A case of selection and adaptation of weekly work schedules is presented. Weekly work schedules in two franchises of an important retail clothing chain have to be established. Working time accounts are used: each week, an employee can owe the company a certain number of hours or vice versa. Nevertheless, over a certain threshold, the hours have to be paid for by the company and the account bala...

The reaction of closed-end fund share prices to changes in portfolio values is on average the same whether funds are trading at discounts or premia and whether the changes in portfolio values are positive or negative. If closed-end fund discounts and premia do correctly measure investor sentiment, then these results suggest that investor sentiment does not affect the market’s reaction to news a...

Using a large, individual-level wage data set, we examine the impact of a major technological innovation—the steam engine—on the demand for skills in the merchant shipping industry. We find that the technical change created a new demand for engineers, a skilled occupation. It had a deskilling effect on production work— moderately skilled able-bodied seamen were replaced by unskilled engine room...

Children’s privacy has become critical with the increasing use of the Internet for commercial purposes and corresponding increase in requests for information. 65% of children between the ages of 10 and 13 use the Internet for casual web surfing, chatting, games, schoolwork, e-mail, interactive learning, and other applications. Often, websites hosting these activities ask for personal informatio...

Air quality can be affected by merchant ships, so it is important to regulate emissions that are produced, as well use energy efficiently. In this sense, the cleanliness of oil used in lubrication essential achieve a better and reduce losses marine engines. For that, vital carry out good maintenance strategies. Therefore, develop techniques allow condition monitoring during engine operation. or...

The security of electronic payment protocols is of interest to researchers in academia and industry. While the ultimate objective is the safest and most secure protocol, convenience and usability should not be ignored, or the protocol may not be suitable for large-scale deployment. Our aim in this paper is to design a practical electronic payment protocol which is both secure and convenient. AN...