Former intelligence chief Mustafa al-Kadhini was named prime minister of Iraq on Thursday, after five months of political instability in the Middle Eastern nation.

Subprime mortgages have been linked to a meltdown in housing and questionable Wall Street practices, and they may have been the original domino that set off America's current economic crisis.

David Willens
Apr 1, 2011; 29:60-68
Feature Articles

Karen L. Herbst
Jan 1, 2002; 20:
Feature Articles

American Diabetes Association
Jan 1, 2019; 37:11-34
Position Statements

American Diabetes Association
Jan 1, 2016; 34:3-21
Position Statements

Irl B. Hirsch
Apr 1, 2005; 23:78-86
Practical Pointers

American Diabetes Association
Jan 1, 2018; 36:14-37
Position Statements

American Diabetes Association
Jan 1, 2017; 35:5-26
Position Statements

American Diabetes Association
Apr 1, 2015; 33:97-111
Position Statements

This publication outlines the Commonwealth Child Safe Framework requirements and guidance for its implementation.The primary audience for this publication is Commonwealth entities. This publication has been developed to assist entities to understand and implement the requirements of the Commonwealth Child Safe Framework.

Consumers who only make the minimum repayment on their credit card could be paying hundreds of dollars a year in high interest payments. To help, BETA partnered with the Treasury and Westpac to see if reminders could encourage consumers to pay earlier and save money. We found any type of SMS reminder resulted in a $134 (28 per cent) increase in repayments in the following month, compared to those who received no message. However, different SMS messages all had a similar impact and we were unable to detect an effect from sending email reminders. Overall, the findings suggest that sending an SMS reminder to credit card consumers before their payment due date is a simple, cost-effective way to improve their financial wellbeing.

Budget Initiatives and Explanations of Appropriations Specified by Outcomes and Programs by Entity: Prime Minister and Cabinet Portfolio.

In 2017 the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and Australian Defence Force (Australian Army) undertook a joint review of the Army Aboriginal Community Assistance Programme (AACAP) to assess its efficiency and effectiveness. The review found AACAP is a highly regarded and effective means of achieving positive environmental and primary health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities while providing valuable training outcomes for Army. AACAP's objectives align with the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) 'Closing the Gap' targets in Indigenous disadvantage and with the Australian Government's Indigenous Advancement Strategy (IAS). The report identified areas for potential improvement, recommending greater support for the sustainability of infrastructure and project investment, enhanced employment and training opportunities and strengthening of project governance.

The use of behavioural insights in public policy has traditionally focused on small, low cost 'nudges' to improve communications, increase compliance and enhance the way services are delivered. But BETA has begun to look beyond to identify a smaller set of 'richer veins' where BI can offer high financial and social impact. These areas includes consumer choice, financial decision-making and personal wellbeing.

The purpose of these guidelines is to provide advice to departments and entities on the procedures to be followed when presenting documents to the Parliament.

Leipzig : F.C.W. Vogel, 1889.

Paris : G. Steinheil, 1888.

Paris : A. Davy, 1888.

Paris : Germer-Bailliere, 1877.

Paris : G. Carre, 1895.

[19--?]

Dual first-order methods are essential techniques for large-scale constrained convex optimization. However, when recovering the primal solutions, we need $T(epsilon^{-2})$ iterations to achieve an $epsilon$-optimal primal solution when we apply an algorithm to the non-strongly convex dual problem with $T(epsilon^{-1})$ iterations to achieve an $epsilon$-optimal dual solution, where $T(x)$ can be $x$ or $sqrt{x}$. In this paper, we prove that the iteration complexity of the primal solutions and dual solutions have the same $Oleft(frac{1}{sqrt{epsilon}} ight)$ order of magnitude for the accelerated randomized dual coordinate ascent. When the dual function further satisfies the quadratic functional growth condition, by restarting the algorithm at any period, we establish the linear iteration complexity for both the primal solutions and dual solutions even if the condition number is unknown. When applied to the regularized empirical risk minimization problem, we prove the iteration complexity of $Oleft(nlog n+sqrt{frac{n}{epsilon}} ight)$ in both primal space and dual space, where $n$ is the number of samples. Our result takes out the $left(log frac{1}{epsilon} ight)$ factor compared with the methods based on smoothing/regularization or Catalyst reduction. As far as we know, this is the first time that the optimal $Oleft(sqrt{frac{n}{epsilon}} ight)$ iteration complexity in the primal space is established for the dual coordinate ascent based stochastic algorithms. We also establish the accelerated linear complexity for some problems with nonsmooth loss, e.g., the least absolute deviation and SVM.

Natalia Shenkman.

Source: Brazilian Journal of Probability and Statistics, Volume 34, Number 1, 127--135.

Abstract:
While derivations of the characterization of the $d$-variate exchangeable Marshall–Olkin copula via $d$-monotone sequences relying on basic knowledge in probability theory exist in the literature, they contain a myriad of unnecessary relatively complicated computations. We revisit this issue and provide proofs where all undesired artefacts are removed, thereby exposing the simplicity of the characterization. In particular, we give an insightful analytical derivation of the monotonicity conditions based on the monotonicity properties of the survival probabilities.

Johan A.K. Suykens, Carlos Alzate, Kristiaan Pelckmans

Source: Statist. Surv., Volume 4, 148--183.

Abstract:
This paper discusses the role of primal and (Lagrange) dual model representations in problems of supervised and unsupervised learning. The specification of the estimation problem is conceived at the primal level as a constrained optimization problem. The constraints relate to the model which is expressed in terms of the feature map. From the conditions for optimality one jointly finds the optimal model representation and the model estimate. At the dual level the model is expressed in terms of a positive definite kernel function, which is characteristic for a support vector machine methodology. It is discussed how least squares support vector machines are playing a central role as core models across problems of regression, classification, principal component analysis, spectral clustering, canonical correlation analysis, dimensionality reduction and data visualization.

Joshua A. Gordon
May 15, 1996; 16:3274-3286
Articles

Matteo Carandini
Nov 1, 1997; 17:8621-8644
Articles

Italian translation of the BIS press release about the BIS Quarterly Review, December 2017

Priming refers to the influence that a previously encountered object exerts on future responses to similar objects. For many years, visual priming has been known as a facilitation and sometimes an inhibition effect that lasts for an extended period of time. It contrasts with the recent finding of an oscillated priming effect where facilitation and inhibition alternate over time periodically. Here we developed a computational model of visual priming that combines rhythmic sampling of the environment (attentional oscillation) with active preparation for future events (temporal expectation). Counterintuitively, it shows that both the sustained and oscillated priming effects can emerge from an interaction between attentional oscillation and temporal expectation. The interaction also leads to novel predictions, such as the change of visual priming effects with temporal expectation and attentional oscillation. Reanalysis of two published datasets and the results of two new experiments of visual priming tasks with male and female human participants provide support for the model's relevance to human behavior. More generally, our model offers a new perspective that may unify the increasing findings of behavioral and neural oscillations with the classic findings in visual perception and attention.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT There is increasing behavioral and neural evidence that visual attention is a periodic process that sequentially samples different alternatives in the theta frequency range. It contrasts with the classic findings of sustained facilitatory or inhibitory attention effects. How can an oscillatory perceptual process give rise to sustained attention effects? Here we make this connection by proposing a computational model for a "fruit fly" visual priming task and showing both the sustained and oscillated priming effects can have the same origin: an interaction between rhythmic sampling of the environment and active preparation for future events. One unique contribution of our model is to predict how temporal contexts affects priming. It also opens up the possibility of reinterpreting other attention-related classic phenomena.

Statistical regularities in natural sounds facilitate the perceptual segregation of auditory sources, or streams. Repetition is one cue that drives stream segregation in humans, but the neural basis of this perceptual phenomenon remains unknown. We demonstrated a similar perceptual ability in animals by training ferrets of both sexes to detect a stream of repeating noise samples (foreground) embedded in a stream of random samples (background). During passive listening, we recorded neural activity in primary auditory cortex (A1) and secondary auditory cortex (posterior ectosylvian gyrus, PEG). We used two context-dependent encoding models to test for evidence of streaming of the repeating stimulus. The first was based on average evoked activity per noise sample and the second on the spectro-temporal receptive field. Both approaches tested whether differences in neural responses to repeating versus random stimuli were better modeled by scaling the response to both streams equally (global gain) or by separately scaling the response to the foreground versus background stream (stream-specific gain). Consistent with previous observations of adaptation, we found an overall reduction in global gain when the stimulus began to repeat. However, when we measured stream-specific changes in gain, responses to the foreground were enhanced relative to the background. This enhancement was stronger in PEG than A1. In A1, enhancement was strongest in units with low sparseness (i.e., broad sensory tuning) and with tuning selective for the repeated sample. Enhancement of responses to the foreground relative to the background provides evidence for stream segregation that emerges in A1 and is refined in PEG.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT To interact with the world successfully, the brain must parse behaviorally important information from a complex sensory environment. Complex mixtures of sounds often arrive at the ears simultaneously or in close succession, yet they are effortlessly segregated into distinct perceptual sources. This process breaks down in hearing-impaired individuals and speech recognition devices. By identifying the underlying neural mechanisms that facilitate perceptual segregation, we can develop strategies for ameliorating hearing loss and improving speech recognition technology in the presence of background noise. Here, we present evidence to support a hierarchical process, present in primary auditory cortex and refined in secondary auditory cortex, in which sound repetition facilitates segregation.

This paper reviews post-crisis financial regulatory reforms, examines how they fit together and identifies open issues. Specifically, it takes stock of the salient new features of bank and CCP international standards within a unified analytical framework.

Bank for International Settlements BIS Working Papers by Claudio Borio, Marc Farag and Nikola Tarashev

Research suggests that the prevalence of obesity in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is higher than in typically developing children. The US Preventive Services Task Force and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) have endorsed screening children for overweight and obesity as part of the standard of care for physicians. However, the pediatric provider community has been inadequately prepared to address this issue in children with ASD. The Healthy Weight Research Network, a national research network of pediatric obesity and autism experts funded by the US Health Resources and Service Administration Maternal and Child Health Bureau, developed recommendations for managing overweight and obesity in children with ASD, which include adaptations to the AAP’s 2007 guidance. These recommendations were developed from extant scientific evidence in children with ASD, and when evidence was unavailable, consensus was established on the basis of clinical experience. It should be noted that these recommendations do not reflect official AAP policy. Many of the AAP recommendations remain appropriate for primary care practitioners to implement with their patients with ASD; however, the significant challenges experienced by this population in both dietary and physical activity domains, as well as the stress experienced by their families, require adaptations and modifications for both preventive and intervention efforts. These recommendations can assist pediatric providers in providing tailored guidance on weight management to children with ASD and their families.