Knowledge structures in a knowledge base

Rough set theory is a useful tool for dealing with imprecise knowledge. One of the advantages of rough set theory is the fact that an unknown target concept can be approximately characterized by existing knowledge structures in a knowledge base. This paper explores knowledge structures in a knowledge base. Knowledge structures in a knowledge base are firstly described by means of set vectors and relationships between knowledge structures divided into four classes. Then, properties of knowledge structures are discussed. Finally, group, lattice, mapping, and soft characterizations of knowledge structures are given.     

从学生需求看大学英语语言测试——以漓江学院非英语专业学生为例

本文通过访谈法和问卷调查法来了解漓江学院非英语专业学生对英语学习的需求。该研究旨在探寻学生需求和语言测试之间的关系。通过对收集数据的分析,我们发现学生需求和大学英语语言测试相互影响。     

Visual abstraction of dynamic network via improved multi-class blue noise sampling

Massive sequence view (MSV) is a classic timeline-based dynamic network visualization approach. However, it is vulnerable to visual clutter caused by overlapping edges, thereby leading to unexpected misunderstanding of time-varying trends of network communications. This study presents a new edge sampling algorithm called edge-based multi-class blue noise (E-MCBN) to reduce visual clutter in MSV. Our main idea is inspired by the multi-class blue noise (MCBN) sampling algorithm, commonly used in multi-class scatterplot decluttering. First, we take a node pair as an edge class, which can be regarded as an analogy to classes in multi-class scatterplots. Second, we propose two indicators, namely, class overlap and inter-class conflict degrees, to measure the overlapping degree and mutual exclusion, respectively, between edge classes. These indicators help construct the foundation of migrating the MCBN sampling from multi-class scatterplots to dynamic network samplings. Finally, we propose three strategies to accelerate MCBN sampling and a partitioning strategy to preserve local high-density edges in the MSV. The result shows that our approach can effectively reduce visual clutters and improve the readability of MSV. Moreover, our approach can also overcome the disadvantages of the MCBN sampling (i.e., long-running and failure to preserve local high-density communication areas in MSV). This study is the first that introduces MCBN sampling into a dynamic network sampling.     

A probabilistic framework for next best view estimation in a cluttered environment

In this article, we present an information gain-based variant of the next best view problem for occluded environment. Our proposed method utilizes a belief model of the unobserved space to estimate the expected information gain of each possible viewpoint. More precise, this belief model allows a more precise estimation of the visibility of occluded space and with that a more accurate prediction of the potential information gain of new viewing positions. We present experimental evaluation on a robotic platform for active data acquisition, however due to the generality of our approach it also applies to a wide variety of 3D reconstruction problems. With the evaluation done in simulation and on a real robotic platform, exploring and acquiring data from different environments we demonstrate the generality and usefulness of our approach for next best view estimation and autonomous data acquisition.     

ORDERING FUZZY SETS BY CONSENSUS CONCEPT AND FUZZY RELATION EQUATIONS

A general class of consensus measures of fuzzy sets is introduced in this paper. It is shown that, while the consensus measures are valuations but neither isotone nor antitone with respect to the lattice structure induced by the pointwise maximum and minimum operations to the set of all the fuzzy sets on a nonempty crisp set, they are antitone valuations with respect to the lattice structure induced by the generalized sharpening relation to a quotient set of the set of fuzzy sets. It is also shown that the solutions of a finite fuzzy relation equation that have the maximum consensus measure can be characterized through the join operation of the latter lattice in terms of the maximum solution and some of the minimal solutions of the equation.     

An approach to group decision making with heterogeneous incomplete uncertain preference relations

For practical group decision making problems, decision makers tend to provide heterogeneous uncertain preference relations due to the uncertainty of the decision environment and the difference of cultures and education backgrounds. Sometimes, decision makers may not have an in-depth knowledge of the problem to be solved and provide incomplete preference relations. In this paper, we focus on group decision making (GDM) problems with heterogeneous incomplete uncertain preference relations, including uncertain multiplicative preference relations, uncertain fuzzy preference relations, uncertain linguistic preference relations and intuitionistic fuzzy preference relations. To deal with such GDM problems, a decision analysis method is proposed. Based on the multiplicative consistency of uncertain preference relations, a bi-objective optimization model which aims to maximize both the group consensus and the individual consistency of each decision maker is established. By solving the optimization model, the priority weights of alternatives can be obtained. Finally, some illustrative examples are used to show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Mining temporal explicit and implicit semantic relations between entities using web search engines

In this paper, we study the problem of mining temporal semantic relations between entities. The goal of the studied problem is to mine and annotate a semantic relation with temporal, concise, and structured information, which can release the explicit, implicit, and diversity semantic relations between entities. The temporal semantic annotations can help users to learn and understand the unfamiliar or new emerged semantic relations between entities. The proposed temporal semantic annotation structure integrates the features from IEEE and Renlifang. We propose a general method to generate temporal semantic annotation of a semantic relation between entities by constructing its connection entities, lexical syntactic patterns, context sentences, context graph, and context communities. Empirical experiments on two different datasets including a LinkedIn dataset and movie star dataset show that the proposed method is effective and accurate. Different from the manually generated annotation repository such as Wikipedia and LinkedIn, the proposed method can automatically mine the semantic relation between entities and does not need any prior knowledge such as ontology or the hierarchical knowledge base. The proposed method can be used on some applications, which proves the effectiveness of the proposed temporal semantic relations on many web mining tasks.     

A new algorithm for resolution of the quadratic programming problem with fuzzy relation inequality constraints

The minimization problem of a quadratic objective function with the max-product fuzzy relation inequality constraints is studied in this paper. In this problem, its objective function is not necessarily convex. Hence, its Hessian matrix is not necessarily positive semi-definite. Therefore, we cannot apply the modified simplex method to solve this problem, in a general case. In this paper, we firstly study the structure of its feasible domain. We then use some properties of n × n real symmetric indefinite matrices, Cholesky’s decomposition, and the least square technique, and convert the problem to a separable programming problem. Furthermore, a relation in terms of a closed form is presented to solve it. Finally, an algorithm is proposed to solve the original problem. An application example in the economic area is given to illustrate the problem. Of course, there are other application examples in the area of digital data service and reliability engineering.     

An automatic iterative decision-making method for intuitionistic fuzzy linguistic preference relations

As a new preference structure, the intuitionistic fuzzy linguistic preference relation (IFLPR) was recently introduced to efficiently deal with situations in which the membership and non-membership are represented as linguistic terms. In this paper, we study the issues of additive consistency and the derivation of the intuitionistic fuzzy weight vector of an IFLPR. First, the new concepts of order consistency, additive consistency and weak transitivity for IFLPRs are introduced, and followed by a discussion of the characterisation about additive consistent IFLPRs. Then, a parameterised transformation approach is investigated to convert the normalised intuitionistic fuzzy weight vector into additive consistent IFLPRs. After that, a linear optimisation model is established to derive the normalised intuitionistic fuzzy weights for IFLPRs, and a consistency index is defined to measure the deviation degree between an IFLPR and its additive consistent IFLPR. Furthermore, we develop an automatic iterative decision-making method to improve the IFLPRs with unacceptable additive consistency until the adjusted IFLPRs are acceptable additive consistent, and it helps the decision-maker to obtain the reasonable and reliable decision-making results. Finally, an illustrative example is provided to demonstrate the validity and applicability of the proposed method.