Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems - Volume 40, issue 6

Authors: Jiang, Chunmao | Guo, Doudou | Sun, Lijuan

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The basic idea of the three-way decisions (3WD) is ‘thinking in threes.’ The TAO (trisecting-acting-outcome) model of 3WD includes three components, trisect a whole into three reasonable regions, devise a corresponding strategy on the trisection, and measure the effectiveness of the outcome. By reviewing existing studies, we found that only a few papers touch upon the third component, i.e., measure the effect. This paper’s principal aim is to present an effectiveness measure framework consisting of three parts: a specific TAO model - Change-based TAO model, interval sets, and utility functions with unique characteristics. Specifically, the change-based TAO model provides a …method to measure effectiveness based on the difference before and after applying a strategy or an action. First, we use interval sets to represent these changes when a strategy or an action is applied. These changes correspond to three different intervals. Second, we use the utility measurement method to figure out three change intervals. Namely, different utility measures correspond to the different intervals, concave utility metric, direct utility metric, and convex utility metric, respectively. Third, it aggregates the toll utility through the joint of the three utilities mentioned above. The weights among these three are adjusted by a dual expected utility function that conveys the decision-makers’ preferences. We give an example and experiment highlighting the validity and practicability of the utility measure method in the change-based TAO model of three-way decisions. Show more

Keywords: Three-way decisions, change-based TAO model, interval set, utility measurement, dual expected utility

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202207

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11071-11084, 2021

Authors: Qian, Tiancheng | Mei, Xue | Xu, Pengxiang | Ge, Kangqi | Qiu, Zhelei

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Recently many methods use encoder-decoder framework for video captioning, aiming to translate short videos into natural language. These methods usually use equal interval frame sampling. However, lacking a good efficiency in sampling, it has a high temporal and spatial redundancy, resulting in unnecessary computation cost. In addition, the existing approaches simply splice different visual features on the fully connection layer. Therefore, features cannot be effectively utilized. In order to solve the defects, we proposed filtration network (FN) to select key frames, which is trained by deep reinforcement learning algorithm actor-double-critic. According to behavior psychology, the core idea of actor-double-critic is …that the behavior of agent is determined by both the external environment and the internal personality. It avoids the phenomenon of unclear reward and sparse feedback in training because it gives steady feedback after each action. The key frames are sent to combine codec network (CCN) to generate sentences. The operation of feature combination in CCN make fusion of visual features by complex number representation to make good semantic modeling. Experiments and comparisons with other methods on two datasets (MSVD/MSR-VTT) show that our approach achieves better performance in terms of four metrics, BLEU-4, METEOR, ROUGE-L and CIDEr. Show more

Keywords: Video captioning, deep reinforcement learning, frame sampling, feature fusion, sparse reward, actor-critic

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202249

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11085-11097, 2021

Authors: Chen, Yang | Yang, Jiaxiu

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: In recent years, interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems (IT2 FLSs) have become a hot topic for the capability of coping with uncertainties. Compared with the centroid type-reduction (TR), investigating the center-of-sets (COS) TR of IT2 FLSs is more favorable for applying IT2 FLSs. Actually, it is still an open question for comparing Karnik-Mendel (KM) types of algorithms and other types of alternative algorithms for COS TR. This paper gives the block of fuzzy reasoning, COS TR, and defuzzification of IT2 FLSs based on Nagar-Bardini (NB), Nie-Tan (NT) and Begian-Melek-Mendel (BMM) noniterative algorithms. Six simulation experiments are used to show the …performances of three types of noniterative algorithms. The proposed noniterative algorithms can obtain much higher computational efficiencies compared with the KM algorithms, which give the potential value for designing T2 FLSs. Show more

Keywords: Interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems, center-of-sets type-reduction, Nagar-Bardini algorithms, computational efficiency, Nie-Tan algorithms

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202264

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11099-11106, 2021

Authors: Li, Mengmeng | Zhang, Chiping | Chen, Minghao | Xu, Weihua

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Multi-granulation decision-theoretic rough sets uses the granular structures induced by multiple binary relations to approximate the target concept, which can get a more accurate description of the approximate space. However, Multi-granulation decision-theoretic rough sets is very time-consuming to calculate the approximate value of the target set. Local rough sets not only inherits the advantages of classical rough set in dealing with imprecise, fuzzy and uncertain data, but also breaks through the limitation that classical rough set needs a lot of labeled data. In this paper, in order to make full use of the advantage of computational efficiency of local rough …sets and the ability of more accurate approximation space description of multi-granulation decision-theoretic rough sets, we propose to combine the local rough sets and the multigranulation decision-theoretic rough sets in the covering approximation space to obtain the local multigranulation covering decision-theoretic rough sets model. This provides an effective tool for discovering knowledge and making decisions in relation to large data sets. We first propose four types of local multigranulation covering decision-theoretic rough sets models in covering approximation space, where a target concept is approximated by employing the maximal or minimal descriptors of objects. Moreover, some important properties and decision rules are studied. Meanwhile, we explore the reduction among the four types of models. Furthermore, we discuss the relationships of the proposed models and other representative models. Finally, illustrative case of medical diagnosis is given to explain and evaluate the advantage of local multigranulation covering decision-theoretic rough sets model. Show more

Keywords: Covering rough sets, local rough sets, local covering rough sets, multigranulation rough sets

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202274

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11107-11130, 2021

Authors: Wei, Shanting | Zhang, Zhuo | Chen, Xintong

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Network-based incubation has undergone rapid developments and the incubation mechanism has begun to change recently. To incentive the start-ups on the basis of ensuring its own interests, the incubator needs to design a feasible contract. According to network theory, a single network cannot adequately describe the heterogeneous alliances of incubated start-ups in the business incubator. Therefore, by constructing super-network structure of incubated start-ups, this paper designs two types of linear incentive contracts and uses numerical simulation to further discuss the model. The results indicate that the business incubator should design the contract according to the different capability levels and risk …preference degree of start-ups: linear screening contract (LSC) is more effective to motivate the incubated start-ups to improve the capability, while the incentive effect will be weakened by the increasing proportion of high-capability start-ups; for high risk-preference start-ups, linear pooling contract (LPC) is superior than LSC. The results can serve as a theoretical direction for the business incubator to effectively distinguish different capability levels of start-ups and make better decision on contract design to motivate start-ups on the basis of ensuring the maximization of its own utility. Show more

Keywords: Business incubator, start-up, super-network, dynamic capability, cooperative network, knowledge network

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202279

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11131-11144, 2021

Authors: Chen, Kuen-Suan | Yu, Chun-Min

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Many corporations purchase components from suppliers, which can reduce operating costs and enable firms to focus their resources on core advantages. Studies have indicated that process quality and manufacturing time performance are two crucial indicators for supplier selection. We used the process quality index and a manufacturing time performance index to create a dual dimensional fuzzy supplier selection model. First, the upper confidence limits of these two indices were derived, and a fuzzy membership function based on these limits was constructed. Based on the fuzzy test rules for process quality and manufacturing time performance, we divided the fuzzy supplier selection …matrix into nine evaluation zones. Using the upper confidence limits of these two indices, we created evaluation coordinates and assigned weights based on the location of the coordinates. Then, the total of all the weights was employed to form a supplier selection index for which a higher value means a higher ranking. The use of confidence limits decreased the chance of misjudgment resulting from sampling errors while the fuzzy test rules increased the applicability of the model. Consequently, the proposed model can be used to select suppliers efficiently so as to form partnerships in which corporations and suppliers can grow together. Show more

Keywords: Fuzzy supplier selection model, fuzzy membership function, manufacturing time performance, process quality, upper confidence limit

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202349

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11145-11158, 2021

Authors: Lei, Shi

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: An improved Web community discovery algorithm is proposed in this paper based on the attraction between Web pages to effectively reduce the complexity of Web community discovery. The proposed algorithm treats each Web page in the Web pages collection as an individual with attraction based on the theory of universal gravitation, elaborates the discovery and evolution process of Web community from a Web page in the Web pages collection, defines the priority rules of Web community size and Web page similarity, and gives the calculation formula of the change in Web page similarity. Finally, an experimental platform is built to …analyze the specific discovery process of the Web community in detail, and the changes in cumulative distribution of Web page similarity are discussed. The results show that the change in the similarity of a new page satisfies the power-law distribution, and the similarity of a new page is proportional to the size of Web community that the new page chooses to join. Show more

Keywords: Web community, web page, attraction, evolution process, web page similarity

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202366

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11159-11169, 2021

Authors: He, Weiming | Wu, You | Xiao, Jing | Cao, Yang

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Feature pyramids are commonly applied to solve the scale variation problem for object detection. One of the most representative works of feature pyramid is Feature Pyramid Network (FPN), which is simple and efficient. However, the fully power of multi-scale features might not be completely exploited in FPN due to its design defects. In this paper, we first analyze the structure problems of FPN which prevent the multi-scale feature from being fully exploited, then propose a new feature pyramid structure named Mixed Group FPN (MGFPN) , to mitigate these design defects of FPN. Concretely, MGFPN strengthens the feature utilization by two …modules named Mixed Group Convolution(MGConv) and Contextual Attention(CA) . MGConv reduces the spatial information loss of FPN in feature generation stage. And CA narrows the semantic gaps between features of different receptive field before lateral summation. By replacing FPN with MGFPN in FCOS, our method can improve the performance of detectors in many major backbones by 0.7 to 1.2 Average Precision(AP) on MS-COCO benchmark without adding too much parameters and it is easy to be extended to other FPN-based models. The proposed MGFPN can serve as a simple and strong alternative for many other FPN based models. Show more

Keywords: Object Detection, Feature Pyramids, FPN, Mixed Group Convolution, Contextual Attention

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202372

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11171-11181, 2021

Authors: Touqeer, Muhammad | Umer, Rimsha | Ali, Muhammad Irfan

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Pythagorean fuzzy sets and interval-valued Pythagorean fuzzy sets are more proficient in handling uncertain and imprecise information than intuitionistic fuzzy sets and fuzzy sets. In this article, we put forward a chance-constraint programming method to solve linear programming network problems with interval-valued Pythagorean fuzzy constraints. This practice is developed using score function and upper and lower membership functions of interval-valued Pythagorean fuzzy numbers. The feasibility of the anticipated approach is illustrated by solving an airway network application and shown to be used to solve different types of network problems with objective function having interval-valued Pythagorean fuzzy numbers by employing it …on shortest path problem and minimum spanning tree problem. Furthermore, a comparative examination was performed to validate the effectiveness and usefulness of the projected methodology. Show more

Keywords: Interval-valued pythagorean fuzzy number (IVPFN), interval-valued trapezoidal pythagorean number (IVTrPFN), linear programming problem (LPP), chance-constraint programming (CCP)

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202383

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11183-11199, 2021

Authors: Zeng, Shaohua | Wu, Yalan | Wang, Shuai | He, Ping

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The segmentation and extraction of the purple soil region from purple soil color image can effectively avoid the influence of background on recognition of soil types. A scale weighted fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm(SWFCM) is proposed for effective segmentation of purple soil color image. The main work is to establish the maximum difference optimization model with the mean of Gaussian distance between each pixel and each peak of the image histogram, and optimize the clustering number and the initial clustering centers. Then, the compactness of each class is defined to weight the Euclidean distance between the pixel and the clustering center …and improve the optimization model of FCM for raising its clustering performance. Aiming at the problem of removing scattered small soil blocks in the background and filling holes in the purple soil region, the algorithm of extracting the boundary of the purple soil region and the algorithm of filling the purple soil region are proposed. Finally, the normal and robust experiments are carried out on the normal sample set and robust sample set. And the performances of relative algorithms are compared, which involves the previously released FCM algorithms and some methods for the segmentation of purple soil color image and our proposed algorithm. Experimental results show that performance of SWFCM is better and it can provide a high reference for adaptive segmentation of purple soil color images. Especially for robust experiment images, its average segmentation accuracy is improved by 6 . 64% ∼ 8 . 25 % compared with other purple soil segmentation algorithms. Show more

Keywords: color image segmentation, purple soil, fuzzy c-means clustering(FCM)

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202401

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11201-11215, 2021

Authors: Ghosh, Arijit | Dey, Munmun | Mondal, Sankar Prasad | Shaikh, Azharuddin | Sarkar, Anirban | Chatterjee, Banashree

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: E-Rickshaw is an E-vehicle that has three wheels, a rechargeable battery driven electric motor as engine. E-rickshaw has become very popular due to low operating cost, low maintenance cost, eco-friendliness and ease of driving. It is perfect for small distance transport. As a last mile connector, it has transformed the public transport system in India. The low cost electric vehicle carries enough people to make a decent income and hence has become a source of livelihood for many. For considering the issues in this paper, detailed attributes of E-rickshaw are studied and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) has been applied to …calculate criteria weights for the sorted attributes. Subsequently, Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), a Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) technique has been applied for the selection of best E-Rickshaw. In this paper, sensitivity analysis and comparative analysis have been conducted for further insight. Show more

Keywords: AHP method, E-Rickshaws selection, sensitivity analysis, TOPSIS method

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202406

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11217-11230, 2021

Authors: Mi, Xiangjun | Tian, Ye | Kang, Bingyi

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Describing and processing complex as well as ambiguous and uncertain information has always been an inescapable and challenging topic in multi-attribute decision analysis (MADA) problems. As an extension of Dempster-Shafer (D-S) evidence theory, D numbers breaks through the constraints of the constraint framework and is a new way of expressing uncertainty. The soft likelihood function based on POWA operator is one of the most useful tools recently developed for dealing with uncertain information, since it provides a more excellent performance for the aggregation of multiple compatible evidence. Recently, a new MADA model based on D numbers has been proposed, called …DMADA. In this paper, inspired by the above mentioned theories, based on soft likelihood functions, POWA aggregation and D numbers we design a novel model to improve the performance of representing and processing uncertain information in MADA problems as an improvement of the DMADA approach. In contrast, our advantages include mainly the following. Firstly, the proposed method considers the reliability characteristics of each initial D number information. Secondly, the proposed method empowers decision makers with the possibility to express their perceptions through attitudinal features. In addition, an interesting finding is that the preference parameter in the proposed method can clearly distinguish the variability between candidates by adjusting the space values between adjacent alternatives, making the decision results clearer. Finally, the effectiveness and superiority of this model are proved through analysis and testing. Show more

Keywords: Multi-attribute decision analysis (MADA), D numbers, ordered weighted averaging (OWA), power OWA (POWA), soft likelihood function (SLF), reliability

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202413

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11231-11255, 2021

Authors: Pei, Huili | Li, Hongliang | Liu, Yankui

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: In practical decision-making problems, decision makers are often affected by uncertain parameters because the exact distributions of uncertain parameters are usually difficult to determine. In order to deal with this issue, the major contribution in this paper is to propose a new type of type-2 fuzzy variable called level interval type-2 fuzzy variable from the perspective of level-sets, which is a useful tool in modeling distribution uncertainty. With our level interval type-2 fuzzy variable, we give a method for constructing a parametric level interval (PLI) type-2 fuzzy variable from a nominal possibility distribution by introducing the horizontal perturbation parameters. The …proposed horizontal perturbation around the nominal distribution is different from the vertical perturbation discussed in the literature. In order to facilitate the modeling in practical decision-making problems, for a level interval type-2 fuzzy variable, we define its selection variable whose distribution can be determined via its level-sets. The numerical characteristics like expected value and second order moments are important indices in practical optimization and decision-making problems. With this consideration, we establish the analytical expressions about the expected values and second order moments of the selection variables of PLI type-2 trapezoidal, normal and log-normal fuzzy variables. Furthermore, in order to derive the analytical expressions about the numerical characteristics of the selection variable for the sums of the common PLI type-2 fuzzy variables, we discuss the arithmetic about the sums of common PLI type-2 fuzzy variables. Finally, we apply the proposed optimization method to a pricing decision problem to demonstrate the efficiency of our new method. The computational results show that even a small perturbation of the nominal possibility distribution can affect the quality of solutions. Show more

Keywords: Level interval type-2 fuzzy variable, Selection variable, Second order moments, Pricing decision

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202421

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11257-11272, 2021

Authors: Wang, Huiru | Zhou, Zhijian

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Multi-view learning utilizes information from multiple representations to advance the performance of categorization. Most of the multi-view learning algorithms based on support vector machines seek the separating hyperplanes in different feature spaces, which may be unreasonable in practical application. Besides, most of them are designed to balanced data, which may lead to poor performance. In this work, a novel multi-view learning algorithm based on maximum margin of twin spheres support vector machine (MvMMTSSVM) is introduced. The proposed method follows both maximum margin principle and consensus principle. By following the maximum margin principle, it constructs two homocentric spheres and tries to …maximize the margin between the two spheres for each view separately. To realize the consensus principle, the consistency constraints of two views are introduced in the constraint conditions. Therefore, it not only deals with multi-view class-imbalanced data effectively, but also has fast calculation efficiency. To verify the validity and rationlity of our MvMMTSSVM, we do the experiments on 24 binary datasets. Furthermore, we use Friedman test to verify the effectiveness of MvMMTSSVM. Show more

Keywords: Multi-view learning, twin spheres, SVM, maximum margin, consensus principle

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202427

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11273-11286, 2021

Authors: Liu, Peide | Mahmood, Tahir | Ali, Zeeshan

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Complex q-rung orthopair fuzzy set (CQROFS) is a proficient technique to describe awkward and complicated information by the truth and falsity grades with a condition that the sum of the q-powers of the real part and imaginary part is in unit interval. Further, Schweizer–Sklar (SS) operations are more flexible to aggregate the information, and the Muirhead mean (MM) operator can examine the interrelationships among the attributes, and it is more proficient and more generalized than many aggregation operators to cope with awkward and inconsistence information in realistic decision issues. The objectives of this manuscript are to explore the SS operators …based on CQROFS and to study their score function, accuracy function, and their relationships. Further, based on these operators, some MM operators based on PFS, called complex q-rung orthopair fuzzy MM (CQROFMM) operator, complex q-rung orthopair fuzzy weighted MM (CQROFWMM) operator, and their special cases are presented. Additionally, the multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach is developed by using the explored operators based on CQROFS. Finally, the advantages and comparative analysis are also discussed. Show more

Keywords: Complex q-rung orthopair fuzzy sets, Schweizer-Sklar Muirhead means operators, multi-criteria decision making

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202440

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11287-11309, 2021

Authors: Xuan, Cho Do | Duong, Duc | Dau, Hoang Xuan

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) is a dangerous network attack method that is widely used by attackers nowadays. During the APT attack process, attackers often use advanced techniques and tools, thus, causing many difficulties for information security systems. In fact, to detect the APT attacks, intrusion detection systems cannot rely on one technique or method but often combine multiple techniques and methods. In addition, the approach for APT attack detection using behavior analysis and evaluation techniques is facing many difficulties due to the lack of characteristic data of attack campaigns. For the above reasons, in this paper, we propose a method …for APT attack detection based on a multi-layer analysis. The multi-layer analysis technique in our proposal computes and analyzes various events in Network Traffic to detect and synthesize abnormal signs and behaviors in order to make conclusions about the existence of APT in the system. Specifically, in our proposal, we will use serial 3 main layers for the APT attack detection process including i) Detecting APT attacks based on analyzing abnormal connection; ii) Detecting APT attacks based on analyzing and evaluating Suricata log; iii) Detecting APT attacks based on analyzing behavior profiles that are compiled from layers (i) and (ii). To achieve these goals, the multi-layer analysis technique for APT attack detection will perform 2 main tasks: i) Analyzing and evaluating components of Network Traffic based on abnormal signs and behaviors. ii) building and classifying behavior profile based on each component of network traffic. In the experimental section, we will compare and evaluate the effectiveness of the APT attack detection process of each layer in the multi-layer analysis model using machine learning. Experimental results have shown that the APT attack detection method based on analyzing behavior profile has yielded better results than individual detection methods on all metrics. The research results shown in the paper not only demonstrate the effectiveness of the multilayer analysis model for APT attack detection but also provide a novel approach for detecting several other cyber-attack techniques. Show more

Keywords: Advanced persistent threat, APT attack detection, network traffic, multi-layer detection, abnormal behavior, machine learning

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202465

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11311-11329, 2021

Authors: Revathi, T. | Rajalaxmi, T.M. | Sundara Rajan, R. | Freire, Wilhelm Passarella

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Salient object detection plays a vital role in image processing applications like image retrieval, security and surveillance in authentic-time. In recent times, advances in deep neural network gained more attention in the automatic learning system for various computer vision applications. In order to decrement the detection error for efficacious object detection, we proposed a detection classifier to detect the features of the object utilizing a deep neural network called convolutional neural network (CNN) and discrete quaternion Fourier transform (DQFT). Prior to CNN, the image is pre-processed by DQFT in order to handle all the three colors holistically to evade loss …of image information, which in-turn increase the effective use of object detection. The features of the image are learned by training model of CNN, where the CNN process is done in the Fourier domain to quicken the method in productive computational time, and the image is converted to spatial domain before processing the fully connected layer. The proposed model is implemented in the HDA and INRIA benchmark datasets. The outcome shows that convolution in the quaternion Fourier domain expedite the process of evaluation with amended detection rate. The comparative study is done with CNN, discrete Fourier transforms CNN, RNN and masked RNN. Show more

Keywords: Convolutional neural networks, quaternion complex variable, object detection, image enhancement, discrete quaternion Fourier transform

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202502

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11331-11340, 2021

Authors: Beseiso, Majdi | Kumar, Gulshan

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This paper presents a fuzzy computational approach for selecting project portfolio by combining fuzzy logic, Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Genetic algorithm (GA) approaches with the consideration of prioritized selection criteria as per objectives of the organization to make decisions effectively with incomplete and ambiguous information to help in portfolio selection. This approach addresses the issues of the uncertainty of experts in selecting projects, prioritizing criteria before initiating project selection process and evaluating the number of interdependent projects for their maximal values. It completes the task in three stages. Firstly, it involves interaction with experts to extract fuzzy input about …the benefits of organization and selection criteria for selecting a project portfolio. The second stage requires the application of fuzzy QFD to prioritize criteria before deciding the project portfolio. In this stage, the paper contributes a method for using fuzzy values in a distinct way for obtaining priorities of selection criteria. The final stage evaluates the candidate projects concurrently based on top priority selection criteria by considering interrelation among projects by proposing a distinct fitness function of GA. The validity of the proposed approach is demonstrated by an example that considers three experts, three objectives of the organization and four selection criteria. Show more

Keywords: Fuzzy quality function development (FQFD), genetic algorithm, project portfolio management, project portfolio selection, quality function development (QFD)

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202506

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11341-11354, 2021

Authors: Khan, Vakeel A. | Tuba, Umme | Ashadul Rahaman, SK. | Ahmad, Ayaz

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: In 1990, Diamond [16 ] primarily established the base of fuzzy star–shaped sets, an extension of fuzzy sets and numerous of its properties. In this paper, we aim to generalize the convergence induced by an ideal defined on natural numbers ℕ , introduce new sequence spaces of fuzzy star–shaped numbers in ℝ n and examine various algebraic and topological properties of the new corresponding spaces as well. In support of our results, we provide several examples of these new resulting sequences.

Keywords: Fuzzy star–shaped numbers, Lp–metric, I–convergence, solidity and convergence free

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202534

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11355-11362, 2021

Authors: Aydoğmuş, Hacer Yumurtacı | Kamber, Eren | Kahraman, Cengiz

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to develop an extension of CODAS method using picture fuzzy sets. In this respect, a new methodology is introduced to figure out how picture fuzzy numbers can be applied to CODAS method. COmbinative Distance-based Assessment (CODAS) is a new MCDM method proposed by Ghorabaee et al. Picture fuzzy sets (PFSs) are a new extension of ordinary fuzzy sets for representing human’s judgments having possibility more than two answers such as yes, no, refusal and neutral. Compared with other studies, the proposed method integrates multi-criteria decision analysis with picture fuzzy uncertainty based on Euclidean and …Taxicab distances and negative ideal solution. ERP system selection problem is handled as the application area of the developed method, picture fuzzy CODAS. Results indicate that the new proposed method finds meaningful rankings through picture fuzzy sets. Comparative analyzes show that the presented method gives successful and robust results for the solutions of MCDM problems under fuzziness. Show more

Keywords: Fuzzy, picture fuzzy sets, CODAS method, ERP selection

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202564

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11363-11373, 2021

Authors: Chou, ShuoYan | Duong, Truong Thi Thuy | Thao, Nguyen Xuan

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Energy plays a central part in economic development, yet alongside fossil fuels bring vast environmental impact. In recent years, renewable energy has gradually become a viable source for clean energy to alleviate and decouple with a negative connotation. Different types of renewable energy are not without trade-offs beyond costs and performance. Multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) has become one of the most prominent tools in making decisions with multiple conflicting criteria existing in many complex real-world problems. Information obtained for decision making may be ambiguous or uncertain. Neutrosophic is an extension of fuzzy set types with three membership functions: truth membership function, …falsity membership function and indeterminacy membership function. It is a useful tool when dealing with uncertainty issues. Entropy measures the uncertainty of information under neutrosophic circumstances which can be used to identify the weights of criteria in MCDM model. Meanwhile, the dissimilarity measure is useful in dealing with the ranking of alternatives in term of distance. This article proposes to build a new entropy and dissimilarity measure as well as to construct a novel MCDM model based on them to improve the inclusiveness of the perspectives for decision making. In this paper, we also give out a case study of using this model through the process of a renewable energy selection scenario in Taiwan performed and assessed. Show more

Keywords: Dissimilarity measure, renewable energy, interval neutrosophic set

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202571

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11375-11392, 2021

Authors: Zhang, Chengling | Li, Jinjin | Lin, Yidong

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Three-way concept analysis is a mathematical model of the combination of formal concept analysis and three-way decision, and knowledge discovery plays a significant impact on formal fuzzy contexts since such datasets are frequently encountered in real life. In this paper, a novel type of one-sided fuzzy three-way concept lattices is presented in a given formal fuzzy context with its complement, in which a ternary classification is available. In such case, we comprehensively explore the connections between the proposed models and classical fuzzy concept lattices among elements, sets, and orders. Furthermore, approaches to granular matrix-based reductions are investigated, by which granular …consistent sets, and granular reducts via discernibility Boolean matrices are tectonically put forward. At last, the demonstrated results are performed by several experiments which enrich the research of three-way concept analysis. Show more

Keywords: Formal fuzzy contexts, granular reduction, one-sided fuzzy concept lattices, three-way decision

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202573

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11393-11410, 2021

Authors: Malini, A. | Priyadharshini, P. | Sabeena, S.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: To develop a surveillance and detection system for automating the process of road maintenance work which is being carried out by surveying and inspection of roads manually in the current situation. The need of the system lies in the fact that traditional methods are time-consuming, tiresome and require huge workforce. This paper proposes an automation system using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle which monitors and detects the pavement defects like cracks and potholes by processing real-time video footage of Indian highways. The collected data is processed and stored as images in a road defects database which serves as input for the system. …The behavior of Region Proposal Network (RPN) is made smooth by varying the number of region proposals utilized in the model. A regularization technique called dropout is used to achieve higher performance in the proposed Faster Region based Convolutional Neural Networks object detection model. The detections are made with 62.3% mean Average Precision @ Intersection over Union (IoU)> = 0.5 for the generation of 300 region proposals which is a good score for object detections. The comparisons between proposed and existing systems shows that the proposed Faster RCNN with modified VGG-16 performs well than the existing variants. Show more

Keywords: pothole, region proposal network, mean average precision, unmanned aerial vehicle, dropout

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202596

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11411-11422, 2021

Authors: Liu, Hui | He, Boxia | He, Yong | Tao, Xiaotian

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The existing seal ring surface defect detection methods for aerospace applications have the problems of low detection efficiency, strong specificity, large fine-grained classification errors, and unstable detection results. Considering these problems, a fine-grained seal ring surface defect detection algorithm for aerospace applications is proposed. Based on analysis of the stacking process of standard convolution, heat maps of original pixels in the receptive field participating in the convolution operation are quantified and generated. According to the generated heat map, the feature extraction optimization method of convolution combinations with different dilation rates is proposed, and an efficient convolution feature extraction network containing …three kinds of dilated convolutions is designed. Combined with the O-ring surface defect features, a multiscale defect detection network is designed. Before the head of multiscale classification and position regression, feature fusion tree modules are added to ensure the reuse and compression of the responsive features of different receptive fields on the same scale feature maps. Experimental results show that on the O-rings-3000 testing dataset, the mean condition accuracy of the proposed algorithm reaches 95.10% for 5 types of surface defects of aerospace O-rings. Compared with RefineDet, the mean condition accuracy of the proposed algorithm is only reduced by 1.79%, while the parameters and FLOPs are reduced by 35.29% and 64.90%, respectively. Moreover, the proposed algorithm has good adaptability to image blur and light changes caused by the cutting of imaging hardware, thus saving the cost. Show more

Keywords: Deep learning, feature extraction network, lightweight algorithm, multiscale classification, surface defect detection, O-rings

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202614

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11423-11440, 2021

Authors: Naderi, Katayoun | Ahari, Roya M. | Jouzdani, Javid | Amindoust, Atefeh

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Fierce competition in the global markets forced companies to improve the design and management of supply chains, because companies are always looking for more profit and higher customer satisfaction. The emergence of the green supply chain is one of the most important developments of the last decade. It provides an opportunity for companies to adjust their supply chains according to environmental goals and sustainability. The integrated production-inventory-routing is a new field that aims to optimize these three decision-making levels. It can be described as follow: a factory produces one or more products, and sells them to several customers (by direct …delivery or a specific customer chain). The current study aims to model a production-inventory-routing system using a system dynamics approach to design a green supply chain under uncertain conditions. For this purpose, first, the association between selected variables was determined. Then, the proposed model was validated. Finally, to identify variables with the highest influence, four scenarios were developed. The results indicated that minimum total transportation cost, the total warehouse capacity of the supply chain, and the maximum production rate are the most influential strategies to achieve ideal condition. Show more

Keywords: System dynamics, integrated production-inventory-routing problem, green supply chain, uncertainty

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202622

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11441-11454, 2021

Authors: Yao, Wei | Chen, Ye

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The arity of convex spaces is a numerical feature which shows the ability of finite subsets spanning to the whole space via the hull operators. This paper gives it a formal and strict definition by introducing the truncation of convex spaces. The relations that between the arity of quotient spaces and the original spaces, that between the arity of subspaces and superspaces, that between the arity of product spaces and factors spaces, and that between the arity of disjoint sums and term spaces, are systematically studied. A mistake of a formula in [M. Van De Vel, Theory of Convex Structures, …North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1993] is corrected. It is shown that a convex space is Alexandrov iff its arity is 1. The convex structures with arity ≤n are equivalent to structured sets with n -restricted hull operators. Show more

Keywords: convex space, arity, product space, disjoint sum, n-restricted hull operator

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202643

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11455-11462, 2021

Authors: Saravana Kumar, P. | Vasuki, S.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: In chromosome analysis, centromere is an essential component. By analyzing centromere, genetic disorder can be identified easily. In this paper, automatic classification and centromere detection in human chromosome image using Band Distance Feature is proposed. Initially the microscopic image of G-band chromosome is preprocessed in order to remove the blobs. Then, the image is segmented using labelling algorithm and the endpoints are calculated. Now, the overlapping chromosomes are removed when the number of end points is greater than two. The non-overlapped chromosomes are straightened using Reversible Projection algorithm. From the straightened chromosome band distance feature is calculated. The extracted features …are given to the ANN classifier to identify the class of chromosome and to calculate the centromere. From the experimental results, it is observed that the proposed method is superior to the traditional method. Show more

Keywords: Artificial neural networks, chromosome classification, labeling algorithm, straightening algorithm

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202682

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11463-11474, 2021

Authors: Hadi, Sarem H. | Madhi, Zainab S. | Park, Choonkil

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to introduce a new concept of the modular space, which is C Ω -modular space, and then some of the convex properties are discussed. We also study finding fixed-point in C Ω -modular space.

Keywords: CΩ-modular space, 𝒢-convergence, 𝒢-Cauchy sequence, fixed-point in CΩ-modular space

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202698

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11475-11478, 2021

Authors: Naeem, Muhammad | Khan, Muhammad Ali | Abdullah, Saleem | Qiyas, Muhammad | Khan, Saifullah

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Probabilistic hesitant fuzzy Set (PHFs) is the most powerful and comprehensive idea to support more complexity than developed fuzzy set (FS) frameworks. In this paper a novel and improved TOPSIS-based method for multi-criteria group decision making (MCGDM) is explained through the probabilistic hesitant fuzzy environment, in which the weights of both experts and criteria are completely unknown. Firstly, we discuss the concept of PHFs, score functions and the basic operating laws of PHFs. In fact, to compute the unknown weight information, the generalized distance measure for PHFs was defined based on the Probabilistic hesitant fuzzy entropy measure. Second, MCGDM will …be presented with the PHF information-based decision-making process. Show more

Keywords: Probabilistic hesitant fuzzy Set, extended TOPSIS method, application in decision making

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202700

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11479-11490, 2021

Authors: Jia, Xiang | Wang, Xinfan | Zhu, Yuanfang | Zhou, Lang | Zhou, Huan

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This study proposes a two-sided matching decision-making (TSMDM) approach by combining the regret theory under the intuitionistic fuzzy environment. At first, according to the Hamming distance of intuitionistic fuzzy sets and regret theory, superior and inferior flows are defined to describe the comparative preference of subjects. Hereafter, the satisfaction degrees are obtained by integrating the superior and inferior flows of the subjects. The comprehensive satisfaction degrees are calculated by aggregating the satisfaction degrees, based on which, a multi-objective TSMDM model is built. Furthermore, the multi-objective TSMDM model is converted to a single-objective model, the optimal solution of the latter is …derived. Finally, an illustrative example and several analyses are provided to verify the feasibility and the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Show more

Keywords: Multi-criteria decision-making, intuitionistic fuzzy sets, regret theory, two-sided matching, optimal model

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202720

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11491-11508, 2021

Authors: Fang, HaiFeng | Cao, Jin | Cai, LiHua | Zhou, Ta | Wang, MingQiang

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Both classification rate and accuracy are crucial for the recyclable PET bottles, and the existing combination methods of SVM all simply use SVM as the unit classifier, ignoring the improvement of SVM’s classification performance in the training process of deep learning. A linear multi hierarchical deep structure based on Support Vector Machine (SVM) is proposed to cover this problem. A novel definition of the input matrix in each layer enhances the optimization of Lagrange multipliers in Sequential Minimal Optimization (SMO) algorithm, thus the datapoint in maximum interval of SVM hyperplane could be recognized, improving the classification performance of SVM classifier …in this layer. The loss function defined in this paper could control the depth of Linear Multi Hierarchical SVM (LMHSVM), the generalization parameters are added in the loss function and the input matrix to enhance the generalization performance of LMHSVM. The process of creating Bottle dataset by Histogram of Oriented Gradient (HOG) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is introduced meanwhile, reducing the data size of bottles. Experiments are conducted on LMHSVM and multiple typical classification algorithms with Bottle dataset and UCI datasets, the results indicated that LMHSVM has excellent classification performances than FNN classifier, LIBSVM (Gaussian) and GFS-AdaBoost-C in KEEL. Show more

Keywords: Recycling plastic bottles, deep learning structure, SVM, Linear multi hierarchical, extract dataset

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202729

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11509-11522, 2021

Authors: Fan, Jianping | Yan, Feng | Wu, Meiqin

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: In this article, the gained and lost dominance score (GLDS) method is extended into the 2-tuple linguistic neutrosophic environment, which also combined the power aggregation operator with the evaluation information to deal with the multi-attribute group decision-making problem. Since the power aggregation operator can eliminate the effects of extreme evaluating data from some experts with prejudice, this paper further proposes the 2-tuple linguistic neutrosophic numbers power-weighted average operator and 2-tuple linguistic neutrosophic numbers power-weighted geometric operator to aggregate the decision makers’ evaluation. Moreover, a model based on the score function and distance measure of 2-tuple linguistic neutrosophic numbers (2TLNNs) is …developed to get the criteria weights. Combing the GLDS method with 2-tuple linguistic neutrosophic numbers and developing a 2TLNN-GLDS method for multiple attribute group decision making, it can express complex fuzzy information more conveniently in a qualitative environment and also consider the dominance relations between alternatives which can get more effective results in real decision-making problems. Finally, an applicable example of selecting the optimal low-carbon logistics park site is given. The comparing results show that the proposed method outperforms the other existing methods, as it can get more reasonable results than others and it is more convenient and effective to express uncertain information in solving realistic decision-making problems. Show more

Keywords: Multiple attribute group decision making, 2-tuple linguistic neutrosophic numbers, power average operator, power geometric operator, the gained and lost dominance score method

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202748

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11523-11538, 2021

Authors: Zhang, Yongjie | Cao, Kang | Liang, Ke | Zeng, Yongqi

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Commonality, a typical commercial feature of serialized civil aircraft study and development, refers to a series of methods of reusing and sharing assets, which were developed based on broad similarity. The common design of serialized civil aircraft is capable of maximally saving R&D, production, operation, and disposal. To maximize the total benefits of manufacturers and operators, the common design of serialized civil aircrafts primarily exploits the commercial experience of serialized products in other fields (e.g., automobiles and mobile phones), whereas a scientific index system and quantitative evaluation model has not been formed. Accordingly, this study proposes a new civil aircraft …commonality index evaluation model in accordance with fuzzy set theory and methods. The model follows two branches, i.e., attribute commonality and structural commonality, to develop a multi-level civil aircraft commonality index system. The proposed model can split the commonality into six commonality sub-intervals and build the corresponding standard fuzzy set with the characteristic attribute parameters of the civil aircraft as the elements. Next, based on considerable civil aircraft sample data, a fuzzy test is designed to yield the membership function of the fuzzy set. Thus, a model of evaluating civil aircraft commonality is constructed, taking the characteristic parameters of the civil aircraft to be evaluated as input, and selecting the degree of commonality of each level as output. Lastly, this study employs the evaluation model to evaluate the commonality of Boeing 757-200 with other civil aircrafts. Furthermore, the evaluated results well explain the actual situation, which verifies the effectiveness and practicability of the proposed model. Show more

Keywords: Cost benefit analysis, serialized civil aircraft, commonality index, fuzzy set, membership function

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202749

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11539-11558, 2021

Authors: Li, Chunhua | Xu, Baogen | Huang, Huawei

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: In this paper, the notion of a fuzzy *–ideal of a semigroup is introduced by exploiting generalized Green’s relations L * and R * , and some characterizations of fuzzy *–ideals on an arbitrary semigroup are obtained. Our main purpose is to establish the relationship between fuzzy *–ideals and abundance for an arbitrary semigroup. As an application of our results, we also give some new necessary and sufficient conditions for an arbitrary semigroup to be regular and inverse, respectively.

Keywords: fuzzy*–ideals, abundant semigroups, abundance, 20M20

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202759

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11559-11566, 2021

Authors: Wu, Yaoqiang

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: In this paper, we introduce the concept of weak partial-quasi k-metrics, which generalizes both k-metric and weak metric. Also, we present some examples to support our results. Furthermore, we obtain some fixed point theorems in weak partial-quasi k-metric spaces.

Keywords: weak metric, k-metric, partial-quasi k-metric, weak partial-quasi k-metric, fixed point theorem

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202768

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11567-11575, 2021

Authors: Luo, D. | Zhang, G.Z.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to solve the prediction problem of nonlinear sequences with multiperiodic features, and a multiperiod grey prediction model based on grey theory and Fourier series is established. For nonlinear sequences with both trend and periodic features, the empirical mode decomposition method is used to decompose the sequences into several periodic terms and a trend term; then, a grey model is used to fit the trend term, and the Fourier series method is used to fit the periodic terms. Finally, the optimization parameters of the model are solved with the objective of obtaining a minimum mean …square error. The novel model is applied to research on the loss rate of agricultural droughts in Henan Province. The average absolute error and root mean square error of the empirical analysis are 0.3960 and 0.5086, respectively. The predicted results show that the novel model can effectively fit the loss rate sequence. Compared with other models, the novel model has higher prediction accuracy and is suitable for the prediction of multiperiod sequences. Show more

Keywords: Nonlinear sequences, multiperiod, grey model, empirical mode decomposition, Fourier series

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202775

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11577-11586, 2021

Authors: Yang, Xu | Guo, Yu | Liu, Qiang | Zhang, Deming

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Effective enterprise quality immune response can grasp the “pathogenesis”, “clinical manifestations” and “treatment” of enterprise quality dissident factors, which is the goal pursued continuously by enterprise quality management. Drawing on the theory of enterprise immunity, construct the evaluation index system of enterprise quality immune response effect, and use the evaluation model of interval binary semantic grey target decision based on two-dimensional association sampling (EMIBSGTD-TAS) to evaluate the quality immune response effect of the selected target company. The boundary and internal distribution situation weaken the influence of the extreme value of the index on the decision result, and introduce the interval …binary semantic set value statistical method to determine the index weight, reduce the information loss and fuzzy error. It can be seen from the evaluation results that the model has practicability and feasibility, and provides a new idea for the evaluation of the effect of enterprise quality immune response. Show more

Keywords: Quality Immune Response, Two-dimensional Association Sampling (TAS), Interval Binary Semantics (IBS), Gray Target Decision (GTD)

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202794

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11587-11606, 2021

Authors: Ya-Na, Wang | Guo-Hua, Zhou

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to investigate a profit-maximization firm how to determine the composition and prices of multiple bundles. Bundles are sets of components that must meet some technical constraints; furthermore, customers differ in their quality valuations and choose the bundle that maximizes their utility. A mixed integer non-linear program is proposed to solve this problem. First, a two-step approach is employed to obtain the firm’s optimal decision. The result indicates that when the firm faces deterministic demand, the optimal set of bundles it offers is independent of the distribution of customer valuations and does not contain any …dominated bundle. In addition, dominated components cannot be used to construct the optimal bundles. Second, the impact of demand uncertainty on the firm’s performance is explored. The results suggest that disregarding the demand risk may result in broader assortment and suboptimal prices. Finally, numerical experiments and sensitive analysis are conducted to provide managerial insights for the pricing and composition of multiple bundles. Show more

Keywords: Vertical differentiation, uncertain demand, pricing, composition of bundle, consumer choice model

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202799

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11607-11623, 2021

Authors: Norouzi, Ashraf | hajiagha, Hossein Razavi

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Multi criteria decision-making problems are usually encounter implicit, vague and uncertain data. Interval type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2FS) are widely used to develop various MCDM techniques especially for cases with uncertain linguistic approximation. However, there are few researches that extend IT2FS-based MCDM techniques into qualitative and group decision-making environment. The present study aims to adopt a combination of hesitant and interval type-2 fuzzy sets to develop an extension of Best-Worst method (BWM). The proposed approach provides a flexible and convenient way to depict the experts’ hesitant opinions especially in group decision-making context through a straightforward procedure. The proposed approach is called …IT2HF-BWM. Some numerical case studies from literature have been used to provide illustrations about the feasibility and effectiveness of our proposed approach. Besides, a comparative analysis with an interval type-2 fuzzy AHP is carried out to evaluate the results of our proposed approach. In each case, the consistency ratio was calculated to determine the reliability of results. The findings imply that the proposed approach not only provides acceptable results but also outperforms the traditional BWM and its type-1 fuzzy extension. Show more

Keywords: Best-worst method (BWM), hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set, hesitant interval type-2 Fuzzy BWM, interval type-2 fuzzy set, multi-attribute decision-making, qualitative decision-making

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202801

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11625-11652, 2021

Authors: Nguyen, Trang T.D. | Nguyen, Loan T.T. | Nguyen, Anh | Yun, Unil | Vo, Bay

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Spatial clustering is one of the main techniques for spatial data mining and spatial data analysis. However, existing spatial clustering methods primarily focus on points distributed in planar space with the Euclidean distance measurement. Recently, NS-DBSCAN has been developed to perform clustering of spatial point events in Network Space based on a well-known clustering algorithm, named Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN). The NS-DBSCAN algorithm has efficiently solved the problem of clustering network constrained spatial points. When compared to the NC_DT (Network-Constraint Delaunay Triangulation) clustering algorithm, the NS-DBSCAN algorithm efficiently solves the problem of clustering network constrained spatial …points by visualizing the intrinsic clustering structure of spatial data by constructing density ordering charts. However, the main drawback of this algorithm is when the data are processed, objects that are not specifically categorized into types of clusters cannot be removed, which is undeniably a waste of time, particularly when the dataset is large. In an attempt to have this algorithm work with great efficiency, we thus recommend removing edges that are longer than the threshold and eliminating low-density points from the density ordering table when forming clusters and also take other effective techniques into consideration. In this paper, we develop a theorem to determine the maximum length of an edge in a road segment. Based on this theorem, an algorithm is proposed to greatly improve the performance of the density-based clustering algorithm in network space (NS-DBSCAN). Experiments using our proposed algorithm carried out in collaboration with Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam yield the same results but shows an advantage of it over NS-DBSCAN in execution time. Show more

Keywords: Spatial data mining, spatial data clustering, NS-DBSCAN, network spatial analysis

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202806

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11653-11670, 2021

Authors: Özgül, Ercan | Dinçer, Hasan | Yüksel, Serhat

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Healthy life is recognized as one of the most fundamental human rights. However, even today, millions of people around the world are forced to choose between their basic needs and fundamental rights. Half of the world’s population does not have access to the healthcare they need. Universal Health Coverage (UHC) aims to ensure that all individuals receive the quality health services they need without incurring a financial burden, and to protect them from risk factors that threaten their health. The aim of this study is to identify the significant factors to improve UHC in the countries. For this purpose, house …of quality (HoQ) approach is used in the analysis process so that both customer expectations and technical requirements are considered. Within this framework, a novel hybrid model has been proposed which has three different stages. Firstly, 3 groups of diseases and 4 clinical services for each group are determined regarding the customer needs. Secondly, these factors are weighted by using interval-valued intuitionistic hesitant 2-tuple fuzzy decision making and trial evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL). In the final stage, 9 different technical requirements are ranked by using interval-valued intuitionistic hesitant 2-tuple fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). Additionally, another evaluation has also been conducted by considering Spherical fuzzy sets. Similarly, a comparative analysis has also been performed with VIKOR while ranking the alternatives. It is concluded that analysis results of both evaluations are quite similar. This situation gives an information about the coherency and consistency of the analysis results. The findings indicate that treatment services in noncommunicable diseases play the most significant role in this respect. Moreover, according to the ranking results, it is concluded that strategic policies should be related to improving the social security and special physician capacity as well as decreasing the out-of-pocket payment. Show more

Keywords: House of quality, UHC, hesitant linguistic terms, DEMATEL, TOPSIS

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202818

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11671-11689, 2021

Authors: Liu, Rui-Lin | Yang, Hai-Long | Zhang, Li-Juan

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This paper studies information structures in a fuzzy β -covering information system. We introduce the concepts of a fuzzy β -covering information system and homomorphism between them, and investigate related properties. The concept of information structure of a fuzzy β -covering information system is given. We discuss the relationships between information structures from the view of dependence and separation. Then granularity measures for a fuzzy β -covering information system are studied. Finally, we discuss invariance of fuzzy β -covering information systems under homomorphism and illustrate its application on data compression.

Keywords: Fuzzy β-covering, fuzzy β-covering information system, information structure, homomorphism, invariance property

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202824

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11691-11716, 2021

Authors: Wang, Fubin | Liu, Peide | Wang, Peng

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: A scientific evaluation model can be effectively used for the evaluation of regional talent development level. This paper proposes a set of scientific index systems for evaluating rural science and technology talents, which can be used for understanding the development status and level of rural science and technology talents in various regions; putting forward the corresponding talent cultivation and introduction policies, and; promoting the development of rural economic construction. Moreover, in order to avoid the shortcoming of over-subjective indicator weight in analytic hierarchy process (AHP), this paper uses the entropy weight method to determine indicator weight. Furthermore, giving the fact …that the evaluation experts may have individual personal preferences, this paper proposes an extended TODIM method based on hybrid index values, for achieving more scientific and effective evaluation results of rural science and technology talents. Finally, the proposed methods are evaluated on an actual case, where relevant analysis and suggestions are given. Show more

Keywords: Rural scientific and technological talents, TODIM method, entropy weight method, hybrid indicator, multi-attribute decision-making

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202847

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11717-11730, 2021

Authors: Ju, Hongmei | Zhang, Yafang | Zhao, Ye

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Classification problem is an important research direction in machine learning. υ -nonparallel support vector machine (υ -NPSVM) is an important classifier used to solve classification problems. It is widely used because of its structural risk minimization principle, kernel trick, and sparsity. However, when solving classification problems, υ -NPSVM will encounter the problem of sample noises and heteroscedastic noise structure, which will affect its performance. In this paper, two improvements are made on the υ -NPSVM model, and a υ-nonparallel parametric margin fuzzy support vector machine (par-υ -FNPSVM) is established. On the one hand, for the noises that may exist in …the data set, the neighbor information is used to add fuzzy membership to the samples, so that the contribution of each sample to the classification is treated differently. On the other hand, in order to reduce the effect of heteroscedastic structure, an insensitive loss function is introduced. The advantages of the new model are verified through UCI machine learning standard data set experiments. Finally, Friedman test and Bonferroni-Dunn test are used to verify the statistical significance of it. Show more

Keywords: Classification problem, sample noises, heteroscedastic noise structure, ν-nonparallel support vector machine, parameter margin, nearest neighbor fuzzy membership

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202869

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11731-11747, 2021

Authors: Pavan Kumar, C.S. | Dhinesh Babu, L.D.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Sentiment analysis is widely used to retrieve the hidden sentiments in medical discussions over Online Social Networking platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. People often tend to convey their feelings concerning their medical problems over social media platforms. Practitioners and health care workers have started to observe these discussions to assess the impact of health-related issues among the people. This helps in providing better care to improve the quality of life. Dementia is a serious disease in western countries like the United States of America and the United Kingdom, and the respective governments are providing facilities to the affected people. …There is much chatter over social media platforms concerning the patients’ care, healthy measures to be followed to avoid disease, check early indications. These chatters have to be carefully monitored to help the officials take necessary precautions for the betterment of the affected. A novel Feature engineering architecture that involves feature-split for sentiment analysis of medical chatter over online social networks with the pipeline is proposed that can be used on any Machine Learning model. The proposed model used the fuzzy membership function in refining the outputs. The machine learning model has obtained sentiment score is subjected to fuzzification and defuzzification by using the trapezoid membership function and center of sums method, respectively. Three datasets are considered for comparison of the proposed and the regular model. The proposed approach delivered better results than the normal approach and is proved to be an effective approach for sentiment analysis of medical discussions over online social networks. Show more

Keywords: Dementia, sentiment analysis, machine learning, FDA, feature-split, feature engineering, trapezoid membership function

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202874

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11749-11761, 2021

Authors: Zargari, Hamed | Zahedi, Morteza | Rahimi, Marziea

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Words are one of the most essential elements of expressing sentiments in context although they are not the only ones. Also, syntactic relationships between words, morphology, punctuation, and linguistic phenomena are influential. Merely considering the concept of words as isolated phenomena causes a lot of mistakes in sentiment analysis systems. So far, a large amount of research has been conducted on generating sentiment dictionaries containing only sentiment words. A number of these dictionaries have addressed the role of combinations of sentiment words, negators, and intensifiers, while almost none of them considered the heterogeneous effect of the occurrence of multiple linguistic …phenomena in sentiment compounds. Regarding the weaknesses of the existing sentiment dictionaries, in addressing the heterogeneous effect of the occurrence of multiple intensifiers, this research presents a sentiment dictionary based on the analysis of sentiment compounds including sentiment words, negators, and intensifiers by considering the multiple intensifiers relative to the sentiment word and assigning a location-based coefficient to the intensifier, which increases the covered sentiment phrase in the dictionary, and enhanced efficiency of proposed dictionary-based sentiment analysis methods up to 7% compared to the latest methods. Show more

Keywords: Sentiment analysis, sentiment dictionary, linguistic phenomena, intensifier, intensifier location

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202879

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11763-11776, 2021

Authors: Zhang, Duo | Nguang, Sing Kiong | Shu, Lan | Qiu, Dong

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This paper focuses on establishing the trilinear fuzzy seepage model with multiple fuzzy parameters for shale gas reservoirs. Different from the conventional seepage models of shale gas reservoirs, the multiple fuzzy parameters seepage model uses fuzzy numbers to describe some parameters with uncertainty. Firstly, the multiple fuzzy parameters seepage model is constructed based on fuzzy concepts. The fuzzy structure element method and the centroid method are used to solve the fuzzy seepage model and defuzzifier, respectively. Secondly, the advantages of the development fuzzy model over the conventional seepage model are discussed and illustrated through numerical examples and simulations. Finally, to …further study the seepage laws inside shale gas reservoirs, this paper explores the sensitivity of relevant main control parameters to gas production based on the development model. Show more

Keywords: Shale gas reservoirs, fuzzy parameter, fuzzy differential equation, fuzzy structural element, fuzzy modeling

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202898

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11777-11797, 2021

Authors: Choudhary, Anu | Raj, Kuldip | Mursaleen, M.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Tauberian theorem serves the purpose to recuperate Pringsheim’s convergence of a double sequence from its (C , 1, 1) summability under some additional conditions known as Tauberian conditions. In this article, we intend to introduce some Tauberian theorems for fuzzy number sequences by using the de la Vallée Poussin mean and double difference operator of order r  . We prove that a bounded double sequence of fuzzy number which is Δ u r - convergent is ( C , 1 , 1 ) Δ u r - summable to the …same fuzzy number L  . We make an effort to develop some new slowly oscillating and Hardy-type Tauberian conditions in certain senses employing de la Vallée Poussin mean. We establish a connection between the Δ u r - Hardy type and Δ u r - slowly oscillating Tauberian condition. Finally by using these new slowly oscillating and Hardy-type Tauberian conditions, we explore some relations between ( C , 1 , 1 ) Δ u r - summable and Δ u r - convergent double fuzzy number sequences. Show more

Keywords: Fuzzy number, difference operator, double sequences, Tauberian theorem, (C, 1, 1)- summability

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202921

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11799-11808, 2021

Authors: Lei, Fan | Wei, Guiwu | Chen, Xudong

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Probabilistic double hierarchy linguistic term set (PDHLTS) can not only express the complex linguistic information that the probabilistic linguistic term set (PLTS) cannot express, but also reflect the frequency or importance of linguistic term set (LTS)that cannot be reflected by the double hierarchy linguistic term set (DHLTS). It is an effective tool to deal with multiple attribute group decision making (MAGDM) problems. Therefore, in this paper, we propose several aggregation operators which can aggregate PDHLTS information and apply them to MAGDM problems. Firstly, the basic notion of PDHLTS is reviewed, and the distance formula and algorithm of PDHLTS are defined; …then, extant weighted averaging (WA) operator, weighted geometric(WG) operator and power weighted averaging (PWA) operator, power weighted geometric(PWG) operator to PDHLTS, and establish probability double hierarchy linguistic weighted averaging (PDHLWA) operator, probability double hierarchy linguistic weighted geometric (PDHLWG) operator, probability double hierarchy linguistic power weighted averaging (PDHLPWA) operator, probability double hierarchy linguistic power weighted geometric (PDHLPWG) operator; in addition, The idempotency, boundedness and monotonicity of these aggregation operators are studied; what’s more, those aggregation operators are proposed to establish the enterprise credit self-evaluation model; Finally, compared with the available probabilistic double hierarchy linguistic MAGDM methods, the defined model is proved to be scientific and effective. Show more

Keywords: Multiple attribute group decision making (MAGDM), probabilistic double hierarchy term set (PDHLTS), aggregation operators, enterprise credit self-evaluation model

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202922

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11809-11828, 2021

Authors: Wu, Xinhao | Lu, Qiujun

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Application of quantitative methods for forecasting purposes in financial markets has attracted significant attention from researchers and managers in recent years when conventional time series forecasting models can hardly develop the inherent rules of complex nonlinear dynamic financial systems. In this paper, based on the fuzzy technique integrated with the statistical tools and artificial neural network, a new hybrid forecasting system consisting of three stages is constructed to exhibit effectively improved forecasting accuracy of financial asset price. The sum of squared errors is minimized to determine the coefficients in fitting the fuzzy autoregression model stage for formulating sample groups to …deal with data containing outliers. Fuzzy bilinear regression model introducing risk view based on quadratic programming algorithm that reflects the properties of both least squares and possibility approaches without expert knowledge is developed in the second stage. The main idea of the model considers the sub-models tracking the possible relations between the spread and the center, also linking the estimation deviation with risk degree of fitness of the model. In the third stage, fuzzy bilinear regression forecasting combining with the optimal architecture of probabilistic neural network classifiers indicates that the proposed method has great contribution to control over-wide interval financial data with a certain confidence level. Statistical validation and performance analysis using historical financial asset yield series on Shanghai Stock Exchange composite index all exhibit the effectiveness and stability of the proposed hybrid forecasting formulation compared with other forecasting methods. Show more

Keywords: Financial asset yield series forecasting, fuzzy bilinear regression, probabilistic neural network, symmetrical triangular fuzzy number, risk-neutral

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-202927

Citation: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 11829-11844, 2021