Validating Expert Systems: A Demonstration Using Personal Choice Expert, a Flexible Employee Benefit System

A method for validating expert systems, based on validation approaches from psychology and Turing\u27s “imitation game,” is demonstrated using a flexible employee benefits expert system. Psychometric validation has three aspects: the extent to which the system and expert decisions agree (criterionrelated validity), the inputs and processes used by experts compared to the system (content validity), and differences between expert and novice decisions (construct validity). If these criteria are satisfied, then the system is indistinguishable from experts for its domain and satisfies the Turing Test. Personal Choice Expert (PCE) was designed to help employees of a Fortune 500 firm choose benefits in their flexible benefits system. Its recommendations do not significantly differ from those given by independent experts. Hence, if the system-independent expert agreement (criterion-related validity) were the only standard, PCE could be considered valid. However, construct analysis suggests that re-engineering may be required. High intra-expert agreement exists only for some benefit recommendations (e.g., dental care and long-term disability) and not for others (e.g., short-term disability, accidental death and dismemberment, and life insurance). Insights offered by these methods are illustrated and examined

The climate emergency across business, community and campaign groups: motivations and barriers to driving change for the common good

Initiatives to help tackle the climate emergency have tended to focus on large-scale actions that governments can take and smaller-scale actions for individuals, with relatively limited attention given to the mass of groups that form society between these two ends of the spectrum. The aim here is to help close that gap and the chosen areas of study are business, community, and campaign groups. The approach was to assess the existing literature and to conduct three focus groups to identify what motivates these groups to take actions on climate change, while also uncovering the barriers that may drive choices of inaction. The findings indicate that multiple factors motivate environmental engagements across business, community, and campaign groups, but personal ethics and concern for the future play the most vital roles. The most common barriers cited were difficulties in accessing support schemes, a lack of clear accessible information, and financial implications. Better networking and knowledge exchange are considered essential for meaningful progress. This research provides a new framework, upon which many organisations can be better motivated to take actions in helping deal with the global climate emergency facing humanity. Practical action guides may be developed from existing materials, and small taskforces could be trained to provide direct hands-on support to groups across society, especially those in SMEs and local communities. The energies of younger people and campaigners, combined with the experiences of other generations, would create a powerful force for good

Hypervelocity Stars from the Andromeda Galaxy

Hypervelocity stars (HVSs) discovered in the Milky Way (MW) halo are thought to be ejected from near the massive black hole (MBH) at the galactic centre. In this paper we investigate the spatial and velocity distributions of the HVSs which are expected to be similarly produced in the Andromeda galaxy (M31). We consider three different HVS production mechanisms: (i) the disruption of stellar binaries by the galactocentric MBH; (ii) the ejection of stars by an in-spiraling intermediate mass black hole; and (iii) the scattering of stars off a cluster of stellar-mass black holes orbiting around the MBH. While the first two mechanisms would produce large numbers of HVSs in M31, we show that the third mechanism would not be effective in M31. We numerically calculate 1.2*10^6 trajectories of HVSs from M31 within a simple model of the Local Group and hence infer the current distribution of these stars. Gravitational focusing of the HVSs by the MW and the diffuse Local Group medium leads to high densities of low mass (~ solar mass) M31 HVSs near the MW. Within the virialized MW halo, we expect there to be of order 1000 HVSs for the first mechanism and a few hundred HVSs for the second mechanism; many of these stars should have distinctively large approach velocities (< -500 km/s). In addition, we predict ~5 hypervelocity RGB stars within the M31 halo which could be identified observationally. Future MW astrometric surveys or searches for distant giants could thus find HVSs from M31.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, changed to match version accepted by MNRA

The climate emergency across business, community and campaign groups: Motivations and barriers to driving change for the common good

Initiatives to help tackle the climate emergency have tended to focus on large-scale actions that governments can take and smaller-scale actions for individuals, with relatively limited attention given to the mass of groups that form society between these two ends of the spectrum. The aim here is to help close that gap and the chosen areas of study are business, community, and campaign groups. The approach was to assess the existing literature and to conduct three focus groups to identify what motivates these groups to take actions on climate change, while also uncovering the barriers that may drive choices of inaction. The findings indicate that multiple factors motivate environmental engagements across business, community, and campaign groups, but personal ethics and concern for the future play the most vital roles. The most common barriers cited were difficulties in accessing support schemes, a lack of clear accessible information, and financial implications. Better networking and knowledge exchange are considered essential for meaningful progress. This research provides a new framework, upon which many organisations can be better motivated to take actions in helping deal with the global climate emergency facing humanity. Practical action guides may be developed from existing materials, and small taskforces could be trained to provide direct hands-on support to groups across society, especially those in SMEs and local communities. The energies of younger people and campaigners, combined with the experiences of other generations, would create a powerful force for good

Management actions to address the climate emergency: Motivations and barriers for SMEs and other societal micro/meso-level groups

Initiatives to tackle the climate emergency have tended to focus on large-scale actions that governments and investors (societal macro-levels) can take and smaller-scale individual habits, with limited attention given to the groups that form society between those ends of the spectrum (societal micro/meso-levels). This research aims to traverse that gap by studying three societal micro/meso-level groups; from the private, public and voluntary sectors, as represented by business, community and campaign groups. Existing literature and focus groups are used to identify what motivates actions on climate change, while exposing barriers that may drive choices of inaction. The study shows that concerns for the future and personal ethics play vital roles across business, community and campaign groups, while the principal barriers include difficulties in accessing support schemes and changes in political priorities. Better networking and knowledge exchange are considered essential for meaningful progress. This provides a new framework for management education to support organisations in tackling climate-related issues. Action guides may be developed and task-forces trained to provide hands-on support, especially for SMEs and local communities. The enthusiasm of younger people and campaigners, combined with others’ experiences, would create a powerful platform for climate emergency actions

Draft genome sequence of Pseudomonas putida CA-3, a bacterium capable of styrene degradation and medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoate synthesis

Pseudomonas putida strain CA-3 is an industrial bioreactor isolate capable of synthesizing biodegradable polyhydroxyalkanoate polymers via the metabolism of styrene and other unrelated carbon sources. The pathways involved are subject to regulation by global cellular processes. The draft genome sequence is 6,177,154 bp long and contains 5,608 predicted coding sequences