Reliable Off-Policy Learning for Dosage Combinations

Decision-making in personalized medicine such as cancer therapy or critical care must often make choices for dosage combinations, i.e., multiple continuous treatments. Existing work for this task has modeled the effect of multiple treatments independently, while estimating the joint effect has received little attention but comes with non-trivial challenges. In this paper, we propose a novel method for reliable off-policy learning for dosage combinations. Our method proceeds along three steps: (1) We develop a tailored neural network that estimates the individualized dose-response function while accounting for the joint effect of multiple dependent dosages. (2) We estimate the generalized propensity score using conditional normalizing flows in order to detect regions with limited overlap in the shared covariate-treatment space. (3) We present a gradient-based learning algorithm to find the optimal, individualized dosage combinations. Here, we ensure reliable estimation of the policy value by avoiding regions with limited overlap. We finally perform an extensive evaluation of our method to show its effectiveness. To the best of our knowledge, ours is the first work to provide a method for reliable off-policy learning for optimal dosage combinations.Comment: Accepted at NeurIPS 202

Dolls/puppets as soulmates – biographical traces of dolls/puppets in art, literature, work and performance

https://dedo.ub.uni-siegen.deDie vorliegende vierte Ausgabe der Zeitschrift denkste: puppe / just a bit of: doll (de:do), ein multidisziplinäres Online-Journal für Mensch-Puppen-Diskurse, greift den Themenschwerpunkt Puppen als Seelenverwandte – biographische Spuren von Puppen in Kunst, Literatur, Werk und Darstellung auf. Es geht um die Frage nach Wirkungen früher Puppenerfahrungen in der späteren künstlerischen Arbeit und damit nach den möglichen (biographischen) Wurzeln und Zusammenhängen von Puppenmotiv und Puppen-Narrativen im künstlerisch-literarischen Werk. Puppenbezüge in Werk- und Schaffensprozessen können frühe Erfahrungen biographischer Brüche und Verletzungen transformieren bzw. sie künstlerisch produktiv integrieren, sie können aber auch Ausdruck für Kontinuität und Intensivierung früher Prägungen und Vorlieben sein. In den vorliegenden Beiträgen geht es um puppenbezogene künstlerische Ausdrucksformen, die als Beiträge hier formal unterschiedlich aufbereitet werden: als wissenschaftsbasierter Text, Selbstbericht, Miszelle, Rezension, Interview und: Kunstwerk. Untersucht und thematisiert werden Puppen-Sammlungen, die Herstellung besonderer Puppen, literarische Puppentexte, Inszenierungen und Bilder. Außerdem wurden weitere Beiträge einbezogen, die Puppen als Varianten „künstlicher Menschen“ in unterschiedlichsten Themenbezügen behandeln. In vielen Beiträgen deutet sich an, dass die Affinität zum „Phänomen Puppe“ in seinen verschiedenen künstlerischen Umsetzungsformen auf biographisch geprägte Spuren verweist: als Ausdrucks- und Darstellungsmittel steht die Puppe somit auch für etwas Besonderes der Menschen, die sich künstlerisch auf sie beziehen und mit ihr interagieren und „spielen“.This fourth issue of denkste: puppe / just a bit of: doll (de:do), a multidisciplinary online journal for human-doll discourses, takes up the thematic focus on dolls/puppets as soulmates – biographical traces of dolls/puppets in art, literature, work and performance. It is about the impact of early doll experiences in later artistic work and thus about the possible (biographical) roots and connections of doll motifs and doll narratives in artistic-literary work. Doll/puppet references in work and creative processes can transform early experiences of biographical breaks and harm or integrate them in an artistically productive way, but they can also be an expression of continuity and intensification of early experience and preferences. The present contributions deal with doll/puppet-related artistic forms of expression, which are formally presented in different ways: as science-based text, self-report, miscellaneous, review, interview and: work of art. Doll/puppet collections, the making of particular puppets, literary puppet texts, performances and images are examined and addressed. In addition, further contributions were included, which deal with dolls as variants of "artificial humans" in the most diverse thematic contexts. Most of the contributions indicate that the affinity to the “phenomenon of the doll” in its various artistic forms of realization refers to biographically shaped traces: as a means of expression and representation the doll thus also stands for something special about the human beings who refer to it artistically and interact and "play" with it

Considering suppliers' performances in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility for supplier selection. Focus on the chemical sector in Belgium and the case of allnex.

The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) mesmerizes scholars and practitioners since the 20th century. However, its concern has only recently entered the procurement field as organizations today are likely to be held accountable for both their actions as those of their suppliers. In order to mitigate risks and to enhance the value to the company, supplier selection needs to take into account the corporate social responsibility of suppliers. This thesis provides a first analysis of why and how the chemical sector in Belgium takes the performance of suppliers in terms of CSR into account for supplier selection. Therefore, an empirical research was conducted based on a hybrid approach. 31 chemical companies in Belgium participated to a survey under the form of a questionnaire. This led to the development of hypotheses that were further deepened and/or validated through four qualitative interviews with firms and with Essenscia, the Belgian federation of the chemical industry and of life sciences. The contribution of this thesis is both scientific and managerial. It describes that the maturity level of the chemical sector in Belgium regarding the integration of CSR for supplier selection is moderate. In addition, it provides suggestions to improve that maturity level. Finally, it presents a case study of the company allnex as a detailed example of measures that are taken to consider CSR for supplier selection, as well as an application of the empirical research’s findings.Master [120] en Ingénieur de gestion, Université catholique de Louvain, 201

Jewish doll children as life companions through dark decades. The portrait dolls of the German-Jewish artist Edith Samuel from the 1920s and 1930s

In diesem Beitrag wird dem Werk und Leben der Puppenmacherin Edith Samuel (1907-1964), die in den 1920er- und 1930er-Jahren in Essen ihre ersten „Portraitpuppen“ entwickelte, nachgespürt. Die künstlerische Neigung der jungen jüdischen Puppenmacherin, deren Puppen als „Alltagspuppen“ und „jüdische Puppen“ bekannt wurden, fiel früh auf. Auch wenn Edith Samuel nach ihrer Emigration nach Palästina eine zweite erfolgreiche Karriere als Puppenmacherin gelang, soll hier das frühe Werk gewürdigt und als ein Zeichen gegen das Vergessen einer ‚Generation‘ von ungewöhnlichen und identitätsstiftenden jüdischen „Portraitpuppen“ und ihrer Bedeutung als animierbare Gefährten in Zeiten von lebensbedrohlicher Verfolgung gedeutet werden.This article is focused on the work and life of the doll maker Edith Samuel (1907- 1964). She created her first “portrait dolls” during the 1920s and 1930s in Essen, Germany. They became known as "everyday dolls" and "Jewish dolls". Edith Samuel's talent as a doll maker became apparent from early on, and in the 1930s she was renowned in Germany for her art. In 1939, she emigrated to Palestine, and she successfully started a second career as a doll maker in Erez Israel. However, it is her early work that is to be contemplated here: A whole 'generation' of peculiar Jewish portrait dolls – which contributed to their owners’ sense of identity – must not be forgotten. These dolls were particularly important as animated companions in times of murderous persecution