Are Travel Purchases More Satisfactory Than Nontravel Experiential Purchases and Material Purchases? An Exploratory Study

Satisfaction derived from purchases can affect one\u27s happiness and quality of life. Previous studies illustrated that this effect is not equal across purchase categories. Specifically, experiential purchases were found to bring more satisfaction and happiness to consumers than material purchases. However, these comparison studies treated a variety of experiential purchases as one homogeneous category regardless of their nature of consumption. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to bridge this gap and to assess the difference in the level of satisfaction among the three purchase categories: material, travel (composite event experiential purchases), and nontravel experiential purchases (single event experiential purchases). Moreover, this study attempted to ascertain the consistency of these differences across several purchases of each category. By analyzing the satisfaction derived from past actual purchases of 282 participants it was found that respondents were more satisfied with past travel purchases than both past nontravel experiential purchases, and past material purchases. In addition, this study found differences between US and Israeli samples regarding purchase satisfaction derived from the three categories. Lastly, this study also discovered that the price paid for purchases in each of the three categories did not have an effect on the derived satisfaction

Plasma Dynamics

Contains reports on seven research projects.U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Grant AFOSR 84-0026)National Science Foundation (Grant ECS 85-14517)U.S. Department of Energy (Contract DE-FGO5-84ER 13272)Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Subcontract 6264005)National Science Foundation (Grant ECS 82-13430)U.S. Department of Energy (Contract DE-ACO2-78-ET-51013

Quantum Vacuum Contribution to the Momentum of the Dielectric Media

Momentum transfer between matter and electromagnetic field is analyzed. The related equations of motion and conservation laws are derived using relativistic formalism. Their correspondence to various, at first sight self-contradicting, experimental data (the so called Abraham-Minkowski controversy) is demonstrated. A new, Casimir like, quantum phenomenon is predicted: contribution of vacuum fluctuations to the motion of dielectric liquids in crossed electric and magnetic fields. Velocities about $50nm/s$ can be expected due to the contribution of high frequency vacuum modes

Occupational Self-Perceptions of Hotel Employees: An Exploratory Study

This study aimed to reveal the occupational self-perceptions of rank-and-file employees in the Israeli hotel industry. Due to the exploratory nature of the study a qualitative research approach was adopted. The findings are based on 40 semistructured interviews with current and former Israeli hotel employees. The results revealed that almost all participants had disconcerting negative perceptions of rank-and-file occupations in the Israeli hotel industry. The themes emerged as relevant to the understanding of employees\u27 occupational self-perception were classified into four groups: working conditions, occupational profile, job characteristics and requirements, and moderating factors linked with the reputation of the hotel and hospitality industry as a work environment

Activated mutant NRasQ61K drives aberrant melanocyte signaling, survival, and invasiveness via a rac1-Dependent mechanism

Around a fifth of melanomas exhibit an activating mutation in the oncogene NRas that confers constitutive signaling to proliferation and promotes tumor initiation. NRas signals downstream of the major melanocyte tyrosine kinase receptor c-kit and activated NRas results in increased signaling via the extracellular signal–regulated kinase (ERK)/MAPK/ERK kinase/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways to enhance proliferation. The Ras oncogene also activates signaling via the related Rho GTPase Rac1, which can mediate growth, survival, and motility signaling. We tested the effects of activated NRasQ61K on the proliferation, motility, and invasiveness of melanoblasts and melanocytes in the developing mouse and ex vivo explant culture as well as in a melanoma transplant model. We find an important role for Rac1 downstream of NRasQ61K in mediating dermal melanocyte survival in vivo in mouse, but surprisingly NRasQ61K does not appear to affect melanoblast motility or proliferation during mouse embryogenesis. We also show that genetic deletion or pharmacological inhibition of Rac1 in NRasQ61K induced melanoma suppresses tumor growth, lymph node spread, and tumor cell invasiveness, suggesting a potential value for Rac1 as a therapeutic target for activated NRas-driven tumor growth and invasiveness

Plasma Dynamics

Contains reports on three research projects.U.S. Department of Energy (Contract DE-ACO2-78ET-51013)National Science Foundation (Grant ECS82-13430)U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Contract F33615-81-K-1426

Plasma Dynamics

Contains reports on six research projects.National Science Foundation (Grant ECS82-00646)National Science Foundation (Grant ECS82-13485)U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Contract F33615-81-K-1426)U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Contract F49620-83-C-0008)U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Contract AFOSR-84-0026)U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research (Contract N00014-83-K-2024)Sandia National Laboratory (Contract 31-5606)Sandia National Laboratory (Contract 48-5725)U.S. Department of Energy (Contract DE-ACO2-78ET-51013)National Science Foundation (Grant ECS82-13430

Growth and structural transformation

Structural transformation refers to the reallocation of economic activity across the broad sectors agriculture, manufacturing, and services. This review article synthesizes and evaluates recent advances in the research on structural transformation. We begin by presenting the stylized facts of structural transformation across time and space. We then develop a multi-sector extension of the one-sector growth model that encompasses the main existing theories of structural transformation. We argue that this multi-sector model serves as a natural benchmark to study structural transformation and that it is able to account for many salient features of structural transformation. We also argue that this multi-sector model delivers new and sharper insights for understanding economic development, regional income convergence, aggregate productivity trends, hours worked, business cycles, wage inequality, and greenhouse gas emissions. We conclude by suggesting several directions for future research on structural transformation.For financial support, Herrendorf thanks the Spanish Ministry of Education (Grants ECO2009-11165 and ECO2012-31358); Rogerson thanks both the NSF and the Korea Science Foundation (WCU-R33-10005); and Valentinyi thanks the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA) (Project K-105660-ny