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The purpose of this paper is to devise a general solution that allows a policy-based (i.e. rule-based) management system to explain its operation. In particular, a solution has been developed and evaluated in the context of an automated home care system.

The work has built on an existing policy-based management system called Advanced Component Control Enhancing Network Technologies (ACCENT). This includes automated management of home care using two forms of rules: higher-level (user) goals and lower-level (system) policies. These rules can be defined by users (typically carers) to personalise how the system should support the resident. In new work, the system has been extended to include an explanation facility that allows the user to understand the past and future behaviour of the system.

An explanation facility has been created to explain the past and future behaviour of the system. An initial evaluation of this has been carried out with carers. The participants in this evaluation found the facility to be understandable and were able to use it effectively.

The work has made a useful extension to the design of policy-based systems in general. The initial evaluation with a limited group of users identified small weaknesses in the explanation facility that will be addressed in future work. The updated approach will then be evaluated with a larger group of users.

The enhanced home care system is now more usable and comprehensible, and so will be easier to deploy and maintain.

The explanation facility has made the home care system more usable and comprehensible for users, and so will enhance its acceptability in future deployment.

Although expert systems have long been able to explain their operation, this kind of solution has not previously been attempted for policy-based management systems. The value to end users is that the approach makes automated support of home care more understandable and thus more acceptable and usable.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate an approach to automating goals for supporting home care, with a view to understanding user experience when defining such goals and hence identifying improvements that could be made to the approach.

The study was designed to answer the key research question of whether users can understand, formulate and relate to automated goals for home care. In order to do this, a fictional text-based scenario was used about a couple with care needs. This helped to explore the feasibility, acceptability and usability of goals to manage care at home. Face-to-face qualitative interviews were undertaken with ten participants with a background in social care: four social care professionals; one health care professional; one formal carer; one informal carer; and three end users.

Overall, participants were positive about being able to control the MATCH (Mobilising Advanced Technologies for Care at Home) system through the use of goals. The results from the participant interviews will be used to help guide potential improvements to the home care system. The main issue that emerged from the study is that it would be valuable to think in terms of outcomes as a higher level than goals. A second consideration is that it would be desirable to adopt terminology that can be understood by all stakeholders.

The study has demonstrated that automated goals for home care have a useful role to play and can be successfully used by end users and carers. Although the range of participants in the study was limited, it has allowed confidence to be built in the approach and has identified useful pointers for future development.

With the evaluation and validation of the goal-based approach, it has encouraged the developers to make automated goals more widely available in future deployment of the home care system.

The use of automated goals to support home care has been shown to be acceptable to end users and carers. This will allow future home care systems to offer more personal and better customised services to those receiving telecare.

The study provides a unique evaluation of the use of automated goals to support home care. Previous use of goals in the literature has been for highly technical applications, so their application to home care is novel and speculative. The study has demonstrated that the approach is viable, useful, and usable by end users and carers.

A project manager’s (PM) emotional intelligence (EI) is essential for project performance (PP). However, the cause and effect and the potential moderators of the relationship between EI and PP remain disputed. Some scholars found a positive association between PMs’ EI and project outcomes, while some other studies showed non or negative relation. This paper aims to find the relationship between PMs’ EI and PP and the factors that influence this relationship based on diverse prior research.

This paper conducts a meta-analysis of 5,229 observations based on 24 independent studies from 1990 to 2021.

Results show that PMs’ EI has a significant positive influence on PP, and the project complexity and measurement of PP are two critical moderators explaining inconsistencies in existing research.

The current study proposes suggestions for construction companies on PMs’ selection and training. This study also offers suggestions for PMs in management practice.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to explore the inconsistencies in prior research results on the relationship between PMs’ EI and PP at the meta-analytic level. This research extends the current literature by revealing the factors leading to existing consistencies that are not explored before. This study implies that the meta-analysis method could help reach a balanced conclusion based on inconsistent results.

In a recent essay entitled “Value‐relevant Sociology”, David Gray (1983:405–416) argues that if sociology has to be socially relevant, “it is essential that sociology becomes consciously value‐relevant, not value‐free.” He maintains that sociologists cannot analyse the consequences of social structure, forces, and change in a value‐free context if their works are to be relevant for social policies. He then goes on to say, “Between the extremes of value‐free, non‐relevant, sometimes trivial, sociology on the one hand, and immediate response to pressing socioeconomic problems and prevailing political winds on the other, where does the significant sociology lie?” (1983:406). For Gray, both extremes are inappropriate for a worthy academic discipline.

June 9, 1971 National Insurance — Insurable employment — Contract of service or contract for services — Factors for consideration by Minister — Drivers of earth moving machines owned by employers — Appeal from Minister's decision — Approach of court — Whether for court to weigh again factors balanced by Minister — National Insurance Act, 1965 (13 & 14 Eliz. II, c. 51), s. 1 (2)(a).

In order to understand how collegiate athletics fits within the wider problem of sexual violence on college campuses, the purpose of this paper is to start with an examination of the overall scope of the issue of sexual violence in the USA and the larger culture that produces it. Next, the relevant laws and adjudication of sexual violence operant in American colleges are outlined. Finally, college athletics is placed into this bigger context by highlighting a number of particular cases to illustrate a broader understanding of collegiate athletes involved in sexual violence.

The author examines the history of rape laws and adjudication and the federal laws relevant to institutions of higher education. The author investigates the debate over adjudication of sexual violence within the criminal justice system or through campus systems. The author read previous literature to determine links between sexual violence and collegiate athletes and highlights particular cases that have gotten significant media attention for clues to the rape prone culture that can be fostered within collegiate athletics.

This analysis highlights how collegiate athletics can be a context that creates a rape prone culture and that universities and the criminal justice system need further reform to overcome long-standing beliefs in rape myths which perpetuate sexual violence, discourage reporting by victims of sexual violence, deter bystander intervention and underplay the impact of sexual violence on victims. Thus, structural changes are needed within collegiate athletic cultures as well as on college campuses to address sexual violence.

College campuses and athletic departments must address climates that create rape prone cultures. There remains a need for systematic data collection of perpetrators of sexual violence, along side data collection of experiences of sexual violence. College campuses and athletic departments must have in place procedures and policy that adhere to federal law, whereby athletes are not treated differently from non-athletes and victims are offered appropriate services that recognize the trauma of sexual violence. Further progress toward a standard of affirmative consent is needed to move toward greater sexual autonomy for everyone.

There is evidence that collegiate athletes are disproportionately represented among the population of sexual violence perpetrators on college campuses. Thus, it is vital to understand this population and that connection. The value of this work is to explicate the complicated adjudication process between university disciplinary processes and the criminal justice system.

Although numerous studies have examined alternative project delivery methods (APDMs), most of these studies have focused on the relationship between these methods and improved project performance. Limited research identifies how to successfully add these methods within architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) organizations. The purpose of this paper is to identifying organizational change management (OCM) practices that, when effectively executed, lead to increased success rates of adopting APDMs in owner AEC organizations.

Seven OCM practices were identified through a comprehensive literature review. Then, through a survey of 140 individuals at 98 AEC organizations, the relationships between OCM practices and organizational adoption of APDMs were established.

The findings indicate that OCM practices with the strongest relationship to successful APDM adoption are realistic timeframe, effective change agents, workloads adjustments, senior-leadership commitment and sufficient change-related training.

Adopting APDMs can be extremely difficult and requires significant organizational change efforts to ensure the change is a success. Organizations that are implementing APDMs for the first time should consider applying the OCM practices that this study identifies as most related to successful APDM adoption.

This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by identifying the OCM practices that are most significantly associated with successfully adopting APDMs.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

Reverses the traditional approach of defining classes or status groups before investigating patterns of social interaction by using patterns of interaction between more basic units such as occupational groups to determine the nature of stratification order. Outlines the theoretical basis and compares this to other methods before giving examples of applications.