Discovering the Impact of Knowledge in Recommender Systems: A Comparative Study

Recommender systems engage user profiles and appropriate filtering techniques to assist users in finding more relevant information over the large volume of information. User profiles play an important role in the success of recommendation process since they model and represent the actual user needs. However, a comprehensive literature review of recommender systems has demonstrated no concrete study on the role and impact of knowledge in user profiling and filtering approache. In this paper, we review the most prominent recommender systems in the literature and examine the impression of knowledge extracted from different sources. We then come up with this finding that semantic information from the user context has substantial impact on the performance of knowledge based recommender systems. Finally, some new clues for improvement the knowledge-based profiles have been proposed.Comment: 14 pages, 3 tables; International Journal of Computer Science & Engineering Survey (IJCSES) Vol.2, No.3, August 201

Automatic domain ontology extraction for context-sensitive opinion mining

Automated analysis of the sentiments presented in online consumer feedbacks can facilitate both organizations’ business strategy development and individual consumers’ comparison shopping. Nevertheless, existing opinion mining methods either adopt a context-free sentiment classification approach or rely on a large number of manually annotated training examples to perform context sensitive sentiment classification. Guided by the design science research methodology, we illustrate the design, development, and evaluation of a novel fuzzy domain ontology based contextsensitive opinion mining system. Our novel ontology extraction mechanism underpinned by a variant of Kullback-Leibler divergence can automatically acquire contextual sentiment knowledge across various product domains to improve the sentiment analysis processes. Evaluated based on a benchmark dataset and real consumer reviews collected from Amazon.com, our system shows remarkable performance improvement over the context-free baseline

Application of soft computing models with input vectors of snow cover area in addition to hydro-climatic data to predict the sediment loads

The accurate estimate of sediment load is important for management of the river ecosystem, designing of water infrastructures, and planning of reservoir operations. The direct measurement of sediment is the most credible method to estimate the sediments. However, this requires a lot of time and resources. Because of these two constraints, most often, it is not possible to continuously measure the daily sediments for most of the gauging sites. Nowadays, data-based sediment prediction models are famous for bridging the data gaps in the estimation of sediment loads. In data-driven sediment predictions models, the selection of input vectors is critical in determining the best structure of models for the accurate estimation of sediment yields. In this study, time series inputs of snow cover area, basin effective rainfall, mean basin average temperature, and mean basin evapotranspiration in addition to the flows were assessed for the prediction of sediment loads. The input vectors were assessed with artificial neural network (ANN), adaptive neuro-fuzzy logic inference system with grid partition (ANFIS-GP), adaptive neuro-fuzzy logic inference system with subtractive clustering (ANFIS-SC), adaptive neuro-fuzzy logic inference system with fuzzy c-means clustering (ANFIS-FCM), multiple adaptive regression splines (MARS), and sediment rating curve (SRC) models for the Gilgit River, the tributary of the Indus River in Pakistan. The comparison of different input vectors showed improvements in the prediction of sediments by using the snow cover area in addition to flows, effective rainfall, temperature, and evapotranspiration. Overall, the ANN model performed better than all other models. However, as regards sediment load peak time series, the sediment loads predicted using the ANN, ANFIS-FCM, and MARS models were found to be closer to the measured sediment loads. The ANFIS-FCM performed better in the estimation of peak sediment yields with a relative accuracy of 81.31% in comparison to the ANN and MARS models with 80.17% and 80.16% of relative accuracies, respectively. The developed multiple linear regression equation of all models show an R$^{2}$ value of 0.85 and 0.74 during the training and testing period, respectively

Context-aware-based Location Recommendation for Elderly Care

As adults age, the body declines. Living independently at home can be a significant challenge for the elderly, particularly for those who suffer from dementia or who have memory impairment. Assisting the elderly to live independently and safely in their own homes by providing appropriate services for them and ensuring that caregivers are immediately alerted in the event of an emergency is crucial. Utilizing context in the recommendation process will make recommendations more appropriate. A model of a context-aware-based location recommender system that can seamlessly monitor the location of the elderly and deliver appropriate location recommendations by considering context is proposed as our contribution. Two scenarios are investigated: (1) we classify location as follows: bedroom (class 1), dining room (class 2), and living room (class 3); (2) we classify location as follows: inside (class 1) and outside (class 2) the bedroom. We evaluate our proposed model using a distance measure concept by employing the cosine distance method. We compare the cosine distance method with fuzzy inference system (FIS) rules on labeled data. The results of the experiments for the first scenario show that the cosine distance has better average accuracy than the fuzzy inference system. For the second scenario, fuzzy c-means (FCM) has the same average accuracy as cosine distance. FCM has slightly better accuracy in class 1 compared to cosine distance (1% difference in accuracy), whereas cosine distance has slightly better accuracy in class 2 compared to the FCM (1% difference in accuracy). In general, we can draw the conclusion that, on this dataset, cosine distance which uses a simple algorithm produced better results than the fuzzy inference system which uses a more complex algorithm.

Optimization of Resource Usage for Computer-Based Education through Mobile, Speech and Sky Computing Technology

Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service over the Internet. Using a cloud that is owned by a single service provider has its demerit to the customer such as the risk of downtime or breakdown of equipment arising from disaster that can jeopardize the subscribers’ business. Data security and reliability due to over centralization of company’s data poses a high risk for subscribers, hence a call for distributed cloud also known as Sky Computing. When application is distributed across several clouds with varied interest, infrastructure, policy, etc, the issue therefore will be how to determine the most cost effective cloud during access time. The amount of money a student pays in accessing learning content is determined by how much an institution pay as subscription to cloud providers. The objective of this study is to utilize optimization theory to determine the most cost effective cloud for mobile virtual education in Sky Computing environment. This will be achieved by optimizing resource usage for Computer-based Education through Mobile, Speech and Sky Computing Technology. As a proof of concept, we will design and implement a cloud middle ware (CMW) to interface with an eEducation system. Access to the eEducation shall be Mobile, Speech and Web. Through the communication platform, the students can communicate with their teacher at any convenient time, and vice versa at the most reduced cost