Conflicting Objectives (conflicting + objective)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


A Multiobjective and Stochastic System for Building Maintenance Management

COMPUTER-AIDED CIVIL AND INFRASTRUCTURE ENGINEERING, Issue 5 2000
Z. Lounis
Building maintenance management involves decision making under multiple objectives and uncertainty, in addition to budgetary constraints. This article presents the development of a multiobjective and stochastic optimization system for maintenance management of roofing systems that integrates stochastic condition-assessment and performance-prediction models with a multiobjective optimization approach. The maintenance optimization includes determination of the optimal allocation of funds and prioritization of roofs for maintenance, repair, and replacement that simultaneously satisfy the following conflicting objectives: (1) minimization of maintenance and repair costs, (2) maximization of network performance, and (3) minimization of risk of failure. A product model of the roof system is used to provide the data framework for collecting and processing data. Compromise programming is used to solve this multiobjective optimization problem and provides building managers an effective decision support system that identifies the optimal projects for repair and replacement while it achieves a satisfactory tradeoff between the conflicting objectives. [source]


Cost of compliance assessments and the water industry in England and Wales

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 5 2002
Paul McMahon
Environmental compliance cost assessments (CCAs) are being increasingly demanded and used in the water industry, in order to allow regulators to balance conflicting objectives. The 1999 periodic review of water company price limits concerned massive environmental expenditures, and consequently major use of CCAs. There were major differences between Ofwat (the economic regulator) and the water companies relating to the compliance costs submitted. The assumptions used by Ofwat vis-à-vis future efficiency savings and the cost of capital are notable causes of the differentials. There are a number of other reasons why this differential might have arisen, including gaming. However, the principal cause might be more a real lack of knowledge on the part of companies of future efficiencies and the actual costs of projects. The CCAs produced in the water industry have had massive impact on policy design. A number of specific improvements to CCA are identified. These changes relate to increased collaboration between industry and regulators in working groups to design/approve, inter alia, regulatory methodologies for use in the periodic review. More detailed guidance is required for preparation of a CCA. Further use of compliance cost databases is recommended. The entire process would be facilitated by increased training and awareness raising of economics for the engineers largely responsible for preparation of CCAs. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment. [source]


Transmission network expansion planning with security constraints based on bi-level linear programming

EUROPEAN TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRICAL POWER, Issue 3 2009
Hong Fan
Abstract In deregulated power market, multiple conflicting objectives with many constraints should be balanced in transmission planning. The primary objective is to ensure the reliable supply to the demand as economically as possible. In this paper, a new bi-level linear programming model for transmission network expansion planning (TNEP) with security constraints has been proposed. The modeling improves traditional building style by adding reliability planning into economy planning as constraints, letting optimal planning strategy be more economic and highly reliable. A hybrid algorithm which integrates improved niching genetic algorithm and prime-dual interior point method is newly proposed to solve the TNEP based on bi-level programming. The advantages of the new methodology include (1) the highest reliability planning scheme can be acquired as economically as possible; (2) new model avoids the contradictions of conflicting objectives in TNEP, and explores new ideas for TNEP modeling; (3) the proposed hybrid algorithm is able to solve bi-level programming and fully manifests the merits of two algorithms as well. Simulation results obtained from two well-known systems and comparison analysis reveal that the proposed methodology is valid. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


The flexibility of the master negotiator

GLOBAL BUSINESS AND ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE, Issue 2 2007
Roy J. Lewicki
Negotiating to resolve conflicting objectives requires flexibility,the willingness and skill to change your approach to suit the situation at hand. The authors discuss five negotiating strategies and which to select based on the importance of the outcome and the relationship with the other person to you and your company. Adopting the best style, avoiding, accommodating, competing, collaborating, or compromising,for the situation may require overcoming your natural preference for one style as well as matching or mismatching the other person's preferred style. This article is reprinted from the authors' book, Mastering Business Negotiation: A Working Guide to Making Deals and Resolving Conflict (New York: Jossey-Bass, 2006). Copyright © 2006 Roy J. Lewicki and Alexander Hiam. [source]


A decision support methodology for increasing public investment efficiency in Brazilian agrarian reform

INTERNATIONAL TRANSACTIONS IN OPERATIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2009
Leonardo Melgarejo
Abstract The Brazilian Agrarian Reform Program has subsidized the settlement of over 425,000 destitute families on previously unproductive land in what has become a very effective vehicle for social inclusion and productivity growth for those settlers who reach the final stage of the process and receive definitive title to the land. Unfortunately, there is a large difference in efficiency and productivity between more and less successful settlements , fewer than 10% of relocated families have received title and over 25% of them have abandoned the property to which they were assigned. This paper presents a decision support methodology for increasing the efficiency of public investments in agrarian reform that includes a data envelopment analysis model and a mechanism for building consensus among the various constituencies of the agrarian reform process, who not infrequently have conflicting objectives. The OR model described herein uses principal component analysis and data envelopment analysis to identify the most important success factors for relocated families leading to an increase in the chance of both autonomous integration with the market economy and definitive entitlement by these displaced families as well as an increase in the predictability of future settlement success. The model was implemented successfully in Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil, and was partially used in a pilot project for the countrywide agrarian reform accelerated consolidation program. [source]


Application of genetic algorithm for scheduling and schedule coordination problems

JOURNAL OF ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION, Issue 1 2002
Prabhat Shrivastava
The problems on scheduling and schedule co-ordination usually have conflicting objectives related to user's cost and operator's cost. Users want to spend less time to wait, transfer and travel by public buses. Operators are interested in profit making by lesser vehicle operating cost and having a minimum number of buses. As far as level of service is concerned users are interested in lesser crowing while operators are concerned with maximizing profit and thus to have higher load factors. In schedule co-ordination problems transfer time plays an important role. Users are interested in coordinating services with in acceptable waiting time whereas operators prefer to have lesser services and want to meet higher demands, which invariably increases waiting time. These problems have multiple conflicting objectives and constraints. It is difficult to determine optimum solution for such problems with the help of conventional approaches. It is found that Genetic Algorithm performs well for such multi objective problems. [source]


A framework for assessing the biodiversity and fishery aspects of marine reserves

JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 4 2009
Phillip S. Levin
Summary 1. ,Resource management agencies are often charged with managing natural resources for economic and social goals, while also protecting and conserving biodiversity and ecosystem function. However, this may not always be possible. Ecosystem-based management is frequently suggested as a way to achieve multiple objectives in resource management and requires that trade-offs among conflicting objectives be identified and an effective means to utilize these trade-offs developed. 2. ,We examine the relationship between area and species richness in a diverse assemblage of fishes along the US West Coast and then use parameters from this relationship as input for a model that considers trade-offs between fisheries yield and the number of species protected by different management strategies. 3. ,The species,area relationship (S = cAz) for fishes along the US Pacific coast is well described by the relationship S = 16·18A0·226. 4. ,There are nearly linear trade-offs between diversity and yield when fishing effort is low. However, the trade-offs become nonlinear as fishing effort increases and imposing MPAs increases both the conservation and fisheries value of the system when the system is overfished. 5. ,Synthesis and applications. Solving conflicts between fisheries and conservation requires attention as to how conservation benefits accrue as fishing effort is reduced. However, scientists often lack quantitative information about the trade-offs inherent in human activities such as fisheries. The approach we develop here can begin to help frame the questions to be posed and evaluate the likely consequences of different management options. [source]


Misconceptions and political outcomes*

THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 484 2003
David Romer
A large literature shows that strategic interactions among actors with conflicting objectives can cause the political process to produce outcomes that lower welfare. This paper investigates an alternative explanation of such outcomes: if individuals' errors in assessing the likely effects of proposed policies are correlated, democratic decisionmaking can produce welfare-reducing outcomes even in the absence of conflicting objectives. Under plausible assumptions, choosing candidates from among the best informed individuals does not remedy the problems created by such errors, but subsidising information and exposing representatives to information after their election do. Concentration of power has ambiguous effects. [source]


Multiobjective flux balancing using the NISE method for metabolic network analysis

BIOTECHNOLOGY PROGRESS, Issue 4 2009
Young-Gyun Oh
Abstract Flux balance analysis (FBA) is well acknowledged as an analysis tool of metabolic networks in the framework of metabolic engineering. However, FBA has a limitation for solving a multiobjective optimization problem which considers multiple conflicting objectives. In this study, we propose a novel multiobjective flux balance analysis method, which adapts the noninferior set estimation (NISE) method (Solanki et al., 1993) for multiobjective linear programming (MOLP) problems. NISE method can generate an approximation of the Pareto curve for conflicting objectives without redundant iterations of single objective optimization. Furthermore, the flux distributions at each Pareto optimal solution can be obtained for understanding the internal flux changes in the metabolic network. The functionality of this approach is shown by applying it to a genome-scale in silico model of E. coli. Multiple objectives for the poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) [P(3HB)] production are considered simultaneously, and relationships among them are identified. The Pareto curve for maximizing succinic acid production vs. maximizing biomass production is used for the in silico analysis of various combinatorial knockout strains. This proposed method accelerates the strain improvement in the metabolic engineering by reducing computation time of obtaining the Pareto curve and analysis time of flux distribution at each Pareto optimal solution. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2009 [source]