In this article, we analyze the application of options contract in the special commodity supply chain such as fresh agricultural products. This problem is discussed from the point of the retailer. When spot market and future market are both available, we discuss how the retailer chooses the optimal production. Furthermore, overconfidence is introduced to the supply chain of the fresh agricultur...

Lamport’s Happened-before relation is fundamental to coordinating actions in asynchronous systems. Its role is less dominant in synchronous systems, in which bounds are available on transmission times over channels. This paper initiates a study of the role that time bounds play in synchronous systems by focusing on two classes of problems: Ordered Response, in which a triggering event must be f...

INTRODUCTION The chemical industry is a much safer place to work than many industries with fewer inherent hazards. Nevertheless, almost all the accidents that have occurred need not have occurred. Most of them have happened before and have been described in published reports. Someone knew how to prevent them even if the people on the job at the time did not. There is something seriously wrong w...

"science of woman," the doctrine of the nature and diseases of woman as distinct from man, became embodied in gynecology. Moreover, this new specialty of physicians constructed a theory of femininity which prescribed social roles without raising opposition, because they had the validation of science. Women became identified as a special group of patients, based upon their reproductive capacitie...

BACKGROUND Fetal facial development is essential not only for postnatal bonding between parents and child, but also theoretically for the study of the origins of affect. However, how such movements become coordinated is poorly understood. 4-D ultrasound visualisation allows an objective coding of fetal facial movements. METHODOLOGY/FINDINGS Based on research using facial muscle movements to c...