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Rules in fuzzy rule-based models convey essential knowledge about the system under discussion. As such, they capture the essence of relationships occurring among input and output variables. While the quality of such fuzzy models is predominantly related with the accuracy and eventual interpretability of rules (although to a limited extent), the quality of rules being regarded as generic pieces of knowledge has not been studied so far. In this study, we formulate and investigate this problem by looking at the quality of rules, including aspects of (a) stability, (b) generalizability, and (c) conflict. We identify a concept of rule multiplicity, conflict, and study an emergence of rule generalization. A number of pertinent performance indices are developed, and their usage is presented through a series of experimental studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this study, we present a comprehensive comparative analysis of kernel-based fuzzy clustering and fuzzy clustering. Kernel based clustering has emerged as an interesting and quite visible alternative in fuzzy clustering, however, the effectiveness of this extension vis-à-vis some generic methods of fuzzy clustering has neither been discussed in a complete manner nor the performance of clustering quantified through a convincing comparative analysis. Our focal objective is to understand the performance gains and the importance of parameter selection for kernelized fuzzy clustering. Generic Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) and Gustafson–Kessel (GK) FCM are compared with two typical generalizations of kernel-based fuzzy clustering: one with prototypes located in the feature space (KFCM-F) and the other where the prototypes are distributed in the kernel space (KFCM-K). Both generalizations are studied when dealing with the Gaussian kernel while KFCM-K is also studied with the polynomial kernel. Two criteria are used in evaluating the performance of the clustering method and the resulting clusters, namely classification rate and reconstruction error. Through carefully selected experiments involving synthetic and Machine Learning repository (http://archive.ics.uci.edu/beta/) data sets, we demonstrate that the kernel-based FCM algorithms produce a marginal improvement over standard FCM and GK for most of the analyzed data sets. It has been observed that the kernel-based FCM algorithms are in a number of cases highly sensitive to the selection of specific values of the kernel parameters. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Ordinal feature values are totally ordered labels that can be considered as fuzzy sets. The formulation of proper fuzzy sets for ordinal labels is important for the systems that deal with the objects of mixed feature types. When a proper ordinal–numerical mapping for an ordinal feature of interest is given, proper fuzzy sets for the labels of the ordinal feature can be easily formulated. In this paper, we propose an adaptive method to learn proper ordinal–numerical mappings for ordinal features of interest from a given objects of mixed features including the ordinal features. The method starts with uniform ordinal–numerical mappings, and performs two steps iteratively. The first step computes a fuzzy partition over the given object set with the ordinal–numerical mappings. The second step learns new ordinal–numerical mappings from the new fuzzy partition in the way that the new mappings make the similarity between two ordinal labels be similar to the average similarity between the objects having the two labels, respectively. Through the alternate repetition of the two steps, both of the ordinal–numerical mappings and the clustering quality become gradually improved. The validity of the proposed method is strongly supported through the experiments with a modified fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm in which the proposed method is implemented. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this study, we introduce the concept of collaborative fuzzy clustering—a conceptual and algorithmic machinery for the collective discovery of a common structure (relationships) within a finite family of data residing at individual data sites. There are two fundamental features of the proposed optimization environment. First, given existing constraints which prevent individual sites from exchanging detailed numeric data, any communication has to be realized at the level of information granules. The specificity of these granules impacts the effectiveness of ensuing collaborative activities. Second, the fuzzy clustering realized at the level of the individual data site has to constructively consider the findings communicated by other sites and act upon them while running the optimization confined to the particular data site. Adhering to these two general guidelines, we develop a comprehensive optimization scheme and discuss its two-phase character in which the communication phase of the granular findings intertwines with the local optimization being realized at the level of the individual site and exploits the evidence collected from other sites. The proposed augmented form of the objective function is essential in the navigation of the overall optimization that has to be completed on a basis of the data and available information granules. The intensity of collaboration is optimized by choosing a suitable tradeoff between the two components of the objective function. The objective function based clustering used here concerns the well-known Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) algorithm. Experimental studies presented include some synthetic data, selected data sets coming from the machine learning repository and the weather data coming from Environment Canada. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper, we propose an iterative algorithm for multiple regression with fuzzy variables. While using the standard least-squares criterion as a performance index, we pose the regression problem as a gradient-descent optimisation. The separation of the evaluation of the gradient and the update of the regression variables makes it possible to avoid undue complication of analytical formulae for multiple regression with fuzzy data. The origins of fuzzy input data are traced back to the fundamental concept of information granulation and an example FCM-based granulation method is proposed and illustrated by some numerical examples. The proposed multiple regression algorithm is applied to one-, three-and nine-dimensional synthetic data sets as well as the 13-dimensional Boston Housing dataset from the machine learning repository. The algorithm''s performance is illustrated by the corresponding plots of convergence of regression parameters and the values of the prediction error of the resulting regression model. General comments on the numerical complexity of the proposed algorithm are also provided. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Semi-supervised (or partial) fuzzy clustering plays an important and unique role in discovering hidden structure in data realized in presence of a certain quite limited fraction of labeled patterns. The objective of this study is to investigate and quantify the effect of various distance functions (distances) on the performance of the clustering mechanisms. The underlying goal of endowing the clustering algorithms with a higher level of flexibility is done via the use of various distances. The enhancement of this character is evaluated by means of a comprehensive assessment of quality of clusters, their ensuing discrimination abilities and the accuracy of clusters themselves. In addition to the standard Euclidean distance being commonly exploited in fuzzy clustering, three more versatile and adaptive distance measures are considered such as its weighted version, a full adaptive distance, and a kernel-based distance. Using Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) coming in its generic format, we show its semi-supervised enhancements, derive detailed formulas and analyze their effectiveness. The improvements of semi-supervised clustering are empirically evaluated and numerically quantified with the use of several Machine Learning data sets. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this study, we introduce a new design methodology of fuzzy radial basis function-based polynomial neural networks. In many cases, these models do not come with capabilities to deal with granular information. With this regard, fuzzy sets offer several interesting and useful opportunities. This study presents the development of fuzzy radial basis function-based neural networks augmented with virtual input variables. The performance of the proposed category of models is quantified through a series of experiments, in which we use two machine learning data sets and two publicly available software development effort data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The identification of a suitable clustering algorithm to partition data and assessment of the validity of the resultant partitioning are ongoing quests in unsupervised learning. In this study, a fuzzy granulation–degranulation criterion is proposed to evaluate the goodness of a fuzzy partitioning of the data. This, in turn, is used to determine the appropriate clustering algorithm suitable for a particular data set. In general, the quality of a partitioning is measured by computing the variance within it, which is a measure of compactness of the obtained partitioning. Here a new error function, which reflects how well the computed cluster centers represent the whole data set, is used as the goodness measure of the obtained partitioning. Thus a clustering algorithm, providing a good set of cluster centers which approximate well the whole data set, is considered to be the most suited. Thereafter this new fuzzy granulation–degranulation criterion is used to develop six new cluster validity indices. These indices mimic the definitions of the existing and well-known cluster validity indices, such as PBM-index, XB-index, PS-index, FS-index, K-index and SV-index, but use the new fuzzy granulation–degranulation based error function instead of cluster compactness. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed error function in correctly identifying the appropriate clustering algorithm for a particular data set, eight well-known clustering algorithms, K-means, Fuzzy C-means, GAK-means (genetic algorithm based K-means algorithm), a newly developed genetic point symmetry based clustering technique (GAPS-clustering), Average Linkage clustering algorithm, Expectation Maximization (EM) clustering algorithm, Self-Organizing Map (SOM) and Spectral clustering technique are evaluated on a set of six artificially generated and six real-life data sets. Results show that GAK-means is the most appropriate for most of the data sets used for the experiments. Thereafter the effectiveness of the proposed cluster validity indices in identifying the appropriate number of clusters automatically from different data sets are shown for above mentioned 12 data sets. For the purpose of comparison, results obtained with the original versions of the proposed cluster validity indices and results obtained by a density based clustering technique are also presented. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study focuses on two critical design aspects of a progressive fuzzy polynomial neural network (PFPNN): the influence of the gated recurrent unit (GRU) structure and the implementation of fitness-based candidate neuron selection (FCNS) through two probabilistic strategies. The primary objectives are to enhance modeling accuracy and to reduce the computational load associated with nonlinear regression tasks. Compared with the existing fuzzy rule-based modeling architecture, the proposed dynamic model consists of the GRU structure and the hybrid fuzzy polynomial architecture. In the initial two layers of the PFPNN, we introduce three types of polynomial and fuzzy rules into the GRU neurons (GNs) and fuzzy polynomial neurons (FPNs), which can effectively reveal potential complex relationships in the data space. The synergy of the FCNS strategies and the ℓ 2 regularization learning method is to design a progressive regression model adept at melding the GRU structure with a self-organizing architecture. The proposed GRU structure and polynomial-based neurons significantly improve the modeling accuracy for time-series datasets. The rational utilization of FCNS strategies can reinforce the network structure and discover the potential performance of neurons of the network. Furthermore, the inclusion of ℓ 2 norm regularization provides additional stability to the proposed model and mitigates the overfitting issue commonly encountered in many existing learning methods. We validated the proposed neural networks using six time-series, four machine learning, and two real-world datasets. The PFPNN outperformed other models in the comparison studies in 83.3% of the datasets, emphasizing its superiority in terms of developing a stable deep structure from diverse candidate neurons and reducing computational overhead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]