Mohit Sewak - CSCP (by APICS), Lean- SixSigma (by KPMG), MBA (from Great Lakes). Mobile- +91-95 85 64 65 33. e-mail: mohit@sewak.in

Biological Neural Networks

Posted by Mohit Sewak     Category: Business Intelliegence, Neural Networks

.

.

Neural Networks

.

Our brain consists of approximately 1011 neurons, in a densely connected and functionally related in a peripheral nervous system. These neurons are biological cells which get energized by the reaction of chemical ions, which generates an electrical signal which then propagates the neural network. These neural networks are nothing but a network of all of these 1011 neurons, in which each of these neuron is interconnected to several thousands of other neurons. The axon (output node) of one neuron is not connected to the dendrites (input node) of other neurons, through synapses (connectors between input and output nodes).

.


.

The excitation of the neurons by chemical ions causes electrical spikes that travels along the axon of the pre-synaptic neuron (transmitter neuron) that further triggers the release of neurotransmitter substances at the synapse. The neurotransmitters cause excitation or inhibition in the dendrite of the post-synaptic neuron (receiver neuron). The integration of the excitatory and inhibitory signals may produce spikes in the post-synaptic neuron. The contribution of the signals depends on the strength of the synaptic connection. Through a network of these electrical signals and flows, various senses and motor nerves are energized and and information flows from one part of the nervous system to another.

.

.


Although at a unit level the system is very simple, but the very complexity of the interconnections and the huge number of the network nodes makes possible the accomplishment of extraordinary complex tasks through these networks.

.

.

Next: Neural Networks at Work

Next: Capabilities of Neural Networks.


.

Follow MohitFollow Mohit on TwitterSee LinkedIn ProfileSubscribe to RSS FeedsAdd on FacebookMail to Mohit

.

.

The spikes travelling along the axon of the pre-synaptic neuron trigger the release of neurotransmitter substances at the synapse.

The neurotransmitters cause excitation or inhibition in the dendrite of the post-synaptic neuron.

The integration of the excitatory and inhibitory signals may produce spikes in the post-synaptic neuron.

The contribution of the signals depends on the strength of the synaptic connection.

Share this post with your friends and family on:
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Technorati
  • Add to favorites
  • Yahoo! Bookmarks
  • Live
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • MySpace
  • MyShare
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Ping.fm

Profiting From Data Mining

Posted by Mohit Sewak     Category: Data Mining, Marketing

.

.

.

Profiting From Data Mining

.

.

.

Richard Mouser was spending $85 per sale on ad costs for his website. After using Bullock’s Taguchi method of data mining where he tested headers, subheaders, site copy and sent test pages to customers, he was able to reduce his advertising cost to $8 per sale and sales numbers have gone up dramatically.
.
.

Apeoplens by SAS, IBM, Oracle, CA and Microsoft help customers gain valuable insights. Data mining is $1.85 bn industry.

.

.

Uses of Data Mining:-

.

  • 1. market segmentation
  • 2. Customer churn – predicting factors that cause customers to leave a business and go to a competitor
  • 3. Fraud detection
  • 4. Direct marketing – identify best prospects for highest response rate
  • 5. Interactive marketing
  • 6. trend Analysis
.

Bullocks claims his software can increase conversion rate on a website by upto 400%. Most companies don’t realize that having a website isn’t enough today. You need to monitor and evaluate consumer action and monetize that traffic.

.

.

Follow Mohit on TwitterSubscibe to Mohit's RSS FeedsFollow Mohit on LinkedInFollow Mohit on FacebookMail to MohitUtsav Marriage Lawn and Wedding ServicesMohit's Blog

.

.

.

.

Share this post with your friends and family on:
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Technorati
  • Add to favorites
  • Yahoo! Bookmarks
  • Live
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • MySpace
  • MyShare
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Ping.fm

Diamonds in Data Mines: Data Mining Digs In

Posted by Mohit Sewak     Category: CRM, Data Mining, Database Marketing, Marketing

.

.

.

Diamonds in Data Mines

.

Data Mining Digs In

.

.

.

Recently Farmer’s Insurance group with the help of IBM pulled 2 million policies from its database to run a pilot test using IBM’s Decision Edge software.

They found that apart from young 20 something single guys, married boomers with kids also bought sports cars. They paid same insurance surcharges but claim rates were less.  Hence they began to offer discounts in policies and lax rules for such sports car enthusiasts.

.

Many companies are using data mining to determine who are their best customers and how better to market products and services to them.

.

Only 8% of respondents in a survey currently use data mining software, while 54% plan to purchase data mining tools in the near future. Big companies like Amazon who took over Alexa internet and Yahoo which bought out Hyperparallel are trying to earn value from bits and bytes of data from Netizens.

.

Data warehouse with more than 1 Tb will increase from 19% to 30% becoming largest segment this year.

.

.

Success Stories with Data Mining:

.

Data mining led Fingerhut to discover that customers who changed their residence tripled their purchases in the 3 months after their move. Hence they developed a special ‘new mover’s catalog’ to target this segment. Clustering customers into various segments is an important objective of data mining.

.

.

Preparing data for data mining takes upto 80% of the total time according to SAS institute.

Sometimes there are hundreds of variables affecting a metric. Data mining gives you ability to sift through these potential variables to determine the most important ones.

Even though the results may be questionable sometimes, data mining is a very important tool to segment and target the customer and gain insight.

.

Data mining + people with solid knowledge of marketplace  = Building strong customer relations.

.

.

.

Follow Mohit on TwitterSubscibe to Mohit's RSS FeedsFollow Mohit on LinkedInFollow Mohit on FacebookMail to MohitUtsav Marriage Lawn and Wedding ServicesMohit's Blog

.

.

.

.

Share this post with your friends and family on:
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Technorati
  • Add to favorites
  • Yahoo! Bookmarks
  • Live
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • MySpace
  • MyShare
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Ping.fm

Capabilities of Neural Networks

Posted by Mohit Sewak     Category: Business Intelliegence, Neural Networks

.

.

.

Power of Biological Neural Networks in Different Species

.

.

Numerous experiments, and researches have been conducted over how we remember, identify and recall things. It has often been seen that once we see something, we are reminded of something else. This concept is widely (although without our knowledge) often being used by advertising and publishing companies to associate their brands with something that has a distinctly positive connotation in our lives.

For example, Coca-Cola with its widely popular advertisement slogan “Thanda bole to Coca Cola”, has attempted successfully to link Coca Cola with the concept of “Cold Drinks” literally. So that the next time you think of having a cold drink, you can instantly recall Coca Cola. There has been numerous such examples, but the bottom line is that there are some networks/ associations in our brain that have the capability of linking two different concepts residing in two different (sometimes seemingly unrelated) corners of the brain.

This can be done either by enforcing an already existing connection (axon-synapse-dendrite) between two nodes (neurons), or (re)creating a connection which (has been broken)never existed earlier.

.

.

.

There have been several experiments with birds and animals as well which further proves this concept of the working of memory, identification, association and recall through the processes in our biological networks. One of these is:

.

.

The Pigeon in Skinner Box Experiment:

.

In this experiment pigeons are made to recognize the paintings of two different artists (here Chagall, and Van Gogh). First they are shown the same paintings that they were shown earlier (when the distinction was made between the artists and their paintings), and then they were shown an entirely different sets of paintings of these two painters which has never been shown to these pigeons earlier. the results were:

.

1. In the first case the pigeons could distinguish between the paintings of the two artists with 95% accuracy.

2. In the second case of previously un shown paintings the accuracy was still remarkable high with 85%.

.

.

Implications and Uses of the findings of the capabilities of the Neural Networks:

.

The accuracy of 85% (for unknown, uncertain cases) is quiet high than what is possibly with any computer algorithm present (being used). Also the working of these neural transmitters (at the unit level) is quiet simple, and as they work on impulses of electric signals, so is also replicable in today’s sophisticated electronic chips.

.

.


It is only the volume, and the complexity of these networks that make them solve such complex and typical problems that seems impossible for a single neuron, or even a human to solve. And computers (especially with their increasing processing power and memory) are ideally suited to be programmed for such voluminous, fast (yet simple) inter-connective transmissions to solve a problem similar to how a human brain solves them.

Thus we come to the concept of ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS, which will be covered in greater detail in the subsequent articles.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Follow MohitFollow Mohit on TwitterSee LinkedIn ProfileSubscribe to RSS FeedsAdd on FacebookMail to Mohit

.

.

.

Share this post with your friends and family on:
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Technorati
  • Add to favorites
  • Yahoo! Bookmarks
  • Live
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • MySpace
  • MyShare
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Ping.fm