A Topsis‐Based Approach for Prioritized Aggregation in Multi‐Criteria Decision‐Making Problems

Aggregation in multi‐criteria decision‐making environments is a process of combining the values of a set of attributes into one representative value for the entire set of attributes. Many aggregation methods—ranging from the simple averaging approach to more sophisticated methods, such as ordered weighted averaging—have been applied in previous research. One challenge in aggregation arises in special cases of prioritized aggregation, wherein the prioritized relationships between attributes must be considered during aggregation. This paper presents a new approach to aggregating attributes with prioritized relationships. First, an overview of past research is conducted to identify different aggregation methods, classes and properties. Next, the concept of prioritized aggregation is explained in detail. A prioritized aggregation method utilizing the technique of order preference by similarity to ideal solution is then presented. Subsequently, the presented prioritized aggregation method is applied on an actual case study. According to the results, the aggregation method presented in this paper is, through the application of technique of order preference by similarity to ideal solution, capable of quantifying and considering the prioritized relationship between a set of attributes undergoing aggregation. Finally, conclusions are stated, and a discussion describing future work pertinent to this paper is presented. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Habituation in the rat fetus

Rat fetuses exhibit motor and cardiac responses to chemosensory stimulation on Days 20 and 21 of gestation. The first experiment demonstrated that fetuses exhibit an increase in overall motor activity and decrease in heartrate in response to an initial intraoral infusion of a lemon solution. After a series of nine exposures, however, fetuses no longer exhibit motor or cardiac responses to lemon infusion, suggesting the existence of a habituation-like process. Responsiveness recovers spontaneously following a 3-to 9-min period without stimulation. In a second experiment, a dishabituation treatment was administered to distinguish habituation, which is a centrally mediated decrement in response, from effector fatigue, sensory adaptation, and other peripheral mechanisms that can result in reduced responsiveness. A single infusion of mint following a series of nine lemon exposures was effective in reinstating fetal motor responses to lemon on both Days 20 and 21, but reinstated cardiac responses only on Day 21. Rat fetuses habituate to repeated chemosensory stimulation, suggesting the utility of the habituation paradigm in measuring CNS development during the perinatal period.     

The Dynamics of Personality Approach (DPA): 20 Tenets for Uncovering the Causal Mechanisms of Personality

Over the last few decades, most personality psychology research has been focused on assessing personality via scores on a few broad traits and investigating how these scores predict various behaviours and outcomes. This approach does not seek to explain the causal mechanisms underlying human personality and thus falls short of explaining the proximal sources of traits as well as the variation of individuals' behaviour over time and across situations. On the basis of the commonalities shared by influential process-oriented personality theories and models, we describe a general dynamics of personality approach (DPA). The DPA relies heavily on theoretical principles applicable to complex adaptive systems that self-regulate via feedback mechanisms, and it parses the sources of personality in terms of various psychological functions relevant in different phases of self-regulation. Thus, we consider personality to be rooted in individual differences in various cognitive, emotional–motivational, and volitional functions, as well as their causal interactions. In this article, we lay out 20 tenets for the DPA that may serve as a guideline for integrative research in personality science. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology     

Word‐of‐mouth information processing routes: The mediating role of message and source characteristics

This study investigates word‐of‐mouth (WOM) information processing routes from active WOM seeking behaviour. Employing the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), the direct and indirect effects of factors within information processing routes are examined in a credence service context. A deeper exploration of the causal chains of each route was conducted using serial mediation models of message quality and source characteristics. Data were collected in the higher education context from a survey of 509 high school students applying for tertiary study. Findings indicate that active WOM seeking and the serial mediation effects elicit two routes of information processing: central and peripheral. This study is amongst the first to intensively reveal the underlying causal chains of WOM processing and supports the application of ELM theory in WOM research.     

Renewal and resurgence phenomena generalize to Amazon's Mechanical Turk

Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is a crowdsourcing platform that provides researchers with the potential for obtaining behavioral data for very little cost. However, the extent to which the results of common behavioral phenomena found in basic, translational, and applied laboratories may be reproduced (as a first step towards prospective research) via MTurk remains relatively unexplored. We evaluated renewal and resurgence arrangements using MTurk as the subject recruitment platform as a first step to determining the generality of the obtained data. Results suggested that MTurk participants produced renewal and resurgence data similar to those reported in basic, translational, and applied studies.     

Differences in performance on a reversal learning test and division of labor in honey bee colonies

We studied the association between honey bee (Apis mellifera) division of labor and performance on an olfactory reversal-learning test. Manipulations of colony age structure and flight experience were used to test whether differences in performance are associated with age, current behavioral state, or flight experience. Nurse bees showed significantly faster rates of extinction to a learned odor than did foragers. This difference was associated primarily with differences in behavioral state, rather than age; it was seen when comparing nurses and foragers from typical colonies and normal-age nurses and precocious foragers from single-cohort colonies. Differences in extinction rate were not related to differences in flight experience; there was no difference between foragers and foraging-age bees denied flight experience. These results suggest that changes in learning and memory occur in association with division of labor. We speculate on the possible functional significance of the difference in extinction rate between nurses and foragers. Received: 15 January 2000 / Accepted: 22 August 2000     

A biochemical analysis of people with chronic fatigue who have Irlen Syndrome: speculation concerning immune system dysfunction.

This study investigated the biological basis of visual processing disabilities in adults with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The study involved 61 adults with symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome who were screened for visual processing problems (Irlen Syndrome) and divided into two groups according to the severity of symptoms of Irlen Syndrome. Significant variations were identified in blood lipids and urine amino and organic acids of the two groups, which may be indicative of activation of the immune system due to some infective agent. It was suggested that metabolic profiling may help the development of more valid diagnostic categories and allow more investigation of immune system dysfunction as a possible causal factor in a range of learning and behaviour disorders.