Neutrosophic Logic for Mental Model Elicitation and Analysis

Mental models are personal, internal representations of external reality that people use to interact with the world around them. They are useful in multiple situations such as muticriteria decision making, knowledge management, complex system learning and analysis. In this paper a framework for mental models elicitation and analysis based on neutrosophic Logic is presented. An illustrative example is provided to show the applicability of the proposal. The paper ends with conclusion future research directions

Knowledge Management in Management of Social and Economic Development of Municipalities: Highlights

The paper discusses the process of social and economic development of municipalities. A conclusion is made that developing an adequate model of social and economic development using conventional approaches presents a considerable challenge. It is proposed to use semantic modeling to represent the social and economic development of municipalities, and cognitive mapping to identify the set of connections that occur among indicators and that have a direct impact on social and economic development.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2111.1369

Knowledge Management in Socio-Economic Development of Municipal Units: Basic Concepts

The article discusses the basic concepts of strategic planning in the Russian Federation, highlights the legal, financial and resource features that act as restrictions in decision making in the field of socio-economic development of municipalities. The analysis concluded that to design an adequate model of socio-economic development of municipalities is a very difficult task, particularly when the traditional approaches are applied. To solve the task, we proposed to use the semantic modeling as well as cognitive maps which are able to point out the set of dependencies that arise between factors having a direct impact on socio-economic development.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure

Analysis of Crimonogenic Factors in Femicide Crimes

Femicide in Ecuador is one of the cruelest manifestations of power exercised over women. Actions have been executed, but they are still insufficient. Therefore, it is necessary to study the factors that cause its high level of incidence. By doing so, we intend to provide the government with a tool that makes it possible to focus some measures in order to reduce and/or eradicate it. The objective of this research is to analyze these factors through neutrosophic cognitive maps. This technique is chosen because of the advantages it offers compared to other soft-computing techniques, in terms of interpretability, scalability, aggregation of knowledge, dynamism and its ability to represent feed-back and indeterminacy relationships. This way, decision-making by the government will be facilitated by hierarchizing the incidence factors, launching new strategies to eradicate femicide and to protect the right to life

An Evaluation of High School Students' Change in Knowledge and Preferences towards Seafood through Education

Aquaculture and wild-caught seafood contribute to the global seafood demand, but ocean resources have exceeded a sustainable yield. To promote a sustainable future, we must educate adolescent seafood consumers on factors that have the greatest impact in driving consumption preferences. Targeting adolescents can make a difference in their present food habits and lead to conscious consumers in the future. A pre- and post-survey was developed to assess high school students' knowledge and preference for aquaculture versus wild-caught seafood before and after the implementation of an educational program. The educational program, A.Q.U.A. (A Quest to Understand Aquaculture) was developed by the Center for Tropical and Subtropical Aquaculture (CTSA) covering five lessons. Survey responses were collected from three high schools across the island of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. Using a mental model analysis, education was found to be effective at increasing the knowledge of aquaculture and the preference for aquaculture seafood based on all four factors: ‘taste’, ‘environmental impact’, ‘health concerns’, and ‘what they eat at home’. Using analysis of variance tests, schools were found to have a significant impact on the change in knowledge of aquaculture. The study provides useful information needed to implement an effective education program into school curricula to enhance students' knowledge and promote conscious consumption for the benefit of a sustainable future. Keywords: aquaculture seafood, wild-caught seafood, education, consumption preferences, dietary behaviors DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-34-01 Publication date: December 31st 202

Designing for human–agent collectives: display considerations

The adoption of unmanned systems is growing at a steady rate, with the promise of improved task effectiveness and decreased costs associated with an increasing multitude of operations. The added flexibility that could potentially enable a single operator to control multiple unmanned platforms is thus viewed as a potential game-changer in terms of both cost and effectiveness. The use of advanced technologies that facilitate the control of multiple systems must lie within control frameworks that allow the delegation of authority between the human and the machine(s). Agent-based systems have been used across different domains in order to offer support to human operators, either as a form of decision support offered to the human or to directly carry out behaviours that lead to the achievement of a defined goal. This paper discusses the need for adopting a human–agent interaction paradigm in order to facilitate an effective human–agent partnership. An example of this is discussed, in which a single human operator may supervise and control multiple unmanned platforms within an emergency response scenario

Development of a collaborative model of low back pain: report from the 2017 NASS consensus meeting

Low back pain (LBP) is a multifactorial problem with complex interactions among many biological, psychological and social factors. It is difficult to fully appreciate this complexity because the knowledge necessary to do so is distributed over many areas of expertise that span the biopsychosocial domains.This study describes the collaborative modeling process, undertaken among a group of participants with diverse expertise in LBP, to build a model to enhance understanding and communicate the complexity of the LBP problem.The study involved generating individual models that represented participants' understanding of the LBP problem using fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM), and 4 subsequent phases of consultation and consensus with the participants to characterize and refine the interpretation of the FCMs.The phases consisted of: proposal of Categories for clustering of model Components; preliminary evaluation of structure, composition and focal areas of participant's FCMs; refinement of Categories and Components with consensus meeting; generation of final structure and composition of individual participant's FCMs. Descriptive statistics were applied to the structural and composition metrics of individual FCMs to aid interpretation.From 38 invited contributors, 29 (76%) agreed to participate. They represented 9 disciplines and 8 countries. Participants' models included 729 Components, with an average of 25 (SD = 7) per model. After the final FCM refinement process (Components from separate FCMs that used similar terms were combined, and Components from an FCM that included multiple terms were separated), there were 147 Components allocated to ten Categories. Although individual models varied in their structure and composition, a common opinion emerged that psychological factors are particularly important in the presentation of LBP. Collectively, Components allocated to the "Psychology" Category were the most central in almost half (14/29) of the individual models.The collaborative modeling process outlined in this paper provides a foundation upon which to build a greater understanding and to communicate the complexity of the LBP problem. The next step is to aggregate individual FCMs into a metamodel and begin disentangling the interactions among its Components. This will lead to an improved understanding of the complexity of LBP, and hopefully to improved outcomes for those suffering from this condition

Using mental-modelling to explore how irrigators in the Murray-Darling Basin make water-use decisions

Study region: Water stress and over-allocation are at the forefront of water management and policy challenges in Australia, especially in the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB). Because irrigated agriculture is a major social and economic component of the MDB, farmer decision-making plays a major role in water sustainability in the region. Study focus: This study used a fuzzy cognitive mapping methodology, ‘mental modeling’, to understand the perceived constraints of irrigator water-use decisions in the MDB, for two different types of irrigation: permanent and annual crops. The approach elicits and documents irrigator insights into the complex and networked nature of irrigation water use decisions in relation to farm-based dynamics. New hydrological insights for the region: Results suggest support for greater local and irrigator involvement in water management decisions. Many, if not most, of the irrigators understood the need for, or at least the inevitability of, governmental policies and regulations. However, a lack of accountability, predictability, and transparency has added to the uncertainty in farm-based water decision-making. Irrigators supported the concept of environmental sustainability, although they might not always agree with how the concept is implemented. The mental modelling approach facilitated knowledge sharing among stakeholders and can be used to identify common goals. Future research utilizing the mental modelling approach may encourage co-management and knowledge partnerships between irrigators, water managers and government officials.Ellen M. Douglas, Sarah Ann Wheeler, David J. Smith, Ian C. Overton, Steven A. Gray, Tanya M. Doody, Neville D. Crossma

Multiple perspectives of resilience: A holistic approach to resilience assessment using cognitive maps in practitioner engagement

Resilience has become a regulatory concept influencing investment decisions in the water and wastewater sector. However, current assessments predominantly focus on technical resilience and on engineering solutions. Here we propose an alternative, more holistic approach that captures multiple perspectives of resilience by eliciting and comparing cognitive maps of diverse agents both from within as well as external to a wastewater utility. We use Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping as a practical tool to elicit subjective views on resilience mechanisms and illustrate the methodology in co-production with professionals from the wastewater sector in the Belfast area (Northern Ireland). We find that the proposed participatory process facilitates a more reflective , inclusive and integrated assessment than current approaches. Screening for risks and vulnerabilities using this new approach can foster an integrated system perspective by (i) systematically identifying connections between (sub)systems which are normally assessed separately, (ii) detecting feedbacks between system components which may reveal unintended consequences of resilience interventions and by (iii) obtaining a wider portfolio of potential interventions to increase overall resilience. We conclude that the suggested approach may be useful for strategic planning purposes within a utility and for improving cross-departmental communication among both internal and external agents. © 2020 The Author

Making sense of changing coastal systems: overcoming barriers to climate change adaptation using fuzzy cognitive mapping

This thesis describes the role and value of Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM) in undertaking coastal climate change adaptation at the local scale, comparing FCM against existing, scenario-based adaptation methods in overcoming known barriers to adaptation. It describes the attributes and limitations of FCM as a modelling tool, exploring what must be accounted for in considering the use of FCM in mixed stakeholder settings where individual and group knowledge must be integrated to form a view of the system under study, discussing in some detail the facilitation strengths and weaknesses inherent to the method. These issues are then described via reference to case-studies in Ireland and Scotland, drawing inferences regarding the ease with which an FCM-based approach to adaptation might be substituted for orthodox, scenario-based adaptation. This is found to not only be feasible, but preferable, provided there is sufficient facilitation capacity on hand to manage the added complexity that FCM carries over simple narrative scenario development. Adding to the value that FCM offers in adaptation contexts, the thesis also explores its value as both a diagnostic tool for establishing what additional capacity building or data may be required by adaptation decision makers, and also as a tool for gauging the extent to which resilience gains (or losses) might be measured. Although FCM cannot be claimed to provide a robust objective measure of resilience gains or losses, it can nevertheless usefully illustrate to decision makers the strengths and limitations of their own understanding of the systems which they must manage. This is perhaps where the future of FCM-based systems analysis in support of adaptation may ultimately lie