This paper uses Bayesian hierarchical models to analyse multi-centre clinical trial data where the outcome variable of interest is continuous, but not normally distributed, and where censoring has occurred. The goal of such an analysis is the same as for any subgroup analysis, to provide survival estimates for specific subgroups as well as for the population and to provide estimates of the degr...

A methodology for performance improvement of Intelligent Machines based on Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning is introduced. Machine Decision Making and Learning are based on a cost function which includes reliability and computational cost of algorithms at the three levels of the hierarchy proposed by Saridis. Despite this particular formalization, the methodology intends to be suuciently gen...

Embracing an all-hazard view to deal with random failures, natural disasters, accidents and malevolent intentional acts, a framework for the vulnerability analysis of safety-critical systems and infrastructures is set up. A hierarchical structure is used to organise the information on the hazards, which is then manipulated through a decision-making process for vulnerability evaluation. We prese...

This paper focuses on the development of a novel approach for modeling the behavior of agents in the RoboCup Rescue Agent Simulation Competition. A two layered approach is developed, with a macro-level behavior responsible for the strategic, high level decisions and a micro-level behavior dealing with the local particularities of the competition. The micro-level behavior was implemented using a...

purpose – the aim of this study is to examine relation between employees’ participation in the organizations decisions making and their psychological empowerment in iran telecommunication company subsidiary of mazanderan province. design / methodology /approach- 250 employees from the iran telecommunication company subsidiary of mazanderan province participated in this study. a spearman's cor...

decision making process requires information. accounting is the most important source of information. in 1998, the international federation of accountants issued a statement about the scope and using of accounting. it identified 4 stages for using accounting information: cost determination, planning and financial control, reduction of resources waste and creation the value. this study was desig...

Inmulti-expert decisionmaking (MEDM) problems the experts provide their preferences about the alternatives according to their knowledge. Because they can have different knowledge, educational backgrounds, or experiences, it seems logical that they might use different evaluation scales to express their opinions. In the present article, we focus on decision problems defined in uncertain contexts ...

BACKGROUND Regulators must act to protect the public when evidence indicates safety problems with medical devices. This requires complex tradeoffs among risks and benefits, which conventional safety surveillance methods do not incorporate. OBJECTIVE To combine explicit regulator loss functions with statistical evidence on medical device safety signals to improve decision making. METHODS In ...

Over the last years, a number of methods have been proposed to automatically learn and optimize fuzzy rule bases from data. The obtained rule bases are usually robust and allow an interpretation even for data sets that contains imprecise or uncertain information. However, most of the proposed methods are still restricted to learn and/or optimize single layer feed-forward rule bases. The main di...