bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Is short course of antimicrobial therapy for asymptomatic bacteriuria before urologic surgical procedures sufficient?
Authors: Sayin Kutlu Selda , Aybek Zafer , Tekin Koray , Okke Demet , Akalin Serife , Altintas Serkan , Demir Melek
Published: February 2012

Introduction: Duration of treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria for patients undergoing urologic surgical procedures is undetermined. We compared the efficacy of long- versus short-course antimicrobial treatment in patients with asymptomatic bacteriuria undergoing urologic surgical procedures. Methodology: Patients were divided into two groups according to duration of antimicrobial treatment. Group A patients received a single dose of an appropriate antibiotic, determined by antimicrobial sensitivity testing, 30 to 60 minutes before the surgical procedure. If a urinary catheter was placed postoperatively, a second dose was given following the recommended dose interval. Group B patients received antimicrobial treatment prior to surgery at least until patient urine became sterile. All patients were monitored for signs and symptoms of septicemia following surgical procedures. Results: None of the patients enrolled in the study developed infectious complications such as sepsis or upper urinary tract infection. In group A, 31 patients were treated with antimicrobials before 39 urological procedures. In group B, the mean treatment time for 28 patients before 30 urological procedures was 8.03 ± 3.86 days. There were also significant differences in length of stay and the cost of antimicrobial therapy between the groups (P < 0.0001). Isolation of an increased number of resistant microorganisms was associated with long course therapy in group B. Conclusions: Short course therapy protocol may be a practical, simple approach for antibiotic use; it decreases hospital stays, eliminates delayed procedure times, lowers the economic cost of antimicrobials and lessens the chance of superinfection with and spread of antimicrobial resistant microorganisms.
Antibiotic and systemic therapies for pneumonia in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected and HIV-exposed children
Authors: Punpanich Warunee , Groome Michelle , Muhe Lulu , Qazi Shamim A , Madhi Shabir Ahmed
Published: February 2012

Introduction: Pneumonia is the leading cause of mortality in both human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected and HIV-exposed children.  Administration of appropriate empirical antimicrobial and/or adjunctive systemic therapies may improve clinical outcomes. Methodology: To identify effective antimicrobial and/or adjunctive systemic therapy for pneumonia in HIV-infected and HIV-exposed, uninfected children, we searched for published and unpublished studies from 11 databases including MedLine, Global Health Database,  Biological Abstracts (BIOSIS), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, the World Health Organization Library Information System, AIDSLine, and the System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe, along with additional four regional databases including African Index Medicus, Latin America and Caribbean, Eastern Mediterranean, and South-East Asian databases. Data from full articles of selected studies were independently extracted by two reviewers. Results: No a priori planned randomized controlled trials (RCT) were identified, only subgroup analyses of an RCT comparing oral amoxicillin versus parenteral penicillin for severe pneumonia in children. HIV-infected children had significantly higher treatment failure rates compared to their uninfected counterparts. An RCT study investigating adjunctive corticosteroid therapy for Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia (PCP) failed to identify a statistically significant reduction in mortality in the treatment group with a relative risk of 0.57 (95% CI 0.30-1.07). A before-after observational study showed substantial beneficial effect of corticosteroid treatment in reducing mortality among HIV-infected children with PCP. Conclusions: Insufficient evidence exists to identify effective antimicrobial treatment regimens for HIV-associated pneumonia in paediatric populations or confirm the beneficial effect of corticosteroid treatment for HIV-infected children with PCP.
Bangladeshi backyard poultry raisers’ perceptions and practices related to zoonotic transmission of avian influenza
Authors: Sultana Rebeca , Rimi Nadia Ali , Azad Shamim , Islam M. Saiful , Khan M. Salah Uddin , Gurley Emily S , Nahar Nazmun , Luby Stephen P
Published: February 2012

Introduction: Highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) virus (known as "bird flu") is an important public health concern due to its potential to infect humans and cause a human pandemic. Bangladesh is a high-risk country for an influenza pandemic because of its dense human population, widespread backyard poultry raising, and endemic H5N1 infection in poultry. Understanding poultry raisers' perceived risks and identifying their risk exposures can help to develop interventions to reduce the risk of avian influenza transmission. This paper explores the perception of Bangladeshi backyard poultry raisers regarding poultry sickness and zoonotic disease transmission and relevant practices. Methodology: We conducted a qualitative study using social mapping (n=2), in-depth interviews (n=40), household mapping (n=40) and observation (n=16), in two backyard poultry-raising communities. Results: The poultry raisers recognized various signs of poultry illness but they did not distinguish among diseases using biomedical classifications. They perceived disease transmission from poultry to poultry, but not from poultry to humans. They usually kept sick poultry under the bed. If the poultry did not recover, they were slaughtered and consumed or sold. The poultry raisers had close contact with sick birds while handling and slaughtering poultry. Conclusions: The poultry raisers are unlikely to follow instructions from health authorities to prevent "bird flu" transmission because many of the instructions ask low-income producers to change their existing practices and require time, money, and financial loss. Villagers are more likely to comply with interventions that help to protect their flocks and address their financial interest.
High-cylinder Acrylic Toric Intraocular Lenses: A Case Series of Eyes With Cataracts and Large Amounts of Corneal Astigmatism
Authors: Cervantes-Coste Guadalupe , Garcia-Ramirez Laura , Mendoza-Schuster Erick , Velasco-Barona Cecilio
Published: February 2012

PURPOSE:

To examine the stability and efficacy of high-cylinder power AcrySof toric intraocular lenses (IOLs), models SN60T6, SN60T7, SN60T8, and SN60T9 (Alcon Laboratories Inc).

METHODS:

Eligible eyes had cataract and symmetric corneal astigmatism ⩾2.25 diopters (D). Outcomes included monocular uncorrected distance visual acuity (UDVA), manifest refraction, and assessment of IOL axis.

RESULTS:

Nineteen eyes from 14 patients had preoperative corneal astigmatism of 4.00±1.10 D. Postoperatively, residual refractive cylinder was 0.55±0.60 D at 3 months. Uncorrected distance visual acuity was 1.3±0.5 logMAR preoperatively and improved to 0.11±0.09 logMAR 3 months postoperatively (
P
<.0001). All IOLs were stable within 5°.

CONCLUSIONS:

The IOLs were stable and effective in correcting high amounts of preexisting astigmatism at the time of cataract surgery.
Léonard Ginsburg et la Paléontologie Portugaise. Hommage amical
Authors: Telles Antunes M.
Published: February 2012

No disponible
La morfología de la línea de esmalte en los molares de los roedores muroideos es explicada mediante una red hexagonal
Authors: Ruiz Bustos A.
Published: February 2012

La línea de esmalte observada en la corona de los roedores muroideos tiene formas geométricas que coinciden exactamente con una red plana triangular equilateral. Esta conclusión ayuda a explicar el modelo dental de los muroideos con una nueva perspectiva denominada odontohexasimetria, fundamentada en las formas hexagonales observadas en la línea de esmalte.
La morfología de la corona del diente de los mamíferos es heredada de padres a hijos. Esto infiere la existencia en cada espécimen de un autocontrol inteligente codificado en el genoma, que coordina la morfología de los dientes durante el desarrollo embriológico y su oclusión.
La hipótesis del desarrollo el bucle de las áreas de mitosis (Ruiz Bustos, 2004a, 2005, 2006 y 2007) propone, que en los momentos iniciales de la morfogénesis, es observada una masa de células en mitosis (área de mitosis de basal). Esta es repetida en un bucle, hasta constituir todas las restantes áreas de mitosis del diente. Al final de la morfogénesis, el proceso de biomineralización transforma las áreas de mitosis en los tubérculos de la corona del diente.
Quebrada Fiera (Mendoza), un importante centro paleobiogeográfico en el Oligoceno tardío de América del Sur
Authors: Cerdeño E.
Published: February 2012

Esta contribución se centra en los principales resultados obtenidos en los últimos años sobre la fauna oligocena de Quebrada Fiera (Mendoza, Argentina) y las investigaciones en curso. La asociación faunística de Quebrada Fiera está aportando datos nuevos sobre la distribución y la evolución de los mamíferos sudamericanos de la Edad mamífero Deseadense. Recientemente, se han dado a conocer los restos de dos familias de notoungulados, Notohippidae y Archaeohyracidae. En el primer caso, se reconoció un género nuevo, mientras que los arqueohirácidos se identifican en su gran mayoría como la especie presente en Salla (Bolivia). Los estudios en curso sobre otras familias de ungulados nativos (Hegetotheriidae, Interatheriidae, Leontinidae, Homalodotheriidae, Toxodontidae, ?Proterotheriidae y Pyrotheriidae), así como de los restos de metaterios, xenartros y roedores recuperados en Quebrada Fiera, ampliarán el conocimiento detallado de esta fauna. De forma preliminar, el conjunto faunístico aparece como una mezcla de taxones; por un lado, con afinidades patagónicas y, por otro, relacionados con especies conocidas en latitudes bajas (Bolivia), al mismo tiempo que cuenta con representantes exclusivos como Mendozahippus (Notohippidae). El avance de las investigaciones permitirá comprender mejor el papel del área de Mendoza en las distribuciones paleobiogeográfica y bioestratigráfica de los mamíferos sudamericanos del Oligoceno tardío.
Reconsideración de la sistemática de Cervavitus (Cervidae, Artiodactyla, Mammalia) del Pleistoceno Inferior
Authors: Dong W.
Published: February 2012

La revisión sistemática de Cervivatus sugiere que deriva del principal clado de los cérvidos posteriores a los muntiacinos, e implica que Procervulinae, Dicrocerinae y la primeras formas de Munticiacinae serían holometacarpales, como también lo es Cervivatus, originario en los bosques de Moldavia (Europa del Este) durante el Vallesiense final (MN 10), a partir de un antecesor braquiodonto y holometacarpal, con astas con dos o tres candiles y pliegue paleomerícido, y que da lugar a C. novorossiae. Este se dispersó a Europa occidental durante el comienzo del Turoliense, y más al oeste a Francia durante el Rusciniense. Su dispersión en los bosques del norte de China se produjo también a comienzos del Turoliense, estando representado por C. shanxius. Existe una gran cantidad de ejemplares de C. shanxius con metápodos laterales completos, que debían ser útiles para equilibrar el cuerpo en las ramas de los árboles. Las áridas mesetas loésicas actuales fueron bosques húmedos durante el Mioceno final. C. shanxius emigró hacia el sur durante el Plio-Pleistoceno probablemente debido al ambiente más seco del norte de China, como consecuencia de la elevación de los Himalayas, dando lugar a C. ultimus y C. fenqii, que sobrevivieron en el sur de China hasta el Pleistoceno inicial (MNQ18).
Descripción de algunos dientes de rhinocerotidae del Mioceno Inferior de Estrepouy (Francia)
Authors: Sanisidro O.
Published: February 2012

En este trabajo se incluyen fósiles no descritos de Estrepouy (Francia) depositados en la Universidad Claude Bernard (Lyon, France), que previamente habían sido identificados por Antoine et al. (2000). El registro de rinocerontes de Estrepouy está representado por tres especies: Protaceratherium minutum, ‘Plesiaceratherium’ platyodon y Diaceratherium aurelianense.
Mitilanotherium inexpectatum (Giraffidae, Mammalia) de Huélago (Pleistoceno Inferior; Cuenca de Guadix-Baza, Granada, España) – observaciones acerca de una pauta biogegráfica peculiar
Authors: Van der Made J. , Morales J.
Published: February 2012

Los fósiles de jirafas del Pleistoceno basal (MN 17) de la localidad de Huélago (Cuenca de Guadix- Baza, Granada, Spain) son descritos y asignados a Mitilanotherium inexpectatum Samson & Radulesco (1966). Los restos fósiles son comparados con jiráfidos del Plioceno, y formas más recientes. La distribución geográfica conocida muestra que es disyunta; encontrándose en España y en un área que se extiende de Rumania y Grecia a Tadzhikistan, pero no en Europa central. El registro más antiguo procede del Plioceno Superior (MN 16) de Turquía y el más reciente del Pleistoceno inferior de Grecia (con una edad estimada de ca. 1, 2 Ma). Poco después de los 2,6 Ma la especie pudo haberse dispersado a España, donde como mucho pudo haber durado medio millón de años. Esta dispersion no dejó evidencias en el registro fósil en el área comprendida entre el SE de Europa y España. Lo mismo sucede con la dispersión de otros mamíferos en el Mioceno basal, medio y final, Plioceno y Pleistoceno. Las especies que muestran este patrón se interpretan como adaptadas a ambientes abiertos y áridos. Su dispersión a través de Europa a España pudo haber ocurrido durante periodos cortos de condiciones ambientales atípicas y en consecuencia no dejaron un registro fósil fácilmente detectable.
Anatomía funcional del calcáneo y el astrágalo en Cercopithecinae (Mammalia, Primates, Cercopithecidae)
Authors: Pina M. , Salesa M. J. , Antón M. , Pastor J. F.
Published: February 2012

Dentro del orden Primates existe una gran variedad de especies distribuidas a lo largo de hábitats muy diversos. Dicha heterogeneidad ha fomentado la evolución y desarrollo de un gran número de adaptaciones locomotoras a los diferentes ambientes en los que habitan. Así, existen en la actualidad tanto grupos arborícolas como terrestres. La subfamilia Cercopithecinae agrupa una serie de taxones que representan ambos comportamientos locomotores, aunque la mayoría de las especies están adaptadas a una vida en el suelo. Se supone que este grupo desciende de un ancestro arborícola y que su radiación es relativamente reciente. En consecuencia, las especies de este grupo presentan características mixtas o poco derivadas en algunas ocasiones. Asimismo, es importante tener en cuenta la influencia que la herencia filogenética puede tener sobre alguno de estos rasgos. El calcáneo y el astrágalo son dos de los huesos más grandes del pie y ambos son buenos indicadores del tipo de locomoción. Por este motivo, se han utilizado estos dos tarsales para llevar a cabo el estudio de la morfología de ocho especies de cercopitecoideos, de tal manera que luego se ha podido hacer una serie de inferencias funcionales en cuanto al tipo de locomocón de las mismas.
Innovation Risk Path Assessing for a Newly Emerging Science and Technology
Authors: Guo Ying , Ma Tingting , Porter Alan
Published: February 2012

For “Newly Emerging Science & Technologies” (“NESTs”), uncertainty is the major challenge. Technological innovation for NESTs faces many kinds of risks that dramatically affect their development paths. This chapter combines methods of risk utility theory and technology path research and explores a new innovation risk path modeling method for NEST development. Here, the authors apply selected tools from risk utility theory and technology path research to the NEST of special concern—Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs). The case for DSSC commercialization is promising, but challengeable. The prospects for future development of DSSCs are good, with identifiable markets. Multi-party collaboration appears necessary in order to overcome challenges to development. If key technology component selection, technical stability, maturation rate, and other core issues can be improved, commercial innovation has tremendous potential. However, significant competing technologies, as well as uncertain environmental influences, complicate matters. This combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches should yield robust assessment and should allow for better communication of those results. It is useful for technology managers and policy-makers to grasp the development process and prospects for a specific NEST to facilitate innovation management.
Disruptive Product Innovation Strategy
Authors: Islam Nazrul , Ozcan Sercan
Published: February 2012

In today’s business world, many companies are in search of an innovative strategy to move on to a market where there is as yet no competition. In view of that, many academics and managers are trying to find a systematic framework for a strategic innovative business model. One of the examples of a systematic framework is Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS), which provides various tools for managers to find a gap in an existing market or to create a new market where there is no competition. This chapter uses Apple’s iPod product chain to illustrate how BOS tools can be used to create an innovative strategy for two reasons. Firstly, there are few practical examples that illustrate the BOS, as it is a recent business model and so this chapter can be a useful illustration for those audiences who are interested in strategic innovations focusing on disruption. Secondly, the iPod is a great example of an innovative product where the manufacturer benefits from low competition, high market share, and high profit return.
How Firms Deal with Discontinuous Innovation
Authors: Aloini Davide , Martini Antonella
Published: February 2012

Management literature has highlighted that under discontinuous conditions, incumbents have encountered serious obstacles in identifying, developing, and commercializing innovations as traditional and validated ‘good’ approaches are not adequate, or even counterproductive. It is therefore necessary to identify and deploy the practices that organisations could apply for enhancing their capacity to manage innovation under such complex environmental conditions. Based on a comprehensive literature review on search practices and on the empirical background of the Discontinuous Innovation Lab - a research network covering around 180 firms in 12 countries - a questionnaire has been submitted to a 500 high tech Italian firm sample (respondents are R&D directors or general managers). This chapter analyses in detail the relations between search practices, their antecedents (culture, organizational context, R&D expenditure, market turbulence, etc.), and performance (in terms of competences and innovation).
Technological Learning and Innovations in Indigenous Leather Clusters in Nigeria
Authors: Siyanbola Willie O. , Olamade Olumuyiwa O. , Isola Oluseyi O. , Adebowale Boladale A.
Published: February 2012

Indigenous technologies are integral part of the culture and history of a local community. The need to learn from local communities to enrich the development process cannot be over-emphasized. This chapter aims at advancing the position that Nigeria’s indigenous technologies present significant opportunities for local economic transformation and global competitiveness. Analyses of two major indigenous leather clusters in Nigeria, as well as a review of successful country cases, throw up some specific strategic and policy issues. The chapter concludes that effective knowledge transfer and innovative capability build-up through appropriate government interventions are the basic requirements for sustainable growth of indigenous technologies in Nigeria.
Rethinking Mass Communication Theories in the Internet Era
Authors: Mutsvairo Bruce , Klamroth Louis , Columbus Simon
Published: February 2012

This study examines three classical theories of mass communication to support a hypothesis suggesting that in the age of Internet, these theories are fast becoming extraneous. Theories to be analysed are the cultivation, agenda-setting, and media systems dependence theories. By interviewing over 100 university students based at Amsterdam University College, the authors hope to establish their media behaviours and practices, effectively verifying or disproving the argument that Web technology is masterminding a new revolution, which is uncharacteristically making these theories null and void.
Expense and Exposure
Authors: Colburn Bobbe Cummins , Nolin Julie
Published: February 2012

Technological hosting, along with partnerships, remains an on-going challenge in relationship to success and development. There have been many barriers placed on advancement of societal norms, specifically disruptive tendencies where advancements could take place, particularly developing countries such as sub-Sahara Africa, as well as the globalized market economy as a whole for learning and development. E-books, social media, and the Internet have broadened relationships as well as diversified interactions, thereby opening up societies to a globalized world.
The Impact of Genetic Testing and Genetic Information on Ethical, Legal and Social Issues in North America
Authors: Serenko Natalia
Published: February 2012

This chapter discusses the impact of genetic testing and genetic information. It proposes a framework that facilitates a critical analysis of the ethical, legal, and social issues of genetic testing. The ethical effects include privacy infringement, genetic discrimination, misleading advertisement, psychological impact, and individual autonomy. The legal impacts embrace consistent terminology, referral guidelines, patent wars, and new legislations. The social effects pertain to inequality, higher insurance fees, tax burden, and fear of new eugenics. Information and communication technologies dramatically augment the effect of genetic testing on these outcomes. This chapter argues that information and communication technologies and rapid advances in genetics challenge the existing legislation systems in North America. Therefore, policy-makers need to address the tension between the potential benefits and harms of genetic testing and genetic information.
Policy Influence of Solar PV Diffusion into the Nigerian Rural Energy Mix
Authors: Jesuleye Olalekan A. , Siyanbola Willie O. , Ilori Matthew O.
Published: February 2012

The study in this chapter examined policy options for promoting solar PV diffusion into the energy mix of six selected remote villages that were pilot sites for national and foreign assisted solar electrification programs in three ecological regions of Nigeria. A total of 910 questionnaires were administered on the solar PV users, suppliers, and government agencies to elicit information on alternative energy sources for provision of energy services. The results showed that solar PV usage was 49.9 kWh per/day, which constituted an insignificant share of about 14% in the total lighting requirement and less than 2% of the total requirement for energy services. The demand would rise to 73.3 kWh per/day by 2019 at the same 14% share of the total lighting requirement. Firewood demand maintained over 80 percent share (2383.5 kWh per/day) in the total energy mix in 2009. It also revealed that the best policy option of 200 percent increase in solar bulbs’ share for lighting by 2014 would require 50% reduction in kerosene share. The study concluded that increasing utilization of solar PV for lighting, entertainment, refrigeration, and ventilation in the study areas could lead to decrease in the use of energy from alternative sources.
Coordination, Monitoring, and Impact Evaluation of Technology Incubators in Nigeria
Authors: Siyanbola Willie O. , Jesuleye Olalekan A. , Adelowo Caleb M. , Egbetokun Abiodun A.
Published: February 2012

Technology business incubation is a programme mostly deployed by the nations of the world to promote the development of prototype technology, nurturing them until they can compete successfully with the existing technology. The programme of incubation need be monitored, controlled, and evaluated to ensure that the objectives are achieved. This chapter discusses development of incubation in Nigeria, looking critically at the performances of the existing ones in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, relevance, utility, and sustainability in order for them to really serve as agent of growth and development in this innovation disruptive world. This chapter concludes by giving various policy suggestions like that efficient management of the resources made available to the tenants, and that government should provide more facilities in order to accommodate more tenants among others.
Collection Development Policies
Authors: Fulkerson Diane M.
Published: February 2012

The collection development policies of the library will determine the types of material included in the collection. Along with those policies are databases licensing agreements that determine who can access the materials and where they can be accessed from. Collection development policies are usually driven by the academic programs of the institution. Digital collections and digital libraries will often be created from materials at the university. Without collection development policies the digital libraries and collections may receive little use because they do not meet the needs of the students or are difficult to access on or off-campus.
Engineering Students’ Self-Perceived Communication Competence and Technical Presentation Anxiety
Authors: Radzuan Noor Raha Mohd , Kaur Sarjit
Published: February 2012

To work in a global context, engineering graduates must be competent professionally as well as be proficient communicators in English, the language widely used in international business (Lee, 2003). Increasingly, engineering graduates need to learn and develop skills about existing technical areas in order to enhance their competitiveness in today’s global marketplace. The Malaysian Engineering Accreditation Council Policy (EACP, 2005) has listed effective communication skills as one of the main competencies that all Malaysian engineering graduates need to master. One of the important communication skills that engineers must develop is the ability to communicate ideas and concepts to a group of people through formal and informal oral presentations. In line with the EAC policy, Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) has taken proactive steps in integrating oral English communication skills in their curriculum and co-curriculum activities. This chapter aims to examine the correlation of engineering students’ perceived communication competence and their level of apprehension in giving a technical presentation. Questionnaires, adapted from McCroskey’s (1988) Self-Perceived Communication Competence and Richmond & McCroskey’s (1985) Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety, were distributed to 140 final year UMP engineering undergraduates who were preparing for their Undergraduate Research Report presentation. The results of the study have direct and indirect implications to the teaching and learning of oral presentation skills to engineering undergraduates.
Visualization Skills in Engineering Education
Authors: Ali Dayana Farzeeha , Patil Arun , Nordin Mohd Safarin
Published: February 2012

This chapter provides a comprehensive literature overview related to visualization skills development methods, theories related to cognitive development, and use of graphics in learning and teaching engineering drawing subject. In addition, the skills of visualization components and test instruments for testing these skills are also discussed. The description in this chapter begins with an overview of the curriculum in the context of engineering drawings for Higher Education Institutions. Further understanding of visualization skills in engineering, especially elaborated earlier by some scholars and researchers in the science of visual, spatial, and cognitive psychology, are also discussed in this chapter.
Mitigation of Communication Challenges in the Indian Software Industry
Authors: Sethi Anjanee , Rathore Shyamli
Published: February 2012

There have been dramatic changes in the way organizations perceive and practice communication. While a large amount of resources are allocated to learning and development function by the Indian software companies, there has been little attempt to study how the trainings help in mitigating the communication challenges faced by the employees of these organizations. The chapter attempts to understand what communication challenges are faced by junior and mid level employees, and how the effectiveness of communication related training is measured by the learning and development function.
Towards Patient-Driven Agile Supply Chains in Healthcare
Authors: Nabelsi Véronique
Published: February 2012

Healthcare organizations in many countries are compelled to pursue drastic supply cost reductions, while continuing to improve patient health outcomes, as they must meet ever increasing economic and performance pressures brought on by changes in national health policies. As demonstrated in many other industries, these improvements require more integrated Supply Chain Management (SCM) practices, processes, and systems. The author develops a strategic framework for Customer-Oriented or Patient-Driven SCM, integrating the evolving economics of the healthcare industry and the emerging dynamics of global supply chains. The chapter focuses on modern SCM approaches such as agile and lean supply chains, in order to efficiently realign hospitals and their Material Management Systems (MMS) on patient health outcomes.
Knowledge Sharing in Supply Chain
Authors: Zhu Liandong , Nugroho Robertus Wahyu Nayan , Ajmal Mian M. , Kristianto Yohanes
Published: February 2012

This chapter introduces the thermodynamics analogy as a means of studying knowledge sharing in supply chain. The study finds that distance and the knowledge capacity of the supplier are important to reduce knowledge sharing uncertainty. Furthermore, higher contact frequency between the supplier and the buyer without considering supplier capacity is proven to be insignificant to reduce knowledge sharing uncertainty. For intellectuals, the mechanism provides a new approach to explicate knowledge sharing in supply networks. Besides, it provides deep-rooted opening point for supplementary empirical assessment. The mechanism facilitates managers to expand their understanding of composite circumstances embedded into global supply networks to share their knowledge. With that enhanced understanding, the managers can spotlight their actions, which help further to perk up their firms’ competitiveness provoked by the knowledge sharing activities.
Supplier-Oriented Purchasing Behaviors in Projects
Authors: Meier Ron , Brown Dan
Published: February 2012

This chapter introduces project manager’s perceptions of the importance of developing relationships with preferred suppliers as this has the potential to impact elements of cost, planning, time management, quality management, technical expertise, and product availability. This study identified key characteristics and attributes of supplier-oriented purchasing behaviors in project-oriented environments. The review of recent literature indicated that very little research exists that examines project procurement experts’ perceptions of key aspects of supplier-oriented purchasing behavior. This research utilized a two round, modified Delphi methodology to capture the perceptions of 19 experienced project management procurement specialists. Results showed that the most strongly valued attributes could be clustered under the headings of quality, communications, attentiveness, and professionalism. Even though projects were typically characterized as short term endeavors, the characteristics found most important to project procurement managers were similar to those previously reported by procurement professionals in long-term functional environments.
Engineer-to-Order
Authors: Addo-Tenkorang Richard , Eyob Ephrem
Published: February 2012

General Engineer-to-Order (ETO) design of product capacity projects among many others, includes design for large electric machine, huge centrifugal pumps, diesel/natural fuel power plant engines, steam turbine, boiler, ship power, et cetera. ETO is basically a product development process, which starts with a product specification and finishes with an engineering design as its deliverable. It rarely includes manufacturing processes. The main drawback is with issues concerning its long lead-time. Research shows that an excessive lead-time is more often than not caused directly or indirectly by factors related to the design phase. This chapter thus, endeavours to introduce a best practice concurrent approach for reducing the lead-time at an engineer-to-order product design/development stage by seeking to integrate business information technology systems in the design and operational phases. It also introduces a new concurrent best practice approach by way of seeking to integrate other related business systems, e.g., (Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)) such as (Enterprise Service Architecture (ESA) application processes with Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)) as a platform for applications and processes for effective communication. Furthermore, the chapter presents and discusses a model of classical concurrent engineering (CE) ETO operational process. ETO key elements, ETO success factors, and series of state of the art ETO classical ERP engineering design tools, as well as the “best practice” product life cycle are all discussed.
Total Quality Management in the Global Supply Chain
Authors: Sanders Janet H.
Published: February 2012

This chapter provides an overview of the importance of total quality management in supply chain management. It provides a summary of the evolution of quality and how supply chain management fit into the evolution. It then discusses the importance of quality for each entity of the value chain and how the reduction of variability along the entire supply chain is critical to optimum delivery performance. The latter sections of the chapter discuss how quality and continuous improvement tools and methodologies can be mapped with supply chain management strategies to optimize the performance of the entire supply chain.
Adopting and Integrating Cloud Computing
Authors: Daim Tugrul , Britton Marc , Subramanian Ganesh , Brenden Rubyna , Intarode Nuttavut
Published: February 2012

Cloud Computing has been around in the background in some shape or form for decades now. Yet people still ask – what is cloud computing? What can it do, and why should it be considered for growing technology needs? In the past, businesses have integrated cloud computing partially to meet their technology needs due to skepticism, reliability, and cost of the concept. However, the era is approaching where this could be a feasible solution that meets technology needs and assists businesses in meeting their goals in a reliable and efficient way. Can businesses be convinced yet? (O’Donnell, 2009). In a nutshell, cloud computing has grown over the last ten years and is still growing but making waves in the industry now more than ever, but why all this hype? Perhaps because cloud computing is seen as a viable replacement of enterprise owned local IT infrastructure (Francis, 2009).
Inventory Cost Share for Supply Chain Coordination by Means of Contracts
Authors: Gomez-Padilla Alejandra
Published: February 2012

This chapter highlights the importance of contracts for coordination between companies in a supply chain. It considers a dyadic situation, with a supplier and a retailer. Coordination is achieved by two types of decisions: economic (concerning prices established and stated over a contract), and physical exchange of products (concerning the inventory that is going to be held by the retailer). First one contract with a simple pricing scheme is considered, and then two contracts with inventory holding cost shared among the companies of the supply chain. The former is presented to explain the general situation and the two last ones to explain different schemes of inventory cost share. A numerical example is also shown. The objective is to illustrate that a supply chain may be efficiently coordinated if the companies establish contracts with inventory holding cost share.
A Non-Invasive Software Architecture Style for RFID Data Provisioning
Authors: Liu Ying , Lin Tao , Ram Sudha , Su Xuemei
Published: February 2012

Integrating real-time RFID data into autonomous and heterogeneous information systems across the business value chain presents a number of challenges. At an abstract architecture level, this paper identifies important requirements for RFID data provisioning and points of integration. A non-invasive architecture style is proposed to satisfy these requirements. It has the advantages of low entry barriers, low latency, high flexibility, and independent evolvability. The architecture style is used as a basis for evaluating three existing architectures for RFID data provisioning. Various architecture mismatches that could hinder the pace of RFID adoption are identified and discussed. A new asymmetric integration approach is suggested as an alternative to existing methods.
Facilitating Consumer Acceptance of RFID and Related Ubiquitous Technologies
Authors: Wasieleski David M. , Spangler William E. , Gal-Or Mordechai
Published: February 2012

The issue of consumer acceptance in the implementation of RFID and related ubiquitous technologies, driven primarily by privacy concerns, is a complex social problem involving consumers, companies, advocacy groups and government agencies – each of whom has different and often incompatible goals. This research decomposes the problem and explores it from the perspective of one of these stakeholders, that is, a company seeking to implement RFID in order to achieve specific business objectives. The authors establish a theoretical framework, based on social justice theory in business ethics, that identifies the factors contributing to consumer and societal resistance to an RFID implementation. Within this framework, they outline the technical and managerial elements of an implementation plan, and relate those elements to the underlying components of social justice theory. The result is a strategy for technology managers that 1) considers the complex mix of consumer, societal and governmental concerns hindering adoption of the technologies, and 2) indicates areas of potential compromise.
Mining RFID Behavior Data using Unsupervised Learning
Authors: Cabanes Guénaël , Bennani Younès , Fresneau Dominique
Published: February 2012

Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) is an advanced tracking technology that can be used to study the spatial organization of individual’s spatio-temporal activity. The aim of this work is firstly to build a new RFID-based autonomous system which can follow individuals’ spatio-temporal activity, a tool not currently available. Secondly, the authors aim to develop new tools for automatic data mining. In this paper, they study how to transform these data to investigate the division of labor, the intra-colonial cooperation and conflict in an ant colony. They also develop a new unsupervised learning data mining method (DS2L-SOM: Density-based Simultaneous Two-Level - Self Organizing Map) to find homogeneous clusters (i.e., sets of individual which share a similar behavior). According to the experimental results, this method is very fast and efficient. It also allows a very useful visualization of the results.
Testing the Potential of RFID to Increase Supply-Chain Agility and to Mitigate the Bullwhip Effect
Authors: Vance Anthony , Lowry Paul Benjamin , Ogden Jeffrey A.
Published: February 2012

This study examines the potential of RFID technology to increase the agility of supply-chain e-commerce systems by mitigating the bullwhip effect. The bullwhip effect is a supply-chain phenomenon that reveals a lack of business agility characterized by the amplification of inventory variance. This study employs an experiment involving a modified Beer Distribution Game to simulate an RFID-enabled supply chain. The results provide empirical evidence that RFID technology can increase a supply chain’s agility and reduce the bullwhip effect by reducing inventory holding costs, stockout costs, and inventory-level variances. The results are all the more important when applied to interorganizational e-commerce systems.
An Activity Theory Analysis of RFID in Hospitals
Authors: O’Leary Daniel E.
Published: February 2012

Although there have been many proposed applications of RFID in hospitals, few of those applications have received sustained use in hospitals, to-date. As a result, this paper investigates the use of RFID in hospitals in an emerging application, that of using RFID as part of the prescription process, including pharmacists generation of the prescription and nurses’ administration of the medicine. Using activity theory, activity templates are generated for pharmacists, nurses and the hospital to investigate the introduction of RFID. This paper finds that the introduction of RFID involves changes in the activities, as measured by changes in context variables, not just changes in technology. Also, the RFID-based approach eliminates substantial “medicine” slack. Further, using activity theory, the activity design for using RFID facilitates “technologically insulation” of pharmacists and nurses, from each other and doctors. Finally, such “digital specification” of activities likely leads to fewer errors, and constrains action, limiting inappropriate use of prescription drugs.
Managing Enterprise Service Level Agreement
Authors: Li Yang
Published: February 2012

The continued trend of globalization and technology improvement like the internet and transportation have spawned an increasing number of complex service chains that span across local, regional and national boundaries. Service level agreement (SLA) plays a crucial role in gluing service chains together. In that regard, this paper provides a complete guidance of end-to-end lifecycle management of SLA, including SLA-aware service modelling and terms optimization, contract drafting and compliance tracking. Among these, the author introduces his work in the area of enterprise SLA optimization to address existing deficiencies in this area including a roadmap for industry-strength SLA optimization capability and an initial version of SLA modeling and optimization toolset—code-named SLA-OASIS. Some out-of-box toolsets for SLA contract drafting and compliance tracking are also introduced.
Research on Innovation Mechanism and Model of Logistics Enterprise
Authors: Mu Zhang , Wenli Li , Jing Luo , Xiang Ye , Congying Ren , Chengjuan Wu
Published: February 2012

As a new field in the service industry, logistics is growing rapidly and is regarded as a fundamental industry in a national economy. Its development is an important symbol of a country’s modernization and national strength. It also works as an accelerator in economic development. At the initial stage of transforming traditional logistics service to a modern logistics service in China, logistics enterprises have encountered many difficulties and problems including an imbalanced supply and demand, distempered industrial structure, faultiness of serving process and backwardness of logistics technology since 2005.Compared with developed countries, there is a great gap between Chinese logistics enterprises and advanced countries’ in the aspects of service concepts, model, and content and techniques. Therefore, based on the service innovation driving model theory, the authors analyze the integrated innovation model of logistics enterprises, logistics technology and network model, and the value-added service model. The authors select Shenzhen China Overseas Logistics Co. LTD (COL) as the empirical object to analyze its operation of technology and non-technology innovation and summarize its inner and outer driving force on promoting service innovation.
Evaluating the Use of Electronic Door Seals (E-Seals) on Shipping Containers
Authors: McCormack Edward , Jensen Mark , Hovde Al
Published: February 2012

In this study, electronic door seals (E-seals) are tested on shipping containers that traveled through ports, over borders, and on roadways. The findings show that using RFID devices increases supply chain efficiency and improves the security of containerized cargo movements, particularly when E-seals replace common mechanical seals. Before the benefits of E-seals can be realized, several barriers must be addressed. A lack of frequency standards for E-seals is a major problem, hindering their acceptability for global trade. Routine use of E-seals also requires new processes that may slow their acceptance by the shipping industry. Disposable E-seals, which decrease industry concerns about costs and enforcement agency concerns about security by eliminating the need to recycle E-seals, are not common because they must be manufactured in large quantities to be cost effective. Compatibility with existing highway systems could also promote E-seal acceptance, as containers could be tracked on roadways.
Streamlining Knowledge Map Construction for an Online Auction House Using Automatic Term Filtering
Authors: Venkatsubramanyan Shailaja
Published: February 2012

Organizations are building automated technical support software that can help both consumers and field support engineers with problem resolution. The goal of the automated technical support system is reducing operational cost and increasing customer satisfaction. This paper examines the set of challenges that knowledge engineers face in building automated technical support software. This paper uses a technical services engagement with a major online auction house with tens of millions of users to highlight the challenges and present an automated knowledge map generation technique. The objective of this automated technique was to improve the quality of expressions extracted from documents, which would reduce the burden on knowledge engineers to construct knowledge maps. The technique was run on large corpora of documents in the online auction house and found a significant increase in the quality of the knowledge map. Further experimentation showed that the technique works well for other domains as well.
A Reinforcement Learning
Authors: Özcan Ender , Misir Mustafa , Ochoa Gabriela , Burke Edmund K.
Published: February 2012

Hyper-heuristics can be identified as methodologies that search the space generated by a finite set of low level heuristics for solving search problems. An iterative hyper-heuristic framework can be thought of as requiring a single candidate solution and multiple perturbation low level heuristics. An initially generated complete solution goes through two successive processes (heuristic selection and move acceptance) until a set of termination criteria is satisfied. A motivating goal of hyper-heuristic research is to create automated techniques that are applicable to a wide range of problems with different characteristics. Some previous studies show that different combinations of heuristic selection and move acceptance as hyper-heuristic components might yield different performances. This study investigates whether learning heuristic selection can improve the performance of a great deluge based hyper-heuristic using an examination timetabling problem as a case study.
A New Multiagent Algorithm for Dynamic Continuous Optimization
Authors: Lepagnot Julien , Nakib Amir , Oulhadj Hamouche , Siarry Patrick
Published: February 2012

Many real-world problems are dynamic and require an optimization algorithm that is able to continuously track a changing optimum over time. In this paper, a new multiagent algorithm is proposed to solve dynamic problems. This algorithm is based on multiple trajectory searches and saving the optima found to use them when a change is detected in the environment. The proposed algorithm is analyzed using the Moving Peaks Benchmark, and its performances are compared to competing dynamic optimization algorithms on several instances of this benchmark. The obtained results show the efficiency of the proposed algorithm, even in multimodal environments.