The protection of Polish architectural heritage in the former eastern borderlands, accomplished through the conservation and technical securing of historical structures, constitutes one of the main programmes that are implemented by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Currently, many Polish historical buildings in the former eastern borderlands are in a very bad technical condition. The load-bearing systems of these elements, as well as elements of their finish, require immediate emergency securing work. The basic steps that precede conservation work are emergency structural works, which guarantee the durability and stability of the entire historical substance. The specifics and complexity of the problem of the failure of historical buildings often demands an in-depth analysis of a series of factors that are difficult to measure and which are responsible for the cause and effect relationship during the early stage of the technical evaluation of a structure. The analyses of failures of numerous historical structures, for instance that were carried out by the authors, have become the inspiration for the search for effective methods of analysis that would allow for an in-depth analysis of the causes and effects of the failures in question. The DEMATEL method (Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) that has been presented in this work, and its fuzzy extension, has lately become one of the more popular methods used in the cause-and-effect analysis of various phenomena. The authors demonstrated how this method works on the example of the evaluation and securing of the load-bearing system of the XVII Collegiate church of the Holy Trinity in the town of Olykha in the Volhynskiy Oblast, Ukraine.

The purpose of this paper is to present and analyse the decision-making problem faced by a future house owner - selection of the optimal solution of building thermal insulation in relation to the selected criteria, both related to costs and future benefits. The problem of selecting the best solutions in the construction sector is widely discussed in the science literature. In this paper, the authors decided to solve the raised problem by using the Entropy method.

The topic of this paper is the description of the General Contractor Selection procedure using the AHP method. Another aim of this paper – within the scope of decision-making – is the determination of the potential General Contractor’s evaluation criteria and the selection of the best Bidder using the AHP method. We included the description of the conducted tender proceeding for the purpose of the procurement’s subject. As the decision-making options, we adopted four construction companies that submitted their bid. A key element of the studies was the paired comparison of all hierarchical structure elements. We estimated the local weighting coefficients and global priorities of particular decision-making options as well as analysed the vulnerabilities of the obtained results.

In the article problems related to human labor and factors affecting the increasing use of

industrial robots are discussed. Since human factors affect the production processes stability,

robots are preferred to apply. The application of robots is characterized by higher performance

and reliability comparing to human labor. The problem is how to determine the real

difference in work efficiency between human operator and robot. The aim of the study is to

develop a method that allows clearly definition of productivity growth associated with the

replacement of human labor by industrial robots. Another aim of the paper is how to model

robotized and manual operated workstation in a computer simulation software. Analysis of

the productivity and reliability of the hydraulic press workstation operated by the human

operator or an industrial robot, are presented. Simulation models have been developed taking

into account the availability and reliability of the machine, operator and robot. We apply

OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) indicator to present how availability and reliability

parameters influence over performance of the workstation, in the longer time. Simplified

financial analysis is presented considering different labor costs in EU countries.

The problems related to construction production are multi-faceted and complex. This has promoted the search for different methods/approaches for analizing the data which supports the decision-making process in the construction industry. In the article the authors focus their attention on well-known methods and tools, and on some new approaches to solving decision-making problems. The aim of the article is to analyze the methods used to analyse data in a construction company, convey their advantages and disadvantages, and specify the degree of efficiency in the discussed area.

In the paper an approach to decision making in situations with non-point-like characterisation and subjective evaluation of the actions is considered. The decision situation is represented mathematically as fuzzy multiobjective linear programming (fMOLP) model, where we apply the reduced fuzzy matrices instead of fuzzy classical numbers. The fMOLP model with reduced parameters is decomposable into the set of point-like models and the point-like models enable effective construction of an optimisation procedure – fBIP, see Wojewnik (2006ab), extending the bireference procedure by Michalowski and Szapiro (1992). The approach is applied to a fuzzy optimization problem in the area of telecommunication services.

Open pit mining of rock minerals and the affected areas requiring further development are a serious challenge for shaping the positive image of the mining industry among the public. The direction and method of post-mining land reclamation are important for this image, which should take into account various factors describing the mining area, including social preferences. The article presents an example solution – fuzzy system (FSDR) – which supports the selection of the direction of reclamation of post-mining areas created after the termination of operations of open pit gravel and sand natural aggregate mines. The article presents selected factors determining the selection of the direction and possible reclamation variants as input and output data of the fuzzy system. The rules base of the developed system, as well as the mechanisms of inference and defuzzification, were also characterized. The application of the developed system is presented on selected examples.

A concern about the current state of relations between industry and the environment is

often neglected. However, it is important to underline that industry and sustainability are

not mutually exclusive. There are many industrial processes to blame when analyzing the

negative impact on current socio-ecological environment. The emerging question is whether

companies nowadays are ready to face challenges in the name of sustainability, the future

of the planet and generations to come. In addition, an assessment of industrial processes

may be very time-consuming and costly in financial terms. This fact allows developing sustainability

assessment approach and its measures for keeping track on to evaluate scale of

environmental, social and economic changes. The goal of the paper is to develop a multicriteria

decision-making approach for sustainability assessment of renewable energy technology.

A sustainability assessment approach combines life cycle-based methods integrated with

multi-criteria decision-making method based on analytical hierarchy process. The resulting

assessment method allows finding a compromise between industry and the environment and

identify potential intervention points for further research. As a result of decision-making

process, string ribbon technology was considered as the most sustainable. The applicability

of the proposed method is assessed based on photovoltaic panels.

The specificity of tool provisioning is conditioned using tooling, the quantity of which

exceeds the nomenclature of the manufactured goods considerably. Therefore, for modern

enterprises, first-priority issues are harmonizing the processes of tool provisioning systems,

increasing the level of the reaction of this system to changes, obtaining operational control

over the production system, and, thus, improving the efficiency of the production process.

In this paper, a mathematical model of decision-making based on determining the optimal

strategy for the process flow was proposed to improve the efficiency of the information

system for quality management of tool provisioning. It is suggested to use the sustainable

development factor of information system for quality management of tool provisioning to

make decisions about the path of the tooling process, which considers the requirements of

international standards for management systems (ISO 9001, ISO 45001, etc.). This model

is based on the application of graph optimization theory, fuzzy logic, and Markov chains.

The use of this model is universal and will increase the validity of operational management

decisions, increase productivity, reduce resource dependency, and, therefore, reduce the

costs of tool provisioning, which directly affects the cost of production and competitiveness

of the enterprise as a whole.

The difficulty of innovation risk assessment makes it necessary to use a multi-criteria analysis.

Innovative projects are related to unstructured problems and the uncertainty, therefore,

the use of fuzzy logic in the innovation risk assessment is analyzed. This paper proposes

a method of determining the weights of criteria in order to innovation risk assessment. The

weights are determined by 5 general criteria and 14 detailed criteria of innovation risk assessment.

The proposed method is an extension of the fuzzy AHP method. The extension

consists in taking into consideration the group decision-making approach with experts’ psychological

conditions. The groups of experts have been chosen based on an elaborated form.

The form makes it possible to characterize the persons within the scope of different psychological

conditions. The proposed method provides objective and rational decision-making.

The paper presents also a comparison of results with the fuzzy AHP method without the

group decision making. The weights obtained by the proposed method are more diversified

and bring out the most important criteria.

Poland is characterized by a number of factors which adversely affect the agricultural economy, so this paper will aim to present the possibilities of using multi-criteria decision-making methods of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) in the analysis of the spatial structure of rural areas. AHP is a widely used tool for making complex decisions based on a large number of criteria, such as, for example, land consolidation works on fragmented agricultural land. The first step is to formulate the decision-making process, then the assessment criteria and the solution variants guided by expert knowledge are determined.

A ranking, according to which the order of land consolidation and land exchange works in the studied area should be determined, will be defined by using decision-making models of the AHP method. The basis for calculations will be the weights received for the factors/parameters defined for the five thematic groups. Calculations for individual villages will bemade, and then the obtained results will allow creating a ranking for the studied commune, allowing for the effective (in terms of economic and socio-economic) spending of funds for this purpose. The presented method can be successfully used to conduct analogous analyses for any area.

Faithfull detection of non-utilized spectrum hole in available channel is a crucial issue for cognitive radio network. Choosing the best available channel for a secondary user transmission includes settling on decision of accessible choices of free frequency spectrum based on multiple objectives. Thus channel judgment can be demonstrated as several objective decision making (MODM) problem. An ultimate goal of this exploration is to define and execute a technique for multiple objective optimizations of multiple alternative of channel decision in Adhoc cognitive radio network. After a coarse review of an articles related to the multiple objective decision making within a process of channel selection, Multiple Objective Optimization on the basis of the Ratio Analysis (MOORA) technique is taken into consideration. Some important objectives values of non-utilized spectrum collected by a fusion center are proposed as objectives for consideration in the decision of alternatives. MOORA method are applied to a matrix of replies of each channel alternatives to channel objectives which results in set ratios. Among the set of obtained dimensionless ratios, all the channel alternatives are ranked in descending order. In MOORA, channel choices with moderate objectives can top in ranking order, which is hardly conceivable with linearly weighted objectives of the different channel by using different decision making technique.

The model is developed for the intellectualized decision-making support system on financing of cyber security means of transport cloud-based computing infrastructures, given the limited financial resources. The model is based on the use of the theory of multistep games tools. The decision, which gives specialists a chance to effectively assess risks in the financing processes of cyber security means, is found. The model differs from the existing approaches in the decision of bilinear multistep quality games with several terminal surfaces. The decision of bilinear multistep quality games with dependent movements is found. On the basis of the decision for a one-step game, founded by application of the domination method and developed for infinite antagonistic games, the conclusion about risks for players is drawn. The results of a simulation experiment within program implementation of the intellectualized decision-making support system in the field of financing of cyber security means of cloudbased computing infrastructures on transport are described. Confirmed during the simulation experiment, the decision assumes accounting a financial component of cyber defense strategy at any ratios of the parameters, describing financing process.

The presented method is constructed for optimum scheduling in production lines with parallel

machines and without intermediate buffers. The production system simultaneously

performs operations on various types of products. Multi-option products were taken into

account – products of a given type may differ in terms of details. This allows providing for

individual requirements of the customers. The one-level approach to scheduling for multioption

products is presented. The integer programming is used in the method – optimum

solutions are determined: the shortest schedules for multi-option products. Due to the lack

of the intermediate buffers, two possibilities are taken into account: no-wait scheduling,

possibility of the machines being blocked by products awaiting further operations. These two

types of organizing the flow through the production line were compared using computational

experiments, the results of which are presented in the paper.

In this paper, a new set of intuitionistic fuzzy aggregation operators have been introduced under the environment of intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs). For this, firstly focused on some existing aggregation operators and then new operational rules known as Dombi operation have been pro- posed which make the advancement of flexibility behavior with the parameter. Based on Dombi operation laws, some new averaging and geometric aggregation operators namely, intuitionistic fuzzy Dombi weighted averaging, ordered weighted averaging and hybrid weighted averaging operator, classified as IFDWA, IFDOWA and IFDHWA operators respectively and intuitionistic fuzzy Dombi geometric, ordered weighted geometric and hybrid weighted geometric operators, labeled as IFDWG, IFDOWG and IFDHWG operators respectively have been proposed. Further, some properties such as idempotency, boundedness, monotonicity and commutative are investigated. Finally, a multi-attribute decision-making model has been developed for the proposed operators to select the best mutual fund for investment. The execution of the comparative study has been examined with the existing operators in this environment.

As one of the key techniques in the fully mechanized mining process, equipment selection and matching has a great effect on security, production and efficiency. The selection and matching of fully mechanized mining equipment in thin coal seam are restricted by many factors. In fully mechanized mining (FMM) faced in thin coal seams (TCS), to counter the problems existing in equipment selection, such as many the parameters concerned and low automation, an expert system (ES) of equipment selection for fully mechanized mining longwall face was established. A database for the equipment selection and matching expert system in thin coal seam, fully mechanized mining face has been established. Meanwhile, a decision-making software matching the ES was developed. Based on several real world examples, the reliability and technical risks of the results from the ES was discussed. Compared with the field applications, the shearer selection from the ES is reliable. However, some small deviations existed in the hydraulic support and scraper conveyor selection. Then, the ES was further improved. As a result, equipment selection in fully mechanized mining longwall face called 4301 in the Liangshuijing coal mine was carried out by the improved ES. Equipment selection results of the interface in the improved ES is consistent with the design proposal of the 4301 FMM working face. The reliability of the improved ES can meet the requirements of the engineering. It promotes the intelligent and efficient mining of coal resources in China.

It is nearly impossible to study behaviour effectively without any reference to its context. This is because it is generally known in the psychological literature that behaviour is partially a product of its environment. This suggests that many behavioural processes may be universal but there are significant variations in their manifestations. For instance, love may be a universal process but its manifestation varies from one society to another. Given that ethical decision-making is a behavioural process, it stands to reason that its manifestation will vary from one culture to another. It is against this premise that this paper seeks to demonstrate that despite the existence of the ‘universal’ normative ethical principles, ethical decisions will be expected to vary across cultural space and even evolve with time. This paper achieves this objective by employing typical ethical dilemmas that Ghanaian psychologists and other health professionals encounter to show how and why what is ethical in one culture becomes unethical in the Ghanaian context and what is unethical in the Ghanaian context becomes ethical in another culture.