Manufacturer Rebate Competition in a Supply Chain with a Common Retailer

We consider manufacturer rebate competition in a supply chain with two competing manufacturers selling to a common retailer. We fully characterize the manufacturers’ equilibrium rebate decisions and show how they depend on parameters such as the fixed cost of a rebate program, market size, the redemption rate of rebate, the proportion of rebate‐sensitive consumers in the market and competition intensity. Interestingly, more intense competition induces a manufacturer to lower rebate value or stop offering rebate entirely. Without rebate, it is known that more intense competition hurts the manufacturers and benefits the retailer. With rebate, however, more intense competition could benefit the manufacturers and hurt the retailer. We find similar counterintuitive results when there is a change in some other parameters. We also consider the case when the retailer subsidizes the manufacturers sequentially to offer rebate programs. We fully characterize the retailer's optimal subsidy strategy, and show that subsidy always benefits the retailer but may benefit or hurt the manufacturers. When the retailer wants to induce both manufacturers to offer rebate, he always prefers to subsidize the manufacturer with a higher fixed cost first. Sometimes the other manufacturer will then voluntarily offer rebate even without subsidy.     

论回族族源传说的基本结构

用结构主义人类学方法,比较六个回族族源的传说叙事结构,来探究回族文化的深层结构是一种尝试。多数文本的叙事结构一致性,沿着“唐王梦见回回(梦)———大臣圆梦,邀请回回(圆梦)———回回来华,辅助唐朝(请求贤士)———回回想家,唐王给他们娶亲,以求定居(人种和文化的交流)”的顺序来表述。在对不同传说对文化元素组合关系运用的共同性的讨论中,多个文本均是以回回/汉人、伊斯兰教/多神信仰、通婚/不通婚等三对基本的二元对立的关系组合来叙事,这正是回族日常生活中起主导作用的深层结构。     

香港患者安全管理模式文化的启示与思考

近年来,由于医院管理理念的进步和患者自主意识的增强,患者安全问题已经引起世界卫生组织及众多国家医务界的高度关注.世界卫生组织（WHO）多次呼吁各成员国密切关注患者安全,提出全球共同努力,开展保证患者安全的行动.文章简要介绍了香港医院管理局近年来大力推行的建立患者安全文化“五步曲”,即首先不要造成伤害、两大支柱、三个层面协同推进素质改善、四种安全文化、5×5风险列表,同时就内地与香港在患者安全管理模式上的差异,以及内地在患者安全文化推行过程中的相关问题进行了简要讨论.     

Women's maternity care needs and related service models in rural areas: A comprehensive systematic review of qualitative evidence

BackgroundUnderstanding the needs of rural women in maternity care and service models available to them is significant for the development of effective policies and the sustainability of rural communities. Nevertheless, no systematic review of studies addressing these needs has been conducted.ObjectivesTo synthesise the best available evidence on the experiences of women's needs in maternity care and existing service models in rural areas.MethodsLiterature search of ten electronic databases, digital theses, and reference lists of relevant studies applying inclusion/exclusion criteria was conducted. Selected papers were assessed using standardised critical appraisal instruments from JBI-QARI. Data extracted from these studies were synthesised using thematic synthesis.Findings12 studies met the inclusion criteria. There were three main themes and several sub-themes identified. A comprehensive set of the maternity care expectations of rural women was reported in this review including safety (7), continuity of care (6) and quality of care (6), and informed choices needs (4). In addition, challenges in accessing maternity services also emerged from the literature such as access (6), risk of travelling (9) and associated cost of travel (9). Four models of maternity care examined in the literature were medically led care (5), GP-led care (4), midwifery-led care (7) and home birth (6).ConclusionThe systematic review demonstrates the importance of including well-conducted qualitative studies in informing the development of evidence-based policies to address women's maternity care needs and inform service models. Synthesising the findings from qualitative studies offers important insight for informing effective public health policy.     

中国民族学人类学本土化、国际化的困境与方向

本土化与国际化是中国民族学人类学学科建设中始终无法回避的一个议题，在不同历史时期，中国民族学人类学家对于本土化和国际化都曾有过热烈的探讨。本文在解读不同时期中国民族学人类学本土化和国际化主张的基础上，分析了中国民族学人类学本土化和国际化的学科内外的困境，强调了中国民族学人类学学科建设的局限主要归因于对学科本体缺乏应有的共识。鉴于中国民族学人类学的本土化和国际化从来就是东西方文化交流的产物，我们认为要实现彻底的本土化和国际化，必然依赖真正意义上的、充分的、平等的文化交流。     

Impact of Widowhood on Parent–Child Relations: Does Parents' Personality Matter?

The authors evaluated the extent to which the short‐term effect of late life widowhood on parent–child relationships is moderated by 5 personality traits—Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Openness to Experience—and how these interactive effects differ by gender. Data were from the Changing Lives of Older Couples Study (N = 1,532). The results indicated that the effects of widowhood on positive and negative interactions with children were significantly moderated by Agreeableness, Extraversion, and Openness to Experience. An agreeable personality helped widowed persons receive more positive interactions, whereas Openness to Experience reduced negative interactions. Widowed persons with higher Extraversion reported more negative interactions. Furthermore, moderating effects of Extraversion and Openness to Experience differed by gender; specifically, higher Extraversion scores predicted increased positive interactions with children for widowed women but decreased positive interactions for widowed men. The significant association between Openness to Experience and decreased negative interactions with children was more apparent among men than among women.     

Challenges to Bridging Field and Classroom Instruction: Exploring Field Instructors’ Perspectives on Macro Practice

Field education and macro practice have been highlighted as central educational domains in social work education; however, little scholarship has looked at how macro social work practice competencies have been integrated into field-based learning. This exploratory study aimed to gain perspectives from field instructors regarding macro social work and the integration of macro practice into their work with practicum students. Consistent with scholarship that has elucidated the impacts of neoliberalism on social work, including the marginalization of macro practice, emergent themes demonstrated that field instructors face barriers to incorporating macro work into their training of students. Challenges include prevalence of the medical model, time constraints, and funding limitations. Further, field instructors observed gaps among students, their university, and their organizational setting in regard to expectations for integrating macro practice into field education. Recommendations and directions for future research are discussed.     

Double sampling max chart

This study proposes a double sampling (DS) Max chart for monitoring shifts in the process mean and standard deviation. The design of the DS Max chart depends on five parameters, i.e. first and second sample sizes, warning limit at Stage 1, upper control limits at Stages 1 and 2. The optimization design of the DS Max chart is conducted using a genetic algorithm by minimizing the average run length. The comparison shows that the DS Max chart performs better than the existing charts in the literature. An example is provided to illustrate the application of the DS Max chart.     

Isotonic estimation of survival under a misattribution of cause of death

Several authors have indicated that incorrectly classified cause of death for prostate cancer survivors may have played a role in the observed recent peak and decline of prostate cancer mortality. Motivated by the suggestion we studied a competing risks model where other cause of death may be misattributed as a death of interest. We first consider a na?ve approach using unconstrained nonparametric maximum likelihood estimation (NPMLE), and then present the constrained NPMLE where the survival function is forced to be monotonic. Surprising observations were made as we studied their small-sample and asymptotic properties in continuous and discrete situations. Contrary to the common belief that the non-monotonicity of a survival function NPMLE is a small-sample problem, the constrained NPMLE is asymptotically biased in the continuous setting. Other isotonic approaches, the supremum (SUP) method and the Pooled-Adjacent-Violators (PAV) algorithm, and the EM algorithm are also considered. We found that the EM algorithm is equivalent to the constrained NPMLE. Both SUP method and PAV algorithm deliver consistent and asymptotically unbiased estimator. All methods behave well asymptotically in the discrete time setting. Data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database are used to illustrate the proposed estimators.     

对德育首位的几点阐释

正确理解"德育首位”的涵义,必须充分考虑现代社会和人的发展两方面需要,各育的功能和相互关系以及道德、德育自身的价值功能."德育首位”是对学校教育中其它各育的基本动因的明示;是对社会转型期的首位价值取向的导引和认定;是对受教育者道德教育超越性本质的揭示;是对道德主体自我意识的弘扬.