Preprocessing Phase Research Articles

Femur bone volumetric estimation for osteoporosis classification based on deep learning with tuna jellyfish optimization using X-ray images

Osteoporosis is a disorder, that leads to fractures and fatal problems in bones. It is believed that more than 200 million individuals are affected globally. Furthermore, osteoporosis is caused by micro-architectural degeneration of bone tissues, which increases the risk of bone fragility and fractures. Moreover, the osteoporosis categorization is essential for the medical industry, which classifies the skeleton problems of individuals caused by ageing. This work presented the prediction of femur bone volume for osteoporosis classification. Moreover, the femur bone X-ray image is utilized for the classification. The preprocessing phase is employed to neglect the noise contained in input bone images through a non-local means filter. In the image segmentation process, the SegNet is utilized to isolate the specific portion. Moreover, the template search approach based on femoral geometric estimation is carried out and the feature extraction phase is essential for a significant feature extraction process. The proposed tuna jellyfish optimization based deep batch-normalized eLU AlexNet (DbneAlexNet) is utilized in the osteoporosis classification process. Furthermore, accuracy, Positive Predictive Value (PPV), Negative Predictive Value (NPV), True Positive Rate (TPR) and True Negative Rate (TNR) are the metrics to validate the model and the superior values 0.913, 0.906, 0.896, 0.923 and 0.932 are achieved.

Bigdata clustering and classification with improved fuzzy based deep architecture under MapReduce framework

The current state of economic, social ideas, and the advancement of cutting-edge technology are determined by the primary subjects of the contemporary information era, big data. People are immersed in a world of information, guided by the abundance of data that penetrates every element of their surroundings. Smart gadgets, the IoT, and other technologies are responsible for the data’s explosive expansion. Organisations have struggled to store data effectively throughout the past few decades. This disadvantage is related to outdated, expensive, and inadequately large storage technology. In the meanwhile, large data demands innovative storage techniques supported by strong technology. This paper proposes the bigdata clustering and classification model with improved fuzzy-based Deep Architecture under the Map Reduce framework. At first, the pre-processing phase involves data partitioning from the big dataset utilizing an improved C-Means clustering procedure. The pre-processed big data is then handled by the Map Reduce framework, which involves the mapper and reducer phases. In the mapper phase. Data normalization takes place, followed by the feature fusion approach that combines the extracted features like entropy-based features and correlation-based features. In the reduction phase, all the mappers are combined to produce an acceptable feature. Finally, a deep hybrid model, which is the combination of a DCNN and Bi-GRU is used for the classification process. The Improved score level fusion procedure is used in this case to obtain the final classification result. Moreover, the analysis of the proposed work has proved to be efficient in terms of classification accuracy, precision, recall, FNR, FPR, and other performance metrics.

A genetic algorithm-based feature selection approach for diabetes prediction

<p>Genetic algorithms have emerged as a powerful optimization technique for feature selection due to their ability to search through a vast feature space efficiently. This study discusses the importance of feature selection for prediction in healthcare and prominently focuses on diabetes mellitus. Feature selection is essential for improving the performance of prediction models, by finding significant features and removing unnecessary among them. The study aims to identify the most informative subset of features. Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder that poses significant health challenges worldwide. For the experiment, two datasets related to diabetes were downloaded from Kaggle and the results of both (datasets) with and without feature selection using the genetic algorithm were compared. Machine learning classifiers and genetic algorithms were combined to increase the precision of diabetes risk prediction. In the preprocessing phase, feature selection, machine learning classifiers, and performance metrics methods were applied to make this study feasible. The results of the experiment showed that genetic algorithm + logistic regression i.e., 80% (accuracy) works better for PIMA diabetes, and for Germany diabetes dataset genetic algorithm + random forest and genetic algorithm + K-Nearest Neighbor i.e., 98.5% performed better than other chosen classifiers. The researchers can better comprehend the importance of feature selection in healthcare through this study.</p>

CNNFDNF: CONVOLUTIONAL NEURAL NETWORK AND CASCADE NEURO FUZZY NETWORK FOR SEVERITY LEVEL OF COVID-19 DETECTION USING CHEST X-RAY IMAGES

Chest X-ray (CXR) images are the most important imaging modality to monitor and detect several lung diseases and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease. This is the first imaging method in the detection of COVID-19. Since the limited availability of interpreted medical images, and the accuracy are the biggest challenges in the conventional methods. Hence, a novel framework is designed for the severity level of COVID-19 detection using CXR images named Convolutional Neural Network and Cascade Neuro-Fuzzy Network (CNNFDNF). Initially, the input CXR image is allowed to the preprocessing phase that is done utilizing the Kalman filter and Region of Interest (ROI) extraction. Then, the lung lobe segmentation is executed by Psi-Net. After that, the extraction of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) features is conducted from the interested lobe region. Moreover, the extracted image features are subjected to COVID-19 detection, where it is achieved by Deep Generative Adversarial Network (Deep GAN) trained by Henry Gas Water Wave Optimization (HGWWO). Here, HGWWO is blended by Water Wave Optimization (WWO) and Henry Gas Solubility Optimization (HGSO). The detection phase is categorized into COVID and non-COVID. If the detected image is COVID, then the CXR images are given to the second level classification. Finally, it is accomplished by employing the proposed CNNFDNF to classify them into low, moderate, or high COVID-19 infection affected at lungs. The proposed CNNFDNF is the newly devised scheme by modifying the layers of CNN and cascaded neuro-fuzzy network (DNF) structure. The measures employed for this scheme namely, accuracy, sensitivity and specificity acquired are 93.0%, 94.1%, and 93.8%. The proposed method is essential for keeping the situation under control. Because, in the severe cases may have severe pneumonia, other organ failure, and possible death.

An Artificial Neural Network Predicts Gender Differences of Motor and Non-Motor Symptoms of Patients with Advanced Parkinson's Disease under Levodopa-Carbidopa Intestinal Gel.

Background and Objectives: Currently, no tool exists to predict clinical outcomes in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) under levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel (LCIG) treatment. The aim of this study was to develop a novel deep neural network model to predict the clinical outcomes of patients with advanced PD after two years of LCIG therapy. Materials and Methods: This was a longitudinal, 24-month observational study of 59 patients with advanced PD in a multicenter registry under LCIG treatment from September 2019 to September 2021, including 43 movement disorder centers. The data set includes 649 measurements of patients, which make an irregular time series, and they are turned into regular time series during the preprocessing phase. Motor status was assessed with the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) Parts III (off) and IV. The NMS was assessed by the NMS Questionnaire (NMSQ) and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), the quality of life by PDQ-39, and severity by Hoehn and Yahr (HY). Multivariate linear regression, ARIMA, SARIMA, and Long Short-Term Memory-Recurrent NeuralNetwork (LSTM-RNN) models were used. Results: LCIG significantly improved dyskinesia duration and quality of life, with men experiencing a 19% and women a 10% greater improvement, respectively. Multivariate linear regression models showed that UPDRS-III decreased by 1.5 and 4.39 units per one-unit increase in the PDQ-39 and UPDRS-IV indexes, respectively. Although the ARIMA-(2,0,2) model is the best one with AIC criterion 101.8 and validation criteria MAE = 0.25, RMSE = 0.59, and RS = 0.49, it failed to predict PD patients' features over a long period of time. Among all the time series models, the LSTM-RNN model predicts these clinical characteristics with the highest accuracy (MAE = 0.057, RMSE = 0.079, RS = 0.0053, mean square error = 0.0069). Conclusions: The LSTM-RNN model predicts, with the highest accuracy, gender-dependent clinical outcomes in patients with advanced PD after two years of LCIG therapy.

COVID‑19 detection from chest X-ray images using transfer learning

COVID-19 is a kind of coronavirus that appeared in China in the Province of Wuhan in December 2019. The most significant influence of this virus is its very highly contagious characteristic which may lead to death. The standard diagnosis of COVID-19 is based on swabs from the throat and nose, their sensitivity is not high enough and so they are prone to errors. Early diagnosis of COVID-19 disease is important to provide the chance of quick isolation of the suspected cases and to decrease the opportunity of infection in healthy people. In this research, a framework for chest X-ray image classification tasks based on deep learning is proposed to help in early diagnosis of COVID-19. The proposed framework contains two phases which are the pre-processing phase and classification phase which uses pre-trained convolution neural network models based on transfer learning. In the pre-processing phase, different image enhancements have been applied to full and segmented X-ray images to improve the classification performance of the CNN models. Two CNN pre-trained models have been used for classification which are VGG19 and EfficientNetB0. From experimental results, the best model achieved a sensitivity of 0.96, specificity of 0.94, precision of 0.9412, F1 score of 0.9505 and accuracy of 0.95 using enhanced full X-ray images for binary classification of chest X-ray images into COVID-19 or normal with VGG19. The proposed framework is promising and achieved a classification accuracy of 0.935 for 4-class classification.

Enhanced crop health monitoring: attention convolutional stacked recurrent networks and binary Kepler search for early detection of paddy crop issues.

The diseases that affect the plants cannot be easily avoided due to rapid and substantial changes in the environment and climate. Generally, paddy crops are affected by several conditions including pests and nutritional deficiencies. Hence, it is important to detect these disease-affected paddy crops at an early stage for better productivity. To detect and classify the problems in this specific domain, deep learning approaches are utilized. In this paper, a novel attention convolutional stacked recurrent based binary Kepler search (ACSR-BKS) algorithm is used to detect diseases, nutritional deficiencies, and pest patterns at an early stage via diverse significant pipelines namely the data augmentation, data pre-processing, and classification phase thereby providing pest patterns and identifying nutritional deficiencies. Subsequent to data collection processes, the images are augmented via zooming, rotating, flipping horizontally, shifting of height, width, and rescaling. To acquire the accurate and best results in terms of classification, the parameters need to be tuned and adjusted using the binary Kepler search algorithm. The results revealed that the accuracy of the proposed ACSR-BKS algorithm is 98.2% in terms of detecting the diseases. Then, the obtained results are compared with the other existing approaches. Additionally, it is revealed that the yield of paddy can also be improved by utilizing the proposed disease-detecting methods.

In-situ particle analysis with heterogeneous background: a machine learning approach

We propose a novel framework that combines state-of-the-art deep learning approaches with pre- and post-processing algorithms for particle detection in complex/heterogeneous backgrounds common in the manufacturing domain. Traditional methods, like size analyzers and those based on dilution, image processing, or deep learning, typically excel with homogeneous backgrounds. Yet, they often fall short in accurately detecting particles against the intricate and varied backgrounds characteristic of heterogeneous particle–substrate (HPS) interfaces in manufacturing. To address this, we've developed a flexible framework designed to detect particles in diverse environments and input types. Our modular framework hinges on model selection and AI-guided particle detection as its core, with preprocessing and postprocessing as integral components, creating a four-step process. This system is versatile, allowing for various preprocessing, AI model selections, and post-processing strategies. We demonstrate this with an entrainment-based particle delivery method, transferring various particles onto substrates that mimic the HPS interface. By altering particle and substrate properties (e.g., material type, size, roughness, shape) and process parameters (e.g., capillary number) during particle entrainment, we capture images under different ambient lighting conditions, introducing a range of HPS background complexities. In the preprocessing phase, we apply image enhancement and sharpening techniques to improve detection accuracy. Specifically, image enhancement adjusts the dynamic range and histogram, while sharpening increases contrast by combining the high pass filter output with the base image. We introduce an image classifier model (based on the type of heterogeneity), employing Transfer Learning with MobileNet as a Model Selector, to identify the most appropriate AI model (i.e., YOLO model) for analyzing each specific image, thereby enhancing detection accuracy across particle–substrate variations. Following image classification based on heterogeneity, the relevant YOLO model is employed for particle identification, with a distinct YOLO model generated for each heterogeneity type, improving overall classification performance. In the post-processing phase, domain knowledge is used to minimize false positives. Our analysis indicates that the AI-guided framework maintains consistent precision and recall across various HPS conditions, with the harmonic mean of these metrics comparable to those of individual AI model outcomes. This tool shows potential for advancing in-situ process monitoring across multiple manufacturing operations, including high-density powder-based 3D printing, powder metallurgy, extreme environment coatings, particle categorization, and semiconductor manufacturing.

Occupational groups prediction in Turkish Twitter data by using machine learning algorithms with multinomial approach

A lot of research has been done on personality and sentiment analysis, demographic and professional aspects using user shares in social networks. In particular, information extraction and value are produced based on Twitter data. This study aims to predict the users, occupational groups, who share in Turkish on Twitter, using machine learning methods. First, occupational groups and the Twitter accounts of the occupations in these occupational groups were determined manually and the tweets shared in these accounts were scraped. All tweets were then grouped by occupation into groups of one, five and ten, creating datasets with different characteristics, each containing more than 500,000 tweets. Some datasets were preprocessed using the Zemberek library, which is used in many Turkish NLP studies, and experiments were conducted out with a total 6 datasets. During the preprocessing phase, since the ready-made stopwords lists were not considered sufficient, unnecessary word lists consisting of single and binary words were created manually. Count and TF-IDF vectorizers are used to convert textual data into numerical. Since each word represents a variable in the text classification study, new variables were created by combining double and triple word phrases (ngrams) with feature extraction. In the experiments in which 24 different models were run, instead of using all the features created, the method of “determining the optimal number of features”, which consists of the most valuable features, was used. It was found that the most successful model in the experiments using machine learning algorithms with a multinomial approach achieved 97.3% success in all calculated metrics.

UrduAspectNet: Fusing Transformers and Dual GCN for Urdu Aspect-Based Sentiment Detection

Urdu, characterized by its intricate morphological structure and linguistic nuances, presents distinct challenges in computational sentiment analysis. Addressing these, we introduce ”UrduAspectNet” – a dedicated model tailored for Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis (ABSA) in Urdu. Central to our approach is a rigorous preprocessing phase. Leveraging the Stanza library, we extract Part-of-Speech (POS) tags and lemmas, ensuring Urdu’s linguistic intricacies are aptly represented. To probe the effectiveness of different embeddings, we trained our model using both mBERT and XLM-R embeddings, comparing their performances to identify the most effective representation for Urdu ABSA. Recognizing the nuanced inter-relationships between words, especially in Urdu’s flexible syntactic constructs, our model incorporates a dual Graph Convolutional Network (GCN) layer.Addressing the challenge of the absence of a dedicated Urdu ABSA dataset, we curated our own, collecting over 4,603 news headlines from various domains, such as politics, entertainment, business, and sports. These headlines, sourced from diverse news platforms, not only identify prevalent aspects but also pinpoints their sentiment polarities, categorized as positive, negative, or neutral. Despite the inherent complexities of Urdu, such as its colloquial expressions and idioms, ”UrduAspectNet” showcases remarkable efficacy. Initial comparisons between mBERT and XLM-R embeddings integrated with dual GCN provide valuable insights into their respective strengths in the context of Urdu ABSA. With broad applications spanning media analytics, business insights, and socio-cultural analysis, ”UrduAspectNet” is positioned as a pivotal benchmark in Urdu ABSA research.

Sine hunter prey optimization enabled deep residual network for diabetes mellitus detection using tongue image

Background: Many people suffer from Diabetes Mellitus (DM), a disease caused by high blood glucose levels. In real-time, many methods are implemented to diagnose DM to obtain a good accuracy level, but those methods remain costlier. Objective: To develop a method for DM detection with good accuracy and minimum cost. Materials and methods: In this research, DM is detected using tongue image based on DL model, named Deep Residual Network (DRN) that is trained by proposed Sine Hunter Prey Optimization (SHPO). Here, an adaptive median filter is used for the pre-processing phase, and image segmentation is done using ResUNet++, which is trained by Exponential Anti Corona Virus Optimization (ExpACVO). Here, ExpACVO integrates Anti Corona Virus Optimization (ACVO) and Exponential Weighted Moving Average (EWMA). Further, image augmentation and appropriate feature extraction stages are carried out, leading to DM detection by DRN. Moreover, SHPO is formed by combining the Sine Cosine Algorithm (SCA) and Hunter Prey Optimization (HPO). The performance of the proposed method is analyzed using the Tongue image dataset and the Diabetic images dataset. Results: The performance of SHPO_DRN is found using four evaluation metrics: accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and f-measure. Here, these metrics exhibit superior performance with high-range values of 0.961, 0.970, 0.948, and 0.961. Conclusion: The proposed method detects the DM at earlier stages with a good accuracy.

A Hybrid Method Based on CRITIC Method and Machine Learning Models for Effective Fake News Detection in Thai Language

Fake news has emerged as a pervasive issue within the modern information ecosystem, leading to widespread dissemination of misinformation and erosion of trust. This paper introduces a novel hybrid approach for effectively detecting fake news in the Thai language by combining the CRITIC method with multiple machine learning models. The initial step involves collecting Thai-language fake news data from websites. Subsequently, the data undergoes a preprocessing phase. In the second step, the preprocessed data is used for validation through three basic machine learning models, namely, Naive Bayes, Decision Tree, and K-Nearest Neighbors. In the third step, the accuracy results from these three models are employed to calculate the significance weights of each model using the CRITIC method. In the final step, predictions are recalculated using the proposed method. The proposed method achieves an 83.37% accuracy, surpassing Naive Bayes (80.83%), Decision Tree (80.37%), and K-Nearest Neighbors (75.75%). This indicates a significant enhancement in performance, with the proposed method outperforming the established models by up to 7.62%. Consequently, the proposed method can enhance the performance of fake news detection in Thai language by utilizing an ensemble of the original models. A significant advantage of this approach is its simplicity coupled with high efficacy. It is postulated that this method can be adapted for detecting fake news in other languages as well.

Exploring the customer experience of Vietnam airlines via sentiment analysis

The sentiment analysis of social media has gained much attention due to the succinct nature of comments, enabling access to public opinions. Using this technique, the present study aimed to explore customer sentiments regarding their experiences with Vietnam Airlines, the national carrier. According to the Skytrax evaluation, Vietnam Airlines achieved a 4-star rating out of 5, indicating the need for service improvements to attain perfection. The significance of this research lies in providing a comprehensive perspective on customer experience evaluations. To achieve this, we utilized the Valence Aware Dictionary for Reasoner (VADER) to classify sentiments expressed in social networking forum data. The dataset comprised 670 reviews from the Skytrax forum, which underwent a data pre-processing phase. The results exhibited favorable accuracy in detecting ternary and multiple sentiment classes. The comparative analysis between visual customer ratings and their corresponding comments yielded similar outcomes. Additionally, the results highlighted the need for a re-evaluation of the in-flight entertainment system.

Authorization of Aadhar data using Diffie Helman key with enhanced security concerns

In today’s digital era, the security of sensitive data such as Aadhaar data is of utmost importance. To ensure the privacy and integrity of this data, a conceptual framework is proposed that employs the Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol and Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) to enhance the security. The proposed system begins with the preprocessing phase, which includes removing noise, standardizing formats and validating the integrity of the data. Next, the data is segmented into appropriate sections to enable efficient storage and retrieval in the cloud. Each segment is further processed to extract meaningful features, ensuring that the relevant information is preserved while reducing the risk of unauthorized access. For safeguarding the stored Aadhaar data, the system employs the Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol which allows the data owner and the cloud service provider to establish a shared secret key without exposing it to potential attackers. Additionally, HMAC is implemented to verify the identity of users during the login process. HMAC enhances security by leveraging cryptographic hash functions and a shared secret key to produce a distinct code for each login attempt. This mechanism effectively protects the confidentiality and integrity of stored data. The combination of Diffie-Hellman key exchange and HMAC authentication provides a robust security framework for Aadhaar data. It ensures that the data remains encrypted and inaccessible without the secret key, while also verifying the identity of users during the login process. This comprehensive approach helps preventing unauthorized access thereby protecting against potential attacks, instilling trust and confidence in the security of Aadhaar data stored in the cloud. Results of the article depict that the proposed scheme achieve 0.19 s of encryption time and 0.05 s of decryption time.

Generalized and robust model for GAN-generated image detection

Generative adversarial network (GAN)-generated image detection is a crucial yet challenging problem. The advancement of diverse generative models makes it simpler to build realistic synthetic images, but it also increases the likelihood of using images maliciously. Recent techniques of fake image detection often overfit to specific GANs, incapable of generalizing to other GANs. Each GAN leaves its distinct fingerprint on the images it generates. We propose a simple and compact attention network that exploits high-frequency and noise residual patterns of images. We design two-channel image representations in the preprocessing phase, with one channel using a bilateral high pass filter (BiHPF) for high-frequency patterns and the other using photo response non-uniformity (PRNU) for noise residuals capturing from GAN-generated and real images. The feature maps pass through the attention network with a dense layer for classification tasks. We assess the generalizability and robustness of the model through extensive experiments. The model is evaluated on a benchmark dataset in various settings, including cross-category, cross-GAN models with varying class settings and different color manipulations. This study demonstrates that the proposed model outperforms state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods by approximately 5% in different experiment settings.

Building Semantic Segmentation Using UNet Convolutional Network on SpaceNet Public Data Sets for Monitoring Surrounding Area of Chan Chan (Peru)

The amount of damage to cultural heritage sites is increasing rapidly every year. This is due to inadequate heritage management and uncontrolled urban growth as well as unpredictable seismic and atmospheric events that manifest themselves in a continuously deteriorating ecosystem. Thus, applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in remote-sensing (RS) techniques (machine-learning and deep-learning algorithms) for monitoring archaeological sites have increased in recent years. This research involves the surrounding area of the archaeological site of Chan Chan in Peru in particular. An approach that is based on the use of AI algorithms for building footprint segmentation and changedetection analysis by means of RS images is proposed. It involves a UNet convolutional network based on an EfficientNet B0 to B7 encoder. The network was trained on two public data sets from SpaceNet that were based on WV2 and WV3 satellite images: SpaceNet V1 (Rio), and SpaceNet V2 (Shanghai). In the pre-processing phase, the images from the two data sets have been equalized in order to improve their quality and avoid overfitting. The building segmentation has been performed on HRV images of the study area that were downloaded from Google Earth Pro. The value that was achieved in the IoU metric was around 70% in both experiments. The purpose of this proposed methodology is to assist scientists in drafting monitoring and conservation protocols based on already-recorded data in order to prevent future disasters and hazards.

A logistics provider’s profit maximization facility location problem with random utility maximizing followers

We introduce a strategic decision-making problem faced by logistics providers (LPs) seeking facility location decisions that lead to profitable operations. The profitability depends on the revenue generated through agreements with shippers, and the costs arising when satisfying these agreements. The latter depends, in turn, on the service levels and characteristics of the shippers’ customers. However, at a strategic level, the LP has imperfect information thereof.We propose a stochastic bilevel formulation where a given LP (leader) anticipates the decisions of shippers (followers) arising from a random utility maximization model. Using a sample average approximation and properties of the associated optimal solutions, we propose a heuristic that can compute high-quality solutions. It is based on a reduced single-level mixed integer linear programming formulation that can be solved by a general-purpose solver after a preprocessing phase. We can quickly identify situations that lead to zero expected profit for the LP. Experimental results show that expected profit highly depends on shippers’ price sensitivities. Underestimating price sensitivities can lead to an overestimation of the expected profit.

Fairness-Aware Graph Neural Networks: A Survey

Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have become increasingly important due to their representational power and state-of-the-art predictive performance on many fundamental learning tasks. Despite this success, GNNs suffer from fairness issues that arise as a result of the underlying graph data and the fundamental aggregation mechanism that lies at the heart of the large class of GNN models. In this article, we examine and categorize fairness techniques for improving the fairness of GNNs. We categorize these techniques by whether they focus on improving fairness in the pre-processing, in-processing (during training), or post-processing phases. We discuss how such techniques can be used together whenever appropriate and highlight the advantages and intuition as well. We also introduce an intuitive taxonomy for fairness evaluation metrics, including graph-level fairness, neighborhood-level fairness, embedding-level fairness, and prediction-level fairness metrics. In addition, graph datasets that are useful for benchmarking the fairness of GNN models are summarized succinctly. Finally, we highlight key open problems and challenges that remain to be addressed.

Machine learning for electric energy consumption forecasting: Application to the Paraguayan system

Abstract In this paper we address the problem of short-term electric energy prediction using a time series forecasting approach applied to data generated by a Paraguayan electricity distribution provider. The dataset used in this work contains data collected over a three-year period. This is the first time that these data have been used; therefore, a preprocessing phase of the data was also performed. In particular, we propose a comparative study of various machine learning and statistical strategies with the objective of predicting the electric energy consumption for a given prediction horizon, in our case seven days, using historical data. In this paper we have tested the effectiveness of the techniques with different historical window sizes. Specifically, we considered two ensemble strategies, a neural network, a deep learning technique and linear regression. Moreover, in this study, we tested whether the inclusion of meteorological data can help achieve better predictions. In particular, we considered data regarding temperature, humidity, wind speed and atmospheric pressure registered during the three-year period of data collection. The results show that, in general, the deep learning approach obtains the best results and that such results are obtained when meteorological data are also considered. Moreover, when meteorological data is used, a smaller historical window size is required to obtain precise predictions.

Multipars: Reduced-Communication MPC over Z2k

In recent years, actively secure SPDZ-like protocols for dishonest majority, like SPDZ2k, Overdrive2k, and MHz2k, over base rings Z2k have become more and more efficient. In this paper, we present a new actively secure MPC protocol Multipars that outperforms these state-of-the-art protocols over Z2k by more than a factor of 2 in the two-party setup in terms of communication. Multipars is the first actively secure N-party protocol over Z2k that is based on linear homomorphic encryption (LHE) in the offline phase (instead of oblivious transfer or somewhat homomorphic encryption in previous works). The strong performance of Multipars relies on a new adaptive packing for BGV ciphertexts that allows us to reduce the parameter size of the encryption scheme and the overall communication cost. Additionally, we use modulus switching for further size reduction, a new type of enhanced CPA security over Z2k, a truncation protocol for Beaver triples, and a new LHE-based offline protocol without sacrificing over Z2k. We have implemented Multipars and therewith provide the fastest preprocessing phase over Z2k. Our evaluation shows that Multipars offers at least a factor of 8 lower communication costs and up to a factor of 15 faster runtime in the WAN setting compared to the currently best available actively secure MPC implementation over Z2k.