Fuzzy Multicriteria Decision-Making

Presents recent advances in both models and systems for intelligent decision making. Organisations often face complex decisions requiring the assessment of large amounts of data. In recent years Multicriteria Decision Aid (MCDA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques have been applied with considerable success to support decision making in a wide range of complex real-world problems. The integration of MCDA and AI provides new capabilities relating to the structuring of complex decision problems in static and distributed environments. These include the handling of massive data sets, the modelling of ill-structured information, the construction of advanced decision models, and the development of efficient computational optimization algorithms for problem solving. This book covers a rich set of topics, including intelligent decision support technologies, data mining models for decision making, evidential reasoning, evolutionary multiobjective optimization, fuzzy modelling, as well as applications in management and engineering. Multicriteria Decision Aid and Artificial Intelligence: Covers all of the recent advances in intelligent decision making. Includes a presentation of hybrid models and algorithms for preference modelling and optimisation problems. Provides illustrations of new intelligent technologies and architectures for decision making in static and distributed environments. Explores the general topics on preference modelling and learning, along with the coverage of the main techniques and methodologies and applications. Is written by experts in the field. This book provides an excellent reference tool for the increasing number of researchers and practitioners interested in the integration of MCDA and AI for the development of effective hybrid decision support methodologies and systems. Academics and post-graduate students in the fields of operational research, artificial intelligence and management science or decision analysis will also find this book beneficial.

This book outlines the creative process of making environmental management decisions using the approach called Structured Decision Making. It is a short introductory guide to this popular form of decision making and is aimed at environmental managers and scientists. This is a distinctly pragmatic label given to ways for helping individuals and groups think through tough multidimensional choices characterized by uncertain science, diverse stakeholders, and difficult tradeoffs. This is the everyday reality of environmental management, yet many important decisions currently are made on an ad hoc basis that lacks a solid value-based foundation, ignores key information, and results in selection of an inferior alternative. Making progress – in a way that is rigorous, inclusive, defensible and transparent – requires combining analytical methods drawn from the decision sciences and applied ecology with deliberative insights from cognitive psychology, facilitation and negotiation. The authors review key methods and discuss case-study examples based in their experiences in communities, boardrooms, and stakeholder meetings. The goal of this book is to lay out a compelling guide that will change how you think about making environmental decisions. Visit www.wiley.com/go/gregory/sdm to access the figures and tables from the book.

This pioneering text provides a holistic approach to decision making in transportation project development and programming, which can help transportation professionals to optimize their investment choices. The authors present a proven set of methodologies for evaluating transportation projects that ensures that all costs and impacts are taken into consideration. The text's logical organization gets readers started with a solid foundation in basic principles and then progressively builds on that foundation. Topics covered include: Developing performance measures for evaluation, estimating travel demand, and costing transportation projects Performing an economic efficiency evaluation that accounts for such factors as travel time, safety, and vehicle operating costs Evaluating a project's impact on economic development and land use as well as its impact on society and culture Assessing a project's environmental impact, including air quality, noise, ecology, water resources, and aesthetics Evaluating alternative projects on the basis of multiple performance criteria Programming transportation investments so that resources can be optimally allocated to meet facility-specific and system-wide goals Each chapter begins with basic definitions and concepts followed by a methodology for impact assessment. Relevant legislation is discussed and available software for performing evaluations is presented. At the end of each chapter, readers are provided resources for detailed investigation of particular topics. These include Internet sites and publications of international and domestic agencies and research institutions. The authors also provide a companion Web site that offers updates, data for analysis, and case histories of project evaluation and decision making. Given that billions of dollars are spent each year on transportation systems in the United States alone, and that there is a need for thorough and rational evaluation and decision making for cost-effective system preservation and improvement, this text should be on the desks of all transportation planners, engineers, and educators. With exercises in every chapter, this text is an ideal coursebook for the subject of transportation systems analysis and evaluation.

Wiley's new Handbook of Decision Making is a vital reference text for all students and professionals of management, organization and decision making. The handbook offers a wide range of theoretical and empirical approaches to the understanding of organizational and strategic decisions. Contributors are internationally known experts drawn from North America, Canada and Europe who have spent many years in the study of decision making, and decision making relevant topics. We believe the handbook will become a tour de force in the understanding decision making, offering a wide variety of perspectives, topics, and summative understanding of the field. Chapters in the Handbook were prepared by the leading experts in their field and include cutting edge empirical, theoretical, and review chapters. The chapters bring together for the first time a critical mass of writing on decision making as an organizational and research activity. The Editors are two of the leading international experts in decision making and contribute to the Handbook with five original Chapters that offer an appraisal of the field and suggestions for research, as well as the current status of decision making practice and suggestion for improvement.

Making a decision, of any importance, is never simple. On the one hand, specialists in decision theory do not come within the reach of most policy makers and, secondly, there are very few books on pragmatic decision that are not purely anecdotal. In addition, there is virtually no book that provides a link between decision-making and action. This book provides a bridge between the latest results in artificial intelligence, neurobiology, psychology and decision-making for action. What is the role of intuition or emotion? What are the main psychological biases of which we must be wary? How can we avoid being manipulated? What is the proper use of planning? How can we remain rational even if one is not an expert in probabilities? Perhaps more importantly for managers, how does one go from decision to action? So many questions fundamental to the practice of decision-making are addressed. This book dissects all issues that arise almost daily for decision-makers, at least for major decisions. Drawing on numerous examples, this book answers, in plain language and imagery, all your questions. The final chapter takes the form of a brief reminder – everything you have to remember to be a good decision-maker.

CORROSION POLICY DECISION MAKING Explore the science, management, economy, ecology, and engineering of corrosion management and prevention In Corrosion Policy Decision Making , distinguished consultant and corrosion expert Dr. Reza Javaherdashti delivers an insightful overview of the fundamental principles of corrosion with a strong focus on the applicability of corrosion theory to industrial practice. The authors demonstrate various aspects of smart corrosion management and persuasively make the case that there is a real difference between corrosion management and corrosion knowledge management. The book contains seven chapters that each focuses on one important aspect of corrosion and corrosion management. Corrosion management is an issue that is not just corrosion science or corrosion engineering but rather a combination of both elements. To cover this paradoxical aspect of corrosion management, chapter 2 deals with some basic, introductory concepts and principles of corrosion and coating/painting (an important corrosion protection method) while chapter 3 explains the elements of smart corrosion management in detail. Another important principle of smart corrosion management is to be able to study the cost of corrosion, chapter 4 introduces important points in the economics involved in a smart corrosion management. As indicated earlier, corrosion engineering is also an integral part of corrosion management and thus chapter 5 looks at the engineering side of corrosion by detailing the example of Process Additives (EMPA). Chapter 6 for the first time looks at the possibility of using TRIZ (algorithm of invention) in corrosion management. Finally, chapter 7 presents the necessary elements for building a model that would explore the mutual interaction between corrosion and environment mainly by exploring the difference between environmental impact and environmental effect. Chapter 7 is also very important because the four models so far applied to estimate the cost of corrosion (Uhlig Method, Hoar Method, I/O method and LCC method) are not capable of suggesting any clear model or a sensible way of exploring the elements necessary to explain the impact of indirect costs of corrosion the most important of which being environmental damages imposed by corrosion. This book is ideal for engineers, students, and managers working or studying corrosion, Corrosion Policy Decision Making is also an indispensable resource for professionals in the fields of upstream and downstream, on-shore/off-shore oil and gas, transportation, mining, power generation as well as major sectors of other strategic industries.

Decision-making has evolved recently thanks to the introduction of information and communication technologies in many organizations, which has led to new kinds of decision-making processes, called “collaborative decision-making”, at the organizational and cognitive levels. This book looks at the development of the decision-making process in organizations. Decision-aiding and its paradigm of problem solving are defined, showing how decision-makers now need to work in a cooperative way. Definitions of cooperation and associated concepts such as collaboration and coordination are given and a framework of cooperative decision support systems is presented, including intelligent DSS, cooperative knowledge-based systems, workflow, group support systems, collaborative engineering, integrating with a collaborative decision-making model in part or being part of global projects. Several models and experimental studies are also included showing that these new processes have to be supported by new types of tools, several of which are described in order to calculate or simulate solutions or global solutions for decision-making modification. Definitions and new trends for these models are given, along with types of systems. Contents 1. Alteration of Decision-Making Processes in Organizations. 2. New Decision-Making Processes. 3. The Need to Cooperate. 4. Cooperative Decision-Making. 5. Activity Support Systems. 6. Cooperative Decision Support Systems: CDSSS. About the Authors Pascale Zarat? is Professor at Toulouse 1 Capitole University, France. She conducts her research at the IRIT Laboratory and is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Decision Support Systems Technologies. She is co-chair of the European Working Group on DSS and has published several studies and books.

Science reassures, art disturbs (Proverb) This intriguing exploration of underlying forces in decision making takes as its starting point a wealth of high profile decision disasters. In brilliantly readable analyses, Helga Drummond shows how better awareness of the inherent uncertainties of the decision making process could have made the outcomes very different. Examples showcased include: The Hatfield rail crash The Kursk submarine disaster The Challenger disaster The year 2000 fuel crisis The WWII Dardanelles expedition The Barings Bank collapse The Taurus Stock Exchange Project The Hillsborough tragedy The King's Cross underground fire The Millennium Dome This entertaining yet instructive book offers new insight into the realities of decision making, and shows how you can confront them to improve your prospects of success.

Decision Making in Dental Implantology: Atlas of Surgical and Restorative Approaches offers an image-based resource to both the surgical and restorative aspects of implant therapy, presenting more than 2,000 color images with an innovative case-by-case approach. Takes a highly pictorial approach to all aspects of implant dentistry Discusses both the surgical and restorative aspects of implant therapy in a single resource Describes a wide range of clinical scenarios likely to be encountered in daily practice Covers anterior, posterior, and full-mouth restorations Presents more than 2,000 color images showing the basic concepts and clinical cases