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The architecture of AND/OR fuzzy neural networks exhibits outstanding learning abilities and significant interpretation capabilities. However, AND/OR networks suffer from structure-related problems namely low efficiency and slow convergence of learning due to several reasons such as high dimensionality and gradient-based learning algorithms which lead to a visible computing overhead. In this paper, we present a two-phase fuzzy logic-oriented network design that is composed of AND/OR neurons. This design takes advantages of Randomized Neural Network (RNN) to achieve higher convergence while exhibiting good nonlinear approximation capabilities. A gradient–based learning algorithm is implemented in the second phase of the design to further reduce values of performance index. The quality of the proposed design and resulting architecture is quantified through the use of numeric data along with fuzzy sets (information granules). Experimental results meet the research's objectives and the proposed design methodology opens up new future directions for proceeding with more improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The task of probabilistic record linkage is to find and link records that refer to the same entity across several disparate data sources. The accurate linking of records (entity resolution) is an important task for the healthcare industry, government, law enforcement, and the private sector, for obvious reasons. However, finding exact matches of an entity can be challenging due to records with typographical, phonetical or other types of errors (noise) found across real-world data sources. Over the years, many comparison functions have been developed to relate pairs of records and produce a similarity score. With a pair of predefined thresholds, one may decide if records pairs match, do not match, or if they require further clerical review. Nevertheless, finding appropriate comparison functions, identity descriptors (fields), threshold values, and efficient classifiers remains a challenging task. In this study, we propose a supervised gradient-based learning model that can adjust its structure and parameters based on matching scores coming from many comparison functions (and applied to many fields), to efficiently classify the records. The design of this structure is transparent, and can potentially allow us to locate which comparison functions and fields are more significant to correctly link the records. To train this structure, we propose a novel performance index that can help learn how to separate matched from non-matched records. Results completed with the use of synthetic datasets affected by different levels of noise and real-world datasets show the effectiveness of the algorithm, which can significantly reduce the number of false positives, false negatives, and the number of records selected for review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Dimensionality reduction is an important and challenging task in machine learning and data mining. It can facilitate data clustering, classification and information retrieval. As an efficient technique for dimensionality reduction, feature selection is about finding a small feature subset preserving the most relevant information. In this paper, we propose a new criterion, called maximum projection and minimum redundancy feature selection, to address unsupervised learning scenarios. First, the feature selection is formalized with the use of the projection matrices and then characterized equivalently as a matrix factorization problem. Second, an iterative update algorithm and a greedy algorithm are proposed to tackle this problem. Third, kernel techniques are considered and the corresponding algorithm is also put forward. Finally, the proposed algorithms are compared with four state-of-the-art feature selection methods. Experimental results reported for six publicly datasets demonstrate the superiority of the proposed algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dimensionality reduction is an important and challenging task in machine learning and data mining. Feature selection and feature extraction are two commonly used techniques for decreasing dimensionality of the data and increasing efficiency of learning algorithms. Specifically, feature selection realized in the absence of class labels, namely unsupervised feature selection, is challenging and interesting. In this paper, we propose a new unsupervised feature selection criterion developed from the viewpoint of subspace learning, which is treated as a matrix factorization problem. The advantages of this work are four-fold. First, dwelling on the technique of matrix factorization, a unified framework is established for feature selection, feature extraction and clustering. Second, an iterative update algorithm is provided via matrix factorization, which is an efficient technique to deal with high-dimensional data. Third, an effective method for feature selection with numeric data is put forward, instead of drawing support from the discretization process. Fourth, this new criterion provides a sound foundation for embedding kernel tricks into feature selection. With this regard, an algorithm based on kernel methods is also proposed. The algorithms are compared with four state-of-the-art feature selection methods using six publicly available datasets. Experimental results demonstrate that in terms of clustering results, the proposed two algorithms come with better performance than the others for almost all datasets we experimented with here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clustering categorical data arising as an important problem of data mining has recently attracted much attention. In this paper, the problem of unsupervised dimensionality reduction for categorical data is first studied. Based on the theory of rough sets, the attributes of categorical data are decomposed into a number of rough subspaces. A novel clustering ensemble algorithm based on rough subspaces is then proposed to deal with categorical data. The algorithm employs some of rough subspaces with high quality to cluster the data and yields a robust and stable solution by exploiting the resulting partitions. We also introduce a cluster index to evaluate the solution of clustering algorithm for categorical data. Experimental results for selected UCI data sets show that the proposed method produces better results than those obtained by other methods when being evaluated in terms of cluster validity indexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) are convenient and widely used architectures for modeling dynamic systems, which are characterized by a great deal of flexibility and adaptability. Several recent works in this area concern strategies for the development of FCMs. Although a few fully automated algorithms to learn these models from data have been introduced, the resulting FCMs are structurally considerably different than those developed by human experts. In particular, maps that were learned from data are much denser (with the density over 90% versus about 40% density of maps developed by humans). The sparseness of the maps is associated with their interpretability: the smaller the number of connections is, the higher is the transparency of the map. To this end, a novel learning approach, sparse real-coded genetic algorithms (SRCGAs), to learn FCMs is proposed. The method utilizes a density parameter to guide the learning toward a formation of maps of a certain predefined density. Comparative tests carried out for both synthetic and real-world data demonstrate that, given a suitable density estimate, the SRCGA method significantly outperforms other state-of-the-art learning methods. When the density estimate is unknown, the new method can be used in an automated fashion using a default value, and it is still able to produce models whose performance exceeds or is equal to the performance of the models generated by other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this study, we are concerned with a construction of granular neural networks (GNNs)—architectures formed as a direct result reconciliation of results produced by a collection of local neural networks constructed on a basis of individual data sets. Being cognizant of the diversity of the results produced by the collection of networks, we arrive at the concept of granular neural network, producing results in the form of information granules (rather than plain numeric entities) that become reflective of the diversity of the results generated by the contributing networks. The design of a granular neural network exploits the concept of justifiable granularity. Introduced is a performance index quantifying the quality of information granules generated by the granular neural network. This study is illustrated with the aid of machine learning data sets. The experimental results provide a detailed insight into the developed granular neural networks. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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]

Feature selection plays an important role in pattern recognition and machine learning. Feature evaluation and classification complexity estimation arise as key issues in the construction of selection algorithms. To estimate classification complexity in different feature subspaces, a novel feature evaluation measure, called the neighborhood decision error rate (NDER), is proposed, which is applicable to both categorical and numerical features. We first introduce a neighborhood rough-set model to divide the sample set into decision positive regions and decision boundary regions. Then, the samples that fall within decision boundary regions are further grouped into recognizable and misclassified subsets based on class probabilities that occur in neighborhoods. The percentage of misclassified samples is viewed as the estimate of classification complexity of the corresponding feature subspaces. We present a forward greedy strategy for searching the feature subset, which minimizes the NDER and, correspondingly, minimizes the classification complexity of the selected feature subset. Both theoretical and experimental comparison with other feature selection algorithms shows that the proposed algorithm is effective for discrete and continuous features, as well as their mixture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this study, we concentrate on the fundamentals and essential development issues of logic-driven constructs of fuzzy neural networks. These networks, referred to as logic-oriented neural networks, constitute an interesting conceptual and computational framework that greatly benefits from the establishment of highly synergistic links between the technology of fuzzy sets (or granular computing, being more general) and neural networks. The most essential advantages of the proposed networks are twofold. First, the transparency of neural architectures becomes highly relevant when dealing with the mechanisms of efficient learning. Here the learning is augmented by the fact that domain knowledge could be easily incorporated in advance prior to any learning. This becomes possible given the compatibility between the architecture of the problem and the induced topology of the neural network. Second, once the training has been completed, the network can be easily interpreted and thus it directly translates into a series of truth-quantifiable logic expressions formed over a collection of information granules. The design process of the logic networks synergistically exploits the principles of information granulation, logic computing and underlying optimization including those biologically inspired techniques (such as particle swarm optimization, genetic algorithms and alike). We elaborate on the existing development trends, present key methodological pursuits and algorithms. In particular, we show how the logic blueprint of the networks is supported by the use of various constructs of fuzzy sets including logic operators, logic neurons, referential operators and fuzzy relational constructs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Multiagent systems are inherently associated with their distributivity, which enforces a great deal of communication mechanisms. To effectively arrive at meaningful solutions in a vast array of problem-solving tasks, it becomes imperative to establish a sound machinery of reconciling findings which might form partial solutions to an overall problem. In this paper, we focus on a broad category of problems of collaborative data analysis realized by a collection of agents having access to their individual data and exchanging findings through their collaboration activities. Such problems of data analysis arise in the context of building a global view at a certain phenomenon (process) by viewing it from different perspectives (and thus engaging various collections of attributes by various agents). Our goal is to develop some interaction between the agents so that they could form an overall perspective, where the knowledge available locally is shared and reconciled. The underlying format of knowledge built by the agents is that of information granules and fuzzy sets in particular. We develop a comprehensive optimization scheme and discuss its two-phase nature in which the communication phase of the granular findings intertwines with the local optimization being realized by the agents at the level of the individual datasite and exploits the evidence collected from other sites. We show how the mechanism of fuzzy granulation realized in the form of a well-known fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering can be augmented to support collaborative activities required by the agents. For this purpose, we introduce augmented versions of the original objective function used in the FCM and derive algorithmic details. We also discuss an issue of optimizing the strength of collaborative linkages, so that the reconciled findings attain the highest level of consistency (agreement) The presented experimental studies include some synthetic data and selected data sets coming from the Machine Learning repository. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this study, we are concerned with system modeling which involves limited data and reconciles the developed model with some previously acquired domain knowledge being captured in the format of already constructed models. Each of these previously available models was formed on a basis of extensive data sets which are not available for the current identification pursuits. To emphasize the nature of modeling being guided by the reconciliation mechanisms, we refer to this mode of identification as experience-consistent modeling. The paper presents the conceptual and algorithmic framework by focusing on regression models. By forming a certain extended form of the performance index, it is shown that the domain knowledge captured by regression models can play a similar role as a regularization component used quite commonly in system identification. Experimental results involve both synthetic low-dimensional data and selected data coming from Machine Learning repository. The data used in the experiments tackle regression models as well as classification problems (two-class classifiers). [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]

Multiagent systems are inherently associated with their distributivity, which enforces a great deal of communication mechanisms. To effectively arrive at meaningful solutions in a vast array of problem-solving tasks, it becomes imperative to establish a sound machinery of reconciling findings which might form partial solutions to an overall problem. In this paper, we focus on a broad category of problems of collaborative data analysis realized by a collection of agents having access to their individual data and exchanging findings through their collaboration activities. Such problems of data analysis arise in the context of building a global view at a certain phenomenon (process) by viewing it from different perspectives (and thus engaging various collections of attributes by various agents). Our goal is to develop some interaction between the agents so that they could form an overall perspective, where the knowledge available locally is shared and reconciled. The underlying format of knowledge built by the agents is that of information granules and fuzzy sets in particular. We develop a comprehensive optimization scheme and discuss its two-phase nature in which the communication phase of the granular findings intertwines with the local optimization being realized by the agents at the level of the individual datasite and exploits the evidence collected from other sites. We show how the mechanism of fuzzy granulation realized in the form of a well-known fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering can be augmented to support collaborative activities required by the agents. For this purpose, we introduce augmented versions of the original objective function used in the FCM and derive algorithmic details. We also discuss an issue of optimizing the strength of collaborative linkages, so that the reconciled findings attain the highest level of consistency (agreement). The presented experimental studies include some synthetic data and selected data sets coming from the Machine Learning repository. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fuzzy clustering has emerged as a fundamental technique of information granulation. In this study, we introduce and discuss multivariable encoding and decoding mechanisms (referred altogether as a reconstruction problem) expressed in the language of fuzzy sets and fuzzy relations. The underlying performance index associated with the problem helps quantify a reconstruction error that arises when transforming a numeric datum through fuzzy sets (relations) and then reconstructing it into an original numeric format. The clustering platform considered in this study concerns the well-known algorithm of Fuzzy C-Means (FCM). The main design aspects deal with the relationships between the number of clusters versus the reconstruction properties and the resulting reconstruction error. The impact of the fuzzification coefficient on the reconstruction quality is investigated. This finding is of interest, given the fact that predominantly all applications involving FCM use the value of the fuzzification coefficient equal to 2. In light of the completed experiments, we demonstrate that this selection may not be experimentally. legitimate. We also carry out a comparative analysis of the reconstruction properties of the Boolean decoding that is induced by the fuzzy partition. Experimental investigations involve selected machine learning data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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: Information granules, such as e.g., fuzzy sets, capture essential knowledge about data and the key dependencies between them. Quite commonly, we may envision that information granules (fuzzy sets) have become a result of fuzzy clustering and therefore could be succinctly represented in the form of some fuzzy partition matrices. Interestingly, the same data set could be represented from various standpoints and this multifaceted view yields a collection of different partition matrices being reflective of the higher-order granular knowledge about the data. The levels of specificity of the clusters the data are organized into could be quite different—the larger the number of clusters, the more detailed insight into the structure of data becomes available. Given the granularity of the resulting constructs (rather than plain data themselves), one could view a collection of partition matrices as a certain type of a network of knowledge. Considering a variety of sources of knowledge encountered across the network, we are interested in forming consensus between them. In a nutshell, this leads to the construction of certain fuzzy partition matrices which “reconcile” the knowledge captured by the individual partition matrices. Given that the granularity of the sources of knowledge under consideration could vary quite substantially, we develop a unified optimization perspective by introducing fuzzy proximity matrices that are induced by the corresponding partition matrices. In the sequel, the optimization is realized on a basis of these proximity matrices. We offer a detailed algorithm and illustrate its performance using a series of numeric experiments. [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]

The article introduces a concept and design of decision trees based on information granules, multivariable entities characterized by high homogeneity. The article shows how the tree is grown depending on some additional node expansion criteria such as cardinality at a given node and a level of structural dependencies of data existing there. A series of experiments is reported using both synthetic and machine learning data sets. The C-decision trees are classification constructs that are built on a basis of information granules, fuzzy clusters.

In this study, we are concerned with genetically optimized fuzzy decision trees (G-DTs). Decision trees are fundamental architectures of machine learning, pattern recognition, and system modeling. Starting with the generic decision tree with discrete or interval-valued attributes, we develop its fuzzy set-based generalization. In this generalized structure we admit the values of the attributes that are represented by some membership functions. Such fuzzy decision trees are constructed in the setting of genetic optimization. The underlying genetic algorithm optimizes the parameters of the fuzzy sets associated with the individual nodes where they play a role of fuzzy "switches" by distributing a flow of processing completed within the tree. We discuss various forms of the fitness function that help capture the essence of the problem at hand (that could be either of classification nature when the dealing with discrete outputs or regression-like when handling a continuous output variable). We quantify a nature of the generalization of the tree by studying an optimally adjusted spreads of the membership functions located at the nodes of the decision tree. A series of experiments exploiting synthetic and machine learning data is used to illustrate the performance of the G-DTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we consider the classification (supervised learning) problem in [0 1]^n that utilizes fuzzy sets as pattern classes. Each class is described by one or more fuzzy hyperbox defined by their corresponding minimum- and maximum vertices and the hyperbox membership function. Two types of hyperboxes are created: inclusion hyperboxes that contain input patterns belonging to the same class, and exclusion hyperboxes that contain patterns belonging to two or more classes, thus representing contentious areas of the pattern space. With these two types of hyperboxes each class fuzzy set is represented as a union of inclusion hyperboxes of the same class minus a union of exclusion hyperboxes. The subtraction of sets provides for efficient representation of complex topologies of pattern classes without resorting to a large number of small hyperboxes to describe each class. The proposed fuzzy hyperbox classification is compared to the original Min-Max Neural Network and the Gene ral Fuzzy Min-Max Neural Network and the origins of the improved performance of the proposed classification are identified. These are verified on a standard data set from the Machine Learning Repository. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a cascade AdaBoost neural network (CANN) based on concepts and construct of AdaBoost neurons and cascade structure. Compared with AdaBoost, CANN can represent complex relationships between features. In CANN, representation learning is performed through AdaBoost, and the method of random selection features is utilized to encourage the diversity of AdaBoost neurons. Through the cascade structure, CANN has the context structure for complex feature representation. At the same time, in order to avoid the problem of feature disappearance, shortcut connection is used to add the previous information to the later nodes. Furthermore, particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is utilized to optimize the structure of CANN, it can obtain the number of iterations to achieve better performance. Two types of CANN are proposed based — binary-classification CANN (BCANN) or multi-classification CANN (MCANN). The performance of CANN is evaluated with two kinds of data sets: machine learning data sets and atrial fibrillation data set. A comparative analysis illustrates that the proposed CANN leads to better performance than the models reported in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Associative memories constructed and operating in the presence of big data offer an effective way to realize association mechanisms aimed at storing and recalling items. In this study, we develop a logic-driven model of two-level fuzzy associative memories augmented by autoencoding processing. It is composed of two functional modules. The first module of this architecture implements an efficient dimensionality reduction of the original high dimensional data with the use of an autoencoder. This helps achieve storing and completing the recall realized by a logic-oriented associative memory which constitutes the second module of the architecture. The optimization of the association matrices studied in the paper involves both gradient-based learning mechanisms and the algorithms of population-based optimization, i.e., particle swarm optimization (PSO) and differential evolution (DE). A suite of experimental studies is presented to quantify the performance of the proposed approach. Comparative studies are also conducted to show and quantify the advantages of the mechanisms of associative recall and storage augmented by the autoencoding process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In numerous real-world problems, we are faced with difficulties in learning from imbalanced data. The classification performance of a "standard" classifier (learning algorithm) is evidently hindered by the imbalanced distribution of data. The over-sampling and under-sampling methods have been researched extensively with the aim to increase the predication accuracy over the minority class. However, traditional under-sampling methods tend to ignore important characteristics pertinent to the majority class. In this paper, a novel under-sampling method based on information granules is proposed. The method exploits the concepts and algorithms of granular computing. First, information granules are built around the selected patterns coming from the majority class to capture the essence of the data belonging to this class. In the sequel, the resultant information granules are evaluated in terms of their quality and those with the highest specificity values are selected. Next, the selected numeric data are augmented by some weights implied by the size of information granules. Finally, a support vector machine and a K-nearest-neighbor classifier, both being regarded here as representative classifiers, are built based on the weighted data. Experimental studies are carried out using synthetic data as well as a suite of imbalanced data sets coming from the public machine learning repositories. The experimental results quantify the performance of support vector machine and K-nearest-neighbor with under-sampling method based on information granules. The results demonstrate the superiority of the performance obtained for these classifiers endowed with conventional under-sampling method. In general, the improvement of performance expressed in terms of G-means is over 10% when applying information granule under-sampling compared with random under-sampling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a new granular classifier in two versions (iterative and non–iterative), by adopting some ideas originating from a kind of Functional Link Artificial Neural Network and the Functional Network schemes. These two architectures are substantially the same: they both use a function basis instead of the usual activation function, but they are different for the learning algorithm. We augment them from the perspective of Granular Computing and information granules, designing a new kind of classifier and two learning algorithms, by taking into account granularity of information. The proposed classifier exhibits the advantages of the granular architectures, that is higher accuracy and transparency. We formally discuss the convergence of the iterative learning scheme. We carry out some numerical experiments using publicly available data, by comparing the results against those results produced by the state-of-the-art methods. In particular, we achieved sound results by invoking the iterative learning scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A multi-view text classification may be better than a simple text classification. • Feature projection methods may outperform a multi-view text classification approach. • The proposed ranking method allows for selecting the best classification model. This study aims to propose (i) a multi-view text classification method and (ii) a ranking method that allows for selecting the best information fusion layer among many variations. Multi-view document classification is worth a detailed study as it makes it possible to combine different feature sets into yet another view that further improves text classification. For this purpose, we propose a multi-view framework for text classification that is composed of two levels of information fusion. At the first level, classifiers are constructed using different data views, i.e. different vector space models by various machine learning algorithms. At the second level, the information fusion layer uses input information using a features projection method and a meta-classifier modelled by a selected machine learning algorithm. A final decision based on classification results produced by the models positioned at the first layer is reached. Moreover, we propose a ranking method to assess various configurations of the fusion layer. We use heuristics that utilise statistical properties of F-score values calculated for classification results produced at the fusion layer. The information fusion layer of the classification framework and ranking method has been empirically evaluated. For this purpose, we introduce a use case checking whether companies' domains identify their innovativeness. The results empirically demonstrate that the information fusion layer enhances classification quality. The Friedman's aligned rank and Wilcoxon signed-rank statistical tests and the effect size support this hypothesis. In addition, the Spearman statistical test carried out for the obtained results demonstrated that the assessment made by the proposed ranking method converges to a well-established method named Hellinger - The Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (H-TOPSIS). Thus, the proposed approach may be used for the assessment of classifier performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data-imbalanced problems are present in many applications. A big gap in the number of samples in different classes induces classifiers to skew to the majority class and thus diminish the performance of learning and quality of obtained results. Most data level imbalanced learning approaches generate new samples only using the information associated with the minority samples through linearly generating or data distribution fitting. Different from these algorithms, we propose a novel oversampling method based on generative adversarial networks (GANs), named OS-GAN. In this method, GAN is assigned to learn the distribution characteristics of the minority class from some selected majority samples but not random noise. As a result, samples released by the trained generator carry information of both majority and minority classes. Furthermore, the central regularization makes the distribution of all synthetic samples not restricted to the domain of the minority class, which can improve the generalization of learning models or algorithms. Experimental results reported on 14 datasets and one high-dimensional dataset show that OS-GAN outperforms 14 commonly used resampling techniques in terms of G-mean, accuracy and F1-score. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Fuzzy rule-based classifiers have been used in many applications showing better performance due to simple modular architectures and significant interpretability. Generally, researchers design this type of classifiers along with two incompatible directions: some of them devote to mine more rules from data for enhancing the accuracy of classifiers and others focus on reducing the number of rules for simplifying the classifier with high accuracy. However, from the perspective of practicability, the tradeoff between the accuracy of model and the number of rules including in the model should be carefully considered when designing classifiers. Further, these classifiers also encounter two evident limitations in the process of design: one is that the contribution of each sample versus individual attributions is equally important and another is that the concept of information granularity is not considered. These two limitations result in the reduction of accuracy of the ensuing classifier. To alleviate these two limitations and make compromise between the accuracy and the number of rules of formed classifier, in this study, a novel method is proposed to construct a fuzzy classifier by means of the principle of justifiable granularity with weighted data. The proposed method involves two main stages: the first stage concerns with the formation of an initial classification model. The initial model is constructed by engaging a synergy of Fuzzy C-Means clustering (FCM) and the principle of justifiable granularity with weighted data. The second stage focuses on the refinement of the initial classification model. The number of rules of the completely formed fuzzy classification model is equal to that of classes of experimental data. A series of experiments concerning synthetic datasets and ten UCI datasets are also implemented to exhibit the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed classification method as well as reveal the impact of information granularity on resulting classification model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like the traditional machine learning, the multi-label learning is faced with the curse of dimensionality. Some feature selection algorithms have been proposed for multi-label learning, which either convert the multi-label feature selection problem into numerous single-label feature selection problems, or directly select features from the multi-label data set. However, the former omit the label dependency, or produce too many new labels leading to learning with significant difficulties; the latter, taking the global label dependency into consideration, usually select a few redundant or irrelevant features, because actually not all labels depend on each other, which may confuse the algorithm and degrade its classification performance. To select a more relevant and compact feature subset as well as explore the label dependency, a granular feature selection method for multi-label learning is proposed with a maximal correlation minimal redundancy criterion based on mutual information. The maximal correlation minimal redundancy criterion makes sure that the selected feature subset contains the most class-discriminative information, while in the meantime exhibits the least intra-redundancy. Granulation can help explore the label dependency. We study the relation of the label granularity and the performance on four data sets, and compare the proposed method with other three multi-label feature selection methods. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can select compact and specific feature subsets, improve the classification performance and performs better than other three methods on the widely-used multi-label learning evaluation criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Evaluating different models' perspectives for real-time adversarial attack detection in VANETs. • Identifying and preprocessing DSRC adversarial data using standard and fusion preprocessing approaches. • Selection for the golden ML model using a fuzzy decision-making framework for VANETs. • Evaluating the efficiency of the developed framework in four assessment processes. This paper addresses various issues in the literature concerning adversarial attack detection in Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs). These issues include the failure to consider both normal and adversarial attack perspectives simultaneously in Machine Learning (ML) model development, the lack of diversity preprocessing techniques for VANETs communication datasets, the inadequate selection guidelines for real-time adversarial attack detection models, and the limited emphasis on explainability in adversarial attack detection. In this study, we propose an original fuzzy decision-making framework that incorporates multiple fusion standpoints. Our framework aims to evaluate multi-ML models for real-time adversarial attack detection in VANETs, focusing on three stages. The first stage involves identifying and preprocessing Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC) data using standard and fusion preprocessing approaches. Two communication scenarios, normal and jammed, are considered, resulting in two DSRC datasets. In the second stage, we develop multi-ML models based on the DSRC datasets using standard preprocessing and feature fusion preprocessing for dataset-1 and dataset-2, respectively. The third stage evaluates the multi-ML models using a fuzzy decision-making approach based on the Fuzzy Decision by Opinion Score Method (FDOSM) and an adversarial attack decision fusion matrix. The External Fusion Decision (EFD) settings of the FDOSM address individual ranking variance, provide a unique rank and select the best model. Experimental results demonstrate that the K-Nearest Neighbors Algorithm (kNN) model achieves the highest explain score of 0.2048 in dataset-1 using standard preprocessing, while the Random Forest (RF) model applied to dataset-2 using fusion preprocessing emerges as the most robust and golden model against adversarial attacks, with a score of 0.1819. This finding suggests that the fusion preprocessing approach using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is more suitable for addressing normal and adversarial attack perspectives. Furthermore, our fuzzy framework undergoes evaluation in terms of systematic rank, sensitivity analysis, explainability analysis, and comparison analysis. Overall, this framework provides valuable insights for researchers and practitioners in VANETs, informing the execution, selection, and interpretation of multi-ML models to tackle adversarial attack detection problems effectively. The new fuzzy framework demonstrates that multi-ML models based on feature fusion preprocessing are more effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, classical fuzzy clustering-based neural networks (FCNNs) have been successfully applied to regression tasks. The determination of the parameters such as cluster centers of the existing hard c-means (HCM) or fuzzy c-means (FCM), leads to the performance deterioration of the model because of the sensitivity of HCM or FCM to noise and outliers. Moreover, there are also several factors for over-fitting and degradation of the robustness of the ensuing model. To solve such problems, two improved clustering techniques and L 2 norm-regularization are considered in the proposed robust fuzzy clustering-based neural networks (RFCNNs) modeling. SVs-based hard c-means (SVs-based HCM) and SVs-based fuzzy c-means (SVs-based FCM) designed with support vectors (SVs) can reduce the interference of uncorrelated data, including noise and outliers, thereby enhancing the main data characteristics effectively, as well as leading to the construction on the improved network model. L 2 norm-regularization can be used to alleviate the degradation of robustness caused by overfitting. In terms of improving the performance of the model through SVs-based HCM or SVs-based FCM, as well as robustness completed through L 2 norm-regularization, the superiority of RFCNNs was verified by experimenting with synthetic data and publicly available data from machine learning datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new architecture of a fuzzy decision tree based on fuzzy rules – fuzzy rule based decision tree (FRDT) and provides a learning algorithm. In contrast with “traditional” axis-parallel decision trees in which only a single feature (variable) is taken into account at each node, the node of the proposed decision trees involves a fuzzy rule which involves multiple features. Fuzzy rules are employed to produce leaves of high purity. Using multiple features for a node helps us minimize the size of the trees. The growth of the FRDT is realized by expanding an additional node composed of a mixture of data coming from different classes, which is the only non-leaf node of each layer. This gives rise to a new geometric structure endowed with linguistic terms which are quite different from the “traditional” oblique decision trees endowed with hyperplanes as decision functions. A series of numeric studies are reported using data coming from UCI machine learning data sets. The comparison is carried out with regard to “traditional” decision trees such as C4.5, LADtree, BFTree, SimpleCart, and NBTree. The results of statistical tests have shown that the proposed FRDT exhibits the best performance in terms of both accuracy and the size of the produced trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restricted Boltzmann machines and deep belief networks have been shown to perform effectively in many applications such as supervised and unsupervised learning, dimensionality reduction and feature learning. Implementing networks, which use contrastive divergence as the learning algorithm on neuromorphic hardware, can be beneficial for real-time hardware interfacing, power efficient hardware and scalability. Neuromorphic hardware which uses memristors as synapses is one of the most promising areas to achieve the above-mentioned goals. This paper presents a restricted Boltzmann machine which uses a two memristor model to emulate synaptic weights and achieves learning using contrastive divergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concept-cognitive learning (CCL), an emerging intelligence learning paradigm, has recently become a popular research subject in artificial intelligence and cognitive computing. A central notion of CCL is cognitive and learning things via concepts. In this process, concepts play a fundamental role when mining and fusing knowledge from data to wisdom. With the in-depth research and expansion of CCL in scopes, goals, and methodologies, some difficulties have gradually emerged, including some vague terminology, ambiguous views, and scattered research. Hence, a systematic and comprehensive review of the development process and advanced research about CCL is particularly necessary at the moment. This paper summarizes the theoretical significance, application value, and future development potential of CCL. More importantly, by synthesizing the reviewed related research, we can acquire some interesting results and answer three essential questions: (1) why examine a cognitive and learning framework based on concept? (2) what is the concept-cognitive learning? (3) how to make concept-cognitive learning? The findings of this work could act as a valuable guide for related studies in quest of a clear understanding of the closely related research issues around concept-cognitive learning. • It is the first paper that attempts to provide an in-depth analysis of the advancement of CCL. • It is a multi-view categorization of CCL in research scopes, goals, and methodologies. • It is an elucidation of the main research gaps and suggestions for the related study of CCL. • It acquires some interesting results by synthesizing the reviewed related research of CCL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a novel dynamic localisation-based decision (DLBD) with fuzzy weighting with zero inconsistency (FWZIC) under a probabilistic single-valued neutrosophic hesitant fuzzy set (PSVNHFS) environment to benchmark Hybrid Multi Deep Transfer and Machine Learning (HMDTML) models. The novel DLBD method is proposed to generate a dynamic localisation decision matrix based on the upper and lower boundaries and the length of the scale. The superiority of DLBD derives from its ability to manage dynamic changes with boundary value consequences. In addition, the utilization of PSVNHFS in conjunction with DLBD and FWZIC has proven to effectively address the challenges posed by vagueness, uncertainty and hesitancy in the benchmarking procedure. The proposed methodology consists of three primary three steps: i) the adaptation of 48 HMDTML models, including 4 deep transfer learning models and 12 machine learning models trained on a dataset of 936 chest X-ray images obtained from both COVID-19 patients and individuals without the disease. Then, these models were evaluated based on seven evaluation criteria, and a decision matrix was proposed. ii) The development of a PSVNH–FWZIC to assign weights to the evaluation criteria. iii) The formulation of a PSVNH–DLBD for the purpose of benchmarking HMDTML models. Results of the PSVNH–FWZIC revealed that AUC and time were the most important evaluation criteria, while precision was the least important. Furthermore, the results from PSVNH–DLBD, reveal that Model M24 (Painters-Decision Tree) earned the highest rank when λ = 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 a n d 6 , followed by Model M25 (SqueezeNet-AdaBoost) and Model M34 (DeepLoc-kNN), while Model M39 (DeepLoc-SVM) had the lowest rank (rank = 48) across all λ values. The proposed method underwent sensitivity and comparison analyses to confirm its reliability and robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth potential of a career reflects its future prospects and is an important consideration for individuals and organizations when career planning. There is still a lack of quantitative assessment tools for growth potential of careers. In this study, considering the key role of human capital in human resource management, as well as the excellent performance of complex network and machine learning in big data analysis and prediction, a career growth potential assessment model with human capital ensemble is proposed through human capital-based occupational mobility network and ensemble learning. First, an occupational mobility network is constructed based on online professional dataset to associate occupations with each other. Then, five dimensions of human capital measurements are designed to quantify human capital in terms of education, experience, social capital, occupational size, and concentration. These are then combined with the occupational mobility network to create a new network that depicts human capital flows among occupations. Finally, an ensemble framework for assessing career growth potential is constructed to integrate multidimensional human capital information in the network and obtain quantitative scores of growth potential. This study is the original attempt to adopt a data-driven idea and an intelligent approach to understand career growth potential. The experimental results show that it also makes a useful exploration for modeling human capital flows and intelligent assessment of career prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statistical learning theory is regarded as an appropriate theory to deal with learning problems on small samples, and it has now become a novel research interest of the machine learning field. However, the theory is based on real-valued random samples and established on probability measure space; it rarely deals with learning problems based on fuzzy random samples and established on Sugeno measure space. It is well known that fuzzy random samples and Sugeno measure space are interesting and important extensions of real-valued random samples and probability measure space, respectively. Therefore, the statistical learning theory based on fuzzy random samples in Sugeno measure space is further discussed in this paper. Firstly, based on definitions of the distribution function and the expected value of fuzzy random variables in Sugeno measure space, the Hoeffding inequality of fuzzy random variables is proved. Secondly, for the sake of completeness of the paper, the key theorem of learning theory based on fuzzy random samples in Sugeno measure space is introduced. Finally, the bounds on the rate of uniform convergence of a learning process based on fuzzy random samples in Sugeno measure space are constructed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: In this paper, we introduce an advanced architecture of K-means clustering-based polynomial Radial Basis Function Neural Networks (p-RBF NNs) designed with the aid of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Differential Evolution (DE) and develop a comprehensive design methodology supporting their construction. The architecture of the p-RBF NNs comes as a result of a synergistic usage of the evolutionary optimization-driven hybrid tools. The connections (weights) of the proposed p-RBF NNs being of a certain functional character and are realized by considering four types of polynomials. In order to design the optimized p-RBF NNs, a prototype (center value) of each receptive field is determined by running the K-means clustering algorithm and then a prototype and a spread of the corresponding receptive field are further optimized through running Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Differential Evolution (DE). The Weighted Least Square Estimation (WLSE) is used to estimate the coefficients of the polynomials (which serve as functional connections of the network). The performance of the proposed model and the comparative analysis involving models designed with the aid of PSO and DE are presented in case of a nonlinear function and two Machine Learning (ML) datasets [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: Feature selection (attribute reduction) from large-scale incomplete data is a challenging problem in areas such as pattern recognition, machine learning and data mining. In rough set theory, feature selection from incomplete data aims to retain the discriminatory power of original features. To address this issue, many feature selection algorithms have been proposed, however, these algorithms are often computationally time-consuming. To overcome this shortcoming, we introduce in this paper a theoretic framework based on rough set theory, which is called positive approximation and can be used to accelerate a heuristic process for feature selection from incomplete data. As an application of the proposed accelerator, a general feature selection algorithm is designed. By integrating the accelerator into a heuristic algorithm, we obtain several modified representative heuristic feature selection algorithms in rough set theory. Experiments show that these modified algorithms outperform their original counterparts. It is worth noting that the performance of the modified algorithms becomes more visible when dealing with larger data sets. [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]

Abstract: Feature selection is a challenging problem in areas such as pattern recognition, machine learning and data mining. Considering a consistency measure introduced in rough set theory, the problem of feature selection, also called attribute reduction, aims to retain the discriminatory power of original features. Many heuristic attribute reduction algorithms have been proposed however, quite often, these methods are computationally time-consuming. To overcome this shortcoming, we introduce a theoretic framework based on rough set theory, called positive approximation, which can be used to accelerate a heuristic process of attribute reduction. Based on the proposed accelerator, a general attribute reduction algorithm is designed. Through the use of the accelerator, several representative heuristic attribute reduction algorithms in rough set theory have been enhanced. Note that each of the modified algorithms can choose the same attribute reduct as its original version, and hence possesses the same classification accuracy. Experiments show that these modified algorithms outperform their original counterparts. It is worth noting that the performance of the modified algorithms becomes more visible when dealing with larger data sets. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, we introduce a new category of fuzzy models called a fuzzy ensemble of parallel polynomial neural network (FEP2N2), which consist of a series of polynomial neural networks weighted by activation levels of information granules formed with the use of fuzzy clustering. The two underlying design mechanisms of the proposed networks rely on information granules resulting from the use of fuzzy C-means clustering (FCM) and take advantage of polynomial neural networks (PNNs). The resulting model comes in the form of parallel polynomial neural networks. In the design procedure, in order to estimate the optimal values of the coefficients of polynomial neural networks we use a weighted least square estimation algorithm. We incorporate various types of structures as the consequent part of the fuzzy model when using the learning algorithm. Among the diverse structures being available, we consider polynomial neural networks, which exhibit highly nonlinear characteristics when being viewed as local learning models. We use FCM to form information granules and to overcome the high dimensionality problem. We adopt PNNs to find the optimal local models, which can describe the relationship between the input variables and output variable within some local region of the input space. We show that the generalization capabilities as well as the approximation abilities of the proposed model are improved as a result of using polynomial neural networks. The performance of the network is quantified through experimentation in which we use a number of benchmarks already exploited within the realm of fuzzy or neurofuzzy modeling. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper, we propose a new design methodology that supports the development of hybrid incremental models. These models result through an iterative process in which a parametric model and a nonparametric model are combined so that their underlying and complementary functionalities become fully exploited. The parametric component of the hybrid model captures some global relationships between the input variables and the output variable. The nonparametric model focuses on capturing local input-output relationships and thus augments the behavior of the model being formed at the global level. In the underlying design, we consider linear and quadratic regression to be a parametric model, whereas a fuzzy k-nearest neighbors model serves as the nonparametric counterpart of the overall model. Numeric results come from experiments that were carried out on some low-dimensional synthetic data sets and several machine learning data sets from the University of California-Irvine Machine Learning Repository. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trust evaluation is the process of quantifying trust with attributes that influence trust. It faces a number of severe issues such as lack of essential evaluation data, demand of big data process, request of simple trust relationship expression, and expectation of automation. In order to overcome these problems and intelligently and automatically evaluate trust, machine learning has been applied into trust evaluation. Researchers have proposed many methods to use machine learning for trust evaluation. However, the literature still lacks a comprehensive literature review on this topic. In this article, we perform a thorough survey on trust evaluation based on machine learning. First, we cover essential prerequisites of trust evaluation and machine learning. Then, we justify a number of requirements that a sound trust evaluation method should satisfy, and propose them as evaluation criteria to assess the performance of trust evaluation methods. Furthermore, we systematically organize existing methods according to application scenarios and provide a comprehensive literature review on trust evaluation from the perspective of machine learning's function in trust evaluation and evaluation granularity. Finally, according to the completed review and evaluation, we explore some open research problems and suggest the directions that are worth our research effort in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traffic classification groups similar or related traffic data, which is one main stream technique of data fusion in the field of network management and security. With the rapid growth of network users and the emergence of new networking services, network traffic classification has attracted increasing attention. Many new traffic classification techniques have been developed and widely applied. However, the existing literature lacks a thorough survey to summarize, compare and analyze the recent advances of network traffic classification in order to deliver a holistic perspective. This paper carefully reviews existing network traffic classification methods from a new and comprehensive perspective by classifying them into five categories based on representative classification features, i.e., statistics-based classification, correlation-based classification, behavior-based classification, payload-based classification, and port-based classification. A series of criteria are proposed for the purpose of evaluating the performance of existing traffic classification methods. For each specified category, we analyze and discuss the details, advantages and disadvantages of its existing methods, and also present the traffic features commonly used. Summaries of investigation are offered for providing a holistic and specialized view on the state-of-art. For convenience, we also cover a discussion on the mostly used datasets and the traffic features adopted for traffic classification in the review. At the end, we identify a list of open issues and future directions in this research field. • Comprehensive evaluation criteria to assess classification methods. • A thorough review on traffic classification methods. • A discussion on advantages and disadvantages of classification methods. • An analysis on classification granularity by dividing it into four levels. • Exploration of open issues and future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops a multi-view multi-label learning for incomplete data which are ubiquitous with the usage of three kinds of representations including within-view representation, cross-view representation, and consensus-view representation. Different from the recent learning machines, the proposed learning machine takes the feature-oriented information, label-oriented information, and associated information between features and labels in multiple representations together and exploits the hidden useful information of available instances with the usage of instance–instance correlations, feature–feature correlations, label-label correlations, and feature–label correlations. The developed learning machine is named as within- cross- consensus-view representation-based multi-view multi-label learning with incomplete data (WCC-MVML-ID). Extensive experiments on multiple multi-view and multi-label data sets with incomplete data validate the effectiveness of WCC-MVML-ID and it can be concluded that (1) WCC-MVML-ID outperforms other compared learning machines and its performances are more stable even though the missing rates of features and labels being larger; (2) compared with within-view information and consensus-view information, cross-view information is more useful for the processing problem about incomplete data; (3) WCC-MVML-ID can converge within 45 iterations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]