IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF THE DECISION MAKING BY USING BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SOLUTIONS

On the basis of the decision making stands information, as one of the main elements that determine the evolution of our-days society. As a consequence, data analysis tends to become a priority in the activity of an organization for decision making. The diBusiness Intelligence, Data Warehouse, decision making, SQL Server

Some Determinants of Intermediate Local Governments' Spending Efficiency: The Case of French Départements

Efforts undertaken by France to restructure the allocation of governmental competencies increased the importance of subnational governments by transferring additional tasks. This paper analyzes the efficiency of public spending on an intermediate government level for a sample of 96 départements in metropolitan France in 2008. Spending efficiency is measured using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Results indicate significant room for improvements and detect spending inefficiencies averaging between 10 and 22 percent, depending on model specification. To explain efficiency, a bootstrapped truncated regression, following Simar and Wilson (2007), is applied. The second-stage regression shows that efficiency is also determined by exogenous factors and identifies the distance to the national capital, inhabitants' income and the share of inhabitants of an age over 65 as significant determinants of efficiency.Intermediate government spending efficiency, nonparametric efficiency analysis, bootstrapped truncated regression

A randomized polynomial kernel for Subset Feedback Vertex Set

The Subset Feedback Vertex Set problem generalizes the classical Feedback Vertex Set problem and asks, for a given undirected graph $G=(V,E)$, a set $S \subseteq V$, and an integer $k$, whether there exists a set $X$ of at most $k$ vertices such that no cycle in $G-X$ contains a vertex of $S$. It was independently shown by Cygan et al. (ICALP '11, SIDMA '13) and Kawarabayashi and Kobayashi (JCTB '12) that Subset Feedback Vertex Set is fixed-parameter tractable for parameter $k$. Cygan et al. asked whether the problem also admits a polynomial kernelization. We answer the question of Cygan et al. positively by giving a randomized polynomial kernelization for the equivalent version where $S$ is a set of edges. In a first step we show that Edge Subset Feedback Vertex Set has a randomized polynomial kernel parameterized by $|S|+k$ with $O(|S|^2k)$ vertices. For this we use the matroid-based tools of Kratsch and Wahlstr\"om (FOCS '12) that for example were used to obtain a polynomial kernel for $s$-Multiway Cut. Next we present a preprocessing that reduces the given instance $(G,S,k)$ to an equivalent instance $(G',S',k')$ where the size of $S'$ is bounded by $O(k^4)$. These two results lead to a polynomial kernel for Subset Feedback Vertex Set with $O(k^9)$ vertices

The time-dependent von Kármán plate equation as a limit of 3D nonlinear elasticity

The asymptotic behaviour of the solutions of three-dimensional nonlinear elastodynamics in a thin plate is studied, as the thickness h of the plate tends to zero. Under appropriate scalings of the applied force and of the initial values in terms of h, it is shown that three-dimensional solutions of the nonlinear elastodynamic equation converge to solutions of the time-dependent von Kármán plate equation