Relative Importance Weights Research Articles

BULANIK VIKOR TEMELLİ KFG YÖNTEMİ KULLANARAK KÜÇÜK BİR EV ALETİNİN TASARIM ÖZELLİKLERİNİN BELİRLENMESİ

Due to globalization, competition for firms is growing with the growth of markets. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a systematic approach which is developed in order to pre-plan the product specifications, process specifications and production stages in the design phase in order to reflect the customer's requests and expectations to the product. This study is concerned with the design of a pomegranate extractor that can be easily used in homes and workplaces according to the desired customer demands. The fuzzy VIKOR method was used to increase the reliability of subjective judgments in the QFD, for determining the relative importance weights of customer needs “WHATs” and ranking design attributes “HOWs”. The solution obtained by fuzzy logic is compared with the solutions obtained by the classical QFD and the small home appliance is designed visually by presenting the evaluations.

Fuzzy ANP and DEA approaches for analyzing the human development and competitiveness relation

Human development and competitiveness have a causal relation. However, the literature is not clear on which one affects the other. This study investigates the bilateral relation between human development and competitiveness. For this purpose, initially, Fuzzy Analytic Network Process (FANP) is utilized to develop a composite index based on the relative importance weights of respective human development and competitiveness drivers. By FANP, the effects of key dimensions of human development and indexes of competitiveness on each other are taken into account. Subsequently, countries’ efficiencies on converting their human development to competitiveness and inversely, competitiveness to human development is measured by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Two different DEA models are developed to consider the bilateral relations. 45 countries are evaluated using both FANP and DEA models. Finally, the results are synthesized to reveal the direction of the relationship. It is found that the effect of competitiveness on human development is more significant than the effect of human development on competitiveness.

The Evaluation of Computer Algebra Systems Using Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Models

The main purpose of this study is to present a systematic methodology based on fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (FMCDM) models to help users evaluate computer algebra systems (CAS). CAS is a software package for the manipulation of mathematical formulas. The suggested methodology is user-centred which involves users' subjective evaluation judgments. User judgments are represented by means of fuzzy linguistic modelling techniques. An evaluation criteria framework based on the concept of the usefulness of CAS is developed. Next, two FMCDM models – fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (FTOPSIS) are proposed for the evaluation procedure. The FAHP is applied to determine the relative importance weights of qualitative evaluation criteria; the FTOPSIS is applied to rank the CAS alternatives. The illustrated case study demonstrates the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed methodology.

Patient-reported outcomes measures and patient preferences for minimally invasive glaucoma surgical devices.

Many therapeutic options are available to glaucoma patients. One recent therapeutic option is minimally invasive glaucoma surgical (MIGS) devices. It is unclear how patients view different treatments and which patient-reported outcomes would be most relevant in patients with mild to moderate glaucoma. We developed a questionnaire for patients eligible for MIGS devices and a patient preference study to examine the value patients place on certain outcomes associated with glaucoma and its therapies. To summarize the progress to date. Questionnaire development: We drafted the questionnaire items based on input from one physician and four patient focus groups, and a review of the literature. We tested item clarity with six cognitive interviews. These items were further refined. Patient preference study: We identified important benefit and risk outcomes qualitatively using semi-structured, one-on-one interviews with patients who were eligible for MIGS devices. We then prioritized these outcomes quantitatively using best-worst scaling methods. Questionnaire testing: Three concepts were deemed relevant for the questionnaire: functional limitations, symptoms, and psychosocial factors. We will evaluate the reliability and validity of the 52-item draft questionnaire in an upcoming field test. Patient preference study: We identified 13 outcomes that participants perceived as important. Outcomes with the largest relative importance weights were "adequate IOP control" and "drive a car during the day." Patients have the potential to steer clinical research towards outcomes that are important to them. Incorporating patients' perspectives into the MIGS device development and evaluation process may expedite innovation and availability of these devices.

Prioritising critical success factors of TQM in Malaysia aerospace industry using fuzzy AHP

Malaysia has set a target to become the first aerospace nation in South East Asia by 2030. In efforts to ensure industry players are able to achieve the target, the critical success factors (CSFs) that affecting the successful implementation of total quality management (TQM) in aerospace industry, especially in Malaysia, need to be identified and ranked. Ranking CSFs is a sensitive task that requires extra attention. Self-judgment, previous experiences and references by industry experts, including the existence of uncertainty in decision making, results in inaccurate ranking. Therefore, this study aims to prioritise (identify and rank) the CSFs for successful implementation of TQM in Malaysia aerospace industry (manufacturing sector). Through an in-depth review of the literature, 11 CSFs were identified and categorised into four main criteria. These criteria were analysed empirically using Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) approach to rank the CSFs based on their relative importance weights. FAHP approach was used since the judgments from industry experts have been taken into account as recommended by National Aerospace Industry Coordinating Office (NAICO). The results showed that the main criterion for successful TQM implementation is culture and people with the highest weight of 0.434, followed by organising (0.296), systems and technique (0.151), and measurement and feedback (0.119). Therefore, the top management and decision makers need to give more attention on culture and people factors before implementing TQM which include employee involvement and role of quality department. However, the relationship between CSFs and the performance of TQM implementation need to be analysed further.

A GIS-MCDM-based road network planning for tourism development and management in Arasbaran forest, Iran.

It is very important for managers to plan a road network that meets all the requirements for tourism development and management. The aim of this study was to evaluate and modify an existing road network for tourism purposes in the Arasbaran protected area. First, the map layers of effective criteria were prepared in GIS and were standardized by a fuzzy logic approach and finally combined considering their relative importance weights obtained through pair-wise comparison technique. A suitability map was then acquired. After that, 14 different scenarios of road network were designed to access the recreational area using PEGGER extension in ArcView. Then, they were evaluated in terms of technical, environmental, and socio-economic criteria to achieve the optimal-designed road network. Moreover, the existing road network was modified according to the optimal-designed road scenario. Finally, a modified version of the existing road network was proposed for tourism development and management in the Arasbaran region. Regarding the results, the slope criterion with a value of 0.289 was identified as the most important factor in providing a suitability map for road planning. The seventh scenario, with a road density of 3.34 m ha-1 and accessibility (hard) of 64.68%, was chosen as the optimal option to modify the existing road network due to the best performances in terms of minimum costs and environmental impacts on the basis of the highest value per unit length (72.26). According to the assessments and chi-square test comparison, the optimal-designed road network and the proposed road network were identified as better alternatives compared to the existing road. Based on this work, it can be concluded that the combination of GIS-MCDM approaches can properly assist in tourism planning and management.

European Nearshoring Index - Is Eastern Europe Attractive for Swiss IT Firms?

The main goal of this paper is to identify the major factors for the decision of Swiss IT service firms to nearshore their locations and to quantify their relative importance. Moreover, we develop an IT Nearshoring Index ranking the attractiveness of different European regions. We use a quantitative survey of 56 Swiss IT service firms that are either actively engaging in nearshoring or planning to nearshore parts of their business. Using the survey, we identified five main factors for the nearshoring location decision of Swiss IT firms: economic, labour, institutional, social and location. We pin down the relative importance (weights) of the aforementioned factors using the survey results and expert interviews. The labour factors (including labour costs on the one and the availability of skilled IT workforce on the other side) proved to be most important. We use the obtained weights to construct a (weighted) IT Nearshoring Index. Based on the IT Nearshoring Index, we find that in contrast to general belief, the most attractive locations cannot be found in Eastern Europe, but in Southern UK or Western Germany. The first is due to their high availability of IT workforce, the latter due to their cultural and geographical proximity. Eastern European regions can base their competitive advantage on offering attractive labour costs, but this cannot make up for the disadvantage of greater cultural and geographical distance to Switzerland.

Prioritizing Outcome Preferences in Patients with Ocular Hypertension and Open-Angle Glaucoma Using Best–Worst Scaling

To quantify patients' preferences for glaucoma outcomes and use this information to prioritize outcomes that are important to patients. A cross-sectional study using best-worst scaling object case (BWS). Two hundred seventy-four participants newly diagnosed with ocular hypertension or mild to moderate open angle glaucoma from three private practices and one academic medical center in the United States. We designed a preference-elicitation survey based on findings from 25 semi-structured, qualitative interviews with patients with glaucoma (reported elsewhere). The survey asked participants to rate the importance of 13 glaucoma outcomes on a Likert scale as a warm-up exercise followed by completion of 13 BWS tasks. For each task, we presented participants a subset of four outcomes from the possible thirteen, and participants chose the most important and least important outcome. Outcomes included in the survey pertain to maintaining ability to perform vision-dependent activities of daily living (e.g., driving), maintaining visual function and perception (e.g., depth perception), minimizing need to take glaucoma drops, not experiencing ocular surface symptoms (e.g., red eyes, teary eyes), and having adequate control of intraocular pressure (IOP). We administered the survey online and analyzed response patterns using conditional logistic regression to determine the relative importance of different outcomes. Ordinal ranking of glaucoma outcomes based on preference weights. Between September 1, 2017 and February 28, 2018, we invited 1035 patients to complete our survey, among whom 274 (26%) responded. Most participants were older than 65 years of age (146/274, 53%) and currently on IOP-lowering drops (179/274, 65%). Participants identified that outcomes with the largest relative importance weight were having "adequate IOP control" and ability to "drive a car during the day," and the outcomes with the smallest relative importance weights were "maintaining appearance of the eye" and "reducing the number of IOP-lowering drops". Determining the relative importance of glaucoma outcomes to patients can help researchers design studies that may better inform clinical and regulatory decision-making. Although IOP is an outcome that researchers often measure in glaucoma clinical trials, patients also prioritized outcomes related to the ability to perform vision-dependent activities such as driving.

A Study on the Influencing Factors in Deciding ROC (Required Operational Capability)

The performance of weapon systems is the important factor in deciding the outcome of war and expressed in ROC(Required Operational Capability). ROC is determined at the phase of requirement decision and has a decisive effect on the total life cycle of weapon systems including acquisition and its disposal phase. Improper ROC is very likely to cause the increase of acquisition & operating cost, total life cycle cost, and the delay of deployment, influencing factors on determination of ROC must be thoroughly studied. However, domestic academic research on influencing factors are rarely conducted, and most of the research is part of the research on requirement planning and acquisition, the research results provide only general suggestion. Thereby, this research intended to provide systematic and empirical analysis on what factors influence on determination of ROC and what their relative importance weights. To achieve above mentioned research purpose, first we reviewed relevant institutionalized systems in home and ROC modification status along with their reasons in home. Then, we verified and finalized influencing factors on ROC derived from preliminary research through Delphi Technique and Factor Analysis, and analyzed relative priorities through pair comparison by AHP method. From 2006 to 2017, on average 15 cases of modifying ROC occurred annually and needs of such modification appear to grow. Modification of operational concept of weapon systems comprises 31% of the reasons to modify of ROC, followed by correction of improper ROC is 17%, correction of excessive ROC is 14%, collateral changes by change of interoperable weapon systems' ROC is 14%, respectively. As for relative importance weight of finalized influencing factors, 'Weapon systems operational concept and mounting system', 'Weapon systems major performance elements' are found to be high. In lower level of 18 factors, the order of importance weight is as follows 'Weapon systems operational concept', 'Survivability', 'Enemy weapon systems performance' , 'Mounting system performance' and 'Existing similar weapon systems performance' and 'Interoperability'. The significance of this research would be extensive investigation on entire relevant minutes of meeting of ROC modification, chronological analysis of reason of such modification along with its status, and systematic analysis and relative importance weights of influencing factors on ROC.

Comparative analyses of wetland plant biomass accumulation and litter decomposition subject to in situ warming and nitrogen addition.

The effects of climate warming on boreal wetland plant structure and carbon (C) sequestration on local scale may be overestimated. An in situ passive warming experiment manipulated by open-top chambers and artificial nitrogen (N) addition was deployed in a lacustrine wetland of Xingkai Lake for 3 consecutive years. The annual changes and allocations of the aboveground biomass of Glyceria spiculosa, and decomposition dynamics of the total litter and cotton strips as standard references were observed. Results showed that the aboveground biomass was significantly affected by warming and increased from 99.43 ± 10.59 g m-2 (ambient) to 112.02 ± 8.08 g m-2 (ca. +1 °C) and 117.21 ± 9.92 g m-2 (ca. +2 °C). N addition had a more positive effect on the annual aboveground biomass accumulations than warming, for the relative importance weights of N addition were 2.60 and 1.49 times greater than warming in 2011 and 2013 respectively. Their main effects on the allocations had significant interannual variations, and their interaction effects were dependent on organ and year. The decomposition constant (k-value) of the litter and cotton strips were 0.747 yr-1 and 2.057 yr-1, respectively. Compared to warming and N addition, the internal quality characterized by Lignocellulose index and soil organisms reflected by litterbag size played overwhelming role in decomposition dynamics, with 2 orders greater of relative importance weights in 2011 and 2012. Our results highlight the importance of interannual variation for differentiating the contributions of external and internal factors to boreal wetland plant biomass accumulation and decomposition. Given the asymmetric responses of accumulation and decomposition, the C storage in the litter would increase in long term.

What is the effect of self-identified HIV activism in willingness to participate in HIV cure-related clinical trials? Results from the ANRS-APSEC study

ObjectivesEnrolling people living with HIV with undetectable viral load into HIV cure-related clinical trials (HCRCT) is challenging. Few data are currently available about the individual factors that influence willingness to participate in HCRCT (WPHCRCT). We hypothesised that WPHCRCT would be more frequent among people living with HIV considering themselves HIV activists. The objective of this study was to investigate the individual characteristics associated with both WPHCRCT and self-identification as an HIV activist. MethodsThe study enrolled 195 long-term ART-treated and virologically suppressed people living with HIV, followed-up in 19 French HIV services, 2016–2017. A Bayesian model averaging approach was used to assess correlates of both outcomes i.e. WPHCRCT and self-identified HIV activism. ResultsWPHCRCT was reported by 43% of participants and was positively associated with self-identification as an HIV activist (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.90 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.17–3.63], P<0.05) and self-confidence as an HIV positive person (aOR 1.17, 95% CI 0.99–1.35, P<0.1). Self-identified HIV activists (56% of participants) were more likely to have a higher ‘relationship with others’ score using the post-traumatic growth inventory (aOR 1.10, 95% CI 0.99–1.20, P<0.1), to obtain information about HIV from a greater number of sources (aOR 1.35 [95% CI 1.00–1.68], P<0.1), and to feel greatly affected by mandatory daily treatment (aOR 2.15, 95% CI 1.27–3.03, P<0.1). All associations had relative importance weight>0.75, indicating strong evidence. ConclusionsWPHCRCT is strongly related to HIV activism, and also to positive psychosocial characteristics as a person living with HIV, especially regarding relationships with others. The desire to contribute to the fight against HIV for the sake of the HIV community and society should be taken into account to improve participation in upcoming HCRCT.

Associations between cognitions and functional decline in patients with major depressive disorder

Associations between cognitions and functional decline in patients with major depressive disorder

Determining the relative importance of factors affecting the success of innovations in forest technology using AHP

AbstractA number of factors affect the success, or otherwise, of any technological innovation. In this paper, we consider factors that affect the success of innovations in the context of forest machinery manufacturing (FMM). We report the results of a study that seeks to determine the relative importance of 19 different factors affecting the success of innovations in the FMM sector. The first stage of the study makes use of the analytic hierarchy process to determine the relative importance (weights) of these factors, based on the responses of 15 decision makers (DMs) employed by different FMM companies. The study then considers three different ways of weighting the responses of DMs, based on different assumptions about how the responses of outliers—those DMs whose views differ significantly from the majority—should be handled. The first method assumes that the responses of all DMs are of equal value. The second assumes that the influence of outliers' responses should be reduced and makes use of a Euclidean distance metric to determine the weight that should be ascribed to each DM's responses. The third assumes that the influence of outliers' responses should be increased and makes use of hierarchical clustering techniques. Although the weight assignment methods were based on very different assumptions about how to treat the views of outliers, they produced similar rankings of factors. Results showed that for FMM companies, customer satisfaction, proportion of total sales by new products, influence on the overall profit of the company, and growth of demand for the company products were the most important factors for measuring the success of innovations.

A Collaborative Scheme for DFX Techniques in Concurrent Engineering Mitigated with Total Design Activity Model

Industry 4.0 has sparked rapid changes in the manufacturing and construction sectors, leading to a significant shift in how off-site factory-based panelized construction machines are designed and manufactured. Concurrent engineering which seeks to close the gap between design and manufacturing sectors provides an ideal environment for machine development. It is a systematic methodology to integrate machines holistic concurrent design activities and their related processes. Competition arising in the marketplace for newly developed machines is driving modifications in the way machine designers develop production machines. Thus, to boost the efficiency in concurrent machine development, appropriate evaluation, and decision analysis tools required to be developed and utilized. Currently, there is no DFX selection tool available to aid the designer in concurrent machine design applications. In this paper, these challenges are addressed through a comprehensive qualitative literature review of DFX techniques with their implementation in Stuart Pugh: Total Design Activity Model. Various DFX techniques are mapped and clustered in a collaborative scheme, interactions and links between them are identified, and the relative importance weight of each is calculated. A description of a functional DFX scheme is proposed in this paper that can aid designers in establishing lean design processes for machine development and reveals its potential application in Multi-DFX fuzzy multi-criteria decision-support system.

Exploring the motivators of technology adoption in healthcare

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to determine the motivators that affect the adoption of information technology (IT), specifically in modern healthcare systems, based on a case study in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The aim is to identify, examine, and place in a hierarchical structure, based on a two-step exploratory methodology, the motivators for IT adoption of four main categories of healthcare stakeholders (employees, patients, UAE citizens and residents, and accredited foresight experts) via an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model. AHP revealed the relative importance weights of the seven IT adoption motivators and their 41 sub-motivators. Government support was found to be the most important group of motivators, followed by knowledge sharing, infrastructure, green management, lean management, internal/external environment, and social sustainability. The paper facilitates improving technology adoption generally, specifically in the UAE’s healthcare system. A Pareto chart visually presents the ranking of all sub-factors to help supply-chain practitioners better allocate resources for IT implementation. Little research has examined the combined perspectives of various stakeholders and no study has hitherto investigated the significant motivators of IT adoption in the UAEs’ healthcare industry. Including foresight experts is new in this domain.

Development of a weighted leanness measurement method in modular construction companies

This paper outlines the development of an improved approach to the use of lean tools and techniques to improve the performance of manufacturing enterprises. Several research studies attempt to measure the overall leanness score of the manufacturing process; however, they failed to consider the interdependent relationships between lean performance metrics and considered all performance measures to be equally important during analysis. This paper proposes the weighted leanness assessment methodology to further extend the most recent developed leanness assessment model. The developed methodology in this research provides an integrated leanness score of the production process which considers the interrelationships between different performance metrics due to competing for business and operational strategies. The fuzzy-based analytic network process approach is used to measure and allocate relative importance weightings to each performance metric. The result from the proposed methodology in this research provides a more accurate overall leanness score by prioritising different performance measures according to the manufacturer’s needs. A case study was conducted to illustrate the effectiveness and validity of the proposed model and methodologies.

Causes of Time Overrun in Construction of Building Projects in Pakistan

Time overrun in construction projects is a very serious issue in developed countries. The main object of this research is to find the main causes of time overrun in the construction of building project and its possible mitigation measures. Quantitative approach was adopted in this research to achieve object and RIW (relative importance weight) approach was used for collecting data. Financial issues faced by the contractor, contractor’s inexperience, weather impacts, late delivery of material, mistakes in design, shortage of skilled labor, incompetent subcontractor and mistakes in time estimation were identified as main causes of time overrun in construction projects and possible mitigation measures were also proposed from experts. This research will help in giving awareness to stakeholders to narrow down the factors of time overrun in construction projects in Pakistan.

SALMANTICOR study. Rationale and design of a population-based study to identify structural heart disease abnormalities: a spatial and machine learning analysis

IntroductionThis study aims to obtain data on the prevalence and incidence of structural heart disease in a population setting and, to analyse and present those data on the application of...

Preferences of women with epithelial ovarian cancer for aspects of genetic testing

BackgroundAlthough genetic testing is recommended for women with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), little is known about patient preferences for various testing options. We measured relative preferences for attributes of testing in women with EOC referred for genetic counseling.MethodsSubjects were recruited to participate in a discrete-choice-experiment survey to elicit preferences for attributes of genetic testing: out-of-pocket cost ($0, $100, $250, or $1000), probability of a deleterious mutation (60, 80%, or 88%), probability of a variant of uncertain significance (VUS) result (5, 20%, or 40%), sample requirements (blood or saliva), and turn-around time (1, 2 or 4 weeks). Subjects viewed educational videos followed by a series of choices between pairs of constructed genetic tests with varying attribute levels. Random-parameters logit was used to estimate preference weights for attribute levels. Relative importance weights and money-equivalent values were calculated.ResultsNinety-four patients were enrolled; 68 (76.4%) presented for genetic counseling. Test cost was the most important attribute to subjects (importance weight = 41 out of 100) followed by probability to detect deleterious mutations (36) and probability of a VUS result (20). Sample requirements and turnaround time did not drive test choices. Subjects were willing to pay an additional $155 and $70 for incremental 5% improvements in the probability to detect deleterious mutations and probability of a VUS result. At genetics consultation, 55/68 (80.9%) subjects chose multigene testing.ConclusionsLow out-of-pocket cost, high probability of detecting deleterious mutations and high probability of a VUS result are preferred by patients with EOC considering genetic testing.

Differentiating Regularization Weights -- A Simple Mechanism to Alleviate Cold Start in Recommender Systems

Matrix factorization (MF) and its extended methodologies have been studied extensively in the community of recommender systems in the last decade. Essentially, MF attempts to search for low-ranked matrices that can (1) best approximate the known rating scores, and (2) maintain low Frobenius norm for the low-ranked matrices to prevent overfitting. Since the two objectives conflict with each other, the common practice is to assign the relative importance weights as the hyper-parameters to these objectives. The two low-ranked matrices returned by MF are often interpreted as the latent factors of a user and the latent factors of an item that would affect the rating of the user on the item. As a result, it is typical that, in the loss function, we assign a regularization weight λ p on the norms of the latent factors for all users, and another regularization weight λ q on the norms of the latent factors for all the items. We argue that such a methodology probably over-simplifies the scenario. Alternatively, we probably should assign lower constraints to the latent factors associated with the items or users that reveal more information, and set higher constraints to the others. In this article, we systematically study this topic. We found that such a simple technique can improve the prediction results of the MF-based approaches based on several public datasets. Specifically, we applied the proposed methodology on three baseline models -- SVD, SVD++, and the NMF models. We found that this technique improves the prediction accuracy for all these baseline models. Perhaps more importantly, this technique better predicts the ratings on the long-tail items, i.e., the items that were rated/viewed/purchased by few users. This suggests that this approach may partially remedy the cold-start issue. The proposed method is very general and can be easily applied on various recommendation models, such as Factorization Machines, Field-aware Factorization Machines, Factorizing Personalized Markov Chains, Prod2Vec, Behavior2Vec, and so on. We release the code for reproducibility. We implemented a Python package that integrates the proposed regularization technique with the SVD, SVD++, and the NMF model. The package can be accessed at https://github.com/ncu-dart/rdf.