Evaluation of the fuzzy ARTMAP neural network using off-line and on-line learning strategies

This paper describes an experimental study of the Fuzzy ARTMAP (FAM) neural network as an autonomous learning system for pattern classification tasks. A benchmark database of radar signals from ionosphere has been employed for the system to classify arbitrary sequences of pattern into distinct categories. A number of simulations have been conducted systematically to evaluate the applicability and usefulness of FAM in this context. First, we identify the 'optimum' parameter settings of FAM for the problem at hand, and investigate the effects of different training schemes and learning rules on classification results, using an off-line learning methodology. We then examine a voting strategy to improve classification accuracy by combining results from multiple FAM classifiers. In addition to off-line learning, we evaluate the prospect of using FAM as an autonomously learning pattern classification system for on-line, non-stationary environments. The performance of FAM is comparable with other reported results, but with the added advantage of on-line and incremental learning.

Rapid on-line control to reaching is preserved in children with congenital spastic hemiplegia: evidence from double-step reaching performance

This study aimed to investigate the integrity of on-line control of reaching in congenital spastic hemiplegia in light of disparate evidence. Twelve children with and without spastic hemiplegia (11-17 years old) completed a double-step reaching task requiring them to reach and touch a target that remained stationary for most trials (viz nonjump trial) but unexpectedly displaced laterally at movement onset for a minority of trials (20%: known as jump trials). Although children with spastic hemiplegia were generally slower than age-matched controls, they could account for target perturbation at age-appropriate levels shown by a lack of interaction effect on movement time and nonsignificant group difference for time to reach trajectory correction on jump trials. Our data suggest that at a group level, on-line control of reaching may be age-appropriate in spastic hemiplegia. However, our data also highlight the need to experimentally acknowledge the considerable heterogeneity of the spastic hemiplegia population when investigating motor cognition.

On-line dating; is a digital kiss and virtual wink the new way of finding love?

In 2007, I asked for a show of hands of people who ‘might consider online dating as a way of finding a partner’. Not a single hand went up and the lecture theatre was stony silent. The same question, some five years later resulted in a significant show of hands and a buzz of chatter. Something had changed and perceptions around online dating had shifted. Nielsen Research last year found most Australians (51 per cent) had either tried online dating or would consider doing so. RSVP and eHarmony claim to have 2 million members and more than 4 million people have apparently joined RSVP since it was launched 17 years ago. Online dating is experiencing significant growth in Asia as well, with the number of new web services (some, like ‘Muslima’, are tightly focused) growing exponentially. Online dating is a global phenomenon. This paper will use current media studies research literature and data from conversations with university students in Australia and Indonesia to explore how the changing world of online dating is helping/hindering young people as they shape and develop identity, represent themselves in the virtual world and ultimately, how they find love on line.

Centenary celebrations: reinterpreting acting in mothers of France on-line

How is performance on early film newly legible in the digital archive? What implication does this hold for our understanding of film history, especially for our understanding of the actress and her role in the nascent film industry? Taking Sarah Bernhardt’s 1917 film,Mothers of France, as my case study, I join the Women Film Pioneers Project in exploring the digital archive as a necessary tool in feminist film historiography. I argue that the digital archive reconfigures Sarah Bernhardt as an actress who was important not just to the nineteenth century stage but also to the development of the feature film and to its use as a propaganda tool in the Allied war effort. While digital archives such as The European Film Gateway contain a wealth of material about the Great War, Bernhardt’s film reminds us that the digital archive is also an interpretative and critical tool in the re-reading of acting in silent film.