Can brands claim ignorance? Unauthorized subcontracting in apparel supply chains

Unauthorized subcontracting—when suppliers outsource part of their production to a third party without the retailer’s consent—has been common practice in the apparel industry and is often tied to noncompliant working conditions. Because retailers are unaware of the third party, the production process becomes obscure and cannot be tracked. In this paper, we present an empirical study of the factors that can lead suppliers to engage in unauthorized subcontracting. We use data provided by a global supply chain manager with more than 30,000 orders, of which 36% were subcontracted without authorization. We find that the frequency of unauthorized subcontracting across factories has a pronounced bimodal distribution. Moreover, the degree of unauthorized subcontracting in the past is highly related to the probability of engaging in unauthorized subcontracting in the future, which suggests that factories behave as if they choose a strategic level of unauthorized subcontracting. At the order level, we find that state dependence (i.e., the status of an order carrying over to the next one) and price pressure are the key drivers of unauthorized subcontracting. Buyer reputation and lead time also play a role. Finally, we show that unauthorized subcontracting can be predicted correctly for more than 80% of the orders in out-of-sample tests and for about 70% of suppliers. This indicates that retailers can use business analytics to predict unauthorized subcontracting and help prevent it

Optimal static pricing for a tree network

We study the static pricing problem for a network service provider in a loss system with a tree structure. In the network, multiple classes share a common inbound link and then have dedicated outbound links. The motivation is from a company that sells phone cards and needs to price calls to different destinations. We characterize the optimal static prices in order to maximize the steady-state revenue. We report new structural findings as well as alternative proofs for some known results. We compare the optimal static prices versus prices that are asymptotically optimal, and through a set of illustrative numerical examples we show that in certain cases the loss in revenue can be significant. Finally, we show that static prices obtained using the reduced load approximation of the blocking probabilities can be easily obtained and have near-optimal performance, which makes them more attractive for applications.Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Digital BusinessUnited States. Office of Naval Research (Contract N00014-95-1-0232)United States. Office of Naval Research (Contract N00014-01-1-0146)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Contract DMI-9732795)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Contract DMI-0085683)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Contract DMI-0245352

A BAX/BAK and Cyclophilin D-Independent Intrinsic Apoptosis Pathway

Most intrinsic death signals converge into the activation of pro-apoptotic BCL-2 family members BAX and BAK at the mitochondria, resulting in the release of cytochrome c and apoptosome activation. Chronic endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress leads to apoptosis through the upregulation of a subset of pro-apoptotic BH3-only proteins, activating BAX and BAK at the mitochondria. Here we provide evidence indicating that the full resistance of BAX and BAK double deficient (DKO) cells to ER stress is reverted by stimulation in combination with mild serum withdrawal. Cell death under these conditions was characterized by the appearance of classical apoptosis markers, caspase-9 activation, release of cytochrome c, and was inhibited by knocking down caspase-9, but insensitive to BCL-XL overexpression. Similarly, the resistance of BIM and PUMA double deficient cells to ER stress was reverted by mild serum withdrawal. Surprisingly, BAX/BAK-independent cell death did not require Cyclophilin D (CypD) expression, an important regulator of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore. Our results suggest the existence of an alternative intrinsic apoptosis pathway emerging from a cross talk between the ER and the mitochondria

The Assortment Packing Problem: Multiperiod Assortment Planning for Short-Lived Products

Motivated by retailers ’ frequent introduction of new items to refresh product lines and maintain their market shares, we present the assortment packing problem in which a firm must decide, in advance, the release date of each product in a given collection over a selling season. Our formulation models the trade-offs among profit margins, preference weights, and limited life cycles. A key aspect of the problem is that each product is short-lived in the sense that, once introduced, its attractiveness lasts only a few periods and vanishes over time. The objective is to determine when to introduce each product to maximize the total profit over the selling season. Even for two periods, the corresponding optimization problem is shown to be NP-complete. As a result, we study a continuous relaxation of the problem that approximates the problem well, when the number of products is large. When margins are identical and product preferences decay exponentially, its solution can be characterized: it is optimal to introduce products with slower decays earlier. The structural properties of the relaxation also help us to develop several heuristics, for which we establish performance guarantees. We test our heuristics with data on sales and release dates of woman handbags from an accessories retailer. The numerical experiments show that the heuristics perform very well and can yield significant improvements in profitability. 1

Future voyages to the solar system

CHALLENGE 2: FUTURE VOYAGES TO THE SOLAR SYSTEMPeer reviewe

Enfermedades crónicas

Adherencia al tratamiento farmacológico y relación con el control metabólico en pacientes con DM2Aluminio en pacientes con terapia de reemplazo renal crónico con hemodiálisis en Bogotá, ColombiaAmputación de extremidades inferiores: ¿están aumentando las tasas?Consumo de edulcorantes artificiales en jóvenes universitariosCómo crecen niños normales de 2 años que son sobrepeso a los 7 añosDiagnóstico con enfoque territorial de salud cardiovascular en la Región MetropolitanaEfecto a corto plazo de una intervención con ejercicio físico, en niños con sobrepesoEfectos de la cirugía bariátrica en pacientes con síndrome metabólico e IMC < 35 KG/M2Encuesta mundial de tabaquismo en estudiantes de profesiones de saludEnfermedades crónicas no transmisibles: Consecuencias sociales-sanitarias de comunidades rurales en ChileEpidemiología de las muertes hospitalarias por patologías relacionadas a muerte encefálica, Chile 2003-2007Estado nutricional y conductas alimentarias en adolescentes de 4º medio de la Región de CoquimboEstudio de calidad de vida en una muestra del plan piloto para hepatitis CEvaluación del proceso asistencial y de resultados de salud del GES de diabetes mellitus 2Factores de riesgo cardiovascular en población universitaria de la Facsal, universidad de TarapacáImplicancias psicosociales en la génesis, evolución y tratamiento de pacientes con hipertensión arterial esencialInfarto agudo al miocardio (IAM): Realidad en el Hospital de Puerto Natales, 2009-2010Introducción de nuevas TIC y mejoría de la asistencia a un programa de saludNiños obesos atendidos en el Cesfam de Puerto Natales y su entorno familiarPerfil de la mortalidad por cáncer de cuello uterino en Río de JaneiroPerfil del paciente primo-consultante del Programa de Salud Cardiovascular, Consultorio Cordillera Andina, Los AndesPrevalencia de automedicación en mujeres beneficiarias del Hospital Comunitario de Til-TiPrevalencia de caries en población preescolar y su relación con malnutrición por excesoPrevalencia de retinopatía diabética en comunas dependientes del Servicio de Salud Metropolitano Occidente (SSMOC)Problemas de adherencia farmacológica antihipertensiva en población mapuche: Un estudio cualitativoRol biológico de los antioxidantes innatos en pacientes portadores de VIH/SidaSobrepeso en empleados de un restaurante de una universidad pública del estado de São Paul

Fifth European Dirofilaria and Angiostrongylus Days (FiEDAD) 2016

Peer reviewe

Cabbage and fermented vegetables : From death rate heterogeneity in countries to candidates for mitigation strategies of severe COVID-19

Large differences in COVID-19 death rates exist between countries and between regions of the same country. Some very low death rate countries such as Eastern Asia, Central Europe, or the Balkans have a common feature of eating large quantities of fermented foods. Although biases exist when examining ecological studies, fermented vegetables or cabbage have been associated with low death rates in European countries. SARS-CoV-2 binds to its receptor, the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). As a result of SARS-CoV-2 binding, ACE2 downregulation enhances the angiotensin II receptor type 1 (AT(1)R) axis associated with oxidative stress. This leads to insulin resistance as well as lung and endothelial damage, two severe outcomes of COVID-19. The nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2) is the most potent antioxidant in humans and can block in particular the AT(1)R axis. Cabbage contains precursors of sulforaphane, the most active natural activator of Nrf2. Fermented vegetables contain many lactobacilli, which are also potent Nrf2 activators. Three examples are: kimchi in Korea, westernized foods, and the slum paradox. It is proposed that fermented cabbage is a proof-of-concept of dietary manipulations that may enhance Nrf2-associated antioxidant effects, helpful in mitigating COVID-19 severity.Peer reviewe