SUPER: Towards the Use of Social Sensors for Security Assessments and Proactive Management of Emergencies

Social media statistics during recent disasters (e.g. the 20 million tweets relating to 'Sandy' storm and the sharing of related photos in Instagram at a rate of 10/sec) suggest that the understanding and management of real-world events by civil protection and law enforcement agencies could benefit from the effective blending of social media information into their resilience processes. In this paper, we argue that despite the widespread use of social media in various domains (e.g. marketing/branding/finance), there is still no easy, standardized and effective way to leverage different social media streams -- also referred to as social sensors -- in security/emergency management applications. We also describe the EU FP7 project SUPER (Social sensors for secUrity assessments and Proactive EmeRgencies management), started in 2014, which aims to tackle this technology gap

An ontology-based system to support agent-based simulation of building use

The prediction and evaluation of future building response to its intended use and users is a complex task that designers have to face during the design process. As matter of fact, few methods exist that can help designers in such task, despite its importance in the definition of the building quality; norms and regulations, personal designer's experience, post-occupancy evaluation have shown their limit to provide predictive models of the complex phenomenon of human behaviour in built environments. With the increasing of computing power, virtual simulation techniques have been introduced in building design to control, manage and predict complex systems of building performances such as its energy or structural behaviour, but not to representation of buildings while-in-use. The Agent-Based Modelling and Simulation (ABMS) paradigm has been applied in building design to simulation of specific aspects of human behaviour and in specific occurrences (for instance in fire egress simulations), while a more extensive representation of users actions, behaviours, and activities is still missing. In order to overcome this lack, in this paper we propose to support agent-based simulation with a knowledge base, developed by means of ontologies and able to provide a structured system of data about human-building interaction, useful as start hypotheses for Agent-based Simulation. For its development, we rely on the general template of building knowledge management already proposed by the research group (Carrara et al., 2009), extending it to representation of the whole system users-built environment. The proposed general template, configured by the meaning - properties - rules structure, allows the formalization of users/agents entities, whose parameter, attributes and behavioural rules can encode several 'aspects' of real users and their interactions with the other entities (building components, furniture, other people) in a built environment. Currently, a first application has been developed dealing with the virtually testing of a small hospital ward, in order to evaluate the reliability and the potentiality of such approach. COPYRIGHT: © 2012 The authors

New challenges for business actors and positive heuristics

Purpose: The purpose of this guest editorial is to present an overview of the contributions in this special issue and proposes a positive approach to heuristics deriving from the growing interest in the decision-making topic with respect to the new challenges emerging in uncertain environments in management and marketing research. Design/methodology/approach: The authors explore the reasons for a positive view of business actors' judgments and choices based on heuristics, not only in terms of effectiveness in practice, but their fit with human cognition and behavior, and the potential distinctiveness in contexts where technological devices and algorithms are more widespread, but not necessarily more appropriate. Findings: The authors present and discuss the emergence and evolution of heuristics as a topic in the management literature, and the themes and insights proposed in the papers published in this special issue contributing to research aimed at systemizing a managerial perspective of the concepts and tools that may be useful for practitioners and researchers in this field. Originality/value: The paper discusses the positive role that heuristics can play, offering some propositions for future research by framing heuristics as a set of tools (toolbox) for business actors in uncertain contexts, without constituting a cognitive limitation for effective solutions

Annual Research Report, 2009-2010

Annual report of collaborative research projects of Old Dominion University faculty and students in partnership with business, industry and governmenthttps://digitalcommons.odu.edu/or_researchreports/1001/thumbnail.jp

Annual Research Report, 2010-2011

Annual report of collaborative research projects of Old Dominion University faculty and students in partnership with business, industry and government.https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/or_researchreports/1000/thumbnail.jp

Towards Greater Computational Modeling in Neurocognitive Creativity Research

Creative cognition is the driving force behind all cultural and scientific progress. In recent years, the field of neurocognitive creativity research (NCR) has made considerable progress in revealing the neural and psychological correlates of creative cognition. However, a detailed understanding of how cognitive processes produce creative ideas, and how these processes interact differently across tasks and individuals, remains elusive. In this article, we argue that the increased adoption of computational modeling can help greatly in achieving this goal. While the verbal theories guiding NCR have evolved from broader accounts into more specific descriptions of neurocognitive processes, they remain more open to interpretation and harder to falsify than formal models. Translating theories into computational models can make them more concrete, accessible, and easier to compare, and helps researchers to develop causal hypotheses for how variation in cognitive factors leads to variation in creative outcomes. Currently, however, computational modeling of creativity is conducted almost entirely separately from NCR, and few attempts have been made to embody the cognitive theories of NCR in models that can simulate performance on common lab-based tasks. In this paper, we discuss theories of creative cognition and how they might benefit from the wider adoption of formal modeling. We also examine recent computational models of creativity and how these might be improved and better integrated with NCR. Finally, we describe a pathway toward a mechanistic understanding of creative cognition through the integration of computational modeling, psychological theory, and empirical research, outlining an example model based on dual-process accounts

Cultural Influence and the Effective Use of Security Awareness in Congolese Organizations

In today’s global economy, the need to reuse technological advancements as well as training and awareness materials for information security programs from western countries in developing nations is growing. To understand the underlying drivers of employees effective use behaviors as it relates to security awareness programs in organizations; this study examined the extrinsic and intrinsic motivation factors that influence employees’ effective use of security awareness programs in organizations located in developing nations. The results showed that influencing employees’ attitudes toward security is a better predictor of employees’ effective use of security awareness programs than compliance intention. Cultural has also shown to have an influence over employee’s effective use of security awareness program

Cultural Influence and the Effective Use of Security Awareness in Congolese Organizations

In today’s global economy, there is a growing need to apply technological advancements as well as training and awareness materials from western countries on information security programs in developing nations. To understand the underlying drivers of employees’ effective use behaviors in relation to security awareness programs in organizations, this study examines the extrinsic and intrinsic motivation factors that influence employees located in developing nations. The results indicate that influencing employees’ attitudes toward security is a better predictor of employees’ effective use of security awareness programs than their intention to comply. Cultural effects has also proven to have an influence on employees’ effective use of security awareness programs