The value chain is a major focus in today's business world, and many organisations and managers allocate considerable resources to understanding and analysing their value chain. The main reason for doing this is either to eliminate activities that do not add value, or to improve on activities that do not add sufficient value.

In order to ensure optimum customer satisfaction, businesses must integrate the activities of various departments and functions. This demands a sound understanding of the chain of activities and their interrelationship with other business activities. The authors adopt the value chain as a framework in order to help business students to visualise how the value chain works. New ground is broken in that management is not dealt with only from a functional perspective. While the goal is to introduce undergraduate students to the concept of the value chain, it is not, however, to offer a comprehensive directory on the related literature.

This special and abridged version of Business Management has been requested by academics in order to accommodate the needs of accounting students. As accounting students at a number of higher institutions only do a seven-week module in business management, we have selected the chapters which cover the basics of business management as well as the primary functions of the value chain.

The value chain is a major focus in today's business world, and many companies and managers allocate considerable resources to understanding and analysing their value chain. The main reason for doing this is either to eliminate activities that do not add value, or to improve on activities that do not add sufficient value. In order to ensure optimum customer satisfaction, businesses must integrate the activities of various departments and functions. This demands a sound understanding of the chain of activities and their interrelationship with other business activities.

The authors of Business management adopt the value chain as a framework in order to help business students to visualise how the value chain works. New ground is broken in that management is not dealt with merely from a functional perspective. While the goal is to introduce undergraduate learners to the concept of the value chain, it is not, however, to offer a comprehensive directory on the related literature. The book is divided into three parts.

Part A introduces the reader to business management, the value chain, the business environment, the entrepreneurial process, and the considerations that need to be taken into account when establishing a business. Part B examines the activities of the value chain, starting with general management and leadership, followed by the primary and support activities that constitute the value chain. In Part C, contemporary management issues are reviewed, including diversity management, business ethics, globalisation, creativity and innovation, environmental issues, corporate governance and black economic empowerment.

Business management - a value chain approach covers basic points of theory, but it also has a strong practical approach, and includes self-evaluation exercises, challenging experiential exercises, information about relevant websites, interesting discussion questions and case studies, as well as useful lists of key terms.

This revised second edition has been updated in respect of new legislation such as the Companies Act, the Co-operatives Act, the Consumer Protection Act and the National Credit Act. Statistics have also been aligned with Census 2011.

This edition of managing tourism services strives to promote and instill a strong customer-centric orientation in the reader. Therefore, the title places strong emphasis on service orientation and the content focuses on managerial functions as means of enhancing the experience of the tourist. This has led to the introduction of new chapters such as service people management and the consequence of tourism. Several existing chapters rewritten to enhance the customer-centric and service-orientated focus of this edition. Several new South African case studies and applications are included to ensure a truly South African perspective.

The election of 1980 represented not only a departure from a 44 year-long period of predominantly Democratic presidents, but also a change in the rules of American politics. Anthony Bennett takes us through the last five elections of the twentieth century, from Ronald Reagan's 'Are you better off than you were four years ago?' in 1980 to Bill Clinton's 'Bridge to the twenty-first century' in 1996. Beginning with the fundamentals of process and terminology, Bennett devotes a chapter to each election - including the candidates, the conventions, and the campaigns - and then explains why the race turned out as it did. Finally, he explains how the system continued to evolve to its modern day state and how Reagan, Bush and Clinton built their winning coalitions.

Written in a clear and accessible style, this book presents a broad ranging enquiry into various methodological issues associated with contemporary youth research. Chapters cover a variety of topical areas, including youth transitions, youth in care, drugs, consumption and music. Featuring studies by new and established youth researchers, this book will be an invaluable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students, and also those carrying out more advanced research, in the fields of sociology, social policy, health studies, cultural and media studies.

This volume argues that a renewed commitment to sound macroeconomic policies and structural reforms is needed for countries in South East Europe, or 'the Balkans' achieve to sustainable prosperity, along with enhanced support from the international community. New fiscal and financial architecture has valuable lessons for policymakers in SEE.

Elizabeth Bowen and the Dissolution of the Novel argues that the Anglo- Irish writer Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) is one of the most important, though undervalued, practitioner of the twentieth-century novel in English. This is an innovative study with significant implications for contemporary critical and theoretical writing. The authors contend that Bowen's work calls for a radically new conception of criticism and theory - and of the novel itself.

This book brings together thirteen timely essays from across the globe that consider a range of 'mediated youth cultures', covering topics such as the phenomenon of dance imitations on YouTube, the circulation of zines online, the resurgence of roller derby on the social web, drinking cultures, Israeli blogs, Korean pop music, and more.

The election of 2000 marked the beginning of a period of partisanship and extremism previously unseen in American history. From the US Supreme Court's involvement in Bush v. Gore, to the extraordinary primary race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in 2008, the first four elections of the 21st century contained fascinating narratives with equally significant historical implications. Anthony J. Bennett guides us through the events of these four elections, showing how this era of partisanship has reshaped not only presidential nominations and elections, but the American presidency and politics itself.

The first text to offer complete, diagnosis-centered guidance on the effective use of emerging PET technology, Specialty Imaging: PET is a one-stop resource, expertly tailored to your decision support needs at the point of care. This accessible reference covers everything you need to know about the key role of PET in the complex field of precision medicine in areas including oncology, cardiac, infection and inflammation, vascular, breast, neurological, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, neuroendocrine, and many other specialties. With a practical, clinically oriented focus, it brings you fully up-to-date with research-based information on PET and how PET has resulted in radically new treatment approaches based on an immediate and molecular response to therapy. Features 1,600 high-quality images with captions and annotations for interpretive guidance, with illustrations including PET, with correlative CT and MR images depicting radiologic imaging findings Presents all diagnoses consistently, using a highly templated format with bulleted text for quick, easy reference Includes chapters in expert interpretation, artifacts, and common pitfalls Provides a wide range of essential information such as oncologic PET diagnoses with staging tables and reporting tips; cardiac PET indications including stress tests, cardiac viability, and sarcoidosis; CNS PET indications including dementia, epilepsy, and oncology; and educational, illustrated PET cases including correlative CT and MR Covers PET physics and instrumentation and current clinical and emerging PET radiotracers in table format Ideal for clinicians who care for cancer patients (nuclear medicine radiologists, radiation oncologists, oncologists, oncology surgeons, and trainees in nuclear medicine and oncology), as well as those who interpret PET for a wide variety of indications Expert ConsultT eBook version included with purchase. This enhanced eBook experience allows you to search all of the text, figures, Q&As, and references from the book on a variety of devices.

There are numerous books documenting the challenges of student athletes and presenting recommendations for academic success. They primarily focus on understanding the issues of student-athletes and recommendations are oftentimes overly simplistic, failing to explicitly provide interventions that can be executed by student-athlete support personnel. In addition, the topic of supporting student-athletes who are academically at risk and/or are diagnosed with high incidence disabilities has been overlooked by scholars resulting in few publications specifically focusing on providing strategies to the staff/personnel who serve these populations. The general target audience is college/university practitioners who interface with student-athletes who demonstrate academic and social risk in the realm of athletics. These stakeholders include but are not limited to: academic support staff, student athletes, parents, coaches, faculty/educators, counselors, psychologists, higher education administrators, student affairs professionals, disability services coordinators/personnel, as well as researchers who focus on education leadership, sports, and special education. All of these groups are likely to find this book attractive especially as they work with student-athletes who are at-risk for academic failure. Also, it is ventured that this book will become the staple text for the National Association of Academic Advisors (N4A), the official organization for all personnel who work in collegiate academic support and can be used by members of intercollegiate athletic associations to reform policies in place to support at-risk student-athletes.

The physiological role of histamine in gastric secretion has been controversial since Popielski demonstrated that histamine sti- mulates this secretion. The results using H2-receptor antagonists, together with the findings that histamine is produced and stored in the fundic mucosa and released upon vagal or hormonal stimulation, indicate that this amine is the major physiological stimulant of the parietal cells. The concepts of histamine as a 'final common chemo- stimulator' of parietal cells, and as part of a 'multi-messenger' potentiating interaction of various hormonal secretagogues on parietal cells, have both been proposed to explain the involvement of hista- mine in gastric secretory mechanisms. Histamine may also be an im- portant factor in the pathogenesis of gastric hypersecretion and peptic ulcer disease since its mobilization from gastric mucosal stores is accelerated in peptic ulcer disease, and since treatment with vagotomy or H2-receptor antagonists decreases histamine release and increases its degradation in the gastric mucosa. REFERENCES Angus, J. A. , 1982, Histamine receptors - their classification and role in gastric acid secretion, in: Receptor Update; Proceedings. Excerpta Medica, Geneva, 29. Angus, J. A. , and Black, J. W. , 1978, Production of acid secretion in the isolated stomach by electrical field stimulation, Br. J. Pharmacal. 62: 460P. Angus, J. A. , and Black, J. W. , 1982, The interaction of choline esters, vagal stimulation and H2-receptor blockade on acid secretion in vitro, Eur. J. Pharmacal. 80: 217. Ash, A. S. F. , and Schild, H. O.

This volume places more emphasis on endogenous mediators of gut motility than on drugs used to treat patients with deranged motility. In this respect it resembles most other books on gastroenterology, for while only a relatively small number of drugs are really useful for a rational therapy, a tremendous amount of data is available on neural and hormonal factors regulating the motility of the alimentary canal. Moreover, it must be considered that some of the drugs which can routinely be employed to modify deranged motility of the digestive system are represented by pure or slightly modified endogenous compounds (e. g. , cholecystokinin, its C terminal octapeptide and caerulein), and it is easy to foresee that their number is destined to increase in the near future. Other drugs are simply antagonists of physiological substances acting on specific receptors (e. g. , histamine H -blockers 2 and opioid compounds). The real explosion of research in this field and the extreme specialization often connected with the use of very sophisticated techniques and methodologies would probably have required a larger number of experts to cover some very specific fields from both an anatomical (lower esophageal sphincter, stomach, pylorus, small and large intestine) and a biochemical (hormones, candidate hormones, locally active substances, neurotransmitters etc. ) point of view.

Anthony Bennett guides us through the events of the four elections of the 21st century, showing how this era of partisanship has reshaped not only presidential nominations and elections, but the American presidency and politics itself.

This book brings together thirteen timely essays from across the globe that consider a range of 'mediated youth cultures', covering topics such as the phenomenon of dance imitations on YouTube, the circulation of zines online, the resurgence of roller derby on the social web, drinking cultures, Israeli blogs, Korean pop music, and more.

The Race for the White House from Reagan to Clinton provides a foundation for how the presidential nomination process and the presidential election process have changed over the past three decades by addressing a number of important questions about the nomination and electoral processes.

Written in a clear and accessible style, this book presents a broad ranging enquiry into various methodological issues associated with contemporary youth research. Chapters cover a variety of topical areas, including youth transitions, youth in care, drugs, consumption and music. Featuring studies by new and established youth researchers, this book will be an invaluable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students, and also those carrying out more advanced research, in the fields of sociology, social policy, health studies, cultural and media studies.

The third edition of "Alzheimer's Early Stages" offers new research findings, treatment approaches, and information on the three key areas of Alzheimer's disease: medical aspects, day-to-day care, and care for the caregiver. Daniel Kuhn seeks to replace fear with knowledge. With information on the progression of the disease, potential non-drug means of treatment, the changing world of the diagnosed individual, legal and financial planning, and maintaining physical and mental health for the caregiver, the book provides detailed guidance and advice while leaving room for adapting to the individual situation.

Pacific Forest explores the use of the forests of the Solomon Islands from the prehistoric period up to the end of 1997, when much of the indigenous commercial forest had been logged. It is the first study of the history of the forest in any Pacific Island; the first analysis of the indigenous and British colonial perceptions of the Melanesian forest; and the first critical analysis for this region, not only of colonial forest policies but of later policies and practices which made the governments of independence exploiters of their own people. Pacific Forest addresses a range of evidence drawn from several disciplines, and is a major contribution to environmental history.