bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Performances et (re-)financement de l'enseignement supérieur en Communauté Française : quelles perspectives ?
Authors: David Quentin
Published: April 2013

Cet article montre que le paysage de l’enseignement supérieur en Communauté Française est affecté par des réformes successives dont la pertinence n’a pas encore été démontrée. Parallèlement, il est sous-financé alors que ses performances sont tout à fait remarquables. Mais sans réformes adéquates, et sans un refinancement significatif, ses performances risquent de se détériorer. L’augmentation des subsides publics semble illusoire en cette période de crise. Augmenter le coût des études, même si c’est accompagné par la mise en place de prêts d’études contingents aux revenus futurs, risque de ne pas contribuer à rencontrer les objectifs de Lisbonne. Dans ce contexte, je plaide pour a mise en place d’un « Tax Shelter pour l’enseignement supérieur ».
In vitro effect of some fungicides used in cultivation ofCapsicum spp. on growth and ochratoxin A production byAspergillus species
Authors: Santos L. , Marín S. , Sanchis V. , Ramos A.J.
Published: April 2013

The present study aimed to assess the effect of some pre-harvest fungicides commonly used inCapsicum fruit production on growth and ochratoxin A production of threeAspergillus species found inCapsicum powder.Aspergillus tubingensis,Aspergillus ochraceus andAspergillus westerdijkiae, previously isolated from paprika and chilli, were inoculated on yeast extract sucrose agar and paprika extract agar supplemented with different fungicides at their recommended dosage rates, and incubated at 20 and 30 °C during 7 days. Radial growth was measured after 3, 5 and 7 days and ochratoxin A production was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection on day 7. Dodine 40% and mancozeb 80% were the most effective fungicides in inhibiting growth and ochratoxin A production, regardless of the fungal strain tested or temperature conditions. Whereas the application of fungicides could be very attractive in reducing the mycotoxigenic fungal load, it can also stimulate ochratoxin A production in some cases.
Geographic differences in trichothecene chemotypes ofFusarium graminearum in the Northwest and North of Iran
Authors: Davari M. , Wei S.H. , Babay-Ahari A. , Arzanlou M. , Waalwijk C. , van der Lee T.A.J. , Zare R. , Gerrits van den Ende A.H.G. , de Hoog G.S. , van Diepeningen A.D.
Published: April 2013

The diversity and prevalence ofFusarium species and their chemotypes on wheat in the North-West and North of Iran was determined. Wheat in these areas is severely affected by Fusarium head blight, withFusarium graminearum as prevalent species causing 96% of the infections in the North-West and 50% in the Northern provinces. Fungal isolates were identified based on morphological characters and sequences of the internal transcribed spacer region, and parts of translation elongation factor 1-? and RNA polymerase subunit II sequences. Phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses show little haplotype variation between theF. graminearum strains collected from the different locations, but the isolates differ significantly in their trichothecene chemotypes as determined with a multilocus genotyping assay.F. graminearum strains producing 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol were abundant in Ardabil (North-West of Iran), while in Golestan province (North of Iran) at the other side of the Caspian Sea especially nivalenol producing strains and a variety of otherFusarium species were observed. Strains producing 3-acetyldeoxynivalenol were rarely found in both areas. This is the first detailed study onFusarium infections in Iranian wheat, showing large differences in prevalent etiological agents and in mycotoxin chemotypes geographically.
Would Engineers Need Non-technical Skills or Non-technical Competences or Both?
Authors: Parts Velli , Teichmann Mare , Rüütmann Tiia
Published: April 2013

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Two main competence approaches are under the discussion. There is evidence that graduates do not fully perceive and/or underestimate the influence of non-technical competences on their employability. An understanding of the necessity of non-technical competences develops after a graduate has already been hired and is working at that job.
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Integration of Non-Technical Engineering Competences into Contemporary Engineering Curricula
Authors: Rüütmann Tiia , Parts Velli , Teichmann Mare , Kipper Hants
Published: April 2013

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Today the professional competence of an engineer has become crucial for further social and economic developments. Importance of implementing non-technical engineering competencies in general education of engineers for forming their personality has been discussed in the present paper.  the present paper.

 

 
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Tordre ou briser le bâton de la justice ?
Authors: Bérard Jean
Published: April 2013

Cet article porte sur les débats suscités dans les mouvements contestataires nés après mai 68 par l’idée d’appliquer une répression pénale plus sévère aux illégalismes commis par les membres des classes dominantes. Son hypothèse est que ce débat est un aspect de la déstabilisation des positions politiques en matière pénale initiée dans les années 1970 et qu’il a pris forme parmi les militants au croisement entre la reprise par les mouvements d’extrême-gauche d’une analyse critique de la justice comme justice de classe et la mise en cause des institutions disciplinaires par d’autres mouvements sociaux. Il montre que, dans le contexte de l’échec des tentatives maoïstes de « justice populaire », les luttes contre les institutions d’enfermement ont pris le pas sur la volonté d’appliquer des peines de prison à des membres des couches sociales favorisées, et que cette situation a engendré une certaine indétermination militante dont les conséquences structurent le champ contemporain. S’il est consensuel chez les acteurs militants de demander que la lumière soit faite sur les illégalismes politiques et financiers, le sort pénal qui doit être réservé aux auteurs d’infraction est sujet à interrogations.
SMEs, Institutions, and Performance
Authors: Jensen Camilla , Peng Low Mei
Published: April 2013

This chapter addresses at the outset the topic of SMEs and economic development from an institutions perspective. The authors argue that the transaction cost theory is not helpful towards understanding the role that institutions play for SME performance for several reasons. Instead, they argue for combining the resource-based theory with an institutions-based approach towards constructing a more practical and empirical oriented analytical framework. After the preliminary discussion and introduction to the different theories used, the authors then take a focus on the analytical framework used to study the relationship between the institution of competition, firm performance, and firm size distributions. This chapter studies the relationship between competition and firm size, whereas subsequent research could also involve the inclusion of other measures of institutions and firm performance.
Open Innovation in SMEs
Authors: Rahman Hakikur
Published: April 2013

Successful innovation is a key to business growth. In the realm of technological development, innovation processes have been transformed into various forms, like open innovation, crowdsourcing innovation, or collaborative innovation. This research would like to focus on open innovation processes to reach out to the common stakeholders in the entrepreneurship system through small and medium enterprises. It has been observed that to provide innovative services or products to the outer periphery of the customer chain, SMEs play an important role. Hence, focusing innovation for SMEs would lead to a newer dimension of innovation research for better business and economic growth. It could be applied to both ways in terms of value gain to the participants. This applies to all sorts of entrepreneurships, though often corporate business houses seem to be the most beneficiaries of innovation researches. This research will emphasize open innovation for SMEs at the outset by focusing transformation of innovation leading to a networked paradigm in spite of being in closed periphery, and try to provide some overview on innovation strategies, including various challenges.
ISMS Building for SMEs through the Reuse of Knowledge
Authors: Sánchez Luís Enrique , Santos-Olmo Antonio , Fernandez-Medina Eduardo , Piattini Mario
Published: April 2013

The information society is increasingly more dependent upon Information Security Management Systems (ISMSs), and the availability of these systems has become crucial to the evolution of Small and Medium-size Enterprises (SMEs). However, this type of companies requires ISMSs which have been adapted to their specific characteristics, and these systems must be optimized from the point of view of the resources necessary to deploy and maintain them. Over the last 10 years, the authors have obtained considerable experience in the establishment of ISMSs, and during this time, they have observed that the structure and characteristics of SMEs as regards security management are frequently very similar (since they can all be grouped by business size and sector), thus signifying that it is possible to construct patterns for ISMSs that can be reused and refined. In this chapter, the authors present the strategy that they have designed to manage and reuse security information in information system security management. This strategy is framed within a methodology designed for integral security management and its information systems maturity, denominated as “Methodology for Security Management and Maturity in Small and Medium-size Enterprises (MSM2-SME),” and it is defined in a reusable model called “Reusable Pattern for Security Management (RPSM),” which systematically defines, manages, and reuses the aforementioned methodology through a sub-process denominated as “Generation of Security Management Patterns (GSMP).” This model is currently being applied in real cases, and is thus constantly improving.
Incorporating Qualitative Information for Credit Risk Assessment through Frequent Subtree Mining for XML
Authors: Ikasari Novita , Hadzic Fedja , Dillon Tharam S.
Published: April 2013

Credit risk assessment has been one of the most appealing topics in banking and finance studies, attracting both scholars’ and practitioners’ attention for some time. Following the success of the Grameen Bank, works on credit risk, in particular for Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), have become essential. The distinctive character of SMEs requires a method that takes into account quantitative and qualitative information for loan granting decision purposes. In this chapter, we first provide a survey of existing credit risk assessment methods, which shows a current gap in the existing research in regards to taking qualitative information into account during the data mining process. To address this shortcoming, we propose a framework that utilizes an XML-based template to capture both qualitative and quantitative information in this domain. By representing this information in a domain-oriented way, the potential knowledge that can be discovered for evidence-based decision support will be maximized. An XML document can be effectively represented as a rooted ordered labelled tree and a number of tree mining methods exist that enable the efficient discovery of associations among tree-structured data objects, taking both the content and structure into account. The guidelines for correct and effective application of such methods are provided in order to gain detailed insight into the information governing the decision making process. We have obtained a number of textual reports from the banks regarding the information collected from SMEs during the credit application/evaluation process. These are used as the basis for generating a synthetic XML database that partially reflects real-world scenarios. A tree mining method is applied to this data to demonstrate the potential of the proposed method for credit risk assessment.
ICT Mediated Value Chain for Managing Weavers’ Livelihoods
Authors: Misra Harekrishna
Published: April 2013

Value chain practices focus on market orientation of products and services. Products and services highly rely on processes included in the supply chain in order to contribute to the value chain. Globalization, competition, and high cost of production influence the value chain imperatives. Thus, organizations involved in the value chain are challenged with creation of innovative designs and establishing lean production scenarios. This challenge is more serious in the cases of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The rugs industry in India is one example of such market behavior, and various SMEs are involved in this sector. Besides, the sector demands market orientation and customer retention for which continuous innovative practices are essential. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have played a crucial role in supporting these SMEs in India in rolling out innovative designs through customer engagements in the entire production life cycle. There are also efforts to use ICT as a tool to innovate processes, products, and services to harness better returns on investment and to sustain business. In this case, Jaipur Rugs Company (JRC) strives to manage innovation cycles to ensure development oriented value chain for the weavers and ICT applications have been intrinsic to realize these efforts.
Perceived Benefits and Barriers of ICT Adoption among SMEs
Authors: Tan Khong Sin , Eze Uchenna Cyril
Published: April 2013

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are a key economic sector in Malaysia. In 2005, there were 99.2% or 518,996 SMEs in the country. They contributed to 65.1% of employment and 47.3% of labor productivity. Due to the importance of SMEs, the Malaysian government formed National SME Development Council (NSDC) in 2004 to oversee the development of SMEs in the country. On the other hand, in order to leverage the power of ICT, particularly the Internet, Malaysian government formed National Information Technology Council (NITC) in 1994 to provide information and communication technology (ICT) assistance to Malaysian companies. This chapter examines perceived benefits and barriers of Internet-based ICT adoption among SMEs in Malaysia. Questionnaire was used to collect data from 406 managers/owners of SMEs in Malaysia. Analysis reveals the composite ICT benefits and barriers to ICT adoption. The chapter ends with a discussion and interpretation of the findings including key implications for research, practice and policy.
Mobile Information Communication Technologies and Construction Project Management
Authors: Ahuja Vanita
Published: April 2013

Construction project management requires effective and real time information and data communication between all the project team agencies. In present scenario when the associating agencies may be geographically separated, and for projects with large site areas or being executed in hazardous or remote sites, the required information and data communication can be achieved through use of mobile communications. But, research shows that the adoption of mobile communications by the construction industry is limited. This chapter presents the issues affecting adoption of mobile communications by the construction industry, the research background, a case study of mobile communications adoption at a major construction project in India and further discusses the factors leading to sustainable mobile communication adoption by construction project teams. Construction industry primarily comprises small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Thus, the issues are studied with focus on adoption of mobile communications by SMEs.
SME Characteristics and the Use of the Internet to Expand the Scale and Geographic Scope of Sales
Authors: Thompson Piers , Williams Robert , Packham Gary , Thomas Brychan C.
Published: April 2013

The potential of the Internet to both geographically expand customer bases and provide a source of sales growth has led to a rapid embracement of the Internet by a majority of small businesses in the United Kingdom. However, many studies suggest that much of this adoption takes the form of simple Web sites representing little more than an electronic brochure. Although theories and models have been proposed suggesting adoption and development of e-commerce takes a staged process, with firms moving to more complex e-commerce processes after first mastering simpler forms of Web site, studies have found mixed evidence with regard to this. This chapter investigates the level of Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Web site adoption and functionality and how this relates to growth aspirations, specifically the geographical expansion of customer bases. One potential explanation for this slow uptake of true e-commerce is a lack of employees with basic and advanced IT skills. The possibility that Information Technology (IT) skills shortages could explain the gap between the Internet’s potential and the extent of involvement by a vast majority of UK SMEs is explored. Discussion within the chapter is complemented with analysis of data from a large survey of SMEs.
Marketing in SMEs
Authors: Douglas Tony , Omar Maktoba
Published: April 2013

There would appear to be varied approaches to the sales process practiced by SMEs in how they go about locating target customers, interfacing with prospects and new customers, presenting the benefits and features of their products and services, closing sales deals and building relationships, and an understanding of what the buyers needs are in the seller-buyer process. Recent research has revealed that while entrepreneurs and small business owners rely upon networking as an important source of sales, they lack marketing competencies, including personal selling skills and knowledge of what is involved in the sales process to close sales deals and build relationships. Small companies and start-ups with innovative products and services often find it difficult to persuade potential buyers of the merits of their offerings because, while the products and services may be excellent, they have not sufficiently well-developed selling skills necessary to persuade their target customers.
Euroalert.net
Authors: Marín José Luis , Rodríguez Mai , Marín Ángel , Calmeau Ramón , Alvarez Jose María , Labra José Emilio
Published: April 2013

This chapter aims to describe a use case of information re-use in the field of public procurement in the European Union (EU). It describes how the lack of a pan-European information platform providing one single access point to EU public procurement notices, hampers the access for companies to this market, especially for SMEs. To bring one possible solution to this significant issue, Euroalert.net– a company powered by open data –, is currently developing commercial services fuelled by the re-use of public sector information (PSI) related to public procurement. The chapter also describes 10ders information Services (10ders IS), a Euroalert.net R&D project aimed at building a pan-European platform to aggregate public procurement information data generated by hundreds of thousands of contracting authorities in the EU.
Open Innovation for Non- High-Tech SMEs
Authors: Porath Amiram
Published: April 2013

This chapter presents a case of SMEs from non-High-Tech sector, which would normally find innovation harder than sectors with intensive R&D. The Users Association of Advanced Technologies is a national program that helps SMEs in searching, identifying, selecting, and implementing technologies, methodologies, and processes by reducing the resources required for that activity. The program reduces operation as well as managerial costs and allows SMEs to acquire the innovation they require, which they could not otherwise get. The initial concept of the program was meant for Israeli SMEs, however, as the concept is universal, the case study argues that the concept and basics can be adopted by other countries/regions. It can also be regarded as a risk mitigating program executed on behalf of SMEs. The readers can identify and define the concept as well as the basics to be adopted for other countries and regions. The program presented through this case does not support R&D, or the creation of new knowledge by itself, and therefore presents a complementary activity to R&D support programs.
Mona El Fadly
Authors: Kamel Menna , Awni Ali
Published: April 2013

This case examines a business in the food catering industry and demonstrates the importance of supply chain practices even to an entrepreneur’s small business. The business is legally registered as ‘El Yosr Food Corner’ and has been operating in Egypt since 1997. It provides standardized as well as customized home-made oriental dishes at competitive prices. By 2009, the surge in the growth of the business had strained the company’s operational capabilities in various ways. Furthermore, the business had encountered a number of hitches as a result of inefficiencies in supply chain management. Menna Reda, El Yosr’s consultant, was called in to advise the enterprise owner and managing director, Mona El Fadly, of the proper course of action to address these challenges.
Green Supply Chain Management
Authors: Lee Ki-Hoon
Published: April 2013

The strategic importance of supply chain management has been increasing during the past two decades. Companies utilise the supply chain in order to become more competitive as a whole. Recently, it has been observed that environmental and social pressures and standards have a direct and indirect impact on supply chain management and the competitiveness of corporations. Integrating environmental criteria into supply chain management has become an important strategic issue for many companies. This study explores the subject area of the greening of supply chain management. In particular, the supply chain environmental management (SCEM) programme is explored in the Korean context. The SCEM programme is based upon the relationship between buyers and suppliers. By utilising this relationship, general improvement in the environmental performance of suppliers can be achieved. A case study of Hyundai Motors Co. (HMC) empirically supports this. Green supply chain management led to new ways of collaboration with suppliers, in terms of developing environmental solutions and capacity buildings with key suppliers. The key implication for suppliers, in particular SMEs, is to develop suppliers’ capabilities and increasing supplier criticality in order to achieve win-win outcomes in environmental and financial performance.
SME Financial Management
Authors: Stan-Maduka Edna
Published: April 2013

Regulators’ efforts to create awareness of risk management in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have heightened since the 2008 recession which affected many economies. The objective has been to stress the fundamental role of risk assessment and mitigation in the protection of business processes and profitability of SMEs. This has been hard to achieve due to the inadequate financial and operational processes within small and medium enterprises. This chapter presents an exploration of risk management in SMEs and a simplified approach to SME risk assessment and operational risk mitigation.
eBusiness among Ethnic Minority Businesses
Authors: Beckinsale Martin
Published: April 2013

A small but growing body of evidence (SBS, 2004; Beckinsale & Ram, 2006) has indicated that Ethnic Minority Businesses (EMBs) have not adopted Information Communication Technology (ICT) at comparable rates to their non-EMB counterparts, predominantly Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). With EMBs accounting for almost 10% of businesses in the UK, the economic impact as ICT adoption continues to further develop across mainstream markets could be highly significant. Existing UK ICT policies also failed to engage with EMBs until the NW ICT Adoption Pilot in 2004. The current, limited body of research is fragmented, provides limited understanding and coherence on reasons of low ICT adoption, and lacks exemplars upon which policy considerations may be made. Firstly, the chapter will examine and review the existing body of literature. Secondly, EMB cases that have developed ICT to a degree where they are engaging in e-business activity are statically and dynamically analysed and discussed. The findings provide a number of options and guidance for EMB owners. Finally, the recommendations point to the need for improved ICT awareness, better business support provision nationally, and the importance of generation and education as key drivers.
SMEs E-Business Security Issues
Authors: Gaivéo José
Published: April 2013

Nowadays, when organizations, no matter what dimension they possess, are confronted with more exigent market challenges, they must change strategies and behaviours as needed to respond according to their new business positioning. If all organizations are affected by markets instability, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) suffer a greater impact due to a lack of suitable resources for the appropriate change of business strategy or even to develop a new strategy, which reveals information and information security significance, and so the relevance of securing Information Systems that supports their flows trough organizations. This chapter is intended to point information security issues that are important to SMEs’ e-Business strategies, issues which could simultaneously guarantee organizational information privacy. Another purpose is the establishment of guidelines which could also be applied to SMEs, allowing information security policies definitions.
Preparing for Change
Authors: Heavin Ciara , Adam Frederic
Published: April 2013

In the current climate, preparing for change is an issue for companies large and small. However, there remains a dearth of empirical evidence that highlight how software Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) operationalise their approach to knowledge management (KM) as a means of preparing themselves for the future. For an SME, the first step is to take stock of the types of knowledge that are valuable to the business, where it is stored and how it is used. In addition, consideration must be given to knowledge activities (KA), the constituent parts, of a company’s KM approach. By doing this, the organisation can identify where its strengths lie in terms of the type and extent to which knowledge is managed through acquisition, codification, storage, maintenance, transfer and creation activities. Using a qualitative analysis approach in a single case study, this chapter identifies occurrences of these knowledge activities as a means of assessing an SME’s approach to KM with a view to better facilitating an organisation’s ability to be increasingly flexible in the face of a changing environment.
The Relevance of Customers as a Source of Knowledge in IT Firms
Authors: Cantú Laura Zapata , Pineda José Luis
Published: April 2013

The overall aim and contribution of this chapter is to identify the main sources of knowledge generation in IT-related SMEs and the organizational elements that support this process. Knowledge generation occurs through external knowledge acquisition and internal knowledge creation. The latter process is facilitated by personal motivation and the learning opportunities it offers to the organization’s employees, who play a key role as initiative and suggestion carriers. In order to evaluate the phenomenon under study, which the literature review reflects as an incipient stage, two-step exploratory research was conducted. In the first stage, eight interviews were conducted in four firms. The objective of the second phase was to validate some of the insight from the first stage, so a questionnaire designed for the research purpose was administered. The results show that knowledge in SMEs in the IT sector is generated mainly by employee self-learning, meetings and customers as an external source. These activities are strongly supported by the employees’ opportunity to learn and by organizational culture.
The Role of the Consultant in Enterprise Development
Authors: Bathgate Ian K.
Published: April 2013

Business failure crisis is not a new phenomenon. The competitive dynamism to which businesses are susceptible exposes free economic agents to the vagaries of the marketplace, encompassing problems of growth, sustainability, and paradoxically, failure. However, the problems are more exacerbated in small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) than large businesses, which is why they have continued to experience disproportionately high failure rates. Set against this background, this chapter focuses on the role of early consultancy intervention in securing sustainable development of SMEs. It does this by analysing SME growth strategies with respect to the interface with consultants. Using the ‘embedded case study’ approach and leaning significantly on the author’s consultancy undertakings with SMEs in the UK, the chapter provides refreshing perspectives on the nature of consultancy, strategic options open to SMEs, entrepreneurial competences and characteristics, the need for consultants, and an assessment of role effectiveness in the SME sector.
Network Perspective on Structures Related to Communities
Authors: Wolfe Alvin
Published: April 2013

The application of network perspectives to communities requires some appreciation of the variety of ways people are now writing about communities. Some scholars and practitioners have drifted toward the view that a community is composed very largely of the personal networks of the individuals who are members of the community. But the whole community is more than the sum of those related parts, and the structure of a community must include not only those direct interpersonal relations but also the relations among the clusters and groups and corporate entities that interact in and about this whole. If scientific knowledge about these matters is to accumulate, comparing findings among various studies is of vital importance. From the 1940s well into the 1960s, the local community was the recognized social unit that sociologists and anthropologists studied. Linton wrote of the necessity of the local group. Many sociologists and anthropologists gave their full attention to this local level of social integration through a field called “community studies.” The work of Conrad Arensberg, Sol Kimball, Robert Redfield, Carl Taylor, Eric Wolf, and others had views of communities that had a network cast to them. The category “community” includes a wide range of social formations, generally local systems of fairly densely connected persons in households and organizations, systems on a scale somewhere between those domestic households and wider society.
Human Resource Management in SMEs
Authors: Melo Pedro , Machado Carolina
Published: April 2013

Although small and medium size companies perform a relevant role in world economies, the authors conclude that research in this field focuses more attention on bigger organizations in seeking to understand what happens about the HRM function. However, and looking to the special characteristics of SMEs, it becomes critical to carry out a study, focused particularly on its characteristics, which allow for drawing a conceptual framework capable of helping managers of this kind of organizations to implement HRM practices consistently and adjusted to organizational objectives. The purpose of this research is to develop a conceptual framework which allows a better understanding of the main HRM research lines in SMEs and the underlying importance to HRM professionals.
How can Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Innovation Enhance Enterprise Performance?
Authors: Ionescu Ana-Cristina
Published: April 2013

By analyzing the experience in Romania, this study aims to provide insight into the relationship between SMEs’ CSR activities and their economic competitiveness in the light of innovation, mandatory in times of economic crisis, and emphasize the idea that business as usual is no longer acceptable. In addition to providing research on the general situation of CSR in Romania, this case is also describing the most relevant (public) actors engaged in this issue, the level of deployment of CSR among SMEs, as well as the characteristics of these activities. In order to prove that innovative CSR initiatives are a positive investment resulting in an economically beneficial outcome for the businesses, that can be disseminated via open innovation networks, a number of five Good Practice case studies have been identified and described in-depth.
Building Innovative Business Ideas in Small Business Enterprises
Authors: Metwally Elham
Published: April 2013

This study of “Bird ICT” is a case of a business development company in the field of information and communication technology (ICT). The chapter explores, describes, and examines the story and circumstances of building and managing innovative business ideas in an Egyptian small business enterprise. It specifically addresses specific circumstances, opportunities, and challenges with which a small enterprise pursuing innovation strategies is faced, and analyzes how effective deployment of innovative business ideas and bringing them to the market has contributed to strategic competitiveness. Findings highlight the patterns of developing new business ideas and mainly conclude the following: strategic competitiveness is accounted for by management’s efficiency, commitment, cheap labor, and most importantly, fast delivery of easy hit technologies and innovative, reliable, flexible, yet easy to use innovative advertising solutions. This study used qualitative research strategy in connection with theory to gain full understanding of a natural setting, and as a comprehensive method of substantiating or un-substantiating the context of achieving strategic competitiveness through new innovations and technologies, and provides insights into the nature of management of innovations, from which lessons can be drawn for other organizations both in small business sector organizations and generally.
E-Novation and Start-Up Companies
Authors: Sood Suresh
Published: April 2013

By 2010 the potential to launch a “startup-in-a-box” with an E-Novation framework (Pattinson and Low 2008) supported by social technologies to foster intense collaboration among core employees will become both a reality and essential. Only through a combination of framework and social technologies can startups and founding employees keep pace with the changing business landscape and generate a rapid amount of knowledge to sustain sufficient advantage in the market.
Mining User-Generated Content for Social Research and Other Applications
Authors: Banchs Rafael E. , Penagos Carlos G. Rodríguez
Published: April 2013

The main objective of this chapter is to present a general overview of the most relevant applications of text mining and natural language processing technologies evolving and emerging around the Web 2.0 phenomenon (such as automatic categorization, document summarization, question answering, dialogue management, opinion mining, sentiment analysis, outlier identification, misbehavior detection, and social estimation and forecasting) along with the main challenges and new research opportunities that are directly and indirectly derived from them.
The Redefined Role of Consumer as a Prosumer
Authors: Rusko Rauno
Published: April 2013

The scarcity of resources and tightening competition drive small and medium enterprises to find new solutions for product development and production. In addition to other (competing) firms and strategic alliances, the firms are searching assistance for production and R&D also among other stakeholders, such as consumers and public sector. In addition to the importance of careful stakeholder analysis, this study emphasises the old ideas, introduced initially by Alvin Toffler, about the role of consumer as a producer and developer of the products, which is the role of prosumer in the contemporary business and technological environment. The updated perspectives of prosumer are directed in this study into the concepts, such as consumer-based coopetition, crowdsourcing and value co-creation. These viewpoints provide new solutions especially for the capable SMEs to plan the production and design of the products with the help of customers in spite of the small organization. Furthermore, this study shows that the contemporary applications of crowdsourcing are concentrated in the business of Information Communication Technology (ICT) and its solutions and platforms. Therefore, also open information and closed innovation strategies are in the focal point of this study. The main contribution of this study is directed in these discussions with a new introduced framework, which is based on the earlier studies of this field.
Resistance of Cell in Fractal Growth in Electrodeposition
Authors: Shaikh Y. H. , Khan A. R. , Patange K. B. , Pathan J. M. , Behere S. H.
Published: April 2013

This paper presents the study of dynamic electrical resistance of the electrodeposition cell during the growth metallic dendrites showing fractal character. The electric resistance of the circular electrodeposition cell is measured in real time using a computer based data acquisition system. The data acquisition system constructed is capable of measuring the cell voltage and the current through the cell under program control at pre-decided intervals. This allows for the measurement of the dynamic electrical resistance of the electrodeposition cell. The system is based on standard analogue to digital controller ADC interfaced to the computer through the printer port.
Existence of Positive Solutions for Generalized p-Laplacian BVPs
Authors: Lian Wei-Cheng , Wong Fu-Hsiang , Lo Jen-Chieh , Yeh Cheh-Chih
Published: April 2013

where are given. The authors examine and discuss these solutions.
Mathematical Model to Assess the Relative Effectiveness of Rift Valley Fever Countermeasures
Authors: Gaff Holly , Burgess Colleen , Jackson Jacqueline , Niu Tianchan , Papelis Yiannis , Hartley David
Published: April 2013

Mathematical modeling of infectious diseases is increasingly used to explicate the mechanics of disease propagation, impact of controls, and sensitivity of countermeasures. The authors demonstrate use of a Rift Valley Fever (RVF) model to study efficacy of countermeasures to disease transmission parameters. RVF is a viral infectious disease that propagates through infected mosquitoes and primarily affects animals but also humans. Vaccines exist to protect against the disease but there is lack of data comparing efficacy of vaccination with alternative countermeasures such as managing mosquito population or destroying infected livestock. This paper presents a compartmentalized multispecies deterministic ordinary differential equation model of RVF propagation among livestock through infected Aedes and Culex mosquitoes and exercises the model to study the efficacy of vector adulticide, vector larvicide, livestock vaccination, and livestock culling on livestock population. Results suggest that livestock vaccination and culling offer the greatest benefit in terms of reducing livestock morbidity and mortality.
Resource Distribution Strategies for Mitigation of Cross-Regional Influenza Pandemics
Authors: Uribe-Sanchez Andres , Savachkin Alex
Published: April 2013

As recently acknowledged by the Institute of Medicine, the existing pandemic mitigation models lack dynamic decision support capabilities. This paper develops a simulation optimization model for generating dynamic resource distribution strategies over a network of regions exposed to a pandemic. While the underlying simulation mimics the disease and population dynamics of the affected regions, the optimization model generates progressive allocations of mitigation resources, including vaccines, antivirals, healthcare capacities, and social distancing enforcement measures. The model strives to minimize the impact of ongoing outbreaks and the expected impact of the potential outbreaks, considering measures of morbidity, mortality, and social distancing, translated into the cost of lost productivity and medical expenses. The model was implemented on a simulated outbreak involving four million inhabitants. The strategy was compared to pro-rata and myopic strategies. The model is intended to assist public health policy makers in developing effective distribution policies during influenza pandemics.
A Computational Model of Mitigating Disease Spread in Spatial Networks
Authors: Kim Taehyong , Li Kang , Zhang Aidong , Sen Surajit , Ramanathan Murali
Published: April 2013

This study examines the problem of disease spreading and containment in spatial networks, where the computational model is capable of detecting disease progression to initiate processes mitigating infection spreads. This paper focuses on disease spread from a central point in a 1 x 1 unit square spatial network, and makes the model respond by trying to selectively decimate the network and thereby contain disease spread. Attention is directed on the kinematics of disease spreading with respect to how damage is controlled by the model. In addition, the authors analyze both the sensitivity of disease progression on various parameter settings and the correlation of parameters of the model. As the result, this study suggests that the radius of containment process is the most critical parameter and its best values with the computational model would be a great help to reduce damages from disease spread of a future pandemic. The study can be applied to controlling other virus spread problems in spatial networks such as disease spread in a geographical network and virus spread in a brain cell network.
A Structural Model to Investigate Factors Affect Patient Satisfaction and Revisit Intention in Jordanian Hospitals
Authors: Al-Refaie Abbas
Published: April 2013

By measuring to what extent hospitals meet or exceed patient’s expectations, hospital managers can determine the needed service design and delivery improvements that contribute to patient satisfaction and revisit intention. It is necessary to evaluate quality of health care services from patient perspective. This research investigates the factors, including hospital performance, hospital stay, hospital facilities, interaction with patients, service quality, and patient security culture, that affect significantly patient satisfaction and revisit intention in Jordanian hospitals using structural equation modeling. Data were collected from five main hospitals. The results showed that hospital performance has no significant effect on patient satisfaction and revisit intention. This result indicates that the patients are facing troubles in admission, registration, waiting time, and response time for results of medical tests. Also, the hospital stay, hospital facilities, service quality, and patient security culture are found significantly important in achieving patient satisfaction and revisit intention. Further, the interaction with patients’ requirements and needs significantly related to service quality and hospital stay. These results shall provide policy and planning manager a great assistance in determining the factors that improve hospital performance, maintain quality medical services, and plan future improvements in the design and development of medical health care services in Jordan.
Generating Fully Bounded Chaotic Attractors
Authors: Elhadj Zeraoulia
Published: April 2013

Generating chaotic attractors from nonlinear dynamical systems is quite important because of their applicability in sciences and engineering. This paper considers a class of 2-D mappings displaying fully bounded chaotic attractors for all bifurcation parameters. It describes in detail the dynamical behavior of this map, along with some other dynamical phenomena. Also presented are some phase portraits and some dynamical properties of the given simple family of 2-D discrete mappings.
Mitigation Strategies for Foot and Mouth Disease
Authors: Chowdhury Sohini Roy , Scoglio Caterina , Hsu William H.
Published: April 2013

Prediction of epidemics such as Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) is a global necessity in addressing economic, political and ethical issues faced by the affected countries. In the absence of precise and accurate spatial information regarding disease dynamics, learning- based predictive models can be used to mimic latent spatial parameters so as to predict the spread of epidemics in time. This paper analyzes temporal predictions from four such learning-based models, namely: neural network, autoregressive, Bayesian network, and Monte-Carlo simulation models. The prediction qualities of these models have been validated using FMD incidence reports in Turkey. Additionally, the authors perform simulations of mitigation strategies based on the predictive models to curb the impact of the epidemic. This paper also analyzes the cost-effectiveness of these mitigation strategies to conclude that vaccinations and movement ban strategies are more cost-effective than premise culls before the onset of an epidemic outbreak; however, in the event of existing epidemic outbreaks, premise culling is more effective at controlling FMD.
An Autonomous Multi-Agent Simulation Model for Acute Inflammatory Response
Authors: Wu John , Ben-Arieh David , Shi Zhenzhen
Published: April 2013

This research proposes an agent-based simulation model combined with the strength of systemic dynamic mathematical model, providing a new modeling and simulation approach of the pathogenesis of AIR. AIR is the initial stage of a typical sepsis episode, often leading to severe sepsis or septic shocks. The process of AIR has been in the focal point affecting more than 750,000 patients annually in the United State alone. Based on the agent-based model presented herein, clinicians can predict the sepsis pathogenesis for patients using the prognostic indicators from the simulation results, planning the proper therapeutic interventions accordingly. Impressively, the modeling approach presented creates a friendly user-interface allowing physicians to visualize and capture the potential AIR progression patterns. Based on the computational studies, the simulated behavior of the agent–based model conforms to the mechanisms described by the system dynamics mathematical models established in previous research.
Intuitionistic Fuzzy 2-Metric Space and Some Topological Properties
Authors: Lohani Q.M. Danish
Published: April 2013

The notion of intuitionistic fuzzy metric space was introduced by Park (2004) and the concept of intuitionistic fuzzy normed space by Saadati and Park (2006). Recently Mursaleen and Lohani introduced the concept of intuitionistic fuzzy 2-metric space (2009) and intuitionistic fuzzy 2-norm space. This paper studies precompactness and metrizability in this new setup of intuitionistic fuzzy 2-metric space.