M.Com. (Business Management) / The ultimate objective of this research report was to develop a Decision Support System, (DSS), that can be used by property professionals to enable them to make better decisions regarding property development in South Africa. The DSS addresses the problem of numerous uncertain variables in property development investment decisions. The capability of the computer to do repetitive calculations with different combinations of variables, with probabilities linked to each variable, was used in a Monte Carlo analysis. The DSS was developed on a "Lotus 1-2-3™ Release 4 for Windows" spreadsheet which makes the program adaptable to suit specific applications if the need arises. The DSSwill, however, be able to address the majority of property developments without any adaptation. The DSS was appraised by property professionals and the comments received from the respondents indicate that the primary objective stated was achieved. The DSS is best suited for property investors who are also involved in the early development phases.

Modern society since the 1970s has been characterised by an ongoing information revolution which has been led by innovations in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Technological breakthroughs have pushed social organisations to constantly adjust themselves to fit new possibilities and demands. But, in spatial planning, comparing to other fields, the influences of the ICT innovations are still limited due to the ‘mismatch’ between real demands and technology supply and ‘bottlenecks’ in implementations. This research is aimed at improving the technological support practice in spatial planning decision-making by, linking the technology supply with planning demand. This is based on both theoretical debate and practical experiences, to develop a new model for a successful Planning Support System (PSS), and to test and implement it in the practice of ‘sustainable urban regeneration’. In this research, new opportunities have been created from matching the innovations of Web 2.0 internet applications and geo-semantic web services with the standing demand on gathering and exchanging knowledge in spatial planning, which facilitate the shift of decision-making towards a more communicative and collaborative mode. To do this, a new PSS framework was proposed for bridging the ICT innovations and the planning world, focusing on the common interest in the positive combination of technology, knowledge and people. A prototype system was designed, developed and implemented with local authorities in Greater Manchester in a case study of sustainable transport planning. The experiences learnt show that: 1) the contradiction between the limited expectations of the planners and the complex technological facilities that the developers offer affected the motivation to take up innovations in the first place; 2) the wider context of planning decision-making, i.e. the changing ideology of public policy-making, affects the acceptance of ICT innovations in practice, 3) the organisational structure and politics within planning institutions can also limit the diffusion of innovations. Besides, the actors (i.e. initiator, developers and targeted users) in technology implementation are often not clearly defined, which causes uncertainties and misunderstandings in the process. Furthermore, there is a dilemma in that using ICT innovations to facilitate policy innovations also means unexpected changes in daily routine or organisational culture, which most governmental departments are not fully ready and willing to accept. Therefore, it is recommended that future development in PSS should: 1) actively embrace the new technologies and interfaces, 2) find suitable ‘use-cases’ which support knowledge exchange in the multi-level and multi-agent plan-making, 3) follow a task-based approach to produce a useful tool with clearly defined purposes, 4) identify the appropriate actors and partnerships for PSS development and implementation and 5) try to institutionalise PSS development and implementation within the planning authority, to minimise resistance caused by non-technical issues and organizational obstacles.

This dissertation examines the lives of trans men and their experiences with pathways to or avoidance of the criminal justice system. I used feminist criminological theory, specifically feminist pathways theory, as well as queer criminological theory, and intersectionality to explore these men’s experiences with child abuse, sexual victimization, homelessness, the presence of support systems, and coping strategies. Through the use of 27 semi-structured, in-depth phone interviews with trans men across the United States, I find common experiences among those who have been incarcerated (15) and those who have not (12). Regarding trans men’s pathways to offending, I find similar victimization and homelessness experiences among the fifteen men in the previously incarcerated group. Additionally, I find that the fifteen men who were previously incarcerated continue to face victimization, discrimination, and prejudice in the criminal justice system and upon their reentry to society. Victimization and discrimination in all four stages of the criminal justice system—arrest, sentencing, incarceration, and reentry—are all discussed in detail. Though many of the trans men in this study who have not been incarcerated faced similar victimization experiences to the previously incarcerated group, I find that the availability of social support and positive relationships, as well as positive coping mechanisms moderate the relationship between victimization and involvement in the criminal justice system. Furthermore, racial bias against transgender offenders in the criminal justice system is well-documented among cisgender offenders, specifically Black males. This dissertation too finds possible racial bias toward the Black and Hispanic trans men in the study. Race and ethnicity could also influence the access to resources and social support necessary to avoid arrest. Importantly, this dissertation extends the use of feminist pathways theory to populations other than girls and women and establishes the importance of intersectionality to criminological studies. Overall, this dissertation also demonstrates the need for more social support and resources for trans men, especially for trans men of color and those who have experienced common pathways to the criminal justice system.

When non-recurrent road traffic congestion happens, the operator of the traffic control centre has to select the most appropriate traffic control measure or combination of measures in a short time to manage the traffic network. This is a complex task, which requires expert knowledge, much experience and fast reaction. There are a large number of factors related to a traffic state as well as a large number of possible control measures that need to be considered during the decision making process. The identification of suitable control measures for a given non-recurrent traffic congestion can be tough even for experienced operators. Therefore, simulation models are used in many cases. However, simulating different traffic scenarios for a number of control measures in a complicated situation is very time-consuming. In this paper we propose an intelligent traffic control decision support system (ITC-DSS) to assist the human operator of the traffic control centre to manage online the current traffic state. The proposed system combines three soft-computing approaches, namely fuzzy logic, neural network, and genetic algorithm. These approaches form a fuzzy-neural network tool with self-organization algorithm for initializing the membership functions, a GA algorithm for identifying fuzzy rules, and the back-propagation neural network algorithm for fine tuning the system parameters. The proposed system has been tested for a case-study of a small section of the ring-road around Riyadh city. The results obtained for the case study are promising and show that the proposed approach can provide an effective support for online traffic control.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Claude A. Keithley / Planning Support Systems allow planners to create alternative development scenarios to forecast a more accurate and precise future trend of development in their communities. The software What If?™ has been developed and introduced in the planning profession since its first release in the 1990’s. This report evaluates the software What If?™ based on the planning decision-making process. The report provides three aspects of evaluation: technical, empirical, and subjective. In addition, the paper will be also providing an overall understanding of the analytical capability of What If?™, and an overview of its operating procedures.

This research compared the use of an electronic meeting system tool to a manual group process in large and small groups in a controlled laboratory experiment. Outcomes measured include the quality of decision, the time taken in various stages of the decision making process, and group member satisfaction. A research model of the variables influencing group decision making was developed. The six independent variables included in this model are group size, the rule by which the group makes a decision, the incentives driving the group, the distribution of useful information within the group, the task complexity, and the meeting support (electronic or manual). In this research group size and method of support were manipulated, while the other variables were controlled. A decision-making task was developed for this research to specify and manipulate the six independent variables. The task described a product mix problem in which information on each product was given to group members. The group shared information and jointly determined an outcome. The group used an unanimous decision rule to choose a solution. A numerical outcome was used to objectively measure decision quality. Each member of the group received a cash payoff determined by the group's solution as incentive in accomplishing the task. All groups found the optimal solution. The simplicity of the task may have minimized the differences found between groups. There was no significant difference in general member satisfaction or time to decision. Prior knowledge was found to influence general member satisfaction and the time needed for the group to share information. Members of large groups perceived more uneven distribution of participation than members of small groups. Voting differences were very large: large groups took significantly more votes than small groups, and electronic groups took significantly more votes than manual groups. "Conjunctive" and "disjunctive" task descriptions are used to discuss task/tool interaction.

The objectives of this research are threefold: (i) to develop a conceptual framework and a prototype in order to extend the application capability of a category of multiple objective decision support systems (MODSS) techniques; (ii) to explore the combined functionalities of knowledge-based expert systems (ES) and MODSS through embedding an intelligent front-end, and (iii) to develop a new system and process of dealing with multiple objective decision making (MODM) models in a group decision support system (GDSS) framework. Ultimately, a system that integrates MODSS, ES and GDSS is generated, which is then evaluated in a laboratory experimental setup. This integrated system contains a sufficient number of MODM methods to solve MODM problems, provides an ES-based guide to select and use the most suitable MODM method, and has the capability to aggregate individual decision makers' preferences to produce a compromise solution of an MODM problem in different forms and styles of group meetings. The system is supported by a set of group decision making (GDM) methods which combine the preferences of the individual group members and thus increases the confidence of each group member in the compromise solution.The research is conducted using a multiple-methodologies approach using the system development methodology as the backbone. The conceptual framework of the integrated system is elaborated to integrate multiple system elements into one facility at the application system level based on functional and resource integration. A prototype implements this conceptual framework as an intelligence-based and graphical user interface (GUI)-based MODSS that works in an individual/group environment. Both the conceptual framework and the prototype are called Intelligent Multiple Objectives Group Decision Support Systems (IMOGDSS).Initial evaluation of the IMOGDSS is encouraging, which ++ / is conducted in the form of testing a number of hypotheses in an experimental setup. This research thus makes contributions in both theoretical and application domains. Five major contributions are listed below:It develops a unique conceptual framework of integrating MODSS, ES and GDSS effectively to deal with MODM problem in individual/group decision making under a knowledge-based intelligent architecture.It provides a new application of ES, that is, utilising knowledge-based ES to select the most efficient MODM method for each particular decision maker (or decision group) in a particular decision problem.The complete method management function of the MODM methodology base guides the decision makers to use the most suitable method to solve their decision making problems, allows them to use multiple methods to resolve complex problems, that could not otherwise be solved with a single MODM, and also allows the group members to get solutions from different methods.This study produces an opportunity to select and apply the 'best' aggregation model to aggregate the individual solutions of an MODM problem through integrating various GDM methods in a methodology base.This study implements a two-stage configuration of group decision support software that provides a GUI-based hierarchical procedure for solving MODM problems with intelligent guidance in a decision group. The two-stage group decision making procedure is able to help the decision makers to analyse, understand and interact cooperatively in the group decision making process to reach a compromise solution.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri--Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-114).

Thesis (doctoral)--Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 223-230).

Thesis (M.H.A.)--University of Michigan, 1975.