141 research outputs found
MEDIATOR: TOWARDS A NEGOTIATION SUPPORT SYSTEM
MEDIATOR is a negotiation support system (NSS) based on
evolutionary systems design (ESD) and database-centered implementation.
It supports negotiations by consensus seeking through exchange of
information and, where consensus is incomplete, by compromise. The
negotiation problem is shown --graphically or as relational data in
matrix form-- in three spaces as a mapping from control space to goal
space (and through marginal utility functions) to utility space. Within
each of these spaces the negotiation process is characterized by
adaptive change, i.e., mappings of group target and feasible sets by
which these sets are redefined in seeking a solution characterized by a
single-point intersection between them.
This concept is being implemented in MEDIATOR, a data-based micro-mainframe
NSS intended to support the players and a human mediator in
multi-player decision situations. Each player employs private and
shared database views, using his/her own micro-computer decision support
system enhanced with a communications manager to interact with the
mediator DSS. Sharing of views constitutes exchange of information
which can lead towards consensus. The human mediator can support
compromise, as needed, through use of solution concepts and/or
concession-making procedures in the NSS model base. As a concrete
example, we demonstrate the use of the system for group car buying
decisions.Information Systems Working Papers Serie
MEDIATOR: TOWARDS A NEGOTIATION SUPPORT SYSTEM
MEDIATOR is a negotiation support system (NSS) based on
evolutionary systems design (ESD) and database-centered implementation.
It supports negotiations by consensus seeking through exchange of
information and, where consensus is incomplete, by compromise. The
negotiation problem is shown --graphically or as relational data in
matrix form-- in three spaces as a mapping from control space to goal
space (and through marginal utility functions) to utility space. Within
each of these spaces the negotiation process is characterized by
adaptive change, i.e., mappings of group target and feasible sets by
which these sets are redefined in seeking a solution characterized by a
single-point intersection between them.
This concept is being implemented in MEDIATOR, a data-based micro-mainframe
NSS intended to support the players and a human mediator in
multi-player decision situations. Each player employs private and
shared database views, using his/her own micro-computer decision support
system enhanced with a communications manager to interact with the
mediator DSS. Sharing of views constitutes exchange of information
which can lead towards consensus. The human mediator can support
compromise, as needed, through use of solution concepts and/or
concession-making procedures in the NSS model base. As a concrete
example, we demonstrate the use of the system for group car buying
decisions.Information Systems Working Papers Serie
The Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) of Three Spectrometers for the ExoMars 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter
The Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) package is an element of the Russian contribution to the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) mission. ACS consists of three separate infrared spectrometers, sharing common mechanical, electrical, and thermal interfaces. This ensemble of spectrometers has been designed and developed in response to the Trace Gas Orbiter mission objectives that specifically address the requirement of high sensitivity instruments to enable the unambiguous detection of trace gases of potential geophysical or biological interest. For this reason, ACS embarks a set of instruments achieving simultaneously very high accuracy (ppt level), very high resolving power (>10,000) and large spectral coverage (0.7 to 17 μm—the visible to thermal infrared range). The near-infrared (NIR) channel is a versatile spectrometer covering the 0.7–1.6 μm spectral range with a resolving power of ∼20,000. NIR employs the combination of an echelle grating with an AOTF (Acousto-Optical Tunable Filter) as diffraction order selector. This channel will be mainly operated in solar occultation and nadir, and can also perform limb observations. The scientific goals of NIR are the measurements of water vapor, aerosols, and dayside or night side airglows. The mid-infrared (MIR) channel is a cross-dispersion echelle instrument dedicated to solar occultation measurements in the 2.2–4.4 μm range. MIR achieves a resolving power of >50,000. It has been designed to accomplish the most sensitive measurements ever of the trace gases present in the Martian atmosphere. The thermal-infrared channel (TIRVIM) is a 2-inch double pendulum Fourier-transform spectrometer encompassing the spectral range of 1.7–17 μm with apodized resolution varying from 0.2 to 1.3 cm−1. TIRVIM is primarily dedicated to profiling temperature from the surface up to ∼60 km and to monitor aerosol abundance in nadir. TIRVIM also has a limb and solar occultation capability. The technical concept of the instrument, its accommodation on the spacecraft, the optical designs as well as some of the calibrations, and the expected performances for its three channels are described
Upper limits for phosphine (PH<sub>3</sub>) in the atmosphere of Mars
Phosphine (PH3) is proposed to be a possible biomarker in planetary atmospheres and has been claimed to have been observed in the atmosphere of Venus, sparking interest in the habitability of Venus’s atmosphere. Observations of another biomarker, methane (CH4), have been reported several times in the atmosphere of Mars, hinting at the possibility of a past or present biosphere. The Atmospheric Chemistry Suite on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has a spectral range that includes several absorption lines of PH3 with line strengths comparable to previously observed CH4 lines. The signature of PH3 was not observed in the 192 observations made over a full Martian year of observations, and here we report upper limits of 0.1–0.6 ppbv
Best-of-Three Contests: Experimental Evidence
We conduct an experimental analysis of a best-of-three Tullock contest. Intermediate prizes lead to higher efforts, while increasing the role of luck (as opposed to effort) leads to lower efforts. Both intermediate prizes and luck reduce the probability of contest ending in two rounds. The patterns of players‟ efforts and the probability that a contest ends in two rounds is consistent with „strategic momentum‟, i.e. momentum generated due to strategic incentives inherent in the contest. We do not find evidence for „psychological momentum‟, i.e. momentum which emerges when winning affects players‟ confidence. Similar to previous studies of contests, we find significantly higher efforts than predicted and strong heterogeneity in effort between subjects
Why so serious? Theorising playful model-driven group decision support with situated affectivity
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer via the DOI in this record.An integrative approach to theorising behavioural, affective and cognitive processes in modeldriven
group decision support (GDS) interventions is needed to gain insight into the (micro-)processes
by which outcomes are accomplished. This paper proposes that the theoretical lens of situated
affectivity, grounded in recent extensions of scaffolded mind models, is suitable to understand the
performativity of affective micro-processes in model-driven GDS interventions. An illustrative vignette
of a humorous micro-moment in a group decision workshop is presented to reveal the performativity of
extended affective scaffolding processes for group decision development. The lens of situated
affectivity constitutes a novel approach for the study of interventionist practice in the context of group
decision making (and negotiation). An outlook with opportunities for future research is offered to
facilitate an integrated approach to the study of cognitive-affective and behavioural micro-processes in
model-driven GDS interventions.This work was supported in part by the EU FP7-ENERGY- SMARTCITIES-2012
(314277) project STEEP (Systems Thinking for Comprehensive City Efficient Energy Planning
The Multi-Level Action of Fatty Acids on Adiponectin Production by Fat Cells
Current epidemics of diabetes mellitus is largely caused by wide spread obesity. The best-established connection between obesity and insulin resistance is the elevated and/or dysregulated levels of circulating free fatty acids that cause and aggravate insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other hazardous metabolic conditions. Here, we investigated the effect of a major dietary saturated fatty acid, palmitate, on the insulin-sensitizing adipokine adiponectin produced by cultured adipocytes. We have found that palmitate rapidly inhibits transcription of the adiponectin gene and the release of adiponectin from adipocytes. Adiponectin gene expression is controlled primarily by PPARγ and C/EBPα. Using mouse embryonic fibroblasts from C/EBPα-null mice, we have determined that the latter transcription factor may not solely mediate the inhibitory effect of palmitate on adiponectin transcription leaving PPARγ as a likely target of palmitate. In agreement with this model, palmitate increases phosphorylation of PPARγ on Ser273, and substitution of PPARγ for the unphosphorylated mutant Ser273Ala blocks the effect of palmitate on adiponectin transcription. The inhibitory effect of palmitate on adiponectin gene expression requires its intracellular metabolism via the acyl-CoA synthetase 1-mediated pathway. In addition, we found that palmitate stimulates degradation of intracellular adiponectin by lysosomes, and the lysosomal inhibitor, chloroquine, suppressed the effect of palmitate on adiponectin release from adipocytes. We present evidence suggesting that the intracellular sorting receptor, sortilin, plays an important role in targeting of adiponectin to lysosomes. Thus, palmitate not only decreases adiponectin expression at the level of transcription but may also stimulate lysosomal degradation of newly synthesized adiponectin
Paleoclimate Implications for Human-Made Climate Change
Paleoclimate data help us assess climate sensitivity and potential human-made
climate effects. We conclude that Earth in the warmest interglacial periods of
the past million years was less than 1{\deg}C warmer than in the Holocene.
Polar warmth in these interglacials and in the Pliocene does not imply that a
substantial cushion remains between today's climate and dangerous warming, but
rather that Earth is poised to experience strong amplifying polar feedbacks in
response to moderate global warming. Thus goals to limit human-made warming to
2{\deg}C are not sufficient - they are prescriptions for disaster. Ice sheet
disintegration is nonlinear, spurred by amplifying feedbacks. We suggest that
ice sheet mass loss, if warming continues unabated, will be characterized
better by a doubling time for mass loss rate than by a linear trend. Satellite
gravity data, though too brief to be conclusive, are consistent with a doubling
time of 10 years or less, implying the possibility of multi-meter sea level
rise this century. Observed accelerating ice sheet mass loss supports our
conclusion that Earth's temperature now exceeds the mean Holocene value. Rapid
reduction of fossil fuel emissions is required for humanity to succeed in
preserving a planet resembling the one on which civilization developed.Comment: 32 pages, 9 figures; final version accepted for publication in
"Climate Change at the Eve of the Second Decade of the Century: Inferences
from Paleoclimate and Regional Aspects: Proceedings of Milutin Milankovitch
130th Anniversary Symposium" (eds. Berger, Mesinger and Sijaci
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Global climate evolution during the last deglaciation
Deciphering the evolution of global climate from the end of the Last Glacial Maximum approximately 19 ka to the early Holocene 11 ka presents an outstanding opportunity for understanding the transient response of Earth's climate system to external and internal forcings. During this interval of global warming, the decay of ice sheets caused global mean sea level to rise by approximately 80 m; terrestrial and marine ecosystems experienced large disturbances and range shifts; perturbations to the carbon cycle resulted in a net release of the greenhouse gases CO₂ and CH₄ to the atmosphere; and changes in atmosphere and ocean circulation affected the global distribution and fluxes of water and heat. Here we summarize a major effort by the paleoclimate research community to characterize these changes through the development of well-dated, high-resolution records of the deep and intermediate ocean as well as surface climate. Our synthesis indicates that the super-position of two modes explains much of the variability in regional and global climate during the last deglaciation, with a strong association between the first mode and variations in greenhouse gases, and between the second mode and variations in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation
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