Development Policies and Policy Processes in Africa : Modeling and Evaluation
Examines the methodological challenges in analyzing the effectiveness of development policies. It presents a selection of tools and methodologies that can help tackle the complexities of which policies work best and why, and how they can be implemented effectively given the political and economic framework conditions of a country. The contributions in this book offer a continuation of the ongoing evidence-based debate on the role of agriculture and participatory policy processes in reducing poverty. They develop and apply quantitative political economy approaches by integrating quantitative models of political decision-making into existing economic modeling tools, allowing a more comprehensive growth-poverty analysis.
Designing Democracy : Ideas for Better Rules
While liberal democracies are the best systems of self-governance for societies, they rarely invoke great enthusiasm. On the one hand, democracies have been known to fail in achieving efficient or fair allocations. On the other hand, many citizens take the democratic system for granted as they have yet to experience an alternative. In this book the vision we propose is that the potential of democ racies has not yet been exhausted, and that optimal democracies are both the Utopia for societies and the aim that scientists should be committed to. We present a number of ideas for drawing up new rules to im prove the functioning of democracies. The book falls into two parts. The first part examines ways of combining incentive contracts with democratic elections. We suggest that a judicious combina tion of these two elements as a dual mechanism can alleviate a wide range of political failures, while at the same time adhering to the founding principles of democracies. The second part presents new rules for decision-making and agenda setting. Together with modern communication devices, these rules can sometimes transcend the limitations of liberal VI Preface democracies in achieving desirable outcomes. Examples of such rules include the flexible majority rule where the size of the ma jority required depends on the proposal, or the rule that only those belonging to the winning majority can be taxed.
Dental trauma : expert strategies
Presents cutting-edge strategies for managing traumatic dental injuries, offering clinicians a robust diagnostic and therapeutic decision-making framework. It addresses the complex challenges practitioners face, from initial emergency management to long-term rehabilitation. The book systematically explores critical aspects, including advanced diagnostic approaches, periodontal considerations, and innovative treatment modalities like socket-oriented tooth repositioning. This work bridges the gap between theoretical understanding and clinical application, offering evidence-based protocols that can be immediately implemented.
Democratization of Expertise? : Exploring Novel Forms of Scientific Advice in Political Decision-Making
Scientific knowledge and the ‘experts’ that represent it no longer command the unquestioned authority and public trust that was once bestowed upon them, and yet, policy makers are more dependent on them than ever before. This collection of essays explores the relations between science and politics with the instruments of social studies of science, thereby providing new insights into their re-alignment under a new régime of governance.
Decision-Making in Engineering Design : Theory and Practice
We use our brains when we create plans and designs. The resulting plans and designs take physical form, however, what we thought about, the alternatives we tried, and the constraints we recognized while we were making these plans and designs are usually not written anywhere. Therefore, those who only get to see the results, e.g. the final text and drawings, do not learn what led the designer to reach such conclusions and as a consequence never understand the real design. This description of decision processes will provide the means for the development of new manufacturing systems and production activities in the future because it helps us gain a real understanding of the how the mind processes we go through when making decisions affect the decisions that we make.
Decision Modeling and Behavior in Complex and Uncertain Environments
Devoted to examining new research at the interface of operations research, behavioral and cognitive sciences, and decision analysis. In these 14 self-contained chapters, four themes emerge, providing the reader with a variety of perspectives both theoretic and applied to meet the challenges of devising models to understand the decision-making process. The main broad topics include: the integration of decision analysis and behavioral models / innovations in behavioral models / exploring descriptive behavior models / experimental studies
Decision Making in the Manufacturing Environment : Using Graph Theory and Fuzzy Multiple Attribute Decision Making Methods
Manufacturing is the backbone of any industrialized nation. Recent worldwide advances in manufacturing technologies have brought about a metamorphosis in industry. Fast-changing technologies on the product front have created a need for an equally fast response from manufacturing industries. To meet these challenges, manufacturing industries have to select appropriate manufacturing strategies, product designs, manufacturing processes, work piece and tool materials, and machinery and equipment. The selection decisions are complex, as decision making is more challenging today. Decision makers in the manufacturing sector frequently face the problem of assessing a wide range of options and selecting one based on a set of conflicting criteria.
Decision Making for Complex Socio-Technical Systems : Robustness from Lessons Learned in Long-Term Radioactive Waste Governance
The long-term governance of radioactive waste continues to be a major complex and contentious socio-technical issue worldwide. Traditionally, it has been considered as mainly a challenge to scientists and engineers to develop technical "solutions" to specific problems. But increasingly these narrow solutions have been enlarged by wider societal considerations such as ethics, public involvement, control and retrievability – needs that have in the meanwhile been recognised by the nuclear community, at least in a general way. In this book, we analyse motives for a broad discourse as well as suggest prerequisites to launch it. The author attempts to give a novel, empirically based and technically sound treatment of fundamental issues in long-term management and governance. Written to be accessible to a wide selection of the interested public, the study proposes a combination of technical design issues, analysis methods and institutional backup in a dynamic procedure, and with involvement at all levels of political, commercial and social life.
Decentralised Government in an Integrating World: Quantitative Studies for OECD Countries
The book offers a comprehensive empirical analysis of the determinants of changes in the distribution of expenditure and revenue-raising powers among fiscal tiers in OECD countries. Using a new indicator of fiscal decentralisation which accounts for subnational decision-making autonomy, common decentralisation trends are investigated.
Databases in Networked Information Systems ; 5th International Workshop, DNIS 2007, Aizu-Wakamatsu, Japan, October 17-19, 2007, Proceedings
This book Is focusing on data semantics and infrastructure for information management and interchange, the papers are organized in topical sections on geospatial decision-making, Web data management systems, infrastructure of networked information systems, and Web query and web mining systems.
Data warehousing and knowledge discovery ; Vol.3589 ; 7th international conference, DaWak 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark, August 22-26, 2005, Proceedings
For more than a decade, data warehousing and knowledge discovery technologies have been developing into key technologies for decision-making processes in com- nies. Since 1999, due to the relevant role of these technologies in academia and ind- try, the Data Warehousing and Knowledge Discovery (DaWaK) conference series have become an international forum where both practitioners and researchers share their findings, publish their relevant results and dispute in depth research issues and experiences on data warehousing and knowledge discovery systems and applications.
Data Warehousing and Knowledge Discovery ; 9th International Conference, DaWaK 2007, Regensburg, Germany, September 3-7, 2007, Proceedings
Data Warehousing and Knowledge Discovery have been widely accepted as key te- nologies for enterprises and organizations to improve their abilities in data analysis, decision support, and the automatic extraction of knowledge from data. With the exponentially growing amount of information to be included in the decision-making process, the data to be processed become more and more complex in both structure and semantics. Consequently, the process of retrieval and knowledge discovery from this huge amount of heterogeneous complex data constitutes the reality check for research in the area.
Cross cultural issues in consumer science and consumer psychology : Current perspectives and future directions
Shows cross-cultural issues in consumer psychology and consumer science as the world becomes an increasingly global marketplace. An international panel of experts analyzes current trends in consumer behavior across diverse countries worldwide and across cultural groups within countries, depicting commonly-used cross-cultural frameworks and research methods. Beginning with conceptualizing and quantifying culture at the national level, the volume then moves to individual levels of analysis of consumer decision-making, examining consumer data as they affect business decisions in marketing products internationally. The resulting work synthesizes the consumer science, international business, and consumer psychology literatures for a deeper understanding of all three disciplines and pathways to future research as cultures interact and tastes evolve.
Creating Healthy and Sustainable Buildings : An Assessment of Health Risk Factors
The book discusses human health and wellbeing within the context of built environments. It provides a comprehensive overview of relevant sources of literature and user complaints that clearly demonstrate the consequences of lack of attention to health in current building design and planning. Current designing of energy-efficient buildings is mainly focused on looking at energy problems and not on addressing health. Therefore, even green buildings that place environmental aspects above health issues can be uncomfortable and unhealthy, and can lead to public health problems. They point to the need for public health specialists, engineers and planners to come together and review built environments for human wellbeing and environmental sustainability. The authors therefore present a tool for holistic decision-making processes, leading to short- and long-term benefits for people and their environment.
Contractual Management : Managing Through Contracts
Contractual Management offers a holistic approach to managerial decision-making based on contracts or business processes that are related to contracts. It explains management from the point of view of the contract, just as it interprets the contract from the point of view of management. Thus, the approach highlights the great inherent potential of contracts for managing companies, transactions and business relationships.
Contemporary management of acute and chronic venous disease
With a focus on evidence-based, contemporary, and clinically relevant information, this practical new resource provides a concise, clinical, and techniques-focused guide to the medical, endovenous, and surgical management of patients with acute and chronic venous disease. Internationally recognized chapter authors cover the general principles of the pathophysiology, diagnosis, indications, and decision-making around the management of acute and chronic venous disease. The text emphasizes endovenous and surgical techniques where applicable, and also addresses symptomatic peripheral venous insufficiency, deep venous thrombosis, and the care of patients with symptomatic central venous disease.
Construction risk management decision making : Understanding current practices
Effective risk management is a vital component of all successful construction projects. Although quantitative tools for evaluating data and minimizing risk are readily available, construction managers commonly adopt a more innate, experience-based approach. In Construction Risk Management Decision Making, project manager and senior consultant Alex C. Arthur provides step-by-step advice on assessing and prioritizing risk using qualitative decision-making systems in the construction industry.
Conservation in the 21st century : Gorillas as a case study
this book is essential reading for primatologists, biologists, and conservationists searching for both a current assessment of the gorilla’s conservation status and, importantly, for ideas and tools that show promise of halting or reversing population declines and putting us on a path to achieving a stable, long-term co-existence of human and wildlife populations.
Condition Monitoring and Control for Intelligent Manufacturing
Manufacturing systems and processes are becoming increasingly complex, making more rational decision-making in process control a necessity. The book presents a wide and comprehensive review of the key areas of research in machine condition monitoring and control, before focusing on an in-depth treatment of each important technique, from multi-domain signal processing for defect diagnosis to web-based information delivery for real-time control.
Concrete gravity and arch dams on rock foundation
Presents and analyzes the designs of erected concrete dams, which allows for a better understanding of the approaches and decision-making principles for designing dams, taking into account the specifics of natural, construction, and other conditions, and also analyzes a number of new solutions that reflect the various ways that engineering theory and practice has sought further improvement of concrete dams.



















