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This research investigated the economic feasibility of using maize as feedstock to produce bioethanol in South Africa. The purpose of the study was to generate economic data from a maize-fed bioethanol plant and use it to perform a comparative analysis between the profitability that is generated by the maize exports to Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries and the profitability generated by the bioethanol plant in South Africa.

This study used a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to gather data. The mixed method approach was chosen owing to the nature of the study which required an analysis of qualitative and quantitative data in order to achieve its objectives.

The findings from a qualitative instrument indicated that a majority of respondents were in favour of the decision of excluding maize for bioethanol production made by the South African Government. Findings from quantitative analysis revealed that the profitability of the bioethanol plant was largely influenced by the prices of feedstock and bioethanol.

This research was a deterministic feasibility study which ignores the risk associated with price fluctuation of raw materials and products. A probabilistic feasibility study was recommended (Monte Carlo simulation). Such economic data can also help policymakers and investors to make informed decisions.

The study recommended the need to produce bioethanol from the maize cultivated in available arable soils in South Africa, thus alleviating the cost burden of importing oil and obnoxious environmental effects.

This research is focused on the application of reliability‐centred maintenance (RCM) in a chipping and sawmill company. The aim of the study was to illustrate the application of RCM in a chipping and sawing mill.

RCM is a structured process, which develops or optimises maintenance requirements of a physical resource in its operating context in order to realise its inherent reliability by logically incorporating an optimal combination of reactive, preventive, condition‐based and proactive maintenance practices. A detailed analysis of the RCM approach is presented as a step towards improving preventive maintenance (PM) within a sawmill.

The study shows that the way that PM tasks are specified is a good indicator of the effectiveness of the PM program and could be a major source of maintenance‐related downtime. It is also revealed that most maintenance programs, which purport to be proactive, are in fact reactive. The paper also shows that RCM can be successfully applied to industries anywhere; even in less industrialized countries.

The paper focuses on a pilot study of a section of a chipping and sawmill. The development and implementation of the RCM approach is elaborated based on a pilot program in the edging unit of a sawmill company. Further application to the entire plant, albeit time‐consuming, is recommended.

Application of RCM in sawmill industries, within developing countries, has had limited application. The paper demonstrates that regardless of technological challenges in less developed economies, maintenance approaches such as RCM can still be fruitfully applied in order to achieve maintenance excellence. The paper should be useful for maintenance practitioners and researchers, particularly in less industrialized countries.

THE influence of wireless on libraries is marked. As a method of publicity it is unmatched. On April 20th the new secretary of the Library Association, Mr. Guy Keeling, joined the number of library broadcasters with a talk from 2 LO on “What Your Public Library can do for You.” The announcer said he regarded the talk as a fresh mark of the co‐operation between the B.B.C. and the public libraries which had been so fruitful in the past; and Mr. Keeling made his first real public appearance as Secretary with a clearly Stated account of our ordinary activities, enlivened with humour, and delivered in excellent manner. Together with all those who have any vision in the matter, he looks forward to co‐operation between all libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an historical review of Stanley C. Hollander's Sales Devices throughout the Ages, from 2500 BC to 1953 AD.

Using the historical review method, the paper examines a monograph with historical importance, summarizing the contents and analyzing it in the context of the author's life. With reference to outside sources, the paper seeks to improve understanding of the monograph within its historical context.

Sales Devices throughout the Ages provides a fascinating journey through 4,000 years of selling history. Analysis of the monograph and of its historical context reveals transformations in the legitimacy of selling, both within marketing and within society as a whole.

This monograph is one of Hollander's earliest works, and as a result, few library copies remain. We are not aware of any other reviews of this monograph, and are therefore pleased it is being brought to the fore in this special issue celebrating Hollander's life and work.

Cybernetics is unique in that it is the only calculus that is applicable to both material and immaterial systems. Provided only that two elements of a system can be linked by feedback, then that system may be examined in terms of cybernetics. Cybernetics is of universal validity. It is the method of choice for the general analysis of any system. Many instances are given in support of this. In every case, the critical step was the discovery of two processes that were related by feedback. As a scientific method for the unifying of all General Systems, Cybernetics has no equal.

The observation that different national stock markets are interrelated to different degrees is well established in the literature on global market integration. This literature documents that different national markets display more or less sensitivity to movements in other national equity markets, depending on various factors such as: their geographic proximity, their trade relationships, their relative importance to world economic activity, and the time period under scrutiny. While equity values in a few major markets, such as Japan, the UK and the US, tend to lead global price movements, the nature of these intermarket relationships appears to vary at different points in time. Roll (1989), for example, documents that October 1987 is the only month in recent experience during which all markets moved in the same direction. This result suggests that intermarket price relationships differ in periods of normal market activity from those in periods of extreme price moves, such as October 1987.

Since the days of Lilienthal and the Wright Brothers, aircraft structural design and materials have changed dramatically. The early wire braced wooden frames have given way to stressed skin, all metal, glass and carbon fibre, and more recently composite structures. Each method of manufacture has its place either by replacing earlier techniques as newer technology has become available or being best suited for particular applications.

This paper is concerned with the recommendations of the Committee on the Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance under the Chairmanship of Sir Adrian Cadbury (Final Report 1st December, 1992). The paper analyses the recommendations of the Committee with particular reference to the establishment of a Code of Practice and offers a critical evaluation of the Committees proposals within the broader frame of the internal regulation of corporate power. It specifically analyses the recommendations made with regard to auditors' liability and offers an assessment of the importance of gaining a regulatory perspective on the operation of the accounting profession with regard to the auditing of public companies.

Companies should develop a domestic organisational culture to effectively address the prevailing domestic workplace and marketplace diversity. If this effort is successfully implemented, companies can then use diversity as a competitive advantage to pursue global business opportunities. This paper examines the link between domestic corporate diversity and global business opportunities, and whether this link might result in diversity being used as a tool for globalisation. It is the intent that the approach to diversity being advocated in this paper may be adopted by corporations whose cultural structures differ from that of the US culture.