uncertainty management

Usually, in real-world engineering problems, there are different types of uncertainties about the studied variables, which can be due to the specific variables under investigation or interaction between them. Fuzzy cognitive maps, which addresses the cause-effect relation between variables, is one of the most common models for better understanding of the problems, especially when the quantitative data are not available or the nature of the problem is qualitative. One of the significant issues of automatic construction of fuzzy cognitive maps is that it does not consider the experts' uncertainties because of their cognitive attitudes such as age, experience, etc., which affects the quality and validity of modeling of the complex problems. Therefore, in this paper, a Z-Cognitive maps approach is proposed based on the distance-based automatic construction approach and Z-numbers to capture uncertainty and ambiguity of experts' opinions on the variables and causality relationships. The suggested approach can act as decision support for cognitive maps problems considering the experts' cognitive information, which is tested by a numerical example.

This study tried to examine EFL translators’ uncertainty and uncertainty management strategies through employing think aloud procedures. The participants of this study were some MA andBA translators selected from several universities in Iran. To this aim, a proficiency test was firstly administered among the volunteers. Then, think aloud protocol and retrospective interview were used to collect data. Meanwhile, Angelone coding system was used to categorize the data. To identify the significance of differences, chi-square nonparametric test was utilized. The findings indicated that MA translators had greater tendency to show uncertainty at larger chunks of language such as collocation and sentence, while BA ones were more inclined to show uncertainty in textual level. At the same time, behavioral and locus options were compared and contrasted between MA andBA translators. It was also found out that look-up and rereading strategies were frequently used to manage uncertainty. The findings of this study can be helpful for translators to improve their translation ability by being more aware of what is happening inside their minds. Awareness of a stockpile of strategies helps them have fewer difficulties while translating a text.