bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Analysis of roles of IT on quality management
Authors: Mjema E.A.M. , Victor M.A.M , Mwinuka M.S.M 
Published: June 2005

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present results of a research conducted to test the method developed by Anget al.in a different environment and setting.Design/methodology/approachTo conduct this study the approach developed by Anget al.was used to examine the accrued benefits of using information technology (IT) in quality management. The interview and questionnaire method was mostly used; however, direct observation and archival records data collection were also used to extract more precise data towards a better conclusion. The focus was on the analysis of the use of IT on enhancing quality awareness, improving product quality, and reducing quality‐related costs.FindingsThe findings of the study show that the introduction of IT on quality management has contributed greatly to the enhancement of quality awareness, in the improvement of product quality and in the reduction of quality costs.Practical implicationsThe research shows the importance of the existence of the right environment for the implementation of a quality system. It also shows that the introduction of IT has really reduced the quality cost and improved the product quality. The research developed constructs for the eight dimensions of quality, which helps to measure the impact of IT on quality management.Originality/valueThe paper reports systematic investigations on how companies can measure the impact of IT in quality management.
Developing new frameworks for operations strategy and service system design in electronic commerce
Authors: Sung‐Eui Cho 
Published: June 2005

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to develop new frameworks for operations strategy and service system design in electronic commerce (EC) to provide strategic insights to academics and practitioners.Design/methodology/approachProduct/service process matrices for intangible and tangible products in EC operations are presented based on the classification of products and delivery channel options and three cases are investigated to illustrate the newly developed matrices.FindingsThe fit between two dimensions (characteristics of product/service, service delivery processes) in the matrices contributes to firm's competitiveness through market expansion and improvement of customer services. Through the case studies, it was confirmed that the conceptual framework developed in this study illustrates actual EC operations well.Research limitations/implicationsFurther case or empirical research on more diverse products or services will be required to increase robustness of the matrices and to additionally confirm the results of this study including the effects of the “fit”.Practical implicationsThe new frameworks have the potential to be useful as a planning tool in developing an operations strategy and service system design, as well as a diagnostic tool for examining the causes of poor service quality and low customer satisfaction resulting from a mismatch between two dimensions.Originality/valueThe development of new frameworks is an important first step in the gradual process of theory building and theory testing, as well as providing strategic insights for practitioners.
Community pharmacies under pressure – can branding help?
Authors: Schmidt Ruth Ä. , Pioch Elke A. 
Published: June 2005

PurposeDespite their essential role as providers of emergency medication, expert advice and specialist healthcare services UK community pharmacies are coming under increasing competitive pressure. Deregulation measures and heightened competition from supermarkets and multiples have led to increases in market concentration and forced many independents into closure. This paper aims to explore the potential of retail branding as a tool for independent pharmacists who wish to complement their role as therapeutic experts with a strong retail proposition and enhance their competitive positioning.Design/methodology/approachBased on a qualitative study using key informant interviews with independent pharmacists in the Greater Manchester area, this paper takes a grounded theory approach. NVivo qualitative analysis software was applied to develop theoretical categories, explore themes and offer a starting point for theory building.FindingsThe UK pharmacy market is polarized into the highly branded large scale multiples and an independent sector which still fails to make full use of the opportunities for retail marketing support available. A SWOT analysis for the community pharmacy sector illustrates pharmacists' key strengths as healthcare professionals and therapeutic expert advisors. However, often this is complemented by an inward looking, reactive and short‐termist approach. Overall respondents fail to embrace the opportunities marketing and retail branding might offer on the retail side fully, to the detriment of overall business success.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is based on a small scale qualitative study. Whilst the sample was carefully selected to be a fair representation of the different types of small retail pharmacies found in the Greater Manchester area, and within this context ecological validity is thought to be high, care must be taken with wider generalisations.Practical implicationsPossibilities of complementing pharmacists' professional ethos as therapeutic experts with lessons from the retail marketing and branding literature with the aim of achieving image congruence and business success are explored.Originality/valueA contribution is made to the understanding of the UK retail pharmacy sector, as well as the complex interaction between professional healthcare provision and retail marketing in relation to the self‐concept and business practice of independent pharmacists.
Exploring the connections between visual merchandising and retail branding
Authors: Davies Barry J. , Ward Philippa 
Published: June 2005

PurposeTThe purpose of this paper is to review the literature on facet theory and present an approach to map the relationship between retail branding (particularly brand recognition) and visual merchandising.Design/methodology/approachFact theory has been used in other areas of investigation, particularly for the examination of the built environment within psychology. However, it has received little attention in either the marketing or retailing literature. This is surprising as facet theory also provides a conceptually stable and fully formed approach to: the definition of an area of interest; the statement of the proposed relationships between areas of interest; the development of a research instrument that is fully cognisant of the possible relationships; and also utilizes a form of analysis that explores the actual presence of the hypothesized relationships (smallest space analysis – SSA).FindingsThe application of facet theory and SSA were found to be particularly appropriate for an investigation of the relationship between retail branding and visual merchandising. This stems from the clear and consistent approach that is derived by using this method to structure the research.Originality/valueThis paper demonstrates facet theory provides a validated and robust approach to investigate a complex but managerially significant area in retailing.
Dynamic vehicle routing by means of a genetic algorithm
Authors: Pankratz Giselher 
Published: June 2005

PurposeTo propose and to evaluate a new genetic algorithm (GA) for solving the dynamic pickup and delivery problem with time windows (DPDPTW).Design/methodology/approachFirst, a grouping genetic algorithm (GGA) for the (static) PDPTW is described. In order to solve the dynamic problem, the GGA then is embedded in a rolling horizon framework. Special updating mechanisms are provided which assure that reusable solution knowledge is preserved over the plan revisions. The approach is evaluated using a large number of test instances with varying degrees of dynamism.FindingsThe experimental results have demonstrated that the proposed approach is able to find high‐quality solutions when compared with two comparative heuristics.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research will be dedicated to the following issues: testing the proposed method using larger problem instances, using more sophisticated objective functions in order to further improve and evaluate the approach, integrating fast local search techniques into the genetic search, speeding up the algorithm by optimizing its implementation.Practical implicationsIn order to meet the increasing demands on the flexibility and the promptness of transportation services, algorithms are needed for dispatching transportation requests that arrive dynamically during the planning period. The findings of this contribution justify the employment of GAs in such dynamic transportation planning environments.Originality/valueAlthough the application of GAs in dynamic environments attracts growing attention, up to now no such algorithm has been published for the DPDPTW. To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first time a GA has been applied to the DPDPTW.
Sales promotion effectiveness: the impact of consumer differences at an ethnic‐group level
Authors: Kwok Simon , Uncles Mark 
Published: June 2005

PurposeAims to examine the proposition that consumer sales promotions are more effective when they provide benefits that are congruent with those of the promoted product. This proposition is considered at the ethnic‐group level (i.e. do differences in cultural values at this level have an impact on sales promotion effectiveness?).Design/methodology/approachA quasi‐experimental design is used to test a series of hypotheses based on a sample of Anglo‐Australians and Chinese‐Australians. The main experiment is informed by the results of two pretests.FindingsFirst, there are significant differences in consumer cultural values at an ethnic‐group level. Second, despite these differences, ethnicity does not have a significant impact on responses to sales promotions. Third, the expected congruency effects between products and promotion types are not found.Research limitations/implicationsSome of the detailed results match those reported in previous studies, but there are important differences too.Practical implicationsThere is a need to be aware of differing cultural values at an ethnic‐group level. Notwithstanding this inference, the second finding suggests that there continues to be scope for using standardised strategies when promoting to different ethnic groups. Finally, considerable caution should be exercised when planning promotion strategies around hoped‐for congruency effects.Originality/valueNew light is cast on the relationship between consumer differences at an ethnic‐group level and the effectiveness of various types of sales promotion for utilitarian and hedonic products.
Architecture and design of an internet‐enabled integrated workflow and groupware system
Authors: Dustdar Schahram 
Published: June 2005

PurposeIn the last decade, bureaucratic organizational hierarchies have been increasingly replaced with flatter organizational forms, bringing together people from different disciplines to form project teams within and between organizations. Distributed project teams often are self‐configuring networks of mobile and “fixed” people, devices, and applications. They are the natural next step in the evolution of distributed computing, after client‐server, web‐based, and peer‐to‐peer computing. Seeks to show that a newly emerging requirement is to facilitate not just mobility of content (i.e. to support a multitude of devices and connectivity modes) to project members, but also mobility of context (i.e. to provide traceable and continuous support of dynamic relationships between people, artifacts, and business processes).Design/methodology/approachThe contribution of this paper is to present the design goals, the architecture, and implementation of a system aiming at supporting internet‐enabled workflow and groupware for project teams, enabling traceable and continuous support of associations (relationships) between people, artifacts, and business processes.FindingsThe findings indicate that building internet‐enabled workflow and groupware systems is valuable for virtual teamwork, since they provide a foundation for context‐aware and process‐aware information systems.Originality/valueThis article outlines some foundations of process‐aware collaborative work. Provides an analysis of current workflow and groupware shortcomings in respect of virtual teamwork, outlines the design goals, architecture and an implementation of a system aiming at supporting virtual teams on the internet.
Indexing the invisible web: a survey
Authors: Ru Yanbo , Horowitz Ellis 
Published: June 2005

PurposeThe existence and continued growth of the invisible web creates a major challenge for search engines that are attempting to organize all of the material on the web into a form that is easily retrieved by all users. The purpose of this paper is to identify the challenges and problems underlying existing work in this area.Design/methodology/approachA discussion based on a short survey of prior work, including automated discovery of invisible web site search interfaces, automated classification of invisible web sites, label assignment and form filling, information extraction from the resulting pages, learning the query language of the search interface, building content summary for an invisible web site, selecting proper databases, integrating invisible web‐search interfaces, and accessing the performance of an invisible web site.FindingsExisting technologies and tools for indexing the invisible web follow one of two strategies: indexing the web site interface or examining a portion of the contents of an invisible web site and indexing the results.Originality/valueThe paper is of value to those involved with information management.
Global analysis of endothelial cell line proliferation patterns based on nutrient‐depletion models: implications for a standardization of cell proliferation assays
Authors: Tracqui P. , Liu J. W. , Collin O. , Clement‐Lacroix J. , Planus E. 
Published: June 2005

Abstract.   It is known that cell populations growing in different environmental conditions may exhibit different proliferation patterns. However, it is not clear if, despite the diversity of the so‐observed patterns, inherent cellular growth characteristics of the population can nevertheless be determined. This study quantifies the proliferative behaviour of the permanent endothelial human cell line, Eahy926, and establishes to which extent the estimation of the cell proliferation rate depends on variations of the experimental protocols. Cell proliferation curves were obtained for cells cultured over 16 days and the influences of cell seeding densities, foetal bovine serum content and frequency of culture medium changes were investigated. Quantitative dynamic modelling was conducted to evaluate the kinetic characteristics of this cell population. We proposed successive models and retained a nutrient‐depletion toxicity dependant model, which takes into account the progressive depletion of nutrients, as well as the increase of toxicity in the cell culture medium. This model is shown to provide a very good and robust prediction of the experimental proliferation curves, whatever are the considered frequency of culture medium changes and serum concentrations. Thus, the model enables an intrinsic quantification of the parameters driving in vitro EAhy926 proliferation, including proliferation, nutrient consumption and toxicity increase rates, rather independently of the experiments design. We therefore propose that such models could provide a basis for a standardized quantification of intrinsic cell proliferation kinetics.
“Hidradenitis suppurativa” is acne inversa! An appeal to (finally) abandon a misnomer
Authors: Sellheyer Klaus , Krahl Dieter 
Published: June 2005

AbstractThe term “hidradenitis suppurativa” is firmly entrenched in the dermatological literature although it refers to a false pathogenetic concept. The term was historically coined based merely on the characteristic distribution of the apocrine glands and the anatomical coincidence with the disease process. At center stage is not a suppurative inflammation of the apocrine sweat glands but an occlusion of the hair follicles, comparable to acne vulgaris. Reviewing the literature on this subject, we were astonished to find that even articles that concluded that the entity represents a form of follicular occlusion still referred to it as hidradenitis suppurativa. The disorder shares histopathological and clinical aspects with acne vulgaris modified under the special circumstances of anatomical regions rich in apocrine glands. It is acne inversa because, in contrast to acne vulgaris, the disease involves intertriginous localizations and not the regions classically affected by acne. We suggest that the term “hidradenitis suppurativa” for this disease should (finally) be abandoned in favour of “acne inversa”.
Lucio's phenomenon/erythema necroticans
Authors: Sehgal Virendra N. 
Published: June 2005

AbstractLucio's phenomenon/erythema necroticans is a peculiar reaction pattern that occurs in untreated pure primitive diffuse lepromatous leprosy (PPDL) and/or relapsing leprosy recognized as spotted leprosy of Lucio. The small number of reported cases in the world literature suggests that it is fairly uncommon. Its clinical features are fairly characteristic and consist of extensive, bizarre, painful ulcerations of the skin, with constitutional symptoms being conspicuous by their absence. The clinical diagnosis is confirmed by microscopic pathology marked by proliferation and mobilization of polyblasts and histiocytes, dilatation, endothelial proliferation, luminal occlusion, and thrombosis of the superficial and mid‐dermal blood vessels and demonstration of acid‐fast bacilli in the blood vessel walls. Its precise pathogenesis is still unclear, but is believed to occur either through the usual or the alternate pathway of complement activation in the natural history of erythema nodosum leprosum. The clinical and immunological features of reactions in leprosy, including erythema nodosum leprosum, are well known and have been critically evaluated elsewhere.
Outcomes steering practice: When the ends determine the means
Authors: Carberry Clare 
Published: June 2005

Carberry C. International Journal of Nursing Practice 1998; 4: 2–8 Outcomes steering practice: When the ends determine the means A discussion of outcomes and outcomes measurement will be presented through an examination of achievements of a collaborative project awarded a federal best practice grant in 1995. The project, which established a new service for women of nonEnglish‐speaking background, was part of a national venture which sought to benchmark best practice in the primary health care field. The process of benchmarking demanded that the approach to outcomes and outcomes measurement adopted by the project participants be articulated. The approach adopted acknowledges that outcomes are affected by the processes involved in care, which in turn are dependent upon the organisational environment in which care is offered and experienced. Both these contributing factors to outcomes can be hard to measure and, therefore, could be at risk of being omitted from the outcome equation in these economically stringent times. This paper aims to contribute to debate on the topic by recommending an approach to outcomes measurement which is comprehensive, values quality and embraces the short, medium and longer term.
Bcl‐2 protein and DNA ploidy in renal cell carcinoma: Do they affect patient prognosis?
Authors: SKOLARIKOS ANDREAS , ALIVIZATOS GERASIMOS , BAMIAS ARISTOTELIS , MITROPOULOS DIONYSIOS , FERAKIS NIKOLAOS , DELIVELIOTIS CHARALAMPOS , DIMOPOULOS MELETIOS‐ATHANASIOS 
Published: June 2005

Abstract  Aim:  The aim of the present study was to correlate bcl‐2 protein expression and DNA‐ploidy status with established prognostic parameters in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and to examine their impact on disease progression and patient survival.Methods:  Both parameters were prospectively measured in 50 consecutive radical nephrectomy specimens using flow cytometry. They were correlated with the tumor grade, stage and histological type. Kaplan‐Meier survival analysis for all parameters was performed.Results:  Bcl‐2 protein expression was higher in RCC compared to normal renal tissue (P < 0.0001). Aneuploid tumors had higher bcl‐2 expression compared to diploid tumors (P = 0.015). Bcl‐2 expression and DNA content were not correlated with tumor histological types (P = 0.277/P = 0.419), grades (P = 0.690/P = 0.449), T categories (P = 0.637/P = 0.585) or stages (P = 0.726/P = 0.800). Median follow‐up time was 46 months (range, 5–84) with a mean overall survival of 61.8 months (95% confidence interval, 53.7–69.9). Tumor stage was the only statistically important prognostic factor (P = 0.0045).Conclusion:  Although Bcl‐2 expression was correlated with tumor DNA content, the prognostic value of these two parameters following radical nephrectomy was not established.
Oxalate‐degrading Providencia rettgeri isolated from human stools
Authors: HOKAMA SANEHIRO , TOMA CLAUDIA , IWANAGA MASAAKI , MOROZUMI MAKOTO , SUGAYA KIMIO , OGAWA YOSHIHIDE 
Published: June 2005

Abstract  Background:  Oxalate‐degrading bacteria are thought to metabolize intestinal oxalate and thus decrease the urinary excretion of oxalate by reducing its intestinal absorption.Methods:  We have isolated several novel oxalate‐degrading bacteria from human stools. Oxalate degrading bacteria were investigated to characterize their protein profiles with antibodies against oxalyl‐coenzyme A decarboxylase (65 kDa) and formyl‐coenzyme A transferase (48 kDa) purified from Oxalobacter formigenes.Results:  One of these isolates was identified as Providencia rettgeri, which showed two proteins (65 kDa and 48 kDa) on sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS‐PAGE) that were not found in non‐oxalate‐degrading P. rettgeri. Antibodies reacted with the 65 and 48 kDa proteins from the P. rettgeri strain on Western blotting. An Oxalobacter formigenes formyl‐coenzyme A transferase gene probe reacted with chromosomal DNA from P. rettgeri on Southern blotting under high stringency conditions, while an Oxalobacter formigenes oxalyl‐coenzyme A decarboxylase gene probe did not react under the same conditions.Conclusions:  The mechamism of oxalate degradation by P. rettgeri appears to be similar to that of Oxalobacter formigenes. This is the first report of a facultative oxalate‐degrading organism that is one of the Enterobacteriaceae.