Search results for "Operations"

Hybrid descriptive-inferential method for key feature selection in prostate cancer radiomics

2021

In healthcare industry 4.0, a big role is played by radiomics. Radiomics concerns the extraction and analysis of quantitative information not visible to the naked eye, even by expert operators, from biomedical images. Radiomics involves the management of digital images as data matrices, with the aim of extracting a number of morphological and predictive variables, named features, using automatic or semi-automatic methods. Multidisciplinary methods as machine learning and deep learning are fully involved in this field. However, the large number of features requires efficient and effective core methods for their selection, in order to avoid bias or misinterpretations problems. In this work, t…

Financial crisis impact on sustainability reporting

2013

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to shed some light on the effect of the current financial crisis on corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting and CSR assurance strategies that companies disclose online to stakeholders, by dividing the time horizon into two periods, before 2008 and from 2008. Design/methodology/approach – The sample includes Spanish listed companies, differentiating CSR reporters from non CSR-reporters. Also distinguished in the CSR-reporters sample, are those companies that assure the CSR report from those that do not. The authors contrast whether there is a trend as regards CSR reporting and CSR assurance, depending on whether the crisis has already begun or …

F.A.L.C.A.D.E.: a fuzzy software for the energy and environmental balances of products

2004

Abstract It is generally well known that the reliability of Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) studies depends upon exact, complete and sharp input data that, unfortunately, are not always available. Furthermore, when available, the input data are affected by uncertainty whose importance is not always adequately taken into consideration. This paper describes the software F.A.L.C.A.D.E. (Fuzzy Approach to Life Cycle Analysis and Decision Environment): a tool designed for the calculation of the eco-profile of products, based on a fuzzy logic approach. The originality of the method already treated in other papers is to use the fuzzy representation to manage the complex relationships that arise in compi…

HCV Network Of Sicilian Region: A Best Practice To Monitor Cost And Consequence Of Treatments

2017

Planning for an environment-friendly car

2000

During the process of developing a new product, consciously or unconsciously, a number of decisions are made that affect the environment, thus making a company responsible not only for the technical performance but also for the “environmental performance” of a product. This research paper broadly speaks about this development process and lists the various tools available to the modern decision maker for balancing the ecological, economical and technological aspects of production. The focus of this paper is on the environmental issues in the automobile industry and environmental impacts presently associated with the automobile life cycle. The paper reviews existing tools and opportunities fo…

Distance Factors in the Foreign Market Entry of Software SMEs

2010

Recent studies have indicated that the internationalization process of software SMEs is somewhat independent on the effect of psychic or geographic distance. However, these studies have analyzed the general pattern of entries where software SMEs not commonly follow a step-wise entry route from nearby countries to distant ones. Thus, it remains unknown what the effect of psychic and geographical distance is when these firms enter a distant foreign market. The findings in this case study reveal that psychic and geographic distance inhibited the foreign market entry of software SMEs. However, the distant foreign market entry of these firms was facilitated by distance-bridging and distance-comp…

Public versus private broadcasters’ management

2014

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to prove the existence of significant differences between private and public corporate credibility antecedents and effects. Design/methodology/approach – Totally, 816 Spanish viewers’ valuations were obtained (408 for the public television network and 408 for four private first generation broadcasters). Results show that some corporate reputation antecedents (perceived quality) and effects (attitudes) are stronger when private broadcasters are considered. Findings – Result show that proposed credibility reputation antecedents and effects are significant and that some differences between private and public entities really do exist. Research limitations…

Book Review: Derivatives and Risk Management in Shipping by Manolis D. Kavussanos and Ilias D. Visvikis

2009

Derivatives and Risk Management in Shipping, by Manolis D. Kavussanos and Ilias D. Visvikis. Witherbys Publishing, 2006. 392pp. 10-ISBN: 1 85609 310 7; 13-ISBN: 978 1 85609 310 1

In-house versus external basic research and first-to-market innovations

2016

This paper explores to what extent conducting internal basic research, as opposed to external basic research (i.e. outsourcing and collaboration with universities) encourages firms to bring new products into the market ahead of competitors, and contributes to innovation performance. The analysis is based on a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms over the period 2006–2012. Our findings suggest that conducting in-house basic research affects firm's propensity to introduce product novelties. Furthermore, performing this activity continuously affects the probability of being product-pioneer in low and medium–low tech sectors. Collaboration with universities also helps in introducing new produc…

Safety Culture: The Prediction of Commitment to Safety in the Manufacturing Industry

1998

This paper reports one aspect of a large-scale study of safety culture in 13 companies operating in the manufacturing sector in the UK. The study is based on data collected from three different domains of measurement relevant to the description of safety culture: workplace assessments, a survey of employee attitudes to safety – including questionnaire and interview data – and company accident records. The data described in this paper concern the prediction of perceived commitment to safety from employees' attitudes to safety as reported in a self-administered questionnaire. Commitment to safety was used as a marker of the strength of the organization's safety culture. The data showed that e…