lap lambert academic publishing sep 2009 (423 risultati)

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The current global recession and difficult economical situation threatens the competitive position of organizations. The Dutch economy is closely linked to the global economy resulting in a situation which forces Dutch companies having to take measures in order to reduce costs and to survive in the market. One of the strategies to reduce costs is downsizing. This thesis provides insights in the effects of downsizing on survivors and indicates which measures managers should take in order to reduce survivor syndrome. Downsizing is an emotional impactful intervention not only for laid off employees, but also for remaining employees. In many cases, organizations take good care of employees who have to leave. However, the surviving employees'' emotional feelings hardly receive any attention, which can lead to the development of ¿survivor syndrome¿. Organizations often forget that survivors are those who have to realize the organizational goals after downsizing process. Managers are able to influence the feelings of survivors and reduce survivor syndrome and voluntary turnover by providing open communication and increase the degree of perceived fairness.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 76 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 80 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Surveys of firms outside the property sector indicate the growth in the use of DCF methods such as the NPV and IRR methods to evaluate projects as compared to the use of such naïve methods as Payback and the Accounting rate of return. The growing convergence of theory and practice is indicated by the growing use of the NPV method. The objective of this study is to determine the capital budgeting methods used to evaluate real estate development projects and to compare the results of a survey with the results of other studies. The thesis finds that that over 90% of all respondents are using a combination of NPV and IRR methods most often to evaluate development opportunities. Interestingly, 85% of all respondents are also using the payback period. Other methods used are the profitability index, residual value, free cash flow, economic value, and return on equity. Developers have adopted DCF methods such as NPV and IRR as the primary methods to evaluate projects rather than naïve methods such as Payback and ARR, although these latter methods remain in use. The use of decision tree analysis and real option analysis is very limitedBooks on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 104 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This work proposes some ideas of how synergies of Total Quality Management (TQM) and Sustainable Development (SD) can be realized. A process based change model for SD has been developed. Synergies between TQM and SD have been discussed in the literature but further important possibilities of synergies remain untapped. Process focus and process management are believed to be important for realizing these synergies. Even if process management has been shown to contribute to organizational performance, it seems that most organizations do not focus on processes. This seems specifically to apply to process management for SD. Descriptive and easy-to-use process models should be able to enhance the introduction of process management. The ability to identify, map and measure the organizational processes constitutes an important part of identifying opportunities for improvement. Process models could be used for both describing actual performance and the process to improve it.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 116 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -International HRD Consulting On Your Own: In a series of post-911 interviews, ten Human Resource Development professionals talk about their lives and work as independent international consultants. Averaging better than two decades abroad, they share the joy and excitement of working in exotic lands as well as the unpredictability, perils and loneliness of cultural isolation. Relive their tales of amazement and growth, as well as exhaustion and fear, through their own words. Finally, confront with them the shock of returning home to colleagues who do not understand the subtleties of foreign ways, organizations unwilling to embrace their hard-earned skills negotiating the labyrinths of cross-cultural interaction, and the corner desk now occupied by someone else. A must read for those who would work overseas in a changing business environment or for a non-profit global enterprise, by an author who has held both short and long-term engagements in exotic lands, and who has lived through two states of siege and a revolution, himself. The insights gained here will help you better prepare for both the rigors and pleasure that attend international work.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 104 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Failed states no longer function as bordered regions with a government providing for its people border security, political stability, transparency, economic development, cultural independence, supportive infrastructure, and a judicial system based on rule of law maintaining order effectively. A subset of the failed state perspectives developed and defined in this research project is the limbo state model. While displaying traits of statehood, such as having a border, an infrastructure, economic development, and a functioning government, the limbo state is controlled by a major state in the military, economic, and political realms. Four empirical explanatory concepts define the ¿limbö aspects of this model and are (briefly): 1) patterns of invasions by and political and administrative domination by a state occupying the limbo state; 2) patterns of weak leadership; 3) patterns of settlers immigrating to the occupied limbo state; and 4) patterns of complex and paradoxical responses expressed by the population. Northern Ireland and Jammu-and-Kashmir are model examples of limbo states. The final task of this study is review of current and future usefulness of the limbo state model.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 300 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -There is plenty of evidence to suggest that companies in some parts of the world are increasingly diversifying the geographic scope of their business activities in the pursuit of competitive advantage. Although geographic expansion comes with a set of benefits, different phases of cost may diminish the performance benefits of internationalization. In this study, we extend geographic diversification research to a new context (Taiwanese-based) and tried to explore internationalization-performance relationship at difference expansion phases. We tested our new theoretical model with a longitudinal data set comprising 214 Taiwanese electronic industries during 2000 to 2007 periods. This sample captured Taiwanese electronic manufacturing substantially involved in internationalization activities and their relationship with performance, which was necessary to discover their different changes in our study. Further, the moderating effect of host countries'' political risk and psychic distance are key variables that should not be underestimated.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 76 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Mary Wollstonecraft has been hailed by many within British feminist circles as revolutionary. Wollstonecraft's 'Vindication on the Rights of Woman' was the first major theoretical feminist work in history. However, although Wollstonecraft is largely praised as a pioneer by most British feminists, her critics still persist. Because rhetoric is a vital tool for reflecting and influencing cultural norms and values, any efforts to suppress Wollstonecraft's rhetoric stand to teach us some important lessons regarding what British culture values and condemns. When viewed through the lens of contemporary British culture, the rhetoric of Mary Wollstonecraft illuminates many of the continued gender inequities confronting British women today.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 64 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Several researchers have proposed that the moral aspects of risk provide a better explanation and prediction of risk perception than the psychometric or cultural model, neither of which accounts for moral concerns. This study is possibly the first to empirically assess if the moral, psychometric and cultural models can explain risk perception of agricultural biotechnology - in this case Bt eggplant - by farmers in a developing country such as India. The findings show that the psychometric, cultural, and moral models do not fully account for the risk perception of Bt eggplant by Indian farmers. In conclusion, the author proposes that any theory or model that purports to explain and predict risk perception of agricultural biotechnology in developing countries may need to include economic benefits, safety concerns and accountability as key variables.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 100 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Every organization needs to be in a good shape.Both profit and none profit organization.Productivity,Effectiveness,Efficiency and so on.are needed to make sure that they are on the right track. One important thing that it has to do with is committment. What are the factors What makes it work What to do with different levels of the employees regarding to committment.All these questions you can find the answers in this book .Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 108 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book analyzes dynamics of Public-Private Partnership contractual arrangements and focuses on uncovering reasons of the disintegration (renegotiation and/or cancellation) of such contracts. It looks in detail at a specific case of a contractual arrangement of concessioning of the Tanzania Railway Corporation (TRC), a backbone of the corridor that links the landlocked Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda, as well as the eastern DRC and the hinterland of Tanzania, to the port of Dar es Salaam. This research first concludes that such widely acknowledged causes as information incompleteness and asymmetry (contract-related explanations) and opportunistic behavior and strategic alliance-making (non-contractual explanations) cannot fully explain disintegration of a particular contractual arrangement. It then builds upon a case study to extend existing explanations of contract failure and renegotiation by drawing on organizational and alliance theories and explains which characteristics of the institutional context make the detrimental effects of particular causes possible.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 60 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book is a general introduction to the work of significant women''s historians concerning some of the main problems of the field of women''s history. The questions explored are some of the central issues in women''s history today. They include the problem of defining feminism; exploring whether sisterhood was powerful across the boundaries of class, ethnicity, and race; the uses to which women put the ¿Cult of True Womanhood¿; the question of solidarity between men and women; the problem of women''s protective labor legislation; the problem of occupational sex segregation; how woman suffrage triumphed; the dilemma of post-suffrage feminism; and the problem of ideology in art. Anyone who wants to understand what the new women''s history is all about will find this short guide useful.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 84 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Prior research demonstrates that the use of decision aids by auditors can influence jurors¿ assessments of liability for audit failure. This study extends such research to tax preparation, investigating how tax practitioners¿ use of decision aids influences jurors¿ evaluations of liability. Participants included 226 qualified jurors responding to a hypothetical lawsuit against a tax practitioner for alleged negligence. Results suggest that the use of decision aids, regardless of reliability, influences jurors¿ assessments of liability for tax return failure, decreasing liability if the aid¿s recommendation is implemented and increasing liability if the recommendation is overridden. This study also tests the influence of firm size, firm fees, and demographic characteristics on jurors¿ damage assessments. Consistent with prior research, this study finds that jurors are more likely to assess damages against a large firm. Contrary to prior research, this study finds that neither firm fees nor demographic characteristics are significantly related to jurors¿ damage assessments.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 96 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This study examines the lives of the poor in relation to those more fortunate. In particular, it looks into the injustices the poor are forced to face when trying to escape poverty. It examines a common assumption made by prominent academics (Prahalad and Hammond, 2002; Gage 2004; Prahalad, 2005), that the cost of basic goods and services are significantly more than those more fortunate. The study uses both qualitative and quantitative means to prove this ¿poverty penalty¿.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 80 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -In this study, you can find out some theorical informations and practical implications of Investment Appraisal and Risk Analysis. The project that has been evaluated in this study is, Internet Services over Cable TV Network in North Cyprus. This study deals with the construction of cable TV network in North Cyprus and discuss why the system is applicable to North Cyprus in terms of both technology features and its cost. Financial, economic, distributive, risk and the sensitivity of the project has been done. In the financial analysis, you can see how to construct the cash flow statement of a project where the difference between the receipts and expenditures are considered. Sensitivity analysis measures the sensitivity of the project''s outcomes to the changes in one or two of the inputs of the projects while assuming all other inputs being constant. Economic analysis aims to examine the project from the economy''s point of view to determine whether or not its implementation will improve the economic welfare of the country. Distributive analysis seeks to allocate the net benefits and losses generated by the project among stakeholders.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 88 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Although many had previously credited President Nixon and Dr. Kissinger with the key achievements in the U. S. - China rapprochement, this work argues that it was mainly because of the sound policy role played by the U. S. Department of State in dealing with China that allowed the President and Dr. Kissinger to be able to bring about the rapprochement with China. The State Department had been dealing with China diplomatically since at least 1954, through the Warsaw Talks and even had been formulating strategy in dealing diplomatically with Communist China at least since 1949.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 108 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This study aims to find the best policy, which would induce the Indian coal-based power plants to abate particulate emissions in the most cost effective way. The empirical analysis of the power plants suggests that replacing the age-old boilers is of utmost importance along with switching to low-ash albeit expensive coal is cost effective. Installation of pollution control equipment in the form of an ESP or a baghouse depends on the target emission level. In the Indian scenario and ash tax can be considered the best policy instrument along with an emission tax to induce the power plants to adopt the cost efficient technology.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 52 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This study investigates the relationship between stock prices and dividends in Taiwan stock market during the June 1991 to February 2005 period. We employ linear, nonlinear and panel techniques which provide a much stronger test to examine the relationship between stock prices and dividends. Our results suggest that there is a long-run nonlinear relationship between stock prices and dividends. We found that present value model is more suitable with time-varying expected returns provides an empirically valid description of Taiwan stock price behavior in the long-run, while short-run deviations of actual stock prices from present value prices are driven by rational bubbles. Compared to conventional cointegration approach this technique produces more convincing evidence of the time series properties of the dividend and price, the momentum threshold autoregressive (MTAR) method is flexible enough to capture non-linear adjustment patterns and support the existence of stock price increases relative to fundamentals in Taiwan stock market.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 88 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The continued failure to devise and implement a sound and sustainable immigration policy weakens America's economy and threatens its national security. Many prominent economists believe that the United States needs a profound change in its immigration laws and practices. This volume tackles the issues of legal and illegal immigration in a rigorous manner using econometrics analysis and provides clear policy recommendations. Topics discussed also include outsourcing in a context of unionized oligopoly. The author's empirical evidence demonstrates that large scale amnesties that provide legal status for illegal immigrants should be avoided, as they create unhealthy stimulus for future illegal immigration. The empirical evidence presented also suggests that recent legal immigrants from Mexico facilitate the flow of illegal migrants from Mexico. With respect to legal immigration, the author shows that higher index of Economic Freedom is associated with increased migration flows. The book will be found highly illuminating to immigration theorists and practitioners as well as to students and researchers interested in immigration and outsourcing.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 80 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This document describes a software package for creating realistic simple human animations. The package uses the open source 3D modeling software Blender and the scripting language Python. The animations generated for several cameras ought to be used for testing and learning of tracking algorithms in the multi-camera system where the ground-truth data are needed. We made a human skeletal model and designed the way how to animate it by scripts with using motion capture data. The texture of 3D human model is obtained from captured images. Transformations between computer vision and computer graphics are discussed in detail. We designed our own algorithm for automatic rigging mesh model with the bones of the skeletal model. Steps of the design are covered in this work together with the usage of the software package.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 72 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -In recent years, problems related to global environmental disturbances have been growing more and more. In ancient times, inoceramid bivalves managed to survive by changing their species diversity and size over one meter to one centimeter, and by replacing themselves with newly originated species in order to adapt to global environmental changes, but finally they had been extinct in the Cretaceous. However, this fact is not commonly known, although it is well-known that dinosaurs had been ruined due to ancient global environmental disturbances by an extraterrestrial impact. The author took an interest in the extremely sensitive responses of inoceramid bivalves to a variety of global environment changes, examined extensively the specimens of fossils collected in Hokkaido, Japan and made a comprehensive survey of relevant literature. The author would like to provide paleontologists, geologists, earth scientists and experts of environmental protection, as well as students and people being interested in the relevant field with those findings and information. The author is also very happy if this monograph gives some kinds of hint for protection against global environmental destruction.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 80 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -There is a growing need for additional research to determine what dose-response of exercise will be most effective in reducing and eventually preventing the risk factors associated with type II diabetes. Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of illness and death among North Americans suffering from type II diabetes. As a group, people with type II diabetes have a significantly greater chance of developing CHD and stroke, along with many other co-morbidities. The purpose of this investigation was to determine if an intermittent or continuous walking program at either 40% VO2max or 55% VO2max would reduce the factors associated with CHD in type II diabetic patients.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 88 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Benign lesions of the larynx are a common problem that are encountered in day to day practice of an otorhinolaryngologist.It causes a wave of concern to the patient because voice forms a very important mode of communication to the outside world.Most of the lesions eventually present early during the course of the disease giving the ENT surgeon ample time to accurately diagnose the pathology associated with the condition and pinpoint the best management of the diseased state.The advances in the field of laryngology have been immense over the last few decades ranging from microlaryngeal surgery to the use of LASER''s for the treatment of the various pathological states.In this book we have tried to put in a nutshell,the necessary information about the benign lesions of the larynx that we have encountered, their incidence, their clinical presentation and their management. This book is the outcome of a 3 year clinical study on benign lesions of the larynx.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 72 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has always been an excellent model organism for studying conserved biological processes. This book presents several modern techniques in genetics, molecular biology, and real-time imaging to examine microtubule-related processes in yeast. Microtubule is a highly conserved protein assembly, and the results shown in this book have significant implications in neurobiology and cancer cell biology.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 96 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is an ubiquituous enzyme which in animals and in man takes part in the metabolism of biologically active or toxic catechols including catechol-structured drugs.The effects of endogenous catecholamines and catechol-structured drugs can be potentiated if the function of COMT is inhibited. This is likely to lead also to haemodynamic effects and changes in catecholamine metabolism.The first COMT inhibitors were toxic, unspecific and short-acting. Therefore the effects of COMT inhibition in man were widely unexplored in man before the intoduction of the second generation COMT inhibitors.The second generation COMT inhibitors entacapone and tolcapone have now established their role as effective agents in the treatment of Parkinson''s disease. This book summarizes a series of studies investitigating the effects of COMT inhibition on haemodynamics, catecholamine metabolism, including some interaction studies with drugs interfering with catecholamine disposition.This book gives also a short review of the literature on this topic and should be useful for professionals and students having interest in the COMT inhibition and COMT inhibitors.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 68 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -In recent years, growing processing power and bandwidth have stimulated a new breed of network applications requiring the development of more sophisticated traffic management algorithms to meet their stringent QoS needs. One of the main obstacles to improving QoS is congestion at network nodes. It is believe that bandwidth prediction is a key component to reducing congestion and thereby the improvement of QoS. This work proposes an effective bandwidth management approach based on the discrete wavelet transform (DWT). The approach hinges on the results of recent studies showing that while network traffic consists of both long- and short-term dependence, its wavelet coefficients are short-term dependent only. The DWT decomposes the traffic into a low-frequency component and high frequency components. The low- frequency component of the traffic, are significant for long-term traffic behavior and, hence, for bandwidth allocation. The high-frequency components are significant in the short-term behavior of the traffic and, hence, for buffer-allocation.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 116 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -In 2005, the Health Service Executive took over total responsibility in the running of the national healthcare system in Ireland. The Irish Government believed that the old health board system of governance and management became a myriad of confusion, inconsistency and incoherence; it failed to enforce financial accountability, to provide clear and timely decision-making, and, most of all, in its central purpose of healthcare practice, to put the patients first. Two years on, this book examines the current status of governance and management in the Irish healthcare system, on grounds of autonomy and responsibility in patient care. Theoretically, the analysis of autonomy and responsibility in healthcare is considered from three viewpoints: (1) Irish medicine ¿ the Hippocratic Oath and its struggle for recognition; (2) Irish politics ¿ the irony of politically- commissioned reports; and (3) the politics of neo- institutional healthcare management ¿ the onset of a possible medical mutiny. The analysis should evoke a re-thinking of autonomy in the healthcare profession, and should be especially useful to professionals in the healthcare field.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 88 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Realistic human face rendering is a difficult task in computer graphics due to complexity of facial geometric shape and light reflectance properties of human skin. In recent years, many techniques have been introduced to render realistic faces, with various degrees of complexity and realism. Image based rendering technique, which uses images instead of polygons to render faces has been proposed to enhance realism of 3D-face model. In this book, the design of a system of color rendering of human faces under variable lighting is described. The systems synthesize a color image of face under an arbitrary lighting condition given an image of face and a bootstrap set of images. The book covers basic knowledge and algorithms for developing the color face rendering systems, as well as detailed discussions of color adjustment and quality of the rendered color faces.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 100 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Prioritizing software requirements helps to determine which requirements are most important, and the order in which requirements should be developed and tested throughout the development life cycle. By prioritizing the requirements, software engineers can put focus on a subset of all requirements, and implement these in a particular release. This work aims to analyze two ratio scale prioritization techniques named Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Cumulative Voting (CV) by a controlled experiment, conducted on software engineering/computer science master students. The experiment was designed to compare time consumption, scalability and accuracy between the two techniques. All these evaluation parameters are combined together to find out which technique is more suitable to use when prioritizing software requirements. The results of the experiment indicate that CV is less time consuming than AHP. It was also found that CV is more scalable than AHP. Furthermore, CV is regarded as more accurate than AHP when measured subjectively in post-test.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 80 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Diabetes mellitus is the fourth cause of mortality in the world, after cardiovascular disease, cancer and muscular-skeletal disease .Diabetes mellitus, is incurable and leads to death due to the long-term complications.This study was undertaken using qualitative approach ,to explore the patients'' perceptions about self-management of diabetes. The findings show that family-based strategies are more successful in the management of diabetes in Indonesia than are programs focusing on the diabetic person alone. In addition, most participants initially did not have adequate knowledge about self-management. This situation influenced their capability to manage the disease. Hence, family involvement is important as a strategy for developing diabetes self-management education. Therefore, this study clearly highlights family issues as a contributing factor in achieving better self-management in the Indonesian context.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 88 pp. Englisch.