Multicriteria Decision Analysis: A Comprehensive Decision Approach for Management of Contaminated Sediments

Contaminated sediments and other sites present a difficult challenge for environmental decisionmakers. They are typically slow to recover or attenuate naturally, may involve multiple regulatory agencies and stakeholder groups, and engender multiple toxicological and ecotoxicological risks. While environmental decision-making strategies over the last several decades have evolved into increasingly more sophisticated, information-intensive, and complex approaches, there remains considerable dissatisfaction among business, industry, and the public with existing management strategies. Consequently, contaminated sediments and materials are the subject of intense technology development, such as beneficial reuse or in situ treatment. However, current decision analysis approaches, such as comparative risk assessment, benefit-cost analysis, and life cycle assessment, do not offer a comprehensive approach for incorporating the varied types of information and multiple stakeholder and public views that must typically be brought to bear when new technologies are under consideration. Alternatively, multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) offers a scientifically sound decision framework for management of contaminated materials or sites where stakeholder participation is of crucial concern and criteria such as economics, environmental impacts, safety, and risk cannot be easily condensed into simple monetary expressions. This article brings together a multidisciplinary review of existing decision-making approaches at regulatory agencies in the United States and Europe and synthesizes state-of-the-art research in MCDA methods applicable to the assessment of contaminated sediment management technologies. Additionally, it tests an MCDA approach for coupling expert judgment and stakeholder values in a hypothetical contaminated sediments management case study wherein MCDA is used as a tool for testing stakeholder responses to and improving expert assessment of innovative contaminated sediments technologies.     

Darwinism,organizational evolution and survival: key challenges for future research

How do social organizations evolve? How do they adapt to environmental pressures? What resources and capabilities determine their survival within dynamic competition? Charles Darwin’s seminal work The Origin of Species (1859) has provided a significant impact on the development of the management and organization theory literatures on organizational evolution. This article introduces the JMG Special Issue focused on Darwinism, organizational evolution and survival. We discuss key themes in the organizational evolution research that have emerged in recent years. These include the increasing adoption of the co-evolutionary approach, with a particular focus on the definition of appropriate units of analysis, such as routines, and related challenges associated with exploring the relationship between co-evolution, re-use of knowledge, adaptation, and exaptation processes. We then introduce the three articles that we have finally accepted in this Special Issue after an extensive, multi-round, triple blind-review process. We briefly outline how each of these articles contributes to understanding among scholars, practitioners and policy makers of the continuous evolutionary processes within and among social organizations and systems.     

Influence of testosterone substitution on glycemic control and endothelial markers in men with newly diagnosed functional hypogonadism and type 2 diabetes mellitus: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Effects of testosterone (T) on the cardiovascular system of men remain controversial. The impact of T-replacement therapy (TRT) in men with functional hypogonadism and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has to be elucidated. This study included 80 men (mean age 51.5?±?6.3 years) with newly diagnosed T2DM (according to ADA criteria) and functional hypogonadism (according to EAU criteria). Randomization: Group1 (n?=?40): TRT using 1%-transdermal T-gel (50?mg/day), Group2 (n?=?40) no TRT (controls). Dietary treatment applied to both. Parameters at baseline/after 9?months: anthropometric parameters, lipids and indicators of carbohydrate metabolism (fasting glucose, insulin, HbA1c, HOMA-IR), markers of adipose tissue and EnD (leptin, resistin, p- and e-selectin, ICAM- 1, VCAM- 1 and CRP). ANCOVA for repeated measurements revealed TRT to cause a significant decrease in waist circumference (WC), HOMA-IR and HbA1c vs controls (p?<?.001, p?=?.002, p?=?.004, respectively). Leptin declined in subjects receiving TRT vs controls (p?=?.04). Concentrations of resistin, ICAM-1, p-selectin and CRP decreased significantly vs controls (all p?<?.001); no effects for e-selectin and VCAM-1. Advanced age attenuated effects, higher delta testosterone levels augmented effects. Decrement of WC was related to decreasing markers of adipose tissue secretion/EnD. TRT in men with functional hypogonadism and T2DM improved carbohydrate metabolism and markers of endothelial dysfunction.     

Cognitive Mapping Tools: Review and Risk Management Needs

Risk managers are increasingly interested in incorporating stakeholder beliefs and other human factors into the planning process. Effective risk assessment and management requires understanding perceptions and beliefs of involved stakeholders, and how these beliefs give rise to actions that influence risk management decisions. Formal analyses of risk manager and stakeholder cognitions represent an important first step. Techniques for diagramming stakeholder mental models provide one tool for risk managers to better understand stakeholder beliefs and perceptions concerning risk, and to leverage this new understanding in developing risk management strategies. This article reviews three methodologies for assessing and diagramming stakeholder mental models—decision‐analysis‐based mental modeling, concept mapping, and semantic web analysis—and assesses them with regard to their ability to address risk manager needs.     

Using our brains to develop better policy

Current governmental practices often use a method called weight of evidence (WoE) to integrate and weigh different sources of information in the process of reaching a decision. Recent advances in cognitive neuroscience have identified WoE-like processes in the brain, and we believe that these advances have the potential to improve current decision-making practices. In this article, we describe five specific areas where knowledge emerging from cognitive neuroscience may be applied to the challenges confronting decisionmakers who manage risks: (1) quantifying evidence, (2) comparing the value of different sources of evidence, (3) reaching a decision, (4) illuminating the role of subjectivity, and (5) adapting to new information. We believe that the brain is an appropriate model for structuring decision-making processes because the brain's network is designed for complex, flexible decision making, and because policy decisions that must ultimately depend on human judgment will be best served by methods that complement human abilities. Future discoveries in cognitive neuroscience will likely bring further applications to decision practice.     

Nonnegative piecewise linear histograms *

We introduce a modified version ?_nof the piecewiss linear hisiugrimi uf Beirlant et al. (1998) which is a true probability density, i.e., ?_n[d] 0 and [d]?_n=1. We prove that ?_nestimates the underlying densitv ? strongly consistently in the L₁mmn, derive large deviation inequalities for the t\ error \?_n- f\ and prove that £||/"-/|| tends to zero with the rate n ^-1\3, We also show that the derivative lf'n estimates consistently in ine expected Lx error the derivative/ of sufficiently smooth density and evaluate the rate of convergence n-i/5 for Epf'n -f'% The estimator/" thus enables to approximate/in the Besov space with a guaranteed rate of convergence. Optimization of the smoothing parameter is also studied. The theoretical or experimentally approximated values of the expected errors E\\?_n- f\\ and E||2?'_n-?' are compared with tiie errors aCiiieveu u-y t"e histogram of Beirlant et ah, and other nonparametric methods.     

The Estimation and Testing of the Cointegration Order Based on the Frequency Domain

ABSTRACT

This article proposes a method to estimate the degree of cointegration in bivariate series and suggests a test statistic for testing noncointegration based on the determinant of the spectral density matrix for the frequencies close to zero. In the study, series are assumed to be I(d), 0 < d ? 1, with parameter d supposed to be known. In this context, the order of integration of the error series is I(d ? b), b ∈ [0, d]. Besides, the determinant of the spectral density matrix for the dth difference series is a power function of b. The proposed estimator for b is obtained here performing a regression of logged determinant on a set of logged Fourier frequencies. Under the null hypothesis of noncointegration, the expressions for the bias and variance of the estimator were derived and its consistency property was also obtained. The asymptotic normality of the estimator, under Gaussian and non-Gaussian innovations, was also established. A Monte Carlo study was performed and showed that the suggested test possesses correct size and good power for moderate sample sizes, when compared with other proposals in the literature. An advantage of the method proposed here, over the standard methods, is that it allows to know the order of integration of the error series without estimating a regression equation. An application was conducted to exemplify the method in a real context.     

Identity Crisis and Postcommunist Psychology

This article examines the effect that the recent changes in Soviet Society have had on the self-identity of its members. The sudden collapse of the Soviet Union and the precipitous decline of its economy deprived individuals of the familiar guideposts that served to define their identity. The void created in the self-consciousness of ex-Soviet citizens is now being filled by nationalist ideologies which emphasize ethnic exclusiveness and suppress the universalistic identity references typical of the modern era. The argument is made that the habitual self formed during the Soviet era offers a strong resistance to change and poses serious problems for Russian reformers.