This dissertation examines the effects of tax and expenditure limitations (TELs) stringency and its interaction with revenue diversity and the council-manager form of government on municipal general fund expenditure. TELs are explicit rules that states impose to reduce local government spending. TELs stringency varies from state to state, leading to difficulties in assessing their impact across the nation. This dissertation proposes a new means for measuring the stringency of TELs imposed on local governments. Factor analysis is utilized, and then factor scores are calculated to identify degrees of TELs stringency. This study contends that higher levels of TELs stringency are associated with lower local government spending. However, the effectiveness of TELs is dependent on revenue diversity and the form of government. This study suggests that both revenue diversity and the council-manager form of government mitigate the impacts of TELs stringency on local government spending. Panel data from 2007 to 2011 from 1,508 municipalities are utilized. This study finds that higher levels of TELs stringency are associated with lower levels of municipal general fund expenditures per capita. However, TELs stringency is effective only when revenue diversity is low and when cities have a form of government other than council-manager. These results are generally consistent with the theory presented in this dissertation.

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and magnetometry were used at Tel Shimron, an archaeological site in Israel’s Jezreel Valley. GPR primarily measures electric properties while magnetometry measures magnetic properties, making them complementary methods for subsurface prospection. Magnetometry can be collected and processed quickly, making it an ideal landscape-scale reconnaissance tool. It takes more time to collect, process, and interpret GPR data, but the result is a higher resolution dataset. In addition, GPR often works better than magnetometry in desert environments such as the Jezreel Valley. Conventional wisdom suggests that GPR should not be used as a landscape-scale reconnaissance tool unless there is ample time to process and interpret the data. Despite this, GPR was used at Tel Shimron with standardized, semi-automated processing routines and eight field technicians to produce an end product. The GPR survey revealed more about the subsurface than magnetometry, including three potential dwellings and a Bronze Age city gate.

Cette thèse se focalise sur l’amélioration de l’évaluation de performance des processus métiers collaboratifs. Il s’agit de poursuivre l’évolution de la collaboration entre l’entreprise et ses partenaires. Trois niveaux d’abstraction ont été d’abord identifiés : Métier, fonctionnel et applicatif. Ensuite, nous avons développé une approche descendante allant du niveau métier au niveau applicatif. Dans le niveau métier, des différents d’indicateurs clés de performance ont été proposés à travers la méthodeECOGRAI. Dans le niveau applicatif, nous avons proposé un référentiel d’analyse contenant des indicateurs techniques fonctionnels tels que la durée, l’input, l’output, et non-fonctionnels notamment la maturité, le risque, l’interopérabilité à partir des traces d’exécution. Nous avons proposé ainsi un modèle ontologique en vue de capitaliser et enrichir la sémantique de la performance de ces processus. Nous avons proposé un modèle ascendant pour l’agrégation des indicateurs technique au niveaumétier. Le principal objectif de cette agrégation est la corrélation entre le comportement de l’application métier agrégé à partir de l’exécution et l’évolution des indicateurs métiers. Un autre modèle de gestion des événements métiers a été également proposé pour consolider le processus d’apprentissage de notre approche. Par ailleurs, pour assurer la convergence de la performance, nous avons combiné entre la gestion des traces et la gestion des évènements métiers. Cette combinaison permet d’accompagner l’évolution des processus métiers collaboratifs pendant leur exécution. L’accompagnement évoqué avant favorise l’obtention d’un diagnostic sur la performance pour servir à la prise de décision. Cette dernière est liée étroitement à la détection des alertes et particulièrement à l’anticipation des déviations de la performance le plus rapidement possible. Pour valider lacontribution scientifique de cette thèse, une étude de cas a été réalisée sur un processus de création de devis dans le cadre du projet européen FITMAN. / This thesis focuses on improving the performance evaluation of collaborative business processes. It is about pursuing the evolution of the collaboration between the company and its partners. In the beginning, three abstraction levels were identified: Business, functional and application. Then, we developed a top-down approach from the business level to the application level. In the business level, different key performance indicators have been proposed through the ECOGRAI method. In the application level, we proposed an analytical repository containing functional technical indicators such as duration, input, output, and non-functional, including maturity, risk, and interoperability based on execution traces. We have thus proposed an ontological model in order to capitalize and enrich the semantics of the performance of these processes. We proposed a bottom-up model for the aggregation of technical indicators at the business level. The main objective of this aggregation is the correlation between the behavior of the aggregated business application from the execution and the evolution of the business indicators. Another business event management model was also proposed to consolidate the learning process of our approach. Moreover, to ensure the convergence of performance, we have combined traces management and business event management. This combination allows to accompany the evolution of the collaborative business processes during their execution. The aforementionedaccompaniment favors the obtaining of a diagnosis on performance to be used for decision-making. The latter is closely linked to the detection of alerts and particularly to the anticipation of deviations in performance as quickly as possible. To validate the scientific contribution of this thesis, a case study was carried out on a process of creation of quote within the framework of the European project FITMAN.