A Hybrid Approach for Predicting Probability of Default in Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lending Platforms Using Mixture-of-Experts Neural Network

Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending offers an alternative way to access credit. Unlike established lending institutions with proven credit risk management practices, P2P platforms rely on numerous independent variables to evaluate loan applicants’ creditworthiness. This study aims to estimate default probabilities using a mixture-of-experts neural network in P2P lending. The approach involves coupling unsupervised clustering to capture essential data properties with a classification algorithm based on the mixture-of-experts structure. This classic design enhances model capacity without significant computational overhead. The model was tested using P2P data from Lending Club, comparing it to other methods like Logistic Regression, AdaBoost, Gradient Boosting, Decision Tree, Support Vector Machine, and Random Forest. The hybrid model demonstrated superior performance, with a Mean Squared Error reduction of at least 25%.

A Hierarchical Trust Model for Peer-to-Peer Networks

Trust has become an increasingly important issue given society’s growing reliance on electronic transactions.Peer-to-peer(P2P)networks are among the main electronic transaction environments affected by trust issues due to the freedom and anonymity of peers(users)and the inherent openness of these networks.A malicious peer can easily join a P2P network and abuse its peers and resources,resulting in a large-scale failure that might shut down the entire network.Therefore,a plethora of researchers have proposed trust management systems to mitigate the impact of the problem.However,due to the problem’s scale and complexity,more research is necessary.The algorithm proposed here,HierarchTrust,attempts to create a more reliable environment in which the selection of a peer provider of a file or other resource is based on several trust values represented in hierarchical form.The values at the top of the hierarchical form are more trusted than those at the lower end of the hierarchy.Trust,in HierarchTrust,is generally calculated based on the standard deviation.Evaluation via simulation showed that HierarchTrust produced a better success rate than the well-established EigenTrust algorithm.

Social-ecological perspective on the suicidal behaviour factors of early adolescents in China:a network analysis

Background In early adolescence,youth are highly prone to suicidal behaviours.Identifying modifiable risk factors during this critical phase is a priority to inform effective suicide prevention strategies.Aims To explore the risk and protective factors of suicidal behaviours(ie,suicidal ideation,plans and attempts)in early adolescence in China using a social-ecological perspective.Methods Using data from the cross-sectional project‘Healthy and Risky Behaviours Among Middle School Students in Anhui Province,China',stratified random cluster sampling was used to select 5724 middle school students who had completed self-report questionnaires in November 2020.Network analysis was employed to examine the correlates of suicidal ideation,plans and attempts at four levels,namely individual(sex,academic performance,serious physical llness/disability,history of self-harm,depression,impulsivity,sleep problems,resilience),family(family economic status,relationship with mother,relationship with father,family violence,childhood abuse,parental mental illness),school(relationship with teachers,relationship with classmates,school-bullying victimisation and perpetration)and social(social support,satisfaction with society).Results In total,37.9%,19.0%and 5.5%of the students reported suicidal ideation,plans and attempts in the past 6 months,respectively.The estimated network revealed that suicidal ideation,plans and attempts were collectively associated with a history of self-harm,sleep problems,childhood abuse,school bullying and victimisation.Centrality analysis indicated that the most influential nodes in the network were history of self-harm and childhood abuse.Notably,the network also showed unique correlates of suicidal ideation(sex,weight=0.60;impulsivity,weight=0.24;family violence,weight=0.17;relationship with teachers,weight=-0.03;school-bullying perpetration,weight=0.22),suicidal plans(social support,weight=-0.15)and suicidal attempts(relationship with mother,weight=-0.10;parental mental llness,weight=0.61).Conclusions This study identified the correlates of suicidal ideation,plans and attempts,and provided practical implications for suicide prevention for young adolescents in China.Firstly,this study highlighted the importance of joint interventions across multiple departments.Secondly,the common risk factors of suicidal ideation,plans and attempts were elucidated.Thirdly,this study proposed target interventions to address the unique influencing factors of suicidal ideation,plans and attempts.

Analytical Comparison of Resource Search Algorithms in Non-DHT Mobile Peer-to-Peer Networks

One of the key challenges in ad-hoc networks is the resource discovery problem.How efciently&quickly the queried resource/object can be resolved in such a highly dynamic self-evolving network is the underlying question?Broadcasting is a basic technique in the Mobile Ad-hoc Networks(MANETs),and it refers to sending a packet from one node to every other node within the transmission range.Flooding is a type of broadcast where the received packet is retransmitted once by every node.The naive ooding technique oods the network with query messages,while the random walk scheme operates by contacting subsets of each node’s neighbors at every step,thereby restricting the search space.Many earlier works have mainly focused on the simulation-based analysis of ooding technique,and its variants,in a wired network scenario.Although,there have been some empirical studies in peer-to-peer(P2P)networks,the analytical results are still lacking,especially in the context of mobile P2P networks.In this article,we mathematically model different widely used existing search techniques,and compare with the proposed improved random walk method,a simple lightweight approach suitable for the non-DHT architecture.We provide analytical expressions to measure the performance of the different ooding-based search techniques,and our proposed technique.We analytically derive 3 relevant key performance measures,i.e.,the avg.number of steps needed to nd a resource,the probability of locating a resource,and the avg.number of messages generated during the entire search process.

Peer-to-Peer Networks 2

The development of network resources changes the network computing models. P2P networks, a new type of network adopting peer-to-peer strategy for computing, have attracted worldwide attention. The P2P architecture is a type of distributed network in which all participants share their hardware resources and the shared resources can be directly accessed by peer nodes without going through any dedicated servers. The participants in a P2P network are both resource providers and resource consumers. This article on P2P networks is divided into two issues. In the previous issue, P2P architecture, network models and core search algorithms were introduced. The second part in this issue is analyzing the current P2P research and application situations, as well as the impacts of P2P on telecom operators and equipment vendors.

Pluggable multitask diffractive neural networks based on cascaded metasurfaces

Optical neural networks have significant advantages in terms of power consumption,parallelism,and high computing speed,which has intrigued extensive attention in both academic and engineering communities.It has been considered as one of the powerful tools in promoting the fields of imaging processing and object recognition.However,the existing optical system architecture cannot be reconstructed to the realization of multi-functional artificial intelligence systems simultaneously.To push the development of this issue,we propose the pluggable diffractive neural networks(P-DNN),a general paradigm resorting to the cascaded metasurfaces,which can be applied to recognize various tasks by switching internal plug-ins.As the proof-of-principle,the recognition functions of six types of handwritten digits and six types of fashions are numerical simulated and experimental demonstrated at near-infrared regimes.Encouragingly,the proposed paradigm not only improves the flexibility of the optical neural networks but paves the new route for achieving high-speed,low-power and versatile artificial intelligence systems.

Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading Method of Multi-Virtual Power Plants Based on Non-Cooperative Game

The current electricity market fails to consider the energy consumption characteristics of transaction subjects such as virtual power plants.Besides,the game relationship between transaction subjects needs to be further explored.This paper proposes a Peer-to-Peer energy trading method for multi-virtual power plants based on a non-cooperative game.Firstly,a coordinated control model of public buildings is incorporated into the scheduling framework of the virtual power plant,considering the energy consumption characteristics of users.Secondly,the utility functions of multiple virtual power plants are analyzed,and a non-cooperative game model is established to explore the game relationship between electricity sellers in the Peer-to-Peer transaction process.Finally,the influence of user energy consumption characteristics on the virtual power plant operation and the Peer-to-Peer transaction process is analyzed by case studies.Furthermore,the effect of different parameters on the Nash equilibrium point is explored,and the influence factors of Peer-to-Peer transactions between virtual power plants are summarized.According to the obtained results,compared with the central air conditioning set as constant temperature control strategy,the flexible control strategy proposed in this paper improves the market power of each VPP and the overall revenue of the VPPs.In addition,the upper limit of the service quotation of the market operator have a great impact on the transaction mode of VPPs.When the service quotation decreases gradually,the P2P transaction between VPPs is more likely to occur.

Activation Redistribution Based Hybrid Asymmetric Quantization Method of Neural Networks

The demand for adopting neural networks in resource-constrained embedded devices is continuously increasing.Quantization is one of the most promising solutions to reduce computational cost and memory storage on embedded devices.In order to reduce the complexity and overhead of deploying neural networks on Integeronly hardware,most current quantization methods use a symmetric quantization mapping strategy to quantize a floating-point neural network into an integer network.However,although symmetric quantization has the advantage of easier implementation,it is sub-optimal for cases where the range could be skewed and not symmetric.This often comes at the cost of lower accuracy.This paper proposed an activation redistribution-based hybrid asymmetric quantizationmethod for neural networks.The proposedmethod takes data distribution into consideration and can resolve the contradiction between the quantization accuracy and the ease of implementation,balance the trade-off between clipping range and quantization resolution,and thus improve the accuracy of the quantized neural network.The experimental results indicate that the accuracy of the proposed method is 2.02%and 5.52%higher than the traditional symmetric quantization method for classification and detection tasks,respectively.The proposed method paves the way for computationally intensive neural network models to be deployed on devices with limited computing resources.Codes will be available on https://github.com/ycjcy/Hybrid-Asymmetric-Quantization.

Biodiversity metrics on ecological networks: Demonstrated with animal gastrointestinal microbiomes

Biodiversity has become a terminology familiar to virtually every citizen in modern societies.It is said that ecology studies the economy of nature,and economy studies the ecology of humans;then measuring biodiversity should be similar with measuring national wealth.Indeed,there have been many parallels between ecology and economics,actually beyond analogies.For example,arguably the second most widely used biodiversity metric,Simpson(1949)’s diversity index,is a function of familiar Gini-index in economics.One of the biggest challenges has been the high“diversity”of diversity indexes due to their excessive“speciation”-there are so many indexes,similar to each country’s sovereign currency-leaving confused diversity practitioners in dilemma.In 1973,Hill introduced the concept of“numbers equivalent”,which is based on Renyi entropy and originated in economics,but possibly due to his abstruse interpretation of the concept,his message was not widely received by ecologists until nearly four decades later.What Hill suggested was similar to link the US dollar to gold at the rate of$35 per ounce under the Bretton Woods system.The Hill numbers now are considered most appropriate biodiversity metrics system,unifying Shannon,Simpson and other diversity indexes.Here,we approach to another paradigmatic shift-measuring biodiversity on ecological networks-demonstrated with animal gastrointestinal microbiomes representing four major invertebrate classes and all six vertebrate classes.The network diversity can reveal the diversity of species interactions,which is a necessary step for understanding the spatial and temporal structures and dynamics of biodiversity across environmental gradients.

“Half of the Node Records Are Forged?”: The Problemof Node Records Forgery in Ethereum Network

Ethereum, currently the most widely utilized smart contracts platform, anchors the security of myriad smartcontracts upon its own robustness. Its foundational peer-to-peer network facilitates a dependable node connectionmechanism, whereas an efficient data-sharing protocol constitutes as the bedrock of Blockchain network security.In this paper, we propose NodeHunter, an Ethereum network detector implemented through the application ofsimulation technology, which is capable of aggregating all node records within the network and the interconnectednessbetween them. Utilizing this connection information, NodeHunter can procure more comprehensive insightsfor network status analysis compared to preceding detection methodologies. Throughout a three-month period ofunbroken surveillance of the Ethereum network, we obtained an excess of two million node records along with overone hundred million node acquaintances. Analysis of the gathered data revealed that an alarming 49% or more ofthese node records were maliciously forged.

A Neural Network-Based Trust Management System for Edge Devices in Peer-to-Peer Networks

Edge devices in Internet of Things(IoT)applications can form peers to communicate in peer-to-peer(P2P)networks over P2P protocols.Using P2P networks ensures scalability and removes the need for centralized management.However,due to the open nature of P2P networks,they often suffer from the existence of malicious peers,especially malicious peers that unite in groups to raise each other’s ratings.This compromises users’safety and makes them lose their confidence about the files or services they are receiving.To address these challenges,we propose a neural networkbased algorithm,which uses the advantages of a machine learning algorithm to identify whether or not a peer is malicious.In this paper,a neural network(NN)was chosen as the machine learning algorithm due to its efficiency in classification.The experiments showed that the NNTrust algorithm is more effective and has a higher potential of reducing the number of invalid files and increasing success rates than other well-known trust management systems.

Insights into microbiota community dynamics and flavor development mechanism during golden pomfret(Trachinotus ovatus)fermentation based on single-molecule real-time sequencing and molecular networking analysis

Popular fermented golden pomfret(Trachinotus ovatus)is prepared via spontaneous fermentation;however,the mechanisms underlying the regulation of its flavor development remain unclear.This study shows the roles of the complex microbiota and the dynamic changes in microbial community and flavor compounds during fish fermentation.Single-molecule real-time sequencing and molecular networking analysis revealed the correlations among different microbial genera and the relationships between microbial taxa and volatile compounds.Mechanisms underlying flavor development were also elucidated via KEGG based functional annotations.Clostridium,Shewanella,and Staphylococcus were the dominant microbial genera.Forty-nine volatile compounds were detected in the fermented fish samples,with thirteen identified as characteristic volatile compounds(ROAV>1).Volatile profiles resulted from the interactions among the microorganisms and derived enzymes,with the main metabolic pathways being amino acid biosynthesis/metabolism,carbon metabolism,and glycolysis/gluconeogenesis.This study demonstrated the approaches for distinguishing key microbiota associated with volatile compounds and monitoring the industrial production of high-quality fermented fish products.

A data-driven model of drop size prediction based on artificial neural networks using small-scale data sets

An artificial neural network(ANN)method is introduced to predict drop size in two kinds of pulsed columns with small-scale data sets.After training,the deviation between calculate and experimental results are 3.8%and 9.3%,respectively.Through ANN model,the influence of interfacial tension and pulsation intensity on the droplet diameter has been developed.Droplet size gradually increases with the increase of interfacial tension,and decreases with the increase of pulse intensity.It can be seen that the accuracy of ANN model in predicting droplet size outside the training set range is reach the same level as the accuracy of correlation obtained based on experiments within this range.For two kinds of columns,the drop size prediction deviations of ANN model are 9.6%and 18.5%and the deviations in correlations are 11%and 15%.

Development of a convolutional neural network based geomechanical upscaling technique for heterogeneous geological reservoir

Geomechanical assessment using coupled reservoir-geomechanical simulation is becoming increasingly important for analyzing the potential geomechanical risks in subsurface geological developments.However,a robust and efficient geomechanical upscaling technique for heterogeneous geological reservoirs is lacking to advance the applications of three-dimensional(3D)reservoir-scale geomechanical simulation considering detailed geological heterogeneities.Here,we develop convolutional neural network(CNN)proxies that reproduce the anisotropic nonlinear geomechanical response caused by lithological heterogeneity,and compute upscaled geomechanical properties from CNN proxies.The CNN proxies are trained using a large dataset of randomly generated spatially correlated sand-shale realizations as inputs and simulation results of their macroscopic geomechanical response as outputs.The trained CNN models can provide the upscaled shear strength(R^(2)>0.949),stress-strain behavior(R^(2)>0.925),and volumetric strain changes(R^(2)>0.958)that highly agree with the numerical simulation results while saving over two orders of magnitude of computational time.This is a major advantage in computing the upscaled geomechanical properties directly from geological realizations without the need to perform local numerical simulations to obtain the geomechanical response.The proposed CNN proxybased upscaling technique has the ability to(1)bridge the gap between the fine-scale geocellular models considering geological uncertainties and computationally efficient geomechanical models used to assess the geomechanical risks of large-scale subsurface development,and(2)improve the efficiency of numerical upscaling techniques that rely on local numerical simulations,leading to significantly increased computational time for uncertainty quantification using numerous geological realizations.

Performance of Fixed Channel Assignment for Uplink Transmission and Direct Peer-to-Peer Communications in Multihop Cellular Networks

In this paper, we propose a clustered multihop cellular network （cMCN） architecture and study its performance using fixed channel assignment （FCA） scheme for uplink transmission. The proposed cMCN using FCA can be applied with some reuse factors. An analytical model based on Markov chain is developed to analyze its performance and validated through computer simulation. And then, we implement direct peer-to-peer communication （DC） in cMCN by considering more reasonable conditions in practice. DC means that two calls communicate directly instead of going through base stations. The results show that cMCN with FCA can reduce the call blocking probability significantly as compared with the traditional single-hop cellular networks with FCA and can be further reduced by using DC.

Monitoring Peer-to-Peer Botnets:Requirements,Challenges,and Future Works

The cyber-criminal compromises end-hosts(bots)to configure a network of bots(botnet).The cyber-criminals are also looking for an evolved architecture that makes their techniques more resilient and stealthier such as Peer-to-Peer(P2P)networks.The P2P botnets leverage the privileges of the decentralized nature of P2P networks.Consequently,the P2P botnets exploit the resilience of this architecture to be arduous against take-down procedures.Some P2P botnets are smarter to be stealthy in their Commandand-Control mechanisms(C2)and elude the standard discovery mechanisms.Therefore,the other side of this cyberwar is the monitor.The P2P botnet monitoring is an exacting mission because the monitoring must care about many aspects simultaneously.Some aspects pertain to the existing monitoring approaches,some pertain to the nature of P2P networks,and some to counter the botnets,i.e.,the anti-monitoring mechanisms.All these challenges should be considered in P2P botnet monitoring.To begin with,this paper provides an anatomy of P2P botnets.Thereafter,this paper exhaustively reviews the existing monitoring approaches of P2P botnets and thoroughly discusses each to reveal its advantages and disadvantages.In addition,this paper groups the monitoring approaches into three groups:passive,active,and hybrid monitoring approaches.Furthermore,this paper also discusses the functional and non-functional requirements of advanced monitoring.In conclusion,this paper ends by epitomizing the challenges of various aspects and gives future avenues for better monitoring of P2P botnets.

Discontinuity development patterns and the challenges for 3D discrete fracture network modeling on complicated exposed rock surfaces

Natural slopes usually display complicated exposed rock surfaces that are characterized by complex and substantial terrain undulation and ubiquitous undesirable phenomena such as vegetation cover and rockfalls.This study presents a systematic outcrop research of fracture pattern variations in a complicated rock slope,and the qualitative and quantitative study of the complex phenomena impact on threedimensional(3D)discrete fracture network(DFN)modeling.As the studies of the outcrop fracture pattern have been so far focused on local variations,thus,we put forward a statistical analysis of global variations.The entire outcrop is partitioned into several subzones,and the subzone-scale variability of fracture geometric properties is analyzed(including the orientation,the density,and the trace length).The results reveal significant variations in fracture characteristics(such as the concentrative degree,the average orientation,the density,and the trace length)among different subzones.Moreover,the density of fracture sets,which is approximately parallel to the slope surface,exhibits a notably higher value compared to other fracture sets across all subzones.To improve the accuracy of the DFN modeling,the effects of three common phenomena resulting from vegetation and rockfalls are qualitatively analyzed and the corresponding quantitative data processing solutions are proposed.Subsequently,the 3D fracture geometric parameters are determined for different areas of the high-steep rock slope in terms of the subzone dimensions.The results show significant variations in the same set of 3D fracture parameters across different regions with density differing by up to tenfold and mean trace length exhibiting differences of 3e4 times.The study results present precise geological structural information,improve modeling accuracy,and provide practical solutions for addressing complex outcrop issues.

Influencer identification of dynamical networks based on an information entropy dimension reduction method

Identifying critical nodes or sets in large-scale networks is a fundamental scientific problem and one of the key research directions in the fields of data mining and network science when implementing network attacks, defense, repair and control.Traditional methods usually begin from the centrality, node location or the impact on the largest connected component after node destruction, mainly based on the network structure.However, these algorithms do not consider network state changes.We applied a model that combines a random connectivity matrix and minimal low-dimensional structures to represent network connectivity.By using mean field theory and information entropy to calculate node activity,we calculated the overlap between the random parts and fixed low-dimensional parts to quantify the influence of node impact on network state changes and ranked them by importance.We applied this algorithm and the proposed importance algorithm to the overall analysis and stratified analysis of the C.elegans neural network.We observed a change in the critical entropy of the network state and by utilizing the proposed method we can calculate the nodes that indirectly affect muscle cells through neural layers.

A Credit-Based Approach for Overcoming Free-Riding Behaviour in Peer-to-Peer Networks

The underlying premise of peer-to-peer(P2P)systems is the trading of digital resources among individual peers to facilitate file sharing,distributed computing,storage,collaborative applications and multimedia streaming.So-called free-riders challenge the foundations of this system by consuming resources from other peers without offering any resources in return,hindering resource exchange among peers.Therefore,immense effort has been invested in discouraging free-riding and overcoming the ill effects of such unfair use of the system.However,previous efforts have all fallen short of effectively addressing free-riding behaviour in P2P networks.This paper proposes a novel approach based on utilising a credit incentive for P2P networks,wherein a grace period is introduced during which free-riders must reimburse resources.In contrast to previous approaches,the proposed system takes into consideration the upload rate of peers and a grace period.The system has been thoroughly tested in a simulated environment,and the results show that the proposed approach effectively mitigates free-riding behaviour.Compared to previous systems,the number of downloads from free-riders decreased while downloads by contributing peers increased.The results also show that under longer grace periods,the number of downloads by fast peers(those reimbursing the system within the grace period)was greater than the number of downloads by slow peers.

A multilayer network diffusion-based model for reviewer recommendation

With the rapid growth of manuscript submissions,finding eligible reviewers for every submission has become a heavy task.Recommender systems are powerful tools developed in computer science and information science to deal with this problem.However,most existing approaches resort to text mining techniques to match manuscripts with potential reviewers,which require high-quality textual information to perform well.In this paper,we propose a reviewer recommendation algorithm based on a network diffusion process on a scholar-paper multilayer network,with no requirement for textual information.The network incorporates the relationship of scholar-paper pairs,the collaboration among scholars,and the bibliographic coupling among papers.Experimental results show that our proposed algorithm outperforms other state-of-the-art recommendation methods that use graph random walk and matrix factorization and methods that use machine learning and natural language processing,with improvements of over 7.62%in recall,5.66%in hit rate,and 47.53%in ranking score.Our work sheds light on the effectiveness of multilayer network diffusion-based methods in the reviewer recommendation problem,which will help to facilitate the peer-review process and promote information retrieval research in other practical scenes.