The conjugate gradient optimization algorithm is combined with the modified back propagation algorithm to yield a computationally efficient algorithm for training multilayer perceptron (MLP) networks (CGFR/AG). The computational efficiency is enhanced by adaptively modifying initial search direction as described in the following steps: (1) Modification on standard back propagation algorithm by ...

Modern anthropometric techniques were used to investigate two groups of subjects, one with various syndromes associated with pain in the lower back and the other a control group. Analysis confirmed previous reports that people prone to pain in the back have a greater standing height than people who are not. To investigate this further two new components of height, namely pelvic height and supra...

This paper tests the influence of regulatory capital guidelines on the link between banks’ loan loss reserve decisions in 2007 and the risk of bank failure during the 2008-2009 economic crisis. Our primary finding is that larger loan loss reserve increases in 2007 are associated with an increased risk of bank failure in 2008-2009, but only for banks that are allowed to add back loan loss reserv...

The parameters of the constitutive model, the creep model, and the wetting model of materials of the Nuozhadu high earth-rockfill dam were back-analyzed together based on field monitoring displacement data by employing an intelligent back-analysis method. In this method, an artificial neural network is used as a substitute for time-consuming finite element analysis, and an evolutionary algorith...

The aim of this analysis was to assess the impact of chronic back pain and psychological distress on the utilization of primary and secondary levels of care in the ambulatory health care sector in Austria - a country without a gatekeeping system. Additionally, we aimed to determine if the joint effect of chronic back pain and psychological distress was higher than the impact of the sum of the t...

For the calculation of linkage intensities, i t is of distinct advantage to back-cross the heterozygote on the double recessive since the gametic ratio can then be determined directly from the zygotic types. In some plants, as corn, for example, back-crosses are easily and readily made, but in others, as soy-beans, the practical difficulties attending artificial hybridization are too great to a...

INTRODUCTION Cognitive neuropsychology focuses on the concepts of dissociation and double dissociation. The performance of number processing and calculation tasks by patients with acquired brain injury can be used to characterise the way in which the healthy cognitive system manipulates number symbols and quantities. The objective of this study is to determine the components of the numerical pr...

BACKGROUND The current methodology for sample size calculations for stepped-wedge cluster randomised trials (SW-CRTs) is based on the assumption of equal cluster sizes. However, as is often the case in cluster randomised trials (CRTs), the clusters in SW-CRTs are likely to vary in size, which in other designs of CRT leads to a reduction in power. The effect of an imbalance in cluster size on th...