Universal Periodic Review

The United Nations (UN) human rights regime plays a crucial role in establishing international norms, protecting fundamental freedoms, and holding states accountable for human rights violations. This paper examines the greatest successes and failures of the UN human rights system. Among its achievements, the establishment of treaty-monitoring bodies, the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), and fact-finding missions have strengthened global accountability and provided legal foundations for addressing human rights abuses. However, significant failures persist, such as the inability to prevent the Rwandan genocide, the lack of effective measures to address the oppression of Uyghur Muslims in China, and the failure to secure meaningful protection for Palestinian rights. While the UN has made progress in promoting human rights awareness and advocacy, structural weaknesses in implementation and enforcement remain key challenges. Despite these shortcomings, the UN human rights system continues to serve as a vital mechanism for global human rights protection, fostering awareness and inspiring states to uphold human dignity.

This Paper addresses how the United Nations system can improve state accountability for the implementation of international human rights law and standards, to bring about increased respect for the realisation of human rights at a country level.
The dissertation investigates how the human rights of minorities are protected under the international human rights system and it provides an overview of the international framework of laws and standards that can be used in practice to protect and promote minority rights.
The United Nations human rights system is often labelled as one that provides rights without also providing for their delivery, including to those who most need them at a country level.
This research provides an analysis of how the current human rights structures within the United Nations, can encourage state accountability to improve their implementation of human rights standards, including for minorities.
It assesses the contribution of the Security Council and the Human Rights Council in the promotion, implementation and enforcement of human rights standards.
It considers country voting patterns in the Human Rights Council to assess the impact of not free and partly free countries and also regional groups on its effectiveness and outputs. 
It assesses the follow up of human rights law and standards by the UN’s specific human rights mechanisms including its Treaty Bodies, Special Procedures and Universal Periodic Review.

The research reveals both progress and gaps in public service provision for marginalized and deprived communities in Bangladesh. Despite having progressive laws and policies to build more inclusive governance system in provision of public services and while there have been improvements in areas like education and livelihood, public services, especially in rural areas, remain inadequate for minority groups, women, persons with disabilities, and youth. Barriers such as geographical, physical, economic, social, and cultural challenges continue to limit access. To create a more equitable and  responsive system, inclusive policies, infrastructure development, and capacity building are essential.  Urgent action from policymakers, service providers, and civil society is needed to ensure these groups have equal access to necessary services.

This paper examines contemporary debates on human rights in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with a specific focus on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. It explores key areas of contention, including freedom of expression, women's rights, religious minorities, and state-led restrictions on civil liberties. Drawing upon scholarly literature, legal frameworks, and international human rights instruments, the study provides a critical analysis of the sociopolitical dynamics shaping human rights practices in these countries. The paper also highlights methodological approaches, the significance of research in this field, and limitations affecting the study's scope.

We propose a new formulation for controlling inventory in a two-echelon distribution system consisting of one warehouse and multiple non-identical retailers. In such a system, customer demand occurs based on a normal distribution at the retailers and propagates backward through the system. The warehouse and the retailers have a limited capacity for keeping inventory and if they are not able to fulfill the demand immediately, the demand will be lost. All the locations review their inventory periodically and replenish their inventory spontaneously based on a periodic Randomized Ordering (RO) policy. The RO policy determines order quantity of each location in each period by subtracting corresponding on-hand inventory at the beginning of that period from a deterministic decision variable. We propose a mathematical model to find the optimal RO policies such that an average systemwide cost consisting of ordering, holding, shortage, and surplus costs is minimized. We use the first and second moments of on-hand inventory as auxiliary variables. A remarkable advantage of this model is calculating the immediate fill rate of all locations without adding new variables and facing the curse of dimensionality. Using two numerical examples with stationary and nonstationary demand settings, we validate and evaluate the proposed model. For validation, we simulate the optimal RO policy and demonstrate that the optimal first and second moments of on-hand inventory from our model reasonably follow the corresponding moments obtained through simulation. Furthermore, we evaluate the RO policy by drawing a comparison between the optimal RO policy and the optimal well-known policy. The results confirm that the RO policy could outperform ( ) policy in terms of the average systemwide annual cost.

The Constitution is the highest law of a country, through which a state is governed. The confidence of the people is seen in the constitution. Never come back; the people of the public should return to the people.Because all the power in the state is the only public.

Human rights violations are contemporary occurring in conflict environments and remain a critical worldwide issue because they affect peace stability and both national and international security along with development. The article assesses human rights conditions in Pakistan along Bangladesh because both face lengthy military conflicts coupled with continuous political instability. The research bases its analysis on case studies from these nations to demonstrate civilian hardships and determine how states and non-state entities operate as well as international relief measures. Robust legal frameworks concurrently with accountability mechanisms and humanitarian interventions require the establishment of methods to guard human rights in regions affected by conflict. Human rights study uses the following terms: conflict zones and their influence on Pakistan and Bangladesh alongside state violence and international protocols.

Indigenous communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh contend with multifaceted governance challenges, including representation, resource allocation, and access to services. This paper investigates the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to address these issues and foster inclusive governance practices in the region. Grounded in the following research questions: 1) How are Indigenous communities currently governed in the CHT, and what are the primary challenges they face? 2) What are the opportunities and challenges of leveraging AI to enhance governance in the CHT? 3) How do Indigenous communities perceive the role of AI in governance, and what are their expectations and concerns? the study adopts a self-directed research approach, employing interviews, surveys, and online research to gather insights. Through a synthesis of existing literature and empirical findings, the paper identifies key considerations for deploying AI in governance contexts, including ethical implications, community engagement strategies, and capacity-building initiatives. The research underscores the importance of centering Indigenous perspectives and promoting participatory approaches in the design and implementation of AI-driven governance solutions. By shedding light on the intersection of AI and Indigenous governance, this study contributes to the discourse on technology and social justice, offering practical insights for policymakers, researchers, and practitioners seeking to advance inclusive development agendas in marginalized regions.

This paper is concerned with the receding horizon control of the production rate of a deteriorating production system with a nonlinear inventory-level-dependent demand. Both continuous and periodic review policies are discussed and numerical illustrations are provided.

This paper is concerned with the receding horizon control of the production rate of a deteriorating production system with a nonlinear inventory-level-dependent demand. Both continuous and periodic review policies are discussed and numerical illustrations are provided. .

A new frontier in the sociology of globalization, law and markets is the study of global scripts, the articulation of global norms in formal written documents. This focus has been directed primarily to single sets of scripts authorized by single international organizations that seek to solve a problem or set standards predominantly for a well-defined single issue-area within states. This paper seeks to expand this frontier by the study of global scripts in cases where there are multiple scripts issued by diverse international organizations (IOs) that apply norms to messy issue-areas within states. Our empirical site for exploratory research is the effort by diverse IOs to appeal to varieties of global scripts on physical, legal, social and political harms that result from a lack of basic legal freedoms in both liberal and illiberal polities. We undertook a content analysis of 1310 documents, released by eight IOs between the years 2015-2018, that invoke 152 global scripts to monitor and critique harms in six countries (China, Egypt, Sudan, US, France, India). The paper reports initial findings that: (1) transnational and global monitoring by IOs reaches to heterogenous bundles of physical, legal, social and political harms in all six countries, with special reference to China and Egypt; (2) To hold states accountable, IOs appeal to a dense collection of global and regional scripts, numbering more than 150, that appear to cover the spectrum of harms; (3) The global scripts vary by institutional authority and legitimacy claims and by scope of geographical reach and universality; (4) The global scripts are expressed through a repertoire of formal properties; (5) There is both convergence on a small number of master global scripts and differentiation by IO missions.

Severe crackdowns on freedom of expression and peaceful assembly continued to be reported, including police use of excessive or unnecessary force to suppress protests. The rights of workers and ethnic and religious minorities were under threat.

The following article looks into the newly created Universal Periodic Review, a mechanism for the evaluation of the human rights situation of all United Nations State members, briefly explaining the origin of the Universal Periodic Review, as well as the objectives it pursues, the principles that guide the process and the different stages of carrying out the review itself. The article also refers to the experiences of three countries that were reviewed under during, namely, Brazil, South Africa and Poland, in order to illustrate how the Universal Periodic Review operates in practice, thereby attempting to give the reader a basic understanding of why this new mechanism was created, how it is structured, its innovations and intention to correct both problems and flaws of the past and the transition of the review from paper to practice.

The child should be fully prepared to live as an individual in society, embodying the principles of peace, dignity, resilience, freedom, justice, and unity." (From the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) "Throughout history, children's rights have been neglected and underutilized. Article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) defines a child as an individual under the age of eighteen, unless majority is acquired earlier under the law applicable to the child."(Streuli, Michel, et al. 2011) Children's rights are referred to as "rights that pertain to safeguarding the individual child and

Este trabajo se enfoca en el análisis estadístico de las corrientes migratorias extranjeras que entraron por el principal puerto mexicano, Veracruz, entre 1825-1848. Las variables consideradas son el nombre, la nacionalidad, el sexo, la edad, el estado civil, la profesión, el centro de destino, el motivo de llegada y las recomendaciones de los pasajeros extranjeros.

Hi-tech companies that want to innovate their products use, quite often, and quite naturally, technology as a driver. But, technology is only one of several drivers of change within product development. It is becoming more and more accessible and alone, cannot serve as the only mean to stay competitive. This research sheds light on a different driver of innovation � namely, through the perspective of "meaning". An innovation, driven by the search for a new meaning of a product, is connected to the purpose of "why" a product is used. It is not about "how" it is used. Thanks Sundbyholm, a frosty October day, 2012 More than three years ago I decided to jump on a boat and sail away to learn more. I could never have imagined what an undertaking this adventure would be. When I look back now, I do not really see how I managed to stay inside this boat when everything around was turning upside down. If I knew then what I know now, I would perhaps have never embarked on this challenging but also intriguing voyage. At that moment, though, I was curious and full of energy, eager to explore. When I look back, these have been the most intense years in my life. People who know me have met a many times frustrated, tired and o-course sailor, but also at other times, a cheerful and optimistic one. ere have been many hard and painful moments. But also good ones. I would never have made it if it had not been for my friend and inspiring colleague, Roberto Verganti, who has been not only my long-time teammate, but also my supervisor in the later stages of this research. anks for always believing in me, listening patiently to my wonderings, worries and doubts. anks for your faith through vått och torrt. anks for caring in so many ways, both for me and my family. Namaste. anks also to my co-supervisors, Tomas Backström and Inger Orre, who gave me much food for thought in the later stages of this research. An important decision I made was to move into the rooms of the research school at IDT, at Mälardalen University. I have met so much warmth, so much friendship and so much consideration there. anks, to my room mate Anders Wikström who has a smile that livens my spirits. anks, to Petra Edo for being so inspiring, to Anna Granlund for believing in me, to Narges Asadi for her caring. anks, Daniel Gåsvaer for always listening, to Joakim Eriksson for helping me since day 1, and to Erik Hellström for his jokes! You have all witnessed me in my worst moments, and always supported me with all your hugs. One warm hug to each of you. I also want to thank the DEVIP team who listened, even if critically, to all of my ideas. Especially anks to Janne Brandt who always supported me, and to my PhD-colleagues Anders Wikström and Jennie Andersson Schae er for sharing thoughts and photo-sessions. When is the next? I have also learnt that much of interest happens in the corridors and kitchen of IDT. Here, I have exchanged ideas with Carina Söderlund (Andersson), Carina Sjödin, Ulrika Florin, Erik Lindhult and Annette Strömberg. anks for always giving me energy, support and understanding. anks also to Hasse Henningsson for being so helpful and always cheering me up. A special ank you to Caroline Runius and Lisa Kilestad who left MDH but always made, and still make me feel good. I am so happy I know you, clever girls! Also, anks to the little group of students in the Innovation master class for listening to my confused ideas and reading my strange writing. Especially anks to Torbjörn Johansson who is so engaged and positive! I also want to thank the students in my rst course in Design Management, who encouraged 9 me when a bit confused and lonely in my struggles. anks to my former colleague Katarina Wetter Edman for her smile, thoughts and encouragement early in my research and to Marcus Jahnke for being so inspiring. A special ank you also to Ulla Johansson who presented the course and with it, a challenge early on. anks for making me think in new ways. I have also come to know some very warm and good people from Politecnico di Milano when working abroad. "Mille grazie" to Naiara Altuna for her smile and energy and to Tommaso Buganza for being inspiring and giving me con dence. I hope we will have the opportunity to continue our work together! At times during this journey, I have been extremely tired, feeling totally lost, like a sailor without a compass. In these moments, many of my friends have been there to support me. anks to Jenny, Anna and Camilla for all those nights of long discussions, laughter, tears and joy. You are very important to me. An extra ank you to Jenny Cormier for the photo-sessions in the nishing phase of this thesis. e cocktail will be yours soon, I promise you! And to Caroline Runius for your advice on the nal layout. anks to Vic Miller for the careful editing of my text, to Olle Bergman for keeping an eye on the Swedish text, and to Ove Larsson at the printing o ce for being so patient. A long warm hug to Karin Höckerdal who read the whole manuscript and gave such great feed back! I am so grateful for having had you around, during both hours of work and all the running, skiing and yoga sessions. anks, for always hugging me. I also want to show my appreciation to the cheerfully helpful librarians at MDH in Eskilstuna and to the café girls next door for accepting me in all my absent-minded moments. I promise to be more present from now on! A warm anks to my parents for your support and caring. anks for all the relaxing family dinners when we have been tired and hungry. anks to my sister Karin, for listening, for all the welcome co ee breaks and for providing me with suitable shoes for conferences. You are very sweet. anks to my brother-in-law, Christian, for being such a cool model, hope you like the result! A warm anks to my parents-in-law who always make me feel welcome, no matter the circumstances. anks for caring for us all, for giving me a chance to rest, for being so great grandparents for the girls.

Control of inventory in production and operation systems is very important for better management and utilization of resources. In this paper, the optimal control of a periodic-review inventory system with items deterioration is considered. We are concerned with the problem of determining the production rate that minimizes a certain cost function. We deal with both cases where the deterioration coefficient is known and unknown. In the case where it is unknown, the recursive least squares algorithm is used to estimate this parameter. The main control objective is to maintain the inventory at a desired level in spite of the unknown model parameter and variable demand. The self-tuning optimal control is presented and the effectiveness of the proposed control algorithm is illustrated by simulation.

This paper attempts to discuss the conflict between the liberal doctrine of Universal Human Rights and cultural relativism from the view point of development and human security in Asia. Using the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a reference point it discusses the levels of conflict between human rights standard and cultural differences in developing Asia, particularly in their pathways of economic and social development. It also discusses the criticisms about universal human rights doctrine from a Relativist point of view and responses from a Universalist approach. This essay aims to consider various claims about ‘Asian Values’ made in relation to development and human rights to find the Asian way of promoting human development and security. From the theoretical discussions and case studies of Asia, what becomes clear is that the Universal Human Rights doctrine does not have to be abandoned on the grounds of cultural diversity and development. Therefore, for promoting develo...

In the 20th century, the women's issue in Azerbaijan
realised the most important directions of its formation, both
on socio-political and legal grounds. In the 21st century,
President Ilham Aliyev's decrees and orders reflecting
creativity ensured gender strategy in the country. President
Ilham Aliyev's February 2017 decree was the culmination of
the gender policy not only in the region but also in Eastern
and Eurasian space. For the first time, the First Vice
President, as well as the first female high status in Eurasia,
became an example of gender history. This appointment was
the highest Supreme Court status of the path of equal rights
from the period of the Republic to the present day, the
highest peak of the women's policy strategy of the state
institution founded by the Great Leader Heydar Aliyev. Mrs.
Mehriban Aliyeva's multifaceted and large-scale activity is
also a clear example of gender balance in society.

This article explores civil society organizations’ (CSOs) views on the contemporary situation of LGBT+people in Bangladesh. It is a lacuna requiring attention because of the country’s poor and deteriorating equality and human rights record. Here we analyse the level of attention to prevailing human rights violations and apply critical frame analysis to the corpus of CSOs’ submissions to the United Nations third cycle Universal Periodic Review (UPR), 2013–2018. These reveal how a series of key pathologies—including, violence, intimidation and discrimination—affect the lives of LGBT+people. The wider significance of this study lies in highlighting that, while not a replacement for justiciable rights, the discursive processes offered by the UPR are of key significance in seeking to advance LGBT+rights in countries like Bangladesh where oppression combines with extremism and political elites’ refusal to embrace equality in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation.

The information provided in this course manual is by the Course Coordinator Prof. Rashmi Raman. The following information contains the official record of the details of the course. This information shall form part of the University database and may be uploaded to the KOHA Library system and catalogued and may be distributed amongst ____ year Law students for B.A.

The Head of the Afghan delegation underlined the importance of the UPR system and reiterated Afghanistan's commitment towards the principles of human rights. In the State's report, Afghanistan underlined the steps taken to develop a strategy aimed to ensure transparency and accountability. Among these measures, Afghanistan had adopted a new Penal Code aimed, inter alia, to limit the use of death penalty and to provide protection against arbitrary detention and honour killings. Notably, some recommendations concerned the abolition of death penalty. Moreover, the State's report focused on the efforts undertaken by the country to increase women's participation in the public sphere and counter gender-based violence and discrimination. With regard to human rights treaties, Afghanistan reported that it had incorporated provisions related to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment of Punishment into the new Penal Code and ratified the Conventions Optional Protocol. Afghanistan highlighted also its commitment and advancement in the area of access to education and health care. Furthermore, the State reported its commitment to improve security and end conflict, including through the peace process. During the UPR process, Afghanistan received 258 recommendations, 235 of which were accepted. Several States expressed concern for violence against women and repression against journalists. Other States commended Afghanistan for the improvements in the legislation and encouraged the country to progress with the peace talks. Documents needs of Brunei people. As an example, Brunei had adopted a national education plan and invested greatly in health-related services, including free vaccinations and pre-natal screening. Brunei's report also underlined the role of women in the country's development, pointing out the progress made by the State in achieving gender equality in areas such as education and economic participation.

Prispevek, ki temelji na kritični analizi nekaj sociološke teoretske literature o globalizaciji, skuša odgovoriti na dve vprašanji. Prvo se nanaša na pojmovanje zgodovinskih razsežnosti globalizacije, drugo pa na opredelitev odnosov med pojmoma globalizacija in modernizacija. V središču odgovora na prvo vprašanje je ugotovitev, da je za znaten del socioloških raziskav značilno podcenjevanje zgodovinskih razsežnosti globalizacije. V odgovoru na drugo vprašanje pa je najpomembnejša ugotovitev, da sta "tradicionalni" sociološki pojem modernizacije in modni pojem globalizacije nerazdružljivo povezana. To pomeni, da so sedanje sociološke razprave o globalizaciji v veliki meri nadaljevanje - sicer pogosto s pomočjo nove terminologije - velike sociološke debate o modernizaciji in njenih prihodnostih.Analysing some recent sociological literature on globalisation, the paper tries to answer two questions. The first question is related to the conceptualisation of the temporal dimensi...

Purpose: One challenge in inventory control models is to know the stock available at the beginning of the cycle to satisfy future demands, i.e. to know the on-hand stock levels at order delivery. For inventory managers, this knowledge is necessary to both determine service levels and establish the control parameters of the inventory policy. However, the calculation of on-hand stock levels when unfilled demand is lost is mathematically complex since on-hand stock cannot be negative by definition. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new approach to estimate on-hand stock levels when the inventory is periodically reviewed and unfilled demand is lost, through the use of fuzzy techniques.Design/methodology/approach: This paper applies fuzzy set techniques for the calculation of the on-hand stock levels at order delivery in the lost sales context, based on the uncertainty that real demand introduces. To this end, we propose a new approach based on modeling the on-hand stock as an im...

La mise en place de l'examen périodique universel constitue l'innovation majeure de la réforme de 2006 au terme de laquelle fut créé le Conseil des droits de l'homme des Nations Unies, en remplacement de la Commission des droits de l'homme. Mécanisme ambitieux d'examen de la situation des droits de l'homme au sein de l'ensemble des Etats membres des Nations Unies, il n'en demeure pas moins soumis à de véritables défis conditionnant sa réussite. S'il est trop tôt pour tirer des conclusions définitives, les premières sessions qui se sont tenues à Genève au cours de l'année 2008 fournissent déjà certains enseignements.

This paper aimed to ascertain parental evidence of impact of policy on worst forms of child labour (WFCL) in rural and urban Ghana amongst 460 participants: I utilised 400 survey participants whose children were/were not involved in child labour and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical techniques and applying the Stata Version 13 software. I also utilised 60 government officials; NGO representatives; and both parents whose children were/were not involved in child labour. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents (10), stakeholders (10), focus groups (30); and participant observation techniques (10) were utilised to gather the needed data and purposively sampled across rural areas (Ankaase, Anwiankwanta and Kensere), and urban areas (Jamestown, Korle Gonno and Chorkor) in Ghana. Interviews were recorded, transcribed utilising a framework approach as the main qualitative data analysis method. Parental evidence suggests that new laws, legislative reforms,...

Purpose: One challenge in inventory control models is to know the stock available at the beginning of the cycle to satisfy future demands, i.e. to know the on-hand stock levels at order delivery. For inventory managers, this knowledge is necessary to both determine service levels and establish the control parameters of the inventory policy. However, the calculation of on-hand stock levels when unfilled demand is lost is mathematically complex since on-hand stock cannot be negative by definition. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new approach to estimate on-hand stock levels when the inventory is periodically reviewed and unfilled demand is lost, through the use of fuzzy techniques.Design/methodology/approach: This paper applies fuzzy set techniques for the calculation of the on-hand stock levels at order delivery in the lost sales context, based on the uncertainty that real demand introduces. To this end, we propose a new approach based on modeling the on-hand stock as an im...

This paper focuses on computing on-hand stock levels at the beginning of a replenishment cycle for a lost sales inventory system with periodic reviews and discrete demand. A base-stock policy is used for replenishments. The literature provides an Exact method which requires a huge computational effort, and two closed-form approximate methods that arise from the backordering case, the Non-stockout and the Bijvank&Johansen. In this paper we propose three new and closed-form approaches that explicitly consider the lost sales assumptions: the Adjusted Non-stockout, the Polar Opposite and the 1-Step methods. Existing and proposed methods are evaluated in terms of their accuracy when computing the cycle service level and the fill rate. In this sense, results show that the Bijvank&Johansen and 1-Step methods provide similar performance but present different behaviours in terms of under or over estimating service measures that have different implications on the design of stock policies.

The fill rate is usually computed by using the traditional approach, which calculates it as the complement of the quotient between the expected unfulfilled demand and the expected demand per replenishment cycle, instead of directly the expected fraction of fulfilled demand. Furthermore the available methods to estimate the fill rate apply only under specific demand conditions. This paper shows the research gap regarding the estimation procedures to compute the fill rate and suggests: (i) a new exact procedure to compute the traditional approximation for any discrete demand distribution; and (ii) a new method to compute the fill rate directly as the fraction of fulfilled demand for any discrete demand distribution. Simulation results show that the latter methods outperform the traditional approach, which underestimates the simulated fill rate, over different demand patterns. This paper focuses on the traditional periodic review, base stock system when backlogged demands are allowed.

Purpose: One of the most usual indicators to measure the performance of any inventory policy is the mean stock level. In the generalized base stock, periodic review policy, the expected mean stock during the replenishment cycle is usually estimated by practitioners and researchers with the traditional Hadley-Whitin approximation. However it is not accurate enough and exact methods suggested on the related literature focus on specific demand distributions. This paper proposes a generalized method to compute the exact value of the expected mean stock to be used when demand is modelled by any uncorrelated, discrete and stationary demand pattern. Design/methodology/approach: The suggested method is based on computing the probability of every stock level at every point of the replenishment cycle for which it is required to know the probability of any stock level at the beginning of the cycle and the probability transition matrix between two consecutive periods of time. Furthermore, the traditional Hadley-Whitin approximation is compared with the proposed exact method over different discrete demand distributions Findings: This paper points out the lack of accuracy that the Hadley-Whitin approximation shows over a wide range of service levels and discrete demand distributions.

The paper proposes a method to compute the exact cycle service level for (s, Q) continuous review policy in the presence of undershoots and discrete demand in the discrete time domain. Prior to this, it is necessary to review the definition of the cycle service level in order to avoid the problems that can be found when applied it to the periodic review policy. Therefore, the aim of this paper is: (a) to review the definitions of the cycle service level when applied to continuous review policies; (b) to develop an exact calculation method of the CSL for a continuous review policy when undershoots are allowed and demand is discrete; and (c) to examine some common believes about the cycle service properties. Finally, the bias obtained when the service cycle level is estimated applying the common assumption of neglecting undershoots at the order point is illustrated with some numerical examples which show that it may lead to significant deviations to be ignored.

The primary goal of this paper is the development of a generalized method to compute the fill rate for any discrete demand distribution in a periodic review policy. The fill rate is defined as the fraction of demand that is satisfied directly from shelf. In the majority of related work, this service metric is computed by using what is known as the traditional approximation, which calculates the fill rate as the complement of the quotient between the expected unfulfilled demand and the expected demand per replenishment cycle, instead of focusing on the expected fraction of fulfilled demand. This paper shows the systematic underestimation of the fill rate when the traditional approximation is used, and revises both the foundations of the traditional approach and the definition of fill rate itself. As a result, this paper presents the following main contributions: (i) a new exact procedure to compute the traditional approximation for any discrete demand distribution; (ii) a more suitable definition of the fill rate in order to ignore those cycles without demand; and (iii) a new standard procedure to compute the fill rate that outperforms previous approaches, especially when the probability of zero demand is substantial. This paper focuses on the traditional periodic review, order up to level system under any uncorrelated, discrete and stationary demand pattern for the lost sales scenario.

With the adoption of a service-oriented paradigm on the Web, many software services are likely to fulfil similar functional needs of the end-users. We propose in this paper to aggregate functionally equivalent software services within one single virtual service, that is an association of a functionality, a graphical user interface (GUI), and a set of selection rules. When an end-user invokes such virtual service through its GUI to answer his/her functional need, the software service that better answer to the end-user selection policy is selected and executed, and the result is then rendered to the end-user through the GUI of the virtual service. A key innovation in this paper is the flexibility of the service selection policy we propose. First, each selection policy can refer to heterogeneous parameters (e.g. service price, end-user location, and QoS). Second, additional parameters can be added to an existing or new policy with little investment. Third, it is the enduser who defines which selection policy to apply during the selection process, thanks to the GUI element added as part of the virtual service design. This approach has been validated by designing, implementing, and testing an end-to-end architecture, including the implementation of several virtual services, and considering several software services available today in the Web.

, reze, inovacije in, čeprav morda nevidno, tudi nove emancipatorne potenciale, ki jih je moč doseči le če, kot pravi Badiou (2004: 15), politiko osvobodimo tiranije zgodovine in jo kot tako vrnemo razsežnosti dogodka. 8 Ravno kot takega je dogodek potrebno razumeti, »ker se odločitev bistva politike ne more opreti ne na strukturo (nekonsistentnost množic, raz-veza [dé-liaison]) ne na smisel (Zgodovina ni vsa), se lahko orientira le po dogodku. Dogodkovni 'obstaja' [il y a], vzet v njegovi naključnosti, je prav tisti kraj, kjer je treba obmejiti bistvo politike« (Badiou 2004: 47). Ali dogodek, kot ga definira Deleuze (1998: 144-5), kjer je mesto dogodka že vnaprej vpisano v subjekta, ki kot tak dogodek zgolj živi, je njegov kvazivzrok. Dogodek ni zgolj tisto, kar pride, ni zgolj pripetljaj, temveč mora biti želen, izražen in nas čaka. Dogodku je potrebno slediti in si ga želeti, saj zgolj tako lahko preraste svojo trenutnost, lahko preraste zgolj razsežnost pripetljaja in kljub svoji singularnosti pridobi sposobnost puščanja sledi v realnosti, v red, kamor sam sicer ne sodi. Tako so dogodki ireduktibilne singularnosti, »tisto, kar je zunaj zakona danih situacij« (Badiou 1996: 36), ali tisto, kar presega trenutne in veljavne normativne razsežnosti, kar torej prelamlja zakon. Lacanov dogodek je dejanje kot edino uspelo, kot tisto, ki povzroči smrt subjekta, ali kot ga povzame Miller (2001: 51) »dejanje, ki je res dejanje, torej ni vzgib, refleks, motoričen odvod, dejanje je vedno prehod [passage], je vedno prekoračitev. [… S] tega zornega kota gre za dejanje samo tedaj, kadar imamo opravka s prestopom nekega označevalnega praga«. Dejanje v Lacanovem pomenu suspendira vrzel med nemožno zapovedjo in pozitivnim posegom. Njihova nemožnost ne izhaja iz njihove nemožnosti po tem, da bi se zgodila, temveč iz tega, da so se že zgodila-»v dejanju se nemožno dogodi« (Žižek 2003: 155). Z dejanjem subjekt vzame nase nemožno, namreč tisto družbenopolitično instanco, ki je ni, ki se ne more dogoditi, vzame nase manko ali neobstoj velikega Drugega. Subjekti se torej zavedo neobstoja velikega Drugega, za katerega sicer sami (napačno) verjamejo, da konstruira njihovo družbenopolitično realnost. S to zavestjo se prenese odgovornost, subjekt se zave realne predpostavke, da je vendarle on tisti dejavnik in interpret, ki oblikuje in konstruira svet, ne pa veliki Drugi, in samo to zavedanje napelje na vedno že preteklo dogoditev dogodka. Politična dejanja prav tako obstajajo in same politike ni moč reducirati na raven strateškoparadigmatičnih posegov, vendar le, če smo, kot smo že omenili, na ravni političnega in ne politike. V radikalnem političnem dejanju opozicija med noro destruktivno gesto in strateško politično odločitvijo za hip pade-iz tega razloga so politična Lyotardov namen je bil pokazati, da univerzalistična logika, denimo, logika zakona, krši singularnost in heterogeno logiko, ki je po Lyotardu logika, značilna za pravičnost kot mnoštvo. V tej perspektivi je vsak poskus artikulirati, razviti univerzalno strategijo za odpravo krivic, denimo, emancipacijo človeštva, ne le iluzoričen, marveč tudi vir produkcije vedno novih krivic in antagonizmov (Šumič-Riha 1994: 258). 1. 5. POLITIKA, FILOZOFIJA, ETIKA IN SUBJEKT KOT ŠTIRJE ELEMENTI DISKURZA GOSPODARJA V okvir zgoraj navedenih štirih konceptov diskurza, kot jih razvije Lacan, je možno umestiti tudi našo, prej omenjeno razpravo med etiko, politiko, filozofijo in subjektom. 13 Razmerje, ki ga štirje elementi implicirajo, ustreza razmerju elementov v diskurzu Gospodarja, če jih razporedimo v sledečem zaporedju: politika zaseda mesto označevalca Gospodarja, filozofija mesto vednosti, etika mesto produkcije ter subjekt mesto Resnice. Če razvrstitev ovrednotimo preko razdelitve, ki smo jo predstavili v prejšnjem poglavju, 14 nam politika zaseda absolutno mesto označevalca, dejavnika, torej mesto, kjer se dogodek kot tak lahko dogodi in mesto, iz katerega vez s filozofijo-kot nosilko vednosti-ni mogoča, če vanjo ne poseže etika, ki se nahaja na mestu produkcije in za nas predstavlja dialektičen odnos v relaciji do (ne)razmerja med politiko in filozofijo. Etika je tako rezultat medsebojnega (ne)delovanja politike in filozofije, kot tudi nujna točka njune enakopravne eksistence in interakcije.

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In this paper, we consider an inventory problem with two demand classes having different priorities. The appropriate policy of rationing the available stock, i.e. reserving some stock for meeting prospective future demand of preferred customers at the expense of deliberately losing some of the currently materialized demand of lower demand class(es), relies on the estimation of the future demand. Utilizing current signals on future demand, which we refer to as imperfect advance demand information (ADI), decreases uncertainty on future demand and may help to make better decisions on when to start rejecting lower class demand. We develop a model that incorporates imperfect ADI with inventory ordering (replenishment) decision and rationing available stock. In a two-period setting, we show some structural properties, solve the rationing problem, and propose solution methods based on Monte Carlo simulation for the ordering problem. We conduct numerical tests to measure the impact of system parameters on the expected value of imperfect ADI, and provide useful managerial insights.