Tuesday, April 20, 2010

google blog

Cloud computing is all about how a company can help put their information on the internet to help them keep up with the massive amonts of data they have. One company has to sacrafice the money and other company rep the benifits of how the cloud works. A company can only pay for the usage they need , if a company needs more they pay for more if a company wants less they get less. this is the best thing that a comapny can do for it organization, you only pay for what you need.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Neural Network Software and Breast Cancer

Classify Breast Cancer Cells with BrainMaker Neural Network Software
Breast cancer cells are traditionally examined under a microscope by a human, who decides the degree of cancer present. People are inconsistent in these judgements from day to day and from person to person.

A BrainMaker neural network that classifies breast cancer cells has been developed. The system was developed by Andrea Dawson, MD of the University of Rochester Medical Center, Richard Austin, MD of the University of California at San Francisco, and David Weinberg, MD, PhD of the Brigham and Womens' Hospital and Harvard Medical School of Boston. Initial comparisons showed that BrainMaker is in good agreement with human observer cancer classifications.

Cancer cells are measured with the CAS-100 (Cell Analysis System, Elmhurst, IL). There are 17 inputs to the neural network which represent morphometric features such as density and texture. There are four network outputs representing nuclear grading. The cancerous nucleus is graded as being well, moderate, or poorly differentiated, or as benign. Correct grade assignments were made between 52% and 89% of the time on cases not seen during training. The lower success rate (for well differentiated) may have been due to the smaller percentage of this type in the training set. In addition, heterogeneity is much lower in well-differentiated tumors. Cancerous nuclei were classified within one grade of the correct grade.

INPUTS object size
object shape
object sum density
object average density
object texture
angular second moment
contrast
difference moment
sum variance
difference variance (Fisher)
difference entropy
information measure B
maximum correlation coefficient
difference variance
diagonal moment
second diagonal moment
product moment

OUTPUTS
well differentiated
moderate
poor
benign

Thsi network software helps the human kind my letting humans that have been trained to do there jobs in the medical profession answer question and put them in a computer program and run the result againt, historical result.

Neural Networks

BrainMaker Neural Networks and Technical Analysis of Currencies
Mr. James O'Sullivan, of O'Sullivan Brothers Investments, Ltd. (Connecticut) has been successfully using many BrainMaker (California Scientific) neural networks on a daily basis for three years to do financial forecasting. He earned $250,000 in one month using neural networks to advise him on his New York Stock Exchange seat trades. Some of his networks are 88-90% accurate in their predictions, according to Mr. O'Sullivan. He uses an automated neural network system that monitors more than twenty different financial markets on a daily basis.

Mr. O'Sullivan has some unusual designs which act more as detectors of specific market conditions, rather than as exact price predictors. He combines the neural network data with other data from his technical analysis software to produce an automated report about a certain market. He gets his data live via satellite from Data Broadcasting and puts it into a charting and technical data module. He has pre-programmed the various algebraic manipulations to be performed on his data before BrainMaker files are built. He does moving averages, changes from period to period, and a few proprietary operations. He runs new data through the system and produces the one-page report in about thirty seconds. He says at least 80% of his decision-making is based on neural network predictions.

Mr. O'Sullivan has not fully disclosed his neural network designs to us, but his basic insights are still quite valuable. The key is to ask the neural network the right kind of questions. He asks questions such as "What is the probability of the product (or market) going up 0.618 standard deviations?" and "What percentage of the time does it go up that much?" He also asks questions about the directional behavior of the market and at what price the product (or market) is likely to take off in one direction or the other.

Mr. O'Sullivan's neural networks output several different things such as predicted prices, limits, and directional thrust. One neural network outputs the probability of a certain price occurring the next time period. Another neural network produces best stop price and best target price for long and short positions. Other neural networks produce directional indicators for three market energies. Another predicts the level at which the market is likely to take off.

In one design, the network is given various market conditions as input. The training output is the likelihood of various changes in price. For example, his neural network is told during training that, given similar market conditions, the closing price goes up at least 0.313 standard deviations above the prior day 90% of the time, at least 0.618 deviations 80% of the time, and at least 1 deviation 70% of the time.

An interesting phenomenon of the market is that when a change starts occurring in one direction or the other, there is a point at which it is very likely to continue moving in that direction for several time periods. Once a price reaches that level, there is a reduced risk to buy or sell (whichever is appropriate). Mr. O'Sullivan calls the network that predicts this price level his Risk Barometer network. He uses all the neural networks trained for a specific market when making decisions. For example, if the long term trend is up, the Fast Movement network is a large positive number, his Risk Barometer says 233.092, and the NYSE is at 250, it could indicate an overreacted market that will reverse itself soon.

Probability if...UP if...DOWN
85% 231.538 231.163
70% 231.791 230.909
60% 232.316 230.383
50% 233.675 229.025
40% 233.700 229.000

For Trades: Long buy Short sell
best stop = 230.708 231.992
best target = 232.054 230.646

Directional Indicators:
Trend Reaction Fast Movement Risk Barometer
Long Term 0.5066 21.499 -1.329 233.092
Medium Term -7.2280 18.580 8.387 227.643
Short Term 10.7250 4.243 3.377 229.450

This fella used the network to his advantage so that he could make prediction in the stock market, if it was going up or down and it helped him find the best places for his money. This is a great thing to have if you can narrow the field down and use the statistical information into usable helpful information.

Honda's efforts to stay on top

Hondas effort to achieve a competitive advantage through strategy implementation has paid off. Honda has grown all aspect of its organization in the past years. Sales are up in motorcycles, automobiles, finance and power products. Honda has made it a point to grow its organization toward the future with its production of robots and other futuristic devices and they fulfilled that promise. Honda has also increased the number of employees that they employ to manufacture their products. Hondas market share has also went up against it competitors due to the fact of its leader motivating the organization to move forward. Honda consumer image has also made a dramatic increase since the economy has gone down in the past years. People are taking to the idea that Honda makes a superior product to its competitors in the aspect of longevity, reliability and resale value. In the global market Honda is on the rise in almost every aspect. Honda has a bright future ahead of them in the global market if they can stay on the forefront of technology and keep their brand image secure.

Strategic leadership on honda

Honda has a very key group of leaders inside of its organization. These leaders have made Honda what it is to this day. All these leaders had a vision of what direction they thought the company should have moved in and they have moved the organization that way very effectively. The first aspect of the leaders in Honda is that they all have the vision of what Honda is moving forward to. These leaders are in the process of designing and moving Honda in the way of the future. Honda is always in the pursuit of excellence in everything they do this stems mostly from the organizational leaders. The leaders in Honda are very proven self motivated people that push the organization to new heights with every idea. Most of these leaders are organizational leaders meaning that they all hold management positions inside of the organization. Most of these leaders are held to such high standard because of their personal bases power; this is that their personality and behavior motivate people to do their best and to come up with new ideas. Honda is a very proven company with many proven leader and this shows in everything that they produce.

Organizational Structure on honda

Honda has a very tall structure inside of their organization. Honda tries to spread the control of their organization evenly over all of their departments. Honda feels that no one department should have enough power to run the company. The executive council is at the top of Hondas organizational structure. The council supervises the company and the direction that it is going and makes sure that the company stays on track with the overall vision of the company. The decisions the council makes are trying to maintain that the company keep making a high quality product and keep innovating without growing too much to become too complex. The main goal of Honda is to make a good high quality product that people think gives them safety and comfort. This is what the council bases every decision off of. Honda also has a good horizontal lay out of their organization. They have the motorcycle operations, automobile operations, power products operations, customer service operations, production operations, purchasing operations, business support operations, and business management operations. These are laid out so that there is very little distance between top management and the lower level employees. Honda does a very good job with their organization, on making sure that everything is ran as planned and that nothing gets out of line with the way that it is suppose to be. Honda is also a very centralized organization, with several layers of management that control the company by maintaining a high level of authority, which is the power to make decisions concerning business activities. Honda focuses on top-down management, whereby executives at the top communicate by telling middle managers, who then tell first-level managers, who then tell the staff what to do and how to do it. Honda is a formulized organization as well, they have rules and procedures that are written out and enforced along with regulations. These rules and regulation are enforced inside of the organization and are followed by every employee no matter their status in the company.

Strategic Control on honda

Starting with business execution, Honda has established a system for operating its organizational units that reflects its fundamental corporate philosophy. Honda has separate headquarters that have been set up for each region, business, and function, and a general manager from the Board of Directors or an operating officer has been assigned to each headquarters and main division. In addition, the Executive Council deliberates important matters concerning management, and regional operating boards deliberate important matters concerning management of their respective regions. The result is a system that functions effectively and efficiently, and addresses the needs of customers and societies around the world in a swift and appropriate manner. The strategies from Honda motors are formulated and top managers set goals, and these goal are evaluated against predetermined figures that Honda feel that they can reach. Honda always has the mind set of “are we doing the right things for our customers” and Honda strives to” do things right the first time”. These two quotes are the back bone of Honda motors and their strategic control that they put forth toward their automobiles

Corporate goverance on honda

Based on Honda’s fundamental corporate philosophy, they are working to enhance corporate governance as one of its most important management issues. Honda’s aim is to have our customers and society, as well as our shareholders and investors, place even greater trust in them to ensure that Honda is "a company that society wants to exist."
To ensure objective control of Honda’s management, outside directors and outside corporate auditors are appointed to the Board of Directors and the Board of Corporate Auditors, which are responsible for the supervision and auditing of the Company. Honda has also introduced an operating officer system, aimed at strengthening both the execution of business operations at the regional and local levels and the supervision by the Board of Directors. The term of office of each director is limited to one year, and the amount of remuneration payable to them is determined according to a standard that reflects their performance in the Company. Honda’s goal in doing this is to maximize the flexibility with which our directors respond to changes in the operating environment. Honda is working autonomously within each division to strengthen legal and ethical compliance and risk management. The Audit Office’s task is to carry out effective audits for the performance of each division's business. This is to enhance the trust and understanding of shareholders and investors, Honda's policy emphasizes the appropriate disclosure of company information, and financial results on a quarterly basis with timely and accurately disclosing of management strategies. Honda will continue raising its level of transparency in the future to further the trust of its stockholder and customers.

Strategic leadership

Strategic leadership in an organization is the process of transforming organizations from what they are to what the leader would have them become. The roles of a leader are determine the direction of the organization, design the organization to best fit the actions that he is wanting to take and nurture a culture dedicated to excellence and ethical behavior. In strategic leadership there will always be barriers to change, these are characteristic of individuals and organizations that prevent a leader from transforming an organization. There are many different barriers to change that a leader must overcome. One of those barriers is systematic barriers; these are barriers to change that stem from an organizational design that impedes the proper flow and evaluation of information. Another barrier is behavior barriers, these are barriers to change associated with the tendency for managers to look at issues from a biased or limited perspective based on their prior education and experience. The next barriers a leader might face is political barriers these are barriers to change related to conflicts arising from power relationships. There are many sources of power in an organization. Power is a leader’s ability to get things done in a way he or she wants them to be done. There is organizational power, which is power that stems from a leader’s holding a formal management position. There is also personal bases power; this is power that stems from a leader’s personality characteristics and behavior. There are also politics in an organization, these are power struggles from the head leaders to get what they want in the organization by trying to get people to back them more than the other leader so they can get things done in the way they want them done. The next section is the analysis of my company Honda motors and how these principals fit into their organization.

Organizational Structure

There are two types of organizational structures that an organization can have, they are either a vertical structure or a horizontal structure. A vertical structure is a hierarchically structured organization where all management activities are controlled by a centralized management staff. This traditional type of organization often develops strong bureaucratic control over all organizational activities. A horizontal structure is an organization with few or no intervening levels of management between the top executive and the workers. This means that managers are much closer to their employees in this flat type structure than in a tall vertical structure. This allows for much faster transition times between problems that organizations have. An organization can also be centralized in these structures, an organizations with a centralized structure has several layers of management that control the company by maintaining a high level of authority, which is the power to make decisions concerning business activities. With a centralized structure, line-and-staff employees have limited authority to carry something out without prior approval. This organizational structure tends to focus on top-down management, whereby executives at the top communicate by telling middle managers, who then tell first-level managers, who then tell the staff what to do and how to do it. An organization can also be formalized in these structures. This means the extent to which rules and procedures are written out and enforced, organizations with high formalization, like bureaucracies, have strict enforcement of many set written rules and regulations. The next section deals with the strategic leadership of organizations and how it affects them.

Strategic Control

There are two types of strategic control there is the traditional approach and the contemporary approach. The first approach I will define is the traditional approach, this is a sequential method of organizational control in which strategies are formulated and top management sets goals, strategies are implemented, and performance is measured against the predetermined goal set. The next approach is the contemporary approach, this follows the same guidelines but there are two distinct differences, informational control and behavioral control. Informational control details with the concern whether or not the organization is “Doing the right things”. Behavioral control on the other hand asks if the organization is “Doing things right” in the implementation strategy. Informational control is a method of organizational control in which a firm gathers and analyzes information from the internal and external environment in order to obtain the best fit between the organization’s goals and strategies and the strategic environment. Behavioral control is a method of organizational control in which a firm influences the actions of employees through culture, reward, and boundaries. Inside an organization there is also control systems, these are corporate culture and reward systems. Corporate culture is a system of shared values and beliefs that shape a company’s people, organizational structure and control systems to produce behavioral norms. Reward systems represent a powerful means of influencing an organization’s culture, focusing efforts on high-priority tasks, and motivating individuals and collective task performance. The next section deals with the organizational structure and how control is passed down from top management to the bottom of the ladder.

Corporate Governance

One aspect of corporate governance is agency relationship. This is the relationship between principals and their agents, with emphasis on two problems: the conflicting goals of principals and agents, along with the difficulty of principals to monitor the agents, and the different attitudes and preferences towards risk of principals and agents. Another aspect of corporate governance is managerial opportunism. This is where a manager is pursuing their own interest to the detriment of the corporation. Managers will spend corporate funds on expensive perquisites, devote time and resources to pet projects, engage in power struggles and negate attractive merger offers because they may result in increased employment risk. The next aspect of corporate governance is the corporate governance problem. This is where the relationship among various participants in determining the direction and performance of the corporation fail to align managerial motives with the best interest of the shareholders, elected representatives and the board of directors. There are also governance mechanisms; the first is the board of directors. They are a group that has a fiduciary duty to ensure the company is run consistently with the long-term interests of the owners, or shareholders, of a corporation and that acts as an intermediary between the shareholders and management. The next mechanism is executive compensation; this is the most critical roles of the board of directors is to create incentives that align the interest of the CEO and top executives with the interest of owners of the corporation. This is to adopt policies and strategies that maximize the value of the stockholders shares. The board can require CEOs to become substantial owners of company stock, base salaries and bonuses on performance and they can also enforce dismissal for poor performance. Another mechanism is threat of takeover; this is the risk to management of the firm being acquired by hostile raiders. The next section deals with strategic controls and how they are used within organizations.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

The Neural Network

A neural network acquires knowledge through learning.
A neural network's knowledge is stored within inter-neuron connection strengths known as synaptic weights.

The true power and advantage of neural networks lies in their ability to represent both linear and non-linear relationships and in their ability to learn these relationships directly from the data being modeled. Traditional linear models are simply inadequate when it comes to modeling data that contains non-linear characteristics. Models can be made for anything that has historial data that can be backed up.