Coordinating a decentralized supply chain with customer returns and price-dependent stochastic demand using a buyback policy

We investigate a decentralized supply chain that consists of a manufacturer and a retailer where the retailer simultaneously determines the retail price and order quantity while experiencing customer returns and price dependent stochastic demand. We propose an agreement between the manufacturer and the retailer that includes two buyback prices, one for unsold inventory and a second for customer returns, and show that this type of easy-to-implement agreement can achieve perfect supply chain coordination and be a win-win for both manufacturer and retailer when a complementary profit-sharing agreement is included.     

Short sales in Log-robust portfolio management

This paper extends the Log-robust portfolio management approach to the case with short sales, i.e., the case where the manager can sell shares he does not yet own. We model the continuously compounded rates of return, which have been established in the literature as the true drivers of uncertainty, as uncertain parameters belonging to polyhedral uncertainty sets, and maximize the worst-case portfolio wealth over that set in a one-period setting. The degree of the manager’s aversion to ambiguity is incorporated through a single, intuitive parameter, which determines the size of the uncertainty set. The presence of short-selling requires the development of problem-specific techniques, because the optimization problem is not convex. In the case where assets are independent, we show that the robust optimization problem can be solved exactly as a series of linear programming problems; as a result, the approach remains tractable for large numbers of assets. We also provide insights into the structure of the optimal solution. In the case of correlated assets, we develop and test a heuristic where correlation is maintained only between assets invested in. In computational experiments, the proposed approach exhibits superior performance to that of the traditional robust approach.     

Marketing-driven channel coordination with revenue-sharing contracts under price promotion to end-customers

This paper explores the equilibrium behavior of a basic supplier-retailer distribution channel with and without revenue-sharing contracts under price promotion to end-customers. Three types of promotional demand patterns characterized by different features of dynamic price sensitivity are considered to rationalize price promotional effects on end-customer demands. Under such a retail price promotion scheme, this work develops a basic model to investigate decentralized channel members’ equilibrium decisions in pricing and logistics operations using a two-stage Stackelberg game approach. Extending from the basic model, this work further derives the equilibrium solutions of the dyadic members under channel coordination with revenue-sharing contracts. Analytical results show that under certain conditions both the supplier and retailer can gain more profits through revenue-sharing contracts by means of appropriate promotional pricing strategies. Moreover, the supplier should provide additional economic incentives to the retailer. Furthermore, a counter-profit revenue-sharing chain effect is found in the illustrative examples. Such a phenomenon infers that the more the retailer requests to share from a unit of sale the more it may lose under the revenue-sharing supply chain coordination scheme.     

A mixed integer linear programming model for optimal sovereign debt issuance

Governments borrow funds to finance the excess of cash payments or interest payments over receipts, usually by issuing fixed income debt and index-linked debt. The goal of this work is to propose a stochastic optimization-based approach to determine the composition of the portfolio issued over a series of government auctions for the fixed income debt, to minimize the cost of servicing debt while controlling risk and maintaining market liquidity. We show that this debt issuance problem can be modeled as a mixed integer linear programming problem with a receding horizon. The stochastic model for the interest rates is calibrated using a Kalman filter and the future interest rates are represented using a recombining trinomial lattice for the purpose of scenario-based optimization. The use of a latent factor interest rate model and a recombining lattice provides us with a realistic, yet very tractable scenario generator and allows us to do a multi-stage stochastic optimization involving integer variables on an ordinary desktop in a matter of seconds. This, in turn, facilitates frequent re-calibration of the interest rate model and re-optimization of the issuance throughout the budgetary year allows us to respond to the changes in the interest rate environment. We successfully demonstrate the utility of our approach by out-of-sample back-testing on the UK debt issuance data.     

基于投影寻踪分类模型的高管团队战略协同分析

着眼于企业高管团队战略协同系统所蕴含的学术与实践价值,研究系统效能重于高管团队自身的作为,关注系统优化则更重于传统模式下高管团队的内部建设.本文首先探究了高管团队与企业战略的协同机理;然后将基于实码加速遗传算法的投影寻踪分类模型技术引入子系统及子系统序参量的权重计算和有序度评价,提出了新的协同度评价方法,建立了高管团队的战略协同度评价模型;应用该模型对S企业进行了实例研究,印证了模型的可操作性.企业高管团队的战略协同度评价结果有助于识别具体企业高管团队战略协同进程中的制约要素,从而有针对性地提出优化对策.     

口腔医院系统发展对策生成与对策效应定量仿真评价

医院系统是一个复杂系统.对此,采用对策生成与对策实施未来效应仿真评价法对南昌大学口腔医院发展进行研究.首先,对南昌大学口腔医院发展进行了深入调查与数据分析,然后,建立7个增长正反馈环和4个制约负反馈环构成的增长制约反馈基模,揭示现行系统发展的优势和存在的问题,又围绕7个增长正反馈环和4个制约负反馈环的内涵,依据消除制约的原理,提出了消除负反馈环制约的两项管理对策.接着,对管理对策未来实施效应进行仿真评价,基于评价指标建立流位流率系,基于调查数据值及比较分析建立七棵入树的仿真方程,建立仿真模型,分别对南昌大学口腔医院系统发展两项对策实施状况进行仿真评价,定量论证了所制定的管理对策的科学性及实施的必要性,为南昌大学口腔医院十二五规划编制与发展提供了决策依据.     

Effect of aspect ratio of vertically aligned copper nanowires in the presence of cellulose nanofibers on the thermal conductivity of epoxy composites

The composites comprising vertically aligned network of copper nanowires (CuNWs) in the presence of cellulose nanofibers were fabricated by using the freeze‐templating method and the effect of aspect ratio (A/R) of CuNWs on the thermal conductivity of epoxy composites was investigated. The thermal conductivity of epoxy composites increased to 0.79 W m^?1 K^?1 at 1.12 vol% of high A/R CuNWs loading, corresponding to the thermal conductivity enhancement of 365% as compared to the pure epoxy. The thermal conductivity of vertically aligned higher A/R CuNWs/epoxy, which is 38.5% and 51.9% higher than those of the lower A/R CuNWs and the randomly aligned CuNWs, respectively. The application of the epoxy composites in heat dissipation was demonstrated by the temperature changes of composites on a hot plate with the increase of heating time. These results indicate that the thermally conductive composites in this study could be applied for thermal dissipating materials in electronic devices.     

A Microelectronic Sensor Device Powered by a Small Implantable Biofuel Cell

Biocatalytic buckypaper electrodes modified with pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ)-dependent glucose dehydrogenase and bilirubin oxidase for glucose oxidation and oxygen reduction, respectively, were prepared for their use in a biofuel cell. A small (millimeter-scale; 2×3×2 mm³) enzyme-based biofuel cell was tested in a model glucose-containing aqueous solution, in human serum, and as an implanted device in a living gray garden slug (Deroceras reticulatum), producing electrical power in the range of 2–10 μW (depending on the glucose source). A microelectronic temperature-sensing device equipped with a rechargeable supercapacitor, internal data memory and wireless data downloading capability was specifically designed for activation by the biofuel cell. The power management circuit in the device allowed the optimized use of the power provided by the biofuel cell dependent on the sensor operation activity. The whole system (power-producing biofuel cell and power-consuming sensor) operated autonomously by extracting electrical energy from the available environmental source, as exemplified by extracting power from the glucose-containing hemolymph (blood substituting biofluid) in the slug to power the complete temperature sensor system and read out data wirelessly. Other sensor systems operating autonomously in remote locations based on the concept illustrated here are envisaged for monitoring different environmental conditions or can be specially designed for homeland security applications, particularly in detecting bioterrorism threats.     

Nano-enabled biosensing systems for intelligent healthcare: towards COVID-19 management

Biosensors are emerging as efficient (sensitive and selective) and affordable analytical diagnostic tools for early-stage disease detection, as required for personalized health wellness management. Low-level detection of a targeted disease biomarker (pM level) has emerged extremely useful to evaluate the progression of disease under therapy. Such collected bioinformatics and its multi-aspects-oriented analytics is in demand to explore the effectiveness of a prescribed treatment, optimize therapy, and correlate biomarker level with disease pathogenesis. Owing to nanotechnology-enabled advancements in sensing unit fabrication, device integration, interfacing, packaging, and sensing performance at point-of-care (POC) has rendered diagnostics according to the requirements of disease management and patient disease profile i.e. in a personalized manner. Efforts are continuously being made to promote the state of art biosensing technology as a next-generation non-invasive disease diagnostics methodology. Keeping this in view, this progressive opinion article describes personalized health care management related analytical tools which can provide access to better health for everyone, with overreaching aim to manage healthy tomorrow timely. Considering accomplishments and predictions, such affordable intelligent diagnostics tools are urgently required to manage COVID-19 pandemic, a life-threatening respiratory infectious disease, where a rapid, selective and sensitive detection of human beta severe acute respiratory system coronavirus (SARS-COoV-2) protein is the key factor.     

高功率光纤激光器二级抽运技术的理论分析

从理论上分析了高功率光纤激光器直接抽运和二级抽运的斜率效率和热管理问题. 计算结果表明:波长为975 nm的激光直接抽运产生波长为1070 nm的激光时,理论斜率效率为80%,但当抽运光功率为10 kW时,在强制水冷条件下纤芯极值温度也难以降到150 ℃以下;在二级抽运技术中,波长为1018 nm的激光抽运产生波长为1070 nm的激光时,若采用传统的包层抽运技术,其斜率效率不足20%,如果抽运功率填充因子由0.0025提高到0.1,则理论上斜率效率可由18.5%提高到80.9%,从而总斜率效率由15.5 关键词： 二级抽运 功率填充因子 斜率效率 热管理