Optimal Pricing and Ordering Strategies with a Flexible Return Strategy under Uncertainty

To coordinate the supply chain risk caused by demand uncertainty, this paper proposed a flexible return strategy under demand uncertainty, in which the retailer can choose return quantity independently by put option after the selling season, while the return quantity is usually determined by the supplier in the classical return strategy. In our novel return strategy, the exercise price is not fixed, and we developed the base model of this strategy, named the selective buyback contracts model. We have solved the optimal pricing and ordering strategies of supply chain members. Numerical studies demonstrated that the contracts can coordinate a supply chain with one retailer and one supplier, and the supplier can adjust the profit distribution of the supply chain by adjusting the option exercise price. Compared with other return strategies, the selective buyback contracts give the retailer more power of choice, and the supplier receives risk compensation from the put options.

The Logic of Law

Like other early Christian writers, Nemesius condemns any theory which denies that humans are by nature free. Though he believes that the human body is an instrument, he passionately rejects the idea that ‘humankind is a mere instrument’. He cannot tolerate any reduction of humans to the status of a tool, whether by ‘pagans’ (in theories of fate), or by Christians (in theories of providence). In this chapter, we reconstruct Nemesius’ theories of human freedom and divine providence. The bishop believes that human laws—and, hence, crime and punishment—are inconceivable in the absence of human choice. Since all cities have laws, he reasons, humans must have a natural power of choice. From this cosmopolitan line of reasoning (which has roots in Greek antiquity), Nemesius derives a subtle theory of divine world-governance in the final pages of his (unfinished) treatise.

Sex differences in human mate preferences vary across sex ratios

A wide range of literature connects sex ratio and mating behaviours in non-human animals. However, research examining sex ratio and human mating is limited in scope. Prior work has examined the relationship between sex ratio and desire for short-term, uncommitted mating as well as outcomes such as marriage and divorce rates. Less empirical attention has been directed towards the relationship between sex ratio and mate preferences, despite the importance of mate preferences in the human mating literature. To address this gap, we examined sex ratio's relationship to the variation in preferences for attractiveness, resources, kindness, intelligence and health in a long-term mate across 45 countries ( n = 14 487). We predicted that mate preferences would vary according to relative power of choice on the mating market, with increased power derived from having relatively few competitors and numerous potential mates. We found that each sex tended to report more demanding preferences for attractiveness and resources where the opposite sex was abundant, compared to where the opposite sex was scarce. This pattern dovetails with those found for mating strategies in humans and mate preferences across species, highlighting the importance of sex ratio for understanding variation in human mate preferences.

The Child’s Right to a Voice

This article provides a philosophical analysis of a putative right of the child to have their expressed views considered in matters that affect them. Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 is an influential and interesting statement of that right. The article shows that the child’s ‘right to a voice’ is complex. Its complexity lies in the problem of contrasting an adult’s normative power of choice with a child’s weighted views, in the various senses in which we might consider the child’s views, and in the questions of how to weight those views and how their weighting makes a practical difference in coming to a decision. In so doing we criticise other accounts that simply regard a child’s views as having consultative value. We also make better sense of how we might weight a child’s views. The philosophical issues addressed in the article carry implications for how we might understand Article 12 that are not satisfactorily identified and addressed in the voluminous literature on Article 12 within childhood studies. These issues also have implications for how we might understand the distinction between adults and children in respect of powers of personal choice. We conclude by emphasising the importance and value of the right that Article 12 seeks to formally identify.

Let’s Play News!: An SFL Approach to Aesthetic Interactivity of Gamified News

Gamification redefines news reading activity by turning it into a playful experience. The shift from a reading mode to a playing mode marks a shift in news semogenesis strategies that need to be investigated to provide a better understanding of the emerging genres of news gamification and to build some reflections on the ongoing changes in journalistic practices and news values. This article takes a case study of the Al Jazeera gamified news, #Hacked-Syria’s Electronic Armies. The article aims to account for the semogenic resources employed by #Hacked and the resulting aesthetic and immersive experience of interactivity. It is found that #Hacked makes sense through the medium of aesthetics of interactivity. Studied through the lens of systemic functional linguistics, aesthetics in the context of the current study is not reduced to a mere attention to style; rather it describes a different and unique digital process of meaning making based on the participant’s immersive interactivity and choices. It is the semogenic power of choice and the immersive aesthetics of interactivity that mainly create #Hacked news value. The analysis yields that #Hacked reconfigures traditional notions of readers, news, and news values.