Supply Chain Management of Fresh Products with Producer Transportation*

This article considers a class of fresh‐product supply chains in which products need to be transported by the upstream producer from a production base to a distant retail market. Due to high perishablility a portion of the products being shipped may decay during transportation, and therefore, become unsaleable. We consider a supply chain consisting of a single producer and a single distributor, and investigate two commonly adopted business models: (i) In the “pull” model, the distributor places an order, then the producer determines the shipping quantity, taking into account potential product decay during transportation, and transports the products to the destination market of the distributor; (ii) In the “push” model, the producer ships a batch of products to a distant wholesale market, and then the distributor purchases and resells to end customers. By considering a price‐sensitive end‐customer demand, we investigate the optimal decisions for supply chain members, including order quantity, shipping quantity, and retail price. Our research shows that both the producer and distributor (and thus the supply chain) will perform better if the pull model is adopted. To improve the supply chain performance, we propose a fixed inventory‐plus factor (FIPF) strategy, in which the producer announces a pre‐determined inventory‐plus factor and the distributor compensates the producer for any surplus inventory that would otherwise be wasted. We show that this strategy is a Pareto improvement over the pull and push models for both parties. Finally, numerical experiments are conducted, which reveal some interesting managerial insights on the comparison between different business models.     

Environmental Migration and Sustainable Development in the Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River

This paper explores the demographic impacts of the implementation of the Grand Development in West China policies and environmental rehabilitation projects in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. It analyses the interaction between the environmental reconstruction and environment-related migration in this region. The intertwined nature of environmental, ethnic, and poverty problems not only bears negatively upon the alleviation of poverty conducing to the accruement of wealth of the poverty-stricken population, but also hinders the rehabilitation of the environment. It brings forth some opinions regarding improving the capacity of regional sustainable development through environmental migration.     

论中国计划生育事业对全面建设小康社会的历史贡献

20世纪70年代以来,中国的计划生育工作取得了巨大成就,对全面建设小康社会做出了不可磨灭的历史贡献:实现了低生育水平,提高了社会生产力;改善了人民生活,创造了社会稳定力;保护了资源、环境,增强了发展的持续力;建设了新型生育文化,培育了先进的文化力。     

Point‐of‐Use Hybrid Inventory Policy for Hospitals

Modern point‐of‐use technology at hospitals has enabled new replenishment policies for medical supplies. One of these new policies, which we call the hybrid policy, is currently in use at a large U.S. Midwest hospital. The hybrid policy combines a low‐cost periodic replenishment epoch with a high‐cost continuous replenishment option to avoid costly stockouts. We study this new hybrid policy under deterministic and stochastic demand. We develop a parameter search engine using simulation to optimize the long‐run average cost per unit time and, via a computational study, we provide insights on the benefits (reduction in cost, inventory, and number of replenishments) that hospitals may obtain by using the hybrid policy instead of the commonly used periodic policies. We also use the optimal hybrid policy parameters from the deterministic analysis to propose approximate expressions for the stochastic hybrid policy parameters that can be easily used by hospital management.      

Looking Inside Glitch Mitigation Capability: The Effect of Intraorganizational Communication Channels

Manufacturers can reduce the occurrence of glitches in their operations by building capabilities to prevent them, yet mitigation capabilities are also needed to contain the effects of the glitches that will still inevitably occur every now and then. We examine the glitch mitigation capability of a production process from an information‐processing perspective and propose that (i) the impact of operational glitches on delivery performance is contingent on the formalization of intrafirm communication channels and (ii) this effect is stronger when formal communication channels are complemented with informal channels. We test our model in a sample of 163 make‐to‐order production processes and find support for the first hypothesis and partial support for the second hypothesis. The statistical analyses also reveal nonhypothesized empirical regularities, which we explore through an additional qualitative study based on 34 site visits and 30 interviews with production planners. The results have practical implications for the design of intraorganizational communication channels, and they also contribute to the research on organizational resilience and communications by showing that when coping with disruptions, the formal communication channels have advantages that are seldom discussed in the literature or recognized by practitioners.     

人类命运共同体与“中韩命运共同体”:对韩国舆论的分析

相较欧美舆论,韩国舆论对人类命运共同体理念关注度较高,态度更为中立、积极。其关注动机有两点,一是对中国外交路线、中韩关系、国际新秩序探索、国际合作等议题的高度关切;二是对文在寅政府依循该理念提出的"中韩命运共同体"的关注。韩国舆论对人类命运共同体理念在促进地区和平与一体化、加强文化价值传播、增进人类健康福祉等方面抱有期待,亦在"中美争霸"、新"天下秩序"、民族主义等多维度存有疑虑。为扭转人类命运共同体理念对韩传播时呈现的抽象化、单向化倾向,中国应重视该理念与韩国重点关注议题与主流价值——如"东亚共同体"、多边主义、朝鲜半岛和平机制、环境卫生合作等的话语对接,在全球合作抗疫的背景下促进人类命运共同体理念的对外传播。     

《西游记》中女性人物的类型性

《西游记》是中国古典四大名著之一,其中吴承恩成功塑造了三种重要的女性类型,这些具有鲜明性格特征的女性形象使得小说更加独树一帜、光彩夺目。这里通过对书中神女、妖女和凡女三种类型的分析,以期为人们重新理解、欣赏女性之美和感悟时代精神提供有益的借鉴。     

论“断水、断电”作为行政强制执行方式的正当性

＂断水、断电＂是督促当事人履行义务的有效手段,能在当前水污染防治中发挥重要作用。对目前已有规范进行分析后发现,它对若干基本权利构成限制,与最小侵害原则不符。然最小侵害仅为比例原则组成部分,乃警察法时代控权理念的产物。时代背景变迁后,它已不再单独具有评判管制措施合法性的功能。＂断水、断电＂作为一种行政强制执行方式,至少在我国当前的水污染治理领域中具有正当性。     

论《红楼梦》中的柳意象

柳经常出现在我国古代抒情文学作品中,成为一种具有特定内涵和独特意蕴的文学意象。拟从柳意象的原型内涵入手,对《红楼梦》中柳意象的艺术表现进行梳理,试探讨其作为叙事文学对柳意象内涵的继承和深化。