China’s national centralized drug procurement policy, as a form of group purchasing, has successfully improved drug affordability and accessibility through significant price reductions. While prior studies have examined the long-term policy effects on pharmaceutical firms, critical gaps exist in understanding the immediate financial consequences for pharmaceutical firms, and how firm characteristics

Rail freight is vital for economic growth due to its efficiency and environmental benefits, but its lack of fixed schedules due to various delay factors poses challenges for accurate Expected Travel Time (ETT) predictions. This research addresses the need for real-time, accurate and dynamic ETT predictions crucial for maintaining efficient supply chains by developing a novel predictive model that leverages

This paper explores flight scheduling and pricing strategies for airlines under coopetition with high-speed rail (HSR) in intercity travel markets, considering the impact of potential delays and missed connections on passenger choices. A stochastic user equilibrium model is developed to account for the passenger route choices under travel time variability, security control delays, and competition with

The online food-ordering service industry experienced substantial growth due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Several online food delivery service (OFDS) providers enhanced their logistical capabilities and introduced instantdelivery choices (Instant OFDS)to improve customer experiences. However, research concerning the logistical factors that influence customers’ adoption of Instant OFDS is scarce. Therefore

This research introduces a blood distribution system under vendor-managed inventory that considers uncertain supply and demand. We present it as the Blood Stochastic Inventory Routing Problem, formulating it as a two-stage stochastic programming model. To solve this problem, this study proposes a three-stage matheuristic that combines a perturbation heuristic, Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search, and

The internet has entered the 3.0 era, significantly boosting the development of the gig economy. Gig work, as a flexible form of employment, is increasingly recognized as a vital component of the modern economy. However, research on the gig economy remains in its early stages, highlighting the need for a comprehensive conceptual framework to define the boundaries of this field and to identify potential

Bus holding control is a widely-adopted strategy for maintaining stability and improving the operational efficiency of bus systems. Traditional model-based methods often face challenges with the low accuracy of bus state prediction and passenger demand estimation. In contrast, Reinforcement Learning (RL), as a data-driven approach, has demonstrated great potential in formulating bus holding strategies

The surge in popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) has created a need for adaptable and flexible charging infrastructure. Intelligent Charging Robots (ICRs) have emerged as a promising solution to overcome issues faced by fixed charging stations, such as insufficient coverage, station occupancy, spatial constraints, and strain on the power grid. Nonetheless, optimizing the operational efficiency of

The cognitive unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication system has emerged as a pivotal technology in addressing the scarcity of spectral resources for UAV communications, but the jamming and eavesdropping attacks are severe due to the high-quality air-to-ground communication links. Consequently, this paper introduces a UAV-enabled cooperative jammer to disrupt the eavesdropping activities of active

Despite current policies, retailer hoarding continues to occur frequently during specific emergency situations, highlighting the significance of understanding the underlying mechanism. This study employs Stackelberg game models within a two-tier supply chain consisting of a supplier and a retailer to analyse their decisions during persistent emergencies. The models incorporate the interactions between

In major metropolitan areas, ride-sharing systems can help reduce traffic congestion and increase the transportation system’s efficiency. In this paper, we propose a Branch-and-Price based approach for solving the ride-share routing problem with flexible pickup and drop-off points. We assume a ride-sharing system where drivers have their own origins and destinations, where all the drivers’ and passengers’

The booking service, a key feature of autonomous public transport vehicle (APTV) systems, has been designed to introduce a new, real-time, on-demand, and reliable element to service improvement, similar to ride-hailing. However, the current APTV system has yet to fully realize the potential of a smart public transport service in optimizing the balance between supply and demand. This study proposes

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is increasingly viewed as a promising fuel for dual-fuel ships due to its cost-effectiveness, low emissions, and alignment with regulatory requirements. However, the high methane content of LNG, ranging from 85% to 95%, presents a significant challenge because of the phenomenon of methane slip whereby unburned methane escapes from the engine’s combustion chamber and other

Cycling on rural highways presents comfort and safety concerns due to the large speed differentials between bicyclists and automobiles. A shortcoming of the current operational methods for rural highways is the limited consideration of quality of service for non-motorized users. This research aims to determine which variables are most relevant to bicyclists cycling (or not) on rural highways and their

While large humanitarian organizations (HOs) such as the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot preposition relief items at strategic hubs during the preparedness phase, many local HOs procure relief supplies only after assessing beneficiaries’ needs in the response phase. This often leads to procurement and last-mile distribution challenges due to disrupted road infrastructure, coordination issues

As the scale of container shipping continuously increases driven by mega vessels and rising transportation demands, Automated Container Terminals (ACTs) have emerged as a promising solution to enhance operational efficiency, leveraging technologies such as automated guided vehicles (AGVs) for container transporting tasks. The AGV traffic within the transportation area, serving as a critical link between

The emerging modular autonomous vehicle (MAV) provides new opportunities to address the imbalance between supply and demand in the public transportation system. The continuous approximation (CA) model can efficiently solve the optimal time-varying headway of bus corridors, but the current CA model for MAV corridors does not consider the demand uncertainty, and its vehicle formation method still has

Vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication is the basis for vehicles to obtain information about the road ahead. The confidentiality and reliability of V2I communication guarantee traffic safety and smooth flow. Authenticated key agreement (AKA) is the most commonly used technique to establish secure communication channels. Signature-based AKA inevitably exposes the identity information of vehicles

The global ship recycling industry, dominated by South Asia, faces increasing scrutiny over environmental and safety practices. Simultaneously, a growing move away from coal in the run-up to 2050 will threaten coal ports, challenging them to diversify. This study explores the potential of embedding ship recycling into the transport geography of coal ports that are diversifying to circular economy hubs

Operational efficiency in last-mile logistics (LML) is often hindered by fluctuating e-commerce demand, unforeseen disruptions, and diverse stakeholders with evolving objectives. This paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Physical Internet hubs (PI-hubs) in addressing LML challenges by developing an intelligent multi-agent system (iMAS) that focuses on stakeholders’ interactions. In the iMAS

The road transportation contributes to a large portion of global carbon emissions each year. This carbon emission can be significantly reduced through collaboration among carriers. In this paper, a multi-round combinatorial double auction with both requests exchange and carbon emission permits trading is proposed for carrier collaboration, where each carrier may play a double role as both a seller