Global warming and climate change are the most pressing issues in the world. This is the inevitable result of human beings pursuing a better quality of life and materials. If the green design concept ...is used in the design and manufacture of products, the impact of production on the environment will be greatly reduced. Because of this, green product design assessment and improvement activities play an important role in achieving the 2030 sustainable development goals. Product design is the forefront of the entire product development process, and it plays a very critical role. The purpose of this study is to develop a decision-making model for helping decision makers to evaluate and improve the performance of product design systematically. The model combines the design standard of the iF world design guide and multi-attribute decision-making methods. First, the DEMATEL-based analytic network process is used to establish the influential relationship and weights of attributes. Next, the VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno with aspiration-level method is used to obtain the gap between each evaluation attribute and the aspiration level of each design. Finally, this evaluation result uses the influential network relationship map (INRM) to propose various improvement strategies with causal influence. This study uses products from a Taiwanese furniture design company as an empirical case, which is a leading brand and benchmark in Taiwan’s furniture industry. The research results show that the proposed model can help decision makers to choose the most appropriate design scheme (i.e., the design with the smallest gap from expectations); designers can also improve the gap between product design and expectations.
Taiwanese National Park Headquarters employ advanced information technologies to attract travellers, researchers, and other visitors, but it is likely that not all Headquarters have clear knowledge ...about how successful their websites are. This study proposes an effective model for evaluating national park websites. The model first applies the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) to cope with the interdependencies between evaluation criteria. Next, it uses the Analytic Network Process (ANP) to compute weights for each criterion. Finally, it uses the VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) to rank Taiwanese national park websites. Overall, the results show that each national park website must be improved in order to become a high quality website. Furthermore, the weight-variance analysis suggests managerial actions based on two-dimensional maps for improving website quality. Therefore, this study not only provides a comprehensive and systematic approach that quantitatively measures a website's overall performance, but also contributes to practical applications in terms of providing worthwhile recommendations for building an ideal website.
Summary
A variety of polymer matrices, based on thermoplastic resins are used to produce shape stabilized phase change material (SSPCM) with a large range of chemical and mechanical properties. In ...order to reduce global environmental problems and conserve natural resources, instead of raw polymers, waste thermoplastics can be utilized as encapsulation material to produce SSPCM. Low‐density polyethylene (LDPE), high‐density polyethylene (HDPE), polystyrene (PS), and polypropylene (PP) are the most preferred polymers for use as encapsulation materials. However, utilization of waste forms of these thermoplastics is important as SSPCM depends on various parameters that cannot be easily compared manually. In this study, based on this idea, the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR), two different multi‐criteria decision methods, are used to select the most appropriate waste polymers to be used as encapsulation material to produce SSPCM in terms of thermal, mechanical and waste properties. These properties are detailed in seven criteria; melting temperature, degradation temperature, thermal conductivity, specific heat, elasticity modulus, waste cost, and supply of waste. The weighting of these criteria is carried out by decision‐makers and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). According to the TOPSIS and VIKOR results, LDPE was chosen as the best alternative (Ci+: 0.5860 and Qi: 0.0000 with the decision‐makers' approach and Ci+: 0.6336 and Qi: 0.0000 with AHP method, respectively) for the average values of the decision matrix. Sensitivity analysis, performed with the lowest and highest values of the decision matrix, verified the ranking of LDPE as the most appropriate waste thermoplastic for SSPCM applications.
Evaluation of key nodes is a hot issue in social networks. Existing research primarily evaluates the importance of nodes in social networks based on centrality metrics, neglecting the node's own ...attributes. After analyzing the topology attributes and the basic attributes of nodes, this article proposes a key nodes evaluation method for social networks, which is based on analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and improved Vise Kriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR), termed AE-VIKOR. Considering global attributes, local attributes, and positional attributes of nodes, three evaluation metrics are constructed. The subjective and objective weights are computed by AHP and entropy weight method, respectively. The comprehensive weights of metrics are determined by combination weighting method based on square sums of distance. Due to the excessive weight of specific metrics and excessive difference in data distribution, the computation of individual regret value depends too much on a single metric in VIKOR method, individual regret value is optimized by weighted sum of closeness between the scheme to be evaluated and the negative ideal scheme. Multimetric evaluation schemes are ranked to achieve the evaluation of key nodes. Experiments on two real social network datasets show that the key nodes evaluated by AE-VIKOR have stronger information spread ability and more fans than the ones of the existing methods. In addition, the validity of the three metrics and the two improvements on the VIKOR method are verified by ablation experiments.
Traditionally, package tour (PT) agencies assumed that tourists only pay attention to the PT's price, so PT service providers often offer limited package tours based on options and prices. Nowadays, ...PT service providers face the difficult challenge of how to offer diverse PTs to satisfy tourists' needs based on a reasonable price. This study proposes an evaluation model of package tours based on diverse resources and transportation means. This study proposes a two-dimensional evaluation framework to analyse tourists' needs regarding package tour services and the proposed model could be applied to plan mass customized package tours based on the portfolio of value satisfaction index (VSI) and the price satisfaction index (PSI). The study also proposes that mass customized package tours can improve the traditional tour planning method through a portfolio of diverse tourism resources. Moreover, the study integrates the different choices of traffic and transportation tools, as well as tourism resources and providers in six portfolios of package tours in the Nantou county of Taiwan. These six package tours can be planned through three traffic and transportation tools (tourist coach, railroad, and minibus) and four tourism resources (natural experiences, cultural exploration, shopping and cuisine, and event participation).
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test the 5GP concept with measurement of the performance of Busan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai ports, employing a hybrid method of consistent fuzzy ...preference relation (CFPR), VIsekriterijumska Optimizacija i KOmpromisno Resenje (VIKOR) and PROMETHEE.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors developed the concept of the fifth generation ports (5GPs), and apply CFPR, VIKOR and preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluations (PROMETHEE) to evaluate the 5GPs.
Findings
The performance of the ports of Hong Kong and Singapore is close to meet the definition of 5GP criteria. On the contrary, ports of Busan and Shanghai are still behind the 5GP stage in light of the majority of the evaluation criteria’s performance.
Research limitations/implications
This paper studies four ports. More empirical tests are needed to verify the applicability of the 5GP concept toward other ports.
Practical implications
The findings provided port managers with the insight of how to improve their port to meet the criteria of 5GP.
Social implications
New criteria and higher expectations of existing requirements present challenges to port managers for a need to raise the bar of service standards and develop new competencies.
Originality/value
The authors developed the concept of the 5GPs. Newly developed 5GP contributes to expanding the concepts of first to fourth generation ports developed by UNCTAD.
Šiame darbe pasiūlytas naujas deterministinis globalios optimizacijos algoritmas, skirtas juodos dėžės funkcijoms, kurioms galioja Lipšico sąlyga, bet Lipšico konstanta nežinoma. Algoritmo pradinėje ...stadijoje leistinoji sritis yra padalinama simpleksais. Kiekvienoje algoritmo iteracijoje visiems simpleksams randami Lipšico konstantos įverčiai ir galimos mažiausios funkcijos reikšmės simplekse įverčiai; perspektyviausi simpleksai yra atrenkami ir padalinami. Galimai mažiausiai funkcijos reikšmei simplekse rasti sprendžiamas vidinis optimizavimo uždavinys, norint kurį išspręsti buvo pasiūlytas vidinis algoritmas. Eksperimentai atlikti su dviejų ir trijų dimensijų optimizavimo uždaviniais, panaudojant 400 testinių funkcijų, sugeneruotų su GKLS funkcijų generatoriumi. Rezultatai parodė, kad sudėtingi uždaviniai su pasiūlytuoju algoritmu išsprendžiami su mažesniu funkcijos įvertinimų skaičiumi negu su kitais alternatyviais algoritmais.
With the expansion of urbanization caused by the growth of population and industrial activities, the urban/city and suburban areas are facing a variety of environmental threats. Although more ...research and urban policy has advocated and practiced the development of green infrastructure (GI) to support urban sustainable environment, the evaluation framework for the development of GI for promoting environmental sustainability is still insufficient. Moreover, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) commonly applied in published literature, makes an unrealistic assumption of independent relationships among dimensions/criteria in decision making for satisfying the real-world problem. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to construct the evaluation framework, including four dimensions and related ten criteria, using a new hybrid-modified multiple attribute decision-making (MADM) model for developing and improving the GI for promoting environmental sustainability. This MADM model is combined with three different methodologies of MADM, including the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) for constructing the influential network relation map (INRM) to explore the complex influential inter-relationships and DEMATEL based on Analytic Network Process (DANP) for determining the influential weights with the VIse Kriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) for evaluating and presenting improvement strategies for six different GIs. The empirical study indicates that DEMATEL and DANP Results suggest that decision-makers should pay more attention to the improvement of Design (D4) and Materials (D2) in terms of dimensions when utilizing the GI to promote environmental sustainability. Because these dimensions are enhanced, Species (D1) and Energy (D3) will be improved in synchronization. From the perspective of criteria, five are key core criteria and need to be focused on first: increasing the green coverage rate (B9), utilizing sustainable materials (B4), using ecological engineering (B8), shaping species biodiversity (B1), and reducing energy consumption (B5). Modified VIKOR reveals that “grass swales” are a comparatively better choice among six GIs for promoting environmental sustainability toward achieving the aspiration level. Therefore, this MADM model is beneficial to provide a more convincing assessment framework and improvement strategies for the development of GI for promoting environmental sustainability. As a result, these modified MADM models can be shown more conveniently and reasonably than traditional methods such as traditional AHP or ANP method.
•Providing an evaluation framework for green infrastructure (GI) for promoting environmentally sustainability.•A new hybrid modified multiple attribute decision-making (MADM) model is presented.•Considering the influential relationship among dimension/criteria improves the un-realistic shortcoming.•The result of DEMATEL and DANP indicate that Design (D2) and Materials (D2) and relevant criteria should be focused.•Modified VIKOD suggests that “Grass swales” have better performance among six GI.
In the intricate decision-making problems, the preference information of decision makers may be difficultly stated by numerical values due to the ambiguity of human thinking about the complex ...objective things in the real world, and sometimes, it may be easily expressed by LTs (linguistic terms). Thus, how to solve fuzzy MAGDM (multiple attribute group decision-making) problem in which the attributes are described by neutrosophic linguistic information and weights for the attributes and decision makers are fully unknown, has become an important research direction. To achieve this goal, this paper briefly reviews the basic concept of LTs, SVLNN (single-valued linguistic neutrosophic number), and the closeness degree, then we put forward the closeness degree between the LNNs (linguistic neutrosophic numbers) and the distance formula between LNNs, and they can be used to determine the weights of experts and attributes. Then, a MAGDM method based on the extended VIKOR (Visekriterijumska Optimizacija I Kom-promisno Resenje) method is established under the single-valued linguistic neutrosophic numbers (SVLNN) environment. Further, an illustrative example about selecting problems of fault handling point is presented to demonstrate the application of the developed approach, and the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method are proved by comparing this method with WAA (Weighted Arithmetic Averaging) and TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution) method.
PDF
