These studies were conducted to investigate nutrient sources and supplementary materials of synthetic compost media for Agaricus bisporus culture. Investigation were carried out to establish the optimum composition for compost of Agaricus bisporus methods of out-door fermentation and peakheating with rice straw as the main substrate of the media. The incidence and flora of harmful organisms in rice straw compost and their control were also studied. 1. When rice straw was used as the main substrate in synthetic compost as a carbon source. yields were remarkably high. Fermentation was more rapid than that of barley straw or wheat straw, and the total nitrogen content was high in rice straw compost. 2. Since the morphological and physico-chemical nature of Japonica and Indica types of rice straw are greatly dissimilar. there were apparent differences in the process of compost fermentation. Fermentation of Indica type straw proceeded more rapidly with a shortening the compost period, reducing the water supply, and required adding of supplementary materials for producing stable physical conditions. 3. Use of barley straw compost resulted in a smaller crop compared with rice straw. but when a 50%, barley straw and 50% rice straw mixture was used, the yield was almost the same as that using only rice straw. 4. There were extremely high positive correlations between yield of Agaricus bisporus and the total nitrogen, organic nitrogen, amino acids, amides and amino sugar nitrogen content of compost. The mycerial growth and fruit body formation were severely inhibited by ammonium nitrogen. 5. When rice straw was used as the main substrate for compost media, urea was the most suitable source of nitrogen. Poor results were obtained with calcium cyanamide and ammonium sulfate. When urea was applied three separate times, nitrogen loss during composting was decreased and the total nitrogen content of compost was increased. 6. The supplementation of organic nutrient activated compost fermentation and increased yield of Agaricus bisporus. The best sources of organic nutrients were: perilla meal, sesame meal, wheat bran and poultry manure, etc. 7. Soybean meal, tobacco powder and glutamic acid fermentation by-products which were industrial wastes, could be substituted for perilla meal, sesame meal and wheat bran as organic nutrient sources for compost media. B. When gypsum and zeolite were added to rice straw. physical deterioration of compost due to excess moisture and caramelization was observed. The Indica type of straw was more remarkable in increase of yield of Agricus bisporus by addition of supplementing materials than Japonica straw. 9. For preparing rice straw compost, the best mixture was prepared by 10% poultry manure, 5% perilla meal, 1. 2 to 1. 5% urea and 1% gypsum. At spring cropping, it was good to add rice bran to accelerate heat generation of the compost heap. 10. There was significantly high positive correlation (r=0.97) between accumulated temperature and the decomposition degree of compost during outdoor composting. The yield was highest at accumulated temperatures between 900 and $1,000^{\circ}C$. 11. Prolonging the composting period brought about an increase in decomposition degree and total nitrogen content, but a decrease in ammonium nitrogen. In the spring the suitable period of composting was 20 to 25 days. and about 15 days in autumn. For those periods, the degree of decomposition was 19 to 24%. 12. Compactness of wet compost at filling caused an increase in the residual ammonium nitrogen. methane and organic acid during peak heating. There was negative correlation between methane content and yield (r=0.76)and the same was true between volatile organic acid and yield (r=0.73). 13. In compost with a moisture content range between 69 to 80% at filling. the higher the moisture content, the lower the yield (r=0.78). This result was attributed to a reduction in the porosity of compost at filling the beds. The optimum porosity for good fermentation was between 41 and 53%. 14. Peak heating of the compost was essential for the prevention of harmful microorganisms and insect pests. and for the removal of excess ammonia. It was necessary to continue fer mentatiion for four days after peak heating. 15. Ten species of fungi which are harmful or competitive to Agaricus bisporus were identified from the rice compost, including Diehliomyces microsporus, Trichoderma sp. and Stysanus stemoites. The frequency of occurrance was notably high with serious damage to Agaricus bisporus. 16. Diehliomyces microsporus could be controlled by temperature adjustment of the growing room and by fumigating the compost and the house with Basamid and Vapam. Trichoderma was prevented by the use of Bavistin and Benomyl. 17. Four species of nematodes and five species of mites occured in compost during out-door composting. These orgnanisms could be controlled through peakheating compost for 6 hours at $60^{\circ}C$.
Internet commerce has been growing at a rapid pace for the last decade. Many firms try to reach wider consumer markets by adding the Internet channel to the existing traditional channels. Despite the various benefits of the Internet channel, a significant number of firms failed in managing the new type of channel. Previous studies could not cleary explain these conflicting results associated with the Internet channel. One of the major reasons is most of the previous studies conducted analyses under a specific market condition and claimed that as the impact of Internet channel introduction. Therefore, their results are strongly influenced by the specific market settings. However, firms face various market conditions in the real worlddensity and disutility of using the Internet. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of various market environments on a firm's optimal channel strategy by employing a flexible game theory model. We capture various market conditions with consumer density and disutility of using the Internet.
shows the channel structures analyzed in this study. Before the Internet channel is introduced, a monopoly manufacturer sells its products through an independent physical store. From this structure, the manufacturer could introduce its own Internet channel (MI). The independent physical store could also introduce its own Internet channel and coordinate it with the existing physical store (RI). An independent Internet retailer such as Amazon could enter this market (II). In this case, two types of independent retailers compete with each other. In this model, consumers are uniformly distributed on the two dimensional space. Consumer heterogeneity is captured by a consumer's geographical location (ci) and his disutility of using the Internet channel (${\delta}_{N_i}$).
shows various market conditions captured by the two consumer heterogeneities.
(a) illustrates a market with symmetric consumer distributions. The model captures explicitly the asymmetric distributions of consumer disutility in a market as well. In a market like that is represented in
(c), the average consumer disutility of using an Internet store is relatively smaller than that of using a physical store. For example, this case represents the market in which 1) the product is suitable for Internet transactions (e.g., books) or 2) the level of E-Commerce readiness is high such as in Denmark or Finland. On the other hand, the average consumer disutility when using an Internet store is relatively greater than that of using a physical store in a market like (b). Countries like Ukraine and Bulgaria, or the market for "experience goods" such as shoes, could be examples of this market condition.
summarizes the various scenarios of consumer distributions analyzed in this study. The range for disutility of using the Internet (${\delta}_{N_i}$) is held constant, while the range of consumer distribution (${\chi}_i$) varies from -25 to 25, from -50 to 50, from -100 to 100, from -150 to 150, and from -200 to 200.
summarizes the analysis results. As the average travel cost in a market decreases while the average disutility of Internet use remains the same, average retail price, total quantity sold, physical store profit, monopoly manufacturer profit, and thus, total channel profit increase. On the other hand, the quantity sold through the Internet and the profit of the Internet store decrease with a decreasing average travel cost relative to the average disutility of Internet use. We find that a channel that has an advantage over the other kind of channel serves a larger portion of the market. In a market with a high average travel cost, in which the Internet store has a relative advantage over the physical store, for example, the Internet store becomes a mass-retailer serving a larger portion of the market. This result implies that the Internet becomes a more significant distribution channel in those markets characterized by greater geographical dispersion of buyers, or as consumers become more proficient in Internet usage. The results indicate that the degree of price discrimination also varies depending on the distribution of consumer disutility in a market. The manufacturer in a market in which the average travel cost is higher than the average disutility of using the Internet has a stronger incentive for price discrimination than the manufacturer in a market where the average travel cost is relatively lower. We also find that the manufacturer has a stronger incentive to maintain a high price level when the average travel cost in a market is relatively low. Additionally, the retail competition effect due to Internet channel introduction strengthens as average travel cost in a market decreases. This result indicates that a manufacturer's channel power relative to that of the independent physical retailer becomes stronger with a decreasing average travel cost. This implication is counter-intuitive, because it is widely believed that the negative impact of Internet channel introduction on a competing physical retailer is more significant in a market like Russia, where consumers are more geographically dispersed, than in a market like Hong Kong, that has a condensed geographic distribution of consumers.