Multi-Entity Dependence Learning with Rich Context via Conditional Variational Auto-encoder

Multi-Entity Dependence Learning (MEDL) explores conditional correlations among multiple entities. The availability of rich contextual information requires a nimble learning scheme that tightly integrates with deep neural networks and has the ability to capture correlation structures among exponentially many outcomes. We propose MEDL_CVAE, which encodes a conditional multivariate distribution as a generating process. As a result, the variational lower bound of the joint likelihood can be optimized via a conditional variational auto-encoder and trained end-to-end on GPUs. Our MEDL_CVAE was motivated by two real-world applications in computational sustainability: one studies the spatial correlation among multiple bird species using the eBird data and the other models multi-dimensional landscape composition and human footprint in the Amazon rainforest with satellite images. We show that MEDL_CVAE captures rich dependency structures, scales better than previous methods, and further improves on the joint likelihood taking advantage of very large datasets that are beyond the capacity of previous methods.Comment: The first two authors contribute equall

Diversification in multi-asset portfolios in the context of the chinese real estate and stock market

Mestrado em FinançasThis study uses a single index model to examine the correlation between Chinese real estate and the stock market. The real estate market is reflected by 3 years' monthly data of 13 listed real estate companies and the stock market is represented by Shanghai Composite index and Shenzhen Component index. According to the analysis, it is found that the correlation between the real estate and the stock market is in fact very low, and thus real estate is a good option for diversification is a multi-asset portfolio

A study on cultural differences between china and Portugal

Since the launch of the Chinese opening-up and reforming policies, they have been accelerating the development of China in all the fields. In the education field, the notable changes is more and more Chinese students choose to go abroad to pursue their higher education during the last several decades. Although Portugal is not one of the favorite destination countries as a choice of Chinese students, in recent years more and more Chinese students are coming to go to Portugal to continue their study. As a result, misunderstandings and conflicts occur when the students with different cultural backgrounds encounter. In an attempt to identify and help solve these conflicts caused by cultural differences, this thesis focuses on discovering cultural differences between China and Portugal from the perspective of the Chinese students that are studying in Portugal. The findings show that, from Chinese students’ view, the cross-cultural management systems of the Portuguese universities and institutes are satisfactory in general, but flawed in some aspects, for which, some suggestions are proposed by the Chinese students. On a deeper level, the individual motivations of Chinese studying in Portugal are explored, aiming at providing detailed data for cross-cultural management in higher education of Portugal.Com a política de abertura e as reformas levadas a cabo pela China, este país experimentou um desenvolvimento acelerado em todos os campos. No campo educacional as mudanças levaram a que cada vez mais estudantes chineses prossigam no exterior a sua educação superior. Embora Portugal não seja um ponto quente no mercado educacional chinês, nos anos mais recentes, mais e mais estudantes chineses decidiram escolher Portugal como destino de estudos. Incompreensões e conflitos ocorrem quando alunos com diferentes culturas se encontram. Na tentativa de identificar e contribuir para a redução desses conflitos, esta tese tenta descobrir as diferenças culturais entre a China e Portugal a partir da perspectiva de estudantes chineses em Portugal. Os resultados mostram que a gestão praticada pelas universidades portuguesas é em geral satisfatória, embora existam pontos fracos identificados pelos estudantes chineses. A um nível mais profundo, as motivações individuais dos estudantes chineses para estudar em Portugal são exploradas com o objectivo de fornecer dados úteis para a gestão das instituições no ensino superior relativamente à atracção de estudantes estrangeiros