Brand gender and cross-gender extensions.

Afin de se développer et de générer des profits, la plupart des marques de luxe utilisent les stratégies d’extension de marque, c'est-à-dire qu’elles essaient de s’introduire dans de nouvelles catégories de produits. En complément, une nouvelle tendance émerge : il s’agit des extensions de segments de marché (par exemple un horlogers masculin visant les femmes). L'objectif de cet article est de discuter du concept du genre de la marque et de son influence potentielle sur les extensions de segments de marché (homme – femme). Plus spécifiquement, nous souhaitons décrire comment les marques féminines s’étendent sur le marché d'hommes et vice-versa. Une recherche qualitative, de type sémiotique structurale, est effectuée sur un échantillon de huit marques de luxe. Les techniques sémiotiques permettent de comprendre les significations profondes du discours des marques au travers de leur communication. Les résultats exploratoires soulignent l'importance de la cohérence entre le genre de la marque et le genre utilisé pour parler au segment de marché opposé. Ce constat fort qui ressort des analyses est en conformité avec la littérature sur les extensions de marque et l’importance de la congruence.In order to develop brands and increase growth, most luxury brands rely on extensions on different product categories. On top of that, the current trend is the cross-gender extensions (eg. Masculine watchmakers targeting female audience). The objective of this paper is to discuss the concept of brand gender and its potential influence in crossover extensions. More specifically, we intend to describe how female brands extend on the men market and vice versa. Using semiotic analysis, a qualitative research is performed on a sample of eight brands. The semiotic techniques allow to understand the deep meanings of their products, communication, web sites and narratives. The exploratory findings highlight the importance of brand consistency in terms of values while addressing both male and female segments. These findings, specific to luxury brands, provide support to the brand extension literature.Luxe; Masculinité; Brand gender; Genre de la marque; Cross-gender extensions; Extensions de segments de marché; Masculinity; Femininity; Luxury; Féminité;

Willingness to Pay for Mortality Risk Reductions: Does Latency Matter?

Using results from two contingent valuation surveys conducted in Canada and the United States, we explore the effect of a latency period on willingness to pay (WTP) for reduced mortality risk using both structural and reduced form approaches. We find that delaying the time at which the risk reduction occurs by 10 to 30 years significantly reduces WTP for respondents aged 40 to 60 years. Additionally, we estimate implicit discount rates equal to 8% for Canada and 4.5% for the United States—both well within the range established previously in the literature.value of a statistical life, mortality risks, cost–benefit analysis

Does the Value of a Statistical Life Vary with Age and Health Status? Evidence from the United States and Canada

Much of the justification for environmental rulemaking rests on estimates of the benefits to society of reduced mortality rates. Yet the literature providing estimates of the willingness to pay (WTP) for mortality risk reductions measures the value that healthy, prime-aged adults place on reducing their risk of dying, whereas the majority of statistical lives saved by environmental programs, according to epidemiological studies, appear to be the lives of older people and people with chronically impaired health. This paper provides an empirical assessment of the effects of age and baseline health on WTP for mortality risk reductions by reporting the results of two contingent valuation surveys designed to test the above hypotheses. One survey was administered in-person to residents of Hamilton, Ontario, and the other to a nationally representative sample of U.S. residents using the Internet. Both surveys elicited respondents’ WTP for reductions in mortality risk of different magnitudes. Respondents were limited to persons aged 40 years and older, including those older than 60, to examine the impact of age on WTP. Extensive information was collected about each respondent’s health status to see whether it systematically influenced WTP. Our results provide weak support for the notion that WTP declines with age, but only after age 70. Specifically, in our Canadian sample, WTP declines by about 30% after age 70 compared with WTP at younger ages. There is no such statistically significant decline, however, in the U.S. sample. We similarly find no support for the idea that people who have cancer or chronic heart or lung disease are willing to pay less to reduce their risk of dying than people without these illnesses. If anything, people with these illnesses are willing to pay more.willingness to pay, mortality, contingent valuation, age, health status

Willingness to Pay for Mortality Risk Reductions: Does Latency Matter?

Using results from two contingent valuation surveys conducted in Canada and the U.S., we explore the effect of a latency period on willingness to pay (WTP) for reduced mortality risk using both structural and reduced form approaches. We find that delaying the time at which the risk reduction occurs by 10 to 30 years reduces WTP by more than half for respondents in both samples aged 40 to 60 years. Additionally, we estimate implicit discount rates equal to 8% for Canada and 4.5% for the U.S. – both well within the range established previously in the literature.Value of a statistical life, Mortality risks, Benefit-cost analyris

A second vestigial umbilical vein : a case report

A healthy female infant was found to have two umbilical arteries and two umbilical veins at the cut surface of the cord at birth. Detailed inspection of the cord showed the second vein to represent a short segment vestigial vessel that, moreover, was not associated with any other congenital anomaly as is often found in infants with umbilical vein anomalies.peer-reviewe

The Price Premium for Organic Babyfood: A Hedonic Analysis

The price premium associated with organic babyfood is estimated by applying a hedonic model to price and characteristic data for babyfood products collected in two cities: Raleigh, North Carolina, and San Jose, California. The price per ounce of babyfood is modeled as a function of a number of babyfood and store characteristics. The estimated organic price premium is generally equal to 3 cents to 4 cents per ounce. To the extent this premium reflects consumer willingness to pay to reduce pesticide exposures, it could be used to infer values for reduced dietary exposures to pesticide residues for babies.babyfood, hedonic analysis, organic foods, Demand and Price Analysis,

3D reconstruction of maize plants in the phenoVision system

In order to efficiently study the impact of environmental changes, or the differences between various genotypes, large numbers of plants need to be measured. At the VIB, a system named \emph{PhenoVision} was built to automatically image plants during their growth. This system is used to evaluate the impact of drought on different maize genotypes. To this end, we require 3D reconstructions of the maize plants, which we obtain from voxel carving

The Willingness to Pay for Mortality Risk Reductions: A Comparison of the United States and Canada

We present results for two contingent valuation surveys conducted in Hamilton, Canada and the US to elicit WTP for mortality risk reductions. We find similar Value of Statistical Life estimates across the two studies, ranging from USD 930,000 to USD 4.8 million (2000 US dollars). WTP increases with risk reduction size, but varies little with respondent age: individuals aged over 70 years hold WTP values approximately one-third lower than other respondents. Respondent health status has limited effect on WTP. These results provide little or no evidence for adjusting VSL estimates used in policy analyses for the affected population’s age or health status.value of a statistical life, mortality risks, benefit-cost analysis

Valuing mortality reductions in India : a study of compensating wage differentials

Conducting cost-benefit analyses of health and safety regulations requires placing a dollar value on reductions in health risks, including the risk of death. In the United States, mortality risks are often valued using compensating-wage differentials. These differentials measure what a worker would have to be paid to accept a small increase in his risk of death-which is assumed to equal what the worker would pay to achieve a small reduction in his risk of death. The authors estimate compensating-wage differentials for risk of fatal and nonfatal injuries in India's manufacturing industry. They estimate a hedonic wage equation using the most recent Occupational Wage Survey, supplemented by data on occupational injuries from the Indian Labour Yearbook. Their estimates of compensating-wage differentials imply a value of statistical life (VSL) in India of 6.4 million to 15 million 1990 rupees (roughly $150,000 to$360,000 at current exchange rates). This number is between 20 and 48 times forgone earnings-the human capital measure of the value of reducing the risk of death. The ratio of the VSL to forgone earnings implied by the study is larger than in comparable U.S. studies but smaller than the ratio implied by the only other compensating-wage study for India (Shanmugam 1997). The latter implies a ratio of VSL to forgone earnings of 73! The authors caution that in India, as in the United States, compensating-wage differentials in the labor market may overstate what individuals would themselves pay to reduce the risk of death. They suggest using their estimates as an upper boundon willingness to pay to reduce risk of death, and forgone earnings as a lower bound.Labor Policies,Water and Industry,Public Health Promotion,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Banks&Banking Reform,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Health Economics&Finance,Water and Industry,Environmental Economics&Policies

Coherent Raman spectro-imaging with laser frequency combs

Optical spectroscopy and imaging of microscopic samples have opened up a wide range of applications throughout the physical, chemical, and biological sciences. High chemical specificity may be achieved by directly interrogating the fundamental or low-lying vibrational energy levels of the compound molecules. Amongst the available prevailing label-free techniques, coherent Raman scattering has the distinguishing features of high spatial resolution down to 200 nm and three-dimensional sectioning. However, combining fast imaging speed and identification of multiple - and possibly unexpected- compounds remains challenging: existing high spectral resolution schemes require long measurement times to achieve broad spectral spans. Here we overcome this difficulty and introduce a novel concept of coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) spectro-imaging with two laser frequency combs. We illustrate the power of our technique with high resolution (4 cm-1) Raman spectra spanning more than 1200 cm-1 recorded within less than 15 microseconds. Furthermore, hyperspectral images combining high spectral (10 cm-1) and spatial (2 micrometers) resolutions are acquired at a rate of 50 pixels per second. Real-time multiplex accessing of hyperspectral images may dramatically expand the range of applications of nonlinear microscopy.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure