On nested block designs geometry

Nested block designs and block designs properties such as orthogonality, orthogonal block structure and general balance are examined using the concept of a commutative quadratic subspace and standard properties of orthogonal projectors. In this geometrical context conditions for existence of the best linear unbiased estimators of treatment contrasts are also discussed.     

The permutation flow shop problem with blocking. A tabu search approach

This paper develops a fast tabu search algorithm to minimize makespan in a flow shop problem with blocking. Some properties of the problem associated with the blocks of jobs have been presented and discussed. These properties allow us to propose a specific neighbourhood of algorithms. Also, the multimoves are used that consist in performing several moves simultaneously in a single iteration and guide the search process to more promising areas of the solutions space, where good solutions can be found. It allow us to accelerate the convergence of the algorithm. Besides, a dynamic tabu list is proposed that assists additionally to avoid being trapped at a local optimum. The proposed algorithms are empirically evaluated and found to be relatively more effective in finding better solutions than attained by the leading approaches in a much shorter time. The presented ideas can be applied in many local search procedures.     

A characterization of the bivariate elliptically contoured distribution

The Cauchy distribution of the quotient of two random variables and its independence of the sum of squares of them together with some symmetry assumptions are the characteristic property of the bivariate elliptically contoured measures.     

Assessment of the Living Conditions in Polish and German Transborder Regions in the Context of Strengthening Territorial Cohesion in the European Union: Competitiveness or Complementation?

Social Indicators Research - The European Union's regional policy aims to strengthen economic, social, and territorial cohesion and equal space development opportunities. It is an action...     

A binary control chart to detect small jumps

The classic N p-chart gives a signal if the number of successes in a sequence of independent binary variables exceeds a control limit. Motivated by engineering applications in industrial image processing and, to some extent, financial statistics, we study a simple modification of this chart, which uses only the most recent observations. Our aim is to construct a control chart for detecting a shift of an unknown size, allowing for an unknown distribution of the error terms. Simulation studies indicate that the proposed chart is superior in terms of out-of-control average run length, when one is interested in the detection of very small shifts. We provide a (functional) central limit theorem under a change-point model with local alternatives, which explains that unexpected and interesting behaviour. Since real observations are often not independent, the question arises whether these results still hold true for the dependent case. Indeed, our asymptotic results work under the fairly general condition that the observations form a martingale difference array. This enlarges the applicability of our results considerably, first, to a large class of time series models, and, second, to locally dependent image data, as we demonstrate by an example.     

Innovativeness of social economy entities in Poland. An empirical study from the perspective of Positive Organizational Scholarship

The Polish system of tackling social exclusion is based on social economy entities, such as social integration centers and social cooperatives. The aim of the article is to define the essence and conditions of their innovativeness while answering the question to what extent the organizations can make use of management theories created for business entities. The empirical basis for the article are 3 focus group interviews with representatives of social integration centers and social cooperatives operating in Poland. The results suggest that low innovativeness of the entities is, among others, the effect of an authoritarian management style and a lack of care about positive relationships among employees.     

Moments-Based Approximation to the Renewal Function

Asymptotic behavior of the number of independent identically distributed observations in a left or right neighborhood of k _n th order statistic from the sample of size n, for k _n /n → α ? [0, 1], is studied. It appears that the limiting laws are of the Poisson type.     

Flattening topologically spherical surface

The problem of optimal surface flattening in 3-D finds many applications in engineering and manufacturing. However, previous algorithms for this problem are all heuristics without any quality guarantee and the computational complexity of the problem was not well understood. In this paper, we prove that the optimal surface flattening problem is NP-hard. Further, we show that the problem of flattening a topologically spherical surface admits a PTAS and can be solved by a (1+ε)-approximation algorithm in O(nlog n) time for any constant ε>0, where n is the input size of the problem.     

Is There Any ‘Law of Requisite Variety’ in Construction of Indices for Complex Systems?

The issue of design of indicators for complex socio-economic systems, described by multiple characteristics (variables) is considered in this paper primarily from the point of view of the purpose, for which the indicators are developed and used, and the available instruments, which can be used to achieve this purpose. Hence, the paramount importance is assigned to the correspondence between the space of observed variables and the space of possible actions or instruments, as potentially leading to the design of the “optimum indicators”. The close association between the design of indicators and the available (or also designed) policy instruments is justified in the framework of the classical decision making feedback loop. The proposal is illustrated with the case of a group of models from the modelling project that was carried out at the Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, in close collaboration with the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, also of the Academy, devoted to the development and implementation of a system of forecasting models for a series of variables, characterising the socio-economic situation of the capital province of Masovia, and its particular administrative units.