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The purpose of this paper is to propose a simple framework to help practitioners to analyze and evaluate their performance more accurately and easily from the perspective of value adding concept.

The proposed framework separates management and operations into two different functions in the flows of capital investment and return. This paper suggests the application of the concept of Du Pont ratio (disaggregation of return on asset) for operators to address their true value driver along with the use of the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) as the benchmark for performance.

The paper stretches the concept of economic value added into two different tiers of a business organization – operations and top management. This framework can be institutionalized to evaluate operations and management more effectively from two different business dimensions – ROS and asset turnover. Industry practitioners can adopt the concept and develop it further accommodating their unique business situations. Multi‐unit operators can put the performance records of individual units this way for further analysis and improvement. At the same time, the entire company's performance can be put into two different dimensions for more effective analysis – operations and top management.

As a conceptual paper that proposes a framework, this paper does not provide empirical data analysis. However, the framework is designed using a set of simple financial ratios that are commonly used in the industry.

As a generic framework, all segments of the hospitality industry can adopt this approach to evaluate their performance. The range of application can cover from individual units to an entire corporation.

This paper suggests specific application of financial ratios to separately evaluate the performance of operations and top management by proposing the use of WACC as a benchmark.

On April 2, 1987, IBM unveiled a series of long‐awaited new hardware and software products. The new computer line, dubbed the Personal Systems 30, 50, 60, and 80, seems destined to replace the XT and AT models that are the mainstay of the firm's current personal computer offerings. The numerous changes in hardware and software, while representing improvements on previous IBM technology, will require users purchasing additional computers to make difficult choices as to which of the two IBM architectures to adopt.

The purposes of this study are to first, determine the most efficient and cost effective portions of the healthcare supply chain in which radio frequency identification devices (RFID) can be implemented. Second, provide specific examples of RFID implementation and show how these business applications will add to the effectiveness of the healthcare supply chain. And third, to describe the current state of RFID technology and to give practical information for managers in the healthcare sector to make sound decisions about the possible implementation of RFID technology within their organizations.

Healthcare industry literature was reviewed and examples of specific instances of RFID implementation were examined using an integrated simulation model developed with Excel, @Risk and Visio software tools.

Analysis showed that the cost of implementing current RFID technology is too expensive for broad and sweeping implementation within the healthcare sector at this time. However, several example applications have been identified in which this technology can be effectively leveraged in a cost‐effective way.

This study shows that RFID technology has come a long way in the recent past and has potential to improve healthcare sector productivity and efficiency. Implementation by large companies such as Wal‐mart has helped to make the technology become much more economical in its per unit cost as well as its supporting equipment and training costs.

The originality of this study lies in the idea that few practical and pragmatic approaches have been taken within the academic field of study for the implementation of RFID into the healthcare supply chain. Much of the research has focused on specific companies or portions of the supply chain and not the entire supply chain. Also, many of the papers have discussed the future of the supply chain that is heavily dependent on advances in RFID technology. A few viable applications of how RFID technology can be implemented in the healthcare supply chain are presented and how the current state of technology limits the broad use and implementation of this technology in the healthcare industry.

The purpose of this paper is to assess whether mental health symptoms affect one-year reoffending rates upon release from prison for participants engaging in substance dependence treatment in the UK.

A retrospective cohort study was used to assess reconviction outcomes upon release. The Comprehensive Addiction and Psychological Evaluation (CAAPE) was administered to 667 inmates admitted to the programme. The effect of mental health, drug use, and static risk factors on reoffending was assessed at one-year post release.

Logistic regression analysis showed that symptoms of Major Depressive Disorder at the start of substance dependence treatment increased the likelihood to reoffend, whilst Obsessive Compulsive Disorder symptoms and length of sentence decreased the likelihood to reoffend. Antisocial Personality Disorder symptoms show a trend towards increasing the likelihood to reoffend. In addition, previously established risk factors for reoffending, including dependence on heroin, crack/cocaine, and poly drug use significantly increased the likelihood of reconviction.

Depressive symptomatology pre-treatment could affect reoffending outcomes for participants in substance dependence treatment in prison. An integrative approach addressing both substance misuse and mental health factors is pivotal. Future efforts to address both simultaneously can be made to improve assessment, training, treatment, and through care for prisoners in substance dependence treatment.

Few studies have assessed the effect of mental health factors on reoffending outcomes for offenders in substance dependence treatment. A large sample was studied in an understudied population of UK prisoners in substance dependence treatment. The results have implications for clinical settings where mental health symptoms are not addressed concurrently with substance dependence. This finding can inform policy makers and practitioners who provide substance dependence treatment in prison.

While dealing with samples as they arrive daily, and sometimes hourly, throughout the year, the Public Analyst gets little opportunity of reflecting on the general trend of his work, its significance in the life of the community, and upon the changes in conditions and customs that may have some bearing on its development. The occasion to take a few hours off from the daily routine in writing this Annual Report provides an appropriate opportunity to look at the work in some sort of perspective, to review briefly the past and to cast a glance towards the future. The concept of Public Analysts occurred in the 1860's, when there was no dearth of evidence that all was not as well as it should be in the matter of foods and drugs on sale to the public; but reform in these matters made a slow start for the simple reason that only isolated practitioners were available who possessed the necessary competence and experience. Bearing in mind the simple character of their apparatus, the limited range of their reagents, and the almost complete absence of technical literature, we, their successors, take off our hats to the early pioneer Public Analysts. With little encouragement and for small reward they plodded away to expose to day‐light the crude forms of adulteration then being practised and commenced the process of debunking the unwarranted claims made for many preparations on sale. They developed a science of analytical chemistry at their own expense, devised their own processes, and produced their own literature, thus beginning the slow process that ultimately made possible the greatly improved standards prevailing today in the quality of the foods and drugs available to the public. So much for the reasonably glorious past. With regard to the present, although the Public Analyst is far from complacent about the existing state of affairs, and is in fact in many ways dissatisfied and highly critical of his organisation, he nevertheless realises that there is much to be thankful for. For one thing, the public, who, curiously enough, in the past have shown a morbid fascination for worthless products as long as they were attractively packed and glamorously advertised, are now becoming more enlightened in matters of food. They dislike having their illusions shattered, but they are beginning to appreciate the bearing that pure food has upon their health, and honest food on their pockets. As the Public Analyst is virtually responsible for bringing about these things, he has come to be more acceptable, and his existence is less begrudged than H.M. Inspector of Taxes, for instance. In the second place, as one consequence of the increasing knowledge of nutrition, important sections of the Ministry of Food have been deputed to bring up to date the law on food questions, to introduce definite standards of composition, and to fix limits for impurities. The Ministry has also dealt with the question of labelling and advertising, and has, in fact, done some excellent work in this direction. The result is that a Public Analyst no longer works, as it were, in vacuo, having to pit his own opinion against that of the defence, but has a good deal of official backing which enables him to assess his problems with more precision. In the third place, the Royal Institute of Chemistry has regularised the standard of competence of Public Analysts, and has played its part in ensuring that facilities are provided for the training of necessary recruits to the profession. There are, on the other hand, some notable weak points in the present position which occasion concern. Generally speaking, Public Analysts have fallen sadly behind in the economic scale, and frequently have the depressing experience of seeing promising young analysts go off at a tangent into industry, teaching, and other professions, just as they are accumulating the specialised experience which is a necessary complement to their basic training to make them good future Public Analysts. There is one outstanding technical anomaly which has been commented upon a good deal recently. The mass production of foodstuffs accompanied by nationally‐wide advertising has resulted in identically similar articles being obtainable almost anywhere between Land's End and John O'Groats. As the situation is at present, every Public Analyst is liable to sample the same product, which is not only inefficient in that it entails duplication of work, but, where prosecutions are made, may lead to uneven standards of justice being applied in different parts of the country. The manufacturers have to attempt to clear themselves in the eyes of the law many times for what is virtually the same offence. This is typical of a number of matters which Public Analysts themselves are conscious of and hope to see put right. The next few years may possibly see radical changes in the organisation. Some revolutionary suggestions are being put forward that the status quo should be scrapped and replaced by a few regional laboratories, but the matter needs very careful consideration. In theory laboratories organised in larger units would make for greater efficiency, and, indeed, only those beyond a certain minimum size could justify all the necessary equipment. . But the work of the Public Analyst has always had, and still retains, a good deal of local character, and matters can often be put right by personal contact where official action from a remote centre would not achieve the desired effect. The Analyst should begin to lose the “one guinea per sample ” mentality and be regarded as a consultant to his local authority on all chemical matters. Given a direct approach to the various committees with which he comes into contact, adequate accommodation and equipment, and sufficient suitably trained staff to make some degree of specialisation possible, the present organisation has many years of useful work before it. Problems concerning water supply, sewage disposal, atmospheric pollution, and similar matters, will always arise; while short of some radical change in human nature the percentage of adulterated samples of food and drugs, either as a result of fraud, misunderstanding, or accident, will not go down to nil. Until that desirable state of affairs comes about, the public will need, and possibly demand, expert protection of the kind which is at present associated with the Public Analyst.

This chapter will consider the spatial implications in disrupting hierarchies and shifting identities in the undergraduate environment and explore the extent to which space can act as an agent of change in this process. Drawing on research and empirical evidence, the chapter explores the link between the re-design of learning and the design of the physical space. As this chapter will illustrate, when the active learner is centrally positioned in the learning spaces of the future, space can support relational and dialogic learning experiences and promote learner agency and reflexive learner engagement in a way that has the potential to become a platform for transformative educational change. As educational spaces are re-conceptualised, recognising a fundamental shift has taken place in how, when and where we learn, it can be argued that space is acting as an ‘agent of change’ facilitating change in pedagogic practice, relationships and methods.

This chapter describes how conversational computer agents have been used in collaborative problem-solving environments. These agent-based systems are designed to (a) assess the students’ knowledge, skills, actions, and various other psychological states on the basis of the students’ actions and the conversational interactions, (b) generate discourse moves that are sensitive to the psychological states and the problem states, and (c) advance a solution to the problem. We describe how this was accomplished in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) for Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) in 2015. In the PISA CPS 2015 assessment, a single human test taker (15-year-old student) interacts with one, two, or three agents that stage a series of assessment episodes. This chapter proposes that this PISA framework could be extended to accommodate more open-ended natural language interaction for those languages that have developed technologies for automated computational linguistics and discourse. Two examples support this suggestion, with associated relevant empirical support. First, there is AutoTutor, an agent that collaboratively helps the student answer difficult questions and solve problems. Second, there is CPS in the context of a multi-party simulation called Land Science in which the system tracks progress and knowledge states of small groups of 3–4 students. Human mentors or computer agents prompt them to perform actions and exchange open-ended chat in a collaborative learning and problem-solving environment.

In spite of the merits of artificial intelligence (AI) in marketing and social media, harm to consumers has prompted calls for AI auditing/certification. Understanding consumers’ approval of AI certification entities is vital for its effectiveness and companies’ choice of certification. This study aims to generate important insights into the consumer perspective of AI certifications and stimulate future research.

A literature and status-quo-driven search of the AI certification landscape identifies entities and related concepts. This study empirically explores consumer approval of the most discussed entities in four AI decision domains using an online experiment and outline a research agenda for AI certification in marketing/social media.

Trust in AI certification is complex. The empirical findings show that consumers seem to approve more of non-profit entities than for-profit entities, with the government approving the most.

The introduction of AI certification to marketing/social media contributes to work on consumer trust and AI acceptance and structures AI certification research from outside marketing to facilitate future research on AI certification for marketing/social media scholars.

For businesses, the authors provide a first insight into consumer preferences for AI-certifying entities, guiding the choice of which entity to use. For policymakers, this work guides their ongoing discussion on “who should certify AI” from a consumer perspective.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work is the first to introduce the topic of AI certification to the marketing/social media literature, provide a novel guideline to scholars and offer the first set of empirical studies examining consumer approval of AI certifications.