An investigation into the effects of computer integrated manufacturing systems in the productivity of SMEs in Pakistan

The current dynamic and turbulent manufacturing environment has forced companies that compete globally to change their traditional methods of conducting business [Producer to consumer]. Recent developments in manufacturing and business operations have lead to the adoption of Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) technologies that are based on systems and processes that support global competitiveness, especially for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Organizations and SMEs in particular need to re-evaluate every aspect of their manufacturing strategy and quickly move towards a CIM based environment where manufacturing technologies, business strategies and processes are integrated together. This paper highlights the development of a CIM adoption model that has resulted from empirical work generated from SMEs in Pakistan. The model consists of the parameters such as Top Management Support, System Integration, Marketing, and over all performance

Process development for a dispersion strengthened cobalt base alloy Final report, 25 Jun. 1968 - 24 Mar. 1969

Flash drying selective reduction processes for oxidative and thermal resistant cobalt alloys for air breathing engine

The Stuff You Need Out Here : A Semiotic Case Study Analysis of an Agricultural Company\u27s Advertisements

In today’s mediated society, people are continually searching to describe relationships among themselves, the items they encounter in their physical environment, and the cultural and historical contexts in which they reside. By placing meaning-laden visuals in a medium as popular as magazines with rural audiences, advertisers are sending messages as to what rural life is. The 2004-2005 advertising campaign of the Tractor Supply Company utilized photographs of rural life to sell viewers “ The stuff you need out here.” This advertising campaign, which relied heavily on a humorous appeal to play into stereotypical images of rural life, was seen in a variety of magazines that reach rural audiences. Using semiology as the framework of how images construct meanings, this case study sheds light on the various messages behind these advertisements and how they convey the cultures of rural life to farm and non-farm audiences. It is apparent that these advertisements have a tendency to play into the dominant ideology of what farming and farmers look like. Through simplistic images playing into known stereotypes such as male domination, rural work ethic, and freedom, the dominant ideal is enforced through the selling of these products. By utilizing American ideals and colors, the advertisements played into the American ideal of patriotism

Entanglement vs. gap for one-dimensional spin systems

We study the relationship between entanglement and spectral gap for local Hamiltonians in one dimension. The area law for a one-dimensional system states that for the ground state, the entanglement of any interval is upper-bounded by a constant independent of the size of the interval. However, the possible dependence of the upper bound on the spectral gap Delta is not known, as the best known general upper bound is asymptotically much larger than the largest possible entropy of any model system previously constructed for small Delta. To help resolve this asymptotic behavior, we construct a family of one-dimensional local systems for which some intervals have entanglement entropy which is polynomial in 1/Delta, whereas previously studied systems, such as free fermion systems or systems described by conformal field theory, had the entropy of all intervals bounded by a constant times log(1/Delta).Comment: 16 pages. v2 is final published version with slight clarification

Assessing Internet Use in Florida Newsrooms

The Internet has become a major factor in the mass media industry. As a consequence, information sources, including agricultural communicators, are considering the decision to move to Web-based publications and publicity dissemination tools. Rural and agricultural audiences, however, have favored traditional media as a source of news and information, creating something of a “rural-urban digital divide.” In an attempt to assess how mass media news operations are utilizing the Web as a newsgathering and information source, a statewide descriptive survey was conducted of a random sample of local and regional media outlets. Results showed that television, radio, and newspaper newsrooms were using computers and the Internet extensively not only for receiving information and research but also for disseminating news. Respondents indicated that 88.9% of reporters used the Internet on a daily basis, while 72.2% of news units maintain an online presence. These findings indicate that as media outlets increase their utilization of the Web, agricultural industries and higher education institutions need to move more to electronic dissemination of information

The elicitation of key performance indicators of e-government providers: A bottom-up approach

Copyright @ 2013 EMCIS.Delivering an adequate e-Government service (e-service) is becoming more of a necessity in today's digital world. In order to improve e-services and increase the engagement of both users' and providers' side, studies on the performance evaluation of such provided e-services are taking places. However a clear identification of the key performance indicators from the e-Government providers’ side is not well explored. This shortcoming hampers the conduct of a holistic evaluation of an e-service provision from the perspective of its stakeholders in order to improve e-services as well as to increase e-services take-ups. In this paper, a systematic process to identify indicators is implemented based on a bottom-up approach. The process used three focus-group meetings with providers, users, and academics in Qatar, Lebanon and UK to collect, identify and validate key indicators from the perspective of e-services’ providers. The approach resulted in the identification of five factors levels (service, technology, employees, policy and management and social responsibilities) with fifteen sub-categories of SMART variables. Hence, leading to the development of a new model, STEPS, that can fully explain and predict e-government success from the providers’ point of view. It will work as a strategic management tool to align various stakeholders on common goal and values based on evidence based evaluation of e-services using smart measurable indicators for the improvement of an e-service at the engagement level in the field of e-government. In addition, other fields can benefit from the outcome of this work, such as logistics service providers, who make their services available across new and existing relationships between the Internet commerce firms, their customers, and their vendors