Police powers and human rights in the context of terrorism

Purpose – The object of the paper is to analyse the justifications for the modification of police powers in response to terrorist threats, placing this issue in a European context. Design/methodology/approach – The paper consists of a critical examination of provisions relating to terrorism emanating from the European Union and the Council of Europe (European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)), and the relevant English law on police powers of stop and search, arrest, and detention. Findings – Nothing in European law requires the amendments to police powers contained in English law; European law requires respect for human rights, even in dealing with terrorism; a shoot-to-kill policy is prohibited by the ECHR; and balance is an unsatisfactory method of resolving conflicts in this area. Research limitations/implications – The research was limited in its scope to certain areas of police powers, and to certain fundamental European documents. Future research should consider the issue in relation to wider areas. Originality/value – It challenges the idea of balance between liberty and security, proposing a test based on necessity instead

Ranking Importance of Exoskeleton Design Aspects

The objective of this research project was to determine what a conglomerate of professionals consider as the most important metrics to consider when designing an exoskeleton for training. Over 400 researchers, engineers, and scientists were polled in a ranked order survey covering more than 50 different aspects in engineering design. These aspects were identified from a cogent literature review for consideration. While there are a slew of papers covering the results of exoskeleton designs as posture support mechanisms, rehabilitation mechanisms, tools to assist or replace body functions, and human performance augmentation, few cover what aspects were considered in the engineering design phase

Ergonomic Analysis of Modern Day Kitchen Knives

The focus of this study was on how different knife characteristics affect the consumer’s ability to slice vegetables. The aim of this study was to investigate if there is a difference in cutting between a chef knife and a santoku knife, a ceramic knife and a stainless-steel knife, and a sharp and dull knife in terms of muscle activation, body part discomfort, time, and slice performance. The results show for the consumer that knife characteristics do not affect the user’s performance

The Importance of the Interface between Humans and Computers on the Effectiveness of eHRM

Technology has had a dramatic impact on the practice of human resources, and its impact is rapidly increasing. Even so, little research has examined how to apply information systems and human-computer interaction principles to designing human resource information systems. In this paper, we focus more closely on the role that the interface between the computer and human play in the success of electronic human resource management. Specifically, we a) briefly review the individual requirements of several eHRM functions (e.g., e-recruiting, e-selection, e-learning, e- compensation/benefits), b) consider how an understanding of human computer interaction can facilitate the success of these systems, c) reviews research on technical issues associated with eHRM, and d) highlight how applying HCI principles can increase their effectiveness. In addition, we introduce the remaining seven papers in the special issue

The Evolution of the Field of Human Resource Information Systems: Co-Evolution of Technology and HR Processes

In this paper, we review the professional and academic development of the human resource information systems (HRIS) field to assess its progress and suggest ways for moving research forward. To do so, we examine the interplay between the evolution of technology and the HR field through four key eras of technology: 1) mainframe, 2) client server, 3) ERP and Web-based systems, and 4) cloud-based systems. In each era, we discuss how HR practices and requirements drove the need for the use of these systems and how these systems allowed the HR field to evolve. In addition, we trace the HRIS subfield and its relation to the technological evolutions occurring in the HR field. Somewhat surprisingly, we found that much of the research on the use of technology to support HR has occurred only in the last 15-20 years as a response to the use of the Web as a medium for delivering HRIS. We conclude by discussing how scholars from the information systems and human resources fields can come together to help advance HRIS

Impact of Human Resource Information System Policies on Privacy

Organizations are increasingly using human resource information systems (HRIS) to collect and store employee data to enhance employment decision making. In this paper, using a 2 x 2 x 2 experimental design, we 1) examine the effects of three HRIS policies on employees’ perceptions of invasion of privacy, 2) assess the moderating effects of amount of work experience on the relations between these HRIS policies and employees’ perceptions of invasion of privacy and 3) discuss the implications of these findings for developing fair information policies. Results revealed that individuals perceived a HRIS was more of an invasion of privacy when HRIS data were used for only the benefit of the organization than when it was used to benefit employees. In addition, the results indicated that individuals perceived that a HRIS was more invasive of privacy when the data were accessed by supervisors than when they were accessed by the HR department only. Furthermore, individuals\u27 amount of work experience moderated the relations between (a) purpose of the data collection, and (b) access to data and perceptions of invasion of privacy. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed

Introduction to the Special Issue on Human Resource Information Systems and Human Computer Interaction

In this special issue, we focus on the role that human-computer interaction (HCI) can play in the development and successful use of human resource information systems (HRIS) in organizations. There is no doubt that information systems have transformed the practice of human resources. From online/e-recruiting to e-learning and the growing interest in data analytics, the practice of human resources has become technology centric. Given the overlap of human resource practice and information systems, both fields need to work together to develop models and theories that advance the practice of HRIS in organizations. Therefore, this special issue a) briefly reviews the history of the HRIS field, b) advances theory and research that stands at the intersection of HRIS and HCI, and c) suggest new directions for research at the intersection of HRIS and HCI

Chemistry and radiative shielding in star forming galactic disks

To understand the conditions under which dense, molecular gas is able to form within a galaxy, we post-process a series of three-dimensional galactic-disk-scale simulations with ray-tracing based radiative transfer and chemical network integration to compute the equilibrium chemical and thermal state of the gas. In performing these simulations we vary a number of parameters, such as the ISRF strength, vertical scale height of stellar sources, cosmic ray flux, to gauge the sensitivity of our results to these variations. Self-shielding permits significant molecular hydrogen (H2) abundances in dense filaments around the disk midplane, accounting for approximately ~10-15% of the total gas mass. Significant CO fractions only form in the densest, n>~10^3 cm^-3, gas where a combination of dust, H2, and self-shielding attenuate the FUV background. We additionally compare these ray-tracing based solutions to photochemistry with complementary models where photo-shielding is accounted for with locally computed prescriptions. With some exceptions, these local models for the radiative shielding length perform reasonably well at reproducing the distribution and amount of molecular gas as compared with a detailed, global ray tracing calculation. Specifically, an approach based on the Jeans Length with a T=40K temperature cap performs the best in regards to a number of different quantitative measures based on the H2 and CO abundances.Comment: 21 Pages, 15 figures. Submitted to MNRAS. Comments welcom