Dealing with non-metric dissimilarities in fuzzy central clustering algorithms

Clustering is the problem of grouping objects on the basis of a similarity measure among them. Relational clustering methods can be employed when a feature-based representation of the objects is not available, and their description is given in terms of pairwise (dis)similarities. This paper focuses on the relational duals of fuzzy central clustering algorithms, and their application in situations when patterns are represented by means of non-metric pairwise dissimilarities. Symmetrization and shift operations have been proposed to transform the dissimilarities among patterns from non-metric to metric. In this paper, we analyze how four popular fuzzy central clustering algorithms are affected by such transformations. The main contributions include the lack of invariance to shift operations, as well as the invariance to symmetrization. Moreover, we highlight the connections between relational duals of central clustering algorithms and central clustering algorithms in kernel-induced spaces. One among the presented algorithms has never been proposed for non-metric relational clustering, and turns out to be very robust to shift operations. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Analysis of fuzzy clustering and a generic fuzzy rule-based image segmentation technique

Many fuzzy clustering based techniques when applied to image segmentation do not incorporate spatial relationships of the pixels, while fuzzy rule-based image segmentation techniques are generally application dependent. Also for most of these techniques, the structure of the membership functions is predefined and parameters have to either automatically or manually derived. This paper addresses some of these issues by introducing a new generic fuzzy rule based image segmentation (GFRIS) technique, which is both application independent and can incorporate the spatial relationships of the pixels as well. A qualitative comparison is presented between the segmentation results obtained using this method and the popular fuzzy c-means (FCM) and possibilistic c-means (PCM) algorithms using an empirical discrepancy method. The results demonstrate this approach exhibits significant improvements over these popular fuzzy clustering algorithms for a wide range of differing image types

A possibilistic approach to latent structure analysis for symmetric fuzzy data.

In many situations the available amount of data is huge and can be intractable. When the data set is single valued, latent structure models are recognized techniques, which provide a useful compression of the information. This is done by considering a regression model between observed and unobserved (latent) fuzzy variables. In this paper, an extension of latent structure analysis to deal with fuzzy data is proposed. Our extension follows the possibilistic approach, widely used both in the cluster and regression frameworks. In this case, the possibilistic approach involves the formulation of a latent structure analysis for fuzzy data by optimization. Specifically, a non-linear programming problem in which the fuzziness of the model is minimized is introduced. In order to show how our model works, the results of two applications are given.Latent structure analysis, symmetric fuzzy data set, possibilistic approach.

Clustering algorithms for fuzzy rules decomposition

This paper presents the development, testing and evaluation of generalized Possibilistic fuzzy c-means (FCM) algorithms applied to fuzzy sets. Clustering is formulated as a constrained minimization problem, whose solution depends on the constraints imposed on the membership function of the cluster and on the relevance measure of the fuzzy rules. This fuzzy clustering of fuzzy rules leads to a fuzzy partition of the fuzzy rules, one for each cluster, which corresponds to a new set of fuzzy sub-systems. When applied to the clustering of a flat fuzzy system results a set of decomposed sub-systems that will be conveniently linked into a Hierarchical Prioritized Structures

On the semantics of fuzzy logic

AbstractThis paper presents a formal characterization of the major concepts and constructs of fuzzy logic in terms of notions of distance, closeness, and similarity between pairs of possible worlds. The formalism is a direct extension (by recognition of multiple degrees of accessibility, conceivability, or reachability) of the najor modal logic concepts of possible and necessary truth.Given a function that maps pairs of possible worlds into a number between 0 and 1, generalizing the conventional concept of an equivalence relation, the major constructs of fuzzy logic (conditional and unconditioned possibility distributions) are defined in terms of this similarity relation using familiar concepts from the mathematical theory of metric spaces. This interpretation is different in nature and character from the typical, chance-oriented, meanings associated with probabilistic concepts, which are grounded on the mathematical notion of set measure. The similarity structure defines a topological notion of continuity in the space of possible worlds (and in that of its subsets, i.e., propositions) that allows a form of logical “extrapolation” between possible worlds.This logical extrapolation operation corresponds to the major deductive rule of fuzzy logic — the compositional rule of inference or generalized modus ponens of Zadeh — an inferential operation that generalizes its classical counterpart by virtue of its ability to be utilized when propositions representing available evidence match only approximately the antecedents of conditional propositions. The relations between the similarity-based interpretation of the role of conditional possibility distributions and the approximate inferential procedures of Baldwin are also discussed.A straightforward extension of the theory to the case where the similarity scale is symbolic rather than numeric is described. The problem of generating similarity functions from a given set of possibility distributions, with the latter interpreted as defining a number of (graded) discernibility relations and the former as the result of combining them into a joint measure of distinguishability between possible worlds, is briefly discussed

An Algorithm for Detecting the Principal Allotment among Fuzzy Clusters and Its Application as a Technique of Reduction of Analyzed Features Space Dimensionality

This paper describes a modification of a possibilistic clustering method based on the concept of allotment among fuzzy clusters. Basic ideas of the method are considered and the concept of a principal allotment among fuzzy clusters is introduced. The paper provides the description of the plan of the algorithm for detection principal allotment. An analysis of experimental results of the proposed algorithm’s application to the Tamura’s portrait data in comparison with the basic version of the algorithm and with the NERFCM-algorithm is carried out. A methodology of the algorithm’s application to the dimensionality reduction problem is outlined and the application of the methodology is illustrated on the example of Anderson’s Iris data in comparison with the result of principal component analysis. Preliminary conclusions are formulated also

Explainable parts-based concept modeling and reasoning

State-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) learning algorithms heavily rely on deep learning methods that exploit correlation between inputs and outputs. While effective, these methods typically provide little insight to the reasoning process used by the machine, which makes it difficult for human users to understand the process, trust the decisions made by the system, and control emergent behaviors in the system. One method to fix this is eXplainable AI (XAI), which aims to create algorithms that perform well while also providing explanations to users about the reasoning process to mitigate the problems outlined above. In this thesis, I focus on advancing the research around XAI techniques by introducing systems that provide explanations through the use of partsbased concept modeling and reasoning. Instead of correlating input to output, I correlate input to sub-parts or features of the overall concept being learned by the system. These features are used to model and reason about a concept using an explicitly defined structure. These structures provide explanations to the user by nature of how they are defined. Specifically, I introduce a shallow and deep Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) that can reason in noisy and uncertain contexts. ANFIS provides explanations in the form of learned rules that combine features to determine the overall output concept. I apply this system to real geospatial parts-based reasoning problems and evaluate the performance and explainability of the algorithm. I discover some drawbacks to the ANFIS system as traditionally defined due to dead and diminishing gradients. This leads me to focus on how to model parts-based concepts and their inherent uncertainty in other ways, namely through Spatially Attributed Relation Graphs (SARGs). I incorporate human feedback to refine the machine learning of concepts using SARGs. Finally, I present future directions for research to build on the progress presented in this thesis.Includes bibliographical references

The posterity of Zadeh's 50-year-old paper: A retrospective in 101 Easy Pieces – and a Few More

International audienceThis article was commissioned by the 22nd IEEE International Conference of Fuzzy Systems (FUZZ-IEEE) to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Lotfi Zadeh's seminal 1965 paper on fuzzy sets. In addition to Lotfi's original paper, this note itemizes 100 citations of books and papers deemed “important (significant, seminal, etc.)” by 20 of the 21 living IEEE CIS Fuzzy Systems pioneers. Each of the 20 contributors supplied 5 citations, and Lotfi's paper makes the overall list a tidy 101, as in “Fuzzy Sets 101”. This note is not a survey in any real sense of the word, but the contributors did offer short remarks to indicate the reason for inclusion (e.g., historical, topical, seminal, etc.) of each citation. Citation statistics are easy to find and notoriously erroneous, so we refrain from reporting them - almost. The exception is that according to Google scholar on April 9, 2015, Lotfi's 1965 paper has been cited 55,479 times