Offering a unique exploration of healthcare-oriented business training and insight, MBA for Healthcare provides readers with an invaluable tool in the rapidly-changing healthcare industry today. This book is designed with healthcare providers at all levels of practice, so that they can promptly acquire both basic and advanced knowledge regarding the business aspects of medicine.

The book covers the latest theoretical results and sophisticated applications in the field of variable-structure systems and sliding-mode control. This book is divided into four parts. Part I discusses new higher-order sliding-mode algorithms, including new homogeneous controllers and differentiators. Part II then explores properties of continuous sliding-mode algorithms, such as saturated feedback control, reaching time, and orbital stability. Part III is focused on the usage of variable-structure systems (VSS) controllers for solving other control problems, for example unmatched disturbances. Finally, Part IV discusses applications of VSS; these include applications within power electronics and vehicle platooning. Variable-structure Systems and Sliding-Mode Control will be of interest to academic researchers, students and practising engineers.

The structural optimization procedure presented in this book makes it possible to achieve seismic protection through integrated structural/control system design. In particular, it is explained how slender structural systems with a high seismic performance can be achieved through inclusion of viscous and viscoelastic dampers as an integral part of the system. Readers are provided with essential introductory information on passive structural control and passive energy dissipation systems. Dynamic analyses of both single and multiple degree of freedom systems are performed in order to verify the achievement of pre-assigned performance targets, and it is explained how the optimal integrated design methodology, also relevant to retrofitting of existing buildings, should be applied. The book illustrates how structural control research is opening up new possibilities in structural forms and configurations without compromising structural performance.

Designed to complement case analysis in university and professional strategic management courses. This book aims to develop the basic general management skills required to understand a business, sense the opportunities and problems that it faces, deal effectively wth strategic decisions, and set in place the people and operations to implement those decisions. The authors have focused on analytic concepts that contribute to a practical understanding of specific strategic issues; these concepts are linked into a comprehensive framework that helps students learn to set priorities for both analysis and action.

Policymakers and program managers are continually seeking ways to improve accountability in achieving an entity's mission. A key factor in improving accountability in achieving an entity's mission is to implement an effective internal control system. An effective internal control system helps an entity adapt to shifting environments, evolving demands, changing risks, and new priorities. As programs change and entities strive to improve operational processes and implement new technology, management continually evaluates its internal control system so that it is effective and updated when necessary. Section 3512 (c) and (d) of Title 31 of the United States Code (commonly known as the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act (FMFIA)) requires the Comptroller General to issue standards for internal control in the federal government.

Synthesizes the empirical literature on organizationalstructuring to answer the question of how organizations structure themselves --how they resolve needed coordination and division of labor. Organizationalstructuring is defined as the sum total of the ways in which an organizationdivides and coordinates its labor into distinct tasks. Further analysis of theresearch literature is neededin order to builda conceptualframework that will fill in the significant gap left by not connecting adescription of structure to its context: how an organization actuallyfunctions. The results of the synthesis are five basic configurations (the SimpleStructure, the Machine Bureaucracy, the Professional Bureaucracy, theDivisionalized Form, and the Adhocracy) that serve as the fundamental elementsof structure in an organization. Five basic parts of the contemporaryorganization (the operating core, the strategic apex, the middle line, thetechnostructure, and the support staff), and five theories of how it functions(i.e., as a system characterized by formal authority, regulated flows, informalcommunication, work constellations, and ad hoc decision processes) aretheorized. Organizations function in complex and varying ways, due to differing flows -including flows of authority, work material, information, and decisionprocesses. These flows depend on the age, size, and environment of theorganization; additionally, technology plays a key role because of itsimportance in structuring the operating core. Finally, design parameters aredescribed - based on the above five basic parts and five theories - that areused as a means of coordination and division of labor in designingorganizational structures, in order to establish stable patterns of behavior.(CJC).

This unique book fulfils the definite need for an accessible book on variable structure systems and also provides the very latest results in research on this topic. Divided into three parts - basics of sliding mode control, new trends in sliding mode control, and applications of sliding mode control - the book contains many numerical design examples, so that readers can quickly understand the design methodologies and their applications to practical problems. Primarily aimed at students and researchers in the field, the book will also be useful for practising control engineers.

Black & white print. Principles of Management is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of the introductory course on management. This is a traditional approach to management using the leading, planning, organizing, and controlling approach. Management is a broad business discipline, and the Principles of Management course covers many management areas such as human resource management and strategic management, as well as behavioral areas such as motivation. No one individual can be an expert in all areas of management, so an additional benefit of this text is that specialists in a variety of areas have authored individual chapters.

The book is a collection of contributions concerning the theories, applications and perspectives of Variable Structure Systems (VSS). Variable Structure Systems have been a major control design methodology for many decades. The term Variable Structure Systems was introduced in the late 1950’s, and the fundamental concepts were developed for its main branch Sliding Mode Control by Russian researchers Emelyanov and Utkin. The 20th Century has seen the formation and consolidation of VSS theory and its applications. It has also seen an emerging trend of cross-fertilization and integration of VSS with other control and non-control techniques such as feedback linearization, ?atness, passivity based control, adaptive and learning ? control, system identi?cation, pulse width modulation, H geometric and algebraic methods, arti?cial intelligence, modeling and optimization, neural networks, fuzzy logic, to name just a few. This trend will continue and ?ourish in the new millennium. To re?ect these major developments in the 20th Century, this book - cludes 16 specially invited contributions from well-known experts in VSS theory and applications, covering a wide range of topics. The ?rst chapter, “First Stage of VSS: People and Events” written by Vadim Utkin, the founder of VSS, oversees and documents the historical developments of VSS in the 20th Century, including many interesting events not known to the West until now. The second chapter, “An Integrated Learning Variable Structure Control Method” written by Jian-Xin Xu, addresses an important issue regarding control integration between variable structure control and learning control.