Multiple-Criteria Decision Making

Decision-making on real-world problems, including individual process decisions, requires an appropriate and reliable decision support system. Fuzzy set theory, rough set theory, and neutrosophic set theory, which are MCDM techniques, are useful for modeling complex decision-making problems with imprecise, ambiguous, or vague data.This Special Issue, “Multiple Criteria Decision Making”, aims to incorporate recent developments in the area of the multi-criteria decision-making field. Topics include, but are not limited to:- MCDM optimization in engineering;- Environmental sustainability in engineering processes;- Multi-criteria production and logistics process planning;- New trends in multi-criteria evaluation of sustainable processes;- Multi-criteria decision making in strategic management based on sustainable criteria

Interval type-2 Atanassov-intuitionistic fuzzy logic for uncertainty modelling

This thesis investigates a new paradigm for uncertainty modelling by employing a new class of type-2 fuzzy logic system that utilises fuzzy sets with membership and non-membership functions that are intervals. Fuzzy logic systems, employing type-1 fuzzy sets, that mark a shift from computing with numbers towards computing with words have made remarkable impacts in the field of artificial intelligence. Fuzzy logic systems of type-2, a generalisation of type-1 fuzzy logic systems that utilise type-2 fuzzy sets, have created tremendous advances in uncertainty modelling. The key feature of the type-2 fuzzy logic systems, with particular reference to interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems, is that the membership functions of interval type-2 fuzzy sets are themselves fuzzy. These give interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems an advantage over their type-1 counterparts which have precise membership functions. Whilst the interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems are effective in modelling uncertainty, they are not able to adequately handle an indeterminate/neutral characteristic of a set, because interval type-2 fuzzy sets are only specified by membership functions with an implicit assertion that the non-membership functions are complements of the membership functions (lower or upper). In a real life scenario, it is not necessarily the case that the non-membership function of a set is complementary to the membership function. There may be some degree of hesitation arising from ignorance or a complete lack of interest concerning a particular phenomenon. Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy set, another generalisation of the classical fuzzy set, captures this thought process by simultaneously defining a fuzzy set with membership and non-membership functions such that the sum of both membership and non-membership functions is less than or equal to 1. In this thesis, the advantages of both worlds (interval type-2 fuzzy set and Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy set) are explored and a new and enhanced class of interval type-2 fuzzy set namely, interval type-2 Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy set, that enables hesitation, is introduced. The corresponding fuzzy logic system namely, interval type-2 Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy logic system is rigorously and systematically formulated. In order to assess this thesis investigates a new paradigm for uncertainty modelling by employing a new class of type-2 fuzzy logic system that utilises fuzzy sets with membership and non-membership functions that are intervals. Fuzzy logic systems, employing type-1 fuzzy sets, that mark shift from computing with numbers towards computing with words have made remarkable impacts in the field of artificial intelligence. Fuzzy logic systems of type-2, a generalisation of type-1 fuzzy logic systems that utilise type-2 fuzzy sets, have created tremendous advances in uncertainty modelling. The key feature of the type-2 fuzzy logic systems, with particular reference to interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems, is that the membership functions of interval type-2 fuzzy sets are themselves fuzzy. These give interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems an advantage over their type-1 counterparts which have precise membership functions. Whilst the interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems are effective in modelling uncertainty, they are not able to adequately handle an indeterminate/neutral characteristic of a set, because interval type-2 fuzzy sets are only specified by membership functions with an implicit assertion that the non-membership functions are complements of the membership functions (lower or upper). In a real life scenario, it is not necessarily the case that the non-membership function of a set is complementary to the membership function. There may be some degree of hesitation arising from ignorance or a complete lack of interest concerning a particular phenomenon. Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy set, another generalisation of the classical fuzzy set, captures this thought process by simultaneously defining a fuzzy set with membership and non-membership functions such that the sum of both membership and non-membership functions is less than or equal to 1. In this thesis, the advantages of both worlds (interval type-2 fuzzy set and Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy set) are explored and a new and enhanced class of interval type-2 fuzz set namely, interval type-2 Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy set, that enables hesitation, is introduced. The corresponding fuzzy logic system namely, interval type-2 Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy logic system is rigorously and systematically formulated. In order to assess the viability and efficacy of the developed framework, the possibilities of the optimisation of the parameters of this class of fuzzy systems are rigorously examined. First, the parameters of the developed model are optimised using one of the most popular fuzzy logic optimisation algorithms such as gradient descent (first-order derivative) algorithm and evaluated on publicly available benchmark datasets from diverse domains and characteristics. It is shown that the new interval type-2 Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy logic system is able to handle uncertainty well through the minimisation of the error of the system compared with other approaches on the same problem instances and performance criteria. Secondly, the parameters of the proposed framework are optimised using a decoupledextended Kalman filter (second-order derivative) algorithm in order to address the shortcomings of the first-order gradient descent method. It is shown statistically that the performance of this new framework with fuzzy membership and non-membership functions is significantly better than the classical interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems which have only the fuzzy membership functions, and its type-1 counterpart which are specified by single membership and non-membership functions. The model is also assessed using a hybrid learning of decoupled extended Kalman filter and gradient descent methods. The proposed framework with hybrid learning algorithm is evaluated by comparing it with existing approaches reported in the literature on the same problem instances and performance metrics. The simulation results have demonstrated the potential benefits of using the proposed framework in uncertainty modelling. In the overall, the fusion of these two concepts (interval type-2 fuzzy logic system and Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy logic system) provides a synergistic capability in dealing with imprecise and vague information

Interval type-2 Atanassov-intuitionistic fuzzy logic for uncertainty modelling

This thesis investigates a new paradigm for uncertainty modelling by employing a new class of type-2 fuzzy logic system that utilises fuzzy sets with membership and non-membership functions that are intervals. Fuzzy logic systems, employing type-1 fuzzy sets, that mark a shift from computing with numbers towards computing with words have made remarkable impacts in the field of artificial intelligence. Fuzzy logic systems of type-2, a generalisation of type-1 fuzzy logic systems that utilise type-2 fuzzy sets, have created tremendous advances in uncertainty modelling. The key feature of the type-2 fuzzy logic systems, with particular reference to interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems, is that the membership functions of interval type-2 fuzzy sets are themselves fuzzy. These give interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems an advantage over their type-1 counterparts which have precise membership functions. Whilst the interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems are effective in modelling uncertainty, they are not able to adequately handle an indeterminate/neutral characteristic of a set, because interval type-2 fuzzy sets are only specified by membership functions with an implicit assertion that the non-membership functions are complements of the membership functions (lower or upper). In a real life scenario, it is not necessarily the case that the non-membership function of a set is complementary to the membership function. There may be some degree of hesitation arising from ignorance or a complete lack of interest concerning a particular phenomenon. Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy set, another generalisation of the classical fuzzy set, captures this thought process by simultaneously defining a fuzzy set with membership and non-membership functions such that the sum of both membership and non-membership functions is less than or equal to 1. In this thesis, the advantages of both worlds (interval type-2 fuzzy set and Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy set) are explored and a new and enhanced class of interval type-2 fuzzy set namely, interval type-2 Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy set, that enables hesitation, is introduced. The corresponding fuzzy logic system namely, interval type-2 Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy logic system is rigorously and systematically formulated. In order to assess this thesis investigates a new paradigm for uncertainty modelling by employing a new class of type-2 fuzzy logic system that utilises fuzzy sets with membership and non-membership functions that are intervals. Fuzzy logic systems, employing type-1 fuzzy sets, that mark shift from computing with numbers towards computing with words have made remarkable impacts in the field of artificial intelligence. Fuzzy logic systems of type-2, a generalisation of type-1 fuzzy logic systems that utilise type-2 fuzzy sets, have created tremendous advances in uncertainty modelling. The key feature of the type-2 fuzzy logic systems, with particular reference to interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems, is that the membership functions of interval type-2 fuzzy sets are themselves fuzzy. These give interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems an advantage over their type-1 counterparts which have precise membership functions. Whilst the interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems are effective in modelling uncertainty, they are not able to adequately handle an indeterminate/neutral characteristic of a set, because interval type-2 fuzzy sets are only specified by membership functions with an implicit assertion that the non-membership functions are complements of the membership functions (lower or upper). In a real life scenario, it is not necessarily the case that the non-membership function of a set is complementary to the membership function. There may be some degree of hesitation arising from ignorance or a complete lack of interest concerning a particular phenomenon. Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy set, another generalisation of the classical fuzzy set, captures this thought process by simultaneously defining a fuzzy set with membership and non-membership functions such that the sum of both membership and non-membership functions is less than or equal to 1. In this thesis, the advantages of both worlds (interval type-2 fuzzy set and Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy set) are explored and a new and enhanced class of interval type-2 fuzz set namely, interval type-2 Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy set, that enables hesitation, is introduced. The corresponding fuzzy logic system namely, interval type-2 Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy logic system is rigorously and systematically formulated. In order to assess the viability and efficacy of the developed framework, the possibilities of the optimisation of the parameters of this class of fuzzy systems are rigorously examined. First, the parameters of the developed model are optimised using one of the most popular fuzzy logic optimisation algorithms such as gradient descent (first-order derivative) algorithm and evaluated on publicly available benchmark datasets from diverse domains and characteristics. It is shown that the new interval type-2 Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy logic system is able to handle uncertainty well through the minimisation of the error of the system compared with other approaches on the same problem instances and performance criteria. Secondly, the parameters of the proposed framework are optimised using a decoupledextended Kalman filter (second-order derivative) algorithm in order to address the shortcomings of the first-order gradient descent method. It is shown statistically that the performance of this new framework with fuzzy membership and non-membership functions is significantly better than the classical interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems which have only the fuzzy membership functions, and its type-1 counterpart which are specified by single membership and non-membership functions. The model is also assessed using a hybrid learning of decoupled extended Kalman filter and gradient descent methods. The proposed framework with hybrid learning algorithm is evaluated by comparing it with existing approaches reported in the literature on the same problem instances and performance metrics. The simulation results have demonstrated the potential benefits of using the proposed framework in uncertainty modelling. In the overall, the fusion of these two concepts (interval type-2 fuzzy logic system and Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy logic system) provides a synergistic capability in dealing with imprecise and vague information

Optimization for Decision Making II

In the current context of the electronic governance of society, both administrations and citizens are demanding the greater participation of all the actors involved in the decision-making process relative to the governance of society. This book presents collective works published in the recent Special Issue (SI) entitled “Optimization for Decision Making II”. These works give an appropriate response to the new challenges raised, the decision-making process can be done by applying different methods and tools, as well as using different objectives. In real-life problems, the formulation of decision-making problems and the application of optimization techniques to support decisions are particularly complex and a wide range of optimization techniques and methodologies are used to minimize risks, improve quality in making decisions or, in general, to solve problems. In addition, a sensitivity or robustness analysis should be done to validate/analyze the influence of uncertainty regarding decision-making. This book brings together a collection of inter-/multi-disciplinary works applied to the optimization of decision making in a coherent manner

Mathematical Fuzzy Logic in the Emerging Fields of Engineering, Finance, and Computer Sciences

Mathematical fuzzy logic (MFL) specifically targets many-valued logic and has significantly contributed to the logical foundations of fuzzy set theory (FST). It explores the computational and philosophical rationale behind the uncertainty due to imprecision in the backdrop of traditional mathematical logic. Since uncertainty is present in almost every real-world application, it is essential to develop novel approaches and tools for efficient processing. This book is the collection of the publications in the Special Issue “Mathematical Fuzzy Logic in the Emerging Fields of Engineering, Finance, and Computer Sciences”, which aims to cover theoretical and practical aspects of MFL and FST. Specifically, this book addresses several problems, such as:- Industrial optimization problems- Multi-criteria decision-making- Financial forecasting problems- Image processing- Educational data mining- Explainable artificial intelligence, etc

Collected Papers (on various scientific topics), Volume XIII

This thirteenth volume of Collected Papers is an eclectic tome of 88 papers in various fields of sciences, such as astronomy, biology, calculus, economics, education and administration, game theory, geometry, graph theory, information fusion, decision making, instantaneous physics, quantum physics, neutrosophic logic and set, non-Euclidean geometry, number theory, paradoxes, philosophy of science, scientific research methods, statistics, and others, structured in 17 chapters (Neutrosophic Theory and Applications; Neutrosophic Algebra; Fuzzy Soft Sets; Neutrosophic Sets; Hypersoft Sets; Neutrosophic Semigroups; Neutrosophic Graphs; Superhypergraphs; Plithogeny; Information Fusion; Statistics; Decision Making; Extenics; Instantaneous Physics; Paradoxism; Mathematica; Miscellanea), comprising 965 pages, published between 2005-2022 in different scientific journals, by the author alone or in collaboration with the following 110 co-authors (alphabetically ordered) from 26 countries: Abduallah Gamal, Sania Afzal, Firoz Ahmad, Muhammad Akram, Sheriful Alam, Ali Hamza, Ali H. M. Al-Obaidi, Madeleine Al-Tahan, Assia Bakali, Atiqe Ur Rahman, Sukanto Bhattacharya, Bilal Hadjadji, Robert N. Boyd, Willem K.M. Brauers, Umit Cali, Youcef Chibani, Victor Christianto, Chunxin Bo, Shyamal Dalapati, Mario Dalcín, Arup Kumar Das, Elham Davneshvar, Bijan Davvaz, Irfan Deli, Muhammet Deveci, Mamouni Dhar, R. Dhavaseelan, Balasubramanian Elavarasan, Sara Farooq, Haipeng Wang, Ugur Halden, Le Hoang Son, Hongnian Yu, Qays Hatem Imran, Mayas Ismail, Saeid Jafari, Jun Ye, Ilanthenral Kandasamy, W.B. Vasantha Kandasamy, Darjan Karabašević, Abdullah Kargın, Vasilios N. Katsikis, Nour Eldeen M. Khalifa, Madad Khan, M. Khoshnevisan, Tapan Kumar Roy, Pinaki Majumdar, Sreepurna Malakar, Masoud Ghods, Minghao Hu, Mingming Chen, Mohamed Abdel-Basset, Mohamed Talea, Mohammad Hamidi, Mohamed Loey, Mihnea Alexandru Moisescu, Muhammad Ihsan, Muhammad Saeed, Muhammad Shabir, Mumtaz Ali, Muzzamal Sitara, Nassim Abbas, Munazza Naz, Giorgio Nordo, Mani Parimala, Ion Pătrașcu, Gabrijela Popović, K. Porselvi, Surapati Pramanik, D. Preethi, Qiang Guo, Riad K. Al-Hamido, Zahra Rostami, Said Broumi, Saima Anis, Muzafer Saračević, Ganeshsree Selvachandran, Selvaraj Ganesan, Shammya Shananda Saha, Marayanagaraj Shanmugapriya, Songtao Shao, Sori Tjandrah Simbolon, Florentin Smarandache, Predrag S. Stanimirović, Dragiša Stanujkić, Raman Sundareswaran, Mehmet Șahin, Ovidiu-Ilie Șandru, Abdulkadir Șengür, Mohamed Talea, Ferhat Taș, Selçuk Topal, Alptekin Ulutaș, Ramalingam Udhayakumar, Yunita Umniyati, J. Vimala, Luige Vlădăreanu, Ştefan Vlăduţescu, Yaman Akbulut, Yanhui Guo, Yong Deng, You He, Young Bae Jun, Wangtao Yuan, Rong Xia, Xiaohong Zhang, Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas, Zayen Azzouz Omar, Xiaohong Zhang, Zhirou Ma.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

Neutrosophic Theory and its Applications : Collected Papers - vol. 1

Neutrosophic Theory means Neutrosophy applied in many fields in order to solve problems related to indeterminacy. Neutrosophy is a new branch of philosophy that studies the origin, nature, and scope of neutralities, as well as their interactions with different ideational spectra. This theory considers every entity together with its opposite or negation and with their spectrum of neutralities in between them (i.e. entities supporting neither nor ). The and ideas together are referred to as . Neutrosophy is a generalization of Hegel\u27s dialectics (the last one is based on and only). According to this theory every entity tends to be neutralized and balanced by and entities - as a state of equilibrium. In a classical way , , are disjoint two by two. But, since in many cases the borders between notions are vague, imprecise, Sorites, it is possible that , , (and of course) have common parts two by two, or even all three of them as well. Hence, in one hand, the Neutrosophic Theory is based on the triad , , and . In the other hand, Neutrosophic Theory studies the indeterminacy, labelled as I, with In = I for n ≥ 1, and mI + nI = (m+n)I, in neutrosophic structures developed in algebra, geometry, topology etc. The most developed fields of the Neutrosophic Theory are Neutrosophic Set, Neutrosophic Logic, Neutrosophic Probability, and Neutrosophic Statistics - that started in 1995, and recently Neutrosophic Precalculus and Neutrosophic Calculus, together with their applications in practice. Neutrosophic Set and Neutrosophic Logic are generalizations of the fuzzy set and respectively fuzzy logic (especially of intuitionistic fuzzy set and respectively intuitionistic fuzzy logic). In neutrosophic logic a proposition has a degree of truth (T), a degree of indeterminacy (I), and a degree of falsity (F), where T, I, F are standard or non-standard subsets of ]-0, 1+[. Neutrosophic Probability is a generalization of the classical probability and imprecise probability. Neutrosophic Statistics is a generalization of the classical statistics. What distinguishes the neutrosophics from other fields is the , which means neither nor . And , which of course depends on , can be indeterminacy, neutrality, tie (game), unknown, contradiction, vagueness, ignorance, incompleteness, imprecision, etc

Z-Numbers-Based Approach to Hotel Service Quality Assessment

In this study, we are analyzing the possibility of using Z-numbers for measuring the service quality and decision-making for quality improvement in the hotel industry. Techniques used for these purposes are based on consumer evalu- ations - expectations and perceptions. As a rule, these evaluations are expressed in crisp numbers (Likert scale) or fuzzy estimates. However, descriptions of the respondent opinions based on crisp or fuzzy numbers formalism not in all cases are relevant. The existing methods do not take into account the degree of con- fidence of respondents in their assessments. A fuzzy approach better describes the uncertainties associated with human perceptions and expectations. Linguis- tic values are more acceptable than crisp numbers. To consider the subjective natures of both service quality estimates and confidence degree in them, the two- component Z-numbers Z = (A, B) were used. Z-numbers express more adequately the opinion of consumers. The proposed and computationally efficient approach (Z-SERVQUAL, Z-IPA) allows to determine the quality of services and iden- tify the factors that required improvement and the areas for further development. The suggested method was applied to evaluate the service quality in small and medium-sized hotels in Turkey and Azerbaijan, illustrated by the example

Collected Papers (Neutrosophics and other topics), Volume XIV

This fourteenth volume of Collected Papers is an eclectic tome of 87 papers in Neutrosophics and other fields, such as mathematics, fuzzy sets, intuitionistic fuzzy sets, picture fuzzy sets, information fusion, robotics, statistics, or extenics, comprising 936 pages, published between 2008-2022 in different scientific journals or currently in press, by the author alone or in collaboration with the following 99 co-authors (alphabetically ordered) from 26 countries: Ahmed B. Al-Nafee, Adesina Abdul Akeem Agboola, Akbar Rezaei, Shariful Alam, Marina Alonso, Fran Andujar, Toshinori Asai, Assia Bakali, Azmat Hussain, Daniela Baran, Bijan Davvaz, Bilal Hadjadji, Carlos Díaz Bohorquez, Robert N. Boyd, M. Caldas, Cenap Özel, Pankaj Chauhan, Victor Christianto, Salvador Coll, Shyamal Dalapati, Irfan Deli, Balasubramanian Elavarasan, Fahad Alsharari, Yonfei Feng, Daniela Gîfu, Rafael Rojas Gualdrón, Haipeng Wang, Hemant Kumar Gianey, Noel Batista Hernández, Abdel-Nasser Hussein, Ibrahim M. Hezam, Ilanthenral Kandasamy, W.B. Vasantha Kandasamy, Muthusamy Karthika, Nour Eldeen M. Khalifa, Madad Khan, Kifayat Ullah, Valeri Kroumov, Tapan Kumar Roy, Deepesh Kunwar, Le Thi Nhung, Pedro López, Mai Mohamed, Manh Van Vu, Miguel A. Quiroz-Martínez, Marcel Migdalovici, Kritika Mishra, Mohamed Abdel-Basset, Mohamed Talea, Mohammad Hamidi, Mohammed Alshumrani, Mohamed Loey, Muhammad Akram, Muhammad Shabir, Mumtaz Ali, Nassim Abbas, Munazza Naz, Ngan Thi Roan, Nguyen Xuan Thao, Rishwanth Mani Parimala, Ion Pătrașcu, Surapati Pramanik, Quek Shio Gai, Qiang Guo, Rajab Ali Borzooei, Nimitha Rajesh, Jesús Estupiñan Ricardo, Juan Miguel Martínez Rubio, Saeed Mirvakili, Arsham Borumand Saeid, Saeid Jafari, Said Broumi, Ahmed A. Salama, Nirmala Sawan, Gheorghe Săvoiu, Ganeshsree Selvachandran, Seok-Zun Song, Shahzaib Ashraf, Jayant Singh, Rajesh Singh, Son Hoang Le, Tahir Mahmood, Kenta Takaya, Mirela Teodorescu, Ramalingam Udhayakumar, Maikel Y. Leyva Vázquez, V. Venkateswara Rao, Luige Vlădăreanu, Victor Vlădăreanu, Gabriela Vlădeanu, Michael Voskoglou, Yaser Saber, Yong Deng, You He, Youcef Chibani, Young Bae Jun, Wadei F. Al-Omeri, Hongbo Wang, Zayen Azzouz Omar