What makes a review a reliable rating in recommender systems?

The way that users provide feedback on items regarding their satisfaction varies among systems: in some systems, only explicit ratings can be entered; in other systems textual reviews are accepted; and in some systems, both feedback types are accommodated. Recommender systems can readily exploit explicit ratings in the rating prediction and recommendation formulation process, however textual reviews -which in the context of many social networks are in abundance and significantly outnumber numeric ratings- need to be converted to numeric ratings. While numerous approaches exist that calculate a user's rating based on the respective textual review, all such approaches may introduce errors, in the sense that the process of rating calculation based on textual reviews involves an uncertainty level, due to the characteristics of the human language, and therefore the calculated ratings may not accurately reflect the actual ratings that the corresponding user would enter. In this work (1) we examine the features of textual reviews, which affect the reliability of the review-to-rating conversion procedure, (2) we compute a confidence level for each rating, which reflects the uncertainty level for each conversion process, (3) we exploit this metric both in the users’ similarity computation and in the prediction formulation phases in recommender systems, by presenting a novel rating prediction algorithm and (4) we validate the accuracy of the presented algorithm in terms of (i) rating prediction accuracy, using widely-used recommender systems datasets and (ii) recommendations generated for social network user satisfaction and precision, where textual reviews are abundant.     

Analysis and design for continuous-time string-connected Takagi–Sugeno systems

Distributed systems consist of interconnected, lower-dimensional subsystems. For such systems, distributed analysis and design present several advantages, such as modularity, easier analysis and design, and reduced computational complexity. A special case of distributed systems is when the subsystems are connected in a string. Applications include distributed process control, traffic and communication networks, irrigation systems, hydropower valleys, etc. By exploiting such a structure, in this paper, we propose conditions for the distributed stability analysis of Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy systems connected in a string. These conditions are also extended to observer and controller design and illustrated on numerical examples.     

Finite-time analysis and H∞ control for switched stochastic systems

This paper is concerned with the finite-time stability, boundedness and H_∞ control problems for a class of switched stochastic systems. Using the average dwell time method and the multiple Lyapunov-like function technique, some sufficient conditions are proposed to guarantee the finite-time properties for the switched stochastic systems in the form of matrix inequalities. Also, a state feedback controller for the finite-time H_∞ control problem is obtained. An example is employed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Parkinson’s disease diagnosis using neural networks: Survey and comprehensive evaluation

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease of that predominantly affects the elderly in today’s world. For the diagnosis of the early stages of PD, effective and powerful automated techniques are needed by recent enabling technologies as a tool. In this study, we present a comprehensive review of papers from 2013 to 2021 on the diagnosis of PD and its subtypes using artificial neural networks (ANNs) and deep neural networks (DNNs). We present detailed information and analysis regarding the usage of various modalities, datasets, architectures and experimental configurations in a succinct manner. We also present an in-depth comparative analysis of various proposed architectures. Finally, we present a number of relevant future directions for researchers in this area.     

Wearable energy systems:what are the limits and limitations?

<正>The recent decade marks a sharp rise in wearable electronics with a market size approaching 100 billion USD.Along-side this boom in consumer wearable electronics,researchers have pursued,during the past 15 years,next-generation wearable electronics featuring thin,soft,conformal,flexible and stretchable form factors for application in advanced human-machine interaction and comprehensive sensing.     

Knowledge heterogeneity and social network analysis – Towards conceptual and measurement clarifications

This literature review highlights some Social Network Analysis (SNA) concepts applicable to the study of organizational knowledge and, more particularly, to knowledge heterogeneity. Knowledge being all at the same time decentralized and distributed, knowing up to what point knowledge can be heterogeneous or homogeneous across organizational units becomes as important as the question of knowing how to structure the organization. SNA applied to knowledge management thus seems a stimulant for future research in the fields of management.     

Outcome-based contracts – Linking technology,ownership and reputations

Outcome-based contracts (OBC) in information technology outsourcing have attracted much attention, but literature is relatively scarce on this topic. Though firm theories prefer hierarchy as the most protective form of governance for such transactions, the practice moves forward with many hybrid governance structures underpinned by automation and digital transformation technologies. The objective of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework that explains the preference for inter-firm arrangements in OBCs and exhibits the capabilities of these technologies in mitigating contract inefficiencies. The proposed framework narrows the gap in the literature for a concurrent view of the latitudinal (ex-post, ex-ante) and longitudinal (reputation) dimensions of the contract. We represent the OBC as a concurrent stochastic game in a probabilistic model checker. Testing of our propositions revealed that these technology assets are complementary and joint ownership is desirable under reputation effects, reputation transfers take place between the contracting parties in the same direction, and continuous reallocation of ownership is required to maintain joint ownership. Rapid technological advancement and industry maturity can gravitate the transaction towards common ownership. The reputation function using Fermi probability distribution in our model is a novel performance measure for the industry.     

On stability and stabilization of singular uncertain Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy systems

This paper deals with the problem of robust stability and robust stabilization for a class of continuous-time singular Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy systems. Sufficient conditions on stability and stabilization are proposed in terms of strict LMI (Linear Matrix Inequality) for uncertain T–S fuzzy models. In order to reduce the conservatism of results developed using quadratic method, an approach based on non-quadratic Lyapunov functions and S-procedure is proposed. Illustrative examples are given to show the effectiveness of the given results.     

When do details matter? News source evaluation summaries and details against misinformation on social media

News source evaluations based on fact-checking can help curb the consumption and spread of fake news on social media. Prior research has primarily considered source evaluations with intuitive icons that indicate whether or not news sources are reputable. But can we increase the power of these icons by adding more detailed information about the evaluation that explains the reasons for the icon? What additional benefit would such evaluation details bring? Would they have the same effect for both positive and negative evaluations? We conducted two online experiments to understand the effects of a source evaluation icon (a positive or negative summary of the evaluation) and more detailed evaluation information explaining the reasons for the icon. Our results show an asymmetric effect of positive and negative icons and details. Negative icons reduced the believability of the articles, but adding evaluation details supporting the icon had no additional effect. In contrast, positive icons had no significant effects, but adding evaluation details significantly increased believability. We also found that users were more likely to view the evaluation details when the content of the article aligned with their pre-existing opinions, but the valence of the icon (positive or negative) did not affect this decision.     

Research and data-sharing policy in Sweden – neoliberal courses,forces and discourses*

ABSTRACT

The discourse of openness has proved to be a very powerful instrument for promoting new research policies and the (neoliberal) reforms of higher education in all so-called ‘advanced economies’. It has triggered positive democracy-, transparency-, and accountability-related associations when used in the context of politics, fair resource distribution when used in the sphere of public service, and free access to information and knowledge when used in the field of science and higher education. At the same time, international research shows that university autonomy is increasingly being attacked, reduced, and marginalized by the same policies. Power instances outside academia impose new criteria, such as ‘accountability,’ ‘performance,’ ‘quality assurance,’ and ‘good practice.’ They also impose ideas about what good research is, which scientific method is to be prioritized, and what good data are. The process of the de-professionalization, polarization, and proletarianization of the academic profession is increasingly affecting academia. However, none of this has much in common with the open-access discourse. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how this discussion applies to Sweden. Courses, forces, and discourses of the national research infrastructure development policy in general, and qualitative data preservation policy in particular, are described and deliberated.     

Pleural,peritoneal and pericardial effusions – a biochemical approach

The pathological accumulation of serous fluids in the pleural, peritoneal and pericardial space occurs in a variety of conditions. Since patient management depends on right and timely diagnosis, biochemical analysis of extravascular body fluids is considered a valuable tool in the patient management process.The biochemical evaluation of serous fluids includes the determination of gross appearance, differentiation of transudative from exudative effusions and additional specific biochemical testing to assess the effusion etiology. This article summarized data from the most relevant literature concerning practice with special emphasis on usefulness of biochemical tests used for the investigation of pleural, peritoneal and pericardial effusions. Additionally, preanalytical issues concerning serous fluid analysis were addressed and recommendations concerning acceptable analytical practice in serous fluid analysis were presented.     

A framework to evaluate the interoperability of information systems – Measuring the maturity of the business process alignment

In the current socio-economic environment, to face challenges such as the emergence of new technologies, globalisation and increasing demands from their clients it is inevitable that enterprises will collaborate with others and progressively shift their boundaries. In this context, interoperability has become a prerequisite in the jigsaw of such collaboration. By definition, it is entities’ ability to work together as an organisation. This ability spans a wide range of aspects, embracing both technical and business issues. Over the past decade, both the concept and the context of interoperability have been extended from a largely IT-focused domain to a business-focused domain and the evaluation of interoperability has become a rising concern. An increasing number of studies have concentrated on not just digital but business aspects of human behaviour in the social environment. In general, the wider application domain is the assessment of the interoperability of information systems and processes in any organisation (especially medium and large) that needs multiple processes to interact effectively.To deal with such concerns and pave the way to achievement of more effective collaborative goals in business, the concept of interoperability has been adopted to measure the efficiency and productivity of information systems’ integration. More than twenty approaches have so far been adopted to evaluate this interoperability, however most are unable to assess it at the higher levels, such as at the pragmatic, process and social levels. Hence, we have conducted a three-phase study. Phase 1 reviewed existing interoperability evaluation approaches. To prove the concept, phase 2 proposed the concept of semiotic interoperability and its application to healthcare information systems. This article reports on the third phase of the study, a proposed framework with a group of metrics to measure interoperability from a new perspective – a semiotics perspective. The framework is named the Semiotic Interoperability Evaluation Framework (the SIEF) and has the ability to analyse, measure and assess the interoperability among business processes. The metrics derive from a feasibility study to investigate several interoperability barriers at a hospital. Next, the SIEF was applied in a case study and a detailed interoperability evaluation was conducted.     

Absolute stability and Lyapunov–Krasovskii functionals for switched nonlinear systems with time-delay

We derive conditions for the existence of Lyapunov–Krasovskii functionals for a number of classes of nonlinear switched systems with time-delay. In particular, we first give conditions for systems of retarded type that relax those recently described in Sun and Wang (2013) [18]. Using similar techniques, related results are then derived for coupled differential-difference systems and for systems of neutral type. Finally, we briefly note some corresponding results for discrete-time systems.     

Finite-time stability and asynchronous resilient control for Itô stochastic semi-Markovian jump systems

In this paper, the finite-time stability and asynchronous resilient control for a class of Itô stochastic semi-Markov jump systems are studied. Firstly, the sufficient conditions of the finite-time stability for stochastic semi-Markovian jump systems are given. Secondly, the state feedback and observer-based finite-time asynchronous resilient controllers are designed. By multiple Lyapunov functions approach, the sufficient conditions for the existence of these two types of controllers which make the system stochastically stabilizable in finite time are given. Compared with nonresilient case, the existence of the resilient controller can eliminate the influence of the uncertainties and get better results. Finally, a numerical example is given to verify the effectiveness of our results.     

Knowledge diffusion models – perspectives of gene evolution and population dynamics

Knowledge management has become a popular issue in both the practical and academic fields recently, and is concerned with the processes of knowledge creation, knowledge diffusion and knowledge usage of both intra-organization and inter-organizations. In this paper, we limit the topic of knowledge management to the process of knowledge diffusion. Two knowledge diffusion models distinguished by the degree of involvement of the organizational members are proposed according to the perspectives of gene evolution and population dynamics. These models of knowledge diffusion propose an organic view for realizing the process of knowledge diffusion and insights into how to improve the process of efficient knowledge diffusion based on the evolution of species.     

Safety in unpredictable complex systems – a framework for the analysis of safety derived from the nuclear power industry

The increasing complexity and power of our technologies compels us to find new ways in which to conceptualise, understand and maintain their safety in the long term. Some complex technological industries have performed better than others in terms of applying sustained and systematic approaches to the maintenance of safety. The United States nuclear power industry can be seen as an ideal test-bed for the development of safety initiatives, being responsible for the control of potentially unpredictable technology that involves extraordinary forces and costs. This paper describes and formalises a framework for better understanding the safety of complex socio-technological systems, based on key events in the development of safety in the United States nuclear power industry. The framework comprises two components: (1) a state-space approach for better conceptualising system failures, the benefits of incident reporting and remedial safety initiatives; and (2) a set of milestones that can be used to assess the development of safety in socio-technological industries. Healthcare and the United States nuclear power industry both represent complex socio-technological systems with similar technical characteristics. However, safety strategies in healthcare have not kept pace with the increasing complexity of clinical practice, and there have been international calls for improvements in patient safety. The framework is applied to the analysis of safety in healthcare, demonstrating its utility as an alternative safety analogy in healthcare. Use of the framework indicates substantial scope for improvements in healthcare safety through major evidence-based system redesign. By lowering the threshold for the reporting of incident data to include accident precursors, it is possible to identify problem areas before patient harm occurs.     

Information and knowledge assessment – Results from a multinational automotive company

This article reports the results from an information and knowledge assessment (IKA) to identify information and knowledge needs and, their coverage by information resources to derive recommendations for improvement and proposes a contingeny framework. The approach is based on a review of audit methods from information sciences and management, knowledge management and the engineering discipline and tested with data (N = 580) collected from the engineering domain within an automotive supplier over six European sites. The integrated assessment uses content needs profiles from two complementary perspectives, the coverage of needs by various internal information sources and data on awareness and usage of these information sources. The employment of content categories on a more granular analytical level than information systems sources opens up new possibilities to derive improvement measures and requirements for the design of information systems within an organization. The brief data-gathering instrument also reduces the required resources to implement this approach considerably overcoming weaknesses previously identified in case studies and the IA literature. It makes a contribution to research bridging the gap between research and practice and opens up options to design contingency frameworks for a specific domain.