Merit systems

Moreover, the government entities most heavily involved in investigating and adjudicating federal employee whistle-blowing claims - the Office of Special Counsel, the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), and the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals (FCCA) - have rarely decided in favor of whistle-blowers. 

When the City of New Haven undertook to fill vacant lieutenant and captain positions in its fire department (Department), the promotion and hiring process was governed by the city charter, in addition to federal and state law. The charter establishes a merit system. That system requires the City to fill vacancies in the classified civil-service ranks with the most qualified individuals, as determined by job-related examinations. After each examination, the New Haven Civil Service Board (CSB) certifies a ranked list of applicants who passed the test. Under the charter s rule of three, the relevant hiring authority must fill each vacancy by choosing one candidate from the top three scorers on the list. Certified promotional lists remain valid for two years. 

Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship. Eliminate the annual rating or merit system. Provide a rating system that promotes continual positive reinforcement. Do not wait for the year-end to discuss safety performance. It must be an ongoing process. 

It seems important that project children should be able to participate, at the level appropriate to them, in whatever reward schemes are in operation in their class. The teacher-co-ordinator at Oakwood Junior described howthis would work for Luke, who, until the end of the summer term 1996, had had his own gold stars There is now a class merit system which Luke is part of The class sets its own targets for the week Luke s is greater independence in drinking. ... 

The sharpness of the frequency response of a resonant system is conunonly described by a factor of merit, called the quality factor, Q=v/Av. It may be obtained from a measurement of the frill width at half maxuuum Av, of the resonator frequency response curve obtained from a frequency sweep covering the resonance. The sensitivity of a system (proportional to the inverse of tlie minimum detectable number of paramagnetic centres in an EPR cavity) critically depends on the quality factor... 

The method is incorporated into the CORA (Classification of Organic Reactions for Analysis) system [Sf Here, wc want to illustrate the merits of this approach by an example of its application to a specific problem, the prediction of the regioselec-tivity of a ring closure reaction. This is detailed in the following tutorial. 

Information-oriented systems are based on a Hbrary of known retro-reactions which have been collected and evaluated by a group of chemists while coding them in electronic form. In addition, information on the scope and the expected yield under various conditions, as well as a strategic merit, is usually stored. 

The Japanese program system AlPHOS is developed by Funatsu s group at Toyo-hashi Institute of Technology [40]. AlPHOS is an interactive system which performs the retrosynthetic analysis in a stepwise manner, determining at each step the synthesis precursors from the molecules of the preceding step. AlPHOS tries to combine the merits of a knowledge-based approach with those of a logic-centered approach. 

Pigure 10 shows the typical commercial performance of LEDs used for optical data communication. Both free-space emission and fiber-coupled devices are shown, the latter exhibiting speeds of <10 ns. Typically there exists a tradeoff between speed and power in these devices, however performance has been plotted as a function of wavelength for purposes of clarity. In communication systems, photodetectors (qv) are employed as receivers rather than the human eye, making radiometric power emitted by the devices, or coupled into an optical fiber, an important figure of merit. 

Criticality Mnalysis. The criticaUty assessment provides a figure-of-merit for each failure mode. This figure of merit is based on the likelihood of occurrence of the failure mode (Occ), the criticaUty (severity) of the failure mode on system performance (Sev), and the detectabiUty of the failure mode by the user prior to occurrence (Det). 

Direct conversion of methane [74-82-8] to methanol has been the subject of academic research for over a century. The various catalytic and noncatalytic systems investigated have been summarized (24,25). These methods have yet to demonstrate sufficient advantage over the conventional synthesis gas route to methanol to merit a potential for broad use. 

The hulls are the first material removed from the process to merit concern in respect to safeguards. These represent a possible route for special nuclear material (SNM) to be clandestinely removed from the system. Special instmmentation is used to assay the hulls containers for residual SNM. This step not only monitors the dissolver for proper functioning, but also serves an accountancy function as a material access area portal and enables the satisfaction of contractual requirements regarding process losses (40). 

Heat Pumps. A heat pump is a refrigeration system that raises heat to a useful level. The most common appHcation is the vapor recompression system for evaporation (qv) (Fig. 14). Its appHcation hinges primarily on low cost power relative to the alternative heating media. If electricity price per unit energy is less than 1.5 times the cost of the heating medium, it merits a close look. This tends to occur when electricity is generated from a cheaper fuel (coal) or when hydroelectric power is available. 

DecoloriZation. Filtration, often a refinery botdeneck, especially with poor-quaHty raw sugar, is foUowed by decolorization with bone char (traditional), granular activated carbon (now most common), ion-exchange resias, or any combination of these. Comparative merits and regeneration of these decolorizing systems are a frequent topic ia the Hterature (r6—r8,rll). 

The most commercially successful of these systems has been the Convex series of computers. Ironically, these are traditional vector machines, with one to four processors and shared memory. Their Craylike characteristics were always a strong selling point. Interestingly, SCS, which marketed a minisupercomputer that was fully binary compatible with Cray, went out of business. Marketing appears to have played as much a role here as the inherent merits of the underlying architecture. 

ControUed release pharmaceuticals provide local or systemic treatment and differ in design depending on thek use and route of administration. The potential sites for controUed dehvery of therapeutic agents and some of the systems designed for those sites merit discussion. 

A compressor is typically a specially designed device, and comes with far less surplus capacity than other process components. As a result compressors merit great care in specification of flow, inlet pressure, and discharge pressure. Similarly, the control system and equipment need to be carefully matched to provide turndown with maximum efficiency. 

Sin e-Gas-Zone/Two-Surface-Zone Systems An enclosure consisting of but one isothermal gas zone and two gray surface zones can, properly specified, model so many industrially important radiation problems as to merit detailed presentation. One can evaluate the total radiation flux between any two of the three zones, including multiple reflec tion at all surfaces. 

In searching for data on a particular system, a computerized search of Chemical Ah.stract.s, Tngineering Index, and National Technical Information Service (NTIS) data bases should seriously be considered. Although the NTIS computer contains only information published after 1970, one normally can assume that most pre-1970 pubhcations of merit hkely will be referenced in the bibhographies of current articles on the subject. 

Feral and LeGall" have suggested that TBT may affect the neuroendocrine system, interfering with the release of a retrogressive factor from the cerebropleiiral ganglia. The effects of TBT on neuroendocrine function merit further study. 

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