Vassilis Moustakis

Delphic hierarchy process (DHP): A methodology for priority setting derived from the Delphi method and analytical hierarchy process

Identifying of criteria and objectives is of paramount importance to a decision-making process and is the basis for a sound decision. A systematic approach, therefore, is needed so that the objectives of the organization not only can be identified but also prioritized so that the resources will be allocated to the relative importance of the objectives and how well the alternatives satisfy them. The methodology proposed here uses the Delphi method and integrates it with the analytic hierarchy process. It assists the decision maker(s) to systematically identify the organizational objectives and then to set priorities among them. The application of the proposed model is illustrated by a case study.

Evaluation of automatic knowledge acquisition techniques in the diagnosis of acute abdominal pain

Clinical diagnosis in acute abdominal pain is still a major problem. Computer-aided diagnosis offers some help; however, existing systems still produce high error rates. We therefore tested machine learning techniques in order to improve standard statistical systems. The investigation was based on a prospective clinical database with 1254 cases, 46 diagnostic parameters and 15 diagnoses. Independence Bayes and the automatic rule induction techniques ID3, NewId, PRISM, CN2, C4.5 and ITRULE were trained with 839 cases and separately tested on 415 cases. No major differences in overall accuracy were observed (43-48%), except for NewId, which was below the average. Between the different techniques some similarities were found, but also considerable differences with respect to specific diagnoses. Machine learning techniques did not improve the results of the standard model Independence Bayes. Problem dimensionality, sample size and model complexity are major factors influencing diagnostic accuracy in computer-aided diagnosis of acute abdominal pain.

Measuring and benchmarking the innovativeness of SMEs: A three-dimensional fuzzy logic approach

SMEs have been rather slow in adopting tools and techniques used in larger companies for improving their innovative performance, even if they are very well aware of the importance of innovation, due to difficulties in applying them in their practices. Furthermore, initiatives on improving the innovation within the SMEs in the past, have addressed ways of improving the product innovation process, through a wide spectrum of methods, techniques and tools without quantifying the degree of change of ‘innovativeness’. The approach presented in this paper, addresses both these issues. In the first part of this paper, the most commonly used measures of innovation are presented, and the difficulties in applying them to SMEs are described. In the second part a new methodology is presented, which is based on measuring and benchmarking innovation with fuzzy logic, through an innovation survey. This is achieved by addressing three inter-related, but separately measurable, aspects of a companys innovation process—the products developed; the innovation process utilized; the way the product innovation process is project managed. The approach aims at improving the iterative process of innovation in a SME, by assessing innovation and determining a product innovation profile. Finally an example based on data from 100 companies coming from the creative industries sector is presented.

Entrepreneurial behaviour in the Greek public sector

Purpose – While the term “entrepreneurship” was almost exclusively associated with private sector, it is now found with increasing frequency in the literature on the public sector and public administration. However, research on public entrepreneurs remains restricted to top and middle managers and elected politicians and focuses on policy promotion and initiatives concerning public sector transformation. The perpose of the present article is to extend earlier research to the empirical assessment of entrepreneurial behaviour among front line staff in the Greek public sector.Design/methodology/approach – A scale of entrepreneurial behaviour was assessed. A short, self‐report questionnaire was administered to a random sample of 237 public servants working at prefecture level, which is the second level of government in Greece. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of the entrepreneurial behaviour scale contributed to the formation of a hierarchical factor structure with a super‐ordinate entrepreneurial...

Creativity development in engineering education: the case of mind mapping

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to exploit student preference and propose, discuss and experimentally validate a strategy that aims to reduce time necessary to introduce tutoring of mind mapping to engineering students.Design/methodology/approach – A survey instrument was designed and used to collect student preferences about mind mapping. Preferences were linked to alternative scenarios of mind mapping deployment. Survey responses from a 100 second‐year students from the Department of Production Engineering and Management were analyzed using conjoint analysis.Findings – Results indicate that an effective strategy to present mind mapping to engineering students is to explain in detail all the possible applications of mind mapping; present mind maps with different colours using both words and drawings and encourage students to use mind maps in team assignments.Originality/value – The findings of this paper provide a well documented framework in addressing mind mapping technique to engineering studen...

Modeling Susceptibility to Periodontitis

Chronic inflammatory diseases like periodontitis have a complex pathogenesis and a multifactorial etiology, involving complex interactions between multiple genetic loci and infectious agents. We aimed to investigate the influence of genetic polymorphisms and bacteria on chronic periodontitis risk. We determined the prevalence of 12 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in immune response candidate genes and 7 bacterial species of potential relevance to periodontitis etiology, in chronic periodontitis patients and non-periodontitis control individuals (N = 385). Using decision tree analysis, we identified the presence of bacterial species Tannerella forsythia, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, and SNPs TNF -857 and IL-1A -889 as discriminators between periodontitis and non-periodontitis. The model reached an accuracy of 80%, sensitivity of 85%, specificity of 73%, and AUC of 73%. This pilot study shows that, on the basis of 3 periodontal pathogens and SNPs, patterns may be recognized to identify patients at risk for periodontitis. Modern bioinformatics tools are valuable in modeling the multifactorial and complex nature of periodontitis.

Gene Selection via Discretized Gene-Expression Profiles and Greedy Feature-Elimination

Analysis and interpretation of gene-expression profiles, and the identification of respective molecular- or, gene-markers is the key towards the understanding of the genetic basis of major diseases. The problem is challenging because of the huge number of genes (thousands to tenths of thousands!) and the small number of samples (about 50 to 100 cases). In this paper we present a novel gene-selection methodology, based on the discretization of the continuous gene-expression values. With a specially devised gene-ranking metric we measure the strength of each gene with respect to its power to discriminate between sample categories. Then, a greedy feature-elimination algorithm is applied on the rank-ordered genes to form the final set of selected genes. Unseen samples are classified according to a specially devised prediction/matching metric. The methodology was applied on a number of real-world gene-expression studies yielding very good results.

Evaluating the Properties of the Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale (EBPAS) in Health Care

The Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale (EBPAS; Aarons, 2004) is a relatively new construct for the study of attitudes toward the adoption of innovation and evidence-based practices (EBPs) in mental health service settings. Despite widespread interest in measuring the attitudes of health care providers in conjunction with the adoption of EBPs, no prior research has used the EBPAS with medical doctors, a different population than that with which the scale was originally developed. In the present study, the factor structure, reliability, and validity of EBPAS scores were tested with a sample of 534 medical doctors working in 14 Greek hospitals. In addition, associations of health care provider characteristics (age, gender, medical specialty, information and communication technology use and knowledge) with EBPAS total scores are examined. Confirmatory factor analyses support the 4-factor structure of the EBPAS and provide convincing evidence for the validity of the scale. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Deep assessment of machine learning techniques using patient treatment in acute abdominal pain in children

Learning from patient records may aid knowledge acquisition and decision making. Existing inductive machine learning (ML) systems such us NewId, CN2, C4.5 and AQ15 learn from past case histories using symbolic and/or numeric values. These systems learn symbolic rules (IF... THEN like) which link an antecedent set of clinical factors to a consequent class or decision. This paper compares the learning performance of alternative ML systems with each other and with respect to a novel approach using logic minimization, called LML, to learn from data. Patient cases were taken from the archives of the Paediatric Surgery Clinic of the University Hospital of Crete, Heraklion, Greece. Comparison of ML system performance is based both on classification accuracy and on informal expert assessment of learned knowledge.

A business excellence model for the hotel sector: implementation to high‐class Greek hotels

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the development of a business excellence model applicable in the hospitality industry.Design/methodology/approach – Two surveys using questionnaires were conducted: the first one for the development of the models criteria and sub‐criteria and the second one for the assessment of the criteria and sub‐criteria weights. The model was tested on a number of Greek high‐class hotels.Findings – Compared with other business excellence models the proposed model includes criteria and sub‐criteria that are more applicable to hotels. The model studies the factors that drive excellence in the hotel sector as well as the importance of these factors as they have been defined by the managers of the hotels. The implementation of the model in a number of high‐class Greek hotels shows its applicability and suitability to be used as a benchmarking system.Research limitations/implications – Time limitations, as the project was co‐funded by the European Union, have limited the ...