60 research outputs found
A Methodology for Discovering how to Adaptively Personalize to Users using Experimental Comparisons
We explain and provide examples of a formalism that supports the methodology
of discovering how to adapt and personalize technology by combining randomized
experiments with variables associated with user models. We characterize a
formal relationship between the use of technology to conduct A/B experiments
and use of technology for adaptive personalization. The MOOClet Formalism [11]
captures the equivalence between experimentation and personalization in its
conceptualization of modular components of a technology. This motivates a
unified software design pattern that enables technology components that can be
compared in an experiment to also be adapted based on contextual data, or
personalized based on user characteristics. With the aid of a concrete use
case, we illustrate the potential of the MOOClet formalism for a methodology
that uses randomized experiments of alternative micro-designs to discover how
to adapt technology based on user characteristics, and then dynamically
implements these personalized improvements in real time
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Variable grouping in multivariate time series via correlation
The decomposition of high-dimensional multivariate time series (MTS) into a number of low-dimensional MTS is a useful but challenging task because the number of possible dependencies between variables is likely to be huge. This paper is about a systematic study of the “variable groupings” problem in MTS. In particular, we investigate different methods of utilizing the information regarding correlations among MTS variables. This type of method does not appear to have been studied before. In all, 15 methods are suggested and applied to six datasets where there are identifiable mixed groupings of MTS variables. This paper describes the general methodology, reports extensive experimental results, and concludes with useful insights on the strength and weakness of this type of grouping metho
Beta Reduction is Invariant, Indeed (Long Version)
Slot and van Emde Boas' weak invariance thesis states that reasonable
machines can simulate each other within a polynomially overhead in time. Is
-calculus a reasonable machine? Is there a way to measure the
computational complexity of a -term? This paper presents the first
complete positive answer to this long-standing problem. Moreover, our answer is
completely machine-independent and based over a standard notion in the theory
of -calculus: the length of a leftmost-outermost derivation to normal
form is an invariant cost model. Such a theorem cannot be proved by directly
relating -calculus with Turing machines or random access machines,
because of the size explosion problem: there are terms that in a linear number
of steps produce an exponentially long output. The first step towards the
solution is to shift to a notion of evaluation for which the length and the
size of the output are linearly related. This is done by adopting the linear
substitution calculus (LSC), a calculus of explicit substitutions modelled
after linear logic and proof-nets and admitting a decomposition of
leftmost-outermost derivations with the desired property. Thus, the LSC is
invariant with respect to, say, random access machines. The second step is to
show that LSC is invariant with respect to the -calculus. The size
explosion problem seems to imply that this is not possible: having the same
notions of normal form, evaluation in the LSC is exponentially longer than in
the -calculus. We solve such an impasse by introducing a new form of
shared normal form and shared reduction, deemed useful. Useful evaluation
avoids those steps that only unshare the output without contributing to
-redexes, i.e., the steps that cause the blow-up in size.Comment: 29 page
Distilling Abstract Machines (Long Version)
It is well-known that many environment-based abstract machines can be seen as
strategies in lambda calculi with explicit substitutions (ES). Recently,
graphical syntaxes and linear logic led to the linear substitution calculus
(LSC), a new approach to ES that is halfway between big-step calculi and
traditional calculi with ES. This paper studies the relationship between the
LSC and environment-based abstract machines. While traditional calculi with ES
simulate abstract machines, the LSC rather distills them: some transitions are
simulated while others vanish, as they map to a notion of structural
congruence. The distillation process unveils that abstract machines in fact
implement weak linear head reduction, a notion of evaluation having a central
role in the theory of linear logic. We show that such a pattern applies
uniformly in call-by-name, call-by-value, and call-by-need, catching many
machines in the literature. We start by distilling the KAM, the CEK, and the
ZINC, and then provide simplified versions of the SECD, the lazy KAM, and
Sestoft's machine. Along the way we also introduce some new machines with
global environments. Moreover, we show that distillation preserves the time
complexity of the executions, i.e. the LSC is a complexity-preserving
abstraction of abstract machines.Comment: 63 page
R&D Subsidies and Climate Policy: Is There a "Free Lunch"?
Because of the long-term nature of the climate problem, technological advances are often seen as an important component of any solution. However, when considering the potential for technology to help solve the climate problem, two market failures exist which lead to underinvestment in climate-friendly R&D: environmental externalities and the public goods nature of new knowledge. As a result, government subsidies to climate-friendly R&D projects are often proposed as part of a policy solution. Using the ENTICE model, I analyze the effectiveness of such subsidies, both with and without other climate policies, such as a carbon tax. While R&D subsidies do lead to significant increases in climate-friendly R&D, this R&D has little impact on the climate itself. Subsidies address the problem of knowledge as a public good, but they do not address the environmental externality, and thus offer no additional incentive to adopt new technologies. Moreover, high opportunity costs to R&D limit the potential role that subsidies can play. While R&D subsidies can improve efficiency, policies that directly affect the environmental externality have a much larger impact on both atmospheric temperature and economic welfare.
Existence and Magnitude of Health-related Externalities: Evidence from a Choice Experiment
Health-related external benefits are of potentially large importance for public policy. This paper investigates health-related external benefits using a stated-preference discrete-choice experiment framed in a health care context and including choice scenarios dened by six attributes related to the a recipient and the recipient's condition: communicability, severity, medical necessity, relationship to respondent, location, and amount of contribution requested. Subjects also completed a set of own-treatment scenarios and a values-orientation instrument. We find evidence of substantial health-related external benefits that vary as expected with the scenario attributes and subjects' value orientations. The results are consistent with a number of hypotheses offered by the general theoretical analysis of health-related externalities and the analysis of externalities specific to health care.externalities; altruism; health care financing; program evaluation
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