The role of e-participation and open data in evidence-based policy decision making in local government

The relationships between policies, their values and outcomes are often difficult for citizens and policy makers to assess due to the complex nature of the policy lifecycle. With the opening of data by public administrations there is now a greater opportunity for transparency, accountability and evidence-based decision making in the policy making process. In representative democracies, citizens rely on their elected representatives and local administrations to take policy decisions that address societal challenges and add value to their local communities. Citizens now have the opportunity to assess the impact and values of the policies introduced by their elected representatives and hold them accountable by utilising historical open data that is publicly available. Using a qualitative case study in a UK Local Government Authority, this paper examines how e-participation platforms and the use of open data can facilitate more factual, evidence based and transparent policy decision making and evaluation. From a theoretical stance, this paper contributes to the policy lifecycle and e-participation literature. The paper also offers valuable insights to public administrations on how open data can be utilised for evidence-based policy decision making and evaluationThis work evolved in the context of the project Policy Compass (http://policycompass.eu/), a project co-funded by the EC within FP7, Grant agreement no: 612133

GENROUTE: A genetic algorithm printed wire board (printed wire board (PWB) Router)

The major effort of this thesis was to develop an electronic circuit routing system that utilizes genetic algorithms to perform Printed Wire Board (PWB) routing rather than brute force exhaustive searching methods. This problem can be classified as an NP-Hard optimization problem searching a large solution space. Some desirable characteristics of an electronic routing system are that it: Minimize the number of potential solutions Minimize the number of board layers and tap holes Minimize trace lengths and the number of jogs Minimize trace cross-talk and the board capacitance

Reasoning about Relevance

This study focuses on how non-expert assessors judge relevance guided by mental models of relevance developed and applied during the assessment process. Components of relevance models are identified as well as challenges and changes associated with their construction and use. Study participants evaluated the relevance of news articles with respect to an assigned search topic. They commented on their reasoning in assessing each article, challenges they experienced in determining relevance and changes in their ability to assess relevance over the course of the evaluation session. Content analysis of these comments revealed that relevance models are derived from participants' understandings of the search topic, the documents they viewed and the relationships between them. Relevance manifestations (topical, situational, cognitive) and criteria (information scope, specificity and detail) guide the development and application of the relevance models, which may also be influenced by situational, cognitive and motivational factors.Master of Science in Information Scienc

Hybride Räume verstehen: Entwurf eines Raumzeitmodells zur Darstellung dynamischer Topologien hybrider Räume

Diese Arbeit entwickelt ein Raumzeitmodell zur Darstellung dynamischer Topologien hybrider Räume. Die Visualisierung raumzeitlicher Daten ist ein bekanntes Problem, beispielsweise bei digitalen Zwillingen in der Stadtplanung. Es fehlt auch eine grundlegende Ontologie zum Verständnis hybrider Räume. Das entwickelte Raumzeitmodell besitzt drei Ebenen: eine Ebene der Orte und Medienarten, eine Ebene der Wahrnehmung und eine Ebene von Zeit und Interaktion. Existierende Konzepte und Darstellungsarten hybrider Räume werden vorgestellt. Anhand einer Kunstausstellung wird das Raumzeitmodell getestet. Zwei Hypothesen leiten die begleitende Online-Umfrage: (A) es gibt Korrelationen zwischen der Mediennutzung (Modalität), den Interaktionen der Teilnehmer (Kreativität) und deren Wahrnehmung (Kunstverständnis) und (B) individuelle Parameter (Demografische Daten, Ort und Situation, individuelle Kenntnisse) beeinflussen die Wahrnehmung (Kunstverständnis). Ebenfalls ausgewertet werden die Reichweite, die Anzahl der Interaktionen und die Rücklaufquote. Die Online-Umfrage zeigte generell eine positive Korrelation zwischen Mediennutzung (Modalität) und individueller Aktivität (Kreativität). Wegen der geringen Beteiligung (P_TN = 14) ist die Umfrage aber leider wenig repräsentativ. Es konnten verschiedene dynamische Topologien hybrider Räume erfolgreich visualisiert werden. Die gemeinsame Darstellung von realen und virtuellen Orten und Medienarten vermittelt ein neues Grundverständnis von Ort, Reichweite und städtebaulicher Dichte. Bezüge zwischen Modalität, Mobilität und kommunikativer Interaktion werden sichtbar. Das aktuelle Phänomen der Multilokalität konnte erfolgreich abgebildet werden. Das Raumzeitmodell ermöglicht eine genauere Klassen- und Strukturbildung, beispielsweise bei der Entwicklung digitaler Zwillinge. Dynamische Topologien hybrider Räume, wie in sozialen Medien, bei Veranstaltungen oder im Städtebau, können damit besser dargestellt und verglichen werden

A responsabilidade legal de veículos autónomos : uma perspectiva da ciência cognitiva

A Tecnologia dos Veículos Autónomos avança rapidamente e urge um debate entre todas as áreas que possam oferecer um contributo. O funcionamento complexo de um Veículo Autónomo, as querelas éticas associadas ao mesmo, e os problemas de segurança que se têm vindo a colocar, tornam-no num produto em tudo exceci-onal, o que acarreta limitações ao nível do Direito. Este é o contributo da Ciência Cognitiva, com recurso às disciplinas de Filosofia da Mente e Ciências da Computação, fazendo a ponte com o Direito, com o objetivo de responder a algumas dessas limitações. O propósito geral desta dissertação é perceber o que é um Agente, que impacto tem no ambiente e o que é que torna um Agente uma entidade legalmente responsável. Como entidades num mundo em que muito é definido pelos atos voluntários, os Veículos Autónomos são Agentes complexos enquadrados num ambiente com infinitos estímulos. A esta tecnologia ainda lhe falta, como iremos argumentar, um pressuposto mínimo da imputação da responsabilidade: a Metacognição. O que esta dissertação pretende é mostrar, numa primeira fase e através de considerações sobre Agentividade1 e ação voluntária, que a Metacognição é um elemento essencial, no Direito, para a atribuição de Responsabilidade. Numa segunda, alega-se que o tipo de Metacog-nição na qual o Direito se baseia está em falta no VA. E, finalmente, debate-se qual deverá ser o regime jurídico do VA, tendo tudo isto em conta. Para esta discussão, além de tecermos ideias sobre um regime mais disperso e solidário de responsabilidades, bem como sobre a necessidade de um sistema legal de responsabilidade civil paralelo a um seguro de respon-sabilidade civil obrigatório, comparamos os VA com os regimes dos menores, animais e interditos, dada a sua semelhança no que diz respeito aos processos metacognitivos.As the technology of Autonomous Vehicles advances swiftly, it’s urgent to look into all the areas that can some-how contribute to a useful debate. The highly complex functioning of the Autonomous Vehicle, the ethics ques-tions associated, and the safety problems that appeared with it, make it an exceptional product, with serious implications in Law. In this dissertation we pretend to build a bridge between Philosophy of Mind and Compu-tation Science and the Law, in order to respond to the limitations of this technology. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse what it means to be an Agent, with an impact in the environment and what makes an Agent an entity to whom we can ascribe legal responsibility. As entities in a world where a lot of what happens it’s defined by the idea of Voluntary Acts, Autonomous Vehicles are complex agents, framed in an environment that presents an infinite number of stimuli. This Technology, as we shall argue, lacks a mini-mum requirement of responsibility: Metacognition. What this dissertation wants to show is, using the concepts of Agency and Voluntary Action, that Metacognition is an essential element, in Law, in order to ascribe respon-sibility. In a second phase of this thesis, we argue that this type of Metacognition, that Law requires to consider someone responsible, is missing in the Autonomous Vehicle. Finally, in the last chapters, there’s some debate over the Legal system that should be applied to this technology. In this debate, while suggesting a scattered regime that also considers joint liabilities, as well as the existence of a mandatory insurance parallel to the civil Responsibility regime, we briefly compare Autonomous Vehicles to minors, animals and disabled people, given their similarity when it comes to the degree of Metacognitive processes