In the present article forecasts of China's upcoming development are given. It is shown why China, even with all its possible future success, will be unable to take the USA's place in the World System. The merits and shortcomings of the characteristics of the modern Chinese economic development...

Motivated by retailers' frequent introduction of new items to refresh product lines and maintain their market share, we present the assortment packing problem in which a firm must decide, in advance, the release date of each product in a given collection over a selling season. Our formulation...

There are an estimated 1.2 billion regular smokers in the world today, approximately one third of the global population over the age of 15, and the numbers are rising (World Health Organization 2002). Studies show that many smokers still do not know that tobacco causes disease and premature...