Do retailers benefit from the long tail phenomenon?

The Internet and related technologies have vastly expanded the variety of products that can be profitably promoted and sold by online retailers. As a result, while in most offline markets, a few best selling products (blockbusters) generate the bulk of demand, online demand for blockbusters is often accompanied by sales for a huge number of less-selling products (niches). In response to emerging long-tailed sales distribution patterns, Anderson (2004, 2006) coined the phrase Long Tail to describe the phenomenon that niche products can gain a significant share in total sales. Most important from a retailers' perspective is whether additionally offered niche products mainly substitute former existing ones or if consumers expand their demand. While the latter can generate additional profit, substitution is only beneficial if substitutes have higher margins than products that were purchased before. By using a unique data set of a monopolistic video-on-demand operator in Germany that covers all individual sales since its launch from December 2004 until August 2007, we disentangle demand for additional offered films into substitution and additional consumption. Our results reveal that demand of additionally offered films is driven by on average 86.10% additional consumption and only 13.90% substitution, suggesting huge profit potential for retailers by increasing their assortments. © 2010 IADIS

Neonatal androgenization of hypogonadal (hpg) male mice does not abolish estradiol-induced FSH production and spermatogenesis

BACKGROUND: Testicular development is arrested in the hypogonadal (hpg) mouse due to a congenital deficiency in hypothalamic gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) synthesis. Chronic treatment of male hpg mice with estradiol induces FSH synthesis and secretion, and causes testicular maturation and qualitatively normal spermatogenesis. As estradiol negative feedback normally inhibits FSH production in the male, this study tested whether this paradoxical response to estradiol in the male hpg mouse might be due to inadequate masculinisation or incomplete defeminization in the neonatal period. Previous studies have demonstrated that treatment of hpg mice with testosterone propionate in the immediate neonatal period is necessary to allow full reproductive behaviors to be expressed following suitable endocrine stimulation at adult ages. METHODS: Hpg mice were treated with 100 μg testosterone propionate or vehicle on postnatal day 2. At 35 days of age, subgroups of these mice were treated with silastic implants containing estradiol or cholesterol. Reproductive behavior was scored in tests with steroid-primed female mice, then testicular development was assessed histologically, and measures of pituitary FSH content made at 85 days of age. RESULTS: The neonatal testosterone propionate treatment successfully defeminized female litter mates, as revealed by impaired vaginal opening and deficiencies in lordosis behavior, and it allowed appropriate male reproductive behavior to be expressed in a proportion of the hpg males when tested at an adult age. However, neonatal androgen supplementation did not block or even reduce the subsequent actions of estradiol in increasing pituitary FSH content, nor did it affect the ability of estradiol to induce qualitatively normal spermatogenesis. CONCLUSION: The ability of the hpg male to show a "female" neuroendocrine response to estradiol is not a result of inadequate androgenization during neonatal development, and thus the actions of estradiol revealed in this rodent model are not an artefact of incomplete sexual differentiation, but reflect a physiological role of estradiol occurring during a specific early temporal window of male reproductive development

Economic analysis and revenue optimization in management regimes of Pinus taeda.

Este trabalho teve por objetivo selecionar, por meio de técnicas da pesquisa operacional, regimes de manejo de Pinus taeda L. que maximizem a receita com a madeira produzida, considerando diferentes taxas de atratividade. Foi utilizado o software OpTimber?LP® para a otimização florestal, o qual realiza as simulações por meio do software SisPinus®. Os regimes foram compostos por diferentes combinações de sítios florestais, densidades de plantio, regimes de desbaste e idades para corte raso, totalizando 17.760 regimes por sítio. A produção de madeira foi quantificada e valorada mediante classes de sortimento. Custos de plantio, desbaste e colheita foram considerados. O Valor Presente Líquido Anualizado (VPLA) e a Taxa Interna de Retorno (TIR) de cada regime de manejo foram calculados. Como resultado, a densidade de 1.600 plantas por ha otimizou o VPLA para a maioria dos casos. Os regimes otimizados incluíram nenhum ou apenas um desbaste e forneceram VPLA de 2.753 e 158 reais por ha e TIR de 22,9% e 2,9%, para os sítios I e IV, respectivamente. Concluiu-se que o número ideal de desbastes é reduzido em sítios com qualidade inferior, e quanto menos produtivo for o sítio, mais tardio será o ano ideal para o corte raso. A taxa de atratividade é um parâmetro que contribui para a determinação de regimes de desbaste, pois quanto maior for essa taxa, maior deve ser o número de desbastes, bem como mais precoces devem ser suas aplicaçõe

The Familial Clustering of Age at Menarche in Extended Twin Families

The timing of puberty is complex, possibly involving many genetic factors that may interact with environmental influences. Familial resemblance for age at menarche was studied in a sample of 4,995 female twins, 1,296 sisters, 2,946 mothers and 635 female spouses of male twins. They had indicated their age at menarche as part of a larger longitudinal survey. We assessed assortative mating for age at menarche, gene–environment interaction effects and estimated the heritability of individual differences in pubertal timing. There was significant evidence of gene–environment interaction, accounting for 1.5% of the variance. There was no indication of consistent mate assortment on age at menarche. Individual differences in age at menarche are highly heritable, with additive genetic factors explaining at least 70% of the true variation. An additional 1.5% of the variation can be explained by a genotype–environment interaction effect where environmental factors are more important in individuals genetically predisposed for late menarche

The ABCD of usability testing

We introduce a methodology for tracking and auditing feedback, errors and suggestions for software packages. This short paper describes how we innovate on the evaluation mechanism, introducing an (Antecedent, Barrier, Consequence and Development) ABCD form, embedded within an eParticipation platform to enable end users to easily report on any usability issues. This methodology will be utilised to improve the STEP cloud eParticipation platform (part of the current STEP Horizon2020 project http://step4youth.eu. The platform is currently being piloted in real life contexts, with the participation of public authorities that are integrating the eParticipation platform into their regular decision-making practices. The project is involving young people, through engagement and motivation strategies and giving them a voice in Environmental decision making at the local level. The pilot evaluation aims to demonstrate how open engagement needs to be embedded within public sector processes and the usability methodology reported here will help to identify the key barriers for wide scale deployment of the platform

Hilbert transforms in Clifford analysis

The Hilbert transform on the real line has applications in many fields. In particular in one–dimensional signal processing, the Hilbert operator is used to extract global as well as instantaneous characteristics, such as frequency, amplitude and phase, from real signals. The multidimensional approach to the Hilbert transform usually is a tensorial one, considering the so-called Riesz transforms in each of the cartesian variables separately. In this paper we give an overview of generalized Hilbert transforms in Euclidean space, developed within the framework of Clifford analysis. Roughly speaking, this is a function theory of higher dimensional holomorphic functions, which is particularly suited for a treatment of multidimensional phenomena since all dimensions are encompassed at once as an intrinsic feature

Scents of Adolescence: The Maturation of the Olfactory Phenotype in a Free-Ranging Mammal

Olfaction is an important sensory modality for mate recognition in many mammal species. Odorants provide information about the health status, genotype, dominance status and/or reproductive status. How and when odor profiles change during sexual maturation is, however often unclear, particularly in free-ranging mammals. Here, we investigated whether the wing sac odorant of male greater sac-winged bats (Saccopteryx bilineata, Emballonuridae) differs between young and adults, and thus offers information about sexual maturity to potential mating partners. Using gas chromatography – mass spectrometry, we found differences in the odorants of young and adult males prior and during, but not after the mating period. The wing sac odorant of adult males consists of several substances, such as Pyrocoll, 2,6,10-trimethyl-3-oxo-6,10-dodecadienolide, and a so far unidentified substance; all being absent in the odor profiles of juveniles prior to the mating season. During the mating season, these substances are present in most of the juvenile odorants, but still at lower quantities compared to the wing sac odorants of adults. These results suggest that the wing sac odorant of males encodes information about age and/or sexual maturity. Although female S. bilineata start to reproduce at the age of half a year, most males of the same age postpone the sexual maturation of their olfactory phenotype until after the first mating season

FGF21 is an insulin-dependent postprandial hormone in adult humans

Context: Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) secretion has been shown to respond directly to carbohydrate consumption, with glucose, fructose and sucrose all reported to increase plasma levels of FGF21 in rodents and humans. However, carbohydrate consumption also results in secretion of insulin. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the combined and independent effects of hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia on total and bioactive FGF21 in the postprandial period in humans, and determine whether this effect is attenuated in conditions of altered insulin secretion and action. Methods: Circulating glucose, insulin, total and bioactive FGF21 and fibroblast activation protein (FAPα) were measured in adults with and without type 2 diabetes (T2D) following an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), and under a series of insulin and glucose clamp conditions and following high fat diet in healthy adults. Results: Circulating total and bioactive FGF21 levels responded acutely to OGTT, and their ratio was attenuated in T2D patients with reduced postprandial insulin response. The clamp studies revealed that insulin but not glucose accounts for the postprandial rise in FGF21. Finally, there was an attenuated rise in FGF21 in response to a high fat dietary intervention that is known to alter insulin-stimulated substrate utilization in metabolically active tissues. Conclusions: Insulin rather than glucose per se increases total and bioactive FGF21 in the postprandial period in adult humans. Understanding the impact of T2D on bioactive FGF21 will have a significant effect upon the efficacy of therapeutic agents designed to target the FGF21 pathway