Recently, all the human genes were identified. But understanding the functions coded in the genes is a much harder problem. We are used to view DNA as some sort of a computer code, but there are striking differences. For example, by using entropy, it has been shown that the DNA code is much closer to random code than written text, which in turn is less ordered than ordinary computer code. Inste...

and the participants of the Stanford GSB Joint Accounting/Finance student seminar for their helpful comments and suggestions. All remaining errors are my own.

When a dataset involves multiple classes, there is often a need to express the key contrasting features among these classes in humanly understandable terms, that is, to pro"le the classes. Commonly, one class is contrasted from the rest by aggregating the latter into a pseudo-class; alternatively, classes are treated separately without coordinating their pro"les with those of the other classes....

A distinct feature of an adaptive e-learning hypermedia system (AEHS) is the learner model it employs, that is, a representation of information about an individual learner. Learner modeling and adaptation are strongly correlated, in the sense that the amount and nature of the information represented in the learner model depend largely on the kind of adaptation effect that the system has to deli...

This article outlines a hybrid method, incorporating multiple techniques into an evaluation process, in order to select competitive suppliers in a supply chain. It enables a purchaser to do single sourcing and multiple sourcing by calculating a combined supplier score (CSS), which accounts for both qualitative and quantitative factors that impact on supply chain performance. By performing a clu...

A distinguishing feature of the period preceding the 2007/08 financial crisis was the sizeable increase in private sector debt observed across many countries. A key component of household liabilities is mortgage debt and with many countries experiencing persistent increases in house prices from the mid-1990s onwards, a marked increase in this aspect of household leverage was observed. While agg...

In this paper we address the problem of motivating students to improve their programming practices through the development of a specific tool that allows them to compare the efficiency and structure of the codes they generate against those of other students or the references provided by the teacher. This tool has been created in order to serve as a competitive incentive or game that forces the ...

In this paper, we present a unified framework for our previous constructions of martingales with the same one-dimensional marginals as particular cases of processes increasing in the convex order. This framework encompasses our former uses of Lévy sheets, Sato sheets and self-decomposable laws. New examples of processes increasing in the convex order are also exhibited, but we do not know how t...