Reference Distorted Prices

I show that when consumers (mis)perceive prices relative to reference prices, budgets turn out to be soft, prices tend to be lower and the average quality of goods sold decreases. These observations provide explanations for decentralized purchase decisions, for people being happy with a purchase even when they have paid their evaluation, and for why trade might affect high quality local firms 'unfairly'

Development of intuitive rules: Evaluating the application of the dual-system framework to understanding children's intuitive reasoning

This is an author-created version of this article. The original source of publication is Psychon Bull Rev. 2006 Dec;13(6):935-53 The final publication is available at www.springerlink.com Published version: http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/BF0321390

Frequency decoding of periodically timed action potentials through distinct activity patterns in a random neural network

Frequency discrimination is a fundamental task of the auditory system. The mammalian inner ear, or cochlea, provides a place code in which different frequencies are detected at different spatial locations. However, a temporal code based on spike timing is also available: action potentials evoked in an auditory-nerve fiber by a low-frequency tone occur at a preferred phase of the stimulus-they exhibit phase locking-and thus provide temporal information about the tone's frequency. In an accompanying psychoacoustic study, and in agreement with previous experiments, we show that humans employ this temporal information for discrimination of low frequencies. How might such temporal information be read out in the brain? Here we demonstrate that recurrent random neural networks in which connections between neurons introduce characteristic time delays, and in which neurons require temporally coinciding inputs for spike initiation, can perform sharp frequency discrimination when stimulated with phase-locked inputs. Although the frequency resolution achieved by such networks is limited by the noise in phase locking, the resolution for realistic values reaches the tiny frequency difference of 0.2% that has been measured in humans.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, and supplementary informatio

Finding robust solutions for constraint satisfaction problems with discrete and ordered domains by coverings

Constraint programming is a paradigm wherein relations between variables are stated in the form of constraints. Many real life problems come from uncertain and dynamic environments, where the initial constraints and domains may change during its execution. Thus, the solution found for the problem may become invalid. The search forrobustsolutions for constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) has become an important issue in the ¿eld of constraint programming. In some cases, there exists knowledge about the uncertain and dynamic environment. In other cases, this information is unknown or hard to obtain. In this paper, we consider CSPs with discrete and ordered domains where changes only involve restrictions or expansions of domains or constraints. To this end, we model CSPs as weighted CSPs (WCSPs) by assigning weights to each valid tuple of the problem constraints and domains. The weight of each valid tuple is based on its distance from the borders of the space of valid tuples in the corresponding constraint/domain. This distance is estimated by a new concept introduced in this paper: coverings. Thus, the best solution for the modeled WCSP can be considered as a most robust solution for the original CSP according to these assumptionsThis work has been partially supported by the research projects TIN2010-20976-C02-01 (Min. de Ciencia e Innovacion, Spain) and P19/08 (Min. de Fomento, Spain-FEDER), and the fellowship program FPU.Climent Aunés, LI.; Wallace, RJ.; Salido Gregorio, MA.; Barber Sanchís, F. (2013). Finding robust solutions for constraint satisfaction problems with discrete and ordered domains by coverings. Artificial Intelligence Review. 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-013-9420-0S126Climent L, Salido M, Barber F (2011) Reformulating dynamic linear constraint satisfaction problems as weighted csps for searching robust solutions. 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Aromatase inhibitors as adjuvant therapy for postmenopausal women: a therapeutic advance but many unresolved questions

Adjuvant hormonal therapy for postmenopausal women with early stage breast cancer has become far more complex over the past several years. This commentary reviews the current status of the five major trials evaluating the use of the aromatase inhibitors in the adjuvant setting. The data currently available suggest that the aromatase inhibitors are efficacious either as upfront therapy or after a course of tamoxifen. Ongoing trials will compare these approaches and guide the use of these agents in the years to come

Enhanced enforcement of the foreign corrupt practices act: Improving the ethics of U.S. business practices abroad

Empirical research demonstrates that bribery has a detrimental impact on investment, economic growth, trade, and democratic governments. In response to rising bribery activity and the additional burdens placed on corporate officials by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of 1977 has reached an all-time high. Although many managers, financial officers, entrepreneurs, and auditors are aware of the FCPA\u27s objectives and mandates, many do not do an adequate job of protecting their firms, employees, and/or clients from fines and prison sentences. The purposes of this paper are to (1) analyze and describe bribery and FCPA case filings, sanctions, payments (bribes), and value of business to be obtained; (2) describe and analyze the important provisions of the FCPA; (3) discuss vicarious liability or the liability of U.S. firms and others for the acts of third parties; and (4) make recommendations to help firms improve their compliance with the FCPA. © 2012 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Fermi observations of high-energy gamma-ray emission from GRB 090217A

The Fermi observatory is advancing our knowledge of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) through pioneering observations at high energies, covering more than 7 decades in energy with the two on-board detectors, the Large Area Telescope (LAT) and the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM). Here we report on the observation of the long GRB 090217A which triggered the GBM and has been detected by the LAT with a significance greater than 9 sigma. We present the GBM and LAT observations and on-ground analyses, including the time-resolved spectra and the study of the temporal profile from 8 keV up to 1 GeV. All spectra are well reproduced by a Band model. We compare these observations to the first two LAT-detected, long bursts GRB 080825C and GRB 080916C. These bursts were found to have time-dependent spectra and exhibited a delayed onset of the high-energy emission, which are not observed in the case of GRB 090217A. We discuss some theoretical implications for the high-energy emission of GRBs.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures. Contact Authors: Fred, Piron; Sara, Cutini; Andreas, von Kienli

Gamma-ray flaring activity from the gravitationally lensed blazar PKS 1830-211 observed by Fermi LAT

The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope routinely detects the highly dust-absorbed, reddened, and MeV-peaked flat spectrum radio quasar PKS 1830-211 (z=2.507). Its apparent isotropic gamma-ray luminosity (E>100 MeV) averaged over $\sim$ 3 years of observations and peaking on 2010 October 14/15 at 2.9 X 10^{50} erg s^{-1}, makes it among the brightest high-redshift Fermi blazars. No published model with a single lens can account for all of the observed characteristics of this complex system. Based on radio observations, one expects time delayed variability to follow about 25 days after a primary flare, with flux about a factor 1.5 less. Two large gamma-ray flares of PKS 1830-211 have been detected by the LAT in the considered period and no substantial evidence for such a delayed activity was found. This allows us to place a lower limit of about 6 on the gamma rays flux ratio between the two lensed images. Swift XRT observations from a dedicated Target of Opportunity program indicate a hard spectrum and with no significant correlation of X-ray flux with the gamma-ray variability. The spectral energy distribution can be modeled with inverse Compton scattering of thermal photons from the dusty torus. The implications of the LAT data in terms of variability, the lack of evident delayed flare events, and different radio and gamma-ray flux ratios are discussed. Microlensing effects, absorption, size and location of the emitting regions, the complex mass distribution of the system, an energy-dependent inner structure of the source, and flux suppression by the lens galaxy for one image path may be considered as hypotheses for understanding our results.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables. Accepted by the The Astrophysical Journal. Corresponding authors: S. Ciprini (ASI ASDC & INAF OAR, Rome, Italy), S. Buson (INAF Padova & Univ. of Padova, Padova, Italy), J. Finke (NRL, Washington, DC, USA), F. D'Ammando (INAF IRA, Bologna, Italy

The paradox of odd-even price in fashion luxury sector : empirical evidence from an international direct observation of luxury stores

Price has always had a key role in the luxury fashion market, because high prices are linked to the uniqueness and the prestige of luxury products and brands. Because of this direct contribution of price to the luxury essence, scholars have partially neglected the possible existence of unintuitive and controversial pricing strategies followed by luxury firms. This article deals with this literature gap, particularly analyzing a specific pricing strategy that seems to be in contrast with the nature of luxury pricing: the odd-even price (OEP). With the direct observation of physical and digital store windows of 20 luxury brands, this research investigates the role of OEP in the fashion luxury sector. Particularly, this work examines the relationship between the OEP strategy and the luxury level of fashion brands considering both offline and online channels