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• New point operators for picture fuzzy sets are defined. • Memoryless multiple rounds voting process is stated. • A multi-attribute decision making algorithm is presented to address the problems. • Superiority of the algorithm is demonstrated through numerical examples. Picture fuzzy set (PFS), a generalization of the Atanassov-intuitionistic fuzzy set, is one of the most trustworthy tool to handle the uncertainties in the data during the decision-making process. The objective of this paper is to present some different kinds of the point operators for the PFS. The key feature of the presented point operators is to provide a smaller degree of uncertainty which is equivalent to the corresponding PFS. The desirable properties of the proposed operators are also derived in details. Also, we provide a memoryless multiple rounds voting process under the PFS environment to strength the result, and hence deduce a relationship between the proposed PFS and the existing set. In addition to this, we address the MADM (multiple attribute decision-making) problems by presented an algorithm to solve the problem based on the proposed point operators. The applicability and the superiority of the proposed algorithm are shown through two numerical examples. At last, the validity of the proposed algorithm is tested using different test criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Many individual attributes considered for personnel selection such as organizing ability, creativity, personality, and leadership exhibit vagueness and imprecision. The fuzzy set theory appears as an essential tool to provide a decision framework that incorporates imprecise judgments inherent in the personnel selection process. In this paper, a fuzzy multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) algorithm using the principles of fusion of fuzzy information, 2-tuple linguistic representation model, and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) is developed. The proposed method is apt to manage information assessed using both linguistic and numerical scales in a decision making problem with multiple information sources. Furthermore, it enables managers to deal with heterogeneous information. The decision making framework presented in this paper employs ordered weighted averaging (OWA) operator that encompasses several operators as the aggregation operator since it can implement different aggregation rules by changing the order weights. The aggregation process is based on the unification of information by means of fuzzy sets on a basic linguistic term set (BLTS). Then, the unified information is transformed into linguistic 2-tuples in a way to rectify the problem of loss information of other fuzzy linguistic approaches. The computational procedure of the proposed framework is illustrated through a personnel selection problem reported in an earlier study. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, we extend technique for order preference by similarity ideal solution (TOPSIS) for solving large scale multiple objective programming problems involving fuzzy parameters. These fuzzy parameters are characterized as fuzzy numbers. For such problems, the α-Pareto optimality is introduced by extending the ordinary Pareto optimality on the basis of the α-level sets of fuzzy numbers. An interactive fuzzy decision making algorithm for generating α-Pareto optimal solution through TOPSIS approach is provided where the decision maker (DM) is asked to specify the degree α and the relative importance of objectives. Finally, a numerical example is given to clarify the main results developed in the paper. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, from among multi-criteria models in making complex decisions and multiple attribute models for the most preferable choice, technique for order preference by similarity ideal solution (TOPSIS) approach has been dealt with. In some cases, determining precisely the exact value of the attributes is difficult and that, as a result of this, their values are considered as intervals. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to extend the TOPSIS method for decision-making problems with interval data. By extension of TOPSIS method, an algorithm to determine the most preferable choice among all possible choices, when data is interval, is presented. Finally, an example is shown to highlight the procedure of the proposed algorithm at the end of this paper. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper addresses the planning issue in hinterland barge transport domain, characterized by limited information sharing, lack of cooperation and conflict of interest among different parties (terminal and barge party). The planning problem is formulated as a novel Stackelberg game to model a leader–followers bi-level optimization problem. A hybrid algorithm is developed that concerns different objectives (vessel turn around and terminal berthing capacity) simultaneously while fulling pre-defined operational constraints. The presented algorithm is outlined in a hierarchical way and embedded into dedicated agents as decision-making kernel. We describe the architecture and the implementation of the proposed mediator-based multi agent system and overall coupling framework include agent identification, coordination and decision making. A case study evaluates the performance of our approach in terms of global optimality compared with other related approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, an efficient optimization technique is proposed for constrained optimization problems with interval valued objective function. At first, the significance of interval-valued objective function and the meaning of the interval-valued solution of the proposed problem have been explained with graphical interpretation. Generally, this type of problems has infinitely many compromise solutions. The aim of this approach is to obtain one of such solutions with higher accuracy and lower computational cost. The proposed technique is mainly based on the splitting criterion of the accepted/prescribed search region, calculation of the interval inclusion functions and the selection of subregion depending on the modified interval order relations in the context of the decision makers’ point of view. Novel interval oriented constraint satisfaction rules are used for non-interval equality and inequality constraints. Clearly, the proposed technique is nothing but an imitation of well known interval analysis based branch and bound (B &B) optimization approach. The modified multi-section division criterion with some new interval oriented constraint satisfaction rules for non-interval-valued equality and inequality constraints and some novel interval order relations in the context of the decision makers’ point of view have been applied to increase the efficiency of the proposed algorithm. Finally, the technique is applied for solving some test problems and the results are compared with the same obtained from the existing methods. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Soft set theory was originally proposed by Molodtsov as a general mathematical tool for dealing with uncertainty in 1999. Recently, researches of decision making based on soft sets have got some progress, but few people consider multi-experts situation. As such, this paper discusses multi-experts group decision making problems. Firstly, we give a concept of intuitionistic fuzzy soft matrix (IFSM) and prove some relevant properties of IFSM. Then, an adjustable approach is presented by means of median level soft set and p-quantile level soft set for dealing with decision making problems based on IFSM. Thirdly, we study aggregation methods of IFSM, give two kinds of aggregation operators and methods that how to determine experts’ weights under different situation with programming models, four corresponding algorithms have been proposed, too. Finally, a practical example has been demonstrated the reasonability and efficiency of these new algorithms. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Pixel expansion and visual quality of the revealed secret image are two major concerns in visual secret sharing (VSS). Random grid (RG) is an alternative approach to solve the pixel expansion problem by making the share as big as the original secret image, at the expense of sacrificing the visual quality of the reconstructed secret image. In this paper, two algorithms, including a contrast-enhanced RG-based VSS and a void-and-cluster-based (VAC-based) post-processing, are introduced to improve the reconstructed image quality. Experimental results and theoretical analysis are provided, illustrating that competitive visual quality is obtained by combined use of the two proposed methods. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Molodtsov’s soft set theory was originally proposed as a general mathematical tool for dealing with uncertainty. By combining the multi-fuzzy set and soft set models, the purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of multi-fuzzy soft sets. Some operations on a multi-fuzzy soft set are defined, such as complement operation, “AND” and “OR” operations, Union and Intersection operations. Then, the DeMorgan’s laws are proved. Finally, by means of level soft set, an algorithm is presented, and a decision problem is analyzed using multi-fuzzy soft set. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper introduces many objective robust decision making (MORDM). MORDM combines concepts and methods from many objective evolutionary optimization and robust decision making (RDM), along with extensive use of interactive visual analytics, to facilitate the management of complex environmental systems. Many objective evolutionary search is used to generate alternatives for complex planning problems, enabling the discovery of the key tradeoffs among planning objectives. RDM then determines the robustness of planning alternatives to deeply uncertain future conditions and facilitates decision makers'' selection of promising candidate solutions. MORDM tests each solution under the ensemble of future extreme states of the world (SOW). Interactive visual analytics are used to explore whether solutions of interest are robust to a wide range of plausible future conditions (i.e., assessment of their Pareto satisficing behavior in alternative SOW). Scenario discovery methods that use statistical data mining algorithms are then used to identify what assumptions and system conditions strongly influence the cost-effectiveness, efficiency, and reliability of the robust alternatives. The framework is demonstrated using a case study that examines a single city''s water supply in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) in Texas, USA. Results suggest that including robustness as a decision criterion can dramatically change the formulation of complex environmental management problems as well as the negotiated selection of candidate alternatives to implement. MORDM also allows decision makers to characterize the most important vulnerabilities for their systems, which should be the focus of ex post monitoring and identification of triggers for adaptive management. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: US railroad companies spend billions of dollars every year on track maintenance in order to ensure safety and operational efficiency. Optimizing the production team (i.e., large maintenance team) schedule is a very complex problem with major cost implications. In current practice, the decision making process for production team scheduling is largely manual and primarily relies on the knowledge and judgment of experts. This paper addressed the production team scheduling problem by formulating it as a time–space network model with many types of challenging side constraints. Some of these constraints are identified from industry practice and formulated for the first time. Multiple neighborhood search and other enhancement algorithms were proposed to solve the model. The proposed modeling approach has been tested through numerical experiments and also applied to large-scale real-world problem instances, and superior computational performances were found. The proposed approach has been adopted by a Class I railroad to help make annual network maintenance scheduling decisions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Railway dispatchers reschedule trains in real-time in order to limit the propagation of disturbances and to regulate traffic in their respective dispatching areas by minimizing the deviation from the off-line timetable. However, the decisions taken in one area may influence the quality and even the feasibility of train schedules in the other areas. Regional control centers coordinate the dispatchers’ work for multiple areas in order to regulate traffic at the global level and to avoid situations of global infeasibility. Differently from the dispatcher problem, the coordination activity of regional control centers is still underinvestigated, even if this activity is a key factor for effective traffic management. This paper studies the problem of coordinating several dispatchers with the objective of driving their behavior towards globally optimal solutions. With our model, a coordinator may impose constraints at the border of each dispatching area. Each dispatcher must then schedule trains in its area by producing a locally feasible solution compliant with the border constraints imposed by the coordinator. The problem faced by the coordinator is therefore a bilevel programming problem in which the variables controlled by the coordinator are the border constraints. We demonstrate that the coordinator problem can be solved to optimality with a branch and bound procedure. The coordination algorithm has been tested on a large real railway network in the Netherlands with busy traffic conditions. Our experimental results show that a proven optimal solution is frequently found for various network divisions within computation times compatible with real-time operations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, we consider sequential decision problems in which the decision at each time is taken as a convex-combination of observations and whose performance metric is multiplicatively compounded over time. Such sequential decision problems arise in gambling, investing and in a host of signal processing applications from statistical language modeling to mixed-modality multimedia signal processing. Using a competitive algorithm framework, we construct sequential strategies that asymptotically achieve the performance of the best piecewise-convex strategy that could have been chosen by observing the entire sequence of outcomes in advance. Using the notion of context-trees, a mixture approach is able to asymptotically achieve the performance of the best choice of both the partitioning of the space of past observations and convex strategies within each region, for every sequence of outcomes. This performance is achieved with linear complexity in the depth of the context-tree, per decision. For the application of sequential investment, we also investigate transaction costs incurred for each decision. An explicit algorithmic description and examples demonstrating the performance of the algorithms are given. Our methods can be used to sequentially combine probability distributions produced by different statistical language models used in speech recognition or natural language processing and by different modalities in multimedia signal processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, we introduce a new generalization of the well-known Fréchet distance between two polygonal curves, and provide an efficient algorithm for computing it. The classical Fréchet distance between two polygonal curves corresponds to the maximum distance between two point objects that traverse the curves with arbitrary non-negative speeds. Here, we consider a problem instance in which the speed of traversal along each segment of the curves is restricted to be within a specified range. We provide an efficient algorithm that decides in time whether the Fréchet distance with speed limits between two polygonal curves is at most ε, where n is the number of segments in the curves, and is an input parameter. We then use our solution to this decision problem to find the exact Fréchet distance with speed limits in time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: To tackle the problem of rough set on single-universe, we discuss the rough set model over dual-universes in aspect of building connection between single-universe model and dual-universes model. The rough set model over dual-universes denoted as RSMDU in this paper is built through inspecting the relation between the two universes. Firstly, we propose the RSMDU and study its property using character function and relation matrix. The algorithm for obtaining the lower and upper approximations is then presented. Secondly, we show that Pawlak rough set model can be induced using RSMDU. The theorem inferring the connection between Pawlak model induced by RSMDU and RSMDU is presented. Finally, the applications of RSMDU are studied. According to proposed model, we demonstrate that the existing models of rough set are special cases of RSMDU and that the set of conditional attribute and the set of decision attribute can be regarded as dual-universes in decision-making system, where the model can be utilized to handle decision processing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper reviews recent developments in evolutionary algorithms and visualization in the context of multiobjective spatial decision making. A synthetic perspective is employed to bridge these two areas and to create a unified conceptual framework that can be used to address a broad range of multiobjective spatial decision problems. In this framework, evolutionary algorithms are employed to generate optimal, or near-optimal, solutions to a problem being addressed. Alternatives created are then displayed in an interactive visual support system that can be used by decision makers to discover the competing nature of multiple objectives and to gain knowledge about the tradeoffs among alternatives. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Ranking technology suppliers is an important area to which insufficient attention has been paid by researchers. Present models of technology suppliers ranking are all based on both buyer’s perspective as well as on complete discretionary of decision making factors. The objective of this paper is to propose an innovative algorithm for ranking technology suppliers in the presence of nondiscretionary factors from supplier’s perspective. A numerical example demonstrates the application of the proposed method. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In many multi-criteria decision-making applications, the preferential information is of an ordinal nature and appropriate aggregation procedures should be used. In this paper, we build a common axiomatic framework to characterize the “Minimum” procedure as well as two of its refinements, the “DiscriMin” and the “LexiMin”. In practical situations, this axiomatic framework could help to select the best-suited procedure. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper, we show that collaborative services can be formulated into distributed constraint satisfaction problems. We introduce the notion of multi-agent collaborative service (MACS), and employ a distributed discrete Lagrange multipliers (DDLM) method to automatically handle an MACS task. The DDLM method is based on a distributed multi-agent system. The behaviors of agents are guided by predefined DDLM rules. In order to make it more efficient in achieving a solution state, we incorporate strategies for tuning the Lagrange multipliers. We validate the effectiveness of the DDLM method with benchmark SAT problems. Furthermore, we provide the mathematical properties of DDLM and present the corresponding DDLM algorithms. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]