Pricing Strategies in Dual-online Channels Based on Consumers’ Shopping Choice

AbstractBesides an official website mall (OWM), retail stores on the third party e-commerce platform(3PEP) is an another important online channel that manufacturers adopt to sell online. How to properly price products in these two channels simultaneously is a tough problem to firms and gains much attention by researchers. In this paper, we analyze their channel choice, and give demand functions of the two channels based on the consumers’ segmentation and preference. Then we design a sale model including two online channels: OWM and a retail store on 3PEP. According the Stackelberg game theory, we calculate and discuss the optimal pricing strategies of the manufacturer and retailer in three feasible regions. The result shows that manufacturers emphasizing channel sales prefer to choose pricing strategies that helps two online channels share the online market. But some manufacturers think adjusting the OWM's price and the wholesale price to control the retailer's pricing strategies is reasonable and necessary, even if nobody will prefer the OWM

An echo state network architecture based on quantum logic gate and its optimization

Quantum neural network (QNN) is developed based on two classical theories of quantum computation and artificial neural networks. It has been proved that quantum computing is an important candidate for improving the performance of traditional neural networks. In this work, inspired by the QNN, the quantum computation method is combined with the echo state networks (ESNs), and a hybrid model namely quantum echo state network (QESN) is proposed. Firstly, the input training data is converted to quantum state, and the internal neurons in the dynamic reservoir of ESN are replaced by qubit neurons. Then in order to maintain the stability of QESN, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) is applied to the model for the parameter optimizations. The synthetic time series and real financial application datasets (Standard & Poor's 500 index and foreign exchange) are used for performance evaluations, where the ESN, autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMAX) are used as the benchmarks. Results show that the proposed PSO-QESN model achieves a good performance for the time series predication tasks and is better than the benchmarking algorithms. Thus, it is feasible to apply quantum computing to the ESN model, which provides a novel method to improve the ESN performance

In situ growth of ZnO nanorods on monolithic diesel particulate filters and supporting potassium for catalytic soot combustion

Soot particulate is one of the most important pollutants emitted from diesel engines. A monolithic wall-flow diesel particulate filter (DPF) is a commercial technology for the removal of soot via filtration and subsequent combustion with/without catalysts. Herein, in situ grown ZnO nanorods on DPFs are applied to improve both soot and potassium (K)-based catalyst dispersion efficiency and thus enhancing the activity of DPF regeneration. The pretreatment and hydrothermal synthesis procedures for the homogenously covered ZnO nanorod arrays were specifically investigated on aluminum titanate (Al2TiO5) and silicon carbide (SiC) and compared with cordierite (Mg2Al4Si5O18). Potassium carbonate (K2CO3) is further supported on these monolithic substrates with in situ grown ZnO nanorods acting as catalytic active components for soot combustion. The coexistence of in situ grown ZnO nanorods and K active species on the three monoliths leads to much better soot combustion activity than those bare monoliths. The ZnO nanorods can not only trap soot to improve the contact efficiency between soot and catalysts, but also disperse the active K species. This demonstrates a promising strategy to develop highly active catalytic DPF for diesel soot removal

Measuring health-related quality of life in chronic otitis media in a Chinese population: cultural adaption and validation of the Zurich Chronic Middle Ear Inventory (ZCMEI-21-Chn)

Background: The demand for assessing health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in chronic otitis media (COM) is increasing globally. The currently available Chinese-language patient-reported outcome measurement (PROM) specific for COM includes merely a limited range of related symptoms and dimensions. Hence, in this study, we aim to translate, culturally adapt, and validate the Zurich Chronic Middle Ear Inventory (ZCMEI-21) in Chinese, to enable a comprehensive evaluation of the patients' subjective health outcome in COM. Methods: We sampled and surveyed 223 COM patients at three tertiary referral centers in China, using the Chinese translation of ZCMEI-21 (ZCMEI-21-Chn) and the EQ-5D questionnaire, a generic measure of HRQoL. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to investigate the structural model fit to the dataset. Cronbach's α and test-retest reliability coefficient were calculated to establish reliability, and correlation was tested between ZCMEI-Chn scores and EQ-5D scores for convergent validity. Results: A total of 208 adult patients with COM were included, with a mean age of 46 years (SD 14 years) and a male proportion of 41% (85/208). A modified bifactor model with ωH of 0.65 and ECV of 0.47 was found to fit the scale scores, indicating fair general factor saturation and multidimensionality of the instrument. ZCMEI-21-Chn demonstrated good reliability (Cronbach's α = 0.88, test-retest reliability = 0.88). The total scores of ZCMEI-21-Chn had a moderate correlation with a question directly addressing HRQoL (r = 0.40, p < 0.001), EQ-5D descriptive system score (r = 0.57, p < 0.001), and EQ-5D visual analogous scale (r = 0.30, p < 0.001). Conclusions: The ZCMEI-21-Chn is valid, reliable and culturally adapted to Chinese adult patients with COM. This study offers clinicians an efficient and comprehensive instrument to quantify COM patients' self-reported health outcomes, which could facilitate the standardization of HRQoL data aggregation in COM on a global scale

Association of Obesity with Onset of Puberty and Sex Hormones in Chinese Girls: A 4-Year Longitudinal Study

<div><p>Objective</p><p>To examine the influence of childhood obesity on the early onset of puberty and sex hormones in girls.</p><p>Methods</p><p>Healthy girls with different percentages of body fat at baseline (40 obese, 40 normal, and 40 lean) were recruited from three elementary schools in Shenyang, China. These girls (mean age 8.5 years) were also matched by height, school grade, Tanner stage, and family economic status at baseline. Anthropometry, puberty characteristics, and sex hormone concentrations were measured at baseline and at each follow-up visit. The generalized estimating equation model and analysis of variance for repeated measures using a generalized linear model were used to determine the differences in puberty characteristics and sex hormones among three groups.</p><p>Results</p><p>Over 4 years, mean age of breast II onset was earlier among obese girls (8.8 years) than normal girls (9.2 years) and lean girls (9.3 years). The prevalence (%) of early-maturation in the obese, normal, and lean groups was 25.9%, 11.1%, and 7.4%, respectively. Obesity was associated with an increased risk for breast stage II (year 2: RR, 6.3; 95% CI, 1.9–21.1 and year 3: RR, 6.9; 95% CI, 0.8–60.1). None of the girls experienced menarche in the first year; however, by the fourth year 50.0% of obese girls had menarche onset, which was higher than normal weight (27.5%) and lean girls (8.1%). The mean estradiol level increased with age in the obese, normal, and lean groups. The mean estradiol concentration was higher in obese girls than in normal and lean girls throughout the 4-year period (<i>P</i><0.05).</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>Childhood obesity contributes to early onset of puberty and elevated levels of estradiol in girls.</p></div

High-Performance Styrene Epoxidation with Vacancy-Defect Cobalt Single-Atom Catalysts

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Characteristics of study population at baseline (n = 120, 40/group).

<p>Characteristics of study population at baseline (n = 120, 40/group).</p

Relative Risks and 95% Confidence Intervals for being breast II and above during the 4 years.

<p>Relative Risks and 95% Confidence Intervals for being breast II and above during the 4 years.</p