Classification rule discovery with ant colony optimization
Ant-based algorithms or ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms have been applied successfully to combinatorial optimization problems. More recently, Parpinelli and colleagues applied ACO to data mining classification problems, where they introduced a classification algorithm called Ant/spl I.bar/Miner. In this paper, we present an improvement to Ant/spl I.bar/Miner (we call it Ant/spl I.bar/Miner3). The proposed version was tested on two standard problems and performed better than the original Ant/spl I.bar/Miner algorithm.

title: Entropy-based metrics in swarm clustering
abstract: Ant-based clustering methods have received significant attention as robust methods for clustering. Most ant-based algorithms use local density as a metric for determining the ants' propensities to pick up or deposit a data item; however, a number of authors in classical clustering methods have pointed out the advantages of entropy-based metrics for clustering. We introduced an entropy metric into an ant-based clustering algorithm and compared it with other closely related algorithms using local density. The results strongly support the value of entropy metrics, obtaining faster and more accurate results. Entropy governs the pickup and drop behaviors, while movement is guided by the density gradient. Entropy measures also require fewer training parameters than density-based clustering. The remaining parameters are subjected to robustness studies, and a detailed analysis is performed. 
 
In the second phase of the study, we further investigated Ramos and Abraham's ( Proc 2003   2003. pp 1370–1375) contention that ant-based methods are particularly suited to incremental clustering. Contrary to expectations, we did not find substantial differences between the efficiencies of incremental and nonincremental approaches to data clustering.

title: Incremental Clustering Based on Swarm Intelligence
abstract: We propose methods for incrementally constructing a knowledge model for a dynamically changing database, using a swarm of special agents (ie an ant colony) and imitating their natural cluster-forming behavior. We use information-theoretic metrics to overcome some inherent problems of ant-based clustering, obtaining faster and more accurate results. Entropy governs the pick-up and drop behaviors, while movement is guided by pheromones. The primary benefits are fast clustering, and a reduced parameter set. We compared the method both with static clustering (repeatedly applied), and with the previous dynamic approaches of other authors. It generated clusters of similar quality to the static method, at significantly reduced computational cost, so that it can be used in dynamic situations where the static method is infeasible. It gave better results than previous dynamic approaches, with a much-reduced tuning parameter set. It is simple to use, and applicable to continuously- and batch-updated databases.

title: A Graph-Based Algorithm for Mining Maximal Frequent Itemsets
abstract: Association rule mining is an important research branch of data mining, and computing frequent itemsets is the main problem. The paper is designed to find maximal frequent itemsets only. It presents an algorithm based on a frequent pattern graph, which can find maximal frequent itemsets quickly. A breadth-first-search and a depth-first-search techniques are used to produce all maximal frequent itemsets of a database. The paper also analyzes the complexity of the algorithm, and explains the computation procedure by examples. It has high time efficiency and less space complexity for computing maximal frequent itemsets.

title: Integrating Classification and Association Rule Mining
abstract: Classification rule mining aims to discover a small set of rules in the database that forms an accurate classifier. Association rule mining finds all the rules existing in the database that satisfy some minimum support and minimum confidence constraints. For association rule mining, the target of discovery is not pre-determined, while for classification rule mining there is one and only one predetermined target. In this paper, we propose to integrate these two mining techniques. The integration is done by focusing on mining a special subset of association rules, called class association rules (CARs). An efficient algorithm is also given for building a classifier based on the set of discovered CARs. Experimental results show that the classifier built this way is, in general, more accurate than that produced by the state-of-the-art classification system C4.5. In addition, this integration helps to solve a number of problems that exist in the current classification systems.

title: NET - A System for Extracting Web Data from Flat and Nested Data Records
abstract: This paper studies automatic extraction of structured data from Web pages. Each of such pages may contain several groups of structured data records. Existing automatic methods still have several limitations. In this paper, we propose a more effective method for the task. Given a page, our method first builds a tag tree based on visual information. It then performs a post-order traversal of the tree and matches subtrees in the process using a tree edit distance method and visual cues. After the process ends, data records are found and data items in them are aligned and extracted. The method can extract data from both flat and nested data records. Experimental evaluation shows that the method performs the extraction task accurately.

title: Robot Obstacle Avoidance based on an Improved Ant Colony Algorithm
abstract: Obstacle Avoidance for mobile robot is a nondeterministic polynomial hard (NP-hard) problem. Ant algorithm is the bionic algorithm which simulated ants foraging behavior, which can effectively solve the problems of this kind. In this paper, we propose an improved ant colony algorithm for robot obstacle avoidance, in which heuristic information is adjusted at run-time during the searching process. The proposed algorithm can effectively alleviate the local optimum problem, global optimal path can be robustly found in our experiments.

title: Stability Analysis of Social Foraging Swarm with Interaction Time Delays
abstract: This paper considers a swarm model with an attraction-repulsion function involving variable communication time lags and an attractant/repellent. It is proved that for quadratic attractant/repellent profiles the members of the swarm with time delays will aggregate and form a cohesive cluster of finite size in a finite time. Moreover, all the swarm members will converge to more favorable areas of the quadratic attractant/repellent profiles under certain conditions in the presence of communication delays.

title: Substitution effect on the geometry and electronic structure of the ferrocene
abstract: The substitution effects on the geometry and the electronic structure of the ferrocene are systematically and comparatively studied using the density functional theory. It is found that -NH(2) and -OH substituents exert different influence on the geometry from -CH(3), -SiH(3), -PH(2), and -SH substituents. The topological analysis shows that all the C-C bonds in a-g are typical opened-shell interactions while the Fe-C bonds are typical closed-shell interactions. NBO analysis indicates that the cooperated interaction of d --> pi* and feedback pi --> d + 4s enhances the Fe-ligand interaction. The energy partitioning analysis demonstrates that the substituents with the second row elements lead to stronger iron-ligand interactions than those with the third row elements. The molecular electrostatic potential predicts that the electrophiles are expected to attack preferably the N, O, P, or S atoms in Fer-NH(2), Fer-OH, Fer-PH(2), and Fer-SH, and attack the ring C atoms in Fer-SiH(3) and Fer-CH(3). In turn, the nucleophiles are supposed to interact predominantly by attacking the hydrogen atoms. The simulated theoretical excitation spectra show that the maximum absorption peaks are red-shifted when the substituents going from second row elements to the third row elements.