veloped to facilitate warmwater pond aquaculture management (Biosystem Analysis Group 1997). It allows the user to create various production scenarios by defining the target fish species, stocking densities, feeding and water exchange rates. The DSS generates enterprise budgets, predicts fish growth, fertilizer and lime requirements, water quality and other parameters. Knowledge-driven DSS Knowledge-driven DSS are developed for narrowly-defined questions or situations and are designed to imitate the process of reasoning. As in the human world, their "knowledge" consists of a memory of indicators related to various situations, and understanding the relationships among indicators, problems and solutions. Such DSS help people by asking relevant questions, recommending specific actions, and explaining why such actions are selected (Power 2002). An example of a knowledge-driven DSS is the Hawaii Aquaculture Module Expert System (HAMES), designed to assist with the diagnosis and treatment of tilapia diseases (Brock et. al. 1992). The DSS asks the user to match field observations with various symptoms written into the memory of the software. The symptoms include indicators of abnormal fish behavior, microscopic observations or water analysis. Each symptom is linked by the DSS to possible problems and solutions. For example, HAMES links gasping at the surface fish behavior with the possibility of low oxygen level and asks the user to proceed with water examination or microscopic analysis of gills to better understand the problem. Communication-Driven DSS Communication-driven DSS allow people located in distant places or people with different schedules to exchange information, opinions, questions and/or make joint decisions. Many of us frequently use communication-driven DSS to send e-mails, utilize chat rooms, check the latest information on team bulletin boards or schedule our activities. These DSS also offer tools for electronic brainstorm- • (9 X CANAAN VALLEY INSTITUTE SERVING TIIE MIQ.A.TLANJIC HIGHLANDS SINCE 1095 FISH TRANSPORTATION AND PROFITABILITY CALCULATOR (Fish Tran) Minimum Transportation Fee i Thls Is about transportation cost calculation, which accounts for gasoltne -----------costs, driver's wage, and car malntanence and ownership costs. This Is the maximum distance for which It is worthwhile to transport fish to , ,.-,..__M_a-xi·m-u-m R-ou_nd_tr·iP,__Di_s1a_n_ce__ l buyer(s). It is based on comparison of sale price with production and transportation costs. Profit Estimation i It Is equal sales revenue minus the sum of production and transportation ,�-----------·costs. ---M-i n-i m-u _m _s a_, e_P_r i c e__ _ _. 1 It Is the sum of production and transportation costs. \ crsion 1, Sept. 2004; West \irgjnia RcsC11rcb CotJ:,<nti011; T. BoriSO\'ll and P. R. VMUlraJll, PleMe, e-mailyour comments to: Tatiana.Borisova�mail.wvu.edu COn,_,. _ /ot �v.,lhlhosdKtedltffllS. Fig. 1. Fish Transportation and Profitability Calculator. MINIMUM FISH TRANSORTATION FEE ¼mnum fish transportation fet coye,-s cost oftransporting the p,oduct. Transportation cost is as real as p<oduction costs, and it in!lucnce the salerc!lll'IIS. To rccoye,- the mone)' spent on dcln·"')', the charge for fish transportation should be equal orhigh..- than transportation costs. This sp,eadsheet is p,o,idcd to assist in transportation cost estimation, in terms ofdollars per mile transported and dollars per pound sold. Costs arc split into two categories: direct costs and owne,-sbip costs. DIRECT COSTS Di.net Co,ts depend on trip mileage. They include gasoline costs, dm·cr's wage, rnaintcnancc costs, and dcp<cciabOO. The last item -dcp<eciation • = be described asreduction in the sale price of)'Ollr car with increase in car mileage. o..•11�nl1ip costs arc usually paid C\·cn ifthe car sits in a garage. Theyinclude insurance. license, rc�tralion and financing ofauto loan. First, the p<ogram asks you about annual ownership costs, and then about average annual mileage. The pe,--milc ownership costs arc estimated di\iding annual cost by annual mileage. Please cnte,- ,�s into the blank ccDs. Click on r,:ey buttons 10 estimate each ofthe cost categories. Ent..-Gasolinc Price (S gallon) r---: Enter Truck Efficiency (miles gallon) i---- Find gasoline costs ($/mole) jEnte,-Dm·cr·s Wage (Sm) i--- Entcr Ave,- agc Dming Speed (miles hr) r-- Fig. 2. Minimum Transportation Cost Estimation. ing, electronic and video conferencing, voting, and/or electronic document sharing. Examples of communicationdriven DSS are Lotus Notes/Domino, Microsoft NetMeeting, Netscape Collabra Server and TCBWorks (Power 2002, Turban and Aronson 2000)3. WVU Decision Support Tool for Fish Transportation Analysis Many of the DSS discussed above are developed for large companies that need to coordinate activities of several subdivisions and hundreds of people, store information about thousands of orders and deliveries every day and produce reports to various control and monitoring agencies. Although a large share of aquaculture sales belongs to such companies, still many local markets in the U.S. and other countries are WORLD AQUACULTURE 3 5
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjExNDY=