Engaging children and youth in research and evaluation using group concept mapping

Group concept mapping is a systematic methodology that recognizes participants’ expertise in their own experiences. In this approach, participants share their diverse knowledge and interpret the data generated by all group members. This approach uniquely blends quantitative and qualitative techniques to create illustrative, structured conceptualizations. In this article, we describe the steps in group concept mapping and report feedback on this method from 37 children and youth who participated in group concept mapping studies. We recommend group concept mapping as an engaging way to involve children and youth in research and evaluation activities.     

Multicriteria decision support in local energy planning: An evaluation of alternative scenarios for the Sustainable Energy Action Plan

One of the major challenges for the implementation of local energy planning is the successful development of a Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) by the local authorities (especially within the framework of their participation to the Covenant of Mayors’ initiative). This aspect constitutes a decision making problem, since the local authorities have to identify the best fields of actions and opportunities for reaching their long-term CO₂ reduction target. However, the already available methods and tools do not offer an integrated framework for the SEAPs’ development and especially the selection of sustainable Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and Rational Use of Energy (RUE) technologies. In this context, the aim of this paper is to present a participatory supportive framework for the implementation of local energy planning. At the first level, the proposed approach incorporates the development of alternative Scenarios of Actions (using knowledge-based process, participatory approach and aspiration level). At the second level, a direct and transparent multicriteria decision support is introduced, in order to evaluate the feasible Scenarios. It includes the application of a multicriteria ordinal regression approach and an extreme ranking analysis method for the estimation of the best and worst possible ranking position of each Scenario. The results from the pilot appraisal of the methodological approach to a “real” problem are presented and discussed. The adopted approach contributes to the selection of the most appropriate combination of RES/RUE actions, supporting in this way the local authorities to the development of their SEAP.     

Allocation of resources in asymmetric competitions: How do the weak maintain a chance of winning?

To maintain a chance of occasionally beating a stronger player in a competition waged over several fields, a weaker player should give up on some of the fields and concentrate resources on the remaining ones. But when do weak players actually do this? And which fields do they give up when the fields differ in their likelihood of being assessed? We report an experimental study of resource allocation in which asymmetric pairs of players compete over asymmetric fields. Symmetric players and symmetric fields are used for control. We find that players behave as follows: (1) Average wins are the same in the symmetric and asymmetric fields conditions and correspond to relative player strength. (2) The proportion of fields given up on decreases with a player’s greater relative strength, increases for asymmetric field likelihoods, and increases when competitions are framed in meaningful context; this proportion is related to wins. (3) When field likelihoods are asymmetric, players’ resource allocation is correlated with likelihood. Wins generally increase with that correlation but the relation is different for players of different strength. (4) The proportion of fields given up on and the correlation with likelihood change with experience towards the values corresponding to higher wins.     

Revisiting retesting in the estimation of proportions by group testing

In the estimation of a proportion p by group testing (pooled testing), retesting of units within positive groups has received little attention due to the minimal gain in precision compared to testing additional units. If acquisition of additional units is impractical or too expensive, and testing is not destructive, we show that retesting can be a useful option. We propose the retesting of a random grouping of units from positive groups, and compare it with nested halving procedures suggested by others. We develop an estimator of p for our proposed method, and examine its variance properties. Using simulation we compare retesting methods across a range of group testing situations, and show that for most realistic scenarios, our method is more efficient.     

The arithmetic of outcome editing in financial and social domains

Outcome editing refers to a set of mental rules that people apply when deciding whether to evaluate multiple outcomes jointly or separately, which subsequently affects choice. In a large-scale online survey (n = 2062) we investigate whether individuals use the same outcome editing rules for financial outcomes (e.g., a lottery win) and social outcomes (e.g., a party with friends). We also test the role of numeric ability in explaining outcome editing. Our results show that people’s preferences for combining or separating events depend on whether those events are in the financial or the social domain. Specifically, individuals were more likely to segregate social outcomes than monetary outcomes, except for when all outcomes were negative. Moreover, numeric ability was associated with preferences for outcome editing in the financial domain but not in the social domain. Our findings extend the understanding of the arithmetic operations underlying outcome editing and suggest that people rely more on calculations when making choices involving multiple financial outcomes and more on feelings when making choices involving social outcomes.     

Optimal acceptance sampling for modules F and F1 of the European Measuring Instruments Directive

ABSTRACT

Acceptance sampling plans offered by ISO 2859-1 are far from optimal under the conditions for statistical verification in modules F and F1 as prescribed by Annex II of the Measuring Instruments Directive (MID) 2014/32/EU, resulting in sample sizes that are larger than necessary. An optimised single-sampling scheme is derived, both for large lots using the binomial distribution and for finite-sized lots using the exact hypergeometric distribution, resulting in smaller sample sizes that are economically more efficient while offering the full statistical protection required by the MID.     

Consumers’ credit card repayment decisions: The role of higher anchors and future repayment concern

We investigated two aspects of credit card repayment decisions: the extent to which the anchoring effect of minimum repayment information may be mitigated by information on alternative anchors, specifically repayments that would repay the balance in two years (Study 1) or nine months (Study 2); and the role of future repayment concern. In two experiments, three realistic credit card statements were presented with different outstanding balances. Participants, who were randomly allocated to one of four information conditions depending on supplementary information provided on the statements, stated how much they would repay that month. They were then asked about concerns they would have about repayment difficulties if they had a fixed consumer loan over three years. In Study 1 the alternative two-year repayment anchor had a negative effect on percent repayment, whereas in Study 2 the nine-month repayment anchor had a significant positive effect, especially for those with higher future repayment concern. Also, in both studies, future repayment concern had a direct inverse effect on repayment decisions which partially mediated the effect of disposable income. It is concluded that the addition to credit card statements of a table of cost and duration information for a range of repayment amounts may usefully support repayment decisions.     

Multiplicative consistency analysis for interval fuzzy preference relations: A comparative study

To examine the multiplicative consistency of interval fuzzy preference relations (IFPRs), this paper first analyzes the limitations associated with the previous consistency concepts. Accordingly, a new consistency concept is defined that is an extension of the crisp case and overcomes limitations in the previous concepts. Next, a linear programming model to judge the consistency of IFPRs is constructed, and an approach to derive multiplicative consistent IFPRs is introduced. Furthermore, goal-programming models to determine missing values in an incomplete IFPR are constructed that have the highest consistent level with respect to known values. Moreover, a multiplicative consistency and consensus based method for group decision making with IFPRs is developed that can address incomplete and inconsistent cases. Finally, two practical decision-making problems are offered to demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the new method, and an analysis of a numerical and theoretical comparison with several related methods is performed.     

Improved bonferroni procedures for testing overall and pairwise homogeneity hypotheses

Simes' (1986) improved Bonferroni test is verified by simulations ^?to control the α-level when testing the overall homogeneity hypothesis with all pairwise t statistics in a balanced parallel group design. Similarly, this result was found to hold (for practical purposes) in various underlying distributions other than the normal and in some unbalanced designs. To allow the use of step-up procedures based on pairwise t statistics, simulations were used to verify that Simes' test, when applied to testing multiple subset homogeneity hypotheses with pairwise t statistics also keeps the level ? α. Some robustness as above was found here too. Tables of the simulation results are provided and an example of a step-up Hommel-Shaffer type procedure with pairwise comparisons is given.