Academic literature on the topic 'Decision support systems (DSS)'

Nelle ultime decadi, l'incremento dell'efficienza di un Sistema di Trasporto Pubblico urbano (STP) sta assumendo un ruolo chiave nello sviluppo della società moderna. Ciononostante, la realtà è piuttosto lontana da un "mondo STP ideale", in cui i Trasporti Pubblici urbani non hanno particolari problemi nel fornire servizi efficaci ed efficienti nelle grandi citta. La realtà ci racconta che i gestori dei sistemi di trasporto urbano, nella maggior parte delle grandi città, stanno incontrando difficoltà sempre crescenti a mantenere alti livelli di efficienza. Per rispondere a questi problemi, in questo lavoro, vengono presentate tre proposte differenti. Innanzitutto è stato realizzato un framework volto a facilitare la progettazione di un sistema di monitoraggio nel settore dei trasporti pubblici, adottando lo standard europeo Transmodel come modello di riferimento. Il sistema proposto viene realizzato partendo dalla definizione di una "Knowledge Base" rappresentante una concettualizzazione del dominio del trasporto pubblico, al si sopra della quale vengono sviluppate una serie di funzionalità "logic-based". La seconda soluzione proposta consiste nell'implementazione di un algoritmo di previsione utilizzato per predire il tempo di arrivo alla fermate dell'autobus nelle aree urbane, permettendo di migliorare la percezione dei viaggiatori sulla qualità del servizio offerto. Negli ultimi anni, oltre ai modelli formati da un singolo algoritmo (chiamati "Modelli semplici"), sono emersi modelli formati dalla composizione di più algoritmi (chiamati "Modelli ibridi"). In questo lavoro viene fornita una panoramica di "Modelli ibridi" confrontandone, allo stesso tempo, le prestazioni con "Modelli semplici" applicandoli ad un caso di studio reale. Da tale studio emerge che i "Modelli ibridi" superano le prestazioni "Modelli semplici" in ogni esperimento eseguito. Il terzo modello proposto si focalizza sullo studio di una metodologia "umbalanced" applicabile a sistemi di visione per risolvere le problematiche legate alla gestione del traffico, come, ad esempio, la ricerca di parcheggi. A tale scopo viene sviluppata un'applicazione software per ottimizzare la fruizione dei parcheggi minimizzando, allo stesso tempo, il traffico causato dalla ricerca degli stessi. A causa della mancanza di dati utilizzabili, al fine di valutare comunque la qualità della metodologia proposta, tale modello è stato testato con il problema di rilevamento automatico di edifici a partire da dati aerei LIDAR. Il problema della Building Detection automatica a partire da dati aerei, in letteratura, rappresenta un dominio applicativo notoriamente "difficile" da affrontare, a causa lo squilibrio che caratterizza i set di dati utilizzati. Il metodo proposto sfrutta l'algoritmo di Baesyan Vector Quantizer (BVQ) ed, al fine di verificarne l'efficienza in domini applicativi fortemente "umbalanced", è stato confrontato con altre metodologie note, come Adaboost o Metacost, in un vero e proprio caso di studio reale. I set di dati utilizzati sono formati da quattro classi fortemente sbilanciate (edificio, vegetazione alta, vegetazione bassa e strade) ed i risultati ottenuti hanno dimostrato che BVQ supera le prestazioni delle altre metodologie nella totalità degli esperimenti eseguiti.<br>In the last years, the significance of improving efficiency of urban Public Transport Systems (PTSs) is taking a key role in the development of modern society. In an ideal world, urban PTSs have no particular problems in providing effective and efficient services that improve the Quality of Life (QoL) of people living in big urban areas. An efficient service would also help to solve some additional problems, such as air pollution and traffic congestions that often afflict high density urban areas. The reality, however, is that urban transportation systems in most big cities are far from ideal. Managers of PTSs services are experiencing ever greater difficulties in maintaining high levels of efficiency due to the ever-increasing congestion affecting the major urban centers. In order to face these issues and, at the same time, improve the efficiency of PTSs services, three different proposals are introduced. First, a framework, aimed to ease the design of a monitoring system in the public transport domain, has been realized by adopting the European standard Transmodel as reference model for a generic PTS system. The proposed framework is built around the definition of a knowledge base that includes a conceptualization of the public transportation domain, on the top of which a set of logic-based functionalities are developed. The second improvement proposed, consists in the implementation of a forecasting algorithm in order to predict arrival time at bus stop in urban areas that allows to improve the travelers' perception of the Quality of Service offered. In literature, several type of algorithms have been tested in order to predict arrival time at bus stops. However, in recent years, in addition to models formed by a single algorithm (called Simple Models), models formed by the composition of more algorithms (called Hybrid Models) have emerged. An overview of Hybrid Models has been performed by comparing them with Simple Models in a real-world case study from which resulted that the Hybrid Models outperform Simple Models in every experiment performed. The third improvement proposed regards the study of the impact of an "umbalanced" methodology in vision systems able to solve various issues related to traffic management such as parking discovery and occupational turnaround in order to develop a software application to optimize their employment and, in the same time, minimize traffic caused by parking lot search. Unfortunately PluService company, which provided the data to develop the entire work, had no dataset that can be used for the proposed purpose, and, for this reason, in order to assess the quality of the proposed methodology, it has been tested with building detection problem from LIDAR aerial data. Building Detection from aerial data, in literature, represents a notoriously "difficult" application domain to face, cause the imbalance that characterizes the datasets used. The proposed method takes advantage of the Baesyan Vector Quantizer (BVQ) algorithm and, in order to verify its efficiency in strongly umbalanced application domains, it has been compared with other well known methodologies, like Adaboost or Metacost, in a real-world case study. The datasets used are formed by four strongly imbalanced classes (building, high vegetation, low vegetation and streets) and the obtained results demonstrated that BVQ outperform the other methodologies applied in the totality of experiments performed.

<p>The main purpose of this research is to use Hermeneutic research approach to find out how Decision Support System (DSS) is used in banks and financial services. The research started from one stance, from which the further process could be extended to reach more complete picture of Decision Support System’s usage in strategic decision makings in banks. The research is also trying to find out the drawbacks and benefits of the DSS which have been used nowadays in banks. Furthermore, the future improvements of using DSS to make better decisions related with moral and different environments are also being discussed in the research findings.</p><p>During the primary data collection, resources from different channels have been used to support the research. The primary data sources include lectures and discussion in three banks’ visiting opportunities in Stockholm, Sweden, one interview with IT Vice president from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, New York, two interviews with a professor and a director respectively from Lund University and Financial Services Innovation Centre in University College Cork, Ireland.</p><p>Experiences from both academic and practical have been shared to strength the research’s validity and trustworthiness. Hermeneutic research approach addresses through the whole research process which needs to be open-minded and flexible.</p><p>Unawareness of DSS for people who are working in banks is one of the issues today. Different embedded models regarding various functions are not so clear to bank staff; thus there is a gap between human decisions and system decisions. There is a variation of requirements between central banks, retail banks, commercial banks, investment banks. Hence there should be a differentiation when implementing a system. Banking systems are widespread systems which are influenced by environment factors, political, economic, socio-cultural and technological variables.</p>

Thesis (M.S. in Information Technology Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2003.<br>Thesis advisor(s): Daniel R. Dolk, Glenn Cook. Includes bibliographical references (p. 113-114). Also available online.

Decisions Support Systems (DSSs) are used to enhance decision maker speed and effectiveness. However, without a view of an entire system, any decision may have unanticipated effects such as sub-optimal outcomes. The purpose of this research is to show that with a system-level analysis, more informed decisions can be made that take into account a larger system or greater number of dimensions or objectives. This research also explores the benefits of using a DSS over analysis of unprocessed data and the effectiveness of integrating a product design generator (PDG) with a business DSS, creating a system DSS, where system-level effects can be analyzed. These are connected using software which allows them to be interactive, and dynamically updating. After this DSS was developed a variation was also made and decision makers evaluated these tools to identify how they performed in comparison to each other. In one variation, aspects of the tool were split up, guiding the decision maker through the analysis while the other did not. Using survey questions and recording decision makers' actions, it was found that decision makers are significantly faster and came to better conclusions when using the DSS over unprocessed data. However, it was also seen that the difference between the two variants of the System DSS tests was insignificant. This suggests that the limits in potential interactions in the one variant of a system DSS did not substantially reduce the ability of a decision maker to explore and make good design decisions. Overall this research showed that having a system-level tool is better than the unprocessed data, and that more extreme differences in a DSS are required for improved comparisons to establish which visualizations and elements are most effective in a System DSS. Future effort should be made to completely isolate different portions of the System DSS and see how well users are able to make decisions with it compared to the full system analysis.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited<br>This thesis explores the Bahrain Defense Force (BDF) needs for a decision support system in the area of analyzing, establishing and maintaining the organizational structures of BDF units. It also identifies the BDF measures that must be taken to qualify a certain unit structure. Subsequently, the thesis designs and develops a specific DSS prototype that can aid BDF decision makers and planners perspectives in this area. Creating this prototype has involved three different layers to be investigated: the data, the models and the user interfaces. The data layer consists of a Microsoft Access database application that houses BDF Units, Manpower, Vehicles, Weapons, Salaries, and Jobs information. The model layer consists of two Microsoft Excel spreadsheets that contain Infantry Battalion and enhanced Armor Battalion HR optimization models. The UI layer consists of user controls, input/output forms, queries, reports, and visualization aids (i.e. charts and pivot tables). These interfaces were developed using MS Access capabilities. Consequently, the BDF-DSS is an integration of database and optimization technology using widely available desktop tools. The general benefits of this DSS are reduced costs for data gathering, computation, and data presentation, and added value resulting from investigating more alternatives, doing more sophisticated analyses of alternatives, using better methods of comparing alternatives, and making quicker and better decisions.<br>Bahrain Defense Force author.<br>Major, Bahrain Defense Force

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) structures long-term plans for Europe's threatened water resources. Owning to the inherent and human-made complexities of the water cycle, stakeholders must move strategically to avoid crisis and restore sustainability. Yet, the reality of water resource management today is falling short on delivery. Stakeholders require strategic tools that will help them to build consensus and take action in the right direction. Using the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD), this study shows how Decision Support Systems can be strategically improved using a whole-systems approach grounded in basic Principles for Sustainability. In this way, stakeholders will be capable of making synchronized moves towards sustainability and thus more likely to realize the WFD’s goal of ‘good status’ for all European waterways by 2015.

This research investigates the practical issues surrounding the development and implementation of Decision Support Systems (DSS). The research describes the traditional development approaches analyzing their drawbacks and introduces a new DSS development methodology. The proposed DSS methodology is based upon four modules; needs' analysis, data warehouse (DW), knowledge discovery in database (KDD), and a DSS module. The proposed DSS methodology is applied to and evaluated using the admission and registration functions in Egyptian Universities. The research investigates the organizational requirements that are required to underpin these functions in Egyptian Universities. These requirements have been identified following an in-depth survey of the recruitment process in the Egyptian Universities. This survey employed a multi-part admission and registration DSS questionnaire (ARDSSQ) to identify the required data sources together with the likely users and their information needs. The questionnaire was sent to senior managers within the Egyptian Universities (both private and government) with responsibility for student recruitment, in particular admission and registration. Further, access to a large database has allowed the evaluation of the practical suitability of using a data warehouse structure and knowledge management tools within the decision making framework. 1600 students' records have been analyzed to explore the KDD process, and another 2000 records have been used to build and test the data mining techniques within the KDD process. Moreover, the research has analyzed the key characteristics of data warehouses and explored the advantages and disadvantages of such data structures. This evaluation has been used to build a data warehouse for the Egyptian Universities that handle their admission and registration related archival data. The decision makers' potential benefits of the data warehouse within the student recruitment process will be explored. The design of the proposed admission and registration DSS (ARDSS) will be developed and tested using Cool: Gen (5.0) CASE tools by Computer Associates (CA), connected to a MSSQL Server (6.5), in a Windows NT (4.0) environment. Crystal Reports (4.6) by Seagate will be used as a report generation tool. CLUST AN Graphics (5.0) by CLUST AN software will also be used as a clustering package. Finally, the contribution of this research is found in the following areas: A new DSS development methodology; The development and validation of a new research questionnaire (i.e. ARDSSQ); The development of the admission and registration data warehouse; The evaluation and use of cluster analysis proximities and techniques in the KDD process to find knowledge in the students' records; And the development of the ARDSS software that encompasses the advantages of the KDD and DW and submitting these advantages to the senior admission and registration managers in the Egyptian Universities. The ARDSS software could be adjusted for usage in different countries for the same purpose, it is also scalable to handle new decision situations and can be integrated with other systems.

This thesis deals relationship between geographical information systems and decision support systems. Its objective is to verify hypothesis, if it is possible to consider geographical information systems as decision support systems. Opening chapter attends to explanation what is GIS and its usage in practise. Second part is engaged in definition of decision support systems. There are some examples from practise, which help us confirm or refuse the hypothesis, in the last chapter.

The development and use of web-enabled tools for watershed modeling and decision-making have gained popularity lately with the increase in internet speed and accessibility. Most of the web-enabled tools available today address the watershed problems related to a narrow discipline like hydrology, or ecology etc. This thesis presents the work done in the development of a web-enabled integrated system, named WebL2W, which can address watershed problems in a more holistic approach.<p> WebL2W integrates models from hydrology, economics, and biology in a single shell. The integration is performed using GIS as a common platform for database and interface management. A user accesses the system over the web and chooses pre-selected land development patterns to create a 'what if' scenario. The hydrologic model simulates effects of the scenario on annual runoff volume, flood peaks of various return periods, and ground water recharge. The economics model evaluates the changes in land value, tax revenue, and government expenditures as a result of the new land development scenario. The biology model evaluates effects of new land uses to fish habitats in the watershed. The design of the system is based on current software engineering practices such as object oriented programming (OOP) and relational database management system (RDBMS). The implementation uses the Visual Basic programming environment and Active Server Pages. </p><br>Master of Science