Scientific, Legal, and Ethical Concerns About AI-Based Personnel Selection Tools: A Call to Action

Organizations are increasingly turning toward personnel selection tools that rely on artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and machine learning algorithms that, together, intend to predict the future success of employees better than traditional tools. These new forms of assessment include online games, video-based interviews, and big data pulled from many sources, including test responses, test-taking behavior, applications, resumes, and social media. Speedy processing, lower costs, convenient access, and applicant engagement are often and rightfully cited as the practical advantages for using these selection tools. At the same time, however, these tools raise serious concerns about their effectiveness in terms of their conceptual relevance to the job, their basis in a job analysis to ensure job relevancy, their measurement characteristics (reliability and stability), their validity in predicting employee-relevant outcomes, their evidence and normative information being updated appropriately, and the associated ethical concerns around what information is being represented to employers and told to job candidates. This paper explores these concerns, concluding with an urgent call to industrial and organizational psychologists to extend existing professional standards for employment testing to these new AI and machine learning based forms of testing, including standards and requirements for their documentation

Distributions of mixed layer properties in North Pacific water mass formation areas: comparison of Argo floats and World Ocean Atlas 2001

ABSTRACT. Winter mixed layer characteristics in the North Pacific Ocean are examined and compared between Argo floats in 2006 and the World Ocean Atlas 2001 (WOA01) climatology for a series of named water masses, North Pacific Tropical Water (NPTW), Eastern Subtropical Mode Water (ESTMW), North Pacific Subtropical Mode Water (NPSTMW), Light Central ModeWater (LCMW) and Dense Central Mode Water (DCMW). The WOA01 is found to be in good agreement with the Argo data in terms of water mass volumes, average temperature-salinity (T-S) properties, and outcrop areas. The exception to this conclusion is for the central mode waters, DCMW and LCMW, whose outcropping is shown to be much more intermittent than is apparent in the WOA01 and whose T-S properties vary from what is shown in theWOA01. Distributions of mixed layer T-S properties measured by floats are examined within the outcropping areas defined by the WOA01 and show some shifting of T-S characteristics within the confines of the named water masses. In 2006, all the water masses were warmer than climatology on average, with a magnitude of about 0.5 degrees C. The NPTW, NPSTMW and LCMW were saltier than climatology and the ESTMW and DCMW fresher, with magnitudes of about 0.05. In order to put these results into context, differences between Argo and WOA01 were examined over the North Pacific between 20 and 45 degrees N. A large-scale warming and freshening is seen throughout this area, except for the western North Pacific, where results were more mixed

Physical response of the coastal ocean to Hurricane Isabel near landfall

Abstract. Hurricane Isabel made landfall near Drum Inlet, North Carolina on 18 September 2003. In nearby Onslow Bay an array of 5 moorings captured the response of the coastal ocean to the passage of the storm by measuring currents, surface waves, bottom pressure, temperature and salinity. Temperatures across the continental shelf decreased by 1–3 degrees C, consistent with a surface heat flux estimate of 750W/m2. Salinity decreased at most mooring locations. A calculation at one of the moorings estimates rainfall of 11 cm and a net addition of fresh water at the surface of 8 cm. The low-pass current field shows a shelf-wide movement of water, first to the southwest, with an abrupt reversal to the northeast along the shelf after landfall. Close analysis of this reversal shows it to be a disturbance propagating offshore at a speed somewhat less than the local shallow water wave speed. The high-pass current field at one of the moorings shows a significant increase in kinetic energy at periods between 10 min and 2 h during the approach of the storm. This high-pass flow is isotropic and has a short (<5 m) vertical decorrelation scale. It appears to be closely associated with the winds, Finally we examined the surface wave field at one of the moorings. It shows the swell energy peaking well before the wind waves. At the height of the storm, as the winds rotated rapidly in the cyclonic sense, the wind wave direction rotated as well, with a lag of 45–90 degrees

Multiscale simulation, data assimilation, and forecasting in support of the SPURS-2 field campaign

A multiscale simulation, data assimilation, forecasting system was developed in support of the SPURS-2 (Salinity Processes in the Upper-ocean Regional Study 2) field campaign. Before the field campaign, a multiyear simulation was produced for characterizing variabilities in upper-ocean salinity, eddy activity, and other parameters and for illustrating major processes that control the region’s upper-ocean salinity at different spatial and temporal scales. This simulation assisted in formulating sampling plans. During the field experiment, the system integrated SPURS-2 measurements with those from routine operational observing networks, including Argo floats and satellite surface temperatures, salinities, and heights, and provided real-time skillful daily forecasts of ocean conditions. Forecast reports were prepared to summarize oceanic conditions and multiscale features and were delivered to the SPURS-2 chief scientist and other SPURS-2 investigators through the SPURS-2 Information System. After the field experiment, the data assimilation system was used to produce a reanalysis product to help quantify contributions of different processes to salinity variability in the region

Patterns of SSS variability in the eastern tropical Pacific: Intraseasonal to interannual timescales from seven years of NASA satellite data

Sea surface salinity (SSS) observations from NASA’s satellite missions, Aquarius/SAC-D and Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), are used to describe spatial patterns of the seasonal cycle, as well as intraseasonal and interannual variability, in the eastern tropical Pacific, the location of the second Salinity Processes in the Upper-ocean Regional Study (SPURS-2) field experiment. The results indicate that the distribution of SSS variance is highly inhomogeneous in both space and time. The seasonal signal is largest in the core of the Eastern Pacific Fresh Pool and in the Gulf of Panama. The interannual signal is highest in a relatively narrow zonal band along approximately 5°N, while the intraseasonal signal appears to be a dominant mode of variability in the zonally stretched near-equatorial region. Located right in the middle of a hotspot of high SSS variance, the SPURS-2 site appears to be at the crossroads of many different processes that shape the distribution of SSS in the eastern tropical Pacific and beyond

The SPURS-2 eastern tropical Pacific field campaign data collection

This paper describes the large, diverse set of in situ data collected during the Salinity Processes in the Upper-ocean Regional Study 2 (SPURS-2) field campaign. The data set includes measurements of the ocean, atmosphere, and fluxes between atmosphere and ocean; measurements of the skin surface layer, bulk mixed layer, and deeper water; (mostly) physical, chemical, and biological measurements; and shipbased, mobile drifting/floating, and moored observations. We include references detailing the methods for collection of each data set, provide DOIs for accessing the data, and note some papers in this special issue that use them. To facilitate broader access to SPURS-2 data and information, we created an online tool that allows users to explore data sets organized by various categories (e.g., instrument type, mobility, depth). This tool will complement content available from the Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) and will be highly engaging for visual learners

Congressional Oversight Manual

Throughout its history, Congress has engaged in oversight of the executive branch — the review, monitoring, and supervision of the implementation of public policy. The first several Congresses inaugurated such important oversight techniques as special investigations, reporting requirements, resolutions of inquiry, and use of the appropriations process to review executive activity. Contemporary developments, moreover, have increased the legislature’s capacity and capabilities to check on and check the Executive. Public laws and congressional rules have measurably enhanced Congress’s implied power under the Constitution to conduct oversight

A study of long-term potentiation in transgenic mice over-expressing mutant forms of both amyloid precursor protein and presenilin-1

RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.Abstract Synaptic transmission and long-term potentiation (LTP) in the CA1 region of hippocampal slices have been studied during ageing of a double transgenic mouse strain relevant to early-onset familial Alzheimer's disease (AD). This strain, which over-expresses both the 695 amino acid isoform of human amyloid precursor protein (APP) with K670N and M671L mutations and presenilin 1 with the A246E mutation, has accelerated amyloidosis and plaque formation. There was a decrease in synaptic transmission in both wildtype and transgenic mice between 2 and 9 months of age. However, preparing slices from 14 month old animals in kynurenic acid (1 mM) counteracted this age-related deficit. Basal transmission and paired-pulse facilitation was similar between the two groups at all ages (2, 6, 9 and 14 months) tested. Similarly, at all ages LTP, induced either by theta burst stimulation or by multiple tetani, was normal. These data show that a prolonged, substantially elevated level of Aβ are not sufficient to cause deficits in the induction or expression of LTP in the CA1 hippocampal region.Published versio

Seasonal and Interannual Variability of the Subtropical South Indian Ocean Sea Surface Salinity Maximum

The sea surface salinity (SSS) maximum of the South Indian Ocean (the SISSS-max) is a high-salinity feature centered at 30°S, 90°E, near the center of the South Indian subtropical gyre. It is located poleward of a region of strong evaporation and weak precipitation. Using several different satellites and in situ data sets, we track changes in this feature since the early 2000s. The centroid of the SISSS-max moves seasonally north and south, furthest north in late winter and farthest south in late summer. Interannually, the SISSS-max has moved on a northeast-southwest path about 1,500 km in length. The size and maximum SSS of the feature vary in tandem with this motion. It gets larger (smaller) and saltier (fresher) as it moves to the northeast (southwest) closer to (further from) the area of strongest surface freshwater flux. The area of the SISSS-max almost doubles from its smallest to largest extent. It was maximum in area in 2006, decreased steadily until it reached a minimum in 2013, and then increased again. The seasonal variability of the SISSS-max is controlled by the changes that occur on its poleward, or southern, side, whereas interannual variability is controlled by changes on its equatorward side. The variations in the SISSS-max are a complex dance between changes in evaporation, precipitation, wind forcing, gyre-scale ocean circulation, and downward Ekman pumping. Its motion correlated with SSS changes throughout the South Indian Ocean and may be an indicator of changes in the basin's subtropical circulation