This paper extends earlier benchmark study(Eom 1995) which examined the intellectual structure, major themes, and reference disciplines of decision support systems (DSS) over the last two decades (1960-1990). Factor analysis of an author cocitation matrix over the period of 1990 through 1999 extracted 10 factors, representing six major areas of DSS research: group support systems, DSS design, m...

While there are some developments in structure solution and refinement, these represent gradual improvements rather than fundamental leaps in methodology. An exception is the assessment of crystal quality by X-ray diffraction topography using a dedicated solid-state electronic detector; this is an elegant example where the precise physical nature of the crystal has been studied and analyzed. Si...

Intellectual property (IP) block reuse is essential for facilitating the design process of system-ona-chip. Sharing IP designs poses significant high security risks. Recently, digital watermarking emerged as a candidate solution for copyright protection of IP blocks. In this paper, we survey and classify different techniques used for watermarking IP designs. To this end, we defined several eval...

Knowledge plays an increasingly important role in shaping the dynamics of an economy. A static Paretian welfare economics is therefore inadequate, and needs to be supplemented by a dynamic (Schumpeterian) welfare theory. A dynamic welfare economics acknowledges the role of knowledge and communication. As knowledge develops cumulatively in a social environment, knowledge may not be readily diffu...

In the Information Systems discipline, increasing attention is being paid to the issue of professional ethics. In this article, a personal perspective on the topic is offered. The academic philosophies of ethical theory are introduced, followed by detailed treatment of four fundamental issues: codes of ethics, intellectual property rights, professional accountability and data protection. The in...

In 1870, a thirty-one-year-old professeur at a French provincial lycée published a work whose goal was no less than to foment a revolution within the tradition of French psychological investigation. La psychologie anglaise contemporaine (1870), by normalien Théodule Ribot, might seem an unlikely title for a piece of intellectual bomb throwing. Under the guise of surveying developments within En...

Lamarck, a son of the age of natural philosophy and revolutionary ideas, turned to zoology, the field in which he made his major impact, in his old age. By then, the world had already shifted towards a different intellectual atmosphere and, due to this anachronism, he was snubbed and even ridiculed by the mainstream neo-Darwinists. Yet his basic ideas about the active role of organisms in and t...

The notion of entropy was first introduced in the 1850‘s by Rudolf Clausius in the context of thermodynamics. Focusing on the meaning that an increase of entropy means an increase of disorder, dissipation and decay, subsequent generations of authors have imported the notion into practically every area of intellectual discussion. This paper will mention numerous definitions of entropy and consid...

This paper examines the rationale for intellectual property protection in the development of new pharmaceutical products. Prior survey studies of R&D executives have found that patents play a more critical role in appropriating the benefits of innovation in pharmaceuticals compared to other high tech industries. This paper considers why this is so based on an analysis of the economic characteri...

The enormous growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web has made these two technologies an important potential adjunct to cost-effective health care research and delivery. This article surveys some recent developments in telecommunications, networking and artificial intelligence that are likely to have a significant impact on improving the efficiency and quality of future health care. Issues...