Search results for "Matching"
showing 10 items of 509 documents
Understanding the Dynamic Effect of Contracting Out on the Delivery of Local Public Services
2015
Máñez J., Pérez-López G., Prior D. and Zafra-Gómez J. L. Understanding the dynamic effect of contracting out on the delivery of local public services, Regional Studies. Contracting out is a mechanism through which the delivery of public services can be made more efficient. However, the process has yielded conflicting results. This paper presents a dynamic, mixed approach, incorporating an intertemporal frontier and a matching technique, to measure the short- and long-term effects of the implementation of contracting out on the efficiency of local public service delivery. The study demonstrates the existence of temporary inefficiency arising from the change in service management when contrac…
Forecasting the Equity Risk Premium in the European Monetary Union
2018
This article examines the performance of several variables that could be good predictors of the equity risk premium in the European Monetary Union for a period that spans from 2000 to 2015. In-sample, technical indicators display predictive power, matching or exceeding that of traditional economic forecasting variables. We also find consistent results in the fact that combining information from technical and economic variables improves equity risk premium forecasts, compared to using these variables alone. Nevertheless, out-of-sample exercises do not confirm in-sample results. Economic predictors show stronger out-of-sample forecasting ability than technical indicators, and apart from volum…
Children's help seeking and impulsivity
2004
Abstract The aim of the present study was to analyze the relationship between students' (100 children aged 8 to 12) help-seeking behavior and impulsivity. Help-seeking behavior was evaluated using a naturalistic experimental paradigm in which children were placed in a problem-solving situation and had the opportunity to seek help from the experimenter, if needed. Impulsivity was analyzed using the Hyperactivity–Impulsivity Scale from the Teacher Rating Form of the Multidimensional Peer Nomination Inventory (TR-MPNI), Circle Tracing Task (CTT), Matching Familiar Figures (MFF), and Impulsiveness and Venturesomeness scales from the Eysenck Junior I 6 questionnaire. Structural equation modeling…
Stable-Matching-Based Energy-Efficient Context-Aware Resource Allocation for Ultra-Dense Small Cells
2017
Implementing caching to ultra-densely deployed small cells provides a promising solution for satisfying the stringent quality of service (QoS) requirements of delay-sensitive applications with limited backhaul capacity. With the rapidly increasing energy consumption, in this chapter, the authors investigate the NP-hard energy-efficient context-aware resource allocation problem and formulate it as a one-to-one matching problem. The preference lists in the matching are modeled based on the optimum energy efficiency (EE) under specified matching, which can be obtained by using an iterative power allocation algorithm based on nonlinear fractional programming and Lagrange dual decomposition. Nex…
Customer recommendation based on profile matching and customized campaigns in on-line social networks
2019
We propose a general framework for the recommendation of possible customers (users) to advertisers (e.g., brands) based on the comparison between On-Line Social Network profiles. In particular, we associate suitable categories and subcategories to both user and brand profiles in the considered On-line Social Network. When categories involve posts and comments, the comparison is based on word embedding, and this allows to take into account the similarity between the topics of particular interest for a brand and the user preferences. Furthermore, user personal information, such as age, job or genre, are used for targeting specific advertising campaigns. Results on real Facebook dataset show t…
Robot passes the mirror test by inner speech
2021
Abstract The mirror test is a well-known task in Robotics. The existing strategies are based on kinesthetic-visual matching techniques and manipulate perceptual and motion data. The proposed work attempts to demonstrate that it is possible to implement a robust robotic self-recognition method by the inner speech, i.e. the self-dialogue that enables reasoning on symbolic information. The robot self-talks and conceptually reasons on the symbolic forms of signals, and infers if the robot it sees in the mirror is itself or not. The idea is supported by the existing literature in psychology, where the importance of inner speech in self-reflection and self-concept emergence for solving the mirror…
Key Influencing Factors in Early-Stage Hardware Startups: A Trilateral Model of Speed, Resource, and Quality
2020
Hardware startups, i.e., wearable devices, robotics, and Internet of Things, are a significant sector of technology startups, in which software development is relevant and needed. Compared to pure software startups, hardware development in startup contexts lacks a systematic approach and guidelines. This chapter describes an empirical model that captures common elements in product development approaches among many hardware startups. Grounded from insights of 18 active hardware startups, we constructed a trilateral model of resource, speed, and quality in early-stage product development. For startups with relevant contexts, the work suggests the preparation of internal, external resources, a…
GRASP & evolutionary path relinking for medical image registration based on point matching
2010
Image registration is a very active research area in computer vision. Image registration methods, aim to find a transformation between two images taken under different conditions. Point matching is an image registration approach based on searching for the right pairing of points between the two images. From this matching, the registration transformation can be inferred by means of numerical methods. In this paper, we tackle the medical image registration problem adapting a new advanced hybrid metaheuristic composed by the GRASP and the evolutionary path relinking algorithms, called G&EvPR. The experiments conducted in this work have shown the good performance of G&EvPR compared to similar a…
Detecting multiple copies in tampered images
2010
Copy-move forgeries are parts of the image that are duplicated elsewhere into the same image, often after being modified by geometrical transformations. In this paper we present a method to detect these image alterations, using a SIFT-based approach. First we describe a state of the art SIFT-point matching method, which inspired our algorithm, then we compare it with our SIFT-based approach, which consists of three parts: keypoint clustering, cluster matching, and texture analysis. The goal is to find copies of the same object, i.e. clusters of points, rather than points that match. Cluster matching proves to give better results than single point matching, since it returns a complete and co…
N-Methylcaprolactam as a Dipolar Aprotic Solvent for Iron-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling Reactions: Matching Efficiency with Safer Reaction Media
2019
Although iron‐catalysis provides a powerful alternative to the more conventional palladium and nickel in the cross‐coupling arena, the major limitation is the necessity for carcinogenic N‐methylpyrrolidone as a co‐solvent in the vast majority of catalytic reactions. Herein, we introduce N‐methylcaprolactam as an efficient, non‐toxic and practical dipolar aprotic solvent for iron‐catalyzed C(sp2)−C(sp3) alkylative cross‐coupling of aryl chlorides and tosylates. The utility of this method is reflected by its wide substrate scope, high yields and capacity to cross‐couple challenging alkyl organometallics prone to b‐hydride elimination and homocoupling. Considering the broad utility of iron‐cat…