A Pricing Model and Contract Design for Recycling Used Home Appliances in Accordance with the Retailer’s Collecting Method

Using the price for recycling used home appliances as a variable in the decision-making process, this paper studies the pricing decision-making process of the home appliances enterprises when a wholesale and retail price for the green home appliances have already been determined in advance. Considering the influences of the effective recycle behavior of the used home appliances to the whole supply chain, a game model about the recycle pricing for the used home appliances is presented in accordance with the retailer’s collecting method. Then a revenue and expense-sharing contract is designed to coordinate the supply chain so as to improve the performance of the green supply chain in terms of the recycle of the used home appliances

A Game Model for the Pricing of the Government’s Subsidy in the Green Supply Chain for Home Appliances Industry in China

Today green supply chain management (GSCM) has received increasing emphasis, as a kind of modern management mode which takes environmental impact and resource efficiency into a comprehensive consideration within the entire supply chain. In this paper, the government’s subsidy in the green supply chain for home appliances industry is studied by constructing a three-player game model among governments, home appliances enterprises and consumers. Through studying the relationships and game status and analyzing the equilibrium of the game model, the paper points out the necessity of creating a government’s subsidy, and proposes the principles of the subsidy as well as provides a numerical example. The research results indicate that the governments can improve the enthusiasm and likelihood of enterprises and consumers to participate in this model of green supply chain management by creating appropriate subsidy to the enterprises, to the consumers and by imposing penalties to those enterprises that do not participate in the green supply chain management. This will promote the implementation of the green supply chain management for the home appliance industry effectively

A Portfolio Pricing Model and Contract Design of the Green Supply Chain for Home Appliances Industry Based on Retailer Collecting

From the perspectives of the operational objectives of the green supply chain management and in consideration of its economic efficiency, social and environmental impact as well as its unique characteristics, this paper examines the pricing issues of the green supply chain for home appliances industry by using game theory and contract coordination theory. Considering the influences of the effective recycle behavior of the used home appliances to the whole supply chain, the paper proposes a game model for the portfolio pricing for the wholesale, retail and recycle price based on retailer recycling model. Then a revenue and expense-sharing contract model is designed to improve the game effects, by allocating both total revenues and expenses related to the manufacturing, retailing and recycling operations in the green supply chain among all participating players, thus maximizing the profits and effectiveness of the supply chain as a whole. The pricing models presented in this paper provide a practical and theoretical guidance for home appliances enterprises in making pricing decisions and supply chain contracts

The Business Talents Cultivation of Cross-border E-commerce under “the Belt and Road Initiative”

Along with “the Belt and Road Initiative”, China’s cross-border e-commerce has been developed rapidly, which will certainly bring new challenges for talents cultivation in the Higher Education. The paper analyzes the new requirements for business talents under cross-border e-commerce. And then a cultivation system was proposed by examining the five major programs in our university. The cultivation objectives, the curriculum and the practical module are elaborated. Finally, some suggestions on the implementation of this cultivation system are put forward

MA2QL: A Minimalist Approach to Fully Decentralized Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

Decentralized learning has shown great promise for cooperative multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL). However, non-stationarity remains a significant challenge in decentralized learning. In the paper, we tackle the non-stationarity problem in the simplest and fundamental way and propose \textit{multi-agent alternate Q-learning} (MA2QL), where agents take turns to update their Q-functions by Q-learning. MA2QL is a \textit{minimalist} approach to fully decentralized cooperative MARL but is theoretically grounded. We prove that when each agent guarantees a $\varepsilon$-convergence at each turn, their joint policy converges to a Nash equilibrium. In practice, MA2QL only requires minimal changes to independent Q-learning (IQL). We empirically evaluate MA2QL on a variety of cooperative multi-agent tasks. Results show MA2QL consistently outperforms IQL, which verifies the effectiveness of MA2QL, despite such minimal changes

Advanced Geological Prediction

Due to the particularity of the tunnel project, it is difficult to find out the exact geological conditions of the tunnel body during the survey stage. Once it encounters unfavorable geological bodies such as faults, fracture zones, and karst, it will bring great challenges to the construction and will easily cause major problems, economic losses, and casualties. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out geological forecast work in the tunnel construction process, which is of great significance for tunnel safety construction and avoiding major disaster accident losses. This lecture mainly introduces the commonly used methods of geological forecast in tunnel construction, the design principles, and contents of geological forecast and combines typical cases to show the implementation process of comprehensive geological forecast. Finally, the development direction of geological forecast theory, method, and technology is carried out. Prospects provide a useful reference for promoting the development of geological forecast of tunnels

Rapid detection of porcine circovirus type 2 using a TaqMan-based real-time PCR

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) and the associated disease postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) have caused heavy losses in global agriculture in recent decades. Rapid detection of PCV2 is very important for the effective prophylaxis and treatment of PMWS. To establish a sensitive, specific assay for the detection and quantitation of PCV2, we designed and synthesized specific primers and a probe in the open reading frame 2. The assay had a wide dynamic range with excellent linearity and reliable reproducibility, and detected between 102 and 1010 copies of the genomic DNA per reaction. The coefficient of variation for Ct values varied from 0.59% to 1.05% in the same assay and from 1.9% to 4.2% in 10 different assays. The assay did not cross-react with porcine circovirus type 1, porcine reproductive and respiratory, porcine epidemic diarrhea, transmissible gastroenteritis of pigs and rotavirus. The limits of detection and quantitation were 10 and 100 copies, respectively. Using the established real-time PCR system, 39 of the 40 samples we tested were detected as positive

Energy loss enhancement of very intense proton beams in dense matter due to the beam-density effect

Thoroughly understanding the transport and energy loss of intense ion beams in dense matter is essential for high-energy-density physics and inertial confinement fusion. Here, we report a stopping power experiment with a high-intensity laser-driven proton beam in cold, dense matter. The measured energy loss is one order of magnitude higher than the expectation of individual particle stopping models. We attribute this finding to the proximity of beam ions to each other, which is usually insignificant for relatively-low-current beams from classical accelerators. The ionization of the cold target by the intense ion beam is important for the stopping power calculation and has been considered using proper ionization cross section data. Final theoretical values agree well with the experimental results. Additionally, we extend the stopping power calculation for intense ion beams to plasma scenario based on Ohm's law. Both the proximity- and the Ohmic effect can enhance the energy loss of intense beams in dense matter, which are also summarized as the beam-density effect. This finding is useful for the stopping power estimation of intense beams and significant to fast ignition fusion driven by intense ion beams