Multiplicity Of Criteria Research Articles

Consuming Rural Territories through Food – A Segmentation Analysis Based on the Food Choices of Urban Specialty Stores’ Customers

ABSTRACT The increasing interest of consumers in rural provenance food products is known to meet concerns regarding authenticity, health, safety, and sustainability and to be based on knowledge and familiarity. Based on the results of a survey to 1553 customers of 24 urban specialty shops, located in three Portuguese cities, this study aims at identifying different segments of consumers of rural provenance foods according to the criteria they value when acquiring and consuming those products. From a hierarchical cluster analysis based on shopping preferences, three clusters were identified: The Influenced, choosing the products mainly by recommendation; The Provenance Seekers, privileging provenance and related qualities; and The All-embracers, considering a multiplicity of criteria when shopping. These clusters differ in terms of socio-demographic profiles, products bought, consumption behavior, familiarity with rural areas, and images of food products and territories of provenance. Results show the mutual influence of these dimensions on food preferences.

Collaborating with the crowd

Microscopic agent-based simulations promise the meaningful inclusion of crowd dynamics in planning processes. However, such complex urban issues depend on a multiplicity of criteria. Thus, an isolated model cannot represent the walk of pedestrians meaningfully in planning contexts. This paper reframes crowd simulation as collaborative experimentation and embeds it directly in the design process. Beyond the simulation algorithm, this perspective draws attention to user interactions, interfaces, and visualizations as crucial simulation elements. Through a prototype, we combine an agent-based pedestrian simulation with a hybrid physical–digital interface. Based on this configuration, we explore requirements of the early design stages and accordingly discuss concepts for interaction, simulation, and visualization. The prototype blends user inputs with intuitive design interactions, adapts the simulation process to qualitative and dynamic negotiations, and presents results immediately in the discussed context. Thus, it aligns crowd simulation with contingent collaborations and reveals its potential in the early design stages.

Parents' Perceptions of Educational Apps Use for Kindergarten Children: Development and Validation of a New Instrument (PEAU-p) and Exploration of Parents' Profiles.

Contemporary mobile technologies offer tablets and smartphones that elicit young children’s active participation in various educational apps, dramatically transforming playing, learning, and communication. Even the most knowledgeable users face difficulties in deciding about the value and appropriateness of the so-called educational apps because of many factors that should be considered. Their importance for children’s attitudes is affected by the perceived positive and negative aspects, which vary across a multiplicity of criteria. Filling the gap in the relevant literature, a new instrument, named PEAU-p (Perceptions about Educational Apps Use–parents), was developed and validated in the present study designed to measure parents’ perception of educational apps for kindergarten pupils. Data (N = 435) were collected via online procedures, and the psychometric properties of PEAU-p were studied via exploratory and confirmatory methods. Principal Components Analysis extracted six factors, namely Usability, Enjoyment, Involvement, Learning, Worries, and Values, which explained 72.42% of the total variance. Subsequently, by implementing Latent Class Analysis based on the above factors, four Clusters (i.e., parents’ Profiles) were extracted corresponding to their perceptions and attitudes towards the educational apps used for kindergarten pupils. Those were named as ‘mild attitude’, ‘negative attitude’, ‘positive attitude’, and ‘indifferent attitude’. This categorization, besides the statistical support, is fully interpretable, and the profiles were associated with certain covariates, such as age, the number of children, knowledge on new technologies, or distal outcomes, e.g., the frequency of using apps, the general position towards apps or their intention to recommend apps use. The findings are discussed within the current research field, investigating the influential role parents play in young children’s media selection and use.

Evaluation of the interpretation criteria of Western Blot profiles for the HIV-1 infection diagnosis in a South Moroccan group

Introduction : Western Blot (WB) is the most commonly used method to confirm the presence of antibodies against Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 (HIV-1). The interpretation of WB, however, poses difficulties since of the multiplicity of criteria proposed by various international organizations. Some criteria generate an unacceptable number of indeterminate results, thus preventing the early management of patients. The present work aims to evaluate the different criteria for interpretation of WB according to various organizations compared to viral load test.Material and methods : This is a study carried out on a total of 2 618 Western Blot profiles registered during a period of 56 month (from January 2013 to September 2017) at the Laboratory of Medical Analysis of Regional Hospital Center in Agadir.Results : The results obtained indicate that some organizations have very interesting values concerning the positivity of the WB profiles; WHO (94.84%), CDC/ ASTPHLD (94.61%) and SFTS (93.09%). For the negative profiles, all the organizations have identical values with 3.59%. Regarding indeterminate profiles, the WHO gave the minimum of these cases (1.57%) followed by CDC / ASTPHLD (1.8%) and SFTS (3.32%). The WHO provided very interesting values for sensitivity (98.93%), specificity (91.26%), positive predictive value (99.64%) and negative predictive value (74.60%). Similarly, the CDC / ASTPHLD criteria remain favorable and are highly consistent with those of WHO (p = 0.8113).Conclusion : Sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values are characteristics of WB test that interpret the results and allow applying them to patients. In our context, it is recommended to adopt the WHO criteria to facilitate the interpretation of western blot profiles. The CDC / ASTPHLD criteria remain favorable to adoption.

Combining cognitive mapping and MCDA for improving quality of life in urban areas

Assessing quality of life (QoL) in urban areas is considered a difficult endeavor. Some of the main reasons for this difficulty are directly related to the complexity inherent in the multiplicity of criteria that must be considered in such an evaluation, as well as the subjectivity intrinsic to the issue under study. This complexity hinders the development of models capable of reflecting the performance of different urban environments in terms of their QoL. This study sought to overcome some of the more common limitations of current evaluation methods, by combining cognitive mapping and the measuring attractiveness by a categorical based evaluation technique (MACBETH), to develop a more informed, coherent and transparent evaluation system. The resulting framework and its application were validated both by the participating panel of experts and a representative of the parliamentary group of the Portuguese ecologist party “The Greens”. The advantages and limitations of our framework are also subject of analysis and discussion. It is worth noting that the whole process assumes a constructivist stance, allowing both objective and subjective elements to be combined in the decision-making framework.

Empowerment of women in India: a multi-criteria decision making approach

Women empowerment calls for creating a political, economic and social environment which enables their equal access to control over the means that are critical for leading socio-economical productive and healthy lives. This study investigates the important parameters responsible for women empowerment. The research utilises a new research methodology multi-criteria futuristic fuzzy decision hierarchy methodology which combines fuzzy logic and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) due to the multiplicity of criteria. Women from different ethnic, religion and residential backgrounds were surveyed. The problem considers six dimensions and three categories for each dimension. It was found that for household category, the parameters psychological and social-culture; for community category, the parameters economic and social-culture; and for broader arena, the parameters social-culture and legal were treated important.

Superdotação: conceitos e modelos de diagnóstico e intervenção psicoeducativa

A definição de sobredotação não está isenta de inseguranças e de controvérsias. O conceito não é estático, está em constante evolução, sendo que a tendência actual é caracterizada pela ponderação de outras variáveis além das cognitivas e da inteligência. Segundo o World Council for Gifted and Talented Children, considera-se sobredotada a pessoa com elevado desempenho ou elevada potencialidade, em qualquer dos seguintes aspectos isolados ou combinados: capacidade intelectual geral, aptidão académica específica, pensamento criativo ou produtivo, talento especial para as artes visuais, dramáticas e musicais, capacidade motora e capacidade de liderança. A multiplicidade de conceitos acaba, assim, por traduzir a multiplicidade de critérios a ter em conta na definição de sobredotação, implicando que a avaliação seja também multirreferencial, abrindo, consequentemente, um leque diversificado de propostas de intervenção assim como o recurso a diferentes agentes, procedimentos e instrumentos de avaliação.

Multi-objective optimisation of renewable energy systems for pollution mitigation – a case study of Kavaratti Island, India

Islands represent a unique challenge in terms of electrical energy supply. A great deal of work has been carried out on this specific aspect of energy supply on different islands in the world. Unfortunately, due to island-specific energy usage profile, resources and different kinds of environmental conditions, a study of one island cannot be easily extended to other islands. The Lakshadweep group of islands in the Arabian Sea is one of the two major groups of islands in India having diesel generators (DGs) as the main source of electricity. Considering the remoteness of the island and the polluting nature of existing DGs, it is desirable to adopt a strategy to utilise the available potential of non-polluting renewable energy sources (RESs) for these ecologically sensitive islands. A multi-objective optimisation methodology is applied in Kavaratti Island, Lakshadweep, where various RESs exist and can be exploited to generate electrical energy and to mitigate environmental pollution. A specific mathematical model is developed with two objective functions, namely cost and environmental pollution that work reversibly. Application of the proposed mathematical tool leads to a Pareto set, satisfying the multiplicity of criteria, namely environmental pollution, energy demand, per-unit generation cost and resource constraints.

Geschlechterunterschiede beim Bedarf an Qualitätsinformationen über Einrichtungen der Gesundheitsversorgung

Information on health care providers' quality enables patients to make an informed quality-oriented choice. For this purpose, the information should meet the demand of patients. Since it remains unexplained whether differences exist between men and women in this connection, the aim of our study was to analyze the demand for quality-related information in relation to gender. In the framework of the so called Health Monitor Survey of the Bertelsmann Foundation we surveyed a representative sample of 1,523 German adults about their demand for quality-related information on health care providers. We performed a multivariate analysis of the responses by considering age, socioeconomic status, recent experiences with or occupation in the health care system, and gender as independent variables. The results showed that among all sociodemographic variables considered, gender exerted the strongest influence on the responses. Women in comparison to men expressed a higher demand for quality-related information on health care providers, chose health care providers differently to some extent, and rated a multiplicity of criteria used to make a quality-oriented choice of hospitals more important than men. Thus, the publication of quality-related information on health care providers should be performed gender sensitive.

Language, moral order and political praxis

The paper argues that the debate between objectivist criticism and postmodern critique represents a fracturing of the modes of mundane social and linguistic practice. The two together miss the open-textured character of language-in-use and the reflexive properties of situated human practice. Both difference and agreement are grounded in the multiplicity of criteria that are a feature of the logical grammar of language, and therefore of everyday praxis, including that of critique. To escape the duality of foundationalism on the one hand, and radical relativism on the other, attention to the praxiological details of human action and reasoning is needed. The paper draws on Wittgensteinian philosophy and ethnomethodological studies of reasoning to make its case.

Multicriteria techniques in ecological evaluation: an example using the Analytical Hierarchy Process

The evaluation of sites based on ecological data can be carried out utilising a variety of criteria or indices. These criteria are often used in isolation, although it may sometimes be more appropriate to take the multiplicity of criteria into account. In this paper a multicriteria technique, the Analytical Hierarchy Process, hitherto not used in conservation evaluation, is described and illustrated with a simple hypothetical example. In order to compare this technique with some of the more commonly used indices, an application was carried out using the data given in Gotmark et al. (1986). Results showed that the Analytical Hierarchy Process should be considered as an alternative method for ecological evaluation analysis.

Quelques conséquences de la redistribution horizontale des revenus

SUMMARY The French national account shows that in comparison with the pre-war period the salaried group in its entirety did not benefit from any redis tribution This fact may be explained by the constancy of the relation of forces between the big socio-economic groups of the nation Is it then necessary to relinquish the analysis on two levels primary distribution first redis tribution after gener ly used by economits and to proceed to unique and total study oi the salarial income formation The author does not think so and he tries to deduci certain number of consequenses from the existences of an important redistribution inside the group of workers rliis internal transfert results in the folloiwing modification of the psycho-sociological behaviour of all the big group wages-earners employers and middle classes and the increase of their combativeness profound alteration of production structures and demand in that which concerns an important number of economic goods and services The author particulary estimates that growth of more than one third of the meat consumption is largely due to the existence of substancial family allowances by putting brakes on social mobility towards the high as well as towards the luw classe? from the proletarian groups as well as from the higher categories of wages earners by asking from the ethical point of view certain number of questions which were not explicitly envisaged by the legislator in that which concerns the national welfare advantage The multiplicity of criteria proposed by persons in favour of welfare mesures prevents the author to take any definitive position on this question which is still very contro versial