Multi-agent system for Knowledge-based recommendation of Learning Objects

Learning Object (LO) is a content unit being used within virtual learning environments, which -once found and retrieved- may assist students in the teaching - learning process. Such LO search and retrieval are recently supported and enhanced by data mining techniques. In this sense, clustering can be used to find groups holding similar LOs so that from obtained groups, knowledge-based recommender systems (KRS) can recommend more adapted and relevant LOs. In particular, prior knowledge come from LOs previously selected, liked and ranked by the student to whom the recommendation will be performed. In this paper, we present a KRS for LOs, which uses a conventional clustering technique, namely K-means, aimed at finding similar LOs and delivering resources adapted to a specific student. Obtained promising results show that proposed KRS is able to both retrieve relevant LO and improve the recommendation precision

Machine Learning Algorithms for Breast Cancer Diagnosis: Challenges, Prospects and Future Research Directions

Early diagnosis of breast cancer does not only increase the chances of survival but also control the diffusion of cancerous cells in the body. Previously, researchers have developed machine learning algorithms in breast cancer diagnosis such as Support Vector Machine, K-Nearest Neighbor, Convolutional Neural Network, K-means, Fuzzy C-means, Neural Network, Principle Component Analysis (PCA) and Naive Bayes. Unfortunately these algorithms fall short in one way or another due to high levels of computational complexities. For instance, support vector machine employs feature elimination scheme for eradicating data ambiguity and detecting tumors at initial stage. However this scheme is expensive in terms of execution time. On its part, k-means algorithm employs Euclidean distance to determine the distance between cluster centers and data points. However this scheme does not guarantee high accuracy when executed in different iterations. Although the K-nearest Neighbor algorithm employs feature reduction, principle component analysis and 10 fold cross validation methods for enhancing classification accuracy, it is not efficient in terms of processing time. On the other hand, fuzzy c-means algorithm employs fuzziness value and termination criteria to determine the execution time on datasets. However, it proves to be extensive in terms of computational time due to several iterations and fuzzy measure calculations involved. Similarly, convolutional neural network employed back propagation and classification method but the scheme proves to be slow due to frequent retraining. In addition, the neural network achieves low accuracy in its predictions. Since all these algorithms seem to be expensive and time consuming, it necessary to integrate quantum computing principles with conventional machine learning algorithms. This is because quantum computing has the potential to accelerate computations by simultaneously carrying out calculation on many inputs. In this paper, a review of the current machine learning algorithms for breast cancer prediction is provided. Based on the observed shortcomings, a quantum machine learning based classifier is recommended. The proposed working mechanisms of this classifier are elaborated towards the end of this paper

Validación de un sistema inteligente de recomendación híbrida en federaciones de repositorios de Objetos de Aprendizaje

En la actualidad los objetos de aprendizaje OA, que son recursos educativos cuyacaracterística distintiva son los metadatos descriptivos, han tomado gran importancia para apoyar los procesos de enseñanza aprendizaje de estudiantes que cada día tienen acceso a más información; la dificultad al recuperar los OA se encuentra al especificar las palabras o cadena de consulta, para hacer las búsquedas y encontrar un recurso que se adapte a lo que se quiere encontrar y a sus características específicas. Es allí donde surgen los sistemas de recomendación, como apoyo a los usuarios a encontrar OA relevantes, en este artículo se realizan pruebas de funcionamiento de un sistema de recomendación híbrido aplicado a diferentes repositorios de OA y federaciones de repositorios, con el fin de validar su uso y pertinencia al momento de acceder a un recurso educativo

SERVICIO WEB PARA RECOMENDACIÓN EN LA FEDERACIÓN DE REPOSITORIOS DE OBJETOS DE APRENDIZAJE COLOMBIA

La federación de repositorios de objetos de aprendizaje Colombia (FROAC) permite acceder a Objetos de Aprendizaje (OA) almacenados en diferentes repositorios afiliados a la federación a través de búsquedas sencillas y avanzadas. El objetivo de este artículo es entregar OA adaptados a las preferencias y necesidades de los usuarios de la federación, integrando un sistema híbrido de recomendación de OA, que permite filtrar los resultados de una búsqueda y entregar primero aquellos OA que se ajusten mejor a las características del usuario. Para dicha integración se implementó un servicio web que permite la comunicación entre la federación y el sistema de recomendación. Los resultados permiten concluir que el sistema de recomendación en FROAC permite visualizar los OA que se adaptan a un usuario mejorando la precisión en cuanto a la relevancia de los resultados y que los servicios web son un mecanismo que facilita su implementación

Human-machine cooperation in large-scale multimedia retrieval : a survey

Large-Scale Multimedia Retrieval(LSMR) is the task to fast analyze a large amount of multimedia data like images or videos and accurately find the ones relevant to a certain semantic meaning. Although LSMR has been investigated for more than two decades in the fields of multimedia processing and computer vision, a more interdisciplinary approach is necessary to develop an LSMR system that is really meaningful for humans. To this end, this paper aims to stimulate attention to the LSMR problem from diverse research fields. By explaining basic terminologies in LSMR, we first survey several representative methods in chronological order. This reveals that due to prioritizing the generality and scalability for large-scale data, recent methods interpret semantic meanings with a completely different mechanism from humans, though such humanlike mechanisms were used in classical heuristic-based methods. Based on this, we discuss human-machine cooperation, which incorporates knowledge about human interpretation into LSMR without sacrificing the generality and scalability. In particular, we present three approaches to human-machine cooperation (cognitive, ontological, and adaptive), which are attributed to cognitive science, ontology engineering, and metacognition, respectively. We hope that this paper will create a bridge to enable researchers in different fields to communicate about the LSMR problem and lead to a ground-breaking next generation of LSMR systems

Human-Machine Cooperation in Large-Scale Multimedia Retrieval: A Survey

Large-Scale Multimedia Retrieval(LSMR) is the task to fast analyze a large amount of multimedia data like images or videos and accurately find the ones relevant to a certain semantic meaning. Although LSMR has been investigated for more than two decades in the fields of multimedia processing and computer vision, a more interdisciplinary approach is necessary to develop an LSMR system that is really meaningful for humans. To this end, this paper aims to stimulate attention to the LSMR problem from diverse research fields. By explaining basic terminologies in LSMR, we first survey several representative methods in chronological order. This reveals that due to prioritizing the generality and scalability for large-scale data, recent methods interpret semantic meanings with a completely different mechanism from humans, though such humanlike mechanisms were used in classical heuristic-based methods. Based on this, we discuss human-machine cooperation, which incorporates knowledge about human interpretation into LSMR without sacrificing the generality and scalability. In particular, we present three approaches to human-machine cooperation (cognitive, ontological, and adaptive), which are attributed to cognitive science, ontology engineering, and metacognition, respectively. We hope that this paper will create a bridge to enable researchers in different fields to communicate about the LSMR problem and lead to a ground-breaking next generation of LSMR systems

An Evolutionary Approach to Adaptive Image Analysis for Retrieving and Long-term Monitoring Historical Land Use from Spatiotemporally Heterogeneous Map Sources

Land use changes have become a major contributor to the anthropogenic global change. The ongoing dispersion and concentration of the human species, being at their orders unprecedented, have indisputably altered Earth’s surface and atmosphere. The effects are so salient and irreversible that a new geological epoch, following the interglacial Holocene, has been announced: the Anthropocene. While its onset is by some scholars dated back to the Neolithic revolution, it is commonly referred to the late 18th century. The rapid development since the industrial revolution and its implications gave rise to an increasing awareness of the extensive anthropogenic land change and led to an urgent need for sustainable strategies for land use and land management. By preserving of landscape and settlement patterns at discrete points in time, archival geospatial data sources such as remote sensing imagery and historical geotopographic maps, in particular, could give evidence of the dynamic land use change during this crucial period. In this context, this thesis set out to explore the potentials of retrospective geoinformation for monitoring, communicating, modeling and eventually understanding the complex and gradually evolving processes of land cover and land use change. Currently, large amounts of geospatial data sources such as archival maps are being worldwide made online accessible by libraries and national mapping agencies. Despite their abundance and relevance, the usage of historical land use and land cover information in research is still often hindered by the laborious visual interpretation, limiting the temporal and spatial coverage of studies. Thus, the core of the thesis is dedicated to the computational acquisition of geoinformation from archival map sources by means of digital image analysis. Based on a comprehensive review of literature as well as the data and proposed algorithms, two major challenges for long-term retrospective information acquisition and change detection were identified: first, the diversity of geographical entity representations over space and time, and second, the uncertainty inherent to both the data source itself and its utilization for land change detection. To address the former challenge, image segmentation is considered a global non-linear optimization problem. The segmentation methods and parameters are adjusted using a metaheuristic, evolutionary approach. For preserving adaptability in high level image analysis, a hybrid model- and data-driven strategy, combining a knowledge-based and a neural net classifier, is recommended. To address the second challenge, a probabilistic object- and field-based change detection approach for modeling the positional, thematic, and temporal uncertainty adherent to both data and processing, is developed. Experimental results indicate the suitability of the methodology in support of land change monitoring. In conclusion, potentials of application and directions for further research are given

Overcoming the Intuition Wall: Measurement and Analysis in Computer Architecture

These are exciting times for computer architecture research. Today there is significant demand to improve the performance and energy-efficiency of emerging, transformative applications which are being hammered out by the hundreds for new computing platforms and usage models. This booming growth of applications and the variety of programming languages used to create them is challenging our ability as architects to rapidly and rigorously characterize these applications. Concurrently, hardware has become more complex with the emergence of accelerators, multicore systems, and heterogeneity caused by further divergence between processor market segments. No one architect can now understand all the complexities of many systems and reason about the full impact of changes or new applications. To that end, this dissertation presents four case studies in quantitative methods. Each case study attacks a different application and proposes a new measurement or analytical technique. In each case study we find at least one surprising or unintuitive result which would likely not have been found without the application of our method