NATO BENEFITS,BURDENS AND BORDERS: COMMENT

This note refutes criticism raised by Solomon about past tests used to ascertain the concordance between NATO benefits and burdens. In so doing, a case is made for keeping the benefit proxy based on exposed borders. Moreover, a truer sensitivity analysis than that offered by Solomon is suggested.     

Joint pricing,assortment, and inventory decisions for a retailer's product line

Consider a set of product variants that are differentiated by some secondary attributes such as flavor, color, or size. The retailer's problem is to jointly determine the set of variants to include in her product line (“assortment”), together with their prices and inventory levels, so as to maximize her expected profit. We model the consumer choice process using a multinomial logit choice model and consider a newsvendor type inventory setting. We derive the structure of the optimal assortment for some important special cases, including the case of horizontally differentiated items, and propose a dominance relationship for the general case that simplifies the search for an optimal assortment. We also discuss structural properties of the optimal prices. Finally, motivated by our analytical results, we propose a heuristic solution procedure, which is shown to be quite effective through a numerical study. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007     

Estimating distribution functions from partially observed samples

Suppose that some components are initially operated in a certain condition and then switched to operating in a different condition. Working hours of the components in condition 1 and condition 2 are respectively observed. Of interest is the lifetime distribution F of the component in the second condition only, i.e., the distribution without the prior exposure to the first condition. In this paper, we propose a method to transform the lifetime obtained in condition 1 to an equivalent lifetime in condition 2 and then use the transformed data to estimate F. Both parametric and nonparametric approaches each with complete and censored data are discussed. Numerical studies are presented to investigate the performance of the method. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 47: 521–530, 2000     

Spatial pricing and product allocation in online retailing

Spatial pricing means a retailer price discriminates its customers based on their geographic locations. In this article, we study how an online retailer should jointly allocate multiple products and facilitate spatial price discrimination to maximize profits. When deciding between a centralized product allocation ((i.e., different products are allocated to the same fulfillment center) and decentralized product allocation (ie, different products are allocated to different fulfillment centers), the retailer faces the tradeoff between shipment pooling (ie, shipping multiple products in one package), and demand localization (ie, stocking products to satisfy local demand) based on its understanding of customers' product valuations. In our basic model, we consider two widely used spatial pricing policies: free on board (FOB) pricing that charges each customer the exact amount of shipping cost, and uniform delivered (UD) pricing that provides free shipping. We propose a stylized model and find that centralized product allocation is preferred when demand localization effect is relatively low or shipment pooling benefit is relatively high under both spatial pricing policies. Moreover, centralized product allocation is more preferred under the FOB pricing which encourages the purchase of virtual bundles of multiple products. Furthermore, we respectively extend the UD and FOB pricing policies to flat rate shipping (ie, the firm charges a constant shipping fee for each purchase), and linear rate shipping (ie, the firm sets the shipping fee as a fixed proportion of firm's actual fulfillment costs). While similar observations from the basic model still hold, we find the firm can improve its profit by sharing the fulfillment cost with its customers via the flat rate or linear rate shipping fee structure.     

Pricing and capacity allocation strategies: Implications for manufacturers with product sharing

Emerging sharing modes, like the consumer-to-consumer (C2C) sharing of Uber and the business-to-consumer (B2C) sharing of GoFun, have considerably affected the retailing markets of traditional manufacturers, who are motivated to consider product sharing when making pricing and capacity decisions, particularly electric car manufacturers with limited capacity. In this paper, we examine the equilibrium pricing for a capacity-constrained manufacturer under various sharing modes and further analyze the impact of capacity constraint on the manufacturer's sharing mode selection as well as equilibrium outcomes. We find that manufacturers with low-cost products prefer B2C sharing while those with high-cost products prefer C2C sharing except when the sharing price is moderate. However, limited capacity motivates manufacturers to enter into the B2C sharing under a relatively low sharing price, and raise the total usage level by sharing high-cost products. We also show that the equilibrium capacity allocated to the sharing market with low-cost products first increases and then decreases. Finally, we find that sharing low-cost products with a high limited capacity leads to a lower retail price under B2C sharing, which creates a win-win situation for both the manufacturer and consumers. However, sharing high-cost products with a low limited capacity creates a win-lose situation for them.     

高阶BOC信号多区域鉴别器的无模糊多径抑制算法

传统的高阶BOC信号多径抑制算法的有效收敛区间较小,不利于信号的稳定跟踪,因此提出一种多区域鉴别器的高阶BOC多径抑制算法。在伪码误差为零的附近区域,采用优化的QStrobe多径抑制鉴别器,而在其他区域采用收敛区间较大的正交BOC鉴别器。利用卡尔曼滤波器对跟踪误差进行开环估计,判断误差所处区域并进行鉴别器的实时切换。对BOC(15,2.5)和BOC(14,2)信号的仿真结果表明,该算法能够实现无模糊跟踪,且6 d B衰减多径误差包络面积比传统QStrobe算法分别改善了57%和51%。     

基于AT89C51和DS18B20温度的测量系统的实现

本系统为以AT89C51单片机作为主控芯片的温度测量系统,采用一线温度传感器DS18820实现温度的检测,结合128×64点阵式液晶显示模块OCM12864作为显示器,形象直观地显示测得的温度值。主要介绍了该系统的硬件结构和软件编程实现的方法,数字温度传感器DS18820的基本特性,阐述了DDRAM寻址与液晶点阵的对应关系及中文字符、中文菜单在液晶模块上的显示规则。