Retail Web System Upgrading with Strategic Customer Using Threshold Policy

This paper mainly deals with the problems that online retailers are facing by some group of strategic customers by upgrading web system and goods pricing. A monopolist price of a product for which stylized dynamic pricing model is considered at the beginning and the price change is done on the product after considering some set of constraints based on the product availability. Due to some network issues sometimes website may get problems at that time there may be a chance of transaction failure for customer during online purchasing. To predict this probability and doing purchasing opinion depending on the belief of Transaction Success Probability (TSP).Considering this there will be a threshold policy for purchasing by customers here it is going to consider it as first one: Customers buy products only if his valuation for products is above threshold (total reduced profit) otherwise they will not take it into consideration. The threshold rises as TSP degrades, or customers turn out to be risk averse. Here we obtain the best cost of each phase and make out the best strategy for online shopping site customizing by threshold and upgrade the system when present TSP is less than threshold. The online trader turns to increase the price if he disregards strategic customer behavior. The value of disregarding strategic customer deeds is significant. The profit loss cost of disregarding strategic customer deeds grows as customer transaction cost rises

Synthesis and characterisation of diastereomeric (<i style="">E</i> & <i style="">Z</i>) vinylsulfides and vinylsulfones from <i style="">p</i>-tolylphenylacetylene

765-769The addition of p-methylbenzenethiol to p-tolyl­phenyl­acetylene results in the formation of a mixture of diastereomeric (E) & (Z)-1-(4-methylphenyl)-2-phenyl-1-[(4-methyl­phenyl)thio] ethylenes (1 and 2) and (E) & (Z)-2-(4-methylphenyl)-1-phenyl-1-[(4-methylphenyl)thio] ethylenes (3 and 4). The configurations of these compounds have been established by 1H NMR studies, by their preparation from benzyl p-tolyl ketone and p-methylbenzyl phenyl ketone, and by the oxidation of the thioethylenes 1, 2, 3 and 4 to the corresponding sulfonylethylenes 5, 6, 7 and 8 respectively

Joint linkage–linkage disequilibrium mapping is a powerful approach to detecting quantitative trait loci underlying drought tolerance in maize

This paper describes two joint linkage–linkage disequilibrium (LD) mapping approaches: parallel mapping (independent linkage and LD analysis) and integrated mapping (datasets analyzed in combination). These approaches were achieved using 2,052 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers, including 659 SNPs developed from drought-response candidate genes, screened across three recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations and 305 diverse inbred lines, with anthesis-silking interval (ASI), an important trait for maize drought tolerance, as the target trait. Mapping efficiency was improved significantly due to increased population size and allele diversity and balanced allele frequencies. Integrated mapping identified 18 additional quantitative trait loci (QTL) not detected by parallel mapping. The use of haplotypes improved mapping efficiency, with the sum of phenotypic variation explained (PVE) increasing from 5.4% to 23.3% for single SNP-based analysis. Integrated mapping with haplotype further improved the mapping efficiency, and the most significant QTL had a PVE of up to 34.7%. Normal allele frequencies for 113 of 277 (40.8%) SNPs with minor allele frequency (<5%) in 305 lines were recovered in three RIL populations, three of which were significantly associated with ASI. The candidate genes identified by two significant haplotype loci included one for a SET domain protein involved in the control of flowering time and the other encoding aldo/keto reductase associated with detoxification pathways that contribute to cellular damage due to environmental stress. Joint linkage–LD mapping is a powerful approach for detecting QTL underlying complex traits, including drought tolerance

Assessment of a watch-and-wait strategy for rectal cancer in patients with a complete response after neoadjuvant therapy

Importance: The watch-and-wait (WW) strategy aims to spare patients with rectal cancer unnecessary resection. Objective: To analyze the outcomes of WW among patients with rectal cancer who had a clinical complete response to neoadjuvant therapy. Design, Setting, and Participants: This retrospective case series analysis conducted at a comprehensive cancer center in New York included patients who received a diagnosis of rectal adenocarcinoma between January 1, 2006, and January 31, 2015. The median follow-up was 43 months. Data analyses were conducted from June 1, 2016, to October 1, 2018. Exposures: Patients had a clinical complete response after completing neoadjuvant therapy and agreed to a WW strategy of active surveillance and possible salvage surgery (n = 113), or patients underwent total mesorectal excision and were found to have a pathologic complete response (pCR) at resection (n = 136). Main Outcomes and Measures: Kaplan-Meier estimates were used for analyses of local regrowth and 5-year rates of overall survival, disease-free survival, and disease-specific survival. Results: Compared with the 136 patients in the pCR group, the 113 patients in the WW group were older (median [range], 67.2 [32.1-90.9] vs 57.3 [25.0-87.9] years, P &lt; .001) with cancers closer to the anal verge (median [range] height from anal verge, 5.5 [0.0-15.0] vs 7.0 [0.0-13.0] cm). All 22 local regrowths in the WW group were detected on routine surveillance and treated by salvage surgery (20 total mesorectal excisions plus 2 transanal excisions). Pelvic control after salvage surgery was maintained in 20 of 22 patients (91%). No pelvic recurrences occurred in the pCR group. Rectal preservation was achieved in 93 of 113 patients (82%) in the WW group (91 patients with no local regrowths plus 2 patients with local regrowths salvaged with transanal excision). At 5 years, overall survival was 73% (95% CI, 60%-89%) in the WW group and 94% (95% CI, 90%-99%) in the pCR group; disease-free survival was 75% (95% CI, 62%-90%) in the WW group and 92% (95% CI, 87%-98%) in the pCR group; and disease-specific survival was 90% (95% CI, 81%-99%) in the WW group and 98% (95% CI, 95%-100%) in the pCR group. A higher rate of distant metastasis was observed among patients in the WW group who had local regrowth vs those who did not have local regrowth (36% vs 1%, P &lt; .001). Conclusions and Relevance: A WW strategy for select rectal cancer patients who had a clinical complete response after neoadjuvant therapy resulted in excellent rectal preservation and pelvic tumor control; however, in the WW group, worse survival was noted along with a higher incidence of distant progression in patients with local regrowth vs those without local regrowth