Defending and improving the ‘slotting fee’: how it can benefit all the stakeholders dealing with a newsvendor product with price and effort-dependent demand

‘Slotting fee’ (hereafter ‘SF’) is an upfront fee a ‘supplier’ is required to pay a retailer in order to have his product sold on the retailer's shelves. It is becoming increasingly common, but also widely reviled. This paper considers a newsvendor product whose expected demand is dependent on retail price and sales effort. The question we pose is: given that the Stackelberg-dominant retailer has to choose a pricing contract with which she transacts with the supplier, how would the supply-chain stakeholders fare when the retailer implements SF instead of another practical pricing contract? We show that, contradicting its negative public image, SF empowers the dominant retailer to specify contract terms that will benefit all the stakeholder-groups. That is, the supplier's and the retailer's profits are higher, the production workers are asked to produce more, and the consumers pay a lower retail price. We also propose a new ‘composite’ contract format that incorporates both the SF and ‘buyback’ features. This composite format empowers the retailer to provide even greater benefits to the supply-chain's stakeholders.

     

Two new xanthones from Hypericum japonicum

Two new xanthones, 1,6-dihydroxyisojacereubin-5-O-beta-D-glucoside (1) and 3,6,7-tri-hydroxy-1-methoxy-xanthone (2), were isolated from Hypericum japonicum. The structural elucidation of the isolated compounds were primarily based on HREIMS, EIMS, UV, IR, 1D-, and 2D-NMR analyses, including COSY, HMQC, HMBC, and NOESY correlations.     

Multiparticle interference, Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger entanglement, and full counting statistics

We investigate the quantum transport in a generalized N-particle Hanbury Brown-Twiss setup enclosing magnetic flux, and demonstrate that the Nth-order cumulant of current cross correlations exhibits Aharonov-Bohm oscillations, while there is no such oscillation in all the lower-order cumulants. The multiparticle interference results from the orbital Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger entanglement of N indistinguishable particles. For sufficiently strong Aharonov-Bohm oscillations the generalized Bell inequalities may be violated, proving the N-particle quantum nonlocality.     

Influence of oxygen defects on the crystal structure and magnetic properties of the (Tb1-xNax)MnO3-y (0<or=x<or=0.3) system

The crystallographic and magnetic behaviors of (Tb1-xNax)MnO3-y (0相似文献   

Experimental verification of strong rotational dependence of fluorescence and predissociation yield in the b1Πu(v = 1) level of 14N2

New, rotationally resolved fluorescence-excitation spectra confirm coupled-channel Schro?dinger-equation predictions of strong rotational dependence of the fluorescence and predissociation yields in the b(v = 1) level of (14)N(2).     

Total synthesis of the CP-molecules (CP-263,114 and CP-225,917, phomoidrides B and A). 3. Completion and synthesis of advanced analogues

The completion of the total syntheses of the CP-molecules is reported. Several strategies and tactics, including the use of amide-based protecting groups for the homologated C-29 carboxylic acid and the use of an internal pyran protecting group scheme, are discussed. The endeavors leading to the design of new methods for the homologation of hindered aldehydes and to the isolation of a polycyclic byproduct (23), which inspired the development of a new series of reactions based on iodine(V) reagents, are described. In addition, the discovery and development of the LiOH-mediated conversion of CP-263,114 (1) to CP-225,917 (2) is described, and a mechanistic rationale is presented. Finally, a synthetic route to complex analogues of the CP-molecules harboring a maleimide moiety in place of the maleic anhydride is presented.     

Determining a subsidy rate for Taiwan's recycling glass industry: an application of bi-level programming

This study attempts to optimize the operations of the Recycling Fund Management Board (RFMB), founded by the Environmental Protection Administration of the R.O.C. Government (on Taiwan), through the decision of a subsidy rate for the domestic glass recycling industry. The hierarchical and interactive nature between the two parties is modelled by bi-level programming, where the RFMB plays the upper-level decision unit while the recycling industry is the lower-level counterpart. In order to solve the problem by optimization software, the bi-level formulation is transformed to a single-level problem via Karush-Kuhn-Tucker optimality conditions and is further transformed to a 0?1 mixed integer programming problem by variable substitution. The problem is solved with real-world data, and the obtained solutions are analysed and compared with the RFMB’s current operations. The results suggest that the proposed approach can improve the operations of the RFMB.     

A critical comparison of the various plausible inter-echelon gaming processes in supply chain models

An increasing number of supply-chain models are related to the following structure: (i) a manufacturer supplies a product to a retailer—who fixes a retail price and then retails the product to the consumers; (ii) the effect of the retail price on sales volume is dictated by a deterministic demand curve known to both parties. Results from these models depend very much on the ‘gaming process’ that is assumed to govern how the manufacturer and the retailer interact with each other. This paper reviews and compares some basic characteristics of seven seemingly plausible gaming processes; including the two most common ones: the manufacturer-Stackelberg and the fixed-markup-retailer processes. Our results show that: (i) each of the seven processes appear to be no less plausible than the other six; (ii) all seven processes possess some implausible characteristics; (iii) the relationships among the processes are confusing and do not appear to be intuitively logical; (iv) the relationships among these processes are further complicated by the way they are affected by the form of the assumed demand curve. Our results show that in supply-chain modelling more attention should be given to: (i) the proper selection of an appropriate gaming process assumption; (ii) how the model's results change under different gaming processes; (iii) the incorporation of information asymmetry that will allow these gaming-process assumptions to become more realistic.     

Observation of new Rydberg series in the many-electron transition region of N(2)

Fluorescence excitation spectra produced through photoexcitation of N(2) using synchrotron radiation in the spectral region between 50 and 62.5 nm have been obtained with a resolution of 0.004?nm. A broadband detector (in the 115-180 nm region) was employed to monitor fluorescence originated from neutral excited atomic nitrogen fragments which are produced through direct dissociation processes and predissociation from the well-known many-electron excited Rydberg states. We have identified a new Rydberg series (2 (2)Π(g)) 4sσ, a better resolved Rydberg (D (2)Π(g)) npσ series, and also the prominent Codling series converging to the D (2)Π(g), and C (2)Σ(u) (+) states of N(2) (+), respectively. By normalizing our relative fluorescence intensities to previously measured absolute fluorescence cross-section data we obtain the cross-section data of undispersed fluorescence in the 115-180?nm region. The fluorescence quantum yields for the present photodissociative excitation processes are found to be less than 0.05. The present results may provide important data for our understanding of competitions among the various decay channels of the many-electron transition states of N(2).     

Construction of an optimal witness for unknown two-qubit entanglement

Whether entanglement in a state can be detected, distilled, and quantified without full state reconstruction is a fundamental open problem. We demonstrate a new scheme encompassing these three tasks for arbitrary two-qubit entanglement, by constructing the optimal entanglement witness for polarization-entangled mixed-state photon pairs without full state reconstruction. With better efficiency than quantum state tomography, the entanglement is maximally distilled by newly developed tunable polarization filters and quantified by the expectation value of the witness, which equals the concurrence. This scheme is extendible to multiqubit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger entanglement.