Mining fuzzy temporal association rules by item lifespans

Data mining is the process of extracting desirable knowledge or interesting patterns from existing databases for specific purposes. In real-world applications, transactions may contain quantitative values and each item may have a lifespan from a temporal database. In this paper, we thus propose a data mining algorithm for deriving fuzzy temporal association rules. It first transforms each quantitative value into a fuzzy set using the given membership functions. Meanwhile, item lifespans are collected and recorded in a temporal information table through a transformation process. The algorithm then calculates the scalar cardinality of each linguistic term of each item. A mining process based on fuzzy counts and item lifespans is then performed to find fuzzy temporal association rules. Experiments are finally performed on two simulation datasets and the foodmart dataset to show the effectiveness and the efficiency of the proposed approach.     

Fault-tolerant enhanced bijective soft set with applications

As an extension of the soft set, the bijective soft set can be used to mine data from soft set environments, and has been studied and applied in some fields. However, only a small proportion of fault data will cause bijective soft sets losing major recognition ability for mining data. Therefore, this study aims to improve the bijective soft set-based data mining method on tolerate-fault-data ability. First some notions and operations of the bijective soft set at a β-misclassification degree is defined. Moreover, algorithms for finding an optimal β, reductions, cores, decision rules and misclassified data are proposed. This paper uses a real problem in gaining shoreline resources evaluation rules to validate the model. The results show that the proposed model has the fault-tolerant ability, and it improves the tolerate-ability of bijective soft set-based data mining method. Moreover, the proposed method can help decision makers to discover fault data for further analysis.     

A fuzzy genetic algorithm for the discovery of process parameter settings using knowledge representation

In this paper, we propose a fuzzy genetic algorithm (Fuzzy-GA) approach integrating fuzzy rule sets and their membership function sets, in a chromosome. The proposed approach consists of two processes: knowledge representation and knowledge assimilation. The knowledge of process parameter setting is encoded as a string with a fuzzy rule set and the associated membership functions. The historical process data forming a combined string is used as the initial knowledge population, which is then ready for knowledge assimilation. A genetic algorithm is used to generate an optimal or nearly optimal fuzzy set and membership functions for the process parameters. The originality of this research is that the proposed system is equipped with the ability to take advantage of assessing the loss which is caused by discrepancy with a process target, thereby enabling the identification of the best set of process parameters. The approach is demonstrated by the use of an experimental example drawn from a semiconductor manufacturer and the results show us that the suggested approach is able to achieve an optimal solution for a process parameter setting problem.     

Rules discovery in fuzzy classifier systems with PSO for scheduling in grid computational infrastructures

Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a bio-inspired optimization strategy founded on the movement of particles within swarms. PSO can be encoded in a few lines in most programming languages, it uses only elementary mathematical operations, and it is not costly as regards memory demand and running time. This paper discusses the application of PSO to rules discovery in fuzzy classifier systems (FCSs) instead of the classical genetic approach and it proposes a new strategy, Knowledge Acquisition with Rules as Particles (KARP). In KARP approach every rule is encoded as a particle that moves in the space in order to cooperate in obtaining high quality rule bases and in this way, improving the knowledge and performance of the FCS. The proposed swarm-based strategy is evaluated in a well-known problem of practical importance nowadays where the integration of fuzzy systems is increasingly emerging due to the inherent uncertainty and dynamism of the environment: scheduling in grid distributed computational infrastructures. Simulation results are compared to those of classical genetic learning for fuzzy classifier systems and the greater accuracy and convergence speed of classifier discovery systems using KARP is shown.     

An ACS-based framework for fuzzy data mining

Data mining is often used to find out interesting and meaningful patterns from huge databases. It may generate different kinds of knowledge such as classification rules, clusters, association rules, and among others. A lot of researches have been proposed about data mining and most of them focused on mining from binary-valued data. Fuzzy data mining was thus proposed to discover fuzzy knowledge from linguistic or quantitative data. Recently, ant colony systems (ACS) have been successfully applied to optimization problems. However, few works have been done on applying ACS to fuzzy data mining. This thesis thus attempts to propose an ACS-based framework for fuzzy data mining. In the framework, the membership functions are first encoded into binary-bits and then fed into the ACS to search for the optimal set of membership functions. The problem is then transformed into a multi-stage graph, with each route representing a possible set of membership functions. When the termination condition is reached, the best membership function set (with the highest fitness value) can then be used to mine fuzzy association rules from a database. At last, experiments are made to make a comparison with other approaches and show the performance of the proposed framework.     

Defending against XML-related attacks in e-commerce applications with predictive fuzzy associative rules

Security administrators need to prioritise which feature to focus on amidst the various possibilities and avenues of attack, especially via Web Service in e-commerce applications. This study addresses the feature selection problem by proposing a predictive fuzzy associative rule model (FARM). FARM validates inputs by segregating the anomalies based fuzzy associative patterns discovered from five attributes in the intrusion datasets. These associative patterns leads to the discovery of a set of 18 interesting rules at 99% confidence and subsequently, categorisation into not only certainly allow/deny but also probably deny access decision class. FARM's classification provides 99% classification accuracy and less than 1% false alarm rate. Our findings indicate two benefits to using fuzzy datasets. First, fuzzy enables the discovery of fuzzy association patterns, fuzzy association rules and more sensitive classification. In addition, the root mean squared error (RMSE) and classification accuracy for fuzzy and crisp datasets do not differ much when using the Random Forest classifier. However, when other classifiers are used with increasing number of instances on the fuzzy and crisp datasets, the fuzzy datasets perform much better. Future research will involve experimentation on bigger data sets on different data types.     

User profiles and fuzzy logic for web retrieval issues

 We present a study of the role of user profiles using fuzzy logic in web retrieval processes. Flexibility for user interaction and for adaptation in profile construction becomes an important issue. We focus our study on user profiles, including creation, modification, storage, clustering and interpretation. We also consider the role of fuzzy logic and other soft computing techniques to improve user profiles. Extended profiles contain additional information related to the user that can be used to personalize and customize the retrieval process as well as the web site. Web mining processes can be carried out by means of fuzzy clustering of these extended profiles and fuzzy rule construction. Fuzzy inference can be used in order to modify queries and extract knowledge from profiles with marketing purposes within a web framework. An architecture of a portal that could support web mining technology is also presented.     

实用关联规则挖掘算法的研究和实现

关联规则挖掘是数据挖掘的主要方式之一。如何挖掘实用、有趣的关联规则已引起了众多学者的注意, 由于至今没有形成一个统一的标准,本文从删除冗余规则和引入“相关度”这个概念两个方面对实用关 联规则的挖掘算法进行了初步研究,最后对挖掘算法的运行状况进行了比较和分析。     

Text analytics for big data using rough–fuzzy soft computing techniques

Text mining or analytics is important for various applications such as market analysis and biomedical purposes because it enables the efficient retrieval of information from large datasets. During the analysis, increasing the dimensionality of the data reduces the performance of an entire system because doing so may retrieve irrelevant text, which creates errors. Therefore, this paper introduces big data and data mining techniques to analyse large volumes of information while mining texts, emails, blogs, online forums, news, and call centre documents. Initially, the data are collected from various sources that contain noise, which is removed by applying normalization techniques. Data mining techniques eliminate the irrelevant information and noise, and the relevant features are selected using the rough set‐based particle swarm optimization algorithm. The selected features are formed as a cluster using a fuzzy set with the particle swarm optimization algorithm, which improves the efficiency of the mining process. Then, the efficiency of the system is evaluated using the University of California Irvine Machine Learning Repository knowledge process mining database, along with the sum of the intra cluster distances, the mean squared error rate, and the accuracy.     

Inference by aggregation of evidence with applications to fuzzy probabilities

Optimal aggregation plays an important role towards developing a theory of aggregation of fuzzy concepts, based on non-additive set-functions and nonlinear (Choquet or fuzzy) integrals. This paper presents a framework supporting such aggregations and argues that such a framework is useful to decision making based on distributed sources of evidence.     

The role of BK-products of relations in soft computing

 Relational computing structures make it possible to perform knowledge representation as well as all the computations in intelligent systems in a unified way. When crisp computations are replaced by fuzzy relational computations, it is possible to improve significantly handling of indeterminacy and incompleteness of information. Fuzzy computational structures in which cuts commute with closures over relational properties, provide in addition the means for significant data compression, resulting in significant speedup of computations. BK-relational products provide axiomatics necessary for constructive computational procedures that rigorously satisfy the above formulated requirements. Furthermore, relational specifications of soft computing architectures have great unifying power.     

A balanced solution of a fuzzy soft set based decision making problem in medical science

The purpose of this paper is two folded. Firstly, the concept of mean potentiality approach (MPA) has been developed and an algorithm based on this new approach has been proposed to get a balanced solution of a fuzzy soft set based decision making problem. Secondly, a parameter reduction procedure based on relational algebra with the help of the balanced algorithm of mean potentiality approach has been used to reduce the choice parameter set in the parlance of fuzzy soft set theory and it is justified to the problems of diagnosis of a disease from the myriad of symptoms from medical science. Moreover the feasibility of this proposed method is demonstrated by comparing with Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Naive Bayes classification method and Feng's method.     

Perception-based hidden Markov models: a theoretical framework for data mining and knowledge discovery

 The combination of objective measurements and human perceptions using hidden Markov models with particular reference to sequential data mining and knowledge discovery is presented in this paper. Both human preferences and statistical analysis are utilized for verification and identification of hypotheses as well as detection of hidden patterns. As another theoretical view, this work attempts to formalize the complementarity of the computational theories of hidden Markov models and perceptions for providing solutions associated with the manipulation of the internet.     

Comment on: “Image thresholding using type II fuzzy sets”. Importance of this method

In this work we develop some reflections on the thresholding algorithm proposed by Tizhoosh in [16]. The purpose of these reflections is to complete the considerations published recently in [17] and [18] on said algorithm. We also prove that under certain constructions, Tizhoosh's algorithm makes it possible to obtain additional information from commonly used fuzzy algorithms.     

New measures of weighted fuzzy entropy and their applications for the study of maximum weighted fuzzy entropy principle

Keeping in view the non-probabilistic nature of experiments, two new measures of weighted fuzzy entropy have been introduced and to check their authenticity, the essential properties of these measures have been studied. Under the fact that measures of entropy can be used for the study of optimization principles when certain partial information is available, we have applied the existing as well as the newly introduced weighted measures of fuzzy entropy to study the maximum entropy principle.     

Soft sets based symbiotic organisms search algorithm for resource discovery in cloud computing environment

The dynamicity, coupled with the uncertainty that occurs between advertised resources and users’ resource requirement queries, remains significant problems that hamper the discovery of candidate resources in a cloud computing environment. Network size and complexity continue to increase dynamically which makes resource discovery a complex, NP-hard problem that requires efficient algorithms for optimum resource discovery. Several algorithms have been proposed in literature but there is still room for more efficient algorithms especially as the size of the resources increases. This paper proposes a soft-set symbiotic organisms search (SSSOS) algorithm, a new hybrid resource discovery solution. Soft-set theory has been proved efficient for tackling uncertainty problems that arises in static systems while symbiotic organisms search (SOS) has shown strength for tackling dynamic relationships that occur in dynamic environments in search of optimal solutions among objects. The SSSOS algorithm innovatively combines the strengths of the underlying techniques to provide efficient management of tasks that need to be accomplished during resource discovery in the cloud. The effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed hybrid algorithm is demonstrated through empirical simulation study and benchmarking against recent techniques in literature. Results obtained reveal the promising potential of the proposed SSSOS algorithm for resource discovery in a cloud environment.     

On solutions of fuzzy random multiobjective quadratic programming with applications in portfolio problem

In this paper, a multiobjective quadratic programming problem fuzzy random coefficients matrix in the objectives and constraints and the decision vector are fuzzy variables is considered. First, we show that the efficient solutions fuzzy quadratic multiobjective programming problems series-optimal-solutions of relative scalar fuzzy quadratic programming. Some theorems are to find an optimal solution of the relative scalar quadratic multiobjective programming with fuzzy coefficients, having decision vectors as fuzzy variables. An application fuzzy portfolio optimization problem as a convex quadratic programming approach is discussed and an acceptable solution to such problem is given. At the end, numerical examples are illustrated in the support of the obtained results.     

On the position of intuitionistic fuzzy set theory in the framework of theories modelling imprecision

Intuitionistic fuzzy sets [K.T. Atanassov, Intuitionistic fuzzy sets, VII ITKR’s Session, Sofia (deposed in Central Science-Technical Library of Bulgarian Academy of Science, 1697/84), 1983 (in Bulgarian)] are an extension of fuzzy set theory in which not only a membership degree is given, but also a non-membership degree, which is more or less independent. Considering the increasing interest in intuitionistic fuzzy sets, it is useful to determine the position of intuitionistic fuzzy set theory in the framework of the different theories modelling imprecision. In this paper we discuss the mathematical relationship between intuitionistic fuzzy sets and other models of imprecision.     

Interactive visual exploration of association rules with rule-focusing methodology

On account of the enormous amounts of rules that can be produced by data mining algorithms, knowledge post-processing is a difficult stage in an association rule discovery process. In order to find relevant knowledge for decision making, the user (a decision maker specialized in the data studied) needs to rummage through the rules. To assist him/her in this task, we here propose the rule-focusing methodology, an interactive methodology for the visual post-processing of association rules. It allows the user to explore large sets of rules freely by focusing his/her attention on limited subsets. This new approach relies on rule interestingness measures, on a visual representation, and on interactive navigation among the rules. We have implemented the rule-focusing methodology in a prototype system called ARVis. It exploits the user's focus to guide the generation of the rules by means of a specific constraint-based rule-mining algorithm. Julien Blanchard earned the Ph.D. in 2005 from Nantes University (France) and is currently an assistant professor at the Polytechnic School of Nantes University. He is the author of a book chapter and seven journal and international conference papers in the field of visualization and interestingness measures for data mining. Fabrice Guillet is currently a member of the LINA laboratory (CNRS 2729) at the Polytechnic Graduate School of Nantes University (France). He receive the Ph.D. degree in computer science in 1995 from the Ecole Nationale Supěrieure des Télécommunications de Bretagne. He is author of 35 international publications in data mining and knowledge management. He is a founder and a permanent member of the Steering Committee of the annual EGC French-speaking conference. Henri Briand received the Ph.D. degree in 1983 from Paul Sabatier University located in Toulouse (France) and has published works in over 100 publications in database systems and database mining. He was the head of the Computer Engineering Department at the Polytechnic School of Nantes University. He was in charge of a research team in the data mining domain. He is responsible for the organization of the Data Mining Master in Nantes University.