Through technological innovation and various stages of standardisation, wireless Internet has developed into a powerful business tool. Nowadays, business becomes not only e-business but also mobile business, or m-business, where business is done via mobile devices. This is especially true in industries where the provision of real-time and location-based information is important. Cultural tourism is one evident example of such industry. And museum might be the best testing ground for the effective use of wireless Internet in cultural tourism. Taking Taiwan¡¦s five national museums as cases, this study explores the current wireless deployment and the applications with it. It specifically examines whether and to what extent museum visitors would appreciate such deployment. After a thorough literature review, the author sorts out seven dimensions (comprising 40 elements) for the first wave of survey. Using fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP), the author further finds out the priority setting of those key success factors. The priority settings fall into three groups according to their significance. Connectivity and content design are perceived as the most important. The second group inlcudes, information content, marketing and promotion, and user¡¦s experience. The least urgent dimensions for wireless Internet development are applications and business model. This study should contribute to the understanding of applying new information and communications technologies (ICTs) in museum exhibitions. It suggests that museums should consider enhancing experiential marketing by thoughtful introduction of ICTs, notably wireless Internet application such as WLAN. This study is also characterised by using FAHP for sorting out the priority settings in the minds of museum visitors and related experts.

In this study, for the well-known Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method a new approach to interval priority weight generation from interval comparison matrix is proposed. This method can be used for both inconsistent and consistent matrices. Also for the problems having more than two hierarchical levels a synthesizing heuristic is presented. The performances of the methods, interval generation and synthesizing, are compared with the methods that are already available in the literature on randomly generated matrices.

GWAS mainly aim to identify variations associated with certain phenotypes or diseases. Recently the combined p-value approach is described as the next step after GWAS to map the significant SNPs to genes and pathways to evaluate SNP-gene-disease associations. Major bottleneck of standard GWAS approaches is the prioritization of statistically significant results. The connection between statistical analysis and biological relevance should be established to understand the underlying molecular mechanisms of diseases. There are few tools offered for SNP prioritization but these are mainly based on user-defined subjective parameters, which are hard to standardize. Our group has recently developed a novel AHP based SNP prioritization algorithm. Beside statistical association AHP based SNP prioritization algorithm scores SNPs according to their biological relevance in terms of genomic location, functional consequence, evolutionary conservation, and gene-disease association. This allows researchers to evaluate the significantly associated SNPs quickly and objectively. Here, we have investigated the performance of the AHP based prioritization as the next step in the utilization of the algorithm in comparison to the other available tools for SNP prioritization. The user-defined parameters for AHP based prioritization have been investigated and our suggestion on how to use these parameters are presented. Additionally, the GWAS results from the analysis of two different sets of Alzheimer Disease Genotyping data with the newly proposed AHP based prioritization and the integrated software, METU-SNP, it was implemented, is reported and our new findings on the association of SNPs and genes with AD based on this analysis is discussed.

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has constantly promoted sustainable tourism development as well as played an important role since 1980; in addition, numerous standards were regulated accordingly. Under the impacts of both environment protection, energy saving and carbon reduction, the marketing strategy of numerous operators have been changes consequently. The ecological or environment lodging facilities gradually adopted by the people in this trade; nevertheless, there are still not appropriate criteria of green B&B for domestic lodge industry to carry out related strategies. One of the major aims of this study is to establish the criteria of green B&B and index of feasible implementation, and constitute index levels with fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP), as the major basis of conducting survey of adoption willingness of lodge operator in implementing environment protection strategy. Next, this study intends to explore the current status of environment strategy implemented by B&B manager as well as the factors influence the adoption willingness. Third, find out any other factors and significance that could affect the adoption willingness of B&B manager to carry out strategy. Fourth, this study intends to locate the factors and significance of influencing consumer in accepting environment protection strategy (lodging willingness). There are three research targets employed by the design method of this study, namely, representative experts and scholars in the related domain, for presenting construct index and significance degree; research model establishment of B&B manager, the green B&B index are used for interview and questionnaire survey methods, so as to confirm the aim of this study; and finally the research model establishment of lodge consumer, through hierarchical regression analysis and relevant statistic analysis, to explain significant meaning and reason of variables. The research result proves that green B&B index can be simplifies into eight main dimensions and concrete strategies (management and marketing, social participation and communication, energy management, water resources management, green purchase, solid waste treatment, green restaurant and lodge activities, natural and cultural resources), for reference by verification unit. Secondly, in the research model of B&B manager, environment knowledge behavior would influence the self-efficacy, and further affect the adoption willingness. For operator, the higher the compatibility of environment strategy is, the higher of adoption willingness will be. Finally, in the research model of consumer, the higher the frequency that consumer engaged in the environment related activity, the higher the willingness of selecting green B&B will be; while environment knowledge behavior would affect the perceived caracteristics of innovation, lodge preference, and attitude of engaging in environment activity of consumer. This study defines the implication of promoting green B&B development strategy is ¡§to educate B&B managers attach more importance on environment ethics, and encourage consumer to change the attitude of recreation activity.¡¨ Furthermore, with the conception of simplified green lodge index, to direct towards tourism map planning of ecology village, apart from the unique features of ¡§green B&B¡¨ image, to minimize the impact of recreation environment. By employing innovation diffusion theory (IDT) model in the behavior prediction of environment behavior and tourism behavior strategy, the result of this study could be served as a useful reference for following researches.

In this paper multi-actor multi-criteria decision aid methodology are developed to examine the impacts of EU policies related to first generation biofuels on identified key stakeholders. The thesis focuses on the integration of relevant qualitative and quantitative criteria defined by key stakeholders into one comprehensive evaluation process, to serve as a decision support tool for decision makers. Weight allocation of the defined criteria will be assessed by using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) framework, where the multi-criteria decision-aid method PROMETHEE II is used to rank relevant policy alternatives based on the information provided. In the end, results will help the decision makers to identify the impacts of different EU policy alternatives on each stakeholder group.

Η ανάπτυξη του δικτύου καταστημάτων μιας εμπορικής επιχείρησης είναι πολύ κρίσιμη για την κερδοφορία της επιχείρησης. Η γεωγραφική θέση του καταστήματος και η σημαντικότητα αυτής μπορεί να επιβεβαιωθεί από τις μεγάλες διαφορές στον κύκλο εργασιών των καταστημάτων της ίδιας εμπορικής αλυσίδας. Η μεθοδολογία που θα παρουσιαστεί παρακάτω είναι από τις πιο διαδεδομένες στις διεθνείς αγορές , η οποία και έχει εφαρμοστεί σε τομείς όπως: τράπεζες στο χώρο του corporate και private banking, εμπορικές επιχειρήσεις στο χώρο των super markets, των ηλεκτρικών και ηλεκτρονικών ειδών, στο χώρο της εστίασης και της ένδυσης καθώς και στο χώρο των τηλεπικοινωνιών. Μέχρι τώρα, η επίλυση του προβλήματος βέλτιστης τοποθεσίας για την εγκατάσταση τραπεζικών καταστημάτων βασιζόταν σε εμπειρικές κυρίως μελέτες. Οι μελέτες αυτές δεν χρησιμοποιούσαν όμως ποσοτικοποιημένες μεθόδους και δεν υπήρχε ακρίβεια στα αποτελέσματα. Στην παρακάτω μελέτη, γίνεται διαχωρισμός του κύριου προβλήματος σε μικρότερα προβλήματα έτσι ώστε τα αποτελέσματα που θα προκύψουν να είναι ακριβέστερα και με μεγαλύτερη λεπτομέρεια. Με τον τρόπο αυτό, υπάρχει η δυνατότητα να μελετηθούν και να αναλυθούν όλες οι επί μέρους παράμετροι και τα δεδομένα κάθε μικρότερου υποπροβλήματος. Έτσι, ορθολογικοποιείται η διαδικασία λήψης αποφάσεων, δίνοντας ακριβή αποτελέσματα τα οποία δεν είναι μόνο χρήσιμα για τη λήψης μιας απόφασης του παρόντος αλλά και για μελλοντικές αποφάσεις. Ένα ακόμα νέο δεδομένο που εισάγει η παρακάτω μελέτη στην επίλυση τέτοιων προβλημάτων είναι η αιτιολόγηση των βαθμολογιών που δίνονται από τον ερευνητή στα κριτήρια και στις εναλλακτικές. Αυτό επιτυγχάνεται με τη σύγκριση μεταξύ των τιμών των μετρήσιμων μεγεθών των εναλλακτικών. Για τα μη μετρήσιμα μεγέθη, γίνεται αιτιολόγηση της βαθμολόγησης με βάση ποιοτικά δεδομένα. Η μεθοδολογία που ακολουθείται είναι πλήρως εμπεριστατωμένη και ποσοτικοποιημένη κάνοντας χρήση ενδεδειγμένων τεχνικών ανάλυσης. Ακόμα, προσφέρει καλύτερη γνώση στους επιχειρηματίες για την αγορά στην οποία δραστηριοποιούνται. Αναφέρεται στην απεικόνιση, ανάλυση και αναγνώριση τοποθεσιών-αγορών βάσει γεωγραφικών, οικονομικών και δημογραφικών κριτηρίων με απώτερο στόχο την βέλτιστη χωροθέτηση καταστημάτων μιας επιχείρησης. / -

Η παρούσα εργασία σκοπεύει στην παρουσίαση και ανάλυση μιας μεθόδου Λήψης Αποφάσεων η οποία διαχειρίζεται αποφάσεις πολυσταδιακές ως προς τα κριτήρια. Πρόκειται για αποφάσεις οι οποίες έχουν συγκεκριμένες εναλλακτικές επιλογές και πολλαπλά κριτήρια. Αποφάσεις σαν αυτές συνδέονται με κάθε επιστημονικό κλάδο αλλά τις συναντάμε και στην καθημερινότητα μας, γεγονός που καθιστά τον αποτελεσματικό χειρισμό τους σημαντικό. Η μέθοδος με την οποία θα ασχοληθούμε ονομάζεται Αναλυτική Ιεραρχική Διαδικασία (Analytic Hierarchy Process – AHP), δημιουργός της είναι ο Thomas L. Saaty και χρονολογείται μέσα στην δεκαετία του 1970. Η AHP βασίζεται στις σχετικές συγκρίσεις ανάμεσα στους παράγοντες που προσδιορίζουν την εκάστοτε απόφαση. Οι συγκρίσεις πραγματοποιούνται με κοινή βάση την θεμελιώδη κλίμακα του Saaty. Στο πρώτο κεφάλαιο όπου παρουσιάζεται το θεωρητικό υπόβαθρο της μεθόδου, θα δούμε ότι με τον τρόπο αυτό η AHP καθιστά τα πάντα μετρήσιμα. Σκοπός είναι μέσω της ιεραρχική δόμησης του προβλήματος να προσδιοριστεί η καλύτερη από τις εναλλακτικές. Η AHP προσεγγίζει με απλότητα την πολυπλοκότητα των αποφάσεων, γεγονός που κάνει την εννοιολογικά απλή προσέγγιση της μεθόδου εξαιρετικά ισχυρή. Στην πορεία της εργασίας θα παρουσιάσουμε το μαθηματικό υπόβαθρο της μεθόδου μέσα από την αξιωματική θεμελίωση όπως δόθηκε από τον Thomas L. Saaty. Τέλος, θα αναλύσουμε προβλήματα επιλογής τοποθεσίας σε διεθνές επίπεδο και θα ολοκληρώσουμε με την υλοποίηση ενός τέτοιου προβλήματος στο Expert Choice. / This paper intends to present and analyze a method of multi-criteria decision making. In these decisions the alternatives have been predetermined and there are multiple criteria affecting them. Decisions like these are linked with many areas of science, but there are in everyone’s daily lives too, fact that makes the effective handling really important. The present study is been dealing with a method called Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), invented by Thomas L. Saaty in seventies. The AHP is based on pairwise comparisons among the factors that determine the decision. The Saaty’s fundamental scale of absolute numbers is used in making paired comparison judgments. In the first chapter of the study where the theoretical base of the method is represented, will be seen that AHP with the relative comparisons makes everything measurable. AHP intends through hierarchical structuring of the problem to determine the best of the alternatives. The AHP approach with simplicity to the complexity of decisions makes the method conceptually simple and extremely powerful. Later in this paper will be presented the mathematical background of the method through the axiomatic foundation as given by Thomas L. Saaty. Finally, will be dealt with problems of location selection decisions in international operations and the paper will be completed with the implementation of such a problem in Expert Choice.

Thesis (MScEng)--Stellenbosch University 2012 / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Reverse engineering (RE) has emerged as an important tool in the design stages of a product. The demand for better performance of hardware and software has spawned many different technologies that fall under RE. The diversity of technologies is linked to the different application areas of industry. It is critical to understand what the exact capability of each individual technology is, in order to choose the appropriate RE system. The objective of this study is to develop capability profiles of different RE technologies available, such as: Coordinate Measuring Machine, Articulated Arm (Cimcore), Non-contact scanner (GOM), and contact scanner (Renishaw). To achieve the objective, the different characteristics of each technology are measured and quantified. A capability profile can be regarded as defined criteria that represent the performance of a RE technology and in this study, is defined by quantifying the following characteristics:  Accuracy  Repeatability  Speed of Measurement  Work Envelope  User-friendliness. The significance of developing these capability profiles is so that they may be compared to one another. This is important, especially for the accuracy criterion, as each technology is manufactured by a different company, making an acceptable accuracy comparison amongst the different technologies impossible. The study also suggests an evaluation tool which will help a decision maker choose the appropriate technology for a specified objective. Guidelines are also given to potential end users of RE technologies on how they should go about acquiring the right system. On a more general level, the study contributes to research in recent trends, in the RE industry in terms of application, hardware, software and the selection of RE systems. By developing these capability profiles, the study aims to contribute to its value in academia, as well as for industry partners and potential RE end-users. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: RE het ontwikkel as n belangrike hulpmiddel in die ontwerp fase van ‘n produk. Die aanvraag na beter prestasie van hardeware en sagteware het gelei tot die ontwikkeling van baie verskillende tegnologie. Die diversiteit van die tegnologie gaan hand aan hand met die verskillende toepassings areas in die industrie. Dit is belangrik om die spesifieke eienskappe van elke individuele tegnologie te verstaan om die regte RE sisteem te kies. The doel van hierdie studie is om die vermoë profiele van die verskillende beskikbare RE tegnologie te ontwerp: Coordinate Measuring Machine, Articulated Arm (Cimcore), nie-kontak skandeerder (GOM) en kontak skandeerder (Renishaw). Die verskillende eienskappe van elke tegnologie word gemeet en gekwantifiseer. ‘n Vermoë profiel kan gesien word as ‘n vaste kriteria wat die prestasie van die RE tegnologie verteenwoordig en in hierdie studie word dit gedefinieer deur die volgende eienskappe:  Akkuraatheid  Herhaalbaarheid  Spoed van meeting  Meet volume  Gebruikers-vriendelikheid Die relevansie van die ontwikkeling van hierdie vermoë profiele is dat dit wedersyds vergelyk kan word. Dit is belangrik, spesifiek vir die akkuraatheids kriteria, omdat elke tegnologie by ‘n verskillende maatskappy vervaardig word. ‘n Aanvaarbare akkuraatsheid vergelyking onder die verskillende tegnologie is dus onmoontlik. Die studie stel ook ‘n evaluasie hulpmiddel voor wat die besluitnemer sal lei om die mees toepaslike tegnologie te kies vir die spesiefieke doeleindes. Verder word riglyne aan die potensiele gebruikers van RE tegnologie gegee oor hoe om te werk te gaan om die regte sisteem te kies indien die tegnologie nie in besit is nie. Op ‘n meer algemene vlak dra die studie tot navorsing by deur die nuutste tendense in toepassing, hardeware, sagteware en die keuse van RE sisteme in die RE industrie te beskryf. Deur hierdie vermoë profile te ontwikkel beoog die studie om waarde toe te voeg aan die akademie, vennote in die industrie en potensiele RE gebruikers.

Medical records consist of a lot of data. Nevertheless, in today’s digitized society it is difficult for humans to convert data into information and recognize hidden patterns. Effective decision support tools can assist medical staff to reveal important information hidden in the vast amount of data and support their medical decisions. The objective of this thesis is to compare five machine learning algorithms for clinical diagnosis. The selected machine learning algorithms are C4.5, Random Forest, Support Vector Machine (SVM), k-Nearest Neighbor (kNN) and Naïve Bayes classifier. First, the machine learning algorithms are applied on three publicly available datasets. Next, the Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is applied to evaluate which algorithms are more suitable than others for medical diagnosis. Evaluation criteria are chosen with respect to typical clinical criteria and were narrowed down to five; sensitivity, specificity, positive predicted value, negative predicted value and interpretability. Given the results, Naïve Bayes and SVM are given the highest AHP-scores indicating they are more suitable than the other tested algorithm as clinical decision support. In most cases kNN performed the worst and also received the lowest AHP-score which makes it the least suitable algorithm as support for medical diagnosis.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-08T14:53:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 3641102 bytes, checksum: fde00bcf23cfe2eafbeb9674257e6ef0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-28 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The performance measurement is emphasized in the literature as an important feature to the supply chain management, because as it comes between a customers and suppliers relationship, it is essential a medium to evaluate if this relation is as expected. However, although to the performance measurement s significance is acknowledged and ratified, there are some difficulties on how to evaluate the performance on supply chains, especially in the service sector. Thereby, of the forms to evaluate the performance is through a performance measurement system that certifies with management models to supply chains. Accordingly, this work s goal is to propose a performance measurement system to assist in the supply chain management, with the application towards the service sector. To achieve such goal, this work adopts a quali-quantitative approach following these steps: 1) Conceptual theoretical structure s definition; 2) Choice of a focal company; 3) Mapping of current and beneath supply chains; 4) Performance indicators definition; 5) Performance metric s definition; 6) Verification of the significance of processes and metrics with AHP aid. Starting from these goals, the study proposes a performance measurement system based on the SCOR management model and it was applied in a company in the service sector and in a supplier. Starting from the conducted analysis it was found that the most important processes in decreasing order were: Source, Plan, Deliver, Make and Return. For the metrics, the most important were: perfect order fulfillment, stock cost, average answer time to a service request, deliveries carried without faults, and finally, customer complaint. Thereby, according to the seen results, it is possible to settle the most important metrics between the focal company and supplier, expecting the relationship s performance to be improved. / A avaliação de desempenho é destacada na literatura como fator importante para o gerenciamento da cadeia de suprimentos, pois como se trata de relacionamentos entre clientes e fornecedores, é necessário um meio para avaliar se esse relacionamento está conforme o esperado. No entanto, embora a importância da avaliação de desempenho seja reconhecida e ratificada, existem ainda dificuldades em como avaliar o desempenho em cadeias de suprimentos, em especial no setor de serviços. Para isso, uma das formas de se avaliar o desempenho é por meio de um sistema de medição de desempenho que corrobore com modelos de gestão para cadeia de suprimentos. Nesse sentido, o objetivo desse trabalho é propor um sistema de medição de desempenho que auxilie na gestão da cadeia de suprimentos, com uma aplicação voltada para o setor de serviços. Para atingir tal objetivo, o trabalho segue uma abordagem quali-quantitativa que primeiramente define uma estrutura conceitual teórica, posteriormente, seleciona uma empresa foco e realiza o mapeamento da cadeia de suprimentos imediata. A partir disto, houve a definição dos indicadores de desempenho e as métricas de desempenho. Por fim, para atingir os objetivos da pesquisa fez-se a verificação da importância dos processos e métricas, a nível operacional, com o auxílio do AHP. Assim, o estudo propõe um sistema de medição de desempenho, baseado no modelo de gestão SCOR e foi aplicado em uma empresa do setor de serviços e em uma fornecedora. De posse das análises realizadas constatou-se que os processos mais importantes em ordem decrescente foram: Abastecer, Planejar, Entregar, Fazer e Retornar. Já para as métricas, as mais importantes foram: cumprimento da ordem perfeita, custo de estoque, tempo médio de resposta a uma solicitação de serviços, entregas realizadas sem defeitos e por fim, reclamações dos clientes. De acordo com os resultados apresentados, foi possível estabelecer as métricas mais importantes entre a empresa foco e fornecedor, esperando-se que o desempenho dessa relação seja aprimorado.