Dynamic Pricing to Minimize Maximum Regret

We consider a dynamic pricing problem that involves selling a given inventory of a single product over a short, two‐period selling season. There is insufficient time to replenish inventory during this season, hence sales are made entirely from inventory. The demand for the product is a stochastic, nonincreasing function of price. We assume interval uncertainty for demand, that is, knowledge of upper and lower bounds but not a probability distribution, with no correlation between the two periods. We minimize the maximum total regret over the two periods that results from the pricing decisions. We consider a dynamic model where the decision maker chooses the price for each period contingent on the remaining inventory at the beginning of the period, and a static model where the decision maker chooses the prices for both periods at the beginning of the first period. Both models can be solved by a polynomial time algorithm that solves systems of linear inequalities. Our computational study demonstrates that the prices generated by both our models are insensitive to errors in estimating the demand intervals. Our dynamic model outperforms our static model and two classical approaches that do not use demand probability distributions, when evaluated by maximum regret, average relative regret, variability, and risk measures. Further, our dynamic model generates a total expected revenue which closely approximates that of a maximum expected revenue approach which requires demand probability distributions.     

Estimating the prevalence of adolescent gambling disorders: A quantitative synthesis and guide toward standard gambling nomenclature

This article reviews the extant published and unpublished studies that estimate the prevalence of adolescent gambling problems in North America. The nine nonduplicative studies identified by our literature search included data collected from more than 7700 adolescents from five different regions of the United States and Canada. In addition to comparing the conceptual and methodological differences that exist among these studies, this article employed a meta-analytic strategy to synthesize prevalence estimates from the existing studies. This analysis revealed that within a 95 percent confidence interval, between 9.9% and 14.2% of adolescents are at risk of developing or returning to serious gambling problems. Similarly, between 4.4% and 7.4% of adolescents exhibit seriously adverse compulsive or pathological patterns of gambling activity. Finally, the discussion proposes a generic multi-level classification scheme to reconcile the divergent classification methods and data reporting strategies. This new multi-level approach to reporting gambling prevalence will facilitate interstudy comparisons among existing estimates of gambling prevalence and help to provide a general data reporting system for future research.     

如何发明

深圳长期以来被称作是全球制造业中心,而且它已经得到了联合国教科文组织"设计之都"的称号,我想深圳的下一个目标就是建立一个"创新之都".不知道我是否有资格在这里建议深圳这样一个大城市怎样更具创意,如果要我提建议的话,我会让大家考虑一些边界模糊的设计,把一些不寻常的东西结合起来,尽量保持多学科的融合,因为创新来自予内部.     

Clinical Sociology in Service Learning

Experiences in teaching internship courses illustrate some of the advantages of teaching sociological practice through community service. For example, a course requirement to spend 9 hours of each week of a semester in an advocacy group provides a richer variety of opportunities for students to learn about themselves, society, sociological theory, and research methodologies than is possible in conventional lecture–discussion classes. Furthermore, becoming participants in sociological interventions heightens students' awareness of related ethical concerns, as well as of the complexity of social problems, and of how to define viable individual and collective solutions.     

The Unfolding Story of the Second Demographic Transition

This article presents a narrative of the unfolding of the Second Demographic Transition (SDT) since the theory was first formulated in 1986. The first part recapitulates the foundations of the theory, and documents the spread of the SDT to the point that it now covers most European populations. Also for Europe, it focuses on the relationship between the SDT and the growing heterogeneity in period fertility levels. It is shown that the current positive relationship between SDT and TFR levels is not a violation of the SDT theory, but the outcome of a “split correlation” with different sub‐narratives concerning the onset of fertility postponement and the degree of subsequent recuperation in two parts of Europe. The second part of the article addresses the issue of whether the SDT has spread or is currently spreading in industrialized Asian countries. Evidence gathered for Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan is presented. That evidence pertains to both the macro‐level (national trends in postponement of marriage and parenthood, rise of cohabitation) and the micro‐level (connections between individual values orientations and postponement of parenthood). Strong similarities are found with SDT patterns in Southern Europe, except for the fact that parenthood is still very rare among Asian cohabiting partners.     

Experiences of Families Inquiring About Donating or Adopting Embryos: Results of an Online Survey

Four hundred thirty-four individuals who had previously inquired with the National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC) or Nightlight Christian Adoptions about donating or adopting embryos responded to an online survey regarding which issues had been raised with them during their inquiry and how well they perceived NEDC and/or Nightlight had answered their questions regarding those issues. In general, respondents perceived that the operational issues surrounding donating or adopting embryos received more attention than the longer-term issues involving family dynamics and relationships. Overall, the inquirers were pleased with the responses to their questions (average >8 on a satisfaction scale of 1–10).     

The Development of Intergroup Forgiveness in Northern Ireland

As societies like Northern Ireland, Israel, and South Africa strive to resolve social conflict, there is growing theoretical and empirical interest in the role of intergroup forgiveness. This study examined intergroup forgiveness among 340 young adults in Northern Ireland. A short form of the Enright Forgiveness Inventory explored possible influences on propensity to forgive. All participants were Catholic and female (mean age 17.36 years), and had experienced verbal or physical injury or bereavement due to the Northern Irish political violence. Overall forgiveness levels were low in comparison with previous studies of interpersonal forgiveness but similar to previous studies of intergroup forgiveness in Northern Ireland. The strongest (negative) predictor of forgiveness was the perceived degree of hurt caused by the injury .     

Transnational social movement organisations in the global political arena

The post-Cold War period has been a time of rapid change in the international system. One major shift is a dramatic increase in the demands placed upon the United Nations. This increased reliance on the UN suggests that there may be a shift in opportunities for this and other international institutions to have a greater effect on the dynamics of global politics than was possible under the bi-polar system of the past. What are the implications of these changes for nongovernmental actors in the global system? We focus on a subset of international non-governmental organisations called transnational social movement organisations (TSMOs), and begin to document their forms and activities in the global arena. In what ways are TSMOs similar to or different from national social movement organisations, and how do TSMOs organise to engage in transnational political efforts? How do TSMOs interact with international institutions? Our analysis consists of detailed, systematic comparisons among seven TSMOs in the human rights, environmental, peace and development issue arenas, including: Amnesty International, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, International Fellowship of Reconciliation, Oxfam, Peace Brigades International and War Resisters International. We examine five dimensions of variation: founding and mission; leadership structure; membership; resources; and tactics. This work builds on the earlier work of Dennis Young (1992) and helps to inform future research in this area.