Multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) is considered as a complex decision-making (DM) tool involving both quantitative and qualitative factors. In recent years, several MCDM techniques and approaches have been suggested to choosing the optimal probable options. The purpose of this article is to systematically review the applications and methodologies of the MCDM techniques and approaches. This study reviewed a total of 393 articles published from 2000 to 2014 in more than 120 peer reviewed journals (extracted from Web of Science). According to experts’ opinion, these articles were grouped into 15 fields. Furthermore, these articles were categorised based on authors, publication date, name of journals, methods, tools, and type of research (MCDM utilising research, MCDM developing research, and MCDM proposing research). The results of this study indicated that in 2013 scholars have published articles more than in other years. In addition, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method in the individual tool...

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Multiple criteria decision-making techniques and their applications – a review of the literature from 2000 to 2014

Networks form the backbone of many complex systems, ranging from the Internet to human societies. Accordingly, not only is the range of our interactions limited and thus best described and modeled by networks, it is also a fact that the networks that are an integral part of such models are often interdependent or even interconnected. Networks of networks or multilayer networks are therefore a more apt description of social systems. This colloquium is devoted to evolutionary games on multilayer networks, and in particular to the evolution of cooperation as one of the main pillars of modern human societies. We first give an overview of the most significant conceptual differences between single-layer and multilayer networks, and we provide basic definitions and a classification of the most commonly used terms. Subsequently, we review fascinating and counterintuitive evolutionary outcomes that emerge due to different types of interdependencies between otherwise independent populations. The focus is on coupling through the utilities of players, through the flow of information, as well as through the popularity of different strategies on different network layers. The colloquium highlights the importance of pattern formation and collective behavior for the promotion of cooperation under adverse conditions, as well as the synergies between network science and evolutionary game theory.

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Evolutionary games on multilayer networks: a colloquium

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Evolutionary games on multilayer networks: A colloquium

Decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) is considered as an effective method for the identification of cause-effect chain components of a complex system. It deals with evaluating interdependent relationships among factors and finding the critical ones through a visual structural model. Over the recent decade, a large number of studies have been done on the application of DEMATEL and many different variants have been put forward in the literature. The objective of this study is to review systematically the methodologies and applications of the DEMATEL technique. We reviewed a total of 346 papers published from 2006 to 2016 in the international journals. According to the approaches used, these publications are grouped into five categories: classical DEMATEL, fuzzy DEMATEL, grey DEMATEL, analytical network process- (ANP-) DEMATEL, and other DEMATEL. All papers with respect to each category are summarized and analyzed, pointing out their implementing procedures, real applications, and crucial findings. This systematic and comprehensive review holds valuable insights for researchers and practitioners into using the DEMATEL in terms of indicating current research trends and potential directions for further research.

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DEMATEL Technique: A Systematic Review of the State-of-the-Art Literature on Methodologies and Applications

Universal scaling for the dilemma strength in evolutionary games.

The notion Z-number introduced by Zadeh in 2011 has more capability to describe the uncertain information. Now that the theories about Z-number is not mature, how to convert Z-number to classical fuzzy number is rather signicant for application. In this paper, a method of transforming Z-number to classical fuzzy number is proposed according to the Fuzzy Expectation of fuzzy set. At last, a simple example is used to illustrated the procedure of the proposed approach.

A Method of Converting Z-number to Classical Fuzzy Number

As the result of the warmer climate and the worse environment, human beings are facing with more serious natural disasters. It is urgent to improve emergency management. Due to the fact that performance of emergency management is affected by many factors, it is difficult to improve all of them in limited resources. Thus, a feasible way is to figure out some important and urgent ones to optimize. For this purpose, a new method identifying the critical success factors (CSF) is proposed in this paper. In this method, the evaluations of influencing factors in the form of intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (IFNs) are converted into basic probability assignments (BPAs). Then Dempster-Shafer theory is adopted to combine group decision. By doing so, there is no need for defuzzification of IFNs, and DEMATEL is applied on each fused BPA to seek for a final result from different aspects. Finally, five CSFs are found out. By optimizing the five CSFs, the effectiveness and efficiency of the whole emergency management could be greatly promoted.

An evidential DEMATEL method to identify critical success factors in emergency management

Finding group consensus plays a very important role in group decision making (GDM). In this short communication, a new optimal consensus method with minimum cost in fuzzy GDM is proposed. The main contribution of our work is that the limit of each expert's compromise is under consideration in the process of reaching group consensus. The numerical example shows the efficiency of the proposed method.

Short Communication: A new optimal consensus method with minimum cost in fuzzy group decision

We investigate how the cooperation emerges in the square lattice when individuals play the prisoner’s dilemma game by adopting different strategy updating methods. First, we classify individuals in two classes at the strategy updating stage: stochastic players and smart players. The stochastic players are those who take the classical Fermi rule, while the smart players are those who make comprehensive evaluation for strategy updating. Second, we adopt Dempster–Shafer theory to combine smart players’ evaluations from payoff and environment aspects. Simulation results reveal that the comprehensive strategy updating method has a positive impact on the emergence of cooperation. Furthermore, the number of cooperators increases with the proportion of smart player increase. However, it is noteworthy that defector never become extinct, even all players in the network are smart ones. This is because some smart players would maximize their payoff if they choose to betray their cooperative neighbors. Our work in this paper may provide further understanding of the origin of cooperation in social and biology systems.

Ya Li

Papers

A Method of Converting Z-number to Classical Fuzzy Number

An evidential DEMATEL method to identify critical success factors in emergency management

Short Communication: A new optimal consensus method with minimum cost in fuzzy group decision

Comprehensive consideration of strategy updating promotes cooperation in the prisoner’s dilemma game

An improved method on group decision making based on interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy prioritized operators