A novel interval-valued neutrosophic AHP with cosine similarity measure

Analyzing the impact of artificial intelligence on operational efficiency in wastewater treatment: a comprehensive neutrosophic AHP-based SWOT analysis

The escalating global challenges of population growth, climate crisis, and resource depletion have intensified water scarcity, emphasizing the critical role of wastewater treatment (WWT) in environmental preservation. While discharging untreated wastewater poses extinction risks to various species, effective WWT operations are indispensable for ecosystem continuity and sustainable water sources. Recognizing the complexity of WWT management, this study delves into the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in strategic planning and decision-making within the WWT domain. Through a comprehensive SWOT analysis, this study evaluates the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with AI integration in WWT processes. Utilizing the SWOT analysis framework, key criteria are identified, and their importance weights are assessed via the interval-valued neutrosophic analytical hierarchy process (IVN-AHP). According to analysis, the strengths in WWT are crucial, but potential opportunities and threats should not be ignored. The results of the study highlight several key findings regarding the integration of AI in WWT processes. While concerns about the reduction in human resources and potential unemployment, as well as the activation time and high energy consumption of AI systems, are identified as significant challenges, the study underscores the success of AI in data analytics as a strong aspect. Specifically, advanced data analysis techniques and the ability to proactively prevent problems emerge as important strengths of AI in WWT. WWT operators and practitioners are encouraged to prioritize the adoption of advanced data analysis techniques and proactive problem-solving strategies to maximize the effectiveness of AI integration in WWT processes.

A Parameter Reduction-Based Decision-Making Method with Interval-Valued Neutrosophic Soft Sets for the Selection of Bionic Thin-Wall Structures

Bio-inspired thin-wall structures with excellent mechanical properties, high-energy absorption capabilities, and a desirable lightweight level have been extensively applied to the passive safety protection of transportation and aerospace. Collaboration matching and the selection of optional structures with different bionic principles considering the multiple attribute evaluation index and engineering preference information have become an urgent problem. This paper proposes a parameter reduction-based indifference threshold-based attribute ratio analysis method under an interval-valued neutrosophic soft set (IVNS-SOFT) to obtain the weight vector of an evaluation indicator system for the selection of bionic thin-wall structures, which can avoid the problem of an inadequate subjective evaluation and reduce redundant parameters. An IVNS-SOFT-based multi-attributive border approximation area comparison (MABAC) method is proposed to obtain an optimal alternative, which can quantify uncertainty explicitly and handle the uncertain and inconsistent information prevalent in the expert system. Subsequently, an application of five bio-inspired thin-wall structures is applied to demonstrate that this proposed method is valid and practical. Comparative analysis, sensitivity analysis, and discussion are conducted in this research. The results show that this study provides an effective tool for the selection of bionic thin-wall structures.

Combining SWOT analysis and neutrosophic cognitive maps for multi-criteria decision making: a case study of organic agriculture in India

The conventional agricultural system heavily depends on chemicals and inorganic fertilizers, which cause environmental issues. Organic agriculture impacts 6 of the 17 Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. Strategies to develop organic agriculture have used SWOT and MCDM techniques for analysis. However, the examination of the influence of one strategy over the other strategies has yet to be investigated. This paper proposes a model that combines the existing SWOT analysis with neutrosophic cognitive maps (NCM) models to analyze interconnections among the various strategies obtained from SWOT. This research deploys the proposed SWOT-NCM model to analyze the case study of developing organic farming in Tamil Nadu, India. It offers insights into the strategy's influence over other strategies so that the best is given maximum importance while implementing organic farming. The framework captures the interconnections and ranks the strategies by order of influence, providing fresh insights by taking the farmers' perspective while working with the strategies from the SWOT analysis to model an NCM. A comparative analysis of this SWOT-NCM model with other MCDM models that use SWOT to analyze the agriculture problem, and a sensitivity analysis of the proposed model, is performed. According to our study, the best possible strategy to encourage organic farming is minimum support price (MSP) and centralized procurement. This proposed model can analyze other MCDM problems that use SWOT analysis.

Selection of ergonomic risk assessment method with pythagorean fuzzy sets: practice in emergency medical services

It is difficult to evaluate ergonomic risk factors in occupations with unpredictable tasks, random demands, and variable settings such as emergency medical services (EMS). This study deals with the problem of selecting an ergonomic risk-evaluation method with Pythagorean Fuzzy Sets (PFSs) based Pythagorean Fuzzy AHP (PF-AHP) and Pythagorean Fuzzy WASPAS (PF-WASPAS) methodology. The method selection criteria were obtained by consulting five different anonymous experts on the candidate criteria obtained from the literature review. The final four main criteria and ten sub-criteria were then decided. After the determination of the decision criteria, five experts were asked to evaluate the criteria and to express their opinions on criteria-alternative scoring by means of a questionnaire for method selection. A two-step method is suggested for the selection of the ergonomic risk-evaluation method. In the first step, PF-AHP is utilized in order to identify the weight of criteria used in the method selection. In the second step, the PF-WASPAS method is proposed in order to OWAS, RULA, and REBA methods. The accuracy and validity of the suggested hybrid model is tested with real data in İstanbul Ambulance Service stations. A sensitivity analysis is carried out to test the reliability of the model. Moreover a comparative analysis is carried out with AHP and Fuzzy AHP methods to identify criteria weights. Study results show that REBA is the most appropriate ergonomic risk-evaluation method in EMS.

A new approach for spherical fuzzy TOPSIS and spherical fuzzy VIKOR applied to the evaluation of hydrogen storage systems

This study proposes a new perspective of the TOPSIS and VIKOR methods using the recently introduced spherical fuzzy sets (SFSs) to handle the vagueness in subjective data and the uncertainties in objective data simultaneously. When implementing these techniques using SFSs, two main problems might arise that can lead to incorrect results. Firstly, the reference points might change with the utilized score function. Secondly, the distance between reference points might not be the largest, as known, among the available ratings. To overcome these deficiencies and increase the robustness of these two methods, they are implemented without utilizing any reference points to minimize the effect of defuzzification and without measuring the distance to eliminate the effect of distance formulas. In the proposed methods, when using an SFS to express the performance of an alternative for a criterion, this SFS per se can be viewed as a measure of proximity to the aspired level. On the other hand, the conjugate of the SFS can be viewed as a measure of proximity to the ineffectual level. Two practical applications are presented to demonstrate the proposed techniques. The first example handles a warehouse location selection problem. The second example evaluates hydrogen storage systems for automobiles with different types of data (crisp, linguistic variables, type 1 fuzzy sets). These data are transformed to SFSs to provide a more comprehensive analysis. A comparative study is conducted with earlier versions of TOPSIS and VIKOR to explicate the adequacy of the proposed methods and the consistency of the results.

Picture Fuzzy Einstein Hybrid-Weighted Aggregation Operator and Its Application to Multicriteria Group Decision Making

As an extension of intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs), picture fuzzy sets (PFSs) can better model and represent the hesitancy and uncertainty of decision makers’ preference information. In this study, we propose a multicriteria group decision making (MCGMD) method based on picture fuzzy sets. We first define some basic picture Einstein operations with closed properties among PFSs on the basis of the Einstein t-norms and t-conorms. Then, utilizing the hybrid-weighted operator and the developed picture Einstein operations laws, we put forward a picture fuzzy Einstein hybrid-weighted aggregation operator for aggregating PFSs and discuss its several important properties. Furthermore, we present a new MCGMD method based on the proposed picture fuzzy Einstein hybrid-weighted aggregation operator. Finally, an example is conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed MCGMD method.

Entropy and Semi-Entropies of Regular Symmetrical Triangular Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Variables

Fuzzy entropy has a wide range of applications in uncertainty problems. Due to the dual-complexity of its characteristics and calculation, the study on type-2 fuzzy entropy is rare, let alone the semi-ones. Given this, the paper takes the lead in proposing the credibility-based type-2 entropy and semi-entropies delivered around a specific symmetric type-2 fuzzy variable. After presenting the relevant theorems and definitions, we give the corresponding examples of linear entropy and semi-entropies to illustrate and verify the favorable property of our study. This series of formulas on type-2 entropy proposed has a strong advantage in reducing computational complexity. It can be commonly applied to measure fuzziness and solve return-oriented and cost-oriented problems in the business field. A sequence of measures on type-2 fuzzy entropy developed in this paper delivers fresh insights into this field. It also provides a new reasonable tool for the decision-making on cost and investment control in companies.

Fuzzy AHP-Based Design Performance Index for Evaluation of Ferries

Within waterborne public transportation (WPT), one often observes a mismatch between the operational requirements and ferry characteristics. A method to holistically evaluate ferries with respect to local requirements could lead to tailored procurement and targeted refurbishment of existing fleet. In this study, we develop a structure for operational requirements and use it as a basis for a ferry evaluation methodology. The requirements’ structure follows a three-level hierarchy starting from broad vessel design to mandatory requirements to performance requirements. The performance requirements are based on the three pillars of sustainability, aided by commuter surveys carried out in Stockholm ferries, interviews with public transport providers (PTP) and previous literature. The evaluation of the ferry is performed using analytic hierarchic process (AHP) to convert the PTP’s subjective preferences and ferry performance into a single dimensionless index. Rules for quantification of performance metrics including social performance are proposed. The uncertainties associated with AHP are addressed by employing fuzzy AHP based on extent analysis and fuzzy AHP in combination with particle swarm optimization. Two applications including performance assessment of existing ferries and assembly of a modular ferry are discussed. The method can lead to objective decision making in ferry evaluation, potentially leading to a more efficient WPT.

A heterogeneous multi-attribute case retrieval method based on neutrosophic sets and TODIM for emergency situations

Heterogeneous multi-attribute case retrieval is a crucial step in generating emergency alternatives during the course of emergency decision making (EDM) by referring to historical cases. This paper develops a heterogeneous multi-attribute case retrieval method for EDM that considers five attribute formats: crisp numbers, interval numbers, intuitionistic fuzzy numbers, single-valued neutrosophic numbers (SvNNs), and interval-valued neutrosophic numbers (IvNNs). First, we propose a similarity measurement of IvNNs and calculate the attribute similarities for the five attribute formats. The attribute weights are established using an optimal model. Next, the case similarities are calculated and the set of the similar historical cases is constructed. Furthermore, the evaluated information based on heterogeneous multi-attribute from similar historical cases is provided, and the calculation method for the evaluation of utility based on TODIM (an acronym for interactive and multi-criteria decision-making in Portugese) is proposed. The most suitable historical case is determined based on the case similarity and the evaluated utility. From this, the emergency alternative is generated. Finally, we demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method with a case study and conduct comparisons against the performance of existing methods to assess the validity and superiority of the proposed method.

Disease risk analysis for schizophrenia patients by an automatic AHP framework

BACKGROUND

Based on more than 15 million follow-up records of 404,426 patients from Guangdong Mental Health Center over the past 10 years, this study aims to propose a disease risk analysis and prediction model to support chronic disease management and clinical research for schizophrenia patients.

METHODS

Based on a mental health information and intelligent data processing platform, we design an automatic AHP framework called AutoAHP to analyze and predict the disease risks of schizophrenia patients. Through automatic extraction, transformation and integration of follow-up data in the real world such as demography, treatment, and the disease course, a chronic database of patient status is established. In combination with age-period-cohort, logistic regression and Cox models, we apply the AutoAHP to assess disease risk and implement risk prediction in practice.

RESULTS

A list of essential factors for risk prediction are identified, including annual changes in mental health policy, public support, regional difference, patient gender, compliance, and social function. After the verification of 1,222,038 complete disease course and treatment records of 256,050 patients, the AutoAHP framework achieves a precision of 0.923, a recall of 0.924, and a F1 of 0.923. The model is demonstrated to be superior to general models and has better performance in risk prediction.

CONCLUSIONS

Aiming at the risk assessment of patients with schizophrenia which is influenced by factors, such as time, region and complication, the AutoAHP framework is able to be applied as a model in combination with logistic regression and Cox models to support clinical analysis of disease risk related factors and assist decision-making in chronic disease management.

Process design and capability analysis using penthagorean fuzzy sets: surgical mask production machines comparison

Process capability analysis (PCA) is a tool for measuring a process’s ability to meet specification limits (SLs), which the customers define. Process capability indices (PCIs) are used for establishing a relationship between SLs and the considered process’s ability to meet these limits as an index. PCA compares the output of a process with the SLs through these capability indices. If the customers’ needs contain vague or imprecise terms, the classical methods are inadequate to solve the problem. In such cases, the information can be processed by the fuzzy set theory. Recently, ordinary fuzzy sets have been extended to several new types of fuzzy sets such as intuitionistic fuzzy sets, Pythagorean fuzzy sets, picture fuzzy sets, and spherical fuzzy sets. In this paper, a new extension of intuitionistic fuzzy sets, which is called penthagorean fuzzy sets, is proposed, and penthagorean fuzzy PCIs are developed. The design of production processes for COVID-19 has gained tremendous importance today. Surgical mask production and design have been chosen as the application area of the penthagorean fuzzy PCIs developed in this paper. PCA of the two machines used in surgical mask production has been handled under the penthagorean fuzzy environment.

Intuitionistic fuzzy multi-objective milk-run modelling under time window constraints

Milk-run is a delivery method allowing to move small quantities of a large number of different items with predictable lead times from various suppliers to a customer. The main goal is to minimize the transportation cost by minimizing the travel distance and by maximizing vehicle capacities. The effects of uncertainties in arrival times of vehicles and loading times of shipments should also be considered in modeling the milk-run problems. In this paper, a multi-objective linear programming model, an ordinary fuzzy multi-objective linear programming model and an intuitionistic fuzzy multi-objective linear programming model are proposed for the milk-run modeling under time window constraints. The proposed approaches are applied on the real-life data of Borusan Logistics which is one of the largest logistics firms in Turkey and the results are presented.

A Novel spherical fuzzy CRITIC method and its application to prioritization of supplier selection criteria

Linguistic terms are quite suitable to make evaluations in multiple criteria decision making problems since humans prefer them rather than sharp evaluations. When linguistic evaluations are used in the decision matrix instead of exact numerical values, fuzzy set theory can capture the vagueness in the linguistic evaluations. Ordinary fuzzy sets have been extended to many new types of fuzzy sets such as intuitionistic fuzzy sets, neutrosophic sets, spherical fuzzy sets and picture fuzzy sets. Spherical fuzzy sets are an extension of picture fuzzy sets whose squared sum of their parameters is at most equal to one. This paper develops a novel spherical fuzzy CRiteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) method and applies it for prioritizing supplier selection criteria. Supplier selection is one of the most critical aspects of any organization since any mistake in this process may cause poor supplier performance and inefficiencies in the business processes. Supplier selection is a multi-criteria decision making problem involving several conflicting criteria and alternatives. A numerical illustration of the proposed method is also given for this problem.

Particle swarm optimization for the shortest path problem

Solving the shortest path problem is very difficult in situations such as emergency rescue after a typhoon: road-damage caused by a typhoon causes the weight of the rescue path to be uncertain and impossible to represent using single, precise numbers. In such uncertain environments, neutrosophic numbers can express the edge distance more effectively: membership in a neutrosophic set has different degrees of truth, indeterminacy, and falsity. This paper proposes a shortest path solution method for interval-valued neutrosophic graphs using the particle swarm optimization algorithm. Furthermore, by comparing the proposed algorithm with the Dijkstra, Bellman, and ant colony algorithms, potential shortcomings and advantages of the proposed method are deeply explored, and its effectiveness is verified. Sensitivity analysis performed using a 2020 typhoon as a case study is presented, as well as an investigation on the efficiency of the algorithm under different parameter settings to determine the most reasonable settings. Particle swarm optimization is a promising method for dealing with neutrosophic graphs and thus with uncertain real-world situations.

Physician Selection with a Neutrosophic Multi-criteria Decision Making Method

In this study, it is done that the evaluation of neurology clinics of two hospitals under the Ministry of Health and their physicians, considering patient preferences. While effective service policies and procedures of hospitals increase customer satisfaction, the performance of physicians ensures preferability. Therefore, measuring satisfaction and performance is crucial for management. However, measurement includes many challenges in connection with many factors and uncertainty on these factors. Thus, neutrosophic multi-criteria decision-making methods have been particularly chosen to overcome these challenges in this study. The related literature on the subject shows that easy access, cleaning and comfort, technological infrastructure, and equipment, total service time, physicians’ communication skills, recognition of physicians, treatment effectiveness, treatment rate, academic career are the main criteria. The values of weights for these criteria and the physicians ranking based on the values of those weights were found by using the Neutrosophic Analytical Hierarchy Process (N-AHP). It has been validated that the ranking is fitting to patient preferences in the Central Physicians Appointment System. As a result, the recommended method can be effectively used in selecting physicians.

Multi-criteria spherical fuzzy regret based evaluation of healthcare equipment stocks

The catastrophes due to widespread outbreaks create a long-standing distraction and have an accelerating transmission. The uncontrolled outbreaks cause not only health-related problems but also supply chain related problems. The outbreak caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) shows how vulnerable the Healthcare systems and the supporting systems such as supply chains of the countries to such type of disasters. Keeping high levels of inventory, especially for healthcare products, can be beneficial to overcome such shortage problems. Nevertheless, keeping a high level of inventory can be costly, and the durability of the products creates a limit. The decision-makers have to carefully decide the inventory levels by considering many factors such as the criticality of the product and the easiness of producing the product. In this study, we try to develop a decision model for defining the inventory levels in Healthcare systems by considering multiple scenarios such as outbreaks. A novel spherical regret based multi-criteria decision-making approach is developed and used for evaluating the total regret of not keeping stock of the healthcare equipment.

Sustainable energy selection based on interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy and neutrosophic aggregation operators

Sustainable energy selection has been a very popular problem among the researchers and various models including deterministic, probabilistic and fuzzy approaches have been developed for the solution of this problem. Fuzzy approaches to sustainable energy selection problems have been often handled in the literature. Aggregation operators for multi-expert decision making problems are an alternative solution technique for multi criteria decision making problems. Since neutrosophic and intuitionistic fuzzy aggregation operators are comparable extensions of ordinary fuzzy sets, they have been employed to aggregate multi-expert judgments. An illustrative energy selection problem is presented, solved by two approaches, and results are compared. The same linguistic data have been used for the comparison purpose.

Shortest Path Solution of Trapezoidal Fuzzy Neutrosophic Graph Based on Circle-Breaking Algorithm

The shortest path problem is a topic of increasing interest in various scientific fields. The damage to roads and bridges caused by disasters makes traffic routes that can be accurately expressed become indeterminate. A neutrosophic set is a collection of the truth membership, indeterminacy membership, and falsity membership of the constituent elements. It has a symmetric form and indeterminacy membership is their axis of symmetry. In uncertain environments, the neutrosophic number can more effectively express the edge distance. The objectives in this study are to solve the shortest path problem of the neutrosophic graph with an edge distance expressed using trapezoidal fuzzy neutrosophic numbers (TrFNN) and resolve the edge distance according to the score and exact functions based on the TrFNN. Accordingly, the use of a circle-breaking algorithm is proposed to solve the shortest path problem and estimate the shortest distance. The feasibility of this method is verified based on two examples, and the rationality and effectiveness of the approach are evaluated by comparing it with the Dijkstra and Bellman algorithms.

A GIS-Based Support Vector Machine Model for Flash Flood Vulnerability Assessment and Mapping in China

Flash floods are one of the natural disasters that threaten the lives of many people all over the world every year. Flash floods are significantly affected by the intensification of extreme climate events and interactions with exposed and vulnerable socio-economic systems impede regional development processes. Hence, it is important to estimate the loss due to flash floods before the disaster occurs. However, there are no comprehensive vulnerability assessment results for flash floods in China. Fortunately, the National Mountain Flood Disaster Investigation Project provided a foundation to develop this proposed assessment. In this study, an index system was established from the exposure and disaster reduction capability categories, and is based on analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methods. We evaluated flash flood vulnerability by adopting the support vector machine (SVM) model. Our results showed 439 counties with high and extremely high vulnerability (accounting for 10.5% of the land area and corresponding to approximately 100 million hectares (ha)), 571 counties with moderate vulnerability (accounting for 19.18% of the land area and corresponding to approximately 180 million ha), and 1128 counties with low and extremely low vulnerability (accounting for 39.43% of the land area and corresponding to approximately 370 million ha). The highly-vulnerable counties were mainly concentrated in the south and southeast regions of China, moderately-vulnerable counties were primarily concentrated in the central, northern, and southwestern regions of China, and low-vulnerability counties chiefly occurred in the northwest regions of China. Additionally, the results of the spatial autocorrelation suggested that the “High-High” values of spatial agglomeration areas mainly occurred in the Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangxi, Chongqing, and Beijing areas. On the basis of these results, our study can be used as a proposal for population and building distribution readjustments, and the management of flash floods in China.