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CoxBy alloy with high hardness and high melting point has wide range of applications in many fields because of its stable chemical property, high strength, and good thermal stability. In this work, the thermodynamic and electrical properties of five CoxBy alloys (CoB, Co2B, Co3B, Co23B6 and Co5B16), were studied and compared based on a first-principles approach. The elastic constant and related mechanical property of the binary alloys were calculated by using the energy-strain method, and the thermodynamic properties such as the Debye temperature (ΘD) and the coefficient of thermal expansion (α) within a finite temperature were calculated based on the quasi-simple harmonic Debye model. By comparing the mechanical parameters of the binary alloys, it is found that the comprehensive mechanical property of the CoB alloy is the best among the studied alloys; the state density mapping indicates that all five CoxB y alloys have good metallicity and electrical conductivity, and have some potential applications in the field of electrode materials. In Co3B and Co23B6 alloys, there is a resonance peak between the d electron orbital of Co atom and the p electron orbital of B atom, indicating that there is a significant chemical bond between Co—B.The study complements the gap of thermomechanical property parameters of CoxBy binary alloys and provides a theoretical reference for the design and application of Co based or Co—B binary alloy materials.

Carbon tax represents governments' approach to steering the economy towards a greener future. Our research question focuses on the impact of carbon tax policy on a firm's production decision and revenue and on total social welfare. In particular, we assume that a firm's decision is subject to its behavioural considerations or, in other words, its risk attitude. We model a government plan to charge a carbon tax, and a risk-averse (or risk-neutral) firm needs to plan its production and estimate its profit if the carbon tax policy is implemented. We show that it is possible for a risk-averse firm's optimal profit, in some cases, to be higher than that of a risk-neutral firm when facing a carbon tax. This implies that the risk-averse attitude is not necessarily harmful to the firm's profit. For operations management scholars, our model highlights the importance of integrating firms' behavioural responses into the carbon tax price. Our model suggests that for governments to implement carbon tax policy effectively, they should make carbon prices vary under certain conditions and not worry about price variation antagonising firms at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the dynamic pricing practices in the self-storage industry by introducing the widely used price controller, a term borrowed from control theories, among all self-storage service providers. Most self-storage service providers adopt the price controller method because of its effectiveness, simplicity, and straightforwardness. The price controller method adjusts the price per store's rental performance over the period. With noises on both move-ins and move-outs, the price controller method is a stochastic control model to determine the pricing trajectory at a sequence of discrete time spots to maximize the expected revenue growth. We find that the price controller method may outperform the myopic pricing method by evolving the pricing decision toward its optimum. Also, we discuss several unique properties of the self-storage industry and gain significant knowledge by analyzing the necessity of issuing a rental lease incentive to new customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider a problem in which a retailer who plans to sell holiday basket during a holiday and needs to determine an optimal markdown price for remaining inventory after the holiday. The retailer also needs to determine an optimal inventory level to maximise the total expected profit during and after the holiday. We assume customers’ total intended spending on the holiday basket is a random variable that is realised during the holiday and customers purchase the holiday basket based on their valuations. We formulate the problem as a two-stage stochastic programming model with the first-stage decision determining an optimal inventory level and the second stage determining an optimal markdown price based on remaining inventory and the realisation of customers’ total intended spending. We show that we can derive a unique optimal markdown price corresponding to the realisation of customers’ total intended spending. At last, we provide numerical results to illustrate the impact of holiday price of the basket, the highest customer valuation as well as the salvage value of the basket, all of which affect the retailer’s decision on markdown price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies a buyback contract in the Stackelberg framework of a manufacturer (leader) selling to a price-setting newsvendor retailer (follower). Using an analytical model that focuses on a multiplicative [...]

A study evaluates forward and backward allocation policies of solving flowshop scheduling problems. A two-stage hybrid flowshop problem model is formulated with one machine in stage one and multiple identical machines in stage two. Major and minor setups as well as part families are considered in the model. Results reveal a forward allocation policy that greatly reduces makespans in flowshop scheduling problems.