Open Access
CFM-BD: a distributed rule induction algorithm for building compact fuzzy models in Big Data classification problems
(IEEE, 2020) Elkano Ilintxeta, Mikel; Sanz Delgado, José Antonio; Barrenechea Tartas, Edurne; Bustince Sola, Humberto; Galar Idoate, Mikel; Estatistika, Informatika eta Matematika; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Estadística, Informática y Matemáticas
Interpretability has always been a major concern for fuzzy rule-based classifiers. The usage of human-readable models allows them to explain the reasoning behind their predictions and decisions. However, when it comes to Big Data classification problems, fuzzy rule based classifiers have not been able to maintain the good tradeoff between accuracy and interpretability that has characterized these techniques in non-Big-Data environments. The most accurate methods build models composed of a large number of rules and fuzzy sets that are too complex, while those approaches focusing on interpretability do not provide state-of-the-art discrimination capabilities. In this paper, we propose a new distributed learning algorithm named CFM-BD to construct accurate and compact fuzzy rule-based classification systems for Big Data. This method has been specifically designed from scratch for Big Data problems and does not adapt or extend any existing algorithm. The proposed learning process consists of three stages: Preprocessing based on the probability integral transform theorem; rule induction inspired by CHI-BD and Apriori algorithms; and rule selection by means of a global evolutionary optimization. We conducted a complete empirical study to test the performance of our approach in terms of accuracy, complexity, and runtime. The results obtained were compared and contrasted with four state-of-the-art fuzzy classifiers for Big Data (FBDT, FMDT, Chi-Spark-RS, and CHI-BD). According to this study, CFM-BD is able to provide competitive discrimination capabilities using significantly simpler models composed of a few rules of less than three antecedents, employing five linguistic labels for all variables.
Open Access
N-dimensional admissibly ordered interval-valued overlap functions and its influence in interval-valued fuzzy rule-based classification systems
(IEEE, 2021) Da Cruz Asmus, Tiago; Sanz Delgado, José Antonio; Pereira Dimuro, Graçaliz; Bedregal, Benjamin; Fernández Fernández, Francisco Javier; Bustince Sola, Humberto; Estatistika, Informatika eta Matematika; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Estadística, Informática y Matemáticas
Overlap functions are a type of aggregation functions that are not required to be associative, generally used to indicate the overlapping degree between two values. They have been successfully used as a conjunction operator in several practical problems, such as fuzzy rulebased classification systems (FRBCSs) and image processing. Some extensions of overlap functions were recently proposed, such as general overlap functions and, in the interval-valued context, n-dimensional interval-valued overlap functions. The latter allow them to be applied in n-dimensional problems with interval-valued inputs, like interval-valued classification problems, where one can apply interval-valued FRBCSs (IV-FRBCSs). In this case, the choice of an appropriate total order for intervals, like an admissible order, can play an important role. However, neither the relationship between the interval order and the n-dimensional interval-valued overlap function (which may or may not be increasing for that order) nor the impact of this relationship in the classification process have been studied in the literature. Moreover, there is not a clear preferred n-dimensional interval-valued overlap function to be applied in an IV-FRBCS. Hence, in this paper we: (i) present some new results on admissible orders, which allow us to introduce the concept of n-dimensional admissibly ordered interval-valued overlap functions, that is, n-dimensional interval-valued overlap functions that are increasing with respect to an admissible order; (ii) develop a width-preserving construction method for this kind of function, derived from an admissible order and an n-dimensional overlap function, discussing some of its features; (iii) analyze the behaviour of several combinations of admissible orders and n-dimensional (admissibly ordered) interval-valued overlap functions when applied in IV-FRBCSs. All in all, the contribution of this paper resides in pointing out the effect of admissible orders and n-dimensional admissibly ordered interval-valued overlap functions, both from a theoretical and applied points of view, the latter when considering classification problems.
Open Access
Towards interval uncertainty propagation control in bivariate aggregation processes and the introduction of width-limited interval-valued overlap functions
(Elsevier, 2021) Da Cruz Asmus, Tiago; Pereira Dimuro, Graçaliz; Bedregal, Benjamin; Sanz Delgado, José Antonio; Mesiar, Radko; Bustince Sola, Humberto; Estatistika, Informatika eta Matematika; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Estadística, Informática y Matemáticas; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
Overlap functions are a class of aggregation functions that measure the overlapping degree between two values. They have been successfully applied as a fuzzy conjunction operation in several problems in which associativity is not required, such as image processing and classification. Interval-valued overlap functions were defined as an extension to express the overlapping of interval-valued data, and they have been usually applied when there is uncertainty regarding the assignment of membership degrees, as in interval-valued fuzzy rule-based classification systems. In this context, the choice of a total order for intervals can be significant, which motivated the recent developments on interval-valued aggregation functions and interval-valued overlap functions that are increasing to a given admissible order, that is, a total order that refines the usual partial order for intervals. Also, width preservation has been considered on these recent works, in an intent to avoid the uncertainty increase and guarantee the information quality, but no deeper study was made regarding the relation between the widths of the input intervals and the output interval, when applying interval-valued functions, or how one can control such uncertainty propagation based on this relation. Thus, in this paper we: (i) introduce and develop the concepts of width-limited interval-valued functions and width limiting functions, presenting a theoretical approach to analyze the relation between the widths of the input and output intervals of bivariate interval-valued functions, with special attention to interval-valued aggregation functions; (ii) introduce the concept of (a,b)-ultramodular aggregation functions, a less restrictive extension of one-dimension convexity for bivariate aggregation functions, which have an important predictable behaviour with respect to the width when extended to the interval-valued context; (iii) define width-limited interval-valued overlap functions, taking into account a function that controls the width of the output interval and a new notion of increasingness with respect to a pair of partial orders (≤1,≤2); (iv) present and compare three construction methods for these width-limited interval-valued overlap functions, considering a pair of orders (≤1,≤2), which may be admissible or not, showcasing the adaptability of our developments.
Open Access
On the normalization of interval data
(MDPI, 2020) Santiago, Regivan; Bergamaschi, Flaulles; Bustince Sola, Humberto; Pereira Dimuro, Graçaliz; Da Cruz Asmus, Tiago; Sanz Delgado, José Antonio; Estadística, Informática y Matemáticas; Estatistika, Informatika eta Matematika
The impreciseness of numeric input data can be expressed by intervals. On the other hand, the normalization of numeric data is a usual process in many applications. How do we match the normalization with impreciseness on numeric data? A straightforward answer is that it is enough to apply a correct interval arithmetic, since the normalized exact value will be enclosed in the resulting 'normalized' interval. This paper shows that this approach is not enough since the resulting 'normalized' interval can be even wider than the input intervals. So, we propose a pair of axioms that must be satisfied by an interval arithmetic in order to be applied in the normalization of intervals. We show how some known interval arithmetics behave with respect to these axioms. The paper ends with a discussion about the current paradigm of interval computations.
Open Access
Enhancing the efficiency of the interval-valued fuzzy rule-based classifier with tuning and rule selection
(Springer, 2020) Sanz Delgado, José Antonio; Da Cruz Asmus, Tiago; Osa Hernández, Borja de la; Bustince Sola, Humberto; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa, PJUPNA1926
Interval-Valued fuzzy rule-based classifier with TUning and Rule Selection, IVTURS, is a state-of-the-art fuzzy classifier. One of the key point of this method is the usage of interval-valued restricted equivalence functions because their parametrization allows one to tune them to each problem, which leads to obtaining accurate results. However, they require the application of the exponentiation several times to obtain a result, which is a time demanding operation implying an extra charge to the computational burden of the method. In this contribution, we propose to reduce the number of exponentiation operations executed by the system, so that the efficiency of the method is enhanced with no alteration of the obtained results. Moreover, the new approach also allows for a reduction on the search space of the evolutionary method carried out in IVTURS. Consequently, we also propose four different approaches to take advantage of this reduction on the search space to study if it can imply an enhancement of the accuracy of the classifier. The experimental results prove: 1) the enhancement of the efficiency of IVTURS and 2) the accuracy of IVTURS is competitive versus that of the approaches using the reduced search space.
Open Access
A fuzzy association rule-based classifier for imbalanced classification problems
(Elsevier, 2021) Sanz Delgado, José Antonio; Sesma Sara, Mikel; Bustince Sola, Humberto; Estadística, Informática y Matemáticas; Estatistika, Informatika eta Matematika; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
Imbalanced classification problems are attracting the attention of the research community because they are prevalent in real-world problems and they impose extra difficulties for learning methods. Fuzzy rule-based classification systems have been applied to cope with these problems, mostly together with sampling techniques. In this paper, we define a new fuzzy association rule-based classifier, named FARCI, to tackle directly imbalanced classification problems. Our new proposal belongs to the algorithm modification category, since it is constructed on the basis of the state-of-the-art fuzzy classifier FARC–HD. Specifically, we modify its three learning stages, aiming at boosting the number of fuzzy rules of the minority class as well as simplifying them and, for the sake of handling unequal fuzzy rule lengths, we also change the matching degree computation, which is a key step of the inference process and it is also involved in the learning process. In the experimental study, we analyze the effectiveness of each one of the new components in terms of performance, F-score, and rule base size. Moreover, we also show the superiority of the new method when compared versus FARC–HD alongside sampling techniques, another algorithm modification approach, two cost-sensitive methods and an ensemble.
Open Access
Multimodal fuzzy fusion for enhancing the motor-imagery-based brain computer interface
(IEEE, 2019) Ko, Li-Wei; Lu, Yi-Chen; Bustince Sola, Humberto; Chang, Yu-Cheng; Chang, Yang; Fernández Fernández, Francisco Javier; Wang, Yu-Kai; Sanz Delgado, José Antonio; Pereira Dimuro, Graçaliz; Lin, Chin-Teng; Estatistika, Informatika eta Matematika; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Estadística, Informática y Matemáticas
Brain–computer interface technologies, such as steady-state visually evoked potential, P300, and motor imagery are methods of communication between the human brain and the external devices. Motor imagery–based brain–computer interfaces are popular because they avoid unnecessary external stimulus. Although feature extraction methods have been illustrated in several machine intelligent systems in motor imagery-based brain–computer interface studies, the performance remains unsatisfactory. There is increasing interest in the use of the fuzzy integrals, the Choquet and Sugeno integrals, that are appropriate for use in applications in which fusion of data must consider possible data interactions. To enhance the classification accuracy of brain-computer interfaces, we adopted fuzzy integrals, after employing the classification method of traditional brain–computer interfaces, to consider possible links between the data. Subsequently, we proposed a novel classification framework called the multimodal fuzzy fusion-based brain-computer interface system. Ten volunteers performed a motor imagery-based brain-computer interface experiment, and we acquired electroencephalography signals simultaneously. The multimodal fuzzy fusion-based brain-computer interface system enhanced performance compared with traditional brain–computer interface systems. Furthermore, when using the motor imagery-relevant electroencephalography frequency alpha and beta bands for the input features, the system achieved the highest accuracy, up to 78.81% and 78.45% with the Choquet and Sugeno integrals, respectively. Herein, we present a novel concept for enhancing brain–computer interface systems that adopts fuzzy integrals, especially in the fusion for classifying brain–computer interface commands.
Open Access
General grouping functions
(Springer, 2020) Santos, Helida; Pereira Dimuro, Graçaliz; Da Cruz Asmus, Tiago; Sanz Delgado, José Antonio; Fernández Fernández, Francisco Javier; Bustince Sola, Humberto; Estatistika, Informatika eta Matematika; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Estadística, Informática y Matemáticas
Some aggregation functions that are not necessarily associative, namely overlap and grouping functions, have called the attention of many researchers in the recent past. This is probably due to the fact that they are a richer class of operators whenever one compares with other classes of aggregation functions, such as t-norms and t-conorms, respectively. In the present work we introduce a more general proposal for disjunctive n-ary aggregation functions entitled general grouping functions, in order to be used in problems that admit n dimensional inputs in a more flexible manner, allowing their application in different contexts. We present some new interesting results, like the characterization of that operator and also provide different construction methods.
Open Access
Improving the performance of fuzzy rule-based classification systems based on a nonaveraging generalization of CC-integrals named C-F1F2-integrals
(IEEE, 2019) Lucca, Giancarlo; Pereira Dimuro, Graçaliz; Fernández Fernández, Francisco Javier; Bustince Sola, Humberto; Bedregal, Benjamin; Sanz Delgado, José Antonio; Estatistika, Informatika eta Matematika; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Estadística, Informática y Matemáticas
A key component of fuzzy rule-based classification systems (FRBCS) is the fuzzy reasoning method (FRM) since it infers the class predicted for new examples. A crucial stage in any FRM is the way in which the information given by the fired rules during the inference process is aggregated. A widely used FRM is the winning rule, which applies the maximum to accomplish this aggregation. The maximum is an averaging operator, which means that its result is within the range delimited by the minimum and the maximum of the aggregated values. Recently, new averaging operators based on generalizations of the Choquet integral have been proposed to perform this aggregation process. However, the most accurate FRBCSs use the FRM known as additive combination that considers the normalized sum as the aggregation operator, which is nonaveraging. For this reason, this paper is aimed at introducing a new nonaveraging operator named C-F1F2-integral, which is a generalization of the Choquet-like Copula-based integral (CC-integral). C-F1F2-integrals present the desired properties of an aggregation-like operator since they satisfy appropriate boundary conditions and have some kind of increasingness property. We show that C-F1F2 -integrals, when used to cope with classification problems, enhance the results of the previous averaging generalizations of the Choquet integral and provide competitive results (even better) when compared with state-of-the-art FRBCSs.
Open Access
dCF-integrals: generalizing CF-integrals by means of restricted dissimilarity functions
(IEEE, 2022) Wieczynski, Jonata; Lucca, Giancarlo; Pereira Dimuro, Graçaliz; Borges, Eduardo N.; Sanz Delgado, José Antonio; Da Cruz Asmus, Tiago; Fernández Fernández, Francisco Javier; Bustince Sola, Humberto; Estatistika, Informatika eta Matematika; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Estadística, Informática y Matemáticas; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa, PJUPNA1926
The Choquet integral (CI) is an averaging aggregation function that has been used, e.g., in the fuzzy reasoning method (FRM) of fuzzy rule-based classification systems (FRBCSs) and in multicriteria decision making in order to take into account the interactions among data/criteria. Several generalizations of the CI have been proposed in the literature in order to improve the performance of FRBCSs and also to provide more flexibility in the different models by relaxing both the monotonicity requirement and averaging conditions of aggregation functions. An important generalization is the CF -integrals, which are preaggregation functions that may present interesting nonaveraging behavior depending on the function F adopted in the construction and, in this case, offering competitive results in classification. Recently, the concept of d-Choquet integrals was introduced as a generalization of the CI by restricted dissimilarity functions (RDFs), improving the usability of CIs, as when comparing inputs by the usual difference may not be viable. The objective of this article is to introduce the concept of dCF -integrals, which is a generalization of CF -integrals by RDFs. The aim is to analyze whether the usage of dCF -integrals in the FRM of FRBCSs represents a good alternative toward the standard CF -integrals that just consider the difference as a dissimilarity measure. For that, we consider six RDFs combined with five fuzzy measures, applied with more than 20 functions F . The analysis of the results is based on statistical tests, demonstrating their efficiency. Additionally, comparing the applicability of dCF -integrals versus CF -integrals, the range of the good generalizations of the former is much larger than that of the latter.