Arrow Index of Fuzzy Choice Function

The Arrow index of a fuzzy choice function C is a measure of the degree to which C satisfies the Fuzzy Arrow Axiom, a fuzzy version of the classical Arrow Axiom. The main result of this paper shows that A(C) characterizes the degree to which C is full rational. We also obtain a method for computing A(C). The Arrow index allows to rank the fuzzy choice functions with respect to their rationality. Thus, if for solving a decision problem several fuzzy choice functions are proposed, by the Arrow index the most rational one will be chosen.Fuzzy choice function, revealed preference indicator, congruence indicator, similarity

Synergies and trade-offs between ecosystem services in Costa Rica

International audienceEcosystems services have become a key concept in understanding the way humans benefit from ecosystems. In Costa Rica, a pioneer national scheme of payment provides compensation for forest conservation that is assumed to jointly produce services related to biodiversity conservation, carbon storage, water and scenic beauty, but little is known about the spatial correlations among these services. A spatial assessment, at national scale and with fine resolution, identified the spatial congruence between these services, by considering the biophysical potential of service provision and socioeconomic demand. Services have different spatial distributions but are positively correlated. Spatial synergies exist between current policies (national parks and the payment scheme) and the conservation of ecosystem services: national parks and areas receiving payments provide more services than other areas. Biodiversity hotspots have the highest co-benefits for other services, while carbon hotspots have the lowest. This finding calls for cautiousness in relation to expectations that forestbased mitigation initiatives such as REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) can automatically maximize bundled co-benefits for biodiversity and local ecosystem services

Indicators of Inequality and Poverty

This essay aims at a broad, main-stream account of the literature on inequality and poverty measurement in the space of income and, additionally, deals with measures of disparity and deprivation in the more expanded domain of capabilities and functionings. In addition to an introductory and a concluding part, the paper has four sections. The first of these, on measurement of income inequality, deals with preliminary concepts and definitions; a visual representation of inequality (the Lorenz curve); real-valued indices of inequality; properties of inequality indices; some specific inequality measures; and the relationship between Lorenz, welfare, and inequality orderings. The second section, on poverty, deals with the identification and aggregation exercises; properties of poverty indices; some specific poverty measures; the problem of plurality and unambiguous rankings; poverty measures and anti-poverty policy; and other issues in the measurement of poverty. The third section considers aspects of both congruence and conflict in the relationship amongst poverty, inequality, and welfare. The final substantive section advances the rationale for a more comprehensive assessment of human wellbeing than is afforded by the income perspective, it briefly reviews measurement concerns relating to generalized indices of deprivation and disparity, and it discusses the data and policy implications of the more expansive view of well-being adopted in the section.inequality, disparity, poverty, deprivation, measurement, income, capability, functioning, well-being

Toward Sustainability:Using Big Data to Explore Decisive Supply Chain Risk Factors Under Uncertainty

Rapid market changes aimed at sustainability have led to supply chain risks and uncertainties in the Taiwanese light-emitting diode industry. These risks and uncertainties can be captured by social media, quantitative and qualitative data (referred to herein as big data), but the industry has been unable to manage this information boom to respond to customer needs. These various types of data have their own characteristics that affect decision making about developing firm capabilities. This study aggregates the various data to undertake an extensive investigation of supply chain risks and uncertainties. Specifically, this study proposes using the fuzzy and grey Delphi methods to identify a set of reliable attributes and, based on these attributes, transforming big data to a manageable scale to consider their impacts. Subsequently, both the fuzzy and grey Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratories applied to determine the causal relationships for supply chain risks and uncertainties. The results reveal that capacity and operations have greater influence than other supply chain attributes and that risks stemming from triggering events are difficult to diagnose and control. The implications, conclusions and findings are addressed

Опыт использования слоистых нейронных сетей для идентификации эмпирических закономерностей

In this article, the recognition method is applied to the comparison of industrial enterprises. At the same time, we had to consider the methods of taking into account non-formalized factors. The method can be used for objective ranking of enterprises. While researching the topic, a neural expert system was developed, and it was used by specialists of the regional government to predict the dynamics of industry.In view of the complexity of relations, conflicting non-equality systems were arising. We were resolving them by means of committee method.The effect of managing the situation by varying the values of factors by tracking them on a computer model, made it possible to adjust the model as a means of parallelizing the committee constructions. They act directly in multi-layer neural networks.В данной статье метод распознавания применяется к сравнению промышленных предприятий. При этом пришлось рассмотреть приёмы учёта неформализованных факторов. Эту методику можно использовать для объективного ранжирования предприятий. По мере работы над этой темой была разработана нейронная экспертная система, и она применялась специалистами областного правительства для прогнозирования динамики промышленности.Ввиду сложности зависимостей возникали противоречивые системы неравенств. Мы разрешали их с помощью метода комитетов.Влияние управления ситуацией с помощью варьирования значений факторов с отслеживанием на компьютерной модели позволяло корректировать модель как средство распараллеливания комитетных конструкций. Они непосредственно выступают в многослойных нейронных сетях

Toward a Unifying Framework for Exploring Fit and Flexibility in Strategic Human Resource Management

This paper presents a framework for studying the concepts of fit and flexibility in the field of Strategic Human Resource Management (Strategic HRM) focusing on HRM practices, employee skills, and employee behaviors and reviews past conceptual and empirical work within that framework. A model of Strategic HRM is presented and this model is used to explore the concepts of fit and flexibility as they apply to Strategic HRM. The concepts of resource and coordination flexibility are applied to Strategic HRM, and the implications of the framework for both the practice of and research on Strategic HRM are discussed

The foundation of capability modelling: A study of the impact and utilisation of human resources

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This research aims at finding a foundation for assessment of capabilities and applying the concept in a human resource selection. The research identifies a common ground for assessing individuals’ applied capability in a given job based on literature review of various disciplines in engineering, human sciences and economics. A set of criteria is found to be common and appropriate to be used as the basis of this assessment. Applied Capability is then described in this research as the impact of the person in fulfilling job requirements and also their level of usage from their resources with regards to the identified criteria. In other words how their available resources (abilities, skills, value sets, personal attributes and previous performance records) can be used in completing a job. Translation of the person’s resources and task requirements using the proposed criteria is done through a novel algorithm and two prevalent statistical inference techniques (OLS regression and Fuzzy) are used to estimate quantitative levels of impact and utilisation. A survey on post graduate students is conducted to estimate their applied capabilities in a given job. Moreover, expert academics are surveyed on their views on key applied capability assessment criteria, and how different levels of match between job requirement and person’s resources in those criteria might affect the impact levels. The results from both surveys were mathematically modelled and the predictive ability of the conceptual and mathematical developments were compared and further contrasted with the observed data. The models were tested for robustness using experimental data and the results for both estimation methods in both surveys are close to one another with the regression models being closer to observations. It is believed that this research has provided sound conceptual and mathematical platforms which can satisfactorily predict individuals’ applied capability in a given job. This research has contributed to the current knowledge and practice by a) providing a comparison of capability definitions and uses in different disciplines, b) defining criteria for applied capability assessment, c) developing an algorithm to capture applied capabilities, d) quantification of an existing parallel model and finally e) estimating impact and utilisation indices using mathematical methods

Using Ostrom’s DPs as Fuzzy Sets to Analyse How Water Policies Challenge Community-BasedWater Governance in Colombia

Ostrom’s design principles have been broadly used to analyse the governance of common pool resources. However, they are normally assessed as present or absent. We challenge this assumption by considering them as fuzzy sets where membership scores range from 0 to 1, because, in real situations, the design principles can be present at a certain level. We define categories to assess the level of membership and apply it to a single case study analysing how changes in water policy can affect the community-based management of the Water User Association of Mondomo (Colombia). In rural areas of Colombia, most water and sanitation services are provided by water user associations, wherein civil society has developed governance systems based on active citizen involvement and community-based management. Some of these associations have been operating for decades and are essential pillars of the local social fabric. However, recent changes in the country’s policy and legal framework threaten these long-lasting governance systems. The results show that most of the design principles would suffer important changes that undermine the governance system. Essential principles for sustainable community-based governance, such as the congruence of the rules with local conditions, the local monitoring and sanctioning capacities, the internal conflict-resolution mechanisms and the recognition of the rights to organize, are dramatically reduced after the policy implementation