Future Orientation, Chronological Age and Product Attributes Preference

This dissertation examines what motivates individuals to prefer certain types of product attributes over others. It is proposed that consumer preference regarding product attributes is fundamentally connected to an individual’s future orientation, i.e., how a person perceives, thinks about, and copes with time left in life. Specifically, it is posited that future orientations play key roles in shaping a person’s criteria in product evaluation. Thus, this dissertation seeks to integrate the study of future orientation with research on socio-emotional selectivity influences on consumption. Building on past research, this study proposes a conceptual model including four constructs: future orientations, chronological age, product evaluation, and preferences. An experimental study was used to investigate the research objectives and calibrate and validate the model. The experiment examines the moderating effect of future orientations and chronological age on consumer preference for hedonic vs. utilitarian attributes. The subjects were randomly assigned to one of two future orientations (expansive and limited) and one of two attributes contexts (hedonic and utilitarian). The sample for this study was drawn from consumers in Metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia. The research results will lead to an improved understanding of how preference varies from individual to individual and changes over time. In particular the research will provide insights about the impact of an individual’s future orientation on product attitude. The findings will advance current theory in both the new product evaluation and preference literature and have implications for the practice of marketing at levels of marketing strategy, product development, integrated marketing communications and loyalty programs

Lytic cycle: A defining process in oncolytic virotherapy

The viral lytic cycle is an important process in oncolytic virotherapy. Most mathematical models for oncolytic virotherapy do not incorporate this process. In this article, we propose a mathematical model with the viral lytic cycle based on the basic mathematical model for oncolytic virotherapy. The viral lytic cycle is characterized by two parameters, the time period of the viral lytic cycle and the viral burst size. The time period of the viral lytic cycle is modeled as a delay parameter. The model is a nonlinear system of delay differential equations. The model reveals a striking feature that the critical value of the period of the viral lytic cycle is determined by the viral burst size. There are two threshold values for the burst size. Below the first threshold, the system has an unstable trivial equilibrium and a globally stable virus free equilibrium for any nonnegative delay, while the system has a third positive equilibrium when the burst size is greater than the first threshold. When the burst size is above the second threshold, there is a functional relation between the bifurcation value of the delay parameter for the period of the viral lytic cycle and the burst size. If the burst size is greater than the second threshold, the positive equilibrium is stable when the period of the viral lytic cycle is smaller than the bifurcation value, while the system has orbitally stable periodic solutions when the period of the lytic cycle is longer than the bifurcation value. However, this bifurcation value becomes smaller when the burst size becomes bigger. The viral lytic cycle may explain the oscillation phenomena observed in many studies. An important clinic implication is that the burst size should be carefully modified according to its effect on the lytic cycle when a type of a virus is modified for virotherapy, so that the period of the viral lytic cycle is in a suitable range which can break away the stability of the positive equilibria or periodic solutions. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Influence of Road Connectivity and Public Transport Accessibility on Subjective Wellbeing during Travel: An Explanation from Travel Mode: Evidence from five Communities around Subway Stations in Harbin

Existing studies have shown that increased subjective wellbeing comes with individual and societal benefits. Now citizens spend a significant amount of time per day on trips. Whether the change of transport environment factors, especially the construction of subway station can effectively improve residents' subjective wellbeing during travel or not is now concerned more than before when creating a “Real Emotional City”. This study aims to explore the relationship between road connectivity, public transport accessibility around subway stations and residents' subjective wellbeing during travel, and the mediating effect of travel modes. Data form 400 residents were collected from communities in Harbin which included travel modes, subjective wellbeing during travel and basic individual information. It turns out that the cognitive judgments and the emotional feelings (two aspects of travel wellbeing) need to be discussed separately because they are almost independently affected. Although cycling and walking are active, only pedestrians reported higher travel satisfaction when controlling travel time and other confounding factors. We found that for each additional unit of road network density, the number of people travelling by public transport will increase. Residents with better bus station accessibility and who have better road connectivity are likely to have higher travel satisfaction. Pleasant travel mood is not related to bus accessibility, and had a weak relationship with distance to subway station. In addition, residents closer to subway stations have higher levels of satisfaction and positive mood, but the results of subway travelers prove that this does not come from their cognitive judgments during travel, which indicates that some other factors may be more important. The findings highlight the heterogeneity of relationships between travel mode, transport environment factors and subjective wellbeing and have implications for intervention strategies and policies designed to promote travel environmental and behaviour chang

Bright Soliton Solution of (1+1)-Dimensional Quantum System with Power-Law Dependent Nonlinearity

We study the nonlinear dynamics of (1+1)-dimensional quantum system in power-law dependent media based on the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) incorporating power-law dependent nonlinearity, linear attenuation, self-steepening terms, and third-order dispersion term. The analytical bright soliton solution of this NLSE is derived via the F-expansion method. The key feature of the bright soliton solution is pictorially demonstrated, which together with typical analytical formulation of the soliton solution shows the applicability of our theoretical treatment