Beyond enterprise resource planning projects: innovative strategies for competitive advantage

ABSTRACT A rapidly changing business environment and legacy IT problems has resulted in many organisations implementing standard package solutions. This 'common systems' approach establishes a common IT and business process infrastructure within organisations and its increasing dominance raises several important strategic issues. These are to what extent do common systems impose common business processes and management systems on competing firms, and what is the source of competitive advantage if the majority of firms employ almost identical information systems and business processes? A theoretical framework based on research into legacy systems and earlier IT strategy literature is used to analyse three case studies in the manufacturing, chemical and IT industries. It is shown that the organisations are treating common systems as the core of their organisations' abilities to manage business transactions. To achieve competitive advantage they are clothing these common systems with information systems designed to capture information about competitors, customers and suppliers, and to provide a basis for sharing knowledge within the organisation and ultimately with economic partners. The importance of these approaches to other organisations and industries is analysed and an attempt is made at outlining the strategic options open to firms beyond the implementation of common business systems

Fiber Orientation Estimation Guided by a Deep Network

Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) is currently the only tool for noninvasively imaging the brain's white matter tracts. The fiber orientation (FO) is a key feature computed from dMRI for fiber tract reconstruction. Because the number of FOs in a voxel is usually small, dictionary-based sparse reconstruction has been used to estimate FOs with a relatively small number of diffusion gradients. However, accurate FO estimation in regions with complex FO configurations in the presence of noise can still be challenging. In this work we explore the use of a deep network for FO estimation in a dictionary-based framework and propose an algorithm named Fiber Orientation Reconstruction guided by a Deep Network (FORDN). FORDN consists of two steps. First, we use a smaller dictionary encoding coarse basis FOs to represent the diffusion signals. To estimate the mixture fractions of the dictionary atoms (and thus coarse FOs), a deep network is designed specifically for solving the sparse reconstruction problem. Here, the smaller dictionary is used to reduce the computational cost of training. Second, the coarse FOs inform the final FO estimation, where a larger dictionary encoding dense basis FOs is used and a weighted l1-norm regularized least squares problem is solved to encourage FOs that are consistent with the network output. FORDN was evaluated and compared with state-of-the-art algorithms that estimate FOs using sparse reconstruction on simulated and real dMRI data, and the results demonstrate the benefit of using a deep network for FO estimation.Comment: A shorter version is accepted by MICCAI 201

The imperial war museum’s social interpretation project

This report represents the output from research undertaken by University of Salford and MTM London as part of the joint Digital R&D Fund for Arts and Culture, operated by Nesta, Arts Council England and the AHRC. University of Salford and MTM London received funding from the programme to act as researchers on the Social Interpretation (SI) project, which was led by the Imperial War Museum (IWM) and their technical partners, The Centre for Digital Humanities, University College London, Knowledge Integration, and Gooii. The project was carried out between October 2011 and October 2012

Roscoe Reid Graham (1890 to 1948): a Canadian pioneer in general surgery.

Roscoe Reid Graham, a Canadian surgeon trained at the University of Toronto, was a true pioneer in the field of general surgery. Although he may be best known for his omental patch repair of perforated duodenal ulcers-often referred to as the Graham patch -he had a number of other significant accomplishments that decorated his surgical career. Dr. Graham is credited with being the first surgeon to successfully enucleate an insulinoma. He ventured to do an essentially brand new operation based solely on his patient\u27s symptoms and physical findings, a courageous move that even some of the most talented surgeons would shy away from. He also spent a large portion of his career dedicated to the study of rectal prolapse, working tirelessly to rid his patients of this awful affliction. He was recognized by a number of different surgical associations for his operative successes and was awarded membership to those both in Canada and the United States. Despite all of these accolades, Dr. Graham remained grounded and always fervent in his dedication to the patient and their presenting symptom(s), reminding us that to do anything more would be meddlesome. In an age when medical professionals are often all too eager to make unnecessary interventions, it is imperative that we look back at our predecessors such as Roscoe Reid Graham, for they will continually redirect us toward our one and only obligation: the patient

Analyse des paramètres optiques des aérosols atmosphériques, de leur distribution et de leur albédo de diffusion par les mesures photométriques au Mali

Cette étude porte sur l’analyse des paramètres optiques des aérosols atmosphériques, de leur distribution en taille et de leur albédo de diffusion simple à l’échelle locale de deux stations photométriques solaires, Agoufou et IER_Cinzana, du réseau mondial AERONET au Mali. Les résultats indiquent que les valeurs plus élevées des moyennes journalières du coefficient d’Angström α 440-870 (α 440-870 ≥ 0,5) correspondent aux plus faibles valeurs de l’épaisseur optique des aérosols τa500 (0,0 < τa500 < 0,5) et vice versa (α440-870 < 0,5 pour 0,0 < τa500< 4,0). Ce qui indique la prédominance de la poussière minérale au-dessus des localités. Les fréquences de distribution des paramètres optiques des aérosols et la distribution en taille des aérosols, dV/dlnr (en μ m3/μ m2), montrent que l’atmosphère au-dessus des deux localités, est caractérisée par une mixture d’aérosols grossiers prédominants et d’aérosols fins. Les valeurs enregistrées de l’albédo de diffusion simple ω0 (sans unité) des aérosols localement existants indiquent qu’ils diffusent beaucoup plus les rayonnements solaire et terrestre qu’ils n’en absorbent.Mots-clés : aérosols atmosphériques, AERONET, EOA, coefficient d’Angström, distribution en taille, albédo de diffusion simple, poussière minérale, feux de biomasse

Die Entwicklung der Vektorrechnung im französischen Mathematikunterricht seit Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts

Zusammenfassung: Dieser Text ist Teil eines größeren Forschungsprojekts über die Verbindungen zwischen Mathematik und Physik und stellt eine Analyse der Geschichte der Vektorrechnung im Unterricht in Frankreich dar, von ihren ersten Anfängen in der Sekundarstufe am Ende des 19 Jhd. bis zur Gegenwart. Unsere Analyse stützt sich auf einen theoretischen Rahmen, der durch die "Oekologie des Wissens" inspiriert ist (Chevallard, 1994). Über das historische Interesse hinaus wollen wir einen Bereich des Mathematikunterrichtes beleuchten (der unter dem Einfluss der jüngsten Reformen immer kleiner und kleiner wird) sowie seinen Bezug zum Physikunterricht, der - obwohl er von beiden Seiten als natürlich angesehen wird - nicht wirklich als effektive Unterstützung der Lehrer der jeweiligen Disziplin zu dienen schein

Process transparency on construction sites : examples from construction companies in Brazil

Process transparency is the core concept in Visual Management (VM), which is one of the founding blocks of the Toyota Production System. This paper presents the preliminary results of a collaborative research conducted between Brazil and the UK, as part of a research effort focused on the application of Visual Management in construction. How process transparency is realized on construction sites is the main research question of the paper. The use of this concept and the implementation of the transparency theory were investigated through multiple case studies, carried out in nine different construction companies. The findings are explained through six theoretical transparency increasing approaches. The affecting parameters in the application of, the management’s perception of and several methods in process transparency in construction were identified. Further work, especially exploring the functions of process transparency on construction sites and reflecting the worker perception of the issue, is necessary to elaborate the process transparency concept