Food marketing cooperatives of Crete: A financial assessment within the EU context

In this paper an estimate is made concerning the correlation between the prosperity and viability of food enterprises and the volume of fixed assets. The amount of investment in fixed assets refers to the volume of the food cooperative activities. Hence, it can be considered as a comprehensive indicator which shows the size and use orientation of enterprises. The financial activity results and efficiency of the cooperatives depend, in many respects, on investments in the floating funds and fixed assets, the size of investment in monetary units and materials and the optimum ratio between them. This paper provides a financial assessment and comparative analysis of the food marketing cooperatives, against the amount of the fixed assets they have. The main purpose of this research is to estimate the viability of food marketing cooperatives under competitive conditions in the agricultural sector and to evaluate the financial aspects of their activities in terms of the size of fixed assets. The research provides a brief overview of the European Union experience from the financial side of cooperative activities. But due to the huge size of the EU and the significant differences between the various countries, it is difficult to estimate the issue on a union scale. Instead, some general features are mentioned briefly with reference to Greek cooperation, with more specific and detailed data and analyses provided for several cooperatives located in Crete. Crete was chosen for this research because it is one of the largest food producing regions in Greece. The comparative analysis was carried out based on the data for four consecutive years (from 2003 to 2006). For the purpose of this study, cooperatives functioning in Crete were chosen. The aim of the current research was to determine the interdependence between the size of the fixed assets and the welfare of the cooperatives and to underline the optimum amount of assets for marketing cooperatives, based on the ranking of the enterprises. Keywords:food marketing cooperatives, fixed assets, financial ratio analysis, multicriteria analysis., Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Multi-Objective Modeling and Simulation for Decision Report

Modeling and simulation of various physical, environmental or socioeconomic processes is often a preliminary step for using the resulting models in decision support. With the advancements of computing technology and the methodology of decision support, it is now necessary to revise basic approaches to modeling and simulation: from the very beginning of model construction, they should aim at multi-objective analysis of the model while taking into account various optimization, sensitivity analysis and symbolic manipulation techniques treated as tools of such an analysis, not as goals. The paper illustrates how such an approach could increase the opportunities of comprehensive analysis of a model from a selected class -- as an example, the class of nonlinear dynamic discrete-time models was chosen. A user-friendly format of formulating such models is discussed together with related problems of inverse, constrained and multi-objective simulation as well as structural differentiation and sensitivity analysis, fuzzy set processing and other related issues. As a new tool for the analysis of boundaries of sets generated by such models -- for example. the a-level sets of fuzzy membership functions -- an interactive method of using an elastic "electronic pencil" is proposed

Π2. Τεχνική έκθεση (ανάπτυξη μέτρων αξιολόγησης ευστάθειας σε αναλυτικές - συνθετικές διαδικασίες)

Στόχος της Αναλυτικής – Συνθετικής Προσέγγισης είναι να εκτιμηθεί το μοντέλο προτιμήσεων του αποφασίζοντος μέσα από μια διαδικασία στην οποία αποκαλύπτονται και δομούνται οι αναλυτικές προτιμήσεις του αποφασίζοντος πάνω στα κριτήρια αξιολόγησης. Σύμφωνα με την αναλυτική συνθετική προσέγγιση, ο αποφασίζων εκφράζει τις σφαιρικές του προτιμήσεις σε ένα σύνολο εναλλακτικών ενεργειών (σύνολο αναφοράς) αξιολογημένων σε ένα συνεπές σύνολο κριτηρίων και με βάση αυτές προσεγγίζεται το μοντέλο της αθροιστικής χρησιμότητας (αξίας)

MOTION HANDBOOK: From Overtourism to Innovating Sustainable Solutions in the EU

Erasmus + Programme of the European Union. Project with reference: 2020-1-FI01-KA203-066543

Semi-Structured Decision Processes: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Human-Automation Decision Systems

The purpose of this work is to improve understanding of existing and proposed decision systems, ideally to improve the design of future systems. A "decision system" is defined as a collection of information-processing components -- often involving humans and automation (e.g., computers) -- that interact towards a common set of objectives. Since a key issue in the design of decision systems is the division of work between humans and machines (a task known as "function allocation"), this report is primarily intended to help designers incorporate automation more appropriately within these systems. This report does not provide a design methodology, but introduces a way to qualitatively analyze potential designs early in the system design process. A novel analytical framework is presented, based on the concept of "semi-Structured" decision processes. It is believed that many decisions involve both well-defined "Structured" parts (e.g., formal procedures, traditional algorithms) and ill-defined "Unstructured" parts (e.g., intuition, judgement, neural networks) that interact in a known manner. While Structured processes are often desired because they fully prescribe how a future decision (during "operation") will be made, they are limited by what is explicitly understood prior to operation. A system designer who incorporates Unstructured processes into a decision system understands which parts are not understood sufficiently, and relinquishes control by deferring decision-making from design to operation. Among other things, this design choice tends to add flexibility and robustness. The value of the semi-Structured framework is that it forces people to consider system design concepts as operational decision processes in which both well-defined and ill-defined components are made explicit. This may provide more insight into decision systems, and improve understanding of the implications of design choices. The first part of this report defines the semi-Structured process and introduces a diagrammatic notation for decision process models. In the second part, the semi-Structured framework is used to understand and explain highly evolved decision system designs (these are assumed to be representative of "good" designs) whose components include feedback controllers, alerts, decision aids, and displays. Lastly, the semi-Structured framework is applied to a decision system design for a mobile robot.Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., under IR&D effort 101

Decision support systems for solving discrete multicriteria decision making problems

Includes bibliography.The aim of this study was the design and implementation of an interactive decision support system, assisting a single decision maker in reaching a satisfactory decision when faced by a multicriteria decision making problem. There are clearly two components involved in designing such a system, namely the concept of decision support systems (DSS) and the area of multicriteria decision making (MCDM). The multicriteria decision making environment as well as the definitions of the multicriteria decision making concepts used, are discussed in chapter 1. Chapter 2 gives a brief historical review on MCDM, highlighting the origins of some of the more well-known methods for solving MCDM problems. A detailed discussion of interactive decision making is also given. Chapter 3 is concerned with the DSS concept, including a historical review thereof, a framework for the design of a DSS, various development approaches as well as the components constituting a decision support system. In chapter 4, the possibility of integrating the two concepts, MCDM and DSS, are discussed. A detailed discussion of various methodologies for solving MCDM problems is given in chapter 5. Specific attention is given to identifying the methodologies to be implemented in the DSS. Chapter 6 can be seen as a theoretical description of the system developed, while Chapter 7 is concerned with the evaluation procedures used for testing the system. A final summary and concluding remarks are given in Chapter 8

Planning for the strategic management of South Africa's West Coast rock lobster fishery : an integrated approach to group decision support

Bibliography: leaves 175-184.As Bryson (1995) points out, strategic planning is particularly useful for assisting organisations and communities to deal with change. This study was carried out at a time of great change in South Africa, when a new fisheries policy was being formulated and negotiated. The research describes an intervention with a group of .fisheries managers, scientists, fishing company directors and other key stakeholders, in planning for the future management of the West Coast Rock Lobster fishery. The primary objective of the study was to consider an integrated approach to group decision support, incorporating a particular soft-OR approach, SODA, together with multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). An integration of these two approaches has recently been suggested by researchers, for several reasons. Firstly, different phases of an intervention usually involve different tasks. Secondly, mixing methodologies will enable different aspects of the problem to be modelled and analysed. SODA was used at the outset, for divergent exploration and structuring of the problems surrounding the development of an operational management procedure (OMP) for the fishery, including more subjective and qualitative information. Several stakeholder groups opposed the idea of an OMP in the form in which it was proposed

Techno-economic analysis and decision making for PHEV benefits to society, consumers, policymakers and automakers

2012 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are an emerging automotive technology that has the capability to reduce transportation environmental impacts, but at an increased production cost. PHEVs can draw and store energy from an electric grid and consequently show reductions in petroleum consumption, air emissions, ownership costs, and regulation compliance costs, and various other externalities. Decision makers in the policy, consumer, and industry spheres would like to understand the impact of HEV and PHEV technologies on the U.S. vehicle fleets, but to date, only the disciplinary characteristics of PHEVs been considered. The multidisciplinary tradeoffs between vehicle energy sources, policy requirements, market conditions, consumer preferences and technology improvements are not well understood. For example, the results of recent studies have posited the importance of PHEVs to the future US vehicle fleet. No studies have considered the value of PHEVs to automakers and policy makers as a tool for achieving US corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards which are planned to double by 2030. Previous studies have demonstrated the cost and benefit of PHEVs but there is no study that comprehensively accounts for the cost and benefits of PHEV to consumers. The diffusion rate of hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) and PHEV technology into the marketplace has been estimated by existing studies using various tools and scenarios, but results show wide variations between studies. There is no comprehensive modeling study that combines policy, consumers, society and automakers in the U.S. new vehicle sales cost and benefits analysis. The aim of this research is to build a potential framework that can simulate and optimize the benefits of PHEVs for a multiplicity of stakeholders. This dissertation describes the results of modeling that integrates the effects of PHEV market penetration on policy, consumer and economic spheres. A model of fleet fuel economy and CAFE compliance for a large US automaker will be developed. A comprehensive total cost of ownership model will be constructed to calculate and compare the cost and benefits of PHEVs, conventional vehicles (CVs) and HEVs. Then a comprehensive literature review of PHEVs penetration rate studies will be developed to review and analyze the primary purposes, methods, and results of studies of PHEV market penetration. Finally a multi-criteria modeling system will incorporate results of the support model results. In this project, the models, analysis and results will provide a broader understanding of the benefits and costs of PHEV technology and the parties to whom those benefits accrue. The findings will provide important information for consumers, automakers and policy makers to understand and define HEVs and PHEVs costs, benefits, expected penetration rate and the preferred vehicle design and technology scenario to meet the requirements of policy, society, industry and consumers