Pythagorean 2-Tuple Linguistic VIKOR Method for Evaluating Human Factors in Construction Project Management

Operational efficiency evaluation of urban and rural residents' basic pension insurance system by utilizing a picture fuzzy TOPSIS method based on the cumulative prospect theory

Population aging is the most serious challenge facing the pension insurance system in China in the next few decades. Compared with the employees of civil servants and enterprises and institutions, urban and rural residents are unstable vulnerable groups with less income. In order to deal with the pension risks caused by the growing aging population and solve the security problems of urban and rural residents, our government has carried out a series of constructive works in the pension insurance system: in view of the rural and urban residents, new rural social endowment insurance system and the social endowment insurance system for urban residents have been set up and combined into a unified basic old-age insurance system for urban and rural residents in 2014. With the continuous expansion in the scale of income and expenditure of urban and rural living insurance funds and the size of the insured number, it is of great necessity to evaluate the efficiency of this system. The operational efficiency evaluation of urban and rural residents' basic pension insurance systems is viewed as multi-attribute group decision-making (MAGDM). In this paper, we propose an approach by combining the traditional Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) with cumulative prospect theory (CPT) which can be widely used with vague information. Thus, the main contribution of this study is as follows: (1) the TOPSIS method is extended by picture fuzzy sets (PFSs) with unknown weight information; (2) entropy method to obtain the original weights of attributes; (3) the picture fuzzy-CPT-TOPSIS (PF-CPT-TOPSIS) method is used to deal with the MAGDM problems under PFSs; (4) a numerical instance for operational efficiency evaluation of urban and rural residents' basic pension insurance systems is proposed to testify the effectiveness of new method; and (5) some comparative studies are provided to give effect to the rationality of PF-CPT-TOPSIS approach.

Models for MADM with hesitant interval-valued fuzzy information under uncertain environment

This paper is a research of interval-valued fuzzy and Muirhead Mean algorithms. We deduced new algorithms named as hesitant interval-valued fuzzy Muirhead Mean (HIVFMM) and hesitant interval-valued fuzzy Muirhead Mean (HIVFWMM) with Muirhead Mean algorithms based on Hesitant interval-valued fuzzy set (HIVFS). Firstly, we introduced some concepts and operation laws of HIVFS and the formula form of MM, then we combined them both and gave the proof process of properties and theorems, a mathematic model applying to MADM and a numerical example was given to illustrate the effectively and practically.

Performance Evaluation of Construction Companies Using Integrated Entropy-Fuzzy VIKOR Model

The construction sector plays an important role in a country’s economic development. The financial performance of a company is a good indicator of its financial health and status. In Malaysia, the government encourages the construction industry to develop an advanced infrastructure related to health, transport, education and housing. In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the operations and financial performance of construction sector companies have been affected recently. Additionally, uncertainty plays a vital role in the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) process. Based on previous studies, there has been no comprehensive study conducted on the evaluation of the financial performance of construction companies by integrating entropy and fuzzy VIKOR models. Therefore, this paper aims to propose an MCDM model to evaluate and compare the financial performance of construction companies with an integrated entropy–fuzzy VIKOR model. A case study is carried out by evaluating the listed construction companies in Malaysia with the proposed model. The findings of this paper indicate that the company ECONBHD achieves the best financial performance over the study period. The significance of this paper is to determine the priority of the financial ratios and ranking of the construction companies with the proposed entropy–fuzzy VIKOR model.

QUALIFLEX method for evaluating human factors in construction project management with Pythagorean 2-tuple linguistic information

The overall quality evaluation of operation personnel helps contain site safety accidents, in this study, we proposed a combination of the Pythagorean 2-tuple linguistic fuzzy set and qualitative flexible multiple criteria (QUALIFLEX) method to evaluate comprehensive quality of operation personnel in engineering projects, Pythagorean 2-tuple linguistic fuzzy numbers to express decision makers’ evaluation on each scheme with original QUALIFLEX approach to decision making process. In the end, an example of the performance evaluation of operation personnel in the engineering project is provided to test the applicability and practicability of the method, comparison analysis for further elaboration.

Application of multi-attribute group decision-making methods in urban road traffic safety evaluation with interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy information

With the development of the social economy, the level of motorization has been greatly improved, and the traffic safety problem has been paid more and more attention. In recent years, China’s road traffic accident rate showed a trend of decline after rising first, suggests that the Chinese road traffic safety level is on the decline. Road traffic safety evaluation has a positive effect in found risk factors of road traffic safety in time and reduce the traffic accident rate, so the study of traffic safety evaluation method is imperative. And the urban road traffic safety evaluation is frequently viewed as the multi-attribute group decision-making (MAGDM) problem. Depending on the conventional VIKOR method and interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IVIFSs), this paper designs a novel IVIF-VIKOR method to assess the urban road traffic safety. In addition, since subjective randomness frequently exists in determining criteria weights, the weights of criteria is [Z1] decided objectively by utilizing CRITIC method. Eventually, an application and some comparative analysis are given. The results show that the designed algorithms are useful for assessing the urban road traffic safety.

Assisting Users in Decisions Using Fuzzy Ontologies: Application in the Wine Market

Nowadays, wine has become a very popular item to purchase. There are a lot of brands and a lot of different types of wines that have different prices and characteristics. Since there is a lot of options, it is easy for buyers to feel lost among the high number of possibilities. Therefore, there is a need for computational tools that help buyers to decide which is the wine that better fits their necessities. In this article, a decision support system built over a fuzzy ontology has been designed for helping people to select a wine. Two different possible architecture implementation designs are presented. Furthermore, imprecise information is used to design a comfortable way of providing information to the system. Users can use this comfortable communication system to express their preferences and provide their opinion about the selected products. Moreover, mechanisms to carry out a constant update of the fuzzy ontology are exposed.

Green supplier selection with an uncertain probabilistic linguistic MABAC method

In recent years, with the increased voice for protecting the environment by the people all over the world, the governments also have actively adopted more and more measures to further promote environmental conservation and sustainable development. Traditional procurement approaches have not well updated to the current needs of the society, especially for the retail industry which is in relation to the national economy due to numerous products and different suppliers being involved. Therefore, the need for green procurement is more important. The qualified green supplier selection is the core of green procurement, which is the utmost importance in the business competition throughout the supply chain in today’s strong business competition. Thus, in order to obtain the optimal green supplier, integration of Entropy weights and multi-attributive border approximation area comparison (MABAC) under uncertain probabilistic linguistic sets (UPLTSs) has offered a novel integrated model, in which information Entropy is utilized for calculating objective weights with UPLTSs to acquire the final ranking result of green supplier. Besides, so as to indicate the applicability of devised method, it is confirmed by a numerical case for green supplier selection. Some comparative studies are made with some existing methods. The proposed method can also serve for selecting suitable alternative successfully in other selection problems.

GRA method for waste incineration plants location problem with probabilistic linguistic multiple attribute group decision making

In this paper, we provide the probabilistic linguistic multiple attribute group decision making (PL-MAGDM) with incomplete weight information. In such method, the linguistic information firstly is shifted into probabilistic linguistic information. For obtaining the weight information of the attribute, two optimization models are built on the basis of the basic idea of grey relational analysis (GRA), by which the attribute weights can be obtained. Then, the optimal alternative is obtained through calculating largest relative relational degree from the probabilistic linguistic positive ideal solution (PLPIS) which considers both the largest grey relational coefficient (GRC) from the PLPIS and the smallest GRC form probabilistic linguistic negative ideal solution (PLNIS). Finally, a case study for waste incineration plants location problem is given to demonstrate the advantages of the developed methods.

MABAC method for multiple attribute group decision making with probabilistic uncertain linguistic information

In recent years, ecological problems have become increasingly serious which are forcing people to give up the past high investment, high consumption and high emission development to promote green growth, implement the green new deal and pay attention to green supply chain research and practice. Therefore, in order to attach great importance to the economic and environmental benefits, enterprises should implement green supply chain and “green” change which has become the trend and urgent. Thus, in order to obtain an optimal green supplier, integration of combined weights and multi-attributive border approximation area comparison (MABAC) under probabilistic uncertain linguistic sets (PULTSs) has offered a novel integrated model, in which information entropy is utilized for calculating objective weights with PULTSs to acquire the final ranking result of green supplier. Besides, so as to indicate the applicability of devised method, it is confirmed by a numerical case for green supplier selection. Some comparative studies are made with some existing methods. The proposed method can also serve for selecting suitable alternative successfully in other selection problems.

Selecting the Low-Carbon Tourism Destination: Based on Pythagorean Fuzzy Taxonomy Method

Low-carbon tourism plays the increasingly significant role in carbon emission reduction and natural environmental protection. The choice of low-carbon tourist destination (LCTD) often involves the multiple attributes or criteria and can be regarded as the corresponding multiple attribute group decision making (MAGDM) issues. Since the Pythagorean fuzzy sets (PFSs) could well depict uncertain information or fuzzy information and cope with the LCTD selection, thus this essay develops a framework to tackle such MAGDM issues under the Pythagorean fuzzy environment. In this essay, due to few methods can compare with different alternatives along with their advantages from designed attributes, therefore, to overcome this challenge, the taxonomy method is utilized to integrate with PFSs. What’s more, the entropy method is also utilized to determine the attribute weights. Eventually, an application related to LCTD selection and some comparative analysis have been given to demonstrate the superiority of the designed method. The results illustrate that the designed framework is useful for identifying optimal tourist destination among the potential tourist destinations.

Cumulative Prospect Theory: Performance Evaluation of Government Purchases of Home-Based Elderly-Care Services Using the Pythagorean 2-tuple Linguistic TODIM Method

The aging trend of China's population is increasing, and the pension problem is becoming increasingly prominent. The pension mode provided by the government alone can no longer meet the social demand, and the government's purchase of home-based care services from social organizations has become a new trend. In order to improve the efficiency and quality of pension services, a reasonable performance evaluation model needs to be established. Performance evaluations of home-based elderly-care services purchased by the government are problematic as a result of multiple-attribute group decision-making (MAGDM), as the problems are not single-attribute or single-expert issues. The extended TODIM not only integrates the advantages of cumulative prospect theory (CPT) into a consideration of the psychological factors of DMs, but also retains the superiority of the classical TODIM in relative dominance. The Pythagorean 2-tuple linguistic sets (P2TLSs) could easily depict qualitative assessment information related to the government's purchase of home-based care services. Thus, in this paper, we extend the TODIM method based on the cumulative prospect theory (CPT) to the Pythagorean 2-tuple linguistic sets (P2TLSs) and propose a Pythagorean 2-tuple linguistic CPT-TODIM (P2TL-CPT-TODIM) method for MAGDM. The P2TL-CPT-TODIM method was proven superior to the classical one through a case study that included a performance evaluation of a home-based elderly-care service purchased by the government. Meanwhile, a comparison with the P2TL-CPT-TODIM method was performed to demonstrate the stability and effectiveness of the designed method.

Some Interval-Valued Intuitionistic Fuzzy Dombi Heronian Mean Operators and their Application for Evaluating the Ecological Value of Forest Ecological Tourism Demonstration Areas

With China's sustained economic development and constant increase in national income, Chinese nationals' tourism consumption rate increases. As a major Chinese economic development engine, the domestic tourism industry has entered a transition period operation pattern featured by diversified products. Among them, as a new hot spot of the tourism industry in China, ecological tourism has enjoyed rapid development, with great potential. Thus, the ecological value evaluation of forest ecological tourism demonstration areas is very important to the domestic tourism industry. In this paper, we propose some Dombi Heronian mean operators with interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (IVIFNs). Then, two MADM (multiple attribute decision making) methods are proposed based on IVIFWDHM (interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy weighted Dombi Heronian mean) and IVIFWDGHM (interval-valued intuitionistic weighted Dombi geometric Heronian mean) operators. Finally, we gave an experimental case for evaluating the ecological value of forest ecological tourism demonstration area to show the proposed decision methods.

VIKOR Method for MAGDM Based on Q-Rung Interval-Valued Orthopair Fuzzy Information and Its Application to Supplier Selection of Medical Consumption Products

The VIKOR model has been considered a viable tool for many decision-making applications in the past few years, given the advantages of considering the compromise between maximizing the utility of group and minimizing personal regrets. The q-rung interval-valued orthopair fuzzy set (q-RIVOFS) is a generalization of intuitionistic fuzzy set (IFS) and Pythagorean fuzzy set (PFS) and has emerged to solve more complex and uncertain decision making problems which IFS and PFS cannot handle. In this manuscript, the key innovation is to combine the traditional VIKOR model with q-RIVOFS to develop the q-rung interval-valued orthopair fuzzy VIKOR model. In the new developed model, to express more information, the attribute’s values in MAGDM problems are depicted by q-RIVOFNs. First of all, some basic theories and aggregation operators of q-RIVOFNs are simply introduced. Then we develop the origin VIKOR model to q-RIVOFS environment and briefly express the computing steps of this new established model. Thereafter, the effectiveness of the model is verified by an example of supplier selection of medical consumer products and through comparative analysis, the superiority of the new method is further illustrated.

Pythagorean 2-Tuple Linguistic Taxonomy Method for Supplier Selection in Medical Instrument Industries

Supplier selection in medical instrument industries is a classical multiple attribute group decision making (MAGDM) problem. The Pythagorean 2-tuple linguistic sets (P2TLSs) can reflect uncertain or fuzzy information well and solve the supplier selection in medical instrument industries, and the original Taxonomy is very appropriate for comparing different alternatives with respect to their advantages from studied attributes. In this study, we present an algorithm that combines Pythagorean 2-tuple linguistic numbers (P2TLNs) with the Taxonomy method, where P2TLNs are applied to express the evaluation of decision makers on alternatives. Relying on the Pythagorean 2-tuple linguistic weighted average (P2TLWA) operator or Pythagorean 2-tuple linguistic weighted geometric (P2TLWG) operator to fuse P2TLNs, the new general framework is established for Pythagorean 2-tuple linguistic multiple attribute group decision making (MAGDM) under the classical Taxonomy method. Ultimately, an application case for supplier selection in medical instrument industries is designed to test the novel method’s applicability and practicality and a comparative analysis with three other methods is used to elaborate further.