In this research work, a user-friendly decision support framework is developed to analyze the behavior of Pakistani students in academics. The purpose of this article is to analyze the performance of the Pakistani students using an intelligent decision support system (DSS) based on the three-level machine learning (ML) technique. The neural network used a three-level classifier approach for the prediction of Pakistani student achievement. A self-recorded dataset of 1,011 respondents of graduate students of English and Physics (...) courses are used. The ten interviews along with ten questions were conducted to determine the perception of the individual student. The chi-squared ( χ ) \left(\chi ) test was applied to test statistical significancy of the questionnaire. The statistical calculations and computation of data were performed by using the statistical package of IBMM SPSS version 21.0. The seven different algorithms were tested to improve the data classification. The Java-based environment was used for the development of numerous prediction classifiers. C4.5 algorithm shows the finest accuracy, whereas Naïve Bayes (NB) algorithm shows the least. The results depict that the classifier’s efficiency was improved by using a three-level proposed scheme from 83.2% to 88.8%. This prediction has shown remarkable results when compared with the individual level classifier technique of ML. This improvement in the accuracy of DSSs is used to identify more efficiently the gray areas in the education stratum of Pakistan. This will pave a path for making policies in the higher education system of Pakistan. The presented framework can be deployed on different platforms under numerous operating systems. (shrink)

The paper sets out the challenges facing the Police in respect of the detection and prevention of the volume crime of burglary. A discussion of data mining and decision support technologies that have the potential to address these issues is undertaken and illustrated with reference the authors’ work with three Police Services. The focus is upon the use of “soft” forensic evidence which refers to modus operandi and the temporal and geographical features of the crime, rather than “hard” (...) evidence such as DNA or fingerprint evidence. Three objectives underpin this paper. First, given the continuing expansion of forensic computing and its role in the emergent discipline of Crime Science, it is timely to present a review of existing methodologies and research. Second, it is important to extract some practical lessons concerning the application of computer science within this forensic domain. Finally, from the lessons to date, a set of conclusions will be advanced, including the need for multidisciplinary input to guide further developments in the design of such systems. The objectives are achieved by first considering the task performed by the intended systems users. The discussion proceeds by identifying the portions of these tasks for which automation would be both beneficial and feasible. The knowledge discovery from databases process is then described, starting with an examination of the data that police collect and the reasons for storing it. The discussion progresses to the development of crime matching and predictive knowledge which are operationalised in decision support software. The paper concludes by arguing that computer science technologies which can support criminal investigations are wide ranging and include geographical information systems displays, clustering and link analysis algorithms and the more complex use of data mining technology for profiling crimes or offenders and matching and predicting crimes. We also argue that knowledge from disciplines such as forensic psychology, criminology and statistics are essential to the efficient design of operationally valid systems. (shrink)

This paper aims to identify the decision support systems and their role on the strategic management development in the Universities- Case Study: Islamic University of Gaza. The descriptive approach was used where a questionnaire was developed and distributed to a stratified random sample. (230) questionnaires were distributed and (204) were returned with response rate (88.7%). The most important findings of the study: The presence of a statistically significant positive correlation between the decision support systems and strategic (...) management in the Islamic University in Gaza, and this shows that there is a role for decision support systems in strategic management development. The senior management is convinced of the importance of strategic management of the organization, and this conviction paid to clearly understand the process of the development of strategic management and thus led to a commitment to this process to improve its performance. There is an impact on the strategic management of the capabilities available for the use of decision support systems, and the type of decision support systems used, while there is little effect of top management support for the use of decision support systems. Also, the results showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the averages of the respondents answers attributed to personal data. The research also concluded a series of recommendations: The Islamic University of Gaza need to develop its infrastructure of decision support systems when it develops the strategic management. It should increase its interest in organizational potential through the necessity of a separate unit for decision support systems. As well as increased interest in the physical and technical capabilities available to decision support systems through continuity in keeping pace with technological means and techniques, continued support of senior management in the organization of strategic management for its positive role on decision support systems, that senior management will continue in the organization in creating a culture of strategic management, and it should encourage employees to participate in the strategic management process. (shrink)

There are several systems which provide computer support to legal decisions. Perhaps the most significant ones, besides various computerised systems for administration, are information retrieval systems that locate statutes and documents. Other research projects, however, deal with legislation and adjudication, making it possible to use information techniques in making legal decisions. I wish to describe two decision-support programs and to link them to some theoretical findings of my former researches. What connects those programs is that they (...) give some new information for decisions on the basis of previous similar legal cases; both describe cases with the help of criteria and use diverse artificial intelligence methods for different types or criteria. The first of the two programs aims to support decisions of insurance specialists by assessing the measure of the compensation for immaterial damage. The result is given by the combination of a neural network, based upon previous judicial cases, and an expert system. The neural network gives the first assessment for the sum of compensation while the expert system refines the network's output. The other program can be used by judges and lawyers in the course of preparing a decision. Studying cases of road accidents, we find that fuzzy logic methods can help to approximate decisions actually given by judges. In this way, the process of decision making by courts and lawyers receives an additional piece of information, obtained by comparing the seriousness of the actual case with that of previous cases. (shrink)

Decision makers in banking, insurance or employment mitigate many of their risks by telling “good” individuals and “bad” individuals apart. Laws codify societal understandings of which factors are legitimate grounds for differential treatment —or are considered unfair discrimination, including gender, ethnicity or age. Discrimination-aware data mining implements the hope that information technology supporting the decision process can also keep it free from unjust grounds. However, constraining data mining to exclude a fixed enumeration of potentially discriminatory features is insufficient. (...) We argue for complementing it with exploratory DADM, where discriminatory patterns are discovered and flagged rather than suppressed. This article discusses the relative merits of constraint-oriented and exploratory DADM from a conceptual viewpoint. In addition, we consider the case of loan applications to empirically assess the fitness of both discrimination-aware data mining approaches for two of their typical usage scenarios: prevention and detection. Using Mechanical Turk, 215 US-based participants were randomly placed in the roles of a bank clerk or a citizen / policy advisor. They were tasked to recommend or predict the approval or denial of a loan, across three experimental conditions: discrimination-unaware data mining, exploratory, and constraint-oriented DADM. The discrimination-aware tool support in the eDADM and cDADM treatments led to significantly higher proportions of correct decisions, which were also motivated more accurately. There is significant evidence that the relative advantage of discrimination-aware techniques depends on their intended usage. For users focussed on making and motivating their decisions in non-discriminatory ways, cDADM resulted in more accurate and less discriminatory results than eDADM. For users focussed on monitoring for preventing discriminatory decisions and motivating these conclusions, eDADM yielded more accurate results than cDADM. (shrink)

Ethical decision support procedures have an underlying difficulty in that they do not clearly distinguish the varying impacts of the constituent features of the examined ethical situation. The failure to recognize these features and their varying impacts leads to two critical problems; the risk of removing positive ethical elements as well as negative ones when mitigating the ethical problem, and missing some viable alternative actions. A modified version of line drawing is presented as a way to address these (...) two problems when it is used as an adjunct to already established decision techniques. (shrink)

Negotiation Support Systems have traditionally modelled the process of negotiation. They often rely on mathematical optimisation techniques and ignore heuristics and other methods derived from practice. Our goal is to develop systems capable of decision support to help resolve a given dispute. A system we have constructed, Family_Winner, uses empirical evidence to dynamically modify initial preferences throughout the negotiation process. It sequentially allocates issues using trade-offs and compensation opportunities inherent in the dispute.

This “Legal Briefing” column covers recent legal developments involving patient decision aids. This topic has been the subject of recent articles in JCE. It is included in the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. And it has received significant attention in the biomedical literature, including a new book, a thematic issue of Health Affairs, and a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine. Moreover, physicians and health systems across the United States are increasingly integrating decision (...) aids into their clinical practice. Both federal and state laws play a significant role in promoting this expanded use. On the other hand, concerns about liability could stymie development and implementation. We categorize legal developments concerning patient decision aids into the following five sections:1. Development of decision aids2. Effectiveness of decision aids3. Federal regulation of decision aids4. State regulation of decision aids5. Legal concerns regarding decision aids. (shrink)

Background: Since the increasingly complex structure of health care services brings many ethical problems, it is important to use different instructional technologies in the ethical education of future nurses. Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of role play prepared with video support on ethical decision-making and motivation levels of nursing students. Research design: A quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest design. Participants and research context: The research was conducted in the Nursing Department of a University (...) located in Istanbul, Turkey between October 15 and November 15, 2024. The sample of the research consisted of 3rd year nursing students. Data were collected using the Descriptive Characteristics Form, the Nursing Dilemma Test, and the Instructional Material Motivation Scale for Single-Use. Ethical considerations: Permission was obtained from Bezmialem Vakif University Non-Interventional Ethical Research Committee and the institution where the study was conducted for the implementation of the research. Written and verbal consent was obtained from all participants in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration. Findings: While there was no difference between the students’ Ethical Dilemma Test Principled Thinking pre-test and post-test scores, their Practical Consideration ( p =.005) and motivation levels ( p =.037) post-test scores were found to be higher. There was a weak but significant negative correlation between academic achievement and pre-test teaching material motivation levels (r = −0.375, p =.041). Discussion: The use of different teaching methods and techniques in ethics education in nursing is important for future nurses to find more practical solutions to the ethical problems they will encounter during patient care. Conclusion: The results of the study indicate that the use of video-supported role play can be effective in teaching ethics courses in nursing education. (shrink)

The family of decision analysis techniques can be applied effectively to support practical negotiators in international settings. These techniques are most appropriate in support of the prenegotiation phase, when parties are diagnosing the situation, assessing their own plans and strategies, and evaluating likely reactions and outcomes. The paper identifies how these approaches have and can be used to assist negotiation practitioners, offers a rationale for the application of decision analytic approaches in terms of the (...) particular analytical requirements of the prenegotiation period, suggests how these process-oriented tools can be integrated with substantive tools, and discusses ways in which these tools can be presented and delivered to practitioners in a practical and confidence-building manner. (shrink)

Perhaps no other population exposes the clinician to more moral and legal dilemmas than clients with an HIV-positive diagnosis. What does the therapist do about the HIV positive patient who is having sex with unnamed partners and refuses to stop? What should be said in end-of-life decisions? What of the adolescent who is HIV positive but whose guardian does not wish the youth to be informed of his status?

The perspective of online dispute resolution is to develop an online electronic system aimed at solving out-of-court disputes. Among ODR schemes, eMediation is becoming an important tool for encouraging the positive settlement of an agreement among litigants. The main motivation underlying the adoption of eMediation is the time/cost reduction for the resolution of disputes compared to the ordinary justice system. In the context of eMediation, a fundamental requirement that an ODR system should meet relates to both litigants and mediators, i.e. (...) to enable an informed negotiation by informing the parties about the rights and duties related to the case. In order to match this requirement, we propose an information retrieval system able to retrieve relevant court decisions with respect to the disputant case description. The proposed system combines machine learning and natural language processing techniques to better match disputant case descriptions with court decisions. Experimental results confirm the ability of the proposed solution to empower court decision retrieval, enabling therefore a well-informed eMediation process. (shrink)

The purpose of this study is to expand our understanding of the factors that influence ethical behavioral intentions of public accountants. Recent scandals have dominated the news and have caused legislators, regulators and the public to question the role of the accounting profession. Legislative changes have brought about major structural changes in the profession and continued scrutiny will surely lead to further changes. Thus, developing an understanding of the personal and contextual factors that influence ethical decisions is critical. An extension (...) of the theory of planned behavior [Ajzen, I.: 1985, Action Control-From Cognition to Behavior ], the model used in this study examined the influence of personal, social and organizational factors on ethical intentions. Specifically, the individual level model tested direct eects of attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, moral sensitivity and ethical climate. Professionals from five accounting firms completed a survey that measured responses to ethical dilemmas related to the public accounting domain. To minimize the potential impact of common method bias, the survey instrument was administered in two phases. Hypotheses were evaluated using a structural modeling technique, partial least squares. Results show strong support for a direct relationship between attitudes and ethical intentions. The proposed direct eect of subjective norms was not supported. However, a significant relationship between subjective norms and attitudes was found. Professionals' attitudes towards ethical issues clearly influence intentions. Moreover, this study illustrates the potential influence of social factors in attitude formation. Future research should explore the factors in the public accounting domain that most strongly influence attitude formation. This study suggests that the theory of reasoned action oers a useful framework for exploring these issues. (shrink)

The use of visual attention for evaluating consumer behavior has become a relevant field in recent years, allowing researchers to understand the decision-making processes beyond classical self-reports. In our research, we focused on using eye-tracking as a method to understand consumer preferences in children. Twenty-eight subjects with ages between seven and twelve years participated in the experiment. Participants were involved in two consecutive phases. The initial phase consisted of the visualization of a set of stimuli for decision-making in (...) an eight-position layout called Alternative Forced-choice. Then the subjects were asked to freely analyze the set of stimuli, they needed to choose the best in terms of preference. The sample was randomly divided into two groups balanced by gender. One group visualized a set of icons and the other a set of toys. The final phase was an independent assessment of each stimulus viewed in the initial phase in terms of liking/disliking using a 7-point Likert scale. Sixty-four stimuli were designed for each of the groups. The visual attention was measured using a non-obstructive eye-tracking device. The results revealed two novel insights. Firstly, the time of fixation during the last 4 visits to each stimulus before the decision-making instant allows us to recognize the icon or toy chosen from the eight alternatives with a 71.2% and 67.2% of accuracy respectively. The result supports the use of visual attention measurements as an implicit tool to analyze decision-making and preferences in children. Secondly, eye movement and the choice of liking/disliking choice are influenced by stimuli design dimensions. The icon observation results revealed how gender samples have different fixation and different visit times which depend on stimuli design dimension. The toy observations results revealed how the materials determinate the largest amount fixations, also, the visit times were differentiated by gender. This research presents a relevant empirical data to understand the decision-making phenomenon by analyzing eye movement behavior. The presented method can be applied to recognize the choice likelihood between several alternatives. Finally, children's opinions represent an extra difficulty judgment to be determined, and the eye-tracking technique seen as an implicit measure to tackle it. (shrink)

Abstract— This study aimed to identify the degree of use of the capabilities of decision-support systems in Palestinian institutions higher education, Aqsa University in Gaza - a case study. The study used a analytical descriptive approach, and the researchers used the of questionnaire tool to collect the data, the researchers using stratified random sample distributed (150) questioners to the study population and (126) was obtained back with rate of 84%. The study showed that the most important results are: (...) that senior management supports the existence of decision support systems and that there is approval by the respondents on the paragraphs of the use of the capabilities of decision support systems in general. And that there are no significant differences between the averages of the answers of respondents differences about the degree of use of decision support systems capabilities attributed to personal data. The study also concluded a series of recommendations including: increasing the adoption of the senior management decision support in their decision-making systems. And increased regulatory attention to the potential available to decision support systems directly to the senior management in the Palestinian universities in the Gaza Strip. There is an increased interest in the physical and technical possibilities available for the use of decision support systems. There is an increased interest in human potential available for the use of decision support systems. Investment of information available to universities in building the capacities of integration techniques and other information technology capabilities. The empowerment of human resources in universities and participating in making decisions concerning the construction of the capabilities of information technology. (shrink)

Jacques Ellul’s claim that technique became an autonomous phenomenon during the middle of the 20th century, and subsequently a system, means that the influence people have on technique is much less decisive than the influence technique has on people. As a sociohistorical description of the relationship between technique and society, it can be empirically investigated. This article begins by clarifying the concept of an autonomous technique and reviews evidence to support this claim.

This book deals with the theoretical, methodological, and empirical implications of bounded rationality in the operation of institutions. It focuses on decisions made under uncertainty, and presents a reliable strategy of knowledge acquisition for the design and implementation of decision-support systems. Based on the distinction between the inner and outer environment of decisions, the book explores both the cognitive mechanisms at work when actors decide, and the institutional mechanisms existing among and within organizations that make decisions fairly predictable. (...) While a great deal of work has been done on how organizations act as patterns of events for (boundedly) rational decisions, less effort has been devoted to study under which circumstances organizations cease to act as such reliable mechanisms. Through an empirical strategy on open-ended response data from a survey among junior judges, the work pursues two main goals. The first one is to explore the limits of "institutional rationality" of the Spanish lower courts on-call service, an optimal scenario to observe decision-making under uncertainty. The second aim is to achieve a better understanding of the kind of uncertainty under which inexperienced decision-makers work. This entails exploring the demands imposed by problems and the knowledge needed to deal with them, making this book also a study on expertise achievement in institutional environments. This book combines standard multivariate statistical methods with machine learning techniques such as multidimensional scaling and topic models, treating text as data. Doing so, the book contributes to the collaboration between empirical social scientific approaches and the community of scientists that provide the set of tools and methods to make sense of the fastest growing resource of our time: data. (shrink)

This paper describes a new course in Medical Technology and Critical Decisions, part of the Technology Studies Program at Wellesley College, established with the support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's New Liberal Arts Program. The course uses the dramatic new options in medicine presented by technology to individuals and society as a vehicle for promoting general technological literacy in liberal arts students. The course motivates the study of the scientific principles on which the technology rests and the mathematical (...) principles of a methodology for making rational choices. A case in point is the decision of a pregnant woman whether or not to undergo amniocentesis, a procedure used to determine the genetic make-up of a fetus from cells in the amniotic fluid. The course introduces students to the underlying notions of genetics; the physical principles behind the ultrasound imaging technique used to position the needle that draws the fluid; the probability and statistics needed to understand the risks to the woman and fetus both of having and of not having the procedure; and the methodology of decision analysis, increasingly used by genetic counselors to help prospective parents incorporate their personal values into the decision-making process. (shrink)

In evaluating difficult decisions which have a wide social impact, consequentialist ethics offers the most reliable footing. Consequentialism is necessary, for that matter, in order to make room for scientific input which will in turn endeavour to provide accurate and objective predictions of the effects of the decisions in question. In the final analysis, we are dealing with value-laden choices and consequentialism should not be, and in fact cannot be, reduced to one specific ethical option. For this reason a political (...) process is necessary for negotiating between the diversity of perspectives. Such a process will proceed in a more structured manner if techniques to make our ethical evaluation more explicit are used, and the furthest that can be gone in this regard is to try to reduce the various effects, as far as is possible, to one common denominator.Socio-economic cost-benefit analysis is often presented as an objective instrument for evaluating governmental decisions. As a matter of fact, however, it departs from a quite specific utilitarian option , and one which is not easy to accept. From this perspective, decisions are evaluated exclusively on the basis of the subjective advantage they bring to individuals in society. The idea of evaluating the various effects involvedin monetary terms can, nevertheless, remain of value, even when we are inclined to resist the technocratic illusion fostered by some supporters of SCBA. Monetary evaluation should certainly not be considered the last word in the discussion. On the contrary, it should be seen as a necessary reference point for the structuring of a wider ethical and political debate.In this paper I have focused exclusively on difficult governmental decisions which have significant economic aspects, i.e. where many of the effects involved can easily be evaluated in market terms. Of course, when this is not the case, the practical advantages of monetary evaluation techniques disappear. When decisions take place at a more personal level, even consequentialism will lose much of its ethical appeal. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:My Circumcision Decision:A Journey of Inquiry, Courage and DiscoveryLaurie EvansBefore becoming a mother, I was teaching parents to massage their babies and offering trainings for professionals. To promote my work, in 1984, I exhibited at the Whole Life Expo in New York City. When I returned to my booth after a break, I noticed someone had left a pamphlet by Edward Wallerstein, who wrote "Circumcision: An American Health (...) Fallacy." Since I am naturally curious, I read it. Disturbed, I thought of tossing it. But, how could I be teaching a nurturing technique for newborns and avoid this topic? As a Jewish woman, how would I make the decision for my own future sons? Little did I know this one piece of paper would lead me on a path of inquiry that would change my life.One of the presenters at this conference was Dr. Robert Mendelsohn, an Orthodox pediatrician. Although Dr. Mendelsohn realized some parents would allow circumcision for religious reasons, he was honest enough to dispel every medical myth and explain the harm of removing normal functioning tissue. He also described possible complications from removing the foreskin, including infection, hemorrhage, and although rare, death.To learn more, I read whatever I could find on the topic. I attended midwifery and childbirth conferences to promote my work and prepare for when I became pregnant. I decided to ask about circumcision, but the conversations were awkward and I received little helpful information. I found that circumcision was a taboo topic; few people wanted to talk about it. Why? Doctors who perform circumcisions, nurses who recommend it, and parents who consent to it do not want to face the reality of the harm they cause. Instead of facing the pain, they avoid the topic, and the procedure continues. Most men do not want to discuss or think about their own circumcisions. I learned that we need to have compassion during these conversations.A Jewish ritual ceremony (bris) is performed on the eighth day after the boy's birth, and includes circumcision and prayers. At a bris, friends and relatives are invited to observe and celebrate. It is part of my heritage. I tried to talk to my relatives about the information I had found, but everyone refused to discuss it. This avoidance made my decision very difficult. Then, for the first time, I was invited to a bris; I didn't want to attend. However, I had been at the boy's birth, so I decided to go to offer support. During the circumcision, my reaction was intense: I wanted to take the baby and run. I felt like an accomplice. I wanted to grab people by the [End Page E2] shoulders and scream, "How dare you?" I vowed I would never attend another bris, and I made the decision to write publicly instead of anonymously.I still had doubts, because I didn't know one intact adult male. What if I were to have a son, keep him intact, and he developed a complication later in life? I have learned that doctors are not taught non-invasive solutions, so most circumcisions performed after infancy are unnecessary. A Jewish doctor recommended a circumcision for a seventynine year old man who had a persistent rash that would not respond to treatment. Our organization suggested that he apply topical acidophilus. After he followed the recommendation, the rash disappeared, so he canceled the circumcision.In 1985, I became pregnant. Like many women I spoke to, I didn't want to face the circumcision decision, so I prayed for a girl. Our childbirth educator shared about male circumcision, which led to conversations with my husband. These tense interactions ended in an impasse. I wondered how this decision would impact my marriage. I experienced immense relief that my firstborn was a girl. Time was on my side.One day while walking in New York City, I serendipitously crossed paths with my childbirth educator. She was going to the United Nations to oppose female circumcision. I was in my 30s and had a master's degree in teaching. I had studied massage and anatomy. Yet, I had never heard about this tribal ritual. I had... (shrink)

Perceptions of justice in decision outcomes and processes increases trust, support for authorities, and satisfaction with unfavorable outcomes (Lind and Tyler 1988). However, very little research has been done to apply justice concepts to natural resource decision making contexts (an exception is Lauber and Knuth 1997; 1998). In the study presented here, two rounds of focus groups with public participants in the Northern Lower Michigan Ecosystem Management Project were conducted. Participants were asked to describe their experiences with (...) and attitudes toward different types of public participation. They were also asked what criteria they use when judging the fairness of a natural resource agency decision. Themes emerging in the answers included the importance of representation, voice, consideration, logic, and desired outcomes. These are very similar to justice principles documented in other fields. This suggests managers would be wise to focus less on public participation techniques and more on achieving fair decision-making processes. (shrink)

International large-scale assessments, such as PISA, provide structured and static data. However, due to its extensive databases, several researchers place it as a reference in Big Data in Education. With the goal of exploring which factors at country, school and student level have a higher relevance in predicting student performance, this paper proposes an Educational Data Mining approach to detect and analyze factors linked to academic performance. To this end, we conducted a secondary data analysis and built decision trees (...) (C4.5 algorithm) to obtain a predictive model of school performance. Specifically, we selected as predictor variables a set of socioeconomic, process and outcome variables from PISA 2018 and other sources (World Bank, 2020). Since the unit of analysis were schools from all the countries included in PISA 2018 (n= 21,903), student and teacher predictor variables were imputed to the school database. Based on the available student performance scores in Reading, Math, and Science, we applied k-means clustering to obtain a categorized (three categories) target variable of global school performance. Results show the existence of two main branches in the decision tree, split according to the schools’ mean socioeconomic status (SES). While performance in high-SES schools is influenced by educational factors such as metacognitive strategies or achievement motivation, performance in low-SES schools is affected in greater measure by country-level socioeconomic indicators such as GDP, and individual educational indicators are relegated to a secondary level. Since these evidences are in line and delve into previous research, this work concludes by analyzing its potential contribution to support the decision making processes regarding educational policies. (shrink)

BackgroundHealth behavior change is among the top recommendations for improving health of patients with lifestyle-related chronic diseases. An array of behavior change techniques have been developed to support behavior change initiation and maintenance. These BCTs often show limited success when they are not informed by theory, leading to a mismatch between the intention of the BCT and patients’ needs or expectations. Previous studies have identified a number of resources which patients may require to initiate and maintain health behavior (...) change. Indeed, not yet well established is how BCTs address these resources, i.e., the functional mechanisms of BCTs.PurposeProvide a theoretical framework of the functional mechanisms of BCTs for developing and implementing successful interventions for health behavior change.MethodsConceptual review, including literature analysis and synthesis as well as conceptualization of a new model based on the synthesis.ResultsThrough the integration of dual-process models as well as reward and motivation proceeding, i.e., affective, emotional, or intuitive neurobiological cues, into the rational framework of rather linear cognitive or task-related decision progress, we categorize previously identified resources into three distinct sets: external, internal reflective, and internal affective resources. Based on this triad, we classify BCTs according to their functional mechanisms into facilitating, boosting, and nudging. Consequently, we present a simplified Behavior Change Resource Model that is centered on patients’ resources.ConclusionThe model can be applied to develop health behavior change interventions, which promote engagement and empowerment. Future studies should aim at testing the applicability and practicality of the BCRM. (shrink)

The liver is the human body’s mandatory organ, but detecting liver disease at an early stage is very difficult due to the hiddenness of symptoms. Liver diseases may cause loss of energy or weakness when some irregularities in the working of the liver get visible. Cancer is one of the most common diseases of the liver and also the most fatal of all. Uncontrolled growth of harmful cells is developed inside the liver. If diagnosed late, it may cause death. Treatment (...) of liver diseases at an early stage is, therefore, an important issue as is designing a model to diagnose early disease. Firstly, an appropriate feature should be identified which plays a more significant part in the detection of liver cancer at an early stage. Therefore, it is essential to extract some essential features from thousands of unwanted features. So, these features will be mined using data mining and soft computing techniques. These techniques give optimized results that will be helpful in disease diagnosis at an early stage. In these techniques, we use feature selection methods to reduce the dataset’s feature, which include Filter, Wrapper, and Embedded methods. Different Regression algorithms are then applied to these methods individually to evaluate the result. Regression algorithms include Linear Regression, Ridge Regression, LASSO Regression, Support Vector Regression, Decision Tree Regression, Multilayer Perceptron Regression, and Random Forest Regression. Based on the accuracy and error rates generated by these Regression algorithms, we have evaluated our results. The result shows that Random Forest Regression with the Wrapper Method from all the deployed Regression techniques is the best and gives the highest R2-Score of 0.8923 and lowest MSE of 0.0618. (shrink)

– This paper attempts to recognize the informational needs of women who suffer from intimate partner violence (IPV). It then presents a model of a web site that may answer to these needs., – First, the paper defines the phases women suffering from IPV go through. This is done by surveying the literature that describes the stages these women experience. In order to clarify the proposed model, the paper then describe our own set of phases based on the above literature. (...) Once the phases mentioned above are understood, the needs of these women become evident, thus allowing us to define and specify them. The model of the web site is then described and the paper shows how it relates to the various aforementioned needs., – The web site would offer a variety of information, such as: names of organizations that offer support, chats, and forums that provide emotional support and advice from women who experienced abuse in the past as well as from professionals., – Security issues of this model need to be researched before applying it to use, as they are beyond the scope of this paper. Such issues should include techniques for erasing the user's traces and for keeping out “unwelcome visitors.”, – This model, if applied, may greatly aid women suffering from IPV, as it would provide them with the emotional support and technical information they need in order to make important decisions regarding their situation. Information, if utilized, may give these women the ability to control their fate and actively improve their quality of life. (shrink)

How do affect and cognition interact in managerial decision making? Over the last decades, scholars have investigated how managers make decisions. However, what remains largely unknown is the interplay of affective states and cognition during the decision-making process. We offer a systematization of the contributions produced on the role of affect and cognition in managerial decision making by considering the recent cross-fertilization of management studies with the neuroscience domain. We implement a Systematic Literature Review of 23 selected (...) contributions dealing with the role of affect and cognition in managerial decisions that adopted neuroscience techniques/points of view. Collected papers have been analyzed by considering the so-called reflexive (X-) and reflective (C-) systems in social cognitive neuroscience and the type of decisions investigated in the literature. Results obtained help to support an emerging “unified” mind processing theory for which the two systems of our mind are not in conflict and for which affective states have a driving role toward cognition. A research agenda for future studies is provided to scholars who are interested in advancing the investigation of affect and cognition in managerial decision making, also through neuroscience techniques – with the consideration that these works should be at the service of the behavioral strategy field. (shrink)

Fuzzy sets and fuzzy logics are used to model events with imprecise, incomplete, and uncertain information. Researchers have developed numerous methods and techniques to cope with fuzziness or uncertainty. This research intends to introduce the novel concepts of complex neutrosophic relations and its types based on the idea of complex neutrosophic sets. In addition, these concepts are supported by suitable examples. A CNR discusses the quality of a relationship using the degree of membership, the degree of abstinence, and the (...) degree of nonmembership. Each of these degrees is a complex number from the unit circle in a complex plane. The real part of complex-valued degrees represents the amplitude term, while the imaginary part represents the phase term. This property empowers CNRs to model multidimensional variables. Moreover, some interesting properties and useful results have also been proved. Furthermore, the practicality of the proposed concepts is verified by an application, which discusses the use of the proposed concepts in statistical decision-making. Additionally, a comparative analysis between the novel concepts of CNRs and the existing methods is carried out. (shrink)

End of April 2021, the European Commission published its study on New Genomic Techniques (NGTs). The study involved a consultation of Member States and stakeholders. This study reveals a split on whether current legislation should be maintained or adapted to take account of scientific progress and the risk level of NGT products. This split was predictable. New technological developments challenge both ethical viewpoints and regulatory institutions; and contribute to the growing divide between science and society that value ‘technological innovations’ (...) differently. Such controversies are often characterized as ‘unstructured’ because of nearly unbridgeable positions on entangled scientific and value-laden issues. Initiatives for stakeholder involvement, such as consultation or participation, often focus on reaching a ‘shared vision’ without exploring the diverse societal concerns and values behind these positions. To resolve the EU stalemate in NGT regulation, we advocate to bring back politics in the EU decision-making process instead of hiding it under the veil of science, the need for regulatory change and public support. A more productive and justified use of genuine stakeholder participation is possible, if participants and deliberation design meet the criteria of what we call _participation ethics_. Drawing from our applied experience exploring the ethics of genetic modification, we believe that this approach can lead to more robust political decision-making and restore societal confidence in the governance of contested issues such as NGTs. (shrink)

From farmers’ markets to primetime television cooking shows, notions of ‘knowing where our food comes from’ and ‘reconnecting’ with the sources of our food are now central to a range of contemporary cultural movements and popular media texts. While these ideas have primarily been mobilized by those with activist commitments to ethical and sustainable food production, they are also increasingly appearing in the media and marketing strategies of large agribusiness and retailing corporations, including those of the major Australian supermarkets. This (...) paper explores some of the techniques currently used by major supermarkets to respond to criticisms about their food ethics, market control and relationship with producers. Using a case study of Australian supermarket Coles and its integration of its ‘Helping Australia Grow’ campaign into reality television cooking show, My Kitchen Rules, it will consider the textual practices of, and social media response to, Coles’ sponsorship and integrated advertising strategies of putting a ‘face’ to the farmers who produce the products found on supermarket shelves. By emphasizing to Coles customers that they, too, can ‘know where their food comes from’ and that their purchasing decisions support individual farmers and family farms rather than large conglomerates, these strategies help to locate Coles within a network of meanings that seek to both shift and contest negative perceptions of the supermarket chain’s corporate practices and food politics in ways that potentially complicate the activist discourses from which they draw. (shrink)

In this paper, we examine the qualitative moral impact of machine learning-based clinical decision support systems in the process of medical diagnosis. To date, discussions about machine learning in this context have focused on problems that can be measured and assessed quantitatively, such as by estimating the extent of potential harm or calculating incurred risks. We maintain that such discussions neglect the qualitative moral impact of these technologies. Drawing on the philosophical approaches of technomoral change and technological mediation (...) theory, which explore the interplay between technologies and morality, we present an analysis of concerns related to the adoption of machine learning-aided medical diagnosis. We analyze anticipated moral issues that machine learning systems pose for different stakeholders, such as bias and opacity in the way that models are trained to produce diagnoses, changes to how health care providers, patients, and developers understand their roles and professions, and challenges to existing forms of medical legislation. Albeit preliminary in nature, the insights offered by the technomoral change and the technological mediation approaches expand and enrich the current discussion about machine learning in diagnostic practices, bringing distinct and currently underexplored areas of concern to the forefront. These insights can contribute to a more encompassing and better informed decision-making process when adapting machine learning techniques to medical diagnosis, while acknowledging the interests of multiple stakeholders and the active role that technologies play in generating, perpetuating, and modifying ethical concerns in health care. (shrink)

Background Triage in the emergency department (ED) is a crucial procedure that establishes the urgency of patient care based on symptoms at presentation. Although the efficacy of triage nurse training programs varies, their goal is to increase the precision and efficiency of their decision-making. Aim With a focus on research done between 2019 and 2024, the systematic review attempts to evaluate the effect of training programs on the accuracy and efficiency of triage nurses in emergency departments. Method We conducted (...) a thorough search of the PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science databases to find pertinent research. Studies assessing training treatments for triage nurses and reporting accuracy and efficiency-related results were included in the inclusion criteria. Both the quality assessment and data extraction were carried out separately by two reviewers. Result Ten studies that used a range of triage training techniques and covered a variety of geographic areas satisfied the inclusion criteria. Research findings consistently showed that, despite variations in study designs and outcome measures, training programs increased triage accuracy and efficiency. Interventions included clinical decision support system integration, training based on simulation, and conventional classroom-based instruction. Conclusion By increasing decision-making efficiency and accuracy in patient evaluation, training programs greatly improve the performance of triage nurses in emergency departments. To improve comparability and support evidence-based policies, future research must standardize training methodologies and outcome measurements. (shrink)

Merging logic and mathematics in deductive inference-an innovative, cutting-edge approach. Optimization methods for logical inference? Absolutely, say Vijay Chandru and John Hooker, two major contributors to this rapidly expanding field. And even though "solving logical inference problems with optimization methods may seem a bit like eating sauerkraut with chopsticks... it is the mathematical structure of a problem that determines whether an optimization model can help solve it, not the context in which the problem occurs." Presenting powerful, proven optimization techniques (...) for logic inference problems, Chandru and Hooker show how optimization models can be used not only to solve problems in artificial intelligence and mathematical programming, but also have tremendous application in complex systems in general. They survey most of the recent research from the past decade in logic/optimization interfaces, incorporate some of their own results, and emphasize the types of logic most receptive to optimization methods-propositional logic, first order predicate logic, probabilistic and related logics, logics that combine evidence such as Dempster-Shafer theory, rule systems with confidence factors, and constraint logic programming systems. Requiring no background in logic and clearly explaining all topics from the ground up, Optimization Methods for Logical Inference is an invaluable guide for scientists and students in diverse fields, including operations research, computer science, artificial intelligence, decision support systems, and engineering. (shrink)

Across the applied ethics literatures are a growing number of ethical tools: decision-support methodologies that encourage multi-stakeholder deliberative engagement with the social and moral issues arising from technology assessment and environmental management processes. This article presents a novel ethical tool for deliberation on the issue of environmental justice between current and future generations over long time frames. This ethical tool combines two approaches, linking John Dewey's concept of dramatic rehearsal – an em-pathetic and imaginative ethical deliberation process; with (...) the methodologies of backcasting – a type of scenario planning technique drawn from the future studies literature. The proposed hybrid ‘Deweyan Backcasting’ approach combines a creative process of devising multi-stakeholder visions of potentially desirable futures, with practical evaluation of the technical, social and political networks necessary to make such futures happen. It is suggested that such a model can provide a fruitful means for evaluating intergenerational environmental equity issues in long-range policy and planning. (shrink)

A number of increasingly sophisticated technologies are now being used to support complex decision-making in a range of contexts. This paper reports on work undertaken to provide decision support in the discretionary domain of sentencing by referring to a recently created Toulmin argument based model that involves the interplay and weighting of relevant rule-based and discretionary factors used in a decisional process. Judicial discretion, particularly in the sentencing phase, is one of the mainstays of justice systems (...) that favour individualised justice. The study discusses the modelling process in Victorian courts in Australia, where the handing down of an appropriate custodial or non-custodial sentence requires the consideration of many factors. Tools and techniques used to capture relevant expert knowledge and display it both as a paper model and as an online prototype application are discussed. (shrink)

India dropped its target of 500 GW of renewable energy capacity fossil fuel sources by 2030. Its responsibilities the United Nations Framework Convention Climate Change [UNFCCC],and reducing radiations by one billion tonnes by the end of the decade at the COP26 conference, held in Glasgow in November 2022. Researchers are continually searching for inexhaustible and reasonable energy sources. Solar energy is one of the greenest sources of energy and is also one of the cleanest. The most important factor in using (...) solar energy is the location of the solar power plant. The main objective of this study is to find the best location for a new solar power plant in a specific region called Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh in India. Here we offer an extension of ELECTRE III method as two-phase Pythagorean neutrosophic elimination and choice translating reality PN-ELECTRE-III) method to adapt with fuzzy, ambiguous, unsure, and indeterminate criteria. The Pythagorean neutrosophic numbers [PNNs] used by the group decision support system of PN-ELECTRE III to measure performance of the alternatives. The options are entirely outclassed in the subsequent stage in view of the past stage's evaluations of them. By defining PNN we describe the technique of indifference threshold functions, preference treshold and veto threshold functions, which provide a more stable basis to drop outranking relations. By calculating the concordance credibility, discordance credibility and net credibility degrees of each alternative, the ranking module of the PN-ELECTRE III approach is made simpler. In order to confirm the applicability of the strategy suggested in this paper, the location selection problem for solar plants is finaly solved. (shrink)

Judo is a multifactorial sport where many variables or key performance indicators such as force-velocity profile, bioenergetic capacity, technical and tactical skills, and cognitive and emotional competence play a role and influence the final result. While there have been many academic studies of these variables, usually in isolation, none have examined KPIs holistically or analyzed their impact on strategic performance. The main objective of the present study, therefore, is to apply a novel and easily replicable methodology to identify and prioritize (...) the main KPIs affecting performance in professional judo. Such a methodology was applied to the High-Performance Judo Centre of Valencia, using a multi-criteria decision aid technique: the analytic network process. The ANP is used to identify and quantify cause and effect relationships not only between KPIs but also between KPIs and performance objectives. Further, the ANP offers effective results when there is a lack of historical KPI data, because it is based on experts' opinions and judgments. A judo expert group comprising elite judo coaches and half-lightweight male judokas applied the methodology to discriminate between the characteristics required when aiming to reach high-level strategic objectives. The JEG, which consisted of five elite judokas, national and international champions, and three Olympic coaches—including a former European champion and silver medalist in a world championship—provided high added value to the study. The main findings were that the KPIs that made the most difference were mostly psychological, specifically motivation, stress, and team cohesion. Of these, motivation was by far the most important KPI for success in our case study, so judokas should make sure that they analyze it properly. Motivation is usually intrinsic to the competitor and should be maintained at a high level, not only during tournaments but also during daily training and lifestyle activities. Physical and other specific forms of training, as well as lifestyle KPIs, are very important for the elite competitor but are not sufficient to reach high-level objectives. The most important of these KPIs were Kumi-Kata, dual career, focus and concentration level, scouting, nutrition, and basic technique. Power and strength were the most important physical KPIs. In general, these are essential for meeting strategic objectives, but they do not make the crucial difference. This suggests that professional psychological support should be provided in daily training and that international team composition and internships should be fostered. (shrink)

Public sector adoption of AI techniques in welfare systems recasts historic national data as resource for machine learning. In this paper, we examine how the use of register data for development of predictive models produces new ‘afterlives’ for citizen data. First, we document a Danish research project’s practical efforts to develop an algorithmic decision-support model for social workers to classify children’s risk of maltreatment. Second, we outline the tensions emerging from project members’ negotiations about which datasets to (...) include. Third, we identify three types of afterlives for citizen data in machine learning projects: (1) data afterlives for training and testing the algorithm, acting as ‘ground truth’ for inferring futures, (2) data afterlives for validating the algorithmic model, acting as markers of robustness, and (3) data afterlives for improving the model’s fairness, valuated for reasons of data ethics. We conclude by discussing how, on one hand, these afterlives engender new ethical relations between state and citizens; and how they, on the other hand, also articulate an alternative view on the value of datasets, posing interesting contrasts between machine learning projects developed within the context of the Danish welfare state and mainstream corporate AI discourses of the bigger, the better. (shrink)

Nanomaterials are handled in global value chains for many different products, albeit not always recognisable as nanoproducts. The global market for nanomaterials faces an uncertain future, as the international dialogue on regulating nanomaterials is still ongoing and risk assessment data are being collected. At the same time, regulators and civil society organisations complain about a lack of transparency about the presence of nanomaterials on the market. In the project on Sustainable Nanotechnologies, a Decision Support System has been developed, (...) primarily for confidential use by risk and sustainability managers inside a company or consortium. In this article, we formulate a scenario concerning a potential role for an open access decision support system in negotiations on international agreements regulating trade in nanomaterials. The scenario includes design rules for decision support systems as well as procedures for use of such a system in stakeholder dialogue and policy-making on governance of these and other emerging technologies. This article incorporates analysis of results of stakeholder engagement on nanomaterials as well as literature and internet sources suggested by these stakeholders. (shrink)

Accurate measurement of livestock weight is a primary indicator in the meat industry to increase the economic gain. In lambs, the weight of a live animal is still usually estimated manually using traditional scales, resulting in a tedious process for the experienced assessor and stressful for the animal. In this paper, we propose a solution to this problem using computer vision techniques; thus, the proposed procedure estimates the weight of a lamb by analysing its zenithal image without interacting with (...) the animal, which speeds up the process and reduces weighing costs. It is based on a data-driven decision support system that uses RGB-D machine vision techniques and regression models. Unlike existing methods, it does not require walk-over-weighing platforms or special and expensive infrastructures. The proposed method includes a decision support system that automatically rejects those images that are not appropriate to estimate the lamb weight. After determining the body contour of the lamb, we compute several features that feed different regression models. Best results were achieved with Extra Tree Regression ($R^{2}$=91.94%), outperforming the existing techniques. Using only an image, the proposed approach can identify with a minimum error the optimal weight of a lamb to be slaughtered, so as to maximise the economic profit. (shrink)

Based on applied linguistics, this study looked at the decision support system for emphasizing self-assurance in academic writing. From a generic perspective, academic writing has been considered both a process and a product. It has highlighted the planning composite processes, editing, composing, revising, and assessment, which depend upon the familiarity of someone with confidence in their capability for engagement in these activities. As a product, it has focused on the writing results through the product’s characteristics. These contain specific (...) content areas in acceptable depth and well-structured technical vocabulary. Higher education aims to support students in optimizing their potential for achieving satisfactory outcomes. For example, the assessment of grades involves academic writing, contributing to the degree course classification. Students have differences in many respects, such as expectations, background knowledge, and study and learning approaches. There were varying students’ beliefs about what academic writing is for evaluation. Modern-day motivations and theories highlight the significance of students’ confidence in their studies. The role of high confidence can support students to apply more effort toward setting challenging goals. Students may find it more difficult to succeed in higher education if they lack confidence in their academic writing abilities. A DSS has many applications in diverse areas and can play a significant role in the ranking and prioritization process. The current study has considered the DSS for prioritizing self-assurance in academic writing based on applied linguistics. Various criteria were considered for the evaluation of the research. The Super Decision software was used for the experimental process of the proposed research. The results of the study show the effectiveness of the proposed research. (shrink)

Good communication is vital in healthcare both among healthcare professionals and be tween healthcare professionals and their patients And well written documents describing and or explaining the information in structured databases may be easier to comprehend more edifying and even more convincing than the structured data even when presented in tabu lar or graphic form Documents may be automatically generated from structured data using techniques from the eld of natural language generation These techniques are concerned with how the (...) content organisation and language used in a document can be dynamically selected depending on the audience and context They have been used to generate health education ma terials explanations and critiques in decision support systems and medical reports and progress notes.. (shrink)

Physicians and other healthcare professionals are increasingly finding ways to use artificial intelligent decision support systems in their work. IBM Watson Health, for example, is a commercially available technology that is providing AI-DDS services in genomics, oncology, healthcare management and more.1 AI’s ability to scan massive amounts of data, detect patterns, and derive solutions from data is vastly more superior than that of humans. AI technology is undeniably integral to the future of healthcare and public health, and thoughtful (...) consideration of the legal, ethical and moral issues surrounding this technology is a must. The authors of the article, Responsibility, Second Opinions, and Peer-Disagreement—Ethical and Epistemological Challenges of Using AI in Clinical Diagnostic Contexts, provide an informed discussion of how AI-DSS may be used, both practically and ethically, to assist healthcare professionals in cooperative diagnostic processes2. The authors propose a process, whereby AI-DSS would provide a physician a second opinion, and when there is a mismatch between opinions, another physician would provide a third opinion. This approach maintains a ‘physician-in-charge’ perspective, and suggests that decision-making must ultimately be made by a person. This approach is also consistent with the ‘physician in-the-loop’ concept, such that even when increasingly autonomous AI-DSSs are put to use, physicians will still be providing checks and overseeing clinical decisions. The authors conceptualise AI as a replacement of human cognitive labour. That is, AI is used to supplant a human professional in particular functions …. (shrink)

The form of Western mainstream film is the crux of its ideological efficiency: by using established formal techniques, films ensure audiences un- derstand that aesthetic decisions support and clarify the narrative to ensure maximum spectatorial satisfaction. However, some films exploit their formal aesthetics in order to prevent clarification, thwarting satisfaction in favour of viewing practices that can be considered perverse in that they withhold, suspend or obstruct immediate pleasure. Contemporary Western filmmaking in the mid-1990s witnessed the emergence of (...) a distinct group of filmmakers and films that, in the popular discourse of cinematic criticism, were together coded as “difficult” or “perverse.” These films were, as a result of the characteristics we identify below, situated obliquely in relation to the larger economic and artistic struc- tures of a commercially oriented “mainstream” cinema. Included in this new form of cinematic production were films from directors such as Tim Burton: Edward Scissorhands ; David Cronenberg: eXistenZ ; David Fincher: Se7en ; Peter Greenaway: The Baby of Maçon ; David Lynch: Lost Highway ; Quentin Tarantino: Pulp Fiction and Lars von Trier: Breaking the Waves . Whilst Western cinema as a whole has a long history of exploring “difficult” or “perverse” material within the overt or covert content of narrative, plot and story, such films demonstrate a particular relationship between the content being explored and the specific formal characteristics utilised in the delivery of that content. Thus where previous examples would utilise standardised formal techniques as a way of both delivering and containing the difficult or objectionable material, the films instead offer instances where the material of the narrative content seems to bleed backwards, affecting the form and rendering the very materiality of the film itself suspect and problematic. (shrink)

Since the advent of the natural sciences, natural scientists have spread the idea that the pursuit of truth about the facts of the world is the main drive of scientific research. The aim, they say, is to acquire knowledge and to provide explanations and predictions of phenomena and events. Surprisingly, even in our contemporary world in which scientific research is strongly involved in seeking solutions to practical problems pertaining to the pursuit of food, water, energy, health, labor, peace, war, nuclear (...) weapons, money, and the like, the pursuit-of-truth postulate nevertheless enjoys vigorous advocacy, especially in philosophy. In this chapter, the role that truth actually plays in medicine will be examined. Our discussion of this issue divides into the following four sections: 24.1 Truth in Medical Sciences; 24.2 Truth in Clinical Practice; 24.3 Misdiagnoses; 24.4 Truth Made in Medicine. In summary, it is shown that medical knowledge does not contain much truth because it mainly consists of hypotheses, theories, and deontic rules. The truth values of the former are unknown, while theories and deontic rules do not assume truth values. Likewise, in clinical practice true diagnoses and prognoses are not always attainable because (i) medical knowledge is inevitably vague, uncertain, and unreliable and is therefore scarcely truth-conducive; (ii) this also applies to most parts of patient data; (iii) physicians are not trained in viable and efficient methodology of clinical reasoning; and (iv) neither clinical decision support systems nor the automation of clinical decision-making will be able to compensate for the first two shortcomings. So, misdiagnoses will remain inevitable forever, although their frequency may be reduced by improving the techniques of clinical judgment. Since medical theories are artifactual structures and medical languages are artifactual systems, the truth of diagnoses and prognoses, and of any other judgment based thereon is made in medicine. (shrink)

The use of predictive systems has become wider with the development of related computational methods, and the evolution of the sciences in which these methods are applied Solon and Selbst and Pedreschi et al.. The referred methods include machine learning techniques, face and/or voice recognition, temperature mapping, and other, within the artificial intelligence domain. These techniques are being applied to solve problems in socially and politically sensitive areas such as crime prevention and justice management, crowd management, and emotion (...) analysis, just to mention a few. However, dissimilar predictions can be found nowadays as the result of the application of these methods resulting in misclassification, for example for the case of conviction risk assessment Office of Probation and Pretrial Services or decision-making process when designing public policies Lange. The goal of this paper is to identify current gaps on fairness achievement within the context of predictive systems in artificial intelligence by analyzing available academic and scientific literature up to 2020. To achieve this goal, we have gathered available materials at the Web of Science and Scopus from last 5 years and analyzed the different proposed methods and their results in relation to the bias as an emergent issue in the Artificial Intelligence field of study. Our tentative conclusions indicate that machine learning has some intrinsic limitations which are leading to automate the bias when designing predictive algorithms. Consequently, other methods should be explored; or we should redefine the way current machine learning approaches are being used when building decision making/decision support systems for crucial institutions of our political systems such as the judicial system, just to mention one. (shrink)