Assessment of Heart Disease using Fuzzy Classification Techniques

In this paper we discuss the classification results of cardiac patients of ischemical cardiopathy, valvular heart disease, and arterial hypertension, based on 19 characteristics (descriptors) including ECHO data, effort testings, and age and weight. In this order we have used different fuzzy clustering algorithms, namely hierarchical fuzzy clustering, hierarchical and horizontal fuzzy characteristics clustering, and a new clustering technique, fuzzy hierarchical cross-classification. The characteristics clustering techniques produce fuzzy partitions of the characteristics involved and, thus, are useful tools for studying the similarities between different characteristics and for essential characteristics selection. The cross-classification algorithm produces not only a fuzzy partition of the cardiac patients analyzed, but also a fuzzy partition of their considered characteristics. In this way it is possible to identify which characteristics are responsible for the similarities or dissimilarities observed between different groups of patients

Stratigraphic interpretation of Well-Log data of the Athabasca Oil Sands of Alberta Canada through Pattern recognition and Artificial Intelligence

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.Automatic Stratigraphic Interpretation of Oil Sand wells from well logs datasets typically involve recognizing the patterns of the well logs. This is done through classification of the well log response into relatively homogenous subgroups based on eletrofacies and lithofacies. The electrofacies based classification involves identifying clusters in the well log response that reflect ‘similar’ minerals and lithofacies within the logged interval. The identification of lithofacies relies on core data analysis which can be expensive and time consuming as against the electrofacies which are straight forward and inexpensive. To date, challenges of interpreting as well as correlating well log data has been on the increase especially when it involves numerous wellbore that manual analysis is almost impossible. This thesis investigates the possibilities for an automatic stratigraphic interpretation of an Oil Sand through statistical pattern recognition and rule-based (Artificial Intelligence) method. The idea involves seeking high density clusters in the multivariate space log data, in order to define classes of similar log responses. A hierarchical clustering algorithm was implemented in each of the wellbores and these clusters and classifies the wells in four classes that represent the lithologic information of the wells. These classes known as electrofacies are calibrated using a developed decision rules which identify four lithology -Sand, Sand-shale, Shale-sand and Shale in the gamma ray log data. These form the basis of correlation to generate a subsurface model

Semantic Representation of Context for Description of Named Rivers in a Terminological Knowledge Base

The description of named entities in terminological knowledge bases has never been addressed in any depth in terminology. Firm preconceptions, rooted in philosophy, about the only referential function of proper names have presumably led to disparage their inclusion in terminology resources, despite the relevance of named entities having been highlighted by prominent figures in the discipline of terminology. Scholars from different branches of linguistics depart from the conservative stance on proper names and have foregrounded the need for a novel approach, more linguistic than philosophical, to describing proper names. Therefore, this paper proposed a linguistic and terminological approach to the study of named entities when used in scientific discourse, with the purpose of representing them in EcoLexicon, an environmental knowledge base designed according to the premises of Frame-based Terminology. We focused more specifically on named rivers (or potamonyms) mentioned in a coastal engineering corpus. Inclusion of named entities in terminological knowledge bases requires analyzing the context that surrounds them in specialized texts because these contexts convey specialized knowledge about named entities. For the semantic representation of context, this paper thus analyzed the local syntactic and semantic contexts that surrounded potamonyms in coastal engineering texts and described the semantic annotation of the predicate-argument structure of sentences where a potamonym was mentioned. The semantic variables annotated were the following: (1) semantic category of the arguments; (2) semantic role of the arguments; (3) semantic relation between the arguments; and (4) lexical domain of the verbs. This method yielded valuable insight into the different semantic roles that named rivers played, the entities and processes that participated in the events educed by potamonyms through verbs, and how they all interacted. Furthermore, since arguments are specialized terms and verbs are relational constructs, the analysis of argument structure led to the construction of semantic networks that depicted specialized knowledge about named rivers. These conceptual networks were then used to craft the thematic description of potamonyms. Accordingly, the semantic network and the thematic description not only constituted the representation of a potamonym in EcoLexicon, but also allowed the geographic contextualization of specialized concepts in the terminological resource.PID2020-118369GB-I00 Spanish Ministry of Science and InnovationA-HUM-600-UGR20 Andalusian Ministry of EconomyFPU grant given by the Spanish Ministry of Educatio

Application of Geographic Information Systems

The importance of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can hardly be overemphasized in today’s academic and professional arena. More professionals and academics have been using GIS than ever – urban & regional planners, civil engineers, geographers, spatial economists, sociologists, environmental scientists, criminal justice professionals, political scientists, and alike. As such, it is extremely important to understand the theories and applications of GIS in our teaching, professional work, and research. “The Application of Geographic Information Systems” presents research findings that explain GIS’s applications in different subfields of social sciences. With several case studies conducted in different parts of the world, the book blends together the theories of GIS and their practical implementations in different conditions. It deals with GIS’s application in the broad spectrum of geospatial analysis and modeling, water resources analysis, land use analysis, infrastructure network analysis like transportation and water distribution network, and such. The book is expected to be a useful source of knowledge to the users of GIS who envision its applications in their teaching and research. This easy-to-understand book is surely not the end in itself but a little contribution to toward our understanding of the rich and wonderful subject of GIS

Communication as Symbiogenesis – On the Relationality of Mobile Phoning in Korea

This study understands communication as parasitic and symbiogenetic. It recognizes an object or technology no less and no more important than a subject, and appreciates the “process” of the “becoming” of both a subject and an object. Media and individuals create and recreate each other. In the symbiogenetic space in-between, what happens is not a physical addition of a technological object to an individual, but, rather, it is a chemical fusion of the two, which holds unprecedented, distinctive qualities that have not been seen from any of the two constituents. Among various communication media, this study examines why and how the mobile phone is particularly parasitic and symbiogenetic

Radical realms: a materialist theory of fantasy literature

This dissertation offers a materialist theory of fantasy as the literature of estranged cognition, an entirely novel perspective that challenges all of the existing criticism on fantasy literature by proposing an outlook that emphasizes not impossibility, but infinite possibility. During the late-Victorian period, the form of the fairy tale shifted from the literary fairy tale to ‘fantasy.’ Three formal characteristics reveal that fantasy literature derives from the fairy tale: an indication, thematically or formally, that another dimension has been entered; the making and remaking of genres—stories—in dialectically overdetermined configurations; and a textual conflation between physics and ethics that results in estranged cognition. The making and remaking of genres provides a point of contact between SF and the fairy tale, resulting in radical fantasy. In radical fantasy the reality effect of the fairy tale becomes most obvious, because the reality effect of the tale is determined by scientific, empirical reality. So the fairy tale, through radical fantasy, begins to exhibit something like a cognition effect. But no matter how rigorous fantasy worlds may be, they are bound, like the fairy tale, by an ethical dimension that limits the constructed, rational basis of the tale. Fantasy estranges cognition by positing an infinite possibility that challenges the limits of even the most imaginative scientific rigor. Estranged cognition exposes the true limits of what can be thought and in this way points towards political understandings that look through and past both particulars and wholes. This dissertation pursues estranged cognition as it manifests in the work of Joanna Russ and Samuel Delany, culminating in the final chapter, which synthesizes the entirety of my findings through a reading of China Miéville’s BAS-LAG Trilogy. There estranged cognition uncovers a hidden textual promise of a better future, one not bound by particulars or wholes, a truly new way of organizing our collective political situation

The development of design strategies that promote the engagement of users in the authorship process

Underlying all the ideas articulated in this thesis is a political challenge to the designer's innate right to occupy a hierarchical position in the designer/user relationship. Equally, where these relationships have been superseded (in for example Desktop Publishing and web page design) the designer still has an important, but quite different, role to play. In contrast to some community design-led initiatives, the aim here is not necessarily to welcome users into an aspect of the conventional design process on terms determined by the designer by helping users conform to practices established by the designer. The aim is the development of strategies in which the designer and user can influence each other without dominating, going beyond conventional strategies of consultancy or feedback. My determination is not to turn everyday users into mouthpieces of surrogate design sensibility, in the way that 'makeover' TV programs, and their DIY predecessors, promote a particular aesthetic as good design, leading to a rejection of direct communication between designer and user. This places the designer in a position of power; users will skew their responses towards what they think the designer is looking for. Also designers could never work so inexpensively as to engage in bespoke design activity for more than a fraction of the population. This view has been achieved through the interplay of my own design practice and a spectrum of theoretical (broadly post-structural) influences, although most individuals referenced here would reject this (or any category), including Derrida, Deleuze and Guattari, and the Situationists. My responses to these ideas influence and are influenced by the production of a range of design proposals, and the promotion of the colonisation, modification and even hijacking by others, including designers, users and educators. These have developed in a number of phases: 1 Modular/Adaptive proposals for office furniture, and product design; 2 CAD/CAM proposals in which users select and modify 'design methods' to help them exploit the more technical expert systems available to help them create their own artefacts; 3 Flexible communication systems, which are designs populated and modified by users in ways beyond the control or knowledge of the designer. These stages show an evolution in my creative responses from producing designed artefacts that promote interaction with users, to systems in which the designer and user have to contribute jointly for the systems to function. It is organic, uncontrolled development by the user that determines the development and configuration of these systems guided by the initial conditions and processes determined by the designer. This allows the interreIationship of designers and truly user-led creative activities

Controlling realism and uncertainty in reservoir models using intelligent sedimentological prior information

Forecasting reservoir production has a large associated uncertainty, since this is the final part of a very complex process, this process is based on sparse and indirect data measurements. One the methodologies used in the oil industry to predict reservoir production is based on the Baye’s theorem. Baye’s theorem applied to reservoir forecasting, samples parameters from a prior understanding of the uncertainty to generate reservoir models and updates this prior information by comparing reservoir production data with model production response. In automatic history matching it is challenging to generate reservoir models that preserve geological realism (obtain reservoir models with geological features that have been seen in nature). One way to control the geological realism in reservoir models is by controlling the realism of the geological prior information. The aim of this thesis is to encapsulate sedimentological information in order to build prior information that can control the geological realism of the history-matched models. This “intelligent” prior information is introduced into the automatic history-matching framework rejecting geologically unrealistic reservoir models. Machine Learning Techniques (MLT) were used to build realistic sedimentological prior information models. Another goal of this thesis was to include geological parameters into the automatic history-match framework that have an impact on reservoir model performance: vertical variation of facies proportions, connectivity of geobodies, and the use of multiple training images as a source of realistic sedimentological prior information. The main outcome of this thesis is that the use of “intelligent” sedimentological prior information guarantees the realism of reservoir models and reduces computing time and uncertainty in reservoir production prediction

Understanding computer game culture: the cultural shaping of a new medium

In the past few decades, video games have developed from a marginal technological experiment into a mainstream medium. During this period they have gone through several transformations, from arcade machines offering a few minutes of solitary fun for a quarter to monthly subscription-based online MMOs in which thousands of players spend hundreds or even thousands of hours and lead a significant part of their social life as a fantasy character. But what is it that has driven video games? development? Is it technology? Indeed, with every new generation of hardware, game designers were given a broader set of tools for evoking exhilarating experiences. But is not culture at least as important? What would games look like if Tolkien never had written Lord of the Rings, or if Nintendo had not brought Japanese manga drawing styles to the new medium? This book looks at the theoretical challenges and foundations on which to base a cultural shaping approach towards the evolution of video games and proposes a set of concepts for analyzing and describing this process