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Social media (SM) based surveillance systems, combined with machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) techniques, have shown potential for early detection of epidemic outbreaks. This review discusses the current state of SM-based surveillance methods for early epidemic outbreaks and the role of ML and DL in enhancing their performance. Since, every year, a large amount of data related to epidemic outbreaks, particularly Twitter data is generated by SM. This paper outlines the theme of SM analysis for tracking health-related issues and detecting epidemic outbreaks in SM, along with the ML and DL techniques that have been configured for the detection of epidemic outbreaks. DL has emerged as a promising ML technique that adapts multiple layers of representations or features of the data and yields state-of-the-art extrapolation results. In recent years, along with the success of ML and DL in many other application domains, both ML and DL are also popularly used in SM analysis. This paper aims to provide an overview of epidemic outbreaks in SM and then outlines a comprehensive analysis of ML and DL approaches and their existing applications in SM analysis. Finally, this review serves the purpose of offering suggestions, ideas, and proposals, along with highlighting the ongoing challenges in the field of early outbreak detection that still need to be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the network field, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) contain prolonged attention due to afresh augmentations. Industries like health care, traffic, defense, and many more systems espoused the WSN. These networks contain tiny sensor nodes containing embedded processors, TinyOS, memory, and power source. Sensor nodes are responsible for forwarding the data packets. To manage all these components, there is a need to select appropriate parameters which control the quality of service of WSN. Multiple sensor nodes are involved in transmitting vital information, and there is a need for secure and efficient routing to reach the quality of service. But due to the high cost of the network, WSN components have limited resources to manage the network. There is a need to design a lightweight solution that ensures the quality of service in WSN. In this given manner, this study provides the quality of services in a wireless sensor network with a security mechanism. An incorporated hybrid lightweight security model is designed in which random waypoint mobility (RWM) model and grey wolf optimization (GWO) is used to enhance service quality and maintain security with efficient routing.MATLAB version 16 andNetwork Stimulator 2.35 (NS2.35) are used in this research to evaluate the results. The overall cost factor is reduced at 60% without the optimization technique and 90.90% reduced by using the optimization technique, which is assessed by calculating the signal-to-noise ratio, overall energy nodes, and communication overhead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thalassemia syndrome is a genetic blood disorder induced by the reduction of normal hemoglobin production, resulting in a drop in the size of red blood cells. In severe forms, it can lead to death. This genetic disorder has posed a major burden on public health wherein patients with severe thalassemia need periodic therapy of iron chelation and blood transfusion for survival. Therefore, controlling thalassemia is extremely important and is made by promoting screening to the general population, particularly among thalassemia carriers. Today Twitter is one of the most influential social media platforms for sharing opinions and discussing different topics like people’s health conditions and major public health affairs. Exploring individuals’ sentiments in these tweets helps the research centers to formulate strategies to promote thalassemia screening to the public. An effective Lexiconbased approach has been introduced in this study by highlighting a classifier called valence aware dictionary for sentiment reasoning (VADER). In this study applied twitter intelligence tool (TWINT), Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK), and VADER constitute the three main tools. VADER represents a gold-standard sentiment lexicon, which is basically tailored to attitudes that are communicated by using social media. The contribution of this study is to introduce an effective Lexicon-based approach by highlighting a classifier called VADER to analyze the sentiment of the general population, particularly among thalassemia carriers on the social media platform Twitter. In this study, the results showed that the proposed approach achieved 0.829, 0.816, and 0.818 regarding precision, recall, together with F-score, respectively. The tweets were crawled using the search keywords, “thalassemia screening,” thalassemia test, “and thalassemia diagnosis”. Finally, results showed that India and Pakistan ranked the highest in mentions in tweets by the public’s conversations on thalassemia screening with 181 and 164 tweets, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the use of the small battery-operated sensor nodes encourage us to develop an energy-efficient routing protocol for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The development of an energy-efficient routing protocol is a mainly adopted technique to enhance the lifetime of WSN. Many routing protocols are available, but the issue is still alive. Clustering is one of the most important techniques in the existing routing protocols. In the clustering-based model, the important thing is the selection of the cluster heads. In this paper, we have proposed a scheme that uses the bubble sort algorithm for cluster head selection by considering the remaining energy and the distance of the nodes in each cluster. Initially, the bubble sort algorithm chose the two nodes with the maximum remaining energy in the cluster and chose a cluster head with a small distance. The proposed scheme performs hierarchal routing and direct routing with some energy thresholds. The simulation will be performed in MATLAB to justify its performance and results and compared with the ECHERP model to justify its performance. Moreover, the simulations will be performed in two scenarios, gateway-based and without gateway to achieve more energy-efficient results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Skin lesion segmentation plays a critical role in the precise and early detection of skin cancer via recent frameworks. The prerequisite for any computer- aided skin cancer diagnosis system is the accurate segmentation of skin malignancy. To achieve this, a specialized skin image analysis technique must be used for the separation of cancerous parts from important healthy skin. This procedure is called Dermatography. Researchers have often used multiple techniques for the analysis of skin images, but, because of their low accuracy, most of these methods have turned out to be at best, inconsistent. Proper clinical treatment involves sensitivity in the surgical process. A high accuracy rate is therefore of paramount importance. A generalized and robust model is needed to accurately assess and segment skin lesions. In this regard, a novel approach named Double U-Net has been proposed to provide necessary strength and Robustness. This process uses two U-Net architectures stacked upon each other with ASPP which is used to squeeze out a high resolution and redundant information. In this paper, we trained the proposed architecture on the PH² dataset and the model was evaluated on the PH² test, ISIC-2016 and HAM datasets. Evaluation of information shows the model achieved a DSC of 0.9551 on the PH2 test dataset, 0.8104 on ISIC- 2016 and 0.7645 on the HAM dataset. Analyses show results comparable to the most recently available state-of-the-art techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sentiment analysis taskhas widely been studied for various languages such as English and French. However, Roman Urdu sentiment analysis yet requires more attention from peer-researchers due to the lack of Off-the-Shelf Natural Language Processing (NLP) solutions. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the diverse machine learning methods for the sentiment analysis of Roman Urdu data which is very informal in nature and needs to be lexically normalized. To mitigate this challenge, we propose a fine-tuned Support Vector Machine (SVM) powered by Roman Urdu Stemmer. In our proposed scheme, the corpus data is initially cleaned to remove the anomalies from the text. After initial pre-processing, each user review is being stemmed. The input text is transformed into a feature vector using the bag-of-word model. Subsequently, the SVM is used to classify and detect user sentiment. Our proposed scheme is based on a dictionary based Roman Urdu stemmer. The creation of the Roman Urdu stemmer is aimed at standardizing the text so as to minimize the level of complexity. The efficacy of our proposed model is also empirically evaluated with diverse experimental configurations, so as to fine-tune the hyper-parameters and achieve superior performance. Moreover, a series of experiments are conducted on diverse machine learning and deep learning models to compare the performance with our proposed model. We also introduced the largest dataset on Roman Urdu, i.e., Roman Urdu e-commerce dataset (RUECD), which contains 26K+ user reviews annotated by the group of experts. The RUECD is challenging and the largest dataset available of Roman Urdu. The experiments show that the newly generated dataset is quite challenging and requires more attention from the peer researchers for Roman Urdu sentiment analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep learning techniques, particularly convolutional neural networks (CNNs), have exhibited remarkable performance in solving vision-related problems, especially in unpredictable, dynamic, and challenging environments. In autonomous vehicles, imitation-learning-based steering angle prediction is viable due to the visual imagery comprehension of CNNs. In this regard, globally, researchers are currently focusing on the architectural design and optimization of the hyperparameters of CNNs to achieve the best results. Literature has proven the superiority of metaheuristic algorithms over the manual-tuning of CNNs. However, to the best of our knowledge, these techniques are yet to be applied to address the problem of imitation-learning-based steering angle prediction. Thus, in this study, we examine the application of the bat algorithm and particle swarm optimization algorithm for the optimization of the CNN model and its hyperparameters, which are employed to solve the steering angle prediction problem. To validate the performance of each hyperparameters' set and architectural parameters' set, we utilized the Udacity steering angle dataset and obtained the best results at the following hyperparameter set: optimizer, Adagrad; learning rate, 0.0052; and nonlinear activation function, exponential linear unit. As per our findings, we determined that the deep learning models show better results but require more training epochs and time as compared to shallower ones. Results show the superiority of our approach in optimizing CNNs through metaheuristic algorithms as compared with the manual-tuning approach. Infield testing was also performed using the model trained with the optimal architecture, which we developed using our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades, multiple software development process models, tools, and techniques have been used by practitioners. Despite using these techniques, most software development organizations still fail to meet customer’s needs within time and budget. Time overrun is one of the major reasons for project failure. There is a need to come up with a comprehensive solution that would increase the chances of project success. However, the “make vs. buy” decision can be helpful for “in time” software development. Social media have become a popular platform for discussion of all sorts of topics, so software development is no exception. Software developers discuss all the pros and cons of making vs. buy decisions on Twitter and other social media platforms. Twitter trending is a typical feature that evaluates the level of popularity of a specific event on online networking. A mixed-method approach comprising of interviews of software industry experts and Twitter data extraction is applied to scrutinize the effective decision of software build vs. buy decision. The findings of the analysis show that software makes vs. buy decisions depend on several factors including cost, development technology, software development team skills, and time. Based on the finding of the study a framework is proposed for the decision to build versus buy in Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Furthermore, the framework has been designed to statistically indicate make versus buy decisions of the organization and to suggest appropriate choices based on different parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fault localization is one of the main tasks of software debugging. Developers spend a lot of time, cost, and effort to locate the faults correctly manually. For reducing this effort, many automatic fault localization techniques have been proposed, which inputs test suites and outputs a sorted list of faulty entities of the program. For further enhancement in this area, we developed a system called SILearning, which is based on invariant analysis. It learns from some existing fixed bugs to locate faulty methods in the program. It combines machine-learned ranking, program invariant differences, and spectrum-based fault localization (SBFL). Using the execution of test cases and code coverage analysis, it obtains each method’s invariant differences and the suspiciousness value based on the program spectral location and uses them as features for ranking the faulty methods. The experimental analysis of SILearning has been performed on the dataset of real fault which is extracted from the database Defects4J. The tools used in this research are Daikon and cobertura for detection of the invariants and code coverage, respectively. The results show that SILearning performs better when combined features are utilized and can successfully locate the faulty methods on average for 76.1, 90.4, 108.2, 123, and 143.5 at the top positions of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IPv6 over Low Power Wireless Personal Area Network (6LoWPAN) provides IP connectivity to the highly constrained nodes in the Internet of Things (IoTs). 6LoWPAN allows nodes with limited battery power and storage capacity to carry IPv6 datagrams over the lossy and error-prone radio links offered by the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, thus acting as an adoption layer between the IPv6 protocol and IEEE 802.15.4 network. The data link layer of IEEE 802.15.4 in 6LoWPAN is based on AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), but the 6LoWPAN standard lacks and has omitted the security and privacy requirements at higher layers. The sensor nodes in 6LoWPAN can join the network without requiring the authentication procedure. Therefore, from security perspectives, 6LoWPAN is vulnerable to many attacks such as replay attack, Man-in-the-Middle attack, Impersonation attack, and Modification attack. This paper proposes a secure and efficient cluster-based authentication scheme (CBAS) for highly constrained sensor nodes in 6LoWPAN. In this approach, sensor nodes are organized into a cluster and communicate with the central network through a dedicated sensor node. The main objective of CBAS is to provide efficient and authentic communication among the 6LoWPAN nodes. To ensure the low signaling overhead during the registration, authentication, and handover procedures, we also introduce lightweight and efficient registration, de-registration, initial authentication, and handover procedures, when a sensor node or group of sensor nodes join or leave a cluster. Our security analysis shows that the proposed CBAS approach protects against various security attacks, including Identity Confidentiality attack, Modification attack, Replay attack, Man-in-the-middle attack, and Impersonation attack. Our simulation experiments show that CBAS has reduced the registration delay by 11%, handoff authentication delay by 32%, and signaling cost by 37% compared to the SGMS (Secure Group Mobility Scheme) and LAMS (Light-Wight Authentication & Mobility Scheme). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. Predicting heart disease is challenging because it requires substantial experience and knowledge. Several research studies have found that the diagnostic accuracy of heart disease is low. The coronary heart disorder determines the state that influences the heart valves, causing heart disease. Two indications of coronary heart disorder are strep throat with a red persistent skin rash, and a sore throat covered by tonsils or strep throat. This work focuses on a hybrid machine learning algorithm that helps predict heart attacks and arterial stiffness. At first, we achieved the component perception measured by using a hybrid cuckoo search particle swarm optimization (CSPSO) algorithm. With this perception measure, characterization and accuracy were improved, while the execution time of the proposed model was decreased. The CSPSO-deep recurrent neural network algorithm resolved issues that state-of-the-art methods face. Our proposed method offers an illustrative framework that helps predict heart attacks with high accuracy. The proposed technique demonstrates the model accuracy, which reached 0.97 with the applied dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The price of a product plays a vital role in its market share. Customers usually buy a product when it fits their needs and budget. Therefore, it is an essential area in the business to make decisions about prices for each product. The major portion of the business profit is directly connected with the percentage of the sale, which relies on certain factors of customers including customers' behavior and market competitors. It has been observed in the past that machine learning algorithms have made the decision-making process more effective and profitable in businesses. The fusion of machine learning with business intelligence systems has produced potentially better results for business workers. This study proposes a fusion model of machine learning and business intelligence to facilitate the effective pricing mechanism of products. Three machine learning algorithms namely (1) Multiclass Random Forest, (2) Multiclass Logistic Regression and (3) Multiclass one-vs-all have been applied for product price prediction. This intelligent business model helps business workers to set product pricing and discounts based on customer's buying behavior (i.e., customer's average amount spent in buying items). The model also predicts the demand for the product in the market, which may help in making effective decisions about the product to gain a better productivity. The performance of the model has been evaluated using hold-out cross validation. Multiclass one-vs-all out performed the other two algorithms in terms of average log-loss and it produced better accuracy in prediction for both hold-out as well as cross validation. The outcomes of the proposed model may help businesses in exploring business data and to gain higher share in the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's competitive business environment, the cost of a product is one of the most important considerations for its sale. Businesses are heavily involved in research strategies to minimize the cost of elements that can impact on the final price of the product. Logistics is one such factor. Numerous products arrive from diverse locations to consumers in today's digital era of online businesses. Clearly, the logistics sector faces several dilemmas from order attributes to environmental changes in this regard. This has specially been noted during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic where the demands on online businesses have increased several fold. Consequently, the methodology to optimise delivery cost and its impact on environmental focus by reducing CO2 emissions has gained relevance. The resultant strategy of Shipment Consolidation that has evolved is an approach that combines one or more transport orders in the same vehicle for delivery. Shipment Consolidation has been categorized in three order scheduling approaches: Time based consolidation, Quantity based consolidation, and a Hybrid (Time-Quantity) based consolidation. In this paper, a new Hybrid Consolidation approach is presented. Using the Hybrid approach, it has been shown that order delivery can be facilitated by taking into account not only the order pick up time, but also the total order quantity. These results have shown that if a time window is available in respect of the order delivery time, then the order can be delayed from pickup to consolidate it with other orders for cost optimization. This hybrid approach is based on four consolidation principles, two of which work on fixed departure and two, on demand departure. Three of these rules have been implemented and tested here with an application case study. Statistical analysis of the results is illustrated with different planning evaluation indicators. The Result analyses indicate that consolidation of orders is increased with each implemented rule hence motivating us towards the implementation of the fourth rule. Testing with bigger data sets is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Wuhan, China, a novel Corona Virus (COVID-19) was detected in December 2019; it has changed the entire world and to date, the number of diagnosed cases is 38,756,289¹ and 1,095,216¹ people have died. This happened because a large number of people got affected and there is a lack of hospitals for COVID-19 patients. One of the precautionary measures for COVID-19 patients is isolation. To support this, there is an urgent need for a platform that makes treatment possible from a distance. Telemedicine systems have been drastically increasing in number and size over recent years. This increasing number intensifies the extensive need for telemedicine for the national healthcare system. In this paper, we present Tele-COVID which is a telemedicine application to treat COVID-19 patients from a distance. Tele-COVID is uniquely designed and implemented in Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) to avoid the problem of interoperability, vendor lock-in, and data interchange. With the help of Tele-COVID, the treatment of patients at a distance is possible without the need for them to visit hospitals; in case of emergency, necessary services can also be provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unified Modeling Language (UML) models are considered important artifacts of model-driven engineering (MDE). This can automatically transform models to other paradigms and programming languages. If a model has bugs, then MDE can transfer these to a new code. The class model is a key component of UML that is used in analysis and design. Without a formal foundation, UML can create only graphical diagrams, making it impossible to verify properties such as satisfiability, consistency and consequences. Different techniques have been used to verify UML class models, but these do not support some important components. This paper transforms and verifies unsupported components such as XOR association constraints and dependency relationships of a UML class model through ontology. We use various UML class models to validate the proposed ontology-based method, easy and efficient transformation and verification of unsupported elements. The results show this approach can verify large and complex models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]