A mixed-integer linear programming decision model for aquaculture

This paper presents a mathematical model for use in aquaculture, the rearing of aquatic animals in a controlled environment. The model addresses the real-world strategic planning requirements of an emerging technology as well as the short- and long-term production scheduling requirements of a mature aquaculture facility. A solution procedure for large-scale problems is described and tested, and an illustrative application is presented.     

Comparison of Seasonal Anomalies across Major Equity Markets: A Note

This paper reexamines the existence of seasonal anomalies in daily stock prices by integrating seasonal patterns into a single comprehensive model that captures the joint effects of seasonal variations for each of the three major markets. This model incorporates serial correlation and corrects for non-normality by using robust regression techniques. Serial correlation is found to be important, as is the day of the week and the January variable. Furthermore, the Tuesday after a Monday holiday is significant for two markets using the robust technique (but not ordinary least squares). Finally, the day-preceding-a-holiday effect is strongly significant.     

The evolution of futures in school education

School education seems to be mostly stuck in an outdated industrial era worldview, unable to sufficiently address the significance and increasing rapidity of changes to humanity that are upon us. An integrated forward-looking view should, now more than ever, be of central importance in how we educate. Yet there is little sign that—unlike corporations—school systems are recognising the true value of futures studies. A brief history of futures in school education shows the significant role played by the World Futures Studies Federation in its evolution to date. The article also introduces integral analysis as a way of opening up new possibilities to help school education develop due foresight and to more fully realise its potential as a prime facilitator in individual and cultural evolution.     

trends in Internet-based business-to-business marketing

The Internet is changing the transactional paradigms under which businesses-to-business marketers operate. Business-to-business marketers that take advantage of the operational efficiencies and effectiveness that emerge from utilizing the Internet in transactions are outperforming firms that utilize traditional transactional processes. As an example, Dell computers, by utilizing business-to-business processes that take advantage of the Internet, has gained the largest market share in the PC business when compared to traditional manufacturers such as Compaq. This paper first examines the genesis of the Internet movement in business-to-business markets. The long-term impact of the increase of business-to-business utilization of the Internet on the marketing theory and marketing process is then discussed. Finally, managerial implications and directions for future research are highlighted.     

Unfinished Business: The Persistence of Child Labor in the US

Among historians it has become customary to acknowledge that children have always worked. That is, before industrialization children worked, but their work was not deemed a social problem. With industrialization, however, child labor came to be condemned as morally repugnant, economically foolhardy, and socially destructive. Reform efforts were mobilized and, after protracted struggle, children were effectively dispelled from the mines, mills, and factories. Problem solved-or at least we wished to think so. Unfortunately, the US accommodation with child labor was incomplete, and so, child labor persists in pockets of American society. In recent years there has been a growing recognition that many children work, and do so at very young ages. Not only have children always worked, but they continue to do so today.This essay assesses residual child labor problems in the US today. It asks why, when the US made its accommodation to child labor in mines, mills, and factories, we failed to adequately address child labor in other sectors, thus paving the way for continued problems in agriculture, street trades, sweatshops, and elsewhere in our economy.     

Organising the profession: A theoretical and historical examination of the development of the major accountancy bodies in the U.K.

The paper is concerned with the organisation of the accountancy profession in the U.K. In the first part a theoretical framework for understanding the emergence, development and role of accountancy bodies is advanced. By including a consideration of professionalisation as well as an examination of the institutions of the market and the state, this framework provides a perspective for understanding professional associations as political bodies developed to defend the interests and preserve the scarcity of their members' labour. In the second part of the paper the history of the professional bodies is traced, focusing upon competition between the major associations as well as the economic and political contexts of their emergence, merger and failed integration. In conclusion, some speculations upon the future prospects of these bodies are entertained.