The paper studies the relations between φ-divergences and fundamental concepts of decision theory such as sufficiency, Bayes sufficiency, and LeCam’s deficiency. A new and considerably simplified approach is given to the spectral representation of φ-divergences already established in Österreicher and Feldman [28] under restrictive conditions and in Liese and Vajda [22], [23] in the general form...

BACKGROUND Self-sufficiency is the realisation of an acceptable level of functioning either by the person him/herself or through the adequate organisation of help from informal or formal care providers. Assessment of self-sufficiency for determining an individual's functional strengths and areas for improvement is increasingly being applied among adolescents in vocational education, a group con...

Reducing the externalities from energy use is crucial for sustainability. There are basically four ways to reduce externalities from energy use: increasing technical efficiency (“energy input per unit energy service”), increasing economic efficiency (“internalising external costs”), using “clean” energy sources with few externalities, or sufficiency (“identifying ‘optimal' energy service levels...

Computing is an activity that is based on natural resources like any other human activity. Technological progress has made it possible to perform more and more computations with less material and energy input. This paper looks at this development through the lens of the three concepts of efficiency, sufficiency, and self-sufficiency, asking the question of whether it could lead to a state of se...

To curtail data centers’ huge cooling power consumption and water demand (for cooling), air-side economizer has been increasingly adopted to cool down servers. Recently, another sustainability practice, rainwater harvesting, has also seen a growing adoption in data centers, potentially leading to water self-sufficiency without connecting to water utilities to supply cooling water. Nonetheless, ...