This book is about understanding feminist theories and feminist economics through a multi-paradigmatic approach. For this purpose, the book starts with a discussion of four most diverse worldviews or paradigms (i.e., functionalist, interpretive, radical humanist, radical structuralist). Then, it discusses six relevant social aspects (i.e., human nature, feminist theories, family, patriarchy, discrimination, feminist economics) from the viewpoints of the four most diverse worldviews or paradigms. Next, the book looks at some of the writings in the feminist theories and feminist economics literature (such as: feminist research, feminist education, economics versus sociology, and men versus women) from the point of view of the multi-paradigmatic approach to gain a better understanding of the differences. The book concludes by recommending paradigm diversity. This book crosses two existing lines of literature: social philosophy and feminism. The book maintains that social theory can usefully be conceived in terms of four broad paradigms: functionalist, interpretive, radical humanist, and radical structuralist. The book emphasizes that the four paradigms are equally scientific and informative; each looks at a given phenomenon from a certain paradigmatic viewpoint. An understanding of different paradigms leads to a broader and balanced understanding of the phenomenon. Overall, the book advocates paradigm diversity.

This book pulls together many perspectives on the theory, methods and practice of drawing judgments from panels of experts in assessing risks and making decisions in complex circumstances. The book is divided into four parts: Structured Expert Judgment (SEJ) current research fronts; the contributions of Roger Cooke and the Classical Model he developed; process, procedures and education; and applications. After an Introduction by the Editors, the first part presents chapters on expert elicitation of parameters of multinomial models; the advantages of using performance weighting by advancing the "random expert" hypothesis; expert elicitation for specific graphical models; modelling dependencies between experts' assessments within a Bayesian framework; preventive maintenance optimization in a Bayesian framework; eliciting life time distributions to parametrize a Dirichlet process; and on an adversarial risk analysis approach for structured expert judgment studies. The second part includes Roger Cooke's oration from 1995 on taking up his chair at Delft University of Technology; one of the editors reflections on the early decade of the Classical Model development and use; a current overview of the theory of the Classical Model, providing a deep and comprehensive perspective on its foundations and its application; and an interview with Roger Cooke. The third part starts with an interview with Professor Dame Anne Glover, who served as the Chief Scientific Advisor to the President of the European Commission. It then presents chapters on the characteristics of good elicitations by reviewing those advocated and applied; the design and development of a training course for SEJ; and on specific experiences with SEJ protocols with the intention of presenting the challenges and insights collected during these journeys. Finally, the fourth (and largest) part begins with some reflections from Willy Aspinall on his many experiences in applying the Classical Model in several application domains; it continues with related reflections on imperfect elicitations; and then it presents chapters with applications on medicines policy and management, supply chain cyber risk management, geo-political risks, terrorism and the risks facing businesses looking to internationalise.

This book comes out from the materials I used to refer while doing my research on the optimization issues in logistics. I brought together some of these materials to form a guidance material on the fundamentals of the optimization concepts along with my own studies on the application of optimization methods. This book consists of two parts and six chapters. The first part of the book, which consists of three chapters, is about introduction to optimization with typical base problems and algorithms for solving problems. The second part of this book consists of three my own researches on the application of optimization methods. Each chapter in this book is independent of each other. I hope you will find this book useful, informative, beneficial and appropriate for your needs.

We are in increasingly uncertain times where senior executives are looking for high level and practical business advice from experts and peers on what works - what doesn't and how to navigate their way through the challenges of modern corporate life. Inside the Leaders' Club is based on discussions with business leaders who share their expert tips. It will cover all elements of leadership from how to manage a business to examining what the role of a business leader is in tackling climate change. This book offers leadership advice through the insights of our world class speakers and practical advice through the shared experiences and expertise of the senior executives who are members of the FT Forums - expertly curated, analysed and presented by senior FT editors.

This book includes a spectrum of concepts, such as performance, productivity, operations research, econometrics, and data science, for the practically and theoretically important areas of 'productivity analysis/data envelopment analysis' and 'data science/big data'. Data science is defined as the collection of scientific methods, processes, and systems dedicated to extracting knowledge or insights from data and it develops on concepts from various domains, containing mathematics and statistical methods, operations research, machine learning, computer programming, pattern recognition, and data visualisation, among others. Examples of data science techniques include linear and logistic regressions, decision trees, Naive Bayesian classifier, principal component analysis, neural networks, predictive modelling, deep learning, text analysis, survival analysis, and so on, all of which allow using the data to make more intelligent decisions. On the other hand, it is without a doubt that nowadays the amount of data is exponentially increasing, and analysing large data sets has become a key basis of competition and innovation, underpinning new waves of productivity growth. This book aims to bring a fresh look onto the various ways that data science techniques could unleash value and drive productivity from these mountains of data. Researchers working in productivity analysis/data envelopment analysis will benefit from learning about the tools available in data science/big data that can be used in their current research analyses and endeavours. The data scientists, on the other hand, will also get benefit from learning about the plethora of applications available in productivity analysis/data envelopment analysis.

Resilient people are happier, healthier, and more productive. Psychologist and business writer Adrian Furnham takes a sideways and entertaining look at the challenges of being a leader, demonstrating how resilience can be honed, developed, and used as a personal life raft to keep afloat in the face of adversity.

1. Introduction to Bayesian Methods in Reliability.- 1. Why Bayesian Methods?.- 1.1 Sparse data.- 1.2 Decision problems.- 2. Bayes' Theorem.- 3. Examples from a Safety Study on Gas transmission Pipelines.- 3.1 Estimating the probability of the development of a big hole.- 3.2 Estimating the leak rate of a gas transmission pipeline.- 4. Conclusions.- References.- 2. An Overview of the Bayesian Approach.- 1. Background.- 2. Probability Concepts.- 3. Notation.- 4. Reliability Concepts and Models.- 5. Forms of Data.- 6. Statistical Problems.- 7. Review of Non-Bayesian Statistical Methods.- 8. Desiderata for Decision-Oriented Statistical Methodology.- 9. Decision-Making.- 10. Degrees of Belief as Probabilities.- 11. Bayesian Statistical Philosophy.- 12. A Simple Illustration of Bayesian Learning.- 13. Bayesian Approaches to Typical Statistical Questions.- 14. Assessment of Prior Densities.- 15. Bayesian Inference for some Univariate Probability Models.- 16. Approximate Analysis under Great Prior Uncertainty.- 17. Problems Involving many Parameters: Empirical Bayes.- 18. Numerical Methods for Practical Bayesian Statistics.- References.- 3. Reliability Modelling and Estimation.- 1. Non-Repairable Systems.- 1.1 Introduction.- 1.2 Describing reliability.- 1.3 Failure time distributions.- 2. Estimation.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 Classical methods.- 2.3 Bayesian methods.- 3. Reliability estimation.- 3.1 Introduction.- 3.2 Binomial sampling.- 3.3 Pascal sampling.- 3.4 Poisson sampling.- 3.5 Hazard rate estimation.- References.- 4. Repairable Systems and Growth Models.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Good as New: the Renewal Process.- 3. Estimation.- 4. The Poisson Process.- 5. Bad as old: the Non-Homogeneous Poisson Process.- 6. Classical Estimation.- 7. Exploratory Analysis.- 8. The Duane Model.- 9. Bayesian Analysis.- References.- 5. The Use of Expert Judgement in Risk Assessment.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Independence Preservation.- 3. The Quality of Experts' Judgement.- 4. Calibration Sets and Seed Variables.- 5. A Classical Model.- 6. Bayesian Models.- 7. Some Experimental Results.- References.- 6. Forecasting Software Reliability.- 1. Introduction.- 2. The Software Reliability Growth Problem.- 3. Some Software Reliability Growth Models.- 3.1 Jelinski and Moranda (JM).- 3.2 Bayesian Jelinski-Moranda (BJM).- 3.3 Littlewood (L).- 3.4 Littlewood and Verrall (LV).- 3.5 Keiller and Littlewood (KL).- 3.6 Weibull order statistics (W).- 3.7 Duane (D).- 3.8 Goel-Okumoto (GO).- 3.9 Littlewood NHPP (LNHPP).- 4. Examples of Use.- 5. Analysis of Predictive Quality.- 5.1 The u-plot.- 5.2 The y-plot, and scatter plot of u's.- 5.3 Measures of 'noise'.- 5.3.1 Braun statistic.- 5.3.2 Median variability.- 5.3.3 Rate variability.- 5.4 Prequential likelihood.- 6. Examples of Predictive Analysis.- 7. Adapting and Combining Predictions; Future Directions.- 8 Summary and Conclusions.- Acknowledgements.- References.- References.- Author index.

A New York Times bestseller * A New York Times Notable Book "The tale of how Konnikova followed a story about poker players and wound up becoming a story herself will have you riveted, first as you learn about her big winnings, and then as she conveys the lessons she learned both about human nature and herself." -The Washington Post It's true that Maria Konnikova had never actually played poker before and didn't even know the rules when she approached Erik Seidel, Poker Hall of Fame inductee and winner of tens of millions of dollars in earnings, and convinced him to be her mentor. But she knew her man: a famously thoughtful and broad-minded player, he was intrigued by her pitch that she wasn't interested in making money so much as learning about life. She had faced a stretch of personal bad luck, and her reflections on the role of chance had led her to a giant of game theory, who pointed her to poker as the ultimate master class in learning to distinguish between what can be controlled and what can't. And she certainly brought something to the table, including a Ph.D. in psychology and an acclaimed and growing body of work on human behavior and how to hack it. So Seidel was in, and soon she was down the rabbit hole with him, into the wild, fiercely competitive, overwhelmingly masculine world of high-stakes Texas Hold'em, their initial end point the following year's World Series of Poker. But then something extraordinary happened. Under Seidel's guidance, Konnikova did have many epiphanies about life that derived from her new pursuit, including how to better read, not just her opponents but far more importantly herself; how to identify what tilted her into an emotional state that got in the way of good decisions; and how to get to a place where she could accept luck for what it was, and what it wasn't. But she also began to win. And win. In a little over a year, she began making earnest money from tournaments, ultimately totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. She won a major title, got a sponsor, and got used to being on television, and to headlines like "How one writer's book deal turned her into a professional poker player." She even learned to like Las Vegas. But in the end, Maria Konnikova is a writer and student of human behavior, and ultimately the point was to render her incredible journey into a container for its invaluable lessons. The biggest bluff of all, she learned, is that skill is enough. Bad cards will come our way, but keeping our focus on how we play them and not on the outcome will keep us moving through many a dark patch, until the luck once again breaks our way.

Provides a blueprint for your company's sustained and profitable growth. Let's face it: sustained business growth doesn't just happen. Growth must be planned for and executed, cultivated from a strategic standpoint and applied tactically at the frontline, led by the right people, and focused on the right objectives. The Growth Advantage provides a blueprint for sustained and profitable growth for any business. It is designed to help companies build the ultimate competitive edge. The book is broken into three parts that outline the Planning Advantage, the Execution Advantage, and the Company Advantage, which will help you align your company with its goals. The Growth Advantage cracks open the business secrets that teach companies how to achieve that dream of steady, predictable growth through effective planning and solid execution. Readers learn how their company can develop and sustain a blueprint for growth that guides company actions on a daily and weekly basis. Combining elements of culture, strategy, planning, execution, talent acquisition, training, motivation, accountability, and brand differentiation into one book with clear, actionable steps, Bob Lisser brings readers along a journey that starts with a plan and ends with success.

The encounter, in the late seventies, between the theory of triangular norms, issuing frorn stochastic geornetry, especially the works of Menger, Schweizer and Sklar, on the one band, and the theory of fuzzy sets due to Zadeh, 10n the other band has been very fruitful. Triangular norms have proved to be ready-rnade mathematical rnodels of fuzzy set intersections and have shed light on the algebraic foundations of fuzzy sets. One basic idea behind the study of triangular norms is to solve functional equations that stern frorn prescribed axioms describing algebraic properties such as associativity. Alternative operations such as rneans have been characterized in a similar way by Kolmogorov, for instance, and the rnethods for solving functional equations are now weil established thanks to the efforts of Aczel, among others. One can say without overstaternent that the introduction of triangular norms in fuzzy sets has strongly influenced further developrnents in fuzzy set theory, and has significantly contributed to its better acceptance in pure and applied rnathematics circles. The book by Fodor and Roubens systematically exploits the benefits of this encounter in the- analysis of fuzzy relations. The authors apply functional equation rnethods to notions such as equivalence relations, and various kinds of orderings, for the purpose of preference rnodelling. Centtal to this book is the rnultivalued extension of the well-known result claiming that any relation expressing weak preference can be separated into three cornponents respectively describing strict preference, indifference and incomparability.

Discover true leadership with this actionable guide from a world renowned leadership expert, psychoanalyst, and executive coach In Leading Wisely: Becoming a Reflective Leader in Turbulent Times, renowned leadership expert, psychoanalyst and executive coach Manfred Kets De Vries delivers an insightful and unique exploration of what it means to lead with wisdom. The book demonstrates that exclusive reliance on knowledge, data, and information yields a superficial leadership style lacking in depth and discernment. What's more important in the wisdom equation is possessing humility, judgment, empathy, compassion, and night vision. With eleven chapters full of anecdotes and tales from a variety of spiritual and cultural traditions that enrich and lend a deeper significance to the choices we make as leaders and members of organizations, Leading Wisely provides readers with: A thorough exploration of dealing with negative--but entirely natural motivations, like envy and greed An emphasis on the Golden Rule--treating others as we like to be treated ourselves An opportunity to be courageous--to consciously and intentionally pick our battles, saving energy for what really matters Lessons on how to listen intently and actively, truly hearing what our colleagues, friends, family, and followers are saying before reacting Finding happiness within ourselves Leading Wisely: Becoming a Reflective Leader in Turbulent Times is a startlingly incisive book, filled with messages that make the book required reading for anyone in a position of leadership or power. It also belongs in the libraries of well-being and health practitioners who frequently deal with businesspeople as clients or patients.

This book has resulted from the activities of IFAC TC 5.2 "Manufacturing Modelling for Management and Control". The book offers an introduction and advanced techniques of scheduling applications to cloud manufacturing and Industry 4.0 systems for larger audience. This book uncovers fundamental principles and recent developments in the theory and application of scheduling methodology to cloud manufacturing and Industry 4.0. The purpose of this book is to present recent developments in scheduling in cloud manufacturing and Industry 4.0 and to systemize these developments in new taxonomies and methodological principles to shape this new research domain. This book addresses the needs of both researchers and practitioners to uncover the challenges and opportunities of scheduling techniques' applications to cloud manufacturing and Industry 4.0. For the first time, it comprehensively conceptualizes scheduling in cloud manufacturing and Industry 4.0 systems as a new research domain. The chapters of the book are written by the leading international experts and utilize methods of operations research, industrial engineering and computer science. Such a multi-disciplinary combination is unique and comprehensively deciphers major problem taxonomies, methodologies, and applications to scheduling in cloud manufacturing and Industry 4.0.

This business book is great for leaders, middle managers and entrepreneurs interested in the following categories; STRATEGY, LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT, ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Choose from the seven value plays to set the broad direction the firm should head in, and gain your competitive advantage. Each play has an associated set of capabilities which deliver customer value efficiently:

SPECIALIZATION - choose to focus on a single product or product group and compete through superior product performance.

ADAPTIVE - increase the system’s ability to respond to changing circumstances, particularly to changing customer needs.

LOW COST - Deliver equivalent product quality compared to competitors but with a continual and relentless focus on cost reduction

INNOVATION - Competing through product innovations.

EXCELLENCE - Continuous incremental improvement of product or service quality

NO-FRILLS - Serve price sensitive customers with a stripped down alternative product or service.

TARGETING - Focus on a specific market segment and serve the needs of these customers more effectively than less targeted rivals.

Built on insights from research into economics, strategy, organization theory and complexity science, you’ll discover a practical approach to creating value for your business in turbulent times, with advice on how to enable these plays with the structures, systems and culture of your business.

This book examines Foreign Direct Investment of major Korean automotive companies in Europe, with particular reference to how economic integration has affected the motivations and patterns of FDI and industrial location. The book is a valuable source of information on FDI, the automobile industry in Europe and South Korea and business decision-making process in general.

The ‘IT Productivity Paradox’ is the concept that, despite massive investment and resourcing by companies and organizations worldwide in their IT systems, there still seems to be little pay-off. Information systems can no longer be viewed as a support service for a business — information technology now has a lead role to play in the strategic planning processes of any organization. As we move further and further into a technology-based working environment, a critical question is how the value of IT can be measured and evaluated. This book brings together a group of the most eminent academic and practitioner thinkers in the area, to consolidate what we know about best IT evaluation practice in a comprehensive and integrated manner, and also provide new ways forward. The key to understanding the productivity paradox is the methods of IT measurement used. Improved measurement can not only reveal that IT has often been more productive than is believed, but can also focus in on ways in which benefits can be improved across the IT systems life-cycle. Critical areas where improved assessment is essential include development, and better risk analysis; sourcing, including IT outsourcing; and infrastructure, including transforming an organization’s IT architecture. The authors also take a look at stakeholder interests as a part of the overall evaluation process. Contributors to this volume have been selected not only for their status in the IS field generally, but also for their reputation in the IT evaluation area. As this topic gains increasing prominence as IT expenditure continues to increase, this book will be an invaluable reference for academics and practitioners alike in the areas of information systems, IT evaluation and assessment and IT management.

Inquiring Organizations: Moving from Knowledge Management to Wisdom' assembles into one volume a comprehensive collection of the key current thinking regarding the use of C. West Churchman's Design of Inquiring Systems as a basis for computer-based inquiring systems design and implementation. Inquiring systems are systems that go beyond knowledge management to actively inquire about their environment. While self-adaptive is an appropriate adjective for inquiring systems, they are critically different from self-adapting systems as they have evolved in the fields of computer science or artificial intelligence. Inquiring systems draw on epistemology to guide knowledge creation and organizational learning. As such, we can for the first time ever, begin to entertain the notion of support for wise"" decision-making. Readers of ""Inquiring Organizations: Moving from Knowledge Management to Wisdom"" will gain an appreciation for the role that epistemology can play in the design of the next generation of knowledge management systems, systems that focus on supporting wise decision-making processes.

The concept of the business model has become very popular in the strategy and innovation literature's. Recent research has acknowledged its cognitive underpinnings, its status as a mental construct, and has highlighted how managers' cognitive and social sense-making patterns influence business model design and how shared logics enable innovation. Yet, the specific cognitive underpinnings of business models, though often mentioned, are rarely explicitly studied. Business Models and Cognition addresses this gap by focusing directly on intersections between business model studies and cognitive studies. Gathering an international, multidisciplinary team of business model and cognition scholars, this book not only identifies surprising connections between these two existing literature's, but also offers new reflections on future avenues of research for both in order to explore the cognitive foundations of business modelling. For its interdisciplinary scope, scholarly rigor, and novel insights, this fourth volume of the New Horizons in Managerial and Organizational Cognition is a must-read for scholars and students of business, strategy and cognition, and it is of keen interest to executives and managers eager to reflect critically on their own understanding of the "business model" as a concept.

This book contains an Open Access chapter. Over the past two decades, the field of talent management has established itself as a key area of management practice and research. Emerging from the practitioner literature in the 1990s, the research evidence bases truly materialised in the late 2000s onwards. The launch of the EIASM Workshop on Talent Management in 2012 coincided with this surge in research interest, and we are now in a critical time in the evolution of our understanding of talent management. Talent Management: A Decade of Developments presents valuables insights into the progression in the critical understanding of talent management, building upon a decade of the EIASM Workshops. Bringing together leading voices in talent management research to reflect on recent developments and the current state of research, examining key issues such as talent philosophies, star performers, talent turnover and retention. Aimed at researchers, postgraduate students, and professionals in the field, this collection features the leading experts in their respective areas within talent management. Talent Management: A Decade of Developments charts the evolution of talent management, illustrating the progress, prospects, and challenges that have transpired over the last ten years.

Focusing on modern business systems from within the modern Russian context, this book examines how companies can become leading competitors globally within their industries through new decision making processes. Whilst current practices support the sustainability of a business system in terms of maintaining normal functionality and the prevention of crises, there is a need to consider the goals of leading organizations with larger business systems and greater resources. These goals can be more global in their focus and envisage the creation or strengthening of competitive advantages. Contributors of this book explore large scale industries specializing in hi-tech spheres of economy and instigate innovative activity in the face of high-levels of competition. Specific industries analyzed in this content include digital medicine, energy efficiency and car manufacturers. Using models of optimization and a range of real-world case studies, the book provides tools, technological analysis and techniques for practitioners to use within their own decision-making practices. For scholars researching business management, leadership and decision-making, this book also offers a useful insight into how optimized decision-making processes can be applied to the modern business system.

Aiding Decisions With Multiple Criteria: Essays in Honor of Bernard Roy is organized around two broad themes: * Graph Theory with path-breaking contributions on the theory of flows in networks and project scheduling, * Multiple Criteria Decision Aiding with the invention of the family of ELECTRE methods and methodological contribution to decision-aiding which lead to the creation of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). Professor Bernard Roy has had considerable influence on the development of these two broad areas. GBP/LISTGBP Part one contains papers by Jacques Lesourne, and Dominique de Werra & Pierre Hansen related to the early career of Bernard Roy when he developed many new techniques and concepts in Graph Theory in order to cope with complex real-world problems. Part two of the book is devoted to Philosophy and Epistemology of Decision-Aiding with contributions from Valerie Belton & Jacques Pictet and Jean-Luis Genard & Marc Pirlot. Part three includes contributions based on Theory and Methodology of Multi-Criteria Decision-Aiding based on a general framework for conjoint measurement that allows intrasitive preferences. Denis Bouyssou & Marc Pirlot; Alexis Tsoukias, Patrice Perny & Philippe Vincke; Luis Dias & Joao Climaco; Daniel Vanderpooten; Michael Doumpos & Constantin Zopounidis; and Marc Roubens offer a considerable range of examinations of this aspect of MCDA. Part four is devoted to Perference Modeling with contributions from Peter Fishburn; Salvatore Greco, Benedetto Matarazzo & Roman Slowinski; Salem Benferhat, Didier Dubois & Henri Prade; Oscar Franzese & Mark McCord; Bertrand Munier; and Raymond Bisdorff. Part five groups Applications of Multi-Criteria Decision-Aiding, and Carlos Henggeler Antunes, Carla Oliveira & Joao Climaco; Carlos Bana e Costa, Manuel da Costa-Lobo, Isabel Ramos & Jean-Claude Vansnick; Yannis Siskos & Evangelos Grigoroudis; Jean-Pierre Brans, Pierre Kunsch & Bertrand Mareschal offer a wide variety of application problems. Finally, Part six includes contributions on Multi-Objective Mathematical Programming from Jacques Teghem, Walter Habenicht and Pekka Korhonen.

The tapestry of human behaviour in the marketplace today is turbulent, unpredictable, and chaotic. Yet it is also so diverse, rich and global that it presents a rare ethical and moral opportunity, and challenge, to out-behave competition and create enduring value. This is corporate ethics for corporate advantage. Corporate Ethics for Turbulent Markets: The Market Context of Executive Decisions focuses on the HOW of doing business - the economic, social, ethical, moral and spiritual values we bring to our business ventures - and how thereby we impact the world. The book focuses on the LEMS (legality, ethicality, morality, and spirituality) technique that we submit as a prescriptive benchmarking tool for all corporate thinking, deliberation, explanation, evaluation, choices, strategic implementation, accountability and moral responsibility. It demonstrates that by going beyond the legal obligation (legality) to do the "right thing" (ethicality), to do the "right thing rightly" (morality), and doing the "right thing rightly and for the right intentions" (spirituality), we can create a sure strategy for good decision making and implementation that can heal the world from its current addictions to corporate fraud in all its evil forms. Envisioning a moral reawakening, this book will challenge business students and executives alike to re-evaluate the moral justification of business choices, decisions, actions and their consequences. LEMS as a four-dimensional cross-checking skill for all that we think, do, become and be takes time and patience but it can surely heal an otherwise divided and broken world.

This book provides comprehensive coverage of the latest research on multiple criteria research analysis (MCDA) and related areas, gathering a collection of high-quality chapters prepared by leading scholars in the field. By covering the established streams in MCDA research and simultaneously exploring new and emerging areas of application, it offers a unique reference resource for the future development of MCDA. The book approaches MCDA as one of the most active areas in operations research and management science (OR/MS). It presents not only the significant advances achieved to date, but also the new opportunities and challenges arising for both the theory and practice of MCDA. Among many others, the book addresses behavioral and conceptual aspects of decision aiding and decision making, problem structuring issues in the framework of new technological and socio-economic advances, methodological and algorithmic advances for analytical modeling and decision aiding, as well as a number of new application areas in engineering, business, and the social sciences.