Differential pricing and production strategies for heterogeneous products under cannibalization and promotional effects

This study examines the optimal pricing and production strategy of a closed-loop supply chain consisting of a manufacturer, a recycler, and consumers. Considering the cannibalization and promotion effects of remanufactured products on new and secondhand products, we constructed Stackelberg game models under different scenarios. We analyze the impact of the changes in the two effects on the optimal prices and production strategies of the manufacturer and recycler, as well as their countermeasures. We find that (i) how the cannibalization and promotional effects influence the manufacturer and the recycler's pricing and production strategies differ under different scenarios;(ii) when the two effects exceed a threshold, the manufacturer abandons new or remanufactured products, and the recycler prefers to stop production on its new products or continue to remanufacture products;and (iii) the two effects always reduce the profits of the manufacturer and increase the profits of the recycler.

Quality and Testing Standards on Rice Production in China and Development Strategies

China is the biggest country of rice production and consumption in the world;more than 50% of the population feeds chiefly on rice. The quality of rice and its role as a staplefood carry much weight. The rice qualities are those aspects concerning processing, appearance,cooking, nutrition and safety of the product. The study, formulation and implementation of standardson rice qualities and testing bear heavily on the improving of rice qualities, human health,substitution of rice varieties, promoting quality rice production and regulating rice market.

Optimized Strategy for Layout of Crop Production Areas in Hunan Province

The optimized strategy made a comprehensive consideration of resources, technology, market orientation, production scale, industry basis and layout based on the principle of crop security and farmers’ income increasing, and determined the general planning on layout and structure optimization of future crop production ar-eas, with present crop production, market outlook, future industry development, con-cluding crop production characteristics of the 4 crop regions, and proposing function orientation and highlights.

Genetic algorithm for short-term scheduling of make-and-pack batch production process

This paper considers a scheduling problem in industrial make-and-pack batch production process. This process equips with sequence-dependent changeover time, multipurpose storage units with limited capacity, storage time, batch splitting, partial equipment connectivity and transfer time. The objective is to make a production plan to satisfy all constraints while meeting demand requirement of packed products from various product families. This problem is NP-hard and the problem size is exponentially large for a realistic-sized problem. Therefore,we propose a genetic algorithm to handle this problem. Solutions to the problems are represented by chromosomes of product family sequences. These sequences are decoded to assign the resource for producing packed products according to forward assignment strategy and resource selection rules. These techniques greatly reduce unnecessary search space and improve search speed. In addition, design of experiment is carefully utilized to determine appropriate parameter settings. Ant colony optimization and Tabu search are also implemented for comparison. At the end of each heuristics, local search is applied for the packed product sequence to improve makespan. In an experimental analysis, all heuristics show the capability to solve large instances within reasonable computational time. In all problem instances, genetic algorithm averagely outperforms ant colony optimization and Tabu search with slightly longer computational time.

Mayerton Announced Divestment of Production Facility in China As Part of Strategy

MAYERTON HOLDINGS LTD, a leading refractory engineering solutions provider and a high quality castable and refractories brick manufacturer, announced it signed a definitive agreement for the sale of its 100% equity interest in Dalian Mayerton Refractories Co. Ltd. （ ＂ DMR＂ ） to Magnesita Refratarios S.A. on April 22, 2013. DMR is a refractory brick manufacturing facility in Dalian, China （Liaoning Province）.

Advanced glycation end products:Key mediator and therapeutic target of cardiovascular complications in diabetes

The incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus is growing in epidemic proportions and has become one of the most critical public health concerns.Cardiovascular complications associated with diabetes are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality.The cardiovascular diseases that accompany diabetes include angina,myocardial infarction,stroke,peripheral artery disease,and congestive heart failure.Among the various risk factors generated secondary to hyperglycemic situations,advanced glycation end products(AGEs)are one of the important targets for future diagnosis and prevention of diabetes.In the last decade,AGEs have drawn a lot of attention due to their involvement in diabetic pathophysiology.AGEs can be derived exogenously and endogenously through various pathways.These are a nonhomogeneous,chemically diverse group of compounds formed nonenzymatically by condensation between carbonyl groups of reducing sugars and free amino groups of protein,lipids,and nucleic acid.AGEs mediate their pathological effects at the cellular and extracellular levels by multiple pathways.At the cellular level,they activate signaling cascades via the receptor for AGEs and initiate a complex series of intracellular signaling resulting in reactive oxygen species generation,inflammation,cellular proliferation,and fibrosis that may possibly exacerbate the damaging effects on cardiac functions in diabetics.AGEs also cause covalent modifications and cross-linking of serum and extracellular matrix proteins;altering their structure,stability,and functions.Early diagnosis of diabetes may prevent its progression to complications and decrease its associated comorbidities.In the present review,we recapitulate the role of AGEs as a crucial mediator of hyperglycemia-mediated detrimental effects in diabetes-associated complications.Furthermore,this review presents an overview of future perspectives for new therapeutic interventions to ameliorate cardiovascular complications in diabetes.

Anderson's Cognitive Theory and Learning Strategy Studies in Second Language Acquisition

Second language acquisition can not be understood without addressing the interaction between language and cognition. Cognitive theory can extend to describe learning strategies as complex cognitive skills. Theoretical developments in Anderson’s production systems cover a broader range of behavior than other theories, including comprehension and production of oral and written texts as well as comprehension, problem solving, and verbal learning.Thus Anderson’s cognitive theory can be served as a rationale for learning strategy studies in second language acquisition.

New Thought about the Marketing Orientation of Middle and Small-sized Enterprises of China

The reasonable marketing orientation is related to the survival and the development of the enterprises. According to the disadvantages and superiority of the middle and small sized enterprises of our country, this paper analyzes the new thought about the marketing orientation from the aspects of marketing product orientation, marketing way orientation, marketing target orientation, marketing strategy orientation and marketing idea orientation. It has great theoretical and practical significance.

Production quality and pricing strategy for substitutable products under comparison effects

Comparison effects have been studied extensively in many fields.In particular,existing operations management articles have discussed the impact of comparison effects on enterprises'production and pricing decisions.Research has also shown that consumers'purchasing decisions are primarily determined by three factors:product quality,selling price,and comparison effects.The current study introduces the concepts of social and temporal comparison effects to examine how comparison effects influence a monopolist's production quality and pricing strategy for substitutable products.Results reveal the following:(1)Setting different prices for even two types of substitutable products with negligible quality differences can divide customers into three groups under the influence of social comparison effects in a single-stage model.(2)The monopolist should avoid using a price discrimination strategy in which products with a short market life cycle have the same quality but different prices.(3)When the market life cycle of products is sufficiently long in the single-product market and the market with two substitutable products,the monopolist's optimal choice in the second stage is to keep production quality constant and increase the selling price.Consequently,the number of buyers does not decrease because of temporal comparison effects.Therefore,the firm increases its revenue.(4)For the market with two substitutable products with quality differences,one approximate optimal strategy for the enterprise in the second stage is to keep the selling price constant with the assumption that product quality cannot be adjusted after the first period.At this point,the consumption situation in the market is the same as that in the first stage.Therefore,when no external constraints exist,the monopolist firm can obtain more benefits in the second stage than in the first stage by exploiting the temporal comparison effects of consumers in the second stage.(5)When consumer identity information can be confirmed in the market,social comparison effects,similar to temporal comparison effects,could help the enterprise increase its price and profit while maintaining product quality.These social and temporal comparison effects constrain consumers.Thus,the number of people who continueto buyproducts does not decrease.

NEW PRODUCT DESIGN STRATEGIES WITH SUBSIDY POLICIES

Industrial development can enrich people＇s lives, but it also causes environmental pollution, which is an area of significant concern among governments, consumers, and companies. Governments formulate some environmental policies, which motivate industry by providing greater incentives for green product development. Consumers are classified into two groups - ordinary and green market segments - according to their environmental awareness and attitudes. In this regard, companies need to reconsider their primary product design strategies. By investigating the interactions among customers＇ preferences, firms＇ product strategies, and government subsidy policies, this paper presents a theoretical model for new product design strategies. After detailed theoretical analysis of such strategies, we found that to motivate firms to choose environmentally friendly product design strategies, governments should inaugurate effective subsidy policies. After simultaneously considering environmental issues and firms＇ benefits, we designed a subsidy policy. With such a policy, firms can change their primary product design strategies and develop both green and ordinary products, thereby increasing the firms＇ profits and improving the total environmental quality.

SUSTAINABLE NITROGEN MANAGEMENT FOR VEGETABLE PRODUCTION IN CHINA

Inappropriate nitrogen fertilizer management for the intensive Chinese vegetable production has caused low N use efficiency(NUE),high reactive nitrogen(Nr)losses and serious environmental risks with limited yield increase.Innovative N management strategy is an urgent need to achieve sustainable vegetable production.This paper summarizes recent studies on Nr losses and identifies the limitations from Chinese vegetable production systems and proposes three steps for sustainable N management in Chinese vegetable production.The three N management steps include,but are not limited to,(1)knowledge-based optimization of N fertilizer rate strategy,which maintains soil N supply to meet the dynamic vegetable demand in time,space and quantity;(2)innovative products and technology,which regulates the soil N forms and promotes the vegetable root growth to reduce the Nr loss;(3)integrated knowledge and products strategy(IKPS).The knowledge-based optimization of N fertilizer rate strategy and innovative products and technology,can maintain or increase vegetable yield,significantly improve NUE,and mitigate the region-specific and crop-specific Nr losses.More importantly,IKPS,based on combination of in-season root-zone N management strategy,innovative products and technology,and best crop cultivation management,is needed to produce more vegetables with lower Nr losses.