No description available.

Saltmarshes provide a diverse range of ecosystem services and are protected under a number of international designations. Nevertheless they are generally declining in extent in the United Kingdom and North West Europe. The drivers of this decline are complex and poorly understood. When considering mitigation and management for future ecosystem service provision it will be important to understand why, where, and to what extent decline is likely to occur. Few studies have attempted to forecast saltmarsh morphodynamics at a system level over decadal time scales. There is no synthesis of existing knowledge available for specific site predictions nor is there a formalised framework for individual site assessment and management. This project evaluates the extent to which machine learning model approaches (boosted regression trees, neural networks and Bayesian networks) can facilitate synthesis of information and prediction of decadal-scale morphological tendencies of saltmarshes. Importantly, data-driven predictions are independent of the assumptions underlying physically-based models, and therefore offer an additional opportunity to crossvalidate between two paradigms. Marsh margins and interiors are both considered but are treated separately since they are regarded as being sensitive to different process suites. The study therefore identifies factors likely to control morphological trajectories and develops geospatial methodologies to derive proxy measures relating to controls or processes. These metrics are developed at a high spatial density in the order of tens of metres allowing for the resolution of fine-scale behavioural differences. Conventional statistical approaches, as have been previously adopted, are applied to the dataset to assess consistency with previous findings, with some agreement being found. The data are subsequently used to train and compare three types of machine learning model. Boosted regression trees outperform the other two methods in this context. The resulting models are able to explain more than 95% of the variance in marginal changes and 91% for internal dynamics. Models are selected based on validation performance and are then queried with realistic future scenarios which represent altered input conditions that may arise as a consequence of future environmental change. Responses to these scenarios are evaluated, suggesting system sensitivity to all scenarios tested and offering a high degree of spatial detail in responses. While mechanistic interpretation of some responses is challenging, process-based justifications are offered for many of the observed behaviours, providing confidence that the results are realistic. The work demonstrates a potentially powerful alternative (and complement) to current morphodynamic models that can be applied over large areas with relative ease, compared to numerical implementations. Powerful analyses with broad scope are now available to the field of coastal geomorphology through the combination of spatial data streams and machine learning. Such methods are shown to be of great potential value in support of applied management and monitoring interventions.

This work deals with the classification methods used in the knowledge discovery from data process and discusses the possibilities of their validation and comparison. Through experiments, the work focuses on the analysis of four selected methods: Naive Bayes classificator, decision tree, neural network and SVM. Factors influencing basic characteristics such as training speed, classification speed, accuracy are examined. A part of the thesis is a desktop application, which is a tool for training, testing and validation of individual methods. Eleven reference data sets are selected for experimental purposes. At the end of this work experimental results of comparison and observed characteristics of classification methods are summarized.

<p>In the current information age, massive amounts of data are gathered, at a rate prohibiting their effective structuring, analysis, and conversion into useful knowledge. This information overload is manifested both in large numbers of data objects recorded in data sets, and large numbers of attributes, also known as high dimensionality. This dis-sertation deals with problems originating from high dimensionality of data representation, referred to as the &ldquo;curse of dimensionality,&rdquo; in the context of machine learning, data mining, and information retrieval. The described research follows two angles: studying the behavior of (dis)similarity metrics with increasing dimensionality, and exploring feature-selection methods, primarily with regard to document representation schemes for text classification. The main results of the dissertation, relevant to the first research angle, include theoretical insights into the concentration behavior of cosine similarity, and a detailed analysis of the phenomenon of hubness, which refers to the tendency of some points in a data set to become hubs by being in-cluded in unexpectedly many <em>k</em>-nearest neighbor lists of other points. The mechanisms behind the phenomenon are studied in detail, both from a theoretical and empirical perspective, linking hubness with the (intrinsic) dimensionality of data, describing its interaction with the cluster structure of data and the information provided by class la-bels, and demonstrating the interplay of the phenomenon and well known algorithms for classification, semi-supervised learning, clustering, and outlier detection, with special consideration being given to time-series classification and information retrieval. Results pertaining to the second research angle include quantification of the interaction between various transformations of high-dimensional document representations, and feature selection, in the context of text classification.</p> / <p>U tekućem &bdquo;informatičkom dobu&ldquo;, masivne količine podataka se<br />sakupljaju brzinom koja ne dozvoljava njihovo efektivno strukturiranje,<br />analizu, i pretvaranje u korisno znanje. Ovo zasićenje informacijama<br />se manifestuje kako kroz veliki broj objekata uključenih<br />u skupove podataka, tako i kroz veliki broj atributa, takođe poznat<br />kao velika dimenzionalnost. Disertacija se bavi problemima koji<br />proizilaze iz velike dimenzionalnosti reprezentacije podataka, često<br />nazivanim &bdquo;prokletstvom dimenzionalnosti&ldquo;, u kontekstu ma&scaron;inskog<br />učenja, data mining-a i information retrieval-a. Opisana istraživanja<br />prate dva pravca: izučavanje pona&scaron;anja metrika (ne)sličnosti u odnosu<br />na rastuću dimenzionalnost, i proučavanje metoda odabira atributa,<br />prvenstveno u interakciji sa tehnikama reprezentacije dokumenata za<br />klasifikaciju teksta. Centralni rezultati disertacije, relevantni za prvi<br />pravac istraživanja, uključuju teorijske uvide u fenomen koncentracije<br />kosinusne mere sličnosti, i detaljnu analizu fenomena habovitosti koji<br />se odnosi na tendenciju nekih tačaka u skupu podataka da postanu<br />habovi tako &scaron;to bivaju uvr&scaron;tene u neočekivano mnogo lista k najbližih<br />suseda ostalih tačaka. Mehanizmi koji pokreću fenomen detaljno su<br />proučeni, kako iz teorijske tako i iz empirijske perspektive. Habovitost<br />je povezana sa (latentnom) dimenzionalno&scaron;ću podataka, opisana<br />je njena interakcija sa strukturom klastera u podacima i informacijama<br />koje pružaju oznake klasa, i demonstriran je njen efekat na<br />poznate algoritme za klasifikaciju, semi-supervizirano učenje, klastering<br />i detekciju outlier-a, sa posebnim osvrtom na klasifikaciju vremenskih<br />serija i information retrieval. Rezultati koji se odnose na<br />drugi pravac istraživanja uključuju kvantifikaciju interakcije između<br />različitih transformacija vi&scaron;edimenzionalnih reprezentacija dokumenata<br />i odabira atributa, u kontekstu klasifikacije teksta.</p>

While historically digital heritage libraries were first powered in image mode, they quickly took advantage of OCR technology to index printed collections and consequently improve the scope and performance of the information retrieval services offered to users. But the access to iconographic resources has not progressed in the same way, and the latter remain in the shadows: manual incomplete and heterogeneous indexation, data silos by iconographic genre. Today, however, it would be possible to make better use of these resources, especially by exploiting the enormous volumes of OCR produced during the last two decades, and thus valorize these engravings, drawings, photographs, maps, etc. for their own value but also as an attractive entry point into the collections, supporting discovery and serenpidity from document to document and collection to collection. This article presents an ETL (extract-transform-load) approach to this need, that aims to: Identify and extract iconography wherever it may be found, in image collections but also in printed materials (dailies, magazines, monographies); Transform, harmonize and enrich the image descriptive metadata (in particular with machine learning classification tools); Load it all into a web app dedicated to image retrieval. The approach is pragmatically dual, since it involves leveraging existing digital resources and (virtually) on-the-shelf technologies. / Si historiquement, les bibliothèques numériques patrimoniales furent d’abord alimentées par des images, elles profitèrent rapidement de la technologie OCR pour indexer les collections imprimées afin d’améliorer périmètre et performance du service de recherche d’information offert aux utilisateurs. Mais l’accès aux ressources iconographiques n’a pas connu les mêmes progrès et ces dernières demeurent dans l’ombre : indexation manuelle lacunaire, hétérogène et non viable à grande échelle ; silos documentaires par genre iconographique ; recherche par le contenu (CBIR, content-based image retrieval) encore peu opérationnelle sur les collections patrimoniales. Aujourd’hui, il serait pourtant possible de mieux valoriser ces ressources, en particulier en exploitant les énormes volumes d’OCR produits durant les deux dernières décennies (tant comme descripteur textuel que pour l’identification automatique des illustrations imprimées). Et ainsi mettre en valeur ces gravures, dessins, photographies, cartes, etc. pour leur valeur propre mais aussi comme point d’entrée dans les collections, en favorisant découverte et rebond de document en document, de collection à collection. Cet article décrit une approche ETL (extract-transform-load) appliquée aux images d’une bibliothèque numérique à vocation encyclopédique : identifier et extraire l’iconographie partout où elle se trouve (dans les collections image mais aussi dans les imprimés : presse, revue, monographie) ; transformer, harmoniser et enrichir ses métadonnées descriptives grâce à des techniques d’apprentissage machine – machine learning – pour la classification et l’indexation automatiques ; charger ces données dans une application web dédiée à la recherche iconographique (ou dans d’autres services de la bibliothèque). Approche qualifiée de pragmatique à double titre, puisqu’il s’agit de valoriser des ressources numériques existantes et de mettre à profit des technologies (quasiment) mâtures.

This diploma thesis is concerned with the possibilities of the social web data employment in social sciences. Its theoretical part describes the changes in education in the context of the dynamics of contemporary society within three fundamental (interrelated) dimensions of technology (the cause and/or the tool for the change), work (new models of collaboration), and economics (sustainability of free & open-source business models). The main methodological part of the thesis is focused on the issues of sampling, sample representativeness, validity & reliability assessment, ethics, and data collection of the emerging social web research in social sciences. The research part includes illustrative social web analyses and conclusions of the author's 2014 Coursera & Khan Academy on the Social Web research and provides the full research report in its attachement to compare its results to the theoretical part in order to provide a "naive" (as derived from the social web mentions and networks) answer to the fundamental question: "How to Create Self-Driven Education?" Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)