Community reactions to aircraft noise - Noise measurements

Acoustical and social data on community reactions to aircraft nois

MARKET COMPETITION AND METROPOLITAN-AREA GROCERY PRICES

This paper examines the relationship of 1987 retail grocery prices to supermarket sales concentration across 95 U.S. metropolitan areas. The regression model incorporates a large number of population, retail-cost, and retail competition factors and separate prices by type of grocery item. We find that the concentration-price relationship is sensitive to item type: positive for packaged, branded, dry groceries and unrelated for produce, meat, and dairy product prices. As for market rivalry, we find that small grocery stores provide no grocery price competition for supermarkets. However, branded grocery prices are driven down by fast-food places and by rapid price churning, whereas for unbranded foods the presence of warehouse stores places downward pressure on supermarket prices while fast-food presence does not. For the branded-groceries component, we also find prices higher in large, fast-growing, low- income, Eastern cities. We also find that cities where rents, wages, and electricity costs are high tend to have high dry grocery prices. However, for the unbranded-products component retail costs are unrelated to prices, and cities in the South have the highest prices.retail grocery trade, pricing policy, variable price merchandising, market competition, category management, market structure, sales concentration, price discrimination, price rivalry, oligopoly, food demand, food prices, Consumer/Household Economics,

THE DETERMINANTS OF COUPON DISCOUNTS FOR BREAKFAST CEREALS

This study identifies the determinants of coupon values at the brand level using a framework developed from price discrimination theory and the principles of demand. Couponing is considered within the context of a complex marketing program in which it is coordinated with other non-price promotional strategies. A simultaneous, two-equation, fixed-effects, panel-data model is specified and fitted with data on household purchases of ready-to-eat (RTE) breakfast cereals between 1992 and 1997. The empirical model accounts for the bi-directional causality between brand prices and discount levels and captures the retail effects of the major cereal maker's price cuts and discount reductions that occurred in 1996. Higher brand prices cause coupon values to rise, supporting the hypothesis that cereal makers price discriminate among consumers. Other non-price promotions, including advertising, store flyers, and in-store displays, appear to be coordinated with couponing. Specifically, coupon values fall with more intense advertising and in-store displays but rise when the couponed products are featured in store flyers. Discount levels are positively related to brand market share and the size of discounts that are redeemed for rival cereals. Moreover, coupon values fall with increasing brand loyalty among RTE cereal purchasers. Cereal prices are positively affected by coupon values, advertising expenditures, food-ingredient and packaging costs, and the prices of competing brands. Inventory levels are negatively correlated with brand price. Employee wages were not found to significantly influence cereal prices.Marketing,

MODELING COUPON VALUES FOR READY-TO-EAT BREAKFAST CEREALS

A theoretical framework is developed to highlight the significant determinants of coupon values. A fixed effects panel data model is fitted with data from the breakfast cereal industry. The explanatory variables include own retail price, brand loyalty, brand market share, rival coupon redemptions, and firm and product type indicators.coupons, ready-to-eat breakfast cereals, panel data model, Consumer/Household Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Vertical axis non-linearities in wavelength scanning interferometry

The uncertainty of measurements made on an areal surface topography instrument is directly influenced by its metrological characteristics. In this work, the vertical axis deviation from linearity of a wavelength scanning interferometer is evaluated. The vertical axis non-linearities are caused by the spectral leakage resulting from the Fourier transform algorithm for phase slope estimation. These non-linearities are simulated and the results are compared with experimental measurements. In order to reduce the observed non-linearities, a modification of the algorithm is proposed. The application of a Hamming window and the exclusion of edge points in the extracted phase are shown to increase the accuracy over the whole instrument range

Defining Technology for Learning: Cognitive and Physical Tools of Inquiry

This essay explores definitions of technology and educational technology. The authors argue the following points: 1. Educational stakeholders, and the public at large, use the term technology as though it has a universally agreed upon definition. It does not, and how technology is defined matters. 2. For technology in schools to support student learning, it must to be defined in a way that describes technology as a tool for problem-solving. 3. Integration of technology, particularly when paired with teacher-centered practices, has the potential of reinforcing and heightening the negative consequences of a conception of learning that positions students as recipients of knowledge instead constructors of knowledge. Essay concludes with a call for leaders in the field of educational technology to provide guidance by adopting a definition that encapsulates the third point above

Study of the spectral properties of ELM precursors by means of wavelets

The high confinement regime (H-mode) in tokamaks is accompanied by the occurrence of bursts of MHD activity at the plasma edge, so-called edge localized modes (ELMs), lasting less than 1 ms. These modes are often preceded by coherent oscillations in the magnetic field, the ELM precursors, whose mode numbers along the toroidal and the poloidal directions can be measured from the phase shift between Mirnov pickup coils. When the ELM precursors have a lifetime shorter than a few milliseconds, their toroidal mode number and their nonlinear evolution before the ELM crash cannot be studied reliably with standard techniques based on Fourier analysis, since averaging in time is implicit in the computation of the Fourier coefficients. This work demonstrates significant advantages in studying spectral features of the short-lived ELM precursors by using Morlet wavelets. It is shown that the wavelet analysis is suitable for the identification of the toroidal mode numbers of ELM precursors with the shortest lifetime, as well as for studying their nonlinear evolution with a time resolution comparable to the acquisition rate of the Mirnov coils

Relations Between Personality and Coping: A Meta-Analysis

Personality may directly facilitate or constrain coping, but relations of personality to coping have been inconsistent across studies, suggesting a need for greater attention to methods and samples. This meta-analysis tested moderators of relations between Big Five personality traits and coping using 2,653 effect sizes drawn from 165 samples and 33,094 participants. Personality was weakly related to broad coping (e.g., Engagement or Disengagement), but all 5 traits predicted specific strategies. Extraversion and Conscientiousness predicted more problem-solving and cognitive restructuring, Neuroticism less. Neuroticism predicted problematic strategies like wishful thinking, withdrawal, and emotion-focused coping but, like Extraversion, also predicted support seeking. Personality more strongly predicted coping in young samples, stressed samples, and samples reporting dispositional rather than situation-specific coping. Daily versus retrospective coping reports and self-selected versus researcher-selected stressors also moderated relations between personality and coping. Cross-cultural differences were present, and ethnically diverse samples showed more protective effects of personality. Richer understanding of the role of personality in the coping process requires assessment of personality facets and specific coping strategies, use of laboratory and daily report studies, and multivariate analyses