337,394 research outputs found
A Contextual Bandit Bake-off
Contextual bandit algorithms are essential for solving many real-world
interactive machine learning problems. Despite multiple recent successes on
statistically and computationally efficient methods, the practical behavior of
these algorithms is still poorly understood. We leverage the availability of
large numbers of supervised learning datasets to empirically evaluate
contextual bandit algorithms, focusing on practical methods that learn by
relying on optimization oracles from supervised learning. We find that a recent
method (Foster et al., 2018) using optimism under uncertainty works the best
overall. A surprisingly close second is a simple greedy baseline that only
explores implicitly through the diversity of contexts, followed by a variant of
Online Cover (Agarwal et al., 2014) which tends to be more conservative but
robust to problem specification by design. Along the way, we also evaluate
various components of contextual bandit algorithm design such as loss
estimators. Overall, this is a thorough study and review of contextual bandit
methodology
Understanding contextual interactions to design navigational context-aware applications
Context-aware technology has stimulated rigorous research into novel ways to support people in a wide range of tasks and situations. However, the effectiveness of these technologies will ultimately be dependent on the extent to which contextual interactions are understood and accounted for in their design. This study involved an investigation of contextual interactions required for route navigation. The purpose was to illustrate the heterogeneous nature of humans in interaction with their environmental context. Participants were interviewed to determine how each interacts with or use objects/information in the environment in which to navigate/orientate. Results revealed that people vary individually and collectively. Usability implications for the design of navigational context-aware applications are identified and discussed
Contextualizing context for synthetic biology--identifying causes of failure of synthetic biological systems.
Despite the efforts that bioengineers have exerted in designing and constructing biological processes that function according to a predetermined set of rules, their operation remains fundamentally circumstantial. The contextual situation in which molecules and single-celled or multi-cellular organisms find themselves shapes the way they interact, respond to the environment and process external information. Since the birth of the field, synthetic biologists have had to grapple with contextual issues, particularly when the molecular and genetic devices inexplicably fail to function as designed when tested in vivo. In this review, we set out to identify and classify the sources of the unexpected divergences between design and actual function of synthetic systems and analyze possible methodologies aimed at controlling, if not preventing, unwanted contextual issues
Into the woods : exposing children to outdoor classrooms
An evidence-based design concept of a 1.75 acre outdoor learning environment at Apple Tree YMCA Child Development Center located in Muncie, Indiana, was developed by recognizing principles used in European forest kindergartens, identifying contextual attitudes through surveys of parents, faculty and children, and conducting observational behavior research of children in indoor and outdoor settings.Department of Landscape ArchitectureThesis (M.L.A.
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