Training of Crisis Mappers and Map Production from Multi-sensor Data: Vernazza Case Study (Cinque Terre National Park, Italy)

This aim of paper is to presents the development of a multidisciplinary project carried out by the cooperation between Politecnico di Torino and ITHACA (Information Technology for Humanitarian Assistance, Cooperation and Action). The goal of the project was the training in geospatial data acquiring and processing for students attending Architecture and Engineering Courses, in order to start up a team of "volunteer mappers". Indeed, the project is aimed to document the environmental and built heritage subject to disaster; the purpose is to improve the capabilities of the actors involved in the activities connected in geospatial data collection, integration and sharing. The proposed area for testing the training activities is the Cinque Terre National Park, registered in the World Heritage List since 1997. The area was affected by flood on the 25th of October 2011. According to other international experiences, the group is expected to be active after emergencies in order to upgrade maps, using data acquired by typical geomatic methods and techniques such as terrestrial and aerial Lidar, close-range and aerial photogrammetry, topographic and GNSS instruments etc.; or by non conventional systems and instruments such us UAV, mobile mapping etc. The ultimate goal is to implement a WebGIS platform to share all the data collected with local authorities and the Civil Protectio

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Stakeholder involvement in the selection of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)-focussed voluntary standards within the food / agri-business industry

This study examines issues concerning the sustainable sourcing of raw materials in the food manufacturing sector, with a specific focus on the utilization of third-party, externally-recognised certification standards. The research is set within the context of debates surrounding the use of externally certified certification standards as a means of generating credibility in the supply chains and communities in developing countries. The findings inform the theoretical debate regarding stakeholder theory and the integration of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in business activity, particularly with regards to impacts on biodiversity. The theoretical positioning of the thesis is in two areas. Regarding stakeholder theory, the findings recognise the conflicting views within stakeholder theory relating to the motivations of businesses that implement sustainable business practices. Secondly, the thesis is positioned within the theoretical debate relating to the sources of notions of legitimacy. The research informs the position taken by Gilbert (2010) that the normative nature of voluntary standards is prone to being ‘decoupled’ from the realities of organisational practices. The research question considers the extent to which voluntary certification standards are an effective method of generating legitimacy within stakeholder groups beyond owners and managers. The research objectives are to consider whether certification standards are implemented strategically by ‘best practice’ business managers within food manufacturing, and whether managers consider the implementation of such certification standards as a route to securing and generating credibility and legitimacy amongst their stakeholder groups. This thesis is the product of a mixed-methods research strategy, combining qualitative and quantitative analysis methods. The quantitative element demonstrates the construction of an ‘Environmental Management and Stakeholder Engagement’ (EMSR) composite index to identify best-practice companies in the global food manufacturing sector, and incorporating quantitative analysis using correlation, Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) linear regression, and logistic regression methods. Methods combine with the EMSR Index to focus on the management systems and certification standard-related practices of a ‘best-practice’ sub-set of the Composite Index sample of constituent companies to determine relationships between the composite index outcome score, and elements including operational presence, company size and certification commitments. Following the identification of best-practice companies in the food sector, a case study approach analyses considers (i) best-practice company approaches to sustainable sourcing, company strategy and certification-standard participation, and (ii) RSPO and Rainforest Alliance certification standard-providers, to understand the extent that standard design incorporates affected stakeholders in developing countries. The findings provide an empirical account of the level of integration achieved by the best-practice companies in developing stakeholder engagement channels and relationships with the supply chain. The quantitative analysis supports the null hypothesis that claims that no wealth bias exists. Furthermore, only a weak relationship is identified between the extent that a company has quality internal management systems and engagement channels with stakeholders, and a weak relationship is identified between such commitments and the size or location of the parent company: that size and location do not impact on the quality of stakeholder engagement and environmental management systems. The case study findings challenge the use of certification standards as an effective means of establishing legitimacy within the supply chain and community stakeholders. Best-practice companies demonstrate clear steps to embed a sustainability-related ‘Strategic CSR’ approach to business within their business strategy. This approach features a combination of both instrumental and normative approaches to stakeholder theory, with the strategic embedding of stakeholder groups into its business activity representing an input-driven, ‘moral legitimacy’ approach. Best-practice food companies recognise standards as a means of achieving market transformation in areas of sustainable sourcing, and are used from a reputational-risk perspective, but not as a source of legitimacy. Certification standards are considered meaningful mechanisms for developing precompetitive relationships and collaboration. The lack of inclusiveness and representation of non-financial stakeholder interests in the design and governance structures of the observed standards make it difficult for participants to see such standards as being sources of moral legitimacy at local level, and particularly in developing countries

COMMUNICATION NEUTROSOPHIC ROUTES

Any manifestation of life is a component of communication, it is crossed by a communication passage. People irrepressibly generate meanings. As structuring domain of meanings, communication is a place where meanings burst out volcanically. Manifestations of life are surrounded by a halo of communicational meanings. Human material and ideatic existence includes a great potential of communication in continuous extension. The human being crosses the path of or is at the intersection of different communicational thoroughfares. The life of human beings is a place of communication. Consequently, any cognitive or cogitative manifestation presents a route of communication. People consume their lives relating by communicationally. Some communicational relationships are contradictory, others are neutral, since within the manifestations of life there are found conflicting meanings and/or neutral meanings. Communicational relations always comprise a set of neutral, neutrosophic meanings. Communication in general is a human manifestation of life with recognizable profile. Particularly, we talk about scientific communication, literary communication, pictorial communication, sculptural communication, esthetic communication and so on, as specific manifestations of life. All these include coherent, cohesive and structurable series of existential meanings which are contradictory and/or neutral, neutrosophic. It can be asserted that in any communication there are routes of access and neutrosophic routes. Any communication is traversed by neutrosophic routes of communication