Multiple Criteria Decision Making and Multiattribute Utility Theory

T his paper is an update of a paper that five of us published in 1992. The areas of multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) and multiattribute utility theory (MAUT) continue to be active areas of management science research and application. This paper extends the history of these areas and discusses topics we believe to be important for the future of these fields

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pt.3, 5 1783-8

Analysis of Production and Location Decisions by Means of Multi-Criteria Analysis

During the last few years economists and operations researchers have paid much attention to multi-criteria analysis as a tool in modern decision-making. The basic feature of multi-criteria analysis is the fact that a wide variety of relevant decision aspects can be taken into account without a necessity to translate all these aspects in monetary terms. This article will give a brief survey of these new methods in both a quantitative and in a qualitative sense. After this survey the relevance of multi-criteria analysis for entrepreneurial decisions in the field of production and investments will be exposed. The analysis will be illustrated by means of two examples of entrepreneurial decision-problems, which have been solved by means of multi-criteria analysis

Hypomethylation of a LINE-1 Promoter Activates an Alternate Transcript of the MET Oncogene in Bladders with Cancer

It was recently shown that a large portion of the human transcriptome can originate from within repetitive elements, leading to ectopic expression of protein-coding genes. However the mechanism of transcriptional activation of repetitive elements has not been definitively elucidated. For the first time, we directly demonstrate that hypomethylation of retrotransposons can cause altered gene expression in humans. We also reveal that active LINE-1s switch from a tetranucleosome to dinucleosome structure, acquiring H2A.Z- and nucleosome-free regions upstream of TSSs, previously shown only at active single-copy genes. Hypomethylation of a specific LINE-1 promoter was also found to induce an alternate transcript of the MET oncogene in bladder tumors and across the entire urothelium of tumor-bearing bladders. These data show that, in addition to contributing to chromosomal instability, hypomethylation of LINE-1s can alter the functional transcriptome and plays a role not only in human disease but also in disease predisposition

The role of noise in clinical environments with particular reference to mental health care: a narrative review

Background: There is a large literature suggesting that noise can be detrimental to health and numerous policy documents have promoted noise abatement in clinical settings. Objectives: This paper documents the role of noise in clinical environments and its deleterious effects with a particular focus on mental health care. Our intention however, is to go beyond the notion that noise is simply undesirable and examine the extent to which researchers have explored the meaning of sound in hospital settings and identify new opportunities for research and practice. Data sources and review methods: This is a narrative review which has grouped the literature and issues in the field into themes concerning the general issues of noise in health care; sleep noise and hospital environments; noise in intensive care units; implications for service users and staff; and suggestions for new ways of conceptualising and researching clinical soundscapes. Data sources comprised relevant UK policy documents and the results of a literature search of Pubmed, Scopus and Web of Knowledge using terms such as noise, health, hospital, soundscape and relevant additional terms derived from the papers retrieved. In addition the references of retrieved articles were scanned for additional relevant material and historical items significant in shaping the field. Results: Excess unwanted noise can clearly be detrimental to health and impede recovery, and this is clearly recognised by policymakers especially in the UK context. We use the literature surveyed to argue that it is important also to see the noise in clinical environments in terms of the meaning it conveys and rather than merely containing unwanted sound, clinical environments have a ‘soundscape’. This comprises noises which convey meaning, for example about the activities of other people, the rhythms of the day and the nature of the auditory community of the hospital. Unwanted sound may have unwanted effects, especially on those who are most vulnerable, yet this does not necessarily mean that silence is the better option. Therefore it is our contention that it is important to begin thinking about the social functions of sound in the mental health environment. Conclusions: Whilst it can be stressful, sound can also be soothing, reassuring and a rich source of information about the environment as well. It may be used to secure a degree of privacy for oneself, to exclude others or as a source of solidarity among friends and colleagues. The challenge then is to understand the work that sound does in its ecological context in health care settings

Outdoor environmental supportiveness and older people’s quality of life:A personal projects approach

We present an approach to exploring the role of environmental supportiveness in contributing to older people’s quality of life (QoL), based on Little’s ecological model (2010) in which individual and situational factors influence the personal projects of salience to individuals. Personal Projects are self-generated and purpose-oriented activities or goals in which an individual is engaged (Little, 1983). The efficacy with which the pursuit of these activities is achieved depends on the nature of the project and the degree to which it is supported by external factors such as the environment. We explore the relationship between the outdoor environment and QoL, drawing on the concept of ‘environmental support’ as presented by Sugiyama and Ward Thompson (2007a). There is a positive relationship between the number of outdoor personal projects older people participated in and measures indicative of their QoL. The relationship between perceived environmental support and QoL measures was significant in projects involving nature but not for other project types

Multiple Criteria Decision Making, Multiattribute Utility Theory: Recent Accomplishments and What Lies Ahead

This article is an update of an article five of us published in 1992. The areas of Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) and Multiattribute Utility Theory (MAUT) continue to be active areas of management science research and application. This paper extends the history of these areas and discusses topics we believe to be important for the future of these fields. Key words: decision making; multiattribute; multiple criteria Acknowledgments: The authors wish to thank Craig W. Kirkwood, Arizona State University, Murat Köksalan, METU, and Roman Slowinski, Poznan University of Technology, as well as two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments. 1

Multiple Criteria Decision Making, Multiattribute Utility Theory: The Next Ten Years

Management science and decision science have grown exponentially since midcentury. Two closely-related fields central to this growth are multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) and multiattribute utility theory (MAUT). This paper comments on the history of MCDM and MAUT and discusses topics we believe are important in their continued development and usefulness to management science over the next decade. Our aim is to identify exciting directions and promising areas for future research.decision making, multiattribute, multiple criteria