Perception and Testimony as Data Providers

Assuming that the sceptical challenge might be either bypassed or answered, this still leaves unspecified how high-quality information about the external world is acquired. In this paper, I will argue that, if knowledge is accounted information, then when we apply this definition to the analysis of perceptual knowledge and knowledge by testimony (the only two sources of information about the external world), the result is that both qualify as data providers.Peer reviewe

The Role of Electronic Services in Transformational Government: A Unified Services Theory Perspective and Implications for Trust

A major difficulty in deriving practical managerial insights from the transformational government perspective is that in the existing literature ‘transformation’ is usually expressed in terms of desirable qualities rather than concrete transformation of structures and processes. Although it is possible to address transformational government issues from diverse areas such as Customer Relationship Management, Business Process Management, Management of Information Systems, and so forth, the adoption of an integrative theoretical basis that could accommodate different perspectives around ‘service’, the core subject of interest, would certainly facilitate generation of useful managerial insights and approaches in the area. The main purpose of this conceptual paper is to fill this gap by presenting a Unified Services Theory (UST) perspective of issues concerning the development of electronic services in the transformational government area. The paper will focus upon customer orientation and process standardisation issues

The applicability of industrial symbiosis praxis to improving the environmental sustainability of supply chains

The environmental impact of supply chains is a complex problem which involves interconnected and interdependent organisations from different industries, sectors and geographical areas. Finding ways of involving the parts of a supply chain system in synergistic relationships aimed at minimising the overall impact of the whole system on the environment is likely to achieve better results than each part trying to do its best in isolation. The adoption of sustainable practices in supply chains is a daunting task. Even when players in the supply system try to be consistent, it is very difficult to do it at a global level. This implies that to integrate sustainability in supply chains it is imperative to understand the mutual relationships among the players in the supply system. Moreover, the ecological paradigm for supply chain management demands extended integration of sustainability values, where responsible management is a key function. To delimit the discussion, the paper will focus upon the food supply chain. The environmental and social consequences of the food industry and its supply chain activities represent a global challenge which requires innovative sustainable practices that are effectively achievable to the organisations involved. The food sector as a whole faces considerable challenges imposed by the limited availability of arable land and natural resources for food production on the one hand, and the continuous increase of food consumption dictated by the exponential growth of populations and livestock on the other hand. In 2008, the Cabinet Office pointed out the pressures of climate change on food production and the impact of food chains on the environment as some of the major challenges which need to be addressed before long. In general, the paper will critically discuss and identify potential links that can integrate cross-industry processes through the application of industrial symbiosis concepts and practices. The managerial implications here addressed will consider how organisations involved in a food supply chain system can get engaged in symbiotic relationships that can potentially improve not only their own environmental sustainability performance, but also the performance of the supply chain system they are part of

New Spectroscopy with Charm and Beauty Multiquark States

Exotic charmonium and bottonomium resonances recently discovered are discussed and interpreted as diquark-antidiquark states containing a pair of charm quarks and a pair of light, up and down, quarks. Successes, shortcomings and predictions of the model are illustrated.Comment: Talk given at the Erice School of Subnuclear Physics, June 30, 2013, Ettore Majorana Foundation and Center for Science and Culture, Erice, Ital

Concluding Remarks: the Scientist that Lived Three Times

The highlights of the conference: The Legacy of Bruno Pontecorvo: the Scientist and the Man, held in Roma, Universit\`a La Sapienza, 11-12 September, 2013, are summarised and illustrated

Is Information Meaningful Data?

There is no consensus yet on the definition of semantic information. This paper contributes to the current debate by criticising and revising the Standard Definition of semantic Information (SDI) as meaningful data, in favour of the Dretske-Grice approach: meaningful and well-formed data constitute semantic information only if they also qualify as contingently truthful. After a brief introduction, SDI is criticised for providing necessary but insufficient conditions for the definition of semantic information. SDI is incorrect because truth-values do not supervene on semantic information, and misinformation (that is, false semantic information) is not a type of semantic information, but pseudo-information, that is not semantic information at all. This is shown by arguing that none of the reasons for interpreting misinformation as a type of semantic information is convincing, whilst there are compelling reasons to treat it as pseudo-information. As a consequence, SDI is revised to include a necessary truth-condition. The last section summarises the main results of the paper and indicates some interesting areas of application of the revised definition