Construction Projects Assessment Based on the Sustainable Development Criteria by an Integrated Fuzzy AHP and Improved GRA Model

Quantitative Assessment and Grading of Hardware Trojan Threat Based on Rough Set Theory

The globalization of integrated circuit (IC) design and fabrication has given rise to severe concerns with respect to modeling strategic interaction between malicious attackers and Hardware Trojan (HT) defenders using game theory. The quantitative assessment of attacker actions has made the game very challenging. In this paper, a novel rough set theory framework is proposed to analyze HT threat. The problem is formulated as an attribute weight calculation and element assessment in an information system without decision attributes. The proposed method introduces information content in the rough set that allows calculation of the weight of both core attributes and non-core attributes. For quantitative assessment, the HT threat is characterized by the closeness coefficient. In order to allow HT defenders to use fast and effective countermeasures, a threat classification method based on the k-means algorithm is proposed, and the Best Workspace Prediction (BWP) index is used to determine the number of clusters. Statistical tests were performed on the benchmark circuits in Trust-hub in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique for assessing HT threat. Compared with k-means, equidistant division-based k-means, and k-means++, our method shows a significant improvement in both cluster accuracy and running time.

Decision Tree and AHP Methods Application for Projects Assessment: A Case Study

This research is dedicated to the modelling of decision process occurring during the implementation of construction projects. Recent studies generally do not assess the robustness of the decisions regarding the possible changes during the construction project implementation. However, such an assessment might increase the reliability of the decision-making process. We addressed this gap through a new model that combines the decision-making process modelling with the AHP method and includes the analysis of model stability concerning stakeholders’ behaviour. We used the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Decision tree methods to model the decision-making process. The proposed model was validated on a case study of multiple construction projects. The assessment was performed from individual investor’s and independent expert’s perspectives. The criteria for the assessment were selected according to the principles of sustainability. We performed the sensitivity analysis, making it possible to assess the possible changes of the decisions depending on the potential patterns of the decision-makers’ behaviour. The results of the study show that, sometimes, small fluctuations in the project factors affect the project selection indicating the possible lack of the robustness of the project decisions.

Relative Importance Analysis of Safety Climate Evaluation Factors Using Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP)

Various studies have confirmed that the increasing quality of safety climate has a positive influence on reducing the occurrence of accidents. The quality of safety climate is comprehensively affected in three domains: management, site, and enterprise. At the company level, it is challenging to manage all areas at a high level due to limited managerial resources. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a strategy that improves the safety climate step by step. For the efficient execution of the strategy, it is necessary to analyze the relative importance of each evaluation factor of the safety climate and allocate managerial resources accordingly. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the relative importance of safety climate evaluation factors using the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) technique. For this study, AHP questionnaire and analysis are conducted, and the relative priorities of safety climate evaluation factors are derived. As a result, (E) workers’ safety priority and risk non-acceptance is the most important dimension among seven dimensions as the weight is 0.1900. In addition, (E1) compliance with safety regulations, even if the process is tight, is the most important one between items as the weight 0.6663. The results of this study will be used as basic data for institutional improvement and policy making for a high-quality safety climate at construction sites.

Incorporation of hazard rectification performance for safety assessment

Objectives. Safety assessment helps the development of continuous improvement strategies in construction safety, especially coping with dynamic changes to the on-site environment with uncertainties. This article proposes a composite safety assessment based on on-site conditions to facilitate improved and proactive construction safety management. Methods. First, based on evident rectification records, we utilized set pair analysis, a grey rough approach and a coevolution approach to quantify overall safety performance. Second, we incorporated two safety performance indicators into a composite assessment framework, using rough set theory and fluid dynamics. Finally, the assessment results of the seven completed projects were compared. Results. The coevolution approach had novel advantages in assessing rectification performance and the fluid dynamics approach could enhance the proactive warning ability of the safety assessment. Conclusion. Theoretically, the research contributes to new insights into the quantification of construction safety assessment under dynamic on-site conditions. Practically, it also contributes to the active and objective measurement of management performance and promotes the dynamic and stable safety performance evaluation for on-site construction.

Project Portfolio Construction Using Extreme Value Theory

Choosing proper projects has a great impact on organizational success. Firms have various factors for choosing projects based on their different objectives and strategies. The problem of optimization of projects’ risks and returns is among the most prevalent issues in project portfolio selection. In order to optimize and select proper projects, the amount of projects’ expected risks and returns must be evaluated correctly. Determining the relevant distribution is very important in achieving these expectations. In this research, various types of practical distributions were examined, and considering expected and realized risks, the effects of choosing the different distribution on estimation of risks on construction projects were studied.

The Application of Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process in Sustainable Project Selection

The project selection process is a crucial step in sustainable development. Effective sustainable development depends on the ability to select the appropriate sustainable project to implement to ensure that the desired goals are met. Some of the most common characteristics or criteria used in evaluating sustainable projects include novelty, uncertainty, skill and experience, technology information transfer, and project cost. Prioritizing these criteria based on relative importance helps project managers and decision makers identify elements that require additional attention, better allocate resources, as well as improve the selection process when evaluating different sustainable project alternatives. The aim of this research is to use the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) methodology in which fuzzy numbers are utilized to realistically represent human judgment to rank the different project criteria based on relative importance and impact on sustainable projects. The results from the FAHP show that the most important criterion to consider in sustainable project selection is project cost, followed by novelty and uncertainty as the second and third most important criteria, respectively. The two least important criteria out of the total of five examined in this research were the skill and experience and technology information transfer, respectively. These results will help project managers and decision makers identify selection criteria with higher weights of importance. Given that the selection criteria chosen for this research are not limited to the evaluation of a specific type of sustainable projects or a specific location, they can be used to evaluate different types of sustainable projects in different environments and locations.

Assessment of ecological environment impact in highway construction activities with improved group AHP-FCE approach in China

Highway construction is time consuming and complicated. Various environmental issues can be encountered during this process. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the impact of ecologic environment in highway construction. However, the traditional assessment approaches paid more attention to the environmental factors rather than the ecological problems, and the weights of evaluation indexes were assigned with relatively average values, which cannot comprehensively and accurately to assess the impact of ecological environment in highway construction. In order to solve these problems, this paper established a new model to combine improved group AHP and FCE. A total of six main factors and 22 sub-factors from three aspects of social, ecological, and natural environment were identified. The model and index system were applied to the ecological environment impact assessment of the highway from the city of Hanzhong to Lueyang County section in Shaanxi Province, and compared with traditional fuzzy AHP approach to verify the feasibility of this model. The results showed that only the ranking of social and ecological factor changed when comparing with the traditional approach. The weight of social factor determined by the improved approach was 0.2835, while that of the traditional approach was only 0.2365, and the weight difference was 0.047. This improved approach highlighted the importance of social factor and overcame the equal weight distribution of traditional approach, which made the overall weight ratio distribution more reasonable and objective. The comprehensive assessment result was 0.3482, which was in line with the "general impact" level. This was consistent with the actual situation of highway construction. The improved group AHP-FCE model could be used successfully for assessing the impact of the ecological environment in highway construction, and it had good applicability and popularization value in ecological environment assessment.

Application of Duration Measure in Quantifying the Sensitivity of Project Returns to Changes in Discount Rates

In this research, the concept of Duration with a new application in project management has been defined. The Duration of each project provides the project manager with a combined measure containing concepts of return, cost and time of the project. Further in this article, the changes in project return, based on different assumptions such as discount rate, have been examined. To examine the effect of the changes in these factors, the Monte Carlo simulation has been used. The relationship between these factors is nonlinear which reflects the great importance of investment on appropriate risk management systems. The data from a set of construction projects have been used in order to verify the results of this study. Similar relationships can be expected to exist in other industries as well.

Risk Assessment and Mitigation Model for Overseas Steel-Plant Project Investment with Analytic Hierarchy Process—Fuzzy Inference System

This paper presents an analytic hierarchy process (AHP)-fuzzy inference system (FIS) model to aid decision-makers in the risk assessment and mitigation of overseas steel-plant projects. Through a thorough literature review, the authors identified 57 risks associated with international steel construction, operation, and transference of new technologies. Pairwise comparisons of all 57 risks by 14 subject-matter experts resulted in a relative weighting. Furthermore, to mitigate human subjectivity, vagueness, and uncertainty, a fuzzy analysis based on the findings of two case studies was performed. From these combined analyses, weighted individual risk soring resulted in the following top five most impactful international steel project risks: procurement of raw materials; design errors and omissions; conditions of raw materials; technology spill prevention plan; investment cost and poor plant availability and performance. Risk mitigation measures are also presented, and risk scores are re-assessed through the AHP-FIS analysis model depicting an overall project risk score reduction. The model presented is a useful tool for industry performing steel project risk assessments. It also provides decision-makers with a better understanding of the criticality of risks that are likely to occur on international steel projects.

Risk Assessment in PPP Projects by Applying Different MCDM Methods and Comparative Results Analysis

Recently, risk assessment has become one of the most challenging issues in the areas of construction and public-private partnerships (PPPs). To address risk assessment issues, various decision-making techniques have been proposed, each with its own specific disadvantages and advantages. This paper investigates step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA), complex proportional assessment (COPRAS), fuzzy analytic network process (FANP), fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP), fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (FTOPSIS), simple additive weighting (SAW) and evaluation based on distance from average solution (EDAS) in order to define how various multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) methods compare when used for risk assessment in PPP projects. For this study, 5 risk assessment criteria and 10 types of risk used in Iranian highway PPP projects were selected. Four suitability and applicability tests were used to measure agreement between the rankings derived from the MADM methods. Final results show that all techniques had approximately the same rankings of risk assessment, with the SWARA, COPRAS, and EDAS methods performing slightly better. The findings of this study will help the parties in PPP and construction projects to select the best risk assessment method.

Prioritizing the Sustainability Objectives of Major Public Projects in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area

The relatively low level of sustainability of major public projects has been subject to criticism by the community, increasing the pressure to incorporate the concept throughout the project lifecycle and the importance of understanding the perceptions of affected groups. The study undertook this task by compiling a list from the literature of the sustainability concerns that are associated with major public projects from their economic–social–environmental implications, identifying the relevant stakeholder groups in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area and their levels of influence by interviews, and evaluating various sustainability objectives from a multi-stakeholder perspective via a questionnaire survey. The results were validated through a series of interviews with purposively selected experts. The study findings indicate the need for more consideration of social concerns in Guangdong province, the proper levels of public participation in Hong Kong in order to avoid excessive interruptions to the pace of project procurement, and that Macao may have to experience a relatively slow development of construction in order to balance the social/environmental requirements that are involved. These findings contribute to both the government and construction industry at large in delivering economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable major public projects in the Bay Area and China as a whole.

An Integrated Sustainable Supplier Selection Approach Based on Hybrid Information Aggregation

With a great emphasis on both social and environmental responsibilities, sustainable supply chain management has gradually been adopted and promoted as an innovative business model. In sustainable supply chain practice, the choice of sustainable suppliers relates to the long-term development of a company. While the environmental performance of suppliers has been commonly considered, the social dimension has not yet received enough attention. This paper first proposes a novel criteria system for evaluating sustainable suppliers from three aspects and six dimensions, and then introduces an integrated evaluation model with a novel hybrid information aggregation. To verify the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed method, a real case of a large supermarket is introduced and analyzed. The research results show that (1) the indicator system based on Triple Bottom Line theory can serve as a framework of sustainable supplier selection for manufacturing and circulation enterprises; (2) the introduction of hybrid information aggregation can effectively handle the uncertainties of indicator scores under the realistic fuzzy environment and objectively reflect the intentions of the scorers; and (3) in comparison with the TOPSIS algorithm, the priority order finally obtained is consistent, but the proposed model shows more robustness in the sensitivity test.