Capital budgeting problems with fuzzy cash flows

We consider the internal rate of return (IRR) decision rule in capital budgeting problems with fuzzy cash flows. The possibility distribution of the IRR at any r � 0, is defined to be the degree of possibility that the (fuzzy) net present value of the project with discount factor requals to zero. Generalizing our earlier results on fuzzy capital budegeting problems [5] we show that the possibility distribution of the IRR is a highly nonlinear function which is getting more and more unbalanced by increasing imprecision in the future cash flow. However, it is stable under small changes in the membership functions of fuzzy numbers representing the lingusitic values of future cash flows

Optimization under fuzzy rule constraints

Suppose we are given a mathematical programming problem in which the functional relationship between the decision variables and the objective function is not completely known. Our knowledge-base consists of a block of fuzzy if-then rules, where the antecedent part of the rules contains some linguistic values of the decision variables, and the consequence part is a linear combination of the crisp values of the decision variables. We suggest the use of Takagi and Sugeno fuzzy reasoning method to determine the crisp functional relationship between the objective function and the decision variables, and solve the resulting (usually nonlinear) programming problem to find a fair optimal solution to the original fuzzy problem

A pure probabilistic interpretation of possibilistic expected value, variance, covariance and correlation

In this work we shall give a pure probabilistic interpretation of possibilistic expected value, variance, covariance and correlation

Self-Efficacy Improves UTAUT to Describe Adoption of HealthEnhancing Physical Activity Programs

There is consensus in health studies that regular physical activities of sufficient intensity and duration contribute to better health both in the short and long term. In an ongoing research program, we focus on getting young elderly, the 60-75 years age group, to adopt and include physical activities as part of their everyday routines. Regular health-enhancing physical activities can serve as preventive health care, which will improve and sustain quality of life and build up savings in health-care macro costs for an ageing population. We have learned that digital service tools can be instrumental for the adoption and use of activity programs, and that the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) is instrumental for the acceptance and use of digital tools and services. We will argue that the UTAUT is not sufficient as such but can be enhanced to describe the adoption and use of health-enhancing physical activity programs

Interventions to Form Wellness Routines Among Young Elderly

The ageing population of Europe is a concern for political decision makers as the ageing population by 2020 will represent very large groups of people (18-23% of the population in most EU countries). The issues raised concern elderly people, the age group 75-90 years, as their need for health and social care is expected to grow beyond what national economies can afford. Not much thought is given the “young elderly”- the age group 60-75 years – as the serious age-related problems are yet not visible among them and, hence, they are not on the political radar. Nevertheless, interventions to form and sustain wellness routines among the “young elderly” as part of preventive action programs could significantly reduce the problems society faces when people become elderly. We propose that digital wellness services on smartphones can serve as interventions to form and sustain wellness routines

Fuzzy linear programs with optimal tolerance levels

It is usually supposed that tolerance levels are determined by the decision maker a priori in a fuzzy linear program (FLP). In this paper we shall suppose that the decision maker does not care about the particular values of tolerance levels, but he wishes to minimize their weighted sum. This is a new statement of FLP, because here the tolerance levels are also treated as variables

Mobile Services for the Hospitality Industry

Mobile services appear to be an obvious choice for travel and tourism as the travellers are on the move, which is the first criterion for mobile services to be relevant. The travel and tourism industry, which is one of the largest and most rapidly expanding industries in the world and one of the significant users of ICT in its operations, will no doubt be an important market place for mobile services. Nevertheless, according to a study we conducted in 2003, only a few of the respondents were using mobile services to support their travel but many expressed their intention to use these services when they become viable for them. The travel and tourism industry has seen many dramatic changes within the last decade because of the possibilities offered through the wired internet. When mobile services start to offer an effective alternative to presently used routines and services it is expected that they will have a profound impact on the business models of the travel and tourism industry. The available mobile services in the hospitality industry are not as many and as value-adding as expected and we contrast them with the travellers’ attitudes and expectations in an empirical study. The results and insights collected while studying travellers were later used to build a mobile booking system prototype for a major hospitality chain in Finland

Some applications of possibilistic mean value, variance, covariance and correlation

In 2001 we introduced the notions of possibilistic mean value and variance of fuzzy numbers. In this paper we list some works that use these notions. We shall mention some application areas as wel

On additions of interactive fuzzy numbers

In this paper we will summarize some properties of the extended addition operator on fuzzy numbers, where the interactivity relation between fuzzy numbers is given by their joint possibility distributio

Digital Support to Guide Physical Activity - Augmented Daily Routines for Young Elderly

New EU-level studies show that EU is “turning increasingly grey” and the old-age de-pendency ratio increases steadily during the next three decades. There is a growing, serious problem – people live longer lives but they are in worse shape during their final years and need growing support from health care resources. There is need for a new focus on prevention and on turning the development. The “young elderly” (the 60-75 years old age group) should adopt physical activity (PA) programs and make them part of their everyday routines. The learning processes get started through interventions with digital wellness services. DigitalWells is a research and development program to acti-vate 1000 young elderly to select and use PA programs. The goal is to keep the young elderly in better shape for their senior years (75+) and to contribute to significant reduc-tions in the growth of elderly health and social care costs