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This exploratory study provides information on the interpersonal orientation of CPA firm professionals, which augments our knowledge of personality types. The study of Big Six audit personnel used the FIRO‐B measure of interpersonal orientation and found that the average social index indicator (SII) of overall interpersonal needs was lower than the national average and higher than prior studies taken of undergraduate accounting and business students. In contrast to most prior studies, we found gender differences in interpersonal orientation. Having a mentor can enhance work effectiveness and increase opportunities for personal success. Mentor relationships vary in intensity and duration as to the type of support. Interpersonal factors are likely to influence the path of a relationship. We found that the number of strong support relationships is usually higher at the manager level, as compared with the senior level. Interpersonal orientation as measured by the FIRO‐B score was positively correlated with both receiving and providing support relationships.

Analyses a conflict resolution and mediation programme at Monmouth University, the main objective of which was to facilitate a campus‐wide climate of collaborative learning and develop a new cultural ethic. Suggests that the programme has been a success, with it being used in several campus divisions such as residential life and student services. Outlines barriers to be overcome and lessons to be learned.

Summarizes the literature on mentoring and its effects, pointing out that little research has been done on international mentoring despite globalization. Considers how mentoring could be used to help accountants make international assignments into successful learning experiences and to cope with the culture shock they often report. Discusses the possible role of the mentor before, during and after the assignment, highlighting the critical factors during the process; and compares horizontal and vertical approaches. Urges accounting firms to use mentoring to improve international performance and as a basis for organizational learning in a global environment.

Direct‐to‐consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription drugs is no longer the novel experiment it was during the late 1980s. Liberalization of the Food and Drug Administration regulations in the USA, combined with a substantial body of evidence that DTC advertising is a stimulus to consumer purchasing behavior, has resulted in DTC advertising becoming a standard component of every major drug company’s marketing plan. Research since the late 1980s has compared consumers’ perceptions of DTC ads with the perceptions of physicians. While the studies are methodologically diverse, the results have been directionally consistent. In general, consumers have positive attitudes toward DTC advertising, viewing it as a valuable educational resource that helps them become more involved in their health care. A significant proportion of DTC readers claim to have acted directly on the message by talking to their doctor about the advertised brand. Consumers report that they are more likely to take prescribed medication and/or get their prescriptions filled when prompted by DTC advertising. Physicians, however, have been far less enthusiastic about DTC advertising, with majorities expressing the wish that it be decreased, or discontinued altogether. In most studies, only small minorities of physicians believed that it contributed in a positive way to the doctor‐patient relationship. In certain specialties, notably internal medicine and family practice, approval rates were below the norm. We relate problems identified in advertising communication research to applications of DTC pharmaceutical advertising, and identify specific issues in need of further research. Notably, gaining an improved understanding of how well consumers comprehend DTC advertising messages, and which copy elements hinder comprehension, can help the industry to better educate consumers, facilitate improved ad campaign recognition, brand recall and message association, and help promote more constructive, and less confrontational, doctor‐patient relationships.

This paper aims to describe an effort to provide for a robust and secure software development paradigm intended to support DevSecOps in a naval aviation enterprise (NAE) software support activity (SSA), with said paradigm supporting strong traceability and provability concerning the SSA’s output product, known as an operational flight program (OFP). Through a secure development environment (SDE), each critical software development function performed on said OFP during its development has a corresponding record represented on a blockchain.

An SDE is implemented as a virtual machine or container incorporating software development tools that are modified to support blockchain transactions. Each critical software development function, e.g. editing, compiling, linking, generates a blockchain transaction message with associated information embedded in the output of a said function that, together, can be used to prove integrity and support traceability. An attestation process is used to provide proof that the toolchain containing SDE is not subject to unauthorized modification at the time said critical function is performed.

Blockchain methods are shown to be a viable approach for supporting exhaustive traceability and strong provability of development system integrity for mission-critical software produced by an NAE SSA for NAE embedded systems software.

A blockchain-based authentication approach that could be implemented at the OFP point-of-load would provide for fine-grain authentication of all OFP software components, with each component or module having its own proof-of-integrity (including the integrity of the used development tools) over its entire development history.

Many SSAs have established control procedures for development such as check-out/check-in. This does not prove the SSA output software is secure. For one thing, a build system does not necessarily enforce procedures in a way that is determinable from the output. Furthermore, the SSA toolchain itself could be attacked. The approach described in this paper enforces security policy and embeds information into the output of every development function that can be cross-referenced to blockchain transaction records for provability and traceability that only trusted tools, free from unauthorized modifications, are used in software development. A key original concept of this approach is that it treats assigned developer time as a transferable digital currency.

Surveys the use of mathematics in what are now commonly called the social sciences up to the time of the earliest use of the term “social science” in the late 1700s. Explains the rationale for the organization and structure of the paper and proceeds to reason for the broad definition of mathematics as it relates to the social sciences. The introduction also describes the periodization used. The next section contains a brief description of the state of what were to become the social sciences in the late 1700s. This is followed by a brief description of the state of mathematics at that time. Then follow sections demonstrating that mathematics was used by important developers of social thought from the earliest times right up to the dawn of the modern social sciences. Concludes with a discussion of some of the lessons to be learned from history. The most important lesson that history teaches us about the role of mathematics in the modern social sciences at the dawn of their existence is that the social sciences require the use of mathematics and could not exist without them.