This paper presents an algorithmic strategy to non-stationary policy search for finite-horizon, discrete-time Markovian decision problems with large state spaces, constrained action sets, and a risk-sensitive optimality criterion. The methodology relies on modeling time-variant policy parameters by a non-parametric response surface model for an indirect parametrized policy motivated by Bellman’...

We have developed a policy-based decision framework that provides authorization and cost-based accounting in the EZGrid system, a resource broker for metacomputing. Primarily, this work allows the administrators and the owners to exercise more control over their resources by dictating usage permissions and/or restrictions in a grid environment. This mechanism is independent of the applications ...

Biochar application to agricultural soils is an interesting emerging technology with promising potential for long-term carbon storage, sustainable waste disposal, and soil fertility enhancement. Extensive information exists in the literature on the highly beneficial properties of biochar. Nevertheless, systematic application of biochar on European agricultural soils may have wide ranging policy...

Norway, a significant petroleum producer and exporter, has been frontrunner within policies for carbon capture storage (CCS). As CCS is recognized as key technology achieving the Paris climate policy targets, there clear need more knowledge about how to design successful projects. Norway's first initiative, ambitious Mongstad project, was result of political compromise that imposed from above, ...

Policy-based network management is a flexible, automatic and promising paradigm for network configuration management. The IETF has developed several specifications for policy-based configuration management. However, recent research seldom focus on a comprehensive solution for several core issues such as the rationality of the levels of the policies, the consistent relation between the policies ...

The American College of Preventive Medicine Policy Committee makes policy guidelines and recommendations on preventive medicine and public health topics for public health decision makers. After a review of the current evidence available in 2016, the College is providing a consensus-based set of policy recommendations designed to reduce firearm-related morbidity and mortality in the U.S. These g...

We study the online estimation of the optimal policy of a Markov decision process (MDP). We propose a class of Stochastic Primal-Dual (SPD) methods which exploit the inherent minimax duality of Bellman equations. The SPD methods update a few coordinates of the value and policy estimates as a new state transition is observed. These methods use small storage and has low computational complexity p...

Many file migration algorithms rely on simple, unchanging, automated heuristics to make file placement decisions for exclusively hierarchical storage systems. Such approaches cannot adapt to changes in the workload or data center configuration. Systems with manually-tuned policies offer a way to deal with changes but require well-trained administrators, thereby driving up the cost of storage ma...