As part of the drive to improve coffee and cocoa production in Ivory Coast, studies are carried out to identify soils that are favourable for these crops. It is therefore necessary to orientate soil investigations bas...As part of the drive to improve coffee and cocoa production in Ivory Coast, studies are carried out to identify soils that are favourable for these crops. It is therefore necessary to orientate soil investigations based on reliable criteria that best discriminate soil cover. With this in mind, this study is being carried out to help improve survey methods by mapping soil landscapes. It uses GIS and weighted multicriteria analysis. To do this, satellite images were processed and the geological map of the square degrees of M’Bahiakro and Daloa was reclassified. The results show that relief is the main factor in soil landscape differentiation, with respective weights of 0.58 and 0.67 for the forest and pre-forest zones. In contrast, the weight of geological formation in soil landscape differentiation remains low (0.05 for the forest zone and 0.07 for the pre-forest zone). The criteria used on the base of aggregation sum methods have made it possible to formulate soil landscape mapping prediction functions according to agro-ecological environments in the humid intertropical zone. This is essential for the orientation of soil survey work. Nevertheless, other comparative methods, such as the coding mapping method, could provide elements for discussion to validate the models.展开更多
Floods are phenomenon with significant socio-economic implications mainly for human loss, agriculture, livestock, soil loss and land degradation, for which many researchers try to identify the most appropriate methodo...Floods are phenomenon with significant socio-economic implications mainly for human loss, agriculture, livestock, soil loss and land degradation, for which many researchers try to identify the most appropriate methodologies by analyzing their temporal and spatial development. This study therefore attempts to employ the GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis and analytical hierarchy process techniques to derive the flood risks management on rice productivity in the Gishari Agricultural Marshland in Rwamagana district, Rwanda. Here, six influencing potential factors to flooding, including river slope, soil texture, Land Use Land Cover through Land Sat 8, rainfall, river distance and Digital Elevation Model are considered for the delineation of flood risk zones. Data acquisition like Landsat 8 images, DEM, land use land cover, slope, and soil class in the study area were considered. Results showed that if the DEM is outdated or inaccurate due to changes in the terrain, such as construction, excavation, or erosion, the predicted flood patterns might not reflect the actual water flow. This could result unexpected flood extents and depths, potentially inundating rice fields that were not previously at risk and this, expectedly explained that the increase 1 m in elevation would reduce the rice productivity by 0.17% due to unplanned flood risks in marshland. It was found that the change in rainfall distribution in Gishari agricultural marshland would also decrease the rice productivity by 0.0018%, which is a sign that rainfall is a major factor of flooding in rice scheme. Rainfall distribution plays a crucial role in flooding analysis and can directly impact rice productivity. Oppositely, another causal factor was Land Use Land Cover (LULC), where the Multivariate Logistic Regression Model Analysis findings showed that the increase of one unit in Land Use Land Cover would increase rice productivity by 0.17% of the total rice productivity from the Gishari Agricultural Marshland. Based on findings from these techniques, the Gishari Agricultural Marshlands having steeped land with grassland is classified into five classes of flooding namely very low, low, moderate, high, and very high which include 430%, 361%, 292%, 223%, and 154%. Government of Rwanda and other implementing agencies and major key actors have to contribute on soil and water conservation strategies to reduce the runoff and soil erosion as major contributors of flooding.展开更多
This paper proposes a multi-criteria decision-making (MCGDM) method based on the improved single-valued neutrosophic Hamacher weighted averaging (ISNHWA) operator and grey relational analysis (GRA) to overcome the lim...This paper proposes a multi-criteria decision-making (MCGDM) method based on the improved single-valued neutrosophic Hamacher weighted averaging (ISNHWA) operator and grey relational analysis (GRA) to overcome the limitations of present methods based on aggregation operators. First, the limitations of several existing single-valued neutrosophic weighted averaging aggregation operators (i.e. , the single-valued neutrosophic weighted averaging, single-valued neutrosophic weighted algebraic averaging, single-valued neutrosophic weighted Einstein averaging, single-valued neutrosophic Frank weighted averaging, and single-valued neutrosophic Hamacher weighted averaging operators), which can produce some indeterminate terms in the aggregation process, are discussed. Second, an ISNHWA operator was developed to overcome the limitations of existing operators. Third, the properties of the proposed operator, including idempotency, boundedness, monotonicity, and commutativity, were analyzed. Application examples confirmed that the ISNHWA operator and the proposed MCGDM method are rational and effective. The proposed improved ISNHWA operator and MCGDM method can overcome the indeterminate results in some special cases in existing single-valued neutrosophic weighted averaging aggregation operators and MCGDM methods.展开更多
Information about the relative importance of each criterion or theweights of criteria can have a significant influence on the ultimate rank of alternatives.Accordingly,assessing the weights of criteria is a very impor...Information about the relative importance of each criterion or theweights of criteria can have a significant influence on the ultimate rank of alternatives.Accordingly,assessing the weights of criteria is a very important task in solving multi-criteria decision-making problems.Three methods are commonly used for assessing the weights of criteria:objective,subjective,and integrated methods.In this study,an objective approach is proposed to assess the weights of criteria,called SPCmethod(Symmetry Point of Criterion).This point enriches the criterion so that it is balanced and easy to implement in the process of the evaluation of its influence on decision-making.The SPC methodology is systematically presented and supported by detailed calculations related to an artificial example.To validate the developed method,we used our numerical example and calculated the weights of criteria by CRITIC,Entropy,Standard Deviation and MEREC methods.Comparative analysis between these methods and the SPC method reveals that the developedmethod is a very reliable objective way to determine the weights of criteria.Additionally,in this study,we proposed the application of SPCmethod to evaluate the efficiency of themulti-criteria partitioning algorithm.The main idea of the evaluation is based on the following fact:the greater the uniformity of the weights of criteria,the higher the efficiency of the partitioning algorithm.The research demonstrates that the SPC method can be applied to solving different multi-criteria problems.展开更多
Recommender systems are similar to an informationfiltering system that helps identify items that best satisfy the users’demands based on their pre-ference profiles.Context-aware recommender systems(CARSs)and multi-cr...Recommender systems are similar to an informationfiltering system that helps identify items that best satisfy the users’demands based on their pre-ference profiles.Context-aware recommender systems(CARSs)and multi-criteria recommender systems(MCRSs)are extensions of traditional recommender sys-tems.CARSs have integrated additional contextual information such as time,place,and so on for providing better recommendations.However,the majority of CARSs use ratings as a unique criterion for building communities.Meanwhile,MCRSs utilize user preferences in multiple criteria to better generate recommen-dations.Up to now,how to exploit context in MCRSs is still an open issue.This paper proposes a novel approach,which relies on deep learning for context-aware multi-criteria recommender systems.We apply deep neural network(DNN)mod-els to predict the context-aware multi-criteria ratings and learn the aggregation function.We conduct experiments to evaluate the effect of this approach on the real-world dataset.A significant result is that our method outperforms other state-of-the-art methods for recommendation effectiveness.展开更多
The COVID-19 pandemic has a significant impact on the global economy and health.While the pandemic continues to cause casualties in millions,many countries have gone under lockdown.During this period,people have to st...The COVID-19 pandemic has a significant impact on the global economy and health.While the pandemic continues to cause casualties in millions,many countries have gone under lockdown.During this period,people have to stay within walls and become more addicted towards social networks.They express their emotions and sympathy via these online platforms.Thus,popular social media(Twitter and Facebook)have become rich sources of information for Opinion Mining and Sentiment Analysis on COVID-19-related issues.We have used Aspect Based Sentiment Analysis to anticipate the polarity of public opinion underlying different aspects from Twitter during lockdown and stepwise unlock phases.The goal of this study is to find the feelings of Indians about the lockdown initiative taken by the Government of India to stop the spread of Coronavirus.India-specific COVID-19 tweets have been annotated,for analysing the sentiment of common public.To classify the Twitter data set a deep learning model has been proposed which has achieved accuracies of 82.35%for Lockdown and 83.33%for Unlock data set.The suggested method outperforms many of the contemporary approaches(long shortterm memory,Bi-directional long short-term memory,Gated Recurrent Unit etc.).This study highlights the public sentiment on lockdown and stepwise unlocks,imposed by the Indian Government on various aspects during the Corona outburst.展开更多
The commune of Tamou, located in the Department of Say in Niger, occupies the southwestern part of the Liptako crystallophyllian basement domain. In this area, the problem of the drinking water supply of the populatio...The commune of Tamou, located in the Department of Say in Niger, occupies the southwestern part of the Liptako crystallophyllian basement domain. In this area, the problem of the drinking water supply of the populations is acute, because of the low flow rates of the drillings capturing the crystallophyllian formations and the Voltaian sandstones, the failure rates of the drillings are very high there. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to improve the knowledge of the areas potentially favorable for the implantation of drillings likely to give more satisfactory flow rates. The methodological approach, based on the collection of data (Landsat 7 ETM+ satellite imagery, borehole data, geological and topographical maps) and their processing by a combination of remote sensing and GIS tools and a field check, allowed the elaboration of maps of availability, accessibility and exploitability of the groundwater resources in the study area. The maps developed were analyzed with a Spatial Reference Hydrogeological Information System following the technique of aggregation by weighting to generate the map of productive drilling sites. The results show that the area is moderately rich in groundwater (58%) and that only 31% of the potential is exploitable. The groundwater potential map shows that 46% of the study area is suitable for drilling.展开更多
There is a lot of information in healthcare and medical records.However,it is challenging for humans to turn data into information and spot hidden patterns in today’s digitally based culture.Effective decision suppor...There is a lot of information in healthcare and medical records.However,it is challenging for humans to turn data into information and spot hidden patterns in today’s digitally based culture.Effective decision support technologies can help medical professionals find critical information concealed in voluminous data and support their clinical judgments and in different healthcare management activities.This paper presented an extensive literature survey for healthcare systems using machine learning based on multi-criteria decision-making.Various existing studies are considered for review,and a critical analysis is being done through the reviews study,which can help the researchers to explore other research areas to cater for the need of the field.展开更多
Molecular microbiological methods, such as competetive PCR, real-time PCR, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and large-scale parallel-pyrosequencing, require the extraction of sufficient quantity of high ...Molecular microbiological methods, such as competetive PCR, real-time PCR, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and large-scale parallel-pyrosequencing, require the extraction of sufficient quantity of high quality DNA from microbiologically and chemically complex matrices. Due to difficulties in the field to standardize/select the optimum DNA preservation-extraction methods in view of laboratories differences, this article attempts to present a straight-forward mathematical framework for comparing some of the most commonly used methods. To this end, as a case study, the problem of selecting an optimum sample preservation-DNA extraction strategy for obtaining total bacterial DNA from swine feces was considered. Two sample preservation methods (liquid nitrogen and RNAlater?) and seven extraction techniques were paired and compared under six quantitative DNA analysis criteria: yield of extraction, purity of extracted DNA (A260/280 and A 260/230 ratios), duration of extraction, degradation degree of DNA, and cost. From a practical point of view, it is unlikely that a single sample preservation-DNA extraction strategy can be optimum for all selected criteria. Hence, a systematic multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach was used to compare the methods. As a result, the ZR Fecal DNA MiniPrepTM DNA extraction kit for samples preserved either with liquid nitrogen or RNAlater? were identified as potential optimum solutions for obtaining total bacterial DNA from swine feces. Considering the need for practicality for in situ applications, we would recommend liquid nitrogen as sample preservation method, along with the ZR Fecal DNA MiniPrepTM kit. Total bacterial DNA obtained by this strategy can be suitable for downstream PCR-based DNA analyses of swine feces.展开更多
In the basement of southwestern Niger, weathering and fractured zones concentrate most of the groundwater. This study focuses on fractured media and aims to identify areas of productivity in this aquifer to improve th...In the basement of southwestern Niger, weathering and fractured zones concentrate most of the groundwater. This study focuses on fractured media and aims to identify areas of productivity in this aquifer to improve the region’s water coverage. The cartographic approach developed made it possible to establish synthetic maps based on multi-criteria analysis. The hydrogeological parameters selected include fracturing data, drainage system, slope and piezometric level as well as shallow and deep lithology. The choice of these criteria is based on their physical meaning but also on the availability of data. The integration of all the criteria in a GIS allowed to generate maps of recharge and potential productivity of fractured aquifers in the area. The validation of these thematic maps with independent data confirms their utility as reference standards for accessibility for future resource exploitation. Like any spatialization tool, potential recharge maps will provide valuable information about areas where infiltration is more important, and help control and manage risk zoning. The upward evacuation effect is even more prominent along the lineaments, faults or fractures: thus, to avoid possible pollution and to locate the future hydraulic structures, the analysis of the potential recharge zones remains necessary. The potential productivity index map, in addition to the very punctual sites identified by the fracturing study, made it possible to define areas of high potential productivity.展开更多
The characteristics of the financing model are firstly analyzed when the e-commerce enterprises participate in the supply chain finance. Internet supply chain finance models are divided into three categories with the ...The characteristics of the financing model are firstly analyzed when the e-commerce enterprises participate in the supply chain finance. Internet supply chain finance models are divided into three categories with the standard of whether the electronic commerce enterprises provide funds for small and medium enterprises instead of banks. And then we further study the financing process and the functions of the e-commerce platform with specific examples. Finally, combined with the characteristics of the supply chain finance model, we set up a small and medium enterprises credit evaluation model based on the principle of variable weight with its dynamic data. At the same time, a multi-time points and multi-indicators decision-making method based on the principle of variable weight is proposed and a specific example is presented. In this paper, the multi-criteria decision-making model with the principle of variable weight has been used two times. At last, a typical case has been analyzed based on this model with a higher accuracy rate of credit risk assessment.展开更多
Natural resources management is indispensable in ensuring environmental sustainability and reducing the risk associated with climate change and increasing demand for ecological goods and services. Natural resources pl...Natural resources management is indispensable in ensuring environmental sustainability and reducing the risk associated with climate change and increasing demand for ecological goods and services. Natural resources planners need to have at their disposal tools that can objectively help in prioritizing land use allocation. Traditional application of land use change model based on economic model, trend analysis, and or scenario analysis present some challenges of data availability and reliability necessary for implementation of the models. However, with the advent of information technology, GIS and remote sensing, biophysical data known for having influence on land use allocation can easily be accessed. The current study explores the application of GIS-Multi-criteria analysis in modeling future land use scenarios for resources planning and management using easy to construct biophysical parameters known for influencing future land use allocation. The decision problems in this study are to find the best spatial allocation of land to future agriculture and forest development, which are considered to present critical land use change in the study area. The afforestation scenarios are meant to offset the pressure on the native forest resources due to the increased demand for fuel and timber and also to contribute to the environmental protection and the agricultural land use scenarios are meant to increase productivity and ensure environmental protection. The land use scenarios did not consider “when” in the future the land use pattern may develop. The analyses of scenarios indicate that afforestation extent in the basin can be increased from 4.6% to 42.9% of the total basin area. However, the afforestation extent of 42.9% may be considered unrealistic, since in practice, it may not be possible to realize up to 42.9% afforestation, nevertheless, the spatial pattern of the afforestation may provide crucial insight into spatial afforestation policies and it future consequences. The agricultural land use can increase from 6.2% to 53.7% of the basin area. The agricultural land use expansion can be realised since the expansion of farm land is primarily the main option to achieve food production increase in the near future. The findings indicate potential use of the methodology in land use planning.展开更多
The characteristics of the financing model are firstly analyzed when the e-commerce enterprises participate in the supply chain finance. Internet supply chain finance models are divided into three categories with the ...The characteristics of the financing model are firstly analyzed when the e-commerce enterprises participate in the supply chain finance. Internet supply chain finance models are divided into three categories with the standard of whether the Electronic commerce enterprises provide funds for small and medium enterprises instead of banks. And then we further study the financing process and the functions of the e-commerce platform with specific examples. Finally, combined with the characteristics of the supply chain finance model, we set up a small and medium enterprises credit evaluation model based on the principle of variable weight with its dynamic data. At the same time, a multi time points and multi indicators decision-making method based on the principle of variable weight is proposed and a specific example is presented. In this paper, the Multi-criteria decision-making model with the principle of variable weight has been used two times. At last, a typical case has been analyzed based on this model with a higher accuracy rate of credit risk assessment.展开更多
A summary of the current understanding of the hydrological system in the Limestone Coast in Australia is presented. The regional water balance analysis indicated about 90% of the water is lost through evapotranspirati...A summary of the current understanding of the hydrological system in the Limestone Coast in Australia is presented. The regional water balance analysis indicated about 90% of the water is lost through evapotranspiration. Irrigation consumes a substantial part of the groundwater and returns up to half of the water inflow to the aquifer. A multi-criteria analysis using fuzzy quantifiers and analytical hierarchy process was applied for future irrigation expansion. The results showed a total of 94,632 ha of land, considered suitable for irrigation where groundwater is not over-allocated or over used. This model showed some advantages over the conventional multi-criteria evaluation methods as it avoids arbitrary decisions on criteria weightings.展开更多
In this paper we consider three problems in continuous multi-criteria optimization: An application of the Berge Maximum Theorem, properties of Pareto-retract mappings, and the structure of Pareto sets. The key goal of...In this paper we consider three problems in continuous multi-criteria optimization: An application of the Berge Maximum Theorem, properties of Pareto-retract mappings, and the structure of Pareto sets. The key goal of this work is to present the relationship between the three problems mentioned above. First, applying the Maximum Theorem we construct the Pareto-retract mappings from the feasible domain onto the Pareto-optimal solutions set if the feasible domain is compact. Next, using these mappings we analyze the structure of the Pareto sets. Some basic topological properties of the Pareto solutions sets in the general case and in the convex case are also discussed.展开更多
Despite the seemingly exponential growth of mobile and wireless communication,this same technology aims to offer uninterrupted access to different wireless systems like Radio Communication,Bluetooth,and Wi-Fi to achie...Despite the seemingly exponential growth of mobile and wireless communication,this same technology aims to offer uninterrupted access to different wireless systems like Radio Communication,Bluetooth,and Wi-Fi to achieve better network connection which in turn gives the best quality of service(QoS).Many analysts have established many handover decision systems(HDS)to enable assured continuous mobility between various radio access technologies.Unbrokenmobility is one of themost significant problems considered in wireless communication networks.Each application needs a distinct QoS,so the network choice may shift appropriately.To achieve this objective and to choose the finest networks,it is important to select a best decision making algorithm that chooses the most effective network for every application that the user requires,dependent on QoS measures.Therefore,the main goal of the proposed system is to provide an enhanced vertical handover(VHO)decision making programby using aMulti-CriteriaFuzzy-Based algorithm to choose the best network.Enhanced Multi-Criteria algorithms and a Fuzzy-Based algorithm is implemented successfully for optimal network selection and also to minimize the probability of false handover.Furthermore,a double packet buffer is utilized to decrease the packet loss by 1.5%and to reduce the number of handovers up to 50%compared to the existing systems.In addition,the network setup has an optimized mobilitymanagement system to supervise the movement of the mobile nodes.展开更多
Several models of multi-criteria decision-making(MCDM)have identified the optimal alternative electrical energy sources to supply certain load in an isolated region in Al-Minya City,Egypt.The load demand consists of w...Several models of multi-criteria decision-making(MCDM)have identified the optimal alternative electrical energy sources to supply certain load in an isolated region in Al-Minya City,Egypt.The load demand consists of water pumping system with a water desalination unit.Various options containing three different power sources:only DG,PV-B system,and hybrid PV-DG-B,two different sizes of reverse osmosis(RO)units;RO-250 and RO-500,two strategies of energy management;load following(LF)and cycle charging(CC),and two sizes of DG;5 and 10 kW were taken into account.Eight attributes,including operating cost,renewable fraction,initial cost,the cost of energy,excess energy,unmet load,breakeven grid extension distance,and the amount of CO_(2),were used during the evaluation process.To estimate these parameters,HOMER®software was employed to perform both the simulation and optimization process.Four different weight estimation methods were considered;no priority of criteria,based on a pairwise comparisons matrix of the criteria,CRITIC-method,and entropy-based method.The main findings(output results)confirmed that the optimal option for the case study was hybrid PV-DG-B with the following specification:5 kW DG,RO-500,and load following control strategy.Under this condition,the annual operating cost and initial costs were$5546 and$161022,respectively,whereas the cost of energy was 0.077$/kWh.The excess energy and unmet loads were 40998 and 2371 kWh,respectively.The breakeven grid extension distance and the amount of CO_(2) were 3.31 km and 5171 kg per year,respectively.Compared with DG only,the amount of CO_(2) has been sharply reduced by 113939 kg per year.展开更多
The environmental impact of maritime transport has now become a relevant issue in sustainable policy formulation and has attracted increasing interest from academia.For the sustainable development of maritime transpor...The environmental impact of maritime transport has now become a relevant issue in sustainable policy formulation and has attracted increasing interest from academia.For the sustainable development of maritime transport,International Maritime Organization stipulates that the sulfur content of ship emissions will reach 0.5 from 2020.With the approaching of the stipulated implementation date,shipowners need to adopt scientific methods to make decision on low sulfur fuel.In this study,we applied a prospect theory based hesitant fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making model to obtain the optimal decision of low Sulphur marine fuel.For this purpose,the hesitant fuzzy decision matrix is established to collect expert opinions,the maximizing deviation method is adopted to determine criteria weights.According to calculate the Euclidean distance from the reference points,we obtain the comprehensive prospect values of alternatives.Lastly,a case study is carried out to illustrate the significance and effectiveness of the proposed methodology.The innovation of this study is that it is the first-time adopting prospect theory and hesitate fuzzy sets to multi-criteria decision making for low Sulphur marine fuel,which provides an effective decision model for shipping companies under Low Sulphur regulations,and can also be extended to other industries.展开更多
Planning of waste management system in urban area should take into consideration many legal, technological, financial, economic, technical, ecological, social and spatial aspects. The aim of the paper is to propose th...Planning of waste management system in urban area should take into consideration many legal, technological, financial, economic, technical, ecological, social and spatial aspects. The aim of the paper is to propose the method, which can be helpful in planning procedure of waste management system in European cities or regions, which comprise with following steps: identification of produced volume and municipal solid waste characteristics in the region for providing grounds to design a technological system, identification of other financial, economic, legal, social aspects for creation of waste management scenarios, definition of the criteria allowing evaluate designed waste management scenarios based on plan requirements, make an the multi-criteria analysis for choosing the best scenario in the region. Such analyses were conducted to evaluate the proposed different waste management systems in city of Cracow in 2000, 2004 and 2007. This comparison of theses systems shows that evaluating criteria were tightened as a result of toughening regulations of both Polish and the EU laws.展开更多
This paper explores approaches concerning complex forest planning challenges, such as restoration after large-scale disturbances and under climate change. It introduces a new framework that integrates qualitative scen...This paper explores approaches concerning complex forest planning challenges, such as restoration after large-scale disturbances and under climate change. It introduces a new framework that integrates qualitative scenario planning with quantitative multi-criteria decision analysis. This framework allows stakeholders without background in forestry to express their preferences as a set of scenarios that are further assessed for specific forest management goals and activities using multi-criteria models. The assessment of the modelled scenarios created a common understanding for the stakeholders and experts to compare trade-offs between several management options and needed policy choices. The framework was applied in the case study of forest restoration following insect disturbance in British Columbia, Canada. The framework enabled structured stakeholder groups’ interactions such as industry, business associations, local and regional governments, and non-governmental organizations to identify potential restoration options. Different community futures were envisioned by two scenarios: one resembling current conditions and standard practices, while another promoting diversification of the forestry sector. The results indicated that each of the scenarios leads to different consequences for the community measured by levels of economic benefits, total harvest volumes and harvest flows over time. The results also show that the developed framework linking scenarios and multi-criteria decision analyses proved crucial to broaden the discussion on relevant species mixes and management practices, and their implications for the community and policy development.展开更多
文摘As part of the drive to improve coffee and cocoa production in Ivory Coast, studies are carried out to identify soils that are favourable for these crops. It is therefore necessary to orientate soil investigations based on reliable criteria that best discriminate soil cover. With this in mind, this study is being carried out to help improve survey methods by mapping soil landscapes. It uses GIS and weighted multicriteria analysis. To do this, satellite images were processed and the geological map of the square degrees of M’Bahiakro and Daloa was reclassified. The results show that relief is the main factor in soil landscape differentiation, with respective weights of 0.58 and 0.67 for the forest and pre-forest zones. In contrast, the weight of geological formation in soil landscape differentiation remains low (0.05 for the forest zone and 0.07 for the pre-forest zone). The criteria used on the base of aggregation sum methods have made it possible to formulate soil landscape mapping prediction functions according to agro-ecological environments in the humid intertropical zone. This is essential for the orientation of soil survey work. Nevertheless, other comparative methods, such as the coding mapping method, could provide elements for discussion to validate the models.
文摘Floods are phenomenon with significant socio-economic implications mainly for human loss, agriculture, livestock, soil loss and land degradation, for which many researchers try to identify the most appropriate methodologies by analyzing their temporal and spatial development. This study therefore attempts to employ the GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis and analytical hierarchy process techniques to derive the flood risks management on rice productivity in the Gishari Agricultural Marshland in Rwamagana district, Rwanda. Here, six influencing potential factors to flooding, including river slope, soil texture, Land Use Land Cover through Land Sat 8, rainfall, river distance and Digital Elevation Model are considered for the delineation of flood risk zones. Data acquisition like Landsat 8 images, DEM, land use land cover, slope, and soil class in the study area were considered. Results showed that if the DEM is outdated or inaccurate due to changes in the terrain, such as construction, excavation, or erosion, the predicted flood patterns might not reflect the actual water flow. This could result unexpected flood extents and depths, potentially inundating rice fields that were not previously at risk and this, expectedly explained that the increase 1 m in elevation would reduce the rice productivity by 0.17% due to unplanned flood risks in marshland. It was found that the change in rainfall distribution in Gishari agricultural marshland would also decrease the rice productivity by 0.0018%, which is a sign that rainfall is a major factor of flooding in rice scheme. Rainfall distribution plays a crucial role in flooding analysis and can directly impact rice productivity. Oppositely, another causal factor was Land Use Land Cover (LULC), where the Multivariate Logistic Regression Model Analysis findings showed that the increase of one unit in Land Use Land Cover would increase rice productivity by 0.17% of the total rice productivity from the Gishari Agricultural Marshland. Based on findings from these techniques, the Gishari Agricultural Marshlands having steeped land with grassland is classified into five classes of flooding namely very low, low, moderate, high, and very high which include 430%, 361%, 292%, 223%, and 154%. Government of Rwanda and other implementing agencies and major key actors have to contribute on soil and water conservation strategies to reduce the runoff and soil erosion as major contributors of flooding.
文摘This paper proposes a multi-criteria decision-making (MCGDM) method based on the improved single-valued neutrosophic Hamacher weighted averaging (ISNHWA) operator and grey relational analysis (GRA) to overcome the limitations of present methods based on aggregation operators. First, the limitations of several existing single-valued neutrosophic weighted averaging aggregation operators (i.e. , the single-valued neutrosophic weighted averaging, single-valued neutrosophic weighted algebraic averaging, single-valued neutrosophic weighted Einstein averaging, single-valued neutrosophic Frank weighted averaging, and single-valued neutrosophic Hamacher weighted averaging operators), which can produce some indeterminate terms in the aggregation process, are discussed. Second, an ISNHWA operator was developed to overcome the limitations of existing operators. Third, the properties of the proposed operator, including idempotency, boundedness, monotonicity, and commutativity, were analyzed. Application examples confirmed that the ISNHWA operator and the proposed MCGDM method are rational and effective. The proposed improved ISNHWA operator and MCGDM method can overcome the indeterminate results in some special cases in existing single-valued neutrosophic weighted averaging aggregation operators and MCGDM methods.
文摘Information about the relative importance of each criterion or theweights of criteria can have a significant influence on the ultimate rank of alternatives.Accordingly,assessing the weights of criteria is a very important task in solving multi-criteria decision-making problems.Three methods are commonly used for assessing the weights of criteria:objective,subjective,and integrated methods.In this study,an objective approach is proposed to assess the weights of criteria,called SPCmethod(Symmetry Point of Criterion).This point enriches the criterion so that it is balanced and easy to implement in the process of the evaluation of its influence on decision-making.The SPC methodology is systematically presented and supported by detailed calculations related to an artificial example.To validate the developed method,we used our numerical example and calculated the weights of criteria by CRITIC,Entropy,Standard Deviation and MEREC methods.Comparative analysis between these methods and the SPC method reveals that the developedmethod is a very reliable objective way to determine the weights of criteria.Additionally,in this study,we proposed the application of SPCmethod to evaluate the efficiency of themulti-criteria partitioning algorithm.The main idea of the evaluation is based on the following fact:the greater the uniformity of the weights of criteria,the higher the efficiency of the partitioning algorithm.The research demonstrates that the SPC method can be applied to solving different multi-criteria problems.
基金This work is supported by project No.B2020-DQN-08 from the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam.
文摘Recommender systems are similar to an informationfiltering system that helps identify items that best satisfy the users’demands based on their pre-ference profiles.Context-aware recommender systems(CARSs)and multi-criteria recommender systems(MCRSs)are extensions of traditional recommender sys-tems.CARSs have integrated additional contextual information such as time,place,and so on for providing better recommendations.However,the majority of CARSs use ratings as a unique criterion for building communities.Meanwhile,MCRSs utilize user preferences in multiple criteria to better generate recommen-dations.Up to now,how to exploit context in MCRSs is still an open issue.This paper proposes a novel approach,which relies on deep learning for context-aware multi-criteria recommender systems.We apply deep neural network(DNN)mod-els to predict the context-aware multi-criteria ratings and learn the aggregation function.We conduct experiments to evaluate the effect of this approach on the real-world dataset.A significant result is that our method outperforms other state-of-the-art methods for recommendation effectiveness.
文摘The COVID-19 pandemic has a significant impact on the global economy and health.While the pandemic continues to cause casualties in millions,many countries have gone under lockdown.During this period,people have to stay within walls and become more addicted towards social networks.They express their emotions and sympathy via these online platforms.Thus,popular social media(Twitter and Facebook)have become rich sources of information for Opinion Mining and Sentiment Analysis on COVID-19-related issues.We have used Aspect Based Sentiment Analysis to anticipate the polarity of public opinion underlying different aspects from Twitter during lockdown and stepwise unlock phases.The goal of this study is to find the feelings of Indians about the lockdown initiative taken by the Government of India to stop the spread of Coronavirus.India-specific COVID-19 tweets have been annotated,for analysing the sentiment of common public.To classify the Twitter data set a deep learning model has been proposed which has achieved accuracies of 82.35%for Lockdown and 83.33%for Unlock data set.The suggested method outperforms many of the contemporary approaches(long shortterm memory,Bi-directional long short-term memory,Gated Recurrent Unit etc.).This study highlights the public sentiment on lockdown and stepwise unlocks,imposed by the Indian Government on various aspects during the Corona outburst.
文摘The commune of Tamou, located in the Department of Say in Niger, occupies the southwestern part of the Liptako crystallophyllian basement domain. In this area, the problem of the drinking water supply of the populations is acute, because of the low flow rates of the drillings capturing the crystallophyllian formations and the Voltaian sandstones, the failure rates of the drillings are very high there. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to improve the knowledge of the areas potentially favorable for the implantation of drillings likely to give more satisfactory flow rates. The methodological approach, based on the collection of data (Landsat 7 ETM+ satellite imagery, borehole data, geological and topographical maps) and their processing by a combination of remote sensing and GIS tools and a field check, allowed the elaboration of maps of availability, accessibility and exploitability of the groundwater resources in the study area. The maps developed were analyzed with a Spatial Reference Hydrogeological Information System following the technique of aggregation by weighting to generate the map of productive drilling sites. The results show that the area is moderately rich in groundwater (58%) and that only 31% of the potential is exploitable. The groundwater potential map shows that 46% of the study area is suitable for drilling.
文摘There is a lot of information in healthcare and medical records.However,it is challenging for humans to turn data into information and spot hidden patterns in today’s digitally based culture.Effective decision support technologies can help medical professionals find critical information concealed in voluminous data and support their clinical judgments and in different healthcare management activities.This paper presented an extensive literature survey for healthcare systems using machine learning based on multi-criteria decision-making.Various existing studies are considered for review,and a critical analysis is being done through the reviews study,which can help the researchers to explore other research areas to cater for the need of the field.
文摘Molecular microbiological methods, such as competetive PCR, real-time PCR, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and large-scale parallel-pyrosequencing, require the extraction of sufficient quantity of high quality DNA from microbiologically and chemically complex matrices. Due to difficulties in the field to standardize/select the optimum DNA preservation-extraction methods in view of laboratories differences, this article attempts to present a straight-forward mathematical framework for comparing some of the most commonly used methods. To this end, as a case study, the problem of selecting an optimum sample preservation-DNA extraction strategy for obtaining total bacterial DNA from swine feces was considered. Two sample preservation methods (liquid nitrogen and RNAlater?) and seven extraction techniques were paired and compared under six quantitative DNA analysis criteria: yield of extraction, purity of extracted DNA (A260/280 and A 260/230 ratios), duration of extraction, degradation degree of DNA, and cost. From a practical point of view, it is unlikely that a single sample preservation-DNA extraction strategy can be optimum for all selected criteria. Hence, a systematic multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach was used to compare the methods. As a result, the ZR Fecal DNA MiniPrepTM DNA extraction kit for samples preserved either with liquid nitrogen or RNAlater? were identified as potential optimum solutions for obtaining total bacterial DNA from swine feces. Considering the need for practicality for in situ applications, we would recommend liquid nitrogen as sample preservation method, along with the ZR Fecal DNA MiniPrepTM kit. Total bacterial DNA obtained by this strategy can be suitable for downstream PCR-based DNA analyses of swine feces.
文摘In the basement of southwestern Niger, weathering and fractured zones concentrate most of the groundwater. This study focuses on fractured media and aims to identify areas of productivity in this aquifer to improve the region’s water coverage. The cartographic approach developed made it possible to establish synthetic maps based on multi-criteria analysis. The hydrogeological parameters selected include fracturing data, drainage system, slope and piezometric level as well as shallow and deep lithology. The choice of these criteria is based on their physical meaning but also on the availability of data. The integration of all the criteria in a GIS allowed to generate maps of recharge and potential productivity of fractured aquifers in the area. The validation of these thematic maps with independent data confirms their utility as reference standards for accessibility for future resource exploitation. Like any spatialization tool, potential recharge maps will provide valuable information about areas where infiltration is more important, and help control and manage risk zoning. The upward evacuation effect is even more prominent along the lineaments, faults or fractures: thus, to avoid possible pollution and to locate the future hydraulic structures, the analysis of the potential recharge zones remains necessary. The potential productivity index map, in addition to the very punctual sites identified by the fracturing study, made it possible to define areas of high potential productivity.
文摘The characteristics of the financing model are firstly analyzed when the e-commerce enterprises participate in the supply chain finance. Internet supply chain finance models are divided into three categories with the standard of whether the electronic commerce enterprises provide funds for small and medium enterprises instead of banks. And then we further study the financing process and the functions of the e-commerce platform with specific examples. Finally, combined with the characteristics of the supply chain finance model, we set up a small and medium enterprises credit evaluation model based on the principle of variable weight with its dynamic data. At the same time, a multi-time points and multi-indicators decision-making method based on the principle of variable weight is proposed and a specific example is presented. In this paper, the multi-criteria decision-making model with the principle of variable weight has been used two times. At last, a typical case has been analyzed based on this model with a higher accuracy rate of credit risk assessment.
文摘Natural resources management is indispensable in ensuring environmental sustainability and reducing the risk associated with climate change and increasing demand for ecological goods and services. Natural resources planners need to have at their disposal tools that can objectively help in prioritizing land use allocation. Traditional application of land use change model based on economic model, trend analysis, and or scenario analysis present some challenges of data availability and reliability necessary for implementation of the models. However, with the advent of information technology, GIS and remote sensing, biophysical data known for having influence on land use allocation can easily be accessed. The current study explores the application of GIS-Multi-criteria analysis in modeling future land use scenarios for resources planning and management using easy to construct biophysical parameters known for influencing future land use allocation. The decision problems in this study are to find the best spatial allocation of land to future agriculture and forest development, which are considered to present critical land use change in the study area. The afforestation scenarios are meant to offset the pressure on the native forest resources due to the increased demand for fuel and timber and also to contribute to the environmental protection and the agricultural land use scenarios are meant to increase productivity and ensure environmental protection. The land use scenarios did not consider “when” in the future the land use pattern may develop. The analyses of scenarios indicate that afforestation extent in the basin can be increased from 4.6% to 42.9% of the total basin area. However, the afforestation extent of 42.9% may be considered unrealistic, since in practice, it may not be possible to realize up to 42.9% afforestation, nevertheless, the spatial pattern of the afforestation may provide crucial insight into spatial afforestation policies and it future consequences. The agricultural land use can increase from 6.2% to 53.7% of the basin area. The agricultural land use expansion can be realised since the expansion of farm land is primarily the main option to achieve food production increase in the near future. The findings indicate potential use of the methodology in land use planning.
文摘The characteristics of the financing model are firstly analyzed when the e-commerce enterprises participate in the supply chain finance. Internet supply chain finance models are divided into three categories with the standard of whether the Electronic commerce enterprises provide funds for small and medium enterprises instead of banks. And then we further study the financing process and the functions of the e-commerce platform with specific examples. Finally, combined with the characteristics of the supply chain finance model, we set up a small and medium enterprises credit evaluation model based on the principle of variable weight with its dynamic data. At the same time, a multi time points and multi indicators decision-making method based on the principle of variable weight is proposed and a specific example is presented. In this paper, the Multi-criteria decision-making model with the principle of variable weight has been used two times. At last, a typical case has been analyzed based on this model with a higher accuracy rate of credit risk assessment.
文摘A summary of the current understanding of the hydrological system in the Limestone Coast in Australia is presented. The regional water balance analysis indicated about 90% of the water is lost through evapotranspiration. Irrigation consumes a substantial part of the groundwater and returns up to half of the water inflow to the aquifer. A multi-criteria analysis using fuzzy quantifiers and analytical hierarchy process was applied for future irrigation expansion. The results showed a total of 94,632 ha of land, considered suitable for irrigation where groundwater is not over-allocated or over used. This model showed some advantages over the conventional multi-criteria evaluation methods as it avoids arbitrary decisions on criteria weightings.
文摘In this paper we consider three problems in continuous multi-criteria optimization: An application of the Berge Maximum Theorem, properties of Pareto-retract mappings, and the structure of Pareto sets. The key goal of this work is to present the relationship between the three problems mentioned above. First, applying the Maximum Theorem we construct the Pareto-retract mappings from the feasible domain onto the Pareto-optimal solutions set if the feasible domain is compact. Next, using these mappings we analyze the structure of the Pareto sets. Some basic topological properties of the Pareto solutions sets in the general case and in the convex case are also discussed.
基金Taif University Researchers Supporting Project Number(TURSP-2020/36),Taif University,Taif,Saudi Arabia.
文摘Despite the seemingly exponential growth of mobile and wireless communication,this same technology aims to offer uninterrupted access to different wireless systems like Radio Communication,Bluetooth,and Wi-Fi to achieve better network connection which in turn gives the best quality of service(QoS).Many analysts have established many handover decision systems(HDS)to enable assured continuous mobility between various radio access technologies.Unbrokenmobility is one of themost significant problems considered in wireless communication networks.Each application needs a distinct QoS,so the network choice may shift appropriately.To achieve this objective and to choose the finest networks,it is important to select a best decision making algorithm that chooses the most effective network for every application that the user requires,dependent on QoS measures.Therefore,the main goal of the proposed system is to provide an enhanced vertical handover(VHO)decision making programby using aMulti-CriteriaFuzzy-Based algorithm to choose the best network.Enhanced Multi-Criteria algorithms and a Fuzzy-Based algorithm is implemented successfully for optimal network selection and also to minimize the probability of false handover.Furthermore,a double packet buffer is utilized to decrease the packet loss by 1.5%and to reduce the number of handovers up to 50%compared to the existing systems.In addition,the network setup has an optimized mobilitymanagement system to supervise the movement of the mobile nodes.
文摘Several models of multi-criteria decision-making(MCDM)have identified the optimal alternative electrical energy sources to supply certain load in an isolated region in Al-Minya City,Egypt.The load demand consists of water pumping system with a water desalination unit.Various options containing three different power sources:only DG,PV-B system,and hybrid PV-DG-B,two different sizes of reverse osmosis(RO)units;RO-250 and RO-500,two strategies of energy management;load following(LF)and cycle charging(CC),and two sizes of DG;5 and 10 kW were taken into account.Eight attributes,including operating cost,renewable fraction,initial cost,the cost of energy,excess energy,unmet load,breakeven grid extension distance,and the amount of CO_(2),were used during the evaluation process.To estimate these parameters,HOMER®software was employed to perform both the simulation and optimization process.Four different weight estimation methods were considered;no priority of criteria,based on a pairwise comparisons matrix of the criteria,CRITIC-method,and entropy-based method.The main findings(output results)confirmed that the optimal option for the case study was hybrid PV-DG-B with the following specification:5 kW DG,RO-500,and load following control strategy.Under this condition,the annual operating cost and initial costs were$5546 and$161022,respectively,whereas the cost of energy was 0.077$/kWh.The excess energy and unmet loads were 40998 and 2371 kWh,respectively.The breakeven grid extension distance and the amount of CO_(2) were 3.31 km and 5171 kg per year,respectively.Compared with DG only,the amount of CO_(2) has been sharply reduced by 113939 kg per year.
文摘The environmental impact of maritime transport has now become a relevant issue in sustainable policy formulation and has attracted increasing interest from academia.For the sustainable development of maritime transport,International Maritime Organization stipulates that the sulfur content of ship emissions will reach 0.5 from 2020.With the approaching of the stipulated implementation date,shipowners need to adopt scientific methods to make decision on low sulfur fuel.In this study,we applied a prospect theory based hesitant fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making model to obtain the optimal decision of low Sulphur marine fuel.For this purpose,the hesitant fuzzy decision matrix is established to collect expert opinions,the maximizing deviation method is adopted to determine criteria weights.According to calculate the Euclidean distance from the reference points,we obtain the comprehensive prospect values of alternatives.Lastly,a case study is carried out to illustrate the significance and effectiveness of the proposed methodology.The innovation of this study is that it is the first-time adopting prospect theory and hesitate fuzzy sets to multi-criteria decision making for low Sulphur marine fuel,which provides an effective decision model for shipping companies under Low Sulphur regulations,and can also be extended to other industries.
文摘Planning of waste management system in urban area should take into consideration many legal, technological, financial, economic, technical, ecological, social and spatial aspects. The aim of the paper is to propose the method, which can be helpful in planning procedure of waste management system in European cities or regions, which comprise with following steps: identification of produced volume and municipal solid waste characteristics in the region for providing grounds to design a technological system, identification of other financial, economic, legal, social aspects for creation of waste management scenarios, definition of the criteria allowing evaluate designed waste management scenarios based on plan requirements, make an the multi-criteria analysis for choosing the best scenario in the region. Such analyses were conducted to evaluate the proposed different waste management systems in city of Cracow in 2000, 2004 and 2007. This comparison of theses systems shows that evaluating criteria were tightened as a result of toughening regulations of both Polish and the EU laws.
文摘This paper explores approaches concerning complex forest planning challenges, such as restoration after large-scale disturbances and under climate change. It introduces a new framework that integrates qualitative scenario planning with quantitative multi-criteria decision analysis. This framework allows stakeholders without background in forestry to express their preferences as a set of scenarios that are further assessed for specific forest management goals and activities using multi-criteria models. The assessment of the modelled scenarios created a common understanding for the stakeholders and experts to compare trade-offs between several management options and needed policy choices. The framework was applied in the case study of forest restoration following insect disturbance in British Columbia, Canada. The framework enabled structured stakeholder groups’ interactions such as industry, business associations, local and regional governments, and non-governmental organizations to identify potential restoration options. Different community futures were envisioned by two scenarios: one resembling current conditions and standard practices, while another promoting diversification of the forestry sector. The results indicated that each of the scenarios leads to different consequences for the community measured by levels of economic benefits, total harvest volumes and harvest flows over time. The results also show that the developed framework linking scenarios and multi-criteria decision analyses proved crucial to broaden the discussion on relevant species mixes and management practices, and their implications for the community and policy development.
