An Ensemble Classification and Hybrid Feature Selection Approach for Fake News Stance Detection

The developments in Internet and notions of social media have revolutionised representations and disseminations of news. News spreads quickly while costing less in social media. Amidst these quick distributions, dangerous or seductive information like user generated false news also spread equally. on social media. Distinguishing true incidents from false news strips create key challenges. Prior to sending the feature vectors to the classifier, it was suggested in this study effort to use dimensionality reduction approaches to do so. These methods would not significantly affect the result, though. Furthermore, utilising dimensionality reduction techniques significantly reduces the time needed to complete a forecast. This paper presents a hybrid feature selection method to overcome the above mentioned issues. The classifications of fake news are based on ensembles which identify connections between stories and headlines of news items. Initially, data is pre-processed to transform unstructured data into structures for ease of processing. In the second step, unidentified qualities of false news from diverse connections amongst news articles are extracted utilising PCA (Principal Component Analysis). For the feature reduction procedure, the third step uses FPSO (Fuzzy Particle Swarm Optimization) to select features. To efficiently understand how news items are represented and spot bogus news, this study creates ELMs (Ensemble Learning Models). This study obtained a dataset from Kaggle to create the reasoning. In this study, four assessment metrics have been used to evaluate performances of classifying models

Cross-Cutting Literature Review on the Drivers of Local Council Accountability and Performance

There is now a considerable body of literature on decentralization in diverse national contexts. Ascertaining factors that drive local accountability and performance have been the key concerns of these studies. Diverse ethodological instruments and approaches have been used—from large-n statistical analyses to in-depth case study techniques. And yet, the findings regarding the drivers of local performance and accountability remain inconclusive or even contradictory even when different scholars employ similar data.Local Performance; Democracy; Rule of Law; Elections; Socio-Economic development; Political Culture; Corruption; Ethnic Diversity; Party System; Fiscal Decentralization; Local Government; Outsourcing; Leadership Skills

Simple identification tools in FishBase

Simple identification tools for fish species were included in the FishBase information system from its inception. Early tools made use of the relational model and characters like fin ray meristics. Soon pictures and drawings were added as a further help, similar to a field guide. Later came the computerization of existing dichotomous keys, again in combination with pictures and other information, and the ability to restrict possible species by country, area, or taxonomic group. Today, www.FishBase.org offers four different ways to identify species. This paper describes these tools with their advantages and disadvantages, and suggests various options for further development. It explores the possibility of a holistic and integrated computeraided strategy

Monitoring and assessment of macroinvertebrate communities in support of river management in northern Vietnam

The thesis aimed to develop a water quality biological monitoring and assessment based on macro-invertebrates to analyse the status of watercourses and to select sustainable restoration measures in order to support river. The research was carried in the Du river basin in northern Vietnam. Spatial and temporal analysis showed that macro-invertebrate community compositions in the Du river were not only driven by morphological characteristics but also by water quality issues. A relatively small temporal variation was detected that requires no remarkable modifications in the development of a bio-assessment methodology for watercourses in the specific river. Multivariate analyses using CCA and Bray-Curtis cluster analysis provided a similar discrimination between pristine and impacted sites in the Du river basin. Qualitative biotic indices including the BMWP-Viet proved to be appropriate for use in the studied watercourses in Vietnam. The BMWP-Viet could differentiate study sites into classes ranging from very good to very poor ecological conditions. The current BMWP-Viet approach can be useful at an early stage of bio-assessment application in Vietnam. However, this method should be improved by optimising the scoring system for common taxa and development of more robust assessment approaches such as multi-metric indices. Data mining techniques including classification trees and support vector machines were applied to develop predictive models for BMWP-Viet as well as presence/absence of macro-invertebrate taxa (ecological indicators). Optimised models indicate the major environmental variables influencing the presence/absence of macro-invertebrates, which in the mean time also reflect the river characteristics that river managers have to consider in their policy plans. A decision support system, the WFD-Explorer was combined with classification trees to link human activities with the ecological river conditions and analyse the relevance of several restoration options

A new T-S fuzzy model predictive control for nonlinear processes

Abstract: In this paper, a novel fuzzy Generalized Predictive Control (GPC) is proposed for discrete-time nonlinear systems via Takagi-Sugeno system based Kernel Ridge Regression (TS-KRR). The TS-KRR strategy approximates the unknown nonlinear systems by learning the Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy parameters from the input-output data. Two main steps are required to construct the TS-KRR: the first step is to use a clustering algorithm such as the clustering based Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm that separates the input data into clusters and obtains the antecedent TS fuzzy model parameters. In the second step, the consequent TS fuzzy parameters are obtained using a Kernel ridge regression algorithm. Furthermore, the TS based predictive control is created by integrating the TS-KRR into the Generalized Predictive Controller. Next, an adaptive, online, version of TS-KRR is proposed and integrated with the GPC controller resulting an efficient adaptive fuzzy generalized predictive control methodology that can deal with most of the industrial plants and has the ability to deal with disturbances and variations of the model parameters. In the adaptive TS-KRR algorithm, the antecedent parameters are initialized with a simple K-means algorithm and updated using a simple gradient algorithm. Then, the consequent parameters are obtained using the sliding-window Kernel Recursive Least squares (KRLS) algorithm. Finally, two nonlinear systems: A surge tank and Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) systems were used to investigate the performance of the new adaptive TS-KRR GPC controller. Furthermore, the results obtained by the adaptive TS-KRR GPC controller were compared with two other controllers. The numerical results demonstrate the reliability of the proposed adaptive TS-KRR GPC method for discrete-time nonlinear systems

Wireless Sensor Technology Selection for I4.0 Manufacturing Systems

The term smart manufacturing has surfaced as an industrial revolution in Germany known as Industry 4.0 (I4.0); this revolution aims to help the manufacturers adapt to turbulent market trends. Its main scope is implementing machine communication, both vertically and horizontally across the manufacturing hierarchy through Internet of things (IoT), technologies and servitization concepts. The main objective of this research is to help manufacturers manage the high levels of variety and the extreme turbulence of market trends through developing a selection tool that utilizes Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) techniques to recommend a suitable industrial wireless sensor network (IWSN) technology that fits their manufacturing requirements.In this thesis, IWSN technologies and their properties were identified, analyzed and compared to identify their potential suitability for different industrial manufacturing system application areas. The study included the identification and analysis of different industrial system types, their application areas, scenarios and respective communication requirements. The developed tool’s sensitivity is also tested to recommend different IWSN technology options with changing influential factors. Also, a prioritizing protocol is introduced in the case where more than one IWSN technology options are recommended by the AHP tool.A real industrial case study with the collaboration of SPM Automation Inc. is presented, where the industrial systems’ class, communication traffic types, and communication requirements were analyzed to recommend a suitable IWSN technology that fits their requirements and assists their shift towards I4.0 through utilizing AHP techniques. The results of this research will serve as a step forward, in the transformation process of manufacturing towards a more digitalized and better connected cyber-physical systems; thus, enhancing manufacturing attributes such as flexibility, reconfigurability, scalability and easing the shift towards implementing I4.0

Data-driven soft-sensors for online monitoring of batch processes with different initial conditions

A soft-sensing methodology applicable to batch processes operated under changeable initial conditions is presented. These cases appear when the raw materials specifications differ from batch to batch, different production scenarios should be managed, etc. The proposal exploits the capabilities of the machine learning techniques to provide practical soft-sensing approach with minimum tuning effort in spite of the fact that the inherent dynamic behavior of batch systems are tracked through other online indirect measurements. Current data modeling techniques have been also tested within the proposed methodology to demonstrate its advantages. Two simulation case-studies and a pilot-plant case-study involving a complex batch process for wastewater treatment are used to illustrate the problem, to assess the modeling approach and to compare the modeling techniques. The results reflect a promising accuracy even when the training information is scarce, allowing significant reductions in the cost associated to batch processes monitoring and control.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft