13,506 research outputs found
Addressing the Needs of Self-Represented Litigants in the Canadian Justice System
How can the Canadian justice system better assist self-represented litigants (SRLs) with their legal needs?
There is a service gap that exists in the Canadian justice system between what SRLs need and what is currently being provided. The system needs to better address how SRLs understand, avoid, manage and resolve their legal issues.
While the entire justice system has a role to play in understanding and addressing this question, courts and court administrators in particular have a central role to play. Some important efforts have begun to address the needs of SRLs. However, major challenges persist in providing adequate court services to SRLs
Addressing the Needs of Self-Represented Litigants in the Canadian Justice System
How can the Canadian justice system better assist self-represented litigants (SRLs) with their legal needs?
There is a service gap that exists in the Canadian justice system between what SRLs need and what is currently being provided. The system needs to better address how SRLs understand, avoid, manage and resolve their legal issues.
While the entire justice system has a role to play in understanding and addressing this question, courts and court administrators in particular have a central role to play. Some important efforts have begun to address the needs of SRLs. However, major challenges persist in providing adequate court services to SRLs
Power subsystem automation study
The purpose of the phase 2 of the power subsystem automation study was to demonstrate the feasibility of using computer software to manage an aspect of the electrical power subsystem on a space station. The state of the art in expert systems software was investigated in this study. This effort resulted in the demonstration of prototype expert system software for managing one aspect of a simulated space station power subsystem
Mediation Success: An Empirical Analysis
Published in cooperation with the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolutio
IM-sgi an interface model for shape grammar implementations
This research arises from the interest in computing as offering new paradigms in the design
practice. Information technologies are the driving force for progress in the processes of design, enabling new forms of creativity. The increasing sophistication of computer applications, their
easier access, and lower cost have had a significant impact on design practices and can be
regarded as a paradigm shift. The invention and creativity are thus seen as knowledge
processing activities and can, at least partially, be carried out with the support of computer applications. In this context Shape Grammars (SG) as production systems of designs through rules have the potential to create designs with variable user input and the ability to evaluate a
large number of alternatives that may lead to innovative designs. Most architects and designers
use computers on their daily practice as a representation tool for their projects, but not as a
facilitator or increaser of the creative process. SG computational implementations have the
potential to enhance creativity with the test of a wide range of design options, helping the
appearance of new solutions, either through the emergence of new shapes or by stimulating the designer’s creativity with the possibilities presented.
As Architects and Designers haven't adopted existing SG computational implementations, that take advantage of computation to facilitate and enhance their work, could the problem be on the communication between the applications and the user? If the interface of the SG
implementation does not allow the user to understand how to use it or how to control and make use of its results, it can’t be successfully used.
With interest in SG implementations as creative partners in the creative process, our research starts with the analysis of existing SG implementations, trying to understand if they had the
potential to be adopted by architects and designers in their practice and, if not, what could be done to lead to that objective. User Interface Inspection Methods were used to perform this analysis and allowed us to
understand that there are interactions and communication issues that need to be addressed for
SG implementations to be adopted by designers. Taking this direction, we understood that models of interaction between the user and SG implementations have already been developed. The present research proposal started from the analysis of the interaction model of Scott Chase, where he defines the different levels of interaction between the user and SG implementation, with more or less input from the user, establishing different ways to combine synergies to obtain new creative solutions.
Taking this interaction model as a starting point, next, we must assure the correct
communication between user and implementation occurs. The means of communication between these two agents is the computational interface. Understanding the importance of the
interface to allow the user to know how to use the computational implementation and be able
to produce results, our research presents the development of an interface model for SG
implementations to help to take a step towards the adoption of SG for creative projects.
For this, we used methods from Human-Computer Interaction discipline, and we also took
Bastien & Scapin's "List of Ergonomic Criteria Guidelines" as guiding lines to define the Criteria of our interface model, called IM-sgi, Interface Model for Shape Grammar
Implementations. Thus, IM-sgi, an interface model for SG Implementations, has the purpose of helping SG
implementations developers to address the interface on the right path to a correct
communication with the particular type of user that architects and designers are.
Interface prototypes following IM-sgi criteria are finally developed and presented to test the
suitability of the IM-sgi Model to SG implementations and validate the objectives we propose.A presente pesquisa surge do interesse na computação por oferecer novos paradigmas na prática
do design. As tecnologias da informação são a força motriz para o progresso nos processos de design, permitindo novas formas de criatividade. A crescente sofisticação das aplicações
computacionais, o acesso mais fácil às mesmas e menor custo associado tiveram um grande
impacto nas práticas de projeto e podemos considerar estar perante uma mudança de paradigma. A invenção e a criatividade são, portanto, vistas como atividades de processamento de
conhecimento e podem, pelo menos parcialmente, ser realizadas com o suporte do computador. Nesse contexto, As Gramáticas de Forma, como sistemas de produção de designs atravĂ©s de regras, tĂŞm o potencial de criar projetos com entradas com nĂveis variáveis de intervenção do
utilizador e apresentam a capacidade de avaliar um grande nĂşmero de alternativas que podem
levar a designs inovadores. A maioria dos arquitetos e designers usa o computador na sua
prática diária como uma ferramenta de representação para seus projetos, mas não como um
facilitador ou potenciador do processo criativo. As implementações computacionais de Gramáticas de Forma têm o potencial de aumentar a criatividade com o teste de uma ampla
gama de opções de design, ajudando no surgimento de novas soluções, seja pela emergência de
novas formas ou estimulando a criatividade do designer com as opções desenvolvidas.
Uma vez que as implementações computacionais de Gramáticas de Forma existentes não foram
adotadas por Arquitetos e Designers, que claramente tiram proveito de aplicações
computacionais para facilitar e aperfeiçoar o seu trabalho, poderá o problema estar na comunicação entre as implementações e o utilizador? Se a interface da implementação não permitir que o utilizador entenda como usá-la ou como controlar e utilizar os seus resultados, ela não poderá ser utilizada com sucesso.
Com interesse nas implementações de Gramáticas de Forma como parceiros criativos no
processo criativo, a nossa investigação começa com a análise das implementações de Gramáticas de Forma existentes, tentando entender se estas têm potencial para ser adotadas pelos criativos na sua prática e, se não, o que poderia ser feito para chegar a este objetivo.
Foram usados métodos de inspeção para realizar esta análise para nos permitir compreender
que há interações e problemas de comunicação que precisam de ser resolvidos para que as
implementações de Gramáticas de Forma sejam adotadas pelos projetistas. Seguindo essa direção de investigação, percebemos que foram já desenvolvidos modelos de
interação entre o utilizador e as implementações de Gramáticas de Forma. A presente proposta
de pesquisa surgiu a partir da análise do modelo de interação de Scott Chase, onde este define
os diferentes nĂveis de interação entre utilizador e implementação de Gramáticas de Forma, com
maior ou menor input do utilizador, estabelecendo diferentes formas de combinar sinergias para
obter novas soluções criativas. Tomando esse modelo de interação como ponto de partida, devemos assegurar que a
comunicação correta entre o utilizador e a implementação ocorra. O meio de comunicação
desses dois agentes é o interface computacional. Entendendo a importância do interface para permitir que o utilizador entenda como usar a implementação computacional e seja capaz de produzir resultados, a nossa pesquisa apresenta o desenvolvimento de um modelo de interface para implementações de Gramáticas de Forma para ajudar a dar um passo na direção da adoção das Gramáticas de Forma para projetos criativos. Deste modo, aplicámos métodos da disciplina de HCI e também adotámos a Lista de Diretrizes
e Critérios Ergonómicos de Bastien & Scapin como linhas de orientação para definir os
Critérios do nosso modelo de interface, denominado IM-sgi.
O IM-sgi, um modelo de interface para Implementações de Gramática de Forma, tem a finalidade de ajudar programadores de implementações de Gramáticas de Forma a endereçar a
interface no sentido de atingir uma comunicação correta com o tipo particular de utilizador que
são os arquitetos e designers. Protótipos de interface seguindo os critérios IM-sgi são finalmente desenvolvidos e apresentados para testar a adequação do modelo IM-sgi e validar os objetivos que propomos
Workshop on Fuzzy Control Systems and Space Station Applications
The Workshop on Fuzzy Control Systems and Space Station Applications was held on 14-15 Nov. 1990. The workshop was co-sponsored by McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Company and NASA Ames Research Center. Proceedings of the workshop are presented
The Causal Effects of an Industrial Policy
Business support policies designed to raise productivity and employment are common worldwide, but rigorous micro-econometric evaluation of their causal effects is rare. We exploit multiple changes in the area-specific eligibility criteria for a major program to support manufacturing jobs ("Regional Selective Assistance"). Area eligibility is governed by pan-European state aid rules which change every seven years and we use these rule changes to construct instrumental variables for program participation. We match two decades of UK panel data on the population of firms to all program participants. IV estimates find positive program treatment effect on employment, investment and net entry but not on TFP. OLS underestimates program effects because the policy targets underperforming plants and areas. The treatment effect is confined to smaller firms with no effect for larger firms (e.g. over 150 employees). We also find the policy raises area level manufacturing employment mainly through significantly reducing unemployment. The positive program effect is not due to substitution between plants in the same area or between eligible and ineligible areas nearby. We estimate that "cost per job" of the program was only $6,300 suggesting that in some respects investment subsidies can be cost effective.industrial policy, regional policy, employment, investment, productivity
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