Interval-valued Fermatean fuzzy sets play a significant role in modelling decision-making problems with incomplete information more accurately than intuitionistic fuzzy sets. Various decision-making methods have been introduced for the different classes IFSs. In this study, we aim to introduce a novel two-phase interval-valued Fermatean fuzzy dominance method which suits the decision-making problems modelled under the IVFFS environment well and study its applications in the adoption of energy consumption in Urban mobility considering digital carbon footprint. The proposed method considers the importance and performance of one alternative with respect to all others, which is not the case with many available decision-making algorithms introduced in the literature. Transportation is one of the most significant sources of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Numerous potential remedies are proposed to reduce the quantity of GHG generated by transportation activities, including regulatory measures and public transit digitalization initiatives. Decision-makers, however, should consider the digital carbon footprint of such projects. This study proposes three alternatives for reducing GHG emissions from transportation activities: incremental adoption of digital technologies to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gases, disruptive digitalization technologies in urban mobility, and redesign of urban mobility using regulatory approaches and economic instruments. The proposed novel two-phase interval-valued Fermatean fuzzy dominance method will be utilized to rank these alternative projects in order of advantage. First, the problem is converted into a multi-criterion group decision-making problem. Then a novel two-phase interval-valued Fermatean fuzzy dominance method is designed and developed to rank the alternatives. The importance and advantage of the proposed two-phase method over other existing methods are discussed by using sensitivity and comparative analysis. The results indicate that rethinking urban mobility through governmental policies and economic tools is the least advantageous choice, while incremental adoption of digital technologies is the most advantageous.

Pavement strategy is critical for achieving sustainable transportation. However, the presence of many evaluation criteria, criteria tradeoffs, criteria conflict, and criteria importance categorize the evaluation and selection of pavement strategies under complex multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) problems. To date, no study has presented an evaluation framework for selecting the most optimal pavement strategy to be utilized as a way to achieve sustainable transportation considering multicriteria evaluation of pavement strategies and sustainable solutions. This article presents a pavement strategy selection based on a new extension of fuzzy MCDM methods. The methodology is developed in two phases. First, the evaluation decision matrix is formulated on the basis of intersecting the “evaluation criteria” and “pavement strategies list.” Second, the proposed MCDM methods are developed: multilayer dual hesitant fuzzy weighted zero inconsistency (DH-FWZIC) to assign weights to the pavement's evaluation criteria followed by dual hesitant fuzzy decision by opinion score method (DH-FDOSM) for selecting the best pavement strategy. Four alternatives, namely, flexible/asphalt, rigid/concrete, reflective, and permeable alternatives pavement strategies, are evaluated on the basis of 30 criteria. Results show the following. 1) The multilayer DH-FWZIC method has weighted the pavement strategies’ evaluation criteria at three layers in a consistent manner, showing that a region's environment criterion has the highest final weight (0.1215) and the lowest importance value (0.0089) assigned for its windy criterion. 2) According to DH-FDOSM, the flexible/asphalt pavement achieved the first rank among the four pavement strategies. Finally, the robustness of the developed framework was assessed by conducting sensitivity analysis and comparison study.

Efficient evaluation for machine learning (ML)-based intrusion detection systems (IDSs) for federated learning (FL) in the Internet of Medical Things (IoMTs) environment falls under the standardisation and multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) problems. Thus, this study is developing an MCDM framework for standardising and benchmarking the ML-based IDSs used in the FL architecture of IoMT applications. In the methodology, firstly, the evaluation criteria of ML-based IDSs are standardised using the fuzzy Delphi method (FDM). Secondly, the evaluation decision matrix (DM) is formulated based on the intersection of standardised evaluation criteria and a list of ML-based IDSs. Such formulation is achieved using a dataset with 125,973 records, and each record comprises 41 features. Thirdly, the integration of MCDM methods is formulated to determine the importance weights of the main and sub standardised security and performance criteria, followed by benchmarking and selecting the optimal ML-based IDSs. In this phase, the Borda voting method is used to unify the different ranks and perform a group benchmarking context. The following results are confirmed. (1) Using FDM, 17 out of 20 evaluation criteria (14 for security and 3 for performance) reach the consensus of experts. (2) The area under curve criterion has the lowest set of weights, whilst the CPU time criterion has the highest one. (3) VIKOR group ranking shows that the BayesNet is a best classifier, whilst SVM is the last choice. For evaluation, three assessments, namely, systematic ranking, computational cost and comparative analysis, are used.

Considering the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the government and health sectors are incapable of making fast and reliable decisions, particularly given the various effects of decisions on different contexts or countries across multiple sectors. Therefore, leaders often seek decision support approaches to assist them in such scenarios. The most common decision support approach used in this regard is multiattribute decision-making (MADM). MADM can assist in enforcing the most ideal decision in the best way possible when fed with the appropriate evaluation criteria and aspects. MADM also has been of great aid to practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, MADM shows resilience in mitigating consequences in health sectors and other fields. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the rise of MADM techniques in combating COVID-19 by presenting a systematic literature review of the state-of-the-art COVID-19 applications. Articles on related topics were searched in four major databases, namely, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, and Scopus, from the beginning of the pandemic in 2019 to April 2021. Articles were selected on the basis of the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the identified systematic review protocol, and a total of 51 articles were obtained after screening and filtering. All these articles were formed into a coherent taxonomy to describe the corresponding current standpoints in the literature. This taxonomy was drawn on the basis of four major categories, namely, medical (n = 30), social (n = 4), economic (n = 13) and technological (n = 4). Deep analysis for each category was performed in terms of several aspects, including issues and challenges encountered, contributions, data set, evaluation criteria, MADM techniques, evaluation and validation and bibliography analysis. This study emphasised the current standpoint and opportunities for MADM in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and promoted additional efforts towards understanding and providing new potential future directions to fulfil the needs of this study field.

The evaluation, importance and variation nature of multiple security and privacy properties are the main issues that make the benchmarking of blockchain-based IoT healthcare Industry 4.0 systems fall under the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. In this article, one of the recent MCDM weighting methods called fuzzy weighted with zero inconsistency (FWZIC) is effective for weighting the evaluation criteria subjectively without any inconsistency issues. However, considering the advantages of spherical fuzzy sets in providing a wide range of options to decision-makers and efficiently dealing with vagueness, hesitancy and uncertainty, this article formulated a new version of FWZIC for weighting the security and privacy properties, that is, spherical FWZIC (S-FWZIC). Moreover, an integrated MCDM framework was developed for benchmarking blockchain-based IoT healthcare Industry 4.0 systems on the basis of multi security and privacy properties. In the first phase of the methodology, a decision matrix is formulated based on the intersection of “blockchain-based Internet of Things healthcare Industry 4.0 systems” and “security and privacy properties” (i.e., user authentication, access control, privacy protection, integrity availability and anonymity). In the second phase, the weights of each security and privacy property are calculated through the S-FWZIC method. Then, these weights are employed to benchmark blockchain-based IoT healthcare Industry 4.0 systems through the combined grey relational analysis–technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (GRA-TOPSIS) and the bald eagle search (BES) optimization method. Results indicate the following: First, the S-FWZIC method efficiently weighs the security and privacy properties, indicating that access control has the highest significance weight of 0.2070, while integrity has the lowest weight (0.0646); and second, the combination of the GRA-TOPSIS and the BES optimization method effectively ranks the systems. The evaluation was conducted using sensitivity analysis, revealing high correlation results over all the discussed scenarios of changing the weights of the criteria. The implications of this article can assist medical organisation administrators in selecting the most secure and appropriate system and the developers of such systems in future directions.

This study evaluated the benchmarking process of active queue management (AQM) methods, which consider a multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) problem using multidimensional criteria. Academic studies have benchmarked the AQM methods using MCDM techniques. However, these studies have used existing MCDM techniques, which face considerable theoretical challenges. The latest MCDM method called fuzzy decision by opinion score (FDOSM) was published in the Journal of Applied Soft Computing in 2020 to address the theoretical challenges of the existing MCDM methods. However, FDOSM continues to encounter serious issues. That is, it exclusively depends on the direct aggregation MCDM approach based on arithmetic mean (AM) operator. However, performing other operators (i.e., geometric mean, harmonic mean, and root mean square), in addition to applying other MCDM approaches (i.e., distance measurement and compromise rank), may result in different ranking results. Hence, this study mainly proposes an extension of FDOSM through the following aspects: (1) application of different aggregation techniques in the direct aggregation MCDM approach, (2) discussion of the effectiveness of each type on the final AQM benchmarking, and (3) use of varying MCDM approaches on FDOSM to reach the optimum result when benchmarking the AQM methods. The current research methodology is based on two sequential phases. The first phase provides the decision matrix used in benchmarking the AQM methods. The decision matrix was constructed based on the AQM evaluation criteria and a list of AQM methods. The second phase presents two stages, namely, data transformation unit and data processing. Findings of the AQM benchmarking are as follows. (1) In the individual FDOSM, two main configurations are recommended when using the AQM benchmarking: direct aggregation MCDM approach with AM operator and compromise rank approach. Benchmarking results of both configurations based on six decision makers are nearly similar, with the AQM BLUE method being ranked the best. The exception is for the results of the compromise rank approach based on the third decision maker, which revealed that the AQM ERED method is the best. (2) Results of the group FDOSM showed a relatively similar order for the AQM methods in both configurations, with the AQM BLUE method being the best. (3) Lastly, significant differences were found among the groups' scores, thereby indicating the validity of the FDOSM-based AQM benchmarking results.

The benchmarking of smart e-tourism data management applications falls under the problem of multicriteria decision-making (MCDM). This claim is supported by three issues: 12 smart key concepts need to be considered in the evaluation, criteria importance, and data variation among these criteria. Thus, an MCDM solution is essential to overcome problem complexity. To end this, this study presents a decision-making framework on the basis of the extension of interval type 2 trapezoidal-fuzzy weighted with zero inconsistency (IT2TR-FWZIC) integrated with the Vlsekriterijumska Optimizcija I Kaompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method for evaluating and benchmarking the smart e-tourism data management applications. Our methodology comprises two consecutive phases. In the first phase, a decision matrix is constructed using the intersection between the 12 key concepts and smart e-tourism data management applications of each category and subcategory in smart e-tourism. In the second phase, the integration of the IT2TR-FWZIC formulation and VIKOR is presented to compute the weights for the 12 key concepts and benchmark the smart e-tourism data management applications for each category. The results are as follows: (1) A clear difference is found among the criteria weights (12 smart key concepts). Specifically, the real-time criterion achieves the highest importance weight (0.098), whereas augmented reality obtains the lowest weight (0.068). The context-awareness and recommender systems have the same weight value (0.087), and the other eight criteria are distributed in between. (2) The smart e-tourism data management applications are evaluated and benchmarked effectively per category and subcategories. (3) Benchmarked applications in each category are subjected to a systematic ranking in the evaluation process. The sensitivity analysis has shown high correlation outcomes to the systematic ranking results over the 31 scenarios of criteria weight changing. Moreover, a comparative analysis of the proposed work with other existing studies is also discussed.

Evaluation and benchmarking of skin detectors are challenging tasks because of multiple evaluation attributes and conflicting criteria. Although several evaluating and benchmarking techniques have been proposed, these approaches have many limitations. Fixing several attributes based on multi-attribute benchmarking approaches is particularly limited to reliable skin detection. Thus, this study aims to develop a new framework for evaluating and benchmarking skin detection on the basis of artificial intelligent models using multi-criteria analysis. For this purpose, two experiments are conducted. The first experiment consists of two stages: (1) discussing the development of a skin detector using multi-agent learning based on different color spaces to create a dataset of various color space samples for benchmarking and (2) discussing the evaluation and testing the developed skin detector according to multi-evaluation criteria (i.e. reliability, time complexity, and error rate within dataset) to create a decision matrix. The second experiment applies different decision-making techniques (AHP/SAW, AHP/MEW, AHP/HAW, AHP/TOPSIS, AHP/WSM, and AHP/WPM) to benchmark the results of the first experiment (i.e. the developed skin detector). Then, we discuss the use of the mean, standard deviation, and paired sample [Formula: see text]-test to measure the correlations among the different techniques based on ranking results.

Summary Digital watermarking evaluation and benchmarking are challenging tasks because of multiple evaluation and conflicting criteria. A few approaches have been presented to implement digital watermarking evaluation and benchmarking frameworks. However, these approaches still possess a number of limitations, such as fixing several attributes on the account of other attributes. Well‐known benchmarking approaches are limited to robust watermarking. Therefore, this paper presents a new methodology for digital watermarking evaluation and benchmarking based on large‐scale data by using external evaluators and a group decision making context. Two experiments are performed. In the first experiment, a noise gate‐based digital watermarking approach is developed, and the scheme for the noise gate digital watermarking approach is enhanced. Sixty audio samples from different audio styles are tested with two algorithms. A total of 120 samples were evaluated according to three different metrics, namely, quality, payload, and complexity, to generate a set of digital watermarking samples. In the second experiment, the situation in which digital watermarking evaluators have different preferences is discussed. Weight measurement with a decision making solution is required to solve this issue. The analytic hierarchy process is used to measure evaluator preference. In the decision making solution, the technique for order of preference by similarity to the ideal solution with different contexts (e.g., individual and group) is utilized. Therefore, selecting the proper context with different aggregation operators to benchmark the results of experiment 1 (i.e., digital watermarking approaches) is recommended. The findings of this research are as follows: (1) group and individual decision making provide the same result in this case study. However, in the case of selection where the priority weights are generated from the evaluators, group decision making is the recommended solution to solve the trade‐off reflected in the benchmarking process for digital watermarking approaches. (2) Internal and external aggregations show that the enhanced watermarking approach demonstrates better performance than the original watermarking approach. © 2016 The Authors. Software: Practice and Experience published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Evaluating and selecting software packages that meet the requirements of an organization are difficult aspects of software engineering process. Selecting the wrong open-source EMR software package can be costly and may adversely affect business processes and functioning of the organization. This study aims to evaluate and select open-source EMR software packages based on multi-criteria decision-making. A hands-on study was performed and a set of open-source EMR software packages were implemented locally on separate virtual machines to examine the systems more closely. Several measures as evaluation basis were specified, and the systems were selected based a set of metric outcomes using Integrated Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and TOPSIS. The experimental results showed that GNUmed and OpenEMR software can provide better basis on ranking score records than other open-source EMR software packages.

Pornographic images are disturbing and malicious contents that are easily available through Internet technology. It has a negative and lasting effect on children who use the Internet; thus, pornography has become a serious threat not only to Internet users but also to society at large. Therefore, developing efficient and reliable tools to automatically filter pornographic contents is imperative. However, the effective interception of pornography remains a challenging issue. In this paper, a four-phase anti-pornography system based on the neural and Bayesian methods of artificial intelligence is proposed. Primitive information on pornography is examined and then used to determine if a given image falls under the pornography category. First, we present a detailed description of preliminary study phase followed by the modeling phase for the proposed skin detector. An anti-pornography system is created in the development phase, which also includes the proposed pornography classifier based on skin detection. Finally, the performance assessment method for the proposed anti-pornography system is discussed in the evaluation phase.

Unprecedented advances in Internet technologies with multimedia capabilities have enabled pornography and adult content to be widely and freely distributed as easy as a click of a mouse through various means such as YouTube, Facebook, and Tags. Protecting children from unnecessary exposure to adult content has, therefore, become a serious problem in the real world. In particular, the considerable perversion in pornography and the exposure of children and the society to such perversions leads to moral decay. Constructing an appropriate filter for pornographic images is a major concern in modern society; however, this area poses challenges. This study aims to shed light on a content-based technique that employs an anti-pornography machine and to encourage researchers to study this adult image filtering technique. In this study, we discuss models of skin detection and their advantages and disadvantages in real life. We also elaborate on the pornographic image classifier using a feature extraction process and its classification process, along with the possible difficulties it may present. This study also analyzes anti-pornography techniques based on skin detection and discusses their strengths and weaknesses.