Steps Towards Value-Aligned Systems

Algorithmic (including AI/ML) decision-making artifacts are an established and growing part of our decision-making ecosystem. They are indispensable tools for managing the flood of information needed to make effective decisions in a complex world. The current literature is full of examples of how individual artifacts violate societal norms and expectations (e.g. violations of fairness, privacy, or safety norms). Against this backdrop, this discussion highlights an under-emphasized perspective in the literature on assessing value misalignment in AI-equipped sociotechnical systems. The research on value misalignment has a strong focus on the behavior of individual tech artifacts. This discussion argues for a more structured systems-level approach for assessing value-alignment in sociotechnical systems. We rely primarily on the research on fairness to make our arguments more concrete. And we use the opportunity to highlight how adopting a system perspective improves our ability to explain and address value misalignments better. Our discussion ends with an exploration of priority questions that demand attention if we are to assure the value alignment of whole systems, not just individual artifacts.Comment: Original version appeared in Proceedings of the 2020 AAAI ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society (AIES '20), February 7-8, 2020, New York, NY, USA. 5 pages, 2 figures. Corrected some typos in this versio

Discs in misaligned binary systems

We perform SPH simulations to study precession and changes in alignment between the circumprimary disc and the binary orbit in misaligned binary systems. We find that the precession process can be described by the rigid-disc approximation, where the disc is considered as a rigid body interacting with the binary companion only gravitationally. Precession also causes change in alignment between the rotational axis of the disc and the spin axis of the primary star. This type of alignment is of great important for explaining the origin of spin-orbit misaligned planetary systems. However, we find that the rigid-disc approximation fails to describe changes in alignment between the disc and the binary orbit. This is because the alignment process is a consequence of interactions that involve the fluidity of the disc, such as the tidal interaction and the encounter interaction. Furthermore, simulation results show that there are not only alignment processes, which bring the components towards alignment, but also anti-alignment processes, which tend to misalign the components. The alignment process dominates in systems with misalignment angle near 90 degrees, while the anti-alignment process dominates in systems with the misalignment angle near 0 or 180 degrees. This means that highly misaligned systems will become more aligned but slightly misaligned systems will become more misaligned.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in MNRA

Aligning a Service Provisioning Model of a Service-Oriented System with the ITIL v.3 Life Cycle

Bringing together the ICT and the business layer of a service-oriented system (SoS) remains a great challenge. Few papers tackle the management of SoS from the business and organizational point of view. One solution is to use the well-known ITIL v.3 framework. The latter enables to transform the organization into a service-oriented organizational which focuses on the value provided to the service customers. In this paper, we align the steps of the service provisioning model with the ITIL v.3 processes. The alignment proposed should help organizations and IT teams to integrate their ICT layer, represented by the SoS, and their business layer, represented by ITIL v.3. One main advantage of this combined use of ITIL and a SoS is the full service orientation of the company.Comment: This document is the technical work of a conference paper submitted to the International Conference on Exploring Service Science 1.5 (IESS 2015

Shear-stress controlled dynamics of nematic complex fluids

Based on a mesoscopic theory we investigate the non-equilibrium dynamics of a sheared nematic liquid, with the control parameter being the shear stress $\sigma_{\mathrm{xy}}$ (rather than the usual shear rate, $\dot\gamma$). To this end we supplement the equations of motion for the orientational order parameters by an equation for $\dot\gamma$, which then becomes time-dependent. Shearing the system from an isotropic state, the stress- controlled flow properties turn out to be essentially identical to those at fixed $\dot\gamma$. Pronounced differences when the equilibrium state is nematic. Here, shearing at controlled $\dot\gamma$ yields several non-equilibrium transitions between different dynamic states, including chaotic regimes. The corresponding stress-controlled system has only one transition from a regular periodic into a stationary (shear-aligned) state. The position of this transition in the $\sigma_{\mathrm{xy}}$-$\dot\gamma$ plane turns out to be tunable by the delay time entering our control scheme for $\sigma_{\mathrm{xy}}$. Moreover, a sudden change of the control method can {\it stabilize} the chaotic states appearing at fixed $\dot\gamma$.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure

On composite systems of dilute and dense couplings

Composite systems, where couplings are of two types, a combination of strong dilute and weak dense couplings of Ising spins, are examined through the replica method. The dilute and dense parts are considered to have independent canonical disordered or uniform bond distributions; mixing the models by variation of a parameter $\gamma$ alongside inverse temperature $\beta$ we analyse the respective thermodynamic solutions. We describe the variation in high temperature transitions as mixing occurs; in the vicinity of these transitions we exactly analyse the competing effects of the dense and sparse models. By using the replica symmetric ansatz and population dynamics we described the low temperature behaviour of mixed systems.Comment: 35 pages, 9 figures, submitted to JPhys

Antiferromagnetic effects in Chaotic Map lattices with a conservation law

Some results about phase separation in coupled map lattices satisfying a conservation law are presented. It is shown that this constraint is the origin of interesting antiferromagnetic effective couplings and allows transitions to antiferromagnetic and superantiferromagnetic phases. Similarities and differences between this models and statistical spin models are pointed out.Comment: 14 pages including 9 figure

Spreading of Block Copolymer Films and Domain Alignment at Moving Terrace Steps

We investigate spreading of phase separated copolymer films, where domain walls and thickness steps influence polymer flow. We show that at early stages of spreading its rate is determined by slow activated flow at terrace steps (i.e. thickness steps). At late stages of spreading, on the other hand, the rate is determined by the flow along terraces, with diffusion-like time dependence $t^{-1/2}$. This dependence is similar to de Gennes and Cazabat's prediction for generic layered liquids, as opposed to the classical Tanner's law of drop spreading. We also argue that chain hopping at the spreading terrace steps should lead to the formation of aligned, defect-free domain patterns on the growing terraces.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, submitted to J. Chem. Phy

Aligning enterprise risk management with business strategy and information systems

Business leaders recognise effective risk management as one of the main success drivers for enterprises. Even though the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) concept has evolved significantly in the past years, in the aftermath of recent economic crises it became evident some of its critical challenges still need to be addressed. The review of subject literature led to a conclusion that current ERM approaches failed to protect enterprise value in turbulent and risky market conditions. Therefore, this paper aims to provide a conceptual analysis of the most common ERM practices and frameworks, in order to identify their shortcomings and areas requiring development. It is further aimed to provide guidance to business practitioners in implementing more integrated and effective Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) solutions. This research recognises the importance of aligning ERM programmes with business strategies, and with consolidated Information Systems. A “New Approach ERM Model” is developed as guidance for a successful alignment of ERM with enterprise business strategy, and for an effective adaption of Information Systems to requirements of ERM programmes. The “New Approach ERM Model” steers risk management initiatives and strategies in the same direction, and consequently allows enterprises to improve organisational effectiveness, increase shareholders value, and gain competitive advantage in the market

Facetted patchy particles through entropy-driven patterning of mixed ligand SAMS

We present a microscopic theory that describes the ordering of two distinct ligands on the surface of a faceted nanoparticle. The theory predicts that when one type of ligand is significantly bulkier than all others, the larger ligands preferentially align themselves along the edges and vertices of the nanoparticle. Monte Carlo simulations confirm these predictions. We show that the intrinsic conformational entropy of the ligands stabilizes this novel edge-aligned phase.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure