Keywords: support vector machines (SVMs), optimization, machine learning (ML), data mining (DM), financial forecasting, bankruptcy prediction, credit risk analysis, C02, C38, C53, C61
Support vector machines (SVMs), with their roots in Statistical Learning Theory (SLT) and optimization methods, have become powerful tools for problem solution in machine learning. SVMs reduce most machine learning problems to optimization problems and optimization lies at the heart of SVMs. Lots of SVM algorithms involve solving not only convex problems, such as linear programming, quadratic programming, second order cone programming, semi-definite programming, but also non-convex and more general optimization problems, such as integer programming, semi-infinite programming, bi-level programming and so on. The purpose of this paper is to understand SVM from the optimization point of view, review several representative optimization models in SVMs, their applications in economics, in order to promote the research interests in both optimization-based SVMs theory and economics applications. This paper starts with summarizing and explaining the nature of SVMs. It then proceeds to discuss optimization models for SVM following three major themes. First, least squares SVM, twin SVM, AUC Maximizing SVM, and fuzzy SVM are discussed for standard problems. Second, support vector ordinal machine, semisupervised SVM, Universum SVM, robust SVM, knowledge based SVM and multi-instance SVM are then presented for nonstandard problems. Third, we explore other important issues such as lp-norm SVM for feature selection, LOOSVM based on minimizing LOO error bound, probabilistic outputs for SVM, and rule extraction from SVM. At last, several applications of SVMs to financial forecasting, bankruptcy prediction, credit risk analysis are introduced.
More...Keywords: financial ratios, economic sectors, Lithuania, fuzzy number, VIKOR, TOPSIS, ARAS strategic management, strategic management, C44, D24, M21
The aim of this study was to offer a novel procedure for integrated assessment and comparison of Lithuanian economic sectors on the basis of financial ratios and fuzzy MCDM methods. The complex of interrelated issues regarding integrated assessment of economic sectors is discussed in the paper. The object of research is financial indicators of different Lithuanian economic sectors. The proposed procedure for multi-criteria comparison of economic sectors encompasses: 1) the indicator system, 2) application of fuzzy MCDM methods, and 3) inter-sectoral comparison based on ranks provided by fuzzy MCDM methods. The research covers period of 2007–2010, starting at the very beginning of the economic recession and, hopefully, ending with the upcoming recovery. The application of the three MCDM methods was successful. The results suggested the best performing sector being that of forestry and logging. Furthermore, enterprises operating in trade sector, hospitality sector, mining and quarrying sector, information sector, or manufacturing sector can be considered as working more efficiently than an average Lithuanian enterprise. At the other end of spectrum, construction, real estate, and transportation sectors were those severely damaged by the economic crisis: they were ranked below the average alternative. Meanwhile, relatively low positions of utilities sectors may be caused by their specifics. Finally, the transport sector can be considered as the typical victim of economic downturn.
More...Keywords: global optimization, Lipschitz optimization, Lipschitz bounds, branch and bound algorithm, C 61
Global optimization methods based on Lipschitz bounds have been analyzed and applied widely to solve various optimization problems. In this paper a bound for Lipschitz function is proposed, which is computed using function values at the vertices of a simplex and the radius of the circumscribed sphere. The efficiency of a branch and bound algorithm with proposed bound and combinations of bounds is evaluated experimentally while solving a number of multidimensional test problems for global optimization. The influence of different bounds on the performance of a branch and bound algorithm has been investigated.
More...Keywords: enterprise resource planning (ERP), ERP system, management systems, construction, manufacturing, L61, L74, L86
The enterprise resource planning (ERP) software market has been growing at a very fast pace over the last few years and has been predicted to keep growing rapidly in the long term. ERP systems have the potential to integrate seamlessly organizational processes using common shared information and data flows. Enterprises recently tend to implement their new enterprise information systems like ERP system in order to gain their competitive advantages and bring up their business efficiency, but the efficiency gained from this new implementation is not quite clear and is difficult to be identified. This paper presents a case study of ERP systems implementation in international construction materials procurement and purchasing company in Latvia. Specifically, this paper briefly described the business processes involved in the manufacturing and construction company and illustrated how ERP systems could be implemented and the efficiency of management system consequently enhanced. For an international company, the headquarters’ successful experience can provide a guideline to assist the local office to implement new system effectively and efficiently. ERP information system supports manufacturing process and construction object related information. This paper also argues that ERP systems are an increasingly important source of organizational change with major implications for the organization and management of work.
More...Keywords: quality assurance in higher education, educational environment evaluation, student surveys, student satisfaction, student motivation, I23, I29
Concern about the quality of higher education is on the rise in Europe. To provide quality enhancement of the educational environment higher education institutions should create and implement a strategy for their higher school improvement - a long-term action plan aimed at achieving organisational goals, which includes a) the management of the organisational units as interconnected and interdependent entities; b) the engagement of students in quality assurance activities as enthusiastic and responsible academic community members. This paper discusses the importance of using regular educational environment evaluation, which involves students' indirect participation in decision-making, as one of the most essential quality assurance activities associated with higher school improvement. It also emphasizes the significance of measuring student satisfaction in education, student satisfaction and student motivation being the result of student interactions with the educational environment in the form of students' perceptions of the educational services.
More...Keywords: productivity, construction, factors, grounds affecting productivity, sub-contractors, nonproductive time, J24, L21, L23
The intense competition between the Iranian construction companies has led them to take all appropriate measures to decrease the costs as much as possible. Hence, due to the pivotal role of human resources in construction projects cost, a major part of Iranian construction companies seek their profitability and survival in maximizing the productivity of their operatives. Because of the widespread belief among contractors about the low productivity of daily workers and operatives with basic salary, they commit a major part of their projects activities to sub-contractors. Deployment of sub-contractors by construction firms has become largely conventional in country's construction projects. The aims of this paper is defined as determining the factors and grounds affecting sub-contractors productivity and evaluate their overall negative side effects on project productivity via a structured questionnaire. A total of 31 factors selected and were divided into 7 broad categories. The perceptions of companies managers were asked about the level of effect brought about by the mentioned factors and groups upon productivity on a time based criterion. The analysis indicated that the most important grounds affecting sub-contractors productivity in descending order include: Materials/Tools, Construction technology and method, Planning, Supervision system, Reworks, Weather, and Jobsite condition. Project managers should focus on the identified major grounds and relevant factors in order to improve productivity as long as they commit construction activities to sub-contractors.
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Keywords: Russia; Zygar; Putin; Kremlin; book; Medvedev; culture;
Dozhd TV chief editor Mikhail Zygar’s account of Russia under Putin lets the facts speak for themselves.
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Keywords: Russia; Ukraine; Moscow; Crimea; Tatars; Suspended; Mejlis;
Ban on political body called attempt to stamp out remaining critical voices on peninsula.
More...Keywords: accounting system, financial accounting, financial analysis, financial ratios, financial statements, M41, M48, G30
In recent global world the importance of financial markets is growing as well as the amount of capital distributed through these markets. To enable optimal efficiency of these markets the best investment opportunities has to be chosen. An alternative how to compare and select suitable companies to invest in is represented by a financial analysis of financial statements. The results of financial ratios are mainly influenced by the presumptions according to those the financial statements have been prepared. Therefore, in this article there is analysed if and eventually how significant the input data, influence the results of financial ratios. Firstly, the description of financial ratios that are used in following analysis is made. After that, there are analysed the requirements of Czech legislation and IAS/IFRS and their influence on financial statements. Then, the influence of five selected accounting transaction on balance sheets and income statements that are prepared once according to the Czech legislation and for the second time according to the IAS/IFRS is analysed. The final part tries to examine if and how strong the impact of different accounting system on the results of the selected financial ratios is.
More...Keywords: fuzzy ANP, fuzzy COPRAS, BOCR, working strategy, construction company, C02, C44, C54, D81, M11, M20, L16, L74, P11, P41
Selection of the working strategy is a critical problem and it plays a significant role in the success of organization development. On the other hand, selecting the most appropriate working strategy among a pool of alternatives is a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem. Since every working strategy has its benefits and costs and may bring a company different opportunities and risks, which kind of working strategy is the most appropriate for a company to accomplish is a sophisticated and complex decision with a high degree of uncertainty. Therefore, the current paper proposed an integrated evaluation model based on the analytic network process (ANP) and the complex proportional assessment (COPRAS), to help the decision makers or managers with the selection of proper working strategy in a fuzzy environment where the fuzziness and uncertainties are handled with linguistic terms parameterized by triangular fuzzy numbers (TFNs). In this paper fuzzy ANP (FANP) is utilized to take into account interdependence and dependencies and determine the importance weights of benefit, opportunities, cost and risk (BOCR) factors, and fuzzy COPRAS is applied to rank the alternatives. To show the potential application of the proposed model, a real world application is conducted to illustrate the use of the proposed model for the working strategy selection problem. The results show the capability and effectiveness of the proposed model.
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Keywords: Russia; US; Bastrykin; Internet; Censorship; War;
Country’s top investigator proposes measures to counter alleged information attacks from the United States and its allies.
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Keywords: Poland; Kaczynski; Law and Justice; changes;
Poland’s de facto ruler calls cabinet an “experiment” and, defying critics, says country should move faster with planned changes.
More...Keywords: bank performance, evaluation criteria, multicriteria decision model, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), C44, C69, G21, G32
More...Keywords: internationalization, manufacturing firms, motivation, China, D22, F23, L21
With advent of economic globalization, internationalization has become one of the most important strategies for firms to achieve sustainable growth. Based on the empirical research in the Yangtze River Delta region in China, the method of Correspondence Analysis was employed to study the motivations for going internationalization of Chinese enterprises. The main findings include: (1) the motivations for internationalization of enterprises depend on their scale, and largesized enterprises are mainly motivated by the purpose of creating global brands and enhancing domestic reputation; (2) the ownership of enterprises has obvious influence on their motivations for going internationalization, and (3) enterprises in different industries also show different levels of motivation for internationalization.
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Keywords: Russia; Labor; Gender; Work Restrictions
It’s forbidden to hire women for hundreds of jobs, as legislation has seen few changes since the Soviet era.
More...Keywords: group decision making, Analytic Hierarchy Process, MCDM, investment management, C44, C83, D81, G11
Investment strategy selection relies heavily on personal experience and behavior. This paper proposes an improved Analytical Hierarchy Process-group decision making (IAHP-GDM) model to reduce investment risk. This model applies the method of least squares to adjust group decision matrix in order to satisfy the property of positive reciprocal matrix in AHP. In addition, five experts from related fields are invited to evaluate investment risk that takes group wisdom to eliminate personal bias. An empirical study is conducted to compare the proposed model to AHP for group decision making model. The results show that the IAHP-GDM model is not only accurate and effective, but also consistent with realistic investment environment.
More...Keywords: multiple attribute group decision making (MAGDM), interval intuitionistic trapezoidal fuzzy numbers, interval intuitionistic trapezoidal fuzzy weighted geometric (IITFWG) operator, interval intuitioni
In this paper, we investigate the multiple attribute group decision making (MAGDM) problems in which both the attribute weights and the expert weights take the form of real numbers, attribute values take the form of interval intuitionistic trapezoidal fuzzy numbers. Firstly, some operational laws of interval intuitionistic trapezoidal fuzzy numbers are introduced. Then some new aggregation operators including interval intuitionistic trapezoidal fuzzy ordered weighted geometric (IITFOWG) operator and interval intuitionistic trapezoidal fuzzy hybrid geometric (IITFHG) operator are proposed and some desirable properties of these operators are studied, such as commutativity, idempotency and monotonicity. An IITFWG and IITFHG operators-based approach is developed to solve the MAGDM problems in which both the attribute weights and the expert weights take the form of real numbers and attribute values take the form of interval intuitionistic trapezoidal fuzzy numbers. Finally, some illustrative examples are given to verify the developed approach and to demonstrate its practicality and effectiveness.
More...Keywords: MCDM, MOORA, interval grey numbers, ratio system, reference point, uncertainty, D81, C61, C44
Many real-world problems are complex and/or related to the manifestation of some form of uncertainty and/or prediction. Therefore the use of extended MCDM methods is more appropriate than the use of the other classic decision making methods. These methods are improved by the use of a form of fuzzy or interval grey numbers.In the field of operational research, during the previous period, numerous MCDM methods were formed, but one newly proposed, the MOORA method, is very specific and yet has no extension. Therefore, in this paper we combine concept of interval grey numbers and MOORA method in order to propose extended MOORA method which will be more appropriate to solve many complex real-world problems.
More...Keywords: performance evaluation, rural ICT center, Fuzzy AHP, SAW-G, TOPSIS Grey, C44, O18, O31, D81
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