated and highly intelligent types of malware to broaden their attacks. Malicious software is designed to run quietly and to remain unsolved for a long time. It manages to take full control of the device and to communicate (via the Tor network) with its Command & Control servers of fast-flux botnets' networks to which it belongs. This is done to achieve the malicious objectives of the botmasters. This paper proposes the development of the computational intelligence anti-malware framework (CIantiMF) which is innovative, ultra-fast and has low requirements. It runs under the android operating system (OS) and its reasoning is based on advanced computational intelligence approaches. The selection of the android OS was based on its popularity and on the number of critical applications available for it. The CIantiMF uses two advanced technology extensions for the ART java virtual machine which is the default in the recent versions of android. The first is the smart anti-malware extension, which can recognize whether the java classes of an android application are benign or malicious using an optimized multi-layer perceptron. The optimization is done by the employment of the biogeography-based optimizer algorithm. The second is the Tor online traffic identification extension, which is capable of achieving malware localization, Tor traffic identification and botnets prohibition, with the use of the online sequential extreme learning machine algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need to protect the environment and biodiversity and to safeguard public health require the development of timely and reliable methods for the identification of particularly dangerous invasive species, before they become regulators of ecosystems. These species appear to be morphologically similar, despite their strong biological differences, something that complicates their identification process. Additionally, the localization of the broader space of dispersion and the development of invasive species are considered to be of critical importance in the effort to take proper management measures. The aim of this research is to create an advanced computational intelligence system for the automatic recognition, of invasive or another unknown species. The identification is performed based on the analysis of environmental DNA by employing machine learning methods. More specifically, this research effort proposes a hybrid bio-inspired computational intelligence detection approach. It employs extreme learning machines combined with an evolving Izhikevich spiking neuron model for the automated identification of the invasive fish species ' Lagocephalus sceleratus' extremely dangerous for human health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several machine learning models were used to predict interior spruce wood density using data from open-pollinated progeny testing trial. The data set consists of growth (height and diameter which were used to estimate individual tree volume) and wood quality (wood density determined by X-ray densitometry, resistance to drilling, and acoustic velocity) attributes for a total of 1146 trees growing on comparable sites in interior British Columbia. Various machine learning models were developed for estimating wood density. The multilayer feed-forward artificial neural networks and gene expression programming provided the highest predictability as compared to the other methods tested, including those based on classical multiple regression which was considered as the comparisons benchmark. The utilization of machine learning models as a credible method for estimating wood density using available growth data as an indirect method for determining trees wood density is expected to become increasingly helpful to forest managers and tree breeders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]