scholarly journals Assessing Transparency, Accuracy, and Consistency of Relative Importance of Cow-Calf Profitability Drivers Using Neural Networks versus Regression

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 352-367
Author(s):  
Colson A. Tester ◽  
Michael P. Popp ◽  
Bruce L. Dixon ◽  
Lanier L. Nalley

AbstractUsing both multivariate regression and artificial neural networks, the relative impact of variables affecting cow-calf profitability was examined over two cattle cycles for spring- and fall-calving herds that varied in size by time period analyzed when using different fertility management affecting forage yields with and without weather uncertainty. Neural networks had greater predictive accuracy than regression but at the cost of lesser transparency and predictive consistency. Explaining profitability, price, and quantity of cattle sold were consistently and respectively ranked first and second using both approaches. Importance rankings for hay sold and fertilizer were low and less consistent across techniques employed.

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-96
Author(s):  
Raid Saleem Abd Ali ◽  
Nooran kanaan Yassin

This research aims to diagnose and identify the causes of claims and disputes between the contractor and the employer, also review the methods used to resolve disputes in construction contracts. In order to achieve the goal of the research, scientific methodology is followed to collect information and data on the subject of claims and disputes in construction projects in Iraq through personal interviews and questionnaire form. The most important results in this research are: the price schedule contract as a kind of competitive contracts is the most important and guarantee for the completion of minimum level of claims and disputes with relative importance of (84.1), compared with the (cost plus a percentage of the cost contract) as a kind of negotiating contracts is the most relative importance of (79.6), and the turnkey contract as a kind of special contracts is the most relative importance of (74.2). The  contractor and  his agents are one of the most influence sources in occurring claims and disputes in construction contracts with relative importance of (77.4) followed by the contract documents with relative importance of (74.2) and then the employer with relative importance of (73.2). In addition to the long period of litigation and the multiplicity of veto grades are most negative when contractual disputes have resolved by it, and with relative importance of (86), followed by the large number of issues and lack of efficiency and specialty of Judges with relative importance (78.4). Finally, the direct negotiation method (relative importance of 77) is one of the most friendly settlement ways favored by conflicted parties, while the resolution of disputes and claims board (relative importance of 10) occupied the last rank in the friendly settlement ways.


Actuators ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Pornthep Preechayasomboon ◽  
Eric Rombokas

Soft robotic actuators are now being used in practical applications; however, they are often limited to open-loop control that relies on the inherent compliance of the actuator. Achieving human-like manipulation and grasping with soft robotic actuators requires at least some form of sensing, which often comes at the cost of complex fabrication and purposefully built sensor structures. In this paper, we utilize the actuating fluid itself as a sensing medium to achieve high-fidelity proprioception in a soft actuator. As our sensors are somewhat unstructured, their readings are difficult to interpret using linear models. We therefore present a proof of concept of a method for deriving the pose of the soft actuator using recurrent neural networks. We present the experimental setup and our learned state estimator to show that our method is viable for achieving proprioception and is also robust to common sensor failures.


2017 ◽  
Vol 56 (05) ◽  
pp. 377-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xingyu Zhang ◽  
Joyce Kim ◽  
Rachel E. Patzer ◽  
Stephen R. Pitts ◽  
Aaron Patzer ◽  
...  

SummaryObjective: To describe and compare logistic regression and neural network modeling strategies to predict hospital admission or transfer following initial presentation to Emergency Department (ED) triage with and without the addition of natural language processing elements.Methods: Using data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS), a cross-sectional probability sample of United States EDs from 2012 and 2013 survey years, we developed several predictive models with the outcome being admission to the hospital or transfer vs. discharge home. We included patient characteristics immediately available after the patient has presented to the ED and undergone a triage process. We used this information to construct logistic regression (LR) and multilayer neural network models (MLNN) which included natural language processing (NLP) and principal component analysis from the patient’s reason for visit. Ten-fold cross validation was used to test the predictive capacity of each model and receiver operating curves (AUC) were then calculated for each model.Results: Of the 47,200 ED visits from 642 hospitals, 6,335 (13.42%) resulted in hospital admission (or transfer). A total of 48 principal components were extracted by NLP from the reason for visit fields, which explained 75% of the overall variance for hospitalization. In the model including only structured variables, the AUC was 0.824 (95% CI 0.818-0.830) for logistic regression and 0.823 (95% CI 0.817-0.829) for MLNN. Models including only free-text information generated AUC of 0.742 (95% CI 0.7310.753) for logistic regression and 0.753 (95% CI 0.742-0.764) for MLNN. When both structured variables and free text variables were included, the AUC reached 0.846 (95% CI 0.839-0.853) for logistic regression and 0.844 (95% CI 0.836-0.852) for MLNN.Conclusions: The predictive accuracy of hospital admission or transfer for patients who presented to ED triage overall was good, and was improved with the inclusion of free text data from a patient’s reason for visit regardless of modeling approach. Natural language processing and neural networks that incorporate patient-reported outcome free text may increase predictive accuracy for hospital admission.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrik B. Pedersen ◽  
Dimitrios-Alexios Karagiannis-Voules ◽  
Nicholas Midzi ◽  
Tkafira Mduluza ◽  
Samson Mukaratirwa ◽  
...  

Temperature, precipitation and humidity are known to be important factors for the development of schistosome parasites as well as their intermediate snail hosts. Climate therefore plays an important role in determining the geographical distribution of schistosomiasis and it is expected that climate change will alter distribution and transmission patterns. Reliable predictions of distribution changes and likely transmission scenarios are key to efficient schistosomiasis intervention-planning. However, it is often difficult to assess the direction and magnitude of the impact on schistosomiasis induced by climate change, as well as the temporal transferability and predictive accuracy of the models, as prevalence data is often only available from one point in time. We evaluated potential climate-induced changes on the geographical distribution of schistosomiasis in Zimbabwe using prevalence data from two points in time, 29 years apart; to our knowledge, this is the first study investigating this over such a long time period. We applied historical weather data and matched prevalence data of two schistosome species (<em>Schistosoma haematobium</em> and <em>S. mansoni</em>). For each time period studied, a Bayesian geostatistical model was fitted to a range of climatic, environmental and other potential risk factors to identify significant predictors that could help us to obtain spatially explicit schistosomiasis risk estimates for Zimbabwe. The observed general downward trend in schistosomiasis prevalence for Zimbabwe from 1981 and the period preceding a survey and control campaign in 2010 parallels a shift towards a drier and warmer climate. However, a statistically significant relationship between climate change and the change in prevalence could not be established.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Benkart

Existing research suggests that patterns of both men and women serial killers are hyper-gendered. In American society, however, gender norms for women have dramatically changed over time. This study proposes that the patterns of women serial killers reflect the femininity ideals of the time period in which they operated in. The shifts in gender norms are operationalized by three time periods representative of the waves of feminism. The Radford/Florida Gulf Coast University’s serial killer database is used to establish a sample of 1,321 serial killers. Using multivariate regression analyses and controlling for age of last kill, which could potentially alter the kill method but be unrelated to gender, women serial killers do appear to be impacted by the femininity ideals of their time period but not as clearly as initially anticipated. Men serial killers were also found to be affected by changes in femininity ideals. Both women and men serial killers had more feminine kill patterns during the first wave of feminism, but men serial killers had a very violent, hyper-masculine peak during the second wave of feminism that women serial killers did not have.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
Calvien Kawenas ◽  
Sifrid S. Pangemanan ◽  
Robert Lambey

The write-off of receivables is a loss arising from uncollectible receivables caused by various causes. The problem raised in this study is whether the application procedure is in accordance with the PMK No. 31 / PMK.07 / 2005 and what factors become obstacles in the process of write-off of receivables. The method used in this research is descriptive research method that is qualitative. Based on the results of the research from the RSUP Prof. Dr. R. D. Kandou Manado, the procedures for the elimination of goods are in accordance with applicable government regulations. If the factors are negative inhibitors, the operational costs are irregular, the amount of operational costs required for the cost exceeds the amount of the receivables to be collected, the non-timeframe for submission of proposals for write-off of receivables, documents / filing requirements for origination submissions not made RSUP Prof. Dr. R. D. Kandou Manado must meet the requirements regarding the time period for collection of accounts more effective and efficient.Keywords: Proposal Submission, Research, Accounts Receivable Removal


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