Multi-criteria decision making with linguistic labels: a comparison of two methodologies applied to energy planning

This paper compares two multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approaches based on linguistic label assessment. The first approach consists of a modified fuzzy TOPSIS methodology introduced by Kaya and Kahraman in 2011. The second approach, introduced by Agell et al. in 2012, is based on qualitative reasoning techniques for ranking multi-attribute alternatives in group decision-making with linguistic labels. Both approaches are applied to a case of assessment and selection of the most suitable types of energy in a geographical area.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

The Globalization of Health and Safety Standards: Delegation of Regulatory Authority in the SPS Agreement of the 1994 Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization

Buthe examines why states delegated regulatory authority in the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures, an integral part of the founding treaty of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Buthe argues that, to explain this case of international delegation, principal-agent theory must be complemented by an analysis of cost-benefit calculations of the relevant domestic interest groups. Given these domestic interests, governments decided to institutionalize international cooperation on SPS measures outside of the WTO because they believed that such delegation would minimize the political costs of the loss of policymaking autonomy. Buthe notes, however, that in retrospect it appears that the widespread positive association of international standards with multilateralism and international consensus led many countries to underestimate those autonomy losses. Material and ideational factors thus interacted to shape the definition of national interests and the outcome of international delegation

A two-step fusion process for multi-criteria decision applied to natural hazards in mountains

Mountain river torrents and snow avalanches generate human and material damages with dramatic consequences. Knowledge about natural phenomenona is often lacking and expertise is required for decision and risk management purposes using multi-disciplinary quantitative or qualitative approaches. Expertise is considered as a decision process based on imperfect information coming from more or less reliable and conflicting sources. A methodology mixing the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), a multi-criteria aid-decision method, and information fusion using Belief Function Theory is described. Fuzzy Sets and Possibilities theories allow to transform quantitative and qualitative criteria into a common frame of discernment for decision in Dempster-Shafer Theory (DST ) and Dezert-Smarandache Theory (DSmT) contexts. Main issues consist in basic belief assignments elicitation, conflict identification and management, fusion rule choices, results validation but also in specific needs to make a difference between importance and reliability and uncertainty in the fusion process

An investigation of students’ preferences in Japanese teaching and learning

The teachers in the individualist country usually teach students using individualist approach while teachers in the collectivist countries teach students using collectivist approach. However, teachers and students do not usually share the same educational culture in language classrooms. The purpose of this study has two: first, to examine individualist and collectivist characteristics; second, to ascertain the students’ teaching preference whether it is individualist or collectivist approach in a British university. Participants were 19 students who study Japanese language through institution wide language program at a British university in the South of England. The collected data consist of two: questionnaire and an informal interview, both of which were conducted at the end of spring term 2019. The data were analysed using mixed methods. The quantitative results showed that students preferred a mixture of both educational cultures. The ratio of individualist: collectivist: neutral position was 74:11:16 in spite of the fact that this study was conducted in an individualist education culture

The panhellenic Socialist movement and European integration: the primacy of the leader

What kind of Europe do social democratic parties prefer? What is the origin of their preferences? Are they shaped by interests, institutions or ideas? If so, how? Why do social democratic political parties respond differently to the crucial question of the future of the European Union? While many social democratic parties initially opposed European integration either in principle or because of the form it took, gradually they came to lend their full, though often critical, support to it. Despite this evolution, important differences between them have remained. This book examines the preferences of social democratic parties in Germany, France, the UK, Sweden and Greece towards European integration, in comparative perspective. Using a variety of sources, including interviews with key party officials, the contributors explore what kind of Europe these parties want, and seek to explain the formation and evolution of these preferences over time. They examine the interplay of national peculiarities and cross-national factors and their impact on preferences on European integration. In addition to highlighting the role of party leaders, they reveal that, far from being united on European integration, these parties disagree with each other in part because they have retreated – to varying degrees – from key social democratic principles. Making an important contribution to the scholarship on preference formation and the research that links the European Union with the nation state, it will be of interest to students and scholars of the EU, comparative politics and political parties

The Camel's Nose Is in the Tent: Rules, Theories, and Slippery Slopes

Slippery slopes have been the topic of a spate of recent literature. In this Article, the authors provide a general theory for understanding and evaluating slippery slope arguments (SSAs) and their associated slippery slope events (SSEs). The central feature of the theory is a structure of discussion within which all arguments take place. The structure is multi-layered, consisting of decisions, rules, theories, and research programs. Each layer influences and shapes the layer beneath: rules influence decisions, theories influence the choice of rules, and research programs influence the choice of theories. In this structure, SSAs take the form of meta-arguments, as they purport to predict the future development of arguments in the structure. Evaluating such arguments requires having knowledge of the specific content of the structure of discussion itself. The Article then presents four viable types of slippery slope argument, draws attention to four different factors that (other things equal) tend to increase the likelihood of slippery slopes, and explores a variety of strategies for coping with slippery slopes.SLIPPERY SLOPE ARGUMENTS; STRUCTURE OF DISCUSSION (ARGUMENT); RULES; UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

Modelling and optimizing multiple attribute decisions by using fuzzy sets

The purpose of this paper is to present a coherent perspective of modeling and optimizing multiple attribute decisions by using fuzzy sets. In management practice we face most of the time the situation in which a problem have several possible solutions and each solution can be analyzed using multiple criteria models. In the same time, in real life decision making process there is a given level of uncertainty which makes difficult a clear cut analytical analysis. The object of this article is to build a model approach for making multiple criteria decision using fuzzy sets of objects. Elaborating multiple attribute decisions involves performing an assessment and selecting from a given and finite set of possible alternative courses of action in the presence of a given and finite, and usually conflicting set of attributes and criteria.decision making, fuzzy sets, modeling, multiple criteria optimization.