Data warehouses (DWs) can become inconsistent when some dimensional constraints are not satisfied by the dimension instances. In this paper, we present preliminary results about the effects of the violation of partitioning constraints in homogeneous dimension instances over aggregation queries, and in particular over the summarizability property (SUMM) of the DWs. We are interested in finding w...

We consider the classical statistical learning/regression problem, when the value of a real random variable Y is to be predicted based on the observation of another random variableX . Given a class of functions F and a sample of independent copies of (X,Y ), one needs to choose a function f̂ from F such that f̂(X) approximates Y as well as possible, in the mean-squared sense. We introduce a new p...

Let F be a class of measurable functions f :S 7→ [0,1] defined on a probability space (S,A, P ). Given a sample (X1, . . . ,Xn) of i.i.d. random variables taking values in S with common distribution P , let Pn denote the empirical measure based on (X1, . . . ,Xn). We study an empirical risk minimization problem Pnf →min, f ∈ F . Given a solution f̂n of this problem, the goal is to obtain very ge...

Previous empirical research has shown that Mexico's Oportunidades program has succeeded in increasing schooling and improving health of disadvantaged children. This paper studies the program's potential longer-term consequences for the poverty and inequality of these children. It adapts methods developed in DiNardo, Fortin and Lemieux (1996) and incorporates existing experimental estimates of t...

Article history: Received 25 August 2015 Received in revised form 17 November 2015 Accepted 17 November 2015 Available online 18 November 2015 Law is a powerful tool for combatting public health issues. This article reviews existing empirical research on the effect of eight legal levers on outcomes related to child maltreatment. Laws created with the intent to address child maltreatment are oft...

In this paper we develop dual free SDCA with adaptive probabilities for regularized empirical risk minimization. This extends recent work of Shai Shalev-Shwartz [SDCA without Duality, arXiv:1502.06177] to allow non-uniform selection of ”dual” coordinate in SDCA. Moreover, the probability can change over time, making it more efficient than uniform selection. Our work focuses on generating adapti...

This paper aims to provide direct and indirect evidence on setting up rules for applications of the empirical Bayes shrinkage (EBS), and offers cautionary remarks concerning its applicability. In epidemiology, there is still a lack of relevant criteria in the application of EBS. The bias of the shrinkage estimator is investigated in terms of the sums of errors, squared errors and absolute error...

Drawing on empirical research completed in Belgium, this article presents a comparative analysis of the care regimes for two categories of children: transnational adoptees and unaccompanied minors. Although state immigration policies consider the two groups of minors as humanitarian exceptions that require preferential treatment, the kind of humanitarian help and social investment they are beli...