Ex post demand information sharing between differentiated suppliers and a common retailer

We consider ex post demand information sharing in a two-echelon supply chain in which two suppliers sell differentiated products through a common retailer. We model three scenarios of information sharing to characterise the conditions under which information sharing may benefit or hurt different players: (1) no supplier is informed; (2) only one supplier is informed; and (3) both suppliers are informed. We find that the retailer may voluntarily share the low demand information when the product differentiation and demand magnitude satisfy certain conditions. In contrast, the retailer has no incentive to share the high demand information, even though this information benefits the suppliers. To achieve information sharing, we propose a side payment mechanism, which allows benefitted players to subsidise hurtful players. Finally, we extend our model by considering a situation where the suppliers have limited capacity and may invest to ramp up production capacity to satisfy a high demand.     

基于大数据的C语言程序设计

C语言作为一种程序设计语言,在大数据组成的物联网和云计算中应用广泛,具有强大的适应性和兼容性,是大数据时代下,在IT行业中起到关键作用的程序设计语言。文章分析了基于大数据的C语言程序设计的必然性和应用策略,为C语言在大数据上的应用方向提供了参考依据。以汉字的应用为例,提出了解决C语言应用问题的思路。     

数据驱动的机床等待过程节能方法研究

为了降低机床等待过程中的能耗，提出了一种实时数据驱动的机床等待时间预测与节能控制方法。首先，建立了射频识别驱动的生产进度评估方法，并以生产进度数据作为输入，构建了基于堆栈降噪自编码的机床等待时间预测模型；其次，依据预测的机床等待时间，提出了机床状态切换方法，以降低机床能耗；最后，通过一个电梯零部件制造车间的案例分析，表明该方法的预测误差仅为4.1%，同时将机床等待过程能耗降低了57%，实现了制造车间的节能减排。     

The effect of traffic data source on deterioration rates of heavy-duty flexible pavements

The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of traffic data source (estimated vs. actual) on predicted progression rates of roughness and rutting for heavy-duty flexible pavements of rural freeways. Progression rates are predicted using calibrated HDM-4 models. The assessment is performed in terms of variations in maintenance intervention timing associated with the variations in progression rates. Time series pavement condition data (covering 3–5 years) have been collected for 7 sections of rural freeways for use in calibrating HDM-4 deterioration models. They range in length from 10 to 60.8 km and cover different traffic volumes, climate zones and subgrade soil types. For these sections, estimated annual average daily traffic (AADT), growth factors and assumed loading have been extracted from relevant database. Only six segments of these sections have Weigh-in-Motion (WIM) sites so relevant actual AADT, growth factors and axle load distributions have been extracted from WIM reports. The results of running the calibrated HDM-4 deterioration models using different traffic data show that actual traffic data from WIM sites result in higher rates of deterioration to that of estimated data for four sites, resulting in earlier intervention timing and higher present value agency cost. The other two sites have lower rates with actual data due to lower traffic loading than estimated.     

Data envelopment analysis based on team reasoning

Existing approaches to data envelopment analysis focus mainly on the derivation of the efficiency of the individual decision‐making unit (DMU) or on the calculation of the weights of multiple inputs or outputs, but pay little attention to the team interest of all the DMUs. Motivated by the idea of team reasoning, in which the benefit of the team is of higher importance than that of each individual, this paper considers all the DMUs as a team and introduces the team indexes including the overall efficiencies, variance, boundaries of all the DMUs, and relationships between DMUs. Several models are first developed to estimate values of the team indexes based on which decision makers can provide their preferences regarding them. Then, models are established to obtain the interval efficiencies of individual DMUs under the condition that the team indexes are satisfied. Several examples are given to illustrate the proposed approaches and verify their applicability.     

儿童用品TBT通报数据可视化预警研究

探索采用数据可视化技术分析儿童用品TBT通报数据,以可视化图形图像呈现通报热点并揭示趋势信息,提出对策与建议,助力为儿童用品产业升级、TBT预警数据分析和信息传播工作提供新思路,提高中小企业的国外市场准入机会。     

Investigation of seasonal variations of Beijing pavement condition data using unevenly spaced dynamic panel data model

Beijing municipal highway administration started to collect pavement condition data on its major expressways since 2006. It is advised in the Chinese practice standard that data collection shall be conducted on annual basis. However, pavement data are usually collected at different seasons of the year, which may cause significant seasonal variations in the observed condition. Moreover, for some reasons, data are missing for some of the pavement sections at certain years, which could bring up difficulties in performance model estimation and inference. These concerns have been simply neglected in past practice. This study proposed an unevenly spaced dynamic panel data model to investigate the seasonal patterns of a performance indicator called Ride Quality Index (RQI). A quasi-differencing approach was adopted for the estimation. Data collected from the 5th Ring Road of Beijing were used in the case study. It was found that RQI data collected during the fall season are expected to be lower than that collected during the spring or summer seasons. Findings from this research would be helpful to pavement engineers in using unevenly spaced pavement condition data for future condition estimation.     

Sustainability assessment of Iranian petrochemical companies in stock exchange: A data envelopment analysis-based approach

The assessment of efficiency is always of particular importance according to different indicators from different perspectives. There are various techniques for evaluating petrochemical companies, among which the data envelopment analysis technique is one of the best techniques that can be used to calculate the relative efficiency of a set of decision-making units with network structures. In the present paper, seven petrochemical companies listed in the Iranian stock exchange were analysed. These companies were evaluated in terms of financial performance and sustainable development, and their relative efficiency was calculated during 2015–2016. According to the obtained results, only Marun Petrochemical Co. was found to be efficient in all areas and years. The results also showed that four companies were efficient in financial terms over the period under study. In the general conclusion regarding the companies' performance, Marun was ranked first, Jam was ranked second, and Zagros was ranked third.     

The control of paracetamol particle size and surface morphology through crystallisation in a spray dryer

The parameters governing the crystallisation of paracetamol using various conventional techniques has been extensively studied, however the factors influencing the drug crystallisation using spray drying is not as well understood. The aim of this work was to investigate the crystallisation of an active pharmaceutical ingredient through evaporative crystallisation using a spray dryer to study the physicochemical properties of the drug and to use semi-empirical equations to gain insight into the morphology and particle size of the dried powder. Paracetamol solutions were spray dried at various inlet temperatures ranging from 60 °C to 120 °C and also from a series of inlet feed solvent compositions ranging from 50/50% v/v ethanol/water to 100% ethanol and solid-state characterisation was done. The size and morphology of the dried materials were altered with a change in spray drying parameters, with an increase in inlet temperature leading to an increase in particle Sauter mean diameter (from 3.0 to 4.4 µm) and a decrease in the particle size with an increase in ethanol concentration in the feed (from 4.6 to 4.4 µm) as a result of changes in particle density and atomised droplet size. The morphology of the dried particles consisted of agglomerates of individual crystallites bound together into larger semi-spherical agglomerates with a higher tendency for particles having crystalline ridges to form at higher ethanol concentrations of the feed.