An Apparel Brands Channel Strategy: The Case of Oliver in Korea

The purpose of this case study was to describe the development of a channel strategy for an apparel brand, BoKids, designed to distribute its brand, Oliver, efficiently to customers. Bokids launched its childrens apparel brand, Oliver, in Korea by signing a brand license contract with Oliver of USA. When the brand was launched in 2005, Oliver was positioned as a brand with a reasonable price and a high quality product, which was sold primarily through department stores. In 2007, Oliver was suffering from sluggish sales volumes, and switched its main distribution channel from department stores to discount stores, which are the number 1 retail format in Korea. Oliver was compelled to adjust the price range of its main products to $20 30 in order to satisfy the needs of discount store customers. However, Oliver has considered Internet shopping as another channel for the Oliver brand, as Internet shopping is rapidly gaining popularity in Korea. This case can be used in conjunction with discussions on marketing topics, such as the design of marketing channels (Chapter 6, Designing the Marketing Channel, Marketing Channels: A Management View, 7th Edition by Bert Rosenbloom, South-Western College Pub, 2007) for senior level marketing seminars

A hierarchical adaptively boosted in-memory classifier in 6T SRAM

Recent emerging machine learning applications such as Internet-of-Things and medical devices require to be operated in a battery-powered platform. As the machine learning algorithms involve heavy data-intensive computations, interest in energy-efficient and low-delay machine learning accelerators is growing. Because there is a trade-off between energy and accuracy in machine learning applications, it is a reasonable direction to provide scalable architecture which has diverse operating points. This thesis presents a high-accuracy in-memory realization of the AdaBoost machine learning classifier. The proposed classifier employs a deep in-memory architecture (DIMA), and employs foreground calibration to compensate for PVT variations and improve task-level accuracy. The proposed architecture switches between a high accuracy/high power (HA) mode and a low power/low accuracy (LP) mode via soft decision thresholding to provide an elegant energy-accuracy trade-off. The proposed realization achieves an EDP reduction of 43X over a digital architecture at an iso-accuracy of 95% for the MNIST dataset, which is an improvement of 5% over a previous in-memory implementation of AdaBoost

Suppression of magnetic ordering in XXZ-type antiferromagnetic monolayer NiPS3

How a certain ground state of complex physical systems emerges, especially in two-dimensional materials, is a fundamental question in condensed-matter physics. A particularly interesting case is systems belonging to the class of XY Hamiltonian where the magnetic order parameter of conventional nature is unstable in two-dimensional materials leading to a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. Here, we report how the XXZ-type antiferromagnetic order of a magnetic van der Waals material, NiPS3, behaves upon reducing the thickness and ultimately becomes unstable in the monolayer limit. Our experimental data are consistent with the findings based on renormalization group theory that at low temperatures a two-dimensional XXZ system behaves like a two-dimensional XY one, which cannot have a long-range order at finite temperatures. This work provides experimental examination of the XY magnetism in the atomically thin limit and opens new opportunities of exploiting these fundamental theorems of magnetism using magnetic van der Waals materials.Comment: 57 pages, 24 figures (including Supplementary Information

Experimental Verification of Overlimiting Current by Surface Conduction and Electro-Osmotic Flow in Microchannels

Direct evidence is provided for the transition from surface conduction (SC) to electro-osmotic flow (EOF) above a critical channel depth (d) of a nanofluidic device. The dependence of the overlimiting conductance (OLC) on d is consistent with theoretical predictions, scaling as d[superscript −1] for SC and d[superscript 4 over 5] for EOF with a minimum around d=8  μm. The propagation of transient deionization shocks is also visualized, revealing complex patterns of EOF vortices and unstable convection with increasing d. This unified picture of surface-driven OLC can guide further advances in electrokinetic theory, as well as engineering applications of ion concentration polarization in microfluidics and porous media.Basic Science Research Program (Grant 2013R1A1A1008125)Global Frontier Project (Center for Integrated Smart Sensor. Grant CISS-2011-0031870)Future Based Technology Development Program (Nano Fields) (Grant 2012-0001033)Korea. Ministry of Health and Welfare (Grant HI13C1468)Korea. Ministry of Health and Welfare (Grant HI14C0559)Korea (South). Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (Korean Health Technology RND Project

BioBarcode: a general DNA barcoding database and server platform for Asian biodiversity resources

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>DNA barcoding provides a rapid, accurate, and standardized method for species-level identification using short DNA sequences. Such a standardized identification method is useful for mapping all the species on Earth, particularly when DNA sequencing technology is cheaply available. There are many nations in Asia with many biodiversity resources that need to be mapped and registered in databases.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We have built a general DNA barcode data processing system, BioBarcode, with open source software - which is a general purpose database and server. It uses mySQL RDBMS 5.0, BLAST2, and Apache httpd server. An exemplary database of BioBarcode has around 11,300 specimen entries (including GenBank data) and registers the biological species to map their genetic relationships. The BioBarcode database contains a chromatogram viewer which improves the performance in DNA sequence analyses.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Asia has a very high degree of biodiversity and the BioBarcode database server system aims to provide an efficient bioinformatics protocol that can be freely used by Asian researchers and research organizations interested in DNA barcoding. The BioBarcode promotes the rapid acquisition of biological species DNA sequence data that meet global standards by providing specialized services, and provides useful tools that will make barcoding cheaper and faster in the biodiversity community such as standardization, depository, management, and analysis of DNA barcode data. The system can be downloaded upon request, and an exemplary server has been constructed with which to build an Asian biodiversity system <url>http://www.asianbarcode.org</url>.</p

Cause of microfibers found in the domestic washing process of clothing; focusing on the manufacturing, wearing, and washing processes

To prepare measures for washing synthetic fibers, which cause proliferation of microplastics in the marine ecosystem, a fundamental analysis is required. Therefore, this study established an efficient method for quantitatively analyzing microfibers using artificial neural networks, comparing the amounts of microfibers generated in the manufacturing, wearing, and washing processes of clothing. The proportion of microfiber emitted during the manufacturing process was the largest (49%), followed by that emitted during the washing (28%) and wearing (23%) processes. This suggests that minimizing the amount of microfiber emitted during the manufacturing process is key to solving microfiber issues in the fashion industry. Additionally, during the wearing process, the amount of waterborne microfiber detected in washing was slightly larger than the amount of airborne microfiber. In the washing process, the washing temperature did not significantly affect microfiber emissions. However, when reducing the amount of water used or increasing the number of washings, microfiber emissions increased noticeably due to the greater friction applied to clothes. A common result of all experiments was that the largest proportion of microfibers was released during the first five washing cycles. Therefore, before wearing new items, consumers can minimize microfiber release by pre-washing using a laundry bag that filters microfibers. Furthermore, the most effective way to minimize microfibers is to eliminate them from the manufacturing process before they are distributed to consumers.This study was conducted with the support of LG Electronics (No. 2-2020-1139-001-1)

Postoperative High-Dose Intravenous Iron Sucrose with Low Dose Erythropoietin Therapy after Total Hip Replacement

Erythropoietin combined with parenteral iron sucrose therapy is an alternative to blood transfusion in anemic patients. It was shown to be effective in surgical patients in several previous studies when used in conjunction with other methods. However, there are no guidelines about safety limits in dosage amounts or intervals. In this study, we report a case of significant postoperative hemorrhage managed with high dose parenteral iron sucrose, low dose erythropoietin, vitamin B12, vitamin C, and folic acid. An 80-year-old female patient presented for severe anemia after a total hip arthroplasty and refused an allogenic blood transfusion as treatment. The preoperative hemoglobin of 12.2 g/dL decreased to 5.3 g/dL postoperatively. She received the aforementioned combination of iron sucrose, erythropoietin, and vitamins. A total of 1,500 mg of intravenous iron sucrose was given postoperatively for 6 consecutive days. Erythropoietin was also administered at 2,000 IU every other day for a total of 12,000 IU. The patient was discharged in good condition on the twelfth postoperative day with a hemoglobin of 8.5 g/dL. Her hemoglobin was at 11.2 g/dL on the twentieth postoperative day

Reciprocal Encoding of Signal Intensity and Duration in a Glucose-Sensing Circuit

Cells continuously adjust their behavior in response to changing environmental conditions. Both intensity and duration of external signals are critical factors in determining what response is initiated. To understand how intracellular signaling networks process such multidimensional information, we studied the AtRGS1-mediated glucose response system of Arabidopsis. By combining experiments with mathematical modeling, we discovered a reciprocal dose and duration response relying on the orchestrated action of three kinases (AtWNK1, AtWNK8, AtWNK10) acting on distinct time scales and activation thresholds. Specifically, we find that high concentrations of D-glucose rapidly signal through AtWNK8 and AtWNK10, whereas low, sustained sugar concentration slowly activate the pathway through AtWNK1, allowing the cells to respond similarly to transient, high-intensity signals, and sustained low-intensity signals. This “dose-duration reciprocity” allows encoding of both the intensity and persistence of glucose as an important energy resource and signaling molecule