A method of stepwise benchmarking for inefficient DMUs based on the proximity-based target selection

DEA is a useful nonparametric method of measuring the relative efficiency of a DMU and yielding a reference target for an inefficient DMU. However, it is very difficult for inefficient DMUs to be efficient by benchmarking a target DMU which has different input use. Identifying appropriate benchmarks based on the similarity of input endowment makes it easier for an inefficient DMU to imitate its target DMUs. But it is rare to find out a target DMU, which is both the most efficient and similar in input endowments, in real situation. Therefore, it is necessary to provide an optimal path to the most efficient DMU on the frontier through several times of a proximity-based target selection process. We propose a dynamic method of stepwise benchmarking for inefficient DMUs to improve their efficiency gradually.The empirical study is conducted to compare the performance between the proposed method and the prior methods with a dataset collected from Canadian Bank branches. The comparison result shows that the proposed method is very practical to obtain a gradual improvement for inefficient DMUs while it assures to reach frontier eventually.     

A hybrid multi-criteria decision-making model for firms competence evaluation

In this paper, we present a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model to evaluate the competence of the firms. According to the competence-based theory reveals that firm competencies are recognized from exclusive and unique capabilities that each firm enjoy in marketplace and are tightly intertwined within different business functions throughout the company. Therefore, competence in the firm is a composite of various attributes. Among them many intangible and tangible attributes are difficult to measure. In order to overcome the issue, we invite fuzzy set theory into the measurement of performance. In this paper first we calculate the weight of each criterion through adaptive analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach (A³) method, and then we appraise the performance of firms via linguistic variables which are expressed as trapezoidal fuzzy numbers. In the next step we transform these fuzzy numbers into interval data by means of α-cut. Then considering different values for α we rank the firms through TOPSIS method with interval data. Since there are different ranks for different α values, we apply linear assignment method to obtain final rank for alternatives.     

A fuzzy modeling method via Enhanced Objective Cluster Analysis for designing TSK model

This paper proposes a fuzzy modeling method via Enhanced Objective Cluster Analysis to obtain the compact and robust approximate TSK fuzzy model. In our approach, the Objective Cluster Analysis algorithm is introduced. In order to obtain more compact and more robust fuzzy rule prototypes, this algorithm is enhanced by introducing the Relative Dissimilarity Measure and the new consistency criterion to represent the similarity degree between the clusters. By these additional criteria, the redundant clusters caused by iterations are avoided; the subjective influence from human judgment for clustering is weakened. Moreover the clustering results including the number of clusters and the cluster centers are considered as the initial condition of the premise parameters identification. Thus the traditional iteration modeling procedure for determining the number of rules and identifying parameters is changed into one-off modeling, which significantly reduces the burden of computation. Furthermore the decomposition errors and the approximation errors resulted from premise parameters identification by Fuzzy c-Means clustering are decreased. For the consequence parameters identification, the Stable Kalman Filter algorithm is adopted. The performance of the proposed modeling method is evaluated by the example of Box–Jenkins gas furnace. The simulation results demonstrate the power of our model.     

基于统计不相关矢量集的独立成分分析

针对随机数据在高斯分布条件下,独立成分分析在本质上不可能实现的问题,提出在统计不相关矢量集上进行独立成分分析。与一般白化变换后的数据相比,基于统计不相关矢量集的数据具有更好的不相关性,在估计独立分量时性能更优越。在ORL人脸数据库上进行的实验结果证明了该算法的有效性。     

基于SVM-2DPCA的X光胸片异常筛查

基于统计学习理论的支持向量机分类算法,提出一种X光胸片异常筛查系统,能够自动判别胸片的正常和异常。为了提高SVM算法的效率,利用小波变换等预处理手段去除对判读无用的图像冗余信息,采用二维主成分分析进一步降低图像特征维数。实验结果表明,SVM用于医学X光片异常筛查可行且有效、识别率高。     

文本分类中一种混合型特征降维方法

提出一种基于特征选择和特征抽取的混合型文本特征降维方法,分析基于选择和抽取的特征降维方法各自的特点,借助特征项的类别分布差异信息对特征集进行初步选择。使用一种新的基于PCA的特征抽取方法对剩余特征集进行二次抽取,在最大限度减少信息损失的前提下实现了文本特征的有效降维。对文本的分类实验结果表明,该特征降维方法具有良好的分类效果。     

基于有监督直接局部保持投影的人脸识别

提出一种用于图像识别的有监督直接局部保持投影算法,该算法结合样本类别信息,通过同时对角化的方法求解局部保持投影问题,避免矩阵的奇异性。在ORL人脸库上的测试结果表明,该算法的识别率高于PCA, PCA+LPP等方法。     

基于稀疏PCA的多阶次分数阶傅里叶变换域特征人脸识别

文章提出基于稀疏PCA的多阶次分数阶傅里叶变换(fractional Fourier features,Frft)特征的人脸识别(Multiple Order discrete fractional Fourier Features ,MOFF). 鉴于分数阶傅里叶变换对光照、表情的鲁棒性, 并已在图像处理领域得到应用,首先,Frft幅度随阶次的变换呈现压缩性,而SPCA提取其主要信息将且分为主要信息域和次要信息域,融合二者的互补信息组成混合幅度特征,然后融合混合幅度特征、实部特征和虚部特征,最后融合不同阶次下Frft域特征。此外该文提出基于贪婪算法的分数阶阶次选择算法和基于Fisherfaces的权重方法。ORL 和AR人脸数据库上的仿真证明了本算法的有效性。     

Prevalence and personality correlates of Facebook bullying among university undergraduates

The purpose of the present study was to examine the prevalence of cyber-bullying through Facebook in a sample of 226 Greek university undergraduates, and to explore whether big five personality characteristics, narcissism, as well as attitudes toward Facebook, technological knowledge and skills were predictive of such behavior. Participants completed a self-report questionnaire measuring the above constructs. Results indicated that almost one third of the sample reported Facebook bullying engagement at least once during the past month, with male students reporting more frequent involvement than females. Bullying through Facebook was predicted by low Agreeableness and more time spent on Facebook only for males, whereas for females none of the studied variables predicted engagement in Facebook bullying. Findings are discussed in terms of prevention and intervention strategies.