This paper describes an approach to product recommendation that combines in a novel way contentand collaborative-based filtering techniques. The system helps the user to specify a query that filters out unwanted products in electronic catalogues (content-based). Moreover, if the query produces too many or no results, the system suggests useful query changes that save the gist of the original re...

We examine the relative merits of targeting children within the household through price subsidies and cash transfers. To do so, we model the behavior of a household composed of one adult and one child. We then show that ‘favorable’distortions from price subsidies may allow redistributing toward the child and then derive the conditions under which this redistributive scheme is more e¢ cient than...

Research in methods of lexicalization, classification, analysis-synthesis, transformation, transition, and generation, which has been carried on independently in the German and English sections at LIMAS, has recently been consolidated for the purpose of constructing a Ring-Translation-Model This model has to meet the following requirements: I. It must;produce a translation which is identical in...

With an eye towards the development of systems for common everyday tasks — that operate in a manner that is cognitively-compatible with the argumentative nature of human reasoning — we present mechanisms for reasoning with and learning cognitive programs: common sense, symbolically represented in the form of prioritized association rules. The FLASH mechanism supports a fast argumentation-flavor...

In this paper we introduce distribution rules, a kind of association rules with a distribution on the consequent. Distribution rules are related to quantitative association rules but can be seen as a more fundamental concept, useful for learning distributions. We formalize the main concepts and indicate applications to tasks such as frequent pattern discovery, sub group discovery and forecastin...

The Cochran-Armitage trend test is a standard procedure in genetic association studies. It is a directed test with high power to detect genetic effects that follow the gene-dosage model. In this paper, the author proposes optimal trend tests for genetic association studies of heterogeneous diseases. Monte-Carlo simulations show that the power gain of the optimal trend tests over the conventiona...

We investigate the effect of gravitational lensing on the farthest known supernova, SN1997ff. The SN was found at z ∼ 1.7 in the Hubble Deep Field North and is most likely of Type Ia. Due to our poor knowledge of the properties of the lensing foreground galaxies, we conclude that large magnification effects are possible for reasonable lens parameter values implying that this single SN does not ...

OBJECTIVES Combining the analysis of family-based samples with unrelated individuals can enhance the power of genetic association studies. Various combined analysis techniques have been recently developed; as yet, there have been no comparisons of their power, or robustness to confounding factors. We investigated empirically the power of up to six combined methods using simulated samples of tri...