An interactive multicriteria decision model for multipurpose reservoir management: the Shellmouth Reservoir

Reservoir management is inherently multicriterial, since any release decision involves implicit trade-offs between various conflicting objectives. The release decision reflects concerns such as flood protection, generation of hydroelectric power, dilution of wastewater and heated effluent, supply of municipal, agricultural and industrial water, maintenance of environmental standards and satisfaction of recreational needs. This paper presents a framework for analysing trade-offs between several decision criteria and includes the dilution of heated effluents from downstream thermoelectric power generation in an optimization model for reservoir management. The model is formulated and analysed in an interactive multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) modelling framework. Rather than providing specific target levels or ad hoc constants in a goal-programming framework as proposed elsewhere, this multicriteria framework suggests a systematic way of evaluating trade-offs by progressive preference assessment. The MCDM model, based on a Chebyshev metric and a contracted cone approach, is learning-oriented and permits a natural exploration of the decision space while maintaining non-dominated decisions. A detailed case study of the Shellmouth Reservoir in Manitoba, Canada serves as an illustration of the model. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

OBSERVATION AND COMPARISON OF MEALTIME BEHAVIORS IN A SAMPLE OF CHILDREN WITH AVOIDANT/RESTRICTIVE FOOD INTAKE DISORDERS AND A CONTROL SAMPLE OF CHILDREN WITH TYPICAL DEVELOPMENT

Despite widespread use of behavioral observations to evaluate child feeding behaviors in research and clinical practice, few studies have comprehensively characterized mealtimes or identified features that differentiate children with and without disordered feeding; these were the aims of the current study. Mealtime observations were conducted for 18 children with avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) and 21 typically developing children. Observations were coded inductively, and associations between disorder and observed mealtime actions were examined. Most behaviors were observed across both clinical and nonclinical mealtimes, and many did not differ in frequency between children with and without ARFID. However, significant group differences were observed in the frequencies of behaviors relating to food intake, visual and physical engagement with feeding, and movement during mealtimes. The comparability of behaviors across clinical and nonclinical groups suggests that eating behaviors exist on a continuum from “normal” to “abnormal,” with group differences relating to frequency rather than type of behavior. The behavioral differences observed in this study suggest that identification of children with ARFID should focus on child engagement with food and restlessness during mealtimes. Reliance on emotional and escape‐maintained behaviors will lead to underrecognition of families in need of clinical support.     

A non-linear multi-criteria model for strategic fms selection decisions

The strategic decision of selecting an optimal flexible manufacturing system (FMS) configuration is a complicated question which involves evaluating trade-offs between a number of different, potentially conflicting criteria such as annual production volume, flexibility, production and investment costs and average throughput of the system. Recently, several structured multicriteria approaches have been proposed to aid management in the FMS selection process. While acknowledging the non-linear nature of a number of the relationships in the model, notably between batch size and the number of batches produced of each part, these studies used linear simplifications to illustrate the decision dynamics of the problem. These linear models were shown to offer useful analytical tools in the FMS pre-design process. Owing to the non-linearities of the true relationships, however, the trade-offs between the criteria could not fully be explored within the linear framework. This paper builds on the two-phase decision support framework proposed by Stam and Kuula (1991) and uses a modified non-linear multi-criteria formulation to solve the problem. The software used in the illustration can easily be implemented, is user-interactive and menu-driven. The methodology is applied to real data from a Finnish metal product company and the results are compared with those obtained in previous studies.     

Interactive apps prevent gender discrepancies in early‐grade mathematics in a low‐income country in sub‐Sahara Africa

Globally, gender differences are reported in the early acquisition of reading and mathematics as girls tend to outperform boys in reading, whereas boys tend to outperform girls in mathematics. This can have long‐term impact resulting in an under‐representation of girls in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics subjects. Recent research suggests that sociocultural factors account for differences across genders in the acquisition of these foundational skills. In this study, we investigated whether a new technology‐based intervention, that included activities accessible to both boys and girls, can reduce gender differences from emerging during the early primary school years. The novel instructional method used in this study employed apps developed by onebillion© delivered individually through touch‐screen tablets. Over a series of experiments conducted in Malawi, a low‐income country in sub‐Sahara Africa, we found that when children were exposed to standard pedagogical practice typical gender differences emerged over the first grade (Experiment 1). In contrast, boys and girls learnt equally well with the new interactive apps designed to support the learning of mathematics (Experiment 2) and reading (Experiment 3). When implemented at the start of primary education, before significant gender discrepancies become established, this novel technology‐based intervention can prevent significant gender effects for mathematics. These results demonstrate that different instructional practices influence the emergence of gender disparities in early mathematics. Digital interventions can mitigate gender differences in countries where standard pedagogical instruction typically hinders girls from acquiring early mathematical skills at the same rate as boys. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55x-6hhAY9M&feature=youtu.be