Accuracy comparison of different batch size for a supervised machine learning task with image classification

Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence where computers solve issues by considering examples of real-world data. Within machine learning, there are various types of techniques or tasks such as supervised, unsupervised, reinforcement, and many hyperparameters have to be tuned to have high accuracy especially in image classification. The batch size refers to the total number of images required to train a single reverse and forward pass. It is one of the most essential hyperparameters. In our paper, we have studied the supervised task with image classification by changing batch size with epoch. The characterization effect of increasing the batch size on training time and how this relationship varies with the training model have been studied, which leads to extremely large variation between them. According to our results, a larger batch size does not always result in high accuracy

A comparative analysis of business process modelling techniques

Business process modelling is an increasingly popular research area for both organisations and academia due to its usefulness in facilitating human understanding and communication. Several modelling techniques have been proposed and used to capture the characteristics of business processes. However, available techniques view business processes from different perspectives and have different features and capabilities. Furthermore, to date limited guidelines exist for selecting appropriate modelling techniques based on the characteristics of the problem and its requirements. This paper presents a comparative analysis of some popular business process modelling techniques. The comparative framework is based on five criteria: flexibility, ease of use, understandability, simulation support and scope. The study highlights some of the major paradigmatic differences between the techniques. The proposed framework can serve as the basis for evaluating further modelling techniques and generating selection procedures

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

A Semantic-based framework for discovering business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modeling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. This paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework synthesizes the idea from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Quad-color image encryption based on Chaos and Fibonacci Q-matrix

The Information technology requires the transmission of daily-life images that may reach to millions or even more. Thus, securing them becomes an urgent matter using the encryption technique. Where, a secret key is used for converting the original image into a noisy one and restoring it back using the same key. Confusion and Diffusion are the wildly used steps in such a technique. Therefore, a new algorithm is presented in this work that uses a fusion, segmentation, random assembling, hyperchaotic and Fibonacci Q-matrix (FQ-matrix). A novel fusion method is designed for fusing four color images into four different sequences according to their contained information. Then the resulted four images are each divided into four segments to be assembled randomly into one image using a random-key; which confused later using a six-dimensional hyperchaotic system and diffused using the FQ-matrix. The performance and robustness of the proposed algorithm have been computed based on different tests; where it proved its powerful capability in securing the transmitted images

Evidence-based oncology: the use of methodologically complex systematic reviews to inform cancer research and clinical practice

Background: Systematic reviews are produced to inform health research and clinical practice, e.g., by identifying research gaps and by formulating recommendations in clinical practice guidelines. Standardised methodology exists for the conduct of systematic reviews of interventions. To answer clinically diverse research questions, new methods are constantly being developed for the systematic synthesis of results from different types of studies. Moreover, constant monitoring of newly available evidence, particularly in clinical areas that are rapidly evolving, is important to ensure the currency of systematic reviews. Objective: The primary objective of this cumulative dissertation was to conduct systematic reviews using new and complex systematic review methods, and to contribute to the further development and refinement of these methods. Secondary objective was to conduct clinically relevant systematic reviews to provide meaningful evidence that can inform clinical practice and health care in oncology. Methods: Two clinically relevant systematic reviews using novel and complex methodological approaches were conducted: Systematic review I: A systematic review with network meta analysis and an adapted living approach to evaluate and compare the benefits and harms of first-line therapies for adults with advanced renal cell carcinoma. Systematic review II: A systematic review with meta-analysis of prognostic factor studies to explore the interim positron emission tomography (PET) scan result as a prognostic factor in adults with newly diagnosed Hodgkin lymphoma. Results: Methodological results Systematic review I: The evidence for the currently recommended treatments and important comparisons in this review stem from direct evidence from one trial per comparison only. This is due to the great lack of head-to-head comparisons of the many treatment options available. Statistical validation of the homogeneity and consistency assumptions was not possible for every network meta-analysis, so the validity of estimates is largely based on the transitivity assumption. When a strong evidence base is missing, the results of a network meta-analysis, including the ranking of treatments, should be interpreted with caution. The adapted living approach, where monthly update searches were conducted during the conduct of the review, was an appropriate method to maintain the currency of the evidence in such a rapidly evolving treatment landscape. Systematic review II: The greatest methodological challenges identified in synthesising evidence from prognostic factor studies were that, firstly, searching for prognosis studies is challenging due to insufficient indexing and missing search filters that are specific and sensitive enough to identify prognostic factor studies. Secondly, extracting and analysing outcome results was particularly difficult due to incomplete reporting of important data in the, usually retrospective, studies. Thirdly, available methods for the quality assessments had to be adapted to fit to the review question. Lastly, methods for the certainty assessment of the evidence from prognosis studies had to be developed during the conduct of the review as there was no official guidance at that time. The challenges encountered during the conduct of both reviews were discussed and resolved through the involvement of methodological and clinical experts as coauthors. Clinical results: Systematic Review I: Combinations of novel therapies (e.g., a checkpoint inhibitor with a tyrosine kinase inhibitor) appear to be superior to monotherapy with sunitinib (a tyrosine kinase inhibitor) as first-line therapy in terms of survival for adults with advanced renal cell carcinoma. However, these novel treatments may cause more (serious) side effects. Moreover, the question on the potential impact of these novel treatments on the quality of life of affected individuals remains unanswered. Systematic Review II: Evidence was found on the prognostic ability of the interim PET-scan result to predict survival in adults with Hodgkin lymphoma. It successfully distinguishes between PET-negative people, who have a better outcome prognosis, and PET-positive people, who have a worse outcome prognosis. Conclusion:Future methodological research needs to further address these different challenges, for example the challenges one encounters when trying to search for and identify prognostic factor studies, or the limitations one encounters when underlying assumptions of a network meta analysis cannot be verified. When evidence from such methodologically complex systematic reviews shall be used to inform clinical practice guidelines and, thereby, health care decision making, all involved stakeholders need to be aware of the methodological complexity and limitations behind the evidence produced

Effect of Border Markets on the Economy of West Azerbaijan Province, Iran

The present study attempts to assess the performance of border markets and their effects on the sustainable development of border regions of Iran. Tamarchin, the oldest border market of Piranshahr, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran, was selected as the case for the study since it has ranked first in the country, both quantitatively and qualitatively. The data for the study was collected from two different sources: official statistics released by the Customs Office, the Ministries of Commerce and Corporation of Iran during 2001-2007 and data gathered from a questionnaire distributed among some active West Azerbaijan border traders and also from a face-to-face interview with those traders. The results of the study indicated that considering high growth potential and many other advantages of the province, West Azerbaijan can play a significant role in the creation and establishment of border markets of the country.West Azerbaijan; border market; economic activity; border; frontiersmen.

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.In modern organisations business process modelling has become fundamental due to the increasing rate of organisational change. As a consequence, an organisation needs to continuously redesign its business processes on a regular basis. One major problem associated with the way business process modelling (BPM) is carried out today is the lack of explicit and systematic reuse of previously developed models. Enabling the reuse of previously modelled behaviour can have a beneficial impact on the quality and efficiency of the overall information systems development process and also improve the effectiveness of an organisation’s business processes. In related disciplines, like software engineering, patterns have emerged as a widely accepted architectural mechanism for reusing solutions. In business process modelling the use of patterns is quite limited apart from few sporadic attempts proposed by the literature. Thus, pattern-based BPM is not commonplace. Business process patterns should ideally be discovered from the empirical analysis of organisational processes. Empiricism is currently not the basis for the discovery of patterns for business process modelling and no systematic methodology for collecting and analysing process models of business organisations currently exists. The purpose of the presented research project is to develop a methodological framework for achieving reuse in BPM via the discovery and adoption of patterns. The framework is called Semantic Discovery and Reuse of Business Process Patterns (SDR). SDR provides a systematic method for identifying patterns among organisational data assets representing business behaviour. The framework adopts ontologies (i.e., formalised conceptual models of real-world domains) in order to facilitate such discovery. The research has also produced an ontology of business processes that provides the underlying semantic definitions of processes and their constituent parts. The use of ontologies to model business processes represents a novel approach and combines advances achieved by the Semantic Web and BPM communities. The methodological framework also relates to a new line of research in BPM on declarative business processes in which the models specify what should be done rather than how to ‘prescriptively’ do it. The research follows a design science method for designing and evaluating SDR. Evaluation is carried out using real world sources and reuse scenarios taken from both the financial and educational domains

ANALISIS FAKTOR-FAKTOR YANG MEMPENGARUHI KEPUTUSAN PEMILIHAN DAGING AYAM BROILER SEBAGAI KONSUMSI RUMAH TANGGA DI SURAKARTA (Studi Kasus di Kelurahan Tegalharjo Kecamatan Jebres)

Faktor - faktor yang mempengaruhi seorang kepala keluarga memilih daging ayam sebagai konsumsi rumah tangga adalah faktor ekonomi dan faktor sosial. Makin tinggi tingkat pendapatan akan meningkatkan kemampuan rumah tangga untuk membeli kebutuhan protein menjadi semakin besar serta ada kecenderungan untuk memenuhi kebutuhan yang lebih berkualitas. Faktorfaktor sosial yang paling berpengaruh terhadap besarnya konsumsi daging ayam adalah faktor sosial budaya masyarakat seperti berubahnya pola kebiasaan makan, perubahan gaya hidup karena ingin meniru kelompok masyarakat lain yang dianggap lebih hebat. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis faktor – faktor ekonomi dan faktor – faktor sosialyang mempengaruhi konsumsi daging ayam broiler pada rumah tangga agar dapat diketahui secara detail faktor apa saja yang paling berpengaruh terhadap konsumsi daging ayam broiler pada rumah tangga di Kelurahan Tegalharjo Kecamatan Jebres Kota Surakarta. Penelitian ini dilaksanakan pada bulan November 2015 dengan metode deskriptif kuantitatif sebagai metode dasar yang digunakan.Metode pengambilan sampel dilakukan secara sengaja (purposive sampling) dengan responden sebanyak 86 orang kepala keluarga. Data yang digunakan adalah data primer dan sekunder. Metode analisis data yang digunakan adalah deskriptif dan regresi linear berganda. Variabel faktor ekonomi berupa pendapatan, harga, dan kekayaan keluarga serta variabel faktor sosial berupa pola makan, sosial budaya dan pengetahuan gizi secara keseluruhan mempengaruhi keputusan memilih daging x ayam broiler sebagai konsumsi rumah tangga di Kelurahan Tegalharjo Kecamatan Jebres. Hasil uji regresi linear berganda pada penelitian ini diperoleh nilai Adjusted R2 sebesar 0,731. Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa variabel faktor ekonomi dan sosial yang diteliti berpengaruh terhadap keputusan memilih daging ayam broiler sebesar 73,1%, sedangkan sisanya sebesar 26,9% dipengaruhi oleh faktor lain yang tidak termasuk dalam penelitian ini. Hasil uji F hitung > F tabel (39,483>2,22) dengan nilai signifikansi sebesar 0,000 lebih kecil dari 0,05 (0,00<0,05), ini berarti bahwa faktor ekonomi dan faktor sosial berpengaruh terhadap keputusan meimilih daging ayam broiler. Hasil uji t menunjukan bahwa hanya satu variabel yang tidak berpengaruh secara nyata terhadap keputusan memilih daging ayam broiler sebagai konsumsi rumah tangga, yaitu pada variabel kekayaan keluarga. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian dan hasil analisis data, diperoleh beberapa kesimpulan (1) Faktor – faktor sosial ekonomi berupa pendapatan keluarga, kekayaan, harga, pola makan, sosial budaya dan pengetahuan gizi secara keseluruhan memberikan pengaruh yang nyata terhadap keputusan kepala keluarga. (2) Variabel faktor ekonomi yang berpengaruh nyata terhadap keputusan seorang kepala keluarga untuk memilih daging ayam broiler sebagai konsumsi rumah tangga. (3) Variabel faktor ekonomi berupa kekayaan keluarga tidak memberikan pengaruh secara nyata terhadap keputusan seorang kepala keluarga di Kelurahan Tegalharjo Kecamatan Jebres kota Surakarta dalam memilih daging ayam broiler sebagai konsumsi rumah tangga. Hal ini karena semakin kaya sebuah keluarga maka akan cenderung memilih daging yang mempunyai kualitas lebih baik. (4) Variabel faktor sosial berupa pola makan, sosial budaya dan pengetahuan gizi memberikan berpengaruh yang nyata terhadap keputusan dalam memilih daging ayam broiler sebagai konsumsi rumah tangga di Kelurahan Tegalharjo Kecamatan Jebres Kota Surakarta. Kata kunci : faktor sosial ekonomi, rumah tangga, daging, ayam broile