Statisticians typically estimate the parameters of latent class and latent profile models using the Expectation-Maximization algorithm. This paper proposes an alternative two-stage approach to model fitting. The first stage uses the modified k-means and hierarchical clustering algorithms to identify the latent classes that best satisfy the conditional independence assumption underlying the late...

A two stage hierarchical vision system is presented. In a first stage continuous structures of traffic scenes are mapped to code trees within a hierarchical data structure. This stage is independent of the application and first hardware implementations are available (PROMETHEUS-project). At the second stage top down strategies allow efficient image analysis. Feature extraction is implemented on...

The four stages of postformal thought are Systematic, Metasystematic, Paradigmatic, and Cross-Paradigmatic. Each successive stage is more hierarchically complex than the one that precedes it. Each stage uses the elements formed at the previous stage to construct more hierarchically complex elements (e.g., metasystems, paradigms). An actual instrument constructed using the Model of Hierarchical ...