This work studies the location selection of very large concentrated solar power plants (VLCSPPs) in Nigeria using five Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methodologies including: Analytic ...Hierarchy Process (AHP), Consistency-Driven Pairwise Comparisons (CDPC), Decision Expert for Education (DEXi), Elimination and Choice Translating Reality (ELECTRE) III and IV. A comparative investigation is performed on only one unique model that is structured in four levels. This model has nine basic factors (Direct Normal Irradiance, grid infrastructure, climatic conditions, water availability conditions, natural disaster/hazard conditions, topographical conditions, geological conditions, land use, allocation and availability, war, terror & security conditions) taken from previous factors selection studies. There are 35 alternatives for the VLCSPP locations in Nigeria for the pre-development investment stage and are presented on Google Earth file (GE). The Super Decisions, JConcluder, DEXi and ELECTRE III-IV software are mainly used in this study. The findings show that the AHP and CDPC rankings are very close to each other. On the other hand, the DEXi, ELECTRE III and IV rankings spread very much amongst the methods. Hence, a small procedural rule is defined for the selection of candidate locations for detailed investigations. Several candidates' VLCSPP locations were found to exist as alternatives, with approximate local central coordinates of 13°38′55.37″N, 13°20′41.41″E and 13°6′58.83″N, 13°26′53.63″E in Nigeria. These should be further investigated in the following investment stages.
The long-term sustainability of crop production depends on the complex network of interactions and trade-offs between biotic, abiotic and economic components of agroecosystems. An integrated arable ...management system was designed to maintain yields, whilst enhancing biodiversity and minimising environmental impact. Management interventions included conservation tillage and organic matter incorporation for soil biophysical health, reduced crop protection inputs and integrated pest management strategies for enhanced biodiversity and ecosystem functions, and intercropping, cover cropping and under-sowing to achieve more sustainable nutrient management. This system was compared directly with standard commercial practice in a split-field experimental design over a six-year crop rotation. The effect of the cropping treatment was assessed according to the responses of a suite of indicators, which were used to parameterise a qualitative multi-attribute model. Scenarios were run to test whether the integrated cropping system achieved greater levels of overall sustainability relative to standard commercial practice. Overall sustainability was rated high for both integrated and conventional management of bean, barley and wheat crops. Winter oilseed crops scored medium for both cropping systems and potatoes scored very low under standard management but achieved a medium level of sustainability with integrated management. In general, high scores for environmental sustainability in integrated cropping systems were offset by low scores for economic sustainability relative to standard commercial practice. This case study demonstrates the value of a ‘whole cropping systems’ approach using qualitative multi-attribute modelling for the assessment of existing cropping systems and for predicting the likely impact of new management interventions on arable sustainability.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory, demyelinating disorder of the central nervous system that develops in genetically susceptible individuals, probably triggered by common environmental ...factors. Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) loci were early shown to confer the strongest genetic associations in MS. Now, more than 50 non-HLA MS susceptibility loci are identified, of which the majority are located in immune-regulatory genes. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the C-type lectin-like domain family 16A (CLEC16A) gene were among the first non-HLA genetic variants that were confirmed to be associated with MS. Fine-mapping has indicated a primary association in MS and also other autoimmune diseases to intronic CLEC16A SNPs. Here, we review the identification of MS susceptibility variants in the CLEC16A gene region, functional studies of the CLEC16A molecule and the recent progress in understanding the implications thereof for MS development. This may serve as an example of the importance for further molecular investigation of the loci identified in genetic studies, with the aim to translate this knowledge into the clinic.
Purpose: The electricity demand in Turkey has been increasing for a while. Hydropower is one
of the major electricity generation types to compensate this electricity demand in Turkey.
Private ...investors (domestic and foreign) in the hydropower electricity generation sector have
been looking for the most appropriate and satisfactory new private hydropower investment
(PHPI) options and opportunities in Turkey. This study aims to present a qualitative multiattribute
decision making (MADM) model, that is easy, straightforward, and fast for the
selection of the most satisfactory reasonable PHPI options during the very early investment
stages (data and information poorness on projects).
Design/methodology/approach: The data and information of the PHPI options was
gathered from the official records on the official websites. A wide and deep literature review
was conducted for the MADM models and for the hydropower industry. The attributes of the
model were identified, selected, clustered and evaluated by the expert decision maker (EDM)
opinion and by help of an open source search results clustering engine (Carrot2) (helpful for
also comprehension). The PHPI options were clustered according to their installed capacities
main property to analyze the options in the most appropriate, decidable, informative,
understandable and meaningful way. A simple clustering algorithm for the PHPI options was executed in the current study. A template model for the selection of the most satisfactory PHPI
options was built in the DEXi (Decision EXpert for Education) and the DEXiTree software.
Findings: The basic attributes for the selection of the PHPI options were presented and
afterwards the aggregate attributes were defined by the bottom-up structuring for the early
investment stages. The attributes were also analyzed by help of Carrot2. The most satisfactory
PHPI options in Turkey in the big options data set were selected for each PHPI options cluster
by the EDM evaluations in the DEXi.
Originality/value: The recommended DEXi PHPI selection model by the search results
clustering engine within a country wise case offered the possibility of easy, meaningful and
satisfying continental or worldwide applications for the private investors and the international
financial institutions such as the African Development Bank, or the World Bank was the main
contribution.
Farm tourism is a significant means of supplementing farmers' incomes. This paper presents a methodology for ranking tourist farms by using a multi-criteria model based on the qualitative ...multi-criteria modeling methodology, DEX, to assess service quality. The software tool DEXi was used to achieve this end. The model was then applied to seven tourist farms with data derived from questionnaires completed by tourist farm operators and guests. The results are shown as service quality assessments for individual farms. The potential of the model for assessing the farms is demonstrated with the aim of providing a comprehensive explanation and justification of the assessment technique. It also indicates potential improvements that farms can make through “what-if” analysis and visualization. Despite limitations, such as use of qualitative data only, the approach is proposed as being both appropriate and advantageous when compared with other means of ranking enterprises.
The success or failure of an investment project in fruit production also depends on the selection of the fruit species and variety. When selecting the variety for the creation of a new orchard it is ...necessary to perform the synthesis of different data and to look at all aspects of the investment. This paper presents the application of DEX multi-criteria decision making. The model was applied on 7 varieties of plum from the western Balkans region that were assessed by experts from “The association of agricultural economists of Western Balkans” using the Delphi method.
By applying this model it has been shown that the ’Stanley’ is the most suitable for starting a new orchard while the varieties ’Čačanska ljepotica’ and ’Čačanska rodna’ are also very suitable for starting new fruit orchards and they have also received the value attribute “very acceptable”.
Using this model all strong and weak sides of the observed plum variety were shown. For the final selection it is necessary to conduct research at a specific micro location where all characteristics of that area would also be taken into consideration.
Sensitivity Analysis (SA) was performed on the MASC model (Multi-attribute Assessment of the Sustainability of Cropping systems), a hierarchical qualitative model built to assess the sustainability ...of cropping systems developed under a decision support tool called DEXi. Three approaches were tested to perform a first-order SA assuming a fixed model structure and no correlation among input variables: (i) factorial designs combined with analysis of variance (ANOVA), (ii) Monte-Carlo sampling (MC), (iii) conditional probabilities (CPs). The three tested approaches were coded under the R-statistical package in a generic way in order to be used to perform SA on every DEXi-type model.
Results showed that, due to the dimension of the tree, a complete factorial design was unsuitable. MC and CPs represented efficient alternatives to perform an analysis of the overall model. CPs exploited better the hierarchical structure of the model to give exact first-order indices, while MC would be a more flexible approach for the introduction of correlations among variables.
The outputs of the SA showed that there was an unbalanced distribution of the modalities of the three domains of sustainability (i.e., Economic, Social and Environmental) and that the MASC model tends to poorly discriminate the cropping systems. This may be due to the structure of the tree. Reducing the complexity of the tree using “satellite trees”, restructuring the tree to get an equilibrated tree between the Economic, Social and Environmental dimension or increase the number of qualitative value per leaf may improve the discriminative power of the model. Such results demonstrated the interest of performing SA as a guiding tool for modellers.
Genome-wide association studies have revealed that the 16p13 chromosomal region, including CLEC16A, DEXI, CIITA and SOCS1, is associated with susceptibility to autoimmune diseases. As non-coding ...single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) may confer susceptibility to disease by affecting expression of nearby genes, we examined whether autoimmune-associated intronic CLEC16A SNPs (rs12708716, rs6498169 and rs7206912) correlate with the expression of CLEC16A itself as well as neighboring genes in whole-blood and thymic samples. Real-time quantitative PCR analyses show that SOCS1 and DEXI expression was lower in thymic samples carrying at least one of the CLEC16A risk alleles compared with non-carriers of the risk allele. Linear regression analysis revealed a significant correlation between the expression level of CLEC16A and that of SOCS1 and DEXI in thymic samples. These data indicate a possible regulatory role for multiple sclerosis-associated non-coding CLEC16A SNPs and a common control mechanism for the expression of CLEC16A, SOCS1 and DEXI.
The selection of the best-fit-for-purpose analytical method to be implemented in the laboratory is difficult due to availability of multiple methods, targets, aims of detection, and different kinds ...and sources of more or less reliable information. Several factors, such as method performance, practicability, cost of setup, and running costs need to be considered together with personnel training when selecting the most appropriate method. The aim of our work was to prepare a flexible multicriteria decision analysis model suitable for evaluation and comparison of analytical methods used for the purpose of detecting and/or quantifying genetically modified organisms, and to use this model to evaluate a variety of changing analytical methods. Our study included selection of PCR-, isothermal-, protein-, microarray-, and next-generation sequencing-based methods in simplex and/or multiplex formats. We show that the overall result of their fitness for purpose is relatively similar; however, individual criteria or a group of related criteria exposed more substantial differences between the methods. The proposed model of this decision support system enables easy modifications and is thus suitable for any other application of complex analytical methods.
An increasing interest and sensitivity of consumers and public opinion toward high-quality food products obtained with environmentally-friendly production methods has recently been detected. To this ...end, one of the key roles could be played by an environmental evaluation of the crop production. This research was performed to test a new multi-attribute decision model (DEXi-met) that is able to estimate the environmental sustainability of different agronomic practices in horticultural rotations. The model was used at the cropping system level on the basis of data from a long-term experiment in organic horticulture. It was tested on different cropping managements under climate change conditions. The DEXi-met mixed model (qualitative and qualitative basic attributes) generated four aggregated attributes to assess sustainability indicators (production capacity, soil, water and resources preservation, and biodiversity conservation) and the overall environmental sustainability. The model validation indicated that the introduction of agro-ecological services crops can increase the environmental sustainability of an organic cropping systems by promoting the whole soil–plant system equilibrium. The application of this tool could help maximize the efficient use of agronomical practices and quantify their environmental sustainability. DEXi-met could help agricultural advisors and policymakers schedule their decisions to find the right compromise between crop yield increase and the impact of agricultural activities.
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