Forecasting bus passenger flows by using a clustering-based support vector regression approach

As a significant component of the intelligent transportation system, forecasting bus passenger flows plays a key role in resource allocation, network planning, and frequency setting. However, it remains challenging to recognize high fluctuations, nonlinearity, and periodicity of bus passenger flows due to varied destinations and departure times. For this reason, a novel forecasting model named as affinity propagation-based support vector regression (AP-SVR) is proposed based on clustering and nonlinear simulation. For the addressed approach, a clustering algorithm is first used to generate clustering-based intervals. A support vector regression (SVR) is then exploited to forecast the passenger flow for each cluster, with the use of particle swarm optimization (PSO) for obtaining the optimized parameters. Finally, the prediction results of the SVR are rearranged by chronological order rearrangement. The proposed model is tested using real bus passenger data from a bus line over four months. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model performs better than other peer models in terms of absolute percentage error and mean absolute percentage error. It is recommended that the deterministic clustering technique with stable cluster results (AP) can improve the forecasting performance significantly.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Musical recommendations and personalization in a social network

This paper presents a set of algorithms used for music recommendations and personalization in a general purpose social network www.ok.ru, the second largest social network in the CIS visited by more then 40 millions users per day. In addition to classical recommendation features like "recommend a sequence" and "find similar items" the paper describes novel algorithms for construction of context aware recommendations, personalization of the service, handling of the cold-start problem, and more. All algorithms described in the paper are working on-line and are able to detect and address changes in the user's behavior and needs in the real time. The core component of the algorithms is a taste graph containing information about different entities (users, tracks, artists, etc.) and relations between them (for example, user A likes song B with certainty X, track B created by artist C, artist C is similar to artist D with certainty Y and so on). Using the graph it is possible to select tracks a user would most probably like, to arrange them in a way that they match each other well, to estimate which items from a fixed list are most relevant for the user, and more. In addition, the paper describes the approach used to estimate algorithms efficiency and analyze the impact of different recommendation related features on the users' behavior and overall activity at the service.Comment: This is a full version of a 4 pages article published at ACM RecSys 201

Adaptive semi-supervised affinity propagation clustering algorithm based on structural similarity

Uzimajući u obzir nezadovoljavajuće djelovanje grupiranja srodnog širenja algoritma grupiranja, kada se radi o nizovima podataka složenih struktura, u ovom se radu predlaže prilagodljivi nadzirani algoritam grupiranja srodnog širenja utemeljen na strukturnoj sličnosti (SAAP-SS). Najprije se predlaže nova strukturna sličnost rješavanjem nelinearnog problema zastupljenosti niskoga ranga. Zatim slijedi srodno širenje na temelju podešavanja matrice sličnosti primjenom poznatih udvojenih ograničenja. Na kraju se u postupak algoritma uvodi ideja eksplozija kod vatrometa. Prilagodljivo pretražujući preferencijalni prostor u dva smjera, uravnotežuju se globalne i lokalne pretraživačke sposobnosti algoritma u cilju pronalaženja optimalne strukture grupiranja. Rezultati eksperimenata i sa sintetičkim i s realnim nizovima podataka pokazuju poboljšanja u radu predloženog algoritma u usporedbi s AP, FEO-SAP i K-means metodama.In view of the unsatisfying clustering effect of affinity propagation (AP) clustering algorithm when dealing with data sets of complex structures, an adaptive semi-supervised affinity propagation clustering algorithm based on structural similarity (SAAP-SS) is proposed in this paper. First, a novel structural similarity is proposed by solving a non-linear, low-rank representation problem. Then we perform affinity propagation on the basis of adjusting the similarity matrix by utilizing the known pairwise constraints. Finally, the idea of fireworks explosion is introduced into the process of the algorithm. By adaptively searching the preference space bi-directionally, the algorithm’s global and local searching abilities are balanced in order to find the optimal clustering structure. The results of the experiments with both synthetic and real data sets show performance improvements of the proposed algorithm compared with AP, FEO-SAP and K-means methods

Compressive Sensing DNA Microarrays

Compressive sensing microarrays (CSMs) are DNA-based sensors that operate using group testing and compressive sensing (CS) principles. In contrast to conventional DNA microarrays, in which each genetic sensor is designed to respond to a single target, in a CSM, each sensor responds to a set of targets. We study the problem of designing CSMs that simultaneously account for both the constraints from CS theory and the biochemistry of probe-target DNA hybridization. An appropriate cross-hybridization model is proposed for CSMs, and several methods are developed for probe design and CS signal recovery based on the new model. Lab experiments suggest that in order to achieve accurate hybridization profiling, consensus probe sequences are required to have sequence homology of at least 80% with all targets to be detected. Furthermore, out-of-equilibrium datasets are usually as accurate as those obtained from equilibrium conditions. Consequently, one can use CSMs in applications in which only short hybridization times are allowed

Passive characterization of sopcast usage in residential ISPs

Abstract—In this paper we present an extensive analysis of traffic generated by SopCast users and collected from operative networks of three national ISPs in Europe. After more than a year of continuous monitoring, we present results about the popularity of SopCast which is the largely preferred application in the studied networks. We focus on analysis of (i) application and bandwidth usage at different time scales, (ii) peer lifetime, arrival and departure processes, (iii) peer localization in the world. Results provide useful insights into users ’ behavior, including their attitude towards P2P-TV application usage and the conse-quent generated load on the network, that is quite variable based on the access technology and geographical location. Our findings are interesting to Researchers interested in the investigation of users ’ attitude towards P2P-TV services, to foresee new trends in the future usage of the Internet, and to augment the design of their application. I

Complex Politics: A Quantitative Semantic and Topological Analysis of UK House of Commons Debates

This study is a first, exploratory attempt to use quantitative semantics techniques and topological analysis to analyze systemic patterns arising in a complex political system. In particular, we use a rich data set covering all speeches and debates in the UK House of Commons between 1975 and 2014. By the use of dynamic topic modeling (DTM) and topological data analysis (TDA) we show that both members and parties feature specific roles within the system, consistent over time, and extract global patterns indicating levels of political cohesion. Our results provide a wide array of novel hypotheses about the complex dynamics of political systems, with valuable policy applications