Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Multiple criteria decision making'

Despite the number of approaches established for Multiple Criteria Optimisation Problems, few of them have been developed for the decision making process. This research work proposes a new methodology for the solution of optimisation problems that involve multiple criteria emphasising the Decision-Maker's (DM's) preferences model and the use of evolutionary computation techniques and fuzzy logic. The use of genetic algorithms (GAs) is of vital importance to the development of this research. The use of operations research (OR) techniques and decision analysis is also considered vital. The aim of this project is to provide a definition of hybrid approaches that combine the strengths of GA and decision analysis. For this reason four hybrid models are proposed: 1. The GA-SEMOPS. 2. The fuzzy multiobjective genetic optimiser. 3. The GA-PROTRADE. 4. The interactive procedure for multiple objective optimisation problems. The main characteristics of these approaches are that they handle the DM's preferences in an interactive way and their objective functions are formulated using goal levels and surrogate functions. In order to demonstrate that these models can be used in different optimisation problems they have been applied to different case studies covering examples from environmental systems to land and human resource allocation. Each model was studied in depth, comparing the results found with those available in literature. In the majority of the cases, it was found that they performed better than existing methods. The investigations carried out showed that the proposed hybrid models can be considered as a very powerful tool for the solution of a wide variety of optimisation problems in situations from business to science and engineering.

In this study, an integrated solution methodology for a general discrete multi-criteria decision making problem is developed based on the well-known outranking method Promethee II. While the methodology handles the existence of interdependency between the criteria, it can also incorporate the prospect theory in order to correctly reflect the decision behavior of the decision maker. A software is also developed for the application of the methodology and some applications are performed and presented.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2001.
Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xiv, 169 p.; also contains graphics (some col.). Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: B. Chandresekaran, Dept. of Computer and Information Science. Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-169).

Thesis (M.Phil.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2005.
"Submitted to Department of Building and Construction in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy" Includes bibliographical references (leaves 239-241)

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2008.
Thesis Advisor(s): Cuskey, Jeffrey. "June 2008." Description based on title screen as viewed on September 2, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-80). Also available in print.

In modern organizations where managers must constantly be dealing with an overload of information, it is often observed that participants in group decision processes either are not clearly aware of their specific preferences or that they are not capable of properly formulating those preferences. When this happens, inconsistent or incomplete expression of personal preferences and their use in decision making may lead to an unjustifiable outcome for the group. Due to this problem, the strengths and effectiveness of GDSS-supported group meetings may, in some situations, not be apparent. This dissertation develops a new approach to supporting group decision making, focusing on preference knowledge of individual participants in a group. A system architecture for the design of an MCDM (Multiple Criteria Decision Making) GDSS which facilitates the process of eliciting, formulating, utilizing, aggregating, and analyzing preferences for individuals within groups is presented. The architecture integrates multi-criteria decision making paradigms with a group decision support environment. A prototype has been developed in order to demonstrate the design feasibility of an architecture that centers around four phases of choice making: alternative generation, preference specification, alternative evaluation, and preference aggregation. The prototype is designed to support managerial choice and judgment processes in collaborative meetings. The intended problem domain of the model is semi-structured managerial decisions for which decision variables (attributes) can be represented in quantitative terms to some extent, yet for which evaluation of alternatives requires a high degree of intuition and personal analysis. The process of prototyping the proposed architecture and the results from a qualitative study have provided some instructive conclusions relating to MCDM GDSS design: (1) support for human choice strategies can be integrated into a GDSS, (2) appropriate management of preferences of group participants will facilitate collaborative decision processes, (3) hierarchical decomposition of a decision problem can provide structure to a problem and thereby reduce problem complexity, and (4) managerial decisions are appropriate problems to which the current approach can be applied.

Aquesta tesi presenta una nova metodologia per resoldre problemes de presa de decisions. Hem
estudiat els casos en què cal considerar més d'un criteri. Aquests tipus de mètodes de decisió es
coneixen com MCDM (Multiple Criteria Decision Making), o també MCDA (Multiple Criteria
Decision Aid). La diferència entre simplement "prendre decisions" o "ajudar a prendre
decisions" recau en si el mètode es dissenya per recomanar la decisió a prendre o si també
inclou elements que permeten entendre com es prenen les decisions en un cert context. La nostra
proposta inclou elements dels dos plantejaments. D'una banda, hem intentat que la persona que
ha d'usar el mètode no necessiti aprendre tècniques complexes abans de poder-lo aplicar a casos
reals. D'altra banda, el mètode no és una caixa negra, sinó que l'usuari rep informació sobre
característiques de les dades que ha de tenir en compte abans de fer la decisió final.
ClusDM és un mètode de presa de decisions pensat per resoldre dos tipus concrets de
problemes: (i) ordenar un conjunt d'alternatives de la millor a la pitjor, (ii) seleccionar les
millors alternatives del conjunt. La dificultat d'aquest procés recau en que cal maximitzar
diversos criteris parcials (i normalment no correlacionats) al mateix temps. A la tesi es pot
trobar un resum de les diferents aproximacions a aquest tipus de problemes de decisió. Només
destacar que el nostre mètode segueix les bases de la Teoria de la Utilitat.
Els mètodes clàssics consideren només criteris numèrics. Diferents extensions a aquests models
s'han anat desenvolupant durant els últims anys. En aquesta tesis ens hem plantejat la
possibilitat de tenir criteris que utilitzin diferents tipus de valors. A més, hem afegit dues fases a
la metodologia habitual (que té una fase d'agregació i una d'ordenació), que són: l'explicació
del resultat i l'avaluació de la qualitat.
La "Fase d'explicació" està dedicada a assignar un terme lingüístic per descriure cada
alternativa segons la seva posició en el ranking. L'ús de vocabularis qualitatius facilita la
comprensió del resultat. El significat dels diferents termes usats ve donat per una funció de
negació. Aquesta representació es basa en contrastar el significat d'un terme amb el dels termes
oposats (els seus antònims).
La "Fase d'Avaluació de la Qualitat" analitza a fons els resultats intermedis obtinguts en els
diferents passos del procés i intenta mesurar l'error acumulat. ClusDM proporciona diverses
mesures de qualitat parcial per cada fase del procés, de manera que l'usuari tingui constància de
la confiança que pot donar al resultat final que doni el sistema.
This thesis presents a new methodology for decision making. In particular, we have studied the
problems that consider more than one criterion, which is known as Multiple Criteria Decision
Making (MDCM) or Multiple Criteria Decision Aid (MCDA). The difference relies on the fact
of imitating the behaviour of the decision maker (i.e. develop a method that makes decisions) or
giving to the decision maker some additional information that allows him to understand the
mechanism of solving decisions (i.e. the decision maker can learn from the use of the method).
Our proposal fits better in the MCDA approach, but has also similarities with the MCDM
perspective. On one hand, the method we have designed is independent enough to not require a
deep understanding of the process by the decision maker. On the other hand, we have carefully
studied the process and the method is able to extract knowledge about the decision problem,
which is given to the user to let him know any special characteristics of the data analysed.
ClusDM is a new method to solve multicriteria decision problems. It is able to find a ranking of
alternatives or to select the best ones. This process is not easy since usually it is not possible to
maximise all the partial profits (i.e.criteria) at the same time. In the thesis we present an
overview of the large amount of methods developed to solve this problem. We follow the utility
theory approach.
Classical methods consider only numerical criteria. Some extensions allow the consideration of
other scales, such as, fuzzy or ordinal values, but usually they are required to have a common
scale for all criteria. This thesis faces the problem of managing different types of criteria at the
same time. Methods following the utility approach consider two steps to sort a decision
problem out: the aggregation and the ranking. We have included some additional steps in order
to improve the process: (i) the explanation phase and (ii) the quality measurement phase.
In the "Explanation Phase", special attention is devoted to give an appropriate linguistic
description of the ranking. The necessity to give a qualitatively described result has been argued
by different authors. The rationale behind this belief is that human decision makers understand
better a linguistic statement characterising the selected alternative (or ranking of alternatives)
than a numerical result or even a membership function. In this context, a new negation-based
semantics has been studied. The key idea is that we can infer the meaning of a term knowing the
terms that express an opposite value. The use of this new semantics representation seems
appropriate to obtain a result that can be easily understood by the decision maker.
In the "Quality Measurement Phase", different quality measures for each stage of the process
are calculated. With these measures we can give an overall value of the trustworthiness of the
final result. This kind of information is very useful for the decision maker in order to pay more
or less attention to the recommendations of the system.

Hundreds of thousands of home users are victimized by cyber-attacks every year. Many experts agree that average home users are not doing enough to protect their home computers from cyber-attacks. Improperly managed home computers can lead to individuals losing data, systems performing slowly, identity loss or theft, and ransom payments. En masse attacks can act in concert to infect personal computers in business and government. Home users currently receive conflicting guidance, often in the form of recommendations such as 'Top 10’ lists which are not appropriate for their specific needs. In many instances users ignore all guidance. Often, these ‘Top 10’ lists appear to be based solely on subjective opinion. Ultimately, the researchers asked themselves the following question: how can we provide home users with better guidance for determining and applying appropriate security controls that meet their needs and can be verified by the cyber security community? This praxis proposes a methodology for determining and prioritizing the most appropriate security controls for home computing. Using Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) and subject matter expertise, this praxis identifies, analyzes and prioritizes security controls used by government and industry to determine which controls can substantively improve home computing security. This praxis will then apply our methodology using examples to demonstrate its benefits.

The proposal generalization of expert estimates concordance idea for the case of nonlinear preferance function guaranties on optimal concordance of mesuarement and expert data, whereas machine learning approach ensure the possibility of more accurate approximation expert preference function with complex structure.
Предложен подход согласования экспертных оценок для случая нелинейных функций предпочтения, который гарантирует оптимальное согласование данных измерений и экспертных данных, который при использовании методов машинного обучения обеспечивает возможность построения более точной аппроксимационной функции предпочтений эксперта.

Decision making is an essential activity for humans and often becomes complex in the presence of uncertainty or insufficient knowledge. This research aims at estimating preferences using pairwise comparisons. A decision maker uses pairwise comparison when he/she is unable to directly assign criteria weights or scores to the available options. The judgments provided in pairwise comparisons may not always be consistent for several reasons. Experimentation has been used to obtain statistical evidence related to the widely-used consistency measures. The results highlight the need to propose new consistency measures. Two new consistency measures - termed congruence and dissonance - are proposed to aid the decision maker in the process of elicitation. Inconsistencies in pairwise comparisons are of two types i.e. cardinal and ordinal. It is shown that both cardinal and ordinal consistency can be improved with the help of these two measures. A heuristic method is then devised to detect and remove intransitive judgments. The results suggest that the devised method is feasible for improving ordinal consistency and is computationally more efficient than the optimization-based methods. There exist situations when revision of judgments is not allowed and prioritization is required without attempting to remove inconsistency. A new prioritization method has been proposed using the graph-theoretic approach. Although the performance of the proposed prioritization method was found to be comparable to other approaches, it has practical limitation in terms of computation time. As a consequence, the problem of prioritization is explored as an optimization problem. A new method based on multi-objective optimization is formulated that offers multiple non-dominated solutions and outperforms all other relevant methods for inconsistent set of judgments. A priority estimation tool (PriEsT) has been developed that implements the proposed consistency measures and prioritization methods. In order to show the benefits of PriEsT, a case study involving Telecom infrastructure selection is presented.

Aerospace systems are complex systems with interacting disciplines and technologies. As a result, the Decision Makers (DMs) dealing with such problems are involved in balancing the multiple, potentially conflicting attributes/criteria, transforming a large amount of customer supplied guidelines into a solidly defined set of requirement definitions. A variety of existing decision making methods are available to deal with this type of decision problems. The selection of a most appropriate decision making method is of particular importance since inappropriate decision methods are likely causes of misleading engineering design decisions. The research presented in this dissertation proposes a knowledge-based Multi-criteria Interactive Decision-making Advisor and Synthesis process (MIDAS), which can facilitate the selection of the most appropriate decision making method and which provides insight to the user for fulfilling different preferences. Once the most appropriate method is selected for the given problem, the advisor is also able to aid the DM to reach the final decision by following the rigorous problem solving procedure of the selected method. The MIDAS can also provide guidance as to the requirements needed to be fulfilled by a potentially new method for cases where no suitable method is found. In many other domains, such as complex system operation, decisions are often made in an environment with continuously changing situations. In addition, the decisions are usually completed based on uncertain or incomplete information due to the data availability and the environmental variation. This fact exacerbates the complexity of the decision making process because it results in the difficulties in perfectly and deterministically reasoning about the effects of the decisions and thus make it hard in determining the further decisions. In order to make proper decision and increase the system’s effectiveness, an advanced decision strategy is needed to capture the system’s dynamic characteristics and environmental uncertainty. An autonomous decision making advisor is developed to perform the real-time decision making under uncertainty. The development of the advisor system aims to solve a resource allocation problem to redistribute the limited resources to different agents under various scenarios and try to maximize the total rewards obtained from the resource allocation actions.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2003.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: One of the most difficult and more important decisions taken by a client is the selection of the most appropriate contractor. It requires the assessment of various factors, often conflicting, in order to determine the most appropriate contractor and are therefore classified as a problem that can be resolved by using multiple criteria decision making methods. The act of decision making is never an easy one and requires a sound understanding of the requirement, the alternatives and the model used to assess the alternatives in terms of the requirement in order to instil confidence that the most appropriate alternative is selected. The appropriateness of the methods used in contractor evaluation has a vital impact on the cost of the transaction. The three broad categories, or schools of thought, relating to multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) methods are assessed in terms of their applicability to the contractor selection problem within a quasi-government organisation, namely Armscor. Of the three categories, only the methods of the value measurement category were found to be appropriate within the current legislative framework of the Preferential Procurement Act, which seeks to express the performance of an offer as a unique numerical function. The old contractor selection model of direct point allocation on a qualitative scale is shown to be inappropriate, especially in terms of the additive utility assumption of single dimensional units. The proposed new model makes use of the weighted product model that is not restricted by the additive utility assumption as it results in dimensionless analysis of the criteria. The utility functions associated with the quantitative criteria uses curves which are raised to the power of the confidence variable. The arithmetic mean of these variables represents the group’s confidence level associated with each contractor’s offer in the correctness and/or its ability to maintain the stated level of performance. Furthermore, the analytic hierarchy process is used for the assessment of the qualitative criteria. The new model, although not perfect, is an improvement over the old model with regards to the understanding of the requirement as well as the assessment of contractors’ proposals.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die keuse van ‘n kontrakteur is een van die moeilikste besluite wat ‘n kliënt moet neem, dit is egter ook een van die belangrikste besluite wat geneem word. Ten einde die mees geskikte kontrakteur te kies, moet daar ‘n waarde geheg word aan verskeie faktore, menigmaal teenstrydig, wat kontrakteur seleksie klassifiseer as ‘n probleem wat deur middel van meervoudige-kriteria-besluitnemingsmetodes opgelos kan word. Die handeling van besluitneming is nooit ‘n maklike een en vereis deeglike kennis van die behoefte, die alternatiewe, asook die model wat gebruik word om die alternatiewe in terme van die behoefte te waardeer in orde om vertroue in die gekose alternatief te hê. Vir die doeleindes van hierdie studie is die drie kategorieë van meervoudige-kriteria-besluitnemingsmetodes vergelyk in terme van hul toepaslikheid op die voorafgenoemde probleem binne ‘n Semi-Staatsinstelling, naamlik Krygkor, met die oogmerk om die beste metode te identifiseer. Slegs die metodes vervat in die waarde-meting kategorie is geskik binne die Wet op die Raamwerk vir Voorkeurverkrygingsbeleid wat die evaluasie van ‘n aanbod uitdruk as ‘n unieke numeriese funksie. Uit die studie blyk dit dat die vorige kontrakteur seleksie model van direkte punt allokasie op ‘n kwalitatiewe skaal onvanpas is, veral in terme van die sommerings-nutfunksie aanname van enkel dimensionele eenhede. Die model wat eerder aanbeveel word, maak gebruik van die geweegde-produk-model wat nie beperk word deur die bogenoemde aanname nie, aangesien dit dimensielose analise tot gevolg het. Nutfunksies wat geassosieër word met kwantitatiewe kriteria, word voorgestel deur kurwes wat tot die mag van die vertrouensvlak-veranderlike gehef word. Die rekenkundige gemiddelde van hierdie veranderlike verteenwoordig die groep se vertrouensvlak met betrekking tot elke kontrakteur se akkuraatheid en vermoeë om die gespesifiseerde vlak van werkverrigting te handhaaf. Die kwalitatiewe kriteria word beoordeel deur gebruik te maak van die analitiese hiërargie proses. Die gevolgtrekking wat uiteindelik gemaak word is dat die nuwe model, alhoewel nie foutloos, tog ‘n verbetering is op die vorige model, veral met betrekking tot die insig wat verkry word deur die ontleding van die kontrakteurs se voorstelle in terme van die bepaalde behoefte wat bevredig moet word, ten einde die beste keuse uit te oefen.

[EN] The main objectives of this research are the following. First, to analyse the models and methods in Decision Support Systems (DSS) for forest management, taking into account the important features which allow forestry related problems to be categorized. Second, to define strategic criteria for the sustainable management of Mediterranean forests, as well as to elicit and aggregate the stakeholders' preferences. Third, to propose a robust methodology to implement collaborative management focused on ESS and to develop indicators for the main functions of ESS. The methodology is based on a workshop and surveys to elicit the decision makers', experts' and other stakeholders' preferences. Several techniques were then used to aggregate individual judgements and determine social preferences, in particular, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Goal Programming (GP). In addition, a PROMETHEE based method has been developed to provide indicators of the ESS, classified into provisioning, maintenance and direct to citizens services. The analysis of DSS for forest management has shown that the best choice of approach to solve a given problem depend on its nature, which can be characterized by the temporal scale, spatial context, spatial scale, number of decision makers or stakeholders, objectives and finally goods and services involved. A decision hierarchy for strategic management of Valencian forests has been developed by involving experts during the design phase. This was later validated in consultation with the stakeholders in a workshop and provides the base from which to obtain the social preferences. The results show greater importance for environmental and social criteria and lesser relevance for economic criteria, valid for both public and private Mediterranean forests. This result is the same regardless of which preference aggregation technique was used and takes into account the preferences of the majority of the stakeholders and also the minority opinions furthest from the consensus. New products and services such as rural tourism, renewable energies, landscape, hydrological regulation and erosion control, biodiversity and climate change mitigation are relevant. This research also proposes a robust methodology to implement collaborative management focused on ESS provided by protected areas and aggregated indicators for their main functions. Decision makers, technical staff and other stakeholders are included in the process from the beginning, by identifying ESS and eliciting preferences using the AHP method. Qualitative and quantitative data are then integrated into a PROMETHEE based method in order to obtain indicators for provisioning, maintenance and direct to citizens services. This methodology, which has been applied in a forest natural park, provides a tool for exploiting available technical and social data in a continuous process, as well as graphical results, which are easy to understand. This approach also overcomes the difficulties found in prioritising management objectives in a multiple criteria context with limited resources and facilitates consensus between all of the people involved. The new indicators define an innovative approach to assessing the ESS from the supply perspective and provide basic information to help establish payment systems for environmental services and compensation for natural disasters.
[ES] Los principales objetivos de esta investigación son los siguientes. En primer lugar, analizar los modelos y los métodos de los sistemas de ayuda a la toma de decisiones para gestión forestal, teniendo en cuenta las características relevantes que permiten clasificar los problemas forestales. En segundo lugar, definir los criterios estratégicos para la gestión forestal sostenible del bosque mediterráneo, así como obtener y agregar las preferencias de los decisores y otras partes interesadas. En tercer lugar, proponer una metodología robusta para implementar una gestión colaborativa centrada en los servicios del ecosistema y desarrollar indicadores para las principales funciones de estos servicios. La metodología se fundamenta en una jornada de trabajo con decisores, expertos y otros grupos de personas interesadas, así como en encuestas a todos ellos. Después se han utilizado varias técnicas para agregar las preferencias individuales y determinar las preferencias de los distintos grupos sociales, en particular el proceso analítico jerárquico y la programación por metas. Adicionalmente, se ha desarrollado un método basado en PROMETHEE que permite obtener indicadores de los servicios del ecosistema, clasificados en servicios de producción, mantenimiento y directos a los ciudadanos. El análisis de los sistemas de ayuda a la toma de decisiones para gestión forestal ha puesto de manifiesto que los mejores enfoques para resolver los problemas forestales dependen de su naturaleza, caracterizada por la escala temporal, el contexto espacial, la escala espacial, el número de decisores o personas interesadas, el número de objetivos y por último los bienes y servicios involucrados. Se ha desarrollado una jerarquía de decisión para la gestión estratégica de los bosques valencianos involucrando a expertos en la fase de diseño. Este modelo fue validado posteriormente por las partes interesadas en una jornada organizada con esta finalidad y ha sido la base para obtener las preferencias sociales. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto la mayor importancia de los criterios medioambientales y sociales y la menor relevancia de los económicos, tanto para el monte mediterráneo público como privado. Este resultado es independiente del método de agregación utilizado y tiene en cuenta tanto las preferencias de la mayoría como de la minoría más alejada del consenso. Son relevantes los nuevos productos y servicios tales como el turismo rural, las energías renovables, el paisaje, la regulación hidrológica y el control de la erosión, la biodiversidad y la mitigación del cambio climático. Esta investigación también propone una metodología robusta para implementar una gestión colaborativa centrada en los servicios del ecosistema que proporcionan las áreas protegidas e indicadores agregados para sus principales funciones. Los responsables de las decisiones, el personal técnico y otras personas interesadas han participado desde el inicio del proceso, identificando los servicios del ecosistema y proporcionado sus preferencias mediante la técnica del proceso analítico jerárquico. Después se integran los datos cualitativos y cuantitativos en un método basado en PROMETHEE con la finalidad de obtener indicadores para los servicios de producción, mantenimiento y directos a los ciudadanos. Esta metodología, que se ha aplicado en un parque natural, facilita la explotación de los datos técnicos y sociales en un proceso continuo y proporciona resultados gráficos muy fáciles de entender. Este enfoque también permite superar las dificultades que surgen al priorizar los objetivos de gestión en un contexto multicriterio con recursos limitados y facilita el consenso entre todas las personas involucradas. Los nuevos indicadores representan un enfoque innovador para la valoración de los servicios del ecosistema desde el punto de vista de la oferta y proporcionan información básica para establecer sistemas de pagos por
[CAT] Els principals objectius d'aquesta recerca són els següents. En primer lloc, analitzar els models i els mètodes dels sistemes d'ajuda a la presa de decisions per a gestió forestal, tenint en compte les característiques rellevants que permeten classificar els problemes forestals. En segon lloc, definir els criteris estratègics per a la gestió forestal sostenible del bosc mediterrani, com també obtenir i agregar les preferències dels decisors i altres parts interessades. En tercer lloc, proposar una metodologia robusta per a implementar una gestió col·laborativa centrada en els serveis de l'ecosistema i desenvolupar indicadors per a les principals funcions d'aquests serveis. La metodologia es fonamenta en una jornada de treball amb decisors, experts i altres grups de persones interessades, i també en enquestes a tots ells. Després s'han utilitzat diverses tècniques per a afegir-hi les preferències individuals i determinar les preferències dels diferents grups socials, en particular el procés analític jeràrquic i la programació per metes. Addicionalment, s'ha desenvolupat un mètode basat en PROMETHEE que permet obtenir indicadors dels serveis de l'ecosistema, classificats en serveis de producció, manteniment i directes als ciutadans. L'anàlisi dels sistemes d'ajuda a la presa de decisions per a la gestió forestal ha posat de manifest que els millors enfocaments per a resoldre els problemes forestals depenen de la naturalesa d'aquests problemes, caracteritzada per l'escala temporal, el context espacial, l'escala espacial, el nombre de decisors o persones interessades, el nombre d'objectius i, finalment, els béns i serveis involucrats. S'ha desenvolupat una jerarquia de decisió per a la gestió estratègica dels boscos valencians involucrant experts en la fase de disseny. Aquest model ha sigut validat posteriorment per les parts interessades en una jornada organitzada amb aquesta finalitat i ha sigut la base per a obtenir les preferències socials. Els resultats posen de manifest la major importància dels criteris mediambientals i socials i la menor rellevància dels econòmics, tant per a la muntanya mediterrània pública com privada. Aquest resultat és independent del mètode d'agregació utilitzat i té en compte tant les preferències de la majoria com de la minoria més allunyada del consens. Són rellevants els nous productes i serveis, com ara el turisme rural, les energies renovables, el paisatge, la regulació hidrològica i el control de l'erosió, la biodiversitat i la mitigació del canvi climàtic. Aquesta recerca també proposa una metodologia robusta per a implementar una gestió col·laborativa centrada en els serveis de l'ecosistema que proporcionen les àrees protegides i indicadors agregats per a les seues funcions principals. Els responsables de les decisions, el personal tècnic i altres persones interessades hi han participat des de l'inici del procés, identificant els serveis de l'ecosistema i proporcionant les seues preferències mitjançant la tècnica del procés analític jeràrquic. Després s'integren les dades qualitatives i quantitatives en un mètode basat en PROMETHEE amb la finalitat d'obtenir indicadors per als serveis de producció, manteniment i directes als ciutadans. Aquesta metodologia, que s'ha aplicat en un parc natural, facilita l'explotació de les dades tècniques i socials en un procés continu i proporciona resultats gràfics molt fàcils d'entendre. Aquest enfocament també permet superar les dificultats que sorgeixen a l'hora de prioritzar els objectius de gestió en un context multicriteri amb recursos limitats i facilita el consens entre totes les persones involucrades. Els nous indicadors representen un enfocament innovador per a la valoració dels serveis de l'ecosistema des del punt de vista de l'oferta i proporcionen informació bàsica per a establir sistemes de pagaments per serveis ambientals i compensacions per desastres naturals.
Segura Maroto, M. (2015). ASSESSMENT OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES BASED ON MULTIPLE CRITERIA AND GROUP DECISION MAKING [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/57955
TESIS

The investigation reported in this dissertation attempts to determine the feasibility of using a distance-based approach like compromise programming for discrete-time dynamic programming problems with multiple objectives. In compromise programming, a function measuring the distance from a generally infeasible ideal solution to the feasible set of the problem is the single objective acting as a surrogate for the set of multiple objectives. Since, in general, there is no single best solution to a multiple objective problem, a framework to generate a family of compromise solutions interactively on a computer is proposed. Various quantities relevant to dynamic compromise programming are defined in precise terms. Dynamic compromise programming problems are computationally difficult to solve because in order to make the distance function decomposable over stages, dimensionality of the state-space must be increased by the number of objectives. To generate compromise solutions, quasi-Newton differential dynamic programming (QDDP), a recently developed variable-metric method for discrete-time optimal control, was employed. QDDP is attractive because no second order or Hessian information is required as input. Instead, Hessian matrices are approximated by first order or gradient information. Since very little is known about its numerical properties, computational experiments were conducted on QDDP. A new strategy for updating Hessian matrix approximations was computationally tested. A constrained QDDP algorithm is proposed, computationally tested, and applied to solve a multiobjective dynamic programming problem with inequality constraints at each stage. The algorithm has the potential for application to the more general discrete-time optimal control problem with stage constraints. The framework for generating compromise solutions interactively was implemented for prototype problems. Because decision maker interaction is crucial in a multiple objective situation, special attention was paid towards developing a man-machine interface using on-screen windows. All implementation and computational testing were done on a UNIX based personal computer.

The concept of fuzzy multi criteria decision making process has received significant attention from research community due to its successful applications for human based decision making problems under fuzzy environment. It complements the decision makers to evaluate their subjective judgements under situations that are vague, imprecise, random and uncertain in nature. Inspired by such real applications, in this research study, the theoretical foundation of a hybrid fuzzy multi criteria decision making model based on new centroid defuzzification method is proposed. The proposed model tackles some issues that may be associated with the selection problems of the multi criteria decision making such as deriving decision criteria important weights, ranking various alternatives, suitable combination of fuzzy multi criteria decision making techniques and proper defuzzification method used. In developing the hybrid model, two multi criteria decision making techniques are integrated which are; 1) consistent fuzzy preference relations and; 2) fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution. It is also incorporated together with new defuzzification method namely intuitive multiple centroid. In the view of evidence outlined in this study, the proposed model serves as a generic multi criteria decision making procedure, particularly when fuzzy sets are involved in the decision process. The two major contributions from this study are that: 1) The intuitive multiple centroid defuzzification capable to cater all possible representations of fuzzy sets reasonably and consistent with human intuition or judgment. 2) The generalised hybrid fuzzy multiple decision making model using intuitive multiple centroid gives better computation to evaluate criteria and alternatives in decision making problems under different uncertain environment. Furthermore, an empirical validation of the proposed model is investigated through conducting a case study of staff recruitment in MESSRS SAPRUDIN, IDRIS & CO, Malaysia. In this case study, a group of three decision makers, and four finalist of candidates are selected to take part of this case study. Their involvement achieved the first objective of the case study. At the end of the case study, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to indicate the robustness and the consistency of the results obtained. It is concluded that the proposed model is indeed beneficial under different environment.

In practice, optimization problems are often multiple criteria. The criteria are usually contradictory, so the final decision depends on a decision maker. When the problem is solved interactively, the decision maker can change his/her preferences in decision process. Moreover, it is important to obtain solutions from the whole Pareto front. A decision support system adapted to the specific of the problem is essential for solving multiple criteria optimization problems interactively. The objects of research are multiple criteria optimization problems, interactive methods for solving these problems, interactive decision support systems, and application of parallel computing in decision support systems. Multiple criteria optimization methods are analyzed in the dissertation. The focus of attention is the methods for a uniform distribution of solutions on the Pareto front as well as the interactive methods. An interactive way for solving multicriteria optimization problems, which finds alternative solutions uniformly distributed on the Pareto front is proposed and investigated in this dissertation. An interactive decision support system which integrates the created interactive solving way, the decision process visualization and parallelization for multiple criteria optimization is developed. The solving strategies, when a multiple criteria optimization problem is solved interactively, using a computer cluster are developed and compared experimentally. The time required for a... [to full text]
Praktikoje dažnai tenka spręsti sudėtingus daugiakriterinius optimizavimo uždavinius, kai kriterijai būna prieštaringi, o galutinis apsisprendimas priklauso nuo sprendimų priėmėjo. Kai sprendimų priėmėjas dalyvauja sprendimo procese interaktyviai, tai jis gali koreguoti prioritetus ir siekiamus tikslus uždavinio sprendimo eigoje, kas įgalina spęsti uždavinius, turinčius daug kriterijų ir apribojimų. Be to, sprendimo priėmėjui svarbu gauti sprendinius iš visos Pareto aibės. Interaktyviam uždavinių sprendimui būtina sprendimų paramos sistema, kurios grafinė sąsaja yra pritaikyta sprendžiamam uždaviniui. Šio darbo tyrimų sritis yra interaktyvus daugiakriterinių optimizavimo uždavinių sprendimas bei sprendimų paramos sistemos. Disertacijoje nagrinėjant daugiakriterinio optimizavimo metodus, didesnis dėmesys skirtas metodams, užtikrinantiems gaunamų sprendinių tolygų pasiskirstymą Pareto aibėje bei interaktyviems metodams. Pasiūlytas ir ištirtas daugiakriterinių optimizavimo uždavinių sprendimo būdas, leidžiantis spręsti daugiakriterinius optimizavimo uždavinius interaktyviai ir užtikrinantis gaunamų sprendinių tolygų pasiskirstymą Pareto aibėje. Sukurta ir ištirta interaktyvi daugiakriterinių optimizavimo uždavinių sprendimų paramos sistemą, apjungianti pasiūlytą optimizavimo uždavinių sprendimo būdą, sprendimo proceso vizualizavimą ir jo lygiagretinimą. Taip pat pasiūlyta sprendimo strategija, pagal kurią sprendžiant daugiakriterinį optimizavimo uždavinį pasitelkiamas... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

This study is concerned with a sorting problem
the placement of alternatives into preference classes in the existence of multiple criteria. An interactive model is developed to address the problem, assuming that the decision maker has an underlying utility function which is linear. A recent methodology, Even-Swaps, which is based on value tradeoff is utilized in the model for both making an estimation of the underlying utility function and generating possible dominance among the alternatives on which it is performed. Convex combinations, dominance relations, weight space reduction, Even-Swaps and direct decision maker placements are utilized to place alternatives in preference classes. The proposed algorithm is experimented with randomly generated alternative sets having different characteristics.

博士
國立臺灣科技大學
工業管理系
102
Due to the importance and need of giving managers an overall tool for supporting the decision making process from a more general perspective, the present research introduces integrated multi-criteria approaches for decision making problems and applications. The aspect of this dissertation is to address two key studies. One of studies relates to the performance evaluation of the multiple manufacturing plants. This study develops an integrated approach that combines the voting method based on modified DEA and the fuzzy TOPSIS method to evaluate the performance of multiple manufacturing plants in a fuzzy environment. Fuzzy TOPSIS helps decision makers carry out analysis and comparisons in ranking their preference of the alternatives with vague or imprecise data. Since the evaluation result is often greatly affected by the weights used in the evaluation process, the voting method is used in this study to determine the appropriate criteria weights. The other study relates to the identification of key factors in improving the service quality of nursing homes. This study looks at improving the service quality in nursing homes as well as the intricate relationships between various factors. We use two research models herein. First, Interpretive Structural Modeling establishes the criteria for the inter-relationship structure, categorized according to their driving power and dependence. This methodology provides a means by which order can be imposed on the complexity of such criteria. Insights from this model can help top managers in strategic planning to improve the service quality in nursing home care. Second, because ISM does not provide any weighting associated with the criteria, we employ the Analytic Network Process approach to calculate the weighted importance of the key factors and to identify those factors impacting the service quality of nursing home care.

碩士
中華大學
工業工程與管理研究所
88
In the past, we used Computer Simulation software to assist decision-maker to choose the best appropriate alternative for disposing of system problems. However, Computer Simulation software only used single criteria concept to generate the outcome. This rough estimation ignored the situation in the real world, and might come up with inappropriate result. Alternative evaluation should include characteristic of multiple criteria, but if we used only single criteria for decision-making, deviation might occur possibly. This deviation might lead to error and is unable to achieve expectant goal. This investigation is to associate Computer Simulation software and Multiple Criteria Decision-Making analysis, two analysis tools to design Multiple Criteria Decision-Making Supporter Programming (MCDMSP) individually, and use Taguchi method to dispose the experiment. Before using this program, we create case-study of hypothesis manufacturing system problems and explain analytical method to make use of process and result of executive. Compare it with single criteria decision-making analytical method moreover to find out the difference in the result and to explain its executing effects. Besides, proposing the structure of Multiple Criteria Decision-Making analysis to adopt in Computer Simulation software alternative evaluation. Understanding the usage and effectiveness of the Computer Simulation software supplementary function program will help us to know this new contemplation direction and to choose the best appropriate alternative for disposing of system problems.

博士
中原大學
企業管理研究所
105
With the gradual improvement of the socialist market economy system in China, increasingly more enterprises are introducing modern enterprise systems to meet the needs of emerging markets. One of the most substantial paradigm shifts of modern business management is that individual manufacturers no longer compete as solely autonomous entities, but rather as internetwork competition. Therefore, new concepts of supply chain management (SCM) are arising. Global environmental issues have attracted increasing public attention in recent years. As one of the most crucial industries in China, the automotive industry should focus on green SCM, and consequently, environmental factors for supplier selection should be considered. In addition, as a crucial part of producer services, the logistics industry is highly dependent on the manufacturing industry. In general, the interactive development of logistics and manufacturing industries is essential; in particular, it is a key to improving core competitiveness and promoting ongoing improvement among manufacturing firms. Supply chain management is a classic case of multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM). The decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory–based analytic network process (DANP) has played a paramount role in identifying key factors and causal relationships. However, the DANP usually requires pairwise comparison questionnaire surveys. Respondents may be unwilling to fill out a large number of questionnaire items; this can interfere with the final outcome analysis and limits the application of the DANP and the use of secondary data. Therefore, this dissertation proposes a novel MCDM model combining grey relational analysis and the DANP, namely the GDANP. The GDANP can measure influence relationships and causal relationships through Delphi surveys and secondary data. To highlight the application and development potential of the GDANP in SCM, it was applied in two real-world cases. Case 1 identified key factors affecting Chinese automotive manufacturers in their green parts’ supplier selection by Delphi questionnaires. The results showed that the key factors are cost, quality, technology, and pollution control, respectively, in supplier selection. They also showed that Chinese automotive manufacturers consider economic factors to be much more important than environmental factors and gradually attach greater importance to green management by emphasising pollution control. In Case 2, statistical data for logistics and manufacturing industries in the China Statistical Yearbook (2006–2015) were used to identify the key factors for interaction between these two industries. The results showed that the key logistics criteria for interaction development are the total number of employees in the transport business, volume of goods, and total length of routes. The key manufacturing criteria for interaction development are gross domestic product and value added. Therefore, stakeholders should increase the number of employees in the transport industry and freight volumes. Also, the investment in infrastructure should be increased. Based on the practical results, the GDANP has two clear advantages over the traditional methods. 1. The GDANP allows the use of historical statistical data as input, rather than respondent questionnaires, which enables the GDANP to achieve superior results with secondary data. Because negative performance values can also be analyzed in the GDANP, it is more flexible than the traditional entropy method. 2. The GDANP can automatically generate comparison matrices of pairwise influence, greatly reducing computational complexity and obviating the requirement for respondents to fill out numerous items derived from a tedious comparison matrix of pairwise influence. The results obtained by the GDANP are consistent with expert opinions, which highlights the effectiveness and excellent development potential of the proposed method in the practice of SCM.

碩士
國立虎尾科技大學
工業工程與管理研究所
99
Gartner reported that worldwide mobile device sales to end users reached 1.6 billion units in 2010; smart phone sales grew 72 percent in 2010, and accounted for 19 percent of total mobile communications device sales in 2010. Strong smart phone sales in the fourth quarter of 2010 pushed Apple and Research In Motion (RIM) up in our 2010 worldwide ranking of mobile device manufacturers to the No. 5 and No. 4 positions, respectively, displacing SonyEricsson and Motorola. This means the smart phone market is soaring. All suppliers pour into high value-added smart phone market, and the market is expected to gain higher revenue and profits. However, most new products are unable to survive in market; especially the technological products like smart phones. The one of reasons is that suppliers take the preferences of engineers instead of consumers’ preferences. The objective of this research is to investigate the consumers’ preferences of function attributes of smart phones. The questionnaires were first given to the experts/sales in the cell phone shops to collect the relatively important function attributes. Then, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) questionnaires were given to the smart phone users, and the data is used to derive the weight of function attributes. Finally, Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution(TOPSIS)、Grey Relational Analysis(GRA) were used to select the best choice of smart phones. The results of the research showed: 1. There are 15 important function attributes picked up by experts/sales in the cell phone shops. 2. After the AHP, the top five function attributes are application software, global positioning system (GPS), user interface, Internet connectivity, and games. 3. Based on the weight of function attributes, SonyEricsson is selected by using TOPSIS and GRA. However, iPhone is the best seller in the smart phone market right now; thus, it may indicate that the function attributes are not the only decision factor of consumer to select a smart phone.

碩士
朝陽科技大學
企業管理系
105
The purpose of this study is to evaluate and develop a model of marketing audit (MA) implementation criteria. This study appears to be one of the first papers to focus on the use and contribution of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) on the marketing audit implementation criteria. Based on ten practical marketing experts’ opinions and evaluations from Taiwan, we conducted an AHP decision model for assessing the priority of marketing audits criteria for Taiwan’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Our study consists of two phases. In the first phase, we investigate the potential criteria of marketing audits implementation from literature. Then, in the second phase, we created an AHP model to determine the relative priorities of auditing criteria by accommodating both the objective and subjective judgments of the ten practical experts participating in this study. Our result indicates that the marketing strategy related standards and auditing criteria appear to be the top priority while implementing MA and the following are the marketing environment audit, marketing productivity audit, marketing system audit, marketing organization audit, and marketing function audit. In addition, from the perspective of cause-effect relationship, the marketing environments, organization, strategy audits appear to be the causes of the marketing system, function and productivity audits. This study also proposes some suggestions for the decision making of practical hierarchical marketing audit criteria. A comparative analysis of results by VIKOR method and survey method used in 2010 showed that the both priorities of implementing marketing audit dimensions are similar, and marketing strategy audit, marketing environment audit and marketing productivity audit contribute firms greater than the other dimensions.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Information and Communications Technology, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2017.
The selection of an appropriate vendor from a set of competing vendors in information technology outsourcing is an essential decision for the effective and efficient management of supply chain management in a fiercely competitive environment. Given the growing and intensive applications of information technology resources to improve process efficiency, achieve growth, foster innovation and transform service delivery, the need arises to outsource the major information technology operations of an organisation, as a strategy for organisations to concentrate on their core businesses. Information technology outsourcing is an important constituent in supply chain management, because it demands effective selection of an appropriate vendor, based on multiple conflicting criteria. Supply chain management places strong emphasis on effective evaluation and selection of vendors against usually conflicting multiple criteria, rather than on cost as a single criterion upon which to base a decision. Multiple criteria generally include both qualitative and quantitative attributes, some of which can be fuzzy in nature. The overarching purpose of this research is to screen the most important criteria of information technology outsourcing for vendor selection based on expert opinions. The experts are from institutions of higher education, health, inspection and testing, property, shipping, state own enterprise, local government and transportation, who share their views regarding criteria that influence their vendor selection decision. Since the vendor selection decision is characterised by a high degree of subjectivity, interdependency and conflicting criteria, the analytic hierarchy process is applied to determine the weights of the identified criteria, evaluate and rank the potential vendors that provide information technology outsourcing services to the sampled institutions. The sample size for this research comprises 16 respondents and the 11 criteria which are cost, quality, commitment, additional resources, additional expertise, prior work, contract terms, confidentiality, location, on supplier database and black economic empowerment. Results show that quality of product is the most important attribute for vendor selection in information technology outsourcing. In addition, the study found that the sampled institutions can categorise their information technology outsourcing vendors more effectively and select a more effective supply chain partner. Moreover, the sampled institutions can provide unsatisfactory vendors with valuable feedback that will help them improve and become good partners in the future.
M

碩士
國立交通大學
管理學院工業工程與管理學程
102
In this thesis, AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) and DEMATEL (Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) are fused to evaluate Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC). Initially, AHP is applied to end-users for deriving the independent weights of evaluation criteria (associated with sub-criteria). Thereafter, DEMATEL is applied to franchisees for calculating the causalities among the criteria to obtain the interdependent weights. Furthermore, a radar plot is displayed to visualize the strengths and weaknesses of three alternatives, namely, Allen-Bradley, Mitsubishi and SIEMENS. Rather than depending on experts’ subjective preferences, obviously, this thesis provides a systematic framework to carry out PLC assessment in practice. More importantly, with incurring limited pair-wise comparisons, the presented framework is highly feasible to perform PLC recommendation for fulfilling factory monitoring.

Man, Chi Yan.
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 38-41).
Abstracts in English and Chinese.
Chapter Chapter 1: --- Introduction --- p.1
Difficult goals in multiple-goal context --- p.1
Multiple-goal achievement as a complex task --- p.2
Moderating effect of cognitive flexibility --- p.4
Moderating effect of multiple-goal efficacy --- p.5
The model --- p.6
Chapter Chapter 2: --- Study 1 --- p.8
Method --- p.8
Participants --- p.8
Procedures --- p.8
Measures --- p.8
Analysis --- p.10
Model testing --- p.12
Hypotheses testing --- p.13
Discussion --- p.14
Chapter Chapter 3: --- Study 2 --- p.19
Method --- p.19
Participants --- p.19
Task --- p.19
Procedures --- p.22
Measures --- p.23
Analysis --- p.25
Manipulation checks and other data inspection --- p.25
Hypotheses testing --- p.32
Discussion --- p.32
Chapter Chapter 4: --- General discussion --- p.34
Limitation --- p.34
Implications --- p.35
Conclusion --- p.37
References --- p.38
Appendix A --- p.42
Appendix B --- p.43

The second marketing model addresses interpretation issues of traditional multiple dimensional scaling (MDS) model, and has three key features. First, it can provide an explicit meaning to each dimension. Second, it can directly provide a link between brand positions and brand attributes, so that marketing mix can be designed to optimize share or profit. Third, for a case of n brands and m product attributes, we only need to estimate m nonzero parameters to represent all brand positions in the reduced space of d dimensions where d < m. The model is applied to a real data set of thirty four cars and nine attributes. Empirical findings suggest that the proposed model is a viable alternative to existing methods.
This thesis proposes two marketing models. The first model is a multiple criteria ranking (MCR) model. It proposes a consensus approach to solve multiple criteria ranking problems. Marketing decisions frequently involve ranking various subjects using multiple criteria. However, it is difficult to have acceptance from all subjects. The proposed multiple criteria ranking model allows each subject to have a "say" in the evaluation process. All subjects together resolve their conflicts through voting so that consensus ranking can be derived under the majority rule principle. The new ranking procedure can be formulated as a series of mathematical programming models, and illustrated with two cases. First, ranking the research performance of thirty one marketing scholars according to their publications in four leading marketing journals. Second, ranking the performance of one hundred information technology companies.
Lam Pong Yuen.
"June 2000."
Added t.p. in Chinese.
Director: Lau Kin Nam.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 61-08, Section: A, page: 3259.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000.
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest dissertations and theses, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Abstracts in English and Chinese.
School code: 1307.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--State University of New York at Buffalo, 2007.
Title from PDF title page (viewed on Mar. 04, 2008) Available through UMI ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Thesis adviser: Zionts, Stanley. Includes bibliographical references.

碩士
國立暨南國際大學
資訊管理學系
95
In 1952, Markowitz proposed the Mean-variance model (MV-model) without considering short selling. Therefore, most researches have focused only on the effect of long position but paid less attention on the behavior of short selling. To cope with the short selling issue, this research proposes four models based on MV-model which releases the limitation of short selling. First, short selling is incorporated into the MV-model. However, short selling is a good hedging tool but with high variance. Thus the number of short selling in the portfolio selection is minimized. Second, under considering the short selling in the portfolio selection, the minimization of proportion of short selling is further considered in the model. Third, in order to eliminate the trade-off between return and risk, the concept of De Novo programming is applied in the portfolio selection model. Hence, the proposed portfolio would show the least budget needed to achieve these two goals at once. Fourth, return, risk, number of sold short, and number of total selected securities are viewed as four criteria to be optimized through multiple objective programming. Two data sets are tested to verify these four models which can choose a portfolio selection effectively under considering short selling.

碩士
國立高雄應用科技大學
金融資訊研究所
93
Various stock screening models, always containing more than one stock selecting rules and corresponding parameters, have been proposed by academic researchers and practitioners. However, the criteria in the traditional screening models employ crisp norms, which are unreasonable in reality. In this thesis, multiple criteria with different weights and fuzzy constraints are used in the proposed screening models for selecting stocks. Different fuzzy multiple criteria decision making techniques are applied to establish the stock screening model, including the weighted sum model by Tiwari et al.(1987), the weighted max-min model by Lin(2004), and the augmented max-min method by Lai et al.(1992). The screening rules consist of those regarding price-earnings ratio, earnings growth rate, market capitalization, return on equity and price-book ratio. Emperical studies with the data from Taiwan Stock Market compare the performance of the proposed stock screening models and the conventional one. From the results, indicate that the portfolio selected by the proposed model outperforms the portfolio by the conventional one in term of the investor expectation.

博士
國防大學理工學院
國防科學研究所
103
Malware is a type of malicious code that would damage the computer. Common anti-virus software prevents known malware with signature-based detection method, and unknown malware is detected with classified model based on machine learning techniques. The procedure of unknown malware detection is first analyzing the benign and malware programs in the dataset and exploring their features into different classes. Then, the machine learning techniques are used to generate classification model. When testing, features of the test program are extracted through the same procedure and predicted by the classification model. In most Two-Class classification algorithm for malware detection, a large and well-defined database is typically required to classify malware and benign programs. However, there is no effective authentication method for benign programs, so errors may exist in the benign program dataset. Most researches neglect this problem and instead focus on improving detection methods. In this study, we combine One-Class machine learning classification method and the Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method into an effective methodology which can detect unknown malware and avoid the problems of defective benign dataset. This thesis consists of three sections. In the first section, related researches are surveyed and the issues caused by the defective database are also verified. In the second section, the static and dynamic analyzing methods are introduced to extract features from samples. In the last section, a valid MCDM combined model is proposed to detect unknown malware. The experiment results show that the proposed method is suitable for unknown malware detection and also robust to defective database.

碩士
逢甲大學
土地管理所
95
For increasing the state revenue, public land has been disposed mostly by selling for long time. Besides financial purpose, the development of public land should also play a role on city growth and the demand and supply of real estate. In reality, the authorities usually rely on their experience and conventional ways when choosing the approaches of public land development, which ignores the characteristics, utilization intensity, local development, and financial resources of individual property. This research discussed the four approaches-sell by tender, superficies, consigned management and simplified cooperation management- to develop state’s land. By analyzing the four methods, the study established the criteria to assess the best model of land development under the analytic hierarchy process. Two development cases in Taichung City were chosen to show how the model worked and evaluated the individual approach. The findings from the research are as follows：The first level prioritized the indexes as site conditions, financial purposes, development factors. The second level criteria gave the order as future potential, substantial conditions, development revenue, investment effect, management cost, and execution. Thus, the self-condition of the national property, the local real estate market, and the overall future urban planning econamically and socially are the most valued in the development process. General speaking, in the low-developed area, the plan for developing is aimed at its short-term goal. For the highly developed area, the best utilization plan would be a complete long-term one.

碩士
東吳大學
企業管理學系
102
Multi-criteria decision making has various applications in real life. We face Multiple Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) problems every day and their criteria very often conflict with each other. MCDM methods have been developed to support decision makers to enhance decision quality. MCDM methods use various calculation methods to evaluate the rank of alternatives. Yet, little evidence could support that the best alternative chosen by MCDM method is same with the decision maker’s ideal alternative. On the other hand, decision makers may provide inconsistent preferences due to cognitive biases. For example, the prospect theory advocates that decision makers show different risk attitudes according to different reference points. Therefore, this study aims to examine and compare existing seven seven MCDM methods including TOPSIS, VIKOR, ELECTRE and the piecewise linear prospect theory method (PLP) in terms of effectiveness by using simulation experiements. Controlling variables include number of alternatives, number of criteria, distribution of data set and dominated or non-dominated data set. We also add three different weight combination in these experiments to see how weights affect the MCDM methods. We test four different utility functions. Except the compensatory, non-compensatory and portion of compensatory utility functions, we also use the prospect theory utility function. After that, we compare the MCDM methods’ ranks with decision maker’s ranks by using assumed preference utility functions. The result shows that interactive methods such as PLP and AHP can provide accurate rank to reflect decision makers’ true wishes. Added to this, PLP can use less interactive times than AHP. All of these methods are based on linear utility function, future research might add different utility concept in MCDM methods.

碩士
國立臺灣大學
地理環境資源學研究所
102
This research aims at developing a greenway network design model for a developed urban area. Since Frederick Law Olmsted built the Emerald Necklace, greenways had become a landscape planning strategy because it provide a new point of view of landscape conservation and make the harmonious coexistence of human and nature more possible. Though numerous researches had developed greenway planning methods, the previous methods did not completely deal with a greenway’s multiple functions including recreation, transportation and ecological conservation. So the main purpose of this study is to develop a new greenway planning model by integrating the factors and relative disciplines about greenway planning into the model. This study applies multiple criteria decision making approaches to develop a greenway planning model that considers human and ecological functions. The analytic network process (ANP) method is adopted to evaluate the significances of patches; and, the evaluation criterias include landscape metrics, species conservation, the accessibility to the hotspot of human activity, environmental vegetation situation and service facility. The multiple objective programing (MOP) method is used to formulate a network design problem for determining the optimal spatial distribution of greenways. The problem considers two objectives including maximum the utilities of human society and natural ecology, and the following constrains: cost, redundant cost, functions and range. To verify the rationality and applicability of the developed model, a case study of greenway planning in Taipei, Taiwan was conducted and concrete recommendation of greenway network alternatives were proposed to the city government. In the case study, expert survey and Super Decision package were applied in ANP analysis and Lingo package and weighting method algorithm were employed in MOP analysis. The proposed greenway planning model contributes to interdisciplinary integrations. The MOP model has comprehensively analyzed the multi-functions of greenways; the ANP evaluation made the model more practical; and, the case study could provide some useful advices for the practicing of greenway plan in terms of such as the budget adjustments and concrete alternatives.

博士
國立臺灣科技大學
工業管理系
102
Improvement of medical quality has become a trend in hospital development. In recent years, environmental protection has become a rising issue in Taiwan, and people have begun to discuss the biomedical waste that comes from hospitals. According to an estimate in “To Err is Human,” published by Institute of Medicine, the economic loss resulting from medical malpractice is about $17 to $29 billion, and the question of whether biomedical waste is properly disposed of is included as an incident of medical malpractice. Therefore, this study aims to study FMEA risk evaluation in order to screen out evaluation factors. Subsequently, the AHP is employed to determine the weight of each factor. Lastly, TOPSIS is employed in the process of biomedical waste outsourcing. The results of the study provide hospitals with biomedical outsourcing critical risk factor criteria and their order by importance, and as a reference for the management of biomedical waste disposal outsourcing.

碩士
國立勤益科技大學
工業工程與管理系
100
The continuous growing prices of gasoline and natural gas reflect the depletion problem of fossil fuels. On top of that, the emerging consciousness about environmental degradation has given the priority to the use of renewable energy resources. Currently, common renewable energy resources include wind energy, hydraulic energy, and geothermal energy and biomass energy etc. Specifically, the international marketplace of solar power has grown rapidly from the proportion of 45% in 2003 and the proportion has also increased every year. Because of the Renewable Energy Act and related regulations, solar energy has received increasing attention in the energy market, and this leads to the boom of solar cells, modules and systems. Consequently, the emerging market of Photovoltaic boosts the generation of solar industry and more and more correlated companies have been established. This study aims to evaluate six kinds of materials in the solar cell industry. To solve such a multi-attribute decision making problem, we apply decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) to deal with the qualitative problem quantitatively and to determine the direct and indirect relationships among the criteria. Based on the result, a questionnaire is prepared to collect the opinions of the experts, and analytic network process (ANP) is adopted to pairwise compare the elements in the network with the consideration of the interrelationships among the elements. In this study, and add the concept of fuzzy theory. Through a combination of DEMATEL and ANP, respectively in four research methods, improve case accuracy is better and careful. The priorities of the alternatives can then be calculated. The ranking results can provide decision makers as a reference for making relevant decisions.

碩士
國立成功大學
資訊工程學系
103
Big data processing becomes more and more important, so the cloud computing is gaining increasing interest both in science and industry. One of the most popular framework in cloud computing is the MapReduce framework which exploits the advantage of distributed computing and highly reliability and scalability. But MapReduce framework is the master-slave architecture, so if the master node failed, the system would occur error at unpredictable result. So using the peer-servicing architecture is the solution to avoid a single point of failure, we call it vapor computing. It means that peer nodes compute each task assigned to them until the whole job is completed. Consider for the situation that every peer node does the job until the result is formed just like that the vapor gather to transform into cloud. When every user submits the job, the peer nodes would contribute the computing resources for the incentives. But there will be a vapor computing resource allocation problem, so when considering service-oriented criteria, we will take the Multi-Criteria Decision Making method to allocate resources.