D-side: A facility and workforce planning group multi-criteria decision support system for Johnson Space Center

“To understand and protect our home planet, to explore the universe and search for life, and to inspire the next generation of explorers” is NASA's mission. The Systems Management Office at Johnson Space Center (JSC) is searching for methods to effectively manage the Center's resources to meet NASA's mission. D-Side is a group multi-criteria decision support system (GMDSS) developed to support facility decisions at JSC. D-Side uses a series of sequential and structured processes to plot facilities in a three-dimensional (3-D) graph on the basis of each facility's alignment with NASA's mission and goals, the extent to which other facilities are dependent on the facility, and the dollar value of capital investments that have been postponed at the facility relative to the facility's replacement value. A similarity factor rank orders facilities based on their Euclidean distance from Ideal and Nadir points. These similarity factors are then used to allocate capital improvement resources across facilities. We also present a parallel model that can be used to support decisions concerning allocation of human resources investments across workforce units. Finally, we present results from a pilot study where 12 experienced facility managers from NASA used D-Side and the organization's current approach to rank order and allocate funds for capital improvement across 20 facilities. Users evaluated D-Side favorably in terms of ease of use, the quality of the decision-making process, decision quality, and overall value-added. Their evaluations of D-Side were significantly more favorable than their evaluations of the current approach.     

A comparison of broad versus deep auditory menu structures

OBJECTIVE: The primary purpose of this experiment was to gain a greater understanding of the utilization of working memory when interacting with a speech-enabled interactive voice response (IVR) system. BACKGROUND: A widely promoted guideline advises limiting IVR menus to five or fewer items because of constraints of the human memory system, commonly citing Miller's (1956) paper. The authors argue that Miller's paper does not, in fact, support this guideline. Furthermore, applying modern theories of working memory leads to the opposite conclusion--that reducing menu length by creating a deeper structure is actually more demanding of users' working memories and leads to poorer performance and satisfaction. METHOD: Participants took a working memory capacity test and then attempted to complete a series of e-mail tasks using one of two IVR designs (functionally equivalent, but one with a broad menu structure and the other with a deep structure). RESULTS: Users of the broad-structure IVR performed better and were more satisfied than users of the deep-structure IVR. Furthermore, this effect was more pronounced for those with low working memory capacity. CONCLUSION: Results indicate that creating a deeper structure is more demanding of working memory resource than the alternative of longer, shallower menus. APPLICATION: This experiment has important practical implications for all systems with auditory menus (particularly IVRs) because it provides empirical evidence refuting a widely promoted design practice.     

Half-life of 60Fe

The half-life of ⁶⁰Fe has been measured to be $\text{T}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}\text{= (1.49 ± 0.27) × 10}{}^6$ a, significantly longer than the one previous measurement of Roy and Kohman which reported a value of 3 × 10⁵ a uncertain by a factor of 3. The present value was obtained from measurements of specific activity and radioisotope concentration in a material produced by spallation of copper with 191 MeV protons. ⁶⁰Fe/Fe ratios in the range of 10^?8 were measured with the Argonne FN tandem-superconducting linear accelerator system in conjunction with an Enge split-pole spectrograph. The specific activity of ⁶⁰Fe in Fe was measured through the grow-in of the 1.332 MeV gamma-ray line of the ⁶⁰Co daughter activity.     

Evaluating Vocational Interventions: A Tale of Two Career Development Seminars.

Formal evaluation of two career development seminars was conducted to determine what kind of vocational interventions were helping what kind of people. Students experienced a wide variety of vocational treatments (e.g., standardized inventories, workbooks, writing exercises, discussions, individual counseling) and were asked to rate the helpfulness of each vocational intervention. No interactions between characteristics of students and treatment ratings were found, but an overall main effect of all treatments on raising students' level of vocational identity was found. Suggestions are made for improving the management and evaluation of career development seminars. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Specification and design of logic controllers for automated manufacturing systems

The complexity of manufacturing systems makes it necessary to use adequate modelling tools based on a hierarchical and modular approach which highlights the dependency relationship between different system components. This paper presents a methodology which utilizes the hierarchical decomposition of structured analysis and design technique and the modularity of Petri nets to obtain the Grafcet, representing the implementation of the logic controller of an automated manufacturing system. This methodology aims at: (i) improving the communication between the manufacturing system designer and the control designer, (ii) generating the control logic starting from high-level specifications, and (iii) providing the basis for the validation of the control system.     

An examination of two alternative techniques to estimate the standard deviation of job performance in dollars.

Two methods for estimating dollar standard deviations were investigated in a simulated environment. 19 graduate students with management experience managed a simulated pharmaceutical firm for 4 quarters. Ss were given information describing the performance of sales representatives on 3 job components. Estimates derived using the method developed by F. L. Schmidt et al (see record 1981-02231-001) were relatively accurate with objective sales data that could be directly translated to dollars, but resulted in overestimates of means and standard deviations when data were less directly translatable to dollars and involved variable costs. An additional problem with the Schmidt et al procedure involved the presence of outliers, possibly caused by differing interpretations of instructions. The Cascio-Ramos estimate of performance in dollars (CREPID) technique, proposed by W. F. Cascio (1982), yielded smaller dollar standard deviations, but Ss could reliably discriminate among job components in terms of importance and could accurately evaluate employee performance on those components. Problems with the CREPID method included the underlying scale used to obtain performance ratings and a dependency on job component intercorrelations. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On Multistate System Analysis

Discrete function theory, which extends switching function theory and multiple-valued logic function theory, is introduced into multistate system analysis. Some theoretical conclusions and algorithms which play key roles in multistate system analysis are presented. The concepts of s-coherence and duality in binary-state system analysis are generalized. The set of minimal upper (maximum lower) vectors for level j, which play the role of min path (cut) set, is introduced to represent the states of a monotonic multistate system. Two approaches to computing state probability of multistate systems are given, one is based on inclusion-exclusion, the other is based on enumeration. Binary-state fault-tree is extended to multistate fault-tree. A computer code (MSTA1) has been programmed and is used to evaluate a multistate fault-tree. Multistate fault-tree and the computer code have been applied to paper-making industry; the results are consistent with the field data.     

When ratee satisfaction influences performance evaluations: A case of illusory correlation.

M. T. Iaffaldano and P. Muchinsky's (see record 1985-21607-001) meta-analysis suggested that the satisfaction–performance relation constitutes an illusory correlation. Two experiments are reported that investigated whether this illusory correlation may systematically bias performance evaluations when ratee satisfaction levels are known. In Experiment 1, students who were told that an instructor was satisfied rated his performance more favorably than students who were told that he was dissatisfied. In Experiment 2, subjects performed an in-basket task and completed a satisfaction questionnaire prior to evaluating a ratee's performance on a similar in-basket task. Subjects appraised a satisfied ratee more favorably than they appraised a dissatisfied ratee. In addition, subjects provided with bogus feedback indicating that their task satisfaction was high evaluated their own performance more favorably than subjects provided with dissatisfaction feedback. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)