Logistic Regression Analysis of Customer Satisfaction Data

Variation exists in all processes. Significant work has been done to identify and remove sources of variation in manufacturing processes resulting in large returns for companies. However, business process optimization is an area that has a large potential return for a company. Business processes can be difficult to optimize due to the nature of the output variables associated with them. Business processes tend to have output variables that are binary, nominal or ordinal. Examples of these types of output include whether a particular event occurred, a customer's color preference for a new product and survey questions that assess the extent of the survey respondent's agreement with a particular statement. Output variables that are binary, nominal or ordinal cannot be modeled using ordinary least‐squares regression. Logistic regression is a method used to model data where the output is binary, nominal or ordinal. This article provides a review of logistic regression and demonstrates its use in modeling data from a business process involving customer feedback. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An adaptive tracking problem for a family of retarded time-delay plants

Most of the existing switching control techniques are developed specifically for finite-dimensional linear time-invariant (LTI) systems. In many practical applications, however, it is essential to take time delay into consideration in the modelling as the control system can be highly sensitive to delay. In this paper, a multi-model switching control algorithm is proposed for retarded time-delay systems. It is assumed that the plant is represented by a family of known multi-input multi-output, observable, LTI models with multiple delays in the states, and that corresponding to each model in the known family, there exists a high-performance finite-dimensional LTI controller. In addition, it is supposed that a bound on the magnitude of the external inputs and disturbances is available. It is then shown that the proposed switching controller can stabilize the uncertain system, and that under some mild conditions, output tracking can be achieved in the given problem setting. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Where is the psychology going? Structural fault lines revealed by psychologists' use of Kuhn.

Psychologists' appropriation of language and ideas from Thomas Kuhn's (1962, 1970b) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions reveals deep and contradictory concerns about truth, science, and the progress of the field. The author argues that psychologists, uncomfortably straddling natural and social science traditions, reference Structure for 2 reasons largely overlooked: first, because it presents an intermediate, naturalistic position in the war between relativist and rationalist views of scientific truth, and second, because it presents a psychologized model of scientific change. The author suggests that the history of this mutual influence--psychologists being influenced by Kuhn and vice versa--may usefuly inform current practices of psychological science. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Oxides Catalysts of Rare Earth and Transient Metal for Catalytic Oxidation of Benzene

The catalysts of CeO2 and the mixture of CeO2 and CuO were prepared, and the activities of these catalysts for completely oxidizing benzene were studied.The results show that the optimal proportion of CeO2/CuO is 6: 4.The highest temperature at which benzene was completely oxidized on these catalysts at different airspeed was measured.Compared these catalysts with the noble metal used, our catalysts had superiority in the resources and the industrial cost besides good activities.     

长期酸化对红壤中活性固相铝库大小及亏损程度的影响

用连续分级提取和反复多次酸提取方法研究了长期土壤酸化对红壤固相铝库中铝含量及亏损程度的影响。研究结果表明:嵊县红壤的活性铝库大于永春红壤和屯溪红壤;因永春红壤和屯溪红壤的酸化程度大于嵊县红壤,前两者的有机铝库和无机铝库都比嵊县红壤的亏损,因此反复酸提取过程中铝的释放量也比嵊县红壤少;当高强度酸输入土壤后,弱键合的有机络合态铝可快速活化并亏损,剩余铝库因活性小而释放速率减小,但长期酸化过程中,动力学控制的低活性铝库的活化可能对铝的溶解量仍有重要贡献。     

Education-driven research in CAD

We argue for a new research category, named education-driven research (EDR), which fills the gap between traditional field-specific research that is not concerned with educational objectives and research in education that focuses on fundamental teaching and learning principles and possibly on their customization to broad areas (such as mathematics or physics), but not to specific disciplines (such as CAD). The objective of EDR is to simplify the formulation of the underlying theoretical foundations and of specific tools and solutions in a specialized domain, so as to make them easy to understand and internalize. As such, EDR is a difficult and genuine research activity, which requires a deep understanding of the specific field and can rarely be carried out by generalists with primary expertise in broad education principles. We illustrate the concept of EDR with three examples in CAD: (1) the Split and Tweak subdivisions of a polygon and its use for generating curves, surfaces, and animations; (2) the construction of a topological partition of a plane induced by an arbitrary arrangement of edges; and (3) a romantic definition of the minimal and Hausdorff distances. These examples demonstrate the value of using analogies, of introducing evocative terminology, and of synthesizing the simplest fundamental building blocks. The intuitive understanding provided by EDR enables the students (and even the instructor) to better appreciate the limitations of a particular solution and to explore alternatives. In particular, in these examples, EDR has allowed the author to: (1) reduce the cost of evaluating a cubic B-spline curve; (2) develop a new subdivision curve that is better approximated by its control polygon than either a cubic B-spline or an interpolating 4-point subdivision curve; (3) discover how a circuit inclusion tree may be used for identifying the faces in an arrangement; and (4) rectify a common misconception about the computation of the Hausdorff error between triangle meshes. We invite the scientific community to encourage the development of EDR by publishing its results as genuine research contributions in peer-reviewed professional journals.     

Estimation for the number of components in a mixture model using stepwise split-and-merge EM algorithm

The main difficulty with EM algorithm for mixture model concerns the number of components, say g. This is the question of model selection, and the EM algorithm itself could not estimate g. On the contrary, the algorithm requires g to be specified before the remaining parameters can be estimated. To solve this problem, a new algorithm, which is called stepwise split-and-merge EM (SSMEM) algorithm, is proposed. The SSMEM algorithm alternately splits and merges components, estimating g and other parameters of components simultaneously. Also, two novel criteria are introduced to efficiently select the components for split or merge. Experimental results on simulated and real data demonstrate the effectivity of the proposed algorithm.     

关于从旋涡炉渣回收铜的研究

介绍了用自然澄清法降低、回收旋涡炉渣中的铜的方法。该方法工艺简单。操作方便，不仅降低冶炼成本，同时提高了经济效益。