The Specification in Z of the REX Protocol

REX is a protocol supporting a client/server style of interaction between a number of entities in a distributed system. Within this interaction paradigm, client entities may request services supplied by server entities, by interacting with intermediate protocol entities. This paper presents a Z specification of part of the REX protocol

Reversal of Envy

Studies of compensating discrimination (known in the U.S. as affirmative action) have not accounted for the role of envy. Yet envy affects utility. I consider the compensatingdiscrimination policies that individuals acknowledging envy would choose when behind a veil of ignorance. The institutional background for my study is India, where low castes have been provided with preferential access to public education and reserved public sector jobs. Although the Indian case is background, the conclusions apply more generally. I define envy as occurring when people with the same abilities have different incomes because of unequal education and employment opportunities. This is the case when, because of adverse discrimination, low-caste people are denied access to education and public-sector jobs, and also when, because of compensating discrimination, it is high-caste people who are correspondingly denied equal access. A benchmark case with neither adverse nor discriminatory discrimination is efficient and equitable (envy-free). Adverse and compensating discrimination both compromise efficiency and fairness. I derive the conditions that determine attitudes of a population behind the veil of ignorance to compensatingdiscrimination policies

Effect of Explainable Artificial Intelligence and Decision Task Complexity on Human-Machine Symbiosis

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a tool that augments various facets of decision making. This disruptive technology is helping humans perform better and faster with accuracy (Grigsby 2018). There are tasks where AI decides in real-time without human intervention. For example, AI can approve or decline a credit card application without any human intervention. On the other hand, there are tasks where both AI and human reasoning is required to make the decision. For instance, automated employee selection decision requires a higher level of human involvement. Interaction between humans and machines is required in such decisions. Grigsby (2018) posits that the interaction becomes effective when the machine understands human and human understands machine. This interplay is called human-machine symbiosis that merges the best of the human with the best of the machine. The human decision-makers need to understand how the machine is reaching to a specific prediction. One tool that facilitates this understanding by increasing the interpretability of the algorithm is Explainable AI (XAI). XAI is a tool that explains the results to the decision-maker in a human-understandable manner (Rai 2020). As a result, the decision is more transparent and fairer. Other than the benefits of transparency and fairness, there is an emerging regulatory requirement for explaining machine-driven decisions. The General Data Protection Regulation addresses the right to explanation by enabling the individuals to ask for an explanation for algorithm’s output (Selbst and Powles 2017). That is why the decision-makers need to convert their decision-making tool from a black box to a glass box. To enhance the explainability and interpretability, two broad categories of XAI techniques are model-specific XAI and model-agnostic XAI (Rai 2020). The model-specific techniques incorporate interpretability in the inherent structure of the learning model whereas the model-agnostic techniques use the learning model as an input to generate explanation. These models ensure transparency and fairness in human-machine decision making. Another important factor for effective human-machine symbiosis is decision task complexity (Grigsby 2018). Task complexity in decision making can be characterized by the number of desired outcomes, conflicting interdependencies among outcomes, path multiplicity, and uncertainty (Campbell 1988). When the decision-making task is unstructured and complicated, then the decision-maker’s need for understanding the algorithmic process increases. Moreover, decision task complexity is a factor of trust in the autonomous system, and trust is a factor of human-machine symbiosis (Grigsby 2018). Furthermore, decision task complexity is related to the mental workload and cognitive ability of the decision-makers (Grigsby 2018; Speier and Morris 2003). In the extant literature, there is a gap in explaining how the interplay between XAI techniques and decision task complexity impacts the decision makers perception about the human-machine symbiosis. Therefore, the objective of this research is to investigate the effect of XAI and decision task complexity on perceived human-machine symbiosis. Using the theories of information overload and algorithmic transparency, we develop a causal model to explain the relationship. We will run a randomized 2×2 factorial experiment to test the model. The paper will have theoretical and practical implications

The international symposia on career development and public policy: retrospect and prospect

Between 1999 and 2011, seven international symposia on career development and public policy were held at various venues across the world, and an International Centre was established to support and maintain continuity between these events. These developments were closely intertwined with a number of other significant international developments. The origins of the symposia are described; their core design features are defined; their evolution is outlined and reviewed; and their impact is assessed. This article concludes with a discussion of the prospects for future symposia and for the International Centre

A study of the male reproductive organs of nine species of penaeid prawns (Crustacea: Penaeinae)

This paper deals with the male reproductive organs of nine species of penaeid prawns; Penaeus penicillatus Alcock, P. merguiensis De Man, P. semisulcatus De Haan, Metapenaeus affinis (H.Milne Edwards), M. monoceros (Fabricius), M. stebbingi Nobili, Parapenaeopsis hardwickii (Miers), P. sculptilis (Heller) and P. stylifera (H. Milne Edwards). The male reproductive organs exhibited structural variations, which were more pronounced at generic level. These variations are mainly due to the type of spermatophore they possess. One species of each genus, that is, P. merguiensis, M. affinis and P. sculptilis were also studied histologically to examine the internal structure of the male reproductive organs. Spermatophores of the six species belonging to the genera Penaeus and Parapenaeopsis are also described and illustrated

A Holistic Ranking Scheme for Apps

App stores or application distribution platforms allow users to present their sentiments about apps in the forms of ratings and reviews. However, selecting the “best one” from available apps that offer similar functionality is difficult task - especially, if the selection process only uses the average star rating of the apps. To address this challenge, we have introduced a trust-based selection and ranking system of similar apps by combining the programmatic view (“internal view”) and the sentiments based on users reviews (“external view”). The rankings based on the average star ratings are compared with the rankings generated by our approach. We empirically evaluate our approach by using the publically available apps from the Google Play Store. For this study, we have chosen a dataset of 250 apps with total 114,480 reviews from top 5 different categories - of which we focused our experiments on 90 apps that have at least 1000 reviews. Our experiments indicate that proposed holistic ranking that encompasses both the internal and external views is a better alternative than any ranking that focuses only on the internal or external view

Structure of vasa deferentia and spermatophores in Parapenaeopsis stylifera (H. Milne Edwards) (Decapoda: Penaeidae)

The structure of vasa deferentia and spermatophores has been described in Parapenaeopsis stylifera. The male reproductive system consists of two symmetrical halves; each half bears testis, vas deferens and an ejaculatory duct. Each testis comprised of two to three short, broad and milky white lobes; vas deferens is divisible into proximal, medial and distal parts. The proximal vas deferens (PVD) is a convoluted mass made up of an extremely long and thin tube having elongated rod like spermatozoa. The median vas deferens (MVD) is broad, straight, somewhat flattened and bears many membranous folds internally and contained complete spermatophores; the distal vas deferens (DVD) is straight and cylindrical tube. The ejaculatory duct is a simple dilation with a tubular basal part tapered posteriorly for extrusion of spermatophores. The spermatophores are minute, spindle shaped bodies present in large numbers in each ejaculatory duct; the size varied from 0.148 to 0.161 mm; each spermatophore bears six to eight rows of regularly arranged spermatozoa. Histological studies reveal no internal partitioning of either vas deferens or ejaculatory duct.Keywords: Parapenaeopsis stylifer, vasa deferentia, spermatophore

Socio-economic inequalities in health among older adults in two rural sub-districts in India and Bangladesh: a comparative cross-sectional study

Health inequalities have been observed among older people in many developing countries, particularly among those with least social protection and low socio-economic (SES) status. This study attempted to examine effects of SES on the health of older adults, and related gender differences, in two rural sub-districts - Matlab, Bangladesh and Vadu, India. The study utilised the WHO SAGE INDEPTH Wave 1, 2007 Matlab, Bangladesh and Vadu, Pune District, India datasets. Both gender and SES indicators were strongly associated with all health indicators of older adults in the Bangladesh site, whereas in India, education and asset quintiles were not consistently associated with self-rated health, quality of life and functional ability score but gender was consistently associated with all health indicators except the quality of life score. The SES-health gradient was noticeably higher amongst older adults in Matlab, Bangladesh than in Vadu, India. Education was also found to be an important predictor of health outcome in both sites