Opportunity Knocks: An Economic Analysis of Television Advertisements

Certain aspects of advertising–especially on television–are not easily explained with conventional economic models. In particular, much of the imagery and repetitive thematic content seen in advertisements suggests it is "psychological" in nature, as opposed to "informative". To understand the economic rationale for incorporating such material, we develop a theory of preferences in which information about threshold payoffs induces sudden shifts in demand. These threshold payoffs are best understood in the context of human evolutionary history. Furthermore, the presence of threshold payoffs in consumer preferences gives firms incentive for providing threshold-type information. To examine the use of threshold-related content in television advertisements, we look for this con- tent in a sample of 370 television advertisements. We find considerable evidence that advertisers make strategic use of threshold-type content in television advertisements. Specifically, threshold-related content occurred in 83% of food and beverage advertisements for children and in 71% of advertisements for general audiences. Furthermore, the threshold-related content in children’s food and beverage advertisements occurred with statistically greater frequency than factual content, which isn’t true for food and beverage advertisements for general audiences

The use of a conventional wind tunnel as a multigas facility

Hypersonic and supersonic wind tunnels as continuous flow multigas facilitie

Climate Model for Winter Wheat Yield Simulation

Winter wheat yields were simlulated by a model requiring climatic data as input for estimating crop evapotranspiration and phenological development. An assumed relationship between the winter wheat yields and the amount and timing of crop water use was optimized to simulate yields for two case studies: a single season, irrigated wheat study, and a multi-year, dryland wheat study. The model explained more than 90% of the variance of wheat yields in the irrigated study where total irrigation amounts varied between 0 and 55 cm. About 40% of the variance was explained for annual yields from a 21-year, dryland winter wheat study

Biochemical and Morphological Studies of Rat Submandibular Gland: III. Effects of Testosterone Treatment on Proteins of Granule-Rich Fraction

Mature adult male rats and castrated and testosterone-treated castrated adult rats were injected with pilocarpine HGL and 3-H-lysine and sacrificed sequentially over an eight-hour time period. Following homogenization and differential centrifugation, three subcellular fractions from each group of animals were analyzed by gel electrophoresis and liquid scintillation. Two proteins in the granule-rich fraction appeared in larger amounts on the densitometric scans and appeared to represent a larger proportion of newly synthesized proteins than the other proteins.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66712/2/10.1177_00220345770560030901.pd

Abdominal Surgical Emergencies at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital in Ethiopia; A Shifting Paradigm

Background: Developing nations in Africa may be experiencing changing demographics for abdominal surgical emergencies. In the past, intestinal obstruction has been the major diagnosis, but this may be changing.123 This study analyzed the causes and outcomes for abdominal surgicalemergencies (ASE) in Tikur Anbessa Specialty Hospital (TASH) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Methods: TASH is a tertiary medical center and teaching hospital. This is retrospective study included patients treated for ASE from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2012. Information was collected in de-identified manner for analysis from the operating room logbook and from chart review. We analyzed demographics, clinical presentation and outcomes of emergency surgery in these patents using SAS 9.2 software. Univariant analysis was performed. P value < 0.05 was considered significant.Results: A total of 530 patients presented with ASE, representing 18.6% of all surgical emergencies. Of these, 328 charts were available for review. 237 (72.3%) were males and the mean age was 36 years. Appendicitis (simple and complicated combined) were the most common cause of ASE accounting for 92 (28.0%). Bowel obstruction and penetrating trauma were present in 17% and 13% of the time respectively. The Overall Morbidity and mortality rates were 30% and 18% respectively. Wound infection andPneumonia were the two most common post operative complications  accounting for 25% and 12% respectively. A total of 61 patients (18.6%) died following ASE. Septic complications accounted for over 50% of the death. Mortality was significantly higher in patients with age >60 years (p<0.0001) and in those who developed post operative complications. (p< 0.0001)Conclusion: The causes for ASE at TASH in Ethiopia have changed with appendicitis being the most common. This study shows a higher morbidity and mortality rates when compared to previous reports. Further study is required to understand better specific interventions needed to reduce thishigh mortality due to sepsis

Protein synthesis in vitro , in the presence of Ca(OH) 2 -containing pulp-capping medicaments

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73494/1/j.1600-0714.1983.tb00348.x.pd

Study of advanced fuel system concepts for commercial aircraft and engines

The impact on a commercial transport aircraft of using fuels which have relaxed property limits relative to current commercial jet fuel was assessed. The methodology of the study is outlined, fuel properties are discussed, and the effect of the relaxation of fuel properties analyzed. Advanced fuel system component designs that permit the satisfactory use of fuel with the candidate relaxed properties in the subject aircraft are described. The two fuel properties considered in detail are freezing point and thermal stability. Three candidate fuel system concepts were selected and evaluated in terms of performance, cost, weight, safety, and maintainability. A fuel system that incorporates insulation and electrical heating elements on fuel tank lower surfaces was found to be most cost effective for the long term

Electrothermal fracturing of tensile specimens

Pulling device consisting of structural tube, connecting rod, spring-loaded nuts, loading rod, heating element, and three bulkheads fractures tensile specimens. Alternate heating and cooling increases tensile loading by increments until fracturing occurs. Load cell or strain gage, applied to pulling rod, determines forces applied