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This study evaluates market entry strategies of companies that execute sustainable supply chain management (SSCM). Those companies deal with environmentally and socially friendly goods and deliver the value to consumers. In this study, we assume a situation in which a pioneer company develops a market and another company enters the market as a late entrant, and evaluate strategies of the late entrant company. Four possible strategies are evaluated using agent-based simulation with a hypothetical scenario. From the simulation, findings such as each strategy works differently to market share increase and efficiency of the strategy is different are observed. These findings are useful for late entrants in deciding their market entry strategies.

This study proposes a collateral registration method of asset based lending (ABL) and evaluates parameters of supply chain management (SCM) operation that affect performance of ABL. Radio frequency identification has been deployed recently and there increases the application areas using its track and trace capability. ABL is one of them, in which company borrows money from financial service company (FSC) by using movable asset, such as inventory, as collateral. We proposed a registration method that is compatible to the current RFID standard, analyzed the SCM parameters that affect the loan condition of ABL, and summarized how companies design the SCM operation to take advantage of the financing scheme.

In any sensor information system, unique identification (ID) of each sensor is indispensable. Usual practices to secure uniqueness of sensor ID is to use MAC or network address or to use a proprietary ID in application layer. In pervasive computing era, it is desirable to uniquely identify a sensor with a URN regardless of types of network to which the sensor is connected. This paper proposes to embed a dual interface RF tag, which records a globally unique ID, EPC (Electronic Product Code), used in business transactions, to sensor microcontroller(MCU). The dual interface RF tag allows us to access its tag data either via RF interface and a baseband interface. This enables a sensor MCU to use EPC to uniquely identify the sensor for its whole product lifecycle. Since EPC have been only accessed through the RF interface, we developed a modified UPnP to automatically discover EPC enabled sensors through the baseband interface for various access networks. Taking advantage of the existing network RFID architecture, we can search services related to an EPC in a form of URL and also can publish and subscribe sensor data service with a standardized web service interface. This paper reports a hardware implementation of dual interface RF tag with a ZigBee transceiver. Timing requirement of RFID protocol to access RF tag's memory can be met by a software control of off-the-shelf MCU GPIO. A 96 bits EPC stored in an dual interface RF tag can be retrieved in 12.3 msec. For the automatic device discovery of an EPC enabled sensor attached to a ZigBee network, a modified UPnP is also developed. The proposal is implemented in a working prototype with 49 sensors which geographically dispersed in 3 locations which can continuously collect 181 sensor data for various applications. We also evaluated the minimum time interval to publish sensor data to find 300 msec is the shortest interval in our implementation. This interval is dominated by the communications capacity between sensor MCU and on-board transceiver chip.

The frequency of prescriptions given for various antihypertensive drugs (namely, calcium antagonists, beta-blocking drugs, diuretics, angiotension-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI), and alpha-antagonists) for outpatients with hypertension was studied for 1992, and compared with that for 1990 and 1988. In 1988, prescription of calcium antagonists was made most frequently, and further increased in 1990 and again in 1992. Prescription of diuretics decreased and that of ACEI increased in 1990 and again in 1992. The percentage of patients who were medicated by a single drug was 52% in 1988, and further increased in 1990 and again in 1992. Most of the patients were medicated by a single or two drugs in the three periods. In patients medicated by a single drug, prescription of calcium antagonists or ACEI increased in 1992, while that of diuretics decreased in 1992. Patients who received the drug three times a day decreased, and those twice a day increased in 1992. In conclusion, the frequency of the prescription of calcium antagonists and ACEI increased in 1992, and long-acting drugs were more frequently prescribed in the same year.

This study proposes RFID data analytics methods using consumer purchase behavior data as well as sales data. Consumer purchase behavior data, how consumers select or not select items at stores, has not been available, but with the progress of the radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, it becomes feasible to use it in a commercial basis. The proposed data analytics methods are two: one is to infer items that are compared to each other while customers select items at stores, and the other is to infer good combination items that can be used to stimulate sales of each other. We evaluate our proposal using real consumer purchase behavior data and sales data captured in an RFID pilot experiment. We confirm that the methods successfully infer the items that are useful to the retailer.

We present a stochastic model to infer a product quality index by using product traceability information. We propose a model by using Bayesian Network and apply it to the US pharmaceutical supply chain where regulations to mandate exchanging of traceability information for individual prescription drugs are being studied. In supply chains where traceability information of only a few products is available, consumers simply take the quality of products with traceability information is higher than those without traceability information. But when traceability information of many products becomes available, consumers need to understand the difference and choose the products that have a suitable quality for them. Our model can be used in this situation. We show that our model successfully differentiate product quality indices by using a numerical study with a hypothetical scenario.

We present a model to infer the location of assets in a supply chain network by using sparse traceability information. We also evaluate the model by a numerical study and get a result that the model successfully differentiate the probability of the location of the lost asset. The sparseness of the traceability information is a typical problem when an existing supply chain is migrating to an RFID-enabled one, and the lack of models that quantitatively show the value of sparse information delays this migration process. Our model is a solution to this situation. The target industry we focus on in this study is the returnable transport item rental service industry, in which RFID deployment has been already started. This model in conjunction with a simulator used to evaluate the model will be used as a tool to accelerate the deployment.

This paper discusses various techniques that may be used to combat counterfeiting in the pharmaceutical supply chain. These include the use of electronic pedigrees (to ensure the integrity of the supply chain), together with mass-serialization (to provide for a unique lifecycle history of each individual package) and authentication of the product (to check for any discrepancies in the various attributes of the product and its packaging are as intended for that individual package). Management of the pedigree process and product authentication is discussed in some detail, together with various other learnings from the Drug Security Network, including identification of some remaining vulnerabilities and suggestions for tightening these loopholes.

Threats in supply chains, such as counterfeiting, product piracy and product recall, are ubiquitous, and Japan is no exception to this trend. In addition, these threats are not limited to industrial products; supply chains of agricultural products are also under threat. In order to eliminate these threats, various efforts have been made, some of which are the applications enabled by the EPC System, a technology that connects the physical world with the information world. In this paper, we first analyze safe and secure supply chain issues in Japan and identify the fundamental issues through abstracting these issues. Then, we analyze how the EPC System works effectively to deal with these issues and propose potential research topics that can enhance the security level of supply chains. Although this study starts from issues in Japan, since those issues can be generalized, the analyses and proposals are applicable to issues in other countries/regions.

The modulation of gene selectivity of RNA polymerase is the key step in the bacterial response to environmental changes. The gene selectivity of RNA polymerase is modulated after interaction with seven species of sigma factor, the promoter recognition subunit, and a total of about 300 DNA-binding transcription factors in the second step. In order to get insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the global regulation of genome expression, our effort has been focused on the identification of genes and promoters under the control of each transcription factor. For this purpose, we have developed the 'Genomic SELEX' system, which allows the quick identification of DNA sequences recognized in vitro by transcription factors. Regulation in vivo of the target genes predicted after the 'Genomic SELEX' was examined by analysis of individual transcripts in the presence and absence of the test transcription factors. The regulated promoter activity was also examined using the newly constructed two-fluorescent-protein promoter assay vector pGRP. Results altogether indicate the involvement of complex networks between transcription factors and promoters in the global regulation of genome transcription.

This paper proposes SCM financial applications using RFID and shows the benefit of them by simulation. RFID is getting more attentions, and not only field trials but also commercial implementations are reported recently. Although the number of RFID implementations is increasing, many of current RFID implementations focus on SCM logistics application, and this single purpose implementation does not always make positive return on investment. The approach we propose is a multi-application approach, with which SCM financial applications utilize location data of corporate assets captured originally for SCM logistics applications. By sharing the same RFID system and utilizing the captured data with multiple applications, returns from the system will be amplified. We propose five SCM financial applications in three categories, evaluate the benefit of a proposed application by simulation with a hypothetical scenario, and show the feasibility of the proposed approach by developing a demo system.

The model bacterium, Escherichia coli, is able to survive under various stressful conditions in nature. From the complete genome sequence, about 4,400 genes are considered to exist on the genome. Selective and regulated expression of the genes is critical for bacterial adaptation to environment. Since the number of RNA polymerase, the enzyme responsible for transcription, is less than that of total genes, we proposed that the controlled distribution of RNA polymerase among 4,400 genes determines the genome expression pattern. In order to understand the molecular basis of genome regulation, we have been concerned with the analysis of all 300 transcription factors, which are involved in the functional modulation of RNA polymerase for switching the gene selectivity. For this purpose, we have performed the systematic search for target genes and promoters recognized by each transcription factor using the newly developed genomic SELEX system. Here we describe some results of this Multi-scale Genetics focusing on the protein-protein and protein-DNA interaction networks involved in the genome regulation. One hitherto undescribed finding is that the transcription factors form interplay networks, in which one transcription factor controls the expression of another factor and so on. The putative transcription factors with unidentified functions are often located on top of the hierarchy of transcription factor cascade. Such networks appear to be needed for stress response in nature.

One of the biggest challenges that the current manufacturers and retailers are facing is to manage huge varieties of short lifecycle items to meet various consumer preferences. This study proposes an inventory management policy with a demand forecasting algorithm. In this algorithm, the discrete probability distribution is assumed and the parameters to define the distribution are estimated dynamically so that it adapts demand pattern changes during the sales season. The proposal is evaluated with the sales data disclosed by a real company and shows that the policy successfully increases the expected profit of the company.

This paper presents a case study where service performance of a retailer can be improved not by directly measuring the service performance and solving problem; but by measuring a substitute performance indicator that corresponds to the service performance and solving the problem. As a substitute indicator, we choose a correlation coefficient between sold item distribution and sales floor inventory distribution. Since measuring service performance continuously in stores has lots of difficulties because of the nature of services, the services of the retailer have been difficult to improve. However, since the move of goods inside a store is captured easily by using automated data capturing (ADC) technologies, the service performance could be continuously improved if the goods traceability data is used for this purpose. In this study, we show the effectiveness of our approach with a radio frequency identification (RFID) application in a men's business shirt store of a department store.

RFIDに代表される自動認識技術を用いることで，これまで主にコンピュータ同士をつないでいたインターネットで，モノや人，場所をつなぐことができるようになる．この数年で急速な進展をとげてきたネットワーク型RFIDの技術と利用について解説する．

A sensor arrangement for an automatic piano player apparatus is provided. The sensor arrangement includes a plurality of switches which are operatively associated with a rotatable shutter in the hammer system of the automatic piano player. When the hammer system is operated to strike a string of the piano, the cooperation between the rotatable shutter and the switches produces output information which includes the string-striking intensity information and the state of condition information of the damper that is normally in contact with the piano string. With this information, the various play techniques such as staccato, legato, continuous key-striking and the like may be reproduced with great fidelity by the automatic piano player apparatus.

SmCo5 magnets and ferromagnetic alloy, which were recently developed, have been used to the removable prosthesis, but are not used to the fixed one. We have applied them as a retainer to the bridge pontic with the removable plate. This pontic have following advantage: 1. It is easy to clean and to alter the pontic lower area attached to the alveolar tissue. 2. It is a simple apparatus. Here we propound 2 typical cases with fine result.