Sequential auctions and resale

In this thesis I study a market comprised of a sequence of auctions where buyers can choose to later resell any object they now buy. I develop a structural model of such a market and show how the possibility to resell shapes equilibrium strategies. I then estimate the model on data from classic car auctions. The model admits aggregate shocks to buyer and seller wealth and that way matches the positive empirical correlation between prices and the state of the economy. Using a separate two-period model I show analytically that the resale option may increase average prices as compared to an otherwise identical market without resale. The same two-period model shows that with aggregate shocks resale may amplify price volatility. I then evaluate the quantitative importance of these effects in a number of counterfactual experiments on the estimated model. Resale raises prices moderately but does not lead to meaningfully more volatility. Allowing (counterfactually) for instantaneous resale increases average prices and their volatility substantially. A second set of counterfactuals reveals that centralizing trade lowers prices and increases the volume of trade, thereby increasing the efficiency of the market. Price volatility remains unchanged in this scenario, even with frequent resale opportunities. An assumption in my model and several others in the literature is that bidders take a stationary distribution of rival bids as given and don't learn about that distribution from one auction to the next. This is different from the canonical model of sequential auctions in Weber (1983), where learning is present. I therefore compare the Weber model to a model where bidders face a stationary distribution of rival bids in each period. I show how equilibrium strategies differ in the two games and show that despite the differences, the two games yield the same expected prices and payoffs

Contributors and Constraints to Involvement with Youth Sports Officiating

There is a growing concern about the shortage of sports officials and its impact on organized youth sport. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of psychosocial factors that impact involvement with youth sports officiating by comparing and contrasting the experiences of officials from two distinct sports. In-depth interviews were conducted with baseball umpires and lacrosse officials. Resulting themes were classified as either contributors or constraints to involvement with officiating. The most striking difference between the two groups was the support provided in terms of mentorship, training, and administrative consideration. The baseball umpires received greater support and this was a key factor in overcoming constraints and fostering a sense of community. Implications and strategies for recruiting and retaining officials are discussed. 

Word Play: Modernist Women and Performative Writing

In Word Play: Modernist Women and Performative Writing I read modernist literary texts informed by theories about theatre, performance, and art. Exploring lesser-known works of Djuna Barnes, Gwendolyn Bennett, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Mina Loy, I combine literary analysis and performance studies to discover how modernist texts talk back to performance theories.;Performance studies, of course, is an inter-discipline that includes anthropology, sociology, performing arts, and literary theory. Modernist authors, influenced as they often are by art, performance, and ritual, incorporate these interdisciplinary interests into a writing practice, specifically performative writing. Performative writing is not so much a matter of style and form as a discursive, rhetorical practice. It presents textual moments that invoke performance and is grounded in the corporality of the body, calling attention to physical bodies in relation and movement. Because performative writing contains a rhetoric of potential action, it can have real social and political consequences. It stages a particular type of encounter between textuality and social realities, a relationship that appears in each of the primary texts I explore in this project. The work of these women is an active response to and reworking of social and political issues, and it acknowledges the complex relationship between history/politics and art/aesthetic form. I understand this labor as a modernist performance.;I do not attempt to define or demonstrate the most illustrative examples of performative writing; nor do I aim to lay out a conclusive and complete definition. Rather, I am interested in discovering how performative writing acts in the world and what effects it has. I lead with the writers themselves and map several trajectories of performative writing through these writers and their work. I chose these writers because they employ similar rhetorical strategies and have shared stylistic practices. I set the stage with Barnes to show the relation between physical violence and rhetorical violence; Bennett\u27s performativity involves breaking enforced invisibility and silence and uniting a community; Millay offers a metatheatrical performance that positions human agency against cycles of violence throughout history; and Loy gives a subjective account of the trauma of gender performance. Each chapter explores a different kind of violence and intervenes in that violence, offering commentary and critique in highbrow as well as lowbrow genres. My project demonstrates the ways in which the practice of performative writing can inform and expand our study of modernisms, genre, and gender

Looking at Gender Differences Through the Lens of Sport Spectators

This paper explores common assumptions about the intrinsic differences between male and female consumers within a subset of leisure consumption - sport spectating. This research utilized the Sports Interest Inventory (SII) (Funk, Mahony & Ridinger, 2002) to examine differences between spectators (N = 959) attending men\u27s and women\u27s basketball games at a NCAA Division I institution. MANOVA results revealed nine differences for Team-Gender, seven differences for Spectator-Gender, and three interaction effects. Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that three core interest factors (university pride, team interest, and vicarious achievement) explained a significant proportion of variance in commitment and attendance behavior for fans of both teams. However, a number of interest factors related to Team-Gender and Spectator-Gender emerged to differentially explain levels of commitment and behavior. The results indicate that while there are some commonalities that motivate people to attend college basketball games involving athletes of each gender, there are also differences that make women\u27s basketball unique from men\u27s basketball

Photoassociative creation of ultracold heteronuclear 6Li40K* molecules

We investigate the formation of weakly bound, electronically excited, heteronuclear 6Li40K* molecules by single-photon photoassociation in a magneto-optical trap. We performed trap loss spectroscopy within a range of 325 GHz below the Li(2S_(1/2))+K(4P_(3/2)) and Li(2S_(1/2))+K(4P_(1/2)) asymptotic states and observed more than 60 resonances, which we identify as rovibrational levels of 7 of 8 attractive long-range molecular potentials. The long-range dispersion coefficients and rotational constants are derived. We find large molecule formation rates of up to ~3.5x10^7s^(-1), which are shown to be comparable to those for homonuclear 40K_2*. Using a theoretical model we infer decay rates to the deeply bound electronic ground-state vibrational level X^1\Sigma^+(v'=3) of ~5x10^4s^(-1). Our results pave the way for the production of ultracold bosonic ground-state 6Li40K molecules which exhibit a large intrinsic permanent electric dipole moment.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted to EP

An Analysis of Donor Involvement, Gender, and Giving in College Athletics

Involvement has been examined extensively within the consumer behavior literature. However, limited research exists concerning involvement and charitable contributions. Additionally, because of women\u27s growing financial power, college athletic departments are increasingly interested in understanding how to attract greater numbers of female donors. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study was to examine gender differences in donor involvement using Zaichkowsky\u27s (1994) Personal Involvement Inventory (PII). Several demographic characteristics of donors were also compared by gender. A sample of 1,664 donors from three NCAA Division I universities participated in this study. The PII was found to be an adequate measure of donor involvement based on the sample scores. Male and female donors differed in their level of affective involvement, annual contributions, donor longevity, and household income. These findings can be used to further our understanding of donor involvement, and to assist in the development of strategies to recruit and retain female contributors

An Examination of Motives, Attitudes and Charitable Intentions for Running in a Charity Event

Running, as a form of leisure time physical activity is generally popular due to its low-cost entry, easy access to practice, and the convenience and accessible nature of the activity. Specifically, one type of running experience sought by many is charitable running or running for a cause (i.e., cause-related sport event). While there is a growing body of literature on charity sport events, little is known about how the charitable motives and participant identity with the event affect future behaviors associated with the cause and the event. Grounded in identity theory, the purpose of this article was to examine the effect of salient identities and charitable motives on future intentions associated with a cause-related event. Data were collected from the second annual Norfolk Freedom Half Marathon, in Virginia, via an online survey that was sent to all registered runners (1,372) one week after the race and 557 participants responded. We found charity motives to be the dominant influence on both charitable and purchase intentions in cause-event participants. This study contributes to the existing amateur sport literature as one of the first to report on a military-oriented sport event with military affiliated participants; the creation of the Charitable Motives in Sport Scale (CMISS), the Runner Identity Scale (RIS) and the Military Identity Scale (MIS); and the addition of a new military/runner identity typology, which we hope would be useful for future military-affiliated running events

HDAC10 in neuroblastoma chemoresistance

Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial solid tumor in childhood, and characteristically displays a wide variety of clinical outcomes. While prognosis is generally favorable in low-risk and intermediate-risk tumors, outcome remains poor in high-risk neuroblastoma, and infaust in case of relapse. Multidrug resistance is frequent in high-risk neuroblastoma and remains to be one of the major factors limiting treatment success despite intensive multimodal therapy regimens, highlighting the need for novel treatment approaches capable of reducing neuroblastoma drug resistance. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are involved in numerous cancer-relevant pathways and have become attractive anti-tumor targets due to their excellent druggability. Broadband inhibition of HDACs is, however, associated with dose-limiting side effects, which can be possibly circumvented by the inhibition of individual tumor-relevant isozymes. Previous work of our group has shown that high expression of class IIb histone deacetylase HDAC10 supports chemoresistance of neuroblastoma cells by promoting macroautophagy. Data suggested that HDAC10 was critical for lysosomal function, but the precise lysosomal role of HDAC10 and its cellular substrates remained unknown. The data presented in this study indicate that HDAC10 is crucial for lysosomal homeostasis in a number of highly drug-resistant neuroblastoma cell lines (SK-N-BE(2)-C, IMR-32, SK-N-AS) while being dispensable in others (Kelly, NB-1) and in non-transformed fibroblasts. In HDAC10-dependent cells, interference with HDAC10 function causes accumulation of lysosomes, a phenotype that is not observed in case of functional interference with the highly homologous class IIb member HDAC6. Depletion or inhibition of HDAC10 further interferes with downstream lysosomal processes such as lysosomal exocytosis, indicating that accumulating lysosomes are dysfunctional. Lysosomal accumulation and the inhibition of lysosomal exocytosis in turn promote intracellular accumulation of weakly basic chemotherapeutics such as doxorubicin, which does not remain sequestered in lysosomes but is also highly enriched in nuclei. Consequently, co-treatment with doxorubicin and HDAC10 inhibitors efficiently promotes cell death in treatment resistant neuroblastoma cell lines while sparing non-malignant cells. Lysosomal exocytosis is an important pro-survival mechanism under cytotoxic treatment. Inhibition of HDAC10, and thus lysosomal exocytosis, sensitizes cells not only by promoting doxorubicin accumulation, but also by inhibiting the process of lysosomal exocytosis itself. Moreover, interference with HDAC10 function promotes accumulation of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) both in absence and presence of doxorubicin, suggesting an additional role for HDAC10 in DSB repair. Preliminary data of mass spectrometric analyses of protein lysine acetylation after HDAC10 inhibition suggest that HDAC10 modulates acetylation of the V-ATPase subunit A and the Ku70/Ku80 complex member Ku80. It is thus conceivable that HDAC10 modulates lysosomal function at the level of lysosomal acidification, as well as DNA repair at the level of non-homologous end joining of DSBs. The recently published function of HDAC10 as N8-acetylspermidine deacetylase remains to be confirmed. Follow-up studies on the mechanistic role of HDAC10 could be greatly facilitated by a highly specific HDAC10 antibody. In this context, several promising HDAC10-reactive mouse hybridoma clones were generated, but recurring instability of the promising hybridoma clones delayed stable production of the antibody. In summary, in this thesis, a novel function of HDAC10 in regulation of lysosomal downstream mechanisms was identified and a previously published role of HDAC10 in DNA repair was confirmed. These mechanisms possess the translational potential to overcome drug resistance in combination with chemotherapies

Characterizing Consumer Motivation as Individual Difference Factors: Augmenting the Sports Interest Inventory (SII) to Explain Level of Spectator Support

The central focus of this study was to examine how individual difference factors could be used to explain various levels of consumer support for a specific sport property. The present study extends the Sport Interest Inventory (SII) in order to enhance current understanding of consumer motives in relation to sport in general and women\u27s competitive sport in particular. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the 12-item Sport Interest Inventory, measuring 14 individual difference factors related to spectator interest in soccer. Multiple Linear regression analysis revealed that five motivational characteristic--(a) sport interest, (b) team interest, (c) vicarious achievement, (d) role modeling, and (e) entertainment value--explained 54% of variance in level of spectator support for women\u27s professional soccer. These results suggest that augmenting traditional spectator measures offers a better understanding of motivational characteristics in different sport situations and of the impact these motivations have on behavior. Implications for marketers of women\u27s professional sports and of sports in general are discussed

Why Referees Stay in the Game

Current trends indicate the number of qualified sports officials continues to dwindle. Therefore, this research sought to better understand reasons for initial entry, continuation, and potential discontinuation with officiating, while also identifying problematic issues, and potential solutions. Content analysis was utilized to examine five open-ended online survey responses from 2,485 referees. The results indicate that Enjoyable Affiliation (58%) and Remuneration (14%) were key to referees becoming involved in officiating. Those two themes, Enjoyable Affiliation (75%) and Remuneration (14%), were also identified as important to retaining officials. Physical Limitations were mentioned by 58% of the respondents regarding why they plan to discontinue. In terms of the most problematic issues, referees most frequently indicated Abuse (42%) and Administrative Issues (20%). Lastly, findings suggest the best ways to recruit and retain officials are to Provide Mentors and Training (32%), Market to Young People (23%), and Increase Pay (19%). Practical implications and strategies that include attracting more women, underrepresented ethnicities, and young people into sports officiating are provided