journal article·2025-06-06Open access

GLARA: A Global–Local Attention Framework for Semantic Relation Abstraction and Dynamic Preference Modeling in Knowledge-Aware Recommendation

Runbo Liu, Lili He, Junhong Zheng

Applied Sciences· Volume 15· Issue 12

Abstract

Knowledge graph-enhanced recommendation has gained increasing attention for its ability to provide structured semantic context. However, most existing approaches struggle with two critical challenges: the sparsity of long-tail relations in knowledge graphs and the lack of adaptability to users’ dynamic preferences. In this paper, we propose GLARA, a novel recommendation framework that combines semantic abstraction and behavioral adaptation through a two-stage modeling process. First, a Virtual Relational Knowledge Graph (VRKG) is constructed by clustering semantically similar relations into higher-level virtual groups, which alleviates relation sparsity and enhances generalization. Then, a global Local Weighted Smoothing (LWS) module and a local Graph Attention Network (GAT) are integrated to jointly refine item and user representations: LWS propagates information within each virtual relation subgraph to improve semantic consistency, while GAT dynamically adjusts neighbor importance based on recent interaction signals. Extensive experiments on Last.FM and MovieLens-1M demonstrate that GLARA outperforms state-of-the-art methods, achieving up to 5.8% improvements in NDCG@20, especially in long-tail and cold-start scenarios. Additionally, case studies confirm the model’s interpretability by tracing recommendation paths through clustered semantic relations. This work offers a flexible and interpretable solution for robust recommendation under sparse and dynamic conditions.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Recommender Systems and Techniques · Advanced Graph Neural Networks · Topic Modeling

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

College of Computer Science and Technology (College of Artificial Intelligence), Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China

Funding

National Key Research and Development Program of China

References (38)

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