Forecasting Enrollment Model Based on First-Order Fuzzy Time Series

This paper proposes a novel improvement of forecasting approach based on using time-invariant fuzzy time series. In contrast to traditional forecasting methods, fuzzy time series can be also applied to problems, in which historical data are linguistic values. It is shown that proposed time-invariant method improves the performance of forecasting process. Further, the effect of using different number of fuzzy sets is tested as well. As with the most of cited papers, historical enrollment of the University of Alabama is used in this study to illustrate the forecasting process. Subsequently, the performance of the proposed method is compared with existing fuzzy time series time-invariant models based on forecasting accuracy. It reveals a certain performance superiority of the proposed method over methods described in the literature

Organic Farming in Europe by 2010: Scenarios for the future

How will organic farming in Europe evolve by the year 2010? The answer provides a basis for the development of different policy options and for anticipating the future relative competitiveness of organic and conventional farming. The authors tackle the question using an innovative approach based on scenario analysis, offering the reader a range of scenarios that encompass the main possible evolutions of the organic farming sector. This book constitutes an innovative and reliable decision-supporting tool for policy makers, farmers and the private sector. Researchers and students operating in the field of agricultural economics will also benefit from the methodological approach adopted for the scenario analysis

Forecasting Mortality Rate Using a Neural Network with Fuzzy Inference System

Various methods have been developed to improve mortality forecasts. The authors proposed a neuro-fuzzy model to forecast the mortality. The forecasting of mortality is curried out by an ANFIS model which uses a first order Sugeno-type FIS. The model predicts the yearly mortality in a one step ahead prediction scheme. The method of trial and error was used in order to decide the type of membership function that describe better the model and provides the minimum error. The output of the models is the next year�s mortality. The results were presented and compared based on three different kinds of errors: RMSE, MAE, and MAPE. The ANFIS model gives good results for the case of two gbell membership functions and 500 epochs. Finally, the ANFIS model gives better results than the AR and ARMA model.ANFIS, Forecasting, Mortality, Modeling.

Multimodel combination techniques for analysis of hydrological simulations: Application to distributed model intercomparison project results

This paper examines several multimodel combination techniques that are used for streamflow forecasting: the simple model average (SMA), the multimodel superensemble (MMSE), modified multimodel superensemble (M3SE), and the weighted average method (WAM). These model combination techniques were evaluated using the results from the Distributed Model Intercomparison Project (DMIP), an international project sponsored by the National Weather Service (NWS) Office of Hydrologic Development (OHD). All of the multimodel combination results were obtained using uncalibrated DMIP model simulations and were compared against the best-uncalibrated as well as the best-calibrated individual model results. The purpose of this study is to understand how different combination techniques affect the accuracy levels of the multimodel simulations. This study revealed that the multimodel simulations obtained from uncalibrated single-model simulations are generally better than any single-member model simulations, even the best-calibrated single-model simulations. Furthermore, more sophisticated multimodel combination techniques that incorporated bias correction step work better than simple multimodel average simulations or multimodel simulations without bias correction. © 2006 American Meteorological Society

Identifying Outliers in Fuzzy Time Series

Time series analysis is often associated with the discovery of patterns and prediction of features. Forecasting accuracy can be improved by removing identified outliers in the data set using the Cook’s distance and Studentized residual test. In this paper a modified fuzzy time series method is proposed based on transition probability vector membership function. It is experimentally shown that the proposed method minimizes the average forecasting error compared with other known existing methods