Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Benchmark And Comparative Study Of Video-Based Face Recognition On Cox Face Database, Zhiwu Huang, S. Shan, R. Wang, H. Zhang, S. Lao, A. Kuerban, X. Chen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Face recognition with still face images has been widely studied, while the research on video-based face recognition is inadequate relatively, especially in terms of benchmark datasets and comparisons. Real-world video-based face recognition applications require techniques for three distinct scenarios: 1) Videoto-Still (V2S); 2) Still-to-Video (S2V); and 3) Video-to-Video (V2V), respectively, taking video or still image as query or target. To the best of our knowledge, few datasets and evaluation protocols have benchmarked for all the three scenarios. In order to facilitate the study of this specific topic, this paper contributes a benchmarking and comparative study based on a newly collected …

A Misspecification Test For Logit Based Route Choice Models, Tien Mai, Emma Frejinger, Fabian Bastin

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The multinomial logit (MNL) model is often used for analyzing route choices in real networks in spite of the fact that path utilities are believed to be correlated. Yet, statistical tests for model misspecification are rarely used. This paper shows how the information matrix test for model misspecification proposed byWhite (1982) can be applied to test path-based and link-based MNL route choice models.We present a Monte Carlo experiment using simulated data to assess the size and the power of the test and to compare its performance with the IIA (Hausman and McFadden, 1984) and McFadden–Train Lagrange multiplier (McFadden and Train, …

On Neighborhood Effects In Location-Based Social Networks, Thanh-Nam Doan, Freddy Chong-Tat Chua, Ee-Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we analyze factors that determine the check-in decisions of users on venues using a location-based social network dataset. Based on a Foursquare dataset constructed from Singapore-based users, we devise a stringent criteria to identify the actual home locations of a subset of users. Using these users' check-ins, we aim to ascertain the neighborhood effect on the venues visited, compared with the activity level of users. We further formulate the check-in count prediction and check-in prediction tasks. A comprehensive set of features have been defined and they encompass information from users, venues, their neighbors, and friendship networks. We …

Supercnn: A Superpixelwise Convolutional Neural Network For Salient Object Detection, Shengfeng He, Rynson W.H. Lau, Wenxi Liu, Zhe Huang, Qingxiong Yang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Existing computational models for salient object detection primarily rely on hand-crafted features, which are only able to capture low-level contrast information. In this paper, we learn the hierarchical contrast features by formulating salient object detection as a binary labeling problem using deep learning techniques. A novel superpixelwise convolutional neural network approach, called SuperCNN, is proposed to learn the internal representations of saliency in an efficient manner. In contrast to the classical convolutional networks, SuperCNN has four main properties. First, the proposed method is able to learn the hierarchical contrast features, as it is fed by two meaningful superpixel sequences, which …

On Top-K Selection In Multi-Armed Bandits And Hidden Bipartite Graphs, Wei Cao, Jian Li, Yufei Tao, Zhize Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper discusses how to efficiently choose from $n$ unknown distributions the $k$ ones whose means are the greatest by a certain metric, up to a small relative error. We study the topic under two standard settings---multi-armed bandits and hidden bipartite graphs---which differ in the nature of the input distributions. In the former setting, each distribution can be sampled (in the i.i.d. manner) an arbitrary number of times, whereas in the latter, each distribution is defined on a population of a finite size $m$ (and hence, is fully revealed after m samples). For both settings, we prove lower bounds on …

Fast Reinforcement Learning Under Uncertainties With Self-Organizing Neural Networks, Teck-Hou Teng, Ah-Hwee Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Using feedback signals from the environment, a reinforcement learning (RL) system typically discovers action policies that recommend actions effective to the states based on a Q-value function. However, uncertainties over the estimation of the Q-values can delay the convergence of RL. For fast RL convergence by accounting for such uncertainties, this paper proposes several enhancements to the estimation and learning of the Q-value using a self-organizing neural network. Specifically, a temporal difference method known as Q-learning is complemented by a Q-value Polarization procedure, which contrasts the Q-values using feedback signals on the effect of the recommended actions. The polarized Q-values …

A Bayesian Recommender Model For User Rating And Review Profiling, Mingming Jiang, Dandan Song, Lejian Liao, Feida Zhu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Intuitively, not only do ratings include abundant information for learning user preferences, but also reviews accompanied by ratings. However, most existing recommender systems take rating scores for granted and discard the wealth of information in accompanying reviews. In this paper, in order to exploit user profiles' information embedded in both ratings and reviews exhaustively, we propose a Bayesian model that links a traditional Collaborative Filtering (CF) technique with a topic model seamlessly. By employing a topic model with the review text and aligning user review topics with "user attitudes" (i.e., abstract rating patterns) over the same distribution, our method achieves …

A Cooperative Coevolution Framework For Parallel Learning To Rank, Shuaiqiang Wang, Yun Wu, Byron J. Gao, Ke Wang, Hady W. Lauw, Jun Ma

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We propose CCRank, the first parallel framework for learning to rank based on evolutionary algorithms (EA), aiming to significantly improve learning efficiency while maintaining accuracy. CCRank is based on cooperative coevolution (CC), a divide-and-conquer framework that has demonstrated high promise in function optimization for problems with large search space and complex structures. Moreover, CC naturally allows parallelization of sub-solutions to the decomposed sub-problems, which can substantially boost learning efficiency. With CCRank, we investigate parallel CC in the context of learning to rank. We implement CCRank with three EA-based learning to rank algorithms for demonstration. Extensive experiments on benchmark datasets in …

Mylife: An Online Personal Memory Album, Di Wang, Ah-Hwee Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this demo, we illustrate the formation, retrieval, and playback of autobiographical memory in an online personal memory album named MyLife. The memory in MyLife consists of pictorial snapshots of one's life together with the associated context, namely time, location, people, activity, imagery, and emotion. MyLife allows direct import of memories from other online personal photo repositories. For memory retrieval, users can use not only exact cues, but also partial, vague, inaccurate, and random ones. The retrieved memories are then played back as a movie-like slide show with various visual effects and background music. MyLife holds high potential in both …

Preface To Wi-Iat 2015 Workshops And Demo/Posters, Ah-Hwee Tan, Yuefeng Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This volume contains the papers selected for presentation at the workshops and demonstration/poster track as part of the 2015 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence (WI’15) and 2015 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology (IAT’15) held from 6 to 9 December 2015 in Singapore.

Silver Assistants For Aging-In-Place, Di Wang, Budhitama Subagdja, Yilin Kang, Ah-Hwee Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this demo, we present an assembly of silver assistants for supporting Aging-In-Place (AIP). The virtual agents are designed to serve around the clock to complement human care within the intelligent home environment. Residing in different platforms with ubiquitous access, the agents collaboratively provide holistic care to the elderly users. The demonstration is shown in a 3-D virtual home replicating a typical 5-room apartment in Singapore. Sensory inputs are stored in a knowledge base named Situation Awareness Model (SAM). Therefore, the capabilities of the agents can always be extended by expanding the knowledge defined in SAM. Using the simulation system, …

Modeling Social Media Content With Word Vectors For Recommendation, Ying Ding, Jing Jiang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In social media, recommender systems are becoming more and more important. Different techniques have been designed for recommendations under various scenarios, but many of them do not use user-generated content, which potentially reflects users’ opinions and interests. Although a few studies have tried to combine user-generated content with rating or adoption data, they mostly reply on lexical similarity to calculate textual similarity. However, in social media, a diverse range of words is used. This renders the traditional ways of calculating textual similarity ineffective. In this work, we apply vector representation of words to measure the semantic similarity between text. We …

Incremental Dcop Search Algorithms For Solving Dynamic Dcop Problems, William Yeoh, Pradeep Varakantham, Xiaoxun Sun, Sven Koenig

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Distributed constraint optimization (DCOP) problems are well-suited for modeling multi-agent coordination problems. However, it only models static problems, which do not change over time. Consequently, researchers have introduced the Dynamic DCOP (DDCOP) model to model dynamic problems. In this paper, we make two key contributions: (a) a procedure to reason with the incremental changes in DDCOPs and (b) an incremental pseudo-tree construction algorithm that can be used by DCOP algorithms such as any-space ADOPT and any-space BnB-ADOPT to solve DDCOPs. Due to the incremental reasoning employed, our experimental results show that any-space ADOPT and any-space BnB-ADOPT are up to 42% …

Predictive Analytics Of Organizational Decisions And The Role Of Rationality, Arash Barfar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

How can we predict key decisions made by organizations in the presence of big data and on-demand information? In this dissertation we exploit a large repository of B2B real-time transactional data with service quality indicators and present evidence that organizational decision analytics apply both rational and boundedly-rational (i.e. behavioral) economic models. The dissertation’s findings demonstrate that both utility and heuristic models, respectively, play significant roles in predicting organizational decisions on churn, a key decision in this context. In the presence of a large data set the assumed rationality of organizations appears to provide accurate predictions in uncontrolled experiences and selected …

Information Technology Services (Its) Program Database, Lora Ersland

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

The South Dakota Board of Regents (SDBOR) system, comprised of the six public universities, has undertaken a project to migrate the Colleague Student Information System from a proprietary Unidata database to an Oracle database. The conversion to the Oracle database will allow the ITS Administrative Computing staff more options to create programs that access the Colleague Student Information System.

During the conversion of the existing Unidata programs, it was discovered that the migration was causing us to lose our ability to keep track of programs that were developed to access the Colleague system. In addition, while we are gaining the …

Online Moving Object Visualization With Geo-Referenced Data, Guangqiang Zhao

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As a result of the rapid evolution of smart mobile devices and the wide application of satellite-based positioning devices, the moving object database (MOD) has become a hot research topic in recent years. The moving objects generate a large amount of geo-referenced data in different types, such as videos, audios, images and sensor logs. In order to better analyze and utilize the data, it is useful and necessary to visualize the data on a map.

With the rise of web mapping, visualizing the moving object and geo-referenced data has never been so easy. While displaying the trajectory of a moving …

Some Principles For Banks’ Internal Control System In Albania, Artur Ribaj

UBT International Conference

Internal control involves everything that controls risks to a bank. The objectives of internal control as a system relate to the reliability of financial reporting, timely feedback on the achievement of operational or strategic goals, and compliance with laws and regulations. The objectives of internal control at a specific transaction level refer to the actions taken to achieve the target within the allowed limit of risk. An effective internal control system reduces process variation, leading to more predictable outcomes. There are some important documents for regulating the internal control system as such: The Directive 2006/43/EC “On statutory audits of annual …

Credit Information System In Albania, Valbona Çinaj, Bashkim Ruseti

UBT International Conference

The booming lending period and many lenders (16 banks and 21 non-bank financial Institutions in Albania) brought about unprecedented competition in credit markets within Albania. Economists usually view lending and competition favorably, but in Albania resulted in a number of unforeseen non-performing loans. Findings report increased problems of borrower over-indebtedness, reduced loan repayment incentives, and growing debts for lenders (Campion 2001; McIntosh and Wydick 2005). The weakening performance of lenders is due in part to the absence of information sharing in these markets. Because growing numbers of lenders (banks and non-bank financial Institutions in Albania) increase the level of asymmetric …

It Outsourcing, Besnik Skenderi, Diamanta Skenderi

UBT International Conference

Businesses, shareholders and all other interested parties (Custom, Tax Administration and Customers) require just in time information regarding profit, price, stock and support. Businesses have responded to those requests with implementation of IT (Information Technology) infrastructure, but implementation of advanced IT system infrastructure has created cost for shareholder and there was immediate need to recruit and to train existing staff. With this step, management focus was oriented in non-strategic processes, and for the implementation and managing of those processes, the management did not have necessary skills, due to this reason many companies in US, Europe and Asia have started to …

E-Customer Relationship Management In Insurance Industry In Albania, Evelina Bazini

UBT International Conference

E- Customer relationship management is an issue that every company, large or small must take in some way. Handled well, a CRM strategy can deliver significant benefits for companies and customers. Interaction with customers, in particular, has been enhanced and organizations who wish to remain competitive have started to implement CRM programmes and techniques in order to develop closer relations with their customers and to develop a better understanding of their needs. At the same time, the use of e-commerce techniques in CRM allows insurance organizations to identify customers, monitor their habits and use of information, and deliver them improved …

Modelling Business And Management Systems Using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps: A Critical Overview, Peter P. Groumpos

UBT International Conference

A critical overview of modelling Business and Management (B&M) Systems using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps is presented. A limited but illustrative number of specific applications of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps in diverse B&M systems, such as e business, performance assessment, decision making, human resources management, planning and investment decision making processes is provided and briefly analyzed. The limited survey is given in a table with statics of using FCMs in B&M systems during the last 15 years. The limited survey shows that the applications of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps to today’s Business and Management studies has been steadily increased especially during the last …

Performance Indicators Analysis Inside A Call Center Using A Simulation Program, Ditila Ekmekçiu, Markela Muça, Adrian Naço

UBT International Conference

This paper deals with and shows the results of different performance indicators analyses made utilizing the help of Simulation and concentrated on dimensioning problems of handling calls capacity in a call center. The goal is to measure the reactivity of the call center’s performance to potential changes of critical variables. The literature related to the employment of this kind of instrument in call centers is reviewed, and the method that this problem is treated momentarily is precisely described. The technique used to obtain this paper’s goal implicated a simulation model using Arena Contact Center software that worked as a key …

Effect Of Retiring Custom Web Applications On Business And Information Technology Alignment, Shubhashree Thekahally

Shubhashree Thekahally 7340504

Web applications provide the information technology (IT) implementation of business and align IT with business. Retirement of IT applications should ensure stability of business and IT alignment. The current study investigated the alignment gaps created between business and IT resulting from retiring IT software applications. The purpose of this study was to identify IT integration points with business and provide a process-based solution that sustained IT alignment with business after retiring IT applications. The theoretical framework strategic alignment model aided in identifying 3 IT domains as the IT integration points with business: enterprise architecture, configuration management database, and service-level agreement. …

Cost-Sensitive Online Classification With Adaptive Regularization And Its Applications, Peilin Zhao, Furen Zhuang, Min Wu, Xiao-Li Li, Hoi, Steven C. H.

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Cost-Sensitive Online Classification is recently proposed to directly online optimize two well-known cost-sensitive measures: (i) maximization of weighted sum of sensitivity and specificity, and (ii) minimization of weighted misclassification cost. However, the previous existing learning algorithms only utilized the first order information of the data stream. This is insufficient, as recent studies have proved that incorporating second order information could yield significant improvements on the prediction model. Hence, we propose a novel cost-sensitive online classification algorithm with adaptive regularization. We theoretically analyzed the proposed algorithm and empirically validated its effectiveness with extensive experiments. We also demonstrate the application of the …

Cnl: Collective Network Linkage Across Heterogeneous Social Platforms, Ming Gao, Ee-Peng Lim, David Lo, Feida Zhu, Philips Kokoh Prasetyo, Aoying Zhou

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The popularity of social media has led many users to create accounts with different online social networks. Identifying these multiple accounts belonging to same user is of critical importance to user profiling, community detection, user behavior understanding and product recommendation. Nevertheless, linking users across heterogeneous social networks is challenging due to large network sizes, heterogeneous user attributes and behaviors in different networks, and noises in user generated data. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised method, Collective Network Linkage (CNL), to link users across heterogeneous social networks. CNL incorporates heterogeneous attributes and social features unique to social network users, handles …

Not All Trips Are Equal: Analyzing Foursquare Check-Ins Of Trips And City Visitors, Wen Haw Chong, Bingtian Dai, Ee Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Location-Based Social Networks (LBSN) such as Foursquare allow users to indicate venue visits via check-ins. This results in much fine grained context-rich data, useful for studying user mobility. In this work, we use check-ins to characterize trips and visitors to two cities, where visitors are defined as having their home cities elsewhere. First, we divide trips into two duration types: long and short. We then show that trip types differ in check-in distributions over venue categories, time slots, as well as check-in intensity. Based on the trip types, we then divide visitors into long-term and short-term visitors. We compare visitor …

Where Are The Passengers? A Grid-Based Gaussian Mixture Model For Taxi Bookings, Meng-Fen Chiang, Tuan Anh Hoang, Ee-Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Taxi bookings are events where requests for taxis are made by passengers either over voice calls or mobile apps. As the demand for taxis changes with space and time, it is important to model both the space and temporal dimensions in dynamic booking data. Several applications can benefit from a good taxi booking model. These include the prediction of number of bookings at certain location and time of the day, and the detection of anomalous booking events. In this paper, we propose a Grid-based Gaussian Mixture Model (GGMM) with spatio-temporal dimensions that groups booking data into a number of spatio-temporal …

Lesinn: Detecting Anomalies By Identifying Least Similar Nearest Neighbours, Guansong Pang, Kai Ming Ting, David Albrecht

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We introduce the concept of Least Similar Nearest Neighbours (LeSiNN) and use LeSiNN to detect anomalies directly. Although there is an existing method which is a special case of LeSiNN, this paper is the first to clearly articulate the underlying concept, as far as we know. LeSiNN is the first ensemble method which works well with models trained using samples of one instance. LeSiNN has linear time complexity with respect to data size and the number of dimensions, and it is one of the few anomaly detectors which can apply directly to both numeric and categorical data sets. Our extensive …

Using Digital Genomics To Create An Intelligent Enterprise, Mario Domingo

Asian Management Insights

Every business knows that it needs to leverage customer data, but few know the potential it has to transform business processes, decisions and performance.

Modelling Cascades Over Time In Microblogs, Xie Wei, Feida Zhu, Siyuan Liu, Ke Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

One of the most important features of microblogging services such as Twitter is how easy it is to re-share a piece of information across the network through various user connections, forming what we call a "cascade". Business applications such as viral marketing have driven a tremendous amount of research effort predicting whether a certain cascade will go viral. Yet the rarity of viral cascades in real data poses a challenge to all existing prediction methods. One solution is to simulate cascades that well fit the real viral ones, which requires our ability to tell how a certain cascade grows over …