Neural data mining for credit card fraud detection

The prevention of credit card fraud is an important application for prediction techniques. One major obstacle for using neural network training techniques is the high necessary diagnostic quality: Since only one financial transaction of a thousand is invalid no prediction success less than 99.9% is acceptable. Due to these credit card transaction proportions complete new concepts had to be developed and tested on real credit card data. This paper shows how advanced data mining techniques and neural network algorithm can be combined successfully to obtain a high fraud coverage combined with a low false alarm rate

Credit card fraud detection by adaptive neural data mining

The prevention of credit card fraud is an important application for prediction techniques. One major obstacle for using neural network training techniques is the high necessary diagnostic quality: Since only one financial transaction of a thousand is invalid no prediction success less than 99.9% is acceptable. Due to these credit card transaction proportions complete new concepts had to be developed and tested on real credit card data. This paper shows how advanced data mining techniques and neural network algorithm can be combined successfully to obtain a high fraud coverage combined with a low false alarm rate

Agriculture, Population, Land and Water Scarcity in a Changing World – The Role of Irrigation

Fertile land and fresh water constitute two of the most fundamental resources for food production. These resources are affected by environmental, political, economic, and technical developments. Regional impacts may transmit to the world through increased trade. With a global forest and agricultural sector model, we quantify the impacts of increased demand for food due to population growth and economic development on potential land and water use. In particular, we investigate producer adaptation regarding crop and irrigation choice, agricultural market adjustments, and changes in the values of land and water.Irrigation, Food supply, Integrated assessment, Water use intensity, Agricultural adaptation, Land scarcity, Partial equilibrium model, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Adequate formalization

This article identifies problems with regard to providing criteria that regulate the matching of logical formulae and natural language. We then take on to solve these problems by defining a necessary and sufficient criterion of adequate formalization. On the basis of this criterion we argue that logic should not be seen as an ars iudicandi capable of evaluating the validity or invalidity of informal arguments, but as an ars explicandi that renders transparent the formal structure of informal reasonin

Grouping in the shine-through effect

How the elements of a visual scene are grouped into objects is one of the most fundamental but still poorly understood questions in visual neuroscience. Most investigations of perceptual grouping focus on static stimuli, neglecting temporal aspects. Using a masking paradigm, we show that the neural mechanisms underlying grouping seem to be both fast and complex. For example, a vernier target was followed by, first, a briefly presented grating and, then, a long-lasting, extended grating. Under these conditions, the briefly presented grating is hardly visible. Still, vernier discrimination strongly changed with the number of elements of the briefly displayed grating being worst for small gratings. In accordance with a neural network model of masking, we propose that the edges of the briefly presented grating and the vernier interfere in spite of the short presentation time. We suggest that this fast edge processing is a first step for unconscious grouping processe

Structure of salts solution in polar dielectric liquids and electrically induced separation of solvated ions

The aim of study is to demonstrate that separation of solvated ions in solution of mix of salts under the action of external periodic electric field happens because of around ions there are formed clusters consisting of molecules of solvent and the sizes of such clusters have dimensions ~ 0.1 [mu]m. In investigations the sizes of clusters theoretically were defined and experimentally value of frequency of external electric field which action excites the effect of separation of the solvated ions was defined. Experiments were done in the Technical Physics Chair of the National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University. At theoretical determination of the dimensions of clusters Poisson's equation was solved and was considered that polar molecules of solvent are oriented under the action of electric field of an ion. The chemical composition of samples of solutions was determined by means of the spectrophotometry and he X-ray excited fluorescent radiation analysis method. Theoretical estimates and results of experiments confirmed the assumption that clusters which are formed around ions in solutions have the dimensions ~ 0.1 [mu]m. Results of investigation testify that placing of volume distributed electric charge of ion in dielectric liquid is accompanied by formation of the supramolecular particles, which we called "clusters", linear sizes of which is significantly more than first and second radiuses of solvation (~ 1 Angstrom) and reach size ~ 0.1 [mu]m. At such sizes inertial properties of clusters and their natural frequencies give the chance to operate their movement by means of action of external electric field on solution

A new class of de Sitter vacua in type IIB large volume compactifications

We construct a new class of metastable de Sitter vacua of flux compactifications of type IIB string theory. These solutions provide a natural extension of the `Large Volume Scenario' anti-de Sitter vacua, and can analogously be realised at parametrically large volume and weak string coupling, using standard ${\cal N}=1$ supergravity. For these new vacua, a positive vacuum energy is achieved from the inclusion of a small amount of flux-induced supersymmetry breaking in the complex structure and axio-dilaton sector, and no additional `uplift' contribution (e.g.~from anti-branes) is required. We show that the approximate no-scale structure of the effective theory strongly influences the spectrum of the stabilised moduli: one complex structure modulus remains significantly lighter than the supersymmetry breaking scale, and metastability requires only modest amounts of tuning. After discussing these general results, we provide a recipe for constructing de Sitter vacua on a given compactification manifold, and give an explicit example of a de Sitter vacuum for the compactification on the Calabi-Yau orientifold realised in $\mathbb{CP}^4_{11169}$. Finally, we note that these solutions have intriguing implications for phenomenology, predicting no superpartners in the spectrum below $\sim$50 TeV, and no WIMP dark matter.Comment: 34 page

Obtaining of porous composites based on hydroxyapatite and copolymers of lactide and glycolide

Composite materials based on biodegradable polymers and hydroxyapatite (HA) are one of the most promising materials in medical practice. Hydroxyapatite is a major mineral component of normal bone. Copolymer of lactide and glycolide (PLGA) was selected as biodegradable polymer and as a matrix of composite. Composites based on PLGA and HA with different mass ratio of components were obtained. Phase composition of obtained samples and materials during its obtaining was studied by XRD. The surface morphology of the composites was investigated by SEM. Porosity influence on the certain physical properties of the composites is shown as well