Off-policy reinforcement learning is useful in many contexts. Maei, Sutton, Szepesvari, and others, have recently introduced a new class of algorithms, the most advanced of which is GQ(λ), for off-policy reinforcement learning. These algorithms are the first stable methods for general off-policy learning whose computational complexity scales linearly with the number of parameters, thereby makin...

Background Despite the significant role “values” play in decision-making no definition or attributes regarding the concept have been provided in health policy-making. This study aimed to clarify the defining attributes of a concept of value and its irrelevant structures in health policy-making. We anticipate our findings will help reduce the semantic ambiguities associated with the use of “valu...

We investigate the problem of using function approximation in reinforcement learning where the agent’s policy is represented as a classifier mapping states to actions. High classification accuracy is usually deemed to correlate with high policy quality. But this is not necessarily the case as increasing classification accuracy can actually decrease the policy’s quality. This phenomenon takes pl...

although the importance of patient participation in the design and evaluation of health programs and services is well-documented, there is scarcity of research with regard to patient association (pa) participation in health policy decision-making processes. to this end, the present study aimed to validate further a previously developed instrument as well as to investigate the degree of pa parti...

background: various decisions have been made on technology application at all levels of the health system in different countries around the world. health technology assessment is considered as one of the best scientific tools at the service of policy- makers. this study attempts to investigate the current challenges of iran’s health technology assessment and provide appropriate strategies to es...

ABSTRACT Critical decolonial assessments of International Political Economy (IPE) curricula have found a continued dominance Euro-Western perspectives. However, these critical often been specific programs or courses. In this article, we open the canvas wider in our quantitative assessment privilege and marginalization, by conducting an analysis IPE from universities around world as well one mos...

This paper presents a novel conceptualization of policy making as social drama. The selection and presentation of evidence for policy making, including the choice of which questions to ask, which evidence to compile in a synthesis and which syntheses to bring to the policy making table, should be considered as moves in a rhetorical argumentation game and not as the harvesting of objective facts...

This paper uses theories of policy learning and of policy-making to examine how global institutions such as the World Bank can influence policy choices by developing countries in the area of trade liberalisation. In pure learning by doing, policy choices are based on information relating to the history of an active policy; there is no information on alternative policies. New information on prio...