A win-win supply chain solution using project contracts with bargaining games

For product supply chains, contractual relationships that provide win-win outcomes between the supply chain members, have been found to offer optimum results. However, for bargaining situations where time/cost is the source of the uncertainty, i.e. projects, there is limited knowledge available on how contracts can be used to establish win-win relations. This paper investigates whether cost-sharing project contracts can establish a win-win solution in project supply chains where the project manager is risk-neutral and the contractor is risk-averse. The paper examines how the theory can be extended beyond the symmetrical normal distributions to asymmetrical beta and gamma distributions that are more appropriate, and so more often used, for project completion times. Besides using the Nash bargaining approach for analyzing the bargaining process, the paper also analyzes the bargaining problems using the Kalai-Smorodinsky and Utilitarian approaches to bargaining. It was found that the solutions from cost-plus contracts dominate any other form of cost-sharing contract, and so they provide a win-win solution for both members of the supply chain for the cases of Nash and Kalai-Smorodinsky bargaining. However, this is not the case for Utilitarian bargaining. A numerical exercise was conducted to investigate the results and implications of how the models would work in practice. The research shows that from a theoretical perspective, cost-plus contracts are the optimal bargaining solution not only when using a normal distribution, but also when using more appropriate asymmetrical distributions. This optimality is robust for the Nash and Kalai-Smorodinsky bargaining approaches, but not for the Utilitarian approach whose sensitivity to noise makes it an inappropriate choice here

A Neuro-Ontology for the Neurological Examination

Background: The Use of Clinical Data in Electronic Health Records for Machine-Learning or Data Analytics Depends on the Conversion of Free Text into Machine-Readable Codes. We Have Examined the Feasibility of Capturing the Neurological Examination as Machine-Readable Codes based on UMLS Metathesaurus Concepts. Methods: We Created a Target Ontology for Capturing the Neurological Examination using 1100 Concepts from the UMLS Metathesaurus. We Created a Dataset of 2386 Test-Phrases based on 419 Published Neurological Cases. We Then Mapped the Test-Phrases to the Target Ontology. Results: We Were Able to Map All of the 2386 Test-Phrases to 601 Unique UMLS Concepts. a Neurological Examination Ontology with 1100 Concepts Has Sufficient Breadth and Depth of Coverage to Encode All of the Neurologic Concepts Derived from the 419 Test Cases. using Only Pre-Coordinated Concepts, Component Ontologies of the UMLS, Such as HPO, SNOMED CT, and OMIM, Do Not Have Adequate Depth and Breadth of Coverage to Encode the Complexity of the Neurological Examination. Conclusion: An Ontology based on a Subset of UMLS Has Sufficient Breadth and Depth of Coverage to Convert Deficits from the Neurological Examination into Machine-Readable Codes using Pre-Coordinated Concepts. the Use of a Small Subset of UMLS Concepts for a Neurological Examination Ontology Offers the Advantage of Improved Manageability as Well as the Opportunity to Curate the Hierarchy and Subsumption Relationships

A multi-period model for reorganising urban household waste recycling networks

Managing waste is a crucial challenge for modern societies. Within the UK government's ambitious environmental targets, municipal Household Waste Recycling Centres represent key facilities. However, local authority budgets are under severe strain due to reductions in central government funding. Therefore, local councils often need to perform reconfigurations of the recycling centres networks, by reducing the number of sites or their opening hours while still ensuring adequate service levels. This paper describes a novel multi-period mathematical programming model for optimising reorganisational actions within Household Waste Recycling Centre networks. The model is tested on a case study based on an English local authority, in order to demonstrate its applicability to a real-world scenario, and its role in supporting decision-makers in deciding the best way to reorganise Household Waste Recycling Centres

Life in the Fas lane: differential outcomes of Fas signalling

Fas, also known as CD95 or APO-1, is a member of the tumor necrosis factor/nerve growth factor superfamily. Although best characterized in terms of its apoptotic function, recent studies have identified several other cellular responses emanating from Fas. These responses include migration, invasion, inflammation, and proliferation. In this review, we focus on the diverse cellular outcomes of Fas signaling and the molecular switches identified to date that regulate its pro- and anti-apoptotic functions. Such switches occur at different levels of signal transduction, ranging from the receptor through to cross-talk with other signaling pathways. Factors identified to date including other extracellular signals, proteins recruited to the death-inducing signaling complex, and the availability of different intracellular components of signal transduction pathways. The success of therapeutically targeting Fas will require a better understanding of these pathways, as well as the regulatory mechanisms that determine cellular outcome following receptor activation

Improving reverse supply chain performance: The role of supply chain leadership and governance mechanisms

Recently, a growing interest has been devoted to the role of buying firms in promoting sustainability across supply chains. However, relatively little attention has been given to how the behaviour of a buying firm affects the performance of reverse supply chains. Within this context, this paper investigates the role of Supply Chain Leadership styles on suppliers' performance dimensions related to reverse product flows. Furthermore, the mediating role of two governance mechanisms (namely trust and legal-legitimate power) on this relationship is examined. This study employs structural equation modelling to analyse data collected from 190 manufacturing companies in Malaysia. The paper concludes that transformational and transactional leaderships are significant and positive contributors to suppliers’ reverse supply chain performance; trust and power significantly mediate these relationships

The Acoustic Change Complex for Measuring Speech Perceptual Performance in Normal Hearing Listeners in Noise, Cochlear Implant Users, and Second Language Listeners

A series of experiments recorded the acoustic change complex (ACC) to a broad range of speech stimuli. The ACC is an electrophysiological response to an acoustic change within an on-going stimulus. Recordings were obtained from normal hearing (NH) listeners in noise, cochlear implanted (CI) listeners, and second language listeners. Chapter 2 presented a mixture of transitions between four vowels and four fricatives in quiet and at three noise levels to NH listeners. We investigated how the ACC was affected by noise, and how the ACC relates to individuals’ behavioural speech-in-noise ability. Chapter 3 details a CI study using the same fricative and vowel stimuli but in quiet only. The ACC was measured and again compared to behavioural speech perception performance. Participants’ neural entrainment to continuous speech was also measured, and compared to their speech perception performance and ACC responses. Chapter 4 details an ACC study using a mixture of transitions between eight voiceless fricatives presented to native English, Finnish and Polish speakers. The ACC magnitude was used to create similarity matrices that were analysed by non-metric MDS and an acoustic analysis of the fricative stimuli was performed. The ACC and its relationship to the spectra of the stimuli were used to investigate cross language differences between the groups. Overall, results suggest that the ACC is not merely a measure of general auditory detection as it is often described, but rather it is a measure at the border between auditory and linguistic processing in the auditory cortex. Furthermore, the results indicate that the ACC has potential for further use in research in a variety of listener populations, as well as potential clinical benefits

The Display of Photographic-Quality Images on the Web: A Comparison of Two Technologies

Downloading Medical Images on the Web Creates Certain Compromises. the Tradeoff is between Higher Resolution and Faster Download Times. as Resolution Increases, Download Times Increase. High-resolution (Photographic Quality) Electronic Images Can Potentially Play a Key Role in Medical Education and Patient Care. on the Internet, Images Are Typically Formatted as Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) or the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) Flies. However, These Formats Are Associated with Considerable Data Loss in Both Color Depth and Image Resolution. Furthermore, These Images Are Available in a Single Resolution and Have No Capability of Allowing the User to Adjust Resolution as Needed. Images in the Photo Compact Disc (PCD) Format Have Higher Resolutions Than GIF or JPEG, But Suffer the Disadvantage of Large File Sizes Leading to Long Download Times on the Web. Furthermore, Native Web Browsers Are Not Currently Able to Read PCD Flies. the FlashPix Format (FPX) Offers Distinct Advantages over the PCD, GIF, and JPEG Formats for Display of High-Resolution Images on the Web. a Java Applet Can Be Easily Downloaded for Viewing FPX Images. FPX Images Are Higher Resolution Than JPEG and GIF Images. FPX Images Offer Rich Resolutions Comparable to PCD Images with Shorter Download Times. © 1999 IEEE

Consciousness and personhood in split-brain patients.

In this work I argue that the two hemispheres of a split-brain patient exhibit consciousness and personhood while the patient operates under the conditions of a "Sperry-type" experiment. I am particularly concerned to show this to be the case for the right hemisphere. To this effect, [ argue that the right hemisphere has functionally distinct modules of cognition and sentience of the sort detailed by our most current theories in cognitive science. Moreover, practically all of the behavioral outputs for all modes of communication available to the right hemisphere (keeping in mind that speech is not one of these modes) are best explained by there being a superset of modules that maintain a degree of consciousness under Sperry-type experimental conditions. Such consciousness is outlined in terms of higher-order monitoring relations between modules.I further defend an ancillary thesis that under said conditions the right hemisphere is a person. I argue that anything that has conscious mental states over time has a unity of consciousness; furthermore, that which is identified as having a unity of conscious is a subject of mentality. But since I define a person just as a subject of unified consciousness over time, and since the right hemisphere is shown by the main thesis to have conscious mental states, I conclude it must also be accounted a person. My argument would likewise apply to the left hemisphere. In addition to this, I argue that one can speak meaningfully of a single subject of mentality initially fissioning into two subjects of mentality and then subsequently re-fusing back into a single subject of mentality without sacrificing our standard views of how our minds are related to our brains. To effect such an argument, I offer up Individuation Theory as a theoretical structure which can more reasonably account for Split-brain phenomena than any of the currently available contenders