A Parallel between Regret Theory and Outranking Methods for Multicriteria Decision Making Under Imprecise Information

Incorporation of the behavioral issues of the decision maker (DM) is among the aspects that each Multicriteria Decision Making (MCDM) method implicitly or explicitly takes into account. As postulated by regret theory, the feelings of regret and rejoice are among the behavioral issues associated with the entire decision making process. Within the context of MCDM, the DM may feel regret, when the chosen alternative is compared with another one having at least one better criterion value. PROMETHEE II is a widely known MCDM method that makes no explicit incorporation of regret attitude of the DM. In this paper, we elaborate on the applicability of regret theory to MCDM context. In particular, we investigate the findings of regret theory and explore the parallel between regret theory and PROMETHEE II method. Relying on the concepts of regret theory, we demonstrate how a decision that is made using a PROMETHEE II based outranking method conforms to the regret attitude of the DM.     

中华菜名比喻艺术管窥

中华菜名中的比喻精巧优美、形神兼备,既有语言精炼、结构紧凑的暗喻,又有惟妙惟肖、独具特色的借喻,其民俗喻体熔铸、凸显了中华文化神韵,包含有取形寓意、雅致高洁的植物类喻体,动静融合、风情万种的动物类喻体,源远流长、底蕴涌动的神异类喻体等,它们既能提升菜肴的审美情趣,提高菜名的艺术品位,又能激发食用者的心理想像,表现汉民族的具象思维特色,从而产生了彰显人文魅力,取得多重效应的功能。     

Sovereignty at What Scale? An Inquiry into Multiple Dimensions of Food Sovereignty

Abstract

Food sovereignty has struggled to make inroads into changing the structures and processes underlying the corporate food regime. One reason is that scale is still underspecified in the politics, strategies, and theories of food sovereignty. We suggest that much can be learned from examining the multiple dimensions of scale inherent in ongoing food sovereignty struggles. A gap exists between these in vivo experiments and the maturing academic theory of scale. The concept of ‘sovereignty’ can be opened up to reveal that movements, peoples, and communities, for example, are creating multiple sovereignties and are exercising sovereignty in more relational ways. Relational scale can aid movements and scholars to map and evaluate how spatial and temporal processes at and among various levels work to reinforce dominant agri-food systems but could also be reconfigured to support progressive alternatives. Finally, we apply relational scale to suggest practical strategies for realizing food sovereignty, using examples from the Potato Park in the Peruvian Andes.     

Translating the Politics of Food Sovereignty: Digging into Contradictions,Uncovering New Dimensions

Abstract

Food sovereignty, as a movement and a set of ideas, is coming of age. Rooted in resistance to free trade and the globalizing force of neoliberalism, the concept has inspired collective action across the world. We examine what has changed since food sovereignty first emerged on the international scene and reflect on insight from new terrain where the movement has expanded. We argue that to advance the theory and practice of food sovereignty, new frameworks and analytical methods are needed to move beyond binaries—between urban and rural, gender equality and the family farm, trade and localism, and autonomy and engagement with the state. A research agenda in food sovereignty must not shy away from the rising contradictions in and challenges to the movement. The places of seeming contradiction may in fact be where the greatest insights are to be found. We suggest that by taking a relational perspective, scholars can begin to draw insight into the challenges and sticking points of food sovereignty by training their lens on shifts in the global food regime, on the efforts to construct sovereignty at multiple scales, and on the points of translation where food sovereignty is articulated through historical memory, identity, and everyday life.     

Parental constructions of masculinity at the transition to parenthood: the division of parental leave among Austrian couples

Men and masculinity are considered a key factor in changing gender inequality at the transition to parenthood. Prior research on gendered division of parental leave concentrated on fathers’ perspectives. This paper includes perspectives of fathers and mothers who make use of parental leave in different ways and asks how masculinity is jointly constructed, how these constructions are linked to the use of parental leave, and if and how they are oriented towards hegemonic masculinity. The analysis is based on 44 qualitative interviews with 11 Austrian couples before and after birth when decisions concerning parental leave were made. Our case reconstructions reveal that parents considered parental leave a central element of masculinity as long as it suited fathers’ needs and circumstances permitted. The decisions for sharing parental leave were father-centred as both partners valued father’s leave higher than mother’s.     

多供应商—单制造商—多经销商的供应链协同度研究

目前,针对供应链协同度的分析主要集中在单制造商与单供应商之间,为将协同度问题更为一般化,现将供应链协同问题扩展到多供应商、单制造商与多经销商情景中.基于供应链整体运营效率的角度,以制造商为主导,从多经销商、单制造商、多供应商与供应链稳定性四个维度构建供应链协同发展指标体系,将评价指标作为供应链子系统的序参量,运用协同学理论的有序度方法分析供应链子系统的协同性及供应链整体系统的协同度.实例分析说明评价指标体系和协同模型的有效性和可行性,针对协同测度结果提出了供应链系统的协同发展对策.     

Handling Missing Values in Longitudinal Panel Data With Multiple Imputation

This article offers an applied review of key issues and methods for the analysis of longitudinal panel data in the presence of missing values. The authors consider the unique challenges associated with attrition (survey dropout), incomplete repeated measures, and unknown observations of time. Using simulated data based on 4 waves of the Marital Instability Over the Life Course Study (n = 2,034), they applied a fixed effect regression model and an event‐history analysis with time‐varying covariates. They then compared results for analyses with nonimputed missing data and with imputed data both in long and in wide structures. Imputation produced improved estimates in the event‐history analysis but only modest improvements in the estimates and standard errors of the fixed effects analysis. Factors responsible for differences in the value of imputation are examined, and recommendations for handling missing values in panel data are presented.     

A survey on multivariate chi-square distributions and their applications in testing multiple hypotheses

We are concerned with three different types of multivariate chi-square distributions. Their members play important roles as limiting distributions of vectors of test statistics in several applications of multiple hypotheses testing. We explain these applications and consider the computation of multiplicity-adjusted p-values under the respective global hypothesis. By means of numerical examples, we demonstrate how much gain in level exhaustion or, equivalently, power can be achieved with corresponding multivariate multiple tests compared with approaches which are only based on univariate marginal distributions and do not take the dependence structure among the test statistics into account. As a further contribution of independent value, we provide an overview of essentially all analytic formulas for computing multivariate chi-square probabilities of the considered types which are available up to present. These formulas were scattered in the previous literature and are presented here in a unified manner.     

Robust pairwise multiple comparisons under short-tailed symmetric distributions

In one-way ANOVA, most of the pairwise multiple comparison procedures depend on normality assumption of errors. In practice, errors have non-normal distributions so frequently. Therefore, it is very important to develop robust estimators of location and the associated variance under non-normality. In this paper, we consider the estimation of one-way ANOVA model parameters to make pairwise multiple comparisons under short-tailed symmetric (STS) distribution. The classical least squares method is neither efficient nor robust and maximum likelihood estimation technique is problematic in this situation. Modified maximum likelihood (MML) estimation technique gives the opportunity to estimate model parameters in closed forms under non-normal distributions. Hence, the use of MML estimators in the test statistic is proposed for pairwise multiple comparisons under STS distribution. The efficiency and power comparisons of the test statistic based on sample mean, trimmed mean, wave and MML estimators are given and the robustness of the test obtained using these estimators under plausible alternatives and inlier model are examined. It is demonstrated that the test statistic based on MML estimators is efficient and robust and the corresponding test is more powerful and having smallest Type I error.     

On False Discovery and Non‐discovery Proportions of the Dynamic Adaptive Procedure

This paper studies the asymptotic behaviour of the false discovery and non‐discovery proportions of the dynamic adaptive procedure under some dependence structure. A Bahadur‐type representation of the cut point in simultaneously performing a large scale of tests is presented. The asymptotic bias decompositions of the false discovery and non‐discovery proportions are given under some dependence structure. In addition to existing literatures, we find that the randomness due to the dynamic selection of the tuning parameter in estimating the true null rate serves as a source of the approximation error in the Bahadur representation and enters into the asymptotic bias term of the false discovery proportion and those of the false non‐discovery proportion. The theory explains to some extent why some seemingly attractive dynamic adaptive procedures do not outperform the competing fixed adaptive procedures substantially in some situations. Simulations justify our theory and findings.