Joint pricing and ordering policies for deteriorating item with retail price-dependent demand in response to announced supply price increase

[[abstract]]Recently, due to rapid economic development in emerging nations, the world's raw material prices have been rising. In today's unrestricted information environment, suppliers typically announce impending supply price increases at specific times. This allows retailers to replenish their stock at the present price, before the price increase takes effect. The supplier, however, will generally offer only limited quantities prior to the price increase, so as to avoid excessive orders. The retail price will usually reflect any supply price increases, as market demand is dependent on retail price. This paper considers deteriorating items and investigates (1) the possible effects of a supply price increase on retail pricing, and (2) ordering policies under the conditions that special order quantities are limited and demand is dependent on retail price. The purpose of this paper is to determine the optimal special order quantity and retail price to maximize profit. Our theoretical analysis examines the necessary and sufficient conditions for an optimal solution, and an algorithm is established to obtain the optimal solution. Furthermore, several numerical examples are given to illustrate the developed model and the solution procedure. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is conducted on the optimal solutions with respect to major parameters.[[incitationindex]]SCI[[booktype]]紙

Assessment of deficits in specific cognitive domains in older adults living with HIV.

A significant proportion of people living with HIV (PLWH) have cognitive impairment. Moreover, approximately 70% of PLWH in the United States will be ≥50 years old by 2030, raising concerns of a higher incidence of dementia as they age. Accordingly, there is a clinical need to monitor their cognitive status. The aim of this study was to delineate specific cognition areas impacted in OALWH with a clinical diagnosis of neurocognitive impairment. We used a comprehensive set of tests (paper and NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery), to assess different cognitive domains in a total of 25 OALWH ≥ 50 years. 64% were diagnosed with neurocognitive impairment and 36% were non-impaired. T-scores were compared using t-tests of means. Differences in means and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were reported. Impaired patients scored on average 18.35 T-score points lower on Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (HVLT) retention trial (p 0.016, CI:6.74-29.97) and 9.19 T-score points lower on the NIH Picture Vocabulary Test (PVT) (p 0.033, CI:1.12-17.26). Stroop color word, NIH Card Sort and NIH Picture sequence memory test were trending to be significantly lower in impaired patients (p\u3c 0.07). In impaired OALWH, the HVLT data demonstrated a decreased capacity to learn and an early memory loss, suggesting frontal executive and attention type deficits. Moreover, the decreased PVT scores demonstrated an impact on crystallized intelligence, indicating decline in verbal skills, semantic knowledge, or retrieval. Overall, the observed deficits in different cognitive domains support early neurocognitive screening even when OALWH do not show overt signs of neurocognitive impairment

A multisite study of a breast density deep learning model for full-field digital mammography and synthetic mammography

PURPOSE: To develop a Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) breast density deep learning (DL) model in a multisite setting for synthetic two-dimensional mammographic (SM) images derived from digital breast tomosynthesis examinations by using full-field digital mammographic (FFDM) images and limited SM data. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A DL model was trained to predict BI-RADS breast density by using FFDM images acquired from 2008 to 2017 (site 1: 57 492 patients, 187 627 examinations, 750 752 images) for this retrospective study. The FFDM model was evaluated by using SM datasets from two institutions (site 1: 3842 patients, 3866 examinations, 14 472 images, acquired from 2016 to 2017; site 2: 7557 patients, 16 283 examinations, 63 973 images, 2015 to 2019). Each of the three datasets were then split into training, validation, and test. Adaptation methods were investigated to improve performance on the SM datasets, and the effect of dataset size on each adaptation method was considered. Statistical significance was assessed by using CIs, which were estimated by bootstrapping. RESULTS: Without adaptation, the model demonstrated substantial agreement with the original reporting radiologists for all three datasets (site 1 FFDM: linearly weighted Cohen κ [κ CONCLUSION: A BI-RADS breast density DL model demonstrated strong performance on FFDM and SM images from two institutions without training on SM images and improved by using few SM images

Prion Protein Is a Key Determinant of Alcohol Sensitivity through the Modulation of N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor (NMDAR) Activity

The prion protein (PrP) is absolutely required for the development of prion diseases; nevertheless, its physiological functions in the central nervous system remain elusive. Using a combination of behavioral, electrophysiological and biochemical approaches in transgenic mouse models, we provide strong evidence for a crucial role of PrP in alcohol sensitivity. Indeed, PrP knock out (PrP−/−) mice presented a greater sensitivity to the sedative effects of EtOH compared to wild-type (wt) control mice. Conversely, compared to wt mice, those over-expressing mouse, human or hamster PrP genes presented a relative insensitivity to ethanol-induced sedation. An acute tolerance (i.e. reversion) to ethanol inhibition of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor-mediated excitatory post-synaptic potentials in hippocampal slices developed slower in PrP−/− mice than in wt mice. We show that PrP is required to induce acute tolerance to ethanol by activating a Src-protein tyrosine kinase-dependent intracellular signaling pathway. In an attempt to decipher the molecular mechanisms underlying PrP-dependent ethanol effect, we looked for changes in lipid raft features in hippocampus of ethanol-treated wt mice compared to PrP−/− mice. Ethanol induced rapid and transient changes of buoyancy of lipid raft-associated proteins in hippocampus of wt but not PrP−/− mice suggesting a possible mechanistic link for PrP-dependent signal transduction. Together, our results reveal a hitherto unknown physiological role of PrP on the regulation of NMDAR activity and highlight its crucial role in synaptic functions

Optimal Resource Allocations for Maximum Reliability

The problem of designing multi-stage systems with a high degree of reliability has attracted the attention of engineers in recent years. This problem arises from the fact that the reliability of a multi-stage system is smaller than that of its components and becomes smaller and smaller with increasing number of stages. For example a series system with 100 stages each with a reliability of 0.99 would have a reliability of only 0.3631 (using the well known product rule). In order to obtain a higher reliability two possible avenues may be explored. The first would be the use of components of higher reliability. This, although desirable, is not always feasible. The second avenue is the use of redundant components at each stage, so that the stage would remain functional as long as at least one of the many redundant components is functional. Obviously the use of redundant components would consume scarce resources and an optimal allocation of these resources would be necessary to achieve maximal reliability

Optimal Resource Allocations for Maximum Reliability

This Article will be published in Vol. I No other information or file available for this session