Finding a product with high quality and reasonable price online is a difficult task due to the fuzzy nature of data and queries. In order to handle the fuzzy problem, a new type-2 fuzzy reasoning based decision support system, the Web Shopping Expert for online users is proposed. In the Web Shopping Expert, an interval type-2 fuzzy logic system is used and a fuzzy output can be obtained using the up-low limit technique, which offers an opportunity to directly employ all the rules and methods of the type-1 fuzzy sets onto the type-2 fuzzy sets. To achieve the best performance the fuzzy inference system is optimized by the least square and numerical method. The key advantages of the least square method are the efficient use of samples and the simplicity of the implementation. The Web Shopping Expert based on the interval type-2 fuzzy inference system provides more reasonable conclusions for online users.

Point-of-use (POU) and point-of-entry (POE) water treatment are forms of decentralized water treatment that are becoming increasingly sought alternatives for ensuring the safety of drinking water. Although the acceptance of POU and POE systems is still the subject of some debate, it is generally acknowledged that they have a role to play in drinking water treatment. However, some of the main drivers for the increase in the use of POU and POE alternatives include: (1) the emergence of new technologies with high removal efficiencies of target contaminants; (2) the enhanced certification system of POU and POE treatment devices and components which ensures that devices have been well engineered to achieve defined contaminant removal targets and do not add contaminants from materials of construction; (3) the inclusion of POU and POE systems as acceptable means to comply with drinking water standards; and (4) the concerns voiced by consumers in several surveys regarding the safety of centrally treated drinking water; which, regardless of whether or not these concerns are justified, have led to an increase in the use of POU and POE treatment systems. With the commercialization of these devices the task of selecting a suitable device for treatment has become cumbersome. When the inherent complexity of a particular drinking water treatment task is added to the mix, a complex decision making situation is created. Thus the need for designing a decision support tool to compare and select POU and POE treatment systems was evident. Currently the best decision aid for selecting POU and POE systems is NSF International’s listing of the devices and their contaminant reduction claims. A significant contribution of this research is the depiction of an appropriate conceptual framework for developing usable and valid decision support systems (DSSs) to select or design water or wastewater treatment systems. A thorough investigation of the methods used to develop DSSs benchmarked a systematic approach to developing DSSs, which includes the analysis of the treatment problem(s), knowledge acquisition and representation, and the identification and evaluation of criteria controlling the selection of optimal treatment systems. Finally, it was concluded that there is a need to develop integrated DSSs that are generic, user-friendly and employ a systems analysis approach. Another significant contribution of this research is applying a systems analysis approach to outline aspects of implementation, management, and governance of POU and POE water treatment systems. The analysis also included a timeline of the progress of POU and POE treatment from regulatory, industry and certification, and research perspectives. Results of the analysis were considered the first step of a conceptual framework for the sustainability assessment of POU and POE treatment systems which acts as the basis for developing a decision support system that will help select sustainable POU or POE treatment systems. In the context of POU and POE treatment, sustainability encompasses providing: (a) safe drinking water to help maintain good human health and hygiene; (b) minimum negative impact on the environment; (c) better use of human, natural, and financial resources; (d) a high degree of functional robustness and flexibility; and (e) cultural acceptance thus encouraging responsible behavior by the users. The most significant contribution of this research is developing, for the first time, a set of sustainability criteria, objectives, and quantifiable indicators to properly assess the sustainability of the various POU and POE alternatives. Twenty five quantitative and qualitative indicators covering technical, economic, environmental, and socio-cultural aspects of implementing a POU or a POE system were defined. Results of a survey of experts’ judgment on the effectiveness of the developed list of indicators generated 52 comments from 11 experts, which helped in refining and enhancing the list. The conceptual framework for assessing the sustainability of POU and POE systems represented a blueprint for building the decision support system. Decision logic and cognitive thinking was used to formulate the calculation of the 20 refined indicators. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), a recognized Multi-criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) tool, was employed to construct the structural hierarchy of sustainability indicators. Pairwise comparison was used to help in the analysis of indicators' relative importance and develop the indicators’ weights. A survey was designed to develop the relative weights of the indicators based on the average response of 19 stakeholders to a series of pairwise comparison questions pertaining to the relative importance of the indicators. Finally, the practical contribution of this research is the development of, for the first time, a new Decision Support System for Selecting Sustainable POU and POE Treatment Systems (D4SPOUTS) suitable for a particular water treatment case. The MCDA technique explained above is combined with designed screening rules, constraints, and case characteristics to be applied to a knowledgebase of POU and POE treatment systems incorporated in the DSS. The components of the DSS were built using Microsoft® Excel® and Visual Basic® for Applications. The quality of the DSS and aspects of its usability, applicability, and sensitivity analysis are demonstrated through a hypothetical case study for lead removal from drinking water. This research is expected to assist water purveyors, consultants, and other stakeholders in selecting sustainable and cost effective POU and POE treatment systems.

Health and safety have been the most important concerns in waste management formany years. However, nowadays society demands that as well as being safe, waste managementmust also be sustainable. The management of a sustainable Municipal Solid Waste is anecessary but not-prioritized aspect of environmental management in most countries with lowand middle income.This study purposes an analysis of technologies, in order to select the best and mostsuitable practices in Sustainable Waste Management Systems already applied or in advancedlevel of research in developed and developing countries. The target countries for receiving thisstudy of waste system are located in Western Africa: Ghana, Côte d‟Ivoire, Senegal andNigeria.The analysis of collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of waste, with focus onorganic matter, was presented in two groups. The first group, “collection and transportation”was analysed with attention to aspects and stakeholders presented in the Integrated SustainableWaste Management framework. In the second group, “treatment and disposal”, each technologywas analysed based on aspects of sustainable development. The decision-support software Web-HIPRE was also used to frame the final rank of solutions for the African scenario.The conclusions for those analyses were that the creation of micro and small enterprisesand community based organizations for collection and transportation should strongly beencouraged. They generate not just new employment but awareness among the population aswell. As for the treatment and disposal of organic household waste, two promising technologiesare decentralized composting and home composting with plastic bins.

Clinical decision support systems (CDSS) and the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) have been adopted by large healthcare organization to support stroke diagnosis to reduce the level of misdiagnosis occurrence. This research presents a methodology for constructing a stroke decision support system (Stroke DSS) which integrates basic information, physical and image stroke assessment criterions, constructs ischemic, hemorrhage and subarachnoid hemorrhage of stroke diagnosis flow. A prototype embedded methodology was built to support stroke diagnosis in healthcare organization. Using a design science approach, we embed the constructs of our methodology in a prototype and perform a usability evaluation to demonstrate the utility of our approach. The usability evaluation demonstrates the effectiveness of our approach in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction. The resulting system allowed flexible knowledge model and representation that are useful for stroke diagnosis.

The business environment nowadays becomes much more dynamically and tensely than the past driven by the trend of globalization and free trading. Therefore, any enterprise in the world has to face competition from everywhere in the world. Under such complicated business environment, it¡¦s dangerous to make decision based on past experience or instinct. If some key message is missed or not collected, a disaster caused by logical decision, but far away from the reality might just happen. In last couple decades, software providers launched DSS(Decision Support System), BI(Business Intelligence), ¡K, etc. based on current enterprise IT infrastructure like ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), MRPII(Manufacturing Resource Planning), ¡K, etc. to help enterprise for decision making. However, such systems are not popular in Taiwan, not to mention the successful stories. While I studied the lesson ¡§information technology and competitive advantage¡¨ conducted by Profession Kuo, I concluded from classmates¡¦ discussion that the root causes were as follows. 1. Most Taiwan manufacturers¡¦ strategy is to launch product at lower cost to allow them to win business via price war. Therefore, they are willing to invest tangible hardware, not intangible software. 2. The branches of international companies can¡¦t develop their own information system due to Corporate policy or security concern. Based on above mentioned, I started thinking if we could have a BI system that doesn¡¦t need to spend money, is easy to implement, and no need for Corporate approval. Such BI system could help management to retrieve effective and enough information for precise decision making. After evaluation, I think Microsoft Excel spreadsheet software is the most suitable solution. It¡¦s because almost all enterprises have it, it can contain 1M units of data in a file, and useful tools of macro, pivot table, sorting, filtering, VBA(Visual Basic for Application). Furthermore, the nature of spreadsheet is similar to database structure, so it can be easily integrated with database like SQL database, Microsoft Access. Thanks to Profession Kuo¡¦s coaching, I started doing research, and studied necessary tool like VBA, ¡K, etc. to warm up for this thesis. After months, I finally finish it, and I hope it can contribute to the ones that have similar problem with me.

The research focuses on the application of site selection for cage aquaculture in Taiwan by developing the site evaluation DSS (Decision Support System). The modeling aspect of the system belongs to the domain of multi-criteria decision theories, which AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) and Fuzzy Set theory were used. Two case studies based on real world and hypothetical data were conducted to verify the integrity of the system. According to the literature review and the interview with several domain experts, various impact factors were identified first. The corresponding weights of each factor were then decided by analyzing the questionnaires designed based on the concept of AHP. The following work was to evaluate those impact factors based on the experience of domain experts using some appropriate approaches. To represent the domain knowledge, it is appropriate to use rule based inference system. Besides, fuzzy set theory was chosen to describe the antecedent and consequence of the rule base due to the considerations of uncertainty from human experts and ocean field data. Several related mythologies derived from the fuzzy set theory were used, such as the operation of fuzzy composition, determination of suitable membership function, fuzzy relationship matrix, fuzzy inference, defuzzification, and fuzzy pattern classification. All impact factors were categorized into three different types of membership functions that were designed specifically for the site selection of cage aquaculture. The consequence in the rule base, which is the site suitability, was also represented as the unique membership function. To calculate the fuzzy relationship matrix, the current research found that the operation of ¡§algebraic product and bounder sum¡¨ would produce better results than the commonly used ¡§max-min¡¨ operation. Each impact factor would have the associated fuzzy relationship matrix derived from the rule base. The site suitability in term of a fuzzy set can then be inferred by the fuzzy composition of current situation of the factor and the relationship matrix. By multiplying the AHP weight and the fuzzy suitability, the final site suitability index, taking all the impact factors into consideration, can therefore be derived. The real data in Feng-Gang, located in the southern Taiwan, were collected and evaluated using the site selection DSS. The results show Feng-Gang is suitable for the development of cage aquaculture, which is validated by the current prosperous business locally in cage aquaculture. As for the evaluation of multiple sites, 18 hypothetical sites near shore around Taiwan were chosen to calculate the corresponding suitability indexes, which were then be partitioned into several groups using the fuzzy pattern classification. Based on the results, the sites that were classified in the same group have similar cultivation conditions, which also proves the applicability of the site evaluation DSS.

The planning and scheduling requirement of industry can not be satisfied by traditional scheduling systems. Companies need to put extra human resource to fix the result made by these systems. The main reason is an improper assumption of infinite capacity adopted by these scheduling systems. In order to improve the scheduling result, this research refers plastic injection industry¡¦s characters to implement a decision support system. The decision support system integrates Forward Finite Loading and Constraint Directed into our algorithm in order to minimize the increase in total cost, and raise the capacity balance between machines .According to the result of the practical research, we can prove this decision support system is more effective and efficiency than the traditional scheduling method.

Ashe Juniper encroachment onto privately owned rangelands in Central Texas has resulted in significant degradation of the ecological condition of these lands, and a subsequent public concern for the hydrologic function, wildlife habitat, and livestock production these historically predominant grasslands provide. The result has been an interest and public investment in land restoration programs such as the removal and management of brush via landowner cost-share. Implementation of a publicly funded land restoration program requires the allocation of millions of dollars of public funds on private lands over large geographic areas that represent hundreds of landowners with varying property management objectives, tract sizes, ecological conditions, and geologic characteristics. This study describes the development, accuracy, and application of a decision support geographic information system (DSGIS) for land restoration programs in the Leon, Lampasas, and Bosque River watersheds in the Brazos River basin of Central Texas. The spatially referenced data layers and associated database within the DSGIS provide the capability to assemble site specific information including vegetation cover, endangered species habitat, landowners, ecological sites, elevation and slope, hydrologic characteristics, and political boundaries to support policy and implementation decisions for Ashe Juniper (Juniperus ashei) brush control and management and goldencheeked warbler (Dendroica chrysoparia) habitat restoration programs. The goldencheeked warbler is a federally listed endangered species with a breeding range limited to the oak-juniper woodlands of Central Texas. The data layers were developed with the support of ongoing research from the Leon River Restoration Project (LRRP) in Coryell and Hamilton counties. One hundred and eighty-eight (188) sub-watersheds were delineated within the project area and prioritized for implementation of an Ashe Juniper brush control program and a golden-cheeked warbler habitat restoration program. Costs associated with the clearing and stacking of Ashe Juniper were estimated for selected subwatersheds based on projected landowner participation and an analysis of actual costs from the LRRP. Sub-watersheds were targeted for the implementation of an Ashe Juniper brush control and golden-cheeked warbler habitat management program in Bosque, Coryell, Lampasas, Bell, and Burnet counties. Detailed tables were also developed to document the density and quantity of pertinent layer attributes within each of the 188 sub-watersheds.

<p>The main purpose of this research is to use Hermeneutic research approach to find out how Decision Support System (DSS) is used in banks and financial services. The research started from one stance, from which the further process could be extended to reach more complete picture of Decision Support System’s usage in strategic decision makings in banks. The research is also trying to find out the drawbacks and benefits of the DSS which have been used nowadays in banks. Furthermore, the future improvements of using DSS to make better decisions related with moral and different environments are also being discussed in the research findings.</p><p>During the primary data collection, resources from different channels have been used to support the research. The primary data sources include lectures and discussion in three banks’ visiting opportunities in Stockholm, Sweden, one interview with IT Vice president from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, New York, two interviews with a professor and a director respectively from Lund University and Financial Services Innovation Centre in University College Cork, Ireland.</p><p>Experiences from both academic and practical have been shared to strength the research’s validity and trustworthiness. Hermeneutic research approach addresses through the whole research process which needs to be open-minded and flexible.</p><p>Unawareness of DSS for people who are working in banks is one of the issues today. Different embedded models regarding various functions are not so clear to bank staff; thus there is a gap between human decisions and system decisions. There is a variation of requirements between central banks, retail banks, commercial banks, investment banks. Hence there should be a differentiation when implementing a system. Banking systems are widespread systems which are influenced by environment factors, political, economic, socio-cultural and technological variables.</p>

This thesis was aimed at the development of a Geographical Information System (GIS) based model to support the Rwanda Land Use and Development Master Plan. Developing sustainable land management is the main task of this master plan. Stakeholder’s involvement was of key importance. Their demands should be analysed and visualised to support discussions and the decision-making process. Spatial Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is a proven method for land-use planning purposes. However, most land-use planning applications focus on a specific theme, such as urban development. In addition, land-use planning is often limited to a relatively small area. This thesis focused at the development of a countrywide GIS model, containing all land-uses accommodated in three main land-use categories: urban, agriculture and conservation. The GIS model was largely based on the Land-Use Conflict Identification Strategy (LUCIS) model. Many of the goals, objectives, and subobjectives that described the earlier mentioned land-use categories were adopted from the original model. However, a significant number of them were dropped, and new were created to suit the Rwandan situation. Stakeholder’s involvement was realized by assigning weights to the goals and preference maps. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used as weighting method. ESRI’s ArcGIS ModelBuilder was used to give the model shape in the GIS. Firstly, suitability maps were created of all elements in the model. The suitability maps were then transformed into preference maps by weighting them. In the next step the preference maps were collapsed in three classes: low, medium and high preference. Finally, the preference maps of the three land-use categories were combined, in order to visualize conflict areas. Ortho photos proved to be useful when acting as reference for the suitability and preference maps. Despite a large number of missing datasets, the GIS model was executed to simplify the understanding. However, many of the obtained results were unreliable because of the incompleteness of datasets, and can therefore not be used for decision-making.  Unfortunately, due to the stage of the project it was not possible to obtain weights from the stakeholders, and should therefore be done when the time is right. Right Choice DSS, a very user-friendly decision support application, was proposed to use for calculating weights. To conclude, the developed GIS model integrated countrywide land-use suitability mapping and stakeholders’ wishes that can be used for discussions and decision making.