Publications related to Diminishing returns

Global emergent responses of stream microbial metabolism to glacier shrinkage

Tom Ian Battin, Hannes Markus Peter, Massimo Bourquin, Nicola Deluigi, Tyler Joe Kohler, Michail Styllas

Most cryospheric ecosystems are energy limited. How their energetics will respond to climate change remains largely unknown. This is particularly true for glacier-fed streams, which interface with the cryosphere and initiate some of Earth's largest river s ...

Nature Portfolio2024

Generative AI-Enabled Conversational Interaction to Support Self-Directed Learning Experiences in Transversal Computational Thinking

Denis Gillet, Juan Carlos Farah, Adrian Christian Holzer, Abdessalam Ouaazki

As computational thinking (CT) becomes increasingly acknowledged as an important skill in education, self-directed learning (SDL) emerges as a key strategy for developing this capability. The advent of generative AI (GenAI) conversational agents has disrup ...

2024

Demand-based Asset Pricing: Theory, Estimation and Applications

Philippe van der Beck

This thesis investigates the relationship between investors' demand shocks and asset prices through the use of data on portfolio holdings. In three chapters, I study the theory, estimation, and application of demand-based asset pricing models, which incorp ...

EPFL2023

Aiming beyond slight increases in accuracy

Daniel Probst

Owing to the diminishing returns of deep learning and the focus on model accuracy, machine learning for chemistry might become an endeavour exclusive to well-funded institutions and industry. Extending the focus to model efficiency and interpretability wil ...

NATURE PORTFOLIO2023

Technology Strategy in Dynamic Environments: A Computational Analysis of the Automation of Routines, the Organization of AI, and the Evaluation of Technology Risk

Maximilian Wieland Hofer

In this dissertation, I develop theory and evidence to argue that new technologies are central to how firms organize to create and capture value. I use computational methods such as reinforcement learning and probabilistic topic modeling to investigate thr ...

EPFL2022

High-dimensional optimization under nonconvex excluded volume constraints

Antonio Sclocchi

We consider high-dimensional random optimization problems where the dynamical variables are subjected to nonconvex excluded volume constraints. We focus on the case in which the cost function is a simple quadratic cost and the excluded volume constraints a ...

AMER PHYSICAL SOC2022

COVID-19: data-driven dynamic asset allocation in times of pandemic

Anna Timonina-Farkas

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the importance and value of multi-period asset allocation strategies responding to rapid changes in market behavior. In this article, we formulate and solve a multi-stage stochastic optimization problem, choosing the ...

AMER INST MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES-AIMS2021

Simultaneous Perturbation Stochastic Approximation of the Quantum Fisher Information

Giuseppe Carleo, Julien Sebastian Gacon, Stefan Woerner

The Quantum Fisher Information matrix (QFIM) is a central metric in promising algorithms, such as Quantum Natural Gradient Descent and Variational Quantum Imaginary Time Evolution. Computing the full QFIM for a model with d parameters, however, is computat ...

VEREIN FORDERUNG OPEN ACCESS PUBLIZIERENS QUANTENWISSENSCHAF2021

Understanding the impact of poison distribution on the performance of Diesel oxidation catalysts

Oliver Kröcher, Davide Ferri

Detailed understanding of the poisoning mechanism in Diesel oxidation catalysts (DOCs) is the key to prevent long term catalyst deterioration in vehicles. The present work studies artificial phosphorus (P) poisoning methods applied to a commercial DOC. Cor ...

ELSEVIER2021

Wavelet-Based Moment-Matching Techniques for Inertial Sensor Calibration

Jan Skaloud, Stéphane Guerrier, Mehran Khaghani

The task of inertial sensor calibration has required the development of various techniques to take into account the sources of measurement error coming from such devices. The calibration of the stochastic errors of these sensors has been the focus of incre ...

2020

Adapting Governance Incentives to Avoid Common Pool Resource Underuse: The Case of Swiss Summer Pastures

Ivo Philippe Baur

The use of summer pastures in the European Alps provides much evidence against Hardin's prediction of the tragedy of the commons. For centuries, farmers have kept summer pastures in communal tenure and avoided its overuse with self-designed regulations. Du ...

2018

Water soluble derivatives of platinum carbonyl Chini clusters: synthesis, molecular structures and cytotoxicity of [Pt-12(CO)(20)(PTA)(4)](2-) and [Pt-15(CO)(25)(PTA)(5)](2-)

Paul Joseph Dyson, Lucinda Kate Batchelor, Silvia Ruggieri

The reactions of Pt-3n(CO)(6n) (n = 2-5) homoleptic Chini-type clusters with increasing amounts of 1,3,5-triaza-7-phosphaadamantane (PTA) result in the stepwise substitution of one terminal CO ligand per Pt-3 triangular unit up to the formation of [P ...

2018

Mining the Potential of Label-Free Biosensors for In Vitro Antipsychotic Drug Screening

Sandro Carrara, Tugba Kilic, Hatice Altug, Maria Soler Aznar

The pharmaceutical industry is facing enormous challenges due to high drug attribution rates. For the past decades, novel methods have been developed for safety and efficacy testing, as well as for improving early development stages. In vitro screening met ...

2018

Thermally induced group effects among energy piles

Lyesse Laloui, Alessandro Francesco Rotta Loria

The behaviour of conventional pile groups (e.g., closely spaced) that are subjected to mechanical loads has been shown to be different than the behaviour of single isolated piles. The so-called group effects are responsible for this behaviour and must be c ...

2017

Coupled energy economic model framework for analyzing Swiss electricity markets in changing policy environments

Sophie Maire

Energy policy needs to rely on the proper understanding of the interactions between policy instruments, consumer preferences, investment behavior, market structure, electricity supply, and the wider policy environment. This asks for appropriate modeling to ...

EPFL2016

Multi-Period Portfolio Optimization: Translation of Autocorrelation Risk to Excess Variance

Napat Rujeerapaiboon, Byung-Geun Choi

Growth-optimal portfolios are guaranteed to accumulate higher wealth than any other investment strategy in the long run. However, they tend to be risky in the short term. For serially uncorrelated markets, similar portfolios with more robust guarantees hav ...

2016

The total benefit of alternative assets to pension fund portfolios

Anna Slavutskaya

Pension funds only quite recently have explored alternative assets, prodded by financial crises that devastated equity returns and led to low bond returns. We assess the addition of alternative assets to pension fund portfolios in terms of the total benefi ...

Elsevier Science Bv2016

Effect of Ca addition on interface formation in Al(Ca)/Al2O3 composites prepared by gas pressure assisted infiltration

Ludger Weber

The aim of the work is to study interface formation between Al2O3 particles and Al(Ca) matrix in dependence of Ca content. Aluminium matrix composites (AMC) subjected to investigation were prepared by gas pressure assisted infiltration of alumina beds with ...

Elsevier Sci Ltd2016

The "Policy Mix' for Sustainable Urban Transition: The city district of Hammarby Sjostad in Stockholm

Eghbal Arian Mahzouni

This paper analyses the policy mix for urban transition by drawing on insights from studies in institutions and path dependence. It sheds new light on the role of institutions and actors in creating a policy mix for sustainable city districts, which has no ...

Wiley Periodicals, Inc2015

Projection onto the Manifold of Elongated Structures for Accurate Extraction

Pascal Fua, Vincent Lepetit, Amos Sironi

Detection of elongated structures in 2D images and 3D image stacks is a critical prerequisite in many applications and Machine Learning-based approaches have recently been shown to deliver superior performance. However, these methods essentially classify i ...

2015