Guest Editors' Introduction: Special Section on Intelligent Data Preparation

title: Finding Actionable Knowledge via Automated Comparison
abstract: The problem of finding interesting and actionable patterns is a major challenge in data mining. It has been studied by many data mining researchers. The issue is that data mining algorithms often generate too many patterns, which make it very hard for the user to find those truly useful ones. Over the years many techniques have been proposed. However, few have made it to real-life applications. At the end of 2005, we built a data mining system for Motorola (called Opportunity Map) to enable the user to explore the space of a large number of rules in order to find actionable knowledge. The approach is based on the concept of rule cubes and operations on rule cubes. A rule cube is similar to a data cube, but stores rules. Since its deployment, some issues have also been identified during the regular use of the system in Motorola. One of the key issues is that although the operations on rule cubes are flexible, each operation is primitive and has to be initiated by the user. Finding a piece of actionable knowledge typically involves many operations and intense visual inspections, which are labor-intensive and time-consuming. From interactions with our users, we identified a generic problem that is crucial for finding actionable knowledge. The problem involves extensive comparison of sub-populations and identification of the cause of their differences. This paper first defines the problem and then proposes an effective method to solve the problem automatically. To the best of our knowledge, there is no reported study of this problem. The new method has been added to the Opportunity Map system and is now in daily use in Motorola.

title: Speed-up iterative frequent itemset mining with constraint changes
abstract: Mining of frequent itemsets is a fundamental data mining task. Past research has proposed many efficient algorithms for this purpose. Recent work also highlighted the importance of using constraints to focus the mining process to mine only those relevant itemsets. In practice, data mining is often an interactive and iterative process. The user typically changes constraints and runs the mining algorithm many times before being satisfied with the final results. This interactive process is very time consuming. Existing mining algorithms are unable to take advantage of this iterative process to use previous mining results to speed up the current mining process. This results in an enormous waste of time and computation. In this paper, we propose an efficient technique to utilize previous mining results to improve the efficiency of current mining when constraints are changed. We first introduce the concept of tree boundary to summarize useful information available from previous mining. We then show that the tree boundary provides an effective and efficient framework for the new mining. The proposed technique has been implemented in the context of two existing frequent itemset mining algorithms, FP-tree and tree projection. Experiment results on both synthetic and real-life datasets show that the proposed approach achieves a dramatic saving of computation.

title: Dealing with different distributions in learning from
abstract: In the problem of learning with positive and unlabeled examples, existing research all assumes that positive examples P and the hidden positive examples in the unlabeled set U are generated from the same distribution. This assumption may be violated in practice. In such cases, existing methods perform poorly. This paper proposes a novel technique A-EM to deal with the problem. Experimental results with product page classification demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.

title: Entity discovery and assignment for opinion mining applications
abstract: Opinion mining became an important topic of study in recent years due to its wide range of applications. There are also many companies offering opinion mining services. One problem that has not been studied so far is the assignment of entities that have been talked about in each sentence. Let us use forum discussions about products as an example to make the problem concrete. In a typical discussion post, the author may give opinions on multiple products and also compare them. The issue is how to detect what products have been talked about in each sentence. If the sentence contains the product names, they need to be identified. We call this problem entity discovery. If the product names are not explicitly mentioned in the sentence but are implied due to the use of pronouns and language conventions, we need to infer the products. We call this problem entity assignment. These problems are important because without knowing what products each sentence talks about the opinion mined from the sentence is of little use. In this paper, we study these problems and propose two effective methods to solve the problems. Entity discovery is based on pattern discovery and entity assignment is based on mining of comparative sentences. Experimental results using a large number of forum posts demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique. Our system has also been successfully tested in a commercial setting.

title: Opinion Mining
abstract: Описанл процедуру формування інтегрального показника об’єкта згідно з відгуками користувачів під час застосування методів оцінювання опінії текстової інформації у web-документах. Запропоновано використання лінгвістичних змінних та застосування вагових коефіцієнтів для достовірнішого результату оцінювання емоційного забарвлення текстової інформації. Ключові слова: опінія, емоційне забарвлення, об’єкт, інтегральний показник, лінгвістична змінна, ваговий коефіцієнт.

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.

title: An Ontology-Based Approach to Knowledge Management
abstract: Combining with the respective advantages of ontology and Web Service, this paper puts forward a knowledge management approach to overcome the problem of semantic heterogeneity in distributed environments. The emphasis is placed on establishing an XML-oriented semantic data model and the mapping between XML data based on a global semantic view, which enhances knowledge process efficiency, accuracy and the semantic interoperability as well.

title: Development Of An Soi-Based Micro Check Valve
abstract: This paper presents a bulk micromachined check valve with very high frequency and extremely low leak rates. The valve is designed to have a hexagonal orifice, a hexagonal membrane flap and three flexible tethers. The three elbow-shaped flexible tethers are used both to secure the membrane flap to the valve seat and to abtain a large flap displacement in the forward flow direction. SOI wafer and DRIE technology are used to implement this micro valve. A very simple farbication process has been developed, and only two photolithographic masks are employed. Preliminary testing on a 1.5 milimeters size check valve shows that a maximum flow rate (DI water) of 35.6ml/min was obtained at pressure drop of 65.5kPa and negligible leakage rate in the reverse flow direction observed at pressure up to 600kPa.

title: Distributed Intelligent Network Management Model for the Large-Scale Computer Network
abstract: Computer networks have become large-scale distributed systems and network management will develop towards the distributed management and the intelligent management. Multi-agent based Distributed Intelligent Network Management model (MDINM) for the large-scale computer network, which utilizes key characteristics of the agent, such as autonomy, reactivity, and mobility, is put forward in this paper. This model can not only avoid transmitting a large amount of original data on the network to realize the distributed network management but also provides network management with more intelligence by realizing the dynamic self-management for the network. The experimental results show that MDINM is better than the existing network management solutions on performance for the large-scale computer network.

title: Manufacturing Grid: Needs, Concept, and Architecture
abstract: As a new approach, grid technology is rapidly used in scientific computing, large-scale data management, and collaborative work. But in the field of manufacturing, the application of grid is just at the beginning. The paper proposes the concept of manufacturing. The needs, definition and architecture of manufacturing gird are discussed, which explains why needs manufacturing grid, what is manufacturing grid and how to construct a manufacturing grid system.