Best Subset Selection via a Modern Optimization Lens

In the last twenty-five years (1990-2014), algorithmic advances in integer optimization combined with hardware improvements have resulted in an astonishing 200 billion factor speedup in solving Mixed Integer Optimization (MIO) problems. We present a MIO approach for solving the classical best subset selection problem of choosing $k$ out of $p$ features in linear regression given $n$ observations. We develop a discrete extension of modern first order continuous optimization methods to find high quality feasible solutions that we use as warm starts to a MIO solver that finds provably optimal solutions. The resulting algorithm (a) provides a solution with a guarantee on its suboptimality even if we terminate the algorithm early, (b) can accommodate side constraints on the coefficients of the linear regression and (c) extends to finding best subset solutions for the least absolute deviation loss function. Using a wide variety of synthetic and real datasets, we demonstrate that our approach solves problems with $n$ in the 1000s and $p$ in the 100s in minutes to provable optimality, and finds near optimal solutions for $n$ in the 100s and $p$ in the 1000s in minutes. We also establish via numerical experiments that the MIO approach performs better than {\texttt {Lasso}} and other popularly used sparse learning procedures, in terms of achieving sparse solutions with good predictive power.Comment: This is a revised version (May, 2015) of the first submission in June 201

The Prisoner of Gender: Foucault and the Disciplining of the Female Body

The work of Michel Foucault has been extremely influential amongst feminist scholars and for good reason; his meditations on discipline, power, sexuality and subjectivity are particularly pertinent to feminist analysis. Yet despite his preoccupation with power and its effects on the body, Foucault’s own analysis was curiously gender-neutral. Remarkably, there is no exploration or even acknowledgement of the extent to which gender determines the techniques and degrees of discipline exerted on the body. Although this exposes serious flaws in Foucault’s work, I don’t believe it negates his entire theoretical framework. Rather it can be adopted and adapted; his glaring omissions can be fruitfully exposed, explored and remedied. In this essay I focus my analysis on Foucault’s Discipline and Punish – a prime example, in my opinion, of his failure to recognise the significance of gender in the play of power despite the obvious pertinence of his material. To illustrate this further I have appropriated a couple of Foucault’s subheadings, both in the spirit of homage: to acknowledge the validity of his framework, and satire: to expose how the female body exemplifies his arguments about discipline yet how conspicuous it is by its absence. In ‘The Body of the Condemned’ I explore why his gender blindness is so problematic, examining the polarisation of the sexes and the discursive construction of gender itself, and make my case for reading the female body as a particular target of disciplinary power. Then in ‘The Spectacle of the Scaffold’ I go on to examine how this disciplinary power manifests itself in modern society, taking as an example the ways in which some fashion and beauty practices manipulate, train and mark the female body. In short, I suggest that gender, specifically femininity, is a discipline that produces bodies and identities and operates as an effective form of social control

Web-based, Gendered Recruitment Of Women By Organized White Supremacist Groups

According to the hate group watchdog organization, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of hate groups in the United States rose 54 percent since 2000 (SPLC 2009 a & b). Literature on organized white supremacist groups suggests that women have become increasingly more important to such groups for a variety of reasons, many of which are not always agreed upon by and within said groups. In addition, it is believed by many in the hate monitoring world that the World Wide Web has become progressively more dynamic as a medium of recruitment, as a tool of communication among members, and as a means to propagate the hateful messages espoused by members of these groups. Thus, this research will marry two essential ideas: (1) that women are being sought out and targeted for recruitment by organized white supremacist groups and (2) that the World Wide Web acts as a dynamic tool that aids said groups in accomplishing their goals of recruitment

Examining the Legal Consciousness of Residence Life Staff

Understanding the law has become an integral part of the work of higher education professionals, especially residence life staff. For decades, courts have contributed an increasingly important role in shaping the litigious nature of society at large and within higher education (Greenleaf, 1982). Barr and Associates (1988) noted the increasingly major influence of the law on campus life. Even in the mid-1990s, Gehring and Penney (1995) highlighted the critical need to understand legal issues for those professionals entering the field of higher education and student affairs. Since Olivas (2013) found that higher education law is a rapidly changing area in the field, knowledge of the law is critical to anyone in a professional position in higher education. [Discussion questions developed by Amelia King-Kostelac.

Savings Clauses and Trends in Natural Resources Federalism

This article considers recent trends in federalism, with particular attention to natural resource law\u27s statutory savings clauses. It begins with a case study of elk management in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The elk controversy shows how a statutory savings clause can provide a state with traction to advance its interests, and demonstrates how the political winds of change can shift the balance of state-federal relations. The article then focuses on the common statutory savings clauses and their roles in circumscribing federal agency authority and establishing a basis for cooperation between federal and state governments. We analyze the interpretive approaches the judiciary may employ to make sense of the statutory savings language, and conceptualize them along a continuum of influence in resolving cases. The article concludes with an explanation of trends that set the direction for policy innovations in natural resources federalism and general thoughts about the future of federalism in natural resources law

Shoreline Management Handbook

Shoreline habitats and processes are impacted by the decisions we make about managing coastal development and shorelines. Shoreline Management is making choices to address the desire to protect upland property from erosion or develop property balanced with the benefits and uses of natural and nature-based shoreline features and shoreline habitat restoration. This requires a weighing of the private benefits and cots of management actions and the benefits and costs to public held common resources, also known as the public trust. The natural features along our shorelines -tidal wetlands, beaches and dunes, and riparian buffers, are economically and ecologically valuable. They provide food, shelter, and breeding grounds for a variety of marine animals; recreational and commercial opportunities; water quality services; and can serve as significant protection against coastal storms by dissipating wave energy and absorbing flood waters. Shoreline change can be both slow and chronic–from daily tides for example, or sudden and dramatic–like after a hurricane or Nor-Easter. The natural process of erosion can result in loss of upland property with the distribution of sediment and nutrients into our waters, while also providing material to support wetland and beach habitats.There are two primary reasons for the establishment of legal programs to preserve and manage shoreline resources: 1.Shoreline features provide services valued by society including water quality, erosion control, flood buffering, primary production in support of the estuarine food web, recreational opportunities, and aesthetics. 2.Tidal wetlands, beaches and dunes have been adversely impacted by development with significant losses

“Best of Both Worlds”: Alumni Perspectives on Honors and the Liberal Arts

This study explores the extent to which skills acquired through liberal arts curricula facilitate immediate post-graduate employment of honors college alumni. Using qualitative methods and semi-structured interviews (n = 16), authors examine the honors college experience and the attainment of skills through the lens of graduates (2017–2020) at a large research institution. Results indicate that while honors alumni identify certain skills that helped them realize initial employment, they were often unable to translate and apply these skills in professional workplaces, particularly nonacademic ones. Data further suggest that liberal arts skills (communication, research competence, critical reasoning, intercultural competence, interdisciplinary inquiry, disciplinary methods, and intellectual engagement) can be cultivated within honors colleges at large universities and are not particular to traditional liberal arts colleges. By focusing on earliest career experience rather than cumulative, this study is an essential contribution to outcomes-related discourse in the field of honors education

Secure Implementation of Blogs, Wikis, and Second Life

EMC wants to implement Web 2.0 technologies for use in its business processes, and wants to be aware of the security risks associated with implementing these technologies. We identified business needs to be addressed (improving communication company-wide, reaching out new recruiting channels), investigated how changes could be implemented, assessed the security issues involved, and provided recommendations for EMC to securely adopt wikis, blogs and Second Life