Good Decisions Research Articles

Neuron-Compressed Deep Neural Network and Its Application in Industrial Anomaly Detection

Data modeling and online monitoring are two critical stages for data-driven anomaly detection. Regarding data modeling, deep neural networks (DNNs) can learn good decision boundaries to separate the anomaly and normal regions, due to its flexible model structures and excellent fitting ability. However, DNNs, using nonlinear activations with specific boundaries, may indirectly cause a limited anomaly detection margin, especially when there are samples far from centroids. Moreover, an anomaly detection model with a narrow detection margin is deemed insensitive to general faults.An anomaly detection model with a tight detection margin will suffer a severe performance degradation. To mitigate the intrinsic drawbacks of DNNs, we develop a new regularizer based on the maximum likelihood of complete data (i.e., observations and latent variables). The regularizer is neuron-wise and mathematically acts as compressing neurons, dragging the marginal points into the centroids. Combining the regularizer with the encoding-decoding structure networks, we perform an industrial case study to verify the superiority of the proposed method.

Mathematical Models on Forest Logging and Carbon sequestration

Abstract. In this article, we analyze the relationship between carbon sequestration and the time of the forest and its products, and discuss which forest management plan is most effective in sequestering carbon dioxide. We show that moderate logging in forest management plans is a good decision. As long as the ratio between the two is balanced, appropriate logging can renew and rejuvenate forests, creating ecological and specific economic and social values.

Integration of Islamic Education Curriculum to Enhance the Social Character of Vocational High School Students

Adolescence's middle years are fraught with problems that force them to make good or bad decisions in their social interactions. Schools play an important role in guiding students' development in the right direction. The purpose of this research is to investigate a model for integrating the Tarbiyah Islamiyah curriculum in order to improve the character of students. The vocational high school Bina Potensi Palu is the site of this research. This study is a qualitative-descriptive. The respondents included the principal and four teachers who were directly involved in tarbiyah islamiyah activities. Data was gathered through an in-depth interview technique and presented following the reduction and triangulation processes. The findings of this study revealed that: 1) the tarbiyah Islamiyah integration process took two forms, that is integration into Islamic religious education subjects and integration into extracurricular activities that were held every weekend. Integration using Fogarty's shared model; 2) Tarbiyah islamiyah in schools implements a limited boarding school system; the authors refer to it as "semi-boarding school"; 3) Tarbiyah islamiyah teaches social values and characters such as obedience to parents and teachers, respect for others, politeness in relationships, caring for others, tolerance, respect for other religions, and visiting the sick. The application of social character is carried out verbally and nonverbally through school culture. These social characters are the foundation of character education in schools, which supports the national education curriculum's aims. Educational institutions should implement it to achieve national education goals in developing students social characters.

Pengaruh Kualitas Pelayanan, Fasilitas dan Harga Terhadap Kepuasan Konsumen

The economy in Indonesia has developed in a better direction. This can be seen by the rapid development of the business world, where more and more business actors open and develop their businesses. One of the growing businesses in Indonesia is the culinary business. Many similar businesses have sprung up resulting in stronger competition, therefore business people must be able and quick and responsive in making good decisions so that the business they establish can develop. This research uses quantitative methods. The method used in the quantitative research approach. The research method is utilized in sample studies and certain populations, where data acquisition is carried out using research instruments and data analysis which has statistical/quantitative properties with the aim of testing predetermined hypotheses. This quantitative research approach is used by researchers to measure the influence between brand ambassadors, brand image, product quality and purchase decisions. The results of several analyses that have been said state the conclusion that partially service quality has a significant effect on customer satisfaction, facilities affect customer satisfaction, price has a significant effect on customer satisfaction. The results of the analysis of service quality, facilities and prices simultaneously affect customer satisfaction.

Logic as a Tool for Developing Critical Thinking

A characteristic feature of modern society is the ever-expanding information space. Hidden information attacks harm the lives of individuals and society in general. In this regard, studies of critical thinking seem particularly important to us. Therefore, critical thinking is interpreted in the academic discourse mainly in connection with the effort to cope with the growing amount of misinformation and hate speech. While teachers and policymakers consider critical thinking an important educational goal, many are unclear about developing this competency in a school setting. For many key competencies, the question is whether and how they can be acquired through planned educational courses/programs. Although there are specific training programs for critical thinking as a core competency, their design and effectiveness are scientifically controversial. Instruction in critical thinking becomes extremely important because it allows individuals to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the information they encounter and promotes good decision-making and problem-solving in real-world applications. Despite the ambiguity of the term critical thinking, its close connection with logical culture is evident. Logical culture is the culture of thinking manifested in the culture of written and oral speech. The starting point for developing critical thinking skills should be logic. Logic as a science of correct thinking is the basis on which the program for developing critical thinking is based. The paper’s main aim is to identify the status of critical thinking as an independent discipline. A partial aim of the paper is to define the relationship between critical thinking and logic. The paper is divided into six parts, while the main findings are summarised in conclusions. In its purest form, logic does not teach how to work with a changing context or apply it to the subject realities of various disciplines, but such characteristics as precision, clarity, provability, and persuasiveness are key for this science. It is through logic that the basic principles of thinking, which we call critical, are revealed, the rules of argumentation and definitions are explained, and misconceptions and errors are displayed. Logic is distinguished from other sciences by the fundamentality of the discussed problems. Logic is the only science that combines mathematics, computer science and humanities education. We believe that modern logic is only the beginning of the first of the sciences of a new generation, which will be invited to combine the analyticity of the scientific method with the synthetics of perception of the humanitarian point of view. Therefore, we believe that the development of critical thinking skills appears to be productive in combination with the study of logic and is a priority in the modern educational process. It is difficult to imagine the formation of critical thinking in isolation from the building of the logical culture of the individual, which gives him a solid foundation for understanding the essence of critical thinking.

How Technology-Based Interventions Can Sustain Ageing Well in the New Decade through the User-Driven Approach

The worldwide population is undergoing a fundamental change in its age structure, which challenges the health- and social-services system. The need to migrate towards a more person-centered and coordinated model of care that supports the optimization of abilities and capacities for older people has to be matched. In this sense, eHealth technologies can play a fundamental role. In this paper, through a questionnaire-based data collection using 30 primary (older people) and 32 secondary (informal caregivers) end-users, we share our vision on how to sustainably develop a product by optimizing the user experience and ensuring adoption. We hypothesized that a technology-based intervention can promote healthy ageing through informed and active user involvement at all stages of the care process. Both older adults and caregivers consider the use of a smartphone and smartwatch to be very important; in addition, the use of digital devices for healthcare can be helpful. Seniors care about self-monitoring health parameters through the use of wearable devices, regardless of their health status, and would like to be included in the process of making good health decisions, because they need to feel in control of their healthcare process. Digital solutions in health and care can support the well-being of older adults in many areas of their daily lives, both at home and in their communities, but only if such innovation is designed around the natural voice of the intended target.

Financial Literacy, Digital Financial Literacy and Women’s Economic Empowerment

There have many been studies on women’s economic empowerment (WEE), most related to financial literacy (FL). However, in this digital era marked by the emergence of Fintech, FL needs to be expanded into digital financial literacy (DFL), in making good financial decisions, especially regarding Fintech products. Hence, the study aims to investigate the influence of DFL and FL on WEE. In this study, 259 female respondents participated. Using the PLS Structural Equation Modelling, the study found that both DFL and FL had a positive and significant effect on WEE. However, further analysis found that DFL affects all 5 dimensions of WEE. Meanwhile, FL only affects 3 components of WEE. In addition, the results also show that DFL has a much greater influence on WEE compared to FL. These results prove that, in this digital era, FL is not sufficient for making good financial decisions, but more understanding is needed, especially related to digital literacy. These results are expected to provide a new understanding of the importance of the DFL variable in the study of WEE, as well as input for the Indonesian government to give more consideration to DFL in making policies related to WEE.

Pengaruh Financial Literacy Terhadap Bank’s Performance di Indonesia

This study explores the effect of financial literacy on bank's performance in Indonesia using the measurement dimensions of financial attitude, financial knowledge and financial capability. This quantitative research adopted a cross-sectional research design to collect data from 257 respondents using Google Form. The collected data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). As a result, financial attitude and financial capability showed a significant positive influence on financial literacy and bank's performance. In addition, financial literacy also shows a significant positive influence on bank's performance. Meanwhile, financial knowledge has no significant influence on financial literacy and bank's performance. This study proved the mediating effect of financial literacy on the correlation between financial attitude and financial capability. However, financial literacy has no mediating effect on financial knowledge. The results of this study serve to inform customers, managers and policy makers in Indonesian banks to design effective strategies on how important financial literacy is in today's volatile market. Ultimately, providing financial literacy knowledge to customers can have a good impact on bank performance, in addition to making customers more financially literate and able to make good financial decisions.

Towards Decision-Friendly AUC: Learning Multi-Classifier with AUCµ

Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC) is a widely used ranking metric in imbalanced learning due to its insensitivity to label distributions. As a well-known multiclass extension of AUC, Multiclass AUC (MAUC, a.k.a. M-metric) measures the average AUC of multiple binary classifiers. In this paper, we argue that simply optimizing MAUC is far from enough for imbalanced multi-classification. More precisely, MAUC only focuses on learning scoring functions via ranking optimization, while leaving the decision process unconsidered. Therefore, scoring functions being able to make good decisions might suffer from low performance in terms of MAUC. To overcome this issue, we turn to explore AUCµ, another multiclass variant of AUC, which further takes the decision process into consideration. Motivated by this fact, we propose a surrogate risk optimization framework to improve model performance from the perspective of AUCµ. Practically, we propose a two-stage training framework for multi-classification, where at the first stage a scoring function is learned maximizing AUCµ, and at the second stage we seek for a decision function to improve the F1-metric via our proposed soft F1. Theoretically, we first provide sufficient conditions that optimizing the surrogate losses could lead to the Bayes optimal scoring function. Afterward, we show that the proposed surrogate risk enjoys a generalization bound in order of O(1/√N). Experimental results on four benchmark datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method in both AUCµ and F1-metric.

RLogist: Fast Observation Strategy on Whole-Slide Images with Deep Reinforcement Learning

Whole-slide images (WSI) in computational pathology have high resolution with gigapixel size, but are generally with sparse regions of interest, which leads to weak diagnostic relevance and data inefficiency for each area in the slide. Most of the existing methods rely on a multiple instance learning framework that requires densely sampling local patches at high magnification. The limitation is evident in the application stage as the heavy computation for extracting patch-level features is inevitable. In this paper, we develop RLogist, a benchmarking deep reinforcement learning (DRL) method for fast observation strategy on WSIs. Imitating the diagnostic logic of human pathologists, our RL agent learns how to find regions of observation value and obtain representative features across multiple resolution levels, without having to analyze each part of the WSI at the high magnification. We benchmark our method on two whole-slide level classification tasks, including detection of metastases in WSIs of lymph node sections, and subtyping of lung cancer. Experimental results demonstrate that RLogist achieves competitive classification performance compared to typical multiple instance learning algorithms, while having a significantly short observation path. In addition, the observation path given by RLogist provides good decision-making interpretability, and its ability of reading path navigation can potentially be used by pathologists for educational/assistive purposes. Our code is available at: https://github.com/tencent-ailab/RLogist.

A Systematic Literature Review: Penerapan Business Intelligence dalam Meningkatkan Pengambilan Keputusan

The development of a company or organization is greatly influenced by the significant role of Management Information Systems. The performance of information systems in an organization determines the success of the organization in the fierce market competition of this era. In the application of information system technology, there is BI (Business Intelligence) as a tool used to help a company run modern management. However, not all technologies provide added value to the company. The purpose of this research is none other than to review the advantages of using BI in organizational management used to improve decision making. In this research, the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method is used which aims to conduct a comprehensive analysis, review, evaluation, and interpretation of all relevant studies on phenomena related to the specific research questions. The results of this study include or cover several areas that are targeted for Business Intelligence implementation, especially in the industrial sector. The implementation of Business intelligence also requires a clear framework to be used later as a decision-making tool. In addition, the implementation of BI in an organization certainly has challenges such as managing company data, utilizing company data, and also making good and appropriate decisions.

Level of confidence among undergraduate students in Lahore

Background: Student’s self-confidence about their study is important indicator to judge their ability to choose a good career and decisions about themselves. No local study is present to assess confidence of undergraduate students in Pakistan. Objective: To assess level of self-confidence about study among undergraduate students. Methodology: This was a descriptive cross sectional survey done on 359 undergraduate students in community of Lahore, Pakistan. After taking consent, their demographic information was taken. “Academic Confidence Scale ACS” scale was used to assess confidence level in 15 items. Data was entered and analyze using SPSS 24. Mean and standard deviation was given for numbered and frequency and percentage was given for categorical data. Results: Among 359 students, there were 231 (64%) females and 128 (46%) males with an average age of 21.23 years. They were “confident” in confidence in giving a presentation to a small group of fellow students or friends (80.77%), in completing the assignment based on required criteria (69%) and in their confidence in seeking help for unclear concepts (65%). Overall, mostly they were either confident or more confident, followed by less confident in all questions. Conclusion: This study concludes that undergraduate students are generally confident about their studies including their ability to understand, communicate, teamwork and examination. Keywords: Grades, Students, Confidence, Lecture, Scale, Undergraduate, Career

Monitoring of Land use/ land cover changes of Daying Ering Wildlife Sanctuary, Arunachal Pradesh, India, using Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System

The advent of geospatial technology plays a vital role in identifying environmental problems and provides solutions to good decision-making. In India, much of wildlife research and management occurs in protected areas. Therefore, it is imperative to study the landscape dynamics of such areas. The present study aimed to investigate the spatio-temporal of land use/land cover (LULC) changes that occurred in Daying Ering wildlife sanctuary, East Siang District, Arunachal Pradesh, for 10 years (2012-2022). The LULC were categorized into vegetation, water body, marsh, riverbed, and grassland. Supervised classification was used with the maximum likelihood algorithm in ERDAS 15.0 software. Post-assessment of the study area images revealed that there had been some major land changes whereby grassland has decreased by 25.10 %, an increase in the river bed (16.73%), and an increase in the water body (16.16%). The findings of the present study call for attention from researchers, environmentalists, policymakers, government officials and local villagers to study the consequences of LULC changes on vulnerable species and form mitigation/management measures accordingly.

The Influence of Parenting Styles on Early Childhood Social Skills

Developing a children's social skills from an early age will help build a rational thinking process and be able to make good decisions in the future. They will also understand themselves and others. This study aims to describe the family factors that trigger a child to have a lack of social skills. This research was conducted to examine and find out more and discuss the factors of parenting patterns that are closely related to children's social skills. This research describes qualitatively according to the type of case study against the background of 2 group B children aged 5-6 years having problems with their social skills, located in an RA in Tebing-Tinggi city. The type of research used in this study is qualitative descriptive with an approach. Children who lack social skills are likely to be rejected by their peers. Parents and teachers play an important role in directing children to socialize with others. Then, the intervention form includes playing solitaire, playing as an observer, playing parallel, playing associative, playing cooperative, and various forms of traditional games.

Rural Women’s Participation and their Decision Making Behavior in Livestock Management and Household Activities in Central Dry Zone Area of Myanmar

The study aimed to assess the factors affecting on women’s participation level and decision-making behavior of rural women in livestock management and household activities in particularly 60 randomized respondents from three villages of Natmauk township, central dry zone area, Myanmar. Descriptive analysis, Chi-Square test and stepwise regression methods were applied to analyze the relationship of women’s participation and decision-making behavior of respondents. Results of the KII and FGD were used to further explains in survey. Respondents are middle-aged group, small-sized farmers, busy with domestic chores and had no formal schooling. They mostly grow sesame, groundnut and other tropical crops and rear small sizes of adult cattle males in the study. Men are chief decision makers in their households because they have access to more resources. Ownership of land and access to information is highly affected on decision making of when to buy/sell livestock, what to feed and when medical treatment of livestock. Information got especially from friends, family and traders are helpful in the decision making of buying/selling livestock, spending money earned from livestock and feeding the food for the livestock. Spearman’s rho correlation was used to identify and streamline women’s activities that need to be focused on so that to make good decisions in livestock farming.

Better Options

Everyone wants to make good decisions. What prevents that from happening? We have a hidden partner whenever we make a choice, and that partner has made decisions about how to present the options to us. Think of a web page—the designer has decided where to put different buttons, the order of things, and the colors used.

Clinical practice perception in relation with DEPTh model among dental practitioners in Madurai city -A cross sectional study

Introduction : Clinical epidemiology is a science of making predictions, which aims at promoting the quality of clinical and patient oriented health care, in order to make good decision in care of patients. The study aimed to assess the perception of clinical practice in relation with Diagnosis, Etiology, Prognosis, Therapy (DEPTh) Model among dental practitioners in Madurai City. Materials and Methods : The Questionnaire based cross sectional study was conducted among Dentist in Madurai city for a period of 1 month and the sample size was about 181. The self-structured questionnaire consisted of 13 closed ended questions which was formulated based on their perception towards practice either as Diagnostic, Etiology, Prognosis or Therapy (DEPTh) Model. Results : The present study was conducted among 183 dental practitioners practicing in Madurai city. The result of the study was based on the questionnaire, which revealed that 32.92% of dental practitioners prefer to give importance to diagnosis of disease, 27.15 % of dental practitioners prefer to give importance to the etiology of disease, 19.14 % of dental practitioners preferred to give importance to prognosis of disease and 31.44 % of dental practitioners preferred to give importance to therapy overall. Conclusion : The result of the present study highlights the importance of clinical practice decision making, as dental practitioners there a need to investigate the condition in holistic way and not merely the therapy and diagnostic aspect alone. This study attempted to attune their own practice for inculcating effective contribution to overall care and patient well-being

An Exploratory Study on Management Competence for Better Work Practices of The Traditional Metal Fabrication Industry in Kumasi, Ghana

One of the identifiable resources that an industry can utilize as a driver for survival is managerial competence. Although literature is replete with evidence on this subject matter, no research work has been conducted on the relationship between managerial competence and performance of the traditional metal fabrication industries in Ghana. To address this information gap, this study explored the work place practices of three traditional metal craft industries in Kumasi, Ghana with managerial competence as a moderating factor. An inductive research approach based on qualitative research methodology was adopted. The target population was 300 people of which a sample size of 171 respondents was selected. Data were collected through the use of questionnaire designed with open and close-ended responses as well as personal observations conducted using a well-designed observation guide with clear attributes and angles of observation. The results showed that all the study participants interviewed exhibited various levels of operational competence of knowledge, technical skills, experience and character attitude needed to enhance the performance and day-to-day administration of their work. They also had good conflict resolution abilities and good decision-making skills, as well as an excellent apprenticeship system embodied in a succession plan. On the other hand, the study identified several factors that impacted negatively on the operations of their work including the inability to create a conducive work environment for high performance, poor equipment and tool maintenance culture, lack of proper PPEs, poor record keeping, poor innovation and creativity skills, and nonexistence of a system for the acquisition and utilization of modern equipment and technology. These limitations suggest lack of management competence. The study considers this as quite worrisome and recommends for the needed support from both governmental and NGOs, to safeguard the survival of the metal craft industry in Ghana.

Substantive, normative and transactive effectiveness of EIA: perception of key actors in Namibia

ABSTRACT EIA has become an important environmental management tool because it is supported by enforceable legal backing. However, its effectiveness has been debated, especially in developing countries where systems are often mimicked from the Western world. EIA in Namibia has been in place since the enactment of the legislation in 2007 and 2012 respectively. This paper investigates EIA's substantive, normative, and transactive effectiveness in Namibia as perceived by key actors. Data were collected through survey questionnaires and triangulated with semi-structured interviews. A total of 110 actors responded to the survey and 25 experts were interviewed. Interviewees perceive EIA in Namibia as moderately and marginally effective in supporting substantive, normative, and transactive effectiveness. They further perceive that various contextual and administrative challenges affect EIA effectiveness in Namibia. Challenges include poor administration, restrained consideration of assessment findings in decisions, limited learning and environmental awareness opportunities, inadequate public participation, funding, and poor monitoring, and reporting. Interviewees also highlighted political will as necessary to improve funding and appropriate institutional arrangement. Actors perceive that projects meant to improve the livelihood of impoverished communities can be accepted while foregoing environmental objectives. With targeted improvements, EIA can effectively facilitate good environmental decisions, resource mobilisation, and sustainability in Namibia.

Cirugía y actividad académica en la Argentina. ¿Por qué es importante y por qué es tan difícil publicar?

Why is it important for a surgeon to be academically active? Perhaps I cannot give a precise definition, but I can share what I have learned with great masters, who in my opinion are an example of academic surgery. The first thing I realized is that knowledge of medical literature and scientific reasoning are fundamental pillars of our clinical practice. I understood that evidence is much worthier than opinion and that good decisions can hardly be made without knowing the mistakes of the past. I remember countless discussions in my two mentors’ offices that always ended the same way: with a scientific paper in my hands and the arguments and answers I needed. Complemented, of course, by the invaluable clinical experience they passed on.