Multi-Task Learning tries to improve the learning process of different tasks by solving them simultaneously. A popular Multi-Task Learning formulation for SVM is to combine common and task-specific parts. Other approaches rely on using a Graph Laplacian regularizer. Here we propose a combination of these two approaches that can be applied to L1, L2 and LS-SVMs. We also propose an algorithm to iteratively learn the graph adjacency matrix used in the Laplacian regularization. We test our proposal with synthetic and real (...) problems, both in regression and classification settings. When the task structure is present, we show that our model is able to detect it, which leads to better results, and we also show it to be competitive even when this structure is not present. (shrink)

This paper compares two normative theories of education in Chile, one centered in the republican tradition, mainly in the XIX and partly in the XXth century, and the other imposed by the military dictatorship and who uses the market freedom and the market efficiency as justificatory devices. The republican theory argues in favor of a central role of the state in the design of a public, universal, obligatory and tuitionless educational system, understood as essential to the formation of citizens in (...) common and to the construction of an egalitarian society. One can think of education, in this perspective, as a common property, a public good of which nobody can, in principle be excluded. To the market theory, education is conceived as a consumer good –or, in another version, as an investment– who means high rates of return to individual users and for that reason must be paid by them. From another perspective, a private system of education is justified in terms of the freedom to offer educational goods in the market, and the freedom to choose this goods by theconsumers. In Chile an educational system very similar to the republican one, has existed till 1973. This system has had a relatively peaceful coexistence with private education in all levels. In current discussions on education, this mixed system is considered a good thing. The paper argues that this coexistence is no more possible with the actual market model who seeks to exclude any other system, which is incompatible with a strong public system of high quality and who points therefore to the destatisation of all education. (shrink)

Traducción crítica de las dos cuestiones_ quodlibetales_ dedicadas por Enrique de Gante al origen causal de la imposibilidad, precedida de un estudio introductorio que analiza ambas cuestiones en el marco general de su ontología relacional. En la primera (VI.3), Enrique concluye que la imposibilidad de algo proviene _ex parte rei_; mientras que en la segunda (VIII.3), concluye que la imposibilidad de algo proviene _ex parte dei_. El estudio de ambas cuestiones muestra, por una parte, la continuidad y la dependencia de (...) la segunda cuestión respecto de la primera y, por otra, la debilidad de la distinción propuesta por Enrique entre la constitución formal de la _res_ y su posibilidad objetiva, así como la originalidad y el valor de la noción de nada (_purum nihil_) que logra precisar en ellas. (shrink)