Interpretable multiclass classification by MDL-based rule lists

Interpretable classifiers have recently witnessed an increase in attention from the data mining community because they are inherently easier to understand and explain than their more complex counterparts. Examples of interpretable classification models include decision trees, rule sets, and rule lists. Learning such models often involves optimizing hyperparameters, which typically requires substantial amounts of data and may result in relatively large models. In this paper, we consider the problem of learning compact yet accurate probabilistic rule lists for multiclass classification. Specifically, we propose a novel formalization based on probabilistic rule lists and the minimum description length (MDL) principle. This results in virtually parameter-free model selection that naturally allows to trade-off model complexity with goodness of fit, by which overfitting and the need for hyperparameter tuning are effectively avoided. Finally, we introduce the Classy algorithm, which greedily finds rule lists according to the proposed criterion. We empirically demonstrate that Classy selects small probabilistic rule lists that outperform state-of-the-art classifiers when it comes to the combination of predictive performance and interpretability. We show that Classy is insensitive to its only parameter, i.e., the candidate set, and that compression on the training set correlates with classification performance, validating our MDL-based selection criterion

The Relationships in Marketing: Contribution of a Historical Perspective

This paper presents an historical analysis of relationship marketing. We discuss the roots and the directions of relationship marketing that are considered relevant: their origins, the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing group (IMP) approach to business relationships, the Nordic approach to services relationships and, the managerial and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) approach of relationship marketing. The paper highlights that the boundaries of relationship marketing as defined in contemporary literature have been permeable and elastic. Relationship marketing consists of a fragmented collection of different approaches, partly independent partly overlapping, inspired by different theories, with a multitude of aggregation levels and several units of analysis. We clarify the scope of this domain and we present a number of critical issues that remain unresolved. Is the concept of relationship marketing ubiquitous and can it be applied to every context? Are relationships alike whatever the market considered? Do they describe the same phenomena or are they different phenomena resulting from different contexts? We present a historical analysis of relationships marketing that could contribute to a better understanding of what relationships are in marketing.relationships, business-to-business relationships, relationship marketing, CRM

Orbital Metastasis from an Occult Breast Carcinoma (T0, N1, M1)

The authors report a case of an orbital metastasis from an occult breast carcinoma. A 66-year-old woman presented with a growing left orbital tumour. Orbital CT scan was consistent with lymphoma. However, ocular pathology revealed small neoplastic cells showing an 'indian file pattern' suggestive of metastatic carcinoma and immunohistochemistry was positive for CK7, CK CAM5.2 and oestrogen receptor. A systemic evaluation was then performed with mammogram, breast ultrasound and MRI considered normal. An exhaustive systemic evaluation revealed multiple bone lesions, a right axillary lymph node lesion, which presented the same pattern on pathology and immunohistochemistry, with no evidence of a primary tumour. A diagnosis of a metastatic lobular carcinoma of the breast (T0, N1, M1) was made and the patient was started on chemotherapy and adjuvant hormonal therapy.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Human case of West Nile neuroinvasive disease in Portugal, summer 2015

A case of West Nile virus (WNV) infection was reported in the Algarve region, Portugal, in the first week of September 2015. WNV is known to circulate in Portugal, with occasional reports in horses and birds (2004 to 2011) and very sporadically human cases (in 2004 and in 2010). Here we present the clinical and laboratory aspects related to the first human case of West Nile neuroinvasive disease reported in Portugal

Shear stress measurements over smooth and rough channel beds

River hydrodynamicsBed roughness and flow resistanc

Reactivity of 6-imidatopurines with benzylhydrazine

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a bacterium responsible for thousands of deaths worldwide [1]. Its acquired resistance referred to multi-drug resistance (MDR) is due to the restrictive choice of antibiotics, the prolonged course of therapy, globalization and continuous patient noncompliance [2]. Hence, MDR tuberculosis has led researchers worldwide in the quest to find novel drugs to combat these threatening new strains. In our research group, 6-imidatopurines of general structure 1 (Figure 1) were identified as precursors to generate 6-amidinopurines of general structure 2 (Scheme 1) [3,4]. When reacting compounds of structure 1 with a selected hydrazide a (Scheme 1) in the experimental conditions established by our research group, compounds with structure 2 are promptly obtained. When the same reaction conditions were used with benzylhydrazine to obtain products 2 (Scheme 1) an unexpected new derivative was isolated. The proton NMR spectrum of the new derivative showed the absence of the alkyl moiety. Furthermore, the data was not compatible with the purine nucleus. The HMBC and HMQC data showed that the new compound contained the pyrimidopyrimidine core. All the results will be shown and a possible mechanistic approach will be presented and discussed in order to understand the formation of the new derivative.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Edgar : a platform for hardware/software codesign

Codesign is a unified methodology to develop complex systems with hardware and software components. EDgAR, a platform for hardware/software codesign is described, which is intended to prototype complex digital systems. It employs programmable logic devices (MACHs and FPGAs) and a transputer-based parallel architecture. This platform and its associated methodology reduce the systems production cost, decreasing the time for the design and the test of the prototypes. The EDgAR supporting tools are introduced, which were conceived to specify systems at an high-level of abstraction, with a standard language and to allow a high degree of automation on the synthesis process. This platform was used to emulate an integrated circuit for image processing purposes