A Tandem Fluid Network with L\'evy Input in Heavy Traffic

In this paper we study the stationary workload distribution of a fluid tandem queue in heavy traffic. We consider different types of L\'evy input, covering compound Poisson, $\alpha$-stable L\'evy motion (with $1<\alpha<2$), and Brownian motion. In our analysis we separately deal with L\'evy input processes with increments that have finite and infinite variance. A distinguishing feature of this paper is that we do not only consider the usual heavy-traffic regime, in which the load at one of the nodes goes to unity, but also a regime in which we simultaneously let the load of both servers tend to one, which, as it turns out, leads to entirely different heavy-traffic asymptotics. Numerical experiments indicate that under specific conditions the resulting simultaneous heavy-traffic approximation significantly outperforms the usual heavy-traffic approximation

Information exchange and future plans of Slovenian cattle farmers under EU policies

After accession to EU, farmers in the new-member states have to adjust to the EU agricultural policies and market. In Slovenia an analysis is made of the farm development plans and information exchange under quota and CAP. Three research questions were addressed: what information is received and how; how does the farmer prefer to receive information and what kind; how to make decisions to react to the new EU policies concerning farm management and future plans. These questions were linked to the base variables, being the farm and farmers’ characteristics. As tool a questionnaire was distributed to dairy farmers. 1114 questionnaires, 22% of the distributed ones have been returned anonymously, implying that 11% of the dairy farmers’ population is part of the analysis. It appeared that the research sample of farmers used represents the more future oriented farmers. As main factors describing the farm and farmers’ characteristics were found farm size, age and number of other activities than dairy. Results show that nearly all farmers did receive information about some specific aspects of the quota system. Communication channels dealing with this administrative info and also with farm management advice are divers, but frequency of direct contact with advisors may be less than predicted. Results also indicate a very significant demand for info about strategic planning, farm management aspects and EU premium programs, especially about CAP general policies and milk premiums, and a considerable activity in farm planning. About 40% of farmers choose for keeping the farm business the same and 50% intend to develop the farm further.CAP, Slovenian cattle farmers, information, decisions, future plans, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Q18,

Chord Label Personalization through Deep Learning of Integrated Harmonic Interval-based Representations

The increasing accuracy of automatic chord estimation systems, the availability of vast amounts of heterogeneous reference annotations, and insights from annotator subjectivity research make chord label personalization increasingly important. Nevertheless, automatic chord estimation systems are historically exclusively trained and evaluated on a single reference annotation. We introduce a first approach to automatic chord label personalization by modeling subjectivity through deep learning of a harmonic interval-based chord label representation. After integrating these representations from multiple annotators, we can accurately personalize chord labels for individual annotators from a single model and the annotators' chord label vocabulary. Furthermore, we show that chord personalization using multiple reference annotations outperforms using a single reference annotation.Comment: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Deep Learning and Music, Anchorage, US, May, 2017 (arXiv:1706.08675v1 [cs.NE]

Assessment of Sustainable Development

The objective of this paper is to introduce fuzzy set theory and develop fuzzy mathematical models to assess sustainable development based on context-dependent economic, ecological, and societal sustainability indicators. Membership functions are at the core of fuzzy models, and define the degree to which indicators contribute to development. Although a decision-making process regarding sustainable development is subjective, fuzzy set theory links human expectations about development, expressed in linguistic propositions, to numerical data, expressed in measurements of sustainability indicators. In the future, practical implementation of such models will be based on elicitation of expert knowledge to construct a membership function. The fuzzy models developed in this paper provide a novel approach to support decisions regarding sustainable development.agriculture;assessment;fuzzy set theory;sustainable development

Eliciting Expert Knowledge for Fuzzy Evaluation of Agricultural Production Systems

Public concern nowadays is an important frame of reference for thedevelopment of agricultural production systems. The development ofsuch systems, therefore, involves both society level and productionsystem level. Following Zadeh's principle of incompatibility,information obtained at production system level is interpreted atsociety level in linguistic terms. Fuzzy models promise to be avaluable tool as they link measurable information to linguisticinterpretation using membership functions. The objective of this paperis to outline a procedure which deals with criticism regarding theinherent subjectivity in the construction of membership functions whenusing expert knowledge. The procedure guarantees the selection ofappropriate expert knowledge, and provides a guideline supporting theselection of methods to elicit expert knowledge and constructmembership functions. Also on the basis of the results in anillustrative example, it is concluded that the procedure outlined inthis paper suitably deals with criticism regarding membershipfunctions and, therefore, enables a practical implementation of fuzzyevaluation of agricultural production systems. Current researchimplements the procedure to build a fuzzy model which evaluates eggproduction systems in relation to public concern about the welfare oflaying hens.evaluation;subjectivity;expert knowledge;fuzzy models;knowledge elicitation