An Interactive Fuzzy Satisficing Method Using Augmented Minimax Problems and Its Application to Environmental Systems

A new interactive fuzzy satisficing method for multiobjective nonlinear programming is presented, by considering that the decisionmaker (DM) has fuzzy goals for each of the objective functions. Through the interaction with the DM, the fuzzy goals of the DM are quantified by eliciting corresponding membership functions. In order to generate a candidate for the satisficing solution (Pareto optimal) after determining the membership functions, if the DM specifies his/her reference membership values, the augmented minimax problem is solved. The DM is thus supplied with the corresponding Pareto optimal solution together with the trade-off rates between the membership functions. Then by considering the current values of the membership functions as well as the trade-off rates, the DM acts on this solution by updating his/her reference membership values. In this way the satisficing solution for the DM can be derived efficiently from among a Pareto optimal solution set by updating his/her reference membership values. On the basis of the proposed method, a time-sharing computer program is written to implement man-machine interactive procedures. An application to the industrial pollution control problem in Osaka City in Japan is demonstrated together with the computer output

Dynamic temporary blood facility location-allocation during and post-disaster periods

The key objective of this study is to develop a tool (hybridization or integration of different techniques) for locating the temporary blood banks during and post-disaster conditions that could serve the hospitals with minimum response time. We have used temporary blood centers, which must be located in such a way that it is able to serve the demand of hospitals in nearby region within a shorter duration. We are locating the temporary blood centres for which we are minimizing the maximum distance with hospitals. We have used Tabu search heuristic method to calculate the optimal number of temporary blood centres considering cost components. In addition, we employ Bayesian belief network to prioritize the factors for locating the temporary blood facilities. Workability of our model and methodology is illustrated using a case study including blood centres and hospitals surrounding Jamshedpur city. Our results shows that at-least 6 temporary blood facilities are required to satisfy the demand of blood during and post-disaster periods in Jamshedpur. The results also show that that past disaster conditions, response time and convenience for access are the most important factors for locating the temporary blood facilities during and post-disaster periods

Theory, Software and Testing Examples in Decision Support Systems

This volume summarizes the results of a four-year cooperative contracted study "Theory, Software and Testing Examples for Decision Support Systems" conducted in Poland by four institutions: the Institute of Automatic Control, Warsaw University of Technology, the System Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Control and Systems Engineering, Academy of Mining and Metallurgy in Cracow, and the Institute of Informatics, University of Warsaw in cooperation with the Methodology of the Decision Analysis Project of the System and Decision Sciences Program at IIASA. This research was supported mostly by IIASA funds in Polish national currency, but also by other sources and research grants in Poland, such as the grant RP.1.02 of the Ministry of Education for research in optimization and automatic control; totally, it represents the results of a part-time work of about 30 researchers from these institutions. This volume concentrates on the theoretical and methodological advances of this cooperative study, although it describes also experiences of applications in the area of programming the development of chemical industry together with a decision support system for such purposes as well as presents short descriptions of eight software packages (prototype decision support systems, multiobjective mathematical programming packages and a pilot negotiation support system) that are available together with more detailed documentation as scientific software constituting a part of results of this study. The research on the Polish side was coordinated by Professor Andrzej P. Wierzbicki and on IIASA's side by Dr. Andrzej Lewandowski, the project leader of the Methodology of Decision Analysis; they served also as the editors of this volume