An Examination of Sport Ticket Price Acceptability and Surcharge Transparency in Partitioned Pricing

There has been a recent price policy change in the sport industry that ticket resale companies attempted to reveal any additional fees upfront to increase price transparency and protect consumers in the marketplace. This policy change was announced in early 2020 (Thompson, 2020). However, as the coronavirus outbreak affected live events to be canceled, become virtual, or have a limited facility capacity (Apstein, 2020; Perry, 2020), it disabled the resale companies to see consumer responses to their policy change that may increase or decrease ticket revenues. In addition, charging additional fees to the ticket face value is a form of partitioned pricing and drip pricing, which contains two price components: a base price and surcharges (Burman & Biswas, 2007; Morwitz et al., 1998). This means that purchase decisions may vary depending on whether the base price or the total cost of tickets is below (or above) the price range individuals consider acceptable. This makes an examination of price acceptability within partitioned pricing and drip pricing imperative in terms of understanding consumer purchase decisions. Therefore, this particular study aimed to disclose consumer perceptions (i.e., surcharge sensitivity, surcharge acceptability, surcharge skepticism) and purchase behaviors (i.e., search intention, purchase intention) regarding surcharge transparency. An experimental between-participants design with four groups (no fees vs. transparent fees vs. a notification of fees vs. hidden fees) was used to manipulate surcharge transparency that is currently employed on the secondary market by various companies. An online survey was developed on Qualtrics, and data from a total of 547 participants was collected on Amazon Mechanical Turk. The author employed four multivariate analyses of covariances for data analysis. This study found that, first, when ticket prices are below individuals’ acceptable price, they have high intention to purchase the ticket. The opposing result occurred when ticket prices exceed individuals’ threshold. However, consumers consistently have high search intention regardless of price acceptability. Second, due to sport consumers’ acknowledgment that additional surcharges are added to ticket prices when purchasing them on the secondary market, the way surcharges are presented does not vary their surcharge perceptions. Rather, the size of surcharges (e.g., $2.50 vs. 25% of the base price) differs surcharge perceptions. The acknowledgement of estimated fees on the secondary market makes the effects of surcharge transparency insignificant on purchase behavior as well as the moderating impacts of surcharge perceptions. This study makes contributions to the PP literature and the sport consumer behavior literature. The findings contribute to providing a comprehensive understanding of consumer behavior with two common surcharges in live ticket purchases. This study particularly advances the literature with fundamental moderators (e.g., price acceptability, surcharge transparency) and essential outcome variables (e.g., search intention, purchase intention) within the context of sports. In addition, the present study is guided by attribution theory (Heider, 1958; Kelley & Michela, 1980); i.e., sport consumers acknowledge that surcharges exist in order to provide the ticketing service for consumers and to generate revenues for organizations. This attribution neutralizes the effects of PP on the secondary market. From the managerial standpoint, the findings of this study provide resale companies with effective price presentation styles. In order to enhance sales revenue, companies are recommended to employ all-inclusive pricing (no price breakdowns). However, companies should ensure they clearly communicate any fees that are included in the total price in order to increase price transparency

NFATc1 regulates the transcription of DNA damage-induced apoptosis suppressor

AbstractDNA damage induced apoptosis suppressor (DDIAS), or human Noxin (hNoxin), is strongly expressed in lung cancers. DDIAS knockdown induced apoptosis in non-small cell lung carcinoma A549 cells in response to DNA damage, indicating DDIAS as a potential therapeutic target in lung cancer. To understand the transcriptional regulation of DDIAS, we determined the transcription start site, promoter region, and transcription factor. We found that DDIAS transcription begins at nucleotide 212 upstream of the DDIAS translation start site. We cloned the DDIAS promoter region and identified NFAT2 as a major transcription factor (Im et al., 2016 [1]). We demonstrated that NFATc1 regulates DDIAS expression in both pancreatic cancer Panc-1 cells and lung cancer cells

Spermidine-induced recovery of human dermal structure and barrier function by skin microbiome.

An unbalanced microbial ecosystem on the human skin is closely related to skin diseases and has been associated with inflammation and immune responses. However, little is known about the role of the skin microbiome on skin aging. Here, we report that the Streptococcus species improved the skin structure and barrier function, thereby contributing to anti-aging. Metagenomic analyses showed the abundance of Streptococcus in younger individuals or those having more elastic skin. Particularly, we isolated Streptococcus pneumoniae, Streptococcus infantis, and Streptococcus thermophilus from face of young individuals. Treatment with secretions of S. pneumoniae and S. infantis induced the expression of genes associated with the formation of skin structure and the skin barrier function in human skin cells. The application of culture supernatant including Streptococcal secretions on human skin showed marked improvements on skin phenotypes such as elasticity, hydration, and desquamation. Gene Ontology analysis revealed overlaps in spermidine biosynthetic and glycogen biosynthetic processes. Streptococcus-secreted spermidine contributed to the recovery of skin structure and barrier function through the upregulation of collagen and lipid synthesis in aged cells. Overall, our data suggest the role of skin microbiome into anti-aging and clinical applications

Impacts of Thermal Environments on Health Risk: A Case Study of Harris County, Texas

The loss of green spaces in urbanized areas has triggered a potential thermal risk in the urban environment. While the existing literature has investigated the direct relationship between urban temperatures and health risks, little is known about causal relationships among key components of urban sustainability and health risks, through a pathway involving urban temperature. This study examined the multiple connections between urbanized land use, urban greenery, urban temperatures and health risks in Harris County, Texas. The census tract-level health data from the 500 Cities Project (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) is used for analysis. Structural equation model analyses showed that the urban temperature played a mediating role in associations between urbanized land use, urban greenery and health risk. Urban vegetation is associated with a decrease in health risks, while urban land use has associations with an increase in health risks. Findings suggest that proactive policies tailored to provide rich urban greenery in a neighborhood can alleviate urban land use effects on health risks

AsiDesigner: exon-based siRNA design server considering

alternative splicin

DDIAS, DNA damage-induced apoptosis suppressor, is a potential therapeutic target in cancer

Abstract Increasing evidence indicates that DNA damage-induced apoptosis suppressor (DDIAS) is an oncogenic protein that is highly expressed in a variety of cancers, including colorectal cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The discovery of DDIAS as a novel therapeutic target and its role in human cancer biology is fascinating and noteworthy. Recent studies have shown that DDIAS is involved in tumorigenesis, metastasis, DNA repair and synthesis, and drug resistance and that it plays multiple roles with distinct binding partners in several human cancers. This review focuses on the function of DDIAS and its regulatory proteins in human cancer as potential targets for cancer therapy, as well as the development and future prospects of DDIAS inhibitors