Benefits of Hybrid Lateral Transshipments in Multi‐Item Inventory Systems under Periodic Replenishment

Lateral transshipments are a method of responding to shortages of stock in a network of inventory‐holding locations. Conventional reactive approaches only seek to meet immediate shortages. The study proposes hybrid transshipments which exploit economies of scale by moving additional stock between locations to prevent future shortages in addition to meeting immediate ones. The setting considered is motivated by retailers who operate networks of outlets supplying car parts via a system of periodic replenishment. It is novel in allowing non‐stationary stochastic demand and general patterns of dependence between multiple item types. The generality of our work makes it widely applicable. We develop an easy‐to‐compute quasi‐myopic heuristic for determining how hybrid transshipments should be made. We obtain simple characterizations of the heuristic and demonstrate its strong cost performance in both small and large networks in an extensive numerical study.     

Specialization and the Survival of Self‐Help Organizations

This article examines the survival rates of 589 self‐help organizations in order to understand how self‐help niches, organizations specializing in biomedical, human services, and behavioral health, differentially impact longevity. Drawing on a study of the self‐help movement, we examine how the various mechanisms by which specialization impacts self‐help movement organizations' chances of survival. Extending the concepts of embeddedness, countervailing powers, and organizational specialization to self‐help organizations, we investigate how formal structures and professional alliances differentially promote longevity. Results show how formalization enhances self‐help organizations' longevity, and serves as a mechanism by which specialization impacts organizational viability. While formalization has a robust and beneficial impact on longevity, some professional linkages are negatively associated with survival and others are positively associated with it.     

Do Status Differences among Workers Make a Difference during Economic Crises? The Case of Depression Hamilton*

Utilisant les données du recensement de 1931 ainsi que d'entrevues avec des retraités d'Hamilton, en Ontario, qui recevaient un salaire durant la Grande Dépression, l'auteur examine les affirmations selon lesquelles les crises économiques sapent ou renforcent, ou n'affectent pas nécessairement la hiérarchie traditionnelle. Cela parce que, respectivement, elles substituent des ouvriers moins qualifiés, à meilleur marché aux autres ouvriers, elles privilégient les travailleurs hautement qualifiés ou elles affectent différemment les industries et occupations parmi lesquelles les ouvriers de différentes conditions sociales sont ségrégués. Le plus notable est qu'aucun résultat n'était marqué ni consistant en ce qui concerne les situations professionnelles, lâge, le sexe et l'ethnie sur tout type de privation. Cependant, certains types de privation montraient certaines différences de rangs. Donc, lorsque la profession était contrôlée dans les données du recensement, le modéle le plus commun était que les femmes travaillaient plus que les hommes, seulement lorsqu'en fait elles gagnaient moins. Cela suggère la «substitution» du travail à bon marché des femmes à celui des hommes et, en conséquence, l'ébranlement des privilèges de ces derniers. Par contre, selon les données tirées des entrevues, plus on était jeune et plus on attendait pour obtenir un travail rémunéréà temps plein, plus il était difficile d'en trouver, et plus le salaire était bas. Cela suggère que des privilèges associés avec lâge étaient renforcés durant la Dépression. Néanmoins, il y avait aussi ségrégation industrielle et occupationnelle, selon lâge, l'ethnie et le sexe, ce qui peut expliquer en partie pourquoi la plupart des différences de rangs sociaux n'étaient ni sapées ni renforcées. L'auteur a aussi trouvé peu de différences de rangs sociaux dans les réactions des ouvriers à la crise et, par conséquent, peu d'évidences quant au processus d'homogénéisation/radicalisation de la gauche associé avec l'hypothèse de la première affirmation ou à la diffé-renciation/conservatisme des ouvriers hautement qualifiés et à la radicalisation des ouvriers moins qualifiés associés avec l'affir-mation de l'hypothèse de renforcissement. Using data from the 1931 Census and interviews with Hamilton, Ontario retirees who worked for pay during the Great Depression, the author examines claims that economic crises undermine, strengthen, or need not affect traditional status hierarchies; because, respectively, they substitute “cheaper” low-status workers for others; privilege high-status workers; or differentially affect industries and occupations where workers of different status are segregated. The most remarkable result was that there were no such strong and consistent results for any of occupational status, age, gender and ethnicity on all types of deprivation. However, there was evidence for some status differences on some types of deprivation. Thus, when occupation was controlled in the census data, the most common pattern was for women to work more than men only when they in fact earned less. This suggests the “substitution” of the cheaper labour of women for that of men, and therefore the undermining of the privileges of men. On the other hand, in the interview data, the younger one was and the later one attempted to obtain full-time, paid work, the more difficulty one had finding it, and the lower one's wages were. This suggests that some age privileges were strengthened during the Depression. Nevertheless, there was also much industrial and occupational segregation, by age and ethnicity as well as gender, and this may partly explain why most status differences were neither undermined nor strengthened. The author also found few status differences in workers' responses to the crisis, and therefore little evidence for either the homogenization/left-radicalization process associated with the undermining hypothesis or the differentiation/conservatizing of high-status workers and radicalization of low-status workers associated with the strengthening claim.     

The Relation Between Emotion Production Behavior and Preschool Social Behavior: In the Eye of the Beholder

Two questions were examined with a sample of preschool children: (a) What is the relation between emotion production behavior and classroom social behavior?; and (b) Does familiarity with a child affect the perception of emotion expressions and the relations between emotion expressions and social behavior? Two theoretical perspectives on the ‘eye of the beholder’ (familiarity) were evaluated: reputation bias and generalized effects. Sixty‐eight (55% female) children were photographed posing emotion expressions (e.g., happy, sad, and angry). Expressions were rated by classmates, peer strangers, and adults. Classmates and teachers evaluated social behavior. Analyses indicated that children who were more negative and dependent had angry production biases and were likely to display happy expressions instead of sad. Results support the reputation bias and generalized familiarity theories.     

Models of Neurotoxicity: Extrapolation of Benchmark Doses in Vitro

In risk assessment, no observed exposure level (NOAEL) and benchmark dose (BMD) are usually derived either from epidemiological studies in humans or from animal experiments. In many in vitro studies, concentration-effect/response curves have been analyzed using different mathematical models finalized to the identification of EC50. In the present article, we propose a model to fit dose-response curves in vitro. The BMD approach has been used to compare the cell viability (MIT assay) of different rat (C6 and PC12, glial and neuronal, respectively) and human cell lines (D384 and SK-N-MC, glial and neuronal, respectively) after 24-hour exposure to the following neurotoxic substances: manganese chloride (MnCl2), methyl-mercury (Me-Hg), and the enantiomers of styrene oxide (SO). For all rat and human cell lines, the potency of the examined compounds was: MnCl2 < S-SO < R-SO < Me-Hg. A preliminary comparison with in vivo toxicity data for these substances gave rise to consistent results. Whereas a reasonable agreement between in vitro and in vivo data has been found for Mn and styrene oxide, a wide scatter of LOAEL has been reported for Me-Hg and these appear to be either much higher or lower than the BMD for the MIT assay we observed in vitro.     

Optimal bid-ask price strategies

Economic analysis has begun to focus on the implications of transaction costs to trading in capital assets. Specifically, the economics of market making and the price of liquidity has received considerable attention. This paper formulates the market maker's bid-ask price decision as a semi-Markov decision process with the reward being a function of expected return and risk. Risk is intimately related to dealer inventory and hence the solution of the analysis specifies bid-ask price strategies which are inventory dependent. Numerical examples indicate the market maker's optimal bid-ask prices will tilt around the ‘assets’ equilibrium price to control inventory as well as influence expected profit.     

Utilization of the interprofessional education,practice, and research model in HBCU social work education

ABSTRACT

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are often overlooked as a resource to address the need for a diverse healthcare workforce even though they are an essential component of ensuring diversity. In order to meet the needs of the current patient population, HBCUs’ social work programs must move from silo education, practice, and research pedagogy to inter-professional education (IPE), practice (IPP), and research (IPR) modalities when developing partnerships that promote the elimination of health disparities. This article discusses the contributions of a HBCU’s School of Social Work to the growth of IPE, IPP, and IPR utilizing the Ujima principle of Nguzo Saba. The projects developed were an attempt to provide meaningful and relevant education to social work students while exposing them to a collaborative inter-professional education, practice, and research experience. The three social work projects included intra-university and social community collaborations and exposing students to experiential inter-professional education, practice, and experimental learning. This is an opportunity for social work students to become involved in the evolving best practices pedagogy for inter-professional education, practice, and research which social work must embrace in order to fulfill the National Association of Social Workers imperative of preparing students to work in collaborative health care teams. The expected outcomes of these inter-professional ventures reflect a HBCU’s commitment to increasing the competency in inter-professional modalities aimed at supporting, empowering, and preparing high caliber diverse graduates who will grow the future and lead the world as a diverse healthcare workforce.