Multi-criteria Framework Research Articles

Development of a new spatial analysis tool in mental health: Identification of highly autocorrelated areas (hot-spots) of schizophrenia using a Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm model (MOEA/HS)

This study had two objectives: (1) to design and develop a computer-based tool, called Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm/Hot-Spots (MOEA/HS), to identify and geographically locate highly autocorrelated zones or hot-spots and which merges different methods, and (2) to carry out a demonstration study in a geographical area where previous information about the distribution of schizophrenia prevalence is available and which can therefore be compared. Local Indicators of Spatial Aggregation (LISA) models as well as the Bayesian Conditional Autoregressive Model (CAR) were used as objectives in a multicriteria framework when highly autocorrelated zones (hot-spots) need to be identified and geographically located. A Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm (MOEA) model was designed and used to identify highly autocorrelated areas of the prevalence of schizophrenia in Andalusia. Hot-spots were statistically identified using exponential-based QQ-Plots (statistics of extremes). Efficient solutions (Pareto set) from MOEA/HS were analysed statistically and one main hot-spot was identified and spatially located. Our model can be used to identify and locate geographical hot-spots of schizophrenia prevalence in a large and complicated region. MOEA/HS enables a compromise to be achieved between different econometric methods by highlighting very special zones in complex areas where schizophrenia shows a high autocorrelation.

Handling uncertainties of hydrological loads in flood retention planning

The efficiency of technical measures for flood protection depends on the specifications of their design flood. If actual floods deviate from this design flood, the performance may differ significantly. To evaluate the remaining risk, a comprehensive hydrological analysis of flood conditions becomes essential. If multiple flood characteristics are considered, critical loads have to be characterized with multivariate statistics, providing an unprecedented wealth of information regarding the hydrological variability. However, such a characterization involves many uncertainties. Using imprecise probabilities, these known unknowns can be integrated into the planning process. In this paper, the importance of multivariate imprecise probability data in flood protection planning is shown and a methodology to integrate this information into existing decision support frameworks is presented. To alleviate the utilization of those data in the planning process, we propose a plausibility approach to filter the amount of possible flood scenarios and to improve the data accessibility. The application in a multi-criteria decision-making framework, which was developed for technical flood retention planning in a river basin, is demonstrated with a case study.

A multi-actor multi-criteria framework to assess the stakeholder support for different biofuel options: The case of Belgium

The multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA) is a methodology to evaluate different policy measures, whereby different stakeholders’ opinions are explicitly taken into account. In this paper, the framework is used to assess several biofuel options for Belgium that can contribute to the binding target of 10% renewable fuels in transport by 2020, issued by the Renewable Energy Directive (RED). Four biofuel options (biodiesel, ethanol, biogas and synthetic biodiesel (also referred to as “biomass-to-liquid” or BTL)) together with a reference fossil fuel option, are evaluated on the aims and objectives of the different stakeholders involved in the biofuel supply chain (feedstock producers, biofuel producers, fuel distributors, end users, vehicle manufacturers, government, NGOs and North–South organizations). Overall, the MAMCA provided insights in the stakeholder’s position and possible implementation problems for every biofuel option. As such, it helps decision makers in establishing a supportive policy framework to facilitate implementation and to ensure market success, once they have decided on which biofuel option (or combination of options) to implement.

TU‐E‐204C‐03: How to Make Clinical Decisions in the Multicriteria Framework

Multiattribute decision making begins with the premise that the solution to the problem at hand involves multiple goals, some of which are mutually antagonistic, and not all of which can be achieved in a single solution. Choosing a multiobjective optimization algorithm should be done in conjunction with the selection of a decision making approach. A vital component of the decision making method is to be explicit about the criteria, how they are to be evaluated and how they relate to the value structure of the decision maker.Much of the theory of multiattribute decision theory stems from economic theory. In particular, Pareto optimality was first formulated as the condition in which it is impossible to make one person better off without making someone else worse off. Another economic concept, utility, is used to quantify values on a relative scale. In problems not related to economics, it is usually the case that the criteria used to make a decision are difficult to formulate in terms than can be mathematically optimized. For example, in radiation therapy, surrogates for patient outcomes must be formulated in terms of physical dose deposition.Mathematical optimization algorithms can take several forms. Prior methods require the user to input some preferences before the optimization can proceed. Such methods can produce a single “optimal” solution. Interactive methods rely on feedback between the decision maker and the optimization algorithm. These methods can be the most efficient at searching but require considerable commitment from the decision maker. Posterior optimization methods produce a set of solutions that hopefully spans the trade‐offs of interest. The mathematical optimization is followed by a decision making process that selects one of them.Learning objectives:1. To appreciate the relationship between Pareto optimality and decision making.2. To understand the current state of decision making and how it relates to other approaches.3. To understand how multiattribute decision making approaches in radiation therapy relate to methods used in other fields such as operations research.4. To become acquainted with the basics of decision theory such as utility theory.

One decade of multi-objective calibration approaches in hydrological modelling: a review

One decade after the first publications on multi-objective calibration of hydrological models, we summarize the experience gained so far by underlining the key perspectives offered by such approaches to improve parameter identification. After reviewing the fundamentals of vector optimization theory and the algorithmic issues, we link the multi-criteria calibration approach with the concepts of uncertainty and equifinality. Specifically, the multi-criteria framework enables recognition and handling of errors and uncertainties, and detection of prominent behavioural solutions with acceptable trade-offs. Particularly in models of complex parameterization, a multi-objective approach becomes essential for improving the identifiability of parameters and augmenting the information contained in calibration by means of both multi-response measurements and empirical metrics (“soft” data), which account for the hydrological expertise. Based on the literature review, we also provide alternative techniques for dealing with conflicting and non-commeasurable criteria, and hybrid strategies to utilize the information gained towards identifying promising compromise solutions that ensure consistent and reliable calibrations. Citation Efstratiadis, A. & Koutsoyiannis, D. (2010) One decade of multi-objective calibration approaches in hydrological modelling: a review. Hydrol. Sci. J. 55(1), 58–78.

Hydrospatial Approach to Assist Decision Making on Reservoir Protection Zones

Protection zones established for stream drainage systems or water supply reservoirs serve as a major protection measure to reduce water contamination. In essence, a number of physical, chemical, and/or biological processes act together or separately in these areas to reduce a contaminant’s concentration or to convert it to a less threatening form. Yet, time is an important criterion for these processes to occur, as there is less potential for the concentration of a contaminant to be reduced when there is a shorter time of travel between the point where the contaminant enters the stream and the reservoir intake point. In this regard, this study employs the time component of flow among a set of spatial criteria that commonly target assessments of functionality and effectiveness for potential protection zones in a watershed. Such criteria could be practically evaluated in a multicriteria decision-making framework for a proper design of protection zones. The approach is expected to contribute to protection zo...

The sustainability balanced scorecard as a framework for selecting socially responsible investment: an effective MCDM model

In recent years, sustainable development and social responsibility have become important issues around the globe. Investors are interested in the so-called ‘socially responsible investment’ (SRI), an investment strategy that employs criteria other than financial risk and return when selecting firms in which to invest. The practice of SRI shows that there are growing numbers of investors who want to take account of more criteria. Given this worldwide trend, the question arises how these issues can be incorporated into the investment decision process. This paper proposes a novel integrated model for selecting SRI stocks and illustrates the practical application of such a model through a case study. This model first applied the decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) approach to deal with the interdependencies existing among the criteria of organization requires, and then integrated the DEMATEL, the analytic network process, and the zero-one goal programming method to select an optimal portfolio of SRI. Additionally, we used the sustainability balanced scorecard as a multi-criteria framework for SRI evaluation. This integrated model enables the management to obtain the fitting SRI portfolio and achieves the desired spiritual value.

A multi-criteria evaluation framework for tradable white certificate schemes

Recent years have witnessed regained political momentum on energy efficiency and interest in establishing markets is growing. As a result, Tradable White Certificate (TWC) schemes of differing design have been implemented in Great Britain, Italy and France. Much attention is being paid to justifying and evaluating such schemes. In this paper, we develop and apply a multi-criteria framework for evaluating TWC schemes—an approach that attempts to cover their individual design features. A broad evaluation is conducted regarding energy-saving and environmental effectiveness, economic efficiency, cost-effectiveness, transaction costs, political feasibility, administrative burden and technical change. The results show the design and performance of TWC schemes to be case and context-specific, and generalisations are thus inappropriate. This evaluation supports the cost-effectiveness modelled for the British scheme and the assumption that a TWC scheme is an economically efficient policy instrument. For the other, more complex TWC schemes, more data and experience are needed to judge their ex-post merit. On the whole, the proposed multi-criteria evaluation requires considerable data and complementary methods. However, the framework improves the understanding of the broad effects and attributes of TWC schemes. It deals with various empirical and normative aspects that can be applied in their evaluation.

Multi criteria analyses for managing motorway company facilities: The decision support system SINERGIE

Improvements to the decision-making process in the areas of preventive maintenance and facility repairs for a range of infrastructure include maintenance, upgrading and retrofitting operations. Depending on the available information concerning the condition of the facilities, specific types of projects can be programmed. Assigning a priority of action to a given project necessitates an evaluation process that introduces several criteria at various functional levels. This multi criteria (MC) evaluation is modelled as the aggregation of partial scores attributed to a project with regards to (w.r.t.) a given set of criteria. The scores are expressed over a finite scale which can cause some troubles when no attention is paid to the aggregation procedure. This paper deals with the consistency of the evaluation process, where scores are expressed as labels by experts (over finite discrete scales), whereas the aggregation model is supposed to deal with numerical values and cardinal scales. This is a curious but common apparent paradox in MC evaluation when engineering contexts are concerned. Adequate mathematical tools are provided to tackle the related problems. A robustness analysis of the evaluation process concludes the mathematical part of the paper. The mathematical choices regarding our information processing chain meet the ESCOTA motorway company requirements. Indeed, ESCOTA aims at the formalization and improvement of the decisional process for preventive maintenance of its assets in a MC framework. According to available pieces of knowledge on the infrastructure condition, projects are to be evaluated w.r.t. technical but also to conformity, security and financial criteria for planning purposes. ESCOTA’s engineers are used to manipulate symbolic labels but might convert them into more or less arbitrary numerical values when necessary without the necessary care. The SINERGIE decision support system has been developed for ESCOTA to implement a logically sound information processing methodology. The SINERGIE man–machine interfaces illustrate the way by which the mathematical concepts described in this paper are used in terms of infrastructure management activities. The various information processing phases laid out in SINERGIE have been illustrated for road applications.

The need of optimal conservation strategies

The biodiversity crisis that the world is facing (Pimm et al., 1995) urges immediate conservation actions to counteract it, and the extreme paucity of the resources available to undertake these actions means that conservation managers are in urgent need of optimal choices. Prioritization among possible actions is therefore of paramount importance to choose strategies that give the best return on conservation investment and thus maximize benefit (Murdoch et al., 2007; Wilson et al., 2007). Yet conservation biology is by definition (Soule, 1985) a crisis discipline, with conservation scientists often asked to make tactical decisions based on scarce information. This is one of the reasons why conservation biology is pervaded by uncertainty (Regan, Colyvan & Burgman, 2002; Rondinini et al., 2006), which in turn paves the road to subjectivity (much more so than in other related disciplines, e.g. ecology and genetics) because incomplete data complicate the task of comparing objectively alternative, competing hypotheses and reject wrong hypotheses. In the last 25 years, quantitative techniques that allow an objective prioritization of conservation strategies have been developed for systematic conservation planning (Margules & Pressey, 2000), the selection of sites to form networks of conservation areas to protect a species assemblage. The first, intuitive but groundbreaking paper on the subject introduced a technique to identify the minimum set of sites that represented a given assemblage of species in an area (Krikpatrick, 1983). Although not explicitly stated in that paper, the method did allow to rank alternative conservation strategies and select the most parsimonious. Thousands of papers on the subject have been published since. The theory has developed in complex algorithms that aid the identification of optimal strategies for large numbers of species and natural processes while taking into account cost, threats, temporal dynamics, zoning and uncertainty. The techniques are now routinely used to inform conservation action (Pressey, Johnson & Wilson, 1994; Ball & Possingham, 2000; Wilson et al., 2006). Optimization methods for conservation strategies other than site selection have been much less explored. Recent investigations include: how to minimize conflicts between humans and large carnivores in a spatially explicit manner (Rondinini & Boitani, 2007); the investigation of the tradeoffs between collecting data on threatened species and taking conservation action based on incomplete data (Chades et al., 2008); a multi-criteria evaluation framework for making conservation decisions that have consequences for multiple species, when each possible decision is more beneficial to some species than others (Drechsler, 2004). Gilioli et al. (2008) extend the scope of optimization to the choice among alternative conservation strategies for a metapopulation of a single species. They do it in a particularly intuitive and appealing manner, by measuring the distance to extinction of the metapopulation, modelled by an incidence function model (Hanski, 1994) under the alternative conservation strategies. As reviewed by Gilioli et al. (2008), a few indices of risk of extinction of metapopulations exist, but the Kullback–Leibler information measure (Kullback & Leibler, 1951) proposed by the authors has advantages over these indices: it can easily be computed irrespective of the number of patches modelled, and allows to evaluate the contribution of each patch to metapopulation persistence under the hypothesis of equilibrium. Gilioli et al. (2008) apply the measure on populations of amphibians, a group of particular conservation interest because one-third of their species are threatened with extinction (Stuart et al., 2004). While the species selected for the analysis (Bufo bufo and Rana temporaria) are still common outside the study area and therefore are not a conservation priority worldwide, the same technique could be readily applied to other, threatened amphibian species. Even though (as Gilioli et al., 2008 point out) it is always difficult to assess if a real population behaves as a metapopulation, their paper may be relevant for a large number of species beyond amphibians. Habitat destruction, fragmentation and degradation, mechanisms that may induce metapopulation dynamics, are for example the highest threat worldwide to mammal persistence (Schipper et al., 2008).

Identification of multiple criteria for the evaluation of light-frame wood wall assemblies

Design of light-frame wood wall assemblies should consider several performance criteria. Possible alternatives must respect minimum code requirements for the studied context. Then, additional performance characteristics may be considered to achieve the most suitable configuration for a specific project. It is, however, not simple to define how several performance criteria can be evaluated simultaneously and which scale should be used to compare assemblies. Existing tools to evaluate performance criteria consider mostly one parameter at the time. An evaluation methodology taking into account at once different performance characteristics would be beneficial in the decision process. With the final aim of developing a multi-criteria framework to support the evaluation of improved factory-built wood-frame exterior walls, this article presents a methodology for quantitative evaluation of a set of performance characteristics. The identification of appropriate criteria is followed by the choice of quantification mechanisms. A case study comparing five wall assemblies exemplifies this methodology.

The Tyndall decarbonisation scenarios—Part II: Scenarios for a 60% CO 2 reduction in the UK

This paper describes the Tyndall decarbonisation scenarios, the first to take account of CO 2 emissions from the whole of the UK's energy system, including emissions from international shipping and aviation. It builds on Part I, which outlined the backcasting methodology developed to generate the scenarios. The five scenarios produced through this process articulate alternative vision of a substantially decarbonised society in 2050, ranging from a halving of energy consumption from current levels to a near doubling. This work demonstrates that a 60% reduction in the UK's CO 2 emissions is achievable, even when all CO 2 sources are taken into account. The impacts and consequences of the scenarios were assessed by means of a multi-criteria framework which cautions us that the high energy demand scenarios will have a large impact on broader sustainability criteria.

Defective Spermatogenesis: Martin et al. Respond

Vol. 116, No. 8 PerspectivesOpen AccessDefective Spermatogenesis: Martin et al. Respond Olwenn V. Martin, Tassos Shialis, Alan R. Boobis, Nikolaos Voulvoulis, John N. Lester, and Mark D. Scrimshaw Olwenn V. Martin Search for more papers by this author , Tassos Shialis Search for more papers by this author , Alan R. Boobis Search for more papers by this author , Nikolaos Voulvoulis Search for more papers by this author , John N. Lester Search for more papers by this author , and Mark D. Scrimshaw Search for more papers by this author Published:1 August 2008https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.11489RAboutSectionsPDF ToolsDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InReddit In response to Prasad’s constructive comments on our quantitative meta-analysis of the estrogen hypothesis and testicular dysgenesis syndrome (Martin et al. 2008), we offer the following observations regarding the scope of our study and limitations of the methodology applied.The primary objective of a quantitative meta-analysis is to combine the results of previous studies examining a specific research question to arrive at a summary conclusion about a body of research. This statistical pooling of several studies, taking into account the size of individual studies, confers more power to detect a potential association, and quantitative meta-analyses are often put at the top of evidence hierarchies. It cannot, however, correct for potential bias and confounding of the studies included; we addressed this issue in our review (Martin et al. 2008) by rating the quality of individual studies and carrying out a sensitivity analysis by excluding studies for which the quality score was below a chosen value. The method also requires that included studies report a measure of association such as a risk ratio or odds ratio. For this reason—although we did mention impaired spermatogenesis as one of the end points encompassed by the testicular dysgenesis syndrome—it was necessary to exclude this end point from our analysis.In previous work and a scoping study, we found that most of the research carried out in relation to impaired spermatogenesis had investigated time trends rather than association with specific risk factors (Martin et al. 2007). Further, our analysis was limited to prenatal exposure to estrogenic agents. A number of studies have found associations between sperm motility or sperm DNA damage with levels of estrogenic chemicals measured either in urine or serum (Duty et al. 2003; Spanò et al. 2005). It would not be possible however to relate such levels to prenatal exposure. This also illustrates the difficulty of selecting a suitable marker of impaired spermatotogenesis.Our study was implicitly limited to congenital cryptorchidism because the literature search did not yield any case–control or cohort studies that addressed the question of prenatal exposure to estrogenic compounds and acquired cryptorchidism in humans. In retrospect, this should have been explicitly stated in our article (Martin et al. 2008).We concluded that the significant association between prenatal diethylstilbestrol exposure and all three end points considered conferred weight to the hypothesis of a common etiology for these disorders, and therefore to the existence of a testicular dysgenesis syndrome (Martin et al. 2008). Separate analyses were carried out for the three end points but the methodology applied did not allow us to explore the specific nature of causal relationships between congenital cryptorchidism, hypospadias, and testicular cancer. We are therefore grateful for Prasad’s insights.ReferencesDuty SM, Silva MJ, Barr DB, Brock JW, Ryan L, Chen ZYet al.. 2003. Phthalate exposure and human semen parameters. Epidemiology 14(3):269-27712859026. Crossref, Medline, Google ScholarMartin OV, Lester JN, Voulvoulis N, Boobis AR. 2007. Human health and endocrine disruption: a simple multicriteria framework for the qualitative assessment of end point–specific risks in a context of scientific uncertainty. Toxicol Sci 98(2):332-34717255114. Crossref, Medline, Google ScholarMartin OV, Shialis T, Lester JN, Scrimshaw MD, Boobis AR, Voulvoulis N. 2008. Testicular dysgenesis syndrome and the estrogen hypothesis: a quantitative meta-analysis. Environ Health Perspect 116:149-15718288311. Link, Google ScholarSpanò M, Toft G, Hagmar L, Eleuteri P, Rescia M, Rignell-Hydbom Aet al.. 2005. Exposure to PCB and p,p′-DDE in European and Inuit populations: impact on human sperm chromatin integrity. Human Reprod 20(12):3488-3499. Crossref, Medline, Google ScholarFiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Vol. 116, No. 8 August 2008Metrics About Article Metrics Publication History Originally published1 August 2008Published in print1 August 2008 Financial disclosuresPDF download License information EHP is an open-access journal published with support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. All content is public domain unless otherwise noted. Note to readers with disabilities EHP strives to ensure that all journal content is accessible to all readers. However, some figures and Supplemental Material published in EHP articles may not conform to 508 standards due to the complexity of the information being presented. If you need assistance accessing journal content, please contact [email protected]. Our staff will work with you to assess and meet your accessibility needs within 3 working days.

E-cognocracy and its voting process

e-Cognocracy [J.M. Moreno-Jiménez, J.M. Polasek, e-Democracy and knowledge: a multicriteria framework for the new democratic era, Journal of Multicriteria Decision Analysis 12 (2003) 163–176 [15]; J.M. Moreno-Jiménez, J.M. Polasek, e-Cognocracy and the participation of immigrants in e-governance, TED Conference on e-government 2005. Electronic democracy: The challenge ahead, Schriftenreihe Informatik, vol. 13, University Rudolf Trauner-Verlag, 2005, pp 18–26 [16]; G.E. Kersten, e-Democracy and participatory decision processes: lessons from e-negotiation experiments, Journal Multi-criteria Decision Analysis 12 (2003) 127–143 [13]] is a new democratic system that focuses on the creation and social diffusion of the knowledge gained from the scientific resolution of highly complex problems associated with public decision making. In this scenario, e-voting is not limited to the choice of a given political party, but to the extraction of the relevant knowledge. Even though e-voting systems have been widely studied, some situations are still not covered by the conventional literature, and this makes it necessary to consider certain variations to the main schema. In this paper, we will present one such lacuna (associated with e-cognocracy), and will examine the changes required in conventional e-voting processes and their implications.

Distance-based consensus method for ABC analysis

A distance-based multi-criteria consensus framework on the concepts of ideal and negative-ideal solutions is presented for the ABC analysis of inventory items. This article demonstrates a way of classifying inventory items using the TOPSIS (‘Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution’) model. The methodology has been applied in a pharmaceutical company located in the heart of Kolkata, India. The technique takes into account various conflicting criteria having incommensurable units of measurement. Unit cost, lead time, consumption rate, perishability of items and cost of storing of raw materials have been considered for the case study. By using TOPSIS, the items are ranked in categories A, B and C. The suitability, practicability and effectiveness of the TOPSIS method used in ABC classification have been judged using the analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique. A simulation model has been used to compare the proposed model with that of the traditional ABC classification technique.

Choosing Technologies for Handheld and Ubiquitous Decision Support

Wireless, handheld devices are becoming increasingly popular in health care settings, but the full potential of their role in patient-specific decision support remains to be achieved. This article presents a multicriteria framework for choosing technologies apropos to handheld and ubiquitous decision support architecture. This framework is illustrated through architectural middleware choices made in the context of a podiatry and diabetes care network. Performance issues are found to be very important in the handheld space, and minor aspects of connectivity and other constraints drive significant changes in choices of architectural approach. The resulting architecture employs layers, including serialized objects, XML payloads, event notification, Web services, and dynamic class loading, with the mix varying among the system interfaces. The overall recommendation is that organizations wishing to fully exploit mobile technology must use a flexible policy and pursue a process of technology choice that is scenario-based and iterative to take into account discoveries from prototyping and field-test experience.

Freight village design using the multicriteria method PROMETHEE

The development of a freight village in the region of Thriasio, located nearby to Athens is an ongoing project in its early stage. In the present paper three alternative designs of the freight village layout are compared by means of multicriteria analysis and more specifically using the PROMETHEE method. The multicriteria framework consists of selecting the most meaningful criteria of evaluation and the required decision parameters (weights of criteria, indifference and preference thresholds etc). Besides the benefits obtained from the well structured decision approach that offers a deeper insight in the problem, the results of the multicriteria analysis reveal the preference order of the alternative designs.

Human Health and Endocrine Disruption: A Simple Multicriteria Framework for the Qualitative Assessment of End Point Specific Risks in a Context of Scientific Uncertainty

Endocrine disruption remains one of the most controversial contemporary environmental issues. While the desired level of protection is ultimately a societal choice, endocrine toxicity could result in a wide spectrum of adverse health effects. Although the application of the causal framework of weight-of-evidence approaches to complex toxicological issues has incited much interest, no international criteria or guidance have yet been developed. In this context, the evidence on end point-specific risks to human health contained in the International Program on Chemical Safety Global assessment of the State-of-Science on Endocrine Disruptors report was updated and assessed qualitatively using three simple criteria relevant to the practical application of the precautionary principle (PP): incidence trends, association, and consequence. The current degree of knowledge was then ranked according to ignorance, uncertainty, and risk. The main sources of scientific uncertainty in relation to incidence trends were associated with the evolution of diagnostic criteria or diagnostic tests, while genetic susceptibility is often proposed as an explanation for the wide geographic variations in the incidence of some diseases. Such genetic polymorphisms are also offered as a potential explanation for some of the inconsistent findings or lack of clear dose-response gradients described under the association criterion. The methodology yielded a relative paucity of data addressing directly the impact for adverse human health effect from both individual and public health perspectives. Results are discussed within the context of the application of the PP. Within a participatory context, this simple framework could provide a useful decision-making tool to both communicate scientific uncertainty to the wider public and manage uncertain risks.

Assessment of actions in a multi-actor and multicriteria framework: application to the refunding of microfinance institutions

This article formulates a methodology that describes the decision making process in which a group of actors (in this case, microfinance experts) become involved in actions. The actions, Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) being selected for refinancing, are described using several conflictual, ordinal criteria. This methodology is constructed in three consecutive steps: the first involves obtaining decision strategies from interactive input received from experts, the second compiles and merges individual decision strategies so as to create a common decision base and the third involves using this common decision base to construct a decision-making aid destined to help experts with the decision-making process. This methodology was tested with five microfinance experts in Cameroon.

Modeling Relative Importance of Design Criteria With a Modified Pareto Preference

Engineering design problems are studied within a multicriteria optimization and decision-making framework. A methodology is developed that modifies the traditional Pareto preference to model designer’s preferences reflected in the relative importance of criteria. The intent is to reduce the number of candidate designs to facilitate the selection of a preferred design. The versatility of this preference model allows it to be incorporated into the problem solution process either a priori, a posteriori, or iteratively, each offering different advantages. In the a priori approach, all Pareto efficient designs that do not satisfy the designer’s preferences are never computed. In the a posteriori approach, a set of Pareto efficient designs is computed and then easily reduced based on the designer’s preferences. Finally, the iterative approach offers the ability to adjust the designer’s preferences by exploring their impact on the reduction of the Pareto efficient design set. The methodology is based on the concepts of convex cones and allowable tradeoff values between criteria. The theoretical foundation of the preference model is presented in the context of engineering design and the methodology is illustrated using a bi-criteria structural design problem and a tri-criteria vehicle dynamics design problem.