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Advanced Artificial Intelligence Theories and Applications

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Computing and Artificial Intelligence".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 August 2023) | Viewed by 25148

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
College of Electronic and Information Engineering, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Interests: multi-agent system; collaborative control; optimization theory and application; complex systems and complex networks
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
College of Computer Science, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
Interests: multi-agent system; control and optimization; distributed algorithms; artificial intelligence; privacy security; smart grids; machine learning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, artificial intelligence has attracted great attention in almost every field and is one of the most promising fields today. Artificial intelligence theories and applications have now penetrated many fields beyond the traditional computer engineering field. As an important driving force of the new round of technological revolution and industrial change, artificial intelligence is widely used in medical, financial, and transportation fields, bringing huge economic and social benefits. However, with the deepening of artificial intelligence applications, its technical flaws and the problems brought about by decision bias and usage safety have triggered a crisis of trust. Thus, the research community is still investigating the most advanced artificial intelligence techniques to improve application reliability.

This special issue aims to propagate the latest research results and developments in artificial intelligence, with a special interest in its advanced theories and practical applications in computer science, industrial engineering, electronic information, control science, communication engineering, and other fields.

We kindly invite researchers and practitioners to contribute their high-quality original research or review articles discussing current cutting-edge research topics in artificial intelligence, such as big data and data analysis, deep learning, distributed computing, human action recognition, image classification and segmentation, information fusion, industrial automation, deep neural networks, signal processing, edge computing communications, natural language processing and applications, information security and privacy, networked systems, control and optimization, etc. Analytical, numerical, and experimental works which contribute to the development of theories and applications of artificial intelligence, are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Huaqing Li
Dr. Qingguo Lv
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • artificial intelligence
  • big data analytics
  • information processing
  • machine learning
  • human interaction
  • complex systems
  • control and optimization
  • computing approaches
  • theories and applications
  • communication mechanisms

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Published Papers (11 papers)

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15 pages, 1237 KiB  
Article
φunit: A Lightweight Module for Feature Fusion Based on Their Dimensions
by Zhengyu Long, Rigui Zhou, Yaochong Li, Pengju Ren, Xue Yang and Shuo Cai
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(23), 12621; https://doi.org/10.3390/app132312621 - 23 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1133
Abstract
With the popularity of mobile devices, lightweight deep learning models have important value in various application scenarios. However, how to effectively fuse the feature information from different dimensions while ensuring the model’s lightness and high accuracy is a problem that has not been [...] Read more.
With the popularity of mobile devices, lightweight deep learning models have important value in various application scenarios. However, how to effectively fuse the feature information from different dimensions while ensuring the model’s lightness and high accuracy is a problem that has not been fully solved. In this paper, we propose a novel feature fusion module, called φunit, which can fuse the features extracted by different dimensional networks according to the order of feature information with a small computational cost, avoiding the problems of information fragmentation caused by simple feature stacking in traditional information fusion. Based on φunit, this paper further builds an extremely lightweight model φNet, which can achieve performance close to the highest accuracy on several public datasets under the condition of very limited parameter scale. The core idea of φunit is to use deconvolution to reduce the discrepancy among the features to be fused, and to lower the possibility of feature information fragmentation after fusion by fusing the features from different dimensions sequentially. φNet is a lightweight network composed of multiple φunits and bottleneck modules, with a parameter scale of only 1.24 M, much smaller than traditional lightweight models. This paper conducts experiments on public datasets, and φNet achieves an accuracy of 71.64% on the food101 dataset, and an accuracy of 75.31% on the random 50-category food101 dataset, both higher than or close to the highest accuracy. This paper provides a new idea and method for feature fusion of lightweight models, and also provides an efficient model selection for deep learning applications on mobile devices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Artificial Intelligence Theories and Applications)
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<p>Different feature fusion methods: (<b>a</b>) concatenation of feature information; (<b>b</b>) convolutional modification of feature information; (<b>c</b>) summation of feature information fusion; (<b>d</b>) sequential fusion of feature information.</p>
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<p>Explains cross concatenation in the proposed unit.</p>
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<p><math display="inline"><semantics> <mi>φ</mi> </semantics></math>Net Construction.</p>
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<p>This figure illustrates the network for evaluating the efficiency and portability of the <math display="inline"><semantics> <mi>φ</mi> </semantics></math>unit design based on VGG16. The original image information is fed into the network after being improved by VGG16 to extract feature information, and then the feature information is passed to the FC layer to obtain the classification information obtained by the network after inference. Each red horizontal connection in the diagram represents a validation experiment scheme.</p>
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<p>The accuracy of the model at various positions versus adding <math display="inline"><semantics> <mi>φ</mi> </semantics></math>unit.</p>
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17 pages, 506 KiB  
Article
Decentralized Coordination of DERs for Dynamic Economic Emission Dispatch
by Jingtong Dai and Zheng Wang
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(22), 12431; https://doi.org/10.3390/app132212431 - 17 Nov 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1092
Abstract
This paper focuses on the dynamic economic emission dispatch (DEED) problem, to coordinate the distributed energy resources (DERs) in a power system and achieve economical and environmental operation. Distributed energy storages (ESs) are introduced into problem formulation in which charging/discharging efficiency is taken [...] Read more.
This paper focuses on the dynamic economic emission dispatch (DEED) problem, to coordinate the distributed energy resources (DERs) in a power system and achieve economical and environmental operation. Distributed energy storages (ESs) are introduced into problem formulation in which charging/discharging efficiency is taken into account. By relaxing the nonconvexity induced by the charging/discharging model of ESs and network losses, we convert the non-convex DEED problem into its convex equivalency. Then, through a Lagrangian duality reformulation, an equivalent unconstrained consensus optimization model is established—a novel consensus-based decentralized algorithm, where the incremental cost is chosen as the consensus variable. At each iteration, only one primal variable requires sub-optimization, and it is completely locally updated. This is different from the well-known alternating direction method of multiplier (ADMM)-based algorithms where more than one subproblem needs to be solved at each iteration. The results of the comparative experiments also reflect the algorithm’s advantage in terms of computational efficiency. The simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, achieving a balance between emissions and economic considerations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Artificial Intelligence Theories and Applications)
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<p>Block diagram of agent <span class="html-italic">i</span>’s operation at iteration <span class="html-italic">k</span>.</p>
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<p>Simulation results of DED. (<b>a</b>) Power balance; (<b>b</b>) optimal schedule of DGs and ESs; (<b>c</b>) cut the peak and fill the valley; (<b>d</b>) state of charge; (<b>e</b>) charging/discharging power; (<b>f</b>) evaluation of incremental cost at Hour 18; (<b>g</b>) incremental costs within 24 h.</p>
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<p>Simulation results of DEED. (<b>a</b>) Cumulative costs with different weight factors; (<b>b</b>) cumulative emissions with different weight factors; (<b>c</b>) pareto-optimal front.</p>
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<p>Evolution of residuals with number of iterations.</p>
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<p>Evolution of residuals with time.</p>
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23 pages, 888 KiB  
Article
A Meta Reinforcement Learning Approach for SFC Placement in Dynamic IoT-MEC Networks
by Shuang Guo, Yarong Du and Liang Liu
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(17), 9960; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13179960 - 3 Sep 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1557
Abstract
In order to achieve reliability, security, and scalability, the request flow in the Internet of Things (IoT) needs to pass through the service function chain (SFC), which is composed of series-ordered virtual network functions (VNFs), then reach the destination application in multiaccess edge [...] Read more.
In order to achieve reliability, security, and scalability, the request flow in the Internet of Things (IoT) needs to pass through the service function chain (SFC), which is composed of series-ordered virtual network functions (VNFs), then reach the destination application in multiaccess edge computing (MEC) for processing. Since there are usually multiple identical VNF instances in the network and the network environment of IoT changes dynamically, placing the SFC for the IoT request flow is a significant challenge. This paper decomposes the dynamic SFC placement problem of the IoT-MEC network into two subproblems: VNF placement and path determination of routing. We first formulate these two subproblems as Markov decision processes. We then propose a meta reinforcement learning and fuzzy logic-based dynamic SFC placement approach (MRLF-SFCP). The MRLF-SFCP contains an inner model that focuses on making SFC placement decisions and an outer model that focuses on learning the initial parameters considering the dynamic IoT-MEC environment. Specifically, the approach uses fuzzy logic to pre-evaluate the link status information of the network by jointly considering available bandwidth, delay, and packet loss rate, which is helpful for model training and convergence. In comparison to existing algorithms, simulation results demonstrate that the MRLF-SFCP algorithm exhibits superior performance in terms of traffic acceptance rate, throughput, and the average reward. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Artificial Intelligence Theories and Applications)
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<p>A schematic diagram of IoT-MEC networks.</p>
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<p>A framework for placing dynamic SFCs based on meta reinforcement learning and fuzzy logic.</p>
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<p>The procedure of link evaluation.</p>
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<p>The general training process of outer model.</p>
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<p>Dynamic SFC placement framework based on DDQN.</p>
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<p>The acceptance rate in different network topologies.</p>
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<p>The average reward of IoT-SRs in different network topologies.</p>
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<p>The acceptance rate of IoT-SRs of the RN.</p>
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<p>The mean reward of IoT-SRs within the RN.</p>
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<p>The acceptance rate of IoT-SRs in the SWN.</p>
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<p>Average reward of IoT-SRs in the SWN.</p>
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<p>Success acceptance rate of IoT-SRs in the SFN.</p>
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<p>Average reward of IoT-SRs in the SFN.</p>
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14 pages, 920 KiB  
Article
Distributed GNE Seeking under Global-Decision and Partial-Decision Information over Douglas-Rachford Splitting Method
by Jingran Cheng, Menggang Chen, Huaqing Li, Yawei Shi, Zhongzheng Wang and Jialong Tang
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(12), 7058; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13127058 - 12 Jun 2023
Viewed by 1095
Abstract
This paper develops an algorithm for solving the generalized Nash equilibrium problem (GNEP) in non-cooperative games. The problem involves a set of players, each with a cost function that depends on their own decision as well as the decisions of other players. The [...] Read more.
This paper develops an algorithm for solving the generalized Nash equilibrium problem (GNEP) in non-cooperative games. The problem involves a set of players, each with a cost function that depends on their own decision as well as the decisions of other players. The goal is to find a decision vector that minimizes the cost for each player. Unlike most of the existing algorithms for GNEP, which require full information exchange among all players, this paper considers a more realistic scenario where players can only communicate with a subset of players through a connectivity graph. The proposed algorithm enables each player to estimate the decisions of other players and update their own and others’ estimates through local communication with their neighbors. By introducing a network Lagrangian function and applying the Douglas-Rachford splitting method (DR), the GNEP is reformulated as a zero-finding problem. It is shown that the DR method can find the generalized Nash equilibrium (GNE) of the original problem under some mild conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Artificial Intelligence Theories and Applications)
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<p>The figure shows the process by which all customers agree on the estimated value of GNE. The vertical coordinate is the variance, i.e., <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>V</mi> <mi>a</mi> <mi>r</mi> <mrow> <mo>(</mo> <msubsup> <mi>x</mi> <mi>i</mi> <mrow> <mo>[</mo> <mn>1</mn> <mo>]</mo> </mrow> </msubsup> <mo>,</mo> <mo>…</mo> <mo>,</mo> <msubsup> <mi>x</mi> <mi>i</mi> <mrow> <mo>[</mo> <mi>N</mi> <mo>]</mo> </mrow> </msubsup> <mo>)</mo> </mrow> <mo>,</mo> <mi>i</mi> <mo>∈</mo> <mrow> <mo>{</mo> <mn>1</mn> <mo>,</mo> <mn>2</mn> <mo>,</mo> <mo>…</mo> <mi>N</mi> <mo>}</mo> </mrow> </mrow> </semantics></math>.</p>
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<p>The black arrows start at the client end and end at the router chosen by that client, and the clients at either end of the yellow arc are neighbors.</p>
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<p>The blue, red, and yellow curves indicate the convergence process of Algorithms 1 and 2, and DA algorithm, respectively.</p>
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<p>The figure shows how the sum of the costs of all customers changes under the action of the three algorithms. The ordinate is <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <msubsup> <mo>∑</mo> <mrow> <mi>i</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mn>1</mn> </mrow> <mrow> <mi>i</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mi>N</mi> </mrow> </msubsup> <mrow> <mo>[</mo> <msub> <mi>f</mi> <mi>i</mi> </msub> <mrow> <mo>(</mo> <msub> <mi>x</mi> <mi>i</mi> </msub> <mo>,</mo> <msub> <mi>x</mi> <mrow> <mo>−</mo> <mi>i</mi> </mrow> </msub> <mo>)</mo> </mrow> <mo>+</mo> <msub> <mi>g</mi> <mi>i</mi> </msub> <mrow> <mo>(</mo> <msub> <mi>x</mi> <mi>i</mi> </msub> <mo>)</mo> </mrow> <mo>]</mo> </mrow> </mrow> </semantics></math>.</p>
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<p>The figure shows how the private cost per customer changes under the action of Algorithm 1. The ordinate is <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <msub> <mi>f</mi> <mi>i</mi> </msub> <mrow> <mo>(</mo> <msub> <mi>x</mi> <mi>i</mi> </msub> <mo>,</mo> <msub> <mi>x</mi> <mrow> <mo>−</mo> <mi>i</mi> </mrow> </msub> <mo>)</mo> </mrow> <mo>+</mo> <msub> <mi>g</mi> <mi>i</mi> </msub> <mrow> <mo>(</mo> <msub> <mi>x</mi> <mi>i</mi> </msub> <mo>)</mo> </mrow> <mo>,</mo> <mi>i</mi> <mo>∈</mo> <mrow> <mo>{</mo> <mn>1</mn> <mo>,</mo> <mo>.</mo> <mo>.</mo> <mo>.</mo> <mi>N</mi> <mo>}</mo> </mrow> </mrow> </semantics></math>.</p>
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20 pages, 1270 KiB  
Article
Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm with Pareto-Based Approach for Multi-Objective Three-Dimensional Single Container Loading Problems
by Suriya Phongmoo, Komgrit Leksakul, Nivit Charoenchai and Chawis Boonmee
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(11), 6601; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13116601 - 29 May 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1723
Abstract
The ongoing container shortage crisis has presented significant challenges for the freight forwarding industry, requiring companies to implement adaptive measures in order to maintain peak operational efficiency. This article presents a novel mathematical model and artificial bee colony algorithm (ABC) with a Pareto-based [...] Read more.
The ongoing container shortage crisis has presented significant challenges for the freight forwarding industry, requiring companies to implement adaptive measures in order to maintain peak operational efficiency. This article presents a novel mathematical model and artificial bee colony algorithm (ABC) with a Pareto-based approach to solve single-container-loading problems. The goal is to fit a set of boxes with strongly heterogeneous boxes into a container with a specific dimension to minimize the broken space and maximize profits. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm incorporates the bottom-left fill method, which is a heuristic strategy for packing containers. We conducted numerical testing to identify optimal parameters using the C~ metric method. Subsequently, we evaluated the performance of our proposed algorithm by comparing it to other heuristics and meta-heuristic approaches using the relative improvement (RI) value. Our analysis showed that our algorithm outperformed the other approaches and achieved the best results. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in solving real-world single-container-loading problems for freight forwarding companies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Artificial Intelligence Theories and Applications)
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<p>Illustration of the Pareto-optimal set of the Pareto-based approach.</p>
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<p>Flowchart of proposed ABC algorithm with Pareto-based approach.</p>
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<p>Roulette wheel selection method.</p>
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17 pages, 624 KiB  
Article
Distributed GNE-Seeking under Partial Information Based on Preconditioned Proximal-Point Algorithms
by Zhongzheng Wang, Huaqing Li, Menggang Chen, Jialong Tang, Jingran Cheng and Yawei Shi
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(11), 6405; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13116405 - 24 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1205
Abstract
This paper proposes a distributed algorithm for games with shared coupling constraints based on the variational approach and the proximal-point algorithm. The paper demonstrates the effectiveness of the proximal-point algorithm in distributed computing of generalized Nash equilibrium (GNE) problems using local data and [...] Read more.
This paper proposes a distributed algorithm for games with shared coupling constraints based on the variational approach and the proximal-point algorithm. The paper demonstrates the effectiveness of the proximal-point algorithm in distributed computing of generalized Nash equilibrium (GNE) problems using local data and communication with neighbors in any networked game. The algorithm achieves the goal of reflecting local decisions in the Nash–Cournot game under partial-decision information while maintaining the distributed nature and convergence of the algorithm. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Artificial Intelligence Theories and Applications)
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<p>(<b>a</b>) Network Nash–Cournot game. (<b>b</b>) Communication graph <math display="inline"><semantics> <msub> <mi mathvariant="script">G</mi> <mi>c</mi> </msub> </semantics></math>.</p>
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<p>Relative error <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mfenced separators="" open="&#x2225;" close="&#x2225;"> <msub> <mi>x</mi> <mi>k</mi> </msub> <mo>−</mo> <msup> <mi>x</mi> <mo>*</mo> </msup> </mfenced> <mo>/</mo> <mfenced separators="" open="&#x2225;" close="&#x2225;"> <msup> <mi>x</mi> <mo>*</mo> </msup> </mfenced> </mrow> </semantics></math> plot generated by Algorithm 1 and Algorithm 2 (the algorithm in [<a href="#B21-applsci-13-06405" class="html-bibr">21</a>]).</p>
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<p>The total cost of all agents generated by Algorithm 1 and Algorithm 2 (the algorithm in [<a href="#B21-applsci-13-06405" class="html-bibr">21</a>]).</p>
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<p>Trajectories of every agent’s decision <math display="inline"><semantics> <msub> <mi>x</mi> <mrow> <mi>i</mi> <mo>,</mo> <mi>k</mi> </mrow> </msub> </semantics></math> generated by Algorithm 1.</p>
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<p>(<b>a</b>) Trajectories of the standard deviation of agents’ estimations of <math display="inline"><semantics> <msub> <mi>x</mi> <mrow> <mi>i</mi> <mo>,</mo> <mi>k</mi> </mrow> </msub> </semantics></math> generated by Algorithm 1. (<b>b</b>) Trajectories of agents’ estimations of <math display="inline"><semantics> <msub> <mi>x</mi> <mrow> <mn>3</mn> <mo>,</mo> <mi>k</mi> </mrow> </msub> </semantics></math> generated by Algorithm 1.</p>
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11 pages, 3327 KiB  
Article
Label-Free Model Evaluation with Out-of-Distribution Detection
by Fangzhe Zhu, Ye Zhao, Zhengqiong Liu and Xueliang Liu
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(8), 5056; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13085056 - 18 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1477
Abstract
In recent years, label-free model evaluation has been developed to estimate the performance of models on unlabeled test sets. However, we find that existing methods perform poorly in environments with out-of-distribution (OOD) data. To address this issue, we propose a novel automatic model [...] Read more.
In recent years, label-free model evaluation has been developed to estimate the performance of models on unlabeled test sets. However, we find that existing methods perform poorly in environments with out-of-distribution (OOD) data. To address this issue, we propose a novel automatic model evaluation method using OOD detection to reduce the impact of OOD data on model evaluation. Specifically, we use the representation of datasets to train a neural network for accuracy prediction and employ energy-based OOD detection to exclude OOD data during testing. We conducted experiments on several benchmark datasets with varying amounts of OOD data (SVHN, ISUN, ImageNet, and LSUN) and demonstrated that our method reduces the RMSE compared to existing methods by at least 1.27%. Additionally, we tested our method on transformed datasets and datasets with a high proportion of OOD data, and the results show its robustness. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Artificial Intelligence Theories and Applications)
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<p><b>Left</b>: The training process of the regression model. We first generate a set of transformed datasets from the training set and use the information from transformed datasets to train the regression model for predicting model accuracy. Note that in these transformed datasets, the mask of the images is always set to 1 because the labels of these images have not changed and still belong to the original distribution. <b>Right</b>: We use the trained regression model to predict the accuracy of the model, and the image shown in the red box indicates out-of-distribution (OOD) data. To avoid the impact of these OOD images on the prediction of the regression model, an OOD detector sets the mask of the corresponding features of the image to 0.</p>
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<p>The transformed image in the meta-dataset. The source images are from the training set. These images have the same label as the source image.</p>
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<p>(<b>a</b>): The vertical axis represents the error between the model accuracy predicted by our method and the true accuracy of the classifier, while the horizontal axis represents the OOD detection threshold. This error decreases initially and then increases as the OOD threshold increases. (<b>b</b>): The vertical axis represents the error of OOD detection, while the horizontal axis represents the OOD detection threshold. This error decreases as the OOD threshold increases. The ID/OOD data in the dataset comes from CIFAR-10.1/ImageNet and ImageNet/SVHN, respectively. The ratio of ID data to OOD data is 9:1.</p>
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<p>The error changes of our method under different proportions of OOD data. When the proportion of OOD data is low, our method only shows a slight improvement over other methods. However, as the proportion of OOD data increases, our method’s superiority over other methods becomes more prominent. The dataset consists of ID data and OOD data from CIFAR-10.1/ImageNet (<b>a</b>) and ImageNet/SVHN (<b>b</b>).</p>
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<p>The graph shows the comparison of the error rate between our proposed method and AutoEval on transformed test sets. Img represents the ImageNet dataset, and CF10.1 represents the CIFAR10.1 dataset. For group A images, we applied cutout, while for group B, we used shear and changed the hue. (−)/(+) indicates that the predicted accuracy is lower/higher than the ground-truth accuracy. As shown in the figure, our method always outperforms traditional AutoEval on transformed datasets.</p>
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18 pages, 4532 KiB  
Article
Vectorized Representation of Commodities by Fusing Multisource Heterogeneous User-Generated Content with Multiple Models
by Guangyi Man, Xiaoyan Sun and Weidong Wu
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(7), 4217; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13074217 - 27 Mar 2023
Viewed by 1303
Abstract
In the field of personalized recommendation, user-generated content (UGC) such as videos, images, and product comments are becoming increasingly important, since they implicitly represent the preferences of users. The vectorized representation of a commodity with multisource and heterogeneous UGC is the key for [...] Read more.
In the field of personalized recommendation, user-generated content (UGC) such as videos, images, and product comments are becoming increasingly important, since they implicitly represent the preferences of users. The vectorized representation of a commodity with multisource and heterogeneous UGC is the key for sufficiently mining the preference information to make a recommendation. Existing studies have mostly focused on using one type of UGC, e.g., images, to enrich the representation of a commodity, ignoring other contents. When more UGC are fused, complicated models with heavy computation cost are often designed. Motivated by this, we proposed a low-computational-power model for vectorizing multisource and recommendation UGC to achieve accurate commodity representations. In our method, video description keyframes, commodities’ attribute text, and user comments were selected as the model’s input. A multi-model fusion framework including feature extraction, vectorization, fusion, and classification based on MobileNet and multilayer perceptrons was developed. In this UGC fusion framework, feature correlations between images and product comments were extracted to design the loss function to improve the precision of vectorized representation. The proposed algorithm was applied to an actual representation of a commodity described by UGC, and the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm was demonstrated by the classification accuracy of the commodity represented. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Artificial Intelligence Theories and Applications)
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<p>Proposed framework.</p>
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<p>Keyframe stacking and input. The input dimension of MobileNetV2 is <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mn>3</mn> <mo>×</mo> <mfenced> <mrow> <mi>m</mi> <mo>+</mo> <mi>n</mi> </mrow> </mfenced> </mrow> </semantics></math>.</p>
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<p>Single-layer fusion network, where <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <msub> <mi>x</mi> <mn>1</mn> </msub> </mrow> </semantics></math> represents the image features, <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <msub> <mi>x</mi> <mn>2</mn> </msub> </mrow> </semantics></math> represents the <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <msub> <mi>X</mi> <mrow> <mi>r</mi> <mi>e</mi> <mi>v</mi> </mrow> </msub> </mrow> </semantics></math> commodity comments, and <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <msub> <mi>x</mi> <mn>3</mn> </msub> </mrow> </semantics></math> represents the <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <msub> <mi>X</mi> <mrow> <mi>p</mi> <mi>r</mi> <mi>o</mi> </mrow> </msub> </mrow> </semantics></math> commodity attributes.</p>
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<p>Detailed network architecture of the experiments. FC indicates the fully connected layer.</p>
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<p>The algorithm’s classification results: (<b>a</b>) accuracy, (<b>b</b>) recall, and (<b>c</b>) <span class="html-italic">F</span><sub>1</sub> score.</p>
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<p>Comparison of the effects of the loss function. The results for (<b>a</b>) accuracy, (<b>b</b>) recall, and (<b>c</b>) <span class="html-italic">F</span><sub>1</sub> score.</p>
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<p>Experimental results of the video–review model: (<b>a</b>) accuracy, (<b>b</b>) recall, and (<b>c</b>) <span class="html-italic">F</span><sub>1</sub> score.</p>
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<p>Experimental results of the video–property model: (<b>a</b>) accuracy, (<b>b</b>) recall, and (<b>c</b>) <span class="html-italic">F</span><sub>1</sub> score.</p>
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<p>Experimental results of the video–property model: (<b>a</b>) accuracy, (<b>b</b>) recall, and (<b>c</b>) <span class="html-italic">F</span><sub>1</sub> score.</p>
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<p>Experimental results of the review–property model: (<b>a</b>) accuracy, (<b>b</b>) recall, and (<b>c</b>) <span class="html-italic">F</span><sub>1</sub> score.</p>
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17 pages, 30513 KiB  
Article
A Novel Small Target Detection Strategy: Location Feature Extraction in the Case of Self-Knowledge Distillation
by Gaohua Liu, Junhuan Li, Shuxia Yan and Rui Liu
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(6), 3683; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13063683 - 14 Mar 2023
Viewed by 1434
Abstract
Small target detection has always been a hot and difficult point in the field of target detection. The existing detection network has a good effect on conventional targets but a poor effect on small target detection. The main challenge is that small targets [...] Read more.
Small target detection has always been a hot and difficult point in the field of target detection. The existing detection network has a good effect on conventional targets but a poor effect on small target detection. The main challenge is that small targets have few pixels and are widely distributed in the image, so it is difficult to extract effective features, especially in the deeper neural network. A novel plug-in to extract location features of the small target in the deep network was proposed. Because the deep network has a larger receptive field and richer global information, it is easier to establish global spatial context mapping. The plug-in named location feature extraction establishes the spatial context mapping in the deep network to obtain the global information of scattered small targets in the deep feature map. Additionally, the attention mechanism can be used to strengthen attention to the spatial information. The comprehensive effect of the above two can be utilized to realize location feature extraction in the deep network. In order to improve the generalization of the network, a new self-distillation algorithm was designed for pre-training that could work under self-supervision. The experiment was conducted on the public datasets (Pascal VOC and Printed Circuit Board Defect dataset) and the self-made dedicated small target detection dataset, respectively. According to the diagnosis of the false-positive error distribution, the location error was significantly reduced, which proved the effectiveness of the plug-in proposed for location feature extraction. The mAP results can prove that the detection effect of the network applying the location feature extraction strategy is much better than the original network. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Artificial Intelligence Theories and Applications)
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<p>Self−supervised self-distillation module: Simdis2x.</p>
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<p>Location feature extraction structure. ConvNHS is a convolution block that contains convolution, normalization, and the <span class="html-italic">Hard Swish</span> activation function. CAM: channel attention mechanism. SAM: spatial attention mechanism. CBL, a convolution module, includes convolution, batch normalization, and the <span class="html-italic">LeakyReLU</span> function.</p>
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<p>Improved YOLOv4. Scheme I: Insert a position feature extraction module in positions 1–5, respectively. Scheme II: Positions 1–5 are all inserted into the LFE block. DBL: DarkNetConv2D + Batch Normalization + Mish; SPP: Spatial Pyramid Pooling; Conv: Convolutional Layer; Concat: Concatenation.</p>
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<p>Visualization results of the heat map.</p>
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<p>Error distribution and diagnosis diagram. The first row is the diagnosis result of the original YOLOv4, and the second row is the diagnosis result of the YOLOv4 added with the location feature extraction structure. Loc: position error; Sim: similarity error; BG: background error; Oth: other error.</p>
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<p>Error distribution and diagnosis diagram. The first row is the diagnosis result of the original YOLOv4, and the second row is the diagnosis result of the YOLOv4 added with the location feature extraction structure. Loc: position error; Sim: similarity error; BG: background error; Oth: other error.</p>
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<p>Proportion of <span class="html-italic">FP</span> in different categories.</p>
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<p><span class="html-italic">mAP</span> line charts of the different integration schemes of LFE. (<b>a</b>) shows the experimental results of different normalization methods in the LFE module. (<b>b</b>) shows the experimental results of different numbers of ConvNHS in the LFE module. (<b>c</b>) shows the experimental results of LFE modules at different insertion positions of YOLOv4.</p>
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26 pages, 3192 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Factors Affecting Purchase of Self-Defense Tools among Women: A Machine Learning Ensemble Approach
by Rianina D. Borres, Ardvin Kester S. Ong, Tyrone Wyeth O. Arceno, Allyza R. Padagdag, Wayne Ralph Lee B. Sarsagat, Hershey Reina Mae S. Zuñiga and Josephine D. German
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(5), 3003; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13053003 - 26 Feb 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 8590
Abstract
Street crime is one of the world’s top concerns and a surge in cases has alarmed people, particularly women. Related studies and recent news have provided proof that women are the target for crimes and violence at home, outdoors, and even in the [...] Read more.
Street crime is one of the world’s top concerns and a surge in cases has alarmed people, particularly women. Related studies and recent news have provided proof that women are the target for crimes and violence at home, outdoors, and even in the workplace. To guarantee protection, self-defense tools have been developed and sales are on the rise in the market. The current study aimed to determine factors influencing women’s intention to purchase self-defense tools by utilizing the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The study applied multiple data analyses, Machine Learning Algorithms (MLAs): Decision Tree (DT), Random Forest Classifier (RFC), and Deep Learning Neural Network (DLNN), to predict purchasing and consumer behavior. A total of 553 Filipino female respondents voluntarily completed a 46-item questionnaire which was distributed online, yielding 22,120 data points. The MLAs output showed that attitude, perceived risk, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control were the most significant factors influencing women’s intention to purchase self-defense tools. Environment, hazardous surroundings, relatives and peers, and thinking and control, all influenced the women’s intention to buy self-defense tools. The RFC and DLNN analyses proved effective, resulting in 96% and 97.70% accuracy rates, respectively. Finally, the MLA analysis in this research can be expanded and applied to predict and assess factors affecting human behavior in the context of safety. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Artificial Intelligence Theories and Applications)
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<p>Percentage change in various types of crime, by levels of income of countries, 2003–2013.</p>
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<p>Conceptual Framework.</p>
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<p>(<b>a</b>)<b>.</b> Optimum Tree with Random Forest Classifier (True side). (<b>b</b>)<b>.</b> Optimum Tree with Random Forest Classifier (False side).</p>
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<p>(<b>a</b>)<b>.</b> Optimum Tree with Random Forest Classifier (True side). (<b>b</b>)<b>.</b> Optimum Tree with Random Forest Classifier (False side).</p>
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<p>Deep Learning Neural Network Model.</p>
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<p>Training and Validation Loss Rate.</p>
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<p>Taylor Diagram.</p>
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15 pages, 3318 KiB  
Article
Robust and High-Fidelity 3D Face Reconstruction Using Multiple RGB-D Cameras
by Haocheng Peng, Li Yang and Jinhui Li
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(22), 11722; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122211722 - 18 Nov 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3243
Abstract
In this paper, we propose a robust and high-fidelity 3D face reconstruction method that uses multiple depth cameras. This method automatically reconstructs high-quality 3D face models from aligned RGB-D image pairs using multi-view consumer-grade depth cameras. To this end, we mainly analyze the [...] Read more.
In this paper, we propose a robust and high-fidelity 3D face reconstruction method that uses multiple depth cameras. This method automatically reconstructs high-quality 3D face models from aligned RGB-D image pairs using multi-view consumer-grade depth cameras. To this end, we mainly analyze the problems in existing traditional and classical multi-view 3D face reconstruction systems and propose targeted improvement strategies for the issues related. In particular, we propose a fast two-stage point cloud filtering method that combines coarse filtering and fine filtering to rapidly extract the reconstructed subject point cloud with high purity. Meanwhile, in order to improve the integrity and accuracy of the point cloud for reconstruction, we propose a depth data restoration and optimization method based on the joint space–time domain. In addition, we also propose a method of multi-view texture alignment for the final texture fusion session that is more conducive for fusing face textures with better uniformity and visual performance. The above-proposed methods are reproducible and can be extended to the 3D reconstruction of any subject. The final experimental results show that the method is able to robustly generate 3D face models having high geometric and visual quality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Artificial Intelligence Theories and Applications)
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<p>Edge noise at discontinuities in the depth domain. (<b>a</b>) Schematic diagram of edge noise. The green area is the background and the yellow area is the foreground. The white area is the depth discontinuity area where the foreground and background are separated, and the green area attached to the outer contour of the yellow foreground is the edge noise, which is caused by the depth camera measurement principle. (<b>b</b>) Visualization of edge noise on a point cloud of real data. The detailed image of the edge noise is contained in the red box.</p>
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<p>Schematic diagram of the acquisition platform. (<b>a</b>) The acquisition platform contains three calibrated RealSense D435 cameras and a light source. (<b>b</b>) The acquisition platform with the users.</p>
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<p>Overview of the face reconstruction system.</p>
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<p>Schematic diagram of two-stage point cloud filtering. (<b>a</b>) Detailed image after coarse filtering. (<b>b</b>) Detailed image after fine filtering. It can be seen that the noise at the edges (curtains and lights in the background) of the hair is filtered out well after fine filtering.</p>
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<p>Reconstruction accuracy of our method on synthetic data with different noise levels.</p>
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<p>Comparison of point cloud filtering results under different camera views. The red box contains the noise that the other filtering method failed to filter out.</p>
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<p>Multi-view texture alignment results.</p>
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<p>Face reconstruction results from aligned RGB-D image pairs using our approach. The first column contains the input RGB and depth image pairs, and our geometric shapes are shown in the second column. Columns 3–5 show our texture geometry results from different views.</p>
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<p>Geometric shape detail of facial reconstruction. We can see that we have clearly recovered the geometric shape of facial features even for small differences in depth.</p>
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