Opening the Neural Network Black Box: An Algorithm for Extracting Rules from Function Approximating Artificial Neural Networks

Artificial neural networks have been successfully applied to solve a variety of business applications involving classification and function approximation. In many such applications, it is desirable to extract knowledge from trained neural networks so that the users can gain a better understanding of the solution. Existing research has focused primarily on extracting symbolic rules for classification problems with few methods devised for function approximation problems. In order to fill this gap, we propose an approach to extract rules from neural networks that have been trained to solve function approximation problems. The extracted rules divide the data samples into groups. For all samples within a group, a linear function of the relevant input attributes of the data approximates the network output. Experimental results show that the proposed approach generates rules that are more accurate than the existing methods based on decision trees and regression

Visualizing Globalization: A Self-Organizing Maps Approach to Customer Profiling

This research demonstrates the usefulness of self-organizing maps (SOM) as an intuitive visual rendering of a globalization phenomenon. We propose a systematic neural-network-based segmentation scheme for identifying and subsequently profiling transnational segments based on consumers’ desired benefits. In the study, SOMs are used in grouping survey respondents from 16 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, South America, and North America on the basis of their expressed preference toward certain car features such as styling, sportiness, fuel economy, and safety in accidents. These car features had been shown to form four major groupings: symbolic, utilitarian, sensory, and economic. The SOM-based clustering of the data yielded these same groupings of car features, but the economic and utilitarian clusters have been further subdivided into more specific benefits clusters. These benefits clusters have been used to identify a mixture of cultural and geographic factors that would segment the world market in such a way that countries within a market segment are homogeneous in terms of distribution of benefits sought. These market segments are subsequently analyzed for their socio-demographic profile. The paper concludes that SOM is not only an effective clustering method, it also provides an insightful visual depiction of the interrelationships of the clusters by positioning them in such a way that clusters that are spatially near each other resemble each other more

An Interior Dual Proximal Point Algorithm for Linear Programs

An interior point algorithm for obtaining a proximal point solution of a linear program is presented. Results from our implementation of this algorithm have been very encouraging. For 36 test problems including 32 NETLIB problems, we obtain a total time speedup of 5.6 over the MINOS 5.0 simplex package. We also describe an implantation of our algorithm for linear programs with upper-bounded variables, such as the multicommodity Patient Distribution System models of the Military Airlift Command. We have been able to solve some of these multicommodity problems with 8-figure accuracy and speedup of as much as 24 over the MINOS 5.0. Furthermore, our run times on the Astronautics ZS-1 are comparable with those of AT&T's KORBX times for some of the problems

Perancangan interior Graha Kasih Manula di Surabaya (lobi/ruang tunggu, ruang makan, ruang kebaktian, kafe dan toilet)

Seiring dengan perkembangan waktu dimana jumlah orang tua yang masuk dan ingin menghuni panti wredha semakin bertambah serta beberapa latar belakang yang lain. Maka keberadaan panti wredha harus mendapat perhatian yang serius guna kenyamanan bagi para penghuninya. Dalam hal ini desain interior dari sebuah panti wredha berpengaruh besar secara psikologi dan fisik bagi para penghuninya. Para manula yang berada di sana ingin mendapatkan kesejahteraan di dalam sisa hidupnya. Perancangan interior Graha Kasih Manula di Surabaya ini berusaha mengatasi dan menjawab permasalahan dan tujuan yang terdapat pada sebuah panti wredha. Graha Kasih Manula di Surabaya ini merupakan proyek milik yayasan Kristen yang bergerak di bidang kemanusiaan khususnya untuk orangorang lanjut usia. Fasilitas yang didesain dalam proyek ini meliputi lobi (ruang duduk), ruang makan, ruang kebaktian, kafe dan toilet sebagai fasilitas penunjang. Sesuai dengan tujuan akhir hidup manusia yaitu mencapai ketenangan fisik, batin dan roh, maka konsep yang diangkat untuk panti wredha ini ialah ``Ketenangan`` dengan sentuhan nuansa Kristiani dan gaya Jepang yang mendukung konsep ini. Oleh karena itu dalam perancangannya nuansa Kristiani (unsur dominan) dan gaya Jepang hadir untuk mencapai ketenangan yang diinginkan