Nash Game Model for Optimizing Market Strategies, Configuration of Platform Products in a Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) Supply Chain for a Product Family

This paper discusses how a manufacturer and its retailers interact with each other to optimize their product marketing strategies, platform product configuration and inventory policies in a VMI (Vendor Managed Inventory) supply chain. The manufacturer procures raw materials from multiple suppliers to produce a family of products sold to multiple retailers. Multiple types of products are substitutable each other to end customers. The manufacturer makes its decision on raw materials’ procurement, platform product configuration, product replenishment policies to retailers with VMI, price discount rate, and advertising investment to maximize its profit. Retailers in turn consider the optimal local advertising and retail price to maximize their profits. This problem is modeled as a dual simultaneous non-cooperative game (as a Nash game) model with two sub-games. One is between the retailers serving in competing retail markets and the other is between the manufacturer and the retailers. This paper combines analytical, iterative and GA (genetic algorithm) methods to develop a game solution algorithm to find the Nash equilibrium. A numerical example is conducted to test the proposed model and algorithm, and gain managerial implications.supply chain management;nash game model;vendor managed inventory

Leader-follower Game in VMI System with Limited Production Capacity Considering Wholesale and Retail Prices

VMI (Vendor Managed Inventory) is a widely used cooperative inventory policy in supply chains in which each enterprise has its autonomy in pricing. This paper discusses a leader-follower Stackelberg game in a VMI supply chain where the manufacturer, as a leader, produces a single product with a limited production capacity and delivers it at a wholesale price to multiple different retailers, as the followers, who then sell the product in dispersed and independent markets at retail prices. An algorithm is then developed to determine the equilibrium of the Stackelberg game. Finally, a numerical study is conducted to understand the influence of the Stackelberg equilibrium and market related parameters on the profits of the manufacturer and its retailers. Through the numerical example, our research demonstrates that: (a) the market related parameters have significant influence on the manufacturer’ and its retailers’ profits; (b) a retailer’s profit may not be necessarily lowered when it is charged with a higher inventory cost by the manufacturer; (c) the equilibrium of the Stackelberg equilibrium benefits the manufacturer.Stackelberg Game;Supply Chain;Vendor Managed Inventory

Comparative Analysis of Five Brands of Lisinopril Tablets in Yemeni Market

Background: In poor countries such as Yemen, the cost of drugs is a factor affecting the patient’s decision to buy it and generic medicines are introduced as cheaper alternatives to the high cost brands. However, it has been believed that generic medicines are inferior in quality compared to the branded medicines. Thus, the aim of the present study is to investigate the physicochemical equivalence of five brands of tablets containing Lisinopril (antihypertensive) sourced from different retail pharmacy outlets in the Yemeni market. Methods: The quality and physicochemical equivalence of five different brands of Lisinopril tablets were assessed. The assessment included the evaluation of uniformity of weight, friability, crushing strength, disintegration and dissolution tests as well as chemical assay of the tablets. Results: Results obtained showed that all five brands of the Lisinopril 5 mg tablets passed the British Pharmacopoeia (BP) standards for uniformity of weight, the crushing strength/hardness test and the friability test. All the brands passed the disintegration test and standard assay of content of active ingredients Conclusion: The five brands of Lisinopril 5mg tablets that were analysed passed all the BP quality specifications and were physically and chemically equivalent. All tested formulations were found to be equivalent

Towards Developing a Comprehensive Carbon Accounting Framework for Forests in British Columbia

This report concentrates on the issues of establishing, managing and monitoring a forest carbon sink project within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol. The work was carried out as a case study for British Columbia in Canada and one of the results is a proposed forest carbon accounting system for this Province

Receptor simulation and the shape of the concentration-response curve and its congeners

We have investigated the utility of curves used to represent concentration (or dose) plotted against response (or effect). We applied crude survival data from our laboratory to demonstrate that a known hyperbolic curve compares favourably with the conventionally used sigmoidal regression in robustness, while avoiding problems associated with the use of transforms

A new primal-dual path-following interior-point algorithm for semidefinite optimization

AbstractIn this paper we present a new primal-dual path-following interior-point algorithm for semidefinite optimization. The algorithm is based on a new technique for finding the search direction and the strategy of the central path. At each iteration, we use only full Nesterov–Todd step. Moreover, we obtain the currently best known iteration bound for the algorithm with small-update method, namely, O(nlognϵ), which is as good as the linear analogue

Influence of the Degree of Grain Damage by the Bug Turtle on Its Bakery Properties

The paper presents the results of experimental studies and theoretical generalization and analysis of published literature data, scientifically substantiated technologies for obtaining high-quality varieties of flour, from grain with reduced biological properties, frost-hardening, sprouting infected with field pests, etc. To characterize the biochemical characteristics of the grain, we studied its chemical composition, the distribution of chemicals over anatomical parts and the activity of enzymes, primarily proteolytic and amylolytic. Influence of the electromagnetic field on the properties of glute

Antiflow of kaons in relativistic heavy ion collisions

We compare relativistic transport model calculations to recent data on the sideward flow of neutral strange K^0_s mesons for Au+Au collisions at 6 AGeV. A soft nuclear equation of state is found to describe very well the positive proton flow data measured in the same experiment. In the absence of kaon potential, the K^0 flow pattern is similar to that of protons. The kaon flow becomes negative if a repulsive kaon potential determined from the impulse approximation is introduced. However, this potential underestimates the data which exhibits larger antiflow. An excellent agreement with the data is obtained when a relativistic scalar-vector kaon potential, that has stronger density dependence, is used. We further find that the transverse momentum dependence of directed and elliptic flow is quite sensitive to the kaon potential in dense matter.Comment: 5 pages, Revtex, 4 figure

Interior-point methods for P∗(κ)-linear complementarity problem based on generalized trigonometric barrier function

Recently, M.~Bouafoa, et al. investigated a new kernel function which differs from the self-regular kernel functions. The kernel function has a trigonometric Barrier Term. In this paper we generalize the analysis presented in the above paper for $P_{*}(\kappa)$ Linear Complementarity Problems (LCPs). It is shown that the iteration bound for primal-dual large-update and small-update interior-point methods based on this function is as good as the currently best known iteration bounds for these type methods. The analysis for LCPs deviates significantly from the analysis for linear optimization. Several new tools and techniques are derived in this paper.publishedVersio