17,187 research outputs found
Advertising, brand loyalty and pricing
This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Games and Economic Behavior. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2008 Elsevier B.V.I consider an oligopoly model where, prior to price competition, firms invest in persuasive advertising and induce brand loyalty in consumers who would otherwise buy the cheapest alternative on the market. This setting, in which persuasive advertising is introduced to homogeneous product markets, provides an alternative explanation for price dispersion phenomena. Despite ex ante symmetry, the equilibrium profile of advertising outlays is asymmetric. It follows that endogenously determined brand loyal consumer bases are not symmetric across firms. This raises a robustness question regarding Varian's āmodel of salesā where symmetry is exogenously assumed.IVI
How Efficient is Rotational Mixing in Massive Stars ?
The VLT-Flames Survey for Massive Stars (Evans05,Evans06) provides recise
measurements of rotational velocities and nitrogen surface abundances of
massive stars in the Magellanic Clouds. Specifically, for the first time, such
abundances have been estimated for stars with significant rotational
velocities. This extraordinary data set gives us the unique possibility to
calibrate rotationally and magnetically induced mixing processes. Therefore, we
have computed a grid of stellar evolution models varying in mass, initial
rotational velocity and chemical composition. In our models we find that
although magnetic fields generated by the Spruit-Taylor dynamo are essential to
understand the internal angular momentum transport (and hence the rotational
behavior), the corresponding chemical mixing must be neglected to reproduce the
observations. Further we show that for low metallicities detailed initial
abundances are of prime importance, as solar-scaled abundances may result in
significant calibration errors.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of "First Stars III", Santa Fe, New
Mexico, July 16-20, 2007, 3 pages, 3 figure
How Efficient is Rotational Mixing in Massive Stars ?
The VLT-Flames Survey for Massive Stars (Evans05,Evans06) provides recise
measurements of rotational velocities and nitrogen surface abundances of
massive stars in the Magellanic Clouds. Specifically, for the first time, such
abundances have been estimated for stars with significant rotational
velocities. This extraordinary data set gives us the unique possibility to
calibrate rotationally and magnetically induced mixing processes. Therefore, we
have computed a grid of stellar evolution models varying in mass, initial
rotational velocity and chemical composition. In our models we find that
although magnetic fields generated by the Spruit-Taylor dynamo are essential to
understand the internal angular momentum transport (and hence the rotational
behavior), the corresponding chemical mixing must be neglected to reproduce the
observations. Further we show that for low metallicities detailed initial
abundances are of prime importance, as solar-scaled abundances may result in
significant calibration errors.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of "First Stars III", Santa Fe, New
Mexico, July 16-20, 2007, 3 pages, 3 figure
Chemotype of Flores Indonesiaās Ocimum santum and Cimpogon nardus L
A study of the essential oil content in basil (Ocimum sanctum) and red lemongrass (Cymbopogon nardus L. Rendle) originally grown in Flores island has been conducted. The purpose of this study was to identify the chemotype of the essential oils obtained over stahl distillation using GC-MS. The Ocimum mainly consisted of 55% eugenol following by minor trans-alfa-bergometena, patchulana, and linalool. Meanwhile, the chemotype of the red lemongrass (Cymbopogon nardus L. rendle) were citronellol (22%), citronella, cyclohexamethanol, and viridiflorol
Fruit over sunbed : carotenoid skin coloration is found more attractive than melanin coloration
Skin coloration appears to play a pivotal part in facial attractiveness. Skin yellowness contributes to an attractive appearance and is influenced both by dietary carotenoids and by melanin. While both increased carotenoid coloration and increased melanin coloration enhance apparent health in Caucasian faces by increasing skin yellowness, it remains unclear firstly, whether both pigments contribute to attractiveness judgements, secondly, whether one pigment is clearly preferred over the other, and thirdly, whether these effects depend on the sex of the face. Here, in three studies, we examine these questions using controlled facial stimuli transformed to be either high or low in (a) carotenoid coloration, or (b) melanin coloration. We show, firstly, that both increased carotenoid coloration and increased melanin coloration are found attractive compared to lower levels of these pigments. Secondly, we show that carotenoid coloration is consistently preferred over melanin coloration when levels of coloration are matched. In addition, we find an effect of the sex of stimuli with stronger preferences for carotenoids over melanin in female compared to male faces, irrespective of the sex of the observer. These results are interpreted as reflecting preferences for sex-typical skin coloration: men have darker skin than women and high melanisation in male faces may further enhance this masculine trait, thus carotenoid coloration is not less desirable, but melanin coloration is relatively more desirable in males compared to females. Taken together, our findings provide further support for a carotenoid-linked health-signalling system that is highly important in mate choice.PostprintPeer reviewe
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