Fault diagnosis of electrical power systems using incremental radial basis function nets

Most of the proposed neural networks for fault diagnosis of systems are multilayer perceptrons (MLP) employing the popular backpropagation (BP) learning rule. It has been shown that the backpropagation algorithm usually takes a long time for convergence and sometimes gets trapped into local minimum. The algorithm requires the architecture to be fixed initially (i.e. the number of hidden units) before learning begins. Final network size is obtained by repeated trials. When the size of the training set is large, especially in the case of fault diagnosis, such a repeated training consumes a large amount of time and sometimes it can be frustrating. Thus there is a need of a good neural network architecture that decides its size automatically while learning the input/output relationships and must posses reasonably good generalization. Neural networks based on radial basis functions (RBF) have emerged as potential alternatives to MLPs. RBFs have a simple architecture and they can learn the input/output relations fast compared to MLPs. In this paper we present a constructive neural network based on radial basis functions (RBF) due to Fritzke for classification of fault patterns in a model power system. The performance of this neural network with traditional BP network and nonconstructive RBF network in terms of size, learning speed and generalization are presente

Planning new ideas: Does time management tendency benefit daily creativity?

We studied the relation between time management tendency and daily creativity in a diary study among 68 R&D engineers reporting on 412 workdays. The direct effect of time management tendency on daily creativity was positive, and the effect on its dispersion was negative. Theorizing that time management frees up cognitive and affective resources, we tested the mediating effect of concentration and positive affect in the relation between time management tendency and daily creativity at work. Multilevel analyses showed some support for an indirect effect of concentration, but not for an indirect effect of positive affect. In our analyses, we controlled for innovative cognitive style. Overall, we conclude that time management tendency provides benefits for daily creativity at work

The effect of interruptions and breaks on insight and impasses : do you need a break right now?

Some time away from a problem, or incubation time, is found to be beneficial to creative problem solving. But are interruptions as equally helpful as breaks? An experiment was conducted to gain more insight into the differences between imposed and self-initiated breaks, and their effects on creativity, specifically on impasses and insights. There were three experimental conditions, (a) a continuous condition, in which participants were not allowed to switch back and forth between tasks, (b) an interruption condition, in which participants had to switch tasks at a predetermined moment, and (c) a break condition, in which participants could switch tasks at their own discretion. Results showed that taking breaks at moments chosen at one's own discretion led to solving more insight problems and reaching fewer impasses than at moments that were chosen by others. Furthermore, compared to working continuously, interruptions led to fewer impasses, but not to solving more insight problems