We propose a variable metric framework for minimizing the sum of a self-concordant function and a possibly non-smooth convex function endowed with a computable proximal operator. We theoretically establish the convergence of our framework without relying on the usual Lipschitz gradient assumption

self-concordant function for which Newton’s method with backtracking has theoretical convergence guarantees. 1

We consider the class of convex minimization prob-lems, composed of a self-concordant function, such as the log det metric, a convex data fidelity term h(·) and, a regularizing – possibly non-smooth – function g(·). This type of problems have recently attracted a great deal of interest, mainly due

samples: (1) 183 university students that included longitudinal measures of goal attainment and life satisfaction; (2) 251 employees where longitudinal measures of goal attainment and job satisfaction were utilized. In both studies, the core self-evaluations concept was positively related to goal self-concordance

have been effectively addressed, and application of these methods to appropriate high-risk and general population samples in controlled studies. The authors review risk and protective factors for drug abuse, assess a number of approaches for drug abuse prevention potential with high-risk groups

We consider the problem of finding the unconstrained global minimum of a realvalued polynomial p(x) : R R, as well as the global minimum of p(x), in a compact set K defined by polynomial inequalities. It is shown that this problem reduces to solving an (often finite) sequence of convex linear matrix inequality (LMI) problems. A notion of Karush--Kuhn--Tucker polynomials is introduced in a global optimality condition. Some illustrative examples are provided. Key words. global optimization, theory of moments and positive polynomials, semidefinite programming AMS subject classifications. 90C22, 90C25 PII. S1052623400366802 1.

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The Internet presents numerous sources of useful information---telephone directories, product catalogs, stock quotes, weather forecasts, etc. Recently, many systems have been built that automatically gather and manipulate such information on a user's behalf. However, these resources are usually formatted for use by people (e.g., the relevant content is embedded in HTML pages), so extracting their content is difficult. Wrappers are often used for this purpose. A wrapper is a procedure for extracting a particular resource's content. Unfortunately, hand-coding wrappers is tedious. We introduce wrapper induction, a technique for automatically constructing wrappers. Our techniques can be described in terms of three main contributions. First, we pose the problem of wrapper construction as one of inductive learn...

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This paper examines the effect of skill-biased technological change as measured by computerization on the recent widening of U. S. educational wage differentials. An analysis of aggregate changes in the relative supplies and wages of workers by education from 1940 to 1996 indicates strong