Searching for Innovative Design: Architectural Competitions in the Silvering Swedish Welfare State

The new millennium has seen an increased interest in appropriate housing for the senior part of the Swedish population, defined as those aged 65 years and older. In 2010, the Swedish government launched a 2-year program called “Growing Old, Living Well” that targeted the living conditions of not only older people with few or some needs for homecare services, but also the smaller group of dependent and frail older persons whose everyday living depends upon regular caregiving. The program promoted architectural competitions as a tool for innovation. This article assesses the outcome of 3 architectural competitions that were carried out by 3 municipalities in accordance with the program. It concludes that existing notions about appropriate space for aging populations prevailed, since the competition briefs evolved from existing data and consequently allowed for only a low degree of innovative thinking. Hence, the relationship between architectural design and older people's age-related needs was only addressed indirectly. Further work needs to be done in the area of housing for the Swedish silvering welfare state in order for this factor to become an essential criterion for creating innovative architecture and urban design.     

“帝诺雷斯”品牌的盈利模式与企业文化塑造

"帝诺雷斯"是一家著名的品牌上市公司,在激烈的市场竞争中,采用有效的盈利模式,开展品牌营销工作,取得了良好的业绩。"帝诺雷斯"还能够彰显现代企业理念和创业精神,特别注重企业品牌文化的塑造,在企业的发展过程中逐渐利用企业的品牌文化来提升品牌价值,并让品牌文化成为保持竞争优势的动力源泉。     

Supplier Capacity and Intermediary Profits: Can Less Be More?

We identify market conditions under which intermediaries can thrive in retailer‐driven supply chains. Our main finding is that, as a consequence of the retailers’ leadership position, intermediaries prefer products for which the supply base (existing production capacity) is neither too narrow nor too broad; that is, less existing capacity can result in more intermediary profit. We also show that our main finding is robust to (i) the presence of horizontal competition among retailers and intermediaries, (ii) the existence of exclusive suppliers, and (iii) the ability of the retailers to source directly from the suppliers. Nevertheless, we find that horizontal competition between intermediaries encourages them to carry products with relatively smaller production capacity, whereas exclusive suppliers and direct sourcing encourage intermediaries to carry products with relatively larger installed capacity.     

Quality‐Speed Competition in Customer‐Intensive Services with Boundedly Rational Customers

We consider a system in which two competing servers provide customer‐intensive services and the service reward is affected by the length of service time. The customers are boundedly rational and choose their service providers according to a logit model. We demonstrate that the service provider revenue function is unimodal in the service rate, its decision variable, and show that the service rate competition has a unique and stable equilibrium. We then study the price decision under three scenarios with the price determined by a revenue‐maximizing firm, a welfare‐maximizing social planner, or two servers in competition. We find that the socially optimal price, subject to the requirement that the customer actual utility must be non‐negative, is always lower than the competition equilibrium price which, in turn, is lower than the revenue‐maximizing monopoly price. However, if the customer actual utility is allowed to be negative in social optimization, the socially optimal price can be higher than the other two prices in a large market.     

Aggregating Smallholder Farmers in Emerging Economies

The agricultural sector plays an important role in emerging economies even though most farmers are trapped in the poverty cycle owing to their smallholdings. Aggregating farmers through formal or informal cooperatives (coops) can enable them to: (i) reduce production cost; (ii) increase/stabilize process yield; (iii) increase brand awareness; (iv) eliminate unnecessary intermediaries; and (v) eliminate price uncertainty. To examine whether these effects will benefit the members of such aggregation when they compete with other individual farmers, we present separate models to capture the essence of these five effects. For each effect, we find that it is beneficial for a farmer to be part of the aggregation only when the size of the aggregation is below a certain threshold. Also, while certain effects are beneficial to the market as a whole, other effects are hurtful due to higher market price and/or lower production quantity.     

Investing in a Shared Supplier in a Competitive Market: Stochastic Capacity Case

When firms invest in a shared supplier, one key concern is whether the invested capacity will be used for a competitor. In practice, this concern is addressed by restricting the use of the capacity. We consider what happens when two competing firms invest in a shared supplier. We consider two scenarios that differ in how capacity is used: exclusive capacity and first‐priority capacity. We model firms' investment and production decisions, and analyze the equilibrium outcomes in terms of the number of investing firms and capacity levels for each scenario; realized capacity is a stochastic function of investment levels. We also identify conditions under which the spillover effect occurs, where one firm taps into the other firm's invested capacity. Although the spillover supposedly intensifies competition, it actually discourages firms' investment. We also characterize the firms' and supplier's preference about the capacity type. While the non‐investing firm always prefers spillovers from the first‐priority capacity, the investing firm does not always want to shut off the other firm's access to its leftover capacity, especially when allowing spillover induces the other firm not to invest. The supplier's preference depends on the trade‐off between over‐investment and flexibility.     

论20世纪20年代的英美海上争霸

一战结束后,英美围绕海军军备展开了激烈的争霸:华盛顿会议签订五国海军条约,使两国在主力舰吨位数上达到平等。日内瓦会议上英美之间又重开巡洋舰、驱逐舰和潜艇等非主力舰的军备竞争,但最终没能达成协议。由于政治、经济、民众舆论等方面的原因,两国海军军备矛盾终于在1930年伦敦会议上得以解决。     

Assessing Interventions to Reduce the Risk of Campylobacter Prevalence in Broilers

As part of a comprehensive risk assessment on the Campylobacter prevalence in the chicken production chain (from young born chicken till chicken fillet) in the Netherlands, we formulated a quantitative model on the transmission dynamics of Campylobacter at Dutch broiler farms. This model is used to quantify the risk of Campylobacter prevalence in broilers at the time that flocks leave the farm for processing. To this end, we assumed that the Campylobacter prevalence is primarily determined by two parameters, that is, the within- and between-flock transmission. The within-flock transmission was assessed fitting experimental data to a logistic growth model and the between-flock transmission was assessed fitting field data to a generalized linear model (GLM), which included three possible infection routes: (1) via an infected flock in the previous cycle, (2) via other infected flocks present on the farm, and (3) from other sources. This model was applied to assess the efficacy of three control scenarios; (1) a ban on other livestock on broiler farms, (2) a ban on thinning, and (3) a reduction of the between-flock transmission. In contrast to the other scenarios, the third one was shown to be most effective. Theoretically, this is accomplished by improved biosecurity. However, the impact of improved biosecurity cannot be specified into specific control measures, and therefore it is not clear what investments are needed. Finally, we also assessed the efficacy of scheduled treatment, that is, fresh meat production solely from test-negative flocks. We found that the reliability of negative test results, which is crucial, strongly depends on the length of time between testing and slaughter. The sensitivity and specificity of the test appeared to be of minor importance.     

中国饲料企业存在的问题及其对策

21世纪的中国的饲料企业真正进入了激烈竞争的微利时代。这意味着饲料市场总供给相对过剩，利润空间急剧缩小，市场和顾客需求愈发多样性，买方市场形成众多的饲料企业在竞争中优胜劣汰，优化组合，逐步完成整合。研究当前饲料企业存在的问题，提出中国饲料企业未来的发展思路，有一定的现实意义。     

ACM／ICPC的教学与实践

文章概述了ACM／ICPC的形式和规则，分析了其发展趋势，以及ICPC所需要的数学基础和计算机专业知识，探讨了ICPC的课程设置、教学内容和教学方法及教学形式，最后阐述了合肥工业大学ICPC十年来的参赛经验。