User Priorities Research Articles

A new multi-criterion decision making (MCDM) method based on proximity indexed value for minimizing rank reversals

Abstract The identification of best alternative from amongst the available choices is a complex task dependent upon the user priorities that needs to be graded on a rating scale requiring careful consideration of all influencing characteristic features of individual alternative. Several multi criterion decision making techniques are available to facilitate the decision maker arrive at a best alternative by ranking the alternatives in an order of preference. However, it has been observed that with the addition of new alternatives or deletion of existing alternatives, the ranks of the available alternatives, indicating their suitability to a particular set of requirements, is not maintained. This is often described as rank reversal phenomenon by many researchers. The commonly used MCDM methods are particularly incapable of preventing this rank reversal phenomenon. Thus, addition of new alternative/s or deletion of existing alternative/s creates a modified order of preference which may, sometimes, lead to erroneous decisions/results. In the present research work, an effort has been made to critically examine the rank reversal phenomenon with an aim to propose a new method to obviate this problem. In order to establish the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method in preventing the rank reversal phenomenon, several case studies covering different technological specializations from the reported literature work have been considered. The results indicate that the rank reversal issue was found to be minimal with the use of proposed method and a good correlation was found to exist between the rankings obtained by the proposed method and the other commonly used MCDM methods. The proposed method is thus capable of preventing the rank reversal phenomenon, arising out of change in available alternatives.

Identifying the occupant's satisfaction and awareness for the performance of Eco houses in the United Kingdom

Improving energy efficiency in the UK housing stock has been emphasised for a long time leading to use of various energy efficiency measures in the houses. Eco houses with the integration of low carbon, highly energy efficient and renewable energy technologies aim to achieve desired user comfort and energy saving. Noteworthy that occupant's behaviours are also significant to real life performance of the Eco houses. Present study investigates the occupant's awareness and satisfaction living in the Eco houses. Factors such as indoor air temperature and quality, acoustic, lighting and the control over indoor environment have been investigated. Three main issues have been raised by households: overheating in summer; poor sound privacy; and low quality construction materials. Research has found out that there is strong demand for appropriate lighting and ventilation control, poor usability and awareness of the indoor environment control devices. A gear process is presented to act as a conceptual guidance in improving Eco house performance with the end user's priorities and awareness as well as the embedded technologies.

Spectral Backtests of Forecast Distributions with Application to Risk Management

We study a class of backtests for forecast distributions in which the test statistic is a spectral transformation that weights exceedance events by a function of the modeled probability level. The choice of the kernel function makes explicit the user's priorities for model performance. The class of spectral backtests includes tests of unconditional coverage and tests of conditional coverage. We show how the class embeds a wide variety of backtests in the existing literature, and propose novel variants as well. In an empirical application, we backtest forecast distributions for the overnight P&L of ten bank trading portfolios. For some portfolios, test results depend materially on the choice of kernel.

An efficient scheduling algorithm using queuing system to minimize starvation of non-real-time secondary users in Cognitive Radio Network

Cognitive Radio Network is an emerging popular wireless network, designed for efficient spectrum utilization. It enables unlicensed users to access the unused portion of the licensed spectrum opportunistically. The major challenge is to share the unused portion of the spectrum efficiently to the unlicensed users. Channel aggregation is an interesting approach by which channels can be grouped and allocated to unlicensed users. A combined Round Robin Priority (RRP) scheduling algorithm is proposed by which the starvation of low priority SUs are minimized and QoS parameters are better compared to the traditional static and dynamic channel aggregation method. Fuzzy Inference System is used to evaluate the priority of the Secondary User. The QoS parameters utilized for comparison are spectrum utilization, capacity of the secondary network, delay, blocking probability and forced termination probability.

Performance evaluation and optimization of cognitive radio networks with adjustable access control for multiple secondary users

In this paper, we consider a cognitive radio network with multiple secondary users (SUs). The SU packets in the system can be divided into two categories: SU1 packets and SU2 packets, where SU1 packets have transmission priority over SU2 packets. Considering the absolute priority of the primary users (PUs), the PU packets have the highest priority in the system to transmit. In order to guarantee the Quality of Service (QoS) of the network users, as well as reduce the average delay of the SU2 packets, we propose an adjustable access control scheme for the SU2 packets. A newly arriving SU2 packet can access the system with an access probability related to the total number of packets in the system. A variable factor is also introduced to adjust the access probability dynamically. Based on the working principle of the adjustable access control scheme, we build a discrete-time queueing model with a finite waiting room and an adjustable joining rate. With a steady-state analysis of the queueing model, using a three-dimensional Markov chain, we derive some performance measures, such as the total channel utilization, the interruption rate, the throughput, and the average delay of the SU2 packets. Moreover, we show the influence of the adjustment factor on different system performance measures by using numerical results. Finally, considering the trade-off between the throughput and the average delay of the SU2 packets with respect to the adjustment factor, we build a net benefit function and show an optimal algorithm to optimize the adjustment factor.

Analytic Hierarchy Processes for Spectrum Sharing in 5G New Radio Standard

The 5th Generation (5G) systems have the objective of delivering fiber like performance in a wireless environment. It is expected to connect all devices including mobile phones, cars, and home appliances and so on. Realization of the objective of the 5G systems needs a huge amount of spectrum. 5G new radio (NR) is the proposed standard for 5G that operates below 6 GHz (mid band 1–6 GHz) and above 6 GHz (high band at above 24 GHz). The unlicensed nature of spectrum enables simultaneous communication for anyone causing mutual interference between the operators. Solution to the problem of this interference and improvement to the performance of 5G NR are the subject of this paper done through analytic hierarchy process. Using this approach, user priority to access the spectrum is calculated without any conflict of interest among other secondary users. The simulation results show the feasibility of achievement of efficient spectrum utilization even with increase in the number of users in the systems.

Association and Load Optimization With User Priorities in Load-Coupled Heterogeneous Networks

In this paper, we consider the network utility maximization problem with various user priorities via jointly optimizing user association, load distribution, and power control in a load-coupled heterogeneous network. In order to tackle the nonconvexity of the problem, we first analyze the problem by obtaining the optimal resource allocation strategy in closed form and characterizing the optimal base station load distribution pattern. Both observations are shown essential in simplifying the original problem and making it possible to transform the nonconvex load distribution and power control problem into convex reformulation via exponential variable transformation. An iterative algorithm with low complexity is accordingly presented to obtain a suboptimal solution to the joint optimization problem. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves better performance than conventional approaches.

Fair Resource Allocation for System Throughput Maximization in Mobile Edge Computing

Communication resource allocation is important for improving the performance of users in mobile edge computing (MEC) scenarios. In existing studies, the users in the MEC system typically suffer from unfair resource allocation, which results in the inefficient resource utilization and degraded user performance. To address this challenge, in this paper we propose a fair resource allocation approach to maximize the overall network throughput, under the constraint of each mobile user's minimum transmission rate. We formulate the problem as a fair Nash bargaining resource allocation game, and the existence and uniqueness of the solution to this game model are analyzed. By adopting the time-sharing variable, we obtain the near optimal bargaining resource allocation strategy for the mixed integer nonlinear programming optimization. The user's priority is further considered in the iterative implementation of the proposed algorithm by considering the time delay constraint of users. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms existing methods in terms of resource allocation fairness and overall system throughput.

Hybrid IEEE 802.15.6 Wireless Body Area Networks Interference Mitigation Model for High Mobility Interference Scenarios

The field of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) has revolutionized tremendously in the recent past with its major application in Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs). This has in the same dimension attracted immense interests from the researchers and technology providers. The operational modality of the WBANs is that a few sensor nodes are placed in or around the body and that they are meant to operate within a limited condition while providing high performance in terms of WBAN life time, high throughput, high data reliability, minimum or no delay and low power consumption. As most of the WBAN operates within the universal Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) Narrow Band (NB) wireless band (2.4 Ghz) frequency band, this has posed a challenge in respect to inter, intra and co-channel interference especially in dense areas and high mobility scenarios. As well the body posture changes dynamically due to these mobility effects. In this paper, we propose a hybrid WBAN interference mitigation model based on Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) Contention Window (CW) approach and User Priority (UP) queues. Using Omnet++ simulation, a comparison to the IEEE 802.15.6 based WBAN protocol is presented under the standing, walking sitting and Lying postural mobility scenarios. The results show that the proposed hybrid model outperforms IEEE 802.15.6 based CSMA/CA protocol in areas of network throughput, bandwidth efficiency and network delay in these mobility postures.

Research Collaborations Between Women’s Specialist Services, Aboriginal Women and Researchers

When experiencing domestic and family violence (DFV) in Australia, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women seek help for diverse needs. In response, women’s specialist DFV services provide a range of programs. Given this diversity and program range, evaluating impact and outcome is challenging. A deeper challenge rests on who decides what to measure and how. This article describes a multi-site research collaboration between women’s specialist services and researchers. Part of the project aimed to identify the perspectives and priorities of Aboriginal women users of three specialist services: one each in an urban, regional and remote location. In a series of iterative steps, Aboriginal women, service workers and researchers explored what was valued in interactions with crisis programs. Each collaboration then moved to identify ways to measures the items, and to determine when and how other service users might be asked to respond. Aboriginal women participated primarily as service users but in overlapping capacities as victims of DFV, as community members, as local researchers and service workers. The underlying principle that guided the research was to respect and acknowledge Aboriginal women as knowledge-holders, producers and translators. However, clear limits to ideas of ‘co-research’ are identified.

Resource Modeling and Scheduling for Mobile Edge Computing: A Service Provider’s Perspective

This paper investigates resource modeling and management for a base station (BS) providing mobile edge computing (MEC) service. In the proposed modeling, BS is recognized as a queueing network consisting of multiple multi-type servers. The uplink transmission users, downlink transmission users, and MEC users with different priority levels are jointly considered. It is assumed that their service-requests arrive dynamically and are also served dynamically. With such a general resource modeling, the interaction among these users can be analyzed based on the queueing network theory. The average delay of each service-type with different priority levels is derived. Based on the derived results, two resource management optimization problems are formulated and solved from the perspective of a service provider. The revenue brought by MEC services is first maximized by doing user admission control while provisioning the quality-of-service (QoS) of all admitted users with the given amount of communication and computation resources. Then, the capital expenditure of resource deployment is minimized by satisfying the QoS of all users. It is formulated as an integer programming problem. An algorithm is developed to solve it, which can help service providers to determine the optimal amount of communication and computation resources to be placed in a BS to guarantee QoS for all users at a minimal total capital expenditure. Computer simulations are done to validate all analysis and comparisons are made with BS serving multi-type users of single priority level. Through comparison, an insight is gained that service providers can obtain more revenue or spare less capital expenditure by differentiating the user priority levels.

Spectrum Allocation With Asymmetric Monopoly Model for Multibeam-Based Cognitive Satellite Networks

With the rapid development of modern satellite communications, broadband satellite services are experiencing a period of remarkable growth in both user population and available bandwidth. Efficient spectrum management is required in order to meet the ever-increasing demand for broadband spectrum. In this paper, a spectrum allocation scheme for cognitive satellite networks is proposed to improve spectrum efficiency by addressing the situation that scarce spectrum resource is under-utilized while the overall demands of cognitive satellite users are not satisfied. The proposed scheme is devised to optimize bandwidth efficiency by achieving the Bayesian equilibrium through spectrum competition among cognitive satellite users. Due to the scarcity of spectrum resource, satellite systems have to eliminate some of the cognitive users’ transmission information types in order to fulfill the spectrum needs of priority users. After declining one or several kinds of modulation modes, cognitive users can update their spectrum lists. With the increase in number of cognitive users and their corresponding transmission information types, the complexity of the optimization problem increases significantly and becomes a computation burden to cognitive satellite systems. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a simplified solution for spectrum resource optimization in a computation-efficient manner. Through rounds of eliminating operations, the satellite systems can identify the final Bayesian equilibrium as an optimal spectrum allocation strategy. We also provide proofs for the existence of Bayesian equilibrium. Numerical results are given to evaluate the performance of our proposed method from diverse perspectives.

User selection for collaboration in product development based on QFD and DEA approach

User collaboration has been recognized as a critical factor in successful product development. To select the proper users who have a higher satisfaction to meet product development requirements, this study proposes an integrated approach based on quality function deployment (QFD) and data envelopment analysis (DEA). The proposed approach considers product development requirements, the inner dependencies of user evaluation criteria, and the relationships between requirements and criteria simultaneously and presents them in house of quality (HoQ). For the fuzzy and imprecise information in HoQ, fuzzy weighted average method is employed to determine the weight of each user evaluation criterion. Furthermore, to determine the priorities of users with a large number efficiently, this study implements linguistic variables to assess the weight of each user under each criterion, the DEA method to determine the optimal values of linguistic variables, and the simple additive weighting approach to aggregate the weight of each criteria and the local score of each user with respect to each criterion. An illustrative case is presented to demonstrate the applications of the proposed approach based on QFD and DEA in this paper.

Improving data quality across 3 sub-Saharan African countries using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR): results from the African Health Initiative

BackgroundHigh-quality data are critical to inform, monitor and manage health programs. Over the seven-year African Health Initiative of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, three of the five Population Health Implementation and Training (PHIT) partnership projects in Mozambique, Rwanda, and Zambia introduced strategies to improve the quality and evaluation of routinely-collected data at the primary health care level, and stimulate its use in evidence-based decision-making. Using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) as a guide, this paper: 1) describes and categorizes data quality assessment and improvement activities of the projects, and 2) identifies core intervention components and implementation strategy adaptations introduced to improve data quality in each setting.MethodsThe CFIR was adapted through a qualitative theme reduction process involving discussions with key informants from each project, who identified two domains and ten constructs most relevant to the study aim of describing and comparing each country’s data quality assessment approach and implementation process. Data were collected on each project’s data quality improvement strategies, activities implemented, and results via a semi-structured questionnaire with closed and open-ended items administered to health management information systems leads in each country, with complementary data abstraction from project reports.ResultsAcross the three projects, intervention components that aligned with user priorities and government systems were perceived to be relatively advantageous, and more readily adapted and adopted. Activities that both assessed and improved data quality (including data quality assessments, mentorship and supportive supervision, establishment and/or strengthening of electronic medical record systems), received higher ranking scores from respondents.ConclusionOur findings suggest that, at a minimum, successful data quality improvement efforts should include routine audits linked to ongoing, on-the-job mentoring at the point of service. This pairing of interventions engages health workers in data collection, cleaning, and analysis of real-world data, and thus provides important skills building with on-site mentoring. The effect of these core components is strengthened by performance review meetings that unify multiple health system levels (provincial, district, facility, and community) to assess data quality, highlight areas of weakness, and plan improvements.

‘I have it just in case’ — Naloxone access and changes in opioid use behaviours

BackgroundThe past decade has seen over a four-fold increase in deaths from opioid overdose in the United States. To address this growing epidemic, many localities initiated policies to expand access to naloxone (a drug that reverses the effects of opioids); however, little is known how naloxone access affects opioid use behaviours. MethodsThe present qualitative study used semi-structured, in-depth interviews with inpatients at a substance use treatment centre. All patients who met study inclusion criteria (in treatment for opioid use, between the ages of 18 and 40, able to speak and understand English, and had not previously completed an interview with the research team) were invited to participate. Interviews were conducted until thematic saturation was reached (N=20) and covered the participant’s naloxone knowledge, access, and attitudes, as well as experience(s) with opioid use and opioid overdose, and their naloxone use in the context of opioid overdose. Thematic content analysis was used to analyze interview transcripts. ResultsFive main themes were uncovered during analysis; first, awareness about naloxone, including, content knowledge and source information for naloxone. Naloxone awareness was very common among opioid users; however, depth of knowledge varied; some participants did not make any efforts to have naloxone available, and others felt that it was “just as important as a clean needle.” The second theme explored how naloxone access intersects with drug selling. The third theme explored naloxone availability while using, including attitudes about naloxone, occasions with no naloxone availability, when naloxone is “good to have,” and when naloxone is a priority for users. The fourth theme examined changes in opioid use behaviours associated with naloxone access. Primarily, participants discussed changing how much heroin they used in a given situation to achieve a bigger high. The final theme explored naloxone behaviours that alter overdose mortality risk, such as how users distinguish when to use naloxone, dis-incentives to naloxone use, and solo opioid use. ConclusionResults indicate that though naloxone awareness was high, there was great variation in the associated attitudes and practices. Participants generally described naloxone as an important resource, but not all were inclined to carry or use it appropriately. Future research needs to examine why different groups of opioid users access naloxone differently, particularly to identify those at risk for experimental opioid use while carrying naloxone.

What does quality maternity care mean in a context of medical pluralism? Perspectives of women in Nigeria.

User priorities regarding quality care in contexts of medical pluralism are poorly documented. Drawing on group and individual interviews with women, we interrogate ideas of quality maternity care in the context of Nigeria’s medical pluralism. We found complex utilization patterns for conventional, complementary and alternative maternity care services as well as ideas of quality maternity care that stress effective coordination and integration of different typologies of maternity health services; socially sensitive and truthful providers; and socioeconomic, physical and parochial forms of safety. Informal providers were the commonly reported source of maternal health services in the study. Maternal health services in the country were also generally viewed as poor quality, characterized by pervasive abuse, quackery and lack of commitment to the needs and sensitivities of women. Convenience, availability and affordability of maternal health services, as well as sociocultural factors were major influences on women’s use of services. Results demonstrate the embeddedness of women’s quality of care notions in the vast socioeconomic inequities that typify Nigeria’s particular form of poorly regulated medical pluralism, raising need for strategies to strengthen the delivery, coordination and supervision of maternal health services in the country.

Study of Selected Components of Architectural Environment of Primary Schools - Preferences of Adults and Analysis of the Specialist Literature

The school is one of the oldest social institutions designed to prepare a young man for an adult life. It performs a teaching and educational function in child’s life. It is a place where, apart from home, the child spends most of the time in a day, therefore it is one of the most important institutions in the life of a young person. The school environment has a direct impact on the student's personality and ambition, and it shapes an attitude of the young person. Therefore, the design process preceding the establishment of school facilities is extremely responsible and should be conducted in a conscious and thoughtful way. This article is a summary and an attempt to synthesize the data obtained from the survey carried out by the author in the context of the design guidelines contained in the specialist literature. The questionnaire survey was designed to make an attempt to determine adult’s preferences, opinions and perceptions about selected components of the primary school environment, including the factors which determine the choice of school for children, the priorities of architecture components made for early childhood use, also to specify the type and the scale of existing drawbacks and problems in the school construction industry, as well as expectations about the contemporary architecture of primary schools and its future changes. Moreover, in the article, based on the analysis of the available specialist’s literature, the following are broadly discussed: the general division and characterization of school spaces, issues related to the influence of selected components of the architectural environment on the physical, mental and psychological safety of children. Furthermore, the author raises the subject of the influence of the architectural interiors and furniture on the mood, emotions or comfort of children in the early school age, based on the anthropometric characteristics of children and issues related to the perception of space with an extra attention on the subject of perception of colours and the influence of the architectural space components on the frame of mind, fettle or comfort of children in the given age. Although there exists a limited body of literature on the subject and the results of the study show that the aspects of elementary school architecture relevant to adults, including parents of children, are different from those described in the literature, the analysis was necessary to show these differences and to highlight the different values and priorities of users and designers. The paper is also an introduction, which identify qualities and social preferences on educational architecture, to the deeper research aimed at developing the criteria of designing and shaping the architectural environment for primary school children, which takes into account the regularity and developmental needs of children at studied age.

Learning‐based resource allocation in D2D communications with QoS and fairness considerations

AbstractIn device‐to‐device (D2D) communications, D2D users establish a direct link by utilizing the cellular users' spectrum to increase the network spectral efficiency. However, due to the higher priority of cellular users, interference imposed by D2D users to cellular ones should be controlled by channel and power allocation algorithms. Due to the unknown distribution of dynamic channel parameters, learning‐based resource allocation algorithms work more efficient than classic optimization methods. In this paper, the problem of the joint channel and power allocation for D2D users in realistic scenarios is formulated as an interactive learning problem, where the channel state information of selected channels is unknown to the decision center and learned during the allocation process. In order to achieve the maximum reward function by choosing an action (channel and power level) for each D2D pair, a recency‐based Q‐learning method is introduced to find the best channel‐power for each D2D pair. The proposed method is shown to achieve logarithmic regret function asymptotically, which makes it an order optimal policy, and it converges to the stable equilibrium solution. The simulation results confirm that the proposed method achieves better responses in terms of network sum rate and fairness criterion in comparison with conventional learning methods and random allocation.

What makes a sustainable business model successful? An empirical comparison of two peer-to-peer goods-sharing platforms

Sustainable business models are intended to create economic value while benefitting the environment and society. Their wider adoption and diffusion is necessary to tackle pressing societal problems. How they are implemented and what determines their success (or lack thereof) in the market is not yet well understood, however, and deserves further exploration. To help fill the gap in knowledge, this study examines an emerging and innovative type of sustainable business model based on the peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing of underutilised assets facilitated by digital platforms. Its aim is to identify possible reasons for their commercial success or failure. In particular, the study investigates the values of users of a successful P2P goods-sharing platform and to what extent they differ from values of users of a comparable, yet unsuccessful, platform. Previous research on a UK-based online marketplace, Ecomodo, measured people's motivations for joining and the value priorities of users using Schwartz's Portrait Value Questionnaire. Results were compared with data from a representative sample of the UK population and used to explain the platform's low market uptake. The same study is here replicated with members of Peerby, an online marketplace where people rent, lend and borrow their possessions with each other. The analysis shows similar value priorities and orientation in Ecomodo and Peerby respondents, which suggests that the failure of the former platform and the success of the latter may be more directly attributed to differences in their business model design and execution than the types of user.

Software for decision-making support in blast-furnace operation

Experience shows that the successful introduction of automated information systems at metallurgical enterprises largely depends on the technology and software selected. In the present work, the basic technology and software options available are briefly outlined. The starting point is Agile development, which is based on iterative procedures, the dynamic formation of user requirements, and their implementation through constant dialog within working groups consisting of various specialists (users, analysts, programmers, and testers). Iteration corresponds to relatively brief development times (as a rule, months), after which the user is given the next tested version of the software, with new functional properties. The list of additional functional properties in each new version represents user priorities and is drawn from the overall list of requirements before each iteration begins. In each iteration, the following procedures are completed in sequence: verification of the computational algorithm (with the introduction of new variables, where necessary); functional modeling of the system; improvement of subsystem structure; conceptual modeling of the database; generation of a model of the database; loading of the test data in the database; creation of the functional diagrams in the mathematical library; implementation of the subsystem’s client software; testing and debugging of the software; and the development of reference documentation. The Atlassian JIRA system is used to control individual tasks and monitor their overall realization within the process of collective software development. The Atlassian Bitbucket platform provides remote storage for code storage and control of the software version. On the basis of up-to-date approaches to software development, systems that are functional, reliable, east to use, expandable, and integrable may be created. Such systems are characterized by minimum risk and acceptable cost.