SLOTTING ALLOWANCES: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE ON THEIR ROLE IN NEW PRODUCT LAUNCHES

The retail practice of charging a fee to stock new products is a relatively new but growing phenomenon. Termed a "slotting allowance", it has attracted considerable scrutiny because of uncertainty about its purposes and consequences. We propose and statistically test several hypotheses to assess the degree of empirical support for each of several extant explanations. Slotting allowances, we find, are charged by relatively large retailers who have an informational advantage over the manufacturer about the likely success of the new product. This result apparently contradicts theorizing about the "informational" content of slotting fees, as well as other pro- and anti-competitive explanations. We also find support for the claim that when retailers fear that manufacturers will not provide post-launch support, they pay relatively high wholesale prices.Industrial Organization, Marketing,

Efficient Energy Transport in an Organic Semiconductor Mediated by Transient Exciton Delocalization

Efficient energy transport is highly desirable for organic semiconductor (OSC) devices such as photovoltaics, photodetectors, and photocatalytic systems. However, photo-generated excitons in OSC films mostly occupy highly localized states over their lifetime. Energy transport is hence thought to be mainly mediated by the site-to-site hopping of localized excitons, limiting exciton diffusion coefficients to below ~10-2 cm2/s with corresponding diffusion lengths below ~50 nm. Here, using ultrafast optical microscopy combined with non-adiabatic molecular dynamics simulations, we present evidence for a new highly-efficient energy transport regime: transient exciton delocalization, where energy exchange with vibrational modes allows excitons to temporarily re-access spatially extended states under equilibrium conditions. In films of highly-ordered poly(3-hexylthiophene) nanofibers, prepared using living crystallization-driven self-assembly, we show that this enables exciton diffusion constants up to 1.1±0.1 cm2/s and diffusion lengths of 300±50 nm. Our results reveal the dynamic interplay between localized and delocalized exciton configurations at equilibrium conditions, calling for a re-evaluation of the basic picture of exciton dynamics. This establishes new design rules to engineer efficient energy transport in OSC films, which will enable new devices architectures not based on restrictive bulk heterojunctions

Oil Market Analysis for Teal

The goal of our project was to identify key economic indicators that have a significant influence on the price of oil per barrel. We identified five key indicators: Change in Inventory, OPEC Policy, GDP, Rig Count, Social/Environmental Factors. We used SPSS to build a linear multi-regression model between the dependent variable (price of oil) and the five indicators. We identified statistically significant variables and examined multiple scenarios in respective case of fluctuations in social/environmental factors and OPEC policy

Oil Market Analysis for Teal

The goal of our project was to identify key economic indicators that have a significant influence on the price of oil per barrel. We identified five key indicators: Change in Inventory, OPEC Policy, GDP, Rig Count, Social/Environmental Factors. We used SPSS to build a linear multi-regression model between the dependent variable (price of oil) and the five indicators. We identified statistically significant variables and examined multiple scenarios in respective case of fluctuations in social/environmental factors and OPEC policy

Oil Market Analysis for Teal

The goal of our project was to identify key economic indicators that have a significant influence on the price of oil per barrel. We identified five key indicators: Change in Inventory, OPEC Policy, GDP, Rig Count, Social/Environmental Factors. We used SPSS to build a linear multi-regression model between the dependent variable (price of oil) and the five indicators. We identified statistically significant variables and examined multiple scenarios in respective case of fluctuations in social/environmental factors and OPEC policy

BRINZOLAMIDE-INDUCED EYE DISCHARGE: A RARE ENTITY

ABSTRACTA 62-year-old lady diagnosed to have normal tension glaucoma was receiving triple therapy of topical brinzolamide, timolol, and careprost. Postapplication of brinzolamide eye drops patient experienced mucoid eye discharge starting 10 minutes after application of eye drops and persistingfor ½ hr. Slit lamp examination findings did not reveal any signs of infection. She gave a history of mucoid discharge since the day she was started onbrinzolamide eye drops. There are only two case reports describing mucoid discharge following brinzolamide eye drops. Thus, we report a similarscenario in our patient. We report this case so as to avoid unnecessary suspicion of infection in such cases.Keywords: Glaucoma, mucoid, infection

BILATERAL BLINDNESS DUE TO ANTI-TUBERCULAR TREATMENT: A RARE PRESENTATION

ABSTRACTEthambutol and isoniazid (INH) are antimicrobial agents used in the treatment of tuberculosis. Optic neuropathy is a well-recognized toxic effectof these drugs, usually manifesting as a decrease in visual acuity and deficits in color vision. This study presents the case of a 75-year-old malediagnosed of spinal tuberculosis, who developed irreversible bilateral optic neuropathy causing complete blindness induced by ethambutol and INH.Ophthalmologic examination revealed sluggish pupillary reactions and optic disc pallor in both eyes. Visual evoked potential and magnetic resonanceimaging brain complemented the confirmation of the diagnosis.Keywords: Ethambutol, Isoniazid, Optic neuritis, Tuberculosis

Enhanced Ballistic Transport of Charge Carriers in Alloyed and K-Passivated Alloyed Perovskites Thin Films

Hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites show remarkable charge transport properties despite their deposition via low-temperature solution phase methods. It has recently been shown that this includes the ballistic transport of charges following photoexcitation, with ballistic transport lengths as large as 150 nm measured in MAPI3 films, which is almost twice the value report for GaAs. Here we explore the ballistic transport regime in high performance triple cation and K passivated triple cation perovskite films, using femtosecond transient absorption microscopy which allows us to image carrier motion with 10 fs temporal resolution and 10 nm spatial precision. We observe ballistic transport lengths of 160 and 220 nm respectively in triple cation and K passivated triple cation perovskite films. We propose that the ballistic transport is limited by nanoscale trap clusters at grain boundaries and interfaces, which can be passivated via chemical treatments to enhance the ballistic transport length, which implies that further enhancements are possible as passivation methods are improved.EPSR

Magnetic Field Modulation of Recombination Processes in Organic Photovoltaics

Polymer:fullerene photovoltaics have potential in small-scale power production but low open-circuit voltages limit their efficiency. Understanding the processes affecting the charge recombination rate is key to increasing device efficiency through optimizing open-circuit voltage. Most polymer-fullerene systems have an intramolecular triplet exciton state lower in energy than the interfacial charge-transfer state, and its formation can provide a terminal recombination pathway that may limit device performance. We used magnetic fields to modulate intersystem crossing in a prototypical system, and monitored the effect on the open-circuit voltage to infer changes in the steady-state carrier density and hence in the net recombination rate constant. We analyzed these effects using density-matrix modeling, and quantified the various recombination rate constants for a working device