Extraction of similarity based fuzzy rules from artificial neural networks

A method to extract a fuzzy rule based system from a trained artificial neural network for classification is presented. The fuzzy system obtained is equivalent to the corresponding neural network. In the antecedents of the fuzzy rules, it uses the similarity between the input datum and the weight vectors. This implies rules highly understandable. Thus, both the fuzzy system and a simple analysis of the weight vectors are enough to discern the hidden knowledge learnt by the neural network. Several classification problems are presented to illustrate this method of knowledge discovery by using artificial neural networks

Ferramentas para prevenir a violência de gênero: implicações de um registro diário de situações de desigualdade de gênero

Em El Salvador, a violência contra as mulheres e os feminicídios são os problemas mais graves que afetam o país. Embora nos últimos anos tenham sido promovidas algumas mudanças legislativas e diferentes políticas públicas, a sensibilização e a consciência sobre as desigualdades de gênero na sociedade em seu conjunto têm avançado mais lentamente do que as mudanças estruturais. Por isso, fazem-se urgentes o desenho de programas de formação e prevenção de violência de gênero e a sua validação bem como o uso de ferramentas úteis para a interiorização dessas mudanças. Neste trabalho, propõe-se uma ferramenta de registro de situações cotidianas de desigualdade de gênero que foi empregada num programa de prevenção de violência de gênero, cuja avaliação se fez por meio de um desenho quase-experimental (De Lemus, Navarro, Megías, Velásquez e Ryan, 2014), que buscava cumprir com o primeiro de seus objetivos: aumentar a consciência sobre as desigualdades de gênero na vida cotidiana. Discutem-se os resultados qualitativos obtidos a partir dessa metodologia baseada em outros estudos (Becker e Swim, 2011) e de acordo com os resultados obtidos na aplicação do programa a fim de reduzir as crenças sexistas e a discriminação de gênero.Violence against women and feminicides are some of the most severe problems in El Salvador. During the last few years, some legislative changes as well as changes in matters of public policies have taken place; however, increasing sensitivity and awareness on gender inequality in society have not matched the structural changes. Given this context, the design and validation of violence prevention and training programs is mandatory, as well as the implementation of useful tools for the internalization of these changes. The main objective of this work is to propose a tool for keeping records of everyday situations of gender inequality. This instrument has already been used in a gender-based violence prevention program whose evaluation was done through a quasi-experimental design (De Lemus, Navarro, Megías, Velásquez & Ryan, 2014) and sought to achieve one of its goals: to increase awareness on gender inequalities in everyday situations. Qualitative results obtained from this methodology based on other studies (Becker & Swim, 2011) are discussed with the aim of reducing sexist beliefs and gender discrimination.En El Salvador, la violencia contra las mujeres y los feminicidios son los problemas más graves que azotan el país. Aunque en los últimos años se han promovido algunos cambios legislativos y diferentes políticas públicas, la sensibilización y conciencia sobre las desigualdades de género en la sociedad en su conjunto han avanzado más lentamente que los cambios estructurales. Por esto, se hace urgente el diseño y la validación de programas de formación y prevención de violencia de género, así como el uso de herramientas útiles para la interiorización de estos cambios. En el presente trabajo se propone una herramienta de registro de situaciones cotidianas de desigualdad de género que fue empleada en un programa de prevención de violencia de género, cuya evaluación se hizo a través de un diseño cuasi-experimental (De Lemus, Navarro, Megías, Velásquez y Ryan, 2014), y que buscaba cumplir con el primero de sus objetivos: incrementar la conciencia sobre las desigualdades de género en la vida cotidiana. Se discuten los resultados cualitativos obtenidos a partir de dicha metodología basada en otros estudios (Becker y Swim, 2011) y al tenor de los resultados obtenidos en la aplicación del programa, con el fin de reducir las creencias sexistas y la discriminación de género

Kodiak: An Implementation Framework for Branch and Bound Algorithms

Recursive branch and bound algorithms are often used to refine and isolate solutions to several classes of global optimization problems. A rigorous computation framework for the solution of systems of equations and inequalities involving nonlinear real arithmetic over hyper-rectangular variable and parameter domains is presented. It is derived from a generic branch and bound algorithm that has been formally verified, and utilizes self-validating enclosure methods, namely interval arithmetic and, for polynomials and rational functions, Bernstein expansion. Since bounds computed by these enclosure methods are sound, this approach may be used reliably in software verification tools. Advantage is taken of the partial derivatives of the constraint functions involved in the system, firstly to reduce the branching factor by the use of bisection heuristics and secondly to permit the computation of bifurcation sets for systems of ordinary differential equations. The associated software development, Kodiak, is presented, along with examples of three different branch and bound problem types it implements

Nutritional status and physical condition in active vs. sedentary elderly people

El objetivo del estudio fue conocer la relación entre el estado nutricional, la adherencia a la dieta mediterránea y el nivel de condición física de personas mayores. Participaron 168 personas mayores de 65 años (grupo control=84 personas activas y grupo experimental=84 personas sedentarias). La adherencia a la dieta mediterránea fue medida con el cuestionario MEDIS-FFQ, el nivel de práctica de actividad física mediante una pregunta creada a tal efecto, y las diferentes pruebas físicas con los instrumentos específicos. Los resultados revelaron que el 63.1% manifestó baja adherencia a la dieta mediterránea y el 34.5% alta, teniendo los sujetos sedentarios mayor adherencia que los activos (p≤0.05; 46.4% vs. 22.6%). Los sujetos activos tienen mejor condición física que los sedentarios (p≤0.001). Por tanto, la mayor parte de las personas mayores deben incrementar su adherencia a la dieta mediterránea y la práctica de actividad física como mecanismo de mejora de su saludThe objective of the study was to know the relationship between nutritional status, adherence to the Mediterranean diet and the level of physical displacement of older people. 168 people older than 65 years participated (control group = 84 active people and experimental group = 84 sedentary people). Adherence to the Mediterranean diet was measured with the MEDIS-FFQ questionnaire, the level of physical activity practice through a question created for that purpose, and the different physical tests with the specific instruments. The results revealed that 63.1% showed low adherence to the Mediterranean diet and 34.5% high, according to the sedentary subject’s greater adherence than the active ones (p≤0.05, 46.4% versus 22.6%). Active subjects have better physical income than sedentary people (p≤0.001). Therefore, most elderly people want to increase their adherence to the Mediterranean diet and the practice of physical activity as a mechanism to reduce their healt

Effectiveness of technology audit as support tool for innovative SMEs

EFFECTIVENESS OF TECHNOLOGY AUDIT AS SUPPORT TOOL FOR INNOVATIVE SMES. Mantas Vilys1, Arturas Jakubavicius1, Arvydas Sutkus2 1 Gediminas Technical University, Vilnius, Lithuania. 2 Lithuanian Innovation Centre, Vilnius, LithuaniaExternal expert support reinforces SMEs capabilities in their efforts towards successful commercialization of their innovation. This research explores the influence of technology audit expert service on innovation performance of SMEs. Technology audit is a process which is designed to establish a baseline for technology and identify new products and systems that will contribute to company development. It aims to improve the adequacy and validity of the technology level of a company. During the research which was made in innovative SMEs significant positive relationship was found between technology audit used and the different indicators of the innovation performance which confirms the high impact of the technology audit methodology on the innovation performance of analyzed organizations

Interpreting rheology and electrical conductivity: it all boils down to which particle size

Hypothesis: The electrical charges that develop on the surface of the ceramic particles upon contact with water, due to the interaction with ions in solution, result in a liquid-solid interface, which utterly modifies the properties of individual particles and the way they interact with each other to form a structure. This work explores a new approach to the relationships between structure and stability of suspensions. Experiments: For this purpose, suspensions with a constant 0.35 volume fraction of α-alumina particles, neither spherical nor smooth, and controlled ionic strength (0–90 mM KCl) were prepared and characterized in terms of flow behaviour, electrical conductivity and particle’s electrokinetic mobility. Findings: Electrical conductivity (132 µS/cm < conductivity < 5730 µS/cm) and rheology measurements (10−2 Pa s < viscosity < 104 Pa s) were found to complement each other to produce a more accurate picture of the suspension’s structure. Deviations of experimental data from well-accepted behavioural models were elucidated when the surface area equivalent particle size was used. With the electrical double layer thickness obtained from electrical conductivity measurements, this enabled the interpretation of the relationship between the suspension’s viscosity and the particles electrical conductivity, which provides a criterion for the stability of concentrated colloidal suspensions.publishe

Towards an autonomous host-based intrusion detection system for android mobile devices

In the 5G era, mobile devices are expected to play a pivotal role in our daily life. They will provide a wide range of appealing features to enable users to access a rich set of high quality personalized services. However, at the same time, mobile devices (e.g., smartphones) will be one of the most attractive targets for future attackers in the upcoming 5G communications systems. Therefore, security mechanisms such as mobile Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) are essential to protect mobile devices from a plethora of known and unknown security breaches and to ensure user privacy. However, despite the fact that a lot of research effort has been placed on IDSs for mobile devices during the last decade, autonomous host-based IDS solutions for 5G mobile devices are still required to protect them in a more efficient and effective manner. Towards this direction, we propose an autonomous host-based IDS for Android mobile devices applying Machine Learning (ML) methods to inspect different features representing how the device’s resources (e.g., CPU, memory, etc.) are being used. The simulation results demonstrate a promising detection accuracy of above 85%, reaching up to 99.99%

Soliton bound states in semiconductor disk laser

We report what we believe is the first demonstration of a temporal soliton bound state in semiconductor disk laser. The laser was passively mode-locked using a quantum dot based semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (QD-SESAM). Two mode-locking regimes were observed where the laser would emit single or closely spaced double pulses (soliton bound state regime) per cavity round-trip. The pulses in soliton bound state regime were spaced by discrete, fixed time duration. We use a system of delay differential equations to model the dynamics of our device

Spin resonance linewidths of bismuth donors in silicon coupled to planar microresonators

Ensembles of bismuth donor spins in silicon are promising storage elements for microwave quantum memories due to their long coherence times which exceed seconds. Operating an efficient quantum memory requires achieving critical coupling between the spin ensemble and a suitable high-quality factor resonator -- this in turn requires a thorough understanding of the lineshapes for the relevant spin resonance transitions, particularly considering the influence of the resonator itself on line broadening. Here, we present pulsed electron spin resonance measurements of ensembles of bismuth donors in natural silicon, above which niobium superconducting resonators have been patterned. By studying spin transitions across a range of frequencies and fields we identify distinct line broadening mechanisms, and in particular those which can be suppressed by operating at magnetic-field-insensitive `clock transitions'. Given the donor concentrations and resonator used here, we measure a cooperativity $C\sim 0.2$ and based on our findings we discuss a route to achieve unit cooperativity, as required for a quantum memory