Since the late 20th Century, Human Resources (HR) has had a legal obligation to produce reports for management in most firms. However, these have long been considered restrictive and are seldom used to improve decision-making. More recently, the emergence of analytics, Big Data and algorithms has enabled a reconfiguration of the uses of quantification in HR. Accompanied by empirical examples, this book presents and defines the different tools and uses of quantification in HR. It studies the effect of these tools on decision-making and ? without subscribing to the myth of objective and rational quantification ? presents the contributions and limits of the use of data in HR, and analyzes the potential risks of excessive quantification. It also discusses the appropriation of these tools by the various players in a company and examines their effects on the position of HR.

In the aftermath of the recent financial crisis, the federal government has pursued significant regulatory reforms, including proposals to measure and monitor systemic risk. However, there is much debate about how this might be accomplished quantitatively and objectively—or whether this is even possible. A key issue is determining the appropriate trade-offs between risk and reward from a policy and social welfare perspective given the potential negative impact of crises. One of the first books to address the challenges of measuring statistical risk from a system-wide persepective, Quantifying Systemic Risk looks at the means of measuring systemic risk and explores alternative approaches. Among the topics discussed are the challenges of tying regulations to specific quantitative measures, the effects of learning and adaptation on the evolution of the market, and the distinction between the shocks that start a crisis and the mechanisms that enable it to grow.

The performance of software components depends on several factors, including the execution platform on which the software components run. To simplify cross-platform performance prediction in relocation and sizing scenarios, a novel approach is introduced in this thesis which separates the application performance profile from the platform performance profile. The approach is evaluated using transparent instrumentation of Java applications and with automated benchmarks for Java Virtual Machines.

Water Pollution is a subject of growing concern in our industrial world. The environmental problems caused by the increase of pollutant loads dis charged into natural water systems have led the scientific community to pursue studies capable of relating the pollutant discharge with changes in the water quality. The results of these studies are permitting industries to employ more efficient methods of controlling and treating the waste loads, and water authorities to enforce more strict legislation regarding this matter. The present book contains edited versions of the papers presented at the First International Conference on Water Pollution (Modelling, Measuring and Prediction), held in Southampton, England, in September 1991. Its contents, which reflect the interdisciplinarity of the subject, are divided into four parts, each consisting of a keynote address and several invited and contributed papers: 1. Mathematical models (Keynote speaker: Prof. R.A. Falconer, Univer sity of Bradford, USA) 2. Data acquisition/monitoring/measurement (Keynote speaker: Dr. A. Plata Bedmar, IAEA, Austria) 3. Waste disposal and wastewater treatment (Keynote speaker: Prof. D.R.F. Harleman, MIT, USA) 4. Chemical and biological problems (Keynote speaker: Dr. E.I. Hamil ton, Environmental consultant, UK) Although the papers have been typographically edited they have been re produced directly from material submitted by the authors, and their content is a reflection of the authors' research and opinion.

As recognized universally by both seismology and earthquake engineering communities, the amplitude and frequency content of ground motions are influenced by local site effects, including the effects of near-surface geologic materials, surface topographic and basin effects, and so on. Strong linkage between seismic site effect and earthquake damage has been commonly demonstrated from many past earthquakes. Therefore, quantitative and reliable evaluation of the seismic site effect is one of the crucial aspects in seismic hazard assessment and risk mitigation. With the significant advancement of modern seismic monitoring networks and arrays, huge amounts of high-quality seismic records are now being accumulated. This encourages us to measure the site responses and its associated uncertainty for selected seismic stations by some record-dependent approaches, such as horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) measurements, generalized spectral inversion (GIT) methods, etc. Machine learning techniques also show significant promise in characterization of the near-surface geologic properties and prediction of site response. These data-driven approaches help us to better understand the physics of spatial and temporal variabilities of ground motions. Due to more and more site-specific data being captured, invoking non-ergodic assumptions in seismic response analysis has recently been a topic of great interest in the community. For specific site response analysis, numerical simulations are carried out to model the dynamic process of seismic waves propagating and scattering in the subsurface strata. With development of modeling capacity, great efforts have been taken to evaluate quantitatively the complex 2D and 3D effects on seismic site response.

This state-of-the-art volume covers the latest and future trends in measuring, monitoring and modeling the properties of cement based materials. The book contains 94 papers and presents the latest research work of renowned experts. It acts as a survey of the most up-to-date research in the field.

Quantifying and Managing Soil Functions in Earth's Critical Zone: Combining Experimentation and Mathematical Modelling, Volume 142, the latest in the Advances in Agronomy series continues its reputation as a leading reference and first-rate source for the latest research in agronomy. Each volume contains an eclectic group of reviews by leading scientists throughout the world. Five volumes are published yearly, ensuring that the authors' contributions are disseminated to the readership in a timely manner. As always, the subjects covered are varied and exemplary of the myriad of subject matter dealt with by this long-running serial. - Includes numerous, timely, state-of-the-art reviews on the latest advancements in agronomy - Features distinguished, well recognized authors from around the world - Builds upon this venerable and iconic review series - Covers the extensive variety and breadth of subject matter in the crop and soil sciences