Organizational Adaptation in Multi‐Stakeholder Crisis Response: An Experimental Study

Modern day crises demand organizations to collaborate and adapt to new roles, functions and structures. In such situations, lack of collaborative behaviour and openness between organizations can result in reduced adaptive ability. Therefore, it is important to facilitate collaboration between organizations. We have studied the extent to which crisis managers are prepared to work with personnel and resources from organizations other than their own when responding to crises. An experiment was designed with four different organizations in Sweden, which involved decision making concerning whether the participants systematically favoured their own organization over others. Findings indicate that increasing familiarity and expectation of future cooperation with other organizations increased the likelihood that decision makers would be prepared to work with other organizations in joint crisis management.     

Importance Sampling Spherical Harmonics

In this paper we present the first practical method for importance sampling functions represented as spherical harmonics (SH). Given a spherical probability density function (PDF) represented as a vector of SH coefficients, our method warps an input point set to match the target PDF using hierarchical sample warping. Our approach is efficient and produces high quality sample distributions. As a by-product of the sampling procedure we produce a multi-resolution representation of the density function as either a spherical mip-map or Haar wavelet. By exploiting this implicit conversion we can extend the method to distribute samples according to the product of an SH function with a spherical mip-map or Haar wavelet. This generalization has immediate applicability in rendering, e.g., importance sampling the product of a BRDF and an environment map where the lighting is stored as a single high-resolution wavelet and the BRDF is represented in spherical harmonics. Since spherical harmonics can be efficiently rotated, this product can be computed on-the-fly even if the BRDF is stored in local-space. Our sampling approach generates over 6 million samples per second while significantly reducing precomputation time and storage requirements compared to previous techniques.     

Multi-perspective requirements engineering within NATURE

This paper argues that existing definitions of viewpoints in software engineering are inadequate for requirements engineering (RE). The ESPRIT 6353 NATURE basic research action proposes an alternative definition which recognises that viewpoints are social artefacts within the RE process. It also proposes novel computational mechanisms for analysing different viewpoints as a basis for more informed negotiation between viewpoint owners. This paper reports important aspects of this research and outlines an agenda for future research in multiperspective RE.This work was conducted when the author was with the Institute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research of Technology-Hellas     

Textures and spin waves in rotating superfluid3H3-B

The spin wave modes in rotating superfluid³He-B have been calculated for a texture of cylindrical symmetry. The textural configuration is determined by minimizing the appropriate free energy and solving the resulting Euler-Lagrange equations for then vector. The texture determines the effective potential entering the spin wave equation. The potential deviates significantly from a harmonic oscillator under realistic experimental conditions, giving rise to shifts of the oscillator frequencies. The agreement with the recent experimental observations of Ikkalaet al. is excellent at all temperatures studied.     

Recycled concrete and fly ash make calcium silicate bricks

It has been shown that calcium hydroxide from hydrated cement reacts with fly ash and siliceous particles in the crusher fines of recycled concrete to give calcium silicate products similar to sand-lime bricks when autoclaved. Such products achieved compressive strengths up to 12.5 MPa.     

Runtime Verification of Timed LTL using Disjunctive Normalized Equation Systems

In this paper we present a new framework for runtime verification of properties of real time systems such as financial systems or backend databases. Such a systems has a semantics which resemples that of timed traces, namely a sequence of states where each state consists of predicates true in this state and then a timestamp explaining when the state is valid. We present a logic, LTL_t, which is an extension of LTL with time constraints and a freeze quantifier and show how formulae in this logic are able to express properties of bounded liveness and safety which are ideal for these systems. It is shown how a formula in LTL_t may be rewritten to a certain disjunctive normal form suitable for checking a real time system at runtime. The normal form captures the essential part of runtime verification by a set of mutually defined formula identifiers, each expressing two things: What should hold now and which formula identifiers that will need to hold in the next state. As part of the theoretical foundation for this work we propose a characterization of Runtime Verification and address the challenges in developing a method which is both sound and complete while at the same time efficient.     

Designing manipulative technologies for children with different abilities

We present a design approach for manipulative technologies that consider “user diversity” as a main lever for design. Different dimensions of “diversity” are considered, e.g., the users' age, abilities, culture, cultural background, and alphabetization. These dimensions drive the development of a user-centered design process for manipulative technologies for learning and play environments. In particular, we explore the possibility of allowing young children to develop and interact with virtual/physical worlds by manipulating physical objects in different contexts, like the classroom, the hospital, or the playground. In our scenarios, we consider children with different abilities (fully able, physically impaired, or with cognitive delays), in different cultures (Denmark, Tanzania, and Italy), and with a different level of alphabetization. The needs and expectations of such heterogeneous user-groups are taken into account through a user-centered design process to define a concept of tangible media for collaborative and distributed edutainment environments. The concept is implemented as a set of building blocks called I-Blocks with individual processing and communication power. Using the I-Blocks system, children can do “programming by building,” and thereby construct interacting artefacts in an intuitive manner without the need to learn and use traditional programming languages. Here, we describe in detail the technology of I-Blocks and discuss lessons learned from “designing for diversity.”     

Multiagent robotics: toward energy autonomy

In this paper, we propose a novel trend in multiagent robotics: energy autonomy. A definition of energy autonomy is developed from an original concept, “potential energy,” that is under the constraints of remaining energy capacity and the relative distance among robotic agents. Toward energy autonomy, we initially present a simulation of a multiagent robotic system in which each robot is capable of exchanging energy cells with other robots. Our simulation points out that: (1) each robot is able not only to act as an autonomous agent, but also to interact with others to be beyond the individual capabilities; (2) in order to adapt to changes in the environment, each robot is situated as an adaptive agent in a network of neighboring robots, which leads to a state of energy autonomy. Finally, based on the results of the simulation, we adjust the rules for our real multirobot system. This work was presented in part at the 12th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 25–27, 2007     

Process supervision by means of a hybrid model

The paper concerns process supervision tasks in which a continuous-variable system has to be moved into a globally defined final state. A hybrid model is proposed that describes the discrete-event behaviour as well as the quantitative behaviour of the continuous-variable system. The model consists of a Petri net and of differential equations whose validity depends on the marking of the net. The supervisory control task is solved by searching for a path within the Petri net from the current towards the final state and by using the relevant quantitative models to determine the speed of the state transitions. The results are illustrated by means of a laboratory tank system.     

Nitric oxide exchange in nitrosylmyoglobin

Summary The exchange of nitric oxide in nitrosylmyoglobin, the heme pigment of nitrite-cured meat, has been studied using nitrogen-15 labelling in aqueous solution under conditions (pH, concentration of ascorbate and nitrite) similar to those prevailing in meat during the curing process, and has been found to have a half-life of approximately 2 h at 40° C. One nitric oxide molecule is coordinated to the iron(II) centre of a myoglobin molecule and, in weakly acidic aqueous solution under anaerobic conditions, the exchange rate of the bound nitric oxide is proportional to the concentration of nitrosylmyoglobin, nitrite and hydrogen ion. The rate of exchange has a moderate temperature dependence, corresponding to an activation barrier ofH =47±3 kJ·mol^–1 at 25° C and pH 5.9, a value dramatically lower than that found for the enthalpy of activation for the oxidation of nitrosylmyoglobin by molecular oxygen,H =110 kJ·mol^–1. The difference in temperature dependence between the exchange and the autoxidation is discussed in relation to the function of nitrosylmyoglobin as antioxidant in cured meat products.

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Stickoxidaustausch in Stickoxidmyoglobin

Zusammenfassung Der Stickoxidaustausch im Häm-Farbstoff Stickoxidmyoglobin in Nitrit-gesalzenem Schinken wurde unter Verwendung einer Stickstoff-15-Markierung untersucht, und zwar in wäßriger Lösung und unter Verhältnissen (pH, Konzentration von Ascorbat und Nitrit), welche den Verhältnissen während des Einsalzens im Schinken ähnlich sind. Die Halbwertszeit des Austausches wurde bei 40 °C bei ungefähr 2 h festgestellt. Ein Stickoxid ist dem Eisen (II) des Myoglobins koordiniert; in schwach saurer Lösung und bei Sauerstofffreiheit ist die Austauschgeschwindigkeit des gebundenen Stickoxids proportional zur Konzentration von Stickoxidmyoglobin, Nitrit und Wasserstoffion. Die Austauschgeschwindigkeit ist etwas temperaturabhängig und entspricht einer Aktivierungsbarriere vonH =47±3 kJ·mol^–1 bei 25 °C und pH 5,9. Dieser Wert ist signifikant niedriger als der für die Aktivierungsenthalpie für Stickoxidmyoglobin-Oxydation durch molekularen Sauerstoff,H =110 kJ·mol^–1, festgestellte Wert. Der temperaturabhängige Unterschied zwischen Austausch und Autoxidation wird im Verhältnis zur Funktion des Stickoxidmyoglobins als Antioxidant in Schinken und ähnlichen Produkten diskutiert.