A peaceful pyramid? Hierarchy and anonymity in newspaper comment sections

Several studies have linked deindividuation to an increase in aggression and incivility. This paper seeks to ascertain the influence of anonymity and hierarchy in online aggression by comparing two different newspaper comment sections: one with a hierarchical system and the other with an equalitarian setting. This study distinguishes itself form previous works by analyzing systems where identification is optional and where identified and anonymous users coexist. The hierarchical solution might be relevant to dissuade aggression when optional identifiability is seen as an essential asset. Results show that a hierarchical system provides some improvements in terms of civility and comment moderation, but that poor implementation of the hierarchy causes perversions in the system and affects its effectiveness.

A multi-criteria decision support system for a routing problem in waste collection

Autor proof

Decision methods applied to solve a safety problem on a waste treatment facility

To solve a health and safety problem on a waste treatment facility, different multicriteria decision methods were used, including the PROV Exponential decision method. Four alternatives and ten attributes were considered. We found a congruent solution, validated by the different methods. The AHP and the PROV Exponential decision method led us to the same options ordering, but the last method reinforced one of the options as being the best performing one, and detached the least performing option. Also, the ELECTRE I method results led to the same ordering which allowed to point the best solution with reasonable confidence. This paper demonstrates the potential of using multicriteria decision methods to support decision making on complex problems such as risk control and accidents prevention.

Descentralização e flexibilidade organizacional: implicações para a gestão de recursos humanos

Dissertação de mestrado em Estudos de Gestão

Genetic regulatory mechanisms by means of extended interactive Petri nets

In our work we have chosen to integrate formalism for knowledge representation with formalism for process representation as a way to specify and regulate the overall activity of a multi-cellular agent. The result of this approach is XP,N, another formalism, wherein a distributed system can be modeled as a collection of interrelated sub-nets sharing a common explicit control structure. Each sub-net represents a system of asynchronous concurrent threads modeled by a set of transitions. XP,N combines local state and control with interaction and hierarchy to achieve a high-level abstraction and to model the complex relationships between all the components of a distributed system. Viewed as a tool XP,N provides a carefully devised conflict resolution strategy that intentionally mimics the genetic regulatory mechanism used in an organic cell to select the next genes to process.