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This article discusses the foresight of philosopher/mathematician Norbert Wiener who, in the 1940s, founded Information Ethics as a research discipline. Wiener envisioned the coming of an “automatic age” in which information technology would have profound social and ethical impacts upon the world. He predicted, for example, machines that will learn, reason and play games; “automatic factories” that will replace assembly-line workers and middle managers with computerized devices; workers who will perform their jobs over great distances with the aid of new communication technologies; and people who will gain remarkable powers by adding computerized “prostheses” to their bodies. To analyze the ethical implications of such developments, Wiener presented some principles of justice and employed a powerful practical method of ethical analysis. © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

The cluster of concerns usually identified as matters of privacy can be adequately accounted for by unpacking our natural rights to life, liberty, and property. Privacy as derived from fundamental natural rights to life, liberty, and property encompasses the advantages of the control and restricted access theories without their attendant difficulties., (C)2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers

This article discusses some "historical milestones" in computer ethics, as well as two alternative visions of the future of computer ethics. Topics include the impressive foundation for computer ethics laid down by Norbert Wiener in the 1940s and early 1950s; the pioneering efforts of Donn Parker, Joseph Weizenbaum and Walter Maner in the 1970s; Krystyna Gorniak's hypothesis that computer ethics will evolve into "global ethics"; and Deborah Johnson's speculation that computer ethics may someday "disappear"., (C)2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers

The focus of this article is primarily on the impact that the computer revolution has on college/university libraries, although many of the issues discussed here are relevant to other types of libraries as well. The university library in its present form is a product of the printing press revolution. In all likelihood, the computer revolution will have an even more profound impact on the library than did the printing press revolution.

The number of single-parent families has increased dramatically in the United States. The purpose of this study was to explore the types of family rituals present in single-parent families and their meaning within the family context. Little is known about family rituals in single-parent families, and therefore grounded theory was the qualitative research method used for this study. Unstructured face-to-face interviews were used to obtain data from a theoretical sample of seven single parents. Data analysis appropriate to the grounded theory method was utilized to identify a core variable and an emerging theory. Six types of rituals: connection, spiritual, love, recreation, celebration, and evolving were found to be used by these single-parent families as a way to facilitate family cohesion and instill family values. Applicability of the findings of this study are beneficial for nurses working with clients with diverse, changing, and complex social situations such as the single-parent family. © 2004 Sage Publications.

Dose-response experiments are crucial in biomedical studies. There are usually multiple objectives in such experiments and among the goals is the estimation of several percentiles on the dose-response curve. Here we present the first non-parametric adaptive design approach to estimate several percentiles simultaneously via generalized Pó lya urns. Theoretical properties of these designs are investigated and their performance is gaged by the locally compound optimal designs. As an example, we re-investigated a psychophysical experiment where one of the goals was to estimate the three quartiles. We show that these multiple-objective adaptive designs are more efficient than the original single-objective adaptive design targeting the median only. We also show that urn designs which target the optimal designs are slightly more efficient than those which target the desired percentiles directly. Guidelines are given as to when to use which type of design. Overall we are pleased with the efficiency results and hope compound adaptive designs proposed in this work or their variants may prove to be a viable non-parametric alternative in multiple-objective dose-response studies. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In this paper we consider a variation of the Art Gallery Problem. A set of points script G sign in a polygon Pn is a connected guard set for Pn provided that is a guard set and the visibility graph of the set of guards script G sign in Pn is connected. We use a coloring argument to prove that the minimum number of connected guards which are necessary to watch any polygon with n sides is ⌊(n - 2)/2⌋. This result was originally established by induction by Hernández-Peńalver [3]. From this result it easily follows that if the art gallery is orthogonal (each interior angle is 90° or 270°), then the minimum number of connected guards is n/2 - 2. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.

In this paper we consider a variation of the Art Gallery Problem for orthogonal polygons. A set of points in a polygon Pn is a connected guard set for Pn provided that is a guard set and the visibility graph of the set of guards in Pn is connected. The polygon P n is orthogonal provided each interior angle is 90° or 270°. First we use a coloring argument to prove that the minimum number of connected guards which are necessary to watch any orthogonal polygon with n sides is n/2-2. This result was originally established by induction by Hernández-Peñalver. Then we prove a new result for art galleries with holes: we show that n/2-h connected guards are always sufficient to watch an orthogonal art gallery with n walls and h holes. This result is sharp when n = 4h + 4. We also construct galleries that require at least n/2-h-1 connected guards, for all n and h. © Springer-Verlag 2003.

A new theoretical Evans function condition is used as the basis of a numerical test of viscous shock wave stability. Accuracy of the method is demonstrated through comparison against exact solutions, a convergence study, and evaluation of approximate error equations. Robustness is demonstrated by applying the method to waves for which no current analytic results apply (highly nonlinear waves from the cubic model and strong shocks from gas dynamics). An interesting aspect of the analysis is the need to incorporate features from the analytic Evans function theory for purposes of numerical stability. For example, we find it necessary, for numerical accuracy, to solve ODEs on the space of wedge products.

We prove a new theorem for orthogonal art galleries in which the guards must guard one another in addition to guarding the polygonal gallery. A set of points G in a polygon Pn is a k-guarded guard set for Pn provided that (i) for every point x in Pn there exists a point w in G such that x is visible from w; and (ii) every point in G is visible from at least k other points in G: The polygon Pn is orthogonal provided each interior angle is 90° or 270°. We prove that for k ≥ 1 and n ≥ 6 every orthogonal polygon with n sides has a k-guarded guard set of cardinality (Formula Presented.) this bound is best possible. This result extends our recent theorem that treats the case k = 1. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2001.

The study researched the possibility of standardizing the marketing mix by investigating the cross-cultural responses from the United States, Brazil, France and India. The study tested the premise of standardization by determining if respondents perceived specific attributes of a common non-durable consumer product the same or differently. The results indicate the opportunity for dynamic marketing standardization remains limited but applicable within specific cultural country markets. Several attribute perceptions between US and foreign respondents are found to be more similar than dissimilar suggesting advantages may exist for a limited implementation of marketing mix standardization as part of a global marketing strategy. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Recent syntheses of empirical studies have clearly demonstrated a consistently positive relationship between income and happiness. Research is needed to reduce uncertainty and disentangle such relationships, which have been found to be quite modest, but significant in the aggregate. The present study contributes to this end, in that it investigates the moderating effect of income on the relationship between beliefs that serve as internal buffers and happiness. We go beyond simple associations of income and happiness to examine relationships between income and self-esteem and between income and optimism. Finally, causal modeling is employed to demonstrate that, under varying income levels, these beliefs affect happiness by the same process — with distinct yet predictable outcomes.

This study investigates the influence of role conflict, role ambiguity, and role strain on job performance, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction among field sales and company sales support employees in a single pharmaceutical company. Because this study is based on data from a single company, these results may not necessarily be generalized to all companies in the industry. In the present research, a path model of the process reveals important variations in response to role conflict, role ambiguity, and role strain between the two classes of employees. For both classes, the influence of decreased role ambiguity is generally positive for measured outcomes. However, reductions in role conflict, while lessening role strain, are likely to result in lower job performance for field sales employees. Decreases in role strain, while improving life satisfaction, may lead to lower job satisfaction for sales support employees. © 2003, Informa UK Ltd All rights reserved: reproduction in whole or part not permitted. All rights reserved.

Sensory attributes, such as sound quality ascertained by listening to a stereo, are often ambiguous and therefore difficult to encode and retrieve. Despite this, consumers often place more weight on these attributes compared to verbally described market information when making brand choice decisions. Results from two studies demonstrate that providing criteria to evaluate the sound quality of competing brands of stereos facilitates the encoding, retrieval, and alignment of the sensory attribute in a brand choice task. Study 1 shows that without criteria to evaluate sound quality during trial, memory for this attribute is poor. Further, perceptions of sound quality assimilate to conflicting market information, which adversely affects decision performance. The reverse is true when evaluative criteria and a scheme to rate the criteria are provided: memory for sound quality improves, perceptions of sound quality contrast with conflicting market information, more weight is placed on sound quality when decision making, and better choices are made. Study 2 shows that providing evaluative criteria during product trial enhances performance through improvement in the encoding process.

Traditional focus group methodology involves an individual trained moderator who manages the whole process from writing the focus group guide that directs the topics pursued, the interaction with participants, to interpretation, reporting and client feedback. Since their training, personality and orientation can vary differentially, this may lead to moderator bias. Proposes a new method that involves a series of complementary moderators that target specific areas of the guide that allows them to specialise in their particular experiences and orientations. These moderators are used sequentially on the same groups that offer the potential to avoid many of the problems associated with single-moderator discussion groups. Moreover, the chance to moderate the moderator keeps a check on how the sessions of each focus group develops, building in feedback between moderators, and reduces the prospects of misinterpretation and side-tracking by a single moderator. © 2001, MCB UP Limited

This article presents a systems dynamics model to illustrate some of the aspects of Deming's System of Profound Knowledge. As a pedagogical tool, it would serve as a useful introduction for those new to Deming's ideas. It not only introduces the main parts of his system, but also highlights their interconnectedness. The model environment, an interactive management flight simulator, and the model content combine to provide several learning opportunities. The model uses the assumptions of regression to the mean, the 80:20 Rule, random walks, and learned helplessness to present a theory of how, managers learn to reduce quality in organizations. Those interested in exploring or teaching Deming's System can use the model as a launching point from which to explore the system further. Running the simulation provides an opportunity to identify and challenge assumptions, explore the harmful effects of tampering, examine the fundamental attribution error, develop control charts, and challenge the application of behaviourism in management.

This paper discusses the six core business processes and supporting technology that are impacted by an enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation. It begins with a brief history of the evolution of ERP and the information systems technology that enabled its development. A discussion of project implementation team preparations is followed by a description of process mapping and its significance to the success of an ERP implementation. Highlights of “As-Is” and “To-Be” process mapping and change management conclude the paper. © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited