I is common for a retailer to sell products from competing manufacturers. How then should the firms manage their contract negotiations? The supply chain coordination literature focuses either on a single manufacturer selling to a single retailer or one manufacturer selling to many (possibly competing) retailers. We find that some key conclusions from those market structures do not apply in our ...

In this paper, we identify an error in the proof of Theorem 1 in the paper Xia, L., Zhao, Q., and Jia, Q.S., “A Structure Property of Optimal Policies for Maintenance Problems with Safety-Critical Components”, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, 2008, 5(3): 519-531. Theorem 1 is the most important contribution of the above paper, which shows the optimality of the so-called ...

conclusions baseline characteristics can inform who is at higher risk of renal disease mortality over the next 25 years. race, age, drinking, smoking, hypertension, and diabetes at baseline can all inform programs to reduce burden of kidney disease. results in multivariable model, race, age, drinking, smoking, hypertension, and diabetes at baseline predicted deaths due to renal disease. gender,...

This paper presents the results of a literature search for publications containing failure rates and repair times, based on operational experience, for distribution system components that are critical to the reliability of a distribution system. Furthermore, component failure rates found are compared with the conclusions drawn from a previously conducted literature search.

A 13-year-old girl presented with a history of not being well during the past six months. The ultrasound examination showed an epigastric mass, which was diagnosed as a bezoar within the stomach in upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. The patient was managed by operative evacuation. It was interesting that such a large bezoar did not cause any significant obstruction for the patient.

schizophrenia is one of the most severe psychiatric disorders and 25% of the patients need long term hospitalization. they have somatic illness that may be ignored and lead to death. considering the lack of information regarding the causes of death in schizophrenic patients, the aim of this study was to determine the main causes of death in the long term hospitalized schizophrenic patients in s...

one of the most important issues concerned with causation is that of ultimate cause. the ultimate in philosophy is used in two senses; one means: “something to which movement is directed”; the other means: “something for which movement takes place.” there are three theories with regand to “what is ultimate cause?” 1. the external existence of the ultimate of act; 2. the conception of the ultima...

gypsum found in the soil beneath the foundation of structures, specially hydraulic structures, can cause serious damage to them. the mechanical behavior of gypsiferous soils has not so far been investigated in detail except for the works of petrukhin (1993). here, it has been tried to investigate the mechanical behavior and the effect of soil being leached on settlement and strength of these ki...