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From July 1995 until July 1996 we followed a group of small companies that were retailing on the Web. We surveyed our sample three times over this period, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data and visible data from their Web sites. Our intention was to initiate research into successful Web‐based retail ‐ put simply, what makes a small company successful on the Web? Using ideas from grounded theory and our findings, we suggest important factors and constructs that can be used for further work in this area.

During the 1990s, companies focused on the adoption of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to solve integration problems. However, ERP systems automate core business activities without solving underlying business structures and processes. As a result a number of disparate applications often coexist with ERP systems. To better understand ERP and application integration (AI) problems, this paper proposes to identify, analyse and present the problems of ERP systems, as well as examining new approaches for AI. In doing so, a multi‐choice questionnaire has been designed, and was distributed to ERP specialists over the Internet. Responses show that ERP systems amplified the need for integration, as existing systems have to be incorporated with ERP applications. AI securely incorporates functionality from disparate applications, and has shown to lead to the development of new strategic business solutions for enterprises. The results of the research confirm AI as a new means of system integration that adds value by placing business logic in the applications network, thus creating a more dynamic information systems infrastructure.

Supply chain visibility (SCV) is vital where supply chain (SC) partners must have access to information regarding materials within the SC. This is particularly important in regulated industries where government or industry regulators require additional SC‐related information. An argument is presented that in regulated industries there is a requisite level of visibility that should be assessed. The purpose of this paper is to identify and organise the components of requisite supply chain visibility (RSCV), producing simple concepts that could lay the foundation to assess the requisite level of visibility.

Drawing on previous research into, and definitions of SCV, this paper builds a definition for RSCV. A project where RSCV is applied as a concept is then presented as a case. The Swiss firm Jet Aviation, its logistics provider Fiege, its equipment suppliers, and involved logistics agents are the participants in the case.

Requisite SCV in regulated environments can be perceived as dependent upon a firm's strategic orientation, partner capabilities, the need for SC compliance to regulations, the desire for operational flexibility and issues within the environment in which the SC operates. The case suggests that a capabilities, rather than outcomes‐based, approach has merit.

Findings are limited by the context of the case, but are applicable using an analytical generalization to highly regulated industries. A specific method for measuring RSCV is needed, and further research is progressing in this area.

Using the RSCV concept to manage large‐scale SCV initiatives can help firms in highly regulated industries identify the critical factors that increase or limit their SCV. The case suggests that when implementing an IT solution for RSCV, networkability across the SC partners is a key limiting factor.

There is limited research into the role of regulation and compliance in SCV. This is one of the first pieces of research to consider requisite SCV. It proposes a SC specific configurable assessment concept, and presents a unique case in SCV.

This review integrates and builds linkages among existing theoretical and empirical literature from across disciplines to further broaden our understanding of the relationship between inequality, imprisonment, and health for black men. The review examines the health impact of prisons through an ecological theoretical perspective to understand how factors at multiple levels of the social ecology interact with prisons to potentially contribute to deleterious health effects and the exacerbation of race/ethnic health disparities.

This review finds that there are documented health disparities between inmates and non-inmates, but the casual mechanisms explaining this relationship are not well-understood. Prisons may interact with other societal systems – such as the family (microsystem), education, and healthcare systems (meso/exosystems), and systems of racial oppression (macrosystem) – to influence individual and population health.

The review also finds that research needs to move the discussion of the race effects in health and crime/justice disparities beyond the mere documentation of such differences toward a better understanding of their causes and effects at the level of individuals, communities, and other social ecologies.

It is possible to say that an expert in any field of knowledge can be expected to know particular things and techniques. This can be said of a stone mason, a physicist or a midwife. The expertise consists of a notional core of knowledge and skills (i.e. applied knowledge). Such expertise arguably can be found in other experts in the same field, although there will be idiosyncrasies of approach and valuation and quite probably divergencies in what is considered “right” and “wrong”.

This chapter considers the essential elements and processes in designing and building a computer-based tutor to instruct teams. In this chapter, the choices of authoring tools, the instructional context, the goal of the instruction, and the characteristics of the domain were evaluated in terms of their influence on the Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) design in support of team learning and performance. While each team tutor may be unique in terms of its learning objectives, measures, selections of learning strategies and tutor interventions, there are some identified design decisions that need to be made. Considering the best decision for the specific tutor's design is intended to ease the authoring burden and make computer-based team tutoring more ubiquitous.

The purpose of this paper is to present a new class of printed circuit board (PCB)‐based, radio frequency micro‐electro‐mechanical systems (RF‐MEMS) switches and to describe the packaging method and evaluate performance.

Traditional PCB materials and processes were combined with photolithographic high‐density interconnect (HDI) and MEMS to form 3D high‐performance RF switches.

A new type of MEMS RF switch has been developed on a PCB platform. Using processes analogous to those used for silicon MEMS, PCB, and HDI technologies were utilized to fabricate these 3D structures. The PCB‐based microstructures are “mil‐scale” rather than the “micro‐scale” of silicon MEMs. A co‐fabrication packaging method for the MEMS RF switch was also developed. The PCB‐based MEMS switches have demonstrated excellent RF performance and “hot‐switching” RF power‐handling capability. PCB‐based MEMS RF switches have the advantages of low cost and amenability to scale‐up for a high degree of integration.

Further development on photo imageable dielectric materials will enable this technology to improve yield and processability.

The paper describes the development of PCB‐based MEMS RF switches. These elements will enable new applications and enhance the functionality of PCBs. They are also more amenable to system integration compared with silicon MEMS.