The Influence of Wait Time Units on Patience in Intertemporal Choice

Patience is important for consumers. It allows consumers to forgo immediate desires and instead reap greater benefits in the future. We can see a conflict between immediate and future benefits in our everyday decisions, such as when we decide whether to spend money on frivolous products while shopping at the mall, or to set money aside for the future. In this dissertation I study patience through the context of intertemporal choice. These choices are commonplace in the marketplace, and involve choosing between a smaller-sooner (SS) and a larger-later (LL) reward. SS and LL are separated by a wait time period. If consumers are willing to endure the longer wait time for LL, then they are able to receive the greater benefits of the larger reward. Thus, choosing LL reflects greater patience, and choice of LL should increase when the wait time feels short. The wait time for the rewards can be described in different units of time. For example, 3 months can just as easily be described as 90 days. I investigate how describing the wait time in different units of time can impact patience. I argue that expressing wait time in larger time units (e.g., months rather than days) shrinks wait time perceptions, and consequently boosts patience. Importantly, I argue that this effect emerges more strongly when rewards are hedonic rather than utilitarian. My predicted effects are based on what we know about the numerosity heuristic and the hedonic utilitarian distinction between rewards. The numerosity heuristic is the tendency to equate smaller numbers with smaller magnitudes while not fully considering the associated units. Thus, a wait time expressed as 3 months rather than 90 days should feel shorter when the influence of the numerosity heuristic is strong, since ‘3’ is less than ‘90’. I argue that numerosity’s influence will remain strong only when rewards are hedonic, and diminish when they are utilitarian. This is because utilitarian rewards in intertemporal choice should lead to a more calculative mindset when compared to hedonic rewards, which should decrease reliance on the numerosity heuristic. I find evidence for my proposed interactive effect between time units and reward types in six studies. Also, in line with numerosity, I show that this effect is mediated by larger time units shrinking wait time perception. Finally, in line with my theory about utilitarian (vs. hedonic) rewards leading to a greater reliance on calculation, I show that a primed calculative mindset, or a simple individual tendency to be more calculative in decisions, diminishes the effect of units even for hedonic rewards, and thus eliminates the hedonic-utilitarian asymmetry. These results contribute to research on numerosity, intertemporal choice, and hedonic-utilitarian differences; and offer a simple tool for practitioners to influence patience

Received Signal Strength for Randomly Distributed Molecular Nanonodes

We consider nanonodes randomly distributed in a circular area and characterize the received signal strength when a pair of these nodes employ molecular communication. Two communication methods are investigated, namely free diffusion and diffusion with drift. Since the nodes are randomly distributed, the distance between them can be represented as a random variable, which results in a stochastic process representation of the received signal strength. We derive the probability density function of this process for both molecular communication methods. Specifically for the case of free diffusion we also derive the cumulative distribution function, which can be used to derive transmission success probabilities. The presented work constitutes a first step towards the characterization of the signal to noise ratio in the considered setting for a number of molecular communication methods.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, Nanocom 2017 conferenc

Land-locked: An Examination of Some of the Inefficiencies Affecting Transactions Involving Immovable Property

In the study of law and economics, the Coase Theorem posits that an efficient allocation of resources will result when transactions costs are zero.1 These “transaction costs” may be viewed as impediments to an efficient allocation of resources and can take many forms. For example, long distances between a prospective vendor and purchaser of property and a lack of communication facilities between them would impede even the best of intentions to enter into a bargain. Similarly, the cost of mobilising labour and materials might impede a property developer from pursuing a tender for civil works. In some cases, a high rate of Stamp Duty on transactions can result in the parties reconsidering their decision to enter into such bargains. To the extent this author can claim knowledge of economics, the Coase Theorem also suggests that transaction costs and inefficiencies hamper the natural flow of bargains, result in inefficient allocation of resources and thus impact the economy. Some transaction costs are small enough to ignore whereas some, imposed, for example, by the law, are unavoidable. In such cases, a mutual understanding between the parties may see the burden of these transaction costs shared or, in others, avoided altogether. For example, the statutory requirements that all leases purporting to grant a term in excess of one year or which reserve an annual rent must be registered and stamped2 often results, in owners of residential property granting indefinitely renewable leases of 11 months and thus avoiding such requirements

Understanding and Developing PikC as a Tool in Organic Synthesis. Part I: Total Synthesis of Methymycin and Neomethymycin Featuring a Catalytic Nickel Ynal Cyclization and a Biocatalytic PikC CH Oxidation. Part II: Regiodivergent Nickel Catalyzed Macrocyc

Organic synthesis has been revolutionized by the widespread adoption of organometallic chemistry. Laboratories lacking specialized expertise in transition metals routinely carry out transformations once deemed impossible or impractical. Enzymes hold similar promise to revolutionize synthetic methods; however significant hurdles exist, including a lack of fundamental understanding. The pikromycin biosynthetic pathway uniquely contains enzymes with native substrate promiscuity. We envision harnessing this catalytic prowess and developing a platform for chemoenzymatic synthesis of macrolide antibiotics and un-natural macrocyclic molecules. These studies provide the groundwork towards a fundamental understanding of PikC, a cytochrome P450 enzyme found within the pikromycin pathway by providing access to substrates to study PikC catalyzed reactions. A total synthesis of methymycin and neomethymycin was developed merging catalytic nickel ynal cyclizations and biocatalytic PikC oxidations. In addition, recently developed methodology from the Montgomery laboratory on regiochemistry reversal was applied to a macrocyclization reaction.Ph.D.Medicinal ChemistryUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91393/1/rshareef_1.pd