M.A. / The competitive landscape in the retail sector in South Africa is changing, and new models of competitiveness are needed to deal with the challenges ahead. The responses that usually occur in relation to the above statement reveal a new competitive reality, demanding that the organisation’s capabilities will enable the retail company in South Africa to better serve their customers and to differentiate them from competitors. This dissertation is about determining the status of the measurement and interpretation of intangible assets within a retail company in South Africa, and more specifically the JD Group as a furniture retailer. There are focused on the importance of the different aspects of intellectual capital i.e. human capital, structural capital and customer capital and the value that could be derived to aid the company in the retail industry. It is also intended to establish whether value can be added to investors, customers, line management, employees and the community, if the appropriate intellectual capital management tool is identified and implemented. It is viewed, both globally and in South Africa, as a core contributory factor in achieving business strategy. It was established that knowledge processes and tools could be implemented and utilized to discover intellectual capital management as a valuable resource for the retail company. The spectrum of intellectual capital management tools is investigated and four methods of measuring intellectual capital are identified in the current literature: The Market capitalization method, the return on assets method, the direct intellectual capital method and the scorecard method. The scorecard models are identified as the most appropriate method to use in a retail company in South Africa based on the following characteristics: Monitoring of performance, reporting to stakeholders and uncovering of hidden value. The retail industry in South Africa is very volatile and organizations should be geared to adapt to changes at a rapid pace. In order to achieve world-class status, it is important to understand that management and employees, together, need to champion the competitive organisation of the future. The future organisation will no longer be in business just for the sake of business, but with a clear intent to protect its most valuable asset, the future. 21st Century businesses will be in the business of the creation of future, sustainable businesses. This dissertation explores the views as to the extent to which intangible assets contribute value, how this contribution can be measured through the use of intellectual capital management tools and what the status is of such measurement in the current retail company trading in South Africa. Once the need for intellectual capital management in the retail company in South Africa is established, focus is also given to the resultant changes required in respect of specific practices and the introduction of an array of strategy focused interventions, all within the intangible assets arena. The selection of these interventions is very JD Group specific and focuses on those areas that will contribute to the strategic alignment of leadership, culture and technology within the Group’s strategy, which is quite simply but also articulately captured in the Group’s vision statement, i.e. “To become global leaders in our fields of expertise.”

論文(哲學碩士)--香港中文大學硏究院敎育學部,1994. / 參考文獻: leaves [1-14] (2nd group) / 羅慧燕. / Chapter 第一章 --- 問題闡述 / Chapter 第一節 --- 前言 --- p.1 / Chapter 第二節 --- 何謂「知識份子」 --- p.4 / Chapter 第三節 --- 硏究的背景 --- p.15 / Chapter 第四節 --- 研究問題 --- p.20 / Chapter 第二章 --- 文獻評述 / Chapter 第一節 --- 中國研究的出發點 --- p.22 / Chapter 第二節 --- 三個概念的詮釋：「國家」、 「依附」、「自主」 --- p.25 / Chapter 第三節 --- 國家與知識份子的關係研究 --- p.36 / Chapter 第四節 --- 國家與其他個體的關係研究 --- p.42 / Chapter 第三章 --- 研究設計 / Chapter 第一節 --- 研究的意義和目的 --- p.44 / Chapter 第二節 --- 研究方法 --- p.46 / Chapter 第三節 --- 硏究進程和受訪資料 --- p.54 / Chapter 第四節 --- 研究限制 --- p.57 / Chapter 第四章 --- 知識份子與國家在職業角色之 關係 / Chapter 第一節 --- 中國教育的基本模式 --- p.59 / Chapter 第二節 --- 開放改革前知識份子與高等教育 的關係 --- p.66 / Chapter 第三節 --- 開放改革後知識份子與高等教育 的關係 --- p.100 / Chapter 第四節 --- 從知識份子的職業角色看「依 附」與「自主」 --- p.121 / Chapter 第五章 --- 知識份子與國家之間的經濟關係 / Chapter 第一節 --- 從「包」、「保」兩個概念看 國家對知識份子的工資和福利 政策 --- p.128 / Chapter 第二節 --- 從物質經濟層面看作為「中介」 的大學單位的作用 / Chapter 第三節 --- 從物質經濟層次看知識份子的 「依附」和「自主」 --- p.167 / Chapter 第六章 --- 知識份子與黨群組織之關係 / Chapter 第一節 --- 中國共產黨與大學組織的關係 --- p.174 / Chapter 第二節 --- 「黨群糸統」與知識份子之關係 --- p.188 / Chapter 第三節 --- 知識份子的「政治會議」和「組 織生活」 --- p.208 / Chapter 第四節 --- 從黨群系統統看知識份子的「依 附」和「自主」 --- p.216 / Chapter 第七章 --- 知識份子與國家在「生計機會」 之關係 / Chapter 第一節 --- 知識份子在大學裡的生計機會 --- p.221 / Chapter 第二節 --- 知識份子的「出版機會」與國 家之間的關係 / Chapter 第三節 --- 知識份子在「大學組織」與「 計機會」的關係 --- p.253 / Chapter 第四節 --- 從生計機會看知識份子的「依 附」與「自主」 --- p.259 / Chapter 第八章 --- 總結 / Chapter 第一節 --- 「國家」觀念的再詮釋 --- p.265 / Chapter 第二節 --- 知識份子與國家之間的結構性 依附關係 --- p.266 / Chapter 第三節 --- 知識份子的吊詭：「規範」和 「超越」 --- p.276 / Chapter 第四節 --- 「許可自主」：知識份子「回 應」和「拒抗」的「途徑」 --- p.280 / Chapter 第四節 --- 結語 / 註釋 / 參考書目 / 附錄一、二

Digital Rights Management systems (DRM) are frequently used by rightsholders in order to protect their works from the, very high indeed, possibility to be copied, altered or distributed without authorisation by users who take advantage of available state-of-the-art copying techniques. Because DRM are legally protected by anti-circumvention legislation both in the United States and in Europe, a debate goes on more than a decade now regarding their impact to the notion of “balance” among copyright stakeholders that traditionally underpinned copyright law. In this context, this study examines, in turn, the philosophical underpinnings of analogue and digital copyright law focusing of copyright exceptions, the development of a notion of a minimum of lawful personal use for the digital environment based on existing copyright exceptions and users’ expectations of personal use, and the impact of the use of DRM and of the introduction of anti-circumvention legislation to this notion. While the European Information Society Directive 2001/29/EC (EUCD) is the main legal instrument analysed and criticised, the role of other Directives is also examined to the extent they address the relationship between lawful personal use and anticircumvention legislation. Legal developments in the United States could not have been absent from this discussion since anti-circumvention legislation was introduced there much earlier than the EUCD and important case-law and legal commentaries have developed since. Following the identification of problems regarding the operation of a minimum of lawful personal use in digital settings, the proposal to introduce a right to engage in self-help circumvention afforded to users of DRM-protected works for Europe is put-forward. Such a right would not undermine rightsholders incentives to offer works online and develop new business models but would acknowledge the users’ interest to interact and tinker with digital works taking full advantage of the new possibilities offered by digitisation.

In a fast changing business environment with accelerated technological development, new knowledge resources and developing dynamic capabilities are becoming vital issues in economic knowledge. Drawing on the Resource-based View in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and competitive dynamics perspectives, there has been a recent rise in the number of practitioners and academics integrating the knowledge resources of SMEs, which are intellectual capital (IC) and absorptive capacity (ACAP) to achieve superior performance. The main objective of this study is to investigate the mediating role of absorptive capacity on the relationship between intellectual capital and firm performance in high-tech sector SMEs in the UK. Current research proposed a model for the direct and indirect relationships of IC- performance through ACAP, thereby increasing contributions to knowledge in the field of strategic management. A research conceptual framework was developed with reliance on an existing body of literature in the field of study. It integrates the effects of intellectual capital with absorptive capacity to create and develop dynamic capabilities in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and the publishing of computer games firms. A quantitative research employing surveys, the selected method of study was justified, because of the number of SMEs and their being geographically widespread around the UK. A five-point Likert-type scale has been used to measure research variables. A research conceptual framework has been developed and tested by using a structural equational modelling methodology. The results of this study suggested that high-tech SMEs could enhance and improve their financial outcome, if they associate and integrate the firm’s intellectual capital with the firm’s absorptive capacity to create or develop dynamic capabilities, which has greater significant effects on firm performance. This research concludes by saying that high performance firms respond rapidly to new knowledge and also that there is a strong association between IC and ACAP affecting the performance of SMEs. It is also concluded that CEOs and managers are able to enhance the level of performance in high-tech SMEs by the creation or development of dynamic capabilities through the integration between firm IC and ACAP.

Intellectual Property (IP) is becoming an increasingly important source of collateral in debt-based financial transactions. This thesis will show that IP and financing are intrinsically linked. They both can be used to drive company growth. When the two interact a virtuous growth spiral can form. It will be shown that IP can be used to obtain financing which allows for company growth and the creation of more IP rights. The new IP rights then allow the IP owner to obtain more financing. The pattern of growth can continue in this pattern. However, due to the legal complications the formation of such a growth spiral is hindered. The thesis examines how security interests in intellectual property right are treated in secured finance law and IP law in the US and the UK. It will show that there is a conflict between laws particularly in the perfection and priority of such security interests. The conflict between the two sources of law makes it difficult to determine where a security interest must be registered in order to be perfected. The conflict also creates conflicting registers for such interests. Due to conflicting registration provisions it is also difficult to determine the priority of conflicting security interests in an IP right. Additionally, IP laws are often inadequate for determining issues on perfection and priority. The thesis will offer suggestion on legal reforms which will best alleviate the legal problems of taking security in an IP right.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / Adults with Intellectual Disability (ID) are at an elevated risk of osteoporosis based on lower peak bone mass and medical characteristics. However, there is little data as to how the medical characteristics affect screening or at what ages people are being screened. Methods: A secondary cross-sectional data analysis of was conducted of 4777 adults witl1 Intellectual Disability to determine characteristics associated with an elevated risk for osteoporosis and receipt of bone density screening. Hypotheses were that increasing age, use of antiseizure medication, living in a 24 hour residential setting, and receiving a flu vaccine increased the likelihood of screening. Bivariate analyses were initially performed, tl1en data were stratified by gender and logistic regressions were performed. Findings: 22.2% of the sample in this study received bone density screening. Bivariate odds ratios identified each of the hypothesized variables as significantly associated with receiving screening. Additionally, many of the covariates analyzed identified significant associations with receiving screening.Data were then stratified by gender and evaluated in a logistic regression. In men, increasing age, tl1e use of antiepileptic medication (adjusted odds ratio (OR) 1.5; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2-2.0), and receiving the flu vaccine (adjusted OR 1.5; 95% CI 1.2-2.0) were associated witl1 an increased likelihood of screening, controlling for confounding. Living in a 24 hour residential setting was not significantly associated with screening (adjusted OR 1.2; 95% CI 0.91-1.6). In women, increasing age, the use of antiepileptic medication (adjusted OR 1.5; 95% CI 1.2-1.9), receiving the flu vaccine (adjusted OR 1.4; 95% CI 1.1-1.8), and living in a 24 hour residential setting (adjusted OR 1.4; 95% CI 1.1 -1.8) were all significantly associated with receiving screening. A history of Down syndrome, noted to increase risk of osteoporosis, was associated with a decreased likehl1ood of screening (adjusted OR 0.67; 95% CI 0.4 7-0. 94) in women, although it was not a significant association in men. Conclusions: While most variables related to osteoporosis are associated with an increased likelihood of screening, screening rates among in adults witl1 ID were low. Additionally, men and women have differences in variables related to screening. Better education and improved awareness may increase rates. / 2031-01-02

No description available.

This thesis explores differences in the ways that intellectually disabled people are perceived, interpreted and related to within a Western context. Through a comparison of familial and institutionalised forms of relatedness, it examines the interrelation between these differences and the consequences that they have for either denying or acknowledging severely intellectually disabled people's capacities for sociality. Drawing on Carrithers' (1992) concept of sociality and mutuality, and Wittgenstein's (1953) notion of language games, the thesis analyses the means by which a meaningful and shared existence with intellectually disabled people can be negotiated and developed. Although limited and restricted in their capacities for symbolic expression, such people do have modalities of symbolic life upon which sociality can be built. By analysing the symbolic practices utilised by my three profoundly intellectually disabled siblings, I seek to show how relationships across the difference of intellectual disability are able to be symbolically mediated and negotiated. I argue that it is necessary to engage in relations of mutual interdependence in order to even recognise and perceive these practices as purposeful and meaningful. The mutuality that ensues requires a level of intimacy, empathy and commitment that is not easily sustainable, but which is necessary for the maintenance of intellectually disabled people's existence as social beings. These intimate relations are contrasted with clinical and institutional forms of relatedness, both of which have been informed and shaped by a symbolic scheme of reason and normality. This symbolic scheme associates a capacity for reason with normal humanness, where reason is identified as particular abstract, linguistic, mental practices that are then deemed necessary for sociality. These are what intelligence tests measure, and it is through such assessments that intellectually disabled people are rendered asocial. The pathologising of intellectual disability as an abnormal embodiment, and the clinical tendency to search only for deficits in functioning and ability, has led to a denial or ignorance of intellectually disabled people's abilities to be the independent sustainers and authors of mutuality and sociality. I draw on my family's medical notes, records from the institution where two of my siblings were sent to live, as well as observations made during twelve months of fieldwork with a group of intellectually disabled people attending an activities centre, and either living in community group homes or with their families, to elucidate the ways in which such interpretations of intellectual disability become instituted into daily practice. The instituting of training and management practices within day centres, group homes and institutions for the intellectually disabled are a consequence of the perception that intellectually disabled people have no capacity for sociality as they are. So too are the legal and structural obligations that inform the forms of relatedness that staff have with the intellectually disabled people with whom they work. These relations are based on separation and disengagement rather than mutuality and intimacy. The aim in these institutionalised environments is to instil in such people a range of normative social, domestic and vocational skills as though it is upon these that their capacity as social beings are dependent. As a result, the symbolic practices and dispositional behaviours through which intellectually disabled people express themselves are not recognised as such, nor are they engaged with. This undermines intellectually disabled people's capacity to be joint contributors to social life in a way which incorporates their differences rather than trying to transform them.

Copyright infringement is not a recent phenomenon; however, the prevalence of the Internet and piracy software has made infringement easier to commit and harder to prosecute. Research identifies the offenders to be in their late-teens and early 20s, an age group that has been christened Generation Y or Millennials. This study confirmed that 19- to 25-year-old college students pirate music at an alarming rate; however, their responses indicate that they are pirating less than previously suggested. This study also determined through survey and focus group research that a disparity exists between legal and cultural mores. According to Posner's theory means-end rationality, if current deterrents fail to prevent future infringements, the justice system must adapt modifications to penalties or jurisprudence is not fulfilling its purpose.

No description available.