We study sequential decision making in environments where rewards are only partially observed, but can be modeled as a function of observed contexts and the chosen action by the decision maker. This setting, known as contextual bandits, encompasses a wide variety of applications such as health care, content recommendation and Internet advertising. A central task is evaluation of a new policy gi...

This study addressed geographical uniqueness in relation to elite coaching. The study explores the complexities associated to coaching in northern Canadian communities, and how unique geographical surroundings can affect coaching success. The views of fourteen National and International elite coaches from different northern Canadian communities are included within the study. The respondents wer...

Universities have a responsibility to equip graduates with the knowledge and skills to be productive in their work environment. Recently, the discipline of IT Service Management (ITSM) has become globally recognized as critical to organizations. Academia appears to be lagging industry in providing education in this field. This paper describes the motivation, implementation, outcomes and challen...

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Most agronomic research seeks to limit the variability of productivity, offering universal ‘recipe knowledge’ that attempts to overwhelm contextual differences. Based on participatory research with a group of eight graziers in Wisconsin, we present the counter hypothesis that the productivity of variability is a key principle of agroecology. Contextual variability across space and time presents...

ABSTRACT This paper reports the results of an international web-based survey on the use of field studies in the design and evaluation of interactive systems, which was conducted between December 2006 and February 2007. The results suggest that the advantages and disadvantages of field methods are generally well understood, but guidance is needed in their application and use. Field studies were ...

We describe methods and practices of early user involvement and human-centred design: how researchers and designers, in the ICT industry, attempt to cooperate with end-users, with the goal of making a better match with end-users’ needs and preferences. We describe six (dance) moves: participatory design, ethnographic fieldwork, lead-user approach, contextual design, codesigning, and empathic de...

The validity of semantic inferences depends on the contexts in which they are applied. We propose a generic framework for handling contextual considerations within applied inference, termed Contextual Preferences. This framework defines the various context-aware components needed for inference and their relationships. Contextual preferences extend and generalize previous notions, such as select...

The identification of the scientific production and the evaluation of the researchers is a problem we are facing at present times. Bibliometric methods use mainly statistical tools and their results are of quantitative nature. Consequently, this approach does not provide any tools of qualitative evaluation. It is for this reason we suggest to examine the specific details of the bibliographic re...

BACKGROUND Increasing the use of routine preventive care such as HIV testing is important, yet implementation of such evidence-based clinical care is complex. The Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (PARiHS) model for implementation posits that implementation will be most successful when the evidence, context, and facilitation strategies are strong for the clinical pr...