592 research outputs found
Towards minimizing the energy of slack variables for binary classification
No full text20.09.13 KB. Ok to add to spiral, author says conference already available online.This paper presents a binary classification algorithm that is based on the minimization of the energy of slack variables, called the Mean Squared Slack (MSS). A novel kernel extension is proposed which includes the withholding of just a subset of input patterns that are misclassified during training. The later leads to a time and memory efficient system that converges in a few iterations. Two datasets are exploited for performance evaluation, namely the adult and the vertebral column dataset. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm with respect to computation time and scalability. Accuracy is also high. In specific, it equals 84.951% for the adult dataset and 91.935%, for the vertebral column dataset, outperforming state-of-the-art methods. © 2012 EURASIP
IMFG@10: The Past, Present, and Future of City Finance and Governance
No full textThis paper is part of the IMFG Forum Papers series. For a full list of papers, please visit http://bit.ly/2ylAa2DOn January 26, 2015, the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance (IMFG) marked its tenth anniversary in the presence of an overflow crowd at the Munk School of Global Affairs. IMFG@10: The Past, Present, and Future of City Finance and Governance began with opening remarks from Premier Kathleen Wynne, followed by a panel moderated by IMFG Chair Alan Broadbent that featured Enid Slack (Director, IMFG), Richard Bird (Senior Fellow, IMFG and Professor Emeritus, Rotman School of Management), and Zack Taylor (Assistant Professor, University of Toronto Scarborough).
Enid Slack reflected on developments in municipal finance in Canada over the last ten years, what they mean for the fiscal health of cities, and suggested that cities need more revenue tools but could also do better with what they already have. Richard Bird took a global perspective, noting that problems in finance and governance are both universal and complex, but that solutions must be localized. Zack Taylor looked at the future of governance and urban resilience, asking whether local governments were up to the job of anticipating and managing long-term social, economic, and environmental transformations.Institute on Municipal Finance and Governanc
IMFG@10: The Past, Present, and Future of City Finance and Governance
No full textThis paper is part of the IMFG Forum Papers series. For a full list of papers, please visit http://bit.ly/2ylAa2DOn January 26, 2015, the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance (IMFG) marked its tenth anniversary in the presence of an overflow crowd at the Munk School of Global Affairs. IMFG@10: The Past, Present, and Future of City Finance and Governance began with opening remarks from Premier Kathleen Wynne, followed by a panel moderated by IMFG Chair Alan Broadbent that featured Enid Slack (Director, IMFG), Richard Bird (Senior Fellow, IMFG and Professor Emeritus, Rotman School of Management), and Zack Taylor (Assistant Professor, University of Toronto Scarborough).
Enid Slack reflected on developments in municipal finance in Canada over the last ten years, what they mean for the fiscal health of cities, and suggested that cities need more revenue tools but could also do better with what they already have. Richard Bird took a global perspective, noting that problems in finance and governance are both universal and complex, but that solutions must be localized. Zack Taylor looked at the future of governance and urban resilience, asking whether local governments were up to the job of anticipating and managing long-term social, economic, and environmental transformations.Institute on Municipal Finance and Governanc
On the slack phenomena and snap force in tethers of submerged floating tunnels under wave conditions
No full textUnder severe sea wave conditions, the mooring tethers of submerged floating tunnel (SFT) might go slack. It may cause the structure failure during the service lifetime of SFT. The paper investigated SFT dynamics when going through tether slacking and the related snap force under wave conditions. Besides the nonlinearity of fluid drag and of structural geometry for a relative large structure displacement, the problem is characterized by the nonlinearity due to the discontinuity in axial stiffness of the tethers. To include these nonlinearities, the method of Lagrange energy is used to build the governing equations of SFT motion, and a bilinear oscillator is introduced to simulate the mooring tether operating in an alternating slack-taut state. The sensitivities of the occurrence of tether slacking to wave height and wave period are investigated. Results show that at a large wave height SFT tether will go slack and snap force occurs. SFT responses are categorized into three types of state according to the dynamic response characteristics of tether tension. Effects of two fundamental structure parameters, buoyancy-weight ratio (BWR) and inclined mooring angle (IMA), on the dynamic responses of SFT are analyzed. A slack-taut map of SFT tethers is built. It intuitively describes the occurrences of slack and snap force with different combinations of the two parameters. An analytical approach for slack prediction by deriving the slack criterion is provided to reveal the mechanism of the presented slack-taut map. By present research, the authors tried to make their effort to provide an alternative philosophy for SFT structural design on concerning preventing the occurrence of tether slacking and snap force. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Factors regulating sediment fluxes over an engineered foredune and adjacent dune slack
No full textThis study aims to identify and understand the annual scale sediment transport patterns in a fully engineered dune-dune slack system that was created from seabed sediments for grey dune and moist dune slack habitat creation at the Delfland coast (the Netherlands). The annual morphological development was analysed using LiDAR elevation data. Daily aeolian sediment transport was simulated across the foredune and in the adjacent dune slack, using the numerical aeolian sediment transport model AeoLiS. All simulated transport events were combined to reveal how aeolian sediment transport behaves on an annual scale. Planting two continuous strips of marram grass along the top of the foredune induced rapid growth of the foredune, while limiting sediment supply to the dune slack. The armouring layer of shells that formed at the surface of the engineered topography, functioned as a supply-limiting factor and restricted the sediment entrainment and deflation of the dune slack. Therefore, the formation of a moist dune slack habitat may take longer for this engineered case than in a natural case with similar boundary conditions
Metropolitan Governance: Principles and Practice
No full textThis paper identifies a range of governance mechanisms to support the efficient and equitable provision of public services and improve policy coordination in metropolitan areas. It provides examples from cities in the Global North and Global South and takes a closer look at metropolitan governance in Brazil, where the constitution makes it challenging to create formal metropolitan structures. The experience of Brazil indicates that the lack of coordination across municipal boundaries leads to significant inefficiencies in the delivery of important services. The review of metropolitan governance models points to many alternatives that could alleviate these inefficiencies. The choice of model, however, depends on how decision makers choose to weight conflicting considerations—prioritizing efficiency, access, and accountability points to smaller local government units whereas economies of scale, externalities, and equity suggest larger governments. Regardless of what weights are attached to these criteria, some form of regional structure will result in a better solution for metropolitan governance when compared to the models currently in place. A regional structure would encompass an entire economic region, ensure that services are delivered in a coordinated fashion across municipal boundaries, yield economies of scale, and reduce externalities
Evaluation of Land Taxation in China
No full textThe emerging land-related unrest in China poses a pressing challenge on the legitimacy of the government. Through the perspective of good governance, the paper examines the role of land in government financing and its economic and political cost, as well as the erosion of government's credibility and its negative impact on private and collective property rights. The paper emphasizes the recent upward trend in land-related unrest as a consequence of abuses by local governments on land-source revenues. Our special concern rests on the institution of collective property which is slowly emerging from the shadow of the former state property in the course of economic transition. Collective property right could be a useful legal and economic institution but must receive political support to exist alongside with private property.Land tax, Property tax, Land-related revenue, Land administration
On the two essential concepts for SFT: synergetic buoyancy-weight ratio and slack-taut map
No full textIn the submerged floating tunnel (SFT) design and future construction, buoyancy-weight ratio (BWR) and slack-taut performance (STP) are two intrinsic issues with respect to the SFT dynamic response and stability under the structural and external loadings. BWR is defined as the ratio of tunnel buoyancy to the whole tunnel weight. Our experiments and numerical simulations indicate that BWR dominates the dynamic response of SFT and is the most important parameter to be considered in SFT design. For this, we re-state the essential concept of "Synergetic range of BWR". This is regarded as, for an SFT structure with related environmental conditions, a suitable range of BWR value exists, which will lead to less dynamic response and more stable for the SFT. STP is the tether slacking and the related snap force under sea wave conditions. Our simulation results show that SFT tether may go slack and induce snap force at a large wave height at a certain combination of BWR and inclined morning angle (IMA) of the tether. As the second essential concept for SFT, a Slack-Taut Map of SFT is constructed, which describes the occurrences of slack and snap force (under a certain wave condition) as a function of BWR and IMA. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd
- …
