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We analyse optimal pricing for a retailer that sells two products using a mixed price bundling strategy. We consider substitutable products, where there is a disutility associated with jointly consuming both products. Mixed price bundling implies that customers can freely choose to buy one of the two products, both of them, or neither of them. The retailer determines the price of each product when it is sold separately, the bundle discount if these two products are sold in a bundle, and the inventory levels for each product. We first derive the optimal price and bundle discount when the store traffic is deterministic. Our results show that the mixed bundling strategy is the most beneficial... 

This paper attempts to study the demand function of natural gas in Iran using smooth transition regression model (STR). To this end, gross domestic productions (GDP), real price of natural gas and temperature have been employed as variables explaining the natural gas demand from 1971 to 2009. The results indicate that natural gas demand follows an LSTR1 nonlinear two-regime model if the real price of natural gas is considered as the transition variable. Estimation results also indicate that the slope parameter approximately equals the high value of 10 and the threshold value is 31.82. Rials. 111 USD=24,700 Rials (IRR) at April 2013. per one cubic meter consumption of natural gas. The results... 

Excessive energy consumption is one of the serious problems of large cities in Iran. In order to avoid unreasonable growth in energy use as well as conservation of natural resources, more attention should be paid to energy consumption patterns in metropolitan cities. Accordingly, the current study aims at analyzing energy demand and its related pollutants in the household sector in Tehran Metropolitan. The study includes a discussion of past trends and future scenarios to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in this sector. Using LEAP software and according to Iran's long-term development policies, energy demand and its greenhouse gas emissions were evaluated based on a baseline scenario within a... 

In this study, the cost function of the defined system is derived first. Then, we prove this function is convex in the system's base stock level. Finally, based on the convexity of the cost function, the optimal solution for the base stock model is determined. For demonstrating the applicability of the proposed method, we resort to solving an example. © 2009 Asian Network for Scientific Information  

In this paper, we envision a solution to the problem of capturing an intruder in a product network. This solution is derived based on the assumed existing algorithms for basic member graphs of a graph product. In this problem, a team of cleaner agents are responsible for capturing a hostile intruder in the network. While the agents can move in the network one hop at a time, the intruder is assumed to be arbitrarily fast in a way that it can traverse any number of nodes contiguously as far as no agents reside in those nodes. Here, we consider a version of the problem where each agent can replicate new agents. Hence, the algorithm start with a single agent and new agents are created on demand.... 

The future of power systems known as smart grids is expected to involve an increasing level of intelligence and incorporation of new information and communication technologies in every aspect of the power grid. Demand response resources and gridable vehicle are two interesting programs which can be utilized in the smart grid environment. Demand response resources can be used as a demand side virtual power plant (resource) to enhance the security and reliability of utility and have the potential to offer substantial benefits in the form of improved economic efficiency in wholesale electricity markets. An economic model of incentive responsive loads is modelled based on price elasticity of... 

In the last decade, technological innovations have resulted in considering distributed generation with heat recovery capability in addition to centralised generation. This work aims to develop a comprehensive model analysing techno-economic parameters of energy supply in an office building. The energy model is developed on the basis of the reference energy system with the linear programming technique. The objective function is the annual value of total costs of the energy supply system. The results of the model for the building of Sharif Energy Research Institute indicate that the most appropriate generation technology is an internal combustion engine of 461 kW and a water boiler of 152 kW.... 

This paper discusses the interaction between one manufacturer and a single retailer in a channel in which both are willing to optimize their profit by adjusting pricing and advertising decisions. The manufacturer produces and sells a product at wholesale price to the retailer who in turn distributes it to consumers with retail price. The market demand is simultaneously affected by retail price, brand advertising of the manufacturer, and local advertising of the retailer. A Cobb-Douglas demand function is used to demonstrate the relationship between the parameters. Decision variables are two firms’ prices and their advertising investments. The problem is modelled under integrated policy and... 

Pricing is seen as a viable alternative to manage the demand for transportation facilities. While supply increase might aggravate the problem, pricing is envisaged to relieve large cities from adverse traffic effects (congestion and pollution, among others). Nevertheless, pricing has its own drawbacks, often overlooked by the operators of the networks. It will cause changes in the travel behavior of the different groups and their demands (shoppers, retailers, and even basic businesses/ employees). This paper presents an extensive review of the subject, and an equilibrium model to estimate the long–run effects of a cordon pricing scheme. The problem of designing a price for a Central Business... 

The ecotourism industry is one of the largest industries and has an important role in the economic social and cultural development of societies, especially in developing countries. Policymaking and planning procedures in this industry require the application of the methods that can appropriately model mutual and complex interactions and contacts. System dynamics is an accurate modeling method to simulate complex systems in a structured way and to design more effective policies by using these complex systems. In this study, the interactions and dynamics of the main components of ecotourism (effective variables) in the Taleghan area are modeled using system dynamics. To formulate and model... 

In this paper, the operation of a future distribution network is discussed under the assumption of a multi-carrier microgrid (MCMG) concept. The new model considers a modern energy management technique in electricity and natural gas networks based on a novel demand side management (DSM) which the energy tariff for responsive loads are correlated to the energy input of the network and changes instantly. The economic operation of MCMG is formulated as an optimization problem. In conventional studies, energy consumption is optimized from the perspective of each infrastructure user without considering the interactions. Here, the interaction of energy system infrastructures is considered in the... 

Common characteristics of inventory systems include uncertain demand and restrictions such as budgetary or storage space constraints. Several authors have examined budget constrained multi-item stochastic inventory systems controlled by continuous review policies without considering marginal shortage costs. Existing models assume that purchasing costs are paid at the time an order is placed, which is not always the case since in some systems purchasing costs are paid when orders arrive. In the latter case the maximum investment in inventory is random since the inventory level when an order arrives is a random variable. Hence payment of purchasing costs on delivery yields a stochastic budget... 

As a problem, generally, energy security components do not interfere with the calculation of the optimal energy supply situation. Energy security indices so-called ‘passive indices’ cannot illustrate comprehensive optimal situation. In this paper, we are looking to find a solution to make a framework of the impact of energy security on energy supply in order to obtain comprehensive analysis of the economic optimal point. Method is based on the competition of energy costs to meet demand during the study period. Threats that have been addressed in the energy security are seen as risky and stochastic parameters in the model. The nature of these parameters is of uncertainty type, therefore,... 

Customers participating in demand response programs known as active customers provide significant flexibility in demand, thereby causing a meaningful reduction in customer interruption cost (CIC) during critical periods. This letter illustrates the impact on the amount of CIC of active customers' flexible demand realized by smart grid technologies. The focus of this letter is on residential electricity use. The study is applied to actual data from Kainuu, Finland  

Advancements in smart grid technologies have made it possible to apply various options and strategies for the optimization of demand response (DR) in electricity markets. DR aggregation would accumulate potential DR schedules and constraints offered by small- and medium-sized customers for the participation in wholesale electricity markets. Despite various advantages offered by the hourly DR in electricity markets, practical market tools that can optimize the economic options available to DR aggregators and market participants are not readily attainable. In this context, this paper presents an optimization framework for the DR aggregation in wholesale electricity markets. The proposed study... 

We develop an integrated vendor-buyer model for a two-stage supply chain. The vendor manufactures the product and delivers it in a number of equal-sized batches to the buyer. The items delivered are presented to the end customers in a display area. Demand is assumed to be positively dependent on the amount of items displayed. The objective is to maximize total supply chain profit. The numerical analysis shows that buyer-vendor coordination is more profitable in situations when demand is more stock dependent. It also shows that the effect of double marginalization provides a link between the non-coordinated and the coordinated case  

The purpose of this research is to provide power grid energy efficiency solutions. In this paper, a comprehensive review and its optimal solution is proposed considering the various challenges of smart grid demand-side management. The main technique is based on a novel idea in the Smart Grid—demand response optimization which enables autonomous energy management on the demand side for a wide variety of customers. The first section of this research examines the smart grid issue and evaluates the state-of-the-art load management techniques in terms of the work’s scope. The demand-side load management architecture consists of three primary levels, two of them in line planning and low-cost...