Designing a HR system: pitfalls, possibilities and performance

strands and themes as researchers wrestle with the issues that emerge and the questions that are raised by the various studies that have now been conducted. The problems and difficulties- both methodological and conceptual- that are intertwined within this debate have been well documented (Purcell, 1999; Legge, 2001) and many unresolved issues still remain. At the same time, while much more is now known about HRM and performance issues, 'there appears to be a major "disconnect " between what the research literature says that firms should do and what firms actually do ' (Becker and Gerhart, 1996:796). Becker and Gerhart argue that 'there needs to be better communication between the academic and management communities so that research findings can have a greater influence on actual policy'. They also suggest that 'more effort should be devoted to finding out what managers are thinking and why they make the decisions they do ' (p.796). One manager who is a key player in this debate is the HR manager who has a critical role in the design of the HR system and who may have to shoulder the blame if that system does not operate successfully4. While the HR manager generally inherits th

Economists\u27 Publication Patterns

The results presented in this paper give a comprehensive picture of the extent of publishing by economists. While it is obvious that the traditional emphasis on refereed journal articles captures only a part of economists\u27 research output, to date it has been difficult to determine how large a part of that output was not being measured. This note provides the necessary perspective and presents information on the relative productivity of faculty at different institutional types and with different years of experience

On the abundance of non-cometary HCN on Jupiter

Using one-dimensional thermochemical/photochemical kinetics and transport models, we examine the chemistry of nitrogen-bearing species in the Jovian troposphere in an attempt to explain the low observational upper limit for HCN. We track the dominant mechanisms for interconversion of N2-NH3 and HCN-NH3 in the deep, hightemperature troposphere and predict the rate-limiting step for the quenching of HCN at cooler tropospheric altitudes. Consistent with other investigations that were based solely on time-scale arguments, our models suggest that transport-induced quenching of thermochemically derived HCN leads to very small predicted mole fractions of hydrogen cyanide in Jupiter's upper troposphere. By the same token, photochemical production of HCN is ineffective in Jupiter's troposphere: CH4-NH3 coupling is inhibited by the physical separation of the CH4 photolysis region in the upper stratosphere from the NH3 photolysis and condensation region in the troposphere, and C2H2-NH3 coupling is inhibited by the low tropospheric abundance of C2H2. The upper limits from infrared and submillimeter observations can be used to place constraints on the production of HCN and other species from lightning and thundershock sources.Comment: 56 pages, 0 tables, 6 figures. Submitted to Faraday Discussions [in press

Neuromuscular fatigue of the knee extensors does not differ following repeated maximal intensity leg cycling sprints interspersed with 30s and 180s of rest

The objective of this thesis was to examine the development of neuromuscular fatigue during a leg-cycling repeated sprint exercise interspersed with short and long duration recovery times. Ten recreationally active males completed two sessions of ten 10s sprints, interspersed with either 30s or 180s of recovery. Participants completed a knee extensor maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) with interpolated twitch technique (ITT) protocol pre-, mid-, and post-repeated sprint exercise. Participant’s peak power was significantly higher during sprint 5 and 10, but not sprint 1, when sprints were interspersed with 180s of rest compared to 30s of rest. Post-sprint 5 there was a significant decreased in MVC force and potentiated twitch force. Post-sprint 10 participant’s voluntary activation was significantly decreased. There was no difference between groups for knee extensor MVC force, potentiated twitch force or voluntary activation. Results indicate that a longer recovery time may improve repeated sprint performance but not improve neuromuscular function

Audioptimization : global-based acoustic design

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1999.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-120).Acoustic design is a difficult problem, because the human perception of sound depends on such things as decibel level, direction of propagation, and attenuation over time, none of which are tangible or visible. The advent of computer simulation and visualization techniques for acoustic design and analysis has yielded a variety of approaches for modeling acoustic performance. However, current computer-aided design and simulation tools suffer from two major drawbacks. First, obtaining the desired acoustic effects may require a long, tedious sequence of modeling and/or simulation steps. Second, current techniques for modeling the propagation of sound in an environment are prohibitively slow and do not support interactive design. This thesis presents a new approach to computer-aided acoustic design. It is based on the inverse problem of determining material and geometric settings for an environment from a description of the desired performance. The user interactively indicates a range of acceptable material and geometric modifications for an auditorium or similar space, and specifies acoustic goals in space and time by choosing target values for a set of acoustic measures. Given this set of goals and constraints, the system performs an optimization of surface material and geometric parameters using a combination of simulated annealing and steepest descent techniques. Visualization tools extract and present the simulated sound field for points sampled in space and time. The user manipulates the visualizations to create an intuitive expression of acoustic design goals. We achieve interactive rates for surface material modifications by preprocessing the geometric component of the simulation, and accelerate geometric modifications to the auditorium by trading accuracy for speed through a number of interactive controls. We describe an interactive system that allows flexible input and display of the solution and report results for several performance spaces.by Michael Christopher Monks.Ph.D

A Method for Evaluating Storm-Damaged Cotton for Extension County Agents and Specialists

Extension county agents and specialists are often asked to provide unbiased crop damage assessments when storms occur. There is generally no published methodology on which to base damage assessments. The objectives of the project described here were to (a) provide an unbiased database to producers and crop insurance representatives and (b) develop an unbiased, in-field method for damage evaluations for cotton. This method proved to be effective in allowing Extension personnel to monitor crop damage over time as a result of the storm. It provided an unbiased database for use by Extension and USDA workers, producers, and crop insurance personnel