6,309 research outputs found
Country Risk and the Mundell-Fleming Model Applied to the 1999-2000 Argentine Experience
In this paper we propose a modification of the traditional Mundell-Fleming model. The extended model introduces the implications of including the fiscal deficit and international reserves as determinants of the level of country risk. This slight modification of the traditional paradigm leads to radical changes in the effects that fiscal and monetary policies have in economies with high capital mobility under an extreme version of a fixed exchange rate regime (Currency Board). We use the proposed model to evaluate some of the economic policies implemented between December 1999 and March 2001 by the first economic team under the Presidency of Fernando De la RĂşa in Argentina. Additionally, we suggest that some of the main results obtained from the model are applicable to other emerging economies.open economy macroeconomics; country risk for Argentina; reserves; convertibility
A Declarative Semantics for CLP with Qualification and Proximity
Uncertainty in Logic Programming has been investigated during the last
decades, dealing with various extensions of the classical LP paradigm and
different applications. Existing proposals rely on different approaches, such
as clause annotations based on uncertain truth values, qualification values as
a generalization of uncertain truth values, and unification based on proximity
relations. On the other hand, the CLP scheme has established itself as a
powerful extension of LP that supports efficient computation over specialized
domains while keeping a clean declarative semantics. In this paper we propose a
new scheme SQCLP designed as an extension of CLP that supports qualification
values and proximity relations. We show that several previous proposals can be
viewed as particular cases of the new scheme, obtained by partial
instantiation. We present a declarative semantics for SQCLP that is based on
observables, providing fixpoint and proof-theoretical characterizations of
least program models as well as an implementation-independent notion of goal
solutions.Comment: 17 pages, 26th Int'l. Conference on Logic Programming (ICLP'10
One model, two languages: training bilingual parsers with harmonized treebanks
We introduce an approach to train lexicalized parsers using bilingual corpora
obtained by merging harmonized treebanks of different languages, producing
parsers that can analyze sentences in either of the learned languages, or even
sentences that mix both. We test the approach on the Universal Dependency
Treebanks, training with MaltParser and MaltOptimizer. The results show that
these bilingual parsers are more than competitive, as most combinations not
only preserve accuracy, but some even achieve significant improvements over the
corresponding monolingual parsers. Preliminary experiments also show the
approach to be promising on texts with code-switching and when more languages
are added.Comment: 7 pages, 4 tables, 1 figur
A Transformation-based Implementation for CLP with Qualification and Proximity
Uncertainty in logic programming has been widely investigated in the last
decades, leading to multiple extensions of the classical LP paradigm. However,
few of these are designed as extensions of the well-established and powerful
CLP scheme for Constraint Logic Programming. In a previous work we have
proposed the SQCLP (proximity-based qualified constraint logic programming)
scheme as a quite expressive extension of CLP with support for qualification
values and proximity relations as generalizations of uncertainty values and
similarity relations, respectively. In this paper we provide a transformation
technique for transforming SQCLP programs and goals into semantically
equivalent CLP programs and goals, and a practical Prolog-based implementation
of some particularly useful instances of the SQCLP scheme. We also illustrate,
by showing some simple-and working-examples, how the prototype can be
effectively used as a tool for solving problems where qualification values and
proximity relations play a key role. Intended use of SQCLP includes flexible
information retrieval applications.Comment: 49 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, preliminary version of an article of
the same title, published as Technical Report SIC-4-10, Universidad
Complutense, Departamento de Sistemas Inform\'aticos y Computaci\'on, Madrid,
Spai
Managing Waiting Times to Predict No-shows and Cancelations at a Children’s Hospital
Purpose: Since long waits in hospitals have been found to be related to high rates of no-shows and cancelations, managing waiting times should be considered as an important tool that hospitals can use to reduce missed appointments. The aim of this study is to analyze patients’ behavior in order to predict no-show and cancelation rates correlated to waiting times.
Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on the data from a US children’s hospital, which includes all the appointments registered during one year of observation. We used the call-appointment interval to establish the wait time to get an appointment. Four different types of appointment-keeping behavior and two types of patients were distinguished: arrival, no-show, cancelation with no reschedule, and cancelation with reschedule; and new and established patients.
Findings: Results confirmed a strong impact of long waiting times on patients’ appointment-keeping behavior, and the logarithmic regression was found as the best-fit function for the correlation between variables in all cases. The correlation analysis showed that new patients tend to miss appointments more often than established patients when the waiting time increases. It was also found that, depending on the patients’ appointment distribution, it might get more complicated for hospitals to reduce missed appointments as the waiting time is reduced.
Originality/value: The methodology applied in our study, which combines the use of regression analysis and patients’ appointment distribution analysis, would help health care managers to understand the initial implications of long waiting times and to address improvement related to patient satisfaction and hospital performance.Peer Reviewe
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