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AbstractOver the last decade, rapid advances in information systems (ISs) have greatly reshaped and changed the nature of doing business and how its performance is measured, with Electronic Auditing (E-auditing) emerging as a pivotal element in improving organizational efficiency. This study addresses the challenges faced in manually implementing audits and underscores the necessity for transitioning to electronic audit systems. The manual approach has limitations regarding the accuracy of operations, so to enhance performance, E-auditing is now imperative. The purpose of the study is to evaluate E-auditing in the public sector of Saudi Arabia, utilizing DeLone and McLean’s information system model (DM ISM). The focus is on vital factors including information quality, system quality, service quality, system usage and user satisfaction and their influence on the performance of internal audit departments, particularly during the challenges posed by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. This research employs a quantitative approach, utilizing a self-administered survey questionnaire to collect data from E-auditing users in the Saudi public sector. The study applies partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to validate the gathered data. Findings reveal that information quality and system quality significantly influence E-auditing usage. While service quality exhibits no marked effect on usage, the study establishes a strong relationship between E-auditing usage and user satisfaction. Effective E-auditing usage and satisfied users contribute convincingly to the improved performance of internal audit departments. The paper concludes with implications, limitations, and suggestions for future studies.

AbstractThe concept of country branding, also referred to as nation or place branding, involves the creation and management of a nation’s image and products to promote various aspects of its identity. This study conducted a systematic review of country branding studies based on articles published between 2010 and 2020. A total of 59 papers were obtained from electronic databases such as Scopus, search engines like Google Scholar, and publishers including Taylor and Francis, Emerald, Elsevier, and Wiley online, using a specific search criterion. Of the 59 articles, only 44 met the inclusion criteria and were included in this review. The results were organised using the theory, context, characteristics, and methods (TCCM) organising approach for systematic literature reviews. The study revealed two dominant research themes: ‘national branding campaign’ and ‘country of origin (COO). Most studies did not use any specific model and the qualitative method was the dominant research method used. The findings of this study provide a roadmap for understanding the literature on country branding and offer directions for future theory building.

AbstractChinese agriculture grapples with contemporary challenges involving resource scarcity, environmental concerns, and transformations in agricultural labor structures. This work endeavors to address these challenges and foster sustainable agricultural development by advocating the principles of agricultural green development and sustainability in China. The application principles of digital technology are first expounded alongside a discussion on the foundational concepts of fuzzy systems. Subsequently, an in-depth analysis is undertaken on the composition and trajectory of China’s agricultural total factor productivity (ATFP), culminating in the construction of a Green ATFP model. The findings illuminate the heavy reliance on labor and resources in current agricultural development, with the transformation of labor structure emerging as a pivotal factor influencing progress. Notably, the trends of feminization, aging, and urbanization in rural labor have precipitated a substantial shortage, impeding agricultural development. Furthermore, under the guidance of digital technology and fuzzy systems, this paper establishes the theoretical framework of green ATFP. Evaluation results disclose a noteworthy decrease in the contribution rates of various indicators under the Green ATFP model, with the highest contribution rate approximating 1.23. This implies that the existing measures for China’s green ATFP are still imperfect, signaling a need for greater emphasis on environmental considerations in agricultural development. This work furnishes valuable insights for advancing agricultural development and contributes significantly to the ongoing efforts in promoting the green evolution of Chinese agriculture.

Influence maximization is an important research area in social network analysis where researchers are concerned with detecting influential nodes. The detection of influential nodes is of great interest in several disciplines including computer science, opinion propagation, political movements, or economics, where systems are often modeled as graphs. The Influence Maximization problem is proved NP-hard. This computational complexity is justified by two main factors. The first factor is about the important size of social networks. Modern social networks like TikTok and Facebook have reached an unprecedented number of users. Dynamic social networks, whose topology or/and informational content is able to evolve, represent the second factor. Maximizing influence in such networks remains a significant task. In this light, several methods have been proposed. Being motivated by this fact, we provide in this paper a detailed survey of influence maximization approaches. Our main concern is to provide a taxonomy of existing models in both static and dynamic networks. In addition, we provide a comparison of the state-of-the-art approaches according to a clear categorization. New trends for detecting influential nodes are also discussed. We provide then some challenges as well as future directions. • Taxonomy of existing IM models in both static and dynamic networks is provided. • A comparison of existing approaches according to a clear categorization is presented. • New trends for detecting influential nodes are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The large number of scientific publications around the world is increasing at a rate of approximately 4%–5% per year. This fact has resulted in the need for tools that deal with relevant and high-quality publications. To address this necessity, search and reference management tools that include some recommendation algorithms have been developed. However, many of these solutions are proprietary tools and the full potential of recommender systems is rarely exploited. There are some solutions which provide recommendations for specific domains, by using ad-hoc resources. Furthermore, some other systems do not consider any personalization strategy to generate the recommendations. This paper presents ArZiGo , a web-based full prototype system for the search, management, and recommendation of scientific articles, which feeds on the Semantic Scholar Open Research Corpus, a corpus that is growing continually with more than 190M papers from all fields of science so far. ArZiGo combines different recommendation approaches within a hybrid system, in a configurable way, to recommend those papers that best suit the preferences of the users. A group of 30 human experts has participated in the evaluation of 500 recommendations in 10 research areas, 7 of which belong to the area of Computer Science and 3 to the area of Medicine, obtaining quite satisfactory results. Besides the appropriateness of the articles recommended, the execution time of the implemented algorithms has also been analyzed. • A web system for the search, management, and recommendation of scientific articles. • A hybrid and multidisciplinary scientific article recommendation system. • A modular and scalable recommendation system. • Use of the Semantic Scholar Open Research Corpus as a corpus of articles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper delves into the effectiveness and impact of behavior change techniques fostered by information technologies, particularly wearables and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, within the realms of engineering and computer science. By conducting a comprehensive review of the relevant literature sourced from the Scopus database, this study aims to elucidate the mechanisms and strategies employed by these technologies to facilitate behavior change and their potential benefits to individuals and society. Through statistical measurements and related works, our work explores the trends over a span of two decades, from 2000 to 2023, to understand the evolving landscape of behavior change techniques in wearable and IoT technologies. A specific focus is placed on a case study examining the application of behavior change techniques (BCTs) for monitoring vital signs using wearables, underscoring the relevance and urgency of further investigation in this critical intersection of technology and human behavior. The findings shed light on the promising role of wearables and IoT devices for promoting positive behavior modifications and improving individuals' overall well-being and highlighting the need for continued research and development in this area to harness the full potential of technology for societal benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This interview was given in 2008 by Arkady Zakrevsky (1928–2014), Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (1972), Doctor of Technical Sciences (1967), and Professor (1969). He stood at the origins of the birth of cybernetics in the Soviet Union. He proposed the programming language for logical tasks LYaPAS, on the basis of which a series of computer-aided design systems for discrete devices was created, and methods for implementing parallel algorithms for the logical control of interacting processes. Some monographs: LYaPAS: A Programming Language for Logic and Coding Algorithms (N.-Y., L.: Academic Press, 1969; with M. A. Gavrilov); Boolesche Gleichungen: Theorie, Anwendung, Algorithmen (Berlin: VEB Verlag Technik, 1984; with Dieter Bochmann and Christian Posthoff); Combinatorial Algorithms of Discrete Mathematics (Tallinn: TUT Press, 2008; with Yu. Pottosin, L. Cheremisinova); Optimization in Boolean Space (Tallinn: TUT Press, 2009; with Yu. Pottosin, L. Cheremisinova); Design of Logical Control Devices (Tallinn: TUT Press, 2009; with Yu. Pottosin, L. Cheremisinova); Combinatorial Calculations in Many-Dimensional Boolean Space (Tallinn: TUT Press, 2012); Solving Large Systems Logical Equations (Tallinn: TUT Press, 2013). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In human-human and human-robot interaction, the counterpart influences the human's affective state. Contrary to humans, robots inherently cannot respond empathically, meaning non-beneficial affective reactions cannot be mitigated. Thus, to create a responsible and empathetic human-robot interaction (HRI), involving anthropomorphic service robots, the effect of robot behavior on human affect in HRI must be understood. To contribute to this understanding, we provide the new comprehensive data set AFFECT-HRI, including, for the first time, physiological data labeled with human affect (i.e., emotions and mood) gathered from a conducted HRI study. Within the study, 146 participants interacted with an anthropomorphic service robot in a realistic and complex retail scenario. The participants' questionnaire ratings regarding affect, demographics, and socio-technical ratings are provided in the data set. Five different conditions (i.e., neutral, transparency, liability, moral, and immoral) were considered during the study, eliciting different affective reactions and allowing interdisciplinary investigations (e.g., computer science, law, and psychology). Each condition includes three scenes: a consultation regarding products, a request for sensitive personal information, and a handover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, education has undergone a profound transformation process, having gone from relying only on the traditional lecture to making full use of digital formats. This gradual process, accelerated by the COVID‐19 pandemic in the last years, has triggered innovative changes in the educational process. Within this context, many lecturers have adopted the flipped classroom instructional model, aiming to improve the motivation and involvement of the students. In this model, students must acquire certain theoretical knowledge at home, and the classes, with the help of the lecturer, are used for the more practical part. This article presents the results obtained when the flipped classroom model was implemented in the computer science degree. Specifically, during 2020–2021 and 2021–2022 courses, this instructional model was assessed in 15 subjects. Results show that the flipped classroom instructional model can be stated that it has improved the students' perception of the learning experience, students' dedication and engagement has been improved, students' perception of their understanding of the subject has improved. The faculty considers that the teaching experience has improved and is in favor of continuing with the experience in future courses. We have implemented a flipped classroom experience in the computer science degree. We have involved 11 subjects of different courses. We describe our experience and share our results that will help another universities that want to improve their education experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trust can be considered as a multidisciplinary concept, which is strongly related to the context and it falls in different fields such as Philosophy, Psychology or Computer Science. Trust is fundamental in every relationship, because without it, an entity will not interact with other entities. This aspect is very important especially in the Internet of Things (IoT), where many entities produced by different vendors and created for different purposes have to interact among them through the internet often under uncertainty. Trust can overcome this uncertainty, creating a strong basis to ease the process of interaction among these entities. We believe that considering trust in the IoT is fundamental, and in order to implement it in any IoT entity, it is fundamental to consider it through the whole System Development Life Cycle. In this paper, we propose an analysis of different works that consider trust for the IoT. We will focus especially on the analysis of frameworks that have been developed in order to include trust in the IoT. We will make a classification of them providing a set of parameters that we believe are fundamental in order to properly consider trust in the IoT. Thus, we will identify important aspects to be taken into consideration when developing frameworks that implement trust in the IoT, finding gaps and proposing possible solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ordered weighted averaging (OWA) operator was proposed by Yager back in 1988 and constitutes a parameterized family of aggregation functions between the minimum and the maximum. The purpose of this paper is to perform a bibliometric review of this aggregation operator during the last 35 years through the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection database and the Visualization of Similarities (VOS) viewer software. The results show that the OWA operator is an increasingly popular aggregation operator, especially in Computer Science. The results also allow the assertion that Yager, as expected, is still the most influential and productive author. Moreover, the study reveals that institutions from over 80 countries have contributed to OWA research, highlighting the high presence of Chinese universities and the emergence of Pakistani ones. Other interesting findings are presented to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the OWA operator literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photonic crystals are periodic dielectric structures that possess a wealth of physical characteristics. Owing to the unique way they interact with the light, they provide new degrees of freedom to precisely modulate the electromagnetic fields, and have received extensive research in both academia and industry. At the same time, fueled by the advances in computer science, inverse design strategies are gradually being used to efficiently produce on-demand devices in various domains. As a result, the interdisciplinary area combining photonic crystals and inverse design emerges and flourishes. Here, we review the recent progress for the application of inverse design in photonic crystals. We start with a brief introduction of the background, then mainly discuss the optimizations of various physical properties of photonic crystals, from eigenproperties to response-based properties, and end up with an outlook for the future directions. Throughout the paper, we emphasize some insightful works and their design algorithms, and aim to give a guidance for readers in this emerging field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers in cognitive science have long been interested in modeling human perception using statistical methods. This requires maneuvers because these multiple dimensional data are always intertwined with complex inner structures. The previous studies in cognitive sciences commonly applied principal component analysis (PCA) to truncate data dimensions when dealing with data with multiple dimensions. This is not necessarily because of its merit in terms of mathematical algorithm, but partly because it is easy to conduct with commonly accessible statistical software. On the other hand, dimension reduction might not be the best analysis when modeling data with no more than 20 dimensions. Using state-of-the-art techniques, researchers in various research disciplines (e.g., computer vision) classified data with more than hundreds of dimensions with neural networks and revealed the inner structure of the data. Therefore, it might be more sophisticated to process human perception data directly with neural networks. In this paper, we introduce the multi-dimensional data analysis platform (MuDAP), a powerful toolbox for data analysis in cognitive science. It utilizes artificial intelligence as well as network analysis, an analysis method that takes advantage of data symmetry. With the graphic user interface, a researcher, with or without previous experience, could analyze multiple dimensional data with great ease.

A new algorithm is presented for detecting the local weak reflection symmetries in raster images. It uses contours extracted from the segmented image. A convex hull is constructed on the contours, and so-called anchor points are placed on it. The bundles of symmetry line candidates are placed in these points. Each line splits the plane into two open half-planes and arranges the contours into three sets: the first contains the contours pierced by the considered line, while the second and the third include the contours located in one or the other half-plane. The contours are then checked for the reflection symmetry. This means looking for self-symmetries in the first set, and symmetric pairs with one contour in the second set and one contour in the third set. The line which is evaluated as the best symmetry line is selected. After that, the symmetric contours are removed from sets two and three. The remaining contours are then checked again for symmetry. A multi-branch tree representing the hierarchy of the detected local symmetries is the result of the algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers in cognitive science have long been interested in modeling human perception using statistical methods. This requires maneuvers because these multiple dimensional data are always intertwined with complex inner structures. The previous studies in cognitive sciences commonly applied principal component analysis (PCA) to truncate data dimensions when dealing with data with multiple dimensions. This is not necessarily because of its merit in terms of mathematical algorithm, but partly because it is easy to conduct with commonly accessible statistical software. On the other hand, dimension reduction might not be the best analysis when modeling data with no more than 20 dimensions. Using state-of-the-art techniques, researchers in various research disciplines (e.g., computer vision) classified data with more than hundreds of dimensions with neural networks and revealed the inner structure of the data. Therefore, it might be more sophisticated to process human perception data directly with neural networks. In this paper, we introduce the multi-dimensional data analysis platform (MuDAP), a powerful toolbox for data analysis in cognitive science. It utilizes artificial intelligence as well as network analysis, an analysis method that takes advantage of data symmetry. With the graphic user interface, a researcher, with or without previous experience, could analyze multiple dimensional data with great ease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital computers were invented in the 1940s. They are sophisticated and versatile machines whose functioning is grounded in elaborate theory. Advances in theory and the availability of computers helped computer science to develop as an academic discipline, and university departments for the same started coming up in the 1960s. Computer science covers all phenomenon related to computers and consists primarily of man-made laws governing building, programming, and using computers. Computational thinking is a way of thinking influenced by computers and computer science. There are two schools of thought on computational thinking. The first school sees computational thinking as the use of computers to explore the world, while the other sees computational thinking as the application of concepts from computer science to solve real-world problems. Scholars typically agree that computational thinking has four essential components, viz., abstraction, decomposition, algorithm design, and generalization. Computational thinking is often feted by computer scientists as a useful skill that can be used by anybody anywhere. However, it is necessary to find out ways for successfully using computational thinking in domains other than computer science before it can be declared a universal skill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affective computing is a multidisciplinary field encompassing artificial intelligence, natural language processing, linguistics, computer science, and social sciences. This field aims to deepen our comprehension and capabilities by deploying inventive algorithms. This article presents a groundbreaking approach, the Cumulative Attribute-Weighted Graph Neural Network, which is innovatively designed to integrate trimodal textual, audio, and visual data from the two multimodal datasets. This method exemplifies its effectiveness in performing comprehensive multimodal sentiment analysis. Our methodology employs vocal inputs to generate speaker embeddings trimodal analysis. Using a weighted graph structure, our model facilitates the efficient integration of these diverse modalities. This approach underscores the interrelated aspects of various emotional indicators. The paper's significant contribution is underscored by its experimental results. Our novel algorithm achieved impressive performance metrics on the CMU-MOSI dataset, with an accuracy of 94% and precision, recall, and F1-scores above 92% for Negative, Neutral, and Positive emotion categories. Similarly, on the IEMOCAP dataset, the algorithm demonstrated its robustness with an overall accuracy of 93%, where exceptionally high precision and recall were noted in the Neutral and Positive categories. These results mark a notable advancement over existing state-of-the-art models, illustrating the potential of our approach in enhancing Sentiment Recognition through the synergistic use of trimodal data. This study's comprehensive analysis and significant results demonstrate the proposed algorithm's effectiveness in nuanced emotional state recognition and pave the way for future advancements in affective computing, emphasizing the value of integrating multimodal data for improved accuracy and robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community detection has been a subject of extensive research due to its broad applications across social media, computer science, biology, and complex systems. Modularity stands out as a predominant metric guiding community detection, with numerous algorithms aimed at maximizing modularity. However, modularity encounters a resolution limit problem when identifying small community structures. To tackle this challenge, this paper presents a novel approach by defining community structure information from the perspective of encoding edge information. This pioneering definition lays the foundation for the proposed fast community detection algorithm CSIM, boasting an average time complexity of only O (n log n) . Experimental results showcase that communities identified via the CSIM algorithm across various graph data types closely resemble ground truth community structures compared to those revealed via modularity-based algorithms. Furthermore, CSIM not only boasts lower time complexity than greedy algorithms optimizing community structure information but also achieves superior optimization results. Notably, in cyclic network graphs, CSIM surpasses modularity-based algorithms in effectively addressing the resolution limit problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In common with other omics technologies, mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics produces ever-increasing amounts of raw data, making efficient analysis a principal challenge. A plethora of different computational tools can process the MS data to derive peptide and protein identification and quantification. However, during the last years there has been dramatic progress in computer science, including collaboration tools that have transformed research and industry. To leverage these advances, we develop AlphaPept, a Python-based open-source framework for efficient processing of large high-resolution MS data sets. Numba for just-in-time compilation on CPU and GPU achieves hundred-fold speed improvements. AlphaPept uses the Python scientific stack of highly optimized packages, reducing the code base to domain-specific tasks while accessing the latest advances. We provide an easy on-ramp for community contributions through the concept of literate programming, implemented in Jupyter Notebooks. Large datasets can rapidly be processed as shown by the analysis of hundreds of proteomes in minutes per file, many-fold faster than acquisition. AlphaPept can be used to build automated processing pipelines with web-serving functionality and compatibility with downstream analysis tools. It provides easy access via one-click installation, a modular Python library for advanced users, and via an open GitHub repository for developers. Mass spectrometry-based proteomics faces the challenge of processing vast data amounts. Here, the authors introduce AlphaPept, an open-source, Python-based framework that offers high speed analysis and easy integration for large-scale proteome analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by the fact that the fuzzy quasi-normed space provides a suitable framework for complexity analysis and has important roles in discussing some questions in theoretical computer science, this paper aims to study the nearest point problems in fuzzy quasi-normed spaces. First, by using the theory of dual space and the separation theorem of convex sets, the properties of the fuzzy distance from a point to a set in a fuzzy quasi-normed space are studied comprehensively. Second, more properties of the nearest point are given, and the existence, uniqueness, characterizations, and qualitative properties of the nearest points are obtained. The results obtained in this paper are of great significance for expanding the application fields of optimization theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of computer science in management and economics is a rapidly growing field that combines the analytical and technological capabilities of computer science with the strategic and operational needs of management and economics. The main aim of this research paper is to analyze the main academic contributors, sources, and international collaborations from 2014 to 2022 in computer science in the areas of management and economics, as well as to analyze the main subtopics developed over time. Bibliometric techniques were used to carry out the literature review, which allows an objective analysis of the academic literature through quantitative indicators. The results reveal a significant shift towards data-driven decision making in management, with artificial intelligence and machine learning improving predictive analytics, operational efficiency, and economic forecasting and modeling, highlighting the essential role of digital transformation in these disciplines, with significant implications for researchers, practitioners and decision-makers. It concludes that all stakeholders should work to develop a more informed and innovative approach to maximize the exploitation of the potential offered by computational sciences in different contexts. This includes the integration of advanced computational tools to improve decision making and operational efficiency, or the exploitation of computational models for more effective forecasting and policy decision making, as well as the continuous analysis of emerging areas in this field, being aware of the ethical, privacy and security challenges presented by these technologies, in order to ensure a responsible and equitable application.

Engineering education has continually evolved to embrace Project–Based Learning (PBL), a dynamic classroom approach emphasizing learning through engagement in real–world projects. The study conducts a comparative analysis of multidisciplinary Capstone Senior Design Projects across Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Computer Science at Texas A&M University at Texarkana. The research emphasizes understanding the dynamics of student collaboration within these disciplines and scrutinizes the impact of industry and faculty sponsorship on these projects. The methodology involves a comprehensive comparative analysis, employing diverse performance metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of different sponsorship models. This approach aims to uncover the influence of these models on project outcomes and students' educational experiences. The results reveal notable differences between industry–sponsored and faculty–sponsored projects. Industry sponsorship leads to higher performance in overall project execution and professional skills development. In contrast, faculty–sponsored projects are more effective in nurturing teamwork and communication abilities among students. The findings suggest that each sponsorship type presents unique benefits and challenges. Industry–sponsored projects provide valuable hands–on problem–solving experience, though they may suffer from inconsistencies in mentorship and varying expectations. Faculty–sponsored projects offer a more stable and consistent educational environment but might lag slightly in performance metrics. Integrating elements from both sponsorship models could provide students with a more balanced and enriching learning experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In natural language processing (NLP), transformer based models have surpassed recurrent neural networks (RNN) as state of the art, being introduced specifically to address the limitations of RNNs originating from its sequential nature. As a similar sequence modeling problem, transformer methods can be readily adapted for deep learning time series prediction. This paper proposes a sparse transformer based approach for electricity load prediction. The layers of a transformer addresses the shortcomings of RNNs and CNNs by applying the attention mechanism on the entire time series, allowing any data point in the input to influence any location in the output of the layer. This allows transformers to incorporate information from the entire sequence in a single layer. Attention computations can also be parallelized. Thus, transformers can achieve faster speeds, or trade this speed for more layers and increased complexity. In experiments on public datasets, the sparse transformer attained comparable accuracy to an RNN-based SOTA method (Liu et al., 2022) while being up to 5× faster during inference. Moreover, the proposed model is general enough to forecast the load from individual households to city levels as shown in the extensive experiments conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hollywood screenwriters worry about Artificial Intelligence (AI) replacements taking over their jobs. Famous museums litigate to protect their art from AI infringement. A major retailer scraps a machinelearning based recruitment program that was biased against women. These are just a few examples of how AI is affecting the world of work, learning, and living. MIS and computer science students are among the professional groups who are embarking into careers with nebulous frontiers obscured by the outcroppings brought on by AI. Computer Science and Information System curriculum task forces have recognized the increasing ethical and professional implications developers’ work can have beyond the scope of the programmers’ code. In this article, the authors examine the professional, legal, and ethical implications of copyrights and algorithmic bias resulting from development of AI-enhanced applications and offer suggestions for addressing these topics in courses considering changes to the CC2020 and IS2020 Model Curriculum frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale benchmark datasets are crucial in advancing research within the computer science communities. They enable the development of more sophisticated AI models and serve as "golden" benchmarks for evaluating their performance. Thus, ensuring the quality of these datasets is of utmost importance for academic research and the progress of AI systems. For the emerging vision-language tasks, some datasets have been created and frequently used, such as Flickr30k, COCO, and NoCaps, which typically contain a large number of images paired with their ground-truth textual descriptions. In this paper, an automatic method is proposed to assess the quality of large-scale benchmark datasets designed for vision-language tasks. In particular, a new cross-modal matching model is developed, which is capable of automatically scoring the textual descriptions of visual images. Subsequently, this model is employed to evaluate the quality of vision-language datasets by automatically assigning a score to each 'ground-truth' description for every image picture. With a good agreement between manual and automated scoring results on the datasets, our findings reveal significant disparities in the quality of the ground-truth descriptions included in the benchmark datasets. Even more surprising, it is evident that a small portion of the descriptions are unsuitable for serving as reliable ground-truth references. These discoveries emphasize the need for careful utilization of these publicly accessible benchmark databases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Journal of Semantic Computing has published a special issue on Semantic Computing, which includes five selected papers from the 17th IEEE International Conference on Semantic Computing. Semantic Computing focuses on the derivation, description, integration, and use of semantics for various resources. The papers in the special issue cover topics such as intent detection, constructing probabilistic models from knowledge graphs, unsupervised estimation of subjective content descriptions, the influence of noisy labels on question answering systems, and automatic domain-adaptive sentiment analysis. Each paper presents innovative approaches and findings in their respective areas of research. [Extracted from the article]

As ethical issues involving computer technologies and social media become more common, there is increasing interest in what role ethics should play in computer science education. As a result, computer science departments worldwide have ramped up their efforts to examine relevant ethical issues in undergraduate computer science classes to prepare emerging professionals to face relevant issues when they enter the computing workforce. As part of these efforts, a public R-1 Hispanic-Serving Institution located on the United States–Mexico border piloted a leadership course based on the Relational Leadership Model (Komives et al., 2013). This model provides a broad idea of leadership that focuses on leaders developing and exercising their ethical awareness by engaging in discussions of ethical issues. The pilot course was organized around the implementation of a cooperative pedagogical tool known as structured academic controversy (Johnson et al., 1996). We describe in detail the strategy for implementing this approach, discuss key elements of students' final reflections about their participation in the academic controversy, and present the quantitative results to examine students' understanding of leadership and satisfaction with the pilot course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The text is a foreword for a special issue of the Journal of Information Science & Engineering on Combinatorial Mathematics and Computational Theory. It explains that these fields have a significant impact on computer science, mathematics, and science in general. Combinatorial Mathematics involves the study of discrete objects and has applications in various areas, while Computational Theory focuses on studying algorithms and their efficiency. The text also mentions a symposium that was held to promote academic exchanges and advance research in these fields. The special issue includes four papers on topics such as opinion optimization, local diagnosis, enumerating furthest pairs, and determining the 2-tuple total domination number of a graph. The authors express gratitude to the reviewers and authors for their contributions to the special issue. [Extracted from the article]

Decision problems in physics have been an active field of research for quite a few decades resulting in some interesting findings in recent years. However, such research investigations are based on a priori knowledge of theoretical computer science and the technical jargon of set theory. Here, I discuss a particular, but a significant, instance of how decision problems in physics can be realised without such specific prerequisites. I expose a hitherto unnoticed contradiction, that can be posed as as decision problem, concerning the oil drop experiment, thereby resolve it by refining the notion of 'existence' in physics. This consequently leads to the undecidability of the charge spectral gap through the notion of 'undecidable charges' which is in tandem with the completeness condition of a theory as was stated by Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen in their seminal work. Decision problems can now be realised in connection with basic physics, in general, rather than quantum physics, in particular, as per some recent claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document discusses the integration of advanced technologies and algorithms to enhance the performance, efficiency, and reliability of network systems in various application areas such as smart cities, smart homes, industrial automation, and transportation systems. The special issue focuses on future complex cyber-physical networks (CCPNs) and smart sensors, with a particular emphasis on control and optimization strategies. The document provides a summary of 10 original research articles and 1 review article that were accepted for publication in the special issue, covering topics such as remote sensing image recognition, fusion filtering, transmission line planning, optimal filtering for sensor networks, traversal exploration and path coverage, map-merging for UAVs, area coverage control for robot networks, adaptive deskewing algorithm for document images, intelligent positioning for climbing robots, and pneumatic control of valve position. The review article discusses recent developments and methodologies for the secure control of complex cyber-physical networks. The authors express their gratitude to the authors and reviewers for their contributions and acknowledge the support of the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Office of Sensors. [Extracted from the article]

From small steps to great leaps, metaphors of spatial mobility abound to describe discovery processes. Here, we ground these ideas in formal terms by systematically studying mobility patterns in the scientific knowledge landscape. We use low-dimensional embedding techniques to create a knowledge space made up of 1.5 million articles from the fields of physics, computer science, and mathematics. By analyzing the publication histories of individual researchers, we discover patterns of scientific mobility that closely resemble physical mobility. In aggregate, the trajectories form mobility flows that can be described by a gravity model, with jumps more likely to occur in areas of high density and less likely to occur over longer distances. We identify two types of researchers from their individual mobility patterns: interdisciplinary explorers who pioneer new fields, and exploiters who are more likely to stay within their specific areas of expertise. Our results suggest that spatial mobility analysis is a valuable tool for understanding the evolution of science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autosomal recessive cerebellar ataxias (ARCAs) are a heterogeneous group of neurodegenerative disorders affecting primarily the cerebellum and/or its afferent tracts, often accompanied by damage of other neurological or extra-neurological systems. Due to the overlap of clinical presentation among ARCAs and the variety of hereditary, acquired, and reversible etiologies that can determine cerebellar dysfunction, the differential diagnosis is challenging, but also urgent considering the ongoing development of promising target therapies. The examination of afferent and efferent visual system may provide neurophysiological and structural information related to cerebellar dysfunction and neurodegeneration thus allowing a possible diagnostic classification approach according to ocular features. While optic coherence tomography (OCT) is applied for the parametrization of the optic nerve and macular area, the eye movements analysis relies on a wide range of eye-tracker devices and the application of machine-learning techniques. We discuss the results of clinical and eye-tracking oculomotor examination, the OCT findings and some advancing of computer science in ARCAs thus providing evidence sustaining the identification of robust eye parameters as possible markers of ARCAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, generative applications are reshaping different fields, such as art, computer vision, speech processing, and natural language. The computer science personalization area is increasingly relevant since large companies such as Spotify, Netflix, TripAdvisor, Amazon, and Google use recommender systems. Then, it is rational to expect that generative learning will increasingly be used to improve current recommender systems. In this paper, a method is proposed to generate synthetic recommender system datasets that can be used to test the recommendation performance and accuracy of a company on different simulated scenarios, such as large increases in their dataset sizes, number of users, or number of items. Specifically, an improvement in the state-of-the-art method is proposed by applying the Wasserstein concept to the generative adversarial network for recommender systems (GANRS) seminal method to generate synthetic datasets. The results show that our proposed method reduces the mode collapse, increases the sizes of the synthetic datasets, improves their ratings distributions, and maintains the potential to choose the desired number of users, number of items, and starting size of the dataset. Both the baseline GANRS and the proposed Wasserstein-based WGANRS deep learning architectures generate fake profiles from dense, short, and continuous embeddings in the latent space instead of the sparse, large, and discrete raw samples that previous GAN models used as a source. To enable reproducibility, the Python and Keras codes are provided in open repositories along with the synthetic datasets generated to test the proposed architecture (https://github.com/jesusbobadilla/ganrs.git). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) finds diverse applications in fields like knowledge extraction, cognitive concept learning and data mining. The construction of a concept lattice significantly influences the effectiveness of formal concept analysis; hence, the development of high-performance algorithms for concept construction is crucial. In this paper, we introduce a novel algorithm called "Bit-Close" for formal concept construction. Bit-Close leverages bit representation and operations, fundamental to computer science, to enhance the In-Close algorithm. Furthermore, we explore the parallel method of Bit-Close. Our experimental results, obtained from multiple public and random datasets, demonstrate that Bit-Close outperforms In-Close by approximately 20% and is significantly better than other competing algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In computer network security, the escalating use of computer networks and the corresponding increase in cyberattacks have propelled Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) to the forefront of research in computer science. IDSs are a crucial security technology that diligently monitor network traffic and host activities to identify unauthorized or malicious behavior. This study develops highly accurate models for detecting a diverse range of cyberattacks using the fewest possible features, achieved via a meticulous selection of features. We chose 5, 9, and 10 features, respectively, using the Artificial Bee Colony (ABC), Flower Pollination Algorithm (FPA), and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) feature-selection techniques. We successfully constructed different models with a remarkable detection accuracy of over 98.8% (approximately 99.0%) with Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), an accuracy of 98.7% with the Flower Pollination Algorithm (FPA), and an accuracy of 98.6% with the Artificial Bee Colony (ABC). Another achievement of this study is the minimum model building time achieved in intrusion detection, which was equal to 1 s using the Flower Pollination Algorithm (FPA), 2 s using the Artificial Bee Colony (ABC), and 3 s using Ant Colony Optimization (ACO). Our research leverages the comprehensive and up-to-date CSE-CIC-IDS2018 dataset and uses the preprocessing Discretize technique to discretize data. Furthermore, our research provides valuable recommendations to network administrators, aiding them in selecting appropriate machine learning algorithms tailored to specific requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuous improvement in the clinical performance of neonatal intensive care units (NICU) depends on the use of locally relevant, reliable data. However, neonatal databases with these characteristics are typically unavailable in NICUs using paper-based records, while in those using electronic records, the inaccuracy of data and the inability to customize commercial data systems limit their usability for quality improvement or research purposes. We describe the characteristics and uses of a simple, neonatologist-centered data system that has been successfully maintained for 30 years, with minimal resources and serving multiple purposes, including quality improvement, administrative, research support and educational functions. Structurally, our system comprises customized paper and electronic components, while key functional aspects include the attending-based recording of diagnoses, integration into clinical workflows, multilevel data accuracy and validation checks, and periodic reporting on both data quality and NICU performance results. We provide examples of data validation methods and trends observed over three decades, and discuss essential elements for the successful implementation of this system. This database is reliable and easily maintained; it can be developed from simple paper-based forms or used to supplement the functionality and end-user customizability of existing electronic medical records. This system should be readily adaptable to NICUs in either high- or limited-resource environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing automatic optimizing compilers is an advanced engineering process requiring a great deal of expertise, programming, testing, and experimentation. Maintaining the approach and adapting it to evolving libraries and environments is a time-consuming effort. In recent years, OpenAI has presented the GPT model, which is designed for many fields like computer science, image processing, linguistics, and medicine. It also supports automatic programming and translation between programming languages, as well as human languages. This article will verify the usability of the commonly known LLM model, GPT, for the non-trivial NPDP Nussinov's parallel algorithm code within the OpenMP standard to create a parallel equivalent of CUDA for NVIDIA graphics cards. The goal of this approach is to avoid creating any post-processing scripts and writing any lines of target code. To validate the output code, we compare the resulting arrays with the ones calculated by the optimized code for the CPU generated employing the polyhedral compilers. Finally, the code will be checked for scalability and performance. We will concentrate on assessing the capabilities of GPT, highlighting common challenges that can be refined during future learning processes. This will enhance code generation for various platforms by leveraging the outcomes from polyhedral optimizers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world grapples with the pressing challenge of environmental sustainability, the need for innovative solutions to combat air pollution has become paramount. Air pollution is a complex issue that necessitates real-time monitoring of pollution sources for effective mitigation. This paper explores the potential of swarm algorithms applied as a novel and efficient approach to address this critical environmental concern. Swarm algorithms offer a promising framework for coordinating fleets of drones to collaboratively monitor and analyze air pollution sources. The unique capabilities of drones, including their agility, accessibility, and versatility, make them ideal candidates for aerial data collection. When harnessed in a swarm, these drones can create a dynamic and adaptable network that provides a more comprehensive and fine-grained understanding of air pollution dynamics. This paper delves into the conceptual foundations of using swarm algorithms in drone-based air pollution monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital transformation in the public sector provides digital services to the citizens aiming at increasing their quality of life, as well as the transparency and accountability of a public administration. Since adaptation to the citizens changing needs is central for its success, Agile methodologies seem best suited for the software development of digital services in that area. However, as well documented by an attempt to use Scrum for an important Public Administration in Italy, substantial modifications to standard Agile were needed, giving rise to a new proposal called improved Agile (in short, iAgile). Another notable example is the Scrum@IMI method developed by the City of Barcelona for the deployment of its digital services. However, given the importance of digital transformation in the public sector and the scarcity of efforts (documented in the scholarly literature) to effectively bring Agile within it, a strategically important contribution that Computer Science can offer is a general paradigm describing how to tailor Agile methodologies and, in particular, Scrum, for such a specific context. Our proposal, called Scrum@PA, addresses this strategic need. Based on it, a public administration has a technically sound avenue to follow to adopt Scrum rather than a generic set of guidelines as in the current state of the art. We show the validity of our proposal by describing how the quite successful Scrum@IMI approach can be derived from Scrum@PA. Although iAgile can also be derived from our paradigm, we have chosen Scrum@IMI as a pilot example since it is publicly available on GitHub. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]