fórmula de mínimos

English translation: making a few changes here and there

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Spanish term or phrase:	fórmula de mínimos
English translation:	making a few changes here and there
Entered by:	Bubo Coroman (X)

02:04 Dec 8, 2010

Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Social Sciences - Social Science, Sociology, Ethics, etc. / sociological research on illness

Spanish term or phrase: fórmula de mínimos

This term appears in a paper describing the lives and experiences of patients with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). It has various sections on things like anxiety, social relationships, loss of control ... a number of sociological/psychological variables in their lives.

In a section under "Conflicts" we have:

"En muchos casos los pacientes viven situaciones de conflicto ... este conflicto puede ser instantáneo o duradero, profundo o superficial ... en la mayoría de situaciones lo resuelven mediante su acomodación y una readaptación de sus hábitos. Una acomodación que varía según actitudes personales y va de la *fórmula de mínimos* hasta la superación."

I've never seen this expression. I think this means minimal or least response (that is, not dealing with the conflict) all the way to mastering/overcoming the conflict. ¿How would you translate this little phrase, and what would you suggest for "... va de la formula de minimos hasta la superacion"?

Thank you for your help.

Joseph Tein KudoZ activity Questions: 1487 (7 open) (1 without valid answers) (120 closed without grading) Answers: 724 United States
Local time: 09:49

varies from making a few changes here and there, to completely redesigning their lifestyle

Explanation:
refers back to "una readaptación de sus hábitos"

Selected response from:

Bubo Coroman (X)

Grading comment

Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

3 +2

from barely addresing ... to overcoming

María Eugenia Wachtendorff

3 +2

varies from making a few changes here and there, to completely redesigning their lifestyle

Bubo Coroman (X)

just getting by (wiht the least effort)

Muriel Vasconcellos

Discussion entries: 2

Answers

1 hr confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

from barely addresing ... to overcoming

Explanation:
No conozco un término científico para "formula de mínimos", pero creo que la idea es la que te sugiero :)

María Eugenia Wachtendorff
Chile
Local time: 12:49
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

Spanish
PRO pts in category: 20

5 hrs confidence:

just getting by (wiht the least effort)

Explanation:
I'm guessing that this is a reference to the least squares formula, since most of the Internet references I found to "fórmula de mínimos" were followed by "cuadrados" - i.e., "f'ormula de minimos cuadrados".

Here's a definition of minimos cuadrados' from http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mínimos_cuadrados:
Mínimos cuadrados es una técnica de análisis numérico encuadrada dentro de la optimización matemática, en la que, dados un conjunto de pares (o ternas, etc), se intenta encontrar la función que mejor se aproxime a los datos (un "mejor ajuste"), de acuerdo con el criterio de mínimo error cuadrático.
En su forma más simple, **tenta minimizar la suma de cuadrados de las diferencias ordenadas (llamadas residuos) entre los puntos generados por la función y los correspondientes en los datos**Específicamente, se llama mínimos cuadrados promedio (LMS) cuando el número de datos medidos es 1 y se usa el método de descenso por gradiente para minimizar el residuo cuadrado. Se puede demostrar que LMS minimiza el residuo cuadrado esperado, con el mínimo de operaciones (por iteración), pero requiere un gran número de iteraciones para converger.

Definition o 'least squares'
a method of fitting a curve to data points so as ** minimize the sum of the squares og the distances of the points from the curve**
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

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Note added at 5 hrs (2010-12-08 08:03:43 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

"'with the least effort"

Muriel Vasconcellos
United States
Local time: 09:49
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 305

10 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

varies from making a few changes here and there, to completely redesigning their lifestyle

Explanation:
refers back to "una readaptación de sus hábitos"

Bubo Coroman (X)
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 167

Grading comment

Selected automatically based on peer agreement.

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fórmula de mínimos

English translation: making a few changes here and there

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English translation: making a few changes here and there

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