Complex & Intelligent Systems

Recommender systems provide personalized service support to users by learning their previous behaviors and predicting their current preferences for particular products. Artificial intelligence (AI), particularly computational intelligence and machine learning methods and algorithms, has been naturally applied in the development of recommender systems to improve prediction accuracy and solve data sparsity and cold start problems. This position paper systematically discusses the basic methodologies and prevailing techniques in recommender systems and how AI can effectively improve the technological development and application of recommender systems. The paper not only reviews cutting-edge theoretical and practical contributions, but also identifies current research issues and indicates new research directions. It carefully surveys various issues related to recommender systems that use AI, and also reviews the improvements made to these systems through the use of such AI approaches as fuzzy techniques, transfer learning, genetic algorithms, evolutionary algorithms, neural networks and deep learning, and active learning. The observations in this paper will directly support researchers and professionals to better understand current developments and new directions in the field of recommender systems using AI.

Since 2011, when the concepts of Industry 4.0 were first announced, this industrial revolution has grown and expanded from some theoretical concepts to real-world applications. Its practicalities can be found in many fields and affect nearly all of us in so many ways. While we are adapting to new changes, adjustments are starting to reveal on national and international levels. It is becoming clear that it is not just new innovations at play, technical advancements, governmental policies and markets have never been so intertwined. Here, we generally describe the concepts of Industry 4.0, explain some new terminologies and challenges for clarity and completeness. The key of this paper is that we summarise over 14 countries’ up-to-date national strategies and plans for Industry 4.0. Some of them are bottom-up, such as Portugal, some top-down, such as Italy, a few like the United States had already been moving in this direction long before 2011. We see governments are tailoring their efforts accordingly, and industries are adapting as well as driving those changes.

Multiclass classification of brain tumors is an important area of research in the field of medical imaging. Since accuracy is crucial in the classification, a number of techniques are introduced by computer vision researchers; however, they still face the issue of low accuracy. In this article, a new automated deep learning method is proposed for the classification of multiclass brain tumors. To realize the proposed method, the Densenet201 Pre-Trained Deep Learning Model is fine-tuned and later trained using a deep transfer of imbalanced data learning. The features of the trained model are extracted from the average pool layer, which represents the very deep information of each type of tumor. However, the characteristics of this layer are not sufficient for a precise classification; therefore, two techniques for the selection of features are proposed. The first technique is Entropy–Kurtosis-based High Feature Values (EKbHFV) and the second technique is a modified genetic algorithm (MGA) based on metaheuristics. The selected features of the GA are further refined by the proposed new threshold function. Finally, both EKbHFV and MGA-based features are fused using a non-redundant serial-based approach and classified using a multiclass SVM cubic classifier. For the experimental process, two datasets, including BRATS2018 and BRATS2019, are used without increase and have achieved an accuracy of more than 95%. The precise comparison of the proposed method with other neural nets shows the significance of this work.

Mangrove forests are considered to be the most productive ecosystem yet vanishing rapidly over the world. They are mostly found in the intertidal zone and sheltered by the seacoast. Mangroves have potential socio-economic benefits such as protecting the shoreline from storm and soil erosion, flood and flow control, acting as a carbon sink, provides a fertile breeding ground for marine species and fauna. It also acts as a source of income by providing various forest products. Restoration and conservation of mangrove forests remain a big challenge due to the large and inaccessible areas covered by mangroves forests which makes field assessment difficult and time-consuming. Remote sensing along with various digital image classification approaches seem to be promising in providing better and accurate results in mapping and monitoring the mangroves ecosystem. This review paper aims to provide a comprehensive summary of the work undertaken, and addresses various remote sensing techniques applied for mapping and monitoring of the mangrove ecosystem, and summarize their potential and limitation. For that various digital image classification techniques are analyzed and compared based on the type of image used with its spectral resolution, spatial resolution, and other related image features along with the accuracy of the classification to derive specific class information related to mangroves. The digital image classification techniques used for mangrove mapping and monitoring in various studies can be classified into pixel-based, object-based, and knowledge-based classifiers. The various satellite image data analyzed are ranged from light detection and ranging (LiDAR), hyperspectral and multispectral optical imagery, synthetic aperture radar (SAR), and aerial imagery. Supervised state of the art machine learning/deep machine learning algorithms which use both pixel-based and object-based approaches and can be combined with the knowledge-based approach are widely used for classification purpose, due to the recent development and evolution in these techniques. There is a huge future scope to study the performance of these classification techniques in combination with various high spatial and spectral resolution optical imageries, SAR and LiDAR, and also with multi-sensor, multiresolution, and temporal data.

A pandemic disease, COVID-19, has caused trouble worldwide by infecting millions of people. The studies that apply artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) methods for various purposes against the COVID-19 outbreak have increased because of their significant advantages. Although AI/ML applications provide satisfactory solutions to COVID-19 disease, these solutions can have a wide diversity. This increase in the number of AI/ML studies and diversity in solutions can confuse deciding which AI/ML technique is suitable for which COVID-19 purposes. Because there is no comprehensive review study, this study systematically analyzes and summarizes related studies. A research methodology has been proposed to conduct the systematic literature review for framing the research questions, searching criteria and relevant data extraction. Finally, 264 studies were taken into account after following inclusion and exclusion criteria. This research can be regarded as a key element for epidemic and transmission prediction, diagnosis and detection, and drug/vaccine development. Six research questions are explored with 50 AI/ML approaches in COVID-19, 8 AI/ML methods for patient outcome prediction, 14 AI/ML techniques in disease predictions, along with five AI/ML methods for risk assessment of COVID-19. It also covers AI/ML method in drug development, vaccines for COVID-19, models in COVID-19, datasets and their usage and dataset applications with AI/ML.