scholarly journals Learning Active Fusion of Multiple Experts' Decisions: An Attention-Based Approach

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 558-591 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam S. Mirian ◽  
Majid Nili Ahmadabadi ◽  
Babak N. Araabi ◽  
Roland R. Siegwart
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Maker ◽  
Learning System ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Borda Count ◽  
Final Decision ◽  
Special Cases ◽  
Local Decision ◽  
Multiple Experts ◽  
Local Decision Makers

In this letter, we propose a learning system, active decision fusion learning (ADFL), for active fusion of decisions. Each decision maker, referred to as a local decision maker, provides its suggestion in the form of a probability distribution over all possible decisions. The goal of the system is to learn the active sequential selection of the local decision makers in order to consult with and thus learn the final decision based on the consultations. These two learning tasks are formulated as learning a single sequential decision-making problem in the form of a Markov decision process (MDP), and a continuous reinforcement learning method is employed to solve it. The states of this MDP are decisions of the attended local decision makers, and the actions are either attending to a local decision maker or declaring final decisions. The learning system is punished for each consultation and wrong final decision and rewarded for correct final decisions. This results in minimizing the consultation and decision-making costs through learning a sequential consultation policy where the most informative local decision makers are consulted and the least informative, misleading, and redundant ones are left unattended. An important property of this policy is that it acts locally. This means that the system handles any nonuniformity in the local decision maker's expertise over the state space. This property has been exploited in the design of local experts. ADFL is tested on a set of classification tasks, where it outperforms two well-known classification methods, Adaboost and bagging, as well as three benchmark fusion algorithms: OWA, Borda count, and majority voting. In addition, the effect of local experts design strategy on the performance of ADFL is studied, and some guidelines for the design of local experts are provided. Moreover, evaluating ADFL in some special cases proves that it is able to derive the maximum benefit from the informative local decision makers and to minimize attending to redundant ones.

One study, four cities: information impact in neighborhood economic development

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 663-680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Carroll
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Local Decision ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
Local Decision Makers ◽  
Sophisticated Analysis

Purpose The purpose of this study is to create a theory on how a commissioned study impacts the decision-making of local government officials. Design/methodology/approach This study uses comparative case studies via the “Knowledge Cycle,” which is a method of examining information use for four distinct decision-making environments’ development (Baltimore, Maryland; Louisville, Kentucky; Detroit, Michigan; and Tampa, Florida). Findings This study reports significance in three factors that may explain information impact: the presence of an “information champion” who directs the application of the study toward initiatives that are important to them, the length of time that one can use information before it becomes outdated and the ability to use the study to spur dialogue with development stakeholders outside of local government. Research limitations/implications The limitation to this study is that it is limited to the observation of a specific population (local government economic development bureaucrats) and their use of a specific package of information. The debate is open to whether the findings of this study are relevant to actors using other types of information within other levels of government and within other fields of inquiry. Practical implications Advances in information technology and the proliferation of data intermediaries who can use sophisticated analysis warrant the understanding how government officials interact with the studies that they commission. Originality/value To date, there are few studies that have examined how a singular package of information is used in multiple decision-making environments. This paper adds to this dearth of scholarship while creating theory to how and why local decision-makers may use information.

Doubly Extended Fuzzy TOPSIS Method for Group Decision Making

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-50
Author(s):  
Dariusz Kacprzak
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Maker ◽  
Group Decision Making ◽  
Group Decision ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Fuzzy Topsis ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Final Decision ◽  
Topsis Method ◽  
Decision Matrix

Multiple Criteria Decision Making methods, such as TOPSIS, have become very popular in recent years and are frequently applied to solve many real-life situations. However, the increasing complexity of the decision problems analysed makes it less feasible to consider all the relevant aspects of the problems by a single decision maker. As a result, many real-life problems are discussed by a group of decision makers. In such a group each decision maker can specialize in a different field and has his/her own unique characteristics, such as knowledge, skills, experience, personality, etc. This implies that each decision maker should have a different degree of influence on the final decision, i.e., the weights of decision makers should be different. The aim of this paper is to extend the fuzzy TOPSIS method to group decision making. The proposed approach uses TOPSIS twice. The first time it is used to determine the weights of decision makers which are then used to calculate the aggregated decision matrix for all the group decision matrices provided by the decision makers. Based on this aggregated matrix, the extended TOPSIS is used again, to rank the alternatives and to select the best one. A numerical example illustrates the proposed approach.

scholarly journals Influence Analysis in Consensus Search — A Multi Criteria Group Decision Making Approach in Environmental Management

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (04) ◽  
pp. 791-813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Ivan Romero-Gelvez ◽  
Monica Garcia-Melon
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Maker ◽  
Group Decision Making ◽  
Group Decision ◽  
Similarity Measures ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Final Decision ◽  
Analytic Hierarchy ◽  
Decision Making Model ◽  
Environmental Decision

The environmental decision problems often are divisive, even in a technical realm, decision makers with strong personalities influence outcomes. The purpose of this study is to define and quantify the factors that affect the conservation objectives of a national natural park located in Colombia, South America adding the judgments of six decision makers with different knowledge (every decision maker is also a stakeholder representative). This paper uses a hybrid multiple criteria group decision-making model (MCDM), combining the social network analysis (SNA), analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and similarity measures to solve the consensus and anchoring problem among environmental decision makers. The SNA technique is used to build an influential network relation map among decision makers and to obtain their weights for applying a weighted AHP. Then, the final decision matrices for every decision maker are compared between them in order to identify the consensus level of the problem.

scholarly journals Mapping Micro-Level Decision-Making for Alligator Management in North Carolina

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Cavalier ◽  
Christopher Serenari ◽  
Dinçer Konur
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
North Carolina ◽  
Decision Analysis ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Alligator Mississippiensis ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
American Alligator ◽  
Management Decisions ◽  
Local Decision ◽  
Local Decision Makers

Human-carnivore interactions represent a grand challenge to conservation decision-making and legitimacy across all levels of governance. Human populations continue to encroach upon and devastate carnivore habitats and populations, intensifying interactions between a variety of biodiversity interests and beneficiaries. As a result, carnivores most intensely impact those living in their midst, demanding increased attention by local decision makers, who are often best suited to catering to the needs of communities most affected. Their views and desires can serve as a forerunner of public trust and acceptance of policies created. However, due to the complexity of decisions about carnivores, these actors are often overlooked in the formal decision process. To address this need, we applied multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to a case study of American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) conservation in 10 coastal North Carolina counties to identify and postulate legitimate outcomes. We surveyed 25 local decision makers who are or may be responsible for management decisions concerning the American alligator and asked them to evaluate and indicate the level of importance of salient alligator management elements. Results indicate that decision makers strongly favored the wildlife and social factors when making alligator management decisions, as well as the criteria human well-being, attitudes toward alligators, education programs, and storm mitigation. Respondents favored highly managed and balanced management alternatives to maximize preferred criteria and achieve legitimate alligator management at the local level. These results demonstrate that local decision makers are capable of identifying what is important to alligator management decisions, and can provide an insightful look at trade-offs that need to or could be made to achieve optimal alligator outcomes. We conclude that local decision makers should become more involved in shaping carnivore outcomes to enhance legitimacy of alligator policy and help achieve conservation targets. Future research will need to further expand understandings of local decision makers' decision-making process in other carnivore contexts. Researchers will want to consider using and refining decision analysis to cut through the complexity of carnivore conservation decision-making that exists across wide geopolitical expanses.

Method for Selecting Storage Enterprises Based on IFHA

2015 ◽  
Vol 713-715 ◽  
pp. 1769-1772
Author(s):  
Jie Wu ◽  
Lei Na Zheng ◽  
Tie Jun Pan
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Group Decision Making ◽  
Group Decision ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Decision Problems ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Final Decision ◽  
Multiple Decision Makers ◽  
Intuitionistic Fuzzy ◽  
Averaging Operator

In order to reflect the decision-making more scientific and democratic, modern decision problems often require the participation of multiple decision makers. In group decision making process,require the use of intuitionistic fuzzy hybrid averaging operator (IFHA) to get the final decision result.

scholarly journals Generalized Fuzzy Soft Power Bonferroni Mean Operators and Their Application in Decision Making

Symmetry ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 810
Author(s):  
Zitai Xu ◽  
Chunfang Chen ◽  
Yutao Yang
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Software Selection ◽  
Decision Method ◽  
Bonferroni Mean ◽  
Special Cases ◽  
Multi Attribute Decision Making

In decision-making process, decision-makers may make different decisions because of their different experiences and knowledge. The abnormal preference value given by the biased decision-maker (the value that is too large or too small in the original data) may affect the decision result. To make the decision fair and objective, this paper combines the advantages of the power average (PA) operator and the Bonferroni mean (BM) operator to define the generalized fuzzy soft power Bonferroni mean (GFSPBM) operator and the generalized fuzzy soft weighted power Bonferroni mean (GFSWPBM) operator. The new operator not only considers the overall balance between data and information but also considers the possible interrelationships between attributes. The excellent properties and special cases of these ensemble operators are studied. On this basis, the idea of the bidirectional projection method based on the GFSWPBM operator is introduced, and a multi-attribute decision-making method, with a correlation between attributes, is proposed. The decision method proposed in this paper is applied to a software selection problem and compared to the existing methods to verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method.

scholarly journals International and regional variation in the prevalence of common mental disorders: do we need more surveys?

2004 ◽  
Vol 184 (4) ◽  
pp. 289-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Weich ◽  
Ricardo Araya
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Regional Variation ◽  
Common Mental Disorders ◽  
Psychiatric Morbidity ◽  
Epidemiological Survey ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Local Decision ◽  
Local Decision Makers ◽  
Geographical Locations

Vicente and his colleagues present admirably concise findings from a large epidemiological survey of non-psychotic psychiatric morbidity in four different geographical locations in Chile (Vicente et al, 2004, this issue). Without gainsaying the importance of psychiatric morbidity in that country, many readers, including local decision-makers, may find it difficult to assimilate these results.

scholarly journals Fuzzification - Decision Making in Terms of Uncertainty

ECONOMICS ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-94
Author(s):  
Željko V. Račić
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Fuzzy Sets ◽  
Individual Preference ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Final Decision ◽  
Standard Interpretation ◽  
Subjective Estimation ◽  
Qualitative Attribute ◽  
Theory Of Fuzzy Sets

Summary The theory of fuzzy sets allows to analyze insufficiently precise, accurate, complete phenomena which can not be modeled by the theory of probability or interval mathematics. We define fuzzy sets as sets where the boundary of the set is unclear and depends on subjective estimation or individual preference. In addition to the standard interpretation scale, described above, a set of numbers to each qualitative attribute must be assigned. In addition to the standard interpretation scale a set of numbers to each qualitative attribute must be assigned. First of all, it is necessary to determine the procedure for determining fuzzy numbers describing the attributes. One of the imperfections of the fuzzy sets is subjectivism when defining the boundaries of fuzzy sets and functions of belonging, which can significantly influence the final decision. The decision maker’s subjectivity is also present in the determination of weighted coefficients. However, in case of giving weight, fixed values are necessary. Some decisions require multidisciplinary knowledge, so the decision-making process includes more group decision-makers, who independently give their grades.

scholarly journals Coroners' records on suicide mortality in Montréal: limitations and implications in suicide prevention strategies

2014 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Houle ◽  
C Guillou-Ouellette
Keyword(s):  
Suicide Prevention ◽  
Suicide Attempts ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Suicide Mortality ◽  
Prevention Strategies ◽  
The People ◽  
Local Decision ◽  
Local Decision Makers ◽  
Very High

Introduction In Montréal, the characteristics of suicide cases may vary between different areas. The information collected by coroners during their investigations of suicides could be used to support local suicide-prevention planning actions. Methods This study analyzes all coroners' records on suicide in Montréal from 2007 to 2009 to 1. determine the usefulness of the data available; 2. develop a profile of cases; 3. examine local differences by comparing two areas, one with the highest suicide rate and the other with the lowest. Results The data collected revealed the lack of a systematic, standardized procedure for recording information about deaths by suicide. The rates of missing data varied, but were very high for antecedents of suicide attempts and recent events that could have precipitated the suicide. We observed differences in the characteristics of suicide cases according to area of residence. Conclusion By adopting a standardized procedure for collecting information on cases of suicide, coroners could provide local decision makers with a more accurate portrait of the people who die by suicide in their area. Local adjustments may improve suicide-prevention strategies.

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