Novel Extension of DEMATEL Method by Trapezoidal Fuzzy Numbers and D Numbers for Management of Decision-Making Processes

Prioritizing competencies for soldier's mental resilience: an application of integrative fuzzy-trapezoidal decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory in updating training program

Background

The development of resilience is of the utmost importance in military training due to the demanding and high-stress nature of combat situations. Although there have been numerous studies on resilience competencies in the military, there is a research gap when it comes to identifying the most essential competencies that should be prioritized in training programs, particularly within compressed timeframes. With the current geopolitical landscape and ongoing military conflicts in Europe, it is necessary to expedite training of soldiers, including resilience training, without compromising the effectiveness of the program. This study aims to address this research gap by using a reductionist approach to resilience training and identifying the critical competencies that senior soldiers need to be trained to coach younger soldiers to maintain psychological strength during deployment. By filling this research gap, the study will contribute to the development of more efficient and targeted resilience training programs that optimize the ability of soldiers to adapt and excel in challenging military environments.

Methods

To address the issue, this study assessed the competencies comprising the master resilience training (MRT) program, widely recognized as one of the most effective military resilience training programs. Two groups of military experts, totaling 16 individuals, were involved in the evaluation process, representing two military contexts. The first group consisted of Ukrainian military experts whose experiences primarily focused on defending their own country's territory. The second group comprised Lithuanian military experts who had greater expertise in conducting military missions abroad. The assessment of resilience competencies was carried out using a deep analysis approach through the application of effective multi-criteria decision making (MCDM). Specifically, the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method was used, which is a significant multicriteria technique used to determine relationships among criteria and assign weight coefficients. In this study, the DEMATEL model was extended using trapezoidal fuzzy numbers (TrFN-DEMATEL) to accommodate decision-making under uncertainty conditions.

Results

The research findings highlight the critical importance of three core resilience competencies: self-regulation, mental agility and strength of character. The importance of each competency varies depending on the specific military context. When defending one's own country's territory, strength of character emerges as the key factor in enhancing soldiers' mental resilience. Conversely, during military operations abroad, self-regulation is the primary factor that promotes psychological resilience. Furthermore, the results show that these three primary competencies form a 'cause group' that influences other competencies through a cause-and-effect dependency.

Conclusion

Based on the findings, the theoretical conclusion is drawn that the importance of resilience competencies is contextually differentiated. Furthermore, each resilience competency is associated with a set of causes or effects. These are valuable insights for improving resilience competency training programs.

Smart Technology Prioritization for Sustainable Manufacturing in Emergency Situation by Integrated Spherical Fuzzy Bounded Rationality Decision-Making Approach

The delays and disruptions during the pandemic have awakened interest in the sustainability and resilience of production systems to emergencies. In that context, the deployment of smart technologies has emerged as an almost mandatory development orientation to ensure the stability of manufacturing. The core value of smart technologies is to reduce the dependence on human labor in production systems. Thereby, the negative impacts caused by emergency situations are mitigated. However, the implementation of smart technologies in a specific production system that already exists requires a high degree of suitability. Motivated by this fact, this study proposes an integrated spherical fuzzy bounded rationality decision-making approach, which is composite of the spherical fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (SF DEMATEL) and the spherical fuzzy regret theory-based combined compromise solution (R-SF CoCoSo) method. The proposed approach reflects both the ambiguities and psychological behaviors of decision-makers in prioritization problems. It was applied to prioritize seven smart technologies for manufacturing in Vietnam. The results show that reliability, costs, and maturity are the most important criteria for choosing smart technology which is suitable for an existing production system in Vietnam. Our findings seem to suggest that the automatic inspection, remote machine operation, and robots are the most suitable smart technologies to stabilize and sustain production in Vietnam for emergency situations.

Intelligent Novel IMF D-SWARA—Rough MARCOS Algorithm for Selection Construction Machinery for Sustainable Construction of Road Infrastructure

The quality of road infrastructure largely depends on the quality of road construction and adequate construction machinery. In order to reduce uncertainties and improve the performance of road infrastructure, it is necessary to apply modern and appropriate construction machinery. The aim of this study was to create a novel integrated multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model for the selection of pavers for the middle category of roads. A total of 16 criteria were defined and then divided into four main groups, on the basis of which the performance of 12 pavers was evaluated. Improved Fuzzy Stepwise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (IMF SWARA) with D numbers (IMF D-SWARA) was extended to determine the significance of the criteria for the selection of construction machinery based on two groups of experts. Rough measurement of choices and their ranking as a compromise solution (R-MARCOS) was used to evaluate and rank the performance of construction machinery. The results show that three alternatives out of the set considered can satisfy defined requirements. After that, we performed a multi-phase validity test in which different values of criterion weights were simulated. A comparative analysis with seven other Rough MCDM methods was also created, and the Spearman’s correlation coefficient (SCC) and WS coefficient were calculated to determine the correlation of ranks for sensitivity analysis and comparative analysis. Thus, the obtained results were verified.

Alternative Water Resources Selection to Supply Drinking Water in Flood Disasters by Multicriteria Decision-Making Techniques (DANP and VIKOR)

Background

Emergency is generally caused by natural disaster and infectious disease outbreaks, or it is man-made. Floods are natural phenomena that generally appear in multiple parts of the world. Flooding is one of the most destructive naturally occurring environmental hazards and can cause public, infrastructural, and environmental damage. The purpose of this study is to select alternative water resources for supplying Bandar Abbas in flood disasters by multicriteria decision-making techniques.

Methods

Information required includes possible water resources alternative for flood, quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the water resources, climatic circumstances, and demographic information used in organizations data and previous studies. After selecting and proposing water resources alternative for Bandar Abbas in flood, the subcriteria were weighed applying DANP (DEMATEL-ANP) techniques and water resources were prioritized with the VIKOR technique. According to the network structure and internal and external dependence of the criteria and subcriteria, the advantages of DANP in calculating weights have been used to adapt to more real-world problems. The VIKOR technique was developed for multicriteria optimization of complex systems.

Results

After reviewing and extracting the criteria from various studies, 9 main criteria and 44 subcriteria were defined to select water resources in disasters and emergencies. According to field studies and related organizations' information, the proposed water resources for Bandar Abbas to use in flood disasters include humidity, sea (Persian Gulf), Sarkhoon plain, and wastewater treatment plant of Bandar Abbas.

Conclusion

Results showed that the optimal water resources for Bandar Abbas in flood disasters are the sea and wastewater treatment plant effluent (after advanced treatment). The study proposed appropriate model to select optimal water resources for various natural disasters in different geographical areas. This model can help officials and decision-makers to plan for drinking water supply from disaster-prone areas before disasters occur.

A Behavior-Simulated Spherical Fuzzy Extension of the Integrated Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approach

Since its inception in 1965, fuzzy sets have been developed for many years and are widely used in multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problems. Recently, spherical fuzzy sets (SFS), one of the most recent fuzzy sets, have been applied to extend and reinforce MCDM methods. To contribute to this development, the aim of this study is to propose a novel SFS extension of the integrated MCDM method that takes into account the psychological behavior of decision makers. In the proposed approach, the evaluation criteria are first weighted by the spherical fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (SF DEMATEL) method based on symmetrical linguistic comparison matrices. Another notable advantage of this process is determining the interrelationship between the evaluation criteria. In the next stage, the spherical fuzzy Interactive Multi-Criteria Decision-Making method in the Monte Carlo simulation environment (SF TODIM’MC) was applied to evaluate the alternatives. This method allows the process of evaluating alternatives to be performed continuously with different psychological behavioral parameters, which are considered as asymmetric information. As a result, the influence of the decision maker’s psychological behavior on the evaluation results is analyzed comprehensively. The robustness of the proposed approaches is verified through their application to prioritizing post-COVID-19 operational strategies in the Vietnam logistics sector. Numerical results have provided a cause-and-effect relationship between the negative effects of the pandemic and their weights. Furthermore, the results of prioritizing the operational strategies in the simulated environment provide rankings corresponding to different levels of risk aversion. Based on the results, the proposed spherical fuzzy approach is promising for expert-based decision-making problems under psycho-behavioral influence.

An Extended ORESTE Approach for Evaluating Rockburst Risk under Uncertain Environments

Rockburst is a severe geological disaster accompanied with the violent ejection of rock debris, which greatly threatens the safety of underground workers and equipment. This study aims to propose a novel multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach for evaluating rockburst risk under uncertain environments. First, considering the heterogeneity of rock mass and complexity of geological environments, trapezoidal fuzzy numbers (TrFNs) are adopted to express initial indicator information. Thereafter, the superiority linguistic ratings of experts and a modified entropy weights model with TrFNs are used to calculate the subjective and objective weights, respectively. Then, comprehensive weights can be determined by integrating subjective and objective weights based on game theory. After that, the organísation, rangement et synthèse de données relarionnelles (ORESTE) approach is extended to obtain evaluation results in a trapezoidal fuzzy circumstance. Finally, the proposed approach is applied to assess rockburst risk in the Kaiyang phosphate mine. In addition, the evaluation results are compared with empirical methods and other trapezoidal fuzzy MCDM approaches. Results show that the proposed extended ORESTE approach is reliable for evaluating rockburst risk, and provides an effective reference for the design of prevention techniques.

Evaluation on the implementation effect of public participation in the decision-making of NIMBY facilities

The construction of NIMBY (Not in my backyard) facilities has caused many conflicts but is struggling to reduce it in China. With the background of public participation in social governance in the future, effective public participation is extremely helpful to solve this issue. Promoting public participation and scientifically evaluating the implementation effect of public participation are urgent problems to be solved at present. This study aims to analysis the factors hindering public participation and improve the implementation effect. Therefore, an evaluation system with 16 factors is established based on literature review and questionnaire survey, namely the basis of participation, participation process, external support, and cost-effectiveness. Interactions among the 16 factors are further evaluated by expert opinions. The objective and subjective weights of indicators are determined and combined by introducing Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) and entropy weight method (EWM). Considering the uncertainty and randomness of subjective judgment, cloud model is introduced to evaluate the implementation effect of public participation. Finally, this framework is applied to evaluate the project of Jiu Feng waste-to-energy (WTE) plant in Hangzhou, China, which verifies the applicability of the evaluation framework for the implementation effect of public participation in NIMBY facilities. The results indicate that the implementation of public participation is between "average" and "good", with significant room for improvement in the involvement of NGOs and the influence of public opinion on decision-making. Additionally, the participation process has a significant impact on the whole system. The framework can provide government departments with guidance in implementing public participation.

Three-stage model based evaluation of local residents' acceptance towards waste-to-energy incineration project under construction: A Chinese perspective

Incineration is an efficient and economical means of solid waste disposal. And local residents' acceptance has to be acquired for the smooth going of waste-to-energy incineration project (WTEIP). From a Chinese perspective, this paper finds what influence local residents' acceptance towards WTEIP under construction, based on which we rank WTEIPs and figure out the project with the least local residents' acceptance. To achieve this, a three-stage model is developed. Stage 1 involves identifying the criteria based on the expert judgement for local residents' acceptance towards WTEIP under construction. Stage 2 involves the criteria weights determination employing Best Worst-Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (BWD). BWD incorporates Best Worst Method and Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory which is intended to take the interrelationships among the criteria into account. Stage 3 involves project ranking according to the criteria weights determined by BWD. Sensitivity analysis is conducted to check the effectiveness and robustness of the three-stage model. Results show that perceived risk-free is the most influential criterion of local residents' acceptance towards WTEIP under construction and the three-stage model is reliable and robust. The study is helpful to enhance local residents' acceptance towards WTEIP under construction and provide important reference for decision-makers and policymakers in waste management.