Formalising responsibility modelling for automatic analysis

Modelling the structure of social-technical systems as a basis for informing software system design is a difficult compromise. Formal methods struggle to capture the scale and complexity of the heterogeneous organisations that use technical systems. Conversely, informal approaches lack the rigour needed to inform the software design and construction process or enable automated analysis. We revisit the concept of responsibility modelling, which models social technical systems as a collection of actors who discharge their responsibilities, whilst using and producing resources in the process. Responsibility modelling is formalised as a structured approach for socio-technical system requirements specification and modelling, with well-defined semantics and support for automated structure and validity analysis. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated by two case studies of software engineering methodologies

Computing semiparametric bounds on the expected payments of insurance instruments via column generation

It has been recently shown that numerical semiparametric bounds on the expected payoff of fi- nancial or actuarial instruments can be computed using semidefinite programming. However, this approach has practical limitations. Here we use column generation, a classical optimization technique, to address these limitations. From column generation, it follows that practical univari- ate semiparametric bounds can be found by solving a series of linear programs. In addition to moment information, the column generation approach allows the inclusion of extra information about the random variable; for instance, unimodality and continuity, as well as the construction of corresponding worst/best-case distributions in a simple way

Notes on Paraguayan birds

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57155/1/OP719.pd

The metazoan parasite fauna of loons (Aves: Gaviiformes), its relationship to the birds' evolutionary history and biology, and a comparison with the parasite fauna of grebes

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/56434/1/MP191.pd

The metazoan parasite fauna of grebes (Aves: Podicipediformes) and its relationship to the birds' biology

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/56431/1/MP188.pd

Loons And Their Wings

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137477/1/evo02952.pd

Type specimens of birds in the collections of the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/56418/1/MP174.pd

Osteology and myology of the head and neck of the pied-billed grebes (Podilymbus)

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/56383/1/MP139.pd

“Maybe” Should Be a Choice in “Yes-No” Questionnaires

By permitting respondents to answer “don't know” or “possibly” to queries otherwise intended to be “yes” or “no” questions, a new dimension of the interview becomes available for analysis. By coding “yes” and “no” as “yes, I have an opinion that I will express to you,” and “don't know” or “possibly” as “no, I do not have an opinion that I will express to you,” understanding the patterning of such responses becomes an interesting research question. We present an example of this approach from 538 interviews, question-frames about the domain “illness,” obtained in the homes of participants in an intervention program designed to reduce coronary heart disease, in central, rural Mississippi. The questionnaire was presented by four interviewers. Each participant was interviewed four times at six-month intervals, providing adequate time between interviews for reflection on the task. We use the individual differences model of multidimensional scaling to obtain weights for each consultant on each dimension of the group aggregate space. Subsequent analysis of these weights was (1) by general linear model analysis of variance and (2) examination of the pattern of adjusted means of dimension weights by risk factors and design factors. Results were surprising. The two-dimensional aggregate space developed from opinions vs. lack of expressed opinion on individual questions was interpretable as one cluster of symptoms that implied heart disease and two other structures that were vector-like in appearance. Extremely high F-values showed a reflexive effect; the interviewer was associated with several factors including risk status of the participants, suggesting negotiation of whether or not a participant would agree to express an opinion. There may have been a reflective effect with changing patterns developing over the course of the repeated interviews. Neither dimension was associated with the health-care seeking behavior of consulting a doctor