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Multi-view fuzzy clustering algorithms are not widely used in image segmentation, and many of these algorithms are lacking in robustness. The purpose of this paper is to investigate a new algorithm that can segment the image better and retain as much detailed information about the image as possible when segmenting noisy images.

The authors present a novel multi-view fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering algorithm that includes an automatic view-weight learning mechanism. Firstly, this algorithm introduces a view-weight factor that can automatically adjust the weight of different views, thereby allowing each view to obtain the best possible weight. Secondly, the algorithm incorporates a weighted fuzzy factor, which serves to obtain local spatial information and local grayscale information to preserve image details as much as possible. Finally, in order to weaken the effects of noise and outliers in image segmentation, this algorithm employs the kernel distance measure instead of the Euclidean distance.

The authors added different kinds of noise to images and conducted a large number of experimental tests. The results show that the proposed algorithm performs better and is more accurate than previous multi-view fuzzy clustering algorithms in solving the problem of noisy image segmentation.

Most of the existing multi-view clustering algorithms are for multi-view datasets, and the multi-view fuzzy clustering algorithms are unable to eliminate noise points and outliers when dealing with noisy images. The algorithm proposed in this paper has stronger noise immunity and can better preserve the details of the original image.

The growing availability of naturalistic driving datasets (NDDs) presents a valuable opportunity to develop various models for autonomous driving. However, while current NDDs include data on vehicles with and without intended driving behavior changes, they do not explicitly demonstrate a type of data on vehicles that intend to change their driving behavior but do not execute the behaviors because of safety, efficiency, or other factors. This missing data is essential for autonomous driving decisions. This study aims to extract the driving data with implicit intentions to support the development of decision-making models.

According to Bayesian inference, drivers who have the same intended changes likely share similar influencing factors and states. Building on this principle, this study proposes an approach to extract data on vehicles that intended to execute specific behaviors but failed to do so. This is achieved by computing driving similarities between the candidate vehicles and benchmark vehicles with incorporation of the standard similarity metrics, which takes into account information on the surrounding vehicles' location topology and individual vehicle motion states. By doing so, the method enables a more comprehensive analysis of driving behavior and intention.

The proposed method is verified on the Next Generation SIMulation dataset (NGSim), which confirms its ability to reveal similarities between vehicles executing similar behaviors during the decision-making process in nature. The approach is also validated using simulated data, achieving an accuracy of 96.3 per cent in recognizing vehicles with specific driving behavior intentions that are not executed.

This study provides an innovative approach to extract driving data with implicit intentions and offers strong support to develop data-driven decision-making models for autonomous driving. With the support of this approach, the development of autonomous vehicles can capture more real driving experience from human drivers moving towards a safer and more efficient future.

With the continuous growth of online education, the quality issue of online educational videos has become increasingly prominent, causing students in online learning to face the dilemma of knowledge confusion. The existing mechanisms for controlling the quality of online educational videos suffer from subjectivity and low timeliness. Monitoring the quality of online educational videos involves analyzing metadata features and log data, which is an important aspect. With the development of artificial intelligence technology, deep learning techniques with strong predictive capabilities can provide new methods for predicting the quality of online educational videos, effectively overcoming the shortcomings of existing methods. The purpose of this study is to find a deep neural network that can model the dynamic and static features of the video itself, as well as the relationships between videos, to achieve dynamic monitoring of the quality of online educational videos.

The quality of a video cannot be directly measured. According to previous research, the authors use engagement to represent the level of video quality. Engagement is the normalized participation time, which represents the degree to which learners tend to participate in the video. Based on existing public data sets, this study designs an online educational video engagement prediction model based on dynamic graph neural networks (DGNNs). The model is trained based on the video’s static features and dynamic features generated after its release by constructing dynamic graph data. The model includes a spatiotemporal feature extraction layer composed of DGNNs, which can effectively extract the time and space features contained in the video's dynamic graph data. The trained model is used to predict the engagement level of learners with the video on day T after its release, thereby achieving dynamic monitoring of video quality.

Models with spatiotemporal feature extraction layers consisting of four types of DGNNs can accurately predict the engagement level of online educational videos. Of these, the model using the temporal graph convolutional neural network has the smallest prediction error. In dynamic graph construction, using cosine similarity and Euclidean distance functions with reasonable threshold settings can construct a structurally appropriate dynamic graph. In the training of this model, the amount of historical time series data used will affect the model’s predictive performance. The more historical time series data used, the smaller the prediction error of the trained model.

A limitation of this study is that not all video data in the data set was used to construct the dynamic graph due to memory constraints. In addition, the DGNNs used in the spatiotemporal feature extraction layer are relatively conventional.

In this study, the authors propose an online educational video engagement prediction model based on DGNNs, which can achieve the dynamic monitoring of video quality. The model can be applied as part of a video quality monitoring mechanism for various online educational resource platforms.

This paper aims to develop a new robotic ultrasound system for spine imaging with more anthropomorphic scanning manipulation in comparison with previously reported techniques.

The system evaluates the imaging quality of ultrasound (US) B-scans by detecting vertebral landmarks and groups the images with relatively low quality into several sub-optimal types. By imitating the scanning skills of sonographers, the authors defined a set of adjustment strategies for certain sub-optimal types. In this way, the robot can recollect the US images with high quality by adaptively adjusting the pose of the probe like a sonographer.

The results from phantom experiments and in vivo experiments showed that the proposed method could improve the quality of B-scans during the scanning. The 3 D US volume reconstruction has also verified the feasibility of the proposed method.

This paper demonstrates how to adapt a robotic spinal ultrasound scanning using a preliminary anthropomorphic approach.

Question answering (QA) answers the questions asked by people in the form of natural language. In the QA, due to the subjectivity of users, the questions they query have different expressions, which increases the difficulty of text retrieval. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore new query rewriting method for QA that integrates multiple related questions (RQs) to form an optimal question. Moreover, it is important to generate a new dataset of the original query (OQ) with multiple RQs.

This study collects a new dataset SQuAD_extend by crawling the QA community and uses word-graph to model the collected OQs. Next, Beam search finds the best path to get the best question. To deeply represent the features of the question, pretrained model BERT is used to model sentences.

The experimental results show three outstanding findings. (1) The quality of the answers is better after adding the RQs of the OQs. (2) The word-graph that is used to model the problem and choose the optimal path is conducive to finding the best question. (3) Finally, BERT can deeply characterize the semantics of the exact problem.

The proposed method can use word-graph to construct multiple questions and select the optimal path for rewriting the question, and the quality of answers is better than the baseline. In practice, the research results can help guide users to clarify their query intentions and finally achieve the best answer.

This study analyzed the interdisciplinary characteristics of Chinese research studies in library and information science (LIS) measured by knowledge elements extracted through the Lexicon-LSTM model.

Eight research themes were selected for experiment, with a large-scale (N = 11,625) dataset of research papers from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database constructed. And it is complemented with multiple corpora. Knowledge elements were extracted through a Lexicon-LSTM model. A subject knowledge graph is constructed to support the searching and classification of knowledge elements. An interdisciplinary-weighted average citation index space was constructed for measuring the interdisciplinary characteristics and contributions based on knowledge elements.

The empirical research shows that the Lexicon-LSTM model has superiority in the accuracy of extracting knowledge elements. In the field of LIS, the interdisciplinary diversity indicator showed an upward trend from 2011 to 2021, while the disciplinary balance and difference indicators showed a downward trend. The knowledge elements of theory and methodology could be used to detect and measure the interdisciplinary characteristics and contributions.

The extraction of knowledge elements facilitates the discovery of semantic information embedded in academic papers. The knowledge elements were proved feasible for measuring the interdisciplinary characteristics and exploring the changes in the time sequence, which helps for overview the state of the arts and future development trend of the interdisciplinary of research theme in LIS.

Communities representing groups of agents with similar interests or functions are one of the essential features of complex networks. Finding communities in real-world networks is critical for analyzing complex systems in various areas ranging from collaborative information to political systems. Given the different characteristics of networks and the capability of community detection in handling a plethora of societal problems, community detection methods represent an emerging area of research. Contributing to this field, the authors propose a new community detection algorithm based on the hybridization of node and link granulation.

The proposed algorithm utilizes a rough set-theoretic concept called closure on networks. Initial sets are constructed by using neighborhood topology around the nodes as well as links and represented as two different categories of granules. Subsequently, the authors iteratively obtain the constrained closure of these sets. The authors use node mutuality and link mutuality as merging criteria for node and link granules, respectively, during the iterations. Finally, the constrained closure subsets of nodes and links are combined and refined using the Jaccard similarity coefficient and a local density function to obtain communities in a binary network.

Extensive experiments conducted on twelve real-world networks followed by a comparison with state-of-the-art methods demonstrate the viability and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

The study also contributes to the ongoing effort related to the application of soft computing techniques to model complex systems. The extant literature has integrated a rough set-theoretic approach with a fuzzy granular model (Kundu and Pal, 2015) and spectral clustering (Huang and Xiao, 2012) for node-centric community detection in complex networks. In contributing to this stream of work, the proposed algorithm leverages the unexplored synergy between rough set theory, node granulation and link granulation in the context of complex networks. Combined with experiments of network datasets from various domains, the results indicate that the proposed algorithm can effectively reveal co-occurring disjoint, overlapping and nested communities without necessarily assigning each node to a community.

This study carries important practical implications for complex adaptive systems in business and management sciences, in which entities are increasingly getting organized into communities (Jacucci et al., 2006). The proposed community detection method can be used for network-based fraud detection by enabling experts to understand the formation and development of fraudulent setups with an active exchange of information and resources between the firms (Van Vlasselaer et al., 2017). Products and services are getting connected and mapped in every walk of life due to the emergence of a variety of interconnected devices, social networks and software applications.

The proposed algorithm could be extended for community detection on customer trajectory patterns and design recommendation systems for online products and services (Ghose et al., 2019; Liu and Wang, 2017). In line with prior research, the proposed algorithm can aid companies in investigating the characteristics of implicit communities of bloggers or social media users for their services and products so as to identify peer influencers and conduct targeted marketing (Chau and Xu, 2012; De Matos et al., 2014; Zhang et al., 2016). The proposed algorithm can be used to understand the behavior of each group and the appropriate communication strategy for that group. For instance, a group using a specific language or following a specific account might benefit more from a particular piece of content than another group. The proposed algorithm can thus help in exploring the factors defining communities and confronting many real-life challenges.

This work is based on a theoretical argument that communities in networks are not only based on compatibility among nodes but also on the compatibility among links. Building up on the aforementioned argument, the authors propose a community detection method that considers the relationship among both the entities in a network (nodes and links) as opposed to traditional methods, which are predominantly based on relationships among nodes only.

The purpose of this paper is to provide adaptive access to learning resources in the digital library.

A novel method using ontology-based multi-attribute collaborative filtering is proposed. Digital libraries are those which are fully automated and all resources are in digital form and access to the information available is provided to a remote user as well as a conventional user electronically. To satisfy users' information needs, a humongous amount of newly created information is published electronically in digital libraries. While search applications are improving, it is still difficult for the majority of users to find relevant information. For better service, the framework should also be able to adapt queries to search domains and target learners.

This paper improves the accuracy and efficiency of predicting and recommending personalized learning resources in digital libraries. To facilitate a personalized digital learning environment, the authors propose a novel method using ontology-supported collaborative filtering (CF) recommendation system. The objective is to provide adaptive access to learning resources in the digital library. The proposed model is based on user-based CF which suggests learning resources for students based on their course registration, preferences for topics and digital libraries. Using ontological framework knowledge for semantic similarity and considering multiple attributes apart from learners' preferences for the learning resources improve the accuracy of the proposed model.

The results of this work majorly rely on the developed ontology. More experiments are to be conducted with other domain ontologies.

The proposed approach is integrated into Nucleus, a Learning Management System (https://nucleus.amcspsgtech.in). The results are of interest to learners, academicians, researchers and developers of digital libraries. This work also provides insights into the ontology for e-learning to improve personalized learning environments.

This paper computes learner similarity and learning resources similarity based on ontological knowledge, feedback and ratings on the learning resources. The predictions for the target learner are calculated and top N learning resources are generated by the recommendation engine using CF.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between consumer awareness of Zespri International Limited (Zespri™) and its sales promotion in Japan and the recent expansion of New Zealand (NZ) kiwifruit imported into Japan.

Tweets mentioning Zespri™ were utilised as a proxy of such awareness. They were first summarised using two text-mining techniques: tf-idf scoring and a co-occurrence network graph. Afterwards, the authors estimated a tri-variate vector autoregression (VAR) model consisting of the net imports of NZ kiwifruit in Japan, unit import price and number of tweets. Additionally, the occurrence frequency of tweets with “Kiwi Brothers”, promotional characters for Zespri™’s sales, was added to the model, and a tetra-variate VAR model was estimated. Finally, Granger-causality tests, an estimation of the impulse response function and forecast error variance decomposition was conducted.

All these variables were found to Granger-cause each other. Furthermore, a shock in the document frequency of “Kiwi Brothers” significantly affected Japan’s kiwifruit imports from NZ, explaining approximately 20% of future imports. Zespri™’s distinctive sales promotion was, thus, found to contribute in part to the recent increase in NZ’s kiwifruit export to Japan.

This paper is the first to apply text-regression methodology to food consumption research; it contributes to food consumption research by proposing a practical way to combine tweets with outcome variables using a time-series analysis.

This study aims to elucidate the dynamics of social media discourse during global health events, specifically investigating how users across different platforms perceive, react to and engage with information concerning such crises.

A mixed-method approach was employed, combining both quantitative and qualitative data collection. Initially, thematic analysis was applied to a data set of social media posts across four major platforms over a 12-month period. This was followed by sentiment analysis to discern the predominant emotions embedded within these communications. Statistical tools were used to validate findings, ensuring robustness in the results.

The results showcased discernible thematic and emotional disparities across platforms. While some platforms leaned toward factual information dissemination, others were rife with user sentiments, anecdotes and personal experiences. Overall, a global sense of concern was evident, but the ways in which this concern manifested varied significantly between platforms.

The primary limitation is the potential non-representativeness of the sample, as only four major social media platforms were considered. Future studies might expand the scope to include emerging platforms or non-English language platforms. Additionally, the rapidly evolving nature of social media discourse implies that findings might be time-bound, necessitating periodic follow-up studies.

Understanding the nature of discourse on various platforms can guide health organizations, policymakers and communicators in tailoring their messages. Recognizing where factual information is required, versus where sentiment and personal stories resonate, can enhance the efficacy of public health communication strategies.

The study underscores the societal reliance on social media for information during crises. Recognizing the different ways in which communities engage with, and are influenced by, platform-specific discourse can help in fostering a more informed and empathetic society, better equipped to handle global challenges.

This research is among the first to offer a comprehensive, cross-platform analysis of social media discourse during a global health event. By comparing user engagement across platforms, it provides unique insights into the multifaceted nature of public sentiment and information dissemination during crises.