Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Visual tracking of the millennium development goals with a fuzzified self-organizing neural network

  • Original Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Machine Learning and Cybernetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper uses the self-organizing map (SOM), a neural network-based projection and clustering technique, for monitoring the millennium development goals (MDGs). The eight MDGs represent commitments to reduce poverty and hunger, and to tackle ill-health, gender inequality, lack of education, lack of access to clean water and environmental degradation by 2015. This paper presents a SOM model for cross sectional and temporal visual benchmarking of countries and pairs the map with a geospatial dimension by mapping the clustering onto a geographic map. The temporal monitoring is facilitated by fuzzifying the second-level clustering with membership degrees. By creating an MDG index, and associating the SOM model with it, the model enables cross sectional and temporal analysis of the overall MDG progress of countries or regions. Further, the SOM model enables analysis of country-specific as well as regional performance according to a user-specified level of aggregation. The result of this paper is an MDG map for visual tracking and monitoring of the progress of MDG indicators.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

Explore related subjects

Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.

Notes

  1. The HDI, for example, has been criticized for the way its component indices are derived by the raw data (see Noorbakhsh [17]) and the additivity of the aggregation method (see Sagar and Najam [23]).

  2. For a thorough discussion of the software, see Deboeck [6].

References

  1. Alkire S, Santos ME (2010) Acute multidimensional poverty: a new index for developing countries. Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, Working Paper 38, University of Oxford

  2. Boehme O, Hardoon D, Manevitz L (2011) Classifying cognitive states of brain activity via one-class neural networks with feature selection by genetic algorithms. Int J Mach Learn Cybern 2(3):125–134

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Collan M, Eklund T, Back B (2007) Using the self-organizing map to visualize and explore socio-economic development. EBS Rev 22(1):6–15

    Google Scholar 

  4. Coudouel A, Hentschel JS, Wodon QD (2002) Poverty measurement and analysis. In: Klugman J (ed) A sourcebook for poverty reduction strategies. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank, Washington, pp 29–69

    Google Scholar 

  5. Cox T, Cox M (2001) Multidimensional scaling. Chapman & Hall/CRC, Boca Raton

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  6. Deboeck G (1998) Best practices in data mining using self-organizing maps. In: Deboeck G, Kohonen T (eds) Visual explorations in finance with self-organizing maps. Springer, Berlin, pp 201–229

    Google Scholar 

  7. Eklund T, Back B, Vanharanta H, Visa A (2008) Evaluating a SOM-based financial benchmarking tool. J Emerg Technol Acc 5(1):109–127

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Graaff AJ, Engelbrecht AP (2011) Clustering data in stationary environments with a local network neighborhood artificial immune system. Int J Mach Learn Cybern. doi:10.1007/s13042-011-0041-0

  9. Guo G, Chen S, Chen L (2011) Soft subspace clustering with an improved feature weight self-adjustment mechanism. Int J Mach Learn Cybern. doi:10.1007/s13042-011-0038-8

  10. Kaski S (1997) Data exploration using self-organizing maps. Acta Polytechnica Scandinavica, Mathematics, Computing and Management in Engineering Series No. 82., Espoo

  11. Kaski S, Kohonen T (1996) Exploratory data analysis by the self-organizing map: structures of welfare and poverty in the world. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Neural Networks in the Capital Markets. World Scientific, London, pp 498–507

  12. Kaski S, Venna J, Kohonen T (2000) Coloring that reveals cluster structures in multivariate data. Aust J Intell Inf Process Syst 6:82–88

    Google Scholar 

  13. Kohonen T (1982) Self-organized formation of topologically correct feature maps. Biol Cybern 66:59–69

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  14. Kohonen T (2001) Self-organizing maps, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  15. Liang J, Song W (2011) Clustering based on steiner points. Int J Mach Learn Cybern. doi:10.1007/s13042-011-0047-7

  16. Naq AK, Mitra A (2002) Identifying patterns of socio-economic development using self-organizing maps. J Soc Econ Dev 4(1):55–88

    Google Scholar 

  17. Noorbakhsh FA (1998) A modified human development index. World Dev 26:517–528

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Prados de la Escosura L (2010) Improving human development: a long-run view. CEPR discussion Paper 7982

  19. Prennushi G, Rubio G, Subbarao K (2002) Monitoring and evaluation. In: Klugman J (ed) A sourcebook for poverty reduction strategies. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank, Washington, pp 105–130

    Google Scholar 

  20. Ravallion M (2010) Mashup indices of development. Policy Research Working Paper 5432, World Bank

  21. Resta M (2009) Early warning systems: an approach via self organizing maps with applications to emergent markets. In: Proceedings of the 2009 conference on New Directions in Neural Networks: 18th Italian Workshop on Neural Networks. IOS Press, The Netherlands

  22. Ripley BD (1996) Pattern recognition and neural networks. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  23. Sagar AD, Najam A (1998) The human development index: a critical review. Ecol Econ 25:249–264

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Sahn DE, Stifel DC (2003) Progress toward the millennium development goals in Africa. World Dev 31(1):23–52

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Samad T, Harp SA (1992) Self-organization with partial data. Netw Comput Neural Syst 3:205–212

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Sammon JW (1969) A non-linear mapping for data structure analysis. IEEE Tran Comput 18(5):401–409

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Sarlin P, Eklund T (2011a) Financial performance analysis of European banks using a fuzzified self-organizing map. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems (KES2011), Springer, Kaiserslautern, September 12–14, 2011, pp 185–194

  28. Sarlin P, Eklund T (2011b) Fuzzy clustering of the self-organizing map: some applications on financial time series. In: Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Self-Organizing Maps (wSOM’11), Springer, Helsinki, June 13–15, 2011, pp 40–50

  29. Sarlin P, Peltonen T (2011) Mapping the state of financial stability. ECB Working Papers No. 1382

  30. Tong DL, Mintram R (2010) Genetic algorithm-neural network (GANN): a study of neural network activation functions and depth of genetic algorithm search applied to feature selection. Int J Mach Learn Cybern 1:75–87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Tukey JW (1977) Exploratory data analysis. Addison-Wesley, Reading

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  32. Tyler Z, Gopal S (2010) Sub-Saharan Africa at a crossroads—a quantitative analysis of regional development. The Pardee Papers, No. 10, May 2010

  33. UNDG (2003) Indicators for Monitoring the millennium development goals: definitions, rationale, concepts and methods. United Nations Development Group, New York. Available at: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Attach/Indicators/HandbookEnglish.pdf. Accessed 5 December 2010

  34. UNDP (1993) Human development report. Oxford University Press, New York, also published in various other years

  35. UNECOSOC (2010) Assessing progress in Africa towards the millennium development goals report. E/ECA/COE/29/15 and AU/CAMEF/EXP/15(V). Available online: http://www.un.org/regionalcommissions/MDGs/eca_assessingprogress10.pdf. Accessed 10 December 2010

  36. Vesanto J, Alhoniemi E (2000) Clustering of the self-organizing map. IEEE Trans Neural Netw 11(3):586–600

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Vesanto J, Sulkava M, Hollmén J (2003) On the decomposition of the self-organizing map distortion measure. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Self-Organizing Maps (wSOM’03), Springer, Hibikino, September 11–14, 2003, pp 11–16

  38. Wang XZ, Dong CR (2009) Improving generalization of fuzzy if-then rules by maximizing fuzzy entropy. IEEE Trans Fuzzy Syst 17(3):556–567

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Wang XZ, Zhai JH, Lu SX (2008) Induction of multiple fuzzy decision trees based on rough set technique. Inf Sci 178(16):3188–3202

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  40. Wang XZ, Dong CR, Fan TG (2007) Training T-S norm neural networks to refine weights for fuzzy if-then rules. Neurocomputing 70(13–15):2581–2587

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Ward J (1963) Hierarchical grouping to optimize an objective function. J Am Stat Assoc 58:236–244

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

I acknowledge Barbro Back and Tomas Eklund for helpful comments and suggestions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peter Sarlin.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sarlin, P. Visual tracking of the millennium development goals with a fuzzified self-organizing neural network. Int. J. Mach. Learn. & Cyber. 3, 233–245 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13042-011-0057-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13042-011-0057-5

Keywords

Navigation