Empirical Analysis of Determinants of Economic Growth: Evidence from SAARC Countries

This study investigates the factors that determine and enhance economic growth. The factors to determine the economic growth of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries are foreign direct investment, total debt, gross domestic investment and inflation. Simple ordinary least square is applied to analyze the determinates of economic growth with the help of panel data for 39 years with annual frequency from 1971 to 2009. The economic growth may gain boost by the factors not only by these but also many others. In this study foreign direct investment and inflation are found having inverse relationship with economic growth while gross domestic investment and total debt are found positively associated with economic growth. This study may prove useful contribution for policy making for South Asian countries

Self-organizing hierarchical particle swarm optimization of correlation filters for object recognition

Advanced correlation filters are an effective tool for target detection within a particular class. Most correlation filters are derived from a complex filter equation leading to a closed form filter solution. The response of the correlation filter depends upon the selected values of the optimal trade-off (OT) parameters. In this paper, the OT parameters are optimized using particle swarm optimization with respect to two different cost functions. The optimization has been made generic and is applied to each target separately in order to achieve the best possible result for each scenario. The filters obtained using standard particle swarm optimization (PSO) and hierarchal particle swarm optimization (HPSO) algorithms have been compared for various test images with the filter solutions available in the literature. It has been shown that optimization improves the performance of the filters significantly

Performance evaluation of recurrent neural networks applied to indoor camera localization

Researchers in robotics and computer vision are experimenting with the image-based localization of indoor cameras. Implementation of indoor camera localization problems using a Convolutional neural network (CNN) or Recurrent neural network (RNN) is more challenging from a large image dataset because of the internal structure of CNN or RNN. We can choose a preferable CNN or RNN variant based on the problem type and size of the dataset. CNN is the most flexible method for implementing indoor localization problems. Despite CNN's suitability for hyper-parameter selection, it requires a lot of training images to achieve high accuracy. In addition, overfitting leads to a decrease in accuracy. Introduce RNN, which accurately keeps input images in internal memory to solve these problems. Long-short-term memory (LSTM), Bi-directional LSTM (BiLSTM), and Gated recurrent unit (GRU) are three variants of RNN. We may choose the most appropriate RNN variation based on the problem type and dataset. In this study, we can recommend which variant is effective for training more speedily and which variant produces more accurate results. Vanishing gradient issues also affect RNNs, making it difficult to learn more data. Overcome the gradient vanishing problem by utilizing LSTM. The BiLSTM is an advanced version of the LSTM and is capable of higher performance than the LSTM. A more advanced RNN variant is GRU which is computationally more efficient than an LSTM. In this study, we explore a variety of recurring units for localizing indoor cameras. Our focus is on more powerful recurrent units like LSTM, BiLSTM, and GRU. Using the Microsoft 7-Scenes and InteriorNet datasets, we evaluate the performance of LSTM, BiLSTM, and GRU. Our experiment has shown that the BiLSTM is more efficient in accuracy than the LSTM and GRU. We also observed that the GRU is faster than LSTM and BiLSTM

Arithmetic operations of intuitionistic Z numbers using horizontal membership functions

An intuitionistic Z-number (IZN) is an integration of an intuitionistic fuzzy number with a Z-number. The IZN composes of two components; restriction and reliability components, which are represented by the membership and non-membership degrees to indicate the hesitancy. The objective of this paper is to propose new arithmetic operations of IZN using the horizontal membership functions, which are closely related the concept of the relative distance measure. For that reason, the addition, subtraction, multiplication and division on normal trapezoidal IZNs are considered. The proposed operations preserve the arithmetic operations over real numbers and the original IZN-based information, avoiding any significant loss of information. The implementation of the bandwidth method in deriving the operations has reduced the computational complexity on IZN. In the future, aggregation operators of IZN can be derived using the proposed arithmetic operations

Synergic ranking of fuzzy Z-numbers based on vectorial distance and spread for application in decision-making

Decision science has a wide range of applications in daily life. Decision information is usually incomplete and partially reliable. In the fuzzy set theory, Z-numbers are introduced to handle this situation because they contain the restriction and reliability components, which complement the impaired information. The ranking of Z-numbers is a challenging task since they are composed of pairs of fuzzy numbers. In this research, the vectorial distance and spread of Z-numbers were proposed synergically, in which the vectorial distance measures how much the fuzzy numbers are apart from the origin, which was set as a relative point, and their spreads over a horizontal axis. Furthermore, a ranking method based on the convex compound was proposed to combine the restriction and reliability components of Z-numbers. The proposed ranking method was validated using several empirical examples and a comparative analysis was conducted. The application of the proposed ranking method in decision-making was illustrated via the development of the Analytic Hierarchy Process-Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (AHP-WASPAS) model to solve the prioritization of public services for the implementation of Industry 4.0 tools. Sensitivity analysis was also conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed model and the results showed that the proposed model has improved its consistency from 66.67% of the existing model to 83.33%. This research leads to a future direction of the application of ranking based on the vectorial distance and spread in multi-criteria decision-making methods, which use Z-numbers as linguistic values

Application of Intuitionistic Z-Numbers in Supplier Selection

Intuitionistic fuzzy numbers incorporate the membership and nonmembership degrees. In contrast, Z-numbers consist of restriction components, with the existence of a reliability component describing the degree of certainty for the restriction. The combination of intuitionistic fuzzy numbers and Z-numbers produce a new type of fuzzy numbers, namely intuitionistic Z-numbers (IZN). The strength of IZN is their capability of better handling the uncertainty compared to Zadeh's Z-numbers since both components of Z-numbers are characterized by the membership and non-membership functions, exhibiting the degree of the hesitancy of decision-makers. This paper presents the application of such numbers in fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making problems. A decision-making model is proposed using the trapezoidal intuitionistic fuzzy power ordered weighted average as the aggregation function and the ranking function to rank the alternatives. The proposed model is then implemented in a supplier selection problem. The obtained ranking is compared to the existing models based on Znumbers. The results show that the ranking order is slightly different from the existing models. Sensitivity analysis is performed to validate the obtained ranking. The sensitivity analysis result shows that the best supplier is obtained using the proposed model with 80% to 100% consistency despite the drastic change of criteria weights. Intuitionistic Z-numbers play a very important role in describing the uncertainty in the decision makers’ opinions in solving decision-making problems

Development of Reliable TOPSIS Method Using Intuitionistic Z-Numbers

Technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) is a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method which is developed based on the distance measure from the positive and negative ideal solutions. This paper extends the TOPSIS for handling data in form of intuitionistic Z-numbers (IZN). IZN consists of restriction and reliability components which are characterized by the intuitionistic fuzzy numbers. The distance measure between IZN is proposed using the convex compound of the distances for the restriction and reliability parts. The supplier selection problem in an automobile manufacturing company is adopted to illustrate the proposed model. Sensitivity analysis is performed for the validation of the proposed model and its result shows that the proposed model gives a consistent ranking of alternatives. The strength of the proposed model is the preservation of decision information in form of IZN which does not possess the conversion into regular fuzzy number to avoid the loss of information

Synergic ranking of fuzzy Z-numbers based on vectorial distance and spread for application in decision-making

Decision science has a wide range of applications in daily life. Decision information is usually incomplete and partially reliable. In the fuzzy set theory, Z-numbers are introduced to handle this situation because they contain the restriction and reliability components, which complement the impaired information. The ranking of Z-numbers is a challenging task since they are composed of pairs of fuzzy numbers. In this research, the vectorial distance and spread of Z-numbers were proposed synergically, in which the vectorial distance measures how much the fuzzy numbers are apart from the origin, which was set as a relative point, and their spreads over a horizontal axis. Furthermore, a ranking method based on the convex compound was proposed to combine the restriction and reliability components of Z-numbers. The proposed ranking method was validated using several empirical examples and a comparative analysis was conducted. The application of the proposed ranking method in decision-making was illustrated via the development of the Analytic Hierarchy Process-Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (AHP-WASPAS) model to solve the prioritization of public services for the implementation of Industry 4.0 tools. Sensitivity analysis was also conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed model and the results showed that the proposed model has improved its consistency from 66.67% of the existing model to 83.33%. This research leads to a future direction of the application of ranking based on the vectorial distance and spread in multi-criteria decision-making methods, which use Z-numbers as linguistic values

The application of z-numbers in fuzzy decision making: The state of the art

A Z-number is very powerful in describing imperfect information, in which fuzzy numbers are paired such that the partially reliable information is properly processed. During a decision-making process, human beings always use natural language to describe their preferences, and the decision information is usually imprecise and partially reliable. The nature of the Z-number, which is composed of the restriction and reliability components, has made it a powerful tool for depicting certain decision information. Its strengths and advantages have attracted many researchers worldwide to further study and extend its theory and applications. The current research trend on Z-numbers has shown an increasing interest among researchers in the fuzzy set theory, especially its application to decision making. This paper reviews the application of Z-numbers in decision making, in which previous decision-making models based on Z-numbers are analyzed to identify their strengths and contributions. The decision making based on Z-numbers improves the reliability of the decision information and makes it more meaningful. Another scope that is closely related to decision making, namely, the ranking of Z-numbers, is also reviewed. Then, the evaluative analysis of the Z-numbers is conducted to evaluate the performance of Z-numbers in decision making. Future directions and recommendations on the applications of Z-numbers in decision making are provided at the end of this review

Intuitive Multiple Centroid Defuzzification of Intuitionistic Z-Numbers

In fuzzy decision-making, incomplete information always leads to uncertain and partially reliable judgements. The emergence of fuzzy set theory helps decision-makers in handling uncertainty and vagueness when making judgements. Intuitionistic Fuzzy Numbers (IFN) measure the degree of uncertainty better than classical fuzzy numbers, while Z-numbers help to highlight the reliability of the judgements. Combining these two fuzzy numbers produces Intuitionistic Z-Numbers (IZN). Both restriction and reliability components are characterized by the membership and non-membership functions, exhibiting a degree of uncertainties that arise due to the lack of information when decision-makers are making preferences. Decision information in the form of IZN needs to be defuzzified during the decision-making process before the final preferences can be determined. This paper proposes an Intuitive Multiple Centroid (IMC) defuzzification of IZN. A novel Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) model based on IZN is developed. The proposed MCDM model is implemented in a supplier selection problem for an automobile manufacturing company. An arithmetic averaging operator is used to aggregate the preferences of all decision-makers, and a ranking function based on centroid is used to rank the alternatives. The IZN play the role of representing the uncertainty of decision-makers, which finally determine the ranking of alternatives