Theoretical justification of the model of search for optimal solutions in complex resource management systems

The process of evaluating and ranking alternatives, including the aggregation of various qualitative and quantitative criteria and weights of criteria, can be recognized as a fuzzy multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. In fuzzy MCDM problems, qualitative criteria and criteria weights are usually indicated in linguistic values expressed in terms of fuzzy numbers, and values under quantitative criteria are usually crisp numbers. How to properly aggregate them for evaluating and selecting alternatives has been an important research issue. To help decision-makers make the most suitable selection, this paper proposes a fuzzy preference relation-based fuzzy VIKOR method. VIKOR is a compromise ranking method to solve discrete MCDM problems in complex systems. In this study, the F-preference relation is applied to compare fuzzy numbers with their means to produce a single index of a dominance level while still maintaining fuzzy meaning of the original linguistic values. The inverse function is applied to obtain the defuzzification values of Beta 1–4 to assist in the completion of the proposed method, and formulas can be clearly derived to facilitate the ranking procedure. Introducing fuzzy preference relation into fuzzy VIKOR can simplify the calculation procedure for more efficient decision-making. The proposed method is new and has never been seen before. A numerical example and a comparison of the proposed method are conducted to show and verify its expedience and advantage.

Introduction Insomnia is diagnosed based on subjective difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, and early morning awakenings. Evidence of objective EEG abnormalities is mixed, in part due to small sample sizes and variable definitions of insomnia. This study aimed to explore these issues by comparing the insomnia case group and the control group on sleep physiology objectively measured depending on separate qualitative and quantitative self-reported insomnia symptoms. Methods Analyses are based on questionnaires and PSG data from the Sleep Apnea Global Interdisciplinary Consortium (SAGIC). Two distinct insomnia case groups were defined. A qualitative insomnia case was defined as self-reported difficulty falling or staying asleep at least 3 nights/week for more than 3 months and moderate or greater impairment in daytime function due to poor sleep (n=350, 58% female; 48.47±14.38 years). The quantitative case definition required average self-reported sleep latency or wakefulness after sleep onset >30 minutes combined with the frequency and impairment criteria. (n=196, 62% female; 48.77±13.74 years). We also defined control groups without insomnia. Participants were excluded if they had sleep apnea (apnea-hypopnea index [AHI] > 5 events/hour) or were shift workers. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) models, adjusted for age and sex, were separately conducted to compare the insomnia and control groups. The focus was on traditional sleep architecture variables, EEG power within specific frequency bands, and odds ratio product (ORP, representing sleep depth) metrics. Results The MANOVA analysis indicated significant group differences, with post-hoc tests identifying key variables responsible for these distinctions. In qualitative criteria, sleep onset latency, sigma, beta1, and beta2 in EEG1 and EEG2, along with REM and NREM ORP, were significant contributors to the observed differences. In quantitative criteria, besides the same result in qualitative criteria, REM stage and alpha in EEG1 and EEG2 played significant roles. Effect sizes were consistent across both qualitative and quantitative criteria. Conclusion While the analyses depending on qualitative and quantitative criteria did not have different effect sizes, some variables contributed to the group differences. As such, the results of this study support the idea that qualitative and quantitative criteria measure the same dimensions for physiological differences related to insomnia. Support (if any)

New qualitative and quantitative technical criteria for determining the minimum miscibility pressures (MMPs) with the rising-bubble apparatus (RBA)

In order to prevent the formation of a gap between the quality and quantity in Iranian scientific publications, this study makes an effort to analyze Iranian scientific publications indexed on the ISI Web of Science database using quantitative and qualitative scientometrics criteria over a ten year period. As a first step, all Iranian institutes were divided into three categories; universities, research institutes and other organizations. Then they were compared according to quantitative and qualitative criteria. Second, the correlation between the quality and quantity of the publications was measured. The research findings indicated that, according to qualitative criteria (citation, citation impact and percentage of cited documents) there are no meaningful differences among the three groups, while regarding quantitative criterion(number of papers), universities rank higher than the other two groups. The results also indicated that there is a positive and meaningful correlation among qualitative and quantitative criteria in the scholarly scientific publications conducted by Iranian organizations. In other words, in Iranian organizations the quality of publications increases as their quantity increases. The comparison of magnitude of correlation between these two criteria in the three categories reveals the fact that the correlation between number of papers and citations criterion in research institutes is stronger than the other two groups.

Quantitative and Qualitative Ultrasound Evaluation for the Diagnosis of an Anterosuperior Acetabular Labral Tear.

The Value-Analytic Hierarchy Process: a Lean Multi Criteria Decision Support Method

Creation of a Balance Assessment Protocol of Balance for Four, Six and Eight-Year-Old Children: A Functional Perspective Objective: To create a body balance test within a functional context and verify its adequacy and applicability among a group of Brazilian children. Method: The participants were 66 children with typical motor development and chronological ages of four, six and eight years old, who were selected at three schools with middle-class intake. Each age group was composed of 22 children (11 girls and 11 boys). The test protocol was composed of eight tasks distributed in two circuits. All the tasks were scored by quantitative and qualitative criteria. The quantitative criteria were based on the time taken and the number of steps/jumps correctly performed in the corresponding items. The qualitative assessment was scored on a four-point ordinal scale, based on action verbs. Results: The intraclass correlations between examiners and the test-retest reliability were satisfactory. To compare the performance between the three age groups, the Kruskal-Wallis test was utilized, and to locate the differences between groups, the Mann-Whitney U test was used. There were significant differences in performance between the four and eight-year-old children in the tasks, both for qualitative and quantitative criteria. Differences in performance between the four and six-yearold children were also observed for some of the tasks assessed. Most of the differences between the six and eight-year-old children in the balance tasks examined were not significant. Conclusion: The assessment tool has potential for clinical use. Future studies should verify the clinical utility of the protocol among children presenting delayed motor development.

This paper describes the application of an evidential reasoning (ER)‐based decision making process to multiple‐criteria decision making (MCDM) problems having both quantitative and qualitative criteria. The ER approach is based on the decision theory and the theory of evidence and it uses the concept of ‘degree of belief’ to assess decision alternatives on each attribute. When faced with MCDM problems, evaluation and selection or ranking of alternatives appear to be both challenging and vital to arrive at a rational and robust decision. In the presence of both qualitative and quantitative evaluations in an MCDM problem, it is necessary, when using the ER‐based decision making process, to transform or convert quantitative data into a belief structure using a number of grades so that the converted belief structure and the original quantitative data are equivalent in values or utilities. This paper suggests three scenarios for data transformation and examines how the ranking of decision alternatives is changed when different scenarios of data transformation are used. Ranking of UK universities using the ER approach is illustrated as an example.

Stochastic flexible flow shop scheduling problem under quantitative and qualitative decision criteria

Flood control decisions are often involved with quantitative and qualitative criteria. In this paper, a decision model is presented for flood control operations based on the theory of variable fuzzy sets. Using dual comparison, two models computing relative membership grades with qualitative and quantitative criteria are established, respectively. A method integrating subjective preference and iterative weights is proposed for weight-assessment. First, an initial solution of criteria weights is obtained by using proposed fuzzy optimal iteration model. Then, according to their knowledge related to real time flood operations, operators may modify the initial weights if necessary. When the relative membership grades of alternatives belonging to all rankings are fixed by using multi-criterion variable fuzzy model proposed, the decision alternative is chosen according to the ranking characteristic value computed using a defuzzification equation. The case study of Fengman Reservoir flood operation (in China) is provided to illustrate the application of the proposed method. With the incorporation of operator’s knowledge related to flood operations, the proposed model is flexible and practical.

Large firms usually employ the well-known ABC inventory classification technique to have an efficient control on a huge amount of inventory items. While the traditional inventory classification method only considers one criterion, namely the annual dollar usage to classify inventory items, the recent literature shows a focus on multi-criteria inventory classification (MCIC) techniques. Surprisingly, among several methods that have been developed for the MCIC problem, there are just a few, which clearly account for qualitative criteria, while most of the affecting criteria are of qualitative type in nature. This paper presents a modified linear optimisation method that enables inventory managers to classify a number of inventory items in the presence of both qualitative and quantitative criteria without any subjectivity. Furthermore, an efficient procedure is proposed to maximise the minimum importance attached to various criteria leading to improvement of discriminating power among inventory items. For validating the proposed method, it is applied on a case study taken from the literature and a comparative study with the existing competent methods is also provided.

Flood control decisions are often involved with quantitative and qualitative criteria. In this paper, a fuzzy model is presented for flood control operations. Based on dual comparison, two models computing relative membership grades with qualitative and quantitative criteria are established, respectively. Subjective preference and iterative weights integrated method is proposed for weight-assessment. First, an initial solution of criteria weights is obtained by using proposed fuzzy optimal iteration model. Then, according to their knowledge related to real time flood operations, operators may modify the initial weights if necessary. When the relative membership grades of alternatives belonging to all rankings are fixed, the decision alternative is chosen according to the ranking characteristic value vector computed using a defuzzification equation. The case study of Fengman Reservoir flood operation (in China) is provided to illustrate the application of the proposed model.

The objective of this research is to propose a decision support system for avoiding flood on solar power plant site selection. Methodologically, the geographic information system (GIS) is used to determine the optimum site for a solar power plant. It is intended to integrate the qualitative and quantitative variables based upon the adoption of the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (Fuzzy AHP) and the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) model. These methods are employed to unite the environmental aspects and social needs for electrical power systematically. Regarding a case study of the choice of a solar power plant site in Thailand, it demonstrates that the quantitative and qualitative criteria should be realized prior to analysis in the Fuzzy AHP-TOPSIS model. The fuzzy AHP is employed to determine the weights of qualitative and quantitative criteria that can affect the selection process. The adoption of the fuzzy AHP is aimed to model the linguistic unclear, ambiguous, and incomplete knowledge. Additionally, TOPSIS, which is a ranking multi-criteria decision making method, is employed to rank the alternative sites based upon overall efficiency. The contribution of this paper lies in the evolution of a new approach that is flexible and practical to the decision maker, in providing the guidelines for the solar power plant site choices under stakeholder needs: at the same time, the desirable functions are achieved, in avoiding flood, reducing cost, time and causing less environmental impact. The new approach is assessed in the empirical study during major flooding in Thailand during the fourth quarter of 2011 to 2012. The result analysis and sensitivity analysis are also presented.

1. IntroductionPerformance evaluation is an important means of promoting the operational efficiency and service quality of public transport system (Hsing et al., 2000). However, the criteria for evaluating the performance of transport companies are generally multiple and involve subjective assessments resulting in qualitative data.Many studies focus on economic criteria in terms of efficiency and effectiveness (Colson et al 1998; De Borger et al., 2002; Sabri et al., 2008). Some investigations focus on the quality of transport service (Toni 2013). Others focus on safety, using indicators related to the number of accidents and deaths (Tingvall et al., 2010).Despite the increasing amount of attention being paid to the evaluation of transport performance, many researchers and practitioners still fail to consider or use quantitative and qualitative criteria while doing the evaluation. In fact major studies already published in this area are focused mainly on the use of quantitative criteria. Thus, most of these studies are not able to adequately evaluate the different aspects of transport performance (Sabri et al., 2008;Colson et al., 1998; Tingvall et al., 2010; Gianfranco et al., 2014a). What this means is that current methodologies for evaluating performance are not sufficiently comprehensive, particularly when it comes to taking account different aspects of performance.Indeed the use of frontier methods for evaluating the performance of public transport (De Borger et al., 2002; Gianfranco et al., 2014a) companies can lead operators to missing results. Generally these models have their shortcomings. The shortcomings include: (a) failure to sufficiently take the goals of public transport companies - in terms of safety (number of accidents) and quality of service (comfort, cleanliness, etc.) - into account and (b) the inadequacy in using only the operational criteria of performance (efficiency and effectiveness).Our study is of paramount importance to academicians and practitioners as the proposed framework is expected to uncover many new or previously unused qualitative and quantitative criteria that address the desires, expectations and the needs of all stakeholders. The study can also be seen as an answer to the call for research seeking more investigation into transport performance evaluation problem (Hsing et al., 2000; Gianfranco et al., 2014b) by identifying appropriate performance measures.The technique adopted in the study is the multi-criteria analysis. This approach is used in decision analysis to make selections among different alternatives when a decision maker is faced with complex decision problems (De Brucker et al., 2004). Out of many different available multi-criteria decision analysis approaches, we will use desegregated multi-criteria approach in the study. The proposed methodology will also address the existing literature gap with respect to the use of performance measures or of more than one performance measure.The methodology/model and performance measure or criteria developed here will be used to assess the performance of 12 public bus companies in Tunisia, which is a practical or an important real world case.In the study, we will show that the use of multi-criteria decision analysis method can be more interesting and effective in assessing the performance of public transport. Our goal is to build a set of criteria which covers all different aspects of transport or public transport performance.This work is divided into two parts: In the first part, we propose a set of main criteria that covers different aspects of transport performance and which can be a good basis for the evaluation of transport companies' performance. In the second, we present a case study concerning twelve transport companies in Tunisia.2. Evaluation of the performance of transportation companies using Multi-criteria Decision AnalysisOf recent, researchers have shown interest in multi-criteria methods for evaluating the performance of public transport companies (Colson et al. …

A model based on 2-tuple fuzzy linguistic representation and Analytic Hierarchy Process for supplier segmentation using qualitative and quantitative criteria