A set of patterns for the web-based interfaces of an employee services system

The provision of Human Resource (HR), especially payroll, is a core function in every organization. Previously, providers of HR/payroll have offered their services to their clients via conventional modes of communication, such as telephones, facsimile, and courier services. In recent years, with the advent of the Internet and the emergence of web-based electronic commerce, there has been a rise in the adoption of web-based technology and information
systems by service providers, thereby enabling them to interact with their clients through this medium. This development necessitates the use of web-based user interfaces as workspaces between the HR/payroll providers and their clients, and thus, raises certain concerns that determine the effectiveness of web-based workflow systems. These concerns, related to the use of web interfaces, form the basis of the patterns discussed in this paper

Toward an integrative role for intranets : an interpretive case study of intranet-based dynamic knowledge integration in socio-technical networks

An increasing challenge for contemporary businesses is to be able to respond to perceived opportunities and threats by dynamically integrating knowledge dispersed across and beyond the organisation. This paper provides findings from two interpretive case studies that illustrate how corporate intranets can be dynamically interwoven with other knowledge technologies in socio-technical networks (STNs) to integrate distributed formal and infonnal knowledge. A key finding suggests that businesses should carefully examine employee use of intranets for dynamic knowledge integration, and any implications stemming from this new integrative role for intranets. The paper also provides a theoretical framework for dynamic knowledge integration in STNs, which can underpin future research in this area.

Some aspects of photosynthetic characteristics in a set of perennial irrigation reservoirs located in five river basins in Sri Lanka

Phytoplankton primary productivity of eleven irrigation reservoirs located in five river basins in Sri Lanka was determined on a single occasion together with light climate and nutrient concentrations. Although area-based gross primary productivity (1.43–11.65 g O2 m−2 d−1) falls within the range already established for tropical water bodies, net daily rate was negative in three water bodies. Light-saturated optimum rates were found in water bodies, with relatively high algal biomass, but photosynthetic efficiency or specific rates were higher in water bodies with low algal biomass, indicating nutrient limitation or physiological adaptation of phytoplankton. Concentrations of micronutrients and algal biomass in the reservoirs are largely altered by high flushing rate resulting from irrigation release. Underwater light climate and nutrient availability control the rate of photosynthesis and subsequent areabased primary production to a great extent. However, morpho-edephic index or euphotic algal biomass in the most productive stratum of the water column is not a good predictor of photosynthetic capacity or daily rate of primary production of these shallow tropical irrigation reservoirs.

Role of organizational service recovery actions on sustomer switching intentions in a process based service failure : does speed of recovery matters?

The study examines how organizational activities of compensation and empowerment impact on consumers switching intentions and also whether these differ based on the speed of service recovery. Data is collected using hypothetical scenarios in a situation of process failure. It is found that there is no direct effect of either compensation or empowerment on switching intent, although the interaction effect is significant when recovery occurs quickly.

Towards a set of priorities for bird conservation and research in Australia : the perceptions of ornithologists

Australian delegates at the Australasian Ornithological Conference (2007) were surveyed by questionnaire to determine their perceived research and conservation priorities for Australian birds (n = 134). Respondents were honours or postgraduate students (37.4%), academics (26.2%), wildlife managers (6.5%), land managers (6.5%), environmental consultants (5.6%), independent wildlife researchers (5.6%) or had ‘other’ occupations not relevant to birds or their management (12.1%). Respondents rated their priorities on a predetermined set of issues, and were invited to add additional priorities. ‘Conservation of threatened species’ was considered the highest priority, followed by ‘Conservation of birds and biodiversity in general’, ‘Monitoring’, ‘Management’ and ‘Working with communities’. ‘Animal welfare/rights’ was regarded as comparatively less important. Eight of 11 conservation strategies were regarded as of high importance, these included habitat protection and rehabilitation, threat abatement, research, advocacy and education. This study documents the view of the ornithological community with respect to priority issues facing birds and could potentially feed into government and other policies aimed at conserving and understanding Australia’s birds.

Comparison of static and dynamic engine models on the transient performance of a passenger vehicle powertrain

This paper presents experimental and computational results obtained on the Ford Barra 190 4.0 litres I6 gasoline engine and on the Ford Falcon car equipped with this engine. Measurements of steady engine performance, fuel consumption and exhaust emissions were first collected using an automated test facility for a wide range of cam and spark timings vs. throttle position and engine speed. Simulations were performed for a significant number of measured operating points at full and part load by using a coupled Gamma Technologies GT-POWER/GT-COOL engine model for gas exchange, combustion and heat transfer. The fluid model was made up of intake and exhaust systems, oil circuit, coolant circuit and radiator cooling air circuit. The thermal model was made up of finite element components for cylinder head, cylinder, piston, valves and ports and wall thermal masses for pipes. The model was validated versus measured steady state air and fuel flow rates, cylinder pressure parameters, indicated and brake mean effective pressures, and temperature of metal, oil and coolant in selected locations. Computational results agree well with experiments, demonstrating the ability of the approach to produce fairly accurate steady state maps of BMEP and BSFC, as well as to optimize engine operation changing geometry, throttle position, cam and spark timing. Measurements of the transient performance and fuel consumption of the full vehicle were then collected over the NEDC cycle. Simulations were performed by using a coupled Gamma Technologies GT-POWER/GT-COOL/GT-DRIVE model for instantaneous engine gas exchange, combustion and heat transfer and vehicle motion. The full vehicle model is made up of transmission, driveshaft, axles, and car components and the previous engine model. The model was validated with measured fuel flow rates through the engine, engine throttle position, and engine speed and oil and coolant temperatures in selected locations. Instantaneous engine states following a time dependent demand for torque and speed differ from those obtained by interpolating steady state maps of BSFC vs. BMEP and speed. Computational results agree well with experiments, demonstrating the utility of the approach in providing a more accurate prediction of the fuel consumption over test cycles.

The assessment of тт-тт selective stationary phases for two-dimensional HPLC analysis of foods : application to the analysis of coffee

Differences between alkyl, dipole–dipole, hydrogen bonding, and π-π selective surfaces represented by non-resonance and resonance π-stationary phases have been assessed for the separation of ‘Ristretto’ café espresso by employing 2DHPLC techniques with C18 phase selectivity detection. Geometric approach to factor analysis (GAFA) was used to measure the detected peaks (N), spreading angle (β), correlation, practical peak capacity (n_p) and percentage usage of the separations space, as an assessment of selectivity differences between regional quadrants of the two-dimensional separation plane. Although all tested systems were correlated to some degree to the C18 dimension, regional measurement of separation divergence revealed that performance of specific systems was better for certain sample components. The results illustrate that because of the complexity of the ‘real’ sample obtaining a truly orthogonal two-dimensional system for complex samples of natural origin may be practically impossible.

Retrodicting patch use by foraging swans in a heterogeneous environment using a set of functional responses

Effective conservation of important bird areas requires insight in the number of birds an area can support, and how this carrying capacity changes with habitat modifications. When food depletion is the dominant mechanism of competition, it should in principle be possible to calculate the total time foragers can spend per patch from their functional response (intake rate as a function of food density). However, in the field there are likely to be factors modulating the functional response. In this study previously published results of experiments on captive Bewick's swans were used to obtain functional responses of swans digging for tubers of Fennel pondweed on different foraging substrates: sandy and clayey sediment, and in shallow and deep water. In a field study, four 250×250 m sections belonging to different types (sandy–shallow, clayey–shallow, sandy–deep and clayey–deep) were delineated. Here tubers were sampled with sediment corers in three years, both before and after swan exploitation in autumn, and swans were observed and mapped from a hide in two of these years. Giving-up tuber biomass densities varied among sections. Substitution of these giving-up densities in the derived patch-type-specific functional responses yielded the quitting net energy intake rates in the four sections. As expected from the marginal value theorem, the quitting net energy intake rates did not vary among sections. Moreover, the observed foraging pressure (total foraging time per area) per patch type was in quantitative agreement with the integrated functional responses. These results suggest that in spatially heterogeneous environments, patch exploitation by foragers can be predicted from their functional responses after accounting for foraging substrate.

Formation control of weak autonomous robots

Formation of autonomous mobile robots to an arbitrary geometric pattern in a distributed fashion is a fundamental problem in formation control. This paper presents a new fully distributed, memoryless (oblivious) algorithm to the formation control problem via distributed optimization techniques. The optimization minimizes an appropriately defined difference function between the current robot distribution and target geometric pattern. The optimization processes are performed independently by individual robots in their local coordinate system. A movement strategy derived from the results of the distributed optimizations guarantees that every movement makes the current robot configuration approaches the target geometric pattern until the final pattern is reached.