Reference Price Effects: The Role of Multiple Internal Reference Prices and Semantic Cues.

The purpose of this dissertation is two fold. The first objective is to assess the effect of price promotion on consumers\u27 evaluation of the value of the deal independent of the specific IRP used by consumers. Towards this end, a subjective measure called perceived fairness of the offer price is introduced in a model hypothesizing relations among transaction utility, acquisition utility, and perceived value of the deal. The proposed model was compared to an existing model designed to predict and explain perceived value of the deal using a survey-based methodology, in the first study. Results indicate that the proposed model has a better fit and the proposed construct better predicts the value of the deal. The second objective of this dissertation is to study the effect of semantic cues on consumers\u27 perceptions about the value of the deal, search intention and shopping intention. These effects were determined using two 2 x 2 x 2 experimental designs in the second and third studies. In the second study the price level ($249 {\it vs\/}. \$399), nature of price comparison (between store vs. within store) and cue concreteness (concrete vs. abstract) were manipulated. Results indicate that semantic cues affect consumers perceptions of value and search intentions at moderate price levels. At exaggerated price levels there is no effect of cue concreteness. At moderate price levels, the concrete price cue is more effective than abstract cues in the case of between store price comparison. Also, the between store price comparison is more effective than the within store price comparison in the case of concrete cues. In the third study, the location where the ad is viewed (at home vs. in store), nature of price comparison (between store vs. within store), and cue concreteness (concrete vs. abstract) were manipulated. Results indicate that semantic cues affect consumers\u27 evaluation of the price promotion when the consumers view the ad at home. When the consumers view the price promotion in the store, the semantic cues do not seem to affect their evaluation

Neuropeptides and peptide hormones in syncope and orthostatic intolerance

Syncope and orthostatic intolerance (OI) are common clinical syndromes often requiring medical attention. The former is defined as transient loss of consciousness and postural tone due to self-limited cerebral hypoperfusion, while the latter consists of inappropriate cardiovascular responses to upright posture such as occur with orthostatic hypotension (OH) or postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. The most frequent causes of syncope and OI are conditions that temporarily disrupt essential moment-to-moment interaction between the autonomic nervous system and cardiovascular system. In this regard, many neuropeptides (NPs) or peptide hormones (PH) exert cardioactive effects that might contribute to the pathophysiology of certain forms of syncope or OI. To date, the principal peptides that have been studied in this context are: atrial and B-type-neuropeptides, adrenomedullin, endothelin-1 (ET-1), galanin, and vasopressin. While definitive conclusions cannot yet be drawn, the intrinsic vasoconstrictor ET-1 appears to be elevated in OH, presumably to compensate for vasodilation and hypotension of other etiologies. As such elevated ET-1 may become a marker for OH. Further, elevated NT-proBNP may play a role in causing vasodilation and hypotension in some forms of OH of previously unknown cause, and may be a marker in other patients of a cardiovascular cause of syncope and OI. In the end, the study of the role of NPs and PHs in syncope and OI syndromes is at an early stage, and considerable further future effort is needed

Mapping of coconut growing areas in Tamil Nadu, India using remote sensing and GIS

Importance of remotely sensed data for inventorying, mapping, monitoring and for the management and development planning for the optimum utilization of natural resources has been well established. Though, a lot of applications have been attempted using remote sensing tool, mapping of coconut growing areas has not been attempted at a regional level. Hence, this study was envisaged to map the coconut growing areas in Tamil Nadu, India using Survey of India Toposheet grid (1:50,000 scale) and Digital Globe data. The temporal window of these datasets ranged from March 2012 to June 2014. The data sets have a spatial resolution of 41 cm. It has been observed that Coimbatore has largest area under coconut among all districts of Tamil Nadu, followed by Tiruppur, Thanjavur and Dindigul. In terms of percentage of coconut area to the total geographical area of the district, Tiruppur, leads the list, followed by Kanyakumari, Coimbatore and Thanjavur. On comparing the area obtained by this study with the area as per Coconut Development Board using a paired t-test, a p-value of 0.005 was obtained and hence, there is no significant difference between the two. Hence, it can be said that geospatial technologies like remote sensing and geographical information system are the best tools for accurate assessment and spatial data creation for crop mapping and area assessment

An improved method of water electrolysis – effect of complexing agent

The present work investigates the efficiency of an alkaline water electrolysis process in the presence of a complexing agent like citric acid (CA) when added directly into the electrolyte during the electrolytic process. High surface area nickel electrodes prepared by electrodeposition technique were used as the electrode to evaluate the efficiency of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) by the polarization measurements and cyclic voltammetry. The quantity of the complexing agent CA in the electrolyte was varied from 0-1 wt. %. An increase in the current density of about 25 % resulted at a temperature of 30 °C in the presence of 0.2 wt. % of CA at 1.0 V vs. Hg/HgO. CA was found to improve performance by forming a complex with the alloy electrode and by formation of the high surface area catalyst for efficient OER

An improved method of water electrolysis – effect of complexing agent

The present work investigates the efficiency of an alkaline water electrolysis process in the presence of a complexing agent like citric acid (CA) when added directly into the electrolyte during the electrolytic process. High surface area nickel electrodes prepared by electrodeposition technique were used as the electrode to evaluate the efficiency of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) by the polarization measurements and cyclic voltammetry. The quantity of the complexing agent CA in the electrolyte was varied from 0-1 wt. %. An increase in the current density of about 25 % resulted at a temperature of 30 °C in the presence of 0.2 wt. % of CA at 1.0 V vs. Hg/HgO. CA was found to improve performance by forming a complex with the alloy electrode and by formation of the high surface area catalyst for efficient OER

A Patient-centric, Attribute-based, Source-verifiable Framework for Health Record Sharing

The storage of health records in electronic format, and the wide-spread sharing of these records among different health care providers, have enormous potential benefits to the U.S. healthcare system. These benefits include both improving the quality of health care delivered to patients and reducing the costs of delivering that care. However, maintaining the security of electronic health record systems and the privacy of the information they contain is paramount to ensure that patients have confidence in the use of such systems. In this paper, we propose a framework for electronic health record sharing that is patient centric, i.e. it provides patients with substantial control over how their information is shared and with whom; provides for verifiability of original sources of health information and the integrity of the data; and permits fine-grained decisions about when data can be shared based on the use of attribute-based techniques for authorization and access control. We present the architecture of the framework, describe a prototype system we have built based on it, and demonstrate its use within a scenario involving emergency responders' access to health record information