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Although mental health problems increase markedly during adolescent years, therapists often find it difficult to engage with adolescents. The majority of disturbed adolescents do not receive professional mental health care and of those who do fewer still will fully engage with the therapeutic process (Offer et al. 1991; US Surgeon General 1999). Personal Investigator (PI) is a 3D computer game specifically designed to help adolescents overcome mental health problems such as depression and help them engage more easily with professional mental health care services. PI is an implementation of a new computer mediated model for how therapists and adolescents can engage. The model has its theoretical foundations in play therapy and therapeutic storytelling and applies current research on the educational use of computer gaming and interactive narrative systems to these foundations. Previously demonstrated benefits of computer games and interactive narrative systems in education include increased motivation, increased self‐esteem, improved problem solving and discussion skills and improved storytelling skills (Bruckman 1997; Bers 2001; Robertson 2001; Robertson and Oberlander 2002; Bers et al. 2003; Squire 2003). PI aims to take advantage of these benefits in a mental health care setting. PI incorporates a goal‐oriented, strengths based model of psychotherapy called Solution Focused Therapy (SFT). By engaging adolescents, in a client‐centred way, it aims to build stronger therapeutic relationships between therapists and adolescents. PI is the first game to integrate this established psychotherapy approach into an engaging online 3D game. Results of trials of PI with four adolescents, referred to clinics for issues including anxiety and behaviour problems, attempted suicide, and social skills difficulties, are presented.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

CONTROLLING the environment of factories and offices is vital for two reasons — it saves money and it improves employee morale.

The topic of transportation incorporates a vast amount of divergent information. The subject matter varies greatly, and includes titles ranging from Camels of the Outback to The Great American Motion Sickness; or Why You Can't Get There from Here. To establish boundaries for this resource guide, the present authors referred to Public Law 87–449, 14 May 1962, which authorized the president to proclaim an annual National Transportation Week. Using this as a basis, they defined transportation As the movement of people or goods from one place to another, and included a little tourism to break up the concrete and steel. While some historical materials are included, this resource guide emphasizes modes of transportation currently used in the United States.

Logistics play a vital role in today's economy. As the critical component in the supply chain, logistics is a sector able to be translated as a competitive weapon to the businesses and the nation. Malaysia is a developing country which, laid in the middle of the trade route between west and east, constantly eyes the opportunity to exploit the logistics sector as a platform to bring out its domestic products to the international market and to bring in investment from the global players. Good transport infrastructure and conducive business environment are the ingredients for positioning Malaysia as a hub of logistics activities at the regional and global level. One of the initiatives to achieve the objective is the commencement of Digital Free Trade Zone as a regional e-commerce e-fulfillment hub and drive export of Malaysian SME via e-commerce. As the government is looking toward shifting manufacturing approaches from labor-intensive to capital-intensive strategy, the container ports and airports are equipped with the state-of-the-art technology to ensure efficient movement of cargoes and passenger at the terminal. The progress of logistics and transport activities in Malaysia, coupled with recent development in the commercial and business-related projects, maybe becoming the most important reasons why the foreign investor should consider investing in Malaysia.

Presents a series of articles on each of the following topics: digital strategy in the next millennium (Digital strategy – a model for the millennium; Searching for the next competitive edge; The technology link; Value web management opportunities; clash of the Titans: communications companies battle for new ground; and a guide through the maze); retailing and distribution in the digital era (The business case for electronic commerce; superdistribution spells major changes; VF Corp. sews up software operation; IBM seeks to harness digital revolution; Egghead’s bold move to a Web‐based strategy; achieving successful Internet banking; and enterprising uses for IT); and the changing shape of the aviation industry (boom times ahead for air cargo; United Airlines flies high through employee ownership; Asian practices to West at Cathay Pacific; and Ryannair strips to the bone).

This paper presents a system‐based approach to action‐directed knowledge management. This approach, known as system‐based knowledge management (SBKM), allows one to respond to the observations made by previous writers that knowledge management should be cognisant of the complexity of knowledge in organisations and of the limitations of codification of that knowledge. Starts with a taxonomic analysis of the nature of organisational knowledge, dividing this critical resource into four: knowing what, knowing how, knowing why, and knowing who. Each of these requires recognition of the system in which it is created and used.

SBKM is an accessible systems analysis tool based on the techniques of qualitative system dynamics. Its fundamental representational technique (the influence diagram) is that of causal mapping and its novel element is the explicit representation of the use of knowledge by human actors in fulfilling their specific system roles.

The method has been used successfully in practice; the study reports on its use in a professional services firm.

With SBKM one can now map the usage and, indeed, the utility of knowledge on to an operating context. This has profound implications for practice, leading potentially into more diagnostic applications of resources for knowledge development and into improved understanding of how knowledge is used within an organisation.

The ability to examine that usage and utility of knowledge on a declared system basis constitutes an additional research instrument for examining how knowledge is used within organisations.

This paper aims to optimise the dynamic performance of production–inventory control systems in terms of minimisation variance ratio between the order rate and the consumption, and minimisation the integral of absolute error between the actual and the target level of inventory by incorporating the Pareto optimality into particle swarm optimisation (PSO).

The production–inventory control system is modelled and optimised via control theory and simulations. The dynamics of a production–inventory control system are modelled through continuous time differential equations and Laplace transformations. The simulation design is conducted by using the state–space model of the system. The results of multi-objective particle swarm optimisation (MOPSO) are compared with published results obtained from weighted genetic algorithm (WGA) optimisation.

The results obtained from the MOPSO optimisation process ensure that the performance is systematically better than the WGA in terms of reducing the order variability (bullwhip effect) and improving the inventory responsiveness (customer service level) under the same operational conditions.

This research is limited to optimising the dynamics of a single product, single-retailer single-manufacturer process with zero desired inventory level.

PSO is widely used and popular in many industrial applications. This research shows a unique application of PSO in optimising the dynamic performance of production–inventory control systems.

The purpose of this paper is to document the growing concerns about the lack of relevance of business school research, and offer suggestions for journal editors and faculty members in logistics and supply chain management.

This paper is a review of literature related to the relevance of business school research and an analysis of trends related to the editorial review boards of the three main logistics journals.

The current business school research model is unsustainable. The metrics used are driving the wrong behavior. Logistics journals, traditionally known for an emphasis on practical relevance, appear to be emulating the journals of other business functions at a time when there is a growing consensus that these journals are publishing, more often than not, research of little or no value to practicing managers or society.

The cost of faculty research at AACSB schools, which increasingly benefits no one but the authors, has been estimated at roughly US$3.8bn annually. Imagine the potential benefits if business school deans realigned the incentives to encourage faculty to produce credible research that is useful to business and society.

The hope is to influence senior logistics faculty with tenure to work with business executives or policymakers to identify long-term big idea projects that will impact business and society, and publish their research in the logistics journals. Traditionally, the editors of logistics journals included business executives on the editorial review boards and encouraged research of practical relevance. Journal editors should look back and realize what was good about the journals and not discard the good for current fads.

Construction is possibly one of the most cost orientated industries in any economy. The primary mode of supplier selection has always tended to be on the basis of lowest material or service cost at point of consumption. Indeed, this remains the case even in the post‐Latham (1994) and Egan (1998) world in which we live. In general, construction cost estimates are based on a straight ‘take off’ of the quantities required. All further ‘other’ costs in the form of overhead, profit, labour and wastage are consolidated into the cost of the materials. Construction is unique within the various industries making up a modern economy in that the bulk of the materials and components that it uses are of relatively low value while being of high volume. Consequently, a significant proportion of the ‘other’ costs associated with materials purchases must be in the form of transportation from the point of extraction and / or production to the point of consumption. This paper provides an overview of the hidden costs associated with the transportation of construction materials within the industry and proposes improved methods of managing the logistics of the construction process e.g. reverse logistics, in order to reduce costs and increase the basic sustainability of the construction process.