Severity-sensitive norm-governed multi-agent planning

This research was funded by Selex ES. The software developed during this research, including the norm analysis and planning algorithms, the simulator and harbour protection scenario used during evaluation is freely available from doi:10.5258/SOTON/D0139Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Perceptions of Distributive Justice in Latin America During a Period of Falling Inequality

In this paper we explore perceptions of distributive justice in Latin America during the 2000s and its relationship with income inequality. In line with the fall in income inequality in the region, we document a widespread, although modest, decrease in the share of the population that believes income distribution is unfair. The fall in the perception of unfairness holds across very heterogeneous groups of the population. Moreover, perceptions evolved in the same direction as income inequality for 17 out of the 18 countries for which microdata is available. Our analysis reveals unfairness perceptions are more correlated with relative measures of income inequality than absolute ones and that individual characteristics are correlated with distributive perceptions. On average, individuals that are older, more educated, unemployed, and left-wing tend to perceive income distribution as more unfair. We show that the decrease in unfairness perceptions during the last decade was due to changes in inequality, rather than to composition effects. Finally, we show that individuals that perceive income distribution as very unfair are more prone to mobilize and protest.Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales (CEDLAS

Perceptions of Distributive Justice in Latin America During a Period of Falling Inequality

In this paper we explore perceptions of distributive justice in Latin America during the 2000s and its relationship with income inequality. In line with the fall in income inequality in the region, we document a widespread, although modest, decrease in the share of the population that believes income distribution is unfair. The fall in the perception of unfairness holds across very heterogeneous groups of the population. Moreover, perceptions evolved in the same direction as income inequality for 17 out of the 18 countries for which microdata is available. Our analysis reveals unfairness perceptions are more correlated with relative measures of income inequality than absolute ones and that individual characteristics are correlated with distributive perceptions. On average, individuals that are older, more educated, unemployed, and left-wing tend to perceive income distribution as more unfair. We show that the decrease in unfairness perceptions during the last decade was due to changes in inequality, rather than to composition effects. Finally, we show that individuals that perceive income distribution as very unfair are more prone to mobilize and protest.Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales (CEDLAS

Amphibia, Anura, Hylidae, <i>Dendropsophus ruschii</i> (Weygoldt & Peixoto, 1987): Rediscovery of Ruschi’s treefrog in an Atlantic Rainforest remnant in Espírito Santo, Brazil

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Observation-Based Multi-Agent Planning with Communication

This research has been sponsored by SELEX ES. We thank Feng Wu for providing the source code of the MAOP-COMM planner.Publisher PD

Supporting social innovation through visualisations of community interactions

Online communities that form through the introduction of sociotechnical platforms require significant effort to cultivate and sustain. Providing open, transparent information on community behaviour can motivate participation from community members themselves, while also providing platform administrators with detailed interaction dynamics. However, challenges arise in both understanding what information is conducive to engagement and sustainability, and then how best to represent this information to platform stakeholders. Towards a better understanding of these challenges, we present the design, implementation, and evaluation of a set of simple visualisations integrated into a Collective Awareness Platform for Social Innovation platform titled commonfare.net. We discuss the promise and challenge of bringing social innovation into the digital age, in terms of supporting sustained platform use and collective action, and how the introduction of community visualisations has been directed towards achieving this goal

Electronic contribution to the oscillations of a gravitational antenna

We carefully analyse the contribution to the oscillations of a metallic gravitational antenna due to the interaction between the electrons of the bar and the incoming gravitational wave. To this end, we first derive the total microscopic Hamiltonian of the wave-antenna system and then compute the contribution to the attenuation factor due to the electron-graviton interaction. As compared to the ordinary damping factor, which is due to the electron viscosity, this term turns out to be totally negligible. This result confirms that the only relevant mechanism for the interaction of a gravitational wave with a metallic antenna is its direct coupling with the bar normal modes.Comment: 25 pages, no figure

Severity-Sensitive Robustness Analysis in Normative Systems

Postprin

Introduction

This introduction suggests regarding \u2018religion\u2019 as a cultural product. The relationship between religion and memory can be investigated through the practice of oath-taking, a particularly sophisticated social tool in ancient Greece. It concerns, in fact, both the status of social trust and problematic intercourses between gods and human beings, who fi nd in oath a regulated and effective space of interrelation