Relative Dominance Research Articles

Assessing the performance of banks through an improved sigma-mu multicriteria analysis approach

The σ-μ efficiency methodology has been recently introduced for multicriteria evaluation problems, based on the framework of Stochastic Multi-Attribute Acceptability analysis (SMAA), to address the uncertainty in the performance of a set of decision alternatives. The methodology builds, iteratively, a set of Pareto-Koopmans efficiency frontiers, which are used to assess the alternatives with respect to their expected performance and its variability, measured across different scenarios for the weights of the evaluation criteria. This paper presents an improved algorithmic implementation of this methodology that provides results that are consistent with the Pareto dominance relation between the alternatives. The proposed approach is employed to evaluate the performance of a sample of European banks which participated in the European stress tests conducted by the European Banking Authority, over the last five years available (2017–2021). The performance and efficiency of the banks is analyzed using financial criteria along with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors. Results from comprehensive and disaggregated analysis reveal performance disparities among banks in financial and ESG factors, highlighting the influence of country-specific green policies and individual bank practices. Valuable for the banking sector and regulators, the findings help identify operational inefficiencies and propose areas for performance enhancement, operational improvement, and innovation, with a focus on green practices.

Shifts in dominance of benthic communities along a gradient of water temperature and turbidity in tropical coastal ecosystems.

Tropical coastal benthic communities will change in species composition and relative dominance due to global (e.g., increasing water temperature) and local (e.g., increasing terrestrial influence due to land-based activity) stressors. This study aimed to gain insight into possible trajectories of coastal benthic assemblages in Raja Ampat, Indonesia, by studying coral reefs at varying distances from human activities and marine lakes with high turbidity in three temperature categories (<31°C, 31-32°C, and >32°C). The benthic community diversity and relative coverage of major benthic groups were quantified via replicate photo transects. The composition of benthic assemblages varied significantly among the reef and marine lake habitats. The marine lakes <31°C contained hard coral, crustose coralline algae (CCA), and turf algae with coverages similar to those found in the coral reefs (17.4-18.8% hard coral, 3.5-26.3% CCA, and 15-15.5% turf algae, respectively), while the higher temperature marine lakes (31-32°C and >32°C) did not harbor hard coral or CCA. Benthic composition in the reefs was significantly influenced by geographic distance among sites but not by human activity or depth. Benthic composition in the marine lakes appeared to be structured by temperature, salinity, and degree of connection to the adjacent sea. Our results suggest that beyond a certain temperature (>31°C), benthic communities shift away from coral dominance, but new outcomes of assemblages can be highly distinct, with a possible varied dominance of macroalgae, benthic cyanobacterial mats, or filter feeders such as bivalves and tubeworms. This study illustrates the possible use of marine lake model systems to gain insight into shifts in the benthic community structure of tropical coastal ecosystems if hard corals are no longer dominant.

The weak dominance between t-norms and t-conorms revisited

The weak dominance relation between two binary operations was introduced as an extension of the dominance relation and the modularity equation. This paper continues the study of the weak dominance between t-norms and t-conorms. First, we present the characterization of the weak dominance of a nilpotent t-norm over a continuous Archimedean t-norm. Second, we establish the generalized sufficient and necessary conditions for the weak dominance of continuous t-norms over continuous t-norms. Finally, we obtain a generalized characterization of a continuous t-conorm weakly dominating a continuous t-norm by showing that SM weakly dominates any t-norm.

A novel hierarchical task network planning approach for multi-objective optimization

In this paper, we focus on how to generate the multi-objective optimal plan in hierarchical task network (HTN) planning. Many practical HTN planning problems not only require feasible plans, but also require these plans to achieve the best performance on multiple criteria, which is the multi-objective optimization problem in HTN planning. Aiming to generate the multi-objective optimal plan in HTN planning, a novel HTN planning approach is proposed. Our initial step is to express multiple criteria by extending the concept of the HTN planning domain. The primary search process of our proposed HTN planning approach has two components. The first one is heuristic search, which assesses the quality of methods/operators and organizes them according to their dominance relations. The second one is anytime search, which reduces the search space on the basis of the dominance relations between the partial plan and the non-dominated plan set, which is updated during the planning process. After the termination of the HTN planning search, a non-dominated plan set is returned for the decision-maker to choose from. We adopt Zeno Travel domain problems and an emergency evacuation planning problem in an experimental study to demonstrate how effective and practicable the proposed approach is.

Comparison of MOEAs in an Optimization-Decision Methodology for a Joint Order Batching and Picking System

This paper investigates the performance of a two-stage multi-criteria decision-making procedure for order scheduling problems. These problems are represented by a novel nonlinear mixed integer program. Hybridizations of three Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms (MOEAs) based on dominance relations are studied and compared to solve small, medium, and large instances of the joint order batching and picking problem in storage systems with multiple blocks of two and three dimensions. The performance of these methods is compared using a set of well-known metrics and running an extensive battery of simulations based on a methodology widely used in the literature. The main contributions of this paper are (1) the hybridization of MOEAs to deal efficiently with the combination of orders in one or several picking tours, scheduling them for each picker, and (2) a multi-criteria approach to scheduling multiple picking teams for each wave of orders. Based on the experimental results obtained, it can be stated that, in environments with a large number of different items and orders with high variability in volume, the proposed approach can significantly reduce operating costs while allowing the decision-maker to anticipate the positioning of orders in the dispatch area.

Multi-Objective Dynamic Economic and Emission Generation Scheduling of Coordinated Power System Considering Renewable Energy Sources and Pumped Storage Hydro Plants via Fuzzy Surrogate-Assisted Coronavirus Herd Immunity Optimization

Globally, the power generation from renewable energy sources (RES) has received considerable attention to reduce pollutant emissions and the total operating costs of power generation. In this context, this study aims to extend the multi-objective dynamic economic and emission dispatch (MODEED) problem by incorporating RES and pumped storage hydro plants. The complex constrained MODEED problem is solved by a fuzzy surrogate-assisted coronavirus herd immunity optimization (FSACHIO) algorithm in which a self-adaptive speed factor and Lévy flight mechanism are utilized to ensure populace diversity, prevent premature convergence and achieve an ideal stability among the exploration and exploitation of the algorithm. Surrogate worth tradeoff methodology is used to discover a solution that provides the optimal balance between the objectives such as operating expenses and emission pollutants. The performance of FSACHIO algorithm is validated on a small-scale and a large-scale test systems, involving 10-unit, and 40-unit test systems, and compared with that of the coronavirus herd immunity optimization, red fox optimizer, Remora optimization algorithm, and other erstwhile approaches. Besides, a fuzzy constraint handling method based on a dominance relationship is integrated to fulfill the restrictions of the MODEED problem. The simulation results reveal that: (i) the operating costs and emissions are reduced by 173785.54 $/day and 2992.1848 lb/day in the small-scale test system and by 6383.9903 $/day and 216631.4877 lb/day in the large-scale test system, respectively for the MODEED problem with the presence of RES and pumped storage hydro plants; (ii) the suggested approach may offer a well-distributed Pareto-optimal frontier and superior tradeoffs among the operating expenses and pollution objectives in comparison to the other approaches.

Hydroclimatic non-stationarity drives stream hydrochemistry dynamics through controls on catchment connectivity and water ages

We used data from 17 years of routine stream flow sampling to characterise hydrochemical dynamics in the Girnock Burn, an internationally important long-term catchment monitoring site. We combined hydrochemical time series analysis with hydrological modelling to understand short- and long-term dynamics in relation to dominant runoff processes. Isotopic tracer data employed within the model enabled flux tracking of water as it transited the catchment, facilitating water age estimates. The stream drains an upland 31 km2 catchment with complex topography and variable geology, which influences soil distributions; peaty soils dominate valley bottoms which receive drainage from more permeable podzolic soils on steeper slopes. Short-term hydrochemical dynamics largely reflect the relative dominance of hydrological sources: summer low flows are dominated by alkaline groundwater high in weathering products (Ca2+, Mg2+, SiO2) whilst high flows generated by overland flow from peaty soils are more acidic, DOC enriched, and dominated by atmospheric solutes (Na+, Cl-, SO42-). Baseflows are dominated by older groundwater (>∼3years) in contrast to storm runoff dominated by younger (<∼0.5 years), near-surface, waters. Usual seasonal distributions of stream flows, with high flows in winter and summer low flows, result in strong seasonality in most solutes. However, coupled effects of hydroclimatic variability and catchment heterogeneity dictates marked scatter in flow-concentration relationships for most determinands. A long-term decreasing trend was evident for SO42-concentrations, reflecting continuing effects of reductions in atmospheric deposition of pollutants from coal burning. Reductions in large storm event frequency post-2016 and protracted periods of low flows in the droughts of 2018 and 2022 have resulted in the catchment becoming dominated by low flows, derived from older groundwater with more alkaline chemistry for longer periods. Changing climatic conditions and stream flow responses seem likely to continue to cause changes in stream water quality and associated ecosystem services of the Girnock Burn and similar upland catchments.

Efficient computation of Top-k G-Skyline groups on large-scale database

The G-Skyline query aims to return the best groups that are not g-dominated by any other group of equal size; this approach plays an important role in many fields, such as multiobjective decision-making. The top-k G-Skyline query has important implications since the output size of the G-Skyline query is often too large to make decisions. Due to the massive number of candidate groups and the high index construction consumption, the existing top-k G-Skyline algorithms cannot handle large-scale databases well. In this paper, an efficient algorithm is proposed called the TGPE (Top-kG-Skyline algorithm based on Presorting and Enumeration) to rapidly compute the top-k G-Skyline groups for large-scale databases. TGPE proposes an efficient scanning method based on a presorted table to obtain tuples making up G-Skyline groups and their dominant relationships. TGPE does not need to repeatedly reconstruct the index for different skyline criteria. Three computational lemmas are presented based on sorting information and monotonicity, and they are utilized to reduce the number of candidate groups to obtain results rapidly. Finally, extensive experiments on synthetic and real datasets verify that TGPE has significant performance advantages over those of the existing algorithms.

Multi-objective optimization driven by preponderant individuals and symmetric sampling for operational parameter design in aluminum electrolysis process

Developing advanced population-based multi-objective optimization algorithms to explore optimal operating parameters is a crucial means of achieving energy saving and consumption reduction in aluminum electrolysis process (AEP). Many techniques, such as NSGA-II/NSGA-III, rely on dominance relationships among population members to prioritize evolving individuals. However, this mechanism assumes equal relationships among selected candidates, overlooking the potential of preponderant individuals to guide rapid population evolution. To tackle this issue, we propose a multi-objective optimization algorithm driven by preponderant individuals and symmetric sampling (MOPISS). This algorithm first establishes an individual selection strategy driven by preponderant individuals to expedite population evolution. Subsequently, it employs the count of preponderant individuals to calculate the interaction learning probability (ILP) for adaptively adjusting the genetic intensity of population. ILP is then integrated into the evolutionary process to create a novel genetic mechanism based on symmetric sampling, thereby enhancing the randomness of the solution space and genetic efficacy. Finally, MOPISS is validated across 17 benchmark functions and operational parameter optimization cases of AEP. The results indicate that the proposed method exhibits a significant competitive advantage over other mainstream approaches in terms of evolutionary speed and optimization performance. Specifically, it can increase current efficiency by approximately 3% and reduce energy consumption by 276 kW⋅h/t-Al for AEP.

Lordship and bondage in the dialectics of social work: regulation and professional autonomy

This article provides an innovative reading of the relationship between social work and the regulatory bodies mandated to register and regulate it, which has hitherto remained largely untheorised. It achieves this by utilising Hegel’s illustrative tale of ‘lord and bondsman’. This narrative outlines the development of consciousness through dialectical struggle. We argue that the relationship of domination and servitude that has developed between the profession and the regulators is incapable of delivering a satisfactory self-consciousness for either. For the social work profession, consciousness is limited to an enforced ‘being-for’ the regulatory bodies, which appropriate the ends of practice through the labour of the profession. For both to achieve full self-consciousness, each must transcend itself and the other through a dialectical movement in which each is simultaneously ‘negated’ and ‘preserved’. The article highlights ways in which social work can more courageously address its own historical development within such a struggle.

The Physical Cell Identity Assignment Problem: A Practical Optimization Approach

The Physical Cell Identity (PCI) is a critical parameter to radio access networks used by the user equipment, like a smartphone, to identify the cell to connect. The PCI misassignment leads to call drops, no voice/data connections, and other sorts of impairments. Many works in the literature only treat the PCI assignment problem from the technological constraints viewpoint. In this work, we take a realistic approach and incorporate several operational constraints found daily in carrier-grade networks. For that, we model the problem with multiple objectives with a strict lexicographical dominance relation. We solve it using a hybrid memetic algorithm with warm start solutions obtained by a constraint programming solver and intensification with path-relinking and custom local search procedures. The experimental results suggest that our approach is superior to commercial solver packages in several scenarios.

Prediksi Kehilangan Hasil Jagung (Zea mays L.) Akibat Kompetisi Gulma Poaceae di Lahan Kering

This research aims to determine the Poaceae weed species that have a significant effect on corn yield loss in dry land. The research method was descriptive and data collection using survey techniques in 10 sample plots measuring 1 m2 which were placed using random sampling. Observation parameters include the number of species and populations of weeds, the population of corn plants in plot-1 and the dry biomass weight of weeds and corn in plot-1. Quantitative data analysis by calculating relative density, relative frequency and relative dominance values ​​to calculate the importance value index and Summe Diminance Ratio (SDR). The results showed that the diversity, evenness, dominance and abundance of Poaceae weeds in corn plants in dry land was high. So it was found that seven species of weeds were dominant and continued to exist while the corn was growing, namely Paspalum vasginatum Sw., Leersia hexandra Sw., Digitaria longiflora (Retz.) Koel., Digitaria ciliaris (Retz.) Koel., Cynodon dactylon L., Eleusine indica Gaertn., and Panicum repens L. The competitiveness and ability to reduce corn yields of the weeds Paspalum vasginatum, Leersia hexandra and Digitaria longiflora are higher than other weeds, so that corn yield losses due to competition reach 16.45%, 7.48% and 4.40%. The weeds Brachiaria reptans, Axonopus compressus and Echinochloa colonum do not need to be controlled in corn after the plants are 45 DAT, because their competitiveness and ability to eliminate crop yields is very low.

Recognizing interspecific dominance signals? Blue tits adjust nest defence based on great tit's black bib size

AbstractAnimals use colours, morphological structures and behaviour to advertise their dominance status and ability to obtain resources (Resource Holding Potential, RHP) in agonistic contexts with conspecifics. Dominance relationships are also known between species, although the interactions and the information used to assess the other species' RHP remain obscure and empirical evidence of interspecific recognition of status is hard to obtain. Using behavioural inference is particularly important when a species needs to assess the potential loss of fitness in terms of reproduction or survival (e.g., risk of damage or predation) that could be inflicted by another species acting as a predator, parasite or competitor. Our study shows for the first time the existence of interspecific recognition of status signals: Blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus (subordinate species) perceive Great tits Parus major (dominant species) as threats as hole‐nesting competitors, and respond differently based on the size of the great tit's black tie stripe. Blue tits seemed to recognize the meaning of great tits' black ties because they were bolder when defending their nests against small‐tie (less dominant) great tits than when repelling attacks by large‐tie (more dominant) great tit males. Our results stress that behavioural inference can potentially be used to assess the meaning of status signals that presumably evolved in an intraspecific signalling context.

Male-biased dominance in greater bamboo lemurs (Prolemur simus).

Intersexual dominance relationships in virtually all lemur species have been reported to be female-biased. Although a claim of male dominance in greater bamboo lemurs (Prolemur simus) which was not supported by data is unusual against this background, it is in line with recent studies on other lemur species that suggest the existence of a continuum of intersexual dominance relationships. We therefore studied the details of agonistic interactions among adults of one captive group of P.simus at Cologne Zoo. This very preliminary study confirmed male-biased dominance because the adult male of the study group won all agonistic interactions with all three adult females, and the male was never dominated by any of the females. This result raises several interesting questions about the mechanisms and evolution of intersexual dominance relationships in group-living lemurs and should encourage similar future studies of additional groups of this species - ideally in the wild.

Probabilistic linguistic prospect outranking risk decision making method based on stochastic dominance and application in emergency plan evaluation

In the decision-making process, probabilistic linguistic term sets (PLTSs) could represent decision-makers’ uncertain evaluation information. The combination of probabilistic and linguistic information assists decision-makers to depict their evaluation information more flexibly. In this paper, a prospect outranking decision-making method based on stochastic dominance is proposed for solving the multi-attribute risk decision-making problem under the probabilistic linguistic information environment. Firstly, to fully preserve the original probabilistic linguistic information, we give the definitions of the generalized probability distribution and the corresponding generalized cumulative distribution function of a PLTS for defining the distance measure between PLTSs. Secondly, based on the positive and negative ideal cumulative distribution functions, we propose the probabilistic linguistic prospect value functions. After that, considering the uncertainty of the relationship between alternatives, several kinds of novel prospect stochastic dominance and almost stochastic dominance relations are defined, which consider the decision makers’ distinction between gains and losses to measure the subtle relationship between alternatives. The stochastic dominance approach and the almost stochastic dominance approach under the probabilistic linguistic decision-making environment are put forward. Besides, we use the superiority and inferiority ranking method to solve the dominance ranking problem of the uncertainty relationship between any two alternatives. Finally, the proposed method is applied in the evaluation of emergency plans to show the accuracy and reliability, and comparative analyses are made to illustrate its availability.

Effects of Monocular Flicker on Binocular Imbalance in Amblyopic and Nonamblyopic Adults.

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of monocular flicker stimulation on binocular imbalance in both amblyopic and nonamblyopic adults. Seven amblyopic patients (28.3 ± 3.3years; four females) and seven normally sighted participants (27.3 ± 4.1years; five females) participated in the study. We used liquid crystal spectacles to create externally-generated monocular flicker (4, 7, 10, 15, or 20Hz) and used the metric of log balance point (logBP) to determine whether imposed flicker could change the eyes' equilibrium interocular contrast ratio. Flicker was applied to either the fellow eye vs. the amblyopic eye or dominant eye (DE) vs. non-DE (non-DE) of amblyopic and nonamblyopic participants, respectively. We defined a logBP of 0 to indicate complete binocular balance and an increase in logBP relative to baseline to indicate a relative strengthening of the non-DE or amblyopic eye. Monocular flicker applied to the DE or fellow eye increased logBP, whereas when applied to the non-DE or amblyopic eye, reduced the logBP. These effects were more pronounced at low temporal frequencies than that at high temporal frequencies. The interaction between eye and temporal frequency was significant in both normals, F(4, 24) = 58.082, P<0.001, η2 = 0.906, and amblyopes, F(1.923, 11.538) = 60.555, P<0.001, η2 = 0.91. Monocular flicker diminishes the contribution of the flickered eye in binocular combination, resulting in a relative dominance of the nonflickered eye in interocular interactions. Furthermore, a more pronounced temporally modulated effect was observed at lower temporal frequencies.

Local Muscle Oxygenation Differences between Lower Limbs according to Muscle Mass in Breath-Hold Divers

Oxidative potential and anaerobic capacity could be influential to the training regimen and performance of breath-hold diving (BHD) athletes. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the differences in local muscle oxygenation between the lower limbs according to the muscle mass percentage in spearfishermen and freedivers. The sample of participants included 21 BHD athletes (13 freedivers; 8 spearfishermen; 4 females). Their chronological age was 35.5 ± 8.6 years, body mass was 79.3 ± 9.1 kg, and height was 182.5 ± 13.0 cm. Participants’ training experience was 10.6 ± 9.5 years. The variables in this study included anthropometric indices, the Wingate anaerobic test, and muscle oxygen dynamics parameters. The results show significant differences for freedivers between the lower limbs (muscle mass percentage, p &lt; 0.00; minimal SmO2%, p = 0.05; and maximal SmO2%, p = 0.04). However, when observing only spearfisherman, there is only one significant difference between the dominant and non-dominant lower limb (percentage of lower limb muscle mass, 85.73 ± 2.42, 85.16 ± 2.40%, respectively; p = 0.02). The results of this study demonstrate that freedivers have significant asymmetries between the lower limbs in muscle oxygenation parameters when observing the lower limb dominance in relation to the percentage of muscle mass. These findings suggest different muscular oxygenation adaptations to the load set upon athletes.

A Pareto dominance relation based on reference vectors for evolutionary many-objective optimization

Pareto dominance based approach is a classical method for solving multi-objective optimization problems (MOPs). However, as the number of objectives increases, the selection pressure drops sharply. Solutions with good convergence and diversity are hardly obtained. To tackle these issues, this paper proposes a Pareto dominance relation based on reference vectors (called PRV-dominance) for evolutionary many-objective optimization. In PRV-dominance, solutions in the population are divided into several subregions according to a set of uniform reference vectors. To enhance the convergence, a new convergence metric based on the ranking of objective function values is designed to determine the dominance relationship between two solutions. Then, the density in different subregions is considered to maintain the diversity. In order to verify the performance of our approach, WFG and MaF benchmark problems with 3, 5, 8, and 15 objectives are utilized. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed PRV-dominance outperforms eight existing dominance relations in balancing convergence and diversity. An improved NSGA-II is suggested based on the proposed PRV-dominance, which shows the competitive performance when compared with six other state-of-the-art algorithms in solving many-objective optimization problems (MaOPs). The effectiveness of the proposed PRV-dominance is also verified on two other existing many-objective evolutionary algorithms.

Dynamic intraguild interactions between two sympatric and congeneric coccinellid species associated with aphids could explain their coexistence in citrus agroecosystems

Scymnus interruptus and Scymnus subvillosus (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) are the most frequent aphid predators in Western Mediterranean citrus agroecosystems. Intraguild predation (IGP) between them would be expected, but how IGP might affect their coexistence and biological control function remains unknown. In this work, we assess the frequency of predator encounters in the field and investigate intraguild predation between these two predators in laboratory settings. Different field prey scenarios derived from the field observations were simulated with the two dominant aphid species in this agroecosystem, Aphis gossypii and Aphis spiraecola.Scymnus subvillosus and S. interruptus engaged in IGP but the magnitude and symmetry varied with the prey species and abundance. At high aphid densities, IGP was symmetric and weak, whereas, at low aphid densities, IGP was strong and very asymmetric, with S. interruptus taking the role of the intraguild predator. The developmental time of S. subvillosus was reduced when competing with S. interruptus at high extraguild prey densities. The adult size of both predators under weak IGP also increased even when the developmental time had been reduced.We predict that high aphid infestations in the spring would benefit S. subvillosus, while the strong and asymmetric IGP at low aphid infestations would hinder its coexistence with S. interruptus. Our results give a theoretical explanation to what is observed in the field: S. subvillosus is typically dominant during the high aphid infestations of the spring, whereas S. interruptus increases in relative dominance during the summer and fall when aphid abundance is much less.

Multivariate analysis of inlet morphodynamics: The mixed sand-gravel ebb-tidal delta of Deben Estuary, Suffolk

The morphodynamics of inlets and ebb-tidal deltas often exhibit cyclic behaviour, controlled by wave-tide interactions and the influence of these on sediment-bypassing processes. Variation in the form and timing of inlet dynamics can occur in response to changes in the key sediment transport processes and sediment supply, and particularly the relative dominance of differential wave direction driving alongshore sediment transport. This paper investigates the morphodynamics of the Deben ebb-tidal delta through multivariate analysis of multi-annual bathymetry and metocean parameters covering the period 1991 to 2023. Results show that sediment bypassing and associated morphological change in this ebb-tidal delta follows variable behaviour mid-cycle, leading to change in the morphology and configuration of the ebb-delta from cycle to cycle. In the most recent cycle (since 2003), delta volume followed a stepwise growth driven by sediment influx periods, evident primarily in the updrift shoal, followed by cross-shore redistribution. Interannual variability in wave climate was clustered into four groups that capture the relative balance between the dominant NE and SW forcing. Sediment influx periods are mostly associated with subdued SW and increased NE forcing, but the summer and winter NE wave climate play different roles on the up- and downdrift, and upper and lower components of the ebb-delta system. Tide level has increased in the last 33 years, which is strongly correlated with ebb-delta volume increase. Wave and tide conditions have discrete and independent effects on the ebb-tidal delta, whereas wave-tide interactions do not significantly change these underlying influences.