During the past two decades incredible progress has been achieved in the instruments and devices used in the biomedical field. This progress stems from continuous scientific research that has taken advantage of many findings and advances in technology made available by universities and industry. Innovation is the key word and in this context legal protection and intellectual property rights (IPR) are of crucial importance. This book provides students and practitioners with the fundamentals...

Managing Cooperation in Supply Network Structures and Small- or Medium-sized Enterprises outlines different approaches to the analysis of the organisation of small- or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Owing to the increased competition in the worldwide market, several SMEs operating in the same industrial sectors have agreed collaborative market strategies, both for raw material procurement and for final product delivery. The resulting networks, however, have a tendency to suffer ...

The most powerful weapon in business today is the alliance between the mathematical smarts of machines and the imaginative human intellect of great leaders. Together they make the mathematical corporation, the business model of the future.We are at a once-in-a-decade breaking point similar to the quality revolution of the 1980s and the dawn of the internet age in the 1990s: leaders must transform how they run their organizations, or competitors will bring them cras...

Build your research paper with over one thousand easy to use research sentences. Quick Research Papers helps the beginning research author and graduate student quickly get to work with practical template sentences. Each research paper part is introduced quickly, helping you understand the key goal, then quickly moves to template sentences. Each chapter focuses on one part of the research paper, supplying practical real example sentences. Quick Research Papers includes over 21 research pape...

The manufacturing industry is facing the challenges of shifting its operations from the traditional factory integration philosophy to a supply chain based e-factory philosophy, and of transforming the focus of companies from the local factory to global enterprise and business. Innovative Tools for Business Coalitions in B2B Applications presents a set of innovative methodologies that can be used to face all the issues that stem from the interaction of customers and suppliers in an...

Companies are increasingly asking which of their value chain activities are best performed within their own company and which may be outsourced. In addition, they are also considering which pieces of their value chain may be better performed abroad. These interrelated decisions concerning outsourcing and offshoring have not only changed entire industries, they have also transformed the lives of people across the world. Hundreds of millions of jobs in emerging nations have been the direct r...

The debate over eHealth is alive as never before. Supporters suggest that it will result in dramatic innovations in healthcare, including a giant leap towards patient-centered care, new opportunities to improve effectiveness, and enhanced wellness and quality of life. In addition, the growing market value of investments in health IT suggests that eHealth can offer at least a partial cure for the current economic stagnation. Detractors counter these arguments by claiming that eHealth has al...

This book investigates novel methods and technologies for the collection, analysis and representation of real-time user-generated data at the urban scale in order to explore potential scenarios for more participatory design, planning and management processes. For this purpose, the authors present a set of experiments conducted in collaboration with urban stakeholders at various levels (including citizens, city administrators, urban planners, local industries and NGOs) in Milan and New York...

This book presents a collection of original research papers focused on the relationship between information technology and accounting and control models. The book discusses the importance of establishing a synergetic relationship between new information technologies (ERP, BI, web-based technology, data mining, XBRL, etc.) and new or renewed accounting models and tools (performance indicators, prevision and simulation models, accounting models for public administration, etc.) in order to en...

This book examines a wide range of issues that characterize the current IT based innovation trends in organizations. It contains a collection of research papers focusing on themes of growing interest in the field of Information Systems, Organization Studies, Management, Accounting and Engineering. The book offers a multidisciplinary view on Information Systems with the aim of disseminating academic knowledge. It would be particularly relevant to IT practitioners such as information systems...

This book contains a collection of research papers on accounting information systems including their strategic role in decision processes, within and between companies. An accounting system is a complex system composed of a mix of strictly interrelated elements such as data, information, human resources, IT tool, accounting models and procedures. Accounting information systems are often considered the instrument by default for accounting automation. This book aims to sketch a clear picture...