Characterisation of collaborative decision making processes

This paper deals with the collaborative decision making induced or facilitated by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and their impact on decisional systems. After presenting the problematic, we analyse the collaborative decision making and define the concepts related to the conditions and forms of collaborative work. Then, we explain the mechanisms of collaborative decision making with the specifications and general conditions of collaboration using the modelling formalism of the GRAI method. Each specification associated to the reorganisation of the decisional system caused by the collaboration is set to the notion of decision-making centre. Finally, we apply this approach to the e-maintenance field, strongly penetrated by the ICTs, where collaborations are usual. We show that the identified specifications allow improving the definition and the management of collaboration in e-maintenance

Voronoi-based estimation of Minkowski tensors from finite point samples

Intrinsic volumes and Minkowski tensors have been used to describe the geometry of real world objects. This paper presents an estimator that allows to approximate these quantities from digital images. It is based on a generalized Steiner formula for Minkowski tensors of sets of positive reach. When the resolution goes to infinity, the estimator converges to the true value if the underlying object is a set of positive reach. The underlying algorithm is based on a simple expression in terms of the cells of a Voronoi decomposition associated with the image

Forest influence on the surface water chemistry of granitic basins receiving acid precipitation in the Vosges massif, France

This study shows the influence of acid rain on the chemistry of surface waters in two small basins. The basins present similar altitudes and climates, only one is forested, and the forest decline has been clearly established. In both basins, rain water is polluted by acids (H+, so24-,N03). This acid input is neutralized in soils but the efficiency of that neutralization varies from one basin to another: (a) in the non forested basin, the alkalinity of surface water dominates the anionic charge, (b) in the forested basin, the strong acid anions still dominate the anionic charge of a just neutralized solution. The chemistry of surface water in the forested basin cannot be explained only by the incident rainfall and its partial evaporation. There appears to be a major input of pollutant through dry deposits in throughfall

A Whole-of-Government Approach to Reducing Tropical Deforestation

Tropical forests provide critical global and local ecosystem services and habitat for many of the world’s plants and animals. Their loss threatens the sustainable economic growth and social stability of developing countries, and illegal deforestation abroad places U.S. producers at an unfair disadvantage. For these and other reasons, the United States has long been engaged in programs to reduce forest loss. This engagement has recently increased, with the new Presidential Global Climate Change Initiative including a pillar dedicated to slowing forest loss. While promising, this new funding and coordination is insufficient, with a narrow focus on climate-based development assistance. Engaging the full suite of forest policy levers in the federal government, or taking a “whole-of-government” approach, would provide greater immediate impact in preventing forest loss while building the foundations of a working landscape ethic. In this discussion paper, we explore the opportunities to expand U.S. contributions to reducing tropical deforestation through this approach. A whole-of-government approach to international deforestation consists of coordinating and focusing the programs across the federal government that could reduce the rate of tropical forest loss. It is an integrated strategy that employs existing activities and authorities of the U.S. government and directs them under an overarching goal of reducing deforestation in tropical forest countries, while continuing to support other developing-country goals, such as economic development, health, food security, and biodiversity. We identify three major areas where policy adjustments and actions by relevant authorities can have immediate and tangible impact on reducing deforestation.tropical deforestation, forest conservation, U.S. policy, REDD, reducing emissions from deforestation, whole-of-government, environment and trade, forest policy

Factorization and Resummation for Massive Quark Effects in Exclusive Drell-Yan

Exclusive differential spectra in color-singlet processes at hadron colliders are benchmark observables that have been studied to high precision in theory and experiment. We present an effective-theory framework utilizing soft-collinear effective theory to incorporate massive (bottom) quark effects into resummed differential distributions, accounting for both heavy-quark initiated primary contributions to the hard scattering process as well as secondary effects from gluons splitting into heavy-quark pairs. To be specific, we focus on the Drell-Yan process and consider the vector-boson transverse momentum, $q_T$, and beam thrust, $\mathcal T$, as examples of exclusive observables. The theoretical description depends on the hierarchy between the hard, mass, and the $q_T$ (or $\mathcal T$) scales, ranging from the decoupling limit $q_T \ll m$ to the massless limit $m \ll q_T$. The phenomenologically relevant intermediate regime $m \sim q_T$ requires in particular quark-mass dependent beam and soft functions. We calculate all ingredients for the description of primary and secondary mass effects required at NNLL$'$ resummation order (combining NNLL evolution with NNLO boundary conditions) for $q_T$ and $\mathcal T$ in all relevant hierarchies. For the $q_T$ distribution the rapidity divergences are different from the massless case and we discuss features of the resulting rapidity evolution. Our results will allow for a detailed investigation of quark-mass effects in the ratio of $W$ and $Z$ boson spectra at small $q_T$, which is important for the precision measurement of the $W$-boson mass at the LHC.Comment: 42 pages + appendices, 21 figures; v2: journal versio