In modern transportation systems, the potential for further decreasing the costs of ful lling customer requests is severely limited while market competition is constantly reducing revenues. However, increased competitiveness through cost reductions can be achieved if freight carriers cooperate in order to balance their request portfolios. Participation in such coalitions can bene t the entire c...

The paper presents a model for the collaboration among independent freight forwarding entities. In the modern highly competitive transportation branch freight forwarders reduce their fulfillment costs by exploiting different execution modes (self-fulfillment and subcontraction). For self-fulfillment they use their own vehicles to execute the requests and for subcontracting they forward the orde...

In a dynamic environment, it is quite reasonable to implement functions as a set of rules into an agent to react to unexpected situations, because it is very difficult to have a correct model of the environment. This paper describes a reinforcement studying method to acquire the rules, each of which consists of state and action pair, for coordinating execution of the multiple cranes in a coil-y...

A groundbreaking agreement has been signed granting the San people (formerly called the Bushmen) a share of profits from a potential obesity-reducing drug extracted from the hoodia cactus. The deal is one of the first to give holders of traditional knowledge a share of royalties from drug sales. For thousands of years the San, one of the oldest peoples in Southern Africa, have eaten slices of t...

(Please do not quote without permission) 7 th ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON REAL OPTIONS of Economics are duly noted and appreciated. ABSTRACT A common theme in the studies of flexible supply contracts has been the producer's profit maximization problem without regard for the suppliers' reactions to the producer's operating policies. However, suppliers do react and protect their downside a...

We investigate the interaction between labour and credit market imperfections for equ ilibrium unemployment in the presence of profit sharing. Our analysis highlights the critical role of the outside option available of employees for the evaluation of the employment implications of intensified credit market competition. In a partial equilibrium with exogenous outside options increased bargainin...

強化学習 (reinforcement learning) [1] とは, 報酬 (reward) という特別な入力を手掛かりとして環境 に適応する教師無し機械学習の一種である. 強化学習 の目的は, できるだけ多くの報酬をできるだけ早く獲 得することである. 最終的に多くの報酬を得るために 最適性を重視した接近を環境同定型と呼び, 学習途中 でも報酬を得る効率性を重視した接近を, 経験強化型 と呼んでいる [2].宮崎ら [3]は,報酬獲得と環境同定の トレードオフを考慮し,報酬獲得器と環境同定器を切 り替える強化学習システムを提案した.また片山ら [4] は,最適化ではなく満足化,つまり一定の水準を達成す ることを最終目的とする学習システムを提案した. 多くの強化学習とその理論的な解析は, 環境をマル コフ決定過程 (Markov Decision Processes : MDP...

This article examines the development of profitor revenue-sharing contracts in the motion picture industry. Contrary to much popular belief, such contracts have been in use since the start of the studio era. However, early contracts differed from those seen today. The evolution of the current contract is traced, and evidence regarding the increased use of sharing contracts after 1948 is examine...