This research assesses the impacts of developing shale gas in the UK, with the focus of determining whether or not it is possible to develop it sustainably and how it could affect the electricity and gas mix. There is much uncertainty on the impacts of developing shale gas in the UK, as the country is currently in the early stages of exploration drilling and the majority of studies which have been carried out to analyse the effects of shale gas development have been US specific. To address these questions, the environmental, economic and social sustainability have been assessed and the results integrated to evaluate the overall sustainability. The impacts of shale gas electricity have been assessed so that it can be compared with other electricity generation technologies (coal, nuclear, renewables etc.), to ascertain its impacts on the UK electricity mix. Life cycle assessment is used to evaluate the environmental sustainability of shale gas electricity (and other options), while life cycle costing and social sustainability assessment have been used to evaluate the economic and social sustainability. Multi-criteria decision analysis has been used to combine the results of three to evaluate the overall sustainability. The incorporation of shale gas into the UK electricity mix is modelled in two future scenarios for the year 2030. The scenarios compare different levels of shale gas penetration: low and high. The results show that shale gas will have little effect on improving the environmental sustainability and energy security of the UK’s electricity mix, but could help ease energy prices. In comparison with other options, shale gas is not a sustainable option, as it has higher environmental impacts than the non-fossil fuels and conventional gas and liquefied natural gas: 460 g CO2-Eq. is emitted from the shale gas electricity life cycle, while conventional gas emits 420 g CO2-Eq. and wind 12 g CO2-Eq. The power plant and drilling fluid are the main impact hot spots in the life cycle, while hydraulic fracturing contributes a small amount (5%). In addition to this, there are a number of social barriers which need to be addressed, notably: traffic volume and congestion could increase by up to 31%, public support is low and wastewater produced from hydraulic fracturing could put strain on wastewater treatment facilities. However, the results indicate that shale gas is economically viable, as the cost of electricity is cheaper than solar photovoltaic, biomass and hydroelectricity (9.59 p/kWh vs 16.90, 11.90 and 14.40 p/kWh, respectively). The results of this thesis show that there is a trade-off in the impacts, but because of its poor environmental and social ratings shale gas is not the best option for UK electricity. The results also identify areas for improvement which should be targeted, as well as policy recommendations for best practice and regulation if shale gas were to be developed in the UK.

This thesis analyzes the issue of gender in/equality in the European Union from the quantitative as well as from the qualitative perspective. For the calculations of the defined tasks methods of multi-criteria decision with software for SANNA, working in conjunction with MS Excel, were used. This study analyzes and provides an overview of the arrangement of individual EU countries in terms of gender in/equality using selected indicators. The main variable in this study is sex. In terms of socio-cultural context equality or inequality between men and women is then analyzed -- gender in/equality. The first part introduces the terminology of gender in/equality. The next chapter describes selected qualitative factors in the analysis. Following is an overview of the quantitative tools, multi-criteria evaluation of alternatives. The last part is devoted to description of real variants and to calculations according to the individual areas (labour market, poverty and education).

A escolha por fazer ou por comprar é um problema clássico enfrentado pelas empresas. Essa decisão diz respeito à opção de fazer internamente, optar por uma gestão hibrida (interna e externa ao mesmo tempo) ou terceirizar uma atividade. Por envolver diversos critérios, muitos responsáveis por ela utilizam métodos de decisão multicritério para que se obtenha melhores resultados. O objetivo deste trabalho consiste em desenvolver uma estrutura para a tomada de decisão de fazer ou comprar e utilizar métodos de decisão multicritério para conferir maior confiabilidade à essa decisão. Para isso, os objetivos específicos são: (1) realizar uma pesquisa bibliográfica sobre o tema (decisão de fazer ou comprar auxiliada por métodos de decisão multicritério), (2) propor um processo estruturado de decisão para o problema de fazer ou comprar, (3) propor métodos adequados aos propósitos de categorização ou ordenação nas diferentes etapas do processo, incluindo métodos que contemplem a possibilidade de decisão em grupo e (4) realizar um estudo comparativo de métodos de decisão multicritério para a decisão sobre Fazer ou Comprar. Os objetivos desse trabalho foram plenamente alcançados trazendo contribuições como: uma revisão bibliográfica sistemática sobre métodos de decisão multicritério para o problema de fazer ou comprar; uma estrutura de decisão para dar suporte à decisão de fazer ou comprar; a aplicação de métodos ainda não utilizados para o problema de fazer ou comprar; aplicação de métodos que suportem a problemática da decisão em grupo e; a comparação entre dois métodos para o propósito de categorização e duas para o propósito de ordenação. / The make or buy decision is a classical decision problem in operations management and it is difficult to make because of its very nature (multiple criteria). To better contend with these challenges, many decision makers choose Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques to support their decisions. The aim of this work is to develop a methodology to support the make or buy decision and the use of the multi-criteria decision methods in this context. The specific objectives are: (1) to conduct a literature research about multi-criteria decision making techniques to support the make or buy decision; (2) to propose a structured decision framework to the make or buy problem; (3) to propose appropriate methods for categorization or ordering at different stages of the process, including methods that support group decisions and; (4) to perform a comparative study of multi-criteria decision-making methods for the make or buy problem. The objectives of this work were fully achieved by bringing contributions such as: a systematic literature review on multi-criteria decision-making methods for the make or buy problem; A decision framework to support the make or buy decision; The application of methods that were not found in the systematic literature review for the problem of make or buy problem; Application of methods that support the group decision problem and; The comparison between two techniques for categorization purposes and two for ordering purposes.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2016-09-16T11:56:37Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Marinaldo Oliveira Santos_.pdf: 2682832 bytes, checksum: f39463fc89972fe2230fe980b0b16e05 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-16T11:56:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marinaldo Oliveira Santos_.pdf: 2682832 bytes, checksum: f39463fc89972fe2230fe980b0b16e05 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-07-18 / UNISINOS - Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos / A avaliação de desempenho funcional é uma das principais ferramentas de gestão de pessoas, seus resultados dão subsídios ao gestor para o planejamento de ações e políticas de melhorias, visando metas individuais e organizacionais. O caso selecionado para o estudo é a Avaliação Periódica de Desempenho (APED), regulada pelas normas legais representadas pela Lei n. 1.534 de 29 de dezembro de 2004 e pelo decreto n. 2.551 de 13 de outubro de 2005. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo propor melhorias no modelo atual de avaliação de desempenho dos servidores públicos do estado do Tocantins visando ao aprimoramento do instrumento de medição de desempenho por meio do emprego da abordagem de auxílio multicritério à decisão (AMD). Para alcançar este objetivo, foi adotada uma abordagem que combina os métodos AHP e PROMETHEE II, e ainda suas extensões para decisão em grupo, a abordagem de Agregação Individual de Prioridades (AIP) para o AHP e o PROMETHEE GDSS para o PROMETHEE II. Os resultados obtidos pela pesquisa propiciaram o aprimoramento do instrumento de avaliação atual da APED, por meio da definição de pesos para os avaliadores, competências e fatores de avaliação. Somado a isso, a partir do instrumento aprimorado, foi possível reformular o cálculo da nota final do avaliado empregando uma agregação aditiva. Com esses resultados, espera-se a melhoria efetiva do modelo atual de APED, que possibilitará a apresentação de resultados mais precisos em conformidade com o desempenho real das atividades laborais do funcionário, viabilizando a definição de políticas de qualificação de pessoal, valorizando o servidor público a fim de promover, de forma mais eficiente, os serviços públicos. / Functional performance evaluation is one of the main people management tools, its results give the manager subsidies for the planing of actions and improvement policies in order to achieve individual and organizational goals. The case selected for the study is Avaliação Periódica de Desempenho (APED), regulated by legal norms represented by the Law n. 1,534 of December 29, 2004 and the Decree 2,551 of 13 october, 2005. In this thesis I shall propound improvements to the current model of perfomance evaluation of public employees of Tocantins state in order to improve the perfomance measurement instrument through the use of multi-criteria decision aid - MDA approach. To achieve this goal, I adopted an approach that combines the AHP and PROMETHEE II methods, and also their extensions to group decision, the Aggregation Individual Priorities approach (AIP) for AHP and PROMETHEE GDSS for PROMETHEE II. The results obtained by the research, led me to the improvement of the current evaluation tool (APED), by defining weights for evaluators, skills and evaluation facts. Added to this, from the improved instrument, it was possible to reformulate the calculation of the final grade of evaluated using an additive aggregation. With these results it is expected the improvement of the current model of (APED), which will allow the submission of further accurate results in accordance with actual performance of labor employee activities, allowing the definition of qualification of personnel policies enhancing the public employee to provide more efficiently the public services

En sciences économiques, l'une des questions centrales concerne l'allocation des ressources rares et plus particulièrement leur répartition. La décision apparait ainsi au cœur des thématiques économiques, que ce soit en micro-économie ou en macro-économie. Dans un premier temps, nous revenons sur le fait que l’information, élément central de la prise de décision, est imparfaite. En utilisant la théorie des ensembles flous, qui a pour objet de capturer l’imprécision, nous construisons un nombre flou nommé nombre flou C-Shape qui permet de capter la sensibilité du preneur de décision. Nous étudions ensuite la théorie de la décision au travers de deux axes de recherche à savoir (1) la recherche opérationnelle couplée à la théorie des jeux et (2) l’aide à la décision. En premier lieu, Nous faisons une analogie entre la fonction distance et la fonction d’appartenance. Grâce à l’hypothèse de B-convexité et à la fonction C-Shape nous construisons des classes de jeux pour lesquels les joueurs peuvent être optimistes, pessimistes ou neutres, et pour lesquels l’existence d’équilibre de Nash est avérée. Enfin, concernant l’aide à la décision, nous utilisons la fonction C-Shape pour caractériser un nouveau type de critère nommé pseudo critère C-Shape qui permet de considérer les alternatives comme substituables. Ceci permet de prendre en compte, par exemple le contexte institutionnel dans lequel la prise de décision est prise. / Determining the allocation and the distribution of scarce resources is fundamental in economics. Thus, decision theory is the cornerstone of economic theory. In this thesis, we first provide a state of the art insisting on the fact that information, that is a central element of decision-making, is imperfect. Secondly, using fuzzy set theory, which aims to capture imprecision, we construct a fuzzy number, so-called C-Shape that captures the sensitivity of the decision-maker. Thirdly, we study decision theory through two key concepts of operation research: (1) game theory and (2) multi-criteria decision making. We provide an analogy between the gauge functions of convex sets and the membership functions arising in fuzzy set theory. Coupling a suitable notion of -convexity with the C-Shape function, we introduce a class of games for which the players can be optimistic, pessimistic or neutral. In addition the existence of Nash equilibrium is proved for such a class of games. Finally, concerning multi-criteria decision analysis, we use the C-Shape functions to characterize a new type of criteria called C-Shape pseudo-criterion, which makes possible to consider the alternatives as substitutable. This should be of interest to take into account, for example, the institutional context in which decision-making is taken.

Our country is a risky position in terms of natural disasters. In the long run, preferentially settlement areas were selected to ensure maximum benefits in terms of both economic and security aspects, other criteria is not taken account when selection of sites. The main purpose of this study is to examine and compare the properties of settlement location based on natural hazard and environmental constraints to be able to understand the interaction between the settlements and natural conditions at the regional scale of YeSilirmak Basin. A MCDA was set up with 10 different data layers in two data domains (environmental and natural hazards domains), are evaluated. The results of the MCDA scores are then transferred to settlement databases in order to evaluate the number of existing settlements in different environmental and natural hazard related suitability classes. It is found that almost 29% of YeSilirmak catchment is environmentally favorable for settlement, and in coherence with that 41% of all existing settlements are located in this zone, indicating a clear preference among the perception of environmentally better places to be settled in. On the other hand with respect to the natural hazards dataset, the locations of the settlements fail to create any preference, as 73,32% of the area is used by 73,50% of existing settlements, which indicates that the perception of natural hazards are low and do not effect settlement criteria, while the acceptable risk of community is high.

After decades of standstill in intercity passenger rail in the United States, the Obama administration recently started major initiatives to implement high-speed ground transportation projects that are expected to improve the nation's transportation system significantly, addressing most prevailing issues like congestion and energy prices while having positive effects on the economy. This study evaluates and compares two high-speed ground transportation systems that have the potential to improve intercity passenger transportation in the United States significantly: the wheel-on-rail high-speed system and the high-speed maglev system. Both high-speed ground transportation systems were evaluated with respect to 58 characteristics organized into 7 categories associated with technology, environmental impacts, economic considerations, user-friendliness, operations, political factors, and safety. Based on the performance of each system in each of the 58 characteristics, benefit values were assigned. In order to weight the relative importance of the different characteristics, a survey was conducted with transportation departments and transportation professionals. The survey produced weighting factors scoring each of the 58 characteristics and the 7 categories. Applying a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach, the overall utility values for either system were calculated based on the benefit values from the systems comparison and the weighting factors from the survey. It was shown that the high-speed maglev system is generally slightly superior over the wheel-on-rail high-speed system. Because the magnitude of the difference in the overall performance of both transportation systems is not very big, it is recommended that every project in the high-speed intercity passenger transportation market consider both HSGT systems equally.

<p>ABSTRACT</p><p>Cities throughout Asia have experienced unprecedented economic development over the past decades. In many cases this has contributed to their rapid and uncontrolled growth, which has resulted in a multiplicity of problems, including rapid population increase, enhanced environmental pollution, collapsing traffic systems, dysfunctional waste management, and rapid increases in the consumption of energy, water and other resources. The significant energy use in cities is not very well perceived in Asian countries. Although a number of studies into energy consumption across various sectors have been conducted, most are from the national point of view. Energy demand analysis is not considered important at the level of the city. The thesis is focused on the dynamics of energy utilization in Asian mega-cities, and ultimately aims at providing strategies for maximizing the use of renewable energy in large urban systems.</p><p>The study aims at providing an in-depth understanding of the complex dynamics of energy utilization in urban mega-centers. An initial general analysis is complemented by a detailed study of the current situation and future outlook for the city of Bangkok, Thailand. An integrated approach applied to the study includes identification of the parameters that affect the utilization of energy in mega-cities and a detailed analysis of energy flows and their various subsystems, including commercial, industrial, residential and that of transportation. The study investigates and evaluates the energy models most commonly used for analyzing and simulating energy utilization. Its purpose is to provide a user-friendly tool suitable for decision-makers in developing an energy model for large cities. In addition, a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) process has been developed to assess whether or not the energy systems meet the sustainability criteria.</p><p>A metabolic approach has been employed to analyze the energy flow and utilization in selected Asian mega-cities, including Bangkok, Beijing, Shanghai, and Tokyo. The approach is applied to measure the majority of indirect energy flows or the energy embodied in the flows of goods and services involving the residents of those cities. Since the function of cities is to serve the lives of the residents, indirect energy consumption could be regarded as being of equal importance as that of direct energy use. The essence of embodied energy is that an indirect reflection upon behavior following direct energy consumption. It can illustrate how a city relies on the outside, for example other cities, countries, etc. and provides some interesting information that cannot be easily drawn from the direct energy demand. The study reveals that the indirect energy demand is more significant than the direct energy demand in Bangkok, Shanghai, and Tokyo, while direct energy demand is greater than the indirect energy demand in Beijing. This can be explained by the fact that Bangkok, Shanghai, and Tokyo have a greater reliance upon the outside in terms of energy demand.</p><p>The Long-range Energy Alternative Planning (LEAP) system has been selected to perform Bangkok energy modeling. In a Bangkok case study a range of policy interventions are selected and how these would change the energy development in Bangkok by the year 2025 is examined. Different policies can be grouped by the sectors analyzed. The only supply-side policy considered meets an existing target of having 10% of electricity generated from renewable sources. The study period for the model started in 2005 and ends in 2025, with the year 2000 taken as the base year. The proposed scenarios were evaluated using the MCDM approach to rate their sustainability. Team members found that this method provided a methodology to help decision-makers to systematically identify management objectives and priorities.</p>

Currently several disparate and incomplete approaches are being used to analyse and make decisions on the complex methodology of carbon capture and storage (CCS). A literature review revealed that, as CCS is a new and complex technology, there is no agreed-upon thorough assessment method for high-level CCS decisions. Therefore, a risk model addressing these weaknesses was created for assessing complex CCS decisions using a multi-criteria decision analysis approach (MCDA). The model is aimed at transparently and comprehensively assessing a wide variety of heterogeneous CCS criteria to provide insights into and to aid decision makers in making CCS-specific decisions. The risk model includes a variety of tools to assess heterogeneous CCS criteria from the environmental, social, economic and engineering fields. The model uses decision trees, sensitivity analysis and Monte Carlo simulation in combination with utility curves and decision makers’ weights to assess decisions based on data and situational uncertainties. Elements in the model have been used elsewhere but are combined here in a novel way to address CCS decisions. Three case studies were developed to run the model in scenarios using expert opinion, project-specific data, literature reviews, and engineering reports from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Europe. In collaboration with Alberta Innovates Technology Futures, a pilot study was conducted with CCS experts in Alberta to assess how they would rank the importance of CCS criteria to a project selection decision. The MCDA model was run using experts’ criteria weights to determine how CCS projects were ranked by different experts. The model was well received by the CCS experts who believed that it could be adapted and commercialized to meet many CCS decision problems. The survey revealed a wide range in experts’ understanding of CCS criteria. Experts also placed more emphasis on criteria from within their field of expertise, although economic criteria dominated weights overall. The results highlight the benefit of a model that clearly demonstrates the trade-offs between projects under uncertain conditions. The survey results also revealed how simple decision analyses can be improved by including more transparent methods, interdisciplinary criteria and sensitivity analysis to produce more comprehensive assessments.

Στη βιομηχανία, το σημερινό παγκόσμιο επιχειρησιακό περιβάλλον, χαρακτηρίζεται από πρωτοφανή ανταγωνισμό και απαιτητικούς πελάτες, οι οποίοι επιζητούν καινοτόμες και ταχείες λύσεις. Η κατανόηση και η βελτιστοποίηση των διαδικασιών σχεδιασμού θεωρείται ακρογωνιαίος λίθος επιτυχίας σε ένα τόσο γρήγορα εξελισσόμενο περιβάλλον. Η ελαχιστοποίηση του χρόνου εισαγωγής ενός προϊόντος στην αγορά και η διατήρηση της ποιότητας του, σε υψηλά επίπεδα, έχουν γίνει οι κύριοι παράγοντες της επιτυχίας του. Για αυτό το λόγο, κρίθηκε επιτακτική η ανάγκη ύπαρξης ενός συνεργατικού διαδικτυακού εργαλείου για το σχεδιασμό των εκάστοτε προϊόντων. Στη παρούσα εργασία, σχεδιάστηκε και υλοποιήθηκε μια Διαδικτυακή Πλατφόρμα Συνεργασίας (ΔΠΣ), η οποία παρέχει τη δυνατότητα συνεργασίας μεταξύ πολλών απομακρυσμένων χρηστών, σε πραγματικό χρόνο, πάνω στο σχεδιασμό και την αξιολόγηση ενός προϊόντος. Σκοπός της εργασίας ήταν να δημιουργηθεί μια αποδοτική, αξιόπιστη και εύκολη στο χειρισμό της Διαδικτυακή Πλατφόρμα, για την εποπτεία, αξιολόγηση και επικύρωση του σχεδιασμού ενός προϊόντος, σε όλες τις φάσεις της ανάπτυξης του. Λειτουργίες, όπως η διαχείριση χρηστών, έργων, ρόλων και αρχείων, αναπτύχθηκαν και ενσωματώθηκαν σε μια ολοκληρωμένη πλατφόρμα, που επιτρέπει στους χρήστες να εργάζονται κατά τρόπο συνεργατικό και κατανεμημένο, μειώνοντας έτσι αρκετά το χρόνο που απαιτείται για την ολοκλήρωση της φάσης σχεδιασμού των προϊόντων. Στην εργασία αυτή, παρουσιάστηκαν και εκτιμήθηκαν οι δυνατότητες που παρέχει η συνδυασμένη χρήση της Java, των σχεσιακών συστημάτων βάσεων δεδομένων, σε ένα περιβάλλον τριών επιπέδων (3-tier), για την υλοποίηση ολοκληρωμένων πληροφοριακών συστημάτων. Η τεχνολογία που χρησιμοποιήθηκε για την κατασκευή του συστήματος είναι η Java σαν γλώσσα προγραμματισμού, η οποία επιτρέπει στο σύστημα να εγκαθίσταται σε πολλά διαφορετικά περιβάλλοντα, η Oracle για την αποθήκευση των δεδομένων, η JSP για την ανάπτυξη δυναμικών ιστοσελίδων, ο Tomcat ως web server καθώς και η XML για την επικοινωνία και την ανταλλαγή δεδομένων στα υπάρχοντα συστήματα. Οι μέθοδοι και οι προσεγγίσεις που χρησιμοποιήθηκαν είναι γενικές και έτσι υπάρχει η δυνατότητα να εφαρμοστούν σε πολλούς και διαφορετικούς μεταξύ τους οργανισμούς. / In industry, the current world operational environment, is characterized by unprecedented competition and demanding customers, who seek innovative and rapid solutions. The comprehension and optimization of the design processes are considered the corner stone of success in such a rapidly evolving environment. Minimizing the time that a product enters into the market and the maintenance of its quality at high levels, have become the main factors of its success. For this reason, there was an imperative need for the existence of a collaborative web tool for the designing of each product. In the present work, a Collaborative Web Platform (CWP), which enables the collaboration among several users, in real time, on the design and the evaluation of a product or production procedure, has been designed and implemented for remote users. The aim of this work was that an efficient, reliable and easy to use system for collaborative design be created, for the monitoring, evaluation and ratification of designing, in all of the stages of a product’s development. Operations of web collaboration, as is the management of users, roles, tasks and files, were developed and they were incorporated into an integrated platform that allowed the users to work in a collaborative and distributed way, thus decreasing considerably the time, required for the completion of the design stage. In this work, the possibilities provided by the combined use of Java and the relational data bases systems, in a three-level environment for the implementation of integrated informative systems, have been evaluated. The technologies used for the implementation of the system was Java, as a programming language, which allows for the system to be installed in a lot of different environments, Oracle for the storage of data, the JSP for the development of dynamic web pages, the Apache Tomcat, as a web server, as well as the XML language for the communication and the exchange of data in the existing systems. The methods and approaches used are general and thus, there exists the possibility that they be applied to several organizations that are different from each other.