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In order to select the varieties suitable for processing blueberry crispy, the quality evaluation of freeze-dried blueberry crispy was carried out. In this study, eight Highbush blueberries and Rabbiteye blueberries varieties in Jiangsu Province were used as raw materials, and were prepared as blueberry crispy by vacuum freeze-drying, and 18 quality indexes such as water content, total sugar, scavenging ability of DPPH free radical, hardness, etc, were determined, and the quality of the blueberry crispy was comprehensively evaluated by principal component analysis. The results showed that the coefficients of variation of sugar-acid ratio and total acid of different varieties of blueberry crispy were larger, with the value of 57.89% and 40.25%, respectively. Principal component analysis showed that the glucose content, anthocyanoside content, total flavonoid content, total antioxidant activity of AEAC, moisture content of dry samples, output rate and hardness were determined as representative indexes for the evaluation of the quality of blueberry brittle grains. Then, the comprehensive quality evaluation model was established. Based on the comprehensive quality score of each variety, the top three blueberry varieties were Legacy, Brightwell and Climax, and the others varieties had negative scores. This indicated that these three kinds of blueberries were more suitable for dry processing as blueberry crispy, among which the Legacy variety was the better. The results of the study provide a basis for the screening and quality analysis of blueberry varieties for dry processing.

Purpose. Analysis and comparative study of daylily cultivars from the collection fund of the M. M. Gryshko National Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NBG), selection of assortment for decorative horticulture and landscaping. Methods. Cultivars from the NBG daylily collection were studied. The cultivars were evaluated in terms of their aesthetic and economic attributes, and were classified according to their coloration and the timing of their flowering. The author of the cultivar, country of origin, year of creation and introduction into the NBG were also identified. The cultivars were also grouped according to these parameters. Results. The NBG daylily collection is the result of 40 years of introduction and 20 years of breeding work with this crop at the NBG. It includes 174 world cultivars, 26 cultivars of Ukrainian breeding and more than 1000 hybrid seedlings. Most of the cultivars (79) were introduced in 2000–2009. The main part of the current structure of the daylily collection consists of cultivars bred in the 1960–1970s. Most of these are hybrids from American breeders: David F. Hall (20 cultivars) and Allen Wild (46 cultivars). A total of 15 new cultivars were developed based on the original collection. These new cultivars feature double flowers, a valuable trait for hybrids in Ukraine. For effective use in ornamental horticulture and landscaping, the cultivars were grouped according to flower colour and flowering time. The yellow­flowered group is the most widely represented. A large number of cultivars with red flowers are inherent in hybrids bred between 1980 and 1999. Cultivars from modern breeding are mostly represented by the purple and pink colour group. Most of the cultivars in the collection are early and medium early. The smallest part is made up of medium­late and late hybrids. Conclusions. The modern daylily collection is representative. The cultivars introduced into the NBG illustrate the main stages of breeding work with the crop and the achievements of breeders from different countries of the world. The collection includes early and medium early, medium, medium late and late flowering cultivars. Varying in colour and flowering time, the collection can be effectively used to extend the flowering period of daylilies by three months (from the second decade of May to the second decade of August) in ornamental gardening in Ukraine and in various landscape compositions.

In order to select the varieties suitable for processing blueberry crispy, the quality evaluation of freeze-dried blueberry crispy was carried out. In this study, eight Highbush blueberries and Rabbiteye blueberries varieties in Jiangsu Province were used as raw materials, and were prepared as blueberry crispy by vacuum freeze-drying, and 18 quality indexes such as water content, total sugar, scavenging ability of DPPH free radical, hardness, etc, were determined, and the quality of the blueberry crispy was comprehensively evaluated by principal component analysis. The results showed that the coefficients of variation of sugar-acid ratio and total acid of different varieties of blueberry crispy were larger, with the value of 57.89% and 40.25%, respectively. Principal component analysis showed that the glucose content, anthocyanoside content, total flavonoid content, total antioxidant activity of AEAC, moisture content of dry samples, output rate and hardness were determined as representative indexes for the evaluation of the quality of blueberry brittle grains. Then, the comprehensive quality evaluation model was established. Based on the comprehensive quality score of each variety, the top three blueberry varieties were Legacy, Brightwell and Climax, and the others varieties had negative scores. This indicated that these three kinds of blueberries were more suitable for dry processing as blueberry crispy, among which the Legacy variety was the better. The results of the study provide a basis for the screening and quality analysis of blueberry varieties for dry processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growing popularity of e-commerce, nearly every prominent retailer is aiming to turn omni-channel. One crucial decision in this pursuit is the identification of the joint assortment. In this study, we contribute by examining joint assortment and product prices for a retailer that sells products through both brick-and-mortar and online channels. Our analysis indicates that the optimal assortment should be thought of as a portfolio of two types of products: customized and omni-channel. Customized products are priced in such a way that they are targeted toward customers who prefer to shop from the channel the products are sold through. In contrast, omni-channel products are priced attractively so that all customers consider buying them. The relative mix of these products depends on how flexible customers are in shopping from the channel they do not prefer and the number of customers who prefer each channel. Additionally, we investigate whether the conventional wisdom of selling niche products through the online channel is always optimal. We find that this suggestion may be sub-optimal when the online channel has greater cost of including a product in the assortment and fewer preferring customers compared with the brick-and-mortar channel. With growing popularity of e-commerce, nearly every prominent retailer is aiming to turn omni-channel. One crucial decision in this pursuit is the identification of the joint assortment. Despite the importance of this decision, few studies have addressed this issue. In this study, we contribute by examining joint assortment and product prices for a retailer that sells products through both brick-and-mortar and online channels using the locational choice model. We consider two classes of customers such that customers in one class prefer the brick-and-mortar channel and customers in the other class prefer the online channel. Our analysis indicates that the optimal assortment should be thought of as a portfolio of two types of products: customized and omni-channel. Customized products are priced in such a way that they are targeted toward customers who prefer to shop from the channel the products are sold through. In contrast, omni-channel products are priced attractively so that all customers consider buying them. The relative mix of these products depends on how flexible customers are in shopping from the channel they do not prefer and the size of each class. Additionally, we investigate whether the conventional wisdom of selling niche products through the online channel is always optimal. We find that this suggestion may be suboptimal when the online channel has greater cost of including a product in the assortment and fewer preferring customers compared with the brick-and-mortar channel. We also develop insights on price selection. As more and more retailers are converting from single-channel to omni-channel, they need to reexamine their assortment strategy across existing and new channels. The models, results, and insights presented in this paper would help them in designing a joint assortment policy across channels. History: Ram Gopal, Senior Editor; Jianqing Chen, Associate Editor. Funding: A. Sapra received generous financial support from IIMB Chair of Excellence at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore while working on this study. S. Kumar thanks Temple Center for International Business Education and Research for partially supporting this research. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2021.0596. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Field studies of social behaviour are challenging due to the need to record or infer interactions between multiple individuals, often under suboptimal environmental conditions or with potential disturbance by observers. Due to the limited field techniques available, we present a novel method to quantify social behaviours in the field by comparing the counts of individuals caught in traps across multiple locations sampled simultaneously. The distribution of individuals between traps gives the extent of aggregation, and phenotypic data allow for inference of non-random assortment. As a case study, we applied this method to populations of three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) in freshwater ponds, using minnow traps. As expected, we observed a strong trend for aggregation. We were able to describe the ecological drivers of aggregation, comparing environmental and phenotypic conditions across sites. Aggregation was not related to environmental parameters, but was negatively associated with the proportion of breeding males caught during the breeding season. No evidence for phenotypic assortment based on body size was found. These results demonstrate that widely available ecological equipment can address questions related to social behaviour. This cost-effective approach, avoiding the tagging of individuals and minimizing extended observer disturbance, can be applied across various habitats and species.

Nowadays, many online retailers allow consumers to flexibly change the assortment size in a product display. Therefore, assessing the impact of varied assortment levels on consumers' cognitive process and decision outcome is of great interest to marketers. Using consumers' pupil size as a biological indicator of their cognitive process during decision-making, we empirically examine how varied assortment levels affect consumers' product preferences through their cognitive responses. Our results show that a larger assortment size prompts consumers' pupils to constrict, indicating a lower level of cognitive workload. Consumers' pupil size moves in the same direction with the price levels of the chosen option and the opposite direction with the familiarity of the chosen option. The mediation test demonstrates that the relationship between the assortment levels and product preference is statistically mediated by consumers' pupillary response during decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the evolution of cooperation in the Volunteer's Dilemma using the stochastic Moran process on dynamic graphs, which models a birth–death dynamic on structured finite populations. According to the Moran process, in each period one player is selected to reproduce, where the probability of being selected is proportional to payoff-related fitness levels, and a copy of this player is substituted for a player who is randomly selected to die. The interaction of the players is embedded in a network structure which determines the overlapping groups within which the Volunteer's Dilemma is played. Networks vary to the extent they exhibit homophily, i.e., they vary in the extent to which the interacting groups primarily encompass either cooperators or defectors instead of a mix of both types of players. By varying the degree of homophily in the network, we thus can study the question if and to what extent assortment of strategies favors the evolution of cooperation in the Volunteer's Dilemma. Our results show that a surprisingly high extent of homophily is required to ensure the evolution of cooperation in the Volunteer's Dilemma when modeled as a stochastic process in pure strategies. Other parameters, such as selection pressure or the number of initial cooperators, have a comparatively small effect on the fixation of cooperation in the population. • Studies the evolution of cooperation in the Volunteer's Dilemma. • Networks determine interacting groups, evolution is modeled via the Moran process. • Network density hinders the evolution of cooperation. • Network homophily favors the evolution of cooperation, but lots of it is required. • Selection pressure and the number of initial cooperators are less relevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis and comparative study of daylily cultivars from the collection fund of the M. M. Gryshko National Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NBG), selection of assortment for decorative horticulture and landscaping. Methods. Cultivars from the NBG daylily collection were studied. The cultivars were evaluated in terms of their aesthetic and economic attributes, and were classified according to their coloration and the timing of their flowering. The author of the cultivar, country of origin, year of creation and introduction into the NBG were also identified. The cultivars were also grouped according to these parameters. Results. The NBG daylily collection is the result of 40 years of introduction and 20 years of breeding work with this crop at the NBG. It includes 174 world cultivars, 26 cultivars of Ukrainian breeding and more than 1000 hybrid seedlings. Most of the cultivars (79) were introduced in 2000-2009. The main part of the current structure of the daylily collection consists of cultivars bred in the 1960-1970s. Most of these are hybrids from American breeders: David F. Hall (20 cultivars) and Allen Wild (46 cultivars). A total of 15 new cultivars were developed based on the original collection. These new cultivars feature double flowers, a valuable trait for hybrids in Ukraine. For effective use in ornamental horticulture and landscaping, the cultivars were grouped according to flower colour and flowering time. The yellow-flowered group is the most widely represented. A large number of cultivars with red flowers are inherent in hybrids bred between 1980 and 1999. Cultivars from modern breeding are mostly represented by the purple and pink colour group. Most of the cultivars in the collection are early and medium early. The smallest part is made up of medium-late and late hybrids. Conclusions. The modern daylily collection is representative. The cultivars introduced into the NBG illustrate the main stages of breeding work with the crop and the achievements of breeders from different countries of the world. The collection includes early and medium early, medium, medium late and late flowering cultivars. Varying in colour and flowering time, the collection can be effectively used to extend the flowering period of daylilies by three months (from the second decade of May to the second decade of August) in ornamental gardening in Ukraine and in various landscape compositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to clarify and consolidate the components and consequences of intra-brand image confusion (IBIC). In addition to validating previous research results on IBIC in a fresh context (different product category with its brands), this study challenges the linearity assumption usually underlying studies of branding impacts and IBIC. A national representative online survey was conducted in the United Kingdom investigating the smartphone market. Explorative factor analyses were conducted in order to assess the components of IBIC. Structural equation modeling reveals the extent and consequences of IBIC. Multiple regressions were conducted to further explore non-linear response at the sub-domain and higher-order construct level. The results confirm and solidify previous results on the relevance of the construct of IBIC. This study supports the relevance of intra-brand image confusion's three components. A novel contribution arises from the fact that customers with a moderate involvement level are more confused than people with lower involvement levels. A U-shaped response indicates that lower involved prospective customers are at higher risk of a confusion by too broad assortments. Brand managers are well advised to pay strong attention to the structure of an assortment and to sub-brands to prevent the occurrence of an IBIC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scientific research reflected in this study aimed to identify the bacterial microflora in different varieties of fish of different commercial categories through microbiological investigation. The microbiological assessment conditions of the examined fish varieties determined the presence of saprophytic germs, affirming a normal microflora according to the requirements of microbiological investigation standards and the identification of existing microbial species. The microbiological aspects of the assessment of the examined fish varieties confirmed the presence of saprophytic germs, confirming a normal microflora favorable to the requirements of the microbiological investigation standards and the identification of existing microbial species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. The use of drugs derived from benzodiazepine for the treatment of various diseases continues to be relevant. Benzodiazepines are approved by most regulatory authorities around the world. Despite the large number of side effects and non-medical use, they are becoming more promising in emergency care for prolonged seizures and epileptic status.Aim. To analyze the existing medicines on the market of the Russian Federation based on benzodiazepine derivatives and assess the prospects for development in this direction.Materials and methods. The study was conducted on the basis of regulatory legal acts in the field of healthcare and the circulation of medicines, publications of Russian and foreign authors, the results of scientific research using situational, comparative, structural-logical and content analysis methods. The information base of the study was the online database "State Register of Medicines" (grls.minzdrav.gov.ru), databases of peer-reviewed publications: PubMed and Scopus.Results and discussion. Data were obtained on the range of medicines derived from benzodiazepines according to the following indicators: international nonproprietary names, trade names, medicines, manufacturing countries and enterprises, dosage forms. The problem of "medicinal sovereignty" is discussed. Promising niches have been found for the development of innovative drugs derived from benzodiazepines.Conclusion. It has been established that mainly domestic benzodiazepine-type drugs are represented on the Russian pharmaceutical market, while there is a certain shortage of pharmaceutical substances. In Russia, such dosage forms as films, transdermal plasters and preparations for the inhalation use of benzodiazepine derivatives are not registered. It is important to create innovative dosage forms capable of providing a fast, non-invasive and socially acceptable method of use and a high rate of adherence to treatment by patients.

This study provides an overview of the substantial changes in the structure of the wine grape assortment in Romania through the use of European funds allocated for vineyards reconversion/restructuring. Between 2007 and 2022, both new international varieties, which previously existed only in ampelographic collections, and old Romanian varieties, which are more adaptable to climate change and are increasingly appreciated by the wine drinking public, were introduced into the Romanian wine assortment. The study presents an update on the evolution of the areas cultivated with the most widespread wine grape varieties destinated for wines with protected designation of origin, protected geographical indication and varietally. On this basis, the quality level of the wines obtained during the 15 years studied was analyzed, based on the assessments made by the specialist tasting committees of the governmental Body which, on the basis of the traceability ensured by the producer, guarantees their origin and authenticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the retail industry has undergone significant changes, including the emergence of new technologies and the rise of e-commerce. These changes have made it more difficult for retailers to compete and meet the needs of their customers. Category management (CM) is a strategic approach to managing product categories that can help retailers to overcome these challenges. This paper provides an overview of CM, including its history, development, and implementation. It also discusses the benefits and challenges of CM, as well as the future of CM in the context of the changing retail landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike the heavily deforested Eastern or Low Rhodopes, the Western or High Rhodopes are one of Bulgaria’s main forestry areas, where black pine is widespread and economically important. Based on stem analyzes, an average taper curve for black pine stems in the Northwestern Rhodopes was determined. The method of relative taper curves (echte Ausbauchungsreihen) was used. Taper models based on spline functions and power functions were fitted. A comparison with the official assortment table of Nedyalkov was made. The systematic deviation of the sample stems from the long-used assortment table justifies the development of a local black pine table.

The article is devoted to certain aspects of the activities of product manufacturers in modern conditions - the development of recommendations for improving the management of the assortment of consumer goods. The stages of formation of a model for managing the assortment of a consumer goods manufacturer are defined, starting with the formation of an information base for management of the distribution policy, until the selection of the final strategy for managing the assortment of the enterprise. A study of the distribution channels of Kharkiv Meat Factory LLC and Kharkiv Dairy Factory PJSC shows that the main volume of products is sold through several intermediaries. At the same time, the increase in the final sale price is the result of the promotion of consumer goods through several intermediaries. It is proposed to reduce the chain of goods movement due to the creation of a joint distribution center by the manufacturer and the trade network. The process of modeling the company's assortment is very complex, which requires the use of a comprehensive approach. A comprehensive approach to the development of an assortment model consists in taking into account the elements of the company's assortment policy based on the application of heuristic methods of forecasting the sales volume of consumer goods, which predict the influence of external factors. Therefore, the article developed methodological recommendations for the construction of a management model for the process of forming the assortment of a consumer goods manufacturer as a system of theoretical and methodological views on understanding and defining the essence, content, goals, tasks, principles of forecasting sales volumes and distribution management methods, as well as organizational practical approaches to the formation of the mechanism of their implementation in the specific conditions of the operation of the enterprise. The proposed approach based on a flexible, competitive assortment model will allow to increase the competitiveness of domestic manufacturing enterprises and retail enterprises, which is absolutely necessary in the conditions of Ukraine's accession to the WTO.

Using one field and two online lab experiments, this article shows that congruency between shelf layout and a consumer's internal product categorization increases the perceived variety of the assortment and reduces the perceived complexity of the shelf layout. These assortment perceptions, in turn, heighten purchase intention and satisfaction toward the chosen item. Results are robust across internal categorization measurements (planogram design vs. sorting tasks), congruency measures (distance- vs. matching-based), and products (biscuits vs. yogurt snacks). In the field study, familiarity—operationalized as either consumption frequency or subjective product knowledge—increased the overall effect of categorization congruency and strengthened its pathway through perceived variety (vs. the one through complexity). The authors show how their research can be exploited to improve shelf layouts by optimizing the external categorization. They demonstrate the value of a unifying Bayesian framework for research on behavioral decision making that uses the same set of posterior parameter draws for parameter inference, moderated mediation analysis, and optimization under uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reduced demand for seedlings has created the conditions for the introduction of new profitable production areas, such as the cultivation of ornamental seedlings of woody plants. Therefore, there is a need to explore new ways to increase the profitability of growing ornamental plants. The purpose of this study was to investigate and estimate the capacity and condition of the forestry industry's planting base, identify its main problems, available reserves, and outline the main ways to improve its efficiency under self-financing conditions. The methodological framework was based on general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, and generalisation, which allowed for the investigation of the reporting materials of forestry enterprises and statistical data of the State Agency of Forest Resources. The study characterised the state of seedling production of forestry enterprises and trends in the dynamics of its production capacities during the period of the State Target Programme "Forests of Ukraine" for 2010-2015 (the last 4 years of 2012-2015) and after its completion (2016-2019). The study indicated the favourable conditions and expediency of increasing the production of ornamental planting material. The prospects for the wider introduction of the production of ornamental planting material in forestry nurseries were identified. The ways of modernisation of ornamental seedling production of forestry enterprises and increase of its profitability were proposed and substantiated. It was emphasised that the increase in the production of ornamental planting material in nurseries and the implementation of the recommended measures will not only increase the flow of extrabudgetary funds, but will also contribute to the modernisation of the process of growing forest seedlings, including those with a closed root system, as well as improve their quality. The results obtained will help accelerate a scientifically sound solution of problems related to modernisation and efficiency in the production of ornamental planting materials in nurseries. This, in turn, will help attract additional financial resources for forestry enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the problem when a firm sets prices for products based on the transaction data, that is, which product past customers chose from an assortment and what were the historical prices that they observed. Our approach does not impose a model on the distribution of the customers' valuations and only assumes, instead, that purchase choices satisfy incentive-compatible constraints. The uncertainty set of potential valuations of each past customer can then be encoded as a polyhedral set, and our approach maximizes the worst case revenue, assuming that new customers' valuations are drawn from the empirical distribution implied by the collection of such polyhedra. We study the single-product case analytically and relate it to the traditional model-based approach. Then, we show that the optimal prices in the general case can be approximated at any arbitrary precision by solving a compact mixed-integer linear program. We further design three approximation strategies that are of low computational complexity and interpretable. In particular, the cutoff pricing heuristic has a competent provable performance guarantee. Comprehensive numerical studies based on synthetic and real data suggest that our pricing approach is uniquely beneficial when the historical data has a limited size or is susceptible to model misspecification. This paper was accepted by Omar Besbes, revenue management and market analytics. Funding: This work was supported by the Rotman School of Management (TD-MDAL Research Grant) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [Grants RGPIN-2015-06757, RGPIN-2020-04038, RGPIN-2020-06054, RGPIN-2021-04295]. Supplemental Material: The e-companion and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4651. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proctological diseases (acute and chronic hemorrhoids, anal fissure, proctitis) have frequent relapses, are characterized by a severe course and are common among broad strata of the working-age population. The leading clinical sign of this group of diseases is lesions of the mucous membrane of the rectum of varying degrees of severity which is accompanied by signs of inflammation, pain syndrome, deterioration of local circulation, involvement of secondary infection. It determines the use of complex products that combine anti-inflammatory, analgesic effects and promote the reparative processes of the mucous membrane. On the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market the number of such products is limited, most of them are foreign-made. The purpose of the work is to study the assortment of medicines for rectal use on the pharmaceutical market of Ukraine, to determine the feasibility and prospects of developing new combined soft medicines of domestic production. Methods of marketing, statistical and graphic analysis were used in the work from official sources of information: (The State Register of Medicinal Products of Ukraine and the ATC classification system). While researching the assortment of medicines for rectal use it was established that there are 34 names of medicines for rectal use in various forms of release on the domestic market, of which suppositories ‒ 55.9%, ointments ‒ 35.3%, creams ‒ 8.8%; the share of foreign-made medicines is 61.7% and domestic ‒ 38.3%. Complex synthetic medicines occupy 49.9% of the assortment and complex medicines of natural origin ‒ only 2.95%. In the production of soft medicines for rectal use, hydrophobic (40%), emulsion (40%) and diphilic bases (20%) are more often used. Solid fat (78.9%) is more often used in the production of suppositories. Considering the limited range of medicines for rectal use based on medicinal plant raw materials, it is advisable to develop new combined soft medicinal products which will include biologically active substances of plant origin.

The evolutionary epidemiology is crucial as it does not only help in tracking the origin, spreading, prediction, and control of viruses but also explains the failure causes of some vaccines and serological diagnostic tools. To keep animal welfare, it is essential to raise awareness of the multiple risk factors associated with the different epidemics. Arthropod-borne viruses like African horse sickness virus (AHSV) and equine infectious anaemia virus (EIAV) are related to vectors multiplication. Accordingly, their seasonal occurrence was attributed to the environmental climatic conditions. While equine influenza virus (EIV) and equine herpes virus (EHV) were found to occur in winter and spring (foaling seasons), respectively. The management risk factors resulted in the occurrence and reactivation of latently infected cases. The RNA viruses are characterized by genetic assortment which results in increasing pathogenicity, and failure of the used vaccines. The EHVs able to establish infection in different host tissues adding to their immune evasion strategies. Most of the diseases occurred at the age over 2 years although the EIAV takes long time to appear. The hard work of males and other stress factors render them more liable for infection with equine viral arteritis (EVA), EIAV, and EHV. Genetically, some breeds of horses were at risk of AHSV, EVA, and EHV infection. Most of the donkeys, mules, and zebra develop subclinical forms that magnifies their role in the epidemiological situation. Different phenomena like overwintering in AHSV, hard work in EIV, virus hidden nature and latency in EHV should be more analysed.

We consider the interdependent decisions on assortment, inventory and pricing of substitutable products that are differentiated by some primary and secondary attributes captured by a nested logit consumer choice. We examine a newsvendor-type setting with several products competing for demand over a single selling season. We assume that all products have equal profit margins. The demand has a multiplicative-additive structure where both variance and coefficient of variation depend on the common profit margin, which adds to the model applicability at the expense of tractability. Under a Taylor series-type approximation, we show that the expected profit is unimodal in the common margin of products in a given assortment. Then, we compare the optimal profit margin to the case under ample inventory, which allows understanding the effect of inventory on pricing. We also study the optimal assortment problem under exogenous pricing. We show that the classic result on the optimality of popular sets holds under tight approximations of the profit function. We finally propose a heuristic for jointly deciding on assortment, pricing, and inventory decisions, which assumes equal profit margins of products, and exploit popular sets only. Our detailed numerical study shows that this equal-margin heuristic produces high quality solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages from non-traditional vegetable raw materials expand the domestic product range and allow food producers to develop new market segments. The present research objective was to summarize and analyze the current data on the use of tomatoes in alcohol production. The review covered Russian and foreign open access scientific publications and patents registered in Pubmed, E-library, Cyberleninka, Espacenet, and Patentscope in 2005–2021. Most publications featured tomato juice in soft drinks production as a means to increase their nutritional value, improve sensory profile, expand the product range, and develop new functional products, e.g., with antioxidant properties, for diabetic consumers, etc. Tomato pulp, juice, or puree is used in beer production. No publications featured the effect of tomato cultivars on the technical properties of the finished product. The analysis revealed the need to study the effect of red, yellow, and dark tomatoes on the sensory and physico-chemical quality of beer drinks. Another research prospect is a novel semi-finished product from tomato pomace that would increase the nutritional value of beer drinks.

Increasing the affordability of pharmaceutical provision to the population is the most important task of the governments, especially in the context of health care reform. Therefore, considering that reimbursement of the cost of drugs increases their affordability, it is relevant to analyze the updated list of GLDs that are subject to reimbursement. The purpose of the work is to conduct an audit of oral GLDs for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, which are subject to reimbursement under the state program in Ukraine, and to study their affordability. The objects of the research were the State Register of Medicinal Products, the Register of Maximum Wholesale and Retail Prices for Drugs, which are subject to reimbursement under the program of state guarantees of medical care for the population. Bibliosemantic, marketing, analytical, graphical, generalizing analyzes and mathematical calculations were used. An audit was conducted of GLDs, except of insulin, for the treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes, the cost of which is subject to reimbursement under the program under the state guarantee program. Only three drugs under the INN are subject to reimbursement: metformin, glibenclamide, and gliclazide. The number of TNs is 51 Ukrainian-made and foreign-made GLDs, and the majority (76.9%) are domestic products. Metformin, gliclazide, and glibenclamide tablets are available in a sufficient assortment of 40 TN, 8 TN, and 3 TN tablets, respectively, in different dosages and packaging (No 30, No 60, No 90, No 120). There are no prolonged forms of metformin, although they are available on the pharmaceutical market of Ukraine. 3 glibenclamide drugs, 1 drug out of 8 – gliclazide, and 13 out of 40 drugs – metformin are subject to full reimbursement. Others require co-payments from the patient. Calculations of co-payments DDD of GLDs that are partially reimbursable, taking into account dosage and packaging, have been carried out. The co-payments for DDD ranges from UAH 0.111 to UAH 2.510 for gliclazide, and from UAH 0.105 to UAH 1.576 for metformin. The co-payments for foreign-made drugs is more than that of the domestic one. To increase the affordability of GLDs and the introduction of modern treatment schemes, it is necessary to expand the list of reimbursable GLDs, including prolonged forms of metformin and innovative drugs. Innovative drugs such as GLP1 and SGLT2 are recommended to be used at the beginning of treatment to prevent the development of DM complications.

Maintaining assortment in a warehouse, distribution centre or retail store is expensive. We propose a method for assortment optimization that allows defining the top-performing products in the warehouse, distribution centre or retail store. It allows finding top-performing products in a given location using actual sales data or from concurrency when the sales data are unavailable. The developed method of product performance evaluation could be used by distribution companies to find the right pricing strategy. The method described also proposes how to improve the assortment in order to expand the business and help the distributor or retailer to meet his business objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the constrained multi-location assortment optimization problem under joint delivery by drone and human courier. To maximize the revenue of the retailer, product assortment and last-mile delivery methods are configured simultaneously. To handle the joint delivery problem with product assortment, a mixed multinomial logit model is established to depict the customer purchase behavior. We also take into account the load capacity of drones and the delivery distance limit of drones and human couriers. To the best of our knowledge, the present paper is the first to study the assortment optimization problem considering joint delivery by drone and human courier. The problem is first formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model, which is then transformed into a conic quadratic mixed-integer model with McCormick inequalities (Conic + MC). In the numerical study, it is demonstrated that Conic + MC outperforms MILP as Conic + MC finds the optimal solution within 300 s, while MILP needs more than 600 s. Furthermore, several management insights are revealed for retailers regarding assortment planning when facing different kinds of product revenue structures, and advice is provided for online ordering platforms in terms of setting delivery limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scientific research reflected in this study aimed to identify the bacterial microflora in different varieties of fish of different commercial categories through microbiological investigation. The microbiological assessment conditions of the examined fish varieties determined the presence of saprophytic germs, affirming a normal microflora according to the requirements of microbiological investigation standards and the identification of existing microbial species. The microbiological aspects of the assessment of the examined fish varieties confirmed the presence of saprophytic germs, confirming a normal microflora favorable to the requirements of the microbiological investigation standards and the identification of existing microbial species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to design and implement an e-learning course for distributors of fast-moving consumer goods using gamification. In the first step, the components of the in-store assortment are extracted using a systematic literature review, and customer preferences in each of these factors were determined as users' opinions of 387 customers. In the next step, the game is designed based on the persuasive game design (PGD) model, and the mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics (MDA) of the game were determined by an experts' panel, and a mobile app is designed as a learning tool. In the following step, the designed game was carried out by the distributors and the game prizes are awarded to the winners. Finally, the effects of the gamified e-learning are evaluated using the IMI questionnaire and analyzing the players' points. Findings show that enjoyment, perceived competence, effort importance, pressure tension, perceived choice, and usefulness of this course are significantly higher than average. Besides, the average of points gets higher during repetition rounds while the dispersion of the points gets lower. As a result, it seems that gamification could be a valuable alternative to learning operational tricks for marketing staff, especially distributors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the developed countries of the world, animal business is one of the most profitable and promising branches of production.Pet business includes the totality and interaction between enterprises engaged in the production and distribution of goods and services for pets, and consumers of these goods and services. The structure of pet business is represented by pet products, services, and animals, and pet products, in turn, by feed, medicines, care products, and accessories. The global pet food market size was valued at USD 94.76 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.4 % from 2022 to 2030. Increasing consumer awareness regarding natural and organic pet food products has forced the manufacturers to shift their focus from synthetic to natural products which has acted as one of the major forces impacting the global market. In Ukraine, in 2017–2021, the category «Animals – pets and feed for them» in the structure of retail turnover occupied a share of 0.3 – 0.5 %. The volume of retail turnover during this period increased 3.4 times, from UAH 1,612.5 million in 2017 to UAH 5,468.6 million in 2021. In Ukraine, goods are classified according to the classifications DC 016-2010 «State Classifier of Products and Services» and DC 021:2015 «Unified Procurement Dictionary», as well as the Ukrainian classification of goods of foreign economic activity, which is the commodity nomenclature of the Customs Tariff of Ukraine. According to the current classifiers, separate groups of goods directly related to goods for pets (dogs, cats, etc.) are provided only for feed and brushes for animal care. Yes, according to DK 016-2010, ready pet food has the code 10.92.10-00.00 and according to DK 021:2015 – 15713000-9 and does not have further details. Today, the owners of decorative and singing birds have a relatively wide range of ready-made feeds at their disposal. Analyzing the feed market for decorative and singing birds, we saw that a significant part of it is occupied by imported feeds, while the assortment of domestic feeds on the Ukrainian market is not large and does not always meet market requirements and cannot withstand competition. However, it is difficult to call the presented feeds complete, since they are mainly different types of feed mixtures, which include, depending on the price category, different types of components: starting with cereals and ending with various nuts, dried fruits, etc. Ready-made feeds in combination with a correctly selected feeding regime strengthen the health of birds, and also meet their expectations regarding taste qualities and the owner's expectations regarding the price and convenience of feeding. Careful observation of the appearance and behavior of birds allows you to establish the correct diet for your pet and determine his preferences for one or another type of feed. In order to understand the entire range of feeds offered on the market, it is necessary to study and systematize them. Based on the analysis of feeds presented on the market, we proposed a classification of feeds by types of poultry, purpose, price, form of release, physiological features and age, as well as by type of packaging. By bird species, feed is divided into three varieties: for singing birds, for decorative birds, and for parrots, which are a kind of hybrid of the first two species. For parrots, food can be distributed according to their size: for large, medium and small. According to their purpose, complete ration feeds and feed mixes, treats, and feeds fed for therapeutic purposes and for preventive purposes are distinguished. By price, fodder for decorative and singing birds is divided into three price categories: economy, business and premium classes. This is the formation of classes was developed based on the income of the population. Economy class includes consumers who can afford to buy food for their pets at a price of UAH 70 to 100 per kilogram, business class – UAH 101-250 /kg, premium class – consumers who can buy food for of their pets is higher than UAH 251 /kg. According to the form of release, there are molded fodder and loose fodder mixes. Formed – represented by a small amount of granulated and partially extruded feed. According to the physiological characteristics, feed can be divided into feed for the pre-nesting period, during the molting period, for birds, for adult birds at rest and for females during the feeding period. The type of fodder packaging is also of great importance: natural (cardboard), polymer and combined (based on cardboard and polyethylene).

Diabetes mellitus is an important public health issue. Statistics show a rapid growth in the number of patients each year, which increases the financial burden on the state’s economy. Therefore, systematic marketing monitoring of the pharmaceutical market of drugs for diabetes is appropriate and permanently relevant. The aim of the research was to study the pharmaceutical market of antidiabetic drugs in Ukraine as of the first quarter of 2022. Materials and methods. The nomenclature range of drugs was analyzed in accordance with the State Register and the Anatomical-Therapeutic-Chemical Classification. The objects of research were information on synthetic hypoglycemic drugs registered in Ukraine, as well as herbal medicines belonging to the category A10 “Antidiabetic drugs”. Analytical and comparative methods, as well as marketing analysis and generalization of information were applied. Results. The structure of the pharmaceutical market of medicines from category A10 “Antidiabetic drugs” is formed by mono-drugs, their share is 84.2 %, while combined drugs make 12.9 %, and only 2.9 % belongs to medicinal plant raw materials and their mixtures. Among mono-drugs, the most numerous by the number of trade names is the group of sulfonylureas and biguanides, the percentage of which is 33.9 %. The pharmaceutical market of antidiabetic drugs in Ukraine is import-dependent, as the share of foreign medicines from 24 importing countries is 59.3 %. Domestic manufacturers of drugs for type 2 diabetes are 10 pharmaceutical companies, among which production output is dominated by JSC “Farmak” – 31.9 %. Preparations based on medicinal plant raw materials are manufactured by PJSC “Liktravy” and PJSC Pharmaceutical Factory “Viola” in the form of mixtures and medicinal raw materials. Conclusions. The nomenclature ranges of drugs, which according to the ATC classification belong to the category A10 “Antidiabetic drugs”, are analyzed and the structure of the segment is described. The range of herbal antidiabetic drugs has been studied and their share in the structure of the pharmaceutical market of Ukraine has been determined. The prevalence of foreign-made drugs over domestic ones has been established.

The research was carried out in an orchard from Cenad village, Timis County, throughout 2021, and compared five recently introduced varieties (Topend Plus®, Topfive®, TopHit, Toptaste®, Amers) with a control variety (President). Some physical and chemical characteristics of the fruits (major diameter, minor diameter, length, weight, total soluble solids, carbohydrate content, pH, and vitamin C) as well as plum production were monitored and measured. The plum components and economic indicators differ significantly between the varieties evaluated. In the majority of the examined indicators, all five newly introduced varieties outperformed the control, indicating the necessity to change the plum varietal assortment not only to satisfy market demands, but also to meet the suitability for industrialization and obtaining jams, juices or compotes, an important criterion given the net downward trend in demand for alcoholic products derived from plums. Economic indicators must be considered for fruit breeding success, particularly in light of current market trends caused by increases in labor costs, fertilizers or pesticides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online pharmacy services and online ordering of pharmaceutical products are in demand, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The problems of the purchase of pharmacy products through online orders in the Far Eastern Federal District were analyzed. Sociological survey of the population (n = 3789) was carried out. Spearman's Rank correlation coefficient was used. Drugs, dietary supplements, hygiene, and care items are most often purchased in online pharmacies. There is a correlation with the female sex, which may be related to care about family/loved people. The purchase of prescription drugs through e-pharmacies is also more often in demand among women and older patients. Among prescription drugs, the order of drugs used in the treatment of coronavirus infection and its complications (antibiotics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory, gastroenterological, and hormonal) is widespread. The problems of e-pharmacies identified due to the study are the lack of proper control over prescription drugs, low role of the pharmaceutical worker in compliance of the patient, and frequent refusals of Internet orders. It is necessary clarify the regulatory status of e-pharmacies and the role of pharmaceutical specialists in it, to reduce the possibility of error in the preparation and/or assembly of orders, to reduce the risk of the presence of defective goods. These ways can increase customer loyalty to this service.

The article presents a solution to the problem of integrating risk minimisation methods in the process of forming the optimal range of treadmill models in a retail enterprise. The problem of multi-criteria optimisation was solved using the generalised criterion method. The formulated problem was therefore broken down into a number of specific tasks, each of which was solved by selecting specific methods. Risks were minimised by mathematical methods, taking into account the economic performance of the enterprise. Recommendations were also offered for customers wishing to purchase one of the treadmill models chosen from the analysis and the best option for ordering via the online shop with home delivery.

In the study of the evolution of cooperation, many mechanisms have been proposed to help overcome the self-interested cheating that is individually optimal in the Prisoners’ Dilemma game. These mechanisms include assortative or networked social interactions, other-regarding preferences considering the payoffs of others, reciprocity rules to establish cooperation as a social norm, and multilevel selection involving simultaneous competition between individuals favoring cheaters and competition between groups favoring cooperators. In this paper, we build on recent work studying PDE replicator equations for multilevel selection to understand how within-group mechanisms of assortment, other-regarding preferences, and both direct and indirect reciprocity can help to facilitate cooperation in concert with evolutionary competition between groups. We consider a group-structured population in which interactions between individuals consist of Prisoners’ Dilemma games and study the dynamics of multilevel competition determined by the payoffs individuals receive when interacting according to these within-group mechanisms. We find that the presence of each of these mechanisms acts synergistically with multilevel selection for the promotion of cooperation, decreasing the strength of between-group competition required to sustain long-time cooperation and increasing the collective payoff achieved by the population. However, we find that only other-regarding preferences allow for the achievement of socially optimal collective payoffs for Prisoners’ Dilemma games in which average payoff is maximized by an intermediate mix of cooperators and defectors. For the other three mechanisms, the multilevel dynamics remain susceptible to a shadow of lower-level selection, as the collective outcome fails to exceed the payoff of the all-cooperator group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We address an assortment‐and‐cutting problem arising in the glass industry. The objective is to provide minimum waste solutions that are robust against such raw material imperfections as those possibly occurring with float glass production technology. The stochastic realization of defects is modeled as a spatial Poisson point process. A mixed integer program in the classical vein of robust optimization is presented and tested on data taken from a real plant application. Defective final products must in any case be discarded as waste but, if a recourse strategy is adopted, faults in glass sheets can sometimes be recovered. Closed forms for the computation of faulty item probabilities are provided in simple cases, and obtained via Monte Carlo simulation in more complex ones. The computational results demonstrate the benefits of the robust approach in terms of the reduction of back‐orders and overproduction, thereby showing that recourse strategies can enable nonnegligible improvements. Encouraged by this result, the management is presently evaluating the possibility of adopting the proposed model in plant operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider a supply chain where a single manufacturer sells multiple products via a single retailer who faces uncertain consumer demand for multiple variants in its assortment. First, we consider a model where the retailer is responsible for making assortment and stocking quantity decisions and bears the associated risks. Then, we consider a model where the retailer delegates assortment and stocking quantity decisions and the associated risks to the manufacturer. We investigate how delegation of operational decisions and associated costs impacts operational decisions and profitability of each member in the channel. Our findings suggest that delegation of operational decisions can lead to a win-win outcome for the retailer and manufacturer because delegation of operational decisions can serve as a tool to mitigate inefficiencies due to double marginalization in the channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online pharmacy services and online ordering of pharmaceutical products are in demand, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The problems of the purchase of pharmacy products through online orders in the Far Eastern Federal District were analyzed. Sociological survey of the population (n = 3789) was carried out. Spearman's Rank correlation coefficient was used. Drugs, dietary supplements, hygiene, and care items are most often purchased in online pharmacies. There is a correlation with the female sex, which may be related to care about family/loved people. The purchase of prescription drugs through e-pharmacies is also more often in demand among women and older patients. Among prescription drugs, the order of drugs used in the treatment of coronavirus infection and its complications (antibiotics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory, gastroenterological, and hormonal) is widespread. The problems of e-pharmacies identified due to the study are the lack of proper control over prescription drugs, low role of the pharmaceutical worker in compliance of the patient, and frequent refusals of Internet orders. It is necessary clarify the regulatory status of e-pharmacies and the role of pharmaceutical specialists in it, to reduce the possibility of error in the preparation and/or assembly of orders, to reduce the risk of the presence of defective goods. These ways can increase customer loyalty to this service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioural patterns often differ consistently across individuals and are linked to fitness. In species with biparental care, the defence behaviour of both parents can affect reproductive success through offspring survival. In addition to the intensity of defence behaviour by both pair members, the similarity in this behaviour among parents may affect offspring survival. However, few studies have investigated the relative impact of both the intensity and similarity of defence behaviour. Here, we examined nest defence behaviour of males and females during the incubation stage in an Arctic population of barnacle geese Branta leucopsis. We calculated the repeatability of defence behaviour to test whether this behaviour is consistent within individuals and investigated how it is associated with age. In addition, we investigated how daily survival rate (DSR) of the nests until hatching is associated with nest defence behaviour and age of the parents, as well as the effect of parent similarity in nest defence behaviour as an emergent trait of the pair bond. Both male and female defence behaviour were highly repeatable. The ages of both partners within breeding pairs were positively related, but age was only significantly associated with defence behaviour in females. Further, we found high similarity in defence behaviour within breeding pairs, but the similarity and intensity of defence behaviour within breeding pairs did not predict DSR. Finally, male defence behaviour positively predicted DSR, but female defence behaviour and male and female age did not. Our results suggest that nest protection is adaptive in males but behavioural similarity of pair members does not enhance nest survival, indicating behavioural similarity itself is not adaptive but rather a by‐product of different effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

3D printing, as a production technology, differs from conventional technologies in three characteristics: design freedom—that is, it can handle certain product designs that conventional technologies cannot; quality distinction—that is, depending on the focal quality dimension, it can lead to a quality level superior or inferior to that of conventional technologies; and natural flexibility—that is, it is endowed with capacity flexibility without sacrificing operational efficiency. This paper investigates the joint impact of these characteristics when a firm selects conceptual designs to form its product assortment, taking into account the production-technology choices available for each design: 3D printing and two conventional technologies (dedicated and traditional flexible). Some designs can be processed by using any technology (generic), whereas others are specific to 3D printing (3D-specific). The firm selects designs to be handled by each technology and then invests accordingly in technology adoption, product development, capacity, and production. We characterize the structure of the optimal assortment based on the popularity of each design. Within the sets of generic designs and 3D-specific designs, respectively, the most popular designs should be included in the assortment; under a mild condition, the optimal assortment comprises the most popular ones among all the designs. Within the optimal assortment, 3D printing should handle the less popular generic designs than conventional technologies. We further demonstrate that the design freedom or improved quality associated with 3D printing may reduce the firm's optimal product variety. In the absence of design freedom and quality distinction, natural flexibility by itself always enhances product variety; by contrast, traditional flexible technology may reduce product variety. Numerical study shows that 3D printing tends to be more valuable when popularities of the generic designs are distributed more evenly and when popularities of the 3D-specific designs are distributed less evenly. This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]