Preference Function Research Articles

A Randomized, Open-label, Cross-over Phase 2 Trial of Darolutamide and Enzalutamide in Men with Asymptomatic or Mildly Symptomatic Metastatic Castrate-resistant Prostate Cancer: Patient Preference and Cognitive Function in ODENZA

BackgroundDarolutamide and enzalutamide are second-generation androgen receptor inhibitors with activity in men with castrate-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) and different toxicity profiles. ObjectiveODENZA is a prospective, randomized, multicenter, cross-over, phase 2 trial designed to assess preference between darolutamide and enzalutamide in men with asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic metastatic CRPC (mCRPC). Design, setting, and participantsPatients were randomized 1:1 to receive either darolutamide 1200 mg/d for 12 wk followed by enzalutamide 160 mg/d for 12 wk or enzalutamide followed by darolutamide. In both arms, the second treatment was given in absence of cancer progression. Outcome measurements and statistical analysisThe primary endpoint was patient preference between the two drugs, as assessed by a preference questionnaire (p value calculated with the Prescott test). After week 24, patients entered an extension period during which they received their preferred treatment until progression or toxicity. The main secondary objectives included reasons for patient preference, response at week 12, tolerance of each drug, and measurement compared with baseline of cognitive outcomes assessed using tablet questionnaires. Results and limitationsOverall, 249 patients, with a median age of 72 yr, were randomized. Among the 200 patients who fulfilled the preplanned criteria for the evaluation of the primary endpoint of preference, 97 (49% [41; 56]), 80 (40% [33; 47]), and 23 (12% [7; 16]) chose darolutamide, chose enzalutamide, and had no preference, respectively (p = 0.92). Reduced fatigue, easier administration, and better quality of life were the main criteria that influenced patient choice. A moderate benefit in episodic memory from darolutamide was observed for the acquisition of new information (least square [LS] means difference = 2.2, effect size = 0.5) and for the recall of that information after a brief delay (LS means difference = 0.7, effect size = 0.3). Using the Brief Fatigue Inventory questionnaire, patients reported greater fatigue with enzalutamide (3.3 [3.0; 3.6]) than with darolutamide (2.7 [2.4; 3.0]). There was no difference in terms of depression, seizures, and falls. ConclusionsThe study did not show a difference in preference between the two treatments. In men with mCRPC, darolutamide was associated with a clinically meaningful benefit in episodic memory and less fatigue compared with enzalutamide. Patient summaryPreference between darolutamide and enzalutamide was well balanced in men with castrate-resistant prostate cancer. Darolutamide was associated with a significant benefit in verbal learning and less fatigue compared with enzalutamide.

Planning Efficiency Assessments of Street Houses considering the Tradeoffs of Multi-Objective Optimization Problems and Architect’s Planning Preferences

一般而言，建築師於規劃設計建築物時，經常將建築物之機能、安全、經濟及美觀列為四項重要規劃目標。但這些目標彼此之間常產生衝突，造成建築師規劃設計建築物時的無所適從，如何權衡這些衝突目標即為多目標最佳化問題。此外，目前的建築物規劃效率評估方法，大部份僅客觀地評估建築物單一目標的效率，較少考量建築師的主觀規劃偏好，無法反應建築物規劃設計具有主客觀因素的本質，如何發展兼顧主客觀因素的規劃效率評估方法，乃成為一個值得研究的課題。據營建署2015年住宅調查資料統計，街屋約占住宅類型中49.20%之比例，本論文即以此重要的建築型態為研究對象，探討建築師於規劃設計階段時，如何有效解決多目標最佳化問題。所採用的研究方法包含:模糊理論、無異曲線、效率前緣以及資料包絡分析法。模糊理論可發展建築師的偏好函數;無異曲線可定義建築師的規劃偏好及權重;效率前緣理論則可以從街屋案例中，以資料包絡分析法求出較有效率的一群案例，此群案例可建構出街屋之效率前緣曲線，做為建築師評估街屋規劃效率的依據。本論文即以上述理論，發展新的規劃效率評估方法。並以台灣地區的街屋為實證案例，以詮釋所發展的方法論。從研究結果中可得知，本論文所發展的方法論，可適切解決建築物多目標最佳化及建築師規劃偏好之問題。研究成果可提供建築師使用，所發展的研究方法亦可供學術界後續研究的參考。Generally speaking, architects often regard the function, safety, economy and aesthetics of the buildings as four important targets. However, these planning targets usually conflict with each other, which often confuses architects when planning buildings. How to trade off these conflicting targets is a multi-objective optimization problem (MOOP). Besides, most of the current building efficiency assessment methods only objectively evaluate the single target of building efficiency, but seldom consider the subjective planning factors of architects. How to develop a planning efficiency evaluation method that integrates subjective and objective factors has become a topic worthy of exploration. According to the statistics of the 2015 housing survey of Construction and Planning Agency, street houses occupied 49.20% of the housing types. This paper takes this important building type as the research object to study how architects can effectively solve the MOOP during the planning and design stage. The research methods include: fuzzy theory, indifference curve, efficient frontier and data envelopment analysis. Through the principles of fuzzy theory, the architect’s preference function can be developed. With the help of indifference curve, the planning preferences and weights of architects can be defined. The efficient frontier theory is used to find the optimal efficient cases from the street houses via data envelopment analysis. The efficient frontier curve of street houses can be constructed by this group of cases, and can be used as a basis for architects when evaluating the planning efficiencies of the street houses. This paper developed a new planning efficiency assessment method based on the above theories, taking the street houses in Taiwan as empirical cases to interpret the developed methodologies. The research results show that the methodologies developed in this paper can properly solve the buildings’multi-objective optimization problems and the architects' planning preferences. These results can be used by architects, and the developed methodologies can also be utilized as a reference for academia.

Development of the Airline Business Macroeconomics Dynamics Models

Abstract This paper proposes a solution to a certain macroeconomic model. A multi-alternative problem of aviation transportation optimal organisation in conditions of uncertainty of the subjective preference functions is considered. Conditional optimisation of the objective functional containing the entropy of the individuals’ operational effectiveness functions preferences is carried out in the framework of the simplest macroeconomic problem. The principle of the Solow and Cobb–Douglas models, likewise for economic growth, is modified with the Subjective Entropy Maximum Principle. The advantages of the described optimisation approach are demonstrated in generalised terms of the operational effectiveness functions for aviation transportation organisation.

Positive Design Framework for Carer eSupport: Qualitative Study to Support Informal Caregivers of Patients With Head and Neck Cancer in Sweden.

Informal caregivers of patients with head and neck cancer (HNC), such as the patient's spouse, other close relatives, or friends, can play an important role in home-based treatment and health care. Research shows that informal caregivers are usually unprepared for this responsibility and need support with taking care of patients and other daily life activities. These circumstances place them in a vulnerable position, and their well-being may be compromised. This study is part of our ongoing project Carer eSupport, which aims to develop a web-based intervention to facilitate informal caregivers in the home environment. This study aimed to explore the situation and context of informal caregivers of patients with HNC and their needs for designing and developing a web-based intervention (Carer eSupport). In addition, we proposed a novel framework for the development of a web-based intervention aimed at promoting the well-being of informal caregivers. Focus groups were conducted with 15 informal caregivers and 13 health care professionals. Both informal caregivers and health care professionals were recruited from 3 university hospitals in Sweden. We adopted a thematic data analysis process to analyze the data. We investigated informal caregivers' needs, critical factors for adoption, and desired functionalities of Carer eSupport. A total of 4 major themes, including information, web-based forum, virtual meeting place, and chatbot, emerged and were discussed by informal caregivers and health care professionals for Carer eSupport. However, most study participants did not like the idea of a chatbot for asking questions and retrieving information and expressed their concerns such as a lack of trust in robotic technologies and missing human contact while communicating with chatbots. The results from the focus groups were discussed through the lens of positive design research approaches. This study provided an in-depth understanding of informal caregivers' contexts and their preferred functions for a web-based intervention (Carer eSupport). Using the theoretical foundation of designing for well-being and positive design in the informal caregiving context, we proposed a positive design framework to support informal caregivers' well-being. Our proposed framework might be helpful for human-computer interaction and user experience researchers to design meaningful eHealth interventions with a clear focus on users' well-being and positive emotions, especially for informal caregivers of patients with HNC. RR2-10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057442.

A Model of Uniformity in a Preference Function

In recent development of the choice functions many investigators accept that social preferences maintain usually non-uniformity. This paper tries to establish the nature of non-uniformity that it mixes up with two distinct properties of preferences: immobility and steadiness. It is shown here that steadiness and immobility together imply uniformity but the converse does not hold. Now if steadiness be disposed of from the preferences of a firm, firm cannot obey the rule of immobility but may follow the rule of uniformity. It indicates that social choices of a firm must maintain uniformity and steadiness.

Emotional Constituent of Rhetorical Questions (Based on the Lyrics of English Songs)

The article deals with rhetorical questions whose importance is evaluated, while interpreting the speaker’s psychological and emotional state. The author of the article offers theories about this grammatical unit, provided by foreign linguists. The theoretical aspects are supported with the examples from English songs of two long-plays A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships (2018) and Notes On A Conditional Form (2020), performed by the band The 1975. While writing lyrics, the author of the songs uses this or that type of rhetorical questions: the ones connected to the communicative function of preference (preference structure) or to the one of favour; either positive or negative rhetorical questions; or the questions starting with why question-word (wh-question). It is the diversity of emotions he wants to present to the audience that determines the author’s choice. Rhetorical questions help to realize the correlation of the author’s choice of a definite rhetorical question to the emotions of this very author.

Patient-Centered Clinical Trial Design for Heart Failure Devices via Bayesian Decision Analysis.

The statistical significance of clinical trial outcomes is generally interpreted quantitatively according to the same threshold of 2.5% (in one-sided tests) to control the false-positive rate or type I error, regardless of the burden of disease or patient preferences. The clinical significance of trial outcomes-including patient preferences-are also considered, but through qualitative means that may be challenging to reconcile with the statistical evidence. We aimed to apply Bayesian decision analysis to heart failure device studies to choose an optimal significance threshold that maximizes the expected utility to patients across both the null and alternative hypotheses, thereby allowing clinical significance to be incorporated into statistical decisions either in the trial design stage or in the post-trial interpretation stage. In this context, utility is a measure of how much well-being the approval decision for the treatment provides to the patient. We use the results from a discrete-choice experiment study focusing on heart failure patients' preferences, questioning respondents about their willingness to accept therapeutic risks in exchange for quantifiable benefits with alternative hypothetical medical device performance characteristics. These benefit-risk trade-off data allow us to estimate the loss in utility-from the patient perspective-of a false-positive or false-negative pivotal trial result. We compute the Bayesian decision analysis-optimal statistical significance threshold that maximizes the expected utility to heart failure patients for a hypothetical two-arm, fixed-sample, randomized controlled trial. An interactive Excel-based tool is provided that illustrates how the optimal statistical significance threshold changes as a function of patients' preferences for varying rates of false positives and false negatives, and as a function of assumed key parameters. In our baseline analysis, the Bayesian decision analysis-optimal significance threshold for a hypothetical two-arm randomized controlled trial with a fixed sample size of 600 patients per arm was 3.2%, with a statistical power of 83.2%. This result reflects the willingness of heart failure patients to bear additional risks of the investigational device in exchange for its probable benefits. However, for increased device-associated risks and for risk-averse subclasses of heart failure patients, Bayesian decision analysis-optimal significance thresholds may be smaller than 2.5%. A Bayesian decision analysis is a systematic, transparent, and repeatable process for combining clinical and statistical significance, explicitly incorporating burden of disease and patient preferences into the regulatory decision-making process.

Resurrecting Multiattribute Utility Function: Developing a Value Set for Health Utility for Glaucoma

ObjectivesThis study aimed to develop a scoring function to calculate health utilities for health states described by the Health Utility for Glaucoma (HUG-5) based on the preferences of the general population in the United States. MethodsPreferences for HUG-5 health states were elicited using the standard gamble and visual analog scale through an online survey. Quota-based sampling was used to recruit a representative sample of the US general population in terms of age, sex, and race. A multiple attribute disutility function (MADUF) approach was adopted to derive scoring for the HUG-5. Model fit was assessed using mean absolute error associated with 5 HUG-5 marker health states that describe mild/moderate and severe glaucoma. ResultsOf 634 respondents completing the tasks, 416 were included in the estimation of the MADUF; 260 respondents (63%) considered worst possible HUG-5 health state better than death. The preferred scoring function generates the utilities ranging from 0.05 (worst HUG-5 health state) to 1 (best HUG-5 health state). The correlation between mean elicited and estimated values for marker states was strong (R2 = 0.97) with mean absolute error = 0.11. ConclusionsThe MADUF for HUG-5 is used to measure health utilities on the scale of perfect health and death, which can be used to estimate quality-adjusted life-years for economic evaluations of glaucoma interventions.

A comparative study of different artificial neural networks for the strength prediction of self-compacting concrete

The strength confirmation of self-compacting concrete (SCC) in the hardened state has remained a challenge and requires precision in mix designing of the constituents. Therefore, optimization of the mix design is necessary. In the present article a comparative study of ANN models based on different algorithms namely heuristic algorithm (ANN-1) and Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm (ANN-2) and the transfer functions have been discussed for their suitability in the optimization of the SCC constituents for the strength prediction. The SCC mixes prepared with the ANN models have been evaluated for the compressive strength tests. The objective was to identify a preferred ANN model with an algorithm and transfer function type, capable of suggesting improved strength prediction. With the conventional SCC making materials, mixes were prepared according to the suggestions of the ANN models. The ANN models were generated using training data collected from the literature survey and MATLAB programming software. On comparing different ANN models and corresponding predicted and experimentally confirmed strength values of SCC, a preferred algorithm and function has been suggested. The study showed the potential of the ANN modelling for accurate prediction of the strength values and thereby the optimum proportioning of the constituents of SCC mixes.

A Combined AHP-PROMETHEE Approach for Portfolio Performance Comparison

Comparing portfolio performance is complex due to the fact that each model is dominant in its own risk space. Since there is no single dominant performance measure, the research problem is how to incorporate several different measures into a performance evaluation model that allows portfolios to be ranked. In this regard, the objective of this study was to develop a new comprehensive method for comparing portfolio performance based on multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM). This paper proposes an integrated approach for stock market decision making that combines the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluations (PROMETHEE), which allow hierarchical evaluation of a finite number of alternatives according to different criteria. This hybrid approach is especially advantageous, utilizing the strengths of both individual methods. AHP enables the decomposition of a complex problem into its constituent parts and the determination of weights for criteria, while the PROMETHEE method allows the investor to determine the preference function, complete ranking, and analysis of the robustness of the results. For the MCDM model in this study, different dimensions of performance measures are considered criteria: return measures, risk measures, stability measures, and predictability measures. The methodology has been applied in comparing real portfolios selected on the basis of different risk measures. For this purpose, weekly return data were used for a sample of stocks that are components of the STOXX Europe 600 Index for the period 2000–2020. In addition, a sensitivity analysis is performed to investigate the strength of the results of this method. It suggests that the simultaneous consideration of different performance measures and the investor’s attitude towards the importance of these measures are notably important in the portfolio efficiency estimation process.

A bi-direction performance evaluation model for water pollution treatment engineering under the intuitionistic multiplicative linguistic environment

As the increasingly serious water pollution problem affects the sustainable development of the ecological environment, the research of water pollution treatment engineering cannot be delayed. Among them, the performance evaluation of water pollution treatment engineering is a major focus. After reading the existing studies, it is found that most of the existing performance evaluation indicators of water pollution treatment engineering have qualitative indicators and there is an unbalanced preference representation. Intuitionistic multiplicative linguistic sets can be a good representation of the qualitative preference and non-preference of decision-makers in the context of decision-making containing unbalanced phenomena. Therefore, to better solve the problem of water pollution treatment engineering, this paper introduces intuitionistic multiplicative linguistic sets to the problem of water pollution treatment engineering and proposes an effective theory for it. First, considering the multiplicative nature of the intuitionistic multiplicative linguistic set, a new score function and accuracy function are defined, and on this basis, the priority rules of intuitionistic multiplicative linguistic set are given to prepare for the subsequent water pollution treatment engineering performance ranking. And the distance measure of intuitionistic multiplicative linguistic set is introduced and a CRITIC attribute weight determination model under intuitionistic multiplicative linguistic set is obtained on this basis. Secondly, the Choquet integral operator is applied to better represent the correlation between elements. However, the nature of membership degree and non-membership degree shows that it is not reasonable to aggregate the information of intuitionistic multiplicative linguistic sets with a single increasing and decreasing transformation. Therefore, in this paper, we propose the IMLS bi-direction exponent Choquet integral operator, which is inspired by the bi-direction Choquet integral. Lastly, we improve the original preference function of the classical PROMETHEE II method to obtain the bi-directional PROMETHEE II method in intuitionistic multiplicative linguistic information. Finally, a numerical case is also provided to illustrate the scientific and rational application of the bi-directional PROMETHEE II method in intuitionistic multiplicative linguistic information for the performance evaluation of water pollution treatment engineering.

An integrated AHP-PROMETHEE II ranking method to evaluate the resilience of sewer networks considering urban flood and ground collapse risks.

The aim of this study is to present criteria to evaluate the resilience of sewer networks related to ground collapse and urban flooding likely to occur in a specific region and then to determine the ranks of the sewer networks resilience of the selected regions to show the applicability of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enriching Evaluations (PROMETHEE II) method. Fourteen evaluation criteria representing resistance, reliability, redundancy, and response and recovery are presented and their weights are estimated by the AHP by asking questionnaires to 10 sewer experts, leading to the result that the sub-criteria of reliability showed the highest importance, followed by the length ratio of good pipelines (under resistance) and adequacy of the flow capacity of the bypass pipelines (under redundancy). Four separate small blocks of drainage areas (total area of 3.57 km2; sewer length of 50.6 km) in Seoul are chosen for the case study. Using appropriate preference functions and thresholds for each evaluation criterion for PROMETHEE II application yields the resilience rankings of four blocks as Block III > Block IV > Block I > Block II. A sensitivity analysis was also carried out by changing the weights.

Predicting change in neural activity during social exclusion in late childhood: The role of past peer experiences

ABSTRACT A painful experience affecting many children is social exclusion. The current study is a follow-up study, investigating change in neural activity during social exclusion as a function of peer preference. Peer preference was defined as the degree to which children are preferred by their peers and measured using peer nominations in class during four consecutive years for 34 boys. Neural activity was assessed twice with a one-year interval, using functional MRI during Cyberball (MageT1 = 10.3 years, MageT2 = 11.4 years). Results showed that change in neural activity during social exclusion differed as a function of peer preference for the a-priori defined region-of-interest of the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (subACC), such that relatively lower history of peer preference was associated with an increase in activity from Time1 to Time2. Exploratory whole brain results showed a positive association between peer preference and neural activity at Time2 in the left and right orbitofrontal gyrus (OFG). These results may suggest that boys with lower peer preference become increasingly sensitive to social exclusion over time, associated with increased activity in the subACC. Moreover, lower peer preference and associated lower activity within the OFG may suggest decreased emotion regulation as a response to social exclusion.

PRODUCTION FUNCTION FOR MEASURING RETURNS TO SCALE IN THE GARMENT SECTOR: A CASE STUDY OF BANGLADESH

This paper empirically examines whether the production function of the garment sector of Bangladesh is operating under increasing returns to scale. The Cobb-Douglas production function is estimated using the advanced level of econometric techniques based on primary data. GLS estimates indicate that the productivity of labor force is 22.17% and the productivity of capital investment is 61.02%, statistically significant at any significance level. Thus, the production function of the garment sector of Bangladesh is operating under decreasing return to scale. From the GLS estimate of R2 , it is clear that about 99.97% of the total variation of the dependent variable output is explained by the fitted regression equation. Thus, the model fits the data very well. The diagnostic test results show that there are no problems of autocorrelation, heteroscedasticity, autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity and normality of the random error terms. The test results also confirm that the model is correctly specified. It is also found that the average marginal productivity of labor force is 0.0236 and the average marginal productivity of capital investment is 0.5222 in the garment sector of Bangladesh. Since the marginal productivity of labor force is smaller than the capital investment, it can be said that these factories cannot reduce production costs by shifting resources from capital intensive techniques to labor intensive techniques. As a result, this sector cannot generate additional employment opportunities, which is not a good sign. The CUSUM and CUSUMSQ tests results confirm that the preferred production function of the garment sector of Bangladesh can be used for policy decision-making purposes.

Paper making raw materials assessed by bipolar fuzzy environment

Paper is one of the most versatile products of everyday life. It is indeed the primary material used for written communication and distribution of information. Paper is composed of cellulose fibers. Paper making technologyis the process of conversion of raw materials into pulp and paper products. Here PROMETHEE method based on bipolar fuzzy set is dealt with. To obtain the weights based on each criteria, an entropy measure on bipolar fuzzy set is developed. Further, bipolar fuzzy preference function is defined to form bipolar fuzzy preference and aggregated preference matrices. Finally, net outranking flow is calculated and the ranking of the alternative is determined. Here, paper made from wood pulp, rag pulp, grass, baggase and hemp are evaluated using bipolar fuzzy PROMETHEE method based on the properties brightness, durability, moisture content and smoothness. It is found using this method that the paper made from rag pulp is superior than the others.

The Simplest Models of the Macroeconomics Dynamics in a Composition with the Principle of the Subjective Entropy Maximum

Abstract This paper proposes a solution to a certain macroeconomic model. A multi-alternative problem of aviation transportation optimal organisation in conditions of uncertainty of the subjective preference functions is considered. Conditional optimisation of the objective functional containing the entropy of the individuals’ operational effectiveness functions preferences is carried out in the framework of the simplest macroeconomic problem. The principle of the Solow and Cobb–Douglas models, similar to the approach adopted for the estimation of economic growth, is modified with the subjective entropy maximum principle. The advantages of the described optimisation approach are demonstrated in the generalised terms of the operational effectiveness functions for aviation transportation organisation.

Assessing the potential implementation of earthquake early warning for schools in the Patras region, Greece

Earthquake early warning (EEW) is currently deemed a credible approach to seismic resilience enhancement in modern societies, especially if part of a more holistic earthquake mitigation strategy involving other risk reduction tools such as structural upgrading/retrofit. Yet, there remains a strong need to 1) assess the feasibility of EEW in various seismotectonic contexts, considering specific target applications/end users; and 2) develop next-generation decision-support systems relying on interpretable probabilistic impact-based estimates toward more risk-informed decision-making on EEW installation/alert triggering. These challenges are addressed in this paper, which showcases a series of recent significant EEW contributions by the authors. First, we present the results of a state-of-the-art feasibility study for EEW in schools performed across the Patras region of Greece, attempting to spatially combine traditional seismologically-driven EEW decision criteria (i.e., warning time) with proxy risk-oriented measures for earthquake impact (i.e., building fragility and the number of exposed school students). These results show that, under certain conditions, EEW could be effective for the schools in the considered case-study region. We then demonstrate an advanced end-user-centred approach for improved risk-informed decision-making on triggering EEW alerts. The proposed methodology integrates earthquake-engineering-related seismic performance assessment procedures and metrics with multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) within an end-to-end probabilistic framework. The performance-based earthquake engineering component of such a framework facilitates the computation of various damage/loss estimates (e.g., repair cost, downtime, and casualties) by combining target-structure-specific models of seismic response, fragility, and vulnerability with real-time ground-shaking estimates. Additionally, the incorporated MCDM methodology enables explicit consideration of end-user preferences (importance) towards the estimated consequences in the context of alert issuance. The developed approach is demonstrated using an archetype school building for the case-study region, for which we specifically investigate the optimal decision (i.e., “trigger” or “don't trigger” an EEW alert) across a range of ground-motion intensity measures. We find that the best action for a given level of ground shaking can vary as a function of stakeholder preferences.

Stuart N. Soroka and Christopher Wlezien. Information and Democracy: Public Policy in the News. Cambridge University Press. 2022. $99.99 (cloth). $34.99 (paper).

This book is an empirical investigation of the role of media in democracy in the United States since 1980. It uses texts from 17 major newspapers, six broadcast news stations, and a social media outlet to identify content and sentiment regarding policy spending in five domains of defense, welfare, health, education, and environment. Its authors, Stuart Soroka and Christopher Wlezien, spent their careers identifying patterns in public preference formation in response to policies and policymaker representation of public preferences. Few opinion-policy researchers are unfamiliar with their thermostatic model. To date, this rich subfield lacks attention to what happens in-between public preferences (opinion) and policy outcomes. Enter this book. Media is a key theoretical mechanism transmitting policy to public preferences and vice versa, and this book ambitiously seeks to (1) ascertain the quantity and quality of US media content in these domains, and (2) test for a role of media in public preferences and policy, and feedback between. As chapter 1 points out, media research should help us understand democracy, specifically, whether media provides accurate information about government actions. Chapter 2 reviews previous work on the content and framing of policy in media but shows it does little to answer the question of whether there is enough accurate coverage to enable informed citizen decisions and voting to hold policymakers accountable. Their original thermostatic model included relative policy preferences (⁠R⁠) as a function of policy (⁠P⁠) and absolute preferences for policy (proxied by O⁠), where ΔP (change in policy) is the “signal” the public uses to change their preferences. The authors now add media (represented by M⁠) for a more complete picture (Equation 2.8, p. 33): ...

Mathematical analysis of an anaerobic co‐digestion model with preference function and mortality

Anaerobic co‐digestion is defined as the simultaneous anaerobic digestion of two or more substrates. Mixing several substrates has many advantages. In particular, it can increase biogas production. In our work, we built a mathematical model to describe the anaerobic co‐digestion of two substrates, with preference and mortality of bacteria in closed mode. The existence and boundedness of positive solutions are investigated. We show that trajectories converge toward a global attractor which is composed of an infinite number of non‐hyperbolic equilibria. The choice of growth functions, for both bacteria, can completely change the performance of the process. Numerical tests are presented to illustrate the theoretical analysis. They allow the prediction of the quantities of the initial mixture for a better biogas production.

Evaluation of logistics centers in terms of sustainability via MCDM methods

PurposeThe purpose of the study is the evaluation of choosing the determined logistics centers’ (LCs’) locations via Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) methods.Design/methodology/approachSince there is more than one criterion in the evaluation of LC location, MCDM methods are used. The Entropy and CRiteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) methods are used to determine the main criteria and sub-criteria weights. The Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) method is used for ranking and evaluating 12 alternatives in Turkey and sensitivity analysis according to the threshold values of criteria and preference functions.FindingsPossible LC alternatives in Turkey and 12 locations ranked. Changing the criteria weights at a significant level did not affect the ranking results much. In the sensitivity analysis of the criteria for which market data could not be obtained (scored by the experts) it is found that they either made no difference or made little difference in the ranking of the alternatives.Practical implicationsIn terms of sustainability, economic factors along with environmental and social dimensions are important criteria for logistics companies and LC. The use of these variables in the LC location selection makes a difference.Originality/valueThis study focuses on LC location selection, via PROMETHEE with evaluated preference functions for criteria, taking into account nine scenarios that use variable criteria weight calculated via different MCDM methods. The results are evaluated by using sensitivity analysis and taking into account the sustainability aspect for LC. Multiple methods have been used effectively together in a way that support each other.