The use of analytical hierarchy process in spatial decision support system for land use management

Geographic information systems give us the possibility to analyze, produce, and edit geographic information. Furthermore, these systems fall short on the analysis and support of complex spatial problems. Therefore, when a spatial problem, like land use management, requires a multi-criteria perspective, multi-criteria decision analysis is placed into spatial decision support systems. The analytic hierarchy process is one of many multi-criteria decision analysis methods that can be used to support these complex problems. Using its capabilities we try to develop a spatial decision support system, to help land use management. Land use management can undertake a broad spectrum of spatial decision problems. The developed decision support system had to accept as input, various formats and types of data, raster or vector format, and the vector could be polygon line or point type. The support system was designed to perform its analysis for the Zambezi river Valley in Mozambique, the study area. The possible solutions for the emerging problems had to cover the entire region. This required the system to process large sets of data, and constantly adjust to new problems’ needs. The developed decision support system, is able to process thousands of alternatives using the analytical hierarchy process, and produce an output suitability map for the problems faced.

Importance of decision-making in a purchasing context – DPS Case Study

This work project has the objective of exploring the importance of making good decisions on supplier selection, so that the purchasing department can contribute to the success of a company. For that it is presented a short bibliography review of the latest insights that were found relevant, on the subjects of purchasing, technology, outsourcing, supplier selection and decision-making techniques. For a better understating on how to deal with a decision-making situation, a case study is also presented: Digital Printing Solutions (DPS) is a Portuguese company that provides complete and integrated printing solutions and has been planning to contract a software supplier. DPS has no formal supplier-selection model and it has to choose between 2 suppliers. The case study was solved using the M-MACBETH software. I have found that complex decisions-making situations can be easily overcome by using the M-MACBETH decision model. Moreover, the usage of a model, instead of decision that follows no formal procedure, provides the decision maker with insights that can be useful to negotiate with the supplier.

Politicization of non-political events

Spatial analysis and social network analysis typically take into consideration social processes in specific contexts of geographical or network space. The research in political science increasingly strives to model heterogeneity and spatial dependence. To better understand and geographically model the relationship between “non-political” events, streaming data from social networks, and political climate was the primary objective of the current study. Geographic information systems (GIS) are useful tools in the organization and analysis of streaming data from social networks. In this study, geographical and statistical analysis were combined in order to define the temporal and spatial nature of the data eminating from the popular social network Twitter during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The study spans the entire globe because Twitter’s geotagging function, the fundamental data that makes this study possible, is not limited to a geographic area. By examining the public reactions to an inherenlty non-political event, this study serves to illuminate broader questions about social behavior and spatial dependence. From a practical perspective, the analyses demonstrate how the discussion of political topics fluсtuate according to football matches. Tableau and Rapidminer, in addition to a set basic statistical methods, were applied to find patterns in the social behavior in space and time in different geographic regions. It was found some insight into the relationship between an ostensibly non-political event – the World Cup - and public opinion transmitted by social media. The methodology could serve as a prototype for future studies and guide policy makers in governmental and non-governmental organizations in gauging the public opinion in certain geographic locations.

O processo de dádiva de sangue do dador de primeira vez no Hospital do Espírito Santo - Évora, EPE : satisfação e retorno para a dádiva seguinte

RESUMO - Introdução: Com este trabalho, pretendeu-se averiguar em que medida a satisfação no processo de dádiva de sangue afeta o regresso dos dadores que doam pela primeira vez na vida, ou que se apresentaram pela primeira vez no Serviço de sangue do HESE. Material e métodos: Estudo observacional transversal descritivo. Dos dadores com uma única inscrição no período de 2011 a 2012 inclusive, (531+541 dadores) foram retirados os que entretanto completaram 66 anos (idade limite para a dádiva); os que não tinham contacto telefónico válido; e os que tinham morada fora do Distrito de Évora. Os dadores restantes (327 + 330 dadores), foram então inquiridos através de um questionário efetuado telefonicamente para determinar as causas de não regresso. Resultados: Obtiveram-se 360 respostas válidas ao questionário, correspondentes a 50% da amostra com um IC de 95%. Apesar de estar amplamente demonstrado que a satisfação na dádiva contribui decisivamente para o retorno à dádiva seguinte, apenas 12% da amostra referiu não regressar por algum motivo de insatisfação decorrente do processo de dádiva. Evidentemente, o mérito destes resultados é devido à equipa do Serviço de Imunohemoterapia do HESE. Porém uma outra realidade fica aqui patente, os dadores de primeira vez estão a decrescer há vários anos, e destes, os que regressam são cada vez menos. A manter-se esta tendência, a taxa de renovação da bolsa de dadores poderá tornar-se insuficiente para a manutenção da atual bolsa de dadores. Se o HESE conseguisse recuperar para a dádiva metade da amostra de dadores de primeira vez que não regressam, a sua autonomia em termos de consumo de sangue sairia reforçada, com o incremento de proveitos financeiros consequente. Conclusão: Este trabalho concretiza os objetivos a que se propôs, nomeadamente o de produzir conhecimento útil e de suporte à decisão no âmbito da administração hospitalar. O HESE tem agora ao seu dispor, a caraterização dos dadores de primeira vez e a descrição de como se está a processar a renovação da sua bolsa de dadores.