bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Role of Accounting and Audit in the Recent Financial Crisis
Authors: Aydin Alev Dilek
Published: May 2013

This study aims to assess the role of accounting and auditing in the recent financial crisis. After each crisis, there have been serious discussions concerning the reasons behind those crises. However, no consensus has yet been achieved until now. In this context, the analysis of the relationships among financial crisis, accounting, and auditing is of utmost importance in better evaluating the structural reasons behind the crisis. There are several points that this chapter aims to analyze to indicate the contributions of accounting and auditing to the recent global financial crisis. These points are: impacts of disregarding the main principles of accounting, the wide use of fair value accounting over cost-based accounting, incorrect and misleading financial and audit reports, applications of creative accounting, and lack of transparency and weaknesses of the auditing process. The debates generally concentrate on the use of fair value (mark-to-market) accounting in the financial reports as opposed to the historical cost method. It should be emphasized that accounting is very important as a key mechanism of market economies, because of its crucial role in the functioning of the markets in accordance with the public interest. The chapter concludes with several suggestions by taking the fact into consideration that accounting and auditing systems should be revised for the better protection of interests of the third parties such as investors, potential investors, and the state.
Crisis Effects on the Capital Structure Determinants for Manufacturing Companies
Authors: Sahin Osman
Published: May 2013

The purpose of the study is to investigate crisis effects on the capital structure determinants for manufacturing companies listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange Market (ISE) in Turkey for the period 2005-2010. This period is divided into two parts: The period of 2005-2007 is used as pre-crisis period, and the period of 2008-2010 is used as a crisis period. The periods are compared to understand crisis effect on the capital structure determinants. The panel data analysis is used for this study. Short term, long term, and total debt ratios are used as a proxy for the analysis. The sample consists of 138 manufacturing companies in Turkey over the period of 2005-2010. As a result, manufacturing companies’ capital structure is usually determined in accordance with the financial hierarchy theory. During financial crisis, the effects of capital structure determinants deviate from expectations.
FiWi Networks
Authors: Taheri Mina , Ansari Nirwan
Published: May 2013

Optical access network is a promising solution to meet the ever-increasing demand for broadband services. Fiber-based technologies such as Fiber To The Home (FTTH), Fiber To The Building (FTTB), and Fiber To The Curb (FTTC) are well suited to support high bandwidth services and mitigate bandwidth bottlenecks. However, implementing optical fiber to all end points imposes considerable CAPEX. Moreover, fiber cannot directly reach mobile users and devices. Although untethered features of wireless networks are attractive, their limited supported bandwidth cannot answer today’s enormous demands. Combining complementary features of these two technologies for broadband access is imminent and meritorious. Thus, integrated Fiber-Wireless (FiWi) access networks are considered as a scalable and economical means for broadband access. In FiWi, end points receive services through a wireless subnetwork, which acts as the front end and is connected to the optical subnetwork, which serves as the back end via gateway nodes.
Antnet Routing Algorithm with Link Evaporation and Multiple Ant Colonies to Overcome Stagnation Problem
Authors: Tekiner Firat , Ghassemlooy Zabih
Published: May 2013

Antnet is a software agent-based routing algorithm that is influenced by the unsophisticated and individual ant’s emergent behaviour. The aim of this chapter is twofold, firstly to introduce improvements to the antnet routing algorithm and then to critically review the work that is done around antnet and reinforcement learning in routing applications. In this chapter a modified antnet algorithm for packet-based networks has been proposed, which offers improvement in the throughput and the average delay by detecting and dropping packets routed through the non-optimal routes. The effect of traffic fluctuations has been limited by applying boundaries to the reinforcement parameter. The round trip feedback information supplied by the software agents is reinforced by updated probability entries in the distance vector table. In addition, link usage information is also used to prevent stagnation problems. Also discussed is antnet with multiple ant colonies applied to packet switched networks. Simulation results show that the average delay experienced by data packets is reduced for evaporation for all cases when non-uniform traffic model traffic is used. However, there is no performance gain on the uniform traffic models. In addition, multiple ant colonies are applied to the packet switched networks, and results are compared with the other approaches. Results show that the throughput could be increased when compared to other schemes, but with no gain in the average packet delay time.
Three Models for Ethical Governance of Nanotechnology and Position of EGAIS’ Ideas within the Field
Authors: Doridot Fernand
Published: May 2013

Based on an analysis of the current literature on nanoethics, this paper proposes to identify three different models for ethical governance of nanotechnology, respectively called ’conservative model’, ’inquiry model’ and ’interpretative model’. The propositions of the EGAIS1 Research Project in terms of ethical governance of nanotechnology are related to the latter model.
Paradigms of Governance
Authors: Lavelle Sylvain
Published: May 2013

The elaboration of some paradigms of governance lies upon the opposition between the democratic and the non-democratic, namely, as will be shown and defined, the technocratic (skilled-based power), the ethocratic (virtue-based power), and the epistocratic (wisdom-based power). The point in this opposition is that, contrary to the democratic paradigm, the non-democratic ones assume that the condition for social rules or decisions to be valid is their reflecting, discussing and making by an elite of experts, virtuous or wise individuals or groups. There is no doubt in these paradigms a basic distrust as to the ability of the people to take in charge the public affairs and then to elaborate the appropriate standards and norms accounting for the regulation of actions and conducts. The re-construction of these four paradigms (the democratic and the non-democratic) can be illuminating as regards the interpretation of the actual expert and law-driven trends in the ethical governance of technology. It appears, indeed, that the paradigms of technocracy as well as that of ethocracy still operate in the design of governance settings aimed at regulating research and innovation projects.
A Call for Reflexivity in the Governance of the Finnish eGovernment System Development
Authors: Heimo Olli I. , Kimppa Kai
Published: May 2013

Some of these examples contain only clear mistakes and design failures which could have been – at least partially – avoided. Others, like the Case of Finnish biometric passports, show alarming features of lessening both privacy of the citizens and the security of the whole society. The reasons behind the lack of ethical thinking during these design processes are investigated in this chapter.
The Use of Developmental Psychology in Ethics
Authors: Titus Craig Steven
Published: May 2013

This chapter argues that a developmental psychology based in a wider notion of reason and ultimate flourishing can employ both duty and virtue in the service of the common good. It identifies several important differences between cognitive structuralism and virtue-based approaches concerning the pre-empirical priority paid to either duty or virtue in moral development. It brings to light several challenges concerning the use of developmental psychology in ethics: (1) a weakness in schools of cognitive structuralism, such as that of Lawrence Kohlberg, inasmuch as they do not move beyond the theory of stages and structures that focus only on the cognitive judgment of justice and on duty; (2) a weakness in developmental virtue approaches, such as that of Martin Seligman, inasmuch as they do not employ moral content in the operative notions of virtues and values. This article concludes that a heartier notion of developmental psychology and normative ethics will need to recognize the interrelated nature of ethical acts (moral agency), ethical agents (moral character), and ethical norms (duties and law). Such an integrated approach must also attend to the input that diverse philosophical and religious presuppositions make toward understanding the place of developmental psychology in the practice of ethics.
Automatic Facial Expression Recognition by Facial Parts Location with Boosted-LBP
Authors: Ji Yi , Idrissi Khalid
Published: May 2013

This paper proposes an automatic facial expression recognition system, which uses new methods in both face detection and feature extraction. In this system, considering that facial expressions are related to a small set of muscles and limited ranges of motions, the facial expressions are recognized by these changes in video sequences. First, the differences between neutral and emotional states are detected. Faces can be automatically located from changing facial organs. Then, LBP features are applied and AdaBoost is used to find the most important features for each expression on essential facial parts. At last, SVM with polynomial kernel is used to classify expressions. The method is evaluated on JAFFE and MMI databases. The performances are better than other automatic or manual annotated systems.
A Marked Point Process Model Including Strong Prior Shape Information Applied to Multiple Object Extraction from Images
Authors: Kulikova Maria , Jermyn Ian , Descombes Xavier , Zhizhina Elena , Zerubia Josiane
Published: May 2013

Object extraction from images is one of the most important tasks in remote sensing image analysis. For accurate extraction from very high resolution (VHR) images, object geometry needs to be taken into account. A method for incorporating strong yet flexible prior shape information into a marked point process model for the extraction of multiple objects of complex shape is presented. To control the computational complexity, the objects considered are defined using the image data and the prior shape information. To estimate the optimal configuration of objects, the process is sampled using a Markov chain based on a stochastic birth-and-death process on the space of multiple objects. The authors present several experimental results on the extraction of tree crowns from VHR aerial images.
Evaluation Approach of Arabic Character Recognition
Authors: Aljuaid Hanan , Mohamad Dzulkifli , Sarfraz Muhammad
Published: May 2013

This paper proposes and contributes towards designing a complete system for off-line Arabic character recognition. The proposed system is specifically meant for Arabic handwriting recognition, but it equally works for the typed character recognition. It has various phases including preprocessing and segmentation. It also includes thinning phase and finds vertical and horizontal projection profiles. The recognition phase is managed by genetic algorithm. The genetic algorithm stands on feature extraction algorithm that defines six features for each segment. The algorithm, for Arabic handwriting recognition, obtained 90.46 recognition rate. The proposed system has been compared with other systems in the literature. It has achieved the second best recognition rate.
Competitive Advantage in Market Space
Authors: Shams S. M. Riad
Published: May 2013

The Internet has been playing a key role to prolifically reach the target market. Simultaneously, the implications of Relationship Marketing (RM) to establish, maintain and enhance competitive advantage in the traditional marketplace are widely recognized. However, because of the online, ongoing, and on time communication approach of the Internet (the market space), the application of RM in the market space evolves as more sensitive than the traditional marketplace. From this context, this chapter attempts to recognize the RM perspectives that are standardized as RM indicators of five grown organizations and have been playing a key role to influence their competitive advantage in the market space. Fifteen RM indicators are attributed from the Internet marketing practices of these organizations that could be utilized to sustainably nurture competitive advantage in the market space. The application of these RM indicators emerges as viable across industries and markets.
Digital Rights Management
Authors: Gaber Tarek
Published: May 2013

In the era of the information technology and the rapid growth of the Internet access, e-Commerce technologies become very crucial as new and effective ways are needed to manage, transact, distribute, and exploit digital contents (e.g. audio and video). The proliferation of these contents has created a need for Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems. DRM, in addition to other security measures, is essential for the management and the protection of digital property, which is the main component of an e-Commerce system. This chapter highlights the need for DRM as a tool facilitating e-Commerce. It also provides the history of developing DRM and the main components of a DRM system. It also gives an overview of the existing DRM system used in e-Commerce systems. It then discuss some open issues in the current DRM system to support consumers’ rights, so supporting e-Commerce business.
Is Social Media Marketing Really Working?
Authors: Saavedra Felipe Uribe , Criado Josep Rialp , Andreu Joan Llonch
Published: May 2013

Online social networks have become the fastest growing phenomenon on the Internet and firms are beginning to take advantage of them as a marketing tool. However, the strategic importance of social media marketing is not yet clear, given the novelty and the difficulty of measuring its impact on business performance. This study uses data from 191 Spanish firms from several sectors to measure the impact of the intensity of use of social media marketing on the relationship between the dynamic capabilities of market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation, and business performance. The results provide evidence of the moderating effects of social media marketing intensity on the strength of the mentioned relations and the importance of a strong and committed marketing strategy on digital social networks for businesses.
Credit Card Use and Risks in the E-Market
Authors: Ha Huong
Published: May 2013

This chapter aims to (1) examine the awareness and experience of undergraduates in Melbourne, Australia of current and potential online risks, (2) explore how undergraduates deal with online incidents, and (3) make policy recommendations on how to enhance e-consumer protection. A total of 802 valid responses were received from the surveys conducted in Melbourne, Australia in 2007-2008. Findings demonstrate that most of the respondents were not aware of online incidents which could lead to credit card fraud. A number of them have encountered online incidents. Also, several respondents would less likely seek help from government and/or non-government organisations when encountering online incidents. Overall, credit card use and risks in the e-market is an under-research area in Australia, and this is a pilot study in this field. Findings from this chapter would contribute to the body of knowledge of credit card use and debt due to online shopping, and e-consumer protection.
Exploring the Role of Technology Readiness in Developing Trust and Loyalty for E-Services
Authors: Purani Keyoor , Sahadev Sunil
Published: May 2013

Technology readiness relates to an individual’s propensity to embrace new technology. Consumers high in technology readiness are very optimistic about the impact of technology, have high levels of innovativeness, are very comfortable in using technology, and feel less insecure about technology. Previous studies have shown how technology readiness influences a consumer’s evaluation of service quality. The effect of technology readiness can also be on such constructs like trust with the service provider as well as loyalty to the service provider. The present study looks at the impact of technology readiness on the evaluation of e-service quality and its subsequent impact on e-trust and e-loyalty. Users of job-service portals in India were contacted for data collection. A total of 350 respondents replied to the questionnaire. The data was analysed through a path analysis procedure. The study found ample evidence for the impact of technology readiness on e-service quality, e-trust and e-loyalty. However the path from e-trust to e-loyalty as well as from e-service equality to e-trust was not found to be significant. The paper discusses the development of the conceptual model, empirical study as well as the implications. Finally, the practical implications that emerge from the results are also discussed.
Cultivating Chan as Proactive Therapy for Social Wellness
Authors: Lin Hong
Published: May 2013

Chan is a superior mental training methodology derived from Buddhism and absorbed wisdom of religious practitioners, philosophers, and scholars around Eastern Asia through thousands of years. As the primary way of Chan, meditation has clear effects in bringing practitioners’ mind into a tranquil state and promoting both mental and physical health. The effect of Chan is measurable. The authors propose to establish a Chan science by applying modern experimental sciences to various models that have been used in traditional medicine and philosophical studies. Through these studies, they believe they will be able to make Chan a beneficial practice to promote human life in modern society.
Social Networks as a Tool to Improve the Life Quality of Chronic Patients and Their Relatives
Authors: Guinalíu Miguel , Marta Javier , Subero José María
Published: May 2013

The evolution of society has modified the medical needs of the population from social and economic criteria. Social networks can partially help these new medical demands contributing to improve the life quality of chronic patients and their relatives through the modification of the ways of communication and interaction. In order to analyze the real value of social networks in this chapter the authors study a real case. This analysis allows them to identify the benefits that social networks can provide to chronic patients, as well as the barriers that must be considered to implement them as health service tools.
Resilience and Psychomotricity in Preschool Education
Authors: Cró Maria de Lurdes , Andreucci Lívia , Pinho Ana Mafalda , Pereira Anabela
Published: May 2013

The aim of this study is to analyse the importance of resilience and psychomotricity and their impact in the learning of disadvantaged children at a preschool age that are exposed to adverse social and personal factors and to assess the efficiency of an intervention program based in psychomotricity and resilience together. A project developed in a region of Brazil (Botucatu), where a Psychological Development Activation Model was used, is presented, and also standardised and easily reproduced psychomotricity exercises and the Programme Strong Start Pre K in the area of resilience are presented. The assessment instruments used were the WebeST test for resilience, discussed in this chapter, and the operational Portage Inventory test for Psychomotricity. These results indicate that there was an evolution in resilience among children in the group that participated in this program. They improved the resilience capacity, dealing with problems, and controlling emotions. Some implications of this study are analysed, suggesting changes in the teaching/learning process as well as in testing and interventions in order to achieve success in school.
Organ Donation and Transplantation
Authors: Al-Dossary Sherifa , Al-Dulaijan Norah , Al-Mansour Shaha , Al-Zahrani Shrooq , Al-Fridan Manahil , Househ Mowafa
Published: May 2013

Organ transplantation is the best and often times the only opportunity for patients with end-stage organ disease to survive. In 1985, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was one of the few Arab countries to have started an organ donation program. The program was later expanded and renamed the Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation (SCOT) in 1994. This chapter reviews the literature around organ donation and transplantation and introduces the different types of consent and registries available from different parts of the world as a solution for enhancing the process of donation and increasing organ donation rates. It also explores the organ donation process, the role of the SCOT program, and the social and public factors that influence organ donation in Saudi Arabia.
A Survey on Health Care Services Using Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Manvi Sunilkumar S. , B. Manjula R.
Published: May 2013

Although the present technology has aided in development of high-technology-based disease detection machines, potential medicines and devices, the well-being of the individual remains a challenge. Human beings are struggling to control diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, asthma, hypertension, insomnia, heart disease, and diabetes due to non-availability of patient’s real-time data for comprehensive study and analysis. Smart health centre environments represent the evolutionary developmental step towards intelligent health care. The Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) with pervasive and ubiquitous computing may be a solution for this predicament. WSNs are a key technology for ambient assisted living. The concept of WSN is used to measure the various health parameters like blood pressure, blood clot, allergy, ECG, cholesterol, RBCs, etc. In this chapter, the authors highlight the importance of WSNs with respect to health care services and discuss some of its challenging applications for diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, asthma, and heart disease. They delineate the challenges that researchers face in this area that may lead to future research.
Medical Information Extraction in European Portuguese
Authors: Ferreira Liliana , Teixeira António , Cunha João Paulo Silva
Published: May 2013

The electronic storage of medical patient data is becoming a daily experience in most of the practices and hospitals worldwide. However, much of the available data is in free text form, a convenient way of expressing concepts and events but especially challenging if one wants to perform automatic searches, summarization, or statistical analyses. Information Extraction can relieve some of these problems by offering a semantically informed interpretation and abstraction of the texts. MedInX, the Medical Information eXtraction system presented in this chapter is designed to process textual clinical discharge records in order to perform automatic and accurate mapping of free text reports onto a structured representation. MedInX components are based on Natural Language Processing principles and provide several mechanisms to read, process, and utilize external resources, such as terminologies and ontologies. MedInX current practical applications include automatic code assignment and an audit system capable of systematically analyze the content and completeness of the clinical reports. Recent evaluation efforts on a set of authentic patient discharge letters indicate that the system performs with 95% precision and recall.
ICT Use and Multidisciplinary Healthcare Teams
Authors: Scholl Juliann C. , Olaniran Bolanle A.
Published: May 2013

In this chapter, the authors discuss ICTs in the medical field as well as identify the advantages and disadvantages of their use. By applying Retchin’s (2008) conceptual framework for interprofessional and co-managed care—one that considers the impact of temporality, urgency of care, and structure of authority—the authors provide guidelines and recommendations for how physicians and other crucial health practitioners can use technology to work with each other. More importantly, they explain how information communication technologies can impact overall patient health care and delivery.
ICTs for Orientation and Mobility for Blind People
Authors: Sanz Pablo Revuelta , Mezcua Belén Ruiz , Pena José M. Sánchez
Published: May 2013

Orientation and mobility are two fields of applications of the so-called Assistive Products, in which we can find a high growth in the last ten years. In this group, the so-called Electronic Travel Aids have a capital importance. These applications are focused on helping blind people in the following aspects of their daily lives, among others: avoiding crashing against obstacles, guiding through unknown environments, giving relevant information of the environment, helping blind people “see” by touch devices, electrodes, sounds, etc. Commercial, but also experimental technology has been intensely applied in this field to provide assistive products, which helps in ways that were unexpected some years ago. The authors provide an introduction to this field and a taxonomy of the available assistive products for the orientation and mobility. Finally, they detail advantages and disadvantages of several paradigmatic proposals to provide a global point of view of the state of the art in orientation and mobility technology for this group of users.
New Electro-Optic and Display Technology for Visually Disabled People
Authors: Benito Ricardo Vergaz , Vega-Colado César , Coco María Begoña , Cuadrado Rubén , Torres-Zafra Juan Carlos , Sánchez-Pena José M. , Coco Rosa , López-Miguel Alberto
Published: May 2013

The aim of the chapter is to review the most recent advances in electro-optical technologies applied to visually disabled people. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the number of people in the world with some kind of visual impairment is 285 million, with 246 million of these persons in a partially sighted or Low Vision (LV) condition. The top three causes of visual impairment are uncorrected refractive errors, cataracts and glaucoma, followed by age-related macular degeneration. On the other hand, Head Mounted Displays or electro-optical materials used in liquid crystal or electrochromic devices can be used in technical aids for LV. In this chapter, the authors review how disabled people receive real world information using these new technologies, how the recently developed electro-optical technical aids can improve visual perception, and how these LV aids do work, from a technological point of view.
Interoperability of Medical Devices and Information Systems
Authors: Lhotska Lenka , Bursa Miroslav , Huptych Michal , Chudacek Vaclav , Havlik Jan
Published: May 2013

Information and communication technologies have already become an inseparable part of healthcare sector activities. In the chapter, the authors discuss the issues of standardization and interoperability that are crucial for correct interconnection of medical and other devices and information systems. Their previous work in the area has led to the conclusion that successful integration of partial solutions is strongly dependent on the issue of interoperability of medical devices and information systems. It comprises problems of standardization of data acquisition, communication, processing, and storage, and the connected problem: correct data mapping between different ICT applications. They present several examples of partial solutions of communication and data format definition in dedicated areas.
Design of an ICT Tool for Decision Making in Social and Health Policies
Authors: Grimaldo Francisco , Ródenas Francisco , Lozano Miguel , Carretero Stephanie , Orduña Juan Manuel , Garcés Jorge , Duato José , Fatas Enrique
Published: May 2013

The governance requires technical support regarding the complexity in deciding health policies to assist people who require long-term care. Long-term care policies require the use of ICT simulation tools that can provide policy makers with the option of going into a decision theatre and virtually knowing the consequences of different policies prior to finally determining the real policy to be adopted. In this sense, there is an absence of simulation tools for decision making about long-term care policies. In this chapter, the authors propose the foundations and guidelines of SSIMSOWELL, a new scalable, multiagent simulation tool that increases the prediction capacity of governance in the long term care policies, improving the decision making in short, medium, and large term in different European regions. The simulation tool implements a previously validated Social Sustainability Model (SSM). The main goal of SSIMSOWELL is the prediction of policy impacts and the development of new governance models, since it increases the budgetary efficiency and the sustainability of long term policies. In addition, it improves the capacity of policy makers in modelling, planning, and evaluating social-health policies at different scales, ranges, and times in the European Union.
Application of Molecular Topology to the Prediction of Water Quality Indices of Alkylphenol Pollutants
Authors: Gálvez Jorge , Parreño Miriam , Pla Jordi , Sanchez Jaime , Gálvez-Llompart María , Navarro Sergio , García-Domenech Ramón
Published: May 2013

In this paper, topological-mathematical models based on multilineal regression analysis have been built as a model of the degradability of 26 alkylphenols through the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Biochemical Oxigen Demand (BOD5). Two models with three-variable were selected (r2= 0.8793 and q2=0.8075 for log(1/COD) and r2= 0.8928 and q2=0.8327 for log(1/BOD5). The models were validated by cross-validation, internal validation and randomization tests. The results, which stand in good accordance with the obtained results, confirm the robustness of the method.
Modeling of Fluid Interaction Produced by Water Hammer
Authors: Asli Kaveh Hariri , Naghiyev Faig Bakhman Ogli , Aliyev Soltan Ali Ogli , Asli Hoosein Hariri
Published: May 2013

This paper compares the computational performance of two numerical methods for two models of Transient Flow. One model was defined by method of the Eulerian based expressed in a method of characteristics “MOC”, finite difference form. The other model was defined by method of Regression. Each method was encoded into an existing hydraulic simulation model. Results indicated that the accuracy of the methods was comparable but that the “MOC” was more computationally efficient for analysis of large water transmission line. Practical investigations in this article have shown mainly this tendency.
A Hybrid Approach Based on Self-Organizing Neural Networks and the K-Nearest Neighbors Method to Study Molecular Similarity
Authors: Amine Abdelmalek , Elberrichi Zakaria , Simonet Michel , Rahmouni Ali
Published: May 2013

The “Molecular Similarity Principle” states that structurally similar molecules tend to have similar properties—physicochemical and biological. The question then is how to define “structural similarity” algorithmically and confirm its usefulness. Within this framework, research by similarity is registered, which is a practical approach to identify molecule candidates (to become drugs or medicines) from databases or virtual chemical libraries by comparing the compounds two by two. Many statistical models and learning tools have been developed to correlate the molecules’ structure with their chemical, physical or biological properties. The role of data mining in chemistry is to evaluate “hidden” information in a set of chemical data. Each molecule is represented by a vector of great dimension (using molecular descriptors), the applying a learning algorithm on these vectors. In this paper, the authors study the molecular similarity using a hybrid approach based on Self-Organizing Neural Networks and Knn Method.
Exploring the Thermodynamic Aspects of Structure Formation During Wet-Spinning of Polyacrylonitrile Fibres
Authors: Arbab Shahram , Zeinolebadi A. , Noorpanah Parviz
Published: May 2013

Wet-spun polyacrylonitrile fibres are the main precursor for high strength carbon fibres. The properties of carbon fibres strongly depend on the structure of the precursor fibre. Polyacrylonitrile fibres were spun from solutions with varying solvent/nonsolvent content and different draw ratios. Wet-spinning is an immersion precipitation process, thus thermodynamic affinity of spinning dope to the coagulation medium was considered as the driving force of phase-separation, while viscosity of the solution accounted for the resistive force against phase separation and growth of the nucleated voids. Thermodynamic affinity was estimated by modifying Ruaan’s theory and viscosity of the solution was assessed on-line by measuring flow rate and back pressure at the spinneret. Hence, the parameter (thermodynamic affinity/viscosity) was introduced to predict the porous morphology of the fibres. Generally, an increase in led to fibres with higher porosity. A combination of electron scanning microscopy (SEM), porosimetry and thermoporometry was applied to fully characterize microstructure of fibres. Based on image analysis of SEM micrographs and data obtained from thermoporometry and porosimetry fractions of dense polymer ligament, micrometer size voids (macrovoids) and nanometer size voids (nanovoids) were estimated. Increasing polymer content or nonsolvent content in the spinning dope caused an increase in the solution viscosity and resulted in fibres with lower porosity. Imposing drawing on the as-spun fibres further decreased the porosity. Drawing also shifted the size distribution of nanovoids toward smaller values.
Correlation of the Drug Activities of Some Anti-Tubercular Chalcone Derivatives in Terms of the Quantum Mechanical Reactivity Descriptors
Authors: Chakraborty Tanmoy , Ghosh Dulal C.
Published: May 2013

Under the QSPR/QSAR paradigm, a comparative study is made of the known drug activity of as many as 15 anti-tubercular drugs vis-à-vis the computed quantum mechanical global reactivity descriptors like global hardness, global softness and global electrophilicity index. The comparative study reveals that the experimentally determined activity of drug molecules, including its variation with side substitution on the parent moiety, correlate nicely with the theoretical descriptors. The global electrophilicity index of a molecule may be useful in predicting the mechanism of the drug receptor interaction. In addition, the authors predicted the QSAR models to correlate the antitubercular activities with quantum mechanical descriptors like global hardness, electronegativity, global softness, and global electrophilicity index. The multilinear model using all four global descriptors computed through PM3 method, effectively predicts the antitubercular activities for a series of chalcone derivatives. The high value of R2 (0.961) supports the validity of that particular model. A nice correlation between the predicted and experimental activities validates the effort.
ERP Adoption
Authors: Romero Jorge A.
Published: May 2013

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has been a major investment for most companies since the early nineties. ERP is a type of investment that has an integrated approach, and has been widely adopted, but there is little empirical evidence about how ERP implementation affects company performance. This chapter begins with the discussion of ERP investment and its role as a commodity or as a strategic investment. Then follows a discussion of an industry in which companies have invested enormous amounts of money on ERP. Finally, in spite of the growing dominance of ERP systems, there is still little empirical evidence on the type of benefits that companies get from an ERP implementation. Therefore, it is important to understand the effects of ERP in cross-functional systems.
Critical Success Factors in Enterprise Resource Planning Implementation
Authors: Zarei Behrouz , Naeli Mina
Published: May 2013

Although introducing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to an organization has enormous benefits, it may entail new hazardous challenges if it cannot be well managed. This research focuses on the critical ERP success factors from a case study involving the Esfahan Steel Company, which started ERP implementation in September 2002. An in-depth research of ERP implementation processes and the level of adhering to five chosen ERP critical success factors—project management, top management supports, business process reengineering, and change management and Training—are conducted. Research results revealed that the five critical success factors (CSFs) are highly interdependent and the strengths and weaknesses of each have influenced the quality of ERP implementation to a large extent.
Measuring Utilization of ERP Systems Usage in SMEs
Authors: Jonas Hedman , Björn Johansson
Published: May 2013

Since deployment of Enterprise Systems (ES) such as Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs) within enterprises, both Large Enterprises (LEs) as well as Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) have increased and continue to increase, making it increasingly desirable to measure the degree of utilization of ERP systems in enterprises. One reason for this interest is that no benefits are realized if the systems are not used; since ERPs are massive investments, they need to show benefits, or at least be able to measure the benefits. However, to be able to do so, there is a need to explain ERP systems utilization and the factors that influence ERP utilization. This chapter provides an explanation of factors influencing ERP systems utilization by testing a research model building on four dimensions: volume, breadth, diversity, and depth. The contributions of the research are: First, it provides support for the notion of diffusion found in the theory of network externalities where a critical mass is necessary to achieve benefits. This can be used to better understand failures in ERP projects. Second, the use of volume, breadth and depth provide insights for use as a construct and the need to treat it more rigorously. Third, the study contributes to our understanding of the many aspects of use of IT, such as ERPs, and potentially contributes to value and firm performance from ERP utilization.
Enterprise Resource Planning Systems in Higher Education
Authors: Haab Melissa J. , Cramer Sharon F.
Published: May 2013

Since most higher education institutions have, or will, implement enterprise resource planning systems (Cramer, 2005), it is important to understand how such an implementation will have an impact throughout an institution. In this chapter, enterprise resource planning systems will be defined, and the benefits to the various constituents of the institution will be described. Barriers (and strategies for overcoming them) will be identified, specifically administration-related barriers, resource allocation barriers, time barriers, barriers related to campus policies, human barriers, and product specific barriers. Leaders of institutions at the crossroads, who are determining whether or not to implement an integrated ERP, can better understand the social implications of such projects as a result of consideration of the key issues raised within this chapter.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Implementation Intensity and Performance
Authors: Liew Bryan Soh Yuen , Ramayah T. , Leen Jasmine Yeap Ai
Published: May 2013

Competition in the Web-hosting industry has become very intense in recent years as the market becomes saturated with existing as well as new players. To survive in this very competitive environment, Web-hosting companies need to be more responsive to their customer needs. Customer relationship management is thought of as a key solution to this. Thus the purpose of this study was to test the effect of CRM implementation intensity on CRM performance among Web-hosting companies. The more intense the implementation the better the CRM performance should be. Data was collected via online questionnaires from 81 respondents representing various online Web-hosting companies around the globe. The results indicated CRM implementation intensity had a direct positive influence on CRM performance.
A Transaction-Oriented Architecture for Structuring Unstructured Information in Enterprise Applications
Authors: Polovina Simon , Andrews Simon
Published: May 2013

As 80-85% of all corporate information remains unstructured, outside of the processing scope of enterprise systems, many enterprises rely on Information Systems that cause them to risk transactions that are based on lack of information (errors of omission) or misleading information (errors of commission). To address this concern, the fundamental business concept of monetary transactions is extended to include qualitative business concepts. A Transaction Concept (TC) is accordingly identified that provides a structure for these unstructured but vital aspects of business transactions. Based on REA (Resources, Events, Agents) and modelled using Conceptual Graphs (CGs) and Formal Concept Analysis (FCA), the TC provides businesses with a more balanced view of the transactions they engage in and a means of discovering new transactions that they might have otherwise missed. A simple example is provided that illustrates this integration and reveals a key missing element. This example is supported by reference to a wide range of case studies and application areas that demonstrate the added value of the TC. The TC is then advanced into a Transaction-Oriented Architecture (TOA). The TOA provides the framework by which an enterprise’s business processes are orchestrated according to the TC. TOA thus brings Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and the productivity of enterprise applications to the height of the real, transactional world that enterprises actually operate in.
A New Dynamic Framework for Managing ERP Development and Enterprise Strategy
Authors: Clegg Ben , Wan Yi
Published: May 2013

The enterprise management (EM) approach provides a holistic view of organizations and their related information systems. In order to align information technology (IT) innovation with global markets and volatile virtualization, traditional firms are seeking to reconstruct their enterprise structures alongside repositioning strategy and establish new information system (IS) architectures to transform from single autonomous entities into more open enterprises supported by new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. This chapter shows how ERP engage-abilities cater to three distinctive EM patterns and resultant strategies. The purpose is to examine the presumptions and importance of combing ERP and inter-firm relations relying on the virtual value chain concept. From a review of the literature on ERP development and enterprise strategy, exploratory inductive research studies in Zoomlion and Lanye have been conducted. In addition, the authors propose a dynamic conceptual framework to demonstrate the adoption and governance of ERP in the three enterprise management forms and points to a new architectural type (ERPIII) for operating in the virtual enterprise paradigm.
Structuring Knowledge for Enterprise Resource Planning Implementation through an Ontology
Authors: Nach Hamid
Published: May 2013

The purpose of this research is to consolidate and formalize as ontology, on the basis of an extensive literature review, the key processes and skills required for successful implementation of ERP in an SME. Using the Protégé software, the research identified and formalized 395 terms, each of which has its own definition. Exploitation of this ontology could take multiple and varied forms, including the creation of a learning system, an on-line collaboration platform, or a project management process mapping tool contributing to successful implementation of ERP in SMEs.
Design, Development, and Implementation of an ERP Security Course
Authors: Tsiakis Theodosios , Kargidis Theodoros
Published: May 2013

Contemporary organizations rely on ERP systems to implement their business processes. Moreover, there is a high demand from companies for ERP systems because it is an effective management system that optimizes productivity. It is important for next generation managers to understand what ERP systems are as well as the impacts for an organisation to implement an ERP system. This reliance on ERP indicates the importance of studying security issues and requirements in an ERP Environment. Information Security is both a theoretical and practical discipline and can vary from a technical aspect to the management aspect. Educational institutions must educate students to concepts, strategies, and tools that promote security of ERP systems so that after studying the certain course students understand technical, technological, management, and human security problems, identify and respond to information security challenges in ERP systems, evaluate and implement security solutions and tools to protect ERP systems against risks, and finally design information security policies, and evaluate and apply organizational security objectives. This chapter examines how universities and educational institutions are responding to current educational needs by integrating an enterprise resource planning (ERP) security course to current curriculum programs and propose a course framework.
The Use of Experts Panels in ERP Cost Estimation Research
Authors: Elragal Ahmed , Haddara Moutaz
Published: May 2013

This chapter is an effort towards illustrating the use of expert panels (EP) as a means of eliciting knowledge from a group of enterprise resource planning (ERP) experts in an exploratory research. The development of a cost estimation model for ERP adoptions is very crucial for research and practice, and that was the main reason behind the willingness of experts to participate in this research. The use of EP was very beneficial as it involved various data collection and visualization techniques, as well as data validation and confirmation. Arguments for using EP over other group techniques are presented in this chapter. Experts modified and enhanced the initial cost drivers list and their sub-factors significantly, as they added, modified, merged and split different costs. Moreover, they ranked the cost drivers according to their weight on total costs. All of this helped the authors to better understand relationships among various cost factors.
Using ICT to Overcome Constraints in the Agriculture Value Chain
Authors: Debrah Siegfried Kofi , Asare Isaac Kwadwo
Published: May 2013

Development partner efforts and private sector initiatives on ICT applications in agriculture have brought new opportunities for farmers and traders to reduce transaction costs and increase incomes. The applications are primarily used for linking actors in the agricultural value chain, accessing real time information on prices, buyers and sellers, transport and haulage, and other relevant information services in the agricultural value chain. Limited evidence from Ghana and elsewhere show that cell phone applications have resulted in increased incomes but the impacts and sustainability of other ICT applications have proven elusive. The role of ICT in overcoming the key constraints in the agricultural value chain and for making evidence-based decisions will be greatly enhanced if farmers, aggregators, and other stakeholders in the value chain pay attention to their business scope and schedule planning, executing, monitoring and control, procurement, risk planning, and stakeholder communications in a “project management” context. When this is done, ICT applications will facilitate supply chain management through sharing of timely and pertinent information on producers, buyers and other services, thereby helping to promote industry competitiveness. The major challenges to the widespread use and sustainability of ICT remain access to the appropriate ICT tool, poor road and storage infrastructure (particularly in the farming communities) and illiteracy on the part of the majority of smallholder farmers.