Changing Price Elasticity of Digital Goods: Empirical Study from the E-book Industry

Many industries including music and e-book industries have been making or already made the transition from physical to digital goods in a couple of decades. Since the transformation fundamentally affects the cost structure, consumers’ purchasing behavior, and other critical factors in the industries, it is important to understand the changes that the transition has brought about. This paper empirically explores the dynamics of price elasticity of e-book demand. Since the e-book market has been rapidly growing in recent years, consumers’ price sensitivity and its dynamics should be investigated to develop an optimal pricing strategy. We use massive industry sales data and find that demand of e-books is becoming price inelastic over time. This can be partially attributed to the reference price, which has been constructed by consumers through personal experiences. We also find other factors that influence the price elasticity and demand of e-books

How Does an Online Platform Impact on Human Behavior and Human Perception: Evidence from the P2P Lending Market and the E-Book Market

The development of information systems and the Internet has facilitated the creation of an online platform where two or more groups are involved and interact online with each other. We explore the impact of an online platform on human behavior and human perception. There are various online markets. We focus on two markets: the online P2P market, and the e-book market. This paper includes three essays: ‘Herding behavior in online P2P lending: An empirical investigation’, ‘Does borrowers’ information renewal change lenders’ decision in P2P lending? An empirical investigation’, and ‘Dynamics of price elasticity over time: Evidence from the e-book industry’. Since the first essay was published in the journal and the third one was submitted to the conference, we simply present the abstracts of these essays in this paper. Also, we mainly focus on explaining the current stage and plans for completion of the second paper. Although this paper is not yet completed, we empirically confirm some characteristics of the online markets. We expect that it would be useful to understand online business and get insights into the online markets

Dynamics of Price Elasticity Over Time: Evidence from the E-Book Industry

The e-book market has been rapidly growing in recent years due to developments in technology and the widespread use of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet PCs. Although an e-book serves as a nearly perfect substitute for its corresponding paper book in respect of contents, it has many differences regarding cost structure and consumers’ acceptance. Therefore, setting an appropriate price for an e-book is an academically interesting and practically important issue. Consumers’ price sensitivity and its dynamics should be investigated to develop an optimal pricing strategy. This paper empirically explores the dynamics of price elasticity of e-book demand. We use a data set that contains information for records of e-book sales for the last two years provided by Kyobobook, the largest book retailer in Korea. The results suggest that the demand of e-books is becoming price inelastic over time. This can be partially attributed to the reference price, which has been constructed by consumers through personal experiences. We also find other factors that influence the price elasticity and demand of e-books. From the results, we discuss the broader implications on pricing strategy

The Arabidopsis Synaptotagmin1 is enriched in endoplasmic reticulum-plasma membrane contact sites and confers cellular resistance to mechanical stresses

Eukaryotic endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-plasma membrane (PM) contact sites are evolutionarily conserved microdomains that have important roles in specialized metabolic functions such as ER-PM communication, lipid homeostasis, and Ca2+ influx. Despite recent advances in knowledge about ER-PM contact site components and functions in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and mammals, relatively little is known about the functional significance of these structures in plants. In this report, we characterize the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) phospholipid binding Synaptotagmin1 (SYT1) as a plant ortholog of the mammal extended synaptotagmins and yeast tricalbins families of ER-PM anchors. We propose that SYT1 functions at ER-PM contact sites because it displays a dual ER-PM localization, it is enriched in microtubule-depleted regions at the cell cortex, and it colocalizes with Vesicle-Associated Protein27-1, a known ER-PM marker. Furthermore, biochemical and physiological analyses indicate that SYT1 might function as an electrostatic phospholipid anchor conferring mechanical stability in plant cells. Together, the subcellular localization and functional characterization of SYT1 highlights a putative role of plant ER-PM contact site components in the cellular adaptation to environmental stresses

A HISTORICAL APPROACH TO SYPHILIS INFECTION IN KOREA

From the end of the 15th century, syphilis spread worldwide, posing a serious threat to public health. Venereal syphilis has been a major research topic, not only in clinical medicine but also in paleopathology, especially because it is a disease of questionable origin and of high prevalence until the discovery of antibiotics. Syphilis in history has been studied extensively in Europe and the Americas, though less so in Asia. In this review, based on extant historical documents and available paleopathological data, we pinpoint the introduction and trace the spread of venereal syphilis in Korea to the end of the 19th century. This review provides fundamental information that will be of great help to future research on pre-20th century syphilis in Korea

Detecting Bladder Biomarkers for Closed-Loop Neuromodulation: A Technological Review

Neuromodulation was introduced for patients with poor outcomes from the existing traditional treatment approaches. It is well-established as an alternative, novel treatment option for voiding dysfunction. The current system of neuromodulation uses an open-loop system that only delivers continuous stimulation without considering the patient’s state changes. Though the conventional open-loop system has shown positive clinical results, it can cause problems such as decreased efficacy over time due to neural habituation, higher risk of tissue damage, and lower battery life. Therefore, there is a need for a closed-loop system to overcome the disadvantages of existing systems. The closed-loop neuromodulation includes a system to monitor and stimulate micturition reflex pathways from the lower urinary tract, as well as the central nervous system. In this paper, we reviewed the current technological status to measure biomarker for closed-loop neuromodulation systems for voiding dysfunction

Challenges and Research Directions in Medical Cyber-Physical Systems

Medical cyber-physical systems (MCPS) are lifecritical, context-aware, networked systems of medical devices. These systems are increasingly used in hospitals to provide highquality continuous care for patients. The need to design complex MCPS that are both safe and effective has presented numerous challenges, including achieving high assurance in system software, intoperability, context-aware intelligence, autonomy, security and privacy, and device certifiability. In this paper, we discuss these challenges in developing MCPS, some of our work in addressing them, and several open research issue

Comparison of Serum Beta 2-Microglobulin and 24 hour Urinary Creatinine Clearance as a Prognostic Factor in Multiple Myeloma

A new staging system for multiple myeloma (MM) has utilized serum concentrations of beta 2-microglobulin (Sβ2M) and albumin as important prognostic factors for survival. Since Sβ2M is an indicator of glomerular filtration rate, we compared the prognostic values of Sβ2M and 24-hr urinary creatinine clearance (Ccr) in patients with MM. We retrospectively reviewed the records of 170 MM patients from January 1996 to November 2003 whose 24-hr urinary Ccr was available at the time of diagnosis. We found that pretreatment Sβ2M was inversely related to Ccr (Spearman's correlation coefficient=-0.787). In univariate analysis, the hazard ratio (HR) of death was 1.043 (p<0.001) for Sβ2M and 0.985 (p<0.001) for Ccr. Multivariate analysis showed that Sβ2M (HR 1.030, p=0.010) and Ccr (HR 0.993, p=0.059) were significant prognostic factors in patients' survival. In conclusion, 24-hr urinary Ccr may be utilized for staging of patients with MM