Rough set based rule induction from two decision tables

We study rule induction from two decision tables as a basis of rough set analysis of more than one decision tables. We regard the rule induction process as enumerating minimal conditions satisfied with positive examples but unsatisfied with negative examples and/or with negative decision rules. From this point of view, we show that seven kinds of rule induction are conceivable for a single decision table. We point out that the set of all decision rules from two decision tables can be split in two levels: a first level decision rule is positively supported by a decision table and does not have any conflict with the other decision table and a second level decision rule is positively supported by both decision tables. To each level, we propose rule induction methods based on decision matrices. Through the discussions, we demonstrate that many kinds of rule induction are conceivable.     

改进的简化决策表及属性约简

研究了不一致决策表的简化与属性约简问题,指出目前简化的决策表的局限:在简化的决策表上用现有的属性约简方法与在原决策表上基于正区域的属性约简方法,所得到的结果不一致.进一步对简化的决策表进行转换,得到新的决策表.基于正区域的属性约简,证明了在原决策表上约简与在新的决策表上约简结果相同.从而保证在实际应用中,对新的决策表可以用任意一种属性约简方法.     

Subjective Aspects of the Art of Decision Analysis: Exploring the Role of Decision Analysis in Decision Structuring,Decision Support and Policy Dialogue

The paper argues that, until very recently, decision analysts have devoted relatively little attention to the processes of problem formulation and subjective judgement in handling ill-structured strategic decision problems. Therefore, following a brief review of existing varieties of decision analysis, a modified policy dialogue' model of decision analysis is presented which integrates decision analysis with decision aids and decision support technology. This model is developed using as an illustration strategic problems drawn from the insurance industry. The paper concludes with some suggestions for the successful application and implementation of decision analysis.     

知识共享/转移背景下的动态群体决策绩效研究

现有的动态群体决策实践经常存在决策速度慢、观点不收敛的问题。本研究融入知识共享/转移的因素,从决策动态交互的过程视角,探讨决策绩效(一致性及决策时间)的改善机理、影响因素,从而提高相应绩效指标。研究通过构建决策过程模型,证明了知识共享/转移考虑下一致性序列在交互过程中的收敛性。同时,通过定性模拟判断知识共享/转移对决策时间的影响,以最小化决策时间为优化目标,搜索知识共享/转移水平,给出了个体知识差异构成的多维空间下最优的行动方案。     

On the empirical Bayes approach to multiple decision problems with sequential components

The empirical Bayes approach to multiple decision problems with a sequential decision problem as the component is studied. An empirical Bayesm-truncated sequential decision procedure is exhibited for general multiple decision problems. With a sequential component, an empirical Bayes sequential decision procedure selects both a stopping rule function and a terminal decision rule function for use in the component. Asymptotic results are presented for the convergence of the Bayes risk of the empirical Bayes sequential decision procedure.     

Self-consistency of decision rules for group decision making

The author treats, in this paper, a group of decision makers, where each of them already has preference on a given set of alternatives but the group as a whole does not have a decision rule to make their group decision, yet. Then, the author examines which decision rules are appropriate. As a criterion of “appropriateness” the author proposes the concepts of self-consistency and universal self-consistency of decision rules. Examining the existence of universally self-consistent decision rules in two cases: (1) decision situations with three decision makers and two alternatives, and (2) those with three decision makers and three alternatives, the author has found that all decision rules are universally self-consistent in the case (1), whereas all universally self-consistent decision rules have one and just one vetoer in the essential cases in (2). The result in the case (2) implies incompatibility of universal self-consistency with symmetry. An example of applications of the concept of self-consistency to a bankruptcy problem is also provided in this paper, where compatibility of self-consistency with symmetry in a particular decision situation is shown.     

From decision theory to decision aiding methodology

The paper presents the author’s partial and personal historical reconstruction of how decision theory is evolving to a decision aiding methodology. The presentation shows mainly how “alternative” approaches to classic decision theory evolved. In the paper it is claimed that all such decision “theories” share a common methodological feature, which is the use of formal and abstract languages as well as of a model of rationality. Different decision aiding approaches can thus be defined, depending on the origin of the model of rationality used in the decision aiding process. The concept of decision aiding process is then introduced and analysed. The paper’s ultimate claim is that all such decision aiding approaches can be seen as part of a decision aiding methodology.     

Developing a straightforward approach for group decision making based on determining weights of decision makers

Group decision making is an active area of research within multiple attribute decision making. This paper assumes that all the decision makers (DMs) are not equally qualified to contribute equitably to the decision process. The aim of this paper is to develop an approach to determine weights of DMs, in which the decision information on alternatives with respect to attributes, provided by each DM, is represented in the form of interval data. We define the average of all individual decisions as the positive ideal decision (PID), and the maximum separation from PID as the negative ideal decision, which are characterized by a matrix, respectively. The weight of each DM is determined according to the Euclidean distances between the individual decision and ideal decisions. By using the obtained weights of DMs, all individual decisions are aggregated into a collective decision. Then the alternatives is ranked based on the collective decision. Meanwhile, this paper also gives a humanized decision method by using an optimistic coefficient, which is used in adjusting the relative importance between profit and risk. Finally, we give an example to illustrate the developed approach.     

Approaches to multistage one-shot decision making

In this research, multistage one-shot decision making under uncertainty is studied. In such a decision problem, a decision maker has one and only one chance to make a decision at each stage with possibilistic information. Based on the one-shot decision theory, approaches to multistage one-shot decision making are proposed. In the proposed approach, a decision maker chooses one state amongst all the states according to his/her attitude about satisfaction and possibility at each stage. The payoff at each stage is associated with the focus points at the succeeding stages. Based on the selected states (focus points), the sequence of optimal decisions is determined by dynamic programming. The proposed method is a fundamental alternative for multistage decision making under uncertainty because it is scenario-based instead of lottery-based as in the other existing methods. The one-shot optimal stopping problem is analyzed where a decision maker has only one chance to determine stopping or continuing at each stage. The theoretical results have been obtained.     

基于目标规划的多指标群体决策

在多指标群体决策问题中,将个体决策的决策向量集结为群体决策的综合评判值是决策的关键,其中也涉及到决策专家的权威性比重问题.在五标度赋值确定专家权威性比重的基础上,以最小二乘法为工具,建立了一种群体决策的目标优化模型,从而为多指标群体决策问题提供了又一科学而合理的决策方法.     

Learning and transfer in dynamic decision environments

An important aspect of learning is the ability to transfer knowledge to new contexts. However, in dynamic decision tasks, such as bargaining, firefighting, and process control, where decision makers must make repeated decisions under time pressure and outcome feedback may relate to any of a number of decisions, such transfer has proven elusive. This paper proposes a two-stage connectionist model which hypothesizes that decision makers learn to identify categories of evidence requiring similar decisions as they perform in dynamic environments. The model suggests conditions under which decision makers will be able to use this ability to help them in novel situations. These predictions are compared against those of a one-stage decision model that does not learn evidence categories, as is common in many current theories of repeated decision making. Both models' predictions are then tested against the performance of decision makers in an Internet bargaining task. Both models correctly predict aspects of decision makers' learning under different interventions. The two-stage model provides closer fits to decision maker performance in a new, related bargaining task and accounts for important features of higher-performing decision makers' learning. Although frequently omitted in recent accounts of repeated decision making, the processes of evidence category formation described by the two-stage model appear critical in understanding the extent to which decision makers learn from feedback in dynamic tasks. Faison (Bud) Gibson is an Assistant Professor at College of Business, Eastern Michigan University. He has extensive experience developing and empirically testing models of decision behavior in dynamic decision environments.     

多指标综合评价方法的改进

由决策方案在理想方案上的投影及其到理想方案的距离还不能完全确定决策方案的优劣,应该综合考虑决策方案与理想方案的相似系数及其到理想方案的距离.     

基于模糊熵的直觉模糊多属性群决策方法

针对专家权重未知、专家判断信息以直觉模糊集给出的多属性群决策问题,提出了一种新的决策方法.通过定义直觉模糊集的模糊熵计算专家判断信息的模糊程度,进而确定每位专家的权重.然后定义直觉模糊集的模糊交叉熵确定备选方案距理想方案和负理想方案的距离,再根据加权算术算子集结专家的判断信息,得到方案的排序.最后,通过一个实例分析验证了方法的有效性.     

Rank reversals in multi-criteria decision analysis with statistical modelling of ratio-scale pairwise comparisons

In multi-criteria decision analysis, the overall performance of decision alternatives is evaluated with respect to several, generally conflicting decision criteria. One approach to perform the multi-criteria decision analysis is to use ratio-scale pairwise comparisons concerning the performance of decision alternatives and the importance of decision criteria. In this approach, a classical problem has been the phenomenon of rank reversals. In particular, when a new decision alternative is added to a decision problem, and while the assessments concerning the original decision alternatives remain unchanged, the new alternative may cause rank reversals between the utility estimates of the original decision alternatives. This paper studies the connections between rank reversals and the potential inconsistency of the utility assessments in the case of ratio-scale pairwise comparisons data. The analysis was carried out by recently developed statistical modelling techniques so that the inconsistency of the assessments was measured according to statistical estimation theory. Several type of decision problems were analysed and the results showed that rank reversals caused by inconsistency are natural and acceptable. On the other hand, rank reversals caused by the traditional arithmetic-mean aggregation rule are not in line with the ratio-scale measurement of utilities, whereas geometric-mean aggregation does not cause undesired rank reversals.     

考虑决策者给出部分属性期望的风险型多属性决策方法

针对决策者给出部分属性期望的风险型多属性决策问题,提出了一种决策分析方法。在该方法中,首先,依据决策者在各自然状态下给出的属性期望信息,将原始决策问题转化为没有属性期望和具有属性期望的两个独立的风险型多属性决策问题;然后,针对没有属性期望的风险型多属性决策问题,依据期望效用理论,计算各属性下属性值所对应的效用值,进而得到每个方案的综合效用值;进一步地,针对具有属性期望的风险型多属性决策问题,依据累积前景理论,将决策者给出的属性期望视为属性的参照点,进而计算各属性值的前景价值及决策权重函数值并计算每个方案的综合累积前景值;在此基础上,计算得到每个方案的总体效用值,并依据总体效用值的大小对所有方案进行排序。最后,通过一个算例说明了该方法的可行性和有效性。     

Incomplete decision contexts: Approximate concept construction,rule acquisition and knowledge reduction

Incomplete decision contexts are a kind of decision formal contexts in which information about the relationship between some objects and attributes is not available or is lost. Knowledge discovery in incomplete decision contexts is of interest because such databases are frequently encountered in the real world. This paper mainly focuses on the issues of approximate concept construction, rule acquisition and knowledge reduction in incomplete decision contexts. We propose a novel method for building the approximate concept lattice of an incomplete context. Then, we present the notion of an approximate decision rule and an approach for extracting non-redundant approximate decision rules from an incomplete decision context. Furthermore, in order to make the rule acquisition easier and the extracted approximate decision rules more compact, a knowledge reduction framework with a reduction procedure for incomplete decision contexts is formulated by constructing a discernibility matrix and its associated Boolean function. Finally, some numerical experiments are conducted to assess the efficiency of the proposed method.     

Approach to group decision making based on determining the weights of experts by using projection method

The aim of this paper is to present a new approach for determining weights of experts in the group decision making problems. Group decision making has become a very active research field over the last decade. Especially, the investigation to determine weights of experts for group decision making has attracted great interests from researchers recently and some approaches have been developed. In this paper, the weights of experts are determined in the group decision environment via projection method. First of all, the average decision of all individual decisions is defined as the ideal decision. After that, the weight of expert is determined by the projection of individual decision on the ideal decision. By using the weights of experts, all individual decisions are aggregate into a collective decision. Then an ideal solution of alternatives of the collective decision, expressed by a vector, is determined. Further, the preference order of alternatives are ranked in accordance with the projections of alternatives on the ideal solution. Comparisons with an extended TOPSIS method are also made. Finally, an example is provided to illustrate the developed approach.     

自然灾害情境下的终端供电设施应急抢修决策规划

自然灾害情境造成部分决策信息模糊和应急决策者的消极情绪。考虑消极情绪在自然灾害应急决策的影响,构建了考虑情绪下的前景理论的价值函数。运用反函数原理,根据应急决策者对模糊信息的心理感知价值,构建了其实际值的估计函数,用于解决决策信息模糊下的终端供电设施应急抢修决策规划问题,提出了相应的决策模型和求解算法。采用自主开发的在线实验系统,完成了信息模糊下的电网应急抢修决策实验,验证了决策模型和消极情绪下基于决策者心理感知对模糊信息估值方法的有效性。     

Rough sets,decision algorithms and Bayes' theorem

Rough set-based data analysis starts from a data table, called an information system. The information system contains data about objects of interest characterized in terms of some attributes. Often we distinguish in the information system condition and decision attributes. Such information system is called a decision table. The decision table describes decisions in terms of conditions that must be satisfied in order to carry out the decision specified in the decision table. With every decision table a set of decision rules, called a decision algorithm, can be associated. It is shown that every decision algorithm reveals some well-known probabilistic properties, in particular it satisfies the total probability theorem and Bayes' theorem. These properties give a new method of drawing conclusions from data, without referring to prior and posterior probabilities, inherently associated with Bayesian reasoning.     

Decision analysis in clinical practice

Medical diagnosis and treatment, as examples of decision making under uncertainty, provide an ideal setting for the application of decision analysis. The paper, in selecting reports of medical decision analysis. discusses the usefulness of elements in decision analysis to the clinical setting. These include decision trees, probability assessments, and utility theory. Some concepts are welcomed by the medical profession and should be utilized to their utmost. However, some reported applications cannot be practically implemented for such reasons as physician time constraints and professional opposition. The paper identifies classes of clinical decision problems which are amenable to decision analysis and proposes ways of adapting the theory to clinical practice.