Improving Missing Data Imputation with Deep Generative Models

Datasets with missing values are very common on industry applications, and they can have a negative impact on machine learning models. Recent studies introduced solutions to the problem of imputing missing values based on deep generative models. Previous experiments with Generative Adversarial Networks and Variational Autoencoders showed interesting results in this domain, but it is not clear which method is preferable for different use cases. The goal of this work is twofold: we present a comparison between missing data imputation solutions based on deep generative models, and we propose improvements over those methodologies. We run our experiments using known real life datasets with different characteristics, removing values at random and reconstructing them with several imputation techniques. Our results show that the presence or absence of categorical variables can alter the selection of the best model, and that some models are more stable than others after similar runs with different random number generator seeds

Adam Smith’s Green Thumb and Malthus’ Three Horsemen: Cautionary tales from classical political economy

This essay identifies a contradiction between the flourishing interest in the environmental economics of the classical period and a lack of critical parsing of the works of its leading representatives. Its focus is the work of Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus. It offers a critical analysis of their contribution to environmental thought and surveys the work of their contemporary devotees. It scrutinizes Smith's contribution to what Karl Polanyi termed the "economistic fallacy," as well as his defenses of class hierarchy, the "growth imperative" and consumerism. It subjects to critical appraisal Malthus's enthusiasm for private property and the market system, and his opposition to market regulation. While Malthus's principal attraction to ecological economists lies in his having allegedly broadened the scope of economics, and in his narrative of scarcity, this article shows that he, in fact, narrowed the scope of the discipline and conceptualized scarcity in a reified and pseudo-scientific way

Критерії оцінки ефективності діяльності малих і середніх підприємств промисловості

В сучасних посткризових умовах господарювання для малих і середніх підприємств важливо регулярно проводити моніторинг своєї діяльності для виявлення на ранніх стадіях ймовірності появи невизначеностей і ризиків. У статті розглянуто показник прибутку в розрахунку на одного працівн ика як клю-човий у визначенні ефективності діяльності підприємств. Проаналізовано думки провідних вчених та економістів у цій галузі знань і зроблені відповідні висновкиIn today's post-crisis economic conditions for small and medium-sized enterprises is important to regularly monitor their activities to detect the early stages of the probability of occurrence of uncertainties and risks. In the article the rate of profit per employee, as a key in determining the efficiency of enterprises. An alyzed the views of leading scientists and economists in this field of knowledge and draw appropriate conclusion

Visibilidad de sitios institucionales y su producción. Los casos de la CIC y la UNLP: interoperabilidad de centros con los repositorios CIC digital y SEDICI

Este artículo presenta un proyecto del CESGI sobre visibilidad web institucional y promoción de la producción, mediante el cual se construyen y mejoran sitios web para centros, unidades de investigación y desarrollo y laboratorios, tanto de la Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas de la provincia de Buenos Aires (CICBA) como de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP). Además el proyecto vincula los sitios institucionales con los repositorios mediante el desarrollo de un cliente OpenSearch para recuperar contenidos desde repositorios digitales compatibles con este estándar. Este desarrollo se realizó como complemento de los distintos gestores de contenido (CMS) muy utilizados por centros y unidades de investigación (Wordpress, Joomla y Choique). En el trabajo se destaca la importancia de colaborar con los centros y las unidades de I+D para mejorar la forma en que exponen en la web sus líneas de investigación, proyectos y actividades, así como también la oportunidad que ofrece un servicio de este tipo para potenciar y promover el uso de los repositorios institucionales y con ello la visibilidad e impacto de la producción de los autores de las instituciones.Trabajo presentado por el Centro de Servicios en Gestión de Información (CESGI

Tripographic assessment of VFR travel in context of Malaysian domestic travelers

Visiting friends and family (VFR) travel is the oldest form of travel that involve visiting family and friends as part of activity during the trip either as a main purpose or as a secondary purpose. Population growth among the country is one of main reason why this VFR market is expanding. As visiting friends and relatives is important socially with various type of activity or events with them including attending wedding, funerals and many more, travelling with the purpose of VFR has been recorded as the main purpose of travel for Malaysian domestic travel market in 2013 where the 44% travelers are travelling for the purpose of VFR. It is a norm when people start to move from their hometown for different type of purpose such as job’s requirement, further study or even seek for new environment. Their friends and relatives left make population. As the population grows, VFR market grows as well. However, there is less study in this potential market especially in context of Malaysian domestic market. Past study has shown that this market seems to be neglected as the type of itself did not seem to give a huge impact economically to the tourism industry. This market was assumed not utilizing any tourism service and not participating in any tourism activity. This paper aim to examine the tripography of VFR travelers in Malaysia where it assess the trip characteristic of VFR travel in order to have a better understanding of this potential market in context of Malaysian domestic travelers. A survey was carried in selected area that packed with domestic travelers. Data obtained used in comparing the trip characteristics among VFR market travelers and non-VFR travelers. This result will be useful as a tool for marketing strategy and as a key planning for tourism destination

06302 Abstracts Collection -- Aspects For Legacy Applications

From 26.07.06 to 29.07.06, the Dagstuhl Seminar 06302 ``Aspects For Legacy Applications\u27\u27 was held in the International Conference and Research Center (IBFI), Schloss Dagstuhl. During the seminar, several participants presented their current research, and ongoing work and open problems were discussed. Abstracts of the presentations given during the seminar as well as abstracts of seminar results and ideas are put together in this paper. The first section describes the seminar topics and goals in general. Links to extended abstracts or full papers are provided, if available

Implementing the additional knowledge in the Croatian Scientific Bibliography

The Croatian Scientific Bibliography - CROSBI is a bibliography web site that stores information about scientific papers published in Croatia in the last 15 years. At the present, CROSBI consists of over 400,000 records and is daily accessed and updated by a large number of researchers. As the appearance and purpose of database (and hence its structure) changed over the years, some inconsistencies emerged, and existing data could not be used to its fullest potential, e.g. linking papers from the same journal or conference, or analysis of scientific activity in relation to the place of article publication. This paper explores the possibilities of improving and enriching the CROSBI database, using different techniques, from data cleaning and sanity checking, to creating links between CROSBI and similar online bibliographic databases. In order to improve data quality, book records from CROSBI were linked to the corresponding Google Books records, and using Semantic Web technologies, a number of links between CROSBI and online bibliographic databases was created. The resulting data set can be used to further improve the quality of CROSBI by creating a recommender system, or to improve and open up new possibilities in the analysis of existing data

An Application of Overset Grids to Payload/Fairing Three-Dimensional Internal Flow CFD Analysis

The application of overset grids to the computational fluid dynamics analysis of three-dimensional internal flow in the payload/fairing of an expendable launch vehicle is described. In conjunction with the overset grid system, the flowfield in the payload/fairing configuration is obtained with the aid of OVERFLOW Navier-Stokes code. The solution exhibits a highly three dimensional complex flowfield with swirl, separation, and vortices. Some of the computed flow features are compared with the measured Laser-Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) data on a 1/5th scale model of the payload/fairing configuration. The counter-rotating vortex structures and the location of the saddle point predicted by the CFD analysis are in general agreement with the LDV data. Comparisons of the computed (CFD) velocity profiles on horizontal and vertical lines in the LDV measurement plane in the faring nose region show reasonable agreement with the LDV data