[go: up one dir, main page]
More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/
Next Issue
Volume 11, March
Previous Issue
Volume 11, January
You seem to have javascript disabled. Please note that many of the page functionalities won't work as expected without javascript enabled.
 
 

Information, Volume 11, Issue 2 (February 2020) – 69 articles

Cover Story (view full-size image): We are observing a growing interest in big data applications in healthcare, and specifically in cardiology. Electrocardiograms (ECGs) produce a huge amount of data about patients' heart health status that need to be stored and analyzed to detect arrhythmias. The Menard algorithm was implemented via Apache Spark to process big data coming from ECG signals and identify arrhythmias. Experiments conducted using a dataset provided by the Physionet.org European ST-T Database show an improvement in terms of response times. As highlighted by our outcomes, our solution provides a scalable and reliable system that can address the challenges posed by big data in healthcare. Done, please check. View this paper.
  • Issues are regarded as officially published after their release is announced to the table of contents alert mailing list.
  • You may sign up for e-mail alerts to receive table of contents of newly released issues.
  • PDF is the official format for papers published in both, html and pdf forms. To view the papers in pdf format, click on the "PDF Full-text" link, and use the free Adobe Reader to open them.
Order results
Result details
Section
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
20 pages, 2877 KiB  
Article
Albumentations: Fast and Flexible Image Augmentations
by Alexander Buslaev, Vladimir I. Iglovikov, Eugene Khvedchenya, Alex Parinov, Mikhail Druzhinin and Alexandr A. Kalinin
Information 2020, 11(2), 125; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020125 - 24 Feb 2020
Cited by 1392 | Viewed by 52892
Abstract
Data augmentation is a commonly used technique for increasing both the size and the diversity of labeled training sets by leveraging input transformations that preserve corresponding output labels. In computer vision, image augmentations have become a common implicit regularization technique to combat overfitting [...] Read more.
Data augmentation is a commonly used technique for increasing both the size and the diversity of labeled training sets by leveraging input transformations that preserve corresponding output labels. In computer vision, image augmentations have become a common implicit regularization technique to combat overfitting in deep learning models and are ubiquitously used to improve performance. While most deep learning frameworks implement basic image transformations, the list is typically limited to some variations of flipping, rotating, scaling, and cropping. Moreover, image processing speed varies in existing image augmentation libraries. We present Albumentations, a fast and flexible open source library for image augmentation with many various image transform operations available that is also an easy-to-use wrapper around other augmentation libraries. We discuss the design principles that drove the implementation of Albumentations and give an overview of the key features and distinct capabilities. Finally, we provide examples of image augmentations for different computer vision tasks and demonstrate that Albumentations is faster than other commonly used image augmentation tools on most image transform operations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Machine Learning with Python)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>Exemplar applications of image transformations available in Albumentations.</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>Grid distortion and elastic transform applied to a medical image.</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>An example of geometry-preserving transforms applied to satellite images (<b>top row</b>) and ground truth binary masks (<b>bottom row</b>) from the Inria Aerial Image Labeling dataset [<a href="#B62-information-11-00125" class="html-bibr">62</a>].</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p>An example of applying a combination of transformations available in Albumentations to the original image, bounding boxes, and ground truth masks for instance segmentation.</p>
Full article ">Figure 5
<p>An example of applying a custom augmentation using <tt>A.lambda</tt> operator to an image (<b>left</b>) and a corresponding segmentation mask (<b>right</b>).</p>
Full article ">Figure 6
<p>Community-developed tools to visualize the results of image transforms implemented in Albumentations: (<b>left</b>) visualization of a single transform with the ability for parameter tuning [<a href="#B71-information-11-00125" class="html-bibr">71</a>]; and (<b>right</b>) visualization of a chained number of transforms [<a href="#B72-information-11-00125" class="html-bibr">72</a>].</p>
Full article ">Figure 7
<p>Library adoption shown as: (<b>left</b>) the number of stars in the Albumentations GitHub repository over time; and (<b>right</b>) the number of daily installations of the library using PyPI: <span class="html-italic">pip install albumentations</span>.</p>
Full article ">
24 pages, 2278 KiB  
Article
Innovation in the Era of IoT and Industry 5.0: Absolute Innovation Management (AIM) Framework
by Farhan Aslam, Wang Aimin, Mingze Li and Khaliq Ur Rehman
Information 2020, 11(2), 124; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020124 - 24 Feb 2020
Cited by 204 | Viewed by 24164
Abstract
In the modern business environment, characterized by rapid technological advancements and globalization, abetted by IoT and Industry 5.0 phenomenon, innovation is indispensable for competitive advantage and economic growth. However, many organizations are facing problems in its true implementation due to the absence of [...] Read more.
In the modern business environment, characterized by rapid technological advancements and globalization, abetted by IoT and Industry 5.0 phenomenon, innovation is indispensable for competitive advantage and economic growth. However, many organizations are facing problems in its true implementation due to the absence of a practical innovation management framework, which has made the implementation of the concept elusive instead of persuasive. The present study has proposed a new innovation management framework labeled as “Absolute Innovation Management (AIM)” to make innovation more understandable, implementable, and part of the organization’s everyday routine by synergizing the innovation ecosystem, design thinking, and corporate strategy to achieve competitive advantage and economic growth. The current study used an integrative literature review methodology to develop the “Absolute Innovation Management” framework. The absolute innovation management framework links the innovation ecosystem with the corporate strategy of the firm by adopting innovation management as a strategy through design thinking. Thus, making innovation more user/human-centered that is desirable by the customer, viable for business and technically feasible, creating both entrepreneurial and customer value, and boosting corporate venturing and corporate entrepreneurship to achieve competitive advantage and economic growth while addressing the needs of IoT and Industry 5.0 era. In sum, it synergizes innovation, design thinking, and strategy to make businesses future-ready for IoT and industry 5.0 revolution. The present study is significant, as it not only make considerable contributions to the existing literature on innovation management by developing a new framework but also makes the concept more practical, implementable and part of an organization’s everyday routine. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>Graphical illustration of evolution from Industry 1.0 to Industry 5.0. Source: [<a href="#B53-information-11-00124" class="html-bibr">53</a>].</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>Design Thinking Framework. Source: [<a href="#B68-information-11-00124" class="html-bibr">68</a>,<a href="#B70-information-11-00124" class="html-bibr">70</a>].</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>Absolute Innovation Management Framework. Source: Authors’ Own Research</p>
Full article ">
21 pages, 6163 KiB  
Article
Depicting More Information in Enriched Squarified Treemaps with Layered Glyphs
by Anderson Gregório Marques Soares, Elvis Thermo Carvalho Miranda, Rodrigo Santos do Amor Divino Lima, Carlos Gustavo Resque dos Santos and Bianchi Serique Meiguins
Information 2020, 11(2), 123; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020123 - 22 Feb 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4221
Abstract
The Treemap is one of the most relevant information visualization (InfoVis) techniques to support the analysis of large hierarchical data structures or data clusters. Despite that, Treemap still presents some challenges for data representation, such as the few options for visual data mappings [...] Read more.
The Treemap is one of the most relevant information visualization (InfoVis) techniques to support the analysis of large hierarchical data structures or data clusters. Despite that, Treemap still presents some challenges for data representation, such as the few options for visual data mappings and the inability to represent zero and negative values. Additionally, visualizing high dimensional data requires many hierarchies, which can impair data visualization. Thus, this paper proposes to add layered glyphs to Treemap’s items to mitigate these issues. Layered glyphs are composed of N partially visible layers, and each layer maps one data dimension to a visual variable. Since the area of the upper layers is always smaller than the bottom ones, the layers can be stacked to compose a multidimensional glyph. To validate this proposal, we conducted a user study to compare three scenarios of visual data mappings for Treemaps: only Glyphs (G), Glyphs and Hierarchy (GH), and only Hierarchy (H). Thirty-six volunteers with a background in InfoVis techniques, organized into three groups of twelve (one group per scenario), performed 8 InfoVis tasks using only one of the proposed scenarios. The results point that scenario GH presented the best accuracy while having a task-solving time similar to scenario H, which suggests that representing more data in Treemaps with layered glyphs enriched the Treemap visualization capabilities without impairing the data readability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Information Applications)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>(<b>a</b>) A squarified Treemap with layered glyphs and (<b>b</b>) The adopted design strategy for the creation of layered glyphs, using overlapping layers, with each layer encoding a visual variable. The hierarchy of the Treemap maps three categorical dimensions, while the item’s size maps a quantitative one. The layers 1, 2 and 3 map a single categorical or ordinal dimension each, and layer 4 is a profile glyph that can map up to eight quantitative dimensions.</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>The values used in this study referred to the visual variables (layers): texture, shape, color hue, color brightness and text.</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>Layered glyph’s design. (<b>a</b>)—A glyph with the visual variables: color, texture, shape, and text; (<b>b</b>)—In this glyph, color and texture were exchanged compared to (<b>a</b>).</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p>A layered glyph with three layers. The top layer presents a profile glyph, which represents quantitative data of four dimensions. The bars indicate positive values (above the zero axis) or negative values (below the zero axis), always respecting the reference lines that indicate the maximum and minimum size of the bar.</p>
Full article ">Figure 5
<p>Prototype’s process flow.</p>
Full article ">Figure 6
<p>(<b>a</b>)—Overview of the prototype composed by Treemap and glyphs; (<b>b</b>)—Glyph’s visual variables configuration area; (<b>c</b>)—Visual variables mapping area of the attributes; (<b>d</b>)—Presentation area of the glyph’s legend.</p>
Full article ">Figure 7
<p>(<b>a</b>)—An overview of the treemap with quantitative glyphs and hierarchy. (<b>b</b>)—Profile glyph dimensions configuration. (<b>c</b>)—Profile glyph legend.</p>
Full article ">Figure 8
<p>Scenario Glyphs (G) visualization configured for one of the user tasks. This visualization uses no Treemap hierarchy; the absence of hierarchy is replaced by categorical glyphs.</p>
Full article ">Figure 9
<p>Scenario Glyphs and Hierarchy (GH) visualization configured for one of the user tasks. This visualization is a Treemap with hierarchy and complemente.</p>
Full article ">Figure 10
<p>Visualization of Scenario Hierarchy (H) visualization configured for one of the user tasks. This visualization is a squarified Treemap with no glyphs.</p>
Full article ">Figure 11
<p>Example of task displayed to the participant, the task command and the submit button is above the visualization.</p>
Full article ">Figure 12
<p>How to interpret the charts for the results of one task in the following sections. (<b>a</b>)—Quantity of correct and incorrect answers and a pair-wise test using bootstrapping; (<b>b</b>)—Mean response time with 95% confidence intervals; (<b>c</b>)—Pair-wise time comparison using bootstrapping and Cohen’s d.</p>
Full article ">Figure 13
<p>(<b>a</b>)—Right/Wrong answers, and pair-wise test using bootstrapping; (<b>b</b>)—Response time confidence interval; and (<b>c</b>)—Pair-wise test time; for tasks T1, T2, T3, and T4.</p>
Full article ">Figure 14
<p>(<b>a</b>)—Right/Wrong answers, and pair-wise test using bootstrapping; (<b>b</b>)—Response time confidence interval; and (<b>c</b>)—Pair-wise test time; for tasks T5, T6, T7, and T8.</p>
Full article ">Figure 15
<p>Total of errors in scenarios.</p>
Full article ">
10 pages, 346 KiB  
Review
On the Integration of Knowledge Graphs into Deep Learning Models for a More Comprehensible AI—Three Challenges for Future Research
by Giuseppe Futia and Antonio Vetrò
Information 2020, 11(2), 122; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020122 - 22 Feb 2020
Cited by 65 | Viewed by 18276
Abstract
Deep learning models contributed to reaching unprecedented results in prediction and classification tasks of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. However, alongside this notable progress, they do not provide human-understandable insights on how a specific result was achieved. In contexts where the impact of AI [...] Read more.
Deep learning models contributed to reaching unprecedented results in prediction and classification tasks of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. However, alongside this notable progress, they do not provide human-understandable insights on how a specific result was achieved. In contexts where the impact of AI on human life is relevant (e.g., recruitment tools, medical diagnoses, etc.), explainability is not only a desirable property, but it is -or, in some cases, it will be soon-a legal requirement. Most of the available approaches to implement eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) focus on technical solutions usable only by experts able to manipulate the recursive mathematical functions in deep learning algorithms. A complementary approach is represented by symbolic AI, where symbols are elements of a lingua franca between humans and deep learning. In this context, Knowledge Graphs (KGs) and their underlying semantic technologies are the modern implementation of symbolic AI—while being less flexible and robust to noise compared to deep learning models, KGs are natively developed to be explainable. In this paper, we review the main XAI approaches existing in the literature, underlying their strengths and limitations, and we propose neural-symbolic integration as a cornerstone to design an AI which is closer to non-insiders comprehension. Within such a general direction, we identify three specific challenges for future research—knowledge matching, cross-disciplinary explanations and interactive explanations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 10th Anniversary of Information—Emerging Research Challenges)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>Schematic representation of an explainable artificial intelligence (AI) system that integrates semantic technologies into deep learning models. The traditional pipeline of an AI system is depicted with the blue color. The Knowledge Matching process of deep learning components with Knowledge Graphs (KGs) and ontologies is depicted with orange color. Cross-Disciplinary and Interactive Explanations enabled by query and reasoning mechanisms are depicted with the red color.</p>
Full article ">
29 pages, 556 KiB  
Article
Analysis and Identification of Possible Automation Approaches for Embedded Systems Design Flows
by Augusto Y. Horita, Denis S. Loubach and Ricardo Bonna
Information 2020, 11(2), 120; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020120 - 22 Feb 2020
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3409
Abstract
Sophisticated and high performance embedded systems are present in an increasing number of application domains. In this context, formal-based design methods have been studied to make the development process robust and scalable. Models of computation (MoC) allows the modeling of an application at [...] Read more.
Sophisticated and high performance embedded systems are present in an increasing number of application domains. In this context, formal-based design methods have been studied to make the development process robust and scalable. Models of computation (MoC) allows the modeling of an application at a high abstraction level by using a formal base. This enables analysis before the application moves to the implementation phase. Different tools and frameworks supporting MoCs have been developed. Some of them can simulate the models and also verify their functionality and feasibility before the next design steps. In view of this, we present a novel method for analysis and identification of possible automation approaches applicable to embedded systems design flow supported by formal models of computation. A comprehensive case study shows the potential and applicability of our method. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Information Technology: New Generations (ITNG 2019))
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>Scenario-aware dataflow (SADF) actor types, both with m inputs and n outputs, from Reference [<a href="#B14-information-11-00120" class="html-bibr">14</a>].</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>Analysis and identification of possible automation approaches (AIPAA) applicable to embedded systems design flow. AIPAA needs the “problem statement” as a given input, and aids to produce a model, which is verified and executable, as output. This output can be used as entry point in the implementation domain, e.g., “implementation details” and “implement system”.</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>Lempel-Ziv Markov Chain Algorithm (LZMA) compression and decompression schemes, based on Reference [<a href="#B40-information-11-00120" class="html-bibr">40</a>].</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p>LZMA high level modeling dataflow graph based on SADF model of computation (MoC). Initial tokens are represented by •.</p>
Full article ">
19 pages, 50238 KiB  
Article
Design and Evaluation of an Augmented Reality Game for Cybersecurity Awareness (CybAR)
by Hamed Alqahtani and Manolya Kavakli-Thorne
Information 2020, 11(2), 121; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020121 - 21 Feb 2020
Cited by 37 | Viewed by 9321
Abstract
The number of damaging cyberattacks is increasing exponentially due in part to lack of user awareness of risky online practices, such as visiting unsafe websites, ignoring warning messages, and communicating with unauthenticated entities. Although research has established the role that game-based learning can [...] Read more.
The number of damaging cyberattacks is increasing exponentially due in part to lack of user awareness of risky online practices, such as visiting unsafe websites, ignoring warning messages, and communicating with unauthenticated entities. Although research has established the role that game-based learning can play in cognitive development and conceptual learning, relatively few serious mobile games have been developed to educate users about different forms of cyberattack and ways of avoiding them. This paper reports the development of an effective augmented reality (AR) game designed to increase cybersecurity awareness and knowledge in an active and entertaining way. The Cybersecurity Awareness using Augmented Reality (CybAR) game is an AR mobile application that teaches not only cybersecurity concepts, but also demonstrates the consequences of actual cybersecurity attacks through feedback. The design and evaluation of the application are described in detail. A survey was conducted to verify the effectiveness of the game received positive responses from 91 participants. The results indicate that CybAR is useful for players to develop an understanding of cybersecurity attacks and vulnerabilities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Mobile Gaming and Games-based Leaning)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>Game design framework.</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>Knowledge model for CybAR game.</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>(<b>a</b>) Feedback after making a wrong decision. (<b>b</b>) Example of CybAR Task.</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p>(<b>a</b>) Correct answer feedback. (<b>b</b>) Wrong answer feedback.</p>
Full article ">Figure 5
<p>(<b>a</b>) CybAR app. (<b>b</b>) CybAR home UI.</p>
Full article ">Figure 6
<p>(<b>a</b>) CybAR app. (<b>b</b>) CybAR login UI.</p>
Full article ">Figure 7
<p>(<b>a</b>) CybAR awareness materials. (<b>b</b>) CybAR awareness materials marker.</p>
Full article ">Figure 8
<p>(<b>a</b>) CybAR Game UI. (<b>b</b>) CybAR Game About and How to play buttons.</p>
Full article ">Figure 9
<p>(<b>a</b>) Example of CybAR task 1. (<b>b</b>) Example of CybAR task 2.</p>
Full article ">Figure 10
<p>(<b>a</b>) Final Message (Score &gt; 13). (<b>b</b>) Final Message (Score &lt; 13).</p>
Full article ">Figure 11
<p>(<b>a</b>) Leaderboard button. (<b>b</b>) Leaderboard (top scores).</p>
Full article ">Figure 12
<p>Gender and Level of Education Charts.</p>
Full article ">Figure 13
<p>Cybersecurity Knowledge and Awareness Survey Charts.</p>
Full article ">Figure 14
<p>Survey responses on CybAR game.</p>
Full article ">
20 pages, 802 KiB  
Article
An Efficient Adaptive Traffic Light Control System for Urban Road Traffic Congestion Reduction in Smart Cities
by Dex R. ALEKO and Soufiene Djahel
Information 2020, 11(2), 119; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020119 - 21 Feb 2020
Cited by 38 | Viewed by 21438
Abstract
Traffic lights have been used for decades to control and manage traffic flows crossing road intersections to increase traffic efficiency and road safety. However, relying on fixed time cycles may not be ideal in dealing with the increasing congestion level in cities. Therefore, [...] Read more.
Traffic lights have been used for decades to control and manage traffic flows crossing road intersections to increase traffic efficiency and road safety. However, relying on fixed time cycles may not be ideal in dealing with the increasing congestion level in cities. Therefore, we propose a new Adaptive Traffic Light Control System (ATLCS) to assist traffic management authorities in efficiently dealing with traffic congestion in cities. The main idea of our ATLCS consists in synchronizing a number of traffic lights controlling consecutive junctions by creating a delay between the times at which each of them switches to green in a given direction. Such a delay is dynamically updated based on the number of vehicles waiting at each junction, thereby allowing vehicles leaving the city centre to travel a long distance without stopping (i.e., minimizing the number of occurrences of the ‘stop and go’ phenomenon), which in turn reduces their travel time as well. The performance evaluation of our ATLCS has shown that the average travel time of vehicles traveling in the synchronized direction has been significantly reduced (by up to 39%) compared to non-synchronized fixed time Traffic Light Control Systems. Moreover, the overall achieved improvement across the simulated road network was 17%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Topics in Wireless Communications for Future Smart Cities)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>Manchester city arterial roads.</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>Example of an arterial road with multiple junctions.</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>Illustration of sensors deployment on adjacent arterial junctions.</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p>Phases of the traffic lights cycle (only movements from West to East are displayed).</p>
Full article ">Figure 5
<p>Queue of vehicles behind a Traffic Light (TL).</p>
Full article ">Figure 6
<p>Adjacent junctions in a road network.</p>
Full article ">Figure 7
<p>Illustration of adjacent traffic lights synchronization mechanism.</p>
Full article ">Figure 8
<p>Multiple junctions synchronization process.</p>
Full article ">Figure 9
<p>Illustration of TLs synchronization steps.</p>
Full article ">Figure 10
<p>An arterial road with 4 junctions.</p>
Full article ">Figure 11
<p>Arterial junction with sensor locations (yellow rectangle).</p>
Full article ">Figure 12
<p>Travel time distribution: fixed time Traffic Light Control System (TLCS) vs. synchronized Adaptive Traffic Light Control System (ATLCS).</p>
Full article ">Figure 13
<p>Travel time variation over different simulation runs: fixed time TLCS vs. synchronized ATLCS.</p>
Full article ">Figure 14
<p>Impact of <math display="inline"><semantics> <msub> <mi>t</mi> <mrow> <mi>m</mi> <mi>a</mi> <mi>x</mi> </mrow> </msub> </semantics></math> value on the achieved Average Travel Time (ATT).</p>
Full article ">Figure 15
<p>Impact of road network occupancy on the achieved ATT.</p>
Full article ">Figure 16
<p>The achieved ATT in different travel directions.</p>
Full article ">
15 pages, 628 KiB  
Article
Meta-Cognition of Efficacy and Social Media Usage among Japanese Civil Society Organizations
by Tomoya Sagara, Muneo Kaigo and Yutaka Tsujinaka
Information 2020, 11(2), 118; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020118 - 21 Feb 2020
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3829
Abstract
This paper examines how social media are affecting Japanese civil society organizations, in relation to efficacy and political participation. Using data from the 2017 Japan Interest Group Study survey, we analyzed how the flow of information leads to the political participation of civil [...] Read more.
This paper examines how social media are affecting Japanese civil society organizations, in relation to efficacy and political participation. Using data from the 2017 Japan Interest Group Study survey, we analyzed how the flow of information leads to the political participation of civil society organizations. The total number of respondents (organizations) were 1285 (942 organizations in Tokyo and 343 from Ibaraki). In the analysis of our survey we focused on the data portion related to information behavior and efficacy and investigated the meta-cognition of efficacy in lobbying among civil society organizations in Tokyo and Ibaraki. We found that organizations that use social media were relatively few. However, among the few organizations that use social media, we found that these organizations have a much higher meta-cognition of political efficacy in comparison to those that do not use social media. For instance, social media usage had a higher tendency of having cognition of being able to exert influence upon others. We also found that organizations that interact with citizens have a higher tendency to use social media. The correspondence analysis results point towards a hypothesis of how efficacy and participation are mutually higher among the organizations that use social media in Japan. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digital Citizenship and Participation 2018)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>Countries in which Japan Interest Group Study (JIGS) survey has been conducted (in grey).</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>Correspondence analysis of the daily operations of civil society organizations and lobbying activities. Key for <a href="#information-11-00118-f002" class="html-fig">Figure 2</a> (A = Petition, B = Signature-collecting campaign, C = Public comments, D = Flyer distribution and poster posting, E = Expressing opinions through website, F = Expressing opinions through social media, G = Demonstrations, H = Collective bargaining, I = Provide information for media, J = Public opinions through traditional media, K = Expressing standpoint through press conference, L = Forming alliances with other organizations, M = Forming alliances with foreign organizations, N = Having nothing to do, 1 = Council, 2 = Make and send newsletter, 3 = Holding the website, 4 = Social media, 5 = Sharing new knowledge workshop, 6 = Symposium/Seminar, 7 = Special events such as festival, 8 = Collect and provide information, 9 = Provide the special knowledge and skill, 10 = Research/Investigations, 11 = Member inter-communication, 12 = Product and sell the manufactured goods, 13 = Workshops with an admission fee, 14 = Introduction of experts, 15 = Consultation/Counselling, 16 = Outsourcing of public facilities, and 17 = Operation and run the facilities).</p>
Full article ">
27 pages, 812 KiB  
Article
Preserving Digital Privacy in e-Participation Environments: Towards GDPR Compliance
by Vasiliki Diamantopoulou, Aggeliki Androutsopoulou, Stefanos Gritzalis and Yannis Charalabidis
Information 2020, 11(2), 117; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020117 - 20 Feb 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 5090
Abstract
The application of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2016/679/EC, the Regulation for the protection of personal data, is a challenge and must be seen as an opportunity for the redesign of the systems that are being used for the processing of personal [...] Read more.
The application of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2016/679/EC, the Regulation for the protection of personal data, is a challenge and must be seen as an opportunity for the redesign of the systems that are being used for the processing of personal data. An unexplored area where systems are being used to collect and process personal data are the e-Participation environment. The latest generations of such environments refer to sociotechnical systems based on the exploitation of the increasing use of Social Media, by using them as valuable tools, able to provide answers and decision support in public policy formulation. This work explores the privacy requirements that GDPR imposes in such environments, contributing to the identification of challenges that e-Participation approaches have to deal with, with regard to privacy protection. Full article
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Graphical abstract
Full article ">Figure 1
<p>PDCA model of a GDPR compliance project.</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>Crowdsourcing environment analysis.</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>Passive Crowdsourcing environment analysis—privacy requirements.</p>
Full article ">
18 pages, 572 KiB  
Article
Finding the Key Structure of Mechanical Parts with Formal Concept Analysis
by Qiang Wu, Yan Dong and Liping Xie
Information 2020, 11(2), 116; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020116 - 20 Feb 2020
Viewed by 2692
Abstract
Aiming at the problem that the assembly body model is difficult to classify and retrieve (large information redundancy and poor data consistency), an assembly body retrieval method oriented to key structures was presented. In this paper, a decision formal context is transformed from [...] Read more.
Aiming at the problem that the assembly body model is difficult to classify and retrieve (large information redundancy and poor data consistency), an assembly body retrieval method oriented to key structures was presented. In this paper, a decision formal context is transformed from the 3D structure model. The 3D assembly structure model of parts is defined by the adjacency graph of function surface and qualitative geometric constraint graph. The assembly structure is coded by the linear symbol representation of compounds in chemical database. An importance or cohesion as the weight to a decision-making objective on the context is defined by a rough set method. A weighted concept lattice is introduced on it. An important formal concept means a key structure, since the concept represents the relations between parts’ function surfaces. It can greatly improve the query efficiency. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>Expression views of several mechanical parts’ functional surfaces (1).</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>Expression views of several mechanical parts’ functional surfaces (2).</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>Expression views of several mechanical parts’ functional surfaces (3).</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p><a href="#information-11-00116-f001" class="html-fig">Figure 1</a>’s 3D structure model.</p>
Full article ">Figure 5
<p><a href="#information-11-00116-f002" class="html-fig">Figure 2</a>’s 3D structure model.</p>
Full article ">Figure 6
<p><a href="#information-11-00116-f003" class="html-fig">Figure 3</a>’s 3D structure model.</p>
Full article ">Figure 7
<p>The formal concept lattice of <a href="#information-11-00116-t002" class="html-table">Table 2</a>.</p>
Full article ">Figure 8
<p>The concept lattice of <a href="#information-11-00116-t003" class="html-table">Table 3</a>.</p>
Full article ">Figure 9
<p>The concept lattice of <a href="#information-11-00116-t004" class="html-table">Table 4</a>.</p>
Full article ">Figure 10
<p>The concept lattice of <a href="#information-11-00116-t005" class="html-table">Table 5</a>.</p>
Full article ">Figure 11
<p>The concept lattice of <a href="#information-11-00116-t006" class="html-table">Table 6</a>.</p>
Full article ">Figure 12
<p>The concept lattice of <a href="#information-11-00116-t007" class="html-table">Table 7</a>.</p>
Full article ">Figure 13
<p>The concept lattice of <a href="#information-11-00116-t008" class="html-table">Table 8</a>.</p>
Full article ">Figure 14
<p>The concept lattice of <a href="#information-11-00116-t009" class="html-table">Table 9</a>.</p>
Full article ">
12 pages, 518 KiB  
Article
The Impact of Situational Complexity and Familiarity on Takeover Quality in Uncritical Highly Automated Driving Scenarios
by Marlene Susanne Lisa Scharfe, Kathrin Zeeb and Nele Russwinkel
Information 2020, 11(2), 115; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020115 - 20 Feb 2020
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 4682
Abstract
In the development of highly automated driving systems (L3 and 4), much research has been done on the subject of driver takeover. Strong focus has been placed on the takeover quality. Previous research has shown that one of the main influencing factors is [...] Read more.
In the development of highly automated driving systems (L3 and 4), much research has been done on the subject of driver takeover. Strong focus has been placed on the takeover quality. Previous research has shown that one of the main influencing factors is the complexity of a traffic situation that has not been sufficiently addressed so far, as different approaches towards complexity exist. This paper differentiates between the objective complexity and the subjectively perceived complexity. In addition, the familiarity with a takeover situation is examined. Gold et al. show that repetition of takeover scenarios strongly influences the take-over performance. Yet, both complexity and familiarity have not been considered at the same time. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to examine the impact of objective complexity and familiarity on the subjectively perceived complexity and the resulting takeover quality. In a driving simulator study, participants are requested to take over vehicle control in an uncritical situation. Familiarity and objective complexity are varied by the number of surrounding vehicles and scenario repetitions. Subjective complexity is measured using the NASA-TLX; the takeover quality is gathered using the take-over controllability rating (TOC-Rating). The statistical evaluation results show that the parameters significantly influence the takeover quality. This is an important finding for the design of cognitive assistance systems for future highly automated and intelligent vehicles. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>Hypothesised relationships between situational variables, stable variables and the takeover quality. The impact on subjective complexity as shown in [<a href="#B9-information-11-00115" class="html-bibr">9</a>].</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>Distributions of driving statistics of the participants (<span class="html-italic">N</span> = 20).</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>Traffic scenarios during the takeover request. Blue squares mark relevant vehicles in the given scenario situation, the red star marks the ego vehicle.</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p>The relation between takeover quality and the objective complexity as relevant vehicles in the surroundingtraffic environment <b>(left</b>) and between takeover quality and situation familiarity (<b>right</b>). Red lines indicate the regression line (significance codes: 0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05).</p>
Full article ">Figure 5
<p>The relation between subjective complexity (<b>left</b>), its sub-scales (<b>right</b>) and the takeover quality. Red lines indicate the regression line (significance codes: 0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05).</p>
Full article ">Figure 6
<p>Multiple linear regression results for stable and situational variables on takeover quality. <math display="inline"><semantics> <mi>β</mi> </semantics></math> coefficients indicate the slope of the relationship in the multiple regression (significance codes: 0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05).</p>
Full article ">
20 pages, 2024 KiB  
Article
Repeated Usage of an L3 Motorway Chauffeur: Change of Evaluation and Usage
by Barbara Metz, Johanna Wörle, Michael Hanig, Marcus Schmitt and Aaron Lutz
Information 2020, 11(2), 114; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020114 - 18 Feb 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4207
Abstract
Most studies on users’ perception of highly automated driving functions are focused on first contact/single usage. Nevertheless, it is expected that with repeated usage, acceptance and usage of automated driving functions might change this perception (behavioural adaptation). Changes can occur in drivers’ evaluation, [...] Read more.
Most studies on users’ perception of highly automated driving functions are focused on first contact/single usage. Nevertheless, it is expected that with repeated usage, acceptance and usage of automated driving functions might change this perception (behavioural adaptation). Changes can occur in drivers’ evaluation, in function usage and in drivers’ reactions to take-over situations. In a driving simulator study, N = 30 drivers used a level 3 (L3) automated driving function for motorways during six experimental sessions. They were free to activate/deactivate that system as they liked and to spend driving time on self-chosen side tasks. Results already show an increase of experienced trust and safety, together with an increase of time spent on side tasks between the first and fourth sessions. Furthermore, attention directed to the road decreases with growing experience with the system. The results are discussed with regard to the theory of behavioural adaptation. Results indicate that the adaptation of acceptance and usage of the highly automated driving function occurs rather quickly. At the same time, no behavioural adaptation for the reaction to take-over situations could be found. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>The high-fidelity driving simulator at WIVW.</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>Example of questionnaire items used to assess concepts like acceptance and trust (<b>a</b>) and scale used to asses experienced criticality for takeover scenarios (<b>b</b>).</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>Drivers’ agreement with general statements about the L3-motorway automated driving system (ADS) (L3ADS). * marks statements with a significant effect of the session.</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p>The proportion of time L3ADS was activated, drivers attended to non-driving related activities (NDRAs), drivers attended to NDRAs involving manual distraction (<b>a</b>) and drivers spent looking on the road (percentage road centre, PRC) during all time with L3ADS active and during time L3ADS was overtaking other vehicles (<b>b</b>).</p>
Full article ">Figure 5
<p>Drivers’ agreement with statements about the effect of L3ADS on drivers’ state. * marks statements with a significant effect of the session.</p>
Full article ">Figure 6
<p>Experienced criticality of take-over situations (<b>a</b>) and criticality and proportion of take-over before take-over request (TOR) split by situation type (<b>b</b>).</p>
Full article ">Figure 7
<p>Experienced criticality in a situation where drivers took control back before and after a TOR.</p>
Full article ">Figure 8
<p>Experienced criticality in a situation where drivers took control back before and after a TOR (<b>a</b>) and reaction times until eyes were on the road, hands were on the steering wheel and control was taken back (<b>b</b>).</p>
Full article ">Figure 9
<p>The proportion of takeover scenarios with the different types of errors/imprecision rated in the TOC-rating.</p>
Full article ">
11 pages, 3856 KiB  
Article
A Novel Clipping-Based Method to Reduce Peak-To-Average Power Ratio of OFDM Signals
by Bo Tang, Kaiyu Qin, Changwei Chen and Yong Cao
Information 2020, 11(2), 113; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020113 - 18 Feb 2020
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4550
Abstract
Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a widely used technology for wireless broadband communications. However, it also suffers from some drawbacks. One of the critical limitations is the problem of high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR), which causes distortions of some nonlinear components such [...] Read more.
Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a widely used technology for wireless broadband communications. However, it also suffers from some drawbacks. One of the critical limitations is the problem of high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR), which causes distortions of some nonlinear components such as power amplifiers. A number of techniques have been proposed to reduce the PAPR of OFDM signals, among which the clipping-based methods have gained a lot of attention due to the effective PAPR reduction and simplicity of implementation. This paper proposes a novel clipping-based method to reduce the PAPR of OFDM signals. Based on the recently proposed clipping noise compression (CNC) method, the proposed scheme introduces a preset normalization factor to replace the calculation of average amplitude of clipping noise in the original CNC method during compression processing. Comparative simulations were carried out, and the results exhibit that the proposed method achieves better bit-error-ratio performance with equal level of PAPR reduction compared to the original CNC method. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Information and Communications Technology)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>The characteristics of the modified <math display="inline"><semantics> <mi>μ</mi> </semantics></math> law algorithm with different parameters.</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>The simplified block diagram of the proposed method.</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>An example of the probability density function (PDF) and complementary cumulative distribution function (CCDF) of the amplitude of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal.</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p>An example of the equivalent compression ratio with different values of <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>α</mi> </mrow> </semantics></math> and correspondingly selected values of <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>μ</mi> </mrow> </semantics></math>.</p>
Full article ">Figure 5
<p>The CCDF probability of peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) and bit-error-ratio (BER) performance of the original clipping noise compression (CNC) method and the proposed method with <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>μ</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mn>3</mn> <mo>,</mo> <mtext> </mtext> <mn>30</mn> <mo>,</mo> <mtext> </mtext> <mn>0.3</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math>, and <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>α</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mn>0.02</mn> <mo>,</mo> <mtext> </mtext> <mn>0.02</mn> <mo>,</mo> <mtext> </mtext> <mn>0.018</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math> correspondingly, when <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>N</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mn>256</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math>, <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>M</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mn>64</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math>, and <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>γ</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mn>1.8</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math>.</p>
Full article ">Figure 6
<p>The CCDF probability of PAPR and the BER performance of the original CNC method and the proposed method with <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>μ</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mn>3</mn> <mo>,</mo> <mtext> </mtext> <mn>30</mn> <mo>,</mo> <mtext> </mtext> <mn>0.3</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math>, and <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>α</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mn>0.014</mn> <mo>,</mo> <mtext> </mtext> <mn>0.015</mn> <mo>,</mo> <mtext> </mtext> <mn>0.013</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math> correspondingly, when <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>N</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mn>1024</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math>, <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>M</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mn>256</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math>, and <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>γ</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mn>1.8</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math>.</p>
Full article ">Figure 7
<p>The CCDF probability of PAPR and the BER performance of the original CNC method and the proposed method with <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>μ</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mn>3</mn> <mo>,</mo> <mtext> </mtext> <mn>30</mn> <mo>,</mo> <mtext> </mtext> <mn>0.3</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math>, and <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>α</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mn>0.04</mn> <mo>,</mo> <mtext> </mtext> <mn>0.04</mn> <mo>,</mo> <mtext> </mtext> <mn>0.038</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math> correspondingly, when <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>N</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mn>256</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math>, <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>M</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mn>64</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math>, and <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>γ</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mn>1.8</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math>.</p>
Full article ">
11 pages, 9022 KiB  
Article
How Much Information Does a Robot Need? Exploring the Benefits of Increased Sensory Range in a Simulated Crowd Navigation Task
by Marit Hagens and Serge Thill
Information 2020, 11(2), 112; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020112 - 18 Feb 2020
Viewed by 2745
Abstract
Perfect information about an environment allows a robot to plan its actions optimally, but often requires significant investments into sensors and possibly infrastructure. In applications relevant to human–robot interaction, the environment is by definition dynamic and events close to the robot may be [...] Read more.
Perfect information about an environment allows a robot to plan its actions optimally, but often requires significant investments into sensors and possibly infrastructure. In applications relevant to human–robot interaction, the environment is by definition dynamic and events close to the robot may be more relevant than distal ones. This suggests a non-trivial relationship between sensory sophistication on one hand, and task performance on the other. In this paper, we investigate this relationship in a simulated crowd navigation task. We use three different environments with unique characteristics that a crowd navigating robot might encounter and explore how the robot’s sensor range correlates with performance in the navigation task. We find diminishing returns of increased range in our particular case, suggesting that task performance and sensory sophistication might follow non-trivial relationships and that increased sophistication on the sensor side does not necessarily equal a corresponding increase in performance. Although this result is a simple proof of concept, it illustrates the benefit of exploring the consequences of different hardware designs—rather than merely algorithmic choices—in simulation first. We also find surprisingly good performance in the navigation task, including a low number of collisions with simulated human agents, using a relatively simple A*/NavMesh-based navigation strategy, which suggests that navigation strategies for robots in crowds need not always be sophisticated. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Social Robots)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>The three simulated environments used in this study: (<b>a</b>) office environment, (<b>b</b>) open street environment and (<b>c</b>) obstacles environment. Simulated human agents are shown as red cylinders, placed randomly at the start of a simulation.</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>Examples of using NavMesh and A*: (<b>a</b>) example NavMesh of the obstacles environment and (<b>b</b>) example navigation plan for a simulated human agent given its current location. Dark polygons represent the path to the goal at the bottom centre. The red line shows the current planned path and the blue line the current heading of the agent. As the agent continues, the path is updated.</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>Robot sensor range example: (<b>a</b>) Triangle indicating what is perceived with a sensor range of 10 units in the office environment and (<b>b</b>) the corresponding NavMesh used by the robot.</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p>Mean time and 95% confidence intervals (shaded area) taken by the robot to complete navigation in the (<b>a</b>) office, (<b>b</b>) open, and (<b>c</b>) obstacles environment as a function of sensor range and number of humans.</p>
Full article ">Figure 5
<p>Mean and 95% confidence intervals (shaded area) of the collision counts during navigation in the (<b>a</b>) office, (<b>b</b>) open and (<b>c</b>) obstacles environment as a function of sensor range and number of humans.</p>
Full article ">Figure 6
<p>Mean and 95% confidence intervals (shaded area) of the time to completion in the (<b>a</b>) office, (<b>b</b>) open and (<b>c</b>) obstacles environment as a function of number of human agents in the environment for robots with full knowledge of the environment. In most cases, these are not significantly different from performances with a sensor range of 30 reported in <a href="#information-11-00112-f004" class="html-fig">Figure 4</a>. Details of how this optimal performance compares with limited sensors are reported in <a href="#information-11-00112-t002" class="html-table">Table 2</a>.</p>
Full article ">
15 pages, 522 KiB  
Article
An ECDSA Approach to Access Control in Knowledge Management Systems Using Blockchain
by Gabriel Nyame, Zhiguang Qin, Kwame Opuni-Boachie Obour Agyekum and Emmanuel Boateng Sifah
Information 2020, 11(2), 111; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020111 - 17 Feb 2020
Cited by 38 | Viewed by 5937
Abstract
Access control has become problematic in several organizations because of the difficulty in establishing security and preventing malicious users from mimicking roles. Moreover, there is no flexibility among users in the participation in their roles, and even controlling them. Several role-based access control [...] Read more.
Access control has become problematic in several organizations because of the difficulty in establishing security and preventing malicious users from mimicking roles. Moreover, there is no flexibility among users in the participation in their roles, and even controlling them. Several role-based access control (RBAC) mechanisms have been proposed to alleviate these problems, but the security has not been fully realized. In this work, however, we present an RBAC model based on blockchain technology to enhance user authentication before knowledge is accessed and utilized in a knowledge management system (KMS). Our blockchain-based system model and the smart contract ensure that transparency and knowledge resource immutability are achieved. We also present smart contract algorithms and discussions about the model. As an essential part of RBAC model applied to KMS environment, trust is ensured in the network. Evaluation results show that our system is efficient. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Information Systems)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>System architecture.</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>Creation of a knowledge block.</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>User registration and authentication process.</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p>Smart contract function costs.</p>
Full article ">Figure 5
<p>Block processing time.</p>
Full article ">
38 pages, 3191 KiB  
Review
Digital Image Watermarking Techniques: A Review
by Mahbuba Begum and Mohammad Shorif Uddin
Information 2020, 11(2), 110; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020110 - 17 Feb 2020
Cited by 185 | Viewed by 49393
Abstract
Digital image authentication is an extremely significant concern for the digital revolution, as it is easy to tamper with any image. In the last few decades, it has been an urgent concern for researchers to ensure the authenticity of digital images. Based on [...] Read more.
Digital image authentication is an extremely significant concern for the digital revolution, as it is easy to tamper with any image. In the last few decades, it has been an urgent concern for researchers to ensure the authenticity of digital images. Based on the desired applications, several suitable watermarking techniques have been developed to mitigate this concern. However, it is tough to achieve a watermarking system that is simultaneously robust and secure. This paper gives details of standard watermarking system frameworks and lists some standard requirements that are used in designing watermarking techniques for several distinct applications. The current trends of digital image watermarking techniques are also reviewed in order to find the state-of-the-art methods and their limitations. Some conventional attacks are discussed, and future research directions are given. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Review)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>(<b>a</b>) Watermark embedding and (<b>b</b>) watermark extraction.</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>Design requirements for an image watermarking system.</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>The trade-off among imperceptibility, robustness, and capacity.</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p>Related applications of digital image watermarking.</p>
Full article ">Figure 5
<p>Broadcast monitoring using digital watermarking.</p>
Full article ">Figure 6
<p>Content authentication and integrity verification.</p>
Full article ">Figure 7
<p>Classification of image watermarking techniques.</p>
Full article ">Figure 8
<p>Basic least significant bit (LSB) technique example.</p>
Full article ">Figure 9
<p>Block diagram of the LSB method (four bit-planes).</p>
Full article ">Figure 10
<p>A bit-plane of a digital image.</p>
Full article ">Figure 11
<p>Watermark embedding and extraction in the transform domain.</p>
Full article ">Figure 12
<p>Watermark embedding in a block-based DCT domain.</p>
Full article ">Figure 13
<p>Three-level discrete wavelet decomposition.</p>
Full article ">Figure 14
<p>Watermark embedding and extraction in a Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) domain.</p>
Full article ">
14 pages, 1004 KiB  
Article
Digitalization of the Marketing Activities of Enterprises: Case Study
by Nestor Shpak, Oleh Kuzmin, Zoriana Dvulit, Tetiana Onysenko and Włodzimierz Sroka
Information 2020, 11(2), 109; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020109 - 17 Feb 2020
Cited by 38 | Viewed by 12378
Abstract
The pace and scale of the digitalization of today’s global information society open up new opportunities for business. At the same time, they set new challenges for business owners and managers in the field of marketing. Given this fact, the purpose of the [...] Read more.
The pace and scale of the digitalization of today’s global information society open up new opportunities for business. At the same time, they set new challenges for business owners and managers in the field of marketing. Given this fact, the purpose of the study was to present the impact of digitalization on the marketing activity of the enterprise in the field of services by promoting the use of online sales via electronic distribution channels, social networks, and mobile applications. A comparative system of estimating the parameters of the influence of digitalization on the marketing activity of the enterprise was proposed as a confirmation of this impact. Based on the developed “tree of goals,” the dynamics of the digitalization of services were projected and the prospects of development of this sphere of activity were outlined. For testing the proposed methodology, the railway passenger transportation company (JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia”) was chosen as the object of the research. Research methods used in the study include: (1) statistical; (2) SWOT analysis; (3) systematization, comparative, and structural-dynamic analysis; and (4) an expert survey. As a result of revealing the impact of individual elements of digitalization on the level of marketing activity, the number of recommendations regarding the development of digitalization of electronic ticket sales services and their accounting for enterprises dealing with railway passenger transportation were proposed. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>Key factors of the impact of digitalization on marketing activities.</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>The level system for assessing the influence of digitalization on the sales activity of the enterprise.</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>Distribution (%) of respondents by advantages in choosing the method of booking and payment of a travel document.</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p>Distribution (%) of the preferences of respondents in the method used for booking and payment of travel documents in total and per separate railway.</p>
Full article ">
26 pages, 2450 KiB  
Article
Fastai: A Layered API for Deep Learning
by Jeremy Howard and Sylvain Gugger
Information 2020, 11(2), 108; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020108 - 16 Feb 2020
Cited by 666 | Viewed by 79184
Abstract
fastai is a deep learning library which provides practitioners with high-level components that can quickly and easily provide state-of-the-art results in standard deep learning domains, and provides researchers with low-level components that can be mixed and matched to build new approaches. It aims [...] Read more.
fastai is a deep learning library which provides practitioners with high-level components that can quickly and easily provide state-of-the-art results in standard deep learning domains, and provides researchers with low-level components that can be mixed and matched to build new approaches. It aims to do both things without substantial compromises in ease of use, flexibility, or performance. This is possible thanks to a carefully layered architecture, which expresses common underlying patterns of many deep learning and data processing techniques in terms of decoupled abstractions. These abstractions can be expressed concisely and clearly by leveraging the dynamism of the underlying Python language and the flexibility of the PyTorch library. fastai includes: a new type dispatch system for Python along with a semantic type hierarchy for tensors; a GPU-optimized computer vision library which can be extended in pure Python; an optimizer which refactors out the common functionality of modern optimizers into two basic pieces, allowing optimization algorithms to be implemented in 4–5 lines of code; a novel 2-way callback system that can access any part of the data, model, or optimizer and change it at any point during training; a new data block API; and much more. We used this library to successfully create a complete deep learning course, which we were able to write more quickly than using previous approaches, and the code was more clear. The library is already in wide use in research, industry, and teaching. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Machine Learning with Python)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>The layered API from fastai.</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>A DataLoaders object built with the fastai library knows how to show its elements in a meaningful way. Here the result on the Oxford IIT Pets image classification dataset.</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>A Learner knows from the data and the model type how to represent the results. It can even highlight model errors (here predicted class at bottom and actual at top).</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p>In this case, fastai knows that the data is for a segmentation task, and therefore it color-codes and overlays, with transparency, the segmentation layer on top of the input images.</p>
Full article ">Figure 5
<p>For a segmentation task, the ground-truth mask is laid at the right of the predicted mask.</p>
Full article ">Figure 6
<p>In text classification, the batches are shown in a DataFrame with the tokenized texts.</p>
Full article ">Figure 7
<p>In text classification, results are displayed in a DataFrame with the tokenized texts.</p>
Full article ">Figure 8
<p>The hyper-parameters schedule in the 1cycle policy.</p>
Full article ">Figure 9
<p>The learning rate finder does a mock training with an exponentially growing learning rate over 100 iterations. A good value is then the minimum value on the graph divided by 10.</p>
Full article ">Figure 10
<p>The LAMB algorithm and implementation.</p>
Full article ">Figure 11
<p>A rotation and a zoom apply to an image with one interpolation only (<b>a</b>) or two interpolations (<b>b</b>). The latter results in more texture loss.</p>
Full article ">Figure 12
<p>Example of fastai’s documentation, automatically generated using nbdev.</p>
Full article ">
19 pages, 1019 KiB  
Article
Grade Setting of a Timber Logistics Center Based on a Complex Network: A Case Study of 47 Timber Trading Markets in China
by Liang Xue, Xin Huang, Yuchun Wu, Xingchen Yan and Yan Zheng
Information 2020, 11(2), 107; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020107 - 16 Feb 2020
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3922
Abstract
The location and grade setting of a timber logistics center is an important link in the optimization of the timber logistics system, the rationality of which can effectively improve the efficiency of the timber logistics supply chain. There is a long distance between [...] Read more.
The location and grade setting of a timber logistics center is an important link in the optimization of the timber logistics system, the rationality of which can effectively improve the efficiency of the timber logistics supply chain. There is a long distance between the main forested areas in China, and more than 55% of the timber demand depends on imports. Research and practice of systematically planning timber logistics centers in the whole country have not been well carried out, which reduces the efficiency of timber logistics. In this paper, 47 timber trading markets with a certain scale in China are selected as the basis for logistics center selection. Based on their transportation network relationship and the number of enterprises in the market, combined with the complex network theory and data analysis method, the network characteristics of three different transportation networks are measured. After determining the transportation capacity indicator, the logistics capacity coefficient is measured based on the freight volume of each node. Then, the important nodes are identified, and each node is graded to systematically set up the timber logistics center. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Frontiers for Optimal Control Applications)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>Unweighted network diagram of air transportation.</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>Weighted network diagram of air transportation.</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>Unweighted network diagram of highway transportation.</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p>Logistics capacity coefficient of each node.</p>
Full article ">
19 pages, 2817 KiB  
Article
Outpatient Text Classification Using Attention-Based Bidirectional LSTM for Robot-Assisted Servicing in Hospital
by Che-Wen Chen, Shih-Pang Tseng, Ta-Wen Kuan and Jhing-Fa Wang
Information 2020, 11(2), 106; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020106 - 16 Feb 2020
Cited by 62 | Viewed by 9155
Abstract
In general, patients who are unwell do not know with which outpatient department they should register, and can only get advice after they are diagnosed by a family doctor. This may cause a waste of time and medical resources. In this paper, we [...] Read more.
In general, patients who are unwell do not know with which outpatient department they should register, and can only get advice after they are diagnosed by a family doctor. This may cause a waste of time and medical resources. In this paper, we propose an attention-based bidirectional long short-term memory (Att-BiLSTM) model for service robots, which has the ability to classify outpatient categories according to textual content. With the outpatient text classification system, users can talk about their situation to a service robot and the robot can tell them which clinic they should register with. In the implementation of the proposed method, dialog text of users in the Taiwan E Hospital were collected as the training data set. Through natural language processing (NLP), the information in the dialog text was extracted, sorted, and converted to train the long-short term memory (LSTM) deep learning model. Experimental results verify the ability of the robot to respond to questions autonomously through acquired casual knowledge. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Natural Language Processing in Healthcare and Medical Informatics)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>Illustration of a conversation between an user and a robot.</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>Flow diagram of the proposed process.</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>The appearance of the service robot.</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p>User interface of Zenbo.</p>
Full article ">Figure 5
<p>Structure of Django.</p>
Full article ">Figure 6
<p>Distribution of the outpatient texts.</p>
Full article ">Figure 7
<p>Architecture of the proposed attention-based bidirectional long-short term memory (LSTM) model.</p>
Full article ">Figure 8
<p>The structure of the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural network.</p>
Full article ">Figure 9
<p>Confusion matrices of attention-based bidirectional long short-term memory (Att-BiLSTM) for five-class classification.</p>
Full article ">Figure 10
<p>Confusion matrices of Att-BiLSTM for eight-class classification.</p>
Full article ">Figure 11
<p>Attention visualization for a document labeled Gynecology.</p>
Full article ">Figure 12
<p>Attention visualization for a document labeled Orthopedics.</p>
Full article ">Figure A1
<p>Confusion matrices for the different text classification methods.</p>
Full article ">Figure A1 Cont.
<p>Confusion matrices for the different text classification methods.</p>
Full article ">
14 pages, 458 KiB  
Article
Unsupervised Anomaly Detection for Network Data Streams in Industrial Control Systems
by Limengwei Liu, Modi Hu, Chaoqun Kang and Xiaoyong Li
Information 2020, 11(2), 105; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020105 - 15 Feb 2020
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 5907
Abstract
The development and integration of information technology and industrial control networks have expanded the magnitude of new data; detecting anomalies or discovering other valid information from them is of vital importance to the stable operation of industrial control systems. This paper proposes an [...] Read more.
The development and integration of information technology and industrial control networks have expanded the magnitude of new data; detecting anomalies or discovering other valid information from them is of vital importance to the stable operation of industrial control systems. This paper proposes an incremental unsupervised anomaly detection method that can quickly analyze and process large-scale real-time data. Our evaluation on the Secure Water Treatment dataset shows that the method is converging to its offline counterpart for infinitely growing data streams. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Machine Learning for Cyber-Security)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>The workflow of unsupervised incremental anomaly detection.</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>An example of a single tree growing online. Data points <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>a</mi> <mo>,</mo> <mi>b</mi> <mo>,</mo> <mi>d</mi> <mo>,</mo> <mi>f</mi> </mrow> </semantics></math> are sampled from normal instances in the sliding window. They are input into a random binary tree, and then traverse the branch from the root node to find the corresponding leaf nodes. The rectangle represents the leaf node and the ellipse represents the branch node, in which the split attribute and split value constitute the division condition. (<b>i</b>) <span class="html-italic">a</span> and <span class="html-italic">b</span> should have fallen into the sibling of <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>L</mi> <mn>8</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math>, but because the leaf node does not reach the maximum depth, this node needs to split (assuming that the split probability of the node satisfies the condition and the node changes from a leaf to a branch) and create two new leaf nodes <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>L</mi> <mn>9</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math> and <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>L</mi> <mn>10</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math> (dotted rectangle), which record <span class="html-italic">a</span> and <span class="html-italic">b</span>, respectively; (<b>ii</b>) <span class="html-italic">f</span> falls into <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>L</mi> <mn>8</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math> and it overlaps with the data recorded in <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>L</mi> <mn>8</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math>, then drops it; (<b>iii</b>) <span class="html-italic">d</span> falls into <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>L</mi> <mn>4</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math>, which reaches the maximum depth, and the number of data recorded in <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>L</mi> <mn>4</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math> will be updated.</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>AUC (Area Under the receiver operating characteristic Curve) scores with respect to the ratio of training samples for online Growing Random Trees (GR-Trees; red solid), the online model without growing (cyan dashed), and the offline model (solid) with an increasing number of training samples from the SWaT dataset.</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p>Effects of different ensemble sizes, subsample sizes, update rates, and discard rates on the detection performance.</p>
Full article ">
18 pages, 819 KiB  
Article
Breaking the Chains of Open Innovation: Post-Blockchain and the Case of Sensorica
by Alex Pazaitis
Information 2020, 11(2), 104; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020104 - 14 Feb 2020
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 6522
Abstract
Open innovation is a concept in flux; from the practice of large-scale, internet-mediated collaboration, to a strategic option and business model for firms. However, the scope and breadth of its transformative dynamic is arguably restrained. Despite the theoretical and empirical benefits of openness, [...] Read more.
Open innovation is a concept in flux; from the practice of large-scale, internet-mediated collaboration, to a strategic option and business model for firms. However, the scope and breadth of its transformative dynamic is arguably restrained. Despite the theoretical and empirical benefits of openness, established firms face significant challenges deploying the coordination patterns of open innovation communities, further reducing the potential of spill-overs in the supply chain. Viewed differently, open innovation presents more user-centric and responsible innovation paths. These are manifested in the processes and outputs of open innovation by empowering participation and by successfully employing the capacities of user communities. To reap the benefits of open innovation, a rapid reconfiguration of the production and exchange structures is needed in intrafirm and interfirm relations. Sensorica is an open enterprise that achieves such forms of organization and a unique techno-social infrastructure supporting them. It illustrates a potential path that can realize the full potential of open innovation, for users, firms, and the economic system as a whole. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blockchain Applications in the Next Generation of Business Models)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>Open Value Network (Adaptation by the author and Nikos Exarchopoulos from Siddiqui, Y. and Brastaviceanu, T. Open Value Network: A framework for many-to-many innovation. Available online: <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iwQz5SSw2Bsi_T41018E3TkPD-guRCAhAeP9xMdS2fI/pub#h.pkzfosme7qaf" target="_blank">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iwQz5SSw2Bsi_T41018E3TkPD-guRCAhAeP9xMdS2fI/pub#h.pkzfosme7qaf</a>. (Licence: CC-BY 3.0).</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>The Sensorica NRP-CAS structure (Available online: <a href="http://nrp.sensorica.co" target="_blank">http://nrp.sensorica.co</a>).</p>
Full article ">
54 pages, 4269 KiB  
Article
A Study on Ranking Fusion Approaches for the Retrieval of Medical Publications
by Teofan Clipa and Giorgio Maria Di Nunzio
Information 2020, 11(2), 103; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020103 - 14 Feb 2020
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4690
Abstract
In this work, we compare and analyze a variety of approaches in the task of medical publication retrieval and, in particular, for the Technology Assisted Review (TAR) task. This problem consists in the process of collecting articles that summarize all evidence that has [...] Read more.
In this work, we compare and analyze a variety of approaches in the task of medical publication retrieval and, in particular, for the Technology Assisted Review (TAR) task. This problem consists in the process of collecting articles that summarize all evidence that has been published regarding a certain medical topic. This task requires long search sessions by experts in the field of medicine. For this reason, semi-automatic approaches are essential for supporting these types of searches when the amount of data exceeds the limits of users. In this paper, we use state-of-the-art models and weighting schemes with different types of preprocessing as well as query expansion (QE) and relevance feedback (RF) approaches in order to study the best combination for this particular task. We also tested word embeddings representation of documents and queries in addition to three different ranking fusion approaches to see if the merged runs perform better than the single models. In order to make our results reproducible, we have used the collection provided by the Conference and Labs Evaluation Forum (CLEF) eHealth tasks. Query expansion and relevance feedback greatly improve the performance while the fusion of different rankings does not perform well in this task. The statistical analysis showed that, in general, the performance of the system does not depend much on the type of text preprocessing but on which weighting scheme is applied. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Big Data Evaluation and Non-Relational Databases in eHealth)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>The two architectures for w2v. (<b>a</b>) Skip-gram architecture, (<b>b</b>) continuos bag of words architecture.</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>Graph showing the pipeline steps done in order to prepare the indexes and the runs.</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>Graph showing the pipeline steps done in order to do the word2vec runs.</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p>T1: box plots for P@10 of the different models for each index. (<b>a</b>) NoPorterNoStop index, (<b>b</b>) Porter index, (<b>c</b>) PorterStop index, (<b>d</b>) Stop index.</p>
Full article ">Figure 5
<p>T1: box plots for P@10 of the different indexes for each model: (<b>a</b>) precision for BM25 with different indexes, (<b>b</b>) precision for DirichletLM with different indexes, (<b>c</b>) precision for PL2 with different indexes, (<b>d</b>) precision for TF-IDF with different indexes.</p>
Full article ">Figure 6
<p>T2: box plots for P@10 of the different models for each index: (<b>a</b>) NoPorterNoStop indexs, (<b>b</b>) Porter index, (<b>c</b>) PorterStop index, (<b>d</b>) Stop index.</p>
Full article ">Figure 7
<p>T2: box plots for P@10 of the different indexes for each model: (<b>a</b>) Precision for BM25 with different indexes, (<b>b</b>) Precision for DirichletLM with different indexes, (<b>c</b>) Precision for PL2 with different indexes, (<b>d</b>) precision for TF-IDF with different indexes.</p>
Full article ">Figure 8
<p>T1: box plots for P@10 of the different models for each index, with query expansion (QE) and relevance feedback (RF): (<b>a</b>) NoPorterNoStop indexs, (<b>b</b>) Porter index, (<b>c</b>) PorterStop index, (<b>d</b>) Stop index.</p>
Full article ">Figure 9
<p>T1: box plots for P@10 of the different indexes for each model, with QE+RF: (<b>a</b>) precision for BM25 with different indexes, (<b>b</b>) precision for DirichletLM with different indexes, (<b>c</b>) precision for PL2 with different indexes, (<b>d</b>) precision for TF-IDF with different indexes.</p>
Full article ">Figure 10
<p>T2: box plots for P@10 of the different models for each index, with QE and RF: (<b>a</b>) NoPorterNoStop indexs, (<b>b</b>) Porter index, (<b>c</b>) PorterStop index, (<b>d</b>) Stop index.</p>
Full article ">Figure 11
<p>T2: box plots for P@10 of the different indexes for each model, with QE+RF: (<b>a</b>) precision for BM25 with different indexes, (<b>b</b>) precision for DirichletLM with different indexes, (<b>c</b>) precision for PL2 with different indexes, (<b>d</b>) precision for TF-IDF with different indexes.</p>
Full article ">Figure 12
<p>Precision: box plots of the w2v runs: (<b>a</b>) T1: P@10 for w2v_avg and w2v_si, (<b>b</b>) T2: P@10 for w2v_avg and w2v_si, (<b>c</b>) T1: P@100 for w2v_avg and w2v_si, (<b>d</b>) T2: P@100 for w2v_avg and w2v_si, (<b>e</b>) T1: P@1000 for w2v_avg and w2v_si, (<b>f</b>) T2: P@1000 for w2v_avg and w2v_si.</p>
Full article ">Figure 13
<p>T1: box plots of P@10 of the fusion methods: (<b>a</b>) NoPorterNoStop fusions of the runs, (<b>b</b>) NoPorterNoStop+QR+RF fusions of the runs, (<b>c</b>) Porter fusions of the runs, (<b>d</b>) Porter+QE+RF fusions of the runs, (<b>e</b>) PorterStop fusions of the runs, (<b>f</b>) PorterStop+QE+RF fusions of the runs, (<b>g</b>) Stop fusions of the runs, (<b>h</b>) Stop+QE+RF fusions of the runs.</p>
Full article ">Figure 14
<p>T2: box plots of P@10 of the fusion methods: (<b>a</b>) NoPorterNoStop fusions of the runs, (<b>b</b>) NoPorterNoStop+QR+RF fusions of the runs, (<b>c</b>) Porter fusions of the runs, (<b>d</b>) Porter+QE+RF fusions of the runs, (<b>e</b>) PorterStop fusions of the runs, (<b>f</b>) PorterStop+QE+RF fusions of the runs, (<b>g</b>) Stop fusions of the runs, (<b>h</b>) Stop+QE+RF fusions of the runs.</p>
Full article ">Figure 15
<p>T1: scatter plots for Porter/Dirichlet vs. NoPorterNoStop/Dirichlet with QE+RF: (<b>a</b>) NDCG@10, (<b>b</b>) NDCG@100, (<b>c</b>) NDCG@1000, (<b>d</b>) Precision@10, (<b>e</b>) Precision@100, (<b>f</b>) Precision@1000.</p>
Full article ">Figure 16
<p>T2: scatter plots for Porter/Dirichlet vs. NoPorterNoStop/Dirichlet with QE+RF: box plots of P@10 of the fusion methods: (<b>a</b>) NDCG@10, (<b>b</b>) NDCG@100, (<b>c</b>) NDCG@1000, (<b>d</b>) Precision@10, (<b>e</b>) Precision@100, (<b>f</b>) Precision@1000.</p>
Full article ">Figure 17
<p>Scatter plots of Porter/Dirichlet with QE+RF vs. the same run without QE+RF: (<b>a</b>) P@10, (<b>b</b>) NDCG@10.</p>
Full article ">Figure 18
<p>Scatter plots of NoPorterNoStop/BM25 with QE+RF vs. the same run without QE+RF: (<b>a</b>) P@10, (<b>b</b>) NDCG@10.</p>
Full article ">Figure 19
<p>Scatter plots of NoPorterNoStop/TF-IDF vs. w2v-si: (<b>a</b>) P@10, (<b>b</b>) NDCG@10.</p>
Full article ">Figure 20
<p>T1: scatter plots of P@10 of the fusion of all the models using the same index: (<b>a</b>) CombSUM vs. RR fusion of the Terrier runs using NoPorterNoStop index NoPorterNoStop fusions of the runs, (<b>b</b>) CombSUM vs. RR fusion of the Terrier runs using Porter index, (<b>c</b>) CombSUM vs. RR fusion of the Terrier runs using PorterStop index, (<b>d</b>) CombSUM vs. RR fusion of the Terrier runs using Stop index.</p>
Full article ">Figure 21
<p>T1: scatter plots of P@10 of the fusion of the models with different indexes: (<b>a</b>) CombSUM vs. RR fusion of the Terrier runs with BM25 weighting scheme, (<b>b</b>) CombSUM vs. RR fusion of the Terrier runs with DirichletLM weighting scheme, (<b>c</b>) CombSUM vs. RR fusion of the Terrier runs with PL2 weighting scheme, (<b>d</b>) CombSUM vs. RR fusion of the Terrier runs with TF-IDF weighting scheme.</p>
Full article ">Figure 22
<p>T2: scatter plots of P@10 and NDCG@10 of Porter/DirichletLM vs. RR fusion of best runs per index with QE+RF: (<b>a</b>) P@10, (<b>b</b>) NDCG@10.</p>
Full article ">Figure 23
<p>T1: scatter plots of P@10 and NDCG@10 of Porter/DirichletLM vs. RR fusion of best runs per index with QE+RF: (<b>a</b>) P@10, (<b>b</b>) NDCG@10.</p>
Full article ">Figure 24
<p>T2: scatter plots of P@10 and NDCG@10 of NoPorterNoStop/DirichletLM vs. RR fusion of best runs per model with QE+RF: (<b>a</b>) P@10, (<b>b</b>) NDCG@10.</p>
Full article ">Figure 25
<p>T1: scatter plots of the best run vs. the fusion of the two best runs: (<b>a</b>) P@10 for Porter/Dirichlet vs. CombSUM, (<b>b</b>) P@10 for Porter/Dirichlet vs. RR, (<b>c</b>) NDCG@10 for Porter/Dirichlet vs. CombSUM, (<b>d</b>) NDCG@10 for Porter/Dirichlet vs. RR.</p>
Full article ">Figure 26
<p>T2: scatter plots of the best run vs. the fusion of the two best runs: (<b>a</b>) P@10 for Porter/Dirichlet vs. CombSUM, (<b>b</b>) P@10 for Porter/Dirichlet vs. RR, (<b>c</b>) NDCG@10 for Porter/Dirichlet vs. CombSUM, (<b>d</b>) NDCG@10 for Porter/Dirichlet vs. RR.</p>
Full article ">
19 pages, 259 KiB  
Article
Triadic Automata and Machines as Information Transformers
by Mark Burgin
Information 2020, 11(2), 102; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020102 - 13 Feb 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3614
Abstract
Algorithms and abstract automata (abstract machines) are used to describe, model, explore and improve computers, cell phones, computer networks, such as the Internet, and processes in them. Traditional models of information processing systems—abstract automata—are aimed at performing transformations of data. These transformations are [...] Read more.
Algorithms and abstract automata (abstract machines) are used to describe, model, explore and improve computers, cell phones, computer networks, such as the Internet, and processes in them. Traditional models of information processing systems—abstract automata—are aimed at performing transformations of data. These transformations are performed by their hardware (abstract devices) and controlled by their software (programs)—both of which stay unchanged during the whole computational process. However, in physical computers, their software is also changing by special tools such as interpreters, compilers, optimizers and translators. In addition, people change the hardware of their computers by extending the external memory. Moreover, the hardware of computer networks is incessantly altering—new computers and other devices are added while other computers and other devices are disconnected. To better represent these peculiarities of computers and computer networks, we introduce and study a more complete model of computations, which is called a triadic automaton or machine. In contrast to traditional models of computations, triadic automata (machine) perform computational processes transforming not only data but also hardware and programs, which control data transformation. In addition, we further develop taxonomy of classes of automata and machines as well as of individual automata and machines according to information they produce. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 10th Anniversary of Information—Emerging Research Challenges)
11 pages, 862 KiB  
Article
An Empirical Study of Social Commerce Intention: An Example of China
by Chao-Hsing Lee and Chien-Wen Chen
Information 2020, 11(2), 99; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020099 - 12 Feb 2020
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 5571
Abstract
The rise of social networks is rapidly spreading in China. Using social platforms, individuals are no longer just receivers of Internet information, as consumers generate and share contents with others. Social interaction and spontaneous promotion activities are carried out among consumers, but with [...] Read more.
The rise of social networks is rapidly spreading in China. Using social platforms, individuals are no longer just receivers of Internet information, as consumers generate and share contents with others. Social interaction and spontaneous promotion activities are carried out among consumers, but with the growth of traditional e-commerce slowing down, social commerce derived from social networks is gradually taking shape. Based on Hajli’s theoretical model, this study uses the social support theory and social commerce construct to study consumers’ social commerce behavior from a total of 1277 valid sample questionnaires that were distributed in a social platform environment in China. Through the empirical research evaluation using PLS-SEM, the statistical analysis results prove that social commerce constructs do promote social interaction of consumers. Such constructs have a positive effect on social support and social commerce intentions. In this regard, social support is embodied in information support and emotional support, and has a positive effect on social commerce intention. This study also conducts cross-cultural empirical comparisons. In comparison with Hajli’s research, this study has the same results in evaluation of Chinese samples. Among the users who exhibit social commerce intentions, social commerce construction is more important than social support. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Knowledge Discovery on the Web)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>Social commerce intention model.</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>Path diagram of social commerce intention.</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>Results of bootstrapping implemented by the social commerce intention model.</p>
Full article ">
17 pages, 3300 KiB  
Article
A Real-World-Oriented Multi-Task Allocation Approach Based on Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning in Mobile Crowd Sensing
by Junying Han, Zhenyu Zhang and Xiaohong Wu
Information 2020, 11(2), 101; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020101 - 12 Feb 2020
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3884
Abstract
Mobile crowd sensing is an innovative and promising paradigm in the construction and perception of smart cities. However, multi-task allocation in real-world scenarios is a huge challenge. There are many unexpected factors in the execution of mobile crowd sensing tasks, such as traffic [...] Read more.
Mobile crowd sensing is an innovative and promising paradigm in the construction and perception of smart cities. However, multi-task allocation in real-world scenarios is a huge challenge. There are many unexpected factors in the execution of mobile crowd sensing tasks, such as traffic jams or accidents, that make participants unable to reach the target area. In addition, participants may quit halfway due to equipment failure, network paralysis, dishonest behavior, etc. Previous task allocation approaches mainly ignored some of the heterogeneity of participants and tasks in the real-world scenarios. This paper proposes a real-world-oriented multi-task allocation approach based on multi-agent reinforcement learning. Firstly, under the premise of fully considering the heterogeneity of participants and tasks, the approach enables participants as agents to learn multiple solutions independently, based on modified soft Q-learning. Secondly, two cooperation mechanisms are proposed for obtaining the stable joint action, which can minimize the total sensing time while meeting the sensing quality constraint, which optimizes the sensing quality of mobile crowd sensing (MCS) tasks. Experiments verify that the approach can effectively reduce the impact of emergencies on the efficiency of large-scale MCS platform and outperform baselines based on a real-world dataset under different experiment settings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Information and Communications Technology)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>Typical mobile crowd sensing (MCS) system framework.</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>Multi-agent reinforcement learning framework.</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>Task allocation system framework.</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p>The comparison curve of total sensing time based on heterogeneous user: (<b>a</b>) the velocity: 1; (<b>b</b>) the velocity: 3; (<b>c</b>) the velocity: 20; (<b>d</b>) the velocity: 60.</p>
Full article ">Figure 4 Cont.
<p>The comparison curve of total sensing time based on heterogeneous user: (<b>a</b>) the velocity: 1; (<b>b</b>) the velocity: 3; (<b>c</b>) the velocity: 20; (<b>d</b>) the velocity: 60.</p>
Full article ">Figure 5
<p>The sensing quality under different mobile sensing tasks distributions.</p>
Full article ">Figure 6
<p>The total sensing time under different mobile sensing tasks distributions.</p>
Full article ">Figure 7
<p>The total sensing time under different proportion of unexpected tasks.</p>
Full article ">
11 pages, 657 KiB  
Article
Wireless Underground Communications in Sewer and Stormwater Overflow Monitoring: Radio Waves through Soil and Asphalt Medium
by Usman Raza and Abdul Salam
Information 2020, 11(2), 98; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020098 - 11 Feb 2020
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 7145
Abstract
Storm drains and sanitary sewers are prone to backups and overflows due to extra amount wastewater entering the pipes. To prevent that, it is imperative to efficiently monitor the urban underground infrastructure. The combination of sensors system and wireless underground communication system can [...] Read more.
Storm drains and sanitary sewers are prone to backups and overflows due to extra amount wastewater entering the pipes. To prevent that, it is imperative to efficiently monitor the urban underground infrastructure. The combination of sensors system and wireless underground communication system can be used to realize urban underground IoT applications, e.g., storm water and wastewater overflow monitoring systems. The aim of this article is to establish a feasibility of the use of wireless underground communications techniques, and wave propagation through the subsurface soil and asphalt layers, in an underground pavement system for storm water and sewer overflow monitoring application. In this paper, the path loss analysis of wireless underground communications in urban underground IoT for wastewater monitoring has been presented. The dielectric properties of asphalt, sub-grade aggregates, and soil are considered in the path loss analysis for the path loss prediction in an underground sewer overflow and wastewater monitoring system design. It has been shown that underground transmitter was able to communicate through thick asphalt (10 cm) and soil layers (20 cm) for a long range of up to 4 km. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Information and Communications Technology)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>The architecture of urban underground IoT for wastewater monitoring.</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>The layered structure of the underground medium.</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>The propagation loss in the asphalt medium with change in layer thickness.</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p>The path loss with change in distance.</p>
Full article ">Figure 5
<p>The received signal strength indicator with distance.</p>
Full article ">Figure 6
<p>The propagation loss in the soil medium with change in layer thickness.</p>
Full article ">Figure 7
<p>The effect of temperature change on propagation loss in asphalt.</p>
Full article ">
13 pages, 738 KiB  
Article
Error Detection in a Large-Scale Lexical Taxonomy
by Yinan An, Sifan Liu and Hongzhi Wang
Information 2020, 11(2), 97; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020097 - 11 Feb 2020
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2616
Abstract
Knowledge base (KB) is an important aspect in artificial intelligence. One significant challenge faced by KB construction is that it contains many noises, which prevent its effective usage. Even though some KB cleansing algorithms have been proposed, they focus on the structure of [...] Read more.
Knowledge base (KB) is an important aspect in artificial intelligence. One significant challenge faced by KB construction is that it contains many noises, which prevent its effective usage. Even though some KB cleansing algorithms have been proposed, they focus on the structure of the knowledge graph and neglect the relation between the concepts, which could be helpful to discover wrong relations in KB. Motived by this, we measure the relation of two concepts by the distance between their corresponding instances and detect errors within the intersection of the conflicting concept sets. For efficient and effective knowledge base cleansing, we first apply a distance-based model to determine the conflicting concept sets using two different methods. Then, we propose and analyze several algorithms on how to detect and repair the errors based on our model, where we use a hash method for an efficient way to calculate distance. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approaches could cleanse the knowledge bases efficiently and effectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Quality of Open Data)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>Similar concept sets.</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>Conflicting concept sets.</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>Bucket influence.</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p>Threshold influence.</p>
Full article ">Figure 5
<p>Error distribution.</p>
Full article ">Figure 6
<p>Weights Influence.</p>
Full article ">
14 pages, 4034 KiB  
Article
Cyber Security Tool Kit (CyberSecTK): A Python Library for Machine Learning and Cyber Security
by Ricardo A. Calix, Sumendra B. Singh, Tingyu Chen, Dingkai Zhang and Michael Tu
Information 2020, 11(2), 100; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020100 - 11 Feb 2020
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 12887
Abstract
The cyber security toolkit, CyberSecTK, is a simple Python library for preprocessing and feature extraction of cyber-security-related data. As the digital universe expands, more and more data need to be processed using automated approaches. In recent years, cyber security professionals have seen opportunities [...] Read more.
The cyber security toolkit, CyberSecTK, is a simple Python library for preprocessing and feature extraction of cyber-security-related data. As the digital universe expands, more and more data need to be processed using automated approaches. In recent years, cyber security professionals have seen opportunities to use machine learning approaches to help process and analyze their data. The challenge is that cyber security experts do not have necessary trainings to apply machine learning to their problems. The goal of this library is to help bridge this gap. In particular, we propose the development of a toolkit in Python that can process the most common types of cyber security data. This will help cyber experts to implement a basic machine learning pipeline from beginning to end. This proposed research work is our first attempt to achieve this goal. The proposed toolkit is a suite of program modules, data sets, and tutorials supporting research and teaching in cyber security and defense. An example of use cases is presented and discussed. Survey results of students using some of the modules in the library are also presented. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Machine Learning with Python)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>Wireless local area network (WLAN) frame structure (IEEE 802.11 standard frame format).</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>Internet of things (IoT) testbed environment setup.</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>Algorithm 1—feature extraction.</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p>Log of malware behavior.</p>
Full article ">Figure 5
<p>Log files for goodware and malware.</p>
Full article ">Figure 6
<p>Initialization of CountVectorizer.</p>
Full article ">Figure 7
<p>Extraction of features.</p>
Full article ">Figure 8
<p>IoT wireless features.</p>
Full article ">Figure 9
<p>Dynamic analysis of malware features.</p>
Full article ">Figure 10
<p>Survey results on students’ answers to Q8.</p>
Full article ">Figure 11
<p>Survey results on students’ answers to Q12.</p>
Full article ">Figure 12
<p>Survey results on students’ answers to Q16.</p>
Full article ">
15 pages, 1064 KiB  
Article
Cross-Server Computation Offloading for Multi-Task Mobile Edge Computing
by Yongpeng Shi, Yujie Xia and Ya Gao
Information 2020, 11(2), 96; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020096 - 10 Feb 2020
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3351
Abstract
As an emerging network architecture and technology, mobile edge computing (MEC) can alleviate the tension between the computation-intensive applications and the resource-constrained mobile devices. However, most available studies on computation offloading in MEC assume that the edge severs host various applications and can [...] Read more.
As an emerging network architecture and technology, mobile edge computing (MEC) can alleviate the tension between the computation-intensive applications and the resource-constrained mobile devices. However, most available studies on computation offloading in MEC assume that the edge severs host various applications and can cope with all kinds of computation tasks, ignoring limited computing resources and storage capacities of the MEC architecture. To make full use of the available resources deployed on the edge servers, in this paper, we study the cross-server computation offloading problem to realize the collaboration among multiple edge servers for multi-task mobile edge computing, and propose a greedy approximation algorithm as our solution to minimize the overall consumed energy. Numerical results validate that our proposed method can not only give near-optimal solutions with much higher computational efficiency, but also scale well with the growing number of mobile devices and tasks. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1
<p>A multi-task multi-server MEC architecture: MEC servers deploying at the access points can process various types of tasks simultaneously. MDs can offload the tasks to MECSs or RCC.</p>
Full article ">Figure 2
<p>Performance comparison of the overall minimum energy consumption among BEA, GAA, SAA, and RANA with different numbers of MDs.</p>
Full article ">Figure 3
<p>Illustration of the running time comparison among BEA, GAA, SAA, and RANA with different numbers of MDs.</p>
Full article ">Figure 4
<p>Illustration of the calculated minimum consumed energy results by adopting five different computing and offloading schemes, i.e., local computing, edge computing, GAA without remote offloading, and GAA as well as SAA methods.</p>
Full article ">Figure 5
<p>Comparisons illustration of the energy consumption with different number of APP types hosted on each AP.</p>
Full article ">
Previous Issue
Next Issue
Back to TopTop