Implementation Essays on Decision Support Systems

The "Task Force Meeting on Decision Support Systems (DSS)" held at IIASA in June 1980 has stimulated some new thinking in this area of research in the MMT group (Management and Technology Research Area). The discussion pointed out the important role that DSS can play in assisting decision makers. DSS should be seen as a complicated socio-technical system for solving relevant problems in the wider social context. This paper is oriented towards technical aspects of DSS, but human factors have been taken into account as well. It contains some points of view of implementation; it reviews some basic functions which are to be performed by DSS and techniques which can simplify DSS design. A possible implementation structure based on computer network theory is presented, and in addition, some of the problems involved are discussed The author Jan Janecek participated in the IIASA Young Scientists Summer Program 1980. He was attached to the MMT Research Area for three months. This report is one of the results of his work during that period

Fazi relacijske jednačine i nejednačine i njihova primena u analizi podataka

The subject of this thesis is the development of algorithms for computing the greatest solutions to systems of fuzzy relational equations and inequalities and application of these solutions in the analysis of one-mode and multi-mode fuzzy social networks. In addition, some problems of finding structural similarities (regular equivalences) between the actors of various networks have been considered, and have been employed for determination of connected positions in these networks

SPECIAL FUZZY MATRICES FOR SOCIAL SCIENTISTS

This book is a continuation of the book, Elementary fuzzy matrix and fuzzy models for socio-scientists by the same authors. This book is a little advanced because we introduce a multi-expert fuzzy and neutrosophic models. It mainly tries to help social scientists to analyze any problem in which they need multi-expert systems with multi-models. To cater to this need, we have introduced new classes of fuzzy and neutrosophic special matrices. The first chapter is essentially spent on introducing the new notion of different types of special fuzzy and neutrosophic matrices, and the simple operations on them which are needed in the working of these multi expert models. In the second chapter, new set of multi expert models are introduced; these special fuzzy models and special fuzzy neutrosophic models that can cater to adopt any number of experts. The working of the model is also explained by illustrative examples. However, these special fuzzy models can also be used by applied mathematicians to study social and psychological problems. These models can also be used by doctors, engineers, scientists and statisticians. The SFCM, SMFCM, SNCM, SMNCM, SFRM, SNRM, SMFRM, SMNRM, SFNCMs, SFNRMs, etc. can give the special hidden pattern for any given special input vector

SEPEC conference proceedings: Hypermedia and Information Reconstruction. Aerospace applications and research directions. Addendum

The papers presented at the conference on hypermedia and information reconstruction are compiled. The following subject areas are covered: hypertext, typographic man, and the notion of literacy; a knowledge base browser using hypermedia; Ai GERM - a logic programming front end for GERM; and HEAVENS system for software artifacts

Intelligent Technique for Seamless Vertical Handover in Vehicular Networks

Seamless mobility is a challenging issue in the area of research of vehicular networks that are supportive of various applications dealing with the intelligent transportation system (ITS). The conventional mobility management plans for the Internet and the mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is unable to address the needs of the vehicular network and there is severe performance degradation because of the vehicular networks’ unique characters such as high mobility. Thus, vehicular networks require seamless mobility designs that especially developed for them. This research provides an intelligent algorithm in providing seamless mobility using the media independent handover, MIH (IEEE 802.21), over heterogeneous networks with different access technologies such as Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), as well as the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) for improving the quality of service (QoS) of the mobile services in the vehicular networks. The proposed algorithm is a hybrid model which merges the biogeography-based optimization or BBO with the Markov chain. The findings of this research show that our method within the given scenario can meet the requirements of the application as well as the preferences of the users

A combinatorial approach to role discovery

We provide a new formulation for the problem of role discovery in graphs. Our definition is structural and recursive: two vertices should be assigned to the same role if the roles of their neighbors, when viewed as multi-sets, are similar enough. An attractive characteristic of our approach is that it is based on optimizing a well-defined objective function, and thus, contrary to previous approaches, the role-discovery task can be studied with the tools of combinatorial optimization. We demonstrate that, when fixing the number of roles to be used, the proposed role-discovery problem is NP-hard, while another (seemingly easier) version of the problem is NP-hard to approximate. On the positive side, despite the recursive nature of our objective function, we can show that finding a perfect (zero-cost) role assignment with the minimum number of roles can be solved in polynomial time. We do this by connecting the zero-cost role assignment with the notion of equitable partition. For the more practical version of the problem with fixed number of roles we present two natural heuristic methods, and discuss how to make them scalable in large graphs

Political space and the space of polities: Doing politics across nations

What makes political life in the United States so different from political life in France, Hungary or Argentina? This paper considers why societies “do politics” differently. We draw on Pierre Bourdieu’s criticism of substantialist thinking in sociology and on his conceptualization of the social space to propose a new way of relating methodological to theoretical claims in comparative political sociology. We do this by exploring and constructing a “space of polities” based on data from the 2004 World Values Survey, using relational statistical techniques (e.g., geometric data analysis). The main insight is that any single form of political action (e.g., joining a voluntary association, or a demonstration, or a boycott) only takes its meaning in the context of its objective relationship to other forms of political action and non-action that have currency in each particular society. We explore the diversity of polity types that actually exist and discuss how they emerge from similar configurations in countries’ spaces of political practices. We suggest that the reason for such clustering lies in similar political–historical trajectories. We conclude by arguing for a comparative approach that is sensitive to differences in overall systems of relationships