HRM and Value Creation

It’s conceptually attractive to look for connection between performance, HRM and economic situation. How measure epiphenomenon’s impact when we can’t isolate that from global strategy? If casual relations maybe established, event can be interpreted in several ways (e.g. its chicken and egg situation…). This paper presents the results of a research on corporate performance measured by the creation of shareholder value. To do that we test empirically forced ranking’s performance versus all other classic human resource managements’ result first with a statistical comparison of share based on fortune 100 (from 1996 to 2000); second with Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 value creation (from 1997 to 2000) with “Marakon Associates†(the growth between Market-to-book values ratio and the ROE spread (ROE – Cost of equity capital)Forced Ranking, Classic HRM, Value Creation

Table Ronde : L’Arche de Zoé, dérive unique ou produit d’un système ?

Table ronde organisée le 19 décembre 2007 à l’initiative de Joseph Dato, professeur associé à l’Université de Grenoble, membre du Conseil d’administration de Médecins du Monde. La vidéo du débat est disponible sur www.medecinsdumonde.org Débat animé par Françoise Jeanson, médecin, ancienne présidente de Médecins du Monde. Avec Michel Galy, sociologue, revue Cultures et Conflits, Jean-Paul Ngoupande, ancien Premier ministre de la République centrafricaine, Pierre Micheletti, médecin, président de Médecins du Monde, Rony Brauman, médecin, ancien président de Médecins Sans Frontières, professeur associé à Sciences-Po Paris, Pierre Ganz, rédacteur en chef, Radio France Internationale, et la participation de trois « grands témoins » : Blandine Destremau, Bruno David et Frédéric Tissot

Machine Learning Feature Selection Methods for Landslide Susceptibility Mapping

This paper explores the use of adaptive support vector machines, random forests and AdaBoost for landslide susceptibility mapping in three separated regions of Canton Vaud, Switzerland, based on a set of geological, hydrological and morphological features. The feature selection properties of the three algorithms are studied to analyze the relevance of features in controlling the spatial distribution of landslides. The elimination of irrelevant features gives simpler, lower dimensional models while keeping the classification performance high. An object-based sampling procedure is considered to reduce the spatial autocorrelation of data and to estimate more reliably generalization skills when applying the model to predict the occurrence of new unknown landslides. The accuracy of the models, the relevance of features and the quality of landslide susceptibility maps were found to be high in the regions characterized by shallow landslides and low in the ones with deep-seated landslides. Despite providing similar skill, random forests and AdaBoost were found to be more efficient in performing feature selection than adaptive support vector machines. The results of this study reveal the strengths of the classification algorithms, but evidence: (1) the need for relying on more than one method for the identification of relevant variables; (2) the weakness of the adaptive scaling algorithm when used with landslide data; and (3) the lack of additional features which characterize the spatial distribution of deep-seated landslides

Biodigestor: uma tecnologia para a gestão de resíduos sólidos integrada com a educação ambiental e extensão universitária / Biodigester: a technology for solid waste management integrated with environmental education and university extension

A gestão dos resíduos sólidos urbanos assume uma considerável relevância na sociedade contemporânea, pelos impactos ambientais associados. Nesse contexto, os programas de educação ambiental e extensão universitária permitem melhorar a percepção ambiental da população e atores sociais envolvidos. Tais programas devem ser contextualizados as realidades dos atores envolvidos, demandando estratégias e alternativas para promover essa discussão nos diferentes grupos sociais. O objetivo do presente artigo foi relatar as estratégias educação ambiental, extensão e desenvolvimento tecnológico para disseminar conceitos de gestão de resíduos dos sólidos, incorporando o uso do biodigestor. O biodigestor foi desenvolvido no contexto de tecnologia social apoiado financeiramente pelo Ministério da Educação, edital PROEXT 2011, e pela Pró Reitoria de Extensão da UNESP. A metodologia teve como etapas principais o diagnóstico da geração dos resíduos sólidos; a elaboração de um plano de gestão de resíduos; o desenvolvimento, automatização e teste de um biodigestor; e extensão comunitária por meio de atividades de educação ambiental. Os resultados desse projeto foram apresentados em eventos nacionais e internacionais e disseminados para cerca de 13.000 pessoas

Measurement of the cosmic ray spectrum above 4×10184{\times}10^{18} eV using inclined events detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory

A measurement of the cosmic-ray spectrum for energies exceeding $4{\times}10^{18}$ eV is presented, which is based on the analysis of showers with zenith angles greater than $60^{\circ}$ detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2013. The measured spectrum confirms a flux suppression at the highest energies. Above $5.3{\times}10^{18}$ eV, the "ankle", the flux can be described by a power law $E^{-\gamma}$ with index $\gamma=2.70 \pm 0.02 \,\text{(stat)} \pm 0.1\,\text{(sys)}$ followed by a smooth suppression region. For the energy ($E_\text{s}$) at which the spectral flux has fallen to one-half of its extrapolated value in the absence of suppression, we find $E_\text{s}=(5.12\pm0.25\,\text{(stat)}^{+1.0}_{-1.2}\,\text{(sys)}){\times}10^{19}$ eV.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Mechanical and Assembly Units of Viral Capsids Identified via Quasi-Rigid Domain Decomposition

Key steps in a viral life-cycle, such as self-assembly of a protective protein container or in some cases also subsequent maturation events, are governed by the interplay of physico-chemical mechanisms involving various spatial and temporal scales. These salient aspects of a viral life cycle are hence well described and rationalised from a mesoscopic perspective. Accordingly, various experimental and computational efforts have been directed towards identifying the fundamental building blocks that are instrumental for the mechanical response, or constitute the assembly units, of a few specific viral shells. Motivated by these earlier studies we introduce and apply a general and efficient computational scheme for identifying the stable domains of a given viral capsid. The method is based on elastic network models and quasi-rigid domain decomposition. It is first applied to a heterogeneous set of well-characterized viruses (CCMV, MS2, STNV, STMV) for which the known mechanical or assembly domains are correctly identified. The validated method is next applied to other viral particles such as L-A, Pariacoto and polyoma viruses, whose fundamental functional domains are still unknown or debated and for which we formulate verifiable predictions. The numerical code implementing the domain decomposition strategy is made freely available

Finite element pressure stabilizations for incompressible flow problems

Discretizations of incompressible flow problems with pairs of finite element spaces that do not satisfy a discrete inf-sup condition require a so-called pressure stabilization. This paper gives an overview and systematic assessment of stabilized methods, including the respective error analysis

Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta