Multi-Channel Retail Supply Chain Management: Fulfillment systems in Multi-Channel Retailing - Customer Expectations and Economic Performance

Increasingly, store-based retailers are opening an additional online sales channel and becoming multi-channel retailers. The integration of these different channels raises the question how to redefine the strategic marketing elements and the operations, as the two channels have different constraints and require different competences. This multi-channel retailing has major impacts on the operations and the supply-chain management. Order fulfillment for the customers using the different sales channels is a key challenge, as customers are directly impacted from the performance of this process. In this paper, we will highlight the different strategic elements and operational challenges to be addressed by a multi-channel retailer. In order to evaluate the match between a fulfillment system and a multi-channel business model, we propose a framework analyzing the overall performance of different fulfillment systems regarding the two dimensions customer expectations and economic performance.Multi-Channel; Retail; Fulfillment; Distribution; E-commerce

Multi-Channel Retail Supply Chain Management: Fulfillment systems in Multi-Channel Retailing - Customer Expectations and Economic Performance

International audienceIncreasingly, store-based retailers are opening an additional online sales channel and becoming multi-channel retailers. The integration of these different channels raises the question how to redefine the strategic marketing elements and the operations, as the two channels have different constraints and require different competences. This multi-channel retailing has major impacts on the operations and the supply-chain management. Order fulfillment for the customers using the different sales channels is a key challenge, as customers are directly impacted from the performance of this process. In this paper, we will highlight the different strategic elements and operational challenges to be addressed by a multi-channel retailer. In order to evaluate the match between a fulfillment system and a multi-channel business model, we propose a framework analyzing the overall performance of different fulfillment systems regarding the two dimensions customer expectations and economic performance

Punishment and the Rebalancing of Status

Downloa

Rawlsian Incentives and the Freedom Objection

One Rawlsian response to G. A. Cohen’s criticisms of justice as fairness which Cohen canvasses, and then dismisses, is the 'Freedom Objection'. It comes in two versions. The 'First Version' asserts that there is an unresolved trilemma among the three principles of equality, Pareto-optimality, and freedom of occupational choice, while the 'Second Version' imputes to Rawls’s theory a concern to protect occupational freedom over equality of condition. This article is mainly concerned with advancing three claims. First, the 'ethical solution' Cohen advances against the First Version of the Freedom Objection does not grant a fair hearing to the Freedom Objection. Second, the distinction Cohen presses between the legal and moral right of occupational choice in his response to the Second Version cannot save him from worries about Stalinist coercion. Third, Cohen’s response to the First Version of the Freedom Objection is actually in tension with his response to the Second Version of the Freedom Objection

Alcohol-induced decrease in muscle protein synthesis associated with increased binding of mTOR and raptor: Comparable effects in young and mature rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Acute alcohol (EtOH) intoxication decreases muscle protein synthesis via inhibition of mTOR-dependent translation initiation. However, these studies have been performed in relatively young rapidly growing rats in which muscle protein accretion is more sensitive to growth factor and nutrient stimulation. Furthermore, some in vivo-produced effects of EtOH vary in an age-dependent manner. The hypothesis tested in the present study was that young rats will show a more pronounced decrement in muscle protein synthesis than older mature rats in response to acute EtOH intoxication.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Male F344 rats were studied at approximately 3 (young) or 12 (mature) months of age. Young rats were injected intraperitoneally with 75 mmol/kg of EtOH, and mature rats injected with either 75 or 90 mmol/kg EtOH. Time-matched saline-injected control rats were included for both age groups. Gastrocnemius protein synthesis and the activity of the mTOR pathway were assessed 2.5 h after EtOH using [³H]-labeled phenylalanine and the phosphorylation of various protein factors known to regulate peptide-chain initiation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Blood alcohol levels (BALs) were lower in mature rats compared to young rats after administration of 75 mmol/kg EtOH (154 ± 23 vs 265 ± 24 mg/dL). However, injection of 90 mmol/kg EtOH in mature rats produced BALs comparable to that of young rats (281 ± 33 mg/dL). EtOH decreased muscle protein synthesis similarly in both young and high-dose EtOH-treated mature rats. The EtOH-induced changes in both groups were associated with a concomitant reduction in 4E-BP1 phosphorylation, and redistribution of eIF4E between the active eIF4E·eIF4G and inactive eIF4E·4EBP1 complex. Moreover, EtOH increased the binding of mTOR with raptor in a manner which appeared to be AMPK- and TSC-independent. In contrast, although muscle protein synthesis was unchanged in mature rats given low-dose EtOH, compared to control values, the phosphorylation of rpS6 and eIF4G was decreased.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These data indicate that muscle protein synthesis is equally sensitive to the inhibitory effects of EtOH in young rapidly growing rats and older mature rats which are growing more slowly, but that mature rats must be given a relatively larger dose of EtOH to achieve the same BAL. Based on the differential response in mature rats to low- and high-dose EtOH, the decreased protein synthesis was associated with a reduction in mTOR activity which was selectively mediated via a reduction in 4E-BP1 phosphorylation and an increase in mTOR·raptor formation.</p

Integrating Communication Skills and Planning Techniques

Practitioners have long stressed the need to teach professional commumcations skills to planning students. This paper describes ten years of experience in teaching a course in which communications skills and techniques of gathering and analyzing information are taught concurrently while investigating a problem of importance in the community. The course involves an ongoing collaboration, a "marriage of convenience," between an academic and a planner, casting city/county planning staff as clients for students This has proven useful for pedagogy and has had some positive impact on the community.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69149/2/10.1177_0739456X9201100206.pd

Associations between neuropsychiatric and health status outcomes in individuals with probable mTBI

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a common occurrence, and may impact distal outcomes in a subgroup of individuals. Improved characterization of health outcomes and identification of factors associated with poor outcomes is needed to better understand the impact of mTBI, particularly in those with co-occurring posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Participants in a data repository of the Injury and Traumatic Stress (INTRuST) Clinical Consortium (n = 625) completed functional disability [FD] and health-related quality of life [HRQOL] questionnaires, and a subset completed a neuropsychological assessment. FD and HRQOL were compared among participants with probable mTBI (mTBI), probable mTBI with PTSD (mTBI/PTSD), and health comparison participants (HC). Associations between symptoms, neuropsychological performance, and health outcomes were examined in those with probable mTBI with and without PTSD (n = 316). Individuals in the mTBI/PTSD group endorsed poorer health outcomes than those in the mTBI group, who endorsed poorer outcomes than those in the HC group. Individuals in either mTBI group performed worse than those in the HC on verbal learning and memory and psychomotor speed. Health outcomes were correlated with mental health and postconcussive symptoms, as well as neuropsychological variables. mTBI may adversely impact self-reported health, with the greatest effect observed in individuals with co-occurring mTBI/PTSD

Acute Toxicity and Early Oncological Outcomes After Intraoperative Electron Radiotherapy (IOERT) as Boost Followed by Whole Breast Irradiation in 157 Early Stage Breast Cancer Patients—First Clinical Results From a Single Center

Introduction: Breast conserving surgery (BCS) followed by postoperative whole breast irradiation (WBI) is the current standard of care for early stage breast cancer patients. Boost to the tumor bed is recommended for patients with a higher risk of local recurrence and may be applied with different techniques. Intraoperative electron radiotherapy (IOERT) offers several advantages compared to other techniques, like direct visualization of the tumor bed, better skin sparing, less inter- and intrafractional motion, but also radiobiological effects may be beneficial. Objective of this retrospective analysis of IOERT as boost in breast cancer patients was to assess acute toxicity and early oncological outcomes.Material and Methods: All patients, who have been irradiated between 11/2014 and 01/2018 with IOERT during BCS were analyzed. IOERT was applied using the mobile linear accelerator Mobetron with a total dose of 10 Gy, prescribed to the 90% isodose. After ensured woundhealing, WBI followed with normofractionated or hypofractionated regimens. Patient reports, including diagnostic examinations and toxicity were analyzed after surgery and 6–8 weeks after WBI. Overall survival, distant progression-free survival, in-breast and contralateral breast local progression-free survival were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Furthermore, recurrence patterns were assessed.Results: In total, 157 patients with a median age of 57 years were evaluated. Postoperative adverse events were mild with seroma and hematoma grade 1–2 in 26% and grade 3 in 0.6% of the patients. Wound infections grade 2–3 occurred in 2.2% and wound dehiscence grade 1–2 in 1.9% of the patients. Six to eight weeks after WBI radiotherapy-dependent acute dermatitis grade 1–2 was most common in 90.9% of the patients. Only 4.6% of the patients suffered from dermatitis grade 3. No grade 4 toxicities were documented after surgery or WBI. 2- and 3-year overall survival and distant progression-free survival, were 97.5 and 93.6, and 0.7 and 2.8%, respectively. In-breast recurrence and contralateral breast cancer rates after 3 years were 1.9 and 2.8%, respectively.Conclusion: IOERT boost during BCS is a safe treatment option with low acute toxicity. Short-term recurrence rates are comparable to previously published data and emphasize, that IOERT as boost is an effective treatment