Dynamic optimization of classification systems for adaptive incremental learning

An incremental learning system updates itself in response to incoming data without reexamining all the old data. Since classification systems capable of incrementally storing, filtering, and classifying data are economical, in terms of both space and time, which makes them immensely useful for industrial, military, and commercial purposes, interest in designing them is growing. However, the challenge with incremental learning is that classification tasks can no longer be seen as unvarying, since they can actually change with the evolution of the data. These changes in turn cause dynamic changes to occur in the classification system's parameters If such variations are neglected, the overall perfonnance of these systems will be compromised in the future. In this thesis, on the development of a system capable of incrementally accommodating new data and dynamically tracking new optimum system parameters for self-adaptation, we first address the optimum selection of classifiers over time. We propose a framework which combinesthe power of Swann Intelligence Theory and the conventional grid-search method to progressively identify potential solutions for gradually updating training datasets. The key here is to consider the adjustment of classifier parameters as a dynamic optimization problem that depends on the data available. Specifically, it has been shown that, if the intention is to build efficient Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifiers from sources that provide data gradually and serially, then the best way to do this is to consider model selection as a dynamic process which can evolve and change over time. This means that a number of solutions are required, depending on the knowledge available about the problem and uncertainties in the data. We also investigate measures for evaluating and selecting classifier ensembles composed of SVM classifiers. The measures employed are based on two different theories (diversity and margin)commonly used to understand the success of ensembles. This study has given us valuable insights and helped us to establish confidence-based measures as a tool for the selection of classifier ensembles. The main contribution of this thesis is a dynamic optimization approach that performs incremental learning in an adaptive fashion by tracking, evolving, and combining optimum hypotheses over time. The approach incorporates various theories, such as dynamic Particle Swann Optimization, incremental Support Vector Machine classifiers, change detection, and dynamic ensemble selection based on classifier confidence levels. Experiments carried out on synthetic and real-world databases demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms the classification methods often used in incremental learning scenarios

Quantitative structure fate relationships for multimedia environmental analysis

Key physicochemical properties for a wide spectrum of chemical pollutants are unknown. This thesis analyses the prospect of assessing the environmental distribution of chemicals directly from supervised learning algorithms using molecular descriptors, rather than from multimedia environmental models (MEMs) using several physicochemical properties estimated from QSARs. Dimensionless compartmental mass ratios of 468 validation chemicals were compared, in logarithmic units, between: a) SimpleBox 3, a Level III MEM, propagating random property values within statistical distributions of widely recommended QSARs; and, b) Support Vector Regressions (SVRs), acting as Quantitative Structure-Fate Relationships (QSFRs), linking mass ratios to molecular weight and constituent counts (atoms, bonds, functional groups and rings) for training chemicals. Best predictions were obtained for test and validation chemicals optimally found to be within the domain of applicability of the QSFRs, evidenced by low MAE and high q2 values (in air, MAE≤0.54 and q2≥0.92; in water, MAE≤0.27 and q2≥0.92).Las propiedades fisicoquímicas de un gran espectro de contaminantes químicos son desconocidas. Esta tesis analiza la posibilidad de evaluar la distribución ambiental de compuestos utilizando algoritmos de aprendizaje supervisados alimentados con descriptores moleculares, en vez de modelos ambientales multimedia alimentados con propiedades estimadas por QSARs. Se han comparado fracciones másicas adimensionales, en unidades logarítmicas, de 468 compuestos entre: a) SimpleBox 3, un modelo de nivel III, propagando valores aleatorios de propiedades dentro de distribuciones estadísticas de QSARs recomendados; y, b) regresiones de vectores soporte (SVRs) actuando como relaciones cuantitativas de estructura y destino (QSFRs), relacionando fracciones másicas con pesos moleculares y cuentas de constituyentes (átomos, enlaces, grupos funcionales y anillos) para compuestos de entrenamiento. Las mejores predicciones resultaron para compuestos de test y validación correctamente localizados dentro del dominio de aplicabilidad de los QSFRs, evidenciado por valores bajos de MAE y valores altos de q2 (en aire, MAE≤0.54 y q2≥0.92; en agua, MAE≤0.27 y q2≥0.92)

The Electronic Oracle: Computer Models and Social Decisions

This book describes the state of the art of social-system modeling, especially at the level of national planning. In an unusually clear and understandable language it approaches the controversial and often confused debate in the use of computer models in social decision making from an entirely new direction. By looking at the entire subject -- including the political and philosophical environments around the models, as well as the models themselves -- from an objective and knowledgeable viewpoint, the authors show how computer modeling is a powerful but limited tool

Proceedings of research hands on piano: International Conference on Music Performance

‘Hands on’ PIANO is a meeting dedicated to the piano. It is a unique event due to the symbiosis between two types of meetings: the convention type, of an artistic nature, focusing on a specific musical instrument, and the traditional type of academic research conference, but focusing on a specific instrumental area. ‘Hands on’ PIANO aims to bridge the gap between artistic production and academic research, creating opportunities to combine artists’ and researchers’ knowledge, for mutual benefit.Research ‘Hands on’ PIANO é um encontro dedicado à área instrumental do Piano, cuja particularidade está no facto de fazer a simbiose entre dois tipos de encontros: a Convenção de cunho artístico à volta de um determinado instrumento e a Conferência de investigação Académica tradicional, mas circunscrita a esta área instrumental. Pretende-se provocar um confronto e uma partilha de um modo mais estreito entre produção artística e Investigação, criando oportunidades para que os saberes de artistas e de investigadores se possam cruzar com benefícios óbvios para ambas as partes.publishe

The fantastic in Spain during the late- nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries

This thesis has as its primary objective the drawing together and subsequent theorisation of diverse texts which can be understood to be examples of Spanish fantastic literature. It demonstrates that from nineteenth-century Realism and Naturalism (exemplified in narratives by Pérez Galdós, Alarcón and Pardo Bazán), through turn-of-the-century modernismo (Valle-Inclán and Zamacois) to twentieth- century proto-existentialism (Unamuno), a significant number of texts were produced which, in spite of the obvious differences between them, refute the widely held idea that 'the fantastic' and Spanish literature share little common ground. The thesis is therefore one more step along the journey of establishing that Spanish fantastic literature is as important and integral to the whole swathe of Spanish cultural production as it is in many other European countries. The critical analyses of the narratives push at the boundaries of previous interpretative strategies both in terms of the fantastic and of the texts themselves. The exception to this interrogation and reinvigoration of earlier interpretations is to be found in the approach to the narratives by Zamacois, which have hitherto received very little critical attention. These detailed readings draw out the complexities and intriguing perspectives which the fantastic in Spain presents to the attentive reader. By means of these textual analyses, the thesis also explores some of the various possibilities presented by the fantastic itself, putting flesh on the theoretical bones of several different critical discourses. Ultimately, this thesis charts a dynamic and coherent corpus of material which represents the process of the psychologisation of the supernatural from Romanticism onwards. Each successive text more starkly expresses the unreal horrors of the fractured human mind, as well as the mutations of the body. As such, the evolutionary history of the fantastic in Spain is shown to be more gripping and relevant than has hitherto been understood to be the case

The Heirs of Alcuin: Education and Clerical Advancement in Ninth-Century Carolingian Europe

During the Carolingian renewal, Alcuin of York (c. 740–804) played a major role in promoting education for children who would later join the clergy, and encouraging advanced learning among mature clerics. This study argues that Alcuin was also instrumental in forging a connection between education and clerical advancement as a developmental process, which scholarship has neglected due to its tendency to separate the topics of ninth-century education and the Carolingian Church. Clerical education was framed and shaped by hierarchical concepts. Alcuin recognized a hierarchy of teachers and teaching authority, ranking the biblical and theological expertise of the doctor over the more basic instruction of the magister. At the same time, Alcuin’s life as a magister served to emphasize the importance of this role as the foundation for clerical education. The term schola retained its classical and patristic connotations in the ninth century; it might refer to the entire Church as instructed by the clergy, or to any group of students learning a skill or discipline at a particular level. Alcuin associated the traditional life stages (gradus aetatis) with educational development, and these, along with the ranks of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, were the structures of advancement that Alcuin and his intellectual heirs viewed as a framework for clerical education. Educational curriculum could be based on clerical skills to be learned, life stages, or on various authors who demonstrated superior skill in composition, especially in the writing of histories. The transition from reading to composition was a crucial point in the careers of many young clerics, often involving the writing of prose and verse vitae. Many young clerics wrote these vitae at or near the time of their promotions to the higher orders, which is crucial for understanding the early careers of Alcuin’s pupils and of his ninth-century intellectual heirs

INNODOCT/20. International Conference on Innovation, Documentation and Education

La conferencia tiene como objetivo proporcionar un foro para académicos y profesionales que se reúnen para compartir la investigación, discutir ideas, proyectos actuales, resultados y desafíos relacionados con las Nuevas Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación, Innovaciones y Metodologías aplicadas a la Educación y la Investigación.Garrigós Simón, FJ.; Estelles Miguel, S.; Lengua Lengua, I.; Narangajavana, Y. (2021). INNODOCT/20. International Conference on Innovation, Documentation and Education. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/161668EDITORIA

Seeking the unseen humanities macrostructures: The use of corpus- and genre-assisted research methodologies to analyze written norms in English and Spanish literary criticism articles

Descriptive studies of general and discipline-specific academic writing genre conventions have paved the way for pedagogical materials that build real-world skills for novice academic writers. To name some better-known cases, breakthroughs have taken place in this regard in the fields of psychology, engineering, and chemistry. However, attested scholarship on rhetorical patterns in humanities writing, such as published literary criticism (hereafter “LC”) is less common. This dearth of research affects scholars of literature produced by Spanish-speakers who write in both English and Spanish. Many L1 Spanish user scholars must often publish their research in English, rather than Spanish, to maintain institutional employment. Postsecondary Spanish majors in the U.S. must also demonstrate competence in literary criticism to gain credentials. To address the needs of these groups, the present study examines the potential of lexical bundles, qualitative content, and multidimensional analyses to help describe LC from a lexico-grammatical perspective. Such findings may facilitate an arrival at a comprehensive schematic of strategies used by expert-level literary scholars in Spanish and English. First, using multidimensional analysis, linguistic features characteristic of literary criticism writing are analyzed and interpreted in the context of prior multidimensional analyses to offer insight on ways in which the written norms of LC compare to those espoused in other genres previously analyzed. Next, the study examines the syntactic structures and functions of lexical bundles used in English and Spanish LC writing, with particular attention to quasi-equivalent and language-specific bundles. Finally, the study proposes a taxonomy of communicative strategies utilized by literary scholars in their arguments. Devised via qualitative content analysis, this taxonomy may extend the functional analysis of bundles in LC. These findings offer further insight into the macrostructures of literary criticism, as well as the sentence-level strategies that serve as building blocks for expert-level writing in the genre

Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Software Engineering Workshop

The Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) is an organization sponsored by GSFC and created for the purpose of investigating the effectiveness of software engineering technologies when applied to the development of applications software. The goals of the SEL are: (1) to understand the software development process in the GSFC environment; (2) to measure the effect of various methodologies, tools, and models on this process; and (3) to identify and then to apply successful development practices. Fifteen papers were presented at the Fifteenth Annual Software Engineering Workshop in five sessions: (1) SEL at age fifteen; (2) process improvement; (3) measurement; (4) reuse; and (5) process assessment. The sessions were followed by two panel discussions: (1) experiences in implementing an effective measurement program; and (2) software engineering in the 1980's. A summary of the presentations and panel discussions is given