Aggregation functions: Means

The two-parts state-of-art overview of aggregation theory summarizes the essential information concerning aggregation issues. Overview of aggregation properties is given, including the basic classification of aggregation functions. In this first part, the stress is put on means, i.e., averaging aggregation functions, both with fixed arity (n-ary means) and with open arity (extended means).

Enhancing the effectiveness of ligand-based virtual screening using data fusion

Data fusion is being increasingly used to combine the outputs of different types of sensor. This paper reviews the application of the approach to ligand-based virtual screening, where the sensors to be combined are functions that score molecules in a database on their likelihood of exhibiting some required biological activity. Much of the literature to date involves the combination of multiple similarity searches, although there is also increasing interest in the combination of multiple machine learning techniques. Both approaches are reviewed here, focusing on the extent to which fusion can improve the effectiveness of searching when compared with a single screening mechanism, and on the reasons that have been suggested for the observed performance enhancement

Performance Appraisal of Estimation Algorithms and Application of Estimation Algorithms to Target Tracking

This dissertation consists of two parts. The first part deals with the performance appraisal of estimation algorithms. The second part focuses on the application of estimation algorithms to target tracking. Performance appraisal is crucial for understanding, developing and comparing various estimation algorithms. In particular, with the evolvement of estimation theory and the increase of problem complexity, performance appraisal is getting more and more challenging for engineers to make comprehensive conclusions. However, the existing theoretical results are inadequate for practical reference. The first part of this dissertation is dedicated to performance measures which include local performance measures, global performance measures and model distortion measure. The second part focuses on application of the recursive best linear unbiased estimation (BLUE) or lineae minimum mean square error (LMMSE) estimation to nonlinear measurement problem in target tracking. Kalman filter has been the dominant basis for dynamic state filtering for several decades. Beyond Kalman filter, a more fundamental basis for the recursive best linear unbiased filtering has been thoroughly investigated in a series of papers by Dr. X. Rong Li. Based on the so-called quasirecursive best linear unbiased filtering technique, the constraints of the Kalman filter Linear-Gaussian assumptions can be relaxed such that a general linear filtering technique for nonlinear systems can be achieved. An approximate optimal BLUE filter is implemented for nonlinear measurements in target tracking which outperforms the existing method significantly in terms of accuracy, credibility and robustness