<div>This thesis combines human and machine intelligence for consensus decision-making, and it contains four interrelated research areas. Before presenting the four research areas, this thesis presents a literature review on decision-making using two criteria: trust and risk. The analysis involves studying the individual and the multi-stakeholder decision-making. Also, it explores the relationship between trust and risk to provide insight on how to apply them when making any decision. This thesis presents a grouping procedure of the existing trust-based multi-stakeholder decision-making schemes by considering the group decision-making process and models. In the first research area, this thesis presents the foundation of building multi-stakeholder consensus decision-making (MSCDM). This thesis describes trust-based multi-stakeholder decision-making for water allocation to help the participants select a solution that comes from the best model. Several criteria are involved when deciding on a solution such as trust, damage, and benefit. This thesis considers Jain's fairness index as an indicator of reaching balance or equality for the stakeholder's needs. The preferred scenario is when having a high trust, low damages and high benefits. The worst scenario involves having low trust, high damage, and low benefit. The model is dynamic by adapting to the changes over time. The decision to select is the solution that is fair for almost everyone. In the second research area, this thesis presents a MSCDM, which is a generic framework that coordinates the decision-making rounds among stakeholders based on their influence toward each other, as represented by the trust relationship among them. This thesis describes the MSCDM framework that helps to find a decision the stakeholders can agree upon. Reaching a consensus decision might require several rounds where stakeholders negotiate by rating each other. This thesis presents the results of implementing MSCDM and evaluates the effect of trust on the consensus achievement and the reduction in the number of rounds needed to reach the final decision. This thesis presents Rating Convergence in the implemented MSCDM framework, and such convergence is a result of changes in the stakeholders' rating behavior in each round. This thesis evaluates the effect of trust on the rating changes by measuring the distance of the choices made by the stakeholders. Trust is useful in decreasing the distances. In the third research area, this thesis presents Rating Convergence in the implemented MSCDM framework, and such convergence is a result of changes in stakeholders' rating behavior in each round. This thesis evaluates the effect of trust on the rating changes by measuring the perturbation in the rating matrix. Trust is useful in increasing the rating matrix perturbation. Such perturbation helps to decrease the number of rounds. Therefore, trust helps to increase the speed of agreeing upon the same decision through the influence. In the fourth research area, this thesis presents Rating Aggregation operators in the implemented MSCDM framework. This thesis addresses the need for aggregating the stakeholders' ratings while they negotiate on the round of decisions to compute the consensus achievement. This thesis presents four aggregation operators: weighted sum (WS), weighted product (WP), weighted product similarity measure (WPSM), and weighted exponent similarity measure (WESM). This thesis studies the performance of those aggregation operators in terms of consensus achievement and the number of rounds needed. The consensus threshold controls the performance of these operators. The contribution of this thesis lays the foundation for developing a framework for MSCDM that facilitates reaching the consensus decision by accounting for the stakeholders' influences toward one another. Trust represents the influence.</div>

Avec le développement des technologies de communication sans fil, les réseaux de capteur à radio cognitive (CRSNs) représentent une solution efficace pour le déploiement des réseaux électriques intelligents, connus aussi sous le nom de smart grids. La technologie de radio cognitive permet aux nœuds capteurs d’utiliser les bandes de fréquences non utilisées par des utilisateurs avec licence afin de contourner les limitations des bandes de fréquences sans licence. Dans ce contexte, plusieurs problèmes de communication freinent le déploiement des CRSNs pour les smart grids tel que la coexistence de différentes applications électriques ainsi que l’hétérogénéité des disponibilités des bandes de fréquence avec licence entre les nœuds capteurs. Les travaux de recherche menés dans cette thèse se focalisent essentiellement sur l’allocation des ressources spectrales pour les CRSNs déployés pour contrôler des smart grids. Nous proposons des nouvelles techniques d’allocation de ressources spectrales qui prennent en considération des topologies de déploiement possibles des CRSNs dans les smart grids tout en assurant d’une manière distribuée l’équité entre les nœuds capteurs déployés. Tout au long de notre travail, l’allocation des canaux est effectuée sans faire appel à un canal de contrôle en commun pour le partage des messages de contrôle avant chaque accès au spectre. L'évaluation de performances des différentes solutions développées montre qu'elles réalisent effectivement une allocation opportuniste des ressources spectrales d’une manière distribuée et équitable tout en considérant différentes caractéristiques du système sous-jacent aux réseaux électriques intelligents. / With the advances in wireless communication technologies, cognitive radio sensor networks (CRSNs) stand as an efficient spectrum solution in the development of intelligent electrical power networks, the smart grids. The cognitive radio (CR) technology provides the sensors with the ability to use the temporally available licensed spectrum in order to escape the unlicensed spectrum resource scarcity problem. In this context, several challenging communication issues face the CRSN deployment for smart grids such as the coexistence of different electrical applications and the heterogeneous opportunities to access available licensed channels between smart grid sensors. The work conducted in this thesis focuses on spectrum resource allocations for CRSNs in smart grids. We concentrate our efforts on the development of new spectrum resource sharing paradigms for CRSNs in smart grids. The developed solutions focus on distributed and balanced spectrum sharing among smart grid sensors and on eventual CRSN deployment scenarios in smart grid areas. All along the thesis, channels are assigned without relying on a predefined common control channel (CCC) to exchange control messages before each spectrum access trial. All along the thesis, channels are assigned without relying on a predefined common control channel (CCC) to exchange control messages before each spectrum access trial. Performance evaluation of the different proposed channel assignment solutions shows their ability to achieve a distributed and fair opportunistic spectrum assignment in a way to consider different smart grid system characteristics.

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This dissertation reports a series of studies on social influences in decision making with wide ranging marketing implications in areas such as gamification initiatives, participative pricing mechanisms, and charity fundraising strategies. The body of this work comprises of three indepth, stand-alone studies. The first study, "Contagion of the Competitive Spirit: The Influence of a Competition on Non-Competitors", investigates the influence of a competition on noncompetitors who do not participate in it but are aware of it. In a series of experimental studies, the study shows that the mere awareness of a competition can affect a non-competitor's performance in similar tasks. These experiments provide confirmatory and process evidence for this contagion effect, showing that it is driven by heightened social comparison motivation due to mere awareness of the competition. In addition, the study finds evidence that the reward level for the competitors could moderate the contagion effect on the non-competitors. The second study, "The Negative Effects of Precommitment on Reciprocal Behaviour: Evidence from a Series of Voluntary Payment Experiments", examines the effects of precommitment on reciprocal behaviour towards a forthcoming benefit. Through a series of experiments in several countries, the study shows that precommitment often weakens reciprocal behaviour. In two field experiments, a laboratory and an online experiment, the study finds consistent evidence that voluntary payment amounts decrease for individuals who are asked to precommit their payment. The results from a final online trust-game experiment support the posited mental-accounting mechanism for the effect. The third study, "Hold-Up Induced by Demand for Fairness: Theory and Experimental Evidence", explores the domain of hold-up and fairness concerns. While recent research suggests that fairness concerns could mitigate hold-up problems, this study proposes a starkly opposite possibility: that fairness concerns can also induce hold-up problems and thus significant inefficiencies. The study reports theoretical analysis and experimental evidence of hold-up in scenarios in which it will not occur if agents are purely self-interested, but could occur if they care about fairness at ex post negotiation.

A tecnologia WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) e a introdução de OXCs (Optical Cross Connect) e OADMs (Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer) puramente ópticos podem dotar as redes ópticas da função de networking, ou seja, da capacidade de manipular comprimentos de onda de forma a implementar o roteamento destes. Esta possibilidade implica em uma nova forma de relacionamento das aplicações com a camada física, sendo a arquitetura GMPLS candidata a estabelecer tal relacionamento. Soluções eficientes para o problema de alocação de recursos e roteamento de tráfego tornam-se uma necessidade imperiosa em projeto, expansão e gerenciamento de redes ópticas. A contribuição desta tese consiste em relacionar funcionalidades tais como: agregação (grooming) de tráfego, mecanismo de controle de admissão de chamadas (CAC), mecanismos de restauração e alocação de conversores em redes ópticas heterogêneas, avaliando-se as métricas de probabilidade de bloqueio, probabilidade do tráfego bloqueado e imparcialidade (fairness). Tais funcionalidades são tratadas separadamente na literatura. Com este objetivo em mente modela-se a rede com duas camadas: a camada física e a camada virtual. Estabelecem-se duas políticas de agregação de tráfego MrTV (minimização da rota na topologia virtual) e MrTF (minimização da rota na topologia física) e analisa-se o desempenho destas em relação à porcentagem de tráfego bloqueado. Em seguida um mecanismo de controle de admissão de chamadas (CAC) é implementado e sua influência em termos de imparcialidade (fairness) e probabilidade de bloqueio é analisada. A simulação e análise de redes ópticas, como a Rede NSFnet e a Rede Nacional Italiana são executadas por meio da implementação de um grafo baseado em Zhu e Mukherjee [28]. Como resultado, a política MrTF apresenta menor porcentagem de tráfego bloqueado do que a política MrTV para as redes simuladas e a implementação de um mecanismo de janela deslizante (rolling window) tornou o mecanismo de CAC mais otimizado. A utilidade de se implantar conversores de comprimento de onda apenas em alguns nós da rede (conversão esparsa) é estudada e uma análise sobre a probabilidade de bloqueio e a imparcialidade da rede desta distribuição de conversores é apresentada. Finalmente, técnicas de restauração na camada física e virtual são implementadas e uma análise da influência destes sobre a probabilidade de bloqueio e a imparcialidade da rede é executada. / The Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) technology as well as both the introduction of all optical OXCs (Optical Cross Connect) and OADMs (Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer) may provide the optical network with the networking function, i.e, the capacity to manipulate wavelengths in order to implement their routing. This possibility implies a new type of relationship between applications and the physical layer. The likely candidate to establish such relationships is GMPLS architecture. Efficient solutions to both the problems of allocating resources and traffic routing become an enhanced requirement in the design, expansion and management of optical networking. The present study focus at the relationship between functionalities such as traffic grooming, network fairness improvement, protection/restoring mechanisms and wavelength conversion in heterogeneous optical networks, evaluating the metrics of blocking probability, probability of traffic blocked and fairness. These functionalities are separately treated in literature. With this goal in mind, a two-layer representation is used in order to model the network: the physical and virtual layers, respectively. Two policies on traffic grooming are set up, as follows: MrTV (route minimizing on virtual topology) and MrTF (route minimizing on physical topology). The performance of such policies is analyzed regarding the percentage of blocked traffic. Next, a mechanism for call admission control (CAC) is implemented and its influence in terms of fairness and blocking probability is discussed. The simulations of optical networks such as NSFnet and the Italian National Network are carried out through a graph based in Zhu and Mukherjee [28]. As a result, MrTF policy presents a smaller percentage of blocked traffic than the MrTV for the simulated networks and the rolling window mechanism has allowed the optimization of the call admission control (CAC) mechanism. The usefulness of placing wavelength converters in a few networks nodes (spare conversion) is studied and an analysis on the blocking probability is presented. Next, the network fairness for this distribution of wavelength converters is presented. Finally, techniques for restoring both physical and virtual layers are also implemented and an analysis regarding their influence on the blocking probability and the network fairness is carried out.

Este trabalho visa a realizar uma análise sistemática das diversas normas do Código de Processo Civil que tratam do abuso de situações jurídicas processuais. O tratamento desse tema é dividido em quatro partes. Em primeiro lugar, analisa-se a teoria geral do abuso do processo, que abrange a evolução histórica do abuso processual, a adoção da teoria do abuso do direito oriunda do Direito privado, os fundamentos da prevenção e da repressão dos comportamentos abusivos, os elementos essenciais que caracterizam o abuso do processo (objeto, sujeitos e requisitos do ato processual abusivo) e a discussão acerca da ilicitude do ato processual abusivo. Em seguida, considerando os elementos caracterizadores do abuso do processo, são identificadas e estudadas as hipóteses de abuso de situações jurídicas processuais previstas no Código de Processo Civil brasileiro. A terceira seção deste trabalho é dedicada às consequências jurídicas do abuso do processo e a algumas questões referentes à aplicação de sanções. Finalmente, na quarta parte, procede-se ao exame dos mecanismos destinados a prevenir o abuso de situações jurídicas processuais. / This work aims to do a systematic analysis of the different norms of the Brazilian Civil Procedure Code that deals with the abuse of procedural rights. The treatment of this subject is divided into four sections. In the first place, it analyses the general theory of abuse of process, which includes the historical evolution of abuse of process, the adoption of the theory of abuse of rights from civil law, the foundations of prevention and repression of abusive behaviors, the essential elements that characterize the abuse of process (its object, its subjects and the requisites of the abusive procedural act) and the discussion about the unlawfulness of the abusive procedural act. Subsequently, considering the distinguishing elements of abuse of process, it identifies and studies the fattispecies of abuse of procedural rights contained in the Brazilian Civil Procedure Code. The third section of this work is dedicated to the legal consequences of abuse of process and to some questions related to the application of sanctions. Finally, in the fourth section, it examines the legal devices aimed at preventing abuse of procedural rights.

This thesis attempts to provide a coherent view of the idea of ‘justice as fairness’ and, in particular, the ‘difference principle’ expressed by John Rawls in A Theory of Justice. The main focus of the thesis is the difference principle and its limits. Rawls’s conception of ‘justice as fairness’ is based on the thought experiment of the ‘original position’ in which people, considered as free and equal, deliberate under an imagined ‘veil of ignorance,’ i.e. not knowing which social roles or status they would occupy in their society. Rawls then argues that in the original position people come up with two major principles of justice, understood as principles that would be acceptable to people treated as free and equal. The second principle entails the so-called ‘difference principle,’ according to which the inequalities of, say, wealth and authority are just and fair only if they lead to compensating benefits for everybody and particularly the least advantaged. The thesis proceeds, then, by probing whether compared with other theories, , including a discussion of Dahl’s theory of democracy, Rawls’s difference principle could be a proper answer to one of the main questions of social justice. The questions is: how the economic fortune in a society should be distributed among citizens. However, despite Rawls’s aim to develop the difference principle as a practical normative theory, it fails to give us a pragmatic answer. The reason is: the statement of the difference principle fails to take into account one crucial point: to wit, the matter of time. The thesis develops two empirical economic scenarios to illustrate that there is a trade-off between the interests of the poor in short and long period of time. However, this important issue is not considered and discussed by Rawls which makes the theory inapplicable.

<p>This thesis conceives aquaculture as a transfer of resources within and between different parts of the world system. It is argued that due to inappropriate human-nature interactions, resources tend to flow from the South to the North, as a process of coastal colonisation. To study this resource transfer, coastal aquaculture is ap-proached from a transdisciplinary perspective, integrating natural, social, economic and spatial aspects. By combining world system theory and general systems theory, a systems view is adopted to relate aquaculture to forces of global capitalism, and analyse interactions between social and ecological processes at local and global levels. Emergy (energy memory) synthesis and participatory research methodologies were applied to two cases of aquaculture in Sri Lanka and the Philippines; monocul-ture of the black tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon) and milkfish (Chanos chanos), and polyculture of the two species together with mudcrab (Scylla serrata). The study reveals that semi-intensive shrimp monoculture in Sri Lanka generates few benefits for poor local people, and depends much on external inputs such as fry, feed and fuels, which implies negative environmental effects at local as well as global levels. Extensive polyculture in the Philippines involves more local people, and implies lower dependence on external inputs. Still, since benefits accrue mostly to elites, and mangroves are negatively affected, neither case is viable for sustainable poverty alleviation. Nevertheless, the study offers several insights into how sustainability assessment may be more transdisciplinary, and points to several factors affecting sustainability and fairness in aquaculture; the most important being mangrove con-version, local people involvement, and dependence on external inputs. Given that mangrove conversion is counteracted, extensive polyculture practices may also prove more viable in times of decreasing resources availability, and if policies are developed that favour resource efficient polyculture, and local small-scale and re-source poor farmers, instead of the global North.</p>

Social dilemmas constitute a broad class of quandaries, including, for example, common pool resource (CPR) dilemmas and public good (PG) dilemmas. CPR's are characterized by non-excludability and rivalry and are often associated with overexploitation. Through similar arguments, the features non-excludability and non-rivalry give rise to under-provision of PG's. The prevalence and inefficiencies often associated with CPR's have given rise to an extensive literature and the role of resource uncertainty has not been ignored. Uncertainty combined with rivalry is often said to augment users' incentive to overexploit. However, underlying most of the theoretical research is an explicit or implicit assumption of symmetric information, or a symmetric lack of information. In reality, people generally have access to different sources of information and they may differ in their abilities to process information. In the first two papers of this thesis, the assumption of symmetry is relaxed and both papers demonstrate that from a welfare perspective, the distribution of uncertainty is also of importance. Many CPR's and PG's are natural, which can complicate the situation. In the traditional resource management literature, the exploited resource is often assumed to be properly characterized by some concave growth function. Today, there is extensive empirical evidence suggesting that many ecosystems have more complex, often non-linear dynamics. Management of such resources can be quite challenging as the non-linear dynamics can make the ecosystem flip between alternate stable states, and even marginal changes can cause radical transformations of such ecosystems. Most of the CPR models assume the shared resource to be of fixed size or to be able to generate a constant flow of services. In the third paper we aim at providing a more complete picture of the overexploitation of a common resource, by combining the institutional structure with complex ecological dynamics. We manage to raise questions and doubts about the standard assumptions. Another feature of convex-concave resources is that a state can become highly robust and sometimes an ecosystem change may even be irreversible. This is problematic if, for example, we wish to restore a degraded ecosystem. The aim of the fourth paper is to empirically analyze this question, by eliciting peoples' preferences through a hypothetical referendum on the issue. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2005

This thesis conceives aquaculture as a transfer of resources within and between different parts of the world system. It is argued that due to inappropriate human-nature interactions, resources tend to flow from the South to the North, as a process of coastal colonisation. To study this resource transfer, coastal aquaculture is ap-proached from a transdisciplinary perspective, integrating natural, social, economic and spatial aspects. By combining world system theory and general systems theory, a systems view is adopted to relate aquaculture to forces of global capitalism, and analyse interactions between social and ecological processes at local and global levels. Emergy (energy memory) synthesis and participatory research methodologies were applied to two cases of aquaculture in Sri Lanka and the Philippines; monocul-ture of the black tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon) and milkfish (Chanos chanos), and polyculture of the two species together with mudcrab (Scylla serrata). The study reveals that semi-intensive shrimp monoculture in Sri Lanka generates few benefits for poor local people, and depends much on external inputs such as fry, feed and fuels, which implies negative environmental effects at local as well as global levels. Extensive polyculture in the Philippines involves more local people, and implies lower dependence on external inputs. Still, since benefits accrue mostly to elites, and mangroves are negatively affected, neither case is viable for sustainable poverty alleviation. Nevertheless, the study offers several insights into how sustainability assessment may be more transdisciplinary, and points to several factors affecting sustainability and fairness in aquaculture; the most important being mangrove con-version, local people involvement, and dependence on external inputs. Given that mangrove conversion is counteracted, extensive polyculture practices may also prove more viable in times of decreasing resources availability, and if policies are developed that favour resource efficient polyculture, and local small-scale and re-source poor farmers, instead of the global North.