As an integrated part of a supply contract, trade credit has intrinsic connections with supply chain coordination and inventory management. Using a model that explicitly captures the interaction of ...firms’ operations decisions, financial constraints, and multiple financing channels (bank loans and trade credit), this paper attempts to better understand the risk-sharing role of trade credit—that is, how trade credit enhances supply chain efficiency by allowing the retailer to partially share the demand risk with the supplier. Within this role, in equilibrium, trade credit is an indispensable external source for inventory financing, even when the supplier is at a disadvantageous position in managing default relative to a bank. Specifically, the equilibrium trade credit contract is net terms when the retailer’s financial status is relatively strong. Accordingly, trade credit is the only external source that the retailer uses to finance inventory. By contrast, if the retailer’s cash level is low, the supplier offers two-part terms, inducing the retailer to finance inventory with a portfolio of trade credit and bank loans. Further, a deeper early-payment discount is offered when the supplier is relatively less efficient in recovering defaulted trade credit, or the retailer has stronger market power. Trade credit allows the supplier to take advantage of the retailer’s financial weakness, yet it may also benefit both parties when the retailer’s cash is reasonably high. Finally, using a sample of firm-level data on retailers, we empirically observe the inventory financing pattern that is consistent with what our model predicts.
This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management.
With the world’s population aging at a rapid rate, the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has significantly increased. These statistics are alarming given recent evidence that a third of dementia ...cases may be preventable. The role of lifestyle factors, such as diet and exercise, can directly alter the risk of disease development. However, an understanding of the effectiveness of dietary patterns and exercise strategies to reduce AD risk or improve brain function is not fully understood. The aim of this review is to discuss the effects of diet and exercise on AD risk. Key components of the Western and Mediterranean diets are discussed in relation to AD progression, as well as how physical activity promotes brain health. Components of the Western diet (saturated fatty acids and simple carbohydrates) are detrimental to the brain, impair cognition, and increase AD pathologies. While components of the Mediterranean diet (polyunsaturated fatty acids, polyphenols, and antioxidants) are considered to be neuroprotective. Exercise can significantly reduce the risk of AD; however, specific exercise recommendations for older adults are limited and optimal intensity, duration, and type remains unknown. This review highlights important modifiable risk factors for AD and points out potential avenues for future research.
Novelty Diet and exercise are modifiable factors that can improve brain health and reduce the risk of AD. Polyunsaturated fatty acids, polyphenols, and antioxidants are neuroprotective. Exercise reduces neuroinflammation, improves brain insulin sensitivity, and increases brain derived neurotrophic factor.
The acceleration of technological innovations is reshaping service industries, including the travel business. As competitive forces intensify, inbound tour operators face the challenge of adapting to ...both revolutionary technologies and business model innovations as they develop destination product offerings ushering a smarter tourism ecosystem. This paper explores how inbound tour operating businesses are being impacted by technology‐enabled innovations and proposes strategic responses to the disruptions affecting their businesses. The investigators addressed this gap through immersion in relevant industry communities involving participant observations and in‐depth interviewing. The authors examine prevailing and emerging models of inbound tour operations, drawing upon the service‐dominant logic framework and placing particular emphasis on value propositions. The present study formulates a comprehensive value co‐creation framework encompassing tourism industry stakeholders, which involves assessing their value propositions and creating focused R&D initiatives that are customized to market needs. It is essential to modularize in‐destination services to enable mass customization of travel experiences and to encourage value co‐creation that empowers travelers.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) has traditionally been discussed as a disease where serious cognitive decline is a result of A
-plaque accumulation, tau tangle formation, and neurodegeneration. Recently, it ...has been shown that metabolic dysregulation observed with insulin resistance and type-2 diabetes actively contributes to the progression of AD. One of the pathologies linking metabolic disease to AD is the release of inflammatory cytokines that contribute to the development of brain neuroinflammation and mitochondrial dysfunction, ultimately resulting in amyloid-beta peptide production and accumulation. Improving these metabolic impairments has been shown to be effective at reducing AD progression and improving cognitive function. The polyphenol resveratrol (RSV) improves peripheral metabolic disorders and may provide similar benefits centrally in the brain. RSV reduces inflammatory cytokine release, improves mitochondrial energetic function, and improves A
-peptide clearance by activating SIRT1 and AMPK. RSV has also been linked to improved cognitive function; however, the mechanisms of action are less defined. However, there is evidence to suggest that chronic RSV-driven AMPK activation may be detrimental to synaptic function and growth, which would directly impact cognition. This review will discuss the benefits and adverse effects of RSV on the brain, highlighting the major signaling pathways and some of the gaps surrounding the use of RSV as a treatment for AD.
The Supply Chain Effects of Bankruptcy Yang, S. Alex; Birge, John R.; Parker, Rodney P.
Management science,
10/2015, Letnik:
61, Številka:
10
Journal Article
Recenzirano
This paper examines how a firm’s financial distress and the legal environment regarding the ease of bankruptcy reorganization can alter product market competition and supplier–buyer relationships. We ...identify three effects—predation, bail-out, and abetment—that can change firms’ behavior from their actions in the absence of financial distress. The predation effect increases competition before potential bankruptcy as the nondistressed competitor behaves as if it has some first-mover advantage that could benefit a supplier with price control. The bail-out effect reflects the supplier’s incentive to grant the distressed firm concessions to preserve competition, improving supply chain efficiency and providing support for the exclusivity rule in Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code when the supplier and the distressed firm are financially linked. The abetment effect is that the supplier may deliberately abet the competitor’s predation, leading to increased operational disadvantages for the distressed firm before bankruptcy. Together these effects stress that a firm’s bankruptcy potential can hurt its competitors and benefit its suppliers/customers. They also provide guidelines for firms’ operational decisions in such situations, a rationale for observed firm actions surrounding bankruptcies, and motivation for policies supporting reorganization and relaxing broad enforcement of nondiscriminatory pricing regulations.
This paper was accepted by Serguei Netessine, operations management
.
Background
Protein disulfide isomerases a4 (Pdia4) is known to be involved in cancer development. Our previous publication showed that Pdia4 positively promotes cancer development via its inhibition ...of procaspase‐dependent apoptosis in cancer cells. However, nothing is known about its role in the cancer microenvironment.
Results
Here, we first found that Pdia4 expression in lung cancer was negatively correlated with patient survival. Next, we investigated the impact of host Pdia4 in stromal cells during cancer development. We showed that Pdia4 was expressed at a low level in stromal cells, and this expression was up‐regulated akin to its expression in cancer cells. This up‐regulation was stimulated by tumour cell‐derived stimuli. Genetics studies in tumour‐bearing wild‐type and Pdia4–/– mice showed that host Pdia4 promoted lung cancer development in the mice via cancer stroma. This promotion was abolished in Rag1–/– mice which lacked T and B cells. This promotion could be restored once T and B cells were added back to Rag1–/– mice. In addition, host Pdia4 positively regulated the number and immunosuppressive function of stromal cells. Mechanistic studies showed that host Pdia4 positively controlled the Stat3/Vegf pathway in T and B lymphocytes via its stabilization of activated Stat3 in a Thioredoxin‐like domain (CGHC)‐dependent manner.
Conclusions
These findings identify Pdia4 as a possible target for intervention in cancer stroma, suggesting that targeting Pdia4 in cancer stroma is a promising anti‐cancer approach.
Trade credit and supplier competition Chod, Jiri; Lyandres, Evgeny; Yang, S. Alex
Journal of financial economics,
02/2019, Letnik:
131, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
This paper examines how competition among suppliers affects their willingness to provide trade credit financing. Trade credit extended by a supplier to a cash constrained retailer allows the latter ...to increase cash purchases from its other suppliers, leading to a free rider problem. A supplier that represents a smaller share of the retailer’s purchases internalizes a smaller part of the benefit from increased spending by the retailer and, as a result, extends less trade credit relative to its sales. In consequence, retailers with dispersed suppliers obtain less trade credit than those whose suppliers are more concentrated. The free rider problem is especially detrimental to a trade creditor when the free-riding suppliers are its product market competitors, leading to a negative relation between product substitutability among suppliers to a given retailer and trade credit that the former provide to the latter. We test the model using both simulated and real data. The estimated relations are consistent with the model’s predictions and are statistically and economically significant.
Exercise has been shown to be beneficial for individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD). In rodent models of AD, exercise decreases the amyloidogenic processing of the amyloid precursor protein (APP). ...Although it remains unclear as to how exercise is promoting this shift away from pathological APP processing, there is emerging evidence that exercise-induced factors released from peripheral tissues may facilitate these alterations in brain APP processing. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is released from multiple organs into peripheral circulation during exercise and is among the most characterized exerkines. The purpose of this study is to examine whether acute IL-6 can modulate key enzymes responsible for APP processing, namely, a disintegrin and metalloproteinase 10 (ADAM10) and β-site amyloid precursor protein-cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1), which initiate the nonamyloidogenic and amyloidogenic cascades, respectively. Male 10-wk-old C57BL/6J mice underwent acute treadmill exercise bout or were injected with either IL-6 or a PBS control 15 min prior to tissue collection. ADAM10 and BACE1 enzyme activity, mRNA, and protein expression, as well as downstream markers of both cascades, including soluble APPα (sAPPα) and soluble APPβ (sAPPβ), were examined. Exercise increased circulating IL-6 and brain IL-6 signaling (pSTAT3 and
mRNA). This occurred alongside a reduction in BACE1 activity and an increase in ADAM10 activity. IL-6 injection reduced BACE1 activity and increased sAPPα protein content in the prefrontal cortex. In the hippocampus, IL-6 injection decreased BACE1 activity and sAPPβ protein content. Our results show that acute IL-6 injection increases markers of the nonamyloidogenic cascade and decreases markers of the amyloidogenic cascade in the cortex and hippocampus of the brain.
It is becoming evident that exercise modulates APP processing and can reduce amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptide production. Our data help to explain this phenomenon by highlighting IL-6 as an exercise-induced factor that lowers pathological APP processing. These results also highlight brain regional differences in response to acute IL-6.
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