The work presented here considers mainly territorial intelligence as a cooperative system in support of public decision-making. The paper is organised in three parts, each of them presenting a particular stage of our approach. A first stage is dedicated to the analysis of the knowledge that can be identified (or re-constructed) on the basis of the texts issued by the regional government, and of...

We analyze the dynamics toward cultural consensus in the Axelrod model on scale-free networks. By looking at the microscopic dynamics of the model, we are able to show how culture traits spread across different cultural features. We compare the diffusion at the level of cultural features to the growth of cultural consensus at the global level, finding important differences between these two pro...

We explore the self-organization dynamics of a set of entities by considering the interactions that affect the different subgroups conforming the whole. To this end, we employ the widespread example of coagulation kinetics, and characterize which interaction types lead to consensus formation and which do not, as well as the corresponding different macroscopic patterns. The crucial technical poi...

PURPOSE Physical activity unquestionably maintains and improves health; however, physical activity levels globally are low and not rising despite all the resources devoted to this goal. Attention in both the research literature and the public policy domain has focused on social-behavioral factors; however, a growing body of literature suggests that biological determinants play a significant rol...

The problem of consensus reaching in the group decision making situations is considered. Assuming a heterogeneous and linguistic group decision making context various linguistic consensus measures are presented to guide the consensus process. Considering linguistic preference relations to provide experts' opinions, they are deened in three levels of action: level of the pairs alternatives, leve...

OBJECTIVE : This purpose of this consensus conference was to determine whether surgical atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation during cardiac surgery improves clinical and resource outcomes compared with cardiac surgery alone in adults undergoing cardiac surgery for valve or coronary artery bypass grafting. METHODS : Before the consensus conference, the consensus panel reviewed the best available ...