Analysing participants' performance in idea generation meeting considering emotional context-aware

In an idea generation meeting the emotional context-aware is correlated the with participants’ performance. To achieve good results in idea generation sessions it is important that participants maintain a positive emotional state. In this paper we will present an agent-based idea generation meeting using an emotional context-aware model that includes several mechanisms, namely: the analysis and evaluation of events, emotion-based process and recommendation selection. In order to analyse and test the benefits of these mechanisms, we also created a simulated scenario where agents generate ideas and are affected by context-aware situations. The simulation reveals that these mechanisms can increase the participants’ performance using some techniques. This study shows how the use of recommendation mechanisms can maximize meeting results in some situations.(undefined

An emotional aware architecture to support facilitator in group idea generation process

In an idea generation meeting, the facilitator role is essential to obtain good results. The emotional context of the meeting partially determines the (un)success of the meeting, so the facilitator needs to obtain and process this information. Thus, the facilitator role is to assist the participants to reach their goals, i.e., to generate ideas with quality. In this paper is proposed an emotional aware architecture whose aim is to assist the facilitator in the process of maximizing the results of the meeting.(undefined

Using satisfaction analysis to predict decision quality

One of the most important factors to determine the success of an organization is the quality of decisions made. In order to improve the decisions taken and to strengthen the competitiveness of organizations, systems such as Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS) have been strongly developed and studied in recent decades. The amount of GDSS incorporating automatic negotiation mechanisms, such as argumentation, is increasing nowadays. The evaluation of these mechanisms and the understanding of their real benefits for the organizations is still a hard challenge. In this article, we propose a model that allows a GDSS to measure the participant’s satisfaction with the decision, considering aspects such as problem evaluation, personality, emotions and expectations. To create the model some assumptions are deducted from literature, as well as the premises needed to validate any decision satisfaction model. This model is intended to enable the understanding of the decision’s quality achieved with an argumentation system and to evaluate its capability to potentiate the decision’s quality. The proposed model validates all the assumptions found in the literature regarding the participant’s satisfaction.This work is part-funded by ERDF - European Regional Development Fund through the COMPETE Programme (operational programme for competitiveness) and by National Funds through the FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-028980 (PTDC/EEISII/1386/2012) and SFRH/BD/89697/2012.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Vigilância acústica dos espaços marítimos sob soberania ou jurisdição nacional

Portugal exerce jurisdição sobre o maior espaço marítimo atlântico da Europa, numa área geográfica de articulação intercontinental, por onde passam algumas das mais importantes rotas marítimas. Neste vasto espaço oceânico devem existir garantias de segurança e condições para exercer a autoridade do Estado, sendo necessário possuir capacidade de vigilância para adquirir, processar, integrar e partilhar informação com o objetivo de monitorizar, detetar e atuar perante situações anómalas. Algumas das vulnerabilidades identificadas na vigilância dos espaços marítimos sob soberania ou jurisdição nacional advêm da inexistência de um sistema de vigilância acústico que permita melhorar a capacidade de deteção de submarinos em imersão e de navios, a autonomia e a redundância com os sistemas de vigilância marítima existentes. O estudo da edificação de um sistema de vigilância acústica para os espaços marítimos sob soberania ou jurisdição nacional baseou-se numa análise Benefícios-Oportunidades- Custos-Riscos. A edificação deste sistema deve ser faseada, considerando diversos tipos de plataforma e os sensores tecnologicamente mais adequados, numa perspetiva de desenvolvimento crescente e sustentado, garantindo a interoperabilidade com os sistemas de vigilância existentes e orientada de acordo com as linhas de ação para a edificação do Conhecimento Situacional Marítimo definidas e implementadas pela Marinha. Abstract: Portugal has jurisdiction over the largest Atlantic maritime area in Europe, in a geographical area of intercontinental articulation, crossed by some of the most important sea routes. In this vast ocean space, there must be a guarantee of security and state authority, requiring maritime surveillance to acquire, process, integrate and share information, in order to monitor, detect and act in case of anomalous situations. Some of the vulnerabilities identified in the surveillance of maritime areas under national sovereignty or jurisdiction arise from the lack of an acoustic surveillance system to improve the detection of submarines and ships, as well as autonomy and redundancy with existing maritime surveillance systems. A Benefits-Opportunities-Costs-Risks analysis was applied to the problem of building an acoustic surveillance capability for marine areas under national sovereignty or jurisdiction. The edification of this system should be on a step-by-step plan, considering different types of platforms and the most technologically suitable sensors, in order to increase its sustained development and ensure interoperability with existing surveillance systems, under the guidelines already in use by the Navy for the edification of a more resilient Maritime Situational Awareness.N/

O Fardamento dos Militares Femininos da Força Aérea

Este trabalho de investigação tem como objetivo estudar o fardamento feminino das militares da FA e apresentar propostas de melhoria que contribuam para a satisfação das militares e que possam, eventualmente, contribuir para o recrutamento de mais mulheres. Dos diferentes âmbitos temáticos existentes ao dispor e com relevância de investigação como alvo de estudo, foi designada a incidência no fardamento dos militares da Força Aérea Portuguesa. O presente trabalho de investigação individual é subordinado ao seguinte tema: “O Fardamento dos Militares Femininos da Força Aérea”. Foi intenção perceber qual o grau de satisfação acerca do mesmo e como as mulheres percecionam a sua condição de militares, visando ainda analisar se existem propostas a alterações à uniformização dos elementos femininos da FA ao nível do fardamento e atavio incrementando melhorias. A presente investigação parte de um trabalho exploratório sobre conhecimentos e reflexões do tema para um estudo conciso dos fenómenos, o que pode ser conduzido pela construção e análise dos resultados aferidos (Quivy e Campenhoudt, 2005). A investigação seguirá um raciocínio hipotético-dedutivo. Nesta abordagem e dada a natureza do problema, será adotada uma estratégia mista, quantitativa e qualitativa, através de recolha de dados feita com recurso a questionários, entrevistas semiestruturadas e análise documental. Abstract: The objective of this research work is to study the woman’s uniform in AF and to present ideas that will contribute to the satisfaction of women´s personnel and eventually to promote the recruitment of more women. From the different thematic areas available and with research relevance as a target for study, the incidence was designated on the uniforms of the Portuguese Air Force. The present work of individual investigation is subordinated to the following theme: "The Military Uniforms of the Air Force." It was intense to perceive, the degree of satisfaction about the same, as they perceive their condition as soldiers, also aiming to analyze if there are any proposals for changes in the standardization of the female elements of AF at the level of the dressing and attire enhancing improvements. The present investigation starts from an exploratory work on knowledge and reflections of the theme for a concise study of the phenomena, which can be driven by the construction and analysis of the results obtained. (Quivy and Campenhoudt, 2005) Research will follow hypothetical-deductive reasoning. In this approach and given the nature of the problem, a mixed, quantitative and qualitative strategy will be adopted, through data collection using questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis.N/

Variación en la explotación de la cuarcita durante el Paleolítico Superior en el Suroeste de la Península Ibérica

The Upper Paleolithic of SW Iberia is marked by the presence of chopper and flake assemblages in quartzite. Detailed characterization at regional and chronological levels of these assemblages is of the utmost importance because, in the most Paleolithic recent phases, they can be found without type-fossils associated or in non-datable deposits. In this study, we used 24 quartzite assemblages from SW Iberia, to test the diagnostic character of this raw material through attribute analysis and refitting. Results indicate that Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian can be distinguished on their quartzite assemblages, enabling, by itself, the differentiation of the Upper Paleolithic key-sequence. They also indicate that Gravettian and Magdalenian assemblages are technologically closer to each other than to Solutrean, a pattern possibly related with the adaptation to the Last Glacial Maximum.El Paleolítico Superior del Suroeste de la Península Ibérica está marcado por la presencia de conjuntos de cantos tallados y lascas en cuarcita. La caracterización detallada a nivel regional y cronológico de estos conjuntos es de la mayor importancia, ya que, en las fases más recientes del Paleolítico, se pueden encontrar sin asociación a fósiles-guía o depósitos datables. En este estudio, hemos utilizado 36 conjuntos de cuarcita de esa región para poner a prueba el carácter diagnóstico de esta materia prima a través de análisis de tributos y remontajes. Los resultados indican que Gravetiense, Solutrense y Magdaleniense se pueden distinguir en sus conjuntos de cuarcita, lo que permite, por sí mismo, la diferenciación de la secuencia clave del Paleolítico Superior. También indican que los conjuntos Gravetiense y Magdaleniense están tecnológicamente más próximos entre sí que respecto al Solutrense, un patrón posiblemente relacionado con la adaptación al Último Máximo Glaciar

A general template to configure multi-criteria problems in Ubiquitous GDSS

The study of multi-criteria problems adapted to the context of Ubiquitous Group Decision Support Systems (UbiGDSS) is covered in the literature through very different perspectives and interests. There are scientific studies related to the multi-criteria problems that lie across argumentation-based negotiation, multi-agent systems, dialogues, etc. However, to perform most of these studies, a high amount of information is required. The usage of so much data or information that is difficult to collect or configure can bring good results in theoretical scenarios but can be impossible to use in the real world. In order to overcome these issues, we present in this paper a general template to configure multi-criteria problems adapted for the contexts of UbiGDSS that intends to be easy and fast to configure, appellative, intuitive, permits to collect a lot of data and helps the decision-maker transmitting his beliefs and opinions to the system. Our proposal includes three sections: Problem Data, Personal Configuration and Problem Configuration. We have developed a prototype with our template with the purpose to simulate the configuration of a multi-criteria problem. We invited real decision-makers to use our prototype in a simulated scenario and asked to them to fulfil a survey in the end in order to study our hypotheses. Our general template achieved good results and proved to be very perceptible and fast to configure.This work is part-funded by ERDF - European Regional Development Fund through the COMPETE Programme (operational programme for competitiveness) within project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-028980 (PTDC/EEISII/1386/2012) and by National Funds through the FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) with the João Carneiro PhD grant with the reference SFRH/BD/89697/2012.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Introducing dynamic argumentation to UbiGDSS

Supporting and representing the group decision-making process is a complex task that requires very specific characteristics. The current existing argumentation models cannot make good use of all the advantages inherent to group decision-making. There is no monitoring of the process or the possibility to provide dynamism to it. These issues can compromise the success of Group Decision Support Systems if those systems are not able to provide freedom and all necessary mechanisms to the decision-maker. We investigate the use of argumentation in a completely new perspective that will allow for a mutual understanding between agents and decision-makers. Besides this, our proposal allows to define an agent not only according to the preferences of the decision-maker but also according to his interests towards the decision-making process. We show that our definition respects the requirements that are essential for groups to interact without limitations and that can take advantage of those interactions to create valuable knowledge to support more and better.This work has been supported by COMPETE Programme (operational programme for competitiveness) within project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043, by National Funds through the FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foun-dation for Science and Technology) within the Projects UID/CEC/00319/2013, UID/EEA/00760/2013, and the João Carneiro PhD grant with the reference SFRH/BD/89697/2012 and by Project MANTIS - Cyber Physical System Based Proactive Collaborative Maintenance (ECSEL JU Grant nr. 662189).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evaluating the perception of the decision quality in web-based group decision support systems: a theory of satisfaction

The future and success of organizations depend greatly on the quality of every decision made. It is known that most of the decisions in organizations are made in group. With the purpose to support the decision-makers anytime and anywhere, Web-based Group Decision Support Systems have been studied. The amount of Web-based Group Decision Support Systems incorporating automatic negotiation mechanisms such as argumentation is increasing nowadays. Usually, these systems/models are evaluated through mathematical proofs, number of rounds or seconds to propose (reach) a solution. However, those techniques do not say much in terms of decision quality. Here, we propose a model to predict the decision-makers’ satisfaction (perception of the decision quality), specially designed to deal with multi-criteria problems. Our model considers aspects such as: alternatives comparison, style of behaviour, emotions, mood and expectations. The proposed formulation matches the assumptions previously defined in the literature.This work was supported by COMPETE Programme (operational programme for competitiveness) within Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043, by National Funds through the FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within the Projects UID/CEC/00319/2013, UID/EEA/00760/2013, and the João Carneiro PhD Grant with the Reference SFRH/BD/89697/2012.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Including credibility and expertise in group decision-making process: an approach designed for UbiGDSS

Supporting group decision-making when the decision-makers are spread around the world is a complex process. The mechanisms of automated negotiation, such as argumentation, can be used in Ubiquitous Group Decision Support Systems to help decision-makers find a solution based on their preferences. However, there are some other important issues that affect the decisionmaking process beyond typical preferences over criteria and alternatives. In this paper, we propose an algorithm that will allow agents to reason about self-expertise and other decision makers’ credibility. This way, we intend agents to achieve better quality and more consensual decisions. Our algorithm includes not only the decision-maker’s preferences but also his intentions in the process. By using the proposed model, agents achieved a stronger consensus in all scenarios that were considered and higher satisfaction levels in the most complex scenarios.This work was supported by COMPETE Programme (operational programme for competitiveness) within Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043, by National Funds through the FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within the Projects UID/CEC/00319/2013, UID/EEA/00760/2013, and the João Carneiro PhD Grant with the Reference SFRH/BD/89697/2012.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio