A Method for Evaluating R & D Proposals in Large Research Organizations

This series of papers are a product of collaborative research coordinated through IIASA's Management and Technology Area. The collaborating institutions are Hungarian State Office of Technical Development (Personnel: Anna Vari, Janos Vecsenyi, Laszlo David); Decision Analysis Unit, Brunel University, England (Personnel: Patrick Humphreys, Lawrence D. Phillips); All-Union Research Institute of Systems Studies, USSR (Personnel: Oleg. I Larichev). The papers report case studies prepared by the personnel from the collaborating institutions based on their own, and their colleagues' work in their own institutions. They worked together as a team in developing the methods for the analysis of these case studies which are described in the first paper in the series. IIASA provided support for this work through its telecenter for communication between the investigations, and provided facilities for short term meetings between the investigations at IIASA for development of case studies and their comparative analysis. Particular MMT staff were Ronald M. Lee, Nora Avedisians, and Miyoko Yamada, who is the editor of this series. A summary of this comparative analysis, based on the first four case studies in this series was presented at the IFIP/IIASA Conference on "Processes and Tools for Decision Support", Laxenburg, Austria, July, 1982. The paper presented at the IFIP/IIASA conference will be published as Humphreys, P.C., O.I. Larichev, A. Vari, and J. Vecsenyi, Comparative analysis of decision support systems in R&D decisions, in H.G. Sol (ed.), "Processes and Tools for Decision Support", Amsterdam: North Holland, 1982. Another study in this series was published separately as L.D. Phillips: Requisite decision modeling: a case study. "Journal of the Operations Research Society, 1982, 33:303-311

New Directions in Multicriteria Decision Making Research

The author of this paper expresses an assessment of current approaches to research in multicriteria decision making that are more relevant from his point of view to the treatment of real-life issues. The author is a prominent researcher in this field

The momentum flux probability distribution function for ion-temperature-gradient turbulence

There has been overwhelming evidence that coherent structures play a critical role in determining the overall transport in a variety of systems. We compute the probability distribution function (PDF) tails of momentum flux and heat flux in ion-temperature-gradient turbulence, by taking into account the interaction among modons, which are assumed to be coherent structures responsible for bursty and intermittent events, contributing to the PDF tails. The tail of PDF of momentum flux R = 〈vxvy〉 is shown to be exponential with the form exp{−ξR3/2}, which is broader than a Gaussian, similar to what was found in the previous local studies. An analogous expression with the same functional dependence is found for the PDF tails of heat flux. Furthermore, we present a detailed numerical study of the dependence of the PDF tail on the temperature and density scale lengths and other physical parameters through the coefficient ξ

Inverse turbulent cascades and conformally invariant curves

We offer a new example of conformal invariance far from equilibrium -- the inverse cascade of Surface Quasi-Geostrophic (SQG) turbulence. We show that temperature isolines are statistically equivalent to curves that can be mapped into a one-dimensional Brownian walk (called Schramm-Loewner Evolution or SLE$_\kappa$). The diffusivity is close to $\kappa=4$, that is iso-temperature curves belong to the same universality class as domain walls in the O(2) spin model. Several statistics of temperature clusters and isolines are measured and shown to be consistent with the theoretical expectations for such a spin system at criticality. We also show that the direct cascade in two-dimensional Navier-Stokes turbulence is not conformal invariant. The emerging picture is that conformal invariance may be expected for inverse turbulent cascades of strongly interacting systems.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure

Multicriterial ranking approach for evaluating bank branch performance

14 ranking methods based on multiple criteria are suggested for evaluating the performance of the bank branches. The methods are explained via an illustrative example, and some of them are applied to a real-life data for 23 retail bank branches in a large-scale private Turkish commercial bank

Beltrami States for Compressible Barotropic Flows

Beltrami states for compressible barotropic flows are deduced by minimizing the total kinetic energy while keeping the total helicity constant. A Hamiltonian basis for these Beltrami states is also sketched

Justifying Public Decisions in Arctic Oil and Gas Development: American and Russian Approaches

Government resource decisions in the Arctic typically involve complex issues; multiple criteria are used to choose among alternatives. This complexity is even greater with petroleum development because of concerns about national energy security, environmental impacts, and economic development. Two decision-aiding techniques may help decision makers clarify their decisions to themselves, the stakeholders, and the general public. The Russian qualitative technique seeks to reduce the number of criteria and find alternative options that may be better than the initial ones. The Western quantitative technique seeks to measure the decision maker's judgement about the utility and certainty of each option. These techniques are applied to two case studies: a decision about gas pipeline routing on the Yamal Peninsula, Russia, and a tool for evaluating applications for development permits on the North Slope of Alaska. The qualitative method is easier to use and may be the best model for people who use numbers infrequently or want to make a claim based on rights. The quantitative method did well at preserving detail and incorporating uncertainty. Both approaches helped to reduce the apparent complexity of the decisions.Les décisions gouvernementales concernant les ressources dans l'Arctique mettent le plus souvent en jeu des questions complexes; un grand nombre de critères sont utilisés en vue de choisir parmi différentes options. Cette complexité s'accroît dans le cas de l'exploitation pétrolière en raison des problèmes entourant la sécurité nationale de l'énergie, les retombées environnementales et le développement économique. Deux techniques d'aide à la décision peuvent inciter les décideurs à clarifier leurs décisions pour eux-mêmes, pour les parties intéressées et pour le grand public. La technique qualitative russe cherche à réduire le nombre de critères et à trouver des solutions de rechange qui pourraient être meilleures que les mesures initiales. La technique quantitative occidentale cherche à mesurer le jugement du décideur sur l'utilité et la certitude de chaque option. Ces techniques sont appliquées à deux études de cas: une décision concernant le tracé d'un gazoduc dans la presqu'île de Iamal en Russie, et un outil permettant d'évaluer les demandes de permis d'exploitation sur le versant Nord de l'Alaska. La méthode qualitative est plus facile à utiliser et peut être le meilleur modèle pour des individus qui n'ont pas l'habitude des chiffres ou qui veulent établir une revendication fondée sur des droits. La méthode quantitative réussit bien à préserver le détail et à intégrer l'incertitude. Les deux approches aidaient à réduire la complexité apparente des décisions

Justifying Public Decisions in Arctic Oil and Gas Development: American and Russian Approaches

Government resource decisions in the Arctic typically involve complex issues; multiple criteria are used to choose among alternatives. This complexity is even greater with petroleum development because of concerns about national energy security, environmental impacts, and economic development. Two decision-aiding techniques may help decision makers clarify their decisions to themselves, the stakeholders, and the general public. The Russian qualitative technique seeks to reduce the number of criteria and find alternative options that may be better than the initial ones. The Western quantitative technique seeks to measure the decision maker* s judgement about the utility and certainty of each option. These techniques are applied to two case studies: a decision about gas pipeline routing on the Yamal Peninsula, Russia, and a tool for evaluating applications for development permits on the North Slope of Alaska. The qualitative method is easier to use and may be the best model for people who use numbers infrequently or want to make a claim based on rights. The quantitative method did well at preserving detail and incorporating uncertainty. Both approaches helped to reduce the apparent complexity of the decisions

Experimental observation of steady and drifting roll patterns in a nonlinear optical system near a codimension-two point

We report the first, to our knowledge, experimental investigation of a two-component Kerr-type nonlinear optical system with diffractive feedback. In accordance with theoretical predictions, transitions between steady and drifting roll patterns were experimentally observed near a certain point of the parameter space. Temporal frequency of the drifting rolls measured as a function of control parameters agreed qualitatively with the theoretical dependence

Правовой статус муниципалитета как корпорации в праве Канады

УДК 342.25The purpose of this article is to study the legal status of a municipality as a corporation in Canadian law.The methods of theoretical analysis, along with legal methods, including formal-legal method are used to achieve this goal.Results. In the article the author notes the difficulties in determining the legal nature of a municipal corporation in legal research. In literature, there exists an approach to the corresponding subject as both a public corporation, differentiating from the entrepreneurial form (J. Dillon, E.A. Sukhanov), as well as the dual approach, which allows for the double, private-public character of its legal nature (I. Rogers).As the author maintains, a municipal corporation in Canadian law can be defined as a form of a statutory corporation of a special kind, the legal personality of which, unlike one of the common law corporations, is limited by normative legal acts (statutes) of general or individual character.Despite the existence of general theoretical framework of legal design of a municipal corporation, legislators of Canadian provinces differ in determination of its elements. Among the most common elements to be identified is the population, but in some cases the legislation also indicates the territory and local government bodies.The form of a statutory corporation also presupposes the definition in the legislation of a clear goal (goals) for its creation. At the same time, as noted in the article, the tendency of the recent time is a departure from specifying concrete goals in favor of more general formulations.Conclusions. This tendency, together with other separate measures to liberalize the legal status of municipal corporations (for example, giving municipalities the status of natural person), without reconsidering the fundamental foundations of their legal nature, indicatesa virtual erosion of the approach to the status of a municipality as a statutory corporation, as well as the need for both theoretical and normative work in order to eliminate the corresponding defects and contradictions. УДК 342.25Статья посвящена исследованию специфики правового положения муниципалитета как корпорации в Канаде. Автором отмечаются сложности в определении правовой природы муниципальной корпорации в юридической науке и установлении элементов ее юридической конструкции. По мнению автора, муниципальную корпорацию в канадском праве можно определять как форму статутной корпорации особого вида, правосубъектность которой ограничена нормативными правовыми актами (статутами) общего либо индивидуального характера. Вместе с тем нельзя не отметить фактическую эрозию подхода к муниципалитетам, возникающую вследствие принятия от-дельных мер по либерализации их правового положения, без пересмотра фундаментальных основ их юридической природы, что требует проведения как теоретической, так и нормотворческой работы с целью устранения соответствующих дефектов и противоречий