Behavioral Aspects of Pricing

Buyers sometimes exhibit seemingly “irrational” behavior with respect to prices and use socially embedded heuristics to simplify their purchase decisions. In some cases small changes in prices can lead to much larger than anticipated changes in sales and profitability. Sellers need to understand the heuristics consumers use, the situations in which they emerge, and recognize how they can respond in markets where information and knowledge of product attributes and competitive prices is increasingly available via the Internet. This chapter explores consumers’ behavioral reactions to price through a review of contemporary literature in the field of pricing. The chapter delineates the nature and scope of these effects based upon a critical review of the most up-to-date empirical research in the field, and concludes by providing implications for innovation in pricing, and guidance for managers to reduce the disconnect between themselves and consumers

Does sticky blood predict a sticky end? Associations of blood viscosity, haematocrit and fibrinogen with mortality in the West of Scotland

There is increasing evidence that blood viscosity and its major determinants (haematocrit, plasma viscosity and fibrinogen) are associated with an increased risk of incident cardiovascular events; however, their associations with mortality are not established. We therefore studied the associations of these variables with cardiovascular events and total mortality in 1238 men and women aged 25-64 years, followed for 13 years in the first North Glasgow MONICA (MONItoring CArdiovascular disease) survey and West of Scotland centres in the Scottish Heart Health Study. After adjustment for age and sex, increasing whole blood viscosity, plasma viscosity, haematocrit and fibrinogen (analysed by both von Clauss and heat precipitation assays) were significantly associated with mortality. Only the association for fibrinogen (von Clauss assay) remained significant after adjustment for major cardiovascular risk factors. We conclude that clottable fibrinogen may be independently associated with mortality. However, the significance of this association, and the extent to which viscosity is associated with mortality, remain to be established in larger studies and meta-analyses

Models for CSP with availability information

We consider models of CSP based on recording what events are available as possible alternatives to the events that are actually performed. We present many different varieties of such models. For each, we give a compositional semantics, congruent to the operational semantics, and prove full abstraction and no-junk results. We compare the expressiveness of the different models.Comment: In Proceedings EXPRESS'10, arXiv:1011.601

Defining absolute environmental limits for the built environment

The question addressed is whether it is possible to define working limits on environmental impacts from the built environment in terms of global carrying capacity. The main focus is on energy-related impacts, since these are global and relatively well-understood. Four possible approaches to defining limits are explored: static equilibrium, asymptotic, integral of excess and planned future. The conclusions that emerge from this exploration are that global environmental constraints are very tight, but also that they are dynamically and strongly influenced by the trajectory of social and technological development over the coming century. Their use as the basis for practical, quantitative metrics of sustainability, therefore, involves a large measure of subjectivity. A fifth approach - the developmental approach - is identified, which instead of focusing on long-term external constraints to human activity, focuses instead on the internal, short- to medium-term dynamics of the built environment itself. It appears likely that the developmental approach, guided by qualitative conclusions from the analysis of global carrying capacity, is likely to be most fruitful

Thinking space

The Tavistock’s Thinking Space aims to bring issues of diversity from a hidden, subconscious or unconscious place to one that is more open, conscious and thoughtful

Backpedaling Toward Plessy

When the Supreme Court overturned two desegregation plans, the majority opinion was based on a distortion of both programs, and of the history of desegregation in general

The Strange History of School Desegregation

The past -- and future -- of desegregation in the United States

Towards a radiocarbon chronology of the Late-Glacial: Sample selection strategies

This paper outlines a dating program designed to test the reproducibility of radiocarbon dates on different materials of Late-Glacial age (plant macrofossils, fossil beetle remains, and the "humic" and "humin" chemical fractions of limnic sediments) using a combination of radiometric (beta counting) and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) techniques. The results have implications for the design of sampling strategies and for the development of improved dating protocols, both of which are important if a high-precision C-14 chronology for the Late- Glacial is to be achieved