607 research outputs found
How ICTs Raise Manufacturing Performance: Firm-level Evidence in Southeast Asia.
Get PDFThis paper examines the effects of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on business performance, using firm-level data obtained through a questionnaire survey in four ASEAN countries (Indonesia, The Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam). Sources of information and new technologies exchanged via ICTs by firms are also explored to investigate the mechanism behind ICT adoption. Empirical results verify that the introduction of ICT to reorganize business processes is significantly correlated with business performance, in particular the development of export markets and improvement of production management. ICTs facilitate access to information and technologies accumulated in in-house departments and joint-venture (JV) affiliates of the respondent firms. There are considerable differences between multinational companies (MNCs)/JVs and local firms. MNCs/JVs make use of information and technologies obtainable via ICTs from their own R&D departments, JVs established with local partners and foreign-owned suppliers/customers to improve factory management, mostly for product quality improvement and production cost reduction. In contrast, local firms interconnect their own R&D departments via ICTs to enhance their business performance in broader areas than MNCs/JVs, including the development of export markets.
Adalimumab in the management of Behçet’s disease
No full textAtsuhisa Ueda, Mitsuhiro Takeno, Yoshiaki Ishigatsubo Department of Internal Medicine and Clinical Immunology, Graduate School of Medicine, Yokohama City University, Yokohama, Japan Abstract: Behçet’s disease (BD) is a relapsing, systemic, inflammatory disorder that affects various organ systems. Most of the manifestations of BD are self-limiting, but ocular attacks are an exception. Gastrointestinal tract, central nervous system, and cardiovascular system manifestations are relatively infrequent but may be resistant to conventional immunosuppressive treatment and therefore life-threatening. Tumor necrosis factor alpha antagonists are increasingly being used in patients whose BD is inadequately controlled by standard immunosuppressive regimens. Most of the current experience regarding the treatment of refractory BD involves the use of infliximab; however, adalimumab has also been successfully used in cases of BD refractory to both conventional therapy and infliximab. Compared with infliximab, adalimumab offers several other advantages, such as the ability to self-administer at home, better patient compliance, and an improved side effect profile. Here, we review clinical experience of the use of adalimumab to treat the serious manifestations of BD. Adalimumab is a promising drug for the treatment of BD, and its randomized, prospective study in a large number of patients is warranted to fully determine its efficacy in the refractory BD setting. Keywords: adalimumab, Behçet’s disease, intestinal BD, infliximab, ocular lesion, central nervous syste
Analysis of diffracted waves from a wedge by the virtual discontinuity principle of diffraction
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Cell structure in waves diffracted by a wedge in three-dimensional space and its implications to the field theory
No full textCell structure in waves diffracted by a wedge in three-dimensional space and its implications to the field theory
No full textSpectrum of Echo Scattered by Simple Object Placed at Focal Plane of Ultrasonic Transducer
No full textA new representation of a scalar wave field diffracted by solid obstacles that satisfies both the wave equation and hard or soft boundary conditions
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