Learning Economic Parameters from Revealed Preferences

A recent line of work, starting with Beigman and Vohra (2006) and Zadimoghaddam and Roth (2012), has addressed the problem of {\em learning} a utility function from revealed preference data. The goal here is to make use of past data describing the purchases of a utility maximizing agent when faced with certain prices and budget constraints in order to produce a hypothesis function that can accurately forecast the {\em future} behavior of the agent. In this work we advance this line of work by providing sample complexity guarantees and efficient algorithms for a number of important classes. By drawing a connection to recent advances in multi-class learning, we provide a computationally efficient algorithm with tight sample complexity guarantees ($\Theta(d/\epsilon)$ for the case of $d$ goods) for learning linear utility functions under a linear price model. This solves an open question in Zadimoghaddam and Roth (2012). Our technique yields numerous generalizations including the ability to learn other well-studied classes of utility functions, to deal with a misspecified model, and with non-linear prices

The first INTEGRAL-OMC catalogue of optically variable sources

The Optical Monitoring Camera (OMC) onboard INTEGRAL provides photometry in the Johnson V-band. With an aperture of 50 mm and a field of view of 5deg x 5deg, OMC is able to detect optical sources brighter than V~18, from a previously selected list of potential targets of interest. After more than nine years of observations, the OMC database contains light curves for more than 70000 sources (with more than 50 photometric points each). The objectives of this work have been to characterize the potential variability of the objects monitored by OMC, to identify periodic sources and to compute their periods, taking advantage of the stability and long monitoring time of the OMC. To detect potential variability, we have performed a chi-squared test, finding 5263 variable sources out of an initial sample of 6071 objects with good photometric quality and more than 300 data points each. We have studied the periodicity of these sources using a method based on the phase dispersion minimization technique, optimized to handle light curves with very different shapes.In this first catalogue of variable sources observed by OMC, we provide for each object the median of the visual magnitude, the magnitude at maximum and minimum brightness in the light curve during the window of observations, the period, when found, as well as the complete intrinsic and period-folded light curves, together with some additional ancillary data.Comment: Accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysics; 13 pages, 16 figures. Figures' resolution has been degraded to fit astro-ph constraint

Regulating altruistic agents

Altruism or `regard for others' can encourage self-restraint among generators of negative externalities, thereby mitigating the externality problem. We explore how introducing impure altruism into standard regulatory settings alters regulatory prescriptions. We show that the optimal calibration of both quantitative controls and externality taxes are affected. It also leads to surprising results on the comparative performance of instruments. Under quantity-based regulation welfare is increasing in the propensity for altruism in the population; under price-based regulation the relationship is non-monotonic. Price-based regulation is preferred when the population is either predominantly altruistic or predominantly selfish, quantity-based regulation for cases in between

Force measurements with optical tweezers inside living cells

The force exerted by optical tweezers can be measured by tracking the momentum changes of the trapping beam, a method which is more general and powerful than traditional calibration techniques as it is based on first principles, but which has not been brought to its full potential yet, probably due to practical difficulties when combined with high-NA optical traps, such as the necessity to capture a large fraction of the scattered light. We show that it is possible to measure forces on arbitrary biological objects inside cells without an in situ calibration, using this approach. The instrument can be calibrated by measuring three scaling parameters that are exclusively determined by the design of the system, thus obtaining a conversion factor from volts to piconewtons that is theoretically independent of the physical properties of the sample and its environment. We prove that this factor keeps valid inside cells as it shows good agreement with other calibration methods developed in recent years for viscoelastic media. Finally, we apply the method to measuring the stall forces of kinesin and dynein in living A549 cells.Publisher PD

Sobre el contraste de pareceres: la tecnocracia franquista ante las nuevas fórmulas de representación política

La promoción de las asociaciones políticas vino condicionada por el articulado de la Ley Orgánica del Estado aprobada en 1967 como culminación del proceso institucional del franquismo. La redefinición del Movimiento como comunión de los españoles en los Principios Fundamentales de 1958, suponía el triunfo de la concepción ideológica tradicionalista asumida por el equipo de la Presidencia, frente a las posturas estatistas representadas por la Secretaría General del Movimiento. Esta dicotomía de pareceres en la definición institucional, venía animada tanto por la diversidad de tendencias en el seno del Régimen como por las repercusiones derivadas de la esfera internacional. En cualquier caso, la discusión de planteamientos sobre la participación política estaría condicionada por la rigidez intrínseca del sistema.------------------The promotion of the political associations was determined by the articles of the Organic Law of the State, approved in 1967 as the culmination of the institutional process of Franco’s regime. The redefinition of the Movement as the communion of the spaniards in the Fundamental Principles of 1958, supposed the triumph of the ideological traditionalist conception assumed by the Presidency’s team, over the totalitarian positions represented by the General Secretariat of the Movement. This dichotomy of opinions in the institutional definition, was encouraged by the diversity of trends inside the Regime as well as the repercussions derived from the international sphere. Nevertheless, the political participation discussion would be determined by the system’s own inflexibility

An Innovative Methodology to Optimize Aerospace Eco-efficiency Assembly Processes

Sustainability and eco-efficiency have been researched in multiple scientific papers since the last years. However the literature is not so abundant when applying those concepts to industrial assembly processes. This paper presents an innovate methodology to optimize aerospace assembly processes. Authors propose the introduction of a new element, the eco-efficiency, along with the traditional criteria, cost and time, currently used for optimization. Using a large Aero-Structure as an industrial case of study, the methodology analyzes the eco-efficiency of an assembly process in connection with a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to compute the environmental impact. Results are shown in a dashboard along with the relevant Key Process Indicator (KPI) to help the engineers to select the best assembly processEuropean Union (UE). H2020 DILECO 785367European Union H2020-EU.3.4.5.4-IT