Undoubtedly, dams are one of the projects developed by people to make optimal water use and generate hydroelectric energy power. In addition to the importance of detailed project planning, faultless ...production, and optimal working conditions in dam constructions, it is equally important to identify and analyze the risks from the occupational health and safety (OHS) perspective that may arise during construction and operation. In this context, hazard identification, risk analysis, and control, which are the main issues of dam safety, have gained importance. In this study, a novel approach is developed for dam construction safety. Two newly proposed multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods of “Best-Worst Method-BWM” and “measurement of alternatives and ranking to Compromise solution-MARCOS”, are merged under the context of interval type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2FSs). Severity and probability, two essential parameters of the risk score, have been weighted using BWM. Subsequently, the priority orders of hazards have been determined by the MARCOS. In implementing the approach to the blasting process in dam construction, several control measures are suggested for stakeholders. Some comparative works and sensitivity analyses are performed to test the approach's validity and solidity from the methodological viewpoint.
•A two-phase MCDM approach is proposed that includes BWM and MARCOS under IT2FSs.•BWM with IT2FSs is used for determining the importance weight of risk parameters.•Priority orders of hazards have been obtained with the MARCOS with IT2FSs.•The case of blasting process in a dam construction is performed.•A comparative study and sensitivity analysis are also fulfilled to check variation in ranking of hazards.
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•A review of VIKOR and its fuzzy extensions on applications is presented.•The systematic classification covers 13 different application areas.•It provides an insight for researchers ...and practitioners on VIKOR applications.
Multi criteria decision making (MCDM) is one of the research areas of operations research and management science which has widely studied by researchers and practitioners. It finds a compromise solution for evaluating and ranking alternatives from the best to the worst under conflicting criteria with respect to decision maker(s) preferences. In a compromise approach, the VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR; that means multi-criteria optimization and compromise solution) continues to be applied satisfactorily across different application areas. This paper conducts a state-of-the-art literature review to categorize, analyze and interpret the current research on VIKOR applications. It also discusses the extensions of VIKOR applied in fuzzy environments. A total of 343 papers are classified into 13 different application areas and a number of sub-application areas. Furthermore, all papers are also categorized with respect to publication year, published journal, country of origin, application type (real case study vs empirical study), and version of fuzzy sets used. This comprehensive literature review provides an insight for researchers and practitioners on VIKOR applications in terms of showing current state and potential areas for future attempts to be focused in the future.
Although environmental awareness has reached a high level, enterprises—regardless of their working domains—follow the concept of greenness for their practices. This awareness among the stakeholders ...and supply chain experts has a positive impact on the purchasing departments of enterprises in various sectors to consider greenness in their procurement processes. The critical decision that must be made in green supply chain management (GSCM) is supplier selection. In the textile industry, a highly competitive market in recent years, suppliers for this industry have crucial roles in business activities considering environmental issues. Therefore, green supplier selection (GSS) in the textile industry is considered a must-be process for the stakeholders. In this study, a GSS problem is tackled as a multi-criteria decision process. Best worst method (BWM) and TODIM (an acronym in Portuguese of interactive and multi-criteria decision-making) methods are merged under an improved fuzzy concept of interval type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2FSs). In determining green suppliers’ evaluation criteria, BWM with interval type-2 fuzzy numbers (IT2F-BWM) is used. In selecting green suppliers, an interval type-2 fuzzy TODIM (IT2F-TODIM) is applied. Considering the characteristics of IT2FSs, BWM, and TODIM methods either individually and in integrated style, the proposed approach can handle uncertainty in the decision-making of GSS. To demonstrate the applicability of the approach, a case study in the Turkish textile industry is performed. Three green supplier alternatives (S1, S2, and S3) are assessed under forty-two sub-criteria. The study shows the most significant sub-criteria are recognized as dye and print quality, product design and pattern suitability, profit on the product, variation in price, and purchase cost. S2 green supplier has been selected as the most appropriate one. A sensitivity analysis is also fulfilled to check variation in the ranking of green suppliers.
The world is currently struggling with a new type of coronavirus (2019-nCoV) pandemic that first appeared in Wuhan, China, and then spread to almost all countries. As in other countries of the world, ...public authorities in Turkey are implementing many preventive and mitigating partial lockdown (PL) actions against the virus's effects. Some decisions and policies implemented before and after March 11, 2020, when the first virus case has been identified, have reduced people and traffic circulation, which has also turned into some improvements in air quality. At this point, this study aims to investigate how this pandemic affects the air quality of a metropolis. A case study of the city of Istanbul, the most affected city with more than half of Turkey's cases, is performed. In our analysis, we observe, compare, and discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and PL decisions on Istanbul city's air quality. We consider the particulate matter (PM
10
), sulfur dioxide (SO
2
), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO
2
), nitrogen oxide (NO), nitrogen oxides (NO
x
), and ozone (O3) concentrations. We used data from 19 air monitoring stations (AMSs) and obtained improvements in the air quality for the pandemic period. In summary, the concentration levels in PM
10
, NO
2
, NO, and NOx result in a clear decline in pandemic times compared to the normal times in Istanbul. On the other hand, a non-homogenous trend for SO
2
and CO concentrations is observed for different AMSs. A partial increase in O
2
concentration is obtained in the comparison of before and during the PL period.
Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) is a risk analysis tool widely used in the manufacturing industry. However, traditional FMEA has limitations such as the inability to deal with uncertain ...failure data including subjective evaluations of experts, the absence of weight values of risk parameters, and not considering the conditionality between failure events. In this paper, we propose a holistic FMEA to overcome these limitations. The proposed approach uses the fuzzy best–worst (FBWM) method in weighting three risk parameters of FMEA, which are severity (
S
), occurrence (
O
), and detection (
D
), and to find the preference values of the failure modes according to parameters
S
and
D
. On the other side, it uses the fuzzy Bayesian network (FBN) to determine occurrence probabilities of the failure modes. Experts use a procedure using linguistic variables whose corresponding values are expressed in trapezoidal fuzzy numbers, and determine the preference values of the failure modes according to parameter
O
in the constructed BN. Thus, the FBN including expert judgments and fuzzy set theory addresses uncertainty in failure data and includes a robust probabilistic risk analysis logic to capture the dependence between failure events. As a demonstration of the approach, a case study was conducted in an industrial kitchen equipment manufacturing facility. The results of the approach have also been compared with existed methods demonstrating its robustness.
University laboratories involve various occupational hazards during the research and course activities, which might affect health and safety of both researchers and students, including chemical, ...physical, electrical, mechanical, as well as ergonomic and psychosocial risk factors. There are many aspects open to improvements in Occupational Health and Safety management of laboratories, and it is required to deal with risks, reduce them in an acceptable level, and implement control measures. In this study, a risk assessment approach is proposed for the university laboratory operations. The proposed approach incorporates 5S methodology, failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA), interval type-two fuzzy sets (IT2FSs), analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and the VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR). AHP is injected into IT2FSs in the phase of evaluation and weighting of severity (S), occurrence (O), and detectability (D) parameters of FMEA. By applying IT2FVIKOR, it is aimed at prioritizing the emerged hazards in the chemical laboratory of the observed university. The proposed approach reveals the important hazards and suggests control measures for managing them. The study methodologically contributes to risk assessment in the knowledge, while a case study in a chemical laboratory of a newly established university offers an insight into education industry in safety improvement.
The ever-increasing natural disasters have been causing the loss of lives, properties and resources. By the preparedness and response ability of non-governmental organizations, it is aimed to ...minimize these losses. In this paper, first, the critical success factors of humanitarian relief logistics management operations are determined and categorized. Then, by considering these factors, a hybrid method that consists of trapezoidal interval type-2 fuzzy sets, AHP and TOPSIS, is proposed to evaluate emergency preparedness and response ability performance of non-governmental relief organizations. The proposed hybrid method is applied for non-governmental relief organizations in Turkey to evaluate their performance, and to the factors need to be improved for each determined organization.
Purpose
To evaluate the serum inflammatory marker levels in serous macular detachment (SMD) secondary to diabetic macular edema (DME).
Material and Methods
Patients with DME were divided into two ...groups according to the presence of SMD. Group 1 consisted of 40 patients with SMD, Group 2 consisted of 40 patients without SMD, and Group 3 consisted of 40 healthy subjects. Neutrophil and mean platelet volume (MPV) were obtained from blood samples. The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and the systemic immune inflammation index (SII) were calculated. In Group 1 and 2 sub-group analysis was done according to grade of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and the results were analyzed in these subgroups.
Results
The neutrophils, MPV, NLR, and SII levels were significantly higher in Group 1 (p = 0.000, p = 0.004, p = 0.000, p = 0.001, respectively). In subgroup analysis; the neutrophils, NLR, and SII levels were significantly higher in patients with proliferative DR (p = 0.044, p = 0.046, p = 0.046, respectively) and the SII levels were significantly higher in patients with severe nonproliferative DR in Group 1 (p = 0.039). The mean CMT values were 548.8 ± 138.3 µm in Group 1 and 420.1 ± 112.7 µm in Group 2. The CMT values were significantly higher in Group 1 (p: 0.000). However, there was no significant correlation between the CMT values and the systemic inflamatuar markers levels (p>0.05) in both of the groups.
Conclusions
NLR and SII levels were significantly higher in DME with SMD, especially in advanced cases. Elevated serum inflammatory markers might be associated with a higher incidence of SMD.
Supplier selection is one of the most important multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problems for decision-makers in the competitive market. Today’s organizations are seeking new ways to reduce the ...negative effects they have on the environment and to achieve a greener system. Currently, the concept of green supplier selection has gained great importance for its ability to incorporate environmental or green criteria into classical supplier selection practices. Therefore, in this study, a multi-phase MCDM model based on the best-worst method (BWM) and the interval type-2 fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (IT2F TOPSIS) is proposed. A case study in a plastic injection molding facility in Turkey was carried out to show the applicability of the proposed integrated methodology. The paper offers insights into decision-making, methodology, and managerial implications. Results of the case study are examined and suggestions for future research are provided.
The balancing of the disassembly line directly affects the productivity of the disassembly process. The disassembly line balancing (DLB) problem can be determined as assigning the tasks to serial ...workstations to optimize some performance measures like number of workstations, cycle time, removing hazardous parts earlier, etc. The aim of the paper is to develop an efficient heuristic algorithm to minimize the number of workstations under a pre-known cycle time. In this paper, a genetic algorithm (GA) and a constructive heuristic based on the Dijkstra algorithm is proposed to solve the DLB problem with stochastic task times that is caused by the nature of disassembly operation. The proposed algorithms are tested on benchmark problems and compared with the results of the piecewise-linear model (PLM) and simulated annealing (SA). The average relative percentage deviation is applied to transfer the obtained number of workstations. The results obtained by GA are clearly superior in all tests problem according to average relative percentage deviation. Moreover, the proposed constructive heuristic based on the Dijkstra algorithm is also superior to PLM and SA algorithm with respect to number of workstations and the computational times. The proposed approaches can be a very competitive and promising tool for further research in DLB literature and real cases in industries according to test results. Disassembly lines which need less time or number of workstations for balancing may be simply designed by the proposed techniques.
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