In the field of machine learning, the goal of statistical classification is to use an object's characteristics to identify which class it belongs to. A linear classifier achieves this by making a classification decision based on the value of a linear combination of the characteristics. An object's characteristics are known as feature values and are presented to the machine in a vector called a feature vector; such classifiers work well for practical problems such as document classification, more for problems with many variables, reaching accuracy levels comparable to non-linear classifiers while taking less time to train and use. If the input feature vector to the classifier is a real vector x → the output score is y = f = f, where w → is a real vector of weights and f is a function that converts the dot product of the two vectors into the desired output; the weight vector w → is learned from a set of labeled training samples. F is a threshold function, which maps all values of w → ⋅ x → above a certain threshold to the first class and all other values to the second class.

For a two-class classification problem, one can visualize the operation of a linear classifier as splitting a high-dimensional input space with a hyperplane: all points on one side of the hyperplane are classified as "yes", while the others are classified as "no". A linear classifier is used in situations where the speed of classification is an issue, since it is the fastest classifier when x → is sparse. Linear classifiers work well when the number of dimensions in x → is large, as in document classification, where each element in x → is the number of occurrences of a word in a document. In such cases, the classifier should be well-regularized. There are two broad classes of methods for determining the parameters of a linear classifier w →, they can be discriminative models. Methods of the first class model conditional density functions P. Examples of such algorithms include: Linear Discriminant Analysis —assumes Gaussian conditional density models Naive Bayes classifier with multinomial or multivariate Bernoulli event models.

The second set of methods includes discriminative models, which attempt to maximize the quality of the output on a training set. Additional terms in the training cost function can perform regularization of the final model. Examples of discriminative training of linear classifiers include: Logistic regression—maximum likelihood estimation of w → assuming that the observed training set was generated by a binomial model that depends on the output of the classifier. Perceptron—an algorithm that attempts to fix all errors encountered in the training set Support vector machine—an algorithm that maximizes the margin between the decision hyperplane and the examples in the training set. Note: Despite its name, LDA does not belong to the class of discriminative models in this taxonomy. However, its name makes sense when we compare LDA to the other main linear dimensionality reduction algorithm: principal components analysis. LDA is a supervised learning algorithm that utilizes the labels of the data, while PCA is an unsupervised learning algorithm that ignores the labels.

To summarize, the name is a historical artifact. Discriminative training yields higher accuracy than modeling the conditional density functions. However, handling missing data is easier with conditional density models. All of the linear classifier algorithms listed above can be converted into non-linear algorithms operating on a different input space φ, using the kernel trick. Discriminative training of linear classifiers proceeds in a supervised way, by means of an optimization algorithm, given a training set with desired outputs and a loss function tha

Kenneth Frank Charles Woolley, AM B Arch, Hon DSc Arch Sydney LFRAIA, FTSE, was an Australian architect. In a career spanning 60 years, he is best known for his contributions to project housing with Pettit and Sevitt, the Wilkinson Award-winning Woolley House in Mosman, his longstanding partnership with Sydney Ancher and Bryce Mortlock, he is regarded as being a prominent figure in the development of the Sydney School movement and Australian vernacular building. Ken Woolley was born in Sydney on 29 May 1933, he attended Sydney Boys’ High School and studied architecture at the University of Sydney, graduating in 1955. He joined Ancher Mortlock Woolley in 1964, just prior to Ancher's retirement; this practice has received all the major architectural awards and created numerous outstanding buildings which include the Australian Embassy in Bangkok, Town Hall House Sydney, the Park Hyatt at Campbell's Cove, the ABC Radio and Orchestra Centre at Ultimo, the Victorian State Library, the Control Tower at Sydney Airport, the Olympics and RAS Dome Exhibition and Indoor Sports Halls, the Olympic Hockey Stadium, the Sydney Convention Centre, Darling Harbour and the refurbishment of the Queen Victoria Building.

The most recent recognition was to the State Library of Victoria with the 2006 Lachlan Macquarie Award for Heritage Architecture. Monograph: Australian Architects: Ken Woolley – RAIA 1985 A. S. Hook RAIA Gold Medal Address Sydney 1994 ‘State of the Art’ Walter Burley Griffin Memorial Lecture Canberra 1997 ‘Give Art a Chance’ Monograph: The Master Architect Series IV Ken Woolley and Ancher Mortlock & Woolley Selected and Current Works 1999 Address ‘A Pitch of Magnificence’ Academy of Technological Science & Engineering, 2001 Architect and Artist – Drawings by Ken Woolley – Published by Images, 2002 Author, ‘Reviewing the Performance, The Design of the Sydney Opera House,’ Watermark Press 2010 Author ‘Making Marks, Drawings by Ken Woolley,’ Watermark Press 2013 Woolley took on a growing number of outside projects while still working with the Government Architect, he generated a reputation in the field of housing, winning a low cost competition for an exhibition house with Michael Dysart, in 1958.

Both architects were invited to submit designs for a display village of model project houses in Carlingford, in 1961, proving to be a successful event that signalled the architect designed project house to be a welcome alternative to the individually designed and standard range houses of the time. He began a working relationship with the project housing company and Sevitt, the same year, creating house types of high quality design and construction. "Split Level", "Lowline" and other early forms incorporated design principles through simple lines, natural features and an emphasis on functionalism. They were affordable due to the standardised usage of materials: brick veneer construction, Gyprock plasterboard interior wall cladding, Monier concrete tiles and Stegbar aluminium windows, they used basic grids, rectangular planes, flat roofs, were always grounded with room to be adapted to various sites and terrains. These sophisticated types underwent various levels of modifications as they were marketed through display villages and sold to individual buyers, who had a consultation with the architect to discuss the interior and exterior details, as a part of the service.

Through these modifications based on the clients’ needs and clever marketing, these houses gained an unprecedented popularity with prominent architects worldwide. At the completion of the Woolley House in Mosman in 1962, a work he would become most famous for, Ken Woolley emerged as a leading figure in a regional romantic movement referred to as Sydney School; this new movement combined the influence of organic architecture and the arts and crafts movement together with elements of the International Style, came to embody the harmonious relationships between man and nature as intimate domestic spaces in the Australian bushland. The basis of the Woolley House design was derived from a series of garden terraces, most of which were covered by sections of timber roof sloping parallel to the land. A geometric order was applied to the plan as a series of 12-foot square units that combine to make up the main central space. Natural materials were exploited, with neutral colour schemes of dark tiles, western red cedar boarding and panelling, painted bricks, creating a feeling of warmth in the house.

The open plan living spaces were connected with volumes containing variations of ceiling height and changes in direction, enabling floor areas to be narrow but for the feeling of space to still be maximised. The house won RAIA’s Wilkinson Award the same year it was completed; the house was gifted to the University of NSW in 2016 by the Hesketh family. Woolley joined the existing partnership of Sydney Ancher, Bryce Mortlock and Stuart Murray in 1964, with Murray leaving the practice in 1975, as Ancher Mortlock & Woolley, the team went on to establish a reputation in the design of special purpose buildings. Notable examples are the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Ultimo Centre, the RAS Dome and Exhibition Hall and the Olympic Hockey Stadium at Homebush. In addition, Ken Woolley worked on notable concrete buildings, multi-housing projects and buildings of structure and technology, with many of them picking up various esteemed awards over the following two decades. Among his many notable buildings in Sydney are the headquarters of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Ultimo, the Garvan Institute of Medical Resear

Themba Harry Gwala was a revolutionary leader in the African National Congress and South African Communist Party in South Africa. Harry Gwala trained as a teacher at Adams College and taught at Slangspruit where his students included Moses Mabhida. In 1942, Gwala joined the Communist Party of South Africa, in 1944 joined the ANC, moved into trade union organisation in the chemical and rubber industries, he was among the organisers of a national stay-away in 1950, was subsequently banned under the Suppression of Communism Act. From 1960, Gwala was involved in the ANC underground. In 1964, he was imprisoned on Robben Island for recruiting for Umkhonto we Sizwe, he was restricted to Pietermaritzburg by a banning order. There, he established a laundry collection business as a cover for continued ANC activity, attempts to revive the South African Congress of Trade Unions. In 1975, Gwala was arrested again, this time sentenced to life imprisonment under the Terrorism Act. While on Robben Island, Gwala taught classes to other inmates on political theory.

In 1995, Nelson Mandela recalled, Mphephethwa was a great "political teacher" who taught generation after generation of struggle. Many of today's leaders drank from the deep well of Mphephethwa's political wisdom, but such was the nature of his teaching, that the products of his education, would themselves develop into political giants in their own right. In 1984, his wife Elda died, he was refused permission to attend her funeral. During his second prison term, Gwala developed a motor neuron disease that resulted in the paralysis of his arms, led to loss of control in his neck muscles, his declining health was a major factor in his release from prison in November 1988. After the unbanning of the ANC in 1990, Gwala was appointed interim ANC Chair for the Natal Midlands, was elected to the position in December. In 1991, he was elected to the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress. During the negotiations of the 1990s, Gwala rejected rapprochement with the Inkatha Freedom Party, putting him at odds with the national ANC leadership.

He warned ANC negotiators that they "should not reconcile the oppressed to neo-apartheid dressed in the robes of a new constitution." His uncompromising stance and firebrand oratory made him popular with the movement's footsoldiers, among whom he was known as the "Lion of the Midlands". He was seen by his detractors as a warlord because of his incitement of violence in the conflict between the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands; the Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that Gwala "functioned as a self-styled ANC warlord", that, "in calling for the killing of persons opposed to the ANC, Gwala incited his supporters to commit gross violations of human rights". In the 1994 elections, Gwala was elected to the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature, where he served as the Chief Whip for the ANC; the same year, he was nominated to the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party. However, in June, his party membership was suspended for six months for "breaching SACP internal party discipline" in his repeated criticisms of party colleagues, for refusing to submit himself to an internal investigation into his alleged involvement in violence against fellow party members.

Gwala died in June 1995 in hospital after suffering a heart attack

Giovanni Battista Falesi, O. P. was a Roman Catholic prelate. Giovanni Battista Falesi was born in Naples, Italy in 1587 and ordained a priest in the Order of Preachers. On 15 January 1638, he was appointed during the papacy of Pope Urban VIII as Bishop of Mottola. On 24 January 1638, he was consecrated bishop by Francesco Maria Brancaccio, Cardinal-Priest of Santi XII Apostoli, with Alfonso Gonzaga, Titular Archbishop of Rhodus, Biago Proto de Rubeis, Archbishop of Messina, serving as co-consecrators, he served as Bishop of Mottola until his death in 1648. Cheney, David M. "Diocese of Mottola". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. Retrieved June 16, 2018. Self-published Chow, Gabriel. "Titular Episcopal See of Mottola". GCatholic.org. Retrieved June 16, 2018. Self-published

Anniston Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force airfield located 10 miles north-northeast of Talladega, Alabama. It was active from 1942 to 1945 and 1949 to 1952, it is the site of the Talladega Superspeedway and Talladega municipal airport. Anniston was opened on 19 October 1942 as a flying school as part of Army Air Forces Training Command; the field was built with three hard-surfaced concrete runways. The main runway was 5,300 feet long; the base featured a parking ramp and one hangar, constructed of wood and metal. The ground station consisted of many uniform buildings constructed of wood, tar paper, non-masonry siding; the use of concrete and steel was limited because of the critical need elsewhere. Most buildings were hot and dusty in the summer and cold in the winter. Besides offices and training classrooms, there was a library, a social club for officers, enlisted men, a store to buy living necessities; the airfield was assigned as an auxiliary to Courtland Army Airfield and was assigned to the Southeast Training Center of the Army Air Force Training Command.

It was used as a Basic Flying school, was equipped with Vultee BT-13 Valiants for the cadets assigned to the base. AAFTC located a transition school at Anniston in early 1945 for pilot upgrade training from B-17/B-24 heavy bombers to B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers; the airfield was used by the Army Airways Communication System with a detachment of the 108th AACS Squadron being assigned to the airfield. The control tower closed and the field became inactive on 16 August 1945 and placed on standby status It was reassigned to Craig Field, Alabama in September 1945 to Maxwell Field, Alabama as Auxiliary Field #3, it was reopened by the United States Air Force Air Training Command on 1 July 1949 as Anniston Air Force Base and conducted contract flying training until 1 August 1950 when it was transferred to Air Materiel Command as a support airfield to support the Anniston Army Depot. On 30 June 1952, Anniston AFB was closed for the final time, with the land being sold to the city of Talladega.

The facility was vacant for little over a decade when the city of Talladega began leasing the Hangar and adjacent land to a government contracting company named Quality Overhaul to overhaul Fire Fighting Vehicles for the US Air Force. Anniston insurance executive Bill Ward assisted NASCAR and International Speedway Corporation founder William H. G. France acquire land to the west of the hangar containing much of the old runways to develop what would become Alabama International Motor Speedway, which opened in 1969. Today the hangar on the former AFB still exists and is in use by another government contractor, ATAP, along with the aircraft parking ramp; the foundations of some of the station buildings northeast of the hangar can still be seen. The area has numerous taxiways and parts of former runways in various states of deterioration that are being used as access roads, one of which connects to the adjacent Talladega Municipal Airport. While Talladega Municipal Airport sits next to the former base, it does not utilize any of the runways or taxiways of the former military airfield, there is no shared history between the two facilities.

Alabama World War II Army Airfields This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/. Further Reading Shaw, Frederick J. Locating Air Force Base Sites History's Legacy, Air Force History and Museums Program, United States Air Force, Washington DC, 2004. Manning, Thomas A. History of Air Education and Training Command, 1942–2002. Office of History and Research, Headquarters, AETC, Randolph AFB, Texas ASIN: B000NYX3PC

The Mitsero murders were a series of murders on the island of Cyprus committed by 35-year-old Cypriot Army officer Nicos Metaxas, taking place between September 2016 and August 2018. Five of his seven victims were female foreigners; the remaining two victims were young children, were the daughters of two of the women he had killed. The case came to public attention in April 2019 when unusually heavy floods brought the body of the first victim, Mary Rose Tiburcio, to the top of a mine shaft near Mitsero, where it was discovered by a German tourist. Another body was discovered in a well at a firing range by Orounta. Three of the victims were stuffed into suitcases and disposed of in the Red Lake near Mitsero, so named because the toxic chemicals present in the lake from nearby mining operations gave it a red hue; the latest body, that of Tiburcio's six-year-old daughter Sierra, was found in Lake Memi near Xyliatos in June. During his apprehension, Metaxas attempted to swallow a SIM card in front of police before they stopped him.

After he was named as a suspect, multiple women came forward to accuse him of crimes such as rape, he was formally accused of evidence tampering and obstruction of justice. Metaxas told investigators that he had strangled two of his victims and their daughters because he suspected that the women were planning to "pimp out" their daughters, he wanted to punish the women and "free" the children, he pleaded guilty on 24 June and received seven life sentences, the biggest sentence handed down in Cyprus. The murders sparked criticism towards the negligence and incompetence of the island's police force, as many of the victims had been reported missing by relatives or friends as far back as September 2016, only to be met with indifference and a lack of progress in the investigations—President Nicos Anastasiades condemned the authorities' "sheer negligence and inefficiency", adding his belief that their actions were "definitely not guided by any racist motives". In the midst of the case, Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou resigned and police chief Zacharias Chrysostomou was fired.

As of July 2019, an investigation into the police's handling of the reports is underway. That same month, Cypriot MPs began meetings to address the fact that 37 women had been killed in Cyprus between 2000 and 2019. Cypriot businessman Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of British airliner easyJet, announced that he would donate €10,000 each to the closest relatives of each victim; as of July 2019, he has been unable to contact the relatives of two of the victims, has said that he will donate the additional sums of €10,000 each to Metaxas' eight-year-old son and six-year-old daughter for their education in the meantime