We propose a new method for input variable selection in nonlinear regression. The method is embedded into a kernel regression machine that can model general nonlinear functions, not being a priori limited to additive models. This is the first kernel-based variable selec- tion method applicable to large datasets. It sidesteps the typical poor scaling properties of kernel methods by mapping the inputs into a relatively low-dimensional space of random features. The algorithm discovers the variables relevant for the regression task together with learning the prediction model through learning the appropriate nonlinear random feature maps. We demonstrate the outstanding performance of our method on a set of large-scale synthetic and real datasets.
This paper studies the effects of estate recovery, estate taxation and long-term care (LTC) subsidies on the incentives both to buy LTC insurance and to transfer wealth by elderly parents and to provide informal care by children to their dependent elderly parents. We also investigate the effect of these three fiscal policies on public budgets allocated to finance LTC needs. Estate recovery is found to dominate the two other fiscal policies as it is more likely to incentivise both LTC insurance purchase and informal care supply while impacting positively government budget.
Based on qualitative research that was conducted on enterprises from the industrial sector, we acquired new knowledge on the use and the needs of management accounting and control practices. The focus of the study was small and middle industries based in the French-speaking part of Switzerland using an ERP (Enterprise Resources Planning) system. The research aims to highlight the best practices in management accounting and control, as well as underlining missing information and tools. The collected data will be used in further research to design a simplified framework of management accounting and controlling that will be useful in identifying and developing the necessary ERP system functionalities.
The current architecture for VANET related services relies on a Client-Server approach and leads to numerous drawbacks, such as network congestion due to the bottleneck problem or, more importantly, data privacy concerns. Indeed, because of the network topology, traffic must go through nodes which limit the bandwidth and thus bound the overall network capacity. Finally, user data is collected and stored in servers, used by third party services. However, these providers are known to treat lightly user privacy by selling or using the data for their own purposes (Beresford and Stajano, 2004). By use of a decentralized and distributed communication protocol (i.e. D2D), one can overcome these problems by spreading the communication burden to all nodes in the mesh. By means of cryptographic techniques, we can ensure that the shared data is secured and controlled at the end-user side. This paper presents a study and proposes a proof of concept of a decentralized and distributed information system by means of a dynamic navigation system for VANET, using a low-cost solution such as Wifi or LTE-direct new 3GPPP protocol. This system preserves user privacy and is augmented with forensics capabilities.
Intra-family moral hazard refers to the disincentive for informal caregivers to provide care to their dependent relatives in the presence of long-term care (LTC) insurance. This article uses crosssectional data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) database to test the effect of both public and private LTC insurance on the reception of informal care in Italy and Spain. The results support the hypothesis of intra-family moral hazard for Spain in the case of public LTC insurance while they reject it for Italy. They confirm recent theoretical findings showing that fixed insurance benefits provide much less disincentives to offer informal care than proportional insurance benefits.
Dans cet article, les auteurs décrivent l’étude de la gestion du cycle de vie des données en cours en Suisse avec un accent sur la préservation à long terme. Basé sur une grande analyse de documents, ainsi que des entretiens semi-structurés, le projet décrit ci-dessous vise à fournir des services au niveau suisse pour les besoins les plus importants dans la gestion des données tout au long de leur cycle de vie, y compris un point d’accès et de contact, de formation et de conseil unique, des solutions de gestion des données actives, des options de stockage et de conservation à long terme, ainsi qu’une gouvernance pour tous les aspects. Mots-clés: Services de gestion de données de recherche, la préservation des données numériques, la gestion des données de cycle de vie inclusifs.
Accessing online health content of high quality and reliability presents challenges. Laypersons cannot easily differentiate trustworthy content from misinformed or manipulated content. This article describes complementary approaches for members of the general public and health professionals to find trustworthy content with as little bias as possible. These include the Khresmoi health search engine (K4E), the Health On the Net Code of Conduct (HONcode) and health trust indicator Web browser extensions.
This paper empirically assesses how financial risk aversion reacts to a change in individuals’ wealth and health and to the introduction of both financial and health risks using the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Individuals in our sample exhibit financial risk aversion decreasing both in wealth and health. Financial risk aversion is also found to increase in the presence of both background financial and health risks. Interestingly, the sensitivity of financial risk aversion to wealth, respectively to health, is shown to depend on the presence of a financial background risk, respectively health background risk, but in opposite directions. Such findings can help to better understand various economic decisions in a risky environment.
During the last three decades several hundred papers have been published on the broad topic of “program comprehension”. The goal was always the same: to develop models and tools to help developers with program understanding during program maintenance. However few authors targeted the more fundamental question: “what is program understanding” or, other words, proposed a model of program understanding. Then we reviewed the proposed program understanding models. We found the papers to be classifiable in three period of time in accordance with the following three subtopics: the process, the tools and the goals. Interestingly, studying the fundamental goal came after the tools. We conclude by highlighting that it is required to go back to the fundamental question to have any chance to develop effective tools to help with program understanding which is the most costly part of program maintenance.
