We state the problem of inverse reinforcement learning in terms of preference elicitation, resulting in a principled (Bayesian) statistical formulation. This generalises previous work on Bayesian inverse reinforcement learning and allows us to obtain a posterior distribution on the agent’s preferences, policy and optionally, the obtained reward sequence, from observations. We examine the relati...

We test whether induced mood states have an effect on elicited risk and time preferences in a conventional laboratory experiment. We jointly estimate risk and time preferences and find that subjects induced into a negative mood exhibit economically significant higher risk aversion than those in the control treatment. Those in the positive mood treatment exhibit even higher risk aversion. We fin...

In this paper, we define the concept of incomplete hesitant fuzzy preference relations to deal with the cases where the decision makers express their judgments by using hesitant fuzzy preference relations with incomplete information, and investigate the consistency of the incomplete hesitant fuzzypreference relations and obtain the reliable priority weights. We first establish a goal programmin...

We describe a web-based system to support groups in elaborating participatory budgets. Rather than using physical meetings with voting mechanisms, we promote virtual meetings with explicit preference elicitation, guided negotiations and, only if consensus is not reached, vot-

South African law recognises a financial claim against a health provider for negligently failing to advise an expectant mother that she might give birth to a child suffering from a severe health condition or congenital disability. In December 2014, the Constitutional Court handed down a judgment that could lead to financial claims by the child, who was subsequently born with a severe health con...

The contribution of sexual selection to diversification remains poorly understood after decades of research. This may be in part because studies have focused predominantly on the strength of sexual selection, which offers an incomplete view of selection regimes. By contrast, students of natural selection focus on environmental differences that help compare selection regimes across populations. ...

Multicriteria conflict arises in pairwise comparisons, where each alternative outperforms the other one on some criterion, which imposes a trade-off. Comparing two alternatives can be difficult if their respective advantages are of high magnitude (the attribute spread is large). In this paper, we investigate to which extent conflict in a comparison situation can lead decision makers to express ...

In some MCDM techniques Ð most notably in Outranking Methods Ð the result of the comparison of a finite set of alternatives according to several criteria is summarised using a fuzzy preference relation. This fuzzy relation does not, in general, possess "nice properties" such as transitivity or completeness and elaborating a recommendation on the basis of such information is not an obvious task....

Mass customization, as a means to meet individual consumer’s need on a large scale, has recently attracted the attention of both researchers and practitioners. However, as customers and their needs grow increasingly diverse, meeting every consumer’s need has become a surefire way to add unnecessary cost and complexity to operations. Furthermore, consumers are not all really ready for mass custo...