TRANSPARENCY-ORIENTED DIGITAL TRANSFOR-MATION: REASERCH ISSUES FOR OPEN GOVERNMENT DATA FROM POLICY DOCUMENTS

The digital transformation of government initially focused on the internal processes and work practices of government agencies, and then on the channels and ways of services provision to citizens and firms, as well as on the services themselves, and aimed mainly to increase efficiency. However, later it was extended towards the enhancement of government transparency and accountability, by exploiting the digital technologies in order to provide large amounts of information to citizens and firms about the activities and plans of government agencies, and recently to open and publish large datasets of them. This constitutes a big innovation/transformation, since previously government data were regarded as highly secret, and could be accessed only by limited numbers of competent public servants. The Open Government Data (OGD) have a great potential to promote not only government transparency and accountability, but also economic development (especially concerning the emerging data economy), scientific research as well as efficiency and effectiveness of other government agencies (beyond the one who publishes them). However, the OGD domain is relatively new, rapidly evolving, and has not reached and realized its full potential, so extensive research is required in order to support and facilitate progress in this direction, and finally increase the social and economic value generated from the large amounts of published OGD. So, it is quite important to define rationally the research agenda in this OGD domain: the main research areas as well as the particular research topics of each of them. For this purpose, some research has been conducted, which however is based exclusively on the review and analysis of previous scientific papers in this domain. In this paper we investigate the exploitation of recent OGD-related policy as well as legislation documents, as an additional and complementary source for extracting areas and topics in the OGD domain that require research in the near future. A methodology for this is developed, which is used in order to we analyse the ‘OECD Open Government Data Report – Enhancing Policy Maturity for Sustainable Impact’ and the EU Directive 2019/1024 on ‘Open Data and the Re-use of Public Sector Information’. This results in the identification of interesting new areas and topics of required OGD research, which are highly important and have not been identified by previous relevant research based on the review and analysis of scientific papers in this domain

USE OF STABLE ISOTOPES IN THE DETERMINATION OF THE MEAN ALTITUDE OF RECHARGE AND THE INVESTIGATION OF FUNCTION MECHANISM OF SPRING WATERS IN ARGOLIS PENINSULA (GREECE)

In the present study, the isotopic composition (δ18Ο) of several spring waters in Argolis peninsula is examined. The use of the specific isotope aimed at the determination of the altitude of recharge areas, while the credibility of the extracted results was verified by in situ geological observations. The applied methodology included the construction of a linear diagram which correlates the stable isotopic values (δ18Ο) in meteoric waters and the altitude. Isotopic data, concerning meteoric waters, came from: a) rain gauge stations of GNIP network (IAEA/WMO), b) rain tanks and selected wells located in Mt. Arachnaio, c) improvised rain collectors which were put in several sites in the peninsula. A decrease of 0.45‰ δ18Ο per 100m altitude was determined. The average isotopic composition of the examined springs, as far as δ18Ο is concerned, resulted from 14 sampling periods between October 2005 and March 2008. This 18O-content of spring waters was used to derive the recharge area and consequently to evaluate the mechanism of water renewal

Laser activated single-use micropumps

AbstractLab on Chip technologies have enabled the possibility of novel μTAS devices (micro Total Analysis System) that could drastically improve health care services for billions of people around the world. However, serious drawbacks that reside in fluid handling technology currently available for these systems often restrict the commercialization of such devices. This work demonstrates a novel fluid handling method as a possible alternative to current micropumping techniques for disposable microfluidic chips. This technology is based on a single use, low cost, thermal micropumping system in which expandable microsphere mixtures are activated by commercial grade laser diodes to achieve flow rates as high as 2.2μl/s and total volumes over 160μl. With the addition of a volume dependent shut off valve, nanoliter repeatability is realized. Pressure and heat transfer related data are presented. Finally, the possible prospects and limitations of this technology as a core element in unified optofluidic systems are discussed

A Methodology for Economic Crisis Policy Analytics

The development and success of the ‘business analytics’ in the private sector, in combination with the growing availability of large quantities of useful data in government agencies, gives rise to the emergence of the ‘policy analytics’ in the public sector. However, though some knowledge has already been developed in this area, extensive research is required in order to increase our knowledge base concerning the exploitation of these exponentially increasing quantities of data available in government, in combination with data from private sector firms as well, using advanced analytical techniques (from various areas, such as machine learning, statistics, simulation, etc.), in order to provide substantial support for all stages of public policies in various important policy domains. This paper makes a contribution in this direction, by describing a methodology for policy analytics in the economic policy domain, concerning a highly important problem: the economic crises, which repeatedly occur in market-based economies being an inevitable trait of them. Our methodology aims at the identification of firm’s characteristics that affect positively or negatively their sensitivity to the economic crisis, which enables a deeper understanding of the kinds of firms that exhibit higher sensitivity to economic crisis (i.e. have more negative consequences) and provides a basis for the design of public policies for supporting such firms. It exploits existing data from various public sources (e.g. Ministries of Finance, Statistical Authorities), in combination with data from private sources (e.g. business information firms, consulting firms), from which firm-level crisis sensitivity models are estimated. Furthermore, an application of the proposed methodology is presented, using data from Greek firms for the crisis period 2009 – 2014, which provides interesting insights

Can computers foster human users' creativity? Theory and praxis of mixed-initiative co-creativity

This article discusses the impact of artificially intelligent computers to the process of design, play and educational activities. A computational process which has the necessary intelligence and creativity to take a proactive role in such activities can not only support human creativity but also foster it and prompt lateral thinking. The argument is made both from the perspective of human creativity, where the computational input is treated as an external stimulus which triggers re-framing of humans’ routines and mental associations, but also from the perspective of computational creativity where human input and initiative constrains the search space of the algorithm, enabling it to focus on specific possible solutions to a problem rather than globally search for the optimal. The article reviews four mixed-initiative tools (for design and educational play) based on how they contribute to human-machine co-creativity. These paradigms serve different purposes, afford different human interaction methods and incorporate different computationally creative processes. Assessing how co-creativity is facilitated on a per-paradigm basis strengthens the theoretical argument and provides an initial seed for future work in the burgeoning domain of mixed-initiative interaction.peer-reviewe

Identification of signaling pathways related to drug efficacy in hepatocellular carcinoma via integration of phosphoproteomic, genomic and clinical data

Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, with only a handful of treatments effective in unresectable HCC. Most of the clinical trials for HCC using new generation interventions (drug-targeted therapies) have poor efficacy whereas just a few of them show some promising clinical outcomes [1]. This is amongst the first studies where the mode of action of some of the compounds extensively used in clinical trials is interrogated on the phosphoproteomic level, in an attempt to build predictive models for clinical efficacy. Signaling data are combined with previously published gene expression and clinical data within a consistent framework that identifies drug effects on the phosphoproteomic level and translates them to the gene expression level. The interrogated drugs are then correlated with genes differentially expressed in normal versus tumor tissue, and genes predictive of patient survival. Although the number of clinical trial results considered is small, our approach shows potential for discerning signaling activities that may help predict drug efficacy for HCC.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant U54-CA119267)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant R01-CA96504

Can computers foster human users' creativity? Theory and praxis of mixed-initiative co-creativity

This article discusses the impact of artificially intelligent computers to the process of design, play and educational activities. A computational process which has the necessary intelligence and creativity to take a proactive role in such activities can not only support human creativity but also foster it and prompt lateral thinking. The argument is made both from the perspective of human creativity, where the computational input is treated as an external stimulus which triggers re-framing of humans’ routines and mental associations, but also from the perspective of computational creativity where human input and initiative constrains the search space of the algorithm, enabling it to focus on specific possible solutions to a problem rather than globally search for the optimal. The article reviews four mixed-initiative tools (for design and educational play) based on how they contribute to human-machine co-creativity. These paradigms serve different purposes, afford different human interaction methods and incorporate different computationally creative processes. Assessing how co-creativity is facilitated on a per-paradigm basis strengthens the theoretical argument and provides an initial seed for future work in the burgeoning domain of mixed-initiative interaction.peer-reviewe

Percolation approach to quark gluon plasma in high energy pp collisions

We apply continuum percolation to proton-proton collisions and look for the possible threshold to phase transition from confined nuclear matter to quark gluon plasma. Making the assumption that J/Psi suppression is a good signal to the transition, we discuss this phenomenon for pp collisions, in the framework of a dual model with strings.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Geological modelling for investigating CO2 emissions in Florina Basin, Greece

Published version also available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/geo-2015-0039This paper presents an investigation of naturally occurring CO2 emissions from the Florina natural analogue site in Greece. The main objective was to interpret previously collected depth sounding data, convert them into surfaces, and use them as input to develop, for the rst time, 3D geological models of the Florina basin. By also locating the extent of the aquifer, the location of the CO2 source, the location of other natural CO2 accumulations, and the points where CO2 reaches the surface, we were able to assess the potential for CO2 leakage. Geological models provided an estimate of the lithological composition of the Florina Basin and allowed us to determine possible directions of groundwater ow and pathways of CO2 ow throughout the basin. Important modelling parameters included the spatial positions of boundaries, faults, and major stratigraphic units (which were subdivided into layers of cells). We used various functions in Petrel software to rst construct a structural model describing the main rock boundaries. We then de ned a 3D mesh honouring the structural model, and nally we populated each cell in the mesh with geologic properties, such as rock type and relative permeability. According to the models, the thickest deposits are located around Mesochorion village where we estimate that around 1000 m of sediments were deposited above the basement. Initiation of CO2 ow at Florina Basin could have taken place between 6.5 Ma and 1.8 Ma ago. The NESW oriented faults, which acted as uid ow pathways, are still functioning today, allowing for localised leakage at the surface. CO2 leakage may be spatially variable and episodic in rate. The episodicity can be linked to the timing of Almopia volcanic activity in the area