Search results for "Decision Making"

Letter Position Coding Across Modalities: The Case of Braille Readers

2012

BackgroundThe question of how the brain encodes letter position in written words has attracted increasing attention in recent years. A number of models have recently been proposed to accommodate the fact that transposed-letter stimuli like jugde or caniso are perceptually very close to their base words.MethodologyHere we examined how letter position coding is attained in the tactile modality via Braille reading. The idea is that Braille word recognition may provide more serial processing than the visual modality, and this may produce differences in the input coding schemes employed to encode letters in written words. To that end, we conducted a lexical decision experiment with adult Braille…

Production Planning in Production Networks: Models for Medium and Short-term Planning

2008

Distributed production networks are structures which are considered able to provide the organisational agility and efficiency necessary to compete in the global market. The performance of such organisations heavily depends on the ability of those involved in the network to coordinate their activities. Two approaches are available for managing complex distributed production networks: a centralised approach, where a unique entity (the planner, for instance) has all the necessary information to make planning decisions for the entire network; or a decentralised approach where each entity in the network has the necessary information and knowledge to make autonomous planning decisions, while the …

The sustainability of olive orchard planting management for different harvesting techniques: An integrated methodology

2019

Abstract The globalization of the olive oil market has caused greater competitiveness in terms of olive oil quality and production costs and the main countries interested in olive growing, have introduced efficient planting design and horticultural techniques in order to meet these requirements. In this paper the sustainability of olive orchard planting management for different olive fruit-harvesting methods has been assessed on the basis of the data gathered by the Geographic Information System and processed using a Multi-Criteria Decision Making Analysis. In particular, three different agronomic scenarios have been analyzed and a specific cultivar has been considered in order to ensure th…

Decision Making and Cognitive Behavioral Flexibility in a OCD Sample: a Study in a Virtual Environment

2015

Neuropsychological disorders are common in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) patients. Executive functions, verbal fluency and verbal memory, shifting attention from one aspect of stimuli to others, mental flexibility, engaging in executive planning and decision making, are the most involved cognitive domains. We focus on two aspects of neuropsychological function: decision making and cognitive behavioral flexibility, assessed through a virtual version of the Multiple Errand Test (V-MET), developed using the NeuroVR software.Thirty OCD patients were compared with thirty matched control subjects. The results showed the presence of difficulties in OCD patients with tasks where the goal is n…

Emotions in Economic Decision Making: A Multidisciplinary Approach

2013

AbstractAccording to classical and neoclassical economics, decisions are made based on information and cost-benefit analysis. In reality, the decision making process is much more complex than previously thought, because it also involves psychological factors. Decision making is interdisciplinary, researched by psychologists, sociologists, economists, philosophers, neuroscientists and others. These fields have distinctive and common concepts about decision making. The aim of this paper is to identify what role emotions play in the economic decision making process. The paper focuses on describing and explaining the interconnection of sciences, such as economics, psychology and neuroscience, b…

Material flow models as a tool for ecological-economic decision making

1999

An ethical algorithm for rationing life sustaining treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic

2020

The burning ethical question raised by the COVID-19 pandemic is how to deal fairly and ethically with a large number of patients simultaneously becoming critically unwell. Across the world, in both developed and developing countries, health systems are grappling with the possibility or the reality that the demand for intensive medical care will outstrip availability. There is a need for ethical guidelines on how to allocate treatment, but such guidelines are potentially highly controversial.1 In this commentary, we set out a simple algorithm (Figure 1), including what we take to be the essential ethical principles that ought to guide resource allocation in any country or setting as well as …

Cooperation among competitors: A comparison of cost-sharing mechanisms

2016

Abstract In this paper, we investigate the consequences of using outcome-based versus ex ante-based cost-sharing mechanisms in terms of competing firms' profitability and total welfare. We consider two firms making a joint expenditure, which can positively affect firms' demand and/or unit operating costs, while competing in the final market by setting either price or quantity. We compare two outcome-based cost-sharing mechanisms, i.e., Quantity Proportional (QP) and Total Margin proportional (TM), with the more competitive Fixed Share (FS) mechanism where cost-sharing is set up on an ex ante basis. We show that outcome-based mechanisms, and even a fully collusive behavior induced by the opt…

Solving multiobjective optimization problems with decision uncertainty: an interactive approach

2018

We propose an interactive approach to support a decision maker to find a most preferred robust solution to multiobjective optimization problems with decision uncertainty. A new robustness measure that is understandable for the decision maker is incorporated as an additional objective in the problem formulation. The proposed interactive approach utilizes elements of the synchronous NIMBUS method and is aimed at supporting the decision maker to consider the objective function values and the robustness of a solution simultaneously. In the interactive approach, we offer different alternatives for the decision maker to express her/his preferences related to the robustness of a solution. To conso…

Sustainability science in science teachers’ training

2013

Este trabajo analiza el papel que debe y puede jugar la Educación para la Sostenibilidad en la formación del profesorado de Ciencias. Con este propósito, se estudian las razones que justifican su incorporación en el Máster de Formación del Profesorado, se discuten algunas dificultades que están limitando la efectividad de dicha incorporación y se describen estrategias que ya se están utilizando para contribuir a superar los obstáculos encontrados. Como parte de este estudio se dedica una especial atención al reciente y revolucionario surgimiento de un nuevo campo de conocimientos, la Ciencia de la Sostenibilidad, en cuyo desarrollo la educación y por tanto la formación del profesorado juega…