Personality, emotion, and mood in agent-based group decision making

Group decision making plays an important role in organizations, especially in the present-day economy that demands high-quality, yet quick decisions. Group decision-support systems (GDSSs) are interactive computer-based environments that support concerted, coordinated team efforts toward the completion of joint tasks. The need for collaborative work in organizations has led to the development of a set of general collaborative computer-supported technologies and specific GDSSs that support distributed groups (in time and space) in various domains. However, each person is unique and has different reactions to various arguments. Many times a disagreement arises because of the way we began arguing, not because of the content itself. Nevertheless, emotion, mood, and personality factors have not yet been addressed in GDSSs, despite how strongly they influence results. Our group’s previous work considered the roles that emotion and mood play in decision making. In this article, we reformulate these factors and include personality as well. Thus, this work incorporates personality, emotion, and mood in the negotiation process of an argumentbased group decision-making process. Our main goal in this work is to improve the negotiation process through argumentation using the affective characteristics of the involved participants. Each participant agent represents a group decision member. This representation lets us simulate people with different personalities. The discussion process between group members (agents) is made through the exchange of persuasive arguments. Although our multiagent architecture model4 includes two types of agents—the facilitator and the participant— this article focuses on the emotional, personality, and argumentation components of the participant agent.

LAID - a smart decision room with ambient intelligence for group decision making and argumentation support considering emotional aspects

Decision Making is one of the most important activities of the human being. Nowadays decisions imply to consider many different points of view, so decisions are commonly taken by formal or informal groups of persons. Groups exchange ideas or engage in a process of argumentation and counter-argumentation, negotiate, cooperate, collaborate or even discuss techniques and/or methodologies for problem solving. Group Decision Making is a social activity in which the discussion and results consider a combination of rational and emotional aspects. In this paper we will present a Smart Decision Room, LAID (Laboratory of Ambient Intelligence for Decision Making). In LAID environment it is provided the support to meeting room participants in the argumentation and decision making processes, combining rational and emotional aspects.

Modeling group decision meeting participants with an Agent-based approach

This paper aims to present a multi-agent model for a simulation, whose goal is to help one specific participant of multi-criteria group decision making process.This model has five main intervenient types: the human participant, who is using the simulation and argumentation support system; the participant agents, one associated to the human participant and the others simulating the others human members of the decision meeting group; the directory agent; the proposal agents, representing the different alternatives for a decision (the alternatives are evaluated based on criteria); and the voting agent responsiblefor all voting machanisms.At this stage it is proposed a two phse algorithm. In the first phase each participantagent makes his own evaluation of the proposals under discussion, and the voting agent proposes a simulation of a voting process.In the second phase, after the dissemination of the voting results,each one ofthe partcipan agents will argue to convince the others to choose one of the possible alternatives. The arguments used to convince a specific participant are dependent on agent knowledge about that participant. This two-phase algorithm is applied iteratively.

Factors influencing innovation decision making in Portuguese firms

There is an undeniable positive effect of innovation for both firms and the economy, with particular regards to the financial performance of firms. However, there is an important role of the decision making process for the allocation of resources to finance the innovation process. The aim of this paper is to understand what factors explain the decision making process in innovation activities of Portuguese firms. This is an empirical study, based on the modern theoretical approaches, which has relied on five key aspects for innovation: barriers, sources, cooperation, funding; and the decision making process. Primary data was collected through surveys to firms that have applied for innovation programmes within the Portuguese innovation agency. Univariate and multivariate statistical techniques were used. Our results suggest that the factors that mostly influence the Portuguese firms’ innovation decision-making processes are economical and financial (namely those related to profit increase and labour costs reduction).

Group decision making and Quality-of-information in e-Health systems

Knowledge is central to the modern economy and society. Indeed, the knowledge society has transformed the concept of knowledge and is more and more aware of the need to overcome the lack of knowledge when has to make options or address its problems and dilemmas. One’s knowledge is less based on exact facts and more on hypotheses, perceptions or indications. Even when we use new computational artefacts and novel methodologies for problem solving, like the use of Group Decision Support Systems (GDSSs), the question of incomplete information is in most of the situations marginalized. On the other hand, common sense tells us that when a decision is made it is impossible to have a perception of all the information involved and the nature of its intrinsic quality. Therefore, something has to be made in terms of the information available and the process of its evaluation. It is under this framework that a Multi-valued Extended Logic Programming language will be used for knowledge representation and reasoning, leading to a model that embodies the Quality-of-Information (QoI) and its quantification, along the several stages of the decision-making process. In this way, it is possible to provide a measure of the value of the QoI that supports the decision itself. This model will be here presented in the context of a GDSS for VirtualECare, a system aimed at sustaining online healthcare services.

Choosing best components for an amputee: a methodology for the best decision-making

The harmony between the stump and the prosthesis is critical to allow it to fulfill its function enabling an efficient gait. A well fitted socket, with an efficient and comfortable suspension, allows the amputee to continue their daily living activities, maintaining the stump functional, making this correlation between socket and suspension very important in the functionality of the prosthesis, mobility and overall satisfaction with the device. Of our knowledge, the quantitative correlation between all of these factors as not yet been assessed. Aim of study: Verify and confirm the process of decision-making for four different trans-tibial prostheses with suspension systems: Hypobaric(A), PIN(B), Classic Suction(C) and Vacuum Active –VASS(D) according data provided by gait efficiency (mlO2/kg/m) imagiology (pistonning) and amputee perception.

Decision-making on childhood vaccination by highly educated parents

OBJECTIVE To analyze the sociocultural aspects involved in the decision-making process of vaccination in upper-class and highly educated families.METHODS A qualitative approach based on in-depth interviews with 15 couples from the city of Sao Paulo, Southeastern Brazil, falling into three categories: vaccinators, late or selective vaccinators, and nonvaccinators. The interpretation of produced empirical material was performed through content analysis.RESULTS The study showed diverse and particular aspects surrounding the three groups’ decisions whether to vaccinate their children. The vaccinators’ decision to vaccinate their children was spontaneous and raised no questions. Most late or selective vaccinators experienced a wide range of situations that were instrumental in the decision to delay or not apply certain vaccines. The nonvaccinator’s decision-making process expressed a broader context of both criticism of hegemonic obstetric practices in Brazil and access to information transmitted via social networks and the internet. The data showed that the problematization of vaccines (culminating in the decision to not vaccinate their children) occurred in the context of humanized birth, was protagonized by women and was greatly influenced by health information from the internet.CONCLUSIONS Sociocultural aspects of the singular Brazilian context and the contemporary society were involved in the decision-making on children’s vaccination. Understanding this process can provide a real basis for a deeper reflection on health and immunization practices in Brazil in light of the new contexts and challenges of the world today.

Land use/ land cover change and its impact on soil erosion process in Begnas Tal Rupa Tal watershed using geospatial tools, Kaski district, Nepal

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies

Participate (or not) in international trade fairs? Decision factors of Portuguese managers

Portugal is a small economy, with an open domestic market that needs competitive exporters to prosper. Trade fairs are an international promotion tool that can be used by firms when considering export development and expansion. This study identifies and evaluates the critical factors that influenced the decision making process of Portuguese SME’s (Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises) managers to participate (or not) in international trade fairs. The results indicate that the firm’s critical decisions factors to select an international trade fair were value for money and the stand (location, typology and size)

Dynamic programming for a Markov-switching jump–diffusion

We consider an optimal control problem with a deterministic finite horizon and state variable dynamics given by a Markov-switching jump–diffusion stochastic differential equation. Our main results extend the dynamic programming technique to this larger family of stochastic optimal control problems. More specifically, we provide a detailed proof of Bellman’s optimality principle (or dynamic programming principle) and obtain the corresponding Hamilton–Jacobi–Belman equation, which turns out to be a partial integro-differential equation due to the extra terms arising from the Lévy process and the Markov process. As an application of our results, we study a finite horizon consumption– investment problem for a jump–diffusion financial market consisting of one risk-free asset and one risky asset whose coefficients are assumed to depend on the state of a continuous time finite state Markov process. We provide a detailed study of the optimal strategies for this problem, for the economically relevant families of power utilities and logarithmic utilities.

Algorithms and methodologies for decision support in energy efficiency on buildings

Dissertação apresentada na faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores

Multicriteria decision making: a case study in the automobile industry

Multi-criteria decision analysis(MCDA) has been one of the fastest-growing areas of operations research during the last decades. The academic attention devoted to MCDA motivated the development of a great variety of approaches and methods within the field. These methods distinguish themselves in terms of procedures, theoretical assumptions and type of decision addressed. This diversity poses challenges to the process of selecting the most suited method for a specific real-world decision problem. In this paper we present a case study in a real-world decision problem arising in the painting sector of an automobile plant. We tackle the problem by resorting to the well-known AHP method and to the MCDA method proposed by Pereira and Fontes (2012) (MMASSI). By relying on two, rather than one, MCDA methods we expect to improve the confidence and robustness of the obtained results. The contributions of this paper are twofold: first, we intend to investigate the contrasts and similarities of the results obtained by distinct MCDA approaches (AHP and MMASSI); secondly, we expect to enrich the literature of the field with a real-world MCDA case study on a complex decision making problem since there is a paucity of applied research work addressing real decision problems faced by organizations.

Multicriteria decision making: a case study in the automobile industry

Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) has been one of the fastest-growing areas of operations research during the last decades. The academic attention devoted to MCDA motivated the development of a great variety of approaches and methods within the field. These methods distinguish themselves in terms of procedures, theoretical assumptions and type of decision addressed. This diversity poses challenges to the process of selecting the most suited method for a specific real-world decision problem. In this paper we present a case study in a real-world decision problem arising in the painting sector of an automobile plant. We tackle the problem by resorting to the well-known AHP method and to the MCDA method proposed by Pereira and Fontes (2012) (MMASSI). By relying on two, rather than one, MCDA methods we expect to improve the confidence and robustness of the obtained results. The contributions of this paper are twofold: first, we intend to investigate the contrasts and similarities of the results obtained by distinct MCDA approaches (AHP and MMASSI); secondly, we expect to enrich the literature of the field with a real-world MCDA case study on a complex decision making problem since there is a paucity of applied research work addressing real decision problems faced by organizations.

Municipal solid waste management system: decision support through systems analysis

Thesis submitted to the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Engineering

Decision making processes based on innovation indicators: which implications for technology assessment?

Based on the report for “Project IV” unit of the PhD programme on Technology Assessment. This thesis research has the supervision of António Moniz (FCT-UNL and ITAS-KIT) and Manuel Laranja (ISEG-UTL). Other members of the thesis committee are Stefan Kuhlmann (Twente University), Leonhard Hennen (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology-ITAS), Tiago Santos Pereira (Universidade de Coimbra/CES) and Cristina Sousa (FCT-UNL).