Sequential Procurement with Contractual and Experimental Learning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yonatan Gur ◽  
Gregory Macnamara ◽  
Daniela Saban
Keyword(s):  
Operations Management ◽  
Equilibrium Strategy ◽  
Traditional Learning ◽  
Strategic Information ◽  
Outside Option ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Experimental Learning ◽  
Procurement Strategies

We study the design of sequential procurement strategies that integrate stochastic and strategic information. We consider a buyer who repeatedly demands a certain good and is unable to commit to long-term contracts. In each time period, the buyer makes a price offer to a seller who has private, persistent information regarding his or her cost and quality of provision. If the offer is accepted, the seller provides the good with a stochastic quality that is not contractible. Therefore, the buyer can learn from the (strategic) acceptance decisions taken by the seller and from evaluations of the (stochastic) quality delivered whenever a purchase occurs. Hence, the buyer not only faces a tradeoff between exploration and exploitation but also needs to decide how to explore: by facilitating quality experimentation or by strategically separating seller types. We characterize the perfect Bayesian equilibria of this sequential interaction and show that the buyer’s equilibrium strategy consists of a dynamic sequence of thresholds on his or her belief on the seller’s type. When only one seller type is more efficient than the buyer’s outside option, the buyer uses one form of information: either strategic or stochastic. If both seller types are more efficient, then the buyer uses both forms of information; at the early stages of the interaction, the buyer offers high prices that incentivize trade and quality experimentation, and after gathering enough information, the buyer may advance to offering low prices that partially separate seller types. We identify the effect strategic sellers have on the buyer’s optimal strategy relative to more traditional learning dynamics and establish that, paradoxically, when sellers are strategic, the ability to observe delivered quality is not always beneficial for the buyer. This paper was accepted by Victor Martínez-de-Albéniz, operations management.

scholarly journals Basilic Vein Transposition Used as a Tertiary Vascular Access for Hemodialysis: 15 Years of Experience

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. OJCS.S34837 ◽  
Author(s):  
Róbert Novotný ◽  
Marcela Slavíková ◽  
Jaroslav Hlubocký ◽  
Petr Mitáš ◽  
Jan Hrubý ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Vascular Access ◽  
Infectious Complications ◽  
Primary Patency ◽  
Secondary Patency ◽  
Basilic Vein ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Patient Database ◽  
Arteriovenous Access

Introduction The quality of the life in patients requiring long term hemodialysis is directly proportional to the long-term patency of their vascular access. Basilic vein transposition for vascular access (BAVA) represents a suitable option for creating a tertiary native vascular access for hemodialysis on the upper extremities for patients requiring long term hemodialysis. The purpose of the study is to compare BAVAs with arteriovenous grafts (AVG). Method Data collection was based on selecting all of the patients with BAVA created in the time period in between January 1996 and August 2011. A questionnaire was created and sent to the selected hemodialysis centers. The resulting set of data was statistically analyzed and evaluated. Results In the time period between 1 January 1996 and August 2011, arteriovenous access for hemodialysis was created in 6754 patients (7203 procedures in total). Out of these patients, 175 BAVAs were created. Our patient database of those undergoing the BAVA procedure consisted of 98 females (56%) and 77 males (44%) with an average age of 64.5 years. The prevalence of diabetes mellitus was 60% (105 patients). Primary patency after 12 months was 68.8%, 24 months 59.7%, 36 months 53.8, 48 months 53.8%, and 60 months 50%. Primary assisted patency after 12 months was 89.9%, 24 months 84.6%, 36 months 77.8%, 48 months 77.9%, 60 months 70.8%. Secondary patency after 12 months was 89.4%, 24 months 86.9%, 36 months 81%, 48 months 78.9%, 60 months 75.7%. Twenty-nine BAVAs (16.5%) were obliterated. Conclusion Patients benefit from this type of procedure due to the longer patency of a native arteriovenous access, as well as a lower incidence of infectious complications.

scholarly journals Performance Predictive Analytics for Operations Management of Shared Services

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Operations Management ◽  
Predictive Analytics ◽  
Shared Services ◽  
Partner Organization ◽  
Shared Service ◽  
Individual Partner

Shared services have been widely used in many organizations as an alternative to outsourcing. For shared services, common services are standardized and consolidated across multiple organizations to reduce the operational cost and to increase information and knowledge sharing. Two major advantages of shared services over outsourcing are long-term stable cost-saving and knowledge sharing. One important aspect of successful operations management of shared services is to ensure the quality of services delivered by a shared service provider to each individual partner organization. This paper proposes a performance predictive analytics framework for operations management of shared services. The paper presents a case study to demonstrate the usefulness and effectiveness of this framework.

scholarly journals PROJECT EDUCATION IS THE KEY TO THE TRAINING OF A SUCCESSFUL SPECIALIST

2019 ◽  
pp. 32-37
Author(s):  
S. Sycheva ◽  
R. Arzumanova
Keyword(s):  
Educational Process ◽  
Traditional Learning ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Project Approach ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Russian Higher Education ◽  
Russian Education

The article has been devoted to the project approach as the basis of the modern educational process. The importance of changing the educational process has been shown in order to ensure the high quality of Russian education in accordance with the changing demands of both the population and the long-term objectives of the development of Russian society and economy, which will lead to an increase in the demand for graduates of Russian higher education institutions by not only domestic corporations, but also foreign. Advantages and disadvantages of the project-education, as well as the complexity of the transition from traditional learning, have been considered. An example of successful implementation of the model has been analyzed.

scholarly journals Impact of IL-2 on Treatment Tolerance in Patients With High-Risk Neuroblastoma Treated With Dinutuximab Beta-Based Immunotherapy

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Filiz Cicek ◽  
Sascha Troschke-Meurer ◽  
Kiraz Ceylan ◽  
Luciana J. Jahns ◽  
Maxi Zumpe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Body Temperature ◽  
Vital Signs ◽  
Clinical Parameters ◽  
Reactive Protein ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Ifn Γ ◽  
Treatment Tolerance

Patients with high-risk neuroblastoma treated with continuous long-term infusion of anti-GD2 antibody dinutuximab beta (DB) in combination with IL-2 show an acceptable safety profile. Here, we compared treatment tolerance with and without IL-2. Ninety-nine patients with high-risk neuroblastoma received up to five cycles of DB given as long-term infusion (10 mg/m2/d, 100 mg/m2; per cycle) with IL-2 (53 patients; regimen A; 6 × 106 IU/m2/d; 60 × 106 IU/m2/cycle) and without IL-2 (46 patients; regimen B) in a single-center compassionate use program. Clinical parameters (body temperature, vital signs, Lansky performance score), laboratory values [C-reactive protein, IFN-γ, IL-6, and IL-18 (cycle 1)], and requirement of i.v. co-medication (e.g., morphine, metamizole) were systematically assessed. Patients with stable clinical parameters and that did not require co-medication were defined as potential “outpatient candidates.” Patients showed higher levels of body temperature and CRP in regimen A compared to B. However, IL-6 serum concentrations were similar in pts of both cohorts in the first cycle. Patients receiving regimen B showed a shorter time to achieve normal vital parameters and required less co-medication compared to patients in regimen A that resulted in a shorter median time period to discharge and to achieve a potential outpatient status (6d regimen A and 3–5d regimen B after start of antibody infusion, respectively). This study shows that omitting IL-2 from immunotherapy with DB allows reduced co-medication and hospitalization time and therefore results in improved quality of life in patients with high-risk neuroblastoma.

scholarly journals Validation of the IASI FORLI/EUMETSAT ozone products using satellite (GOME-2), ground-based (Brewer–Dobson, SAOZ, FTIR) and ozonesonde measurements

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 5125-5152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Boynard ◽  
Daniel Hurtmans ◽  
Katerina Garane ◽  
Florence Goutail ◽  
Juliette Hadji-Lazaro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Latitudes ◽  
Long Term Stability ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Comparison Results ◽  
Independent Observations ◽  
Negative Drift ◽  
Mean Differences ◽  
Global Mean

Abstract. This paper assesses the quality of IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer)/Metop-A (IASI-A) and IASI/Metop-B (IASI-B) ozone (O3) products (total and partial O3 columns) retrieved with the Fast Optimal Retrievals on Layers for IASI Ozone (FORLI-O3; v20151001) software for 9 years (2008–July 2017) through an extensive intercomparison and validation exercise using independent observations (satellite, ground-based and ozonesonde). Compared with the previous version of FORLI-O3 (v20140922), several improvements have been introduced in FORLI-O3 v20151001, including absorbance look-up tables recalculated to cover a larger spectral range, with additional numerical corrections. This leads to a change of ∼4 % in the total ozone column (TOC) product, which is mainly associated with a decrease in the retrieved O3 concentration in the middle stratosphere (above 30 hPa/25 km). IASI-A and IASI-B TOCs are consistent, with a global mean difference of less than 0.3 % for both daytime and nighttime measurements; IASI-A is slightly higher than IASI-B. A global difference of less than 2.4 % is found for the tropospheric (TROPO) O3 column product (IASI-A is lower than IASI-B), which is partly due to a temporary issue related to the IASI-A viewing angle in 2015. Our validation shows that IASI-A and IASI-B TOCs are consistent with GOME-2 (Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2), Dobson, Brewer, SAOZ (Système d'Analyse par Observation Zénithale) and FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) TOCs, with global mean differences in the range of 0.1 %–2 % depending on the instruments compared. The worst agreement with UV–vis retrieved TOC (satellite and ground) is found at the southern high latitudes. The IASI-A and ground-based TOC comparison for the period from 2008 to July 2017 shows the long-term stability of IASI-A, with insignificant or small negative drifts of 1 %–3 % decade−1. The comparison results of IASI-A and IASI-B against smoothed FTIR and ozonesonde partial O3 columns vary with altitude and latitude, with the maximum standard deviation being seen for the 300–150 hPa column (20 %–40 %) due to strong ozone variability and large total retrievals errors. Compared with ozonesonde data, the IASI-A and IASI-B O3 TROPO column (defined as the column between the surface and 300 hPa) is positively biased in the high latitudes (4 %–5 %) and negatively biased in the midlatitudes and tropics (11 %–13 % and 16 %–19 %, respectively). The IASI-A-to-ozonesonde TROPO comparison for the period from 2008 to 2016 shows a significant negative drift in the Northern Hemisphere of -8.6±3.4 % decade−1, which is also found in the IASI-A-to-FTIR TROPO comparison. When considering the period from 2011 to 2016, the drift value for the TROPO column decreases and becomes statistically insignificant. The observed negative drifts of the IASI-A TROPO O3 product (8 %–16 % decade−1) over the 2008–2017 period might be taken into consideration when deriving trends from this product and this time period.

Design of Lotteries and Wait-Lists for Affordable Housing Allocation

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (6) ◽  
pp. 2291-2307
Author(s):  
Nick Arnosti ◽  
Peng Shi
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Operations Management ◽  
Outside Option ◽  
Outside Options ◽  
First Finding ◽  
Participation Costs ◽  
Housing Allocation ◽  
Heavy Tailed ◽  
Artificial Currency

We study a setting in which dynamically arriving items are assigned to waiting agents, who have heterogeneous values for distinct items and heterogeneous outside options. An ideal match would both target items to agents with the worst outside options and match them to items for which they have high value. Our first finding is that two common approaches—using independent lotteries for each item and using a waitlist in which agents lose priority when they reject an offer—lead to identical outcomes in equilibrium. Both approaches encourage agents to accept items that are marginal fits. We show that the quality of the match can be improved by using a common lottery for all items. If participation costs are negligible, a common lottery is equivalent to several other mechanisms, such as limiting participants to a single lottery, using a waitlist in which offers can be rejected without punishment, or using artificial currency. However, when there are many agents with low need, there is an unavoidable trade-off between matching and targeting. In this case, utilitarian welfare may be maximized by focusing on good matching (if the outside option distribution is light tailed) or good targeting (if it is heavy tailed). Using a common lottery achieves near-optimal matching, whereas introducing participation costs achieves near-optimal targeting. This paper was accepted by Charles Corbett, operations management.

Psychological Impact of Genetic Testing for Hereditary Nonpolyposis Colorectal Cancer

2005 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 1902-1910 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen R. Gritz ◽  
Susan K. Peterson ◽  
Sally W. Vernon ◽  
Salma K. Marani ◽  
Walter F. Baile ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Genetic Testing ◽  
State Anxiety ◽  
Hereditary Nonpolyposis Colorectal Cancer ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Mutation Status ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Hereditary Nonpolyposis

Purpose This study examines the impact of hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) genetic test results on psychological outcomes among cancer-affected and -unaffected participants up to 1 year after results disclosure. Patients and Methods A total of 155 persons completed study measures before HNPCC genetic testing, and at 2 weeks and 6 and 12 months after disclosure of test results. Results Mean scores on all outcome measures remained stable and within normal limits for cancer-affected participants, regardless of mutation status. Among unaffected carriers of HNPCC-predisposing mutations, mean depression, state anxiety, and cancer worries scores increased from baseline to 2 weeks postdisclosure and decreased from 2 weeks to 6 months postdisclosure. Among unaffected noncarriers, mean depression and anxiety scores did not differ, but cancer worries scores decreased during the same time period. Affected and unaffected carriers had higher mean test-specific distress scores at 2 weeks postdisclosure compared with noncarriers in their respective groups; scores decreased for affected carriers and all unaffected participants from 2 weeks to 12 months postdisclosure. Classification of participants into high- versus low-distress clusters using mean scores on baseline psychological measures predicted significantly higher or lower follow-up scores, respectively, on depression, state anxiety, quality of life, and test-specific distress measures, regardless of mutation status. Conclusion Although HNPCC genetic testing does not result in long-term adverse psychological outcomes, unaffected mutation carriers may experience increased distress during the immediate postdisclosure time period. Furthermore, those with higher levels of baseline mood disturbance, lower quality of life, and lower social support may be at risk for both short- and long-term increased distress.

Thinking Beyond Language: Intervention for Severe Aphasia

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Simmons-Mackie
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Communication Training ◽  
Language Intervention ◽  
Specific Training ◽  
Environmental Support ◽  
Total Communication ◽  
Communication Partners

Abstract Purpose: This article addresses several intervention approaches that aim to improve life for individuals with severe aphasia. Because severe aphasia significantly compromises language, often for the long term, recommended approaches focus on additional domains that affect quality of life. Treatments are discussed that involve increasing participation in personally relevant life situations, enhancing environmental support for communication and participation, and improving communicative confidence. Methods: Interventions that have been suggested in the aphasia literature as particularly appropriate for people with severe aphasia include training in total communication, training of communication partners, and activity specific training. Conclusion: Several intervention approaches can be implemented to enhance life with severe aphasia.

Communication Disordered: Program Implementation in Long-Term Care

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (15) ◽  
pp. 64-67
Author(s):  
George Barnes ◽  
Joseph Salemi
Keyword(s):  
Program Implementation ◽  
Long Term Care ◽  
Family Satisfaction ◽  
Regulatory Compliance ◽  
Care Staff ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Change Policy

The organizational structure of long-term care (LTC) facilities often removes the rehab department from the interdisciplinary work culture, inhibiting the speech-language pathologist's (SLP's) communication with the facility administration and limiting the SLP's influence when implementing clinical programs. The SLP then is unable to change policy or monitor the actions of the care staff. When the SLP asks staff members to follow protocols not yet accepted by facility policy, staff may be unable to respond due to confusing or conflicting protocol. The SLP needs to involve members of the facility administration in the policy-making process in order to create successful clinical programs. The SLP must overcome communication barriers by understanding the needs of the administration to explain how staff compliance with clinical goals improves quality of care, regulatory compliance, and patient-family satisfaction, and has the potential to enhance revenue for the facility. By taking this approach, the SLP has a greater opportunity to increase safety, independence, and quality of life for patients who otherwise may not receive access to the appropriate services.

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