Practical Elements of Safety contains the invited papers presented at the Twelfth annual Safety-critical Systems Symposium, held at Birmingham, UK in February 2004. The papers included in this volume focus on the themes of the identification and analysis of risk - using the UK railway as an industry example; safety-integrity levels; industrial use of formal methods; as well as expanding on the development, assessment and changing face of current safety issues. All the papers are linked within the broad context of safety-critical systems actvities and offer a practical perspective. Papers contain industrial experience, as well as academic research, and are presented under the headings of: Mature and Practical Formality, Managing Risk in the Railway Industry, Safety Integrity Levels, the Human Side of Risk, Assessment and the Derivation of Evidence, and Safety Argument and the Law.

In this provocative book Richard Sennett looks at the ways today's global, ever-mutable form of capitalism is affecting our lives. He analyzes how changes in work ethic, in our attitudes toward merit and talent, and in public and private institutions have all contributed to what he terms "the specter of uselessness," and he concludes with suggestions to counter this disturbing new culture.
"Hardly any social thinkers have given serious thought to the drastic changes in corporate culture wrought by downsizing, 're-orging, ' and outsourcing. Fortunately, the exception--Richard Sennett--is also one of the most insightful public intellectuals we have. In "The Culture of the New Capitalism" Sennett addresses the new corporate culture with his usual vast erudition, endlessly supple intellect, and firm moral outlook. The result is brilliant, disturbing, and absolutely necessary reading."--Barbara Ehrenreich, author of "Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
""[Sennett] has brilliantly pushed his thinking. . . . [A] triumph."--Will Hutton, "The Observer
""""Reflective, studded with sharp insights, moving with grace between big ideas and specific cases. This is vintage Sennett."--Douglas W. Rae, author of "City: Urbanism and Its End
""Packed with thought. . . . Profound and challenging. . . . [I am] full of admiration for the subtlety and originality of Richard Sennett's work."--Madeleine Bunting, "New Statesman"

1 AUK ISMAIL-ZADEH ,2, TOM BEER3 1 International Institute of Earthquake Prediction Theory and Mathematical Geophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Warshavskoye shosse 79-2, Moscow 113556, Russia; e-mail: [email protected] 2 Geophysikalisches Institut, Universittit Karlsruhe, Hertzstr. 16, Karlsruhe 76187, Germany; e-mail: [email protected] 3 CSIRO Environmental Risk Network, CSIRO Atmospheric Research, Aspendale, Vic. 3195 Australia; e-mail: [email protected] The world faces major threats to the sustainability of our planet. These threats are accompanied by the immediate dangers of natural and man-made disasters. Our vulnerability to them is greatly magnified with each passing year undermining our ability to maintain a sustainable and productive world into the 21st Century and beyond. Both history and common sense teach us that science has a tremendous potential to find ways to cope with these threats. 1 The EUROSCIENCE working group "Science and Urgent Problems of Society" 2 and the IUGG Commission on Geophysical Risk and Sustainability were initiators of the EUROSCIENCE - IUGG Advanced Research Workshop "Science for Reduction of Risk and Sustainable Development of Society" sponsored by the NATO Science Program. The Workshop was held on 15-16 June 2002 in Budapest, Hungary. More than 40 participants from 17 countries took part in the Workshop. Talks and discussions addressed mainly the question of how science can help in reduction of risk and sustainable development of society.

Today's Complete, Focused, Up-to-Date Guide to Analytics for Ecommerce Profit from analytics throughout the entire customer experience and lifecycle Make the most of all the fast-changing data sources now available to you For all ecommerce executives, strategists, entrepreneurs, marketers, analysts, and data scientists Ecommerce Analytics is the only complete single-source guide to analytics for your ecommerce business. It brings together all the knowledge and skills you need to solve your unique problems, and transform your data into better decisions and customer experiences. Judah Phillips shows how to use analysis to improve ecommerce marketing and advertising, understand customer behavior, increase conversion rates, strengthen loyalty, optimize merchandising and product mix, streamline transactions, optimize product mix, and accurately attribute sales. Drawing on extensive experience leading large-scale analytics programs, he also offers expert guidance on building successful analytical teams; surfacing high-value insights via dashboards and visualization; and managing data governance, security, and privacy. Here are the answers you need to make the most of analytics in ecommerce: throughout your organization, across your entire customer lifecycle.

"Advances in Business and Management Forecasting" is a blind refereed serial publication published on an annual basis. The objective of this research annual is to present state-of-the-art studies in the application of forecasting methodologies to such areas as sales, marketing, and strategic decision making (an accurate, robust forecast is critical to effective decision making). It is the hope and direction of the research annual to become an applications and practitioner-oriented publication. The topics of this title will normally include sales and marketing, forecasting, new product forecasting, judgmentally-based forecasting, the application of surveys to forecasting, forecasting for strategic business decisions, improvements in forecasting accuracy, and sales response models. It is both the hope and direction of the editorial board to stimulate the interest of the practitioners of forecasting to methods and techniques that are relevant. In Volume 7, there are sections devoted to financial applications of forecasting, as well as marketing demand applications. There are, also, sections on forecasting methodologies and evaluation, as well as on other application areas of forecasting.

The Cold War Era left the major participants, the United States and the former Soviet Union (FSU), with large legacies in terms of both contamination and potential accidents. Facility contamination and environmental degradation, as well as the accident vulnerable facilities and equipment, are a result of weapons development, testing, and production. Although the countries face similar issues from similar activities, important differences in waste management practices make the potential environmental and health risks of more immediate concern in the FSU and Eastern Europe. In the West, most nuclear and chemical waste is stored in known contained locations, while in the East, much of the equivalent material is unconfined, contaminating the environment. In the past decade, the U.S. started to address and remediate these Cold War legacies. Costs have been very high, and the projected cost estimates for total cleanup are still increasing. Currently in Russia, the resources for starting such major activities continue to be unavailable."

This book looks at the social aspects of how virtual and geographically dispersed groups work together using information and communication tools (groupware). It introduces the basic concepts and brings together ideas from various disciplines to provide an integrated approach to the evaluation and design of groupware technology. Key topics include: =B7 Why some collaboration technologies succeed and others fail =B7 The conditions needed for successful distributed collaboration =B7 How to take a systematic, user-oriented, design-related approach to the evaluation of computer supported collaboration Primarily intended for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying Information and Communication Technology, Human-Computer Interaction, Communication Sciences, Human Factors, Interface Design and Multimedia Systems, this book will also be of interest to researchers, practitioners and lecturers in social and organisational sciences.

As the most comprehensive reference work dealing with knowledge management (KM), this work is essential for the library of every KM practitioner, researcher, and educator. Written by an international array of KM luminaries, its approx. 60 chapters approach knowledge management from a wide variety of perspectives ranging from classic foundations to cutting-edge thought, informative to provocative, theoretical to practical, historical to futuristic, human to technological, and operational to strategic. The chapters are conveniently organized into 8 major sections. The first volume consists of the sections: foundations of KM, knowledge - a key organizational resource, knowledge processors and processing, influences on knowledge processing. Novices and experts alike will refer to the authoritative and stimulating content again and again for years to come.

It's time to get your head in the cloud! In today's business environment, more and more people are requesting cloud-based solutions to help solve their business challenges. So how can you not only anticipate your clients' needs but also keep ahead of the curve to ensure their goals stay on track? With the help of this accessible book, you'll get a clear sense of cloud computing and understand how to communicate the benefits, drawbacks, and options to your clients so they can make the best choices for their unique needs. Plus, case studies give you the opportunity to relate real-life examples of how the latest technologies are giving organizations worldwide the opportunity to thrive as supply chain solutions in the cloud. Demonstrates how improvements in forecasting, collaboration, and inventory optimization can lead to cost savings Explores why cloud computing is becoming increasingly important Takes a close look at the types of cloud computing Makes sense of demand-driven forecasting using Amazon's cloud Whether you work in management, business, or IT, this is the dog-eared reference you'll want to keep close by as you continue making sense of the cloud.

Risk Management and Business Continuity are essential for the competitive capacity of any international corporation. The temporary unavailability of technology and services can endanger the existence of any company. It is cruical to develop an international strategy to deal with these problems. This book provides theoretical analysis and practical solutions on these topics.

This is a book in which successful, experienced IT solutions providers talk about their actual practical experiences in IT risk management. Tony Moynihan has asked successful IS/IT project managers to compare and contrast their recent projects in terms of the various important and different factors they had to deal with in each project. Coping with IS/IT Risk Management discusses how to:- handle unrealistic client expectations; - decide on the 'ownership' of a project; - set targets that work in practice! The result is a very well-written, interesting book, which will be enormously helpful to any professional needing to cope with the many and varied problems which can be encountered in IS/IT risk management. About the Author: Tony Moynihan is a Professor at the School of Computer Applications at Dublin City University, researching in the field of software engineering and software project risk-analysis. "This is probably one of the most real, useful, and entertaining books I have ever read on project management."(Robert L Glass, Editor, The Software Practitioner)"In my opinion, this book contains great practical advice to IS/IT project managers, based on the experience of other IT project managers. Tony succeeds in getting project managers to talk about their projects and the associated risks. He then distils these candid interviews into practical advice for other IS/IT project managers." (Nancy Mead, SEI, Carnegie-Mellon University, USA) "A useful book for any project manager to use and to reflect on, as they undertake their day-to-day activities." (Robert Cochran, Director, Centre for Software Engineering, Dublin)

'The New Knowledge Management' is the story of the birth of "second-generation knowledge management," told from the perspective of one its chief architects, Mark W. McElroy. Unlike its first-generation cousin, second-generation Knowledge Management seeks to enhance knowledge production, not just knowledge sharing. As a result, 'The New Knowledge Management' expands the overall reach of knowledge management to include "innovation management" for the very first time.
'The New Knowledge Management' introduces the concept of "second-generation knowledge management" to the business community. Mark W. McElroy has assembled a collection of his own essays, written over the past four years, chronicling the development of related thinking in the field.
Unlike first-generation KM, mainly focusing on value derived from knowledge sharing, second-generation thinking formally adds knowledge making to the scope of KM. In this way second-generation KM expands the overall reach of KM to include "innovation management" for the very first time. 'The New Knowledge Management' finally begins to bridge the gap between KM and the field of organizational learning, which up until now have been viewed as miles apart.
* Charts the next generation of knowledge management thinking by the President of KMCI: the leading KM organization
* Expands the overall reach of knowledge management to include "innovation management" for the very first time
* Mark W. McElroy, chief architect of second-generation Knowledge Management, shares his vast experience in a collection of his own essays

How to Resolve the Really Hard Problems Every manager makes tough calls--it comes with the job. And the hardest decisions are the "gray areas"--situations where you and your team have worked hard to find an answer, you've done the best analysis you can, and you still don't know what to do. But you have to make a decision. You have to choose, commit, act, and live with the consequences and persuade others to follow your lead. Gray areas test your skills as a manager, your judgment, and even your humanity. How do you get these decisions right? In Managing in the Gray, Joseph Badaracco offers a powerful, practical, and even radical way to resolve these problems. Picking up where conventional tools of analysis leave off, this book provides tools for judgment in the form of five revealing questions. Asking yourself these five questions provides a simple yet profound way to broaden your thinking, sharpen your judgment, and develop a fresh perspective. What makes these questions so valuable is that they have truly stood the test of time--they've guided countless men and women, across many centuries and cultures, to resolve the hardest questions of work, responsibility, and life. You can use the five-question framework on your own or with others on your team to help you cut through complexities, understand critical trade-offs, and develop workable solutions for even the grayest issues.

Managing environmental contamination requires decision makers to weigh eXlstmg risks against the potential effects of implementing environmental policies - considering both the benefits and disruptions that may result from different actions. The NATO Advanced Research Workshop in Lisbon was an important step in the development and application of cost efficient methods of risk assessment especiaIly within the constraints of a budget. The goal of the workshop was to evaluate the potential for risk assessment to serve as a unified and unifying technique in addressing a wide range of environmental problems. Papers presented in this book discuss issues ranging from specific and local studies (specific site, ecosystem, pollutant) to global decision and management frameworks (watersheds, regions, integration of multiple poIlutants and stressors); they develop a range of approaches starting from specific methods to widely applied public policies (Figure 1). The papers show that the use of risk assessment can provide the scientific basis for environmentaIly sound and cost-efficient policies, strategies, and solutions to our environmental chaIlenges. The organization of the Proceedings reflects sessions and discussions during the workshop. The papers in the introductory Chapter summarize the positions of Drs. Glenn Suter (EPA) and Jim Wilson (Resources for the Future) regarding whether the use of often-expensive risk assessments in developing countries can be justified, given evolving regulatory institutions and limited resources.

The volume contains 43 (out of 185) papers that were presented at the 15th International Conference on Multiple Criteria Decision Making held in Ankara, Turkey July 10-14, 2000. The conference was one of the regular conferences of the International Society on Multiple Criteria Decision Making, which are held at approximately two-year intervals. The Ankara conference had 195 participants from 38 countries. The volume covers all relevant aspects of the field and presents the latest research results on MCDM.

This book is about increasing team performance. It focuses on building system dynamics models when tackling a mix of interrelated strategic problems to enhance team learning, foster consensus, and create commitment. The book is intended to be applied in the organizations of today. As the "command and control" organization evolves into one of decision-making teams, so these teams have become the critical building blocks upon which the performance of the organization depends. The team members face an increased complexity of decision making with the interrelation of several strategic problems. What this means is that people have different views of the situation and will define problems differently. However, research shows that this can in fact be very productive if and when people learn from each other in order to build a shared perspective. Learning in this way might prove to be the only sustainable competitive advantage for organizations in the future. As a result, team leaders want to create "learning teams" and are confronted with issues such as how to:

• create a situation where people doubt their ideas rather than stubbornly cling to dearly held views
• create a learning atmosphere rather than trying to "win" the discussion
• create a shared understanding of a problem in a team
• foster consensus and create commitment with a strategic decision
• facilitate Group Model Building

Those who will benefit most from Group Model Building: Facilitating Team Learning Using System Dynamics are those who are familiar with systems thinking or organizational learning, or those who are working in groups and are coming up against the common difficulties.

Verna Allee, whose groundbreaking book 'The Knowledge Evolution' helped usher in the exploding field of knowledge management, has brought her experience-tested insights into an exciting new synthesis, penetrating to the very heart of value creation. 'The Future of Knowledge' strips away traditional business thinking to reveal the new patterns of management thought and practice essential for success in a more complex world.
With a gift for making the complex simple and practical, Allee weaves together diverse threads such as business webs, communities of practice, knowledge technologies, intangibles, network analysis, and biology to show why organizations must be supported as living systems before their natural networked pattern of organization can emerge.
Embodying Allee's visionary approach, 'The Future of Knowledge' brings forward a practical view of new theories, frameworks, tools, and methods offering businesses a guide to managing the increasing levels of complexity within their organizations and in society at large.
'The Future of Knowledge' works on many levels:
* At the strategic level, the new tools are intangible scorecards and understanding value networks
* At the tactical level, the knowledge management tools for exchanging and applying knowledge are knowledge networks and communities of practice
* At the operational level, a wealth of new technologies is supporting the codification, storage and delivery of the knowledge people need to complete their routine tasks.
* Leading expert takes us to the next stage of
value creation in business
* Provides the next step in creating a framework and a tool to manage intangible assets to build highperoformance in the knowledge-based economy
* Author of the bestselling 'The Knowledge Evolution'

This long-awaited textbook provides a unified perspective of a rich and varied field. It recognises that in order to develop strategies for improving the decision-making process one needs to understand how decisions are made in practice and in what ways behaviour differs from guidelines implied by normative theories of choice. It is the interplay between descriptive, normative, and prescriptive analysis that gives this book a special flavour. Using a set of illustrative examples, Decision Sciences synthesises current research about different types of decision making, including individual, group, organisational, and societal. Special attention is given to the linkage between problem finding and problem solving. The principal message emerging from the book is that decision making entails a complex set of processes that need to be understood in order to develop sound prescriptions or policy advice.

This long-awaited textbook provides a unified perspective of a rich and varied field. Using a set of illustrative examples, Decision Sciences synthesizes current research about different types of decision making, including individual, group, organizational, and societal. Special attention is given to the linkage between problem finding and problem solving. The principal message emerging from the book is that decision making entails a complex set of processes that need to be understood in order to develop sound prescriptions or policy advice.

This book is a revised version of my doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of St. Gallen in October 1999. I would like to thank Dr. oec. Marc Wildi whose careful reading of much of the text led to many improvements. All errors remain mine. Pfiiffikon SZ, Switzerland, March 2001 Pierre-Yves Moix Preface to the dissertation "Education is man's going forward from cocksure ignorance to thoughtful uncertainty" Don Clark's Scrapbook quoted in Wonnacott and Wonnacott (1990). After several years of banking practice, I decided to give up some of my certitudes and considered this thesis project a good opportunity to study some of the quantitative tools necessary for the modelling of uncertainty. lowe very much to Prof. Dr. Karl Frauendorfer, the referee of my thesis, for the time he took to read the manuscript and for the numerous valuable suggestions he made. I am also very grateful to Prof. Dr. Klaus Spremann who kindly accepted to co-refer my thesis and who strengthened my inter est in finance during my study period. During my time at the Institute for Operations Research of the University of St. Gallen (lfU-HSG) I had the opportunity to participate in the project "RiskLab" which provides a very profitable link between finance practice and academics. I would especially like to thank Dr. Christophe Rouvinez from Credit Suisse for his comments and all the data he provided so generously."

This volume contains a selection of papers presented at the Symposium on Operations Research 2000 (OR 2000) held at the Dresden University of Technology, September 9-12, 2000. This international Symposium was organized by the German Operations Research Society GOR in the series of its annual conferences. The Symposium had 354 participants from IS countries around the world. The 210 lectures reflected the broad spectrum of Operations Research and its interdisciplinarity, involving economics, mathematics and computer science. The volume is arranged in 14 Sections, like the conference, and a special section with the papers of the winners of the GOR Diploma Thesis award. The 86 papers have been selected by the chairpersons of the sections and the editors. Compared to previous conferences, the number of sections has been reduced by combining some overlapping sections: The former sections for linear and nonlinear programming are now contained in the 'Continuous Optimization' Section, the graph theory has been included in the 'Discrete and Combinatorial Optimization' Section. The traditional application fields are growing together in the scope of the current 'Supply Chain Management' thinking. This is considered in a corresponding section. Its high number of papers at the conference and in this volume underlines the importance of Operations Research for this modem management concept. For the first time, the conference included a section on 'Didactics of Operations Research', which found a great echo and is represented by four papers in this volume.

This practical 'how-to'book describes all the key operations of ARIS Toolset - the market leading Business Process Modelling Tool. Using lots of screen shots and plenty of practical examples, Rob Davis shows how ARIS can be used to model 'your' business processes.Based on his experience of using ARIS in British Telecommunications plc, the author describes practical ways of using ARIS Toolset:- Explaining the models and techniques that will enable new users to start modelling quickly and effectively.- Introducing tips and short cuts which make using the tool much easier.- Giving insights into the ARIS concepts.- Explaining the rationale behind alternative ways of using the tool, their benefits and the trade-offs involved.- Tackling issues found in real projects (e.g. complex model structures, handling variety, etc), as opposed to the simple examples given in many books.In addition to describing how to use the tool, Rob Davis discusses how to create standards for using ARIS as well as giving guidance on how to use ARIS for process capture and design.Business Process Modelling with ARIS is a 'must have'for every user of ARIS.