Multi-criteria decision-making approach with incomplete certain information based on ternary AHP

It is not uncommon in multiple criteria decision-making that the numerical values of alternatives of some criteria are subject to imprecision, uncertainty and indetermination and the information on weights of criteria is incomplete certain. A new multiple criteria decision- making method with incomplete certain information based on ternary AHP is proposed. This improves on Takeda＇s method. In this method, the ternary comparison matrix of the alternatives under each pseudo-criteria is constructed, the eigenvector associated with the maximum eigenvalue of the ternary comparison matrix is attained as to normalize priority vector of the alternatives, then the order of alternatives is obtained by solving two kinds of linear programming problems. Finally, an example is given to show the feasibility and effectiveness of the method.

Fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making approach with incomplete information based on evidential reasoning

The weights of criteria are incompletely known and the criteria values are incomplete and uncertain or even default in some fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making problems.For those problems,an approach based on evidential reasoning is proposed,in which the criteria values are integrated on the basis of analytical algorithm of evidential reasoning,and then nonlinear programming models of each alternative are developed with the incomplete information on weights.The genetic algorithm is employed to solve the models,producing the weights and the utility interval of each alternative,and the ranking of the whole set of alternatives can be attained.Finally,an example shows the effectiveness of the method.

Study of Product Quality Information and Construction of Its Decision-Making Support System and Measures to Improve People's Quality Concept

The 21th century is a "quality century". Facing the s evere challenge about quality, all the developed industry countries attach impor tance to the research and education about quality project. With the deepening of the reform of China and it’s joining to WTO, many industries and enterprises wi ll be confronted with severe challenge while being offered the opportunity to wa lk up to the world. The arrival of knowledge economy and web time has provided t he space for the innovation on enterprise management. It has also provided new m ethod and model for enterprise management, that is online management based on th e internet. The online management use an enterprise model including the goal of the enterprise and the scheme to carry out it to represent the whole operational of all the work. The online management is constructed on the integration of exp ert system, database, software and other technical models. How to scientifically manage the entire system of product, precisely master the condition of quantity and quality and analyze the rules of the change of produc t quality in order to carry out the overall control of quality, guarantee the go od condition of product as well as improve product quality and prolong it’s se rvice life was discussed in this thesis. Based on the above research the thesis also discussed how to develop the study on product quality information and const ruct it’s decision making support system. The concrete measures to improve peopl e’s concept of quality are also raised. Based on the type analysis, scientific management of product quality information should start from dynamic information of quality, instruction information as we ll as the information about the use, maintain, management and conservation of pr oduct, and induce them and further propose a design scheme of feedback system on product quality information, and then set up the blueprint of the information s ystem of product quality. This thesis included 7 chapters:1.the type of quality information;2.the content of quality information;3.the construction of the se nsitive web for transfering information, and collecting and transfering quality information rapidly and effectively;4.the way and procedure to transfer informa tion;5.the construction of quality information library for all phases; 6.the d isposal of quality information;7.the decision making support system of the mana gement of quality information;8.attach importance to three key factors on impro ving quality concept.

Information Aggregation of Group Decision-Making in Emergency Events

Information is a key factor in emergency management, which helps decision makers to make effective decisions. In this paper, aiming at clarifying the information aggregation laws, and according to the characteristic of emergency information, information relative entropy is applied in the information aggregation to establish the information aggregation model of emergency group decision-making. The analysis shows that support and credibility of decision rule are the two factors in information aggregation. The results of four emergency decision-making groups in case study support the analysis in the paper.

Decision-Making Process in Japanese Board Room. Audit ＆ Supervisory Board as a Source of Information to Outside Board Members： A Systematic Review

I the context of the Corporate Governance Code enactment in Japan, we examine how newly introduced outside directors in Japanese boards obtain information to take part in the decision-making process. We conducted a systematic review of the literature and found 18 peer-reviewed publications in a time span between 2000 and 2016 that described the asymmetry of information between the insider group of board directors （including the CEO） and the outside board members. Our fmdings show that for the course of more than a decade, despite all changes and reforms, the role of board directors, whether insiders or outsiders, is still supplementary. They are treated more as advisors than active part in the decision-making process. We reveal different insider sources of information as forming social ties with the CEO and/or inside board directors and collaboration with Audit ＆ Supervisory Board （Kansayaku）, which can help reduce this asymmetry and improve the decision-making process. We assume that it will be easier for the outsiders to establish contacts and form social ties with the Audit ＆ Supervisory Board members because of their unspoken lower status and thus to obtain more information about the company internal affairs and discussions that take place during the informal meetings, where only insiders （including the CEO） are present.

Information Security Evaluation of Industrial Control Systems Using Probabilistic Linguistic MCDM Method

Industrial control systems(ICSs)are widely used in various fields,and the information security problems of ICSs are increasingly serious.The existing evaluation methods fail to describe the uncertain evaluation information and group evaluation information of experts.Thus,this paper introduces the probabilistic linguistic term sets(PLTSs)to model the evaluation information of experts.Meanwhile,we propose a probabilistic linguistic multi-criteria decision-making(PL-MCDM)method to solve the information security assessment problem of ICSs.Firstly,we propose a novel subscript equivalence distance measure of PLTSs to improve the existing methods.Secondly,we use the Best Worst Method(BWM)method and Criteria Importance Through Inter-criteria Correlation(CRITIC)method to obtain the subjective weights and objective weights,which are used to derive the combined weights.Thirdly,we use the subscript equivalence distance measure method and the combined weight method to improve the probabilistic linguistic Visekriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje(PL-VIKOR)method.Finally,we apply the proposed method to solve the information security assessment problem of ICSs.When comparing with the existing methods such as the probabilistic linguistic Tomada deDecisão Iterativa Multicritério(PL-TODIM)method and probabilistic linguistic Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution(PL-TOPSIS)method,the case example shows that the proposed method can provide more reasonable ranking results.By evaluating and ranking the information security level of different ICSs,managers can identify problems in time and guide their work better.

Aggregation operators and CRITIC-VIKOR method for confidence complex q-rung orthopair normal fuzzy information and their applications

Supply chain management is an essential part of an organisation's sustainable programme.Understanding the concentration of natural environment,public,and economic influence and feasibility of your suppliers and purchasers is becoming progressively familiar as all industries are moving towards a massive sustainable potential.To handle such sort of developments in supply chain management the involvement of fuzzy settings and their generalisations is playing an important role.Keeping in mind this role,the aim of this study is to analyse the role and involvement of complex q-rung orthopair normal fuzzy(CQRONF)information in supply chain management.The major impact of this theory is to analyse the notion of confidence CQRONF weighted averaging,confidence CQRONF ordered weighted averaging,confidence CQRONF hybrid averaging,confidence CQRONF weighted geometric,confidence CQRONF ordered weighted geometric,confidence CQRONF hybrid geometric operators and try to diagnose various properties and results.Furthermore,with the help of the CRITIC and VIKOR models,we diagnosed the novel theory of the CQRONF-CRITIC-VIKOR model to check the sensitivity analysis of the initiated method.Moreover,in the availability of diagnosed operators,we constructed a multi-attribute decision-making tool for finding a beneficial sustainable supplier to handle complex dilemmas.Finally,the initiated operator's efficiency is proved by comparative analysis.

Changes in snow cover extent in the Central Taurus Mountains from 1981 to 2021 in relation to temperature, precipitation, and atmospheric teleconnections

The snow cover over the Taurus Mountains affects water supply, agriculture, and hydropower generation in the region. In this study, we analyzed the monthly Snow Cover Extent(SCE) from November to April in the Central Taurus Mountains(Bolkar, Aladaglar, Tahtali and Binboga Mountains) from 1981 to 2021. Linear trends of snow cover season(November to April) over the last 41 years showed decreases in SCE primarily at lower elevations. The downward trend in SCE was found to be more pronounced and statistically significant for only November and March. SCE in the Central Taurus Mountains has declined about-6.3% per decade for 2500-3000 m in November and about-6.0% per decade for 1000-1500 m and 3000+ m in March over the last 41 years. The loss of SCE has become evident since the 2000s, and the lowest negative anomalies in SCE have been observed in 2014, 2001, and 2007 in the last 41 years, which are consistent with an increase in air temperature and decreased precipitation. SCE was correlated with both mean temperature and precipitation, with temperature having a greater relative importance at all elevated gradients. Results showed that there is a strong linear relationship between SCE and the mean air temperature(r =-0.80) and precipitation(r = 0.44) for all elevated gradients during the snow season. The Arctic Oscillation(AO), the North Atlantic Oscillation(NAO), and the Mediterranean Oscillation(MO) winter indices were used to explain the year-to-year variability in SCE over the Central Taurus Mountains. The results showed that the inter-annual variability observed in the winter SCE on the Central Taurus Mountains was positively correlated with the phases of the winter AO, NAO and MO, especially below 2000 m elevation.

Epidemiological Profile of Men Who Have Sex with Men: First Data about Male Sex Workers in Central African Republic (CAR)

Objectives: Sex work is not well documented among African men. The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiological profile of men who have sex with men (MSM) and eventually to determine the proportion of sex workers (SW) among them, as well as the proportion of MSM who have been victims of gender-based violence (GBV). Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study coordinated by the Direction de la Médecine du Travail was carried out at the headquarters of the association ALTERNATIVES in Bangui Bangui from July 1 to October 31, 2021. Consenting MSM present during the study period were systematically included. Sociodemographic variables, those relating to the future vision of the activity and to GBV were collected and analyzed using Epi-Info version 7 software. Results: Forty MSM with an average age of 23 years and mainly secondary education (75.0%) were included. The vast majority of MSM were unemployed (85.0%). 45.0% had been victims of GBV and wanted to stop working as an MSM (47.5%), and almost 2/3 (65.0%) would accept another income-generating activity in exchange for the MSM. Violence was sexual (32.5%), economic (22.5%), physical (20.0%), verbal (12.5%) and psychological (12.5%). Conclusion: The MSM were mainly young, poorly educated, unemployed, and almost half were victims of GBV. The desire to change MSM activity to another income-generating activity alongside that of MSM shows that many of them are SW, workers in the informal sector. This must be taken into account in prevention activities, even if the data needs to be confirmed on a much larger sample.

China＇s Decision-making System from Centralization to Democracy

Established during the long years of revolutionary struggle and the founding of the People＇s Republic of China （PRC）, the Communist Party of China（CPC）-led decision-making system has a historical rationality. Before China＇s reform and opening-up was implemented in 1978, the decision-making system highlighted centralization which led to disadvantages such as non-existent specialized division of functions, a low level of institutionalization, heavy reliance on experience, an enclosed decision-making mode and non-existent self-correction mechanisms. These disadvantages were institutional factors which ultimately caused the historic tragedy of ＂ Cultural Revolution. ＂After the reform and opening-up, the decision-making structure, mode and mechanism were reformed in order to promote scientific, democratic and law-based decisions. History has shown that the reform has successfully overcome various challenges brought about by China＇s rapidly changing economy and society. From the perspective of political development, the reform has promoted several transitions： from individual controlled decision-making system to a more democratic decision-making process, from being empirical to scientifically-based, from highly centralized decision-making organizations to decentralized one, from an enclosed mode to an open mode, from passive to active participation in the decision-making process and from a non-institutionalized to an institutionalized system. Therefore, the CPC-led open decision-making model based on science and laws and participated by other parties has taken an initial shape.

An investigative report on information literacy training of individual farmers in central China and on issues related to remedial measures:A case study of farmers information literacy in a few districts of Hubei province

This paper introduced first a conceptual framework of 'information literacy training of farmers' based on the widely recognized understanding of the term 'information literacy(IL).' It then followed with a discussion based on these three authors' field investigation regarding to Hubei peasants' current information literacy training in such perspectives as information consciousness,information ability and ways and means of information access.It concluded by pointing out some of the more apparent factors that had adverse impacts on the farmers' information literacy training in central China and suggested a few possible remedial measures to guide the course for those who are involved in such undertakings.

May Protein Be as the Genetic Information Carrier?

The 'central dogma 'of molecular biology indicated that the direction of the genetic information flow is from DNA - RNA - protein. However, up to now, the central dogma has not obtained a sufficient theoretical support from cybernetics and information theory. In addition, some special cases in biology, such as, although the scrapie prion is irreversibly inactivated by alkali, five procedures with more specificity for modifying nucleic acids failed to cause inactivation and when a resting cell is activated by some factors and division occurs, protein synthesis has begun before DNA synthesis etc., are also very difficult to explain clearly by the central dogma. A broad outline of a mechanism for reverse translation can easily be 'designed', based on the normal translation process, and this serves both to prove that there is no fundamental theoretical reason for the central dogma, and to illustrate why the redundancy of genetic code is not a problem.This paper, based on some previous research work of authors, from the view of cybernetics, information theory and theoretical biology, explored the possibility of protein as a genetic information carrier, the probable pairing ways between ammo acids-codons, and the direction of genetic information flows etc., at theory, by comparing and analyzing theoretically the characteristics of information carriers existing in DNA and protein. The authors inferred that perhaps protein may join the informational transferring as a genetic information carrier; the direction of genetic information flows, besides the way described by the central dogma, seem also to have another type, that is, genetic information flowing from protein - DNA (RNA) - protein, which also includes the genetic information flow in the central dogma. Undoubtedly, the research on problems about the position and roles of protein during the genetic information transferring will have an important effect on the investigation and development of molecular biology, molecular genetics and gene engineering.

INFORMATION AXIOM BASED EVALUATION APPROACH TO FACILITY LAYOUT PROBLEM

The facility layout problem belongs to typical multiple-attribute decision-making（MADM） problems. To make the information axiom fit to MADM problems, the original computation method for the information content is improved by increasing the satisfaction degree item. Attribute values are divided into precise type, uncertainty type and fuzzy type. For benefit, cost, fixation, and interval type attributes, the computation methods for the information content on the three types of attribute values are presented. The improved information content can reflect the system success probability and the decision-maker satisfaction degree simultaneously and evaluate the MADM problem including multiple type attribute values. Finally, as a case study, the facility layout alternatives of a welding assembly workshop are evaluated. The result verifies the validity and the feasibility of the improved information axiom on the MADM problems.

《Information Systems Research》1998~2017文献计量分析—基于Citespace可视图谱

本文运用Citespace文献计量分析软件,以《Information Systems Research》(简称ISR)期刊在1998年至2017年近20年收录的747篇文献为研究对象,从文献产出分析、国家合作网络分析、机构合作网络分析和引文网络聚类分析四个方面进行研究,研究结果表明:1) 根据文献产出分析,ISR期刊的文献产出量呈现波动性增长;2) 根据国家合作网络分析,美国在国家合作网络中是核心节点,中国需要加强国际合作,提高自身影响力;3) 在研究机构合作网络中,文献产出量前五所高校均位于美国,同时根据合作网络中心性分析,中心性在0.1以上的12所机构中,9所位于美国,中国只有香港城市大学列于其中,另外,德克萨斯大学达拉斯分校、佐治亚理工学院、新加坡国立大学和德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校,在信息系统领域研究潜力巨大;4) 根据引文网络聚类分析,研究热点的演变可分为三个阶段:1998年至2001年期间信息系统领域研究的重心在信息系统的企业应用,2002年至2011年期间研究重心由传统的组织转移到虚拟组织的测量指标、信任和影响因素,2012年至2017年期间由电子口碑研究转向在线知识社区中的知识扩散研究。

Group decision-making method based on entropy and experts cluster analysis

According to the aggregation method of experts＇ evaluation information in group decision-making,the existing methods of determining experts＇ weights based on cluster analysis take into account the expert＇s preferences and the consistency of expert＇s collating vectors,but they lack of the measure of information similarity.So it may occur that although the collating vector is similar to the group consensus,information uncertainty is great of a certain expert.However,it is clustered to a larger group and given a high weight.For this,a new aggregation method based on entropy and cluster analysis in group decision-making process is provided,in which the collating vectors are classified with information similarity coefficient,and the experts＇ weights are determined according to the result of classification,the entropy of collating vectors and the judgment matrix consistency.Finally,a numerical example shows that the method is feasible and effective.

Air combat decision-making of multiple UCAVs based on constraint strategy games

Game theory can be applied to the air combat decision-making problem of multiple unmanned combat air vehicles(UCAVs).However,it is difficult to have satisfactory decision-making results completely relying on air combat situation information,because there is a lot of time-sensitive information in a complex air combat environment.In this paper,a constraint strategy game approach is developed to generate intelligent decision-making for multiple UCAVs in complex air combat environment with air combat situation information and time-sensitive information.Initially,a constraint strategy game is employed to model attack-defense decision-making problem in complex air combat environment.Then,an algorithm is proposed for solving the constraint strategy game based on linear programming and linear inequality(CSG-LL).Finally,an example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Method for multi-attribute group decision-making based on the compromise weights

Multi-attribute group decision-making problems are considered where information on both attribute weights and value scores of consequences is incomplete.In group decision analysis,if preference information about alternatives is provided by participants,it should be verified whether there exist compromise weights that can support all the preference relations.The different compromise weight vectors may differ for the ranking of the alternatives.In the case that compromise weights exist,the method is proposed to find out all the compromise weight vectors in order to rank the alternatives.Based on the new feasible domain of attribute weights determined by all the compromise weight vectors and the incomplete information on value scores of consequences,dominance relations between alternatives are checked by a nonlinear goal programming model which can be transformed into a linear one by adopting a transformation.The checked dominance relations uniformly hold for all compromise weight vectors and the incomplete information on value scores of consequences.A final ranking of the alternatives can be obtained by aggregating these dominance relations.

Threat sequencing of multiple UCAVs with incomplete information based on game theory

The threat sequencing of multiple unmanned combat air vehicles(UCAVs) is a multi-attribute decision-making(MADM)problem. In the threat sequencing process of multiple UCAVs,due to the strong confrontation and high dynamics of the air combat environment, the weight coefficients of the threat indicators are usually time-varying. Moreover, the air combat data is difficult to be obtained accurately. In this study, a threat sequencing method of multiple UCAVs is proposed based on game theory by considering the incomplete information. Firstly, a zero-sum game model of decision maker( D) and nature(N)with fuzzy payoffs is established to obtain the uncertain parameters which are the weight coefficient parameters of the threat indicators and the interval parameters of the threat matrix. Then,the established zero-sum game with fuzzy payoffs is transformed into a zero-sum game with crisp payoffs(matrix game) to solve. Moreover, a decision rule is addressed for the threat sequencing problem of multiple UCAVs based on the obtained uncertain parameters. Finally, numerical simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Multi-criteria classification approach with polynomial aggregation function and incomplete certain information

The relationship between the importance of criterion and the criterion aggregation function is discussed, criterion＇s weight and combinational weights between some criteria are defined, and a multi-criteria classification method with incomplete certain information and polynomial aggregation function is proposed. First, linear programming is constructed by classification to reference alternative set （assignment examples） and incomplete certain information on criterion＇s weights. Then the coefficient of the polynomial aggregation function and thresholds of categories are gained by solving the linear programming. And the consistency index of alternatives is obtained, the classification of the alternatives is achieved. The certain criteria＇s values of categories and uncertain criteria＇s values of categories are discussed in the method. Finally, an example shows the feasibility and availability of this method.

Supply Chain for Regional Centralized Purchasing: An Application Model

In Europe Health Organizations are progressively modifying their management models to rationalize expenditure in order to assure better levels of effectiveness and efficiency: many countries are going to centralize the management of goods and services supply. In this paper a specific model of centralized purchasing is proposed;it is particularly suitable in cases of severe economy suffering at regional level (e.g. Campania, Lazio, Calabria in Italy) or at national level (e.g. Greece, Ireland, Italy), that means in all those cases where the scale economies, obtainable by supply centralization, would be partly or totally compromised by the extra charges induced by the missing of contractual commitments. This work aims either to analyse such specific approach for centralized purchasing or to propose a simulation model based on Petri net, which could be useful for designing and managing similar case studies.