Privacy sets for constrained space-filling

The paper provides typology for space filling into what we call "soft" and "hard" methods along with introducing the central notion of privacy sets for dealing with the latter. A heuristic algorithm based on this notion is presented and we compare its performance on some well-known examples

Some Current Issues in the Statistical Analysis of Spillovers

Spillover phenomena are usually statistically estimated on the basis of regional and temporal panel data. In this paper we review and investigate exploratory and confirmatory statistical panel data techniques. We illustrate the methods by calculations in the stetting of the well known Research and Development Spillover study by Coe and Helpman (1995). It will be demonstrated that alternative estimation techniques that are well compatible with the data can lead to opposite conclusions.Panel data; fixed effects; random coefficients; DOLS; R&D spillover

Efficient Prediction Designs for Random Fields

For estimation and predictions of random fields it is increasingly acknowledged that the kriging variance may be a poor representative of true uncertainty. Experimental designs based on more elaborate criteria that are appropriate for empirical kriging are then often non-space-filling and very costly to determine. In this paper, we investigate the possibility of using a compound criterion inspired by an equivalence theorem type relation to build designs quasi-optimal for the empirical kriging variance, when space-filling designs become unsuitable. Two algorithms are proposed, one relying on stochastic optimization to explicitly identify the Pareto front, while the second uses the surrogate criteria as local heuristic to chose the points at which the (costly) true Empirical Kriging variance is effectively computed. We illustrate the performance of the algorithms presented on both a simple simulated example and a real oceanographic dataset

A criterion and incremental design construction for simultaneous kriging predictions

In this paper, we further investigate the problem of selecting a set of design points for universal kriging, which is a widely used technique for spatial data analysis. Our goal is to select the design points in order to make simultaneous predictions of the random variable of interest at a finite number of unsampled locations with maximum precision. Specifically, we consider as response a correlated random field given by a linear model with an unknown parameter vector and a spatial error correlation structure. We propose a new design criterion that aims at simultaneously minimizing the variation of the prediction errors at various points. We also present various efficient techniques for incrementally buillding designs for that criterion scaling well for high dimensions. Thus the method is particularly suitable for big data applications in areas of spatial data analysis such as mining, hydrogeology, natural resource monitoring, and environmental sciences or equivalently for any computer simulation experiments. The effectiveness of the proposed designs is demonstrated through numerical examples

Traditional and Modern Biomedical Prospecting: Part I—the History: Sustainable Exploitation of Biodiversity (Sponges and Invertebrates) in the Adriatic Sea in Rovinj (Croatia)

Nature, especially the marine environment, provides the most effective drugs used in human therapy. Among the metazoans, the marine sponges (phylum Porifera), which are sessile filter feeders, produce the most potent and highly selective bioactive secondary metabolites. These animals (or their associated symbiotic microorganisms) synthesize secondary metabolites whose activity and selectivity has developed during their long evolutionary history (evochemistry). The exploitation of these resources has become possible due to the progress in molecular and cell biology. BIOTECmarin, the German Center of Excellence follows this rationale. In the past, these animals have been successfully and extensively utilized to isolate bioactive compounds and biomaterials for human benefit. Pharmaceuticals prepared from marine animals, primarily sponges, have been applied since ancient times (Hippocrates, Aristotle and later Plinius). It has been reported that extracts and/or components from sponges can be used for the treatment of specific diseases. For a systematic and applied-oriented exploitation, the successful development of effective compounds largely depends on quality of the institutional infrastructure of marine stations and more so on the biodiversity. The Center for Marine Research in Rovinj (Croatia) fulfils these prerequisites. Founded in 1891, this institute has to its credit major discoveries related to exploitation of secondary metabolites/biomaterials from sponges for therapeutical application and to obtain biomaterials for general wellbeing. This is the first part of a review focusing on biomedical prospecting. Here, we have mainly described the historic background. The details of techniques, substances, approaches and outlooks will be discussed in the second part