One of the most popular approaches to measuring productivity changes is based on using Malmquist productivity indexes. In this paper we propose a method for obtaining interval Malmquist productivity index (IMPI). The classical DEA models have been before used for measuring the Malmquist productivity index. The current article extends DEA models for measuring the interval Malmquist productivity ...

The economic literature on “optimal income taxation” addresses the question of how to design tax and transfer policy so as to maximize “social welfare,” which is some function of the wellbeing of all members of society. It clarifies how the social-welfare-maximizing policy depends on one’s philosophy of distributive justice, and on empirical evidence about the behavioral response to incentives,...

The objectives of this study were to determine the selection potential (genetic variation) of sow efficiency traits (prolificacy, longevity), to understand the co-responses (genetic correlations) among sow efficiency traits and other economically important traits (performance, carcass quality, and meat quality), and determine the feasibility of developing breeding value estimates for sow effici...

Adequate shelter has always been one of man’s basic needs; it is a significant component for human survival and a useful barometer for gauging societal development. As a unit of the environment, it has a profound influence on the health, efficiency, social behavior, satisfaction, productivity, and general wellbeing of the individual and the entire community. However, one of the critical challen...

This paper focuses on studying the interval continuous-time algebraic Riccati equation A∗X + XA + Q − XGX = 0, both from the theoretical aspects and the computational ones. In theoretical parts, we show that Shary’s results for interval linear systems can only be partially generalized to this interval Riccati matrix equation. We then derive an efficient technique for enclosing the united stable...

Trust is a major issue with deploying empirical models in the real world since changes in the underlying system or use of the model in new regions of parameter space can produce (potentially dangerous) incorrect predictions. The trepidation involved with model usage can be mitigated by assembling ensembles of diverse models and using their consensus as a trust metric, since these models will be...

I construct a class of strategy-proof and Pareto efficient mechanisms of cake cutting in the context of offline interval scheduling. The motivating application is the circulation of the single copy of a book owned by a public library among all self-interested and rational potential readers with piecewise uniform value densities over continuous time intervals. The class of mechanisms accommodate...

We present PICPA, a new algorithm for tackling constrained continuous multi-objective problems. The algorithm combines constraint propagation techniques and evolutionary concepts. Unlike other evolutionary algorithm which gives only heuristic solutions, PICPA is able to bound effectively the Pareto optimal front as well as to produce accurate approximate solutions.

This paper addresses constraint solving over continuous domains in the context of decision making, and discusses the trade-off between precision in the definition of the solution space and the computational effort required. In alternative to local consistency, which is usually maintained in handling continuous constraints, we discuss maintaining global hull-consistency. Experimental results sho...