65 research outputs found
Vertical Foreclosure and Multi-Segment Competition
This paper analyzes a supplier's incentives to foreclose downstream entry when entrants have stronger positions in different market segments, thus bringing added value as well as competition. We first consider the case where wholesale contracts take the form of linear tariffs, and characterize the conditions under which the competition-intensifying effect dominates, thereby leading to foreclosure. We then show that foreclosure can still occur with non-linear tari€s, even coupled with additional provisions such as resale price maintenance
Personalized Pricing and Distribution Strategies
This paper examines the effects of personalized pricing on brand distribution.
We explore whether a brand manufacturer prefers to sell through its own retail
outlet only (mono distribution) or through an independent retailer as well (dual
distribution). Personalized pricing allows for higher rent extraction but also leads
to more fierce intra-brand competition than does uniform pricing. Due to the latter
effect, a brand manufacturer may prefer mono distribution even if the retailer
broadens the demand of the manufacturerâs product. By contrast, with uniform
pricing, selling through both channels is always optimal. This result holds for
wholesale contracts consisting of two-part tariffs as well as for linear wholesale
tariffs. We also show that the manufacturer may obtain its largest profit in a hybrid
pricing regime, in which only the retailer charges personalized prices.
Keywords: personalized pricing, distribution channels, dual distribution, vertical
contracting, downstream competition
Personalized Pricing and Distribution Strategies
This paper examines the effects of personalized pricing on brand distribution. We explore whether a brand manufacturer prefers to sell through its own retail outlet only (mono distribution) or through an independent retailer as well (dual distribution). Personalized pricing allows for higher rent extraction but also leads to more fierce intra-brand competition than does uniform pricing. Due to the latter effect, a brand manufacturer may prefer mono distribution even if the retailer broadens the demand of the manufacturerâs product. By contrast, with uniform pricing, selling through both channels is always optimal. This result holds for wholesale contracts consisting of two-part tariffs as well as for linear wholesale tariffs. We also show that the manufacturer may obtain its largest profit in a hybrid pricing regime, in which only the retailer charges personalized prices. Keywords: personalized pricing, distribution channels, dual distribution, vertical contracting, downstream competition
The Past in the Present: How Innovative History-making Shapes Our Many Mountains
Kathryn Newfont, Professor of History at Mars Hill University, will reflect on how collaborations such as the Madison County âForever Freeâ project extension can shape our understanding not only of the Appalachian regionâs complex past, but also of its multi-faceted present. Drew Reisingerâs efforts to unearth the history of chattel slavery in the public records under his care set a new standard for the nation. From the beginning Reisinger emphasized the importance of this historical work to the present-day citizens of Buncombe County, who elect the Register of Deeds. Now, in another Appalachian innovation, educators and students with Mars Hill Universityâs Public History Program have extended this remarkable effort into neighboring Madison County. Newfont will reflect on the potential this sort of work has for transforming our understanding of slavery in the southern mountain region and beyond. She will consider ways this collaboration and others like it can not only extend our grasp of the Appalachian regionâs âMany Mountainsâ past, but also shapes our understandings of its complex âMany Mountainsâ present
Cortical tracking of formant modulations derived from silently presented lip movements and its decline with age
The integration of visual and auditory cues is crucial for successful processing of speech, especially under adverse conditions. Recent reports have shown that when participants watch muted videos of speakers, the phonological information about the acoustic speech envelope, which is associated with but independent from the speakersâ lip movements, is tracked by the visual cortex. However, the speech signal also carries richer acoustic details, for example, about the fundamental frequency and the resonant frequencies, whose visuophonological transformation could aid speech processing. Here, we investigated the neural basis of the visuo-phonological transformation processes of these more fine-grained acoustic details and assessed how they change as a function of age. We recorded whole-head magnetoencephalographic (MEG) data while the participants watched silent normal (i.e., natural) and reversed videos of a speaker and paid attention to their lip movements. We found that the visual cortex is able to track the unheard natural modulations of resonant frequencies (or formants) and the pitch (or fundamental frequency) linked to lip movements. Importantly, only the processing of natural unheard formants decreases significantly with age in the visual and also in the cingulate cortex. This is not the case for the processing of the unheard speech envelope, the fundamental frequency, or the purely visual information carried by lip movements. These results show that unheard spectral fine details (along with the unheard acoustic envelope) are transformed from a mere visual to a phonological representation. Aging affects especially the ability to derive spectral dynamics at formant frequencies. As listening in noisy environments should capitalize on the ability to track spectral fine details, our results provide a novel focus on compensatory processes in such challenging situations
Eye movements track prioritized auditory features in selective attention to natural speech
Over the last decades, cognitive neuroscience has identified a distributed set of brain regions that are critical for attention. Strong anatomical overlap with brain regions critical for oculomotor processes suggests a joint network for attention and eye movements. However, the role of this shared network in complex, naturalistic environments remains understudied. Here, we investigated eye movements in relation to (un)attended sentences of natural speech. Combining simultaneously recorded eye tracking and magnetoencephalographic data with temporal response functions, we show that gaze tracks attended speech, a phenomenon we termed ocular speech tracking. Ocular speech tracking even differentiates a target from a distractor in a multi-speaker context and is further related to intelligibility. Moreover, we provide evidence for its contribution to neural differences in speech processing, emphasizing the necessity to consider oculomotor activity in future research and in the interpretation of neural differences in auditory cognition
Observation of Josephson harmonics in tunnel junctions
Approaches to developing large-scale superconducting quantum
processors must cope with the numerous microscopic degrees of freedom
that are ubiquitous in solid-state devices. State-of-the-art superconducting
qubits employ aluminium oxide (AlO) tunnel Josephson junctions as
the sources of nonlinearity necessary to perform quantum operations.
Analyses of these junctions typically assume an idealized, purely sinusoidal
currentâphase relation. However, this relation is expected to hold only in the
limit of vanishingly low-transparency channels in the AlO barrier. Here we
show that the standard currentâphase relation fails to accurately describe
the energy spectra of transmon artificial atoms across various samples
and laboratories. Instead, a mesoscopic model of tunnelling through
an inhomogeneous AlO barrier predicts percent-level contributions
from higher Josephson harmonics. By including these in the transmon
Hamiltonian, we obtain orders of magnitude better agreement between
the computed and measured energy spectra. The presence and impact of
Josephson harmonics has important implications for developing AlOx-based
quantum technologies including quantum computers and parametric
amplifiers. As an example, we show that engineered Josephson harmonics
can reduce the charge dispersion and associated errors in transmon qubits
by an order of magnitude while preserving their anharmonicity
Observation of Josephson Harmonics in Tunnel Junctions
Superconducting quantum processors have a long road ahead to reach
fault-tolerant quantum computing. One of the most daunting challenges is taming
the numerous microscopic degrees of freedom ubiquitous in solid-state devices.
State-of-the-art technologies, including the world's largest quantum
processors, employ aluminum oxide (AlO) tunnel Josephson junctions (JJs) as
sources of nonlinearity, assuming an idealized pure current-phase
relation (CR). However, this celebrated CR is
only expected to occur in the limit of vanishingly low-transparency channels in
the AlO barrier. Here we show that the standard CR fails to
accurately describe the energy spectra of transmon artificial atoms across
various samples and laboratories. Instead, a mesoscopic model of tunneling
through an inhomogeneous AlO barrier predicts %-level contributions from
higher Josephson harmonics. By including these in the transmon Hamiltonian, we
obtain orders of magnitude better agreement between the computed and measured
energy spectra. The reality of Josephson harmonics transforms qubit design and
prompts a reevaluation of models for quantum gates and readout, parametric
amplification and mixing, Floquet qubits, protected Josephson qubits, etc. As
an example, we show that engineered Josephson harmonics can reduce the charge
dispersion and the associated errors in transmon qubits by an order of
magnitude, while preserving anharmonicity
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