Trip Travel Time Forecasting Based on Selective Forgetting Extreme Learning Machine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhiming Gui

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Travel time estimation on road networks is a valuable traffic metric. In this paper, we propose a machine learning based method for trip travel time estimation in road networks. The method uses the historical trip information extracted from taxis trace data as the training data. An optimized online sequential extreme machine, selective forgetting extreme learning machine, is adopted to make the prediction. Its selective forgetting learning ability enables the prediction algorithm to adapt to trip conditions changes well. Experimental results using real-life taxis trace data show that the forecasting model provides an effective and practical way for the travel time forecasting.

Increasing your HCAHPS scores with Extreme Customer Service.

Science.gov (United States)

Clouarte, Joe

2016-10-01

Providing great customer service is extremely critical in the healthcare setting, especially when it comes to HCAHBPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health care Providers and Systems) scores, the author says. While there are several service training programs within healthcare, they often require six to eight minutes of interaction with patients or guests. This works well for clinical staff, he says, but when it comes to non-clinical staff, including security officers, many times they only have fifteen or thirty seconds to create positive patient or guest experience. In this article he describes Extreme Customer Service © a program he has developed to fill that customer gap for non-clinical staff.

Time-Temperature Profiling of United Kingdom Consumers' Domestic Refrigerators.

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, Ellen W; Redmond, Elizabeth C

2016-12-01

Increased consumer demand for convenience and ready-to-eat food, along with changes to consumer food purchase and storage practices, have resulted in an increased reliance on refrigeration to maximize food safety. Previous research suggests that many domestic refrigerators operate at temperatures exceeding recommendations; however, the results of several studies were determined by means of one temperature data point, which, given temperature fluctuation, may not be a true indicator of actual continual operating temperatures. Data detailing actual operating temperatures and the effects of consumer practices on temperatures are limited. This study has collated the time-temperature profiles of domestic refrigerators in consumer kitchens (n = 43) over 6.5 days with concurrent self-reported refrigerator usage. Overall, the findings established a significant difference (P < 0.05) between one-off temperature (the recording of one temperature data point) and mean operating temperature. No refrigerator operated at ≤5.0°C for the entire duration of the study. Mean temperatures exceeding 5.0°C were recorded in the majority (91%) of refrigerators. No significant associations or differences were determined for temperature profiles and demographics, including household size, or refrigerator characteristics (age, type, loading, and location). A positive correlation (P < 0.05) between room temperature and refrigerator temperature was determined. Reported door opening frequency correlated with temperature fluctuation (P < 0.05). Thermometer usage was determined to be infrequent. Cumulatively, research findings have established that the majority of domestic refrigerators in consumer homes operate at potentially unsafe temperatures and that this is influenced by consumer usage. The findings from this study may be utilized to inform the development of shelf-life testing based on realistic domestic storage conditions. Furthermore, the data can inform the development of future

Gender, Parenthood and Wage Differences: The Importance of Time-Consuming Job Characteristics.

Science.gov (United States)

Magnusson, Charlotta; Nermo, Magnus

2017-01-01

Using data from the Swedish Level of Living Survey (2000, 2010), we investigate how the gender wage gap varies with occupational prestige and family status and also examine the extent to which this gap is explained by time-consuming working conditions. In addition, we investigate whether there is an association between parenthood, job characteristics and wage (as differentiated by gender). The analyses indicate that there are gender differences regarding prestige-based pay-offs among parents that are partly explained by fathers' greater access to employment characterized by time-consuming conditions. Separate analyses for men and women demonstrate the presence of a marriage wage premium for both genders, although only men have a parenthood wage premium. This fatherhood premium is however only present in high-prestigious occupations. Compared with childless men, fathers are also more advantaged in terms of access to jobs with time-consuming working conditions, but the wage gap between fathers and childless men is not explained by differences in access to such working conditions.

Beef customer satisfaction: USDA quality grade and marination effects on consumer evaluations of top round steaks.

Science.gov (United States)

Behrends, J M; Goodson, K J; Koohmaraie, M; Shackelford, S D; Wheeler, T L; Morgan, W W; Reagan, J O; Gwartney, B L; Wise, J W; Savell, J W

2005-03-01

An in-home beef study evaluated consumer ratings of top round steaks (semimembranosus) as influenced by USDA quality grade (top Choice or high Select), city (Chicago or Philadelphia), consumer segment (beef loyalists = heavy consumers of beef; budget rotators = cost-driven and split meat consumption between beef and chicken; and variety rotators = higher incomes and education and split meat consumption among beef, poultry, and other foods), degree of doneness, cooking method, and marination. Consumers evaluated each steak for overall like, tenderness, juiciness, flavor like, and flavor amount using 10-point scales (1 = dislike extremely, not at all tender, not at all juicy, dislike extremely, and none at all to 10 = like extremely, extremely tender, extremely juicy, like extremely, and an extreme amount of flavor, respectively). Quality grade affected several consumer sensory traits, with top Choice receiving higher (P Consumers in Chicago rated steaks cooked "medium and less" higher for overall like, tenderness, juiciness, flavor like, and flavor amount than those in Philadelphia (city x degree of doneness; P customers in Philadelphia received among the highest scores for overall like, tenderness, juiciness, flavor like, and flavor amount compared with any cooking method used by customers in Chicago (cooking method x city; P customers' satisfaction with top round steaks, and was the sensory trait most highly correlated to overall like, followed by tenderness, flavor amount, and juiciness. Preparation of top round steaks was crucial in consumers' likes and dislikes, and by improving flavor, higher consumer satisfaction may be achieved.

DETERMINATION OF THE TIME LIMITS OF ELIGIBILITY IN A STATE OF EXTREME NECESSITY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vyacheslav Victorovich Naumov

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Up to now the limits of eligibility of extreme necessity were not the subject of independent research.The problems of definition of the time limits of p eligibility are considered in this article based on the scientific and monographic literature analysis. Relevance of the considered matter is defined by the fact that the correct establishment of time limits of eligibility of act is of great importance in the law enforcement activity in order to establish the non-delinquency of act in state of extreme necessity. The purpose of this research is the analysis of definition of time limits of extreme necessity eligibility and drawing proposals on this basis for improvement of legislative regulations and existing laws enforcement efficiency with regards to extreme necessity. Research methods: dialectic, formal-logical, system. The author empha-sizes the eligibility limits of admissible harm and the temporary limits. When determining the time limits the author emphasizes the following criteria: the value of danger, intensity of actions, and also identifies an "initial" and "final" moments in the defense of legally protected interests. The improvement of the existing legisla-tion was proposed based on the carried-out analysis.

Nostalgia and Consumer Sentiment.

Science.gov (United States)

Moriarty, Sandra Ernst; McGann, Anthony F.

1983-01-01

Concludes that designer magazine advertisements contain more traces of nostalgia than do those in consumer magazines and that they tend to be more extreme in their fluctuation patterns. Notes that nostalgia increases in ads when public confidence is decreasing. (FL)

Quantum universe on extremely small space-time scales

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kuzmichev, V.E.; Kuzmichev, V.V.

2010-01-01

The semiclassical approach to the quantum geometrodynamical model is used for the description of the properties of the Universe on extremely small space-time scales. Under this approach, the matter in the Universe has two components of the quantum nature which behave as antigravitating fluids. The first component does not vanish in the limit h → 0 and can be associated with dark energy. The second component is described by an extremely rigid equation of state and goes to zero after the transition to large spacetime scales. On small space-time scales, this quantum correction turns out to be significant. It determines the geometry of the Universe near the initial cosmological singularity point. This geometry is conformal to a unit four-sphere embedded in a five-dimensional Euclidean flat space. During the consequent expansion of the Universe, when reaching the post-Planck era, the geometry of the Universe changes into that conformal to a unit four-hyperboloid in a five-dimensional Lorentzsignatured flat space. This agrees with the hypothesis about the possible change of geometry after the origin of the expanding Universe from the region near the initial singularity point. The origin of the Universe can be interpreted as a quantum transition of the system from a region in the phase space forbidden for the classical motion, but where a trajectory in imaginary time exists, into a region, where the equations of motion have the solution which describes the evolution of the Universe in real time. Near the boundary between two regions, from the side of real time, the Universe undergoes almost an exponential expansion which passes smoothly into the expansion under the action of radiation dominating over matter which is described by the standard cosmological model.

Optimal bounds and extremal trajectories for time averages in dynamical systems

Science.gov (United States)

Tobasco, Ian; Goluskin, David; Doering, Charles

2017-11-01

For systems governed by differential equations it is natural to seek extremal solution trajectories, maximizing or minimizing the long-time average of a given quantity of interest. A priori bounds on optima can be proved by constructing auxiliary functions satisfying certain point-wise inequalities, the verification of which does not require solving the underlying equations. We prove that for any bounded autonomous ODE, the problems of finding extremal trajectories on the one hand and optimal auxiliary functions on the other are strongly dual in the sense of convex duality. As a result, auxiliary functions provide arbitrarily sharp bounds on optimal time averages. Furthermore, nearly optimal auxiliary functions provide volumes in phase space where maximal and nearly maximal trajectories must lie. For polynomial systems, such functions can be constructed by semidefinite programming. We illustrate these ideas using the Lorenz system, producing explicit volumes in phase space where extremal trajectories are guaranteed to reside. Supported by NSF Award DMS-1515161, Van Loo Postdoctoral Fellowships, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.

Surgical timing of treating injured extremities: an evolving concept of urgency.

Science.gov (United States)

Crist, Brett D; Ferguson, Tania; Murtha, Yvonne M; Lee, Mark A

2013-01-01

The management of some orthopaedic extremity injuries has changed over the past decade because of changing resource availability and the risks of complications. It is helpful to review the current literature regarding orthopaedic extremity emergencies and urgencies. The effects of the techniques of damage control orthopaedic techniques and the concept of the orthopaedic trauma room have also affected the management of these injuries. The available literature indicates that the remaining true orthopaedic extremity emergencies include compartment syndrome and vascular injuries associated with fractures and dislocations. Orthopaedic urgencies include open fracture management, femoral neck fractures in young patients treated with open reduction and internal fixation, and talus fractures that are open or those with impending skin compromise. Deciding when the definitive management of orthopaedic extremity injuries will occur has evolved as the concept of damage control orthopaedics has become more commonly accepted. Patient survival rates have improved with current resuscitative protocols. Definitive fixation of extremity injuries should be delayed until the patient's physiologic and extremity soft-tissue status allows for appropriate definitive management while minimizing the risks of complications. In patients with semiurgent orthopaedic injuries, the use of an orthopaedic trauma room has led to more efficient care of patients, fewer complications, and better time management for surgeons who perform on-call service for patients with traumatic orthopaedic injuries.

Extreme Drought-induced Trend Changes in MODIS EVI Time Series in Yunnan, China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang, Kaicheng; Zhou, Tao; Zhao, Xiang

2014-01-01

Extreme climatic events triggered by global climate change are expected to increase significantly hence research into vegetation response is crucial to evaluate environmental risk. Yunnan province, locating in southwest China, experienced an extreme drought event (from autumn of 2009 to spring of 2010), with the lowest percentage rainfall anomaly and the longest non-rain days in the past 50 years. This study aimed to explore the characteristics and differences in the response to drought of four land cover types in Yunnan province, including forest, grassland, shrub, and cropland during the period 2001-2011. We used remote sensing data, MODIS-derived EVI (Enhanced Vegetation Index) to study the vegetation responses to this extreme drought event. The EVI time series were decomposed into trend, seasonal and remainder components using BFAST (Breaks For Additive Seasonal and Trend) which accounts for seasonality and enables the detection of trend changes within the time series. The preliminary results showed that: (1) BFAST proved to be capable of detecting drought-induced trend changes in EVI time series. (2) Changes in the trend component over time consisted of both gradual and abrupt changes. (3) Different spatial patterns were found for abrupt and gradual changes. (4) Cropland exhibited an abrupt change, due to its sensitivity to severe drought, while the forest seemed least affected by the extreme drought

The Effect of Shoulder Plyometric Training on Amortization Time and Upper-Extremity Kinematics.

Science.gov (United States)

Swanik, Kathleen A; Thomas, Stephen J; Struminger, Aaron H; Bliven, Kellie C Huxel; Kelly, John D; Swanik, Charles B

2016-12-01

Plyometric training is credited with providing benefits in performance and dynamic restraint. However, limited prospective data exist quantifying kinematic adaptations such as amortization time, glenohumeral rotation, and scapulothoracic position, which may underlie the efficacy of plyometric training for upper-extremity rehabilitation or performance enhancement. To measure upper-extremity kinematics and plyometric phase times before and after an 8-wk upper-extremity strength- and plyometric-training program. Randomized pretest-posttest design. Research laboratory. 40 recreationally active men (plyometric group, age 20.43 ± 1.40 y, height 180.00 ± 8.80 cm, weight 73.07 ± 7.21 kg; strength group, age 21.95 ± 3.40 y, height 173.98 ± 11.91 cm, weight 74.79 ± 13.55 kg). Participants were randomly assigned to either a strength-training group or a strength- and plyometric-training group. Each participant performed the assigned training for 8 wk. Dynamic and static glenohumeral and scapular-rotation measurements were taken before and after the training programs. Dynamic measurement of scapular rotation and time spent in each plyometric phase (concentric, eccentric, and amortization) during a ball-toss exercise were recorded while the subjects were fitted with an electromagnetic tracking system. Static measures included scapular upward rotation at 3 different glenohumeral-abduction angles, glenohumeral internal rotation, and glenohumeral external rotation. Posttesting showed that both groups significantly decreased the time spent in the amortization, concentric, and eccentric phases of a ball-toss exercise (P plyometric-training group exhibited an increase in internal rotation that was not present in the strength-training group (P plyometrics and strength training for reducing commonly identified upper-extremity-injury risk factors and improving upper-extremity performance.

Consumer orientation of product developers and their product perception compared to that of consumers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sijtsema, S.J.; Backus, G.B.C.; Linnemann, A.R.; Jongen, W.M.F.

2004-01-01

This research concludes that although product developers (58, response rate 35%) and consumers (344, response rate 57%) perceive health and its relation to product characteristics in the same way, the perception of product developers is more extreme. Furthermore, factor analysis reveals four

16 CFR 1145.3 - Extremely flammable contact adhesives; risk of burns from explosive vapor ignition and flashback...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 16 Commercial Practices 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Extremely flammable contact adhesives; risk... TO OTHER ACTS UNDER THE CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY ACT § 1145.3 Extremely flammable contact adhesives... associated with certain extremely flammable contact adhesives under the Consumer Product Safety Act rather...

Time and Culture in Consumer Behaviour

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Robinson, Thomas Derek

to the consumer subject and moves CCT beyond the traditional concept of technology as merely ‘a complicated machine’. Here narratives about the future contextualize the consumption of technology by allowing issues of instrumentality and risk to appear in a specific setting. And finally, 3) The study shows...... ‘Place’, ‘Price’, ‘Product’ and ‘Promotion’, since the definition of the market emphasises ‘usage’ (Percey and Elliott 2005: 115) which can only be properly understood through future narratives and thus a hermeneutics and culture of time....... performed almost wholly in a US setting. Drawing on a corpus of British (N=170) and Danish (N=156) newspaper articles about GM-crops, robotics, and energy this thesis addresses this shortfall by conducting a comparative case study of how the future is used to present technology media between 2000-2012...

Consumer-Mediated Health Information Exchanges: The 2012 ACMI Debate

Science.gov (United States)

Cimino, James J.; Frisse, Mark; Halamka, John; Sweeney, Latanya; Yasnoff, William

2017-01-01

The American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) sponsors periodic debates during the American Medical Informatics Fall Symposium to highlight important informatics issues of broad interest. In 2012, a panel debated the following topic: “Resolved: Health Information Exchange Organizations Should Shift Their Principal Focus to Consumer-Mediated Exchange in Order to Facilitate the Rapid Development of Effective, Scalable, and Sustainable Health Information Infrastructure.” Those supporting the proposition emphasized the need for consumer-controlled community repositories of electronic health records (health record banks) to address privacy, stakeholder cooperation, scalability, and sustainability. Those opposing the proposition emphasized that the current healthcare environment is so complex that development of consumer control will take time and that even then, consumers may not be able to mediate their information effectively. While privately, each discussant recognizes that there are many sides to this complex issue, each followed the debater’s tradition of taking an extreme position in order emphasize some of the polarizing aspects in the short time allotted them. In preparing this summary, we sought to convey the substance and spirit of the debate in printed form. Transcripts of the actual debate were edited for clarity, and appropriate supporting citations were added for the further edification of the reader. PMID:24561078

Consumer-mediated health information exchanges: the 2012 ACMI debate.

Science.gov (United States)

Cimino, James J; Frisse, Mark E; Halamka, John; Sweeney, Latanya; Yasnoff, William

2014-04-01

The American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) sponsors periodic debates during the American Medical Informatics Fall Symposium to highlight important informatics issues of broad interest. In 2012, a panel debated the following topic: "Resolved: Health Information Exchange Organizations Should Shift Their Principal Focus to Consumer-Mediated Exchange in Order to Facilitate the Rapid Development of Effective, Scalable, and Sustainable Health Information Infrastructure." Those supporting the proposition emphasized the need for consumer-controlled community repositories of electronic health records (health record banks) to address privacy, stakeholder cooperation, scalability, and sustainability. Those opposing the proposition emphasized that the current healthcare environment is so complex that development of consumer control will take time and that even then, consumers may not be able to mediate their information effectively. While privately each discussant recognizes that there are many sides to this complex issue, each followed the debater's tradition of taking an extreme position in order emphasize some of the polarizing aspects in the short time allotted them. In preparing this summary, we sought to convey the substance and spirit of the debate in printed form. Transcripts of the actual debate were edited for clarity, and appropriate supporting citations were added for the further edification of the reader. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Diabetic Driving Studies-Part 1: Brake Response Time in Diabetic Drivers With Lower Extremity Neuropathy.

Science.gov (United States)

Meyr, Andrew J; Spiess, Kerianne E

Although the effect of lower extremity pathology and surgical intervention on automobile driving function has been a topic of contemporary interest, we are unaware of any analysis of the effect of lower extremity diabetic sensorimotor neuropathy on driving performance. The objective of the present case-control investigation was to assess the mean brake response time in diabetic drivers with lower extremity neuropathy compared with that of a control group and a brake response safety threshold. The driving performances of participants were evaluated using a computerized driving simulator with specific measurement of the mean brake response time and frequency of abnormally delayed brake responses. We analyzed a control group of 25 active drivers with neither diabetes nor lower extremity neuropathy and an experimental group of 25 active drivers with type 2 diabetes and lower extremity neuropathy. The experimental group demonstrated a 37.89% slower mean brake response time (0.757 ± 0.180 versus 0.549 ± 0.076 second; p time in the experimental group was slower than the reported safety brake response threshold of 0.70 second. The results of the present investigation provide original data with respect to abnormally delayed brake responses in diabetic patients with lower extremity neuropathy and might raise the potential for impaired driving function in this population. Copyright © 2017 American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The voluntary price for the small consumer: Real-time pricing in Spain

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roldán Fernández, Juan Manuel; Payán, Manuel Burgos; Santos, Jesús Manuel Riquelme; García, Ángel Luis Trigo

2017-01-01

In 2013, a period of reform was initiated of the regulatory framework of the Spanish electricity sector. A year later, the methodology for the calculation of the Voluntary Price for the Small Consumer (VPSC) was approved: a real-time price tariff for small domestic consumers. Under this price-setting system, VPSC consumers are billed according to their hourly consumption and hourly prices along the day. Directive 27/2014/EU, on energy saving, was also transposed to Spanish regulation in 2014. The impact on the Spanish electricity market and domestic VPSC consumers of these two recent energy policy modifications are analyzed in this work. A qualitative model, based on the flexibility of the merit-order curves, is first introduced to formulate a number of hypotheses. A set of scenarios are then examined to quantify the main effects on the market and on domestic consumers. The results show that domestic energy-saving, and, to a lesser extent, load-shifting scenarios, can diminish the mean hourly price and the cost of the annual traded energy in the market. Nevertheless, these reductions are mainly granted to large qualified consumers, since domestic consumers mostly benefit from the reduction of their energy demand rather than from a reduction of the price. - Graphical abstract: Load saving and load-shifting performed by small VPSC consumers reduces the hourly clearing price and the traded energy leading to some rent transfer from the generators to the purchasing agents. The cost saving for VPSC consumers is mainly related to the energy they saved. They profit only partially from the market cost saving. - Highlights: • Merit-order effect related to energy saving and load-shifting are identified. • Domestic consumers are able to conduct energy saving and load-shifting at no cost. • Cyclic load-shifting reduces the traded energy and the economic cost in the market. • Rent transfer form generators to purchasing agents catalyzed by costumers’ saving. �

A real-time error-free color-correction facility for digital consumers

Science.gov (United States)

Shaw, Rodney

2008-01-01

It has been well known since the earliest days of color photography that color-balance in general, and facial reproduction (flesh tones) in particular, are of dominant interest to the consumer, and significant research resources have been expended in satisfying this need. The general problem is a difficult one, spanning the factors that govern perception and personal preference, the physics and chemistry of color reproduction, as well as wide field of color measurement specification, and analysis. However, with the advent of digital photography and its widespread acceptance in the consumer market, and with the possibility of a much greater degree of individual control over color reproduction, the field is taking on a new consumer-driven impetus, and the provision of user facilities for preferred color choice now constitutes an intense field of research. In addition, due to the conveniences of digital technology, the collection of large data bases and statistics relating to individual color preferences have now become a relatively straightforward operation. Using a consumer preference approach of this type, we have developed a user-friendly facility whereby unskilled consumers may manipulate the color of their personal digital images according to their preferred choice. By virtue of its ease of operation and the real-time nature of the color-correction transforms, this facility can readily be inserted anywhere a consumer interacts with a digital image, from camera, printer, or scanner, to web or photo-kiosk. Here the underlying scientific principles are explored in detail, and these are related to the practical color-preference outcomes. Examples are given of the application to the correction of images with unsatisfactory color balance, and especially to flesh tones and faces, and the nature of the consumer controls and their corresponding image transformations are explored.

Identification of critical time-consuming student support activities in e-learning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Vries, Fred; Kester, Liesbeth; Sloep, Peter; Van Rosmalen, Peter; Pannekeet, Kees; Koper, Rob

2005-01-01

Please cite the original publication: De Vries, F., Kester, L., Sloep, P., Van Rosmalen, P., Pannekeet, K., & Koper, R. (2005). Identification of critical time-consuming student support activities in e-learning. Research in Learning Technology (ALT-J), 13(3), 219-229.

Gender differences and influence on ethical behaviour of consumers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kovač-Žnideršić Ružica

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Consumerism, human existence, and the current business environment in which companies exist, are characterized by extreme complexity and dynamism, as a result of the simultaneous action of a large number of various factors, different in orientation and intensity. At a time when natural resources are consumed faster than they can be renewed, when the gap between rich and poor deepens, when the issue of sustainable development and socially responsible business practices are becoming a priority, the phenomena of ethical consumption and ethical consumer behaviour play a more prominent role in marketing theory and practice research. It is evident that consumers in both - developed and developing economies, are including the ethical evaluation of companies and their products and services on the market, in the process of forming their own opinions, preferences, and purchase decision. The modern consumer is sophisticated, knowledgeable and well informed, and as such is ready to decisively influence the companies to apply ethical practice. In order to fulfil these ethical demands of the market, marketing theory and practice pays great attention to the research of factors that influence the ethical behaviour of consumers. This paper tries to find an answer to the question - is there a significant difference between the ethical behavior of women and men as consumers.

Real-time visual biofeedback during weight bearing improves therapy compliance in patients following lower extremity fractures.

Science.gov (United States)

Raaben, Marco; Holtslag, Herman R; Leenen, Luke P H; Augustine, Robin; Blokhuis, Taco J

2018-01-01

Individuals with lower extremity fractures are often instructed on how much weight to bear on the affected extremity. Previous studies have shown limited therapy compliance in weight bearing during rehabilitation. In this study we investigated the effect of real-time visual biofeedback on weight bearing in individuals with lower extremity fractures in two conditions: full weight bearing and touch-down weight bearing. 11 participants with full weight bearing and 12 participants with touch-down weight bearing after lower extremity fractures have been measured with an ambulatory biofeedback system. The participants first walked 15m and the biofeedback system was only used to register the weight bearing. The same protocol was then repeated with real-time visual feedback during weight bearing. The participants could thereby adapt their loading to the desired level and improve therapy compliance. In participants with full weight bearing, real-time visual biofeedback resulted in a significant increase in loading from 50.9±7.51% bodyweight (BW) without feedback to 63.2±6.74%BW with feedback (P=0.0016). In participants with touch-down weight bearing, the exerted lower extremity load decreased from 16.7±9.77kg without feedback to 10.27±4.56kg with feedback (P=0.0718). More important, the variance between individual steps significantly decreased after feedback (P=0.018). Ambulatory monitoring weight bearing after lower extremity fractures showed that therapy compliance is low, both in full and touch-down weight bearing. Real-time visual biofeedback resulted in significantly higher peak loads in full weight bearing and increased accuracy of individual steps in touch-down weight bearing. Real-time visual biofeedback therefore results in improved therapy compliance after lower extremity fractures. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Unconventional Consumption Methods and Enjoying Things Consumed: Recapturing the "First-Time" Experience.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Brien, Ed; Smith, Robert W

2018-06-01

People commonly lament the inability to re-experience familiar things as they were first experienced. Four experiments suggest that consuming familiar things in new ways can disrupt adaptation and revitalize enjoyment. Participants better enjoyed the same familiar food (Experiment 1), drink (Experiment 2), and video (Experiments 3a-3b) simply when re-experiencing the entity via unusual means (e.g., eating popcorn using chopsticks vs. hands). This occurs because unconventional methods invite an immersive "first-time" perspective on the consumption object: boosts in enjoyment were mediated by revitalized immersion into the consumption experience and were moderated by time such that they were strongest when using unconventional methods for the first time (Experiments 1-2); likewise, unconventional methods that actively disrupted immersion did not elicit the boost, despite being novel (Experiments 3a-3b). Before abandoning once-enjoyable entities, knowing to consume old things in new ways (vs. attaining new things altogether) might temporarily restore enjoyment and postpone wasteful replacement.

Real-time simulation of energy management in a domestic consumer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fernandes, F.; Silva, M.; Faria, P.

2013-01-01

Recent and future changes in power systems, mainly in the smart grid operation context, are related to a high complexity of power networks operation. This leads to more complex communications and to higher network elements monitoring and control levels, both from network’s and consumers’ standpoi......-time simulation from Opal RT. This makes possible the integration of Matlab®/Simulink® real-time simulation models. The main goal of the present paper is to compare the advantages of the resulting improved system, while managing the energy consumption of a domestic consumer....

Consumer input into health care: Time for a new active and comprehensive model of consumer involvement.

Science.gov (United States)

Hall, Alix E; Bryant, Jamie; Sanson-Fisher, Rob W; Fradgley, Elizabeth A; Proietto, Anthony M; Roos, Ian

2018-03-07

To ensure the provision of patient-centred health care, it is essential that consumers are actively involved in the process of determining and implementing health-care quality improvements. However, common strategies used to involve consumers in quality improvements, such as consumer membership on committees and collection of patient feedback via surveys, are ineffective and have a number of limitations, including: limited representativeness; tokenism; a lack of reliable and valid patient feedback data; infrequent assessment of patient feedback; delays in acquiring feedback; and how collected feedback is used to drive health-care improvements. We propose a new active model of consumer engagement that aims to overcome these limitations. This model involves the following: (i) the development of a new measure of consumer perceptions; (ii) low cost and frequent electronic data collection of patient views of quality improvements; (iii) efficient feedback to the health-care decision makers; and (iv) active involvement of consumers that fosters power to influence health system changes. © 2018 The Authors Health Expectations published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The effect of a finite time horizon in the durable good monopoly problem with atomic consumers

OpenAIRE

Berbeglia, Gerardo; Sloan, Peter; Vetta, Adrian

2014-01-01

A durable good is a long-lasting good that can be consumed repeatedly over time, and a duropolist is a monopolist in the market of a durable good. In 1972, Ronald Coase conjectured that a duropolist who lacks commitment power cannot sell the good above the competitive price if the time between periods approaches zero. Coase's counterintuitive conjecture was later proven by Gul et al. (1986) under an infinite time horizon model with non-atomic consumers. Remarkably, the situation changes drama...

Radioassay for hydrogenase activity in viable cells and documentation of aerobic hydrogen-consuming bacteria living in extreme environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schink, B.; Lupton, F.S.; Zeikus, J.G.

1983-01-01

An isotopic tracer assay based on the hydrogenase-dependent formation of tritiated water from tritium gas was developed for in life analysis of microbial hydrogen transformation. This method allowed detection of bacterial hydrogen metabolism in pure cultures or in natural samples obtained from aquatic ecosystems. A differentiation between chemical-biological and aerobic-anaerobic hydrogen metabolism was established by variation of the experimental incubation temperature or by addition of selective inhibitors. Hydrogenase activity was shown to be proportional to the consumption or production of hydrogen by cultures of Desulfovibrio vulgaris, Clostridium pasteurianum, and Methanosarcina barkeri. This method was applied, in connection with measurements of free hydrogen and most-probable-number enumerations, in aerobic natural source waters to establish the activity and document the ecology of hydrogen-consuming bacteria in extreme acid, thermal, or saline environments. The utility of the assay is based in part on the ability to quantify bacterial hydrogen transformation at natural hydrogen partial pressures, without the use of artificial electron acceptors

Development of a real-time extremity dose monitor for personnel in interventional radiology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ban, Nobuhiko; Kusama, Tomoko; Adachi, Akiko

2000-01-01

Protection of personnel in interventional radiology is one of the most important issues of radiological protection in medicine. Fluoroscopically guided interventional procedures require the operation near X-ray beam, which brings a considerable hand exposure to the operators. For the purpose of effectual control of their extremity doses, we have developed a real-time extremity dose monitor which is worn on a strap around the wrist. The monitor consists of a silicon semiconductor detector, thin lithium battery and a waterproof frame with a four-digit LED display. Experiment was carried out to examine a response of the monitor to diagnostic X-rays. A practical test was also performed to evaluate usability in the actual interventional procedures. In the experiment, the extremity dose monitor was placed on an arm phantom and exposed to diagnostic X-rays. Readings of the monitor were compared to those of Capintec PS-033 shallow chamber. The monitor was highly sensitive to diagnostic X-rays. It showed a linear response down to doses of a few tens of microsieverts. For high dose-rate exposure, however, a slight decrease in the response was observed, about 10% of counting loss for 80 kV, 40 mA X-ray at one meter from the focus. With regard to energy dependence, variation was within 20% for 60 to 100 kV X-rays. The monitor showed a good angular response in general, except lateral geometry facing the far side from a detector center. In the practical test, hand exposures of medical staff were measured with the extremity dose monitor. They were also asked to fill in a questionnaire regarding size and weight of the monitor, clarity of the display and usefulness. The subjects consisted of physicians, technicians and nurses who engaged in angiography, PTCD, CT-biopsy, barium enema and so on. The readings of the monitor were less than 1 mSv in most cases while 93 mSv was recorded in an extreme case due to direct-beam exposure. In some cases, TLD rings were used together with the

Development of a real-time extremity dose monitor for personnel in interventional radiology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ban, Nobuhiko; Kusama, Tomoko [Oita University of Nursing and Health Sciences, Oita (Japan); Adachi, Akiko [Oita Medical University, Oita (JP)] [and others

2000-05-01

Protection of personnel in interventional radiology is one of the most important issues of radiological protection in medicine. Fluoroscopically guided interventional procedures require the operation near X-ray beam, which brings a considerable hand exposure to the operators. For the purpose of effectual control of their extremity doses, we have developed a real-time extremity dose monitor which is worn on a strap around the wrist. The monitor consists of a silicon semiconductor detector, thin lithium battery and a waterproof frame with a four-digit LED display. Experiment was carried out to examine a response of the monitor to diagnostic X-rays. A practical test was also performed to evaluate usability in the actual interventional procedures. In the experiment, the extremity dose monitor was placed on an arm phantom and exposed to diagnostic X-rays. Readings of the monitor were compared to those of Capintec PS-033 shallow chamber. The monitor was highly sensitive to diagnostic X-rays. It showed a linear response down to doses of a few tens of microsieverts. For high dose-rate exposure, however, a slight decrease in the response was observed, about 10% of counting loss for 80 kV, 40 mA X-ray at one meter from the focus. With regard to energy dependence, variation was within 20% for 60 to 100 kV X-rays. The monitor showed a good angular response in general, except lateral geometry facing the far side from a detector center. In the practical test, hand exposures of medical staff were measured with the extremity dose monitor. They were also asked to fill in a questionnaire regarding size and weight of the monitor, clarity of the display and usefulness. The subjects consisted of physicians, technicians and nurses who engaged in angiography, PTCD, CT-biopsy, barium enema and so on. The readings of the monitor were less than 1 mSv in most cases while 93 mSv was recorded in an extreme case due to direct-beam exposure. In some cases, TLD rings were used together with the

Typology of consumer behavior in times of economic crisis: A segmentation study from Bulgaria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katrandjiev Hristo

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the second part of results from a survey-based market research of Bulgarian households. In the first part of the paper the author analyzes the changes of consumer behavior in times of economic crisis in Bulgaria. Here, the author presents market segmentation from the point of view of consumer behavior changes in times of economic crisis. Four segments (clusters were discovered, and profiled. The similarities/dissimilarities between clusters are presented through the technique of multidimensional scaling (MDS The research project is planned, organized and realized within the Scientific Research Program of University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria.

Healthy-unhealthy weight and time preference. Is there an association? An analysis through a consumer survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Cavaliere, Alessia; De Marchi, Elisa; Banterle, Alessandro

2014-12-01

Individual time preference has been recognized as key driver in explaining consumers' probability to have a healthy weight or to incur excess weight problems. The term time preference refers to the rate at which a person is disposed to trade a current satisfaction for a future benefit. This characteristic may affect the extent at which individuals invest in health and may influence diet choices. The purpose of this paper is to analyse which could be the role of time preference (measured in terms of diet-related behaviours) in explaining consumers' healthy or unhealthy body weight. The analysis also considers other drivers predicted to influence BMI, specifically information searching, health-related activities and socio-demographic conditions. The survey was based on face-to-face interviews on a sample of 240 consumers living in Milan. In order to test the hypothesis, we performed a set of seven ORM regressions, all having consumers' BMI as the dependent variable. Each ORM contains a different block of explanatory variables, while time preference is always included among the regressors. The results suggest that the healthy weight condition is associated with a high orientation to the future, with a high interest in nutrition claims, a low attention to health-related claims, and a high level of education. On the opposite, the probability to be overweight or obese increases when consumers are less future-concerned and is associated with a low searching for nutrition claims and to a high interest in health claims. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Real-time visual biofeedback during weight bearing improves therapy compliance in patients following lower extremity fractures

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Raaben, Marco; Holtslag, Herman R; Leenen, Luke P H; Augustine, Robin; Blokhuis, Taco J

BACKGROUND: Individuals with lower extremity fractures are often instructed on how much weight to bear on the affected extremity. Previous studies have shown limited therapy compliance in weight bearing during rehabilitation. In this study we investigated the effect of real-time visual biofeedback

SELECTING ANGORA GOATS TO CONSUME MORE JUNIPER

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christopher John Lupton

2009-02-01

Full Text Available This research project was initiated in 2003 to develop a more effective tool for biological management of invading juniper species on rangelands through herbivory by Angora goats.  After we had established that juniper consumption in free-ranging goats has a genetic component (heritability = 13%, male and female goats were bred selectively for above- (high and below-average (low juniper consumption that was estimated by fecal near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy. Divergent lines are being produced to facilitate the identification of physiological mechanisms that permit some goats to consume considerably more juniper than others as a regular component of their diet.  Because diet is known to affect growth and fiber production, another objective of the project is to establish the effects of the selection protocol on body weights, fleece weights, and fiber characteristics.  Mature females (age > 1.5 yr and kids were maintained on rangeland and shorn twice a year.  Extreme high- and low-consuming yearling males (10 of each per year were evaluated annually in a central performance test.  The selection protocol resulted in average EBV for percentage juniper consumption of 3.9 and -0.4 (P 0.1 in body weight, mohair production and properties between high and low consumers.  However, the adult data for the extreme males indicated that high consuming males have lower body weights than low consumers (53.8 vs. 57.9 kg, P = 0.01. Differences in body weight and several mohair production and quality traits have also been detected in the mature females but at this early stage of the selection program, no substantial differences have been observed and certainly none that would have an economic impact for producers.  Ultimately, we expect to demonstrate that the high-consuming line controls juniper more effectively than either the low-consuming line or unselected Angora goats.  Subsequently, we plan to release high juniper-consuming

Caloric beverages consumed freely at meal-time add calories to an ad libitum meal.

Science.gov (United States)

Panahi, Shirin; El Khoury, Dalia; Luhovyy, Bohdan L; Goff, H Douglas; Anderson, G Harvey

2013-06-01

The objective was to compare the effects of ad libitum consumption of commonly consumed meal-time beverages on energy and fluid intakes and post-meal average subjective appetite and blood glucose in healthy adults. In a randomized controlled design, 29 males and females consumed to satiation an ad libitum pizza meal with one of five beverages in unlimited amount including water (0 kcal), 1% milk (44 kcal/100 ml), regular cola (44 kcal/100 ml), orange juice (44 kcal/100 ml) and diet cola (0 kcal). Food and fluid intakes were measured at the meal. Average subjective appetite and blood glucose were measured before and for 2h after the meal. Although energy intake from pizza was similar among all beverage treatments, the amount of fluid consumed (g) varied among the beverages with intake of orange juice higher than regular and diet cola, but not different from water or milk. Meal-time ingestion of caloric beverages, milk, orange juice and regular cola, led to higher total meal-time energy intakes compared to either water or diet cola. Post-meal blood glucose area under the curve (AUC) was lower after milk than after meals with water, orange juice and regular cola and post-meal average subjective appetite AUC was lower after milk than after meals with water. Meal intakes of nutrients including protein, calcium, phosphorus, zinc, vitamins B12, A and D were higher at the meal with milk compared to the other beverages. Thus, caloric beverages consumed ad libitum during a meal add to total meal-time energy intake, but 1% milk favors a lower post-meal blood glucose and average subjective appetite score and adds to nutrient intake. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Real-time visual biofeedback during weight bearing improves therapy compliance in patients following lower extremity fractures

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Raaben, Marco; Holtslag, Herman R.; Leenen, Luke P. H.; Augustine, Robin; Blokhuis, Taco J.

2017-01-01

Individuals with lower extremity fractures are often instructed on how much weight to bear on the affected extremity. Previous studies have shown limited therapy compliance in weight bearing during rehabilitation. In this study we investigated the effect of real-time visual biofeedback on weight

Testing the accuracy of timing reports in visual timing tasks with a consumer-grade digital camera.

Science.gov (United States)

Smyth, Rachael E; Oram Cardy, Janis; Purcell, David

2017-06-01

This study tested the accuracy of a visual timing task using a readily available and relatively inexpensive consumer grade digital camera. A visual inspection time task was recorded using short high-speed video clips and the timing as reported by the task's program was compared to the timing as recorded in the video clips. Discrepancies in these two timing reports were investigated further and based on display refresh rate, a decision was made whether the discrepancy was large enough to affect the results as reported by the task. In this particular study, the errors in timing were not large enough to impact the results of the study. The procedure presented in this article offers an alternative method for performing a timing test, which uses readily available hardware and can be used to test the timing in any software program on any operating system and display.

Development of a Time-Intensity Evaluation System for Consumers: Measuring Bitterness and Retronasal Aroma of Coffee Beverages in 106 Untrained Panelists.

Science.gov (United States)

Gotow, Naomi; Moritani, Ami; Hayakawa, Yoshinobu; Akutagawa, Akihito; Hashimoto, Hiroshi; Kobayakawa, Tatsu

2015-06-01

In order to develop products that are acceptable to consumers, it is necessary to incorporate consumers' intentions into products' characteristics. Therefore, investigation of consumers' perceptions of the taste or smell of common beverages provides information that should be useful in predicting market responses. In this study, we sought to develop a time-intensity evaluation system for consumer panels. Using our system, we performed time-intensity evaluation of flavor attributes (bitterness and retronasal aroma) that consumers perceived after swallowing a coffee beverage. Additionally, we developed quantitative evaluation methods for determining whether consumer panelists can properly perform time-intensity evaluation. In every trial, we fitted an exponential function to measured intensity data for bitterness and retronasal aroma. The correlation coefficients between measured time-intensity data and the fitted exponential curves were greater than 0.8 in about 90% of trials, indicating that we had successfully developed a time-intensity system for use with consumer panelists, even after just a single training trial using a nontrained consumer. We classified participants into two groups based on their consumption of canned coffee beverages. Significant difference was observed in only AUC of sensory modality (bitterness compared with retronasal aroma) among conventional TI parameters using two-way ANOVA. However, three-way ANOVA including a time course revealed significant difference between bitterness and retronasal aroma in the high-consumption group. Moreover, the high-consumption group more easily discriminated between bitterness and retronasal aroma than the low-consumption group. This finding implied that manufacturers should select consumer panelists who are suitable for their concepts of new products. © 2015 Institute of Food Technologists®

Non-linear time series extreme events and integer value problems

CERN Document Server

Turkman, Kamil Feridun; Zea Bermudez, Patrícia

2014-01-01

This book offers a useful combination of probabilistic and statistical tools for analyzing nonlinear time series. Key features of the book include a study of the extremal behavior of nonlinear time series and a comprehensive list of nonlinear models that address different aspects of nonlinearity. Several inferential methods, including quasi likelihood methods, sequential Markov Chain Monte Carlo Methods and particle filters, are also included so as to provide an overall view of the available tools for parameter estimation for nonlinear models. A chapter on integer time series models based on several thinning operations, which brings together all recent advances made in this area, is also included. Readers should have attended a prior course on linear time series, and a good grasp of simulation-based inferential methods is recommended. This book offers a valuable resource for second-year graduate students and researchers in statistics and other scientific areas who need a basic understanding of nonlinear time ...

Relevance of brands and beef quality differentials for the consumer at the time of purchase

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carla Mecca Giacomazzi

Full Text Available ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to identify the purchase habits and preferences of beef consumers, their level of knowledge on brands and products with quality differentials (certifications, packaging, premium lines, and the relevance of different attributes in the purchase decision, and to group consumers according to the profile of purchase decision. The methodology consisted of using an information-collecting instrument applied to 271 beef consumers. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistical analyses, chi-square analysis, and correspondence analysis, relating socio-demographic profile of the respondents with the other variables collected. Chi-square and correspondence analyses showed that younger consumers with lower levels of income and education are influenced by posters and advertisements at the point of sale, unaware of differentiated and branded products, and that they do not choose branded beef at the time of purchase. Consumers over 60 years showed a more conservative purchase profile, with no influence. The most valued attributes are appearance, price, and type of cut, being brand and certifications little relevant as tools to help decide the product purchase.

Residential Customer Enrollment in Time-based Rate and Enabling Technology Programs: Smart Grid Investment Grant Consumer Behavior Study Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Todd, Annika [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Cappers, Peter [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Goldman, Charles [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

2013-05-01

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) program is working with a subset of the 99 SGIG projects undertaking Consumer Behavior Studies (CBS), which examine the response of mass market consumers (i.e., residential and small commercial customers) to time-varying electricity prices (referred to herein as time-based rate programs) in conjunction with the deployment of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and associated technologies. The effort presents an opportunity to advance the electric industry’s understanding of consumer behavior.

Extreme of random field over rectangle with application to concrete rupture stresses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ditlevsen, Ove Dalager

2000-01-01

to time consuming simulation procedures. This paperrevives a conceptually simple approach that gives surprisingly good results in particular for wide band typesof random processes and fields. The closed form formulas obtained for smooth Gaussian fieldsover rectangles contain size effects both with respect...... to the area of the rectangle and the side lengths of therectangle. Published rupture stress data for plain concrete beams illustrate the applicability of the derivedclosed form extreme value distributions as models for distributions of rupture stresses related to weakest linkmechanisms....

Effects of ingesting JavaFit Energy Extreme functional coffee on aerobic and anaerobic fitness markers in recreationally-active coffee consumers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kreider Richard B

2007-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of ingesting JavaFit™ Energy Extreme (JEE on aerobic and anaerobic performance measures in recreationally-active male and female coffee drinkers. Five male (27.6 ± 4.2 yrs, 93.2 ± 11.7 kg, 181.6 ± 6.9 cm and five female (29 ± 4.6 yrs, 61.5 ± 9.2 kg, 167.6 ± 6.9 cm regular coffee drinkers (i.e., 223.9 ± 62.7 mg·d-1 of caffeine participated in this study. In a cross-over, randomized design, participants performed a baseline (BASELINE graded treadmill test (GXT for peak VO2 assessment and a Wingate test for peak power. Approximately 3–4 d following BASELINE testing, participants returned to the lab for the first trial and ingested 354 ml of either JEE or decaffeinated coffee (DECAF, after which they performed a GXT and Wingate test. Criterion measures during the GXT included an assessment of peakVO2 at maximal exercise, as well as VO2 at 3 minutes and 10 minutes post-exercise. Additionally, time-to-exhaustion (TTE, maximal RPE, mean heart rate (HR, mean systolic pressure (SBP, and mean diastolic blood pressure (DBP were measured during each condition. Criterion measures for the Wingate included mean HR, SBP, DBP, peak power, and time to peak power (TTP. Participants then returned to the lab approximately one week later to perform the second trial under the same conditions as the first, except consuming the remaining coffee. Data were analyzed using a one way ANOVA (p 2 at 3 minutes post-exercise when compared to BASELINE (p = 0.04 and DECAF (p = 0.02 values, which may be beneficial in enhancing post-exercise fat metabolism.

Pricing and Timing Strategies for New Product Using Agent-Based Simulation of Behavioural Consumers

OpenAIRE

Keeheon Lee; Hoyeop Lee; Chang Ouk Kim

2014-01-01

In this study, we are interested in the problem of determining the pricing and timing strategies of a new product by developing an agent-based product diffusion simulation. In the proposed simulation model, agents imitate behavioural consumers, who are reference dependent and risk averse in the evaluation of new products and whose interactions create word-of-mouth regarding new products. Pricing and timing strategies involve the timing of a new product release, the timing of providing a disco...

Timing of electromyographic activity and ranges of motion during simple motor tasks of upper extremities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Syczewska Małgorzata

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Study aim: Improvement of the upper extremities’ performance is one of the key aims in the rehabilitation process. In order to achieve high effectiveness of this process the amount of functional improvement achieved by a patient during the therapy needs to be assessed. The aim of this study was to obtain electromyographic (EMG activity profiles of the upper extremity muscles during execution of simple tasks in healthy subjects. Additionally the ranges of wrist, elbow and shoulder joints were measured and reported during performed trials. The second aim was to determine whether the movement execution and ranges of move­ments and muscular activity depend on age. Material and methods: Twenty-eight healthy adults, age range 21 to 65 years old, participated in the study. Surface electrodes were placed bilaterally on 7 upper extremity muscles. To obtain information about the beginning and end of the movement task and ranges of upper extremity joints, 13 markers were placed on the elbows and wrists of both upper extremities. The move­ments of the segments were calculated (distal vs proximal in five simple functional tasks (each task involved only one joint, performed while sitting. Kinematic data were collected by the VICON 460 system, and electromyographic data with the Mo­tion Lab EMG system. Results: Charts of timing of EMG activity of the upper extremity muscles together with ranges of upper extremity joint motion were obtained. Conclusion: The results show that the number of muscles activated and the time (or percentage of the task during which they are active depend on the type of the task and age. These data can be used as a reference in evaluation of functional deficits of patients.

A new extremity dosemeter for beta and gamma radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heinzelmann, M.; Pagenkamper, M.

1988-01-01

An extremity dosemeter developed at the Juelich Nuclear Research Centre is very well suited for the precise and energy-independent measurement of the skin dose generated by beta or gamma radiation. This is also confirmed by the results of this intercomparison programme. The dosemeter contains three TLDs of LiF in Teflon mounted behind a window of 0.9 mg/cm 2 . The great advantage of this dosemeter is three TLD's enabling statements about the radiation quality. However, the dosemeter has two disadvantages The dosemeter is complicated to manufacture. A very thin plastic foil of 0.9 mg/cm 2 must be attached to a support. This work is difficult and time-consuming and cannot be automated. The window in front of the TLD is not sturdy enough and is occasionally destroyed when the dosemeter is being worn. These two disadvantages prevent this extremity dosemeter from being used more frequently. For this reason, work was begun on developing a new extremity dosemeter without these two disadvantages. The great advantage of the previous dosemeter of obtaining statements about the type of radiation with the aid of readings from three TLD's was to be retained. The improved extremity dosemeter has a more sturdy and thicker window with a similar response as the previous dosemeter with a thinner window

Relations between transit time, fermentation products, and hydrogen consuming flora in healthy humans.

OpenAIRE

El Oufir, L; Flourié, B; Bruley des Varannes, S; Barry, J L; Cloarec, D; Bornet, F; Galmiche, J P

1996-01-01

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To investigate whether transit time could influence H2 consuming flora and certain indices of colonic bacterial fermentation. METHODS: Eight healthy volunteers (four methane excretors and four non-methane excretors) were studied for three, three week periods during which they received a controlled diet alone (control period), and then the same diet with cisapride or loperamide. At the end of each period, mean transit time (MTT) was estimated, an H2 lactulose breath test was p...

MEASUREMENT OF CONSUMER ETHNOCENTRISM OF SLOVAK CONSUMERS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Janka Taborecka-Petrovicova

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The conceptualization of consumer ethnocentrism is inferred from the general concept of ethnocentrism which assumes that ethnocentrism starts with the culture into which an individual is born. Over time, the individual will accept the values and behaviour of this particular culture as a norm. However, when the individual becomes aware of other cultures with different values and behaviours, there develops the need of belonging and identification with own culture rather than that of others. When analysing the consumer ethnocentrism, it is also essential to examine whether consumer ethnocentrism operates uniformly across all consumers or there exist some specific factors moderating their ethnocentric tendencies. A lot of studies researching these issues can be found in various cultural contexts, however in Slovakia we found certain gap since there is just a few of them. The aim of the paper is to investigate the level of consumer ethnocentricity of Slovak consumers in general and with the respect to chosen variables – age and gender. The results can serve as an information base for decision-making process of marketing managers focusing especially on local production of domestic products.

Quantum Statistical Entropy of Non-extreme and Nearly Extreme Black Holes in Higher-Dimensional Space-Time

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

XU Dian-Yan

2003-01-01

The free energy and entropy of Reissner-Nordstrom black holes in higher-dimensional space-time are calculated by the quantum statistic method with a brick wall model. The space-time of the black holes is divided into three regions: region 1, (r > r0); region 2, (r0 > r > n); and region 3, (T-J > r > 0), where r0 is the radius of the outer event horizon, and r, is the radius of the inner event horizon. Detailed calculation shows that the entropy contributed by region 2 is zero, the entropy contributed by region 1 is positive and proportional to the outer event horizon area, the entropy contributed by region 3 is negative and proportional to the inner event horizon area. The total entropy contributed by all the three regions is positive and proportional to the area difference between the outer and inner event horizons. As rt approaches r0 in the nearly extreme case, the total quantum statistical entropy approaches zero.

Evaluation of isotope utilizations in consumer products

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sato, Otomaru

1980-01-01

Consumer products are generally divided into three groups, according to the state of radioactive material or radiation used. First, there are those intentionally added with radioactive materials, such as self-luminous paints and ionization type smoke detectors, utilizing the ionization and excitation by radiation. Second, there are those utilizing natural radioactive materials like glaze. Third, there are those materials containing intrinsically natural radioactive materials. In the first group, the safety evaluation of self-luminous watches and clocks and the risk-benefit evaluation of ionization type smoke detectors are described, and the approval standards for the consumer products and the R/B evaluation method are explained. There are variety of consumer products utilizing radiation, by the exposure dose caused by them is extremely insignificant, far lower than that due to natural radiation. (J.P.N.)

Consumer Electronics Processors for Critical Real-Time Systems: a (Failed) Practical Experience

OpenAIRE

Fernandez , Gabriel; Cazorla , Francisco; Abella , Jaume

2018-01-01

International audience; The convergence between consumer electronics and critical real-time markets has increased the need for hardware platforms able to deliver high performance as well as high (sustainable) performance guarantees. Using the ARM big.LITTLE architecture as example of those platforms, in this paper we report our experience with one of its implementations (the Qualcomm SnapDragon 810 processor) to derive performance bounds with measurement-based techniques. Our theoretical and ...

Harmonization: A Need for EU Action on Consumer Credit?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Tanja

2015-01-01

seem small, there is still a need for EU action, but with a different approach that considers the nature of consumer credit. This means a focus on preventing overindebtedness and ensuring financial stability as well as a high level of consumer protection in a financialized and thereby more complex......As in the consumer area in general, the objective of the internal market has been applied as a reason why there is a EU need for action regarding consumer credit. Even though it is more than 25 years ago since the first Consumer Credit Directive harmonized aspects of the legislation in the Member...... States, cross-border activities are still extremely low. The achievement of the internal market depends on the consumers’ and the creditors’ overall incentives to cross-border activities, where harmonized aspects of the legislation are only an insignificant motivation. Despite a need for EU action may...

Anticipated consumer reaction to irradiated foods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Young, M.

1983-01-01

The reaction on first hearing of food irradiation is horror, revulsion, and disbelief that we could seriously anticipate such a thing. Ignorance coupled with fear of anything to do with the nuclear industry is the reason for such extreme reaction. Before anyone rushes into marketing irradiated foods, a lot of careful preparation must be done. A consumer education program is essential. The consumers must be told why it is proposed to irradiate food, what benefits it will bring to the public. Enough need will have to be demonstrated to overcome the supposed risk factor. Symbol on all irradiated foods must not be used to alert or alarm the consumer but rather as a piece of information. It will be necessary to be ever vigilant, to keep up the diligent training of food irradiators, food handlers and food inspectors. Irradiation is not a substitute for good manufacturing practice. So by using a different name or symbol, irradiated foods will soon be a part of our lives

Fiscal 2000 achievement report. Development of prompt-effect technology for innovative energy environment (Research and development of extremely low power consuming LSI for information terminal); 2000 nendo sokkoteki kakushinteki energy kankyo gijutsu kaihatsu seika hokokusho. Gokuteidenryoku joho tanmatsuyo LSI no kenkyu kaihatsu

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2001-03-01

With the advancement of information technologies, multimedia information terminals such as handyphone systems and mobile computers are increasing in number and improving in quality, sharply increasing power consumption in this domain. So as to suppress the power consumption, efforts are exerted to develop technologies for information terminal LSI (large-scale integration) substrates consuming extremely low power and still capable of high-speed operation. Studied are a device technology of SOI (silicon on insulator) to realize a remarkable reduction in power consumption and enable high-speed operation and a circuit technology of the multi-threshold CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) advantageous to the achievement of low-voltage high-speed operation. In concrete terms, the efforts center about an extremely thin film SOI device of the full depletion type higher in transistor driving capability, lower in load capacity, and smaller in surface area than those currently in use, and aim to put such an SOI device on an optimized multi-threshold CMOS circuit for the establishment of techniques toward the embodiment of an LSI substrate consuming extremely low electric power. (NEDO)

Upper Extremity Motor Learning among Individuals with Parkinson's Disease: A Meta-Analysis Evaluating Movement Time in Simple Tasks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Felix

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Motor learning has been found to occur in the rehabilitation of individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD. Through repetitive structured practice of motor tasks, individuals show improved performance, confirming that motor learning has probably taken place. Although a number of studies have been completed evaluating motor learning in people with PD, the sample sizes were small and the improvements were variable. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to determine the ability of people with PD to learn motor tasks. Studies which measured movement time in upper extremity reaching tasks and met the inclusion criteria were included in the analysis. Results of the meta-analysis indicated that people with PD and neurologically healthy controls both demonstrated motor learning, characterized by a decrease in movement time during upper extremity movements. Movement time improvements were greater in the control group than in individuals with PD. These results support the findings that the practice of upper extremity reaching tasks is beneficial in reducing movement time in persons with PD and has important implications for rehabilitation.

Optimal bounds and extremal trajectories for time averages in nonlinear dynamical systems

Science.gov (United States)

Tobasco, Ian; Goluskin, David; Doering, Charles R.

2018-02-01

For any quantity of interest in a system governed by ordinary differential equations, it is natural to seek the largest (or smallest) long-time average among solution trajectories, as well as the extremal trajectories themselves. Upper bounds on time averages can be proved a priori using auxiliary functions, the optimal choice of which is a convex optimization problem. We prove that the problems of finding maximal trajectories and minimal auxiliary functions are strongly dual. Thus, auxiliary functions provide arbitrarily sharp upper bounds on time averages. Moreover, any nearly minimal auxiliary function provides phase space volumes in which all nearly maximal trajectories are guaranteed to lie. For polynomial equations, auxiliary functions can be constructed by semidefinite programming, which we illustrate using the Lorenz system.

Identifying X-consumers using causal recipes: "whales" and "jumbo shrimps" casino gamblers.

Science.gov (United States)

Woodside, Arch G; Zhang, Mann

2012-03-01

X-consumers are the extremely frequent (top 2-3%) users who typically consume 25% of a product category. This article shows how to use fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to provide "causal recipes" sufficient for profiling X-consumers accurately. The study extends Dik Twedt's "heavy-half" product users for building theory and strategies to nurture or control X-behavior. The study here applies QCA to offer configurations that are sufficient in identifying "whales" and "jumbo shrimps" among X-casino gamblers. The findings support the principle that not all X-consumers are alike. The theory and method are applicable for identifying the degree of consistency and coverage of alternative X-consumers among users of all product-service category and brands.

16 CFR 1500.46 - Method for determining flashpoint of extremely flammable contents of self-pressurized containers.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... extremely flammable contents of self-pressurized containers. 1500.46 Section 1500.46 Commercial Practices CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION FEDERAL HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES ACT REGULATIONS HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES AND... extremely flammable contents of self-pressurized containers. Use the apparatus described in § 1500.43a. Use...

Extreme and First-Passage Time of Ship Collision Loads

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Søren R. K.; Thoft-Christensen, Palle

1983-01-01

The paper outlines a general theory from which the distribution function of the extreme peak collision load encountered during a certain intended lifetime can be cal culated assuming the arrival of ship collisions to be specified by a Poisson counting proces s.......The paper outlines a general theory from which the distribution function of the extreme peak collision load encountered during a certain intended lifetime can be cal culated assuming the arrival of ship collisions to be specified by a Poisson counting proces s....

The effect of wheelchair propulsion style on changes in time spent in extreme wrist orientations after a bout of fatiguing propulsion.

Science.gov (United States)

Zukowski, Lisa A; Hass, Chris J; Shechtman, Orit; Christou, Evangelos A; Tillman, Mark D

2017-10-01

This study compared how wheelchair propulsion styles affect changes in percentage of time spent in extreme wrist orientations, which have been associated with median nerve injury, after a fatiguing bout of propulsion. Twenty novice, non-disabled adult males learned arcing (ARC) and semicircular (SEMI) propulsion styles and utilised each to perform a wheelchair fatigue protocol. ARC and SEMI did not significantly differ in terms of changes after the fatigue protocol in percentage of time spent in extreme flexion/extension or radial/ulnar deviation at the push phase beginning or end. A pattern was observed, although not significant, of greater increases in percentage of time spent in extreme wrist extension and ulnar deviation during the push phase beginning and ulnar deviation during the push phase end while utilising SEMI relative to ARC. This study evinces that individual differences are greater than observed changes in extreme wrist orientations for both propulsion styles. Practitioner Summary: How wheelchair propulsion styles change with fatigue in terms of extreme wrist orientations was examined. This study evinces that individual differences are greater than observed changes in extreme wrist orientations for both propulsion styles and point towards the need for future research on individual differences utilising propulsion styles.

Rushing into American Dream? House Prices, Timing of Homeownership, and Adjustment of Consumer Credit

OpenAIRE

Agarwal, Sumit; Hu, Luojia; Huang, Xing

2013-01-01

In this paper we use a large panel of individuals from Consumer Credit Panel dataset to study the timing of homeownership as a function of credit constraints and expectations of future house price. Our panel data allows us to track individuals over time and we model the transition probability of their first home purchase. We find that in MSAs with highest quartile house price growth, the median individual become homeowners earlier by 5 years in their lifecycle compared to MSAs with lowest qua...

Extreme cosmos

CERN Document Server

Gaensler, Bryan

2011-01-01

The universe is all about extremes. Space has a temperature 270°C below freezing. Stars die in catastrophic supernova explosions a billion times brighter than the Sun. A black hole can generate 10 million trillion volts of electricity. And hypergiants are stars 2 billion kilometres across, larger than the orbit of Jupiter. Extreme Cosmos provides a stunning new view of the way the Universe works, seen through the lens of extremes: the fastest, hottest, heaviest, brightest, oldest, densest and even the loudest. This is an astronomy book that not only offers amazing facts and figures but also re

A History of Drug Advertising: The Evolving Roles of Consumers and Consumer Protection

Science.gov (United States)

Donohue, Julie

2006-01-01

Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs in the United States is controversial. Underlying the debate are disagreements over the role of consumers in medical decision making, the appropriateness of consumers engaging in self-diagnosis, and the ethics of an industry promoting potentially dangerous drugs. Drug advertising and federal policy governing drug advertising have both responded to and reinforced changes in the consumer's role in health care and in the doctor-patient relationship over time. This article discusses the history of DTCA in the context of social movements to secure rights for health care patients and consumers, the modern trend toward consumer-oriented medicine, and the implications of DTCA and consumer-oriented medicine for contemporary health policy debates about improving the health care system. PMID:17096638

A history of drug advertising: the evolving roles of consumers and consumer protection.

Science.gov (United States)

Donohue, Julie

2006-01-01

Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs in the United States is controversial. Underlying the debate are disagreements over the role of consumers in medical decision making, the appropriateness of consumers engaging in self-diagnosis, and the ethics of an industry promoting potentially dangerous drugs. Drug advertising and federal policy governing drug advertising have both responded to and reinforced changes in the consumer's role in health care and in the doctor-patient relationship over time. This article discusses the history of DTCA in the context of social movements to secure rights for health care patients and consumers, the modern trend toward consumer-oriented medicine, and the implications of DTCA and consumer-oriented medicine for contemporary health policy debates about improving the health care system.

Influence of climate variability versus change at multi-decadal time scales on hydrological extremes

Science.gov (United States)

Willems, Patrick

2014-05-01

Recent studies have shown that rainfall and hydrological extremes do not randomly occur in time, but are subject to multidecadal oscillations. In addition to these oscillations, there are temporal trends due to climate change. Design statistics, such as intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) for extreme rainfall or flow-duration-frequency (QDF) relationships, are affected by both types of temporal changes (short term and long term). This presentation discusses these changes, how they influence water engineering design and decision making, and how this influence can be assessed and taken into account in practice. The multidecadal oscillations in rainfall and hydrological extremes were studied based on a technique for the identification and analysis of changes in extreme quantiles. The statistical significance of the oscillations was evaluated by means of a non-parametric bootstrapping method. Oscillations in large scale atmospheric circulation were identified as the main drivers for the temporal oscillations in rainfall and hydrological extremes. They also explain why spatial phase shifts (e.g. north-south variations in Europe) exist between the oscillation highs and lows. Next to the multidecadal climate oscillations, several stations show trends during the most recent decades, which may be attributed to climate change as a result of anthropogenic global warming. Such attribution to anthropogenic global warming is, however, uncertain. It can be done based on simulation results with climate models, but it is shown that the climate model results are too uncertain to enable a clear attribution. Water engineering design statistics, such as extreme rainfall IDF or peak or low flow QDF statistics, obviously are influenced by these temporal variations (oscillations, trends). It is shown in the paper, based on the Brussels 10-minutes rainfall data, that rainfall design values may be about 20% biased or different when based on short rainfall series of 10 to 15 years length, and

How extreme is extreme hourly precipitation?

Science.gov (United States)

Papalexiou, Simon Michael; Dialynas, Yannis G.; Pappas, Christoforos

2016-04-01

The importance of accurate representation of precipitation at fine time scales (e.g., hourly), directly associated with flash flood events, is crucial in hydrological design and prediction. The upper part of a probability distribution, known as the distribution tail, determines the behavior of extreme events. In general, and loosely speaking, tails can be categorized in two families: the subexponential and the hyperexponential family, with the first generating more intense and more frequent extremes compared to the latter. In past studies, the focus has been mainly on daily precipitation, with the Gamma distribution being the most popular model. Here, we investigate the behaviour of tails of hourly precipitation by comparing the upper part of empirical distributions of thousands of records with three general types of tails corresponding to the Pareto, Lognormal, and Weibull distributions. Specifically, we use thousands of hourly rainfall records from all over the USA. The analysis indicates that heavier-tailed distributions describe better the observed hourly rainfall extremes in comparison to lighter tails. Traditional representations of the marginal distribution of hourly rainfall may significantly deviate from observed behaviours of extremes, with direct implications on hydroclimatic variables modelling and engineering design.

Extreme meteorological conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Altinger de Schwarzkopf, M.L.

1983-01-01

Different meteorological variables which may reach significant extreme values, such as the windspeed and, in particular, its occurrence through tornadoes and hurricanes that necesarily incide and wich must be taken into account at the time of nuclear power plants' installation, are analyzed. For this kind of study, it is necessary to determine the basic phenomenum of design. Two criteria are applied to define the basic values of design for extreme meteorological variables. The first one determines the expected extreme value: it is obtained from analyzing the recurence of the phenomenum in a convened period of time, wich may be generally of 50 years. The second one determines the extreme value of low probability, taking into account the nuclear power plant's operating life -f.ex. 25 years- and considering, during said lapse, the occurrence probabilities of extreme meteorological phenomena. The values may be determined either by the deterministic method, which is based on the acknowledgement of the fundamental physical characteristics of the phenomena or by the probabilistic method, that aims to the analysis of historical statistical data. Brief comments are made on the subject in relation to the Argentine Republic area. (R.J.S.) [es

Young Consumer Behaviour Towards Tourism Products

OpenAIRE

Adriana Anca Cristea; Mihaela Simona Apostol; Tatiana Corina Dosescu

2014-01-01

Tourism is considered to be an important branch of the Romanian economy. However, its contribution to the GDP is extremely low. Inbound tourism is reduced, the sole indicator which is constanly increasing being the number of Romanian tourists who travel abroad. We assume that a good way of increasing domestic tourism in Romania would be to get the young population practise various forms of tourism. Conducting a market survey in consumer behaviour towards tourism products among pupils and stud...

Consumer loyalty in retailing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Drinić Dragana

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Loyal consumers are partner enterprises and they represent stable source of income. Companies are more interested in maintaining the existing consumers, rather than attracting the newones, because loyal consumers are the most valuable asset. The aim of this article is to develop an integrative conceptual framework for creating and maintaining consumer loyalty, and ,at the same time, to be based on a thorough review of the relevant literature and the current market situation . In this context, empirical research was carried out by using the survey method on a random sample of 165 respondents. Based on the research conducted, important factors that influence consumer loyalty were identified.

Early warnings of extreme winds using the ECMWF Extreme Forecast Index

OpenAIRE

Petroliagis, Thomas I.; Pinson, Pierre

2014-01-01

The European FP7 SafeWind Project aims at developing research towards a European vision of wind power forecasting, which requires advanced meteorological support concerning extreme wind events. This study is focused mainly on early warnings of extreme winds in the early medium-range. Three synoptic stations (airports) of North Germany (Bremen, Hamburg and Hannover) were considered for the construction of time series of daily maximum wind speeds. All daily wind extremes were found to be linked...

Impacts of Autonomous Vehicles on Consumers Time-Use Patterns

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saptarshi Das

2017-12-01

Full Text Available We use the American Time Use Survey (ATUS to characterize how different consumers in the US might use Autonomous Vehicles (AVs. Our approach is to identify sub-groups of the population likely to benefit from AVs and compare their activity patterns with an otherwise similar group. The first subgroup is working individuals who drive to work with long total travel times. Auto-travelers in the top 20% of travel time number 19 million and travel 1.6 h more on a workday than those in the bottom 80%. For car-commuting professionals, the additional travel time of the long-traveling group comes from 30 min less work, 29 min less sleep, and 30 min less television watching per day. The second subgroup is working individuals with a long travel time and who take public transport. Long public transit riders show very similar differences in activity times as the driving subgroup. Work, sleep, and video functionalities of AVs are presumably in high demand by both groups. The third sub-group identified is elderly retired people. AVs enable mobility-restricted groups to travel more like those without restrictions. We compare two age groups, 60–75 years and >75 years old, the latter, on average, experiencing more mobility restrictions than their younger counterparts. The retired population older than 75 years numbers 16 million and travels 14 min less per day than retirees aged 60–75 years. The main activity change corresponding to this reduced travel is 7 min per day less shopping and 8 min per day less socializing. If older retired people use AVs to match the lifestyle of the 60–75 years old group, this would induce additional personal travel and retail sector demand. The economic, environmental and social implications of AV are very difficult to predict but expected to be transformative. The contribution of this work is that it utilizes time-use surveys to suggest how AV adoption could induce lifestyle changes inside and outside the vehicle.

75 FR 49379 - Correction to Internal Citation of “Extremely Flammable Solid” and “Flammable Solid”

Science.gov (United States)

2010-08-13

... CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION 16 CFR Part 1500 Correction to Internal Citation of ``Extremely... to correct internal citations to the definitions of ``extremely flammable solid'' and ``flammable... citation for part 1500 continues to read as follows: Authority: 15 U.S.C. 1261-1277. 0 2. In Sec. 1500.83...

Extreme events in total ozone over Arosa – Part 1: Application of extreme value theory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. E. Rieder

2010-10-01

Full Text Available In this study ideas from extreme value theory are for the first time applied in the field of stratospheric ozone research, because statistical analysis showed that previously used concepts assuming a Gaussian distribution (e.g. fixed deviations from mean values of total ozone data do not adequately address the structure of the extremes. We show that statistical extreme value methods are appropriate to identify ozone extremes and to describe the tails of the Arosa (Switzerland total ozone time series. In order to accommodate the seasonal cycle in total ozone, a daily moving threshold was determined and used, with tools from extreme value theory, to analyse the frequency of days with extreme low (termed ELOs and high (termed EHOs total ozone at Arosa. The analysis shows that the Generalized Pareto Distribution (GPD provides an appropriate model for the frequency distribution of total ozone above or below a mathematically well-defined threshold, thus providing a statistical description of ELOs and EHOs. The results show an increase in ELOs and a decrease in EHOs during the last decades. The fitted model represents the tails of the total ozone data set with high accuracy over the entire range (including absolute monthly minima and maxima, and enables a precise computation of the frequency distribution of ozone mini-holes (using constant thresholds. Analyzing the tails instead of a small fraction of days below constant thresholds provides deeper insight into the time series properties. Fingerprints of dynamical (e.g. ENSO, NAO and chemical features (e.g. strong polar vortex ozone loss, and major volcanic eruptions, can be identified in the observed frequency of extreme events throughout the time series. Overall the new approach to analysis of extremes provides more information on time series properties and variability than previous approaches that use only monthly averages and/or mini-holes and mini-highs.

Global patterns of NDVI-indicated vegetation extremes and their sensitivity to climate extremes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Guo; Liu Hongyan; Yin Yi

2013-01-01

Extremes in climate have significant impacts on ecosystems and are expected to increase under future climate change. Extremes in vegetation could capture such impacts and indicate the vulnerability of ecosystems, but currently have not received a global long-term assessment. In this study, a robust method has been developed to detect significant extremes (low values) in biweekly time series of global normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from 1982 to 2006 and thus to acquire a global pattern of vegetation extreme frequency. This pattern coincides with vegetation vulnerability patterns suggested by earlier studies using different methods over different time spans, indicating a consistent mechanism of regulation. Vegetation extremes were found to aggregate in Amazonia and in the semi-arid and semi-humid regions in low and middle latitudes, while they seldom occurred in high latitudes. Among the environmental variables studied, extreme low precipitation has the highest slope against extreme vegetation. For the eight biomes analyzed, these slopes are highest in temperate broadleaf forest and temperate grassland, suggesting a higher sensitivity in these environments. The results presented here contradict the hypothesis that vegetation in water-limited semi-arid and semi-humid regions might be adapted to drought and suggest that vegetation in these regions (especially temperate broadleaf forest and temperate grassland) is highly prone to vegetation extreme events under more severe precipitation extremes. It is also suggested here that more attention be paid to precipitation-induced vegetation changes than to temperature-induced events. (letter)

Uncertainties of the 50-year wind from short time series using generalized extreme value distribution and generalized Pareto distribution

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsén, Xiaoli Guo; Mann, Jakob; Rathmann, Ole

2015-01-01

This study examines the various sources to the uncertainties in the application of two widely used extreme value distribution functions, the generalized extreme value distribution (GEVD) and the generalized Pareto distribution (GPD). The study is done through the analysis of measurements from...... as a guideline for applying GEVD and GPD to wind time series of limited length. The data analysis shows that, with reasonable choice of relevant parameters, GEVD and GPD give consistent estimates of the return winds. For GEVD, the base period should be chosen in accordance with the occurrence of the extreme wind...

Lumbar ultrasound: useful gadget or time-consuming gimmick?

Science.gov (United States)

Gambling, D R

2011-10-01

Despite widespread enthusiasm for using lumbar ultrasound in obstetrics, there are some who believe it is expensive and time-consuming, with undetermined risks and uncertain benefits. For decades, anesthesiologists have striven to perfect the identification and cannulation of the epidural space using skills learned during training and early clinical practice. These skills include knowledge of the relevant anatomy and detection of subtle tactile clues that aid successful placement of an epidural catheter. Indeed, obstetric anesthesiologists have managed to do this with great success without using imaging techniques. There is a long learning curve associated with lumbar ultrasound and it is unclear from the literature if the success rates associated with its use are superior to clinical skill alone. Is it only a matter of time before regulators insist that lumbar ultrasound is used before inserting an epidural? Indeed, this has already happened for central vein catheters. The United States spent $2.2 trillion on health care in 2007, nearly twice the average of other developed nations. If rapid health cost growth persists, one out of every four dollars in the US national economy will be tied up in the health system by 2025. Do obstetric anesthesiologists want to add to these costs by using unnecessary and expensive equipment? Although many feel that diagnostic ultrasound in obstetrics is safe, some argue that we have yet to perform an appropriate risk analysis for lumbar ultrasound during pregnancy. The issue of ultrasound bio-safety needs to be considered before we all jump on the ultrasound bandwagon. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Relations between transit time, fermentation products, and hydrogen consuming flora in healthy humans.

Science.gov (United States)

El Oufir, L; Flourié, B; Bruley des Varannes, S; Barry, J L; Cloarec, D; Bornet, F; Galmiche, J P

1996-06-01

To investigate whether transit time could influence H2 consuming flora and certain indices of colonic bacterial fermentation. Eight healthy volunteers (four methane excretors and four non-methane excretors) were studied for three, three week periods during which they received a controlled diet alone (control period), and then the same diet with cisapride or loperamide. At the end of each period, mean transit time (MTT) was estimated, an H2 lactulose breath test was performed, and stools were analysed. In the control period, transit time was inversely related to faecal weight, sulphate reducing bacteria counts, concentrations of total short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), propionic and butyric acids, and H2 excreted in breath after lactulose ingestion. Conversely, transit time was positively related to faecal pH and tended to be related to methanogen counts. Methanogenic bacteria counts were inversely related to those of sulphate reducing bacteria and methane excretors had slower MTT and lower sulphate reducing bacteria counts than non-methane excretors. Compared with the control period, MTT was significantly shortened (p < 0.05) by cisapride and prolonged (p < 0.05) by loperamide (73 (11) hours, 47 (5) hours and 147 (12) hours for control, cisapride, and loperamide, respectively, mean (SD)). Cisapride reduced transit time was associated with (a) a significant rise in faecal weight, sulphate reducing bacteria, concentrations of total SCFAs, and propionic and butyric acids and breath H2 as well as (b) a significant fall in faecal pH and breath CH4 excretion, and (c) a non-significant decrease in the counts of methanogenic bacteria. Reverse relations were roughly the same during the loperamide period including a significant rise in the counts of methanogenic bacteria and a significant fall in those of sulphate reducing bacteria. Transit time differences between healthy volunteers are associated with differences in H2 consuming flora and certain indices of colonic

Consumer expectations of the quality of pork produced in sustainable outdoor systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Scholderer, Joachim; Bredahl, Lone; Magnussen, Maria

, most Swedish consumers bought fresh pork at the traditional butcher's. Although large segments of consumers (30-50%) stated higher purchase intentions for pork from outdoor systems than for conventional pork, results should be interpreted with caution. Since intention-behaviour consistency was found...... to be extremely low for pork in general, stated purchase intentions should also be discounted in the case of pork from outdoor production systems. The most striking result in the present research was observed in relation to consumers' quality expectations. Respondents had been asked to state their quality...... to those of conventional pork. Finally, consumers prefer as much information as possible on the label of pork products. Since influences at the point of sale, including the information on product labels, appear to be the major determinants of consumers' pork purchases, the development of clear and credible...

Effect of sustainability information on consumers' liking of freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii).

Science.gov (United States)

Simoes, Julia Siqueira; Mársico, Eliane Teixeira; da Cruz, Adriano Gomes; de Freitas, Mônica Queiroz; Doro, Laís Higino; Conte-Junior, Carlos Adam

2015-12-01

This research aimed to investigate whether consumer acceptance is affected by information on sustainable practices on the product label. Hedonic evaluations of freshwater prawns were performed by 80 consumers under three aspects: the blind condition - consumers taste samples without information; expected - without tasting samples, consumers evaluated the message 'Freshwater prawns were grown using sustainable practices, reducing environmental impacts caused by traditional breeding'; informed - in which prawns were tasted and the card evaluated. For the entire consumer group, it was observed that the message about sustainability on packaging increased freshwater prawn acceptability (8.25, expected condition (E) versus 6.75, blind condition (B)). High scores were observed under all three test conditions, ranging from 6 (like slightly) to 9 (like extremely), on a 9-point scale. It can be concluded that the use of sustainable information can influence consumers' perception and increase their preference toward freshwater prawns, and even increase the sensory attributes of the product. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry.

Diabetic Driving Studies-Part 2: A Comparison of Brake Response Time Between Drivers With Diabetes With and Without Lower Extremity Sensorimotor Neuropathy.

Science.gov (United States)

Spiess, Kerianne E; Sansosti, Laura E; Meyr, Andrew J

We have previously demonstrated an abnormally delayed mean brake response time and an increased frequency of abnormally delayed brake responses in a group of neuropathic drivers with diabetes compared with a control group of drivers with neither diabetes nor lower extremity neuropathy. The objective of the present case-control study was to compare the mean brake response time between 2 groups of drivers with diabetes with and without lower extremity sensorimotor neuropathy. The braking performances of the participants were evaluated using a computerized driving simulator with specific measurement of the mean brake response time and the frequency of the abnormally delayed brake responses. We compared a control group of 25 active drivers with type 2 diabetes without lower extremity neuropathy and an experimental group of 25 active drivers with type 2 diabetes and lower extremity neuropathy from an urban U.S. podiatric medical clinic. The experimental group demonstrated an 11.49% slower mean brake response time (0.757 ± 0.180 versus 0.679 ± 0.120 second; p time slower than a suggested safety threshold of 0.70 second, and diabetic drivers without neuropathy demonstrated a mean brake response time faster than this threshold. The results of the present investigation provide evidence that the specific onset of lower extremity sensorimotor neuropathy associated with diabetes appears to impart a negative effect on automobile brake responses. Copyright © 2017 American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

16 CFR 1500.44 - Method for determining extremely flammable and flammable solids.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 16 Commercial Practices 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Method for determining extremely flammable and flammable solids. 1500.44 Section 1500.44 Commercial Practices CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION FEDERAL HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES ACT REGULATIONS HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES AND ARTICLES; ADMINISTRATION AND...

Leisure-time sport and overuse injuries of extremities in children age 6-13, a 2.5 years prospective cohort study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chéron, Charlène; Leboeuf-Yde, Charlotte; Le Scanff, Christine

2017-01-01

of physical education classes at school. RESULTS: Incidence of overuse injuries of the lower extremity ranged from 0.2 to 3.3 for the 9 sports, but was near 0 for overuse injuries of the upper extremities. There was no obvious dose-response. The multivariate analysis showed soccer and handball......Abstract OBJECTIVES: It is not known which sports are most likely to cause overuse injuries of the extremities in children. In this study, we report on the incidence of overuse injuries of the upper and lower extremities in children who participate in various leisure-time sports and relate...... MEASURES: Over 2.5 years, parents answered weekly SMS-track messages (a) on type and frequency of leisure-time sports undertaken by their child, and (b) reporting if their child had experienced any musculoskeletal pain. Children with reported pain were examined by a clinician and diagnosed as having...

Extremely short duration high intensity interval training substantially improves insulin action in young healthy males

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Babraj, John A; Vollaard, Niels B J; Keast, Cameron

2009-01-01

BACKGROUND: Traditional high volume aerobic exercise training reduces cardiovascular and metabolic disease risk but involves a substantial time commitment. Extremely low volume high-intensity interval training (HIT) has recently been demonstrated to produce improvements to aerobic function...... cycle sprints per session). Aerobic performance (250-kJ self-paced cycling time trial), and glucose, insulin and NEFA responses to a 75-g oral glucose load (oral glucose tolerance test; OGTT) were determined before and after training. RESULTS: Following 2 weeks of HIT, the area under the plasma glucose......, to substantially improve insulin action in young sedentary subjects is remarkable. This novel time-efficient training paradigm can be used as a strategy to reduce metabolic risk factors in young and middle aged sedentary populations who otherwise would not adhere to time consuming traditional aerobic exercise...

Food quality and the consumers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lassen, Jesper

1993-01-01

Executive Summary: 1. Consumers and professionals in the food sector will differ in the way they view food quality. Professionals have knowledge and resources to establish quality based on objective criteria. Consumers lack both, and they are typically concerned with many different products...... resources, of means of transportation, of time, of knowledge. Consumers' shopping behaviour is therefore an imperfect indicator of the quality consumers want, insufficient way of communicating consumer wishes to the food sector. 3. The fact that the food producer may be separated from the consumer...... certain attributes of food products or materials which may contradict consumer intentions. Economic pressure to reduce costs may lead to deteriorating quality. 5. While the information supplied by the market may be enough to give feed back on products launched based on the trial-and-error method...

THE WAY TO ENHANCE THE VALUE ADDED: SATISFYING THE NEEDS OF TIME CONSCIOUS CONSUMERS IN THE FOOD MARKETS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MÓNIKA Fodor

2007-04-01

Full Text Available The changes of the life style and the way of life have an impact on the preferences of food consumers. The free time not only means an opportunity to have a rest for the consumer of the 21st century, but the customers make efforts to spend it diversely in accordance with the actual trends. The accelerated rhythm of life, the social changes cause the revaluation of the quality of life. A growing stratum is effected by the accelerated pace of work and life and as a result of it the role of time that can be spend up freely is becoming more valuable, determining the way of food consumption and the choosing of the place where to have meal.

Individual traits as determinants of time to death under extreme drought in Pinus sylvestris L.

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia-Forner, Núria; Sala, Anna; Biel, Carme; Savé, Robert; Martínez-Vilalta, Jordi

2016-10-01

Plants exhibit a variety of drought responses involving multiple interacting traits and processes, which makes predictions of drought survival challenging. Careful evaluation of responses within species, where individuals share broadly similar drought resistance strategies, can provide insight into the relative importance of different traits and processes. We subjected Pinus sylvestris L. saplings to extreme drought (no watering) leading to death in a greenhouse to (i) determine the relative effect of predisposing factors and responses to drought on survival time, (ii) identify and rank the importance of key predictors of time to death and (iii) compare individual characteristics of dead and surviving trees sampled concurrently. Time until death varied over 3 months among individual trees (from 29 to 147 days). Survival time was best predicted (higher explained variance and impact on the median survival time) by variables related to carbon uptake and carbon/water economy before and during drought. Trees with higher concentrations of monosaccharides before the beginning of the drought treatment and with higher assimilation rates prior to and during the treatment survived longer (median survival time increased 25-70 days), even at the expense of higher water loss. Dead trees exhibited less than half the amount of nonstructural carbohydrates (NSCs) in branches, stem and relative to surviving trees sampled concurrently. Overall, our results indicate that the maintenance of carbon assimilation to prevent acute depletion of NSC content above some critical level appears to be the main factor explaining survival time of P. sylvestris trees under extreme drought. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Thermal Implications for Extreme Fast Charge

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Keyser, Matthew A [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2017-08-14

Present-day thermal management systems for battery electric vehicles are inadequate in limiting the maximum temperature rise of the battery during extreme fast charging. If the battery thermal management system is not designed correctly, the temperature of the cells could reach abuse temperatures and potentially send the cells into thermal runaway. Furthermore, the cell and battery interconnect design needs to be improved to meet the lifetime expectations of the consumer. Each of these aspects is explored and addressed as well as outlining where the heat is generated in a cell, the efficiencies of power and energy cells, and what type of battery thermal management solutions are available in today's market. Thermal management is not a limiting condition with regard to extreme fast charging, but many factors need to be addressed especially for future high specific energy density cells to meet U.S. Department of Energy cost and volume goals.

Extreme Ritualistic Alcohol Consumption among College Students on Game Day

Science.gov (United States)

Glassman, Tavis J.; Dodd, Virginia J.; Sheu, Jiunn-Jye; Rienzo, Barbara A.; Wagenaar, Alex C.

2010-01-01

Alcohol use and the related consequences associated with college football games are a serious public health issue for university communities. Objective: Examining "Extreme Ritualistic Alcohol Consumption" (ERAC), defined as consuming 10 or more drinks on game day for a male, and 8 or more drinks for a female, is the focus of this study.…

How Marketing Instruments Affect Consumer Behavior in Times of Economic Turbulence

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Naďa Birčiaková

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This article analyzes the behavioural changes in groups of consumers and households on the market with individual commodities, based on the classification of individual reasonable consumption. Consumers expressed the degree of influence in their decision-making on satisfying their needs through selected key marketing factors such as price, brand, quality, habits and experience, advertising, recommendation from friends and relatives, packaging, discounts, new items, and so on. The analysis sought to determine whether the changes in the economic situation in the Czech Republic have an impact on the degree of marketing instrument influence on consumer behavior and decision-making. To express the degree of influence 10 point opinion scale is used. Thanks to the investigation taking place in 2007 with 609 respondents and in 2013 with 516 respondents, it was possible, it was possible to deal with the search for evidence of differences in the importance of individual factors using the Wilcoxon test. In 2013, attention was also paid to the degree of influence of some marketing tools such as price, quality and discount events on consumer behavior and decision-making in selected groups of households created by different income levels and different level of education achieved by the head of the household. The influence is expressed by radial graphs.

Real-time Extremely Heavy Rainfall Forecast and Warning over Rajasthan During the Monsoon Season (2016)

Science.gov (United States)

Srivastava, Kuldeep; Pradhan, D.

2018-01-01

Two events of extremely heavy rainfall occurred over Rajasthan during 7-9 August 2016 and 19-21 August 2016. Due to these events, flooding occurred over east Rajasthan and affected the normal life of people. A low-pressure area lying over northwest Madhya Pradesh on 7 August 2016 moved north-westward and lay near east Rajasthan and adjoining northwest Madhya Pradesh on 8 and 9 August 2016. Under the influence of this low-pressure system, Chittorgarh district and adjoining areas of Rajasthan received extremely heavy rainfall of 23 cm till 0300 UTC of 8 August 2016 and 34 cm on 0300 UTC of 9 August 2016. A deep depression lying over extreme south Uttar Pradesh and adjoining northeast Madhya Pradesh on 19 August 2016 moved westward and gradually weakened into a depression on 20 August 2016. It further weakened into a low-pressure area and lay over east Rajasthan on 21 and 22 August 2016. Under the influence of this deep depression, Jhalawar received 31 cm and Baran received 25 cm on 19 August. On 20 August 2016, extremely heavy rainfall (EHR) occurred over Banswara (23.5 cm), Pratapgarh (23.2 cm) and Chittorgarh (22.7 cm) districts. In this paper, the performance of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) global forecast system (GFS) model for real-time forecast and warning of heavy to very heavy/EHR that occurred over Rajasthan during 7-9 August 2016 and 19-21 August 2016 has been examined. The NCEP GFS forecast rainfall (Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3) was compared with the corresponding observed gridded rainfall. Based on the predictions given by the NCEP GFS model for heavy rainfall and with their application in real-time rainfall forecast and warnings issued by the Regional Weather Forecasting Center in New Delhi, it is concluded that the model has predicted the wind pattern and EHR event associated with the low-pressure system very accurately on day 1 and day 2 forecasts and with small errors in intensity and space for day 3.

Effect of ageing time on consumer-perceived quality of Italian Simmental beef

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luisa Antonella Volpelli

2010-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of the experiment was to provide an objective indication on the optimal ageing time of meat from ItalianSimmental (IS young bulls, the most important commercial category of the breed. The research was carried out on 10young bulls slaughtered at the average weight of 688 kg (SE: 7.3 kg. The right side of each carcass was stored for 7days and the left one for further 7 days, at normal refrigeration temperatures. At the end of the ageing period, the sideswere sampled at the loin for meat pH, color, cooking loss and shear force measurement. A central location, affective testinvolving 74 consumers was carried out to measure the degree of liking for grilled beef aged 7 or 14 days.The pH and color parameters were not significantly affected by the duration of post-mortem storage, while cooking lossincreased (31.4 vs 32.6 %; Pincreased from 7 to 14 days. The degree of liking by the untrained respondents for the two types of cooked meat wasdifferent, considering that consumers gave the highest hedonistic scores to beef aged 14 days. Tenderness was the sensoryattribute that allowed the best discrimination between beef stored for periods of different length. In fact, while thedifference between 14-day-aged and 7-day-aged beef for flavour ratings (7.0 vs 6.9 did not reach the threshold of significance,the former meat was perceived as significantly finer than the latter regarding tenderness (6.5 vs 5.6; P= 0.01and marginally preferred in overall terms (6.9 vs 6.5; P= 0.07. The classification test, carried out at the end of the quantitativetest by asking consumers to select from a list the most appropriate attributes describing the stimuli associatedwith meat consumption, confirmed the effectiveness of texture attributes in ranking different-aged beef acceptability. Infact, the number of ticks reported for chewiness and juiciness descriptors were different for the two types of meat: the14-day-aged beef was perceived as easier to chew (57 vs 34 ticks

Detecting lies about consumer attitudes using the timed antagonistic response alethiometer.

Science.gov (United States)

Gregg, Aiden P; Mahadevan, Nikhila; Edwards, Sonja E; Klymowsky, James

2014-09-01

The Timed Antagonistic Response Alethiometer (TARA) is a true-false statement classification task that diagnoses lying on the basis of slower average response speeds. Previous research (Gregg in Applied Cognitive Psychology, 21, 621-647, 2007) showed that a computer-based TARA was about 80 % accurate when its statements conveyed demographic facts or religious views. Here, we tested the TARA's diagnostic potential when its statements conveyed attitudes-here, toward both branded and generic consumer products-across different versions of the TARA (Exps. 1a, 1b, and 1c), as well as across consecutive administrations (Exp. 2). The results generalized well across versions, and maximal accuracy rates exceeding 80 % were obtained, although accuracy declined somewhat upon readministration. Overall, the TARA shows promise as a comparatively cheap, convenient, and diagnostic index of lying about attitudes.

CONSUMER'S RIGHT TO WITHDRAW

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ANCA NICOLETA GHEORGHE

2013-05-01

Full Text Available The right of withdrawal (of a contract belongs to the consumer, and is an essential means for the improvement of regulations that protect the consumer.. Right of withdrawal is not a recent creation and is not even specific to the consumer field. He was previously recognized in civil and commercial law (without special regulation. The right to withdraw may even have as ground the parties will. Thus, based on the contractual freedom, the parties may agree that one of them has the right to terminate the contract unilaterally The possibility of unilateral denunciation of the contract, gives the consumer, added protection by being able to reflect the decision and to check how the trader fulfil its obligations. In this context, through its effects, the right of denunciation, forces the professional parties to conduct themselves as fair as possible to the consumer and to execute the contract properly. In the study of the consumer protection, the time of conclusion is essential because in this stage is manifested, the inequality between the consumer and professional. Thus, the lack of information, the major of products and activities, commercial practices, influence the formation of consumer will, preventing the expression of a freely and knowingly consent.

Consumer Law Guide

Science.gov (United States)

1994-06-01

Consumer Finance Act by making short-term advances to customers who write personal checks in return for substantially smaller amounts of on-the-spot case...practices lawsuit with H&R Block, Inc. forcing tax return company to advertise its "Rapid Refund" program is actually a loan program charging customers ...home equity loans/lines of credit/home improvement loans, etc.) 2. A consumer can have only 9M principal dwelling at a time (includes mobile homes

Education – Determinant of Consumer`s Conditions in an Era of Technological Change

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Cristina Burghelea

2014-05-01

Full Text Available In the era of technological change, consumers face an environment increasingly complex, leading to significant challenges regarding buying and consuming choices and consumer protection. The most important and most influential technological changes in terms of the impact on the consumer, are iduced by internet, digitization and globalization. However, the era of technological change also means developing biotechnologies, nanotechnologies, new materials and new energy sources, all these changing people`s lives, living conditions, their needs and their behaviour as consumers. The literature highlights the factors that influence purchasing behaviour and changes manifested in terms of values, stressing the importance of promoting and protecting consumer`s rights and interests, The new responsible consumer can become a key driving force of sustainable development only if it is able to capitalize on new opportunities and to counter new risks of modern marketing technologies based on the Internet and mobile communications. This involves the assimilation of new knowledge throughout life to keep up with the accelerating pace of technological innovation and diffusion of e-commerce solutions and mobile commerce. We study the correlation between the composite index of consumer conditions and the level of participation in lifelong learning programmes in some Member States, based on secondary analysis of the data available at EU level,. The results confirm that the consumer`s situation is better in countries where the level of participation in lifelong learning programmes is higher. At the same time, however, the correlation is not linear. This shows that the consumer`s situation does not depend exclusively on formal continuing education but also other factors such as timeliness and severity of legal and institutional framework of consumer protection, the acquisition of knowledge through informal means, the requirement of different customers in different

12 CFR 229.57 - Consumer awareness.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... (b) of this section, a brief disclosure to each of its consumer customers that describes— (1) That a... consumer customer who receives paid original checks or paid substitute checks with his or her periodic... October 28, 2004, for each consumer who is a customer of the bank on that date; and (ii) At the time the...

Factors affecting dry-cured ham consumer acceptability.

Science.gov (United States)

Morales, R; Guerrero, L; Aguiar, A P S; Guàrdia, M D; Gou, P

2013-11-01

The objectives of the present study were (1) to compare the relative importance of price, processing time, texture and intramuscular fat in purchase intention of dry-cured ham through conjoint analysis, (2) to evaluate the effect of dry-cured ham appearance on consumer expectations, and (3) to describe the consumer sensory preferences of dry-cured ham using external preference mapping. Texture and processing time influenced the consumer preferences in conjoint analysis. Red colour intensity, colour uniformity, external fat and white film presence/absence influenced consumer expectations. The consumer disliked hams with bitter and metallic flavour and with excessive saltiness and piquantness. Differences between expected and experienced acceptability were found, which indicates that the visual preference of consumers does not allow them to select a dry-cured ham that satisfies their sensory preferences of flavour and texture. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Volatile and non-volatile compounds in green tea affected in harvesting time and their correlation to consumer preference.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Youngmok; Lee, Kwang-Geun; Kim, Mina K

2016-10-01

Current study was designed to find out how tea harvesting time affects the volatile and non-volatile compounds profiles of green tea. In addition, correlation of instrumental volatile and non-volatile compounds analyses to consumer perception were analyzed. Overall, earlier harvested green tea had stronger antioxidant capacity (~61.0%) due to the polyphenolic compounds from catechin (23,164 mg/L), in comparison to later harvested green teas (11,961 mg/L). However, high catechin content in green tea influenced negatively the consumer likings of green tea, due to high bitterness (27.6%) and astringency (13.4%). Volatile compounds drive consumer liking of green tea products were also identified, that included linalool, 2,3-methyl butanal, 2-heptanone, (E,E)-3,5-Octadien-2-one. Finding from current study are useful for green tea industry as it provide the difference in physiochemical properties of green tea harvested at different intervals.

Recreating Intimacy With Connected Consumers

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Stephen Andrew

2017-11-01

Full Text Available In the good old times shop manager knew their customers personally and were able to tailor offerings to their needs and desires. But how can we create meaningful moments for connected consumers in global markets? Yasmeen Ahmad explains how in digital times data fill in. Smart algorithms help generate insights and enable real time action to provide the right product and service to the right customer at the right time. Companies that don’t want to be left behind a digital elite need to remain close to their customers across multiple digital touchpoints. Being capable of reading, interpreting and acting upon consumers` traces is a prerequisite.

Consumer Issues and Consumer Protection in Asia.

Science.gov (United States)

Widdows, Richard; And Others

1995-01-01

Looks at themes of consumer interests in Asia and comments on the directions consumer policy is taking in that region. Outlines issues facing the region's consumers, describes evolving consumer protection mechanisms, and presents a model for promoting consumer interests in the region. (JOW)

Forecasting of indirect consumables for a Job Shop

Science.gov (United States)

Shakeel, M.; Khan, S.; Khan, W. A.

2016-08-01

A job shop has an arrangement where similar machines (Direct consumables) are grouped together and use indirect consumables to produce a product. The indirect consumables include hack saw blades, emery paper, painting brush etc. The job shop is serving various orders at a particular time for the optimal operation of job shop. Forecasting is required to predict the demand of direct and indirect consumables in a job shop. Forecasting is also needed to manage lead time, optimize inventory cost and stock outs. The objective of this research is to obtain the forecast for indirect consumables. The paper shows how job shop can manage their indirect consumables more accurately by establishing a new technique of forecasting. This results in profitable use of job shop by multiple users.

Operational experience of extreme wind penetrations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Estanqueiro, Ana [INETI/LNEG - National Laboratory for Energy and Geology, Lisbon (Portugal); Mateus, Carlos B. [Instituto de Meteorologia, Lisboa (Portugal); Pestana, Rui [Redes Energeticas Nacionais (REN), Lisboa (Portugal)

2010-07-01

This paper reports the operational experience from the Portuguese Power System during the 2009/2010 winter months when record wind penerations were observed: the instantaneous wind power penetration peaked at 70% of consumption during no-load periods and the wind energy accounted for more than 50% of the energy consumed for a large period. The regulation measures taken by the TSO are presented in the paper, together with the additional reserves operated for added system security. Information on the overall power system behavior under such extreme long-term wind power penetrations will also be addressed. (org.)

Long-Term Memory: A Natural Mechanism for the Clustering of Extreme Events and Anomalous Residual Times in Climate Records

Science.gov (United States)

Bunde, Armin; Eichner, Jan F.; Kantelhardt, Jan W.; Havlin, Shlomo

2005-01-01

We study the statistics of the return intervals between extreme events above a certain threshold in long-term persistent records. We find that the long-term memory leads (i)to a stretched exponential distribution of the return intervals, (ii)to a pronounced clustering of extreme events, and (iii)to an anomalous behavior of the mean residual time to the next event that depends on the history and increases with the elapsed time in a counterintuitive way. We present an analytical scaling approach and demonstrate that all these features can be seen in long climate records. The phenomena should also occur in heartbeat records, Internet traffic, and stock market volatility and have to be taken into account for an efficient risk evaluation.

The Effects of Whole Body Vibration Training and Creatine Supplementation on Lower Extremity Performance and Balance in Elderly Males

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Mostafa Rahimi

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of whole body vibration training (WBVT and creatine (Cr supplementation on lower extremity performance and balance in elderly males. Methods & Materials: In this semi-experimental study, twenty two eligible males from the members of an elderly daycare center with more than 60 years of age were enrolled and were divided into three groups randomly, WBVT+Cr(n=7, WBVT+Pgroup (n=7, and control group (n=8. In WBVT+Cr and WBVT+P groups exercises were performed on the whole body vibration device for 10 days with 30-35 Hz intensity and 5 mm amplitude. The WBVT+Cr group consumed 20g/day Crsupplement for the first 5 days followed by 5g/days for the next 5 days of protocol. The WBVT+P group consumed dexterous. The control group neither did any exercise nor consumed any supplement during the protocol. Static balance by standing time on one leg, dynamic balance by TUG test and lower extremity performance by 30-meter walking test, sit and stand test and tandem gait test weremeasured. Paired sample t-test and one way ANOVAwere used for data analysis (α=0.05. Results: Our results showed that dynamic balance, lower body performance in 30- meter walking and tandem gait improved in experimental groups. However, ANOVA did not show any significant increase in static balance (P=0.514, dynamic balance (P=0.153, lower body performance in 30-meter walking test (P=0.339, sit and stand test (P=0.578 and tandem gait (P=0.151. Conclusion: In conclusion, it seems that WBVT plus Cr supplementation improves some of the motor fitness factors in elderly males during a short time.

The Models of Inter-temporal Consume

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Nora Mihail

2007-10-01

Full Text Available The articol presents a category of consumption models which shows the manner how theexpenses of consume in an economy are related to the available income achieved by this economy and theinterest rate from the financial market. Since the income as well as the expenses of consume are realizedin time, such dynamic models of consume are also referred to as models of inter-temporal consume,emphasizing therefore the fact that the available income achieved at a certain moment may be used forconsume at a future moment, whereas the decision of consume taken at a current moment may consider theincome that is to be achieved in the future.

Trends and sensitivities of low streamflow extremes to discharge timing and magnitude in Pacific Northwest mountain streams

Science.gov (United States)

Patrick R. Kormos; Charlie Luce; Seth J. Wenger; Wouter R. Berghuijs

2016-01-01

Path analyses of historical streamflow data from the Pacific Northwest indicate that the precipitation amount has been the dominant control on the magnitude of low streamflow extremes compared to the air temperature-affected timing of snowmelt runoff. The relative sensitivities of low streamflow to precipitation and temperature changes have important...

Consumer understanding of food labels: toward a generic tool for identifying the average consumer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Henrik Selsøe; Holm, Lotte; Møgelvang-Hansen, Peter

2013-01-01

The ‘average consumer’ is referred to as a standard in regulatory contexts when attempts are made to benchmark how consumers are expected to reason while decoding food labels. An attempt is made to operationalize this hypothetical ‘average consumer’ by proposing a tool for measuring the level of ...... that independent future studies of consumer behavior and decision making in relation to food products in different contexts could benefit from this type of benchmarking tool.......The ‘average consumer’ is referred to as a standard in regulatory contexts when attempts are made to benchmark how consumers are expected to reason while decoding food labels. An attempt is made to operationalize this hypothetical ‘average consumer’ by proposing a tool for measuring the level...... of informedness of an individual consumer against the national median at any time. Informedness, i.e. the individual consumer's ability to interpret correctly the meaning of the words and signs on a food label is isolated as one essential dimension for dividing consumers into three groups: less-informed, informed...

Consumer involvement in the health technology assessment program.

Science.gov (United States)

Royle, Jane; Oliver, Sandy

2004-01-01

This study aims to describe a cycle of development leading to sustainable methods for involving consumers in the management of a program commissioning health technology assessment. Staff time was dedicated to developing procedures for recruiting and briefing consumers to participate in prioritizing, commissioning, and reporting research. Resources and support were developed in light of early feedback from consumers and those working with them. These were piloted and amended before being used routinely. Over 4 years, procedures and resources have been developed to support six consumers attending seven to eight prioritization meetings a year; thirty to forty-five consumers each year commenting on research need for particular topics; thirty consumers a year commenting on research proposals, and twenty a year commenting on research reports. The procedures include clear job descriptions, induction and development days, clear briefing materials, payment for substantial tasks, and regularly seeking feedback to improve procedures. Explicit, inclusive, and reproducible methods for supporting consumer involvement that satisfy National Health Service policy recommendations for involving consumers in research require dedicated staff time to support a cycle of organizational development.

Awakened Oscillations in Coupled Consumer-Resource Pairs

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Almaz Mustafin

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The paper concerns two interacting consumer-resource pairs based on chemostat-like equations under the assumption that the dynamics of the resource is considerably slower than that of the consumer. The presence of two different time scales enables to carry out a fairly complete analysis of the problem. This is done by treating consumers and resources in the coupled system as fast-scale and slow-scale variables, respectively, and subsequently considering developments in phase planes of these variables, fast and slow, as if they are independent. When uncoupled, each pair has unique asymptotically stable steady state and no self-sustained oscillatory behavior (although damped oscillations about the equilibrium are admitted. When the consumer-resource pairs are weakly coupled through direct reciprocal inhibition of consumers, the whole system exhibits self-sustained relaxation oscillations with a period that can be significantly longer than intrinsic relaxation time of either pair. It is shown that the model equations adequately describe locally linked consumer-resource systems of quite different nature: living populations under interspecific interference competition and lasers coupled via their cavity losses.

Acclimatization to extreme heat

Science.gov (United States)

Warner, M. E.; Ganguly, A. R.; Bhatia, U.

2017-12-01

Heat extremes throughout the globe, as well as in the United States, are expected to increase. These heat extremes have been shown to impact human health, resulting in some of the highest levels of lives lost as compared with similar natural disasters. But in order to inform decision makers and best understand future mortality and morbidity, adaptation and mitigation must be considered. Defined as the ability for individuals or society to change behavior and/or adapt physiologically, acclimatization encompasses the gradual adaptation that occurs over time. Therefore, this research aims to account for acclimatization to extreme heat by using a hybrid methodology that incorporates future air conditioning use and installation patterns with future temperature-related time series data. While previous studies have not accounted for energy usage patterns and market saturation scenarios, we integrate such factors to compare the impact of air conditioning as a tool for acclimatization, with a particular emphasis on mortality within vulnerable communities.

How does development lead time affect performance over the ramp-up lifecycle? : evidence from the consumer electronics industry

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pufall, A.A.; Fransoo, J.C.; Jong, de A.; Kok, de A.G.

2012-01-01

In the fast-paced world of consumer electronics, short development lead times and efficient product ramp-ups are invaluable. The sooner and faster a firm can ramp-up production of a new product, the faster it can start to earn revenues, profit from early market opportunities, establish technology

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CONSUMER PREFERENCES RESEARCH PROCESS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MIRELA-CRISTINA VOICU

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Information is one of the most important resources that a company must possess. Some information is hidden deep in the black box - the mind of the consumer, as in the case of information about consumer preferences. Although it seems a concept difficult to grasp, it was shown that consumer preferences can be effectively measured and their research may provide a deeper understanding of the choices that consumers make when deciding to select an offer against another and when deciding to continue in time the relationship with one supplier. The following paper reveals some important aspects regarding the use of information regarding consumer preferences, the fundamentals behind consumer preferences research and the milestones in the consumer preferences research process.

Characteristics of the consumer preferences research process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mirela-Cristina Voicu

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Information is one of the most important resources that a company must possess. Some information is hidden deep in the black box - the mind of the consumer, as in the case of information about consumer preferences. Although it seems a concept difficult to grasp, it was shown that consumer preferences can be effectively measured and their research may provide a deeper understanding of the choices that consumers make when deciding to select an offer against another and when deciding to continue in time the relationship with one supplier. The following paper reveals some important aspects regarding the use of information regarding consumer preferences, the fundamentals behind consumer preferences research and the milestones in the consumer preferences research process.

Learning Consumer Tastes Through Dynamic Assortments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ulu, C.; Honhon, D.B.L.P.; Alptekinoglu, A.

2012-01-01

How should a firm modify its product assortment over time when learning about consumer tastes? In this paper, we study dynamic assortment decisions in a horizontally differentiated product category for which consumers' diverse tastes can be represented as locations on a Hotelling line. We presume

Selling to Consumers with Endogenous Types

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boone, J.; Shapiro, J.

2006-01-01

For many goods (such as experience goods or addictive goods), consumers' preferences may change over time.In this paper, we examine a monopolist's optimal pricing schedule when current consumption can affect a consumer's valuation in the future and valuations are unobservable.We assume that

A hybrid fuzzy logic and extreme learning machine for improving efficiency of circulating water systems in power generation plant

Science.gov (United States)

Aziz, Nur Liyana Afiqah Abdul; Siah Yap, Keem; Afif Bunyamin, Muhammad

2013-06-01

This paper presents a new approach of the fault detection for improving efficiency of circulating water system (CWS) in a power generation plant using a hybrid Fuzzy Logic System (FLS) and Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) neural network. The FLS is a mathematical tool for calculating the uncertainties where precision and significance are applied in the real world. It is based on natural language which has the ability of "computing the word". The ELM is an extremely fast learning algorithm for neural network that can completed the training cycle in a very short time. By combining the FLS and ELM, new hybrid model, i.e., FLS-ELM is developed. The applicability of this proposed hybrid model is validated in fault detection in CWS which may help to improve overall efficiency of power generation plant, hence, consuming less natural recourses and producing less pollutions.

A hybrid fuzzy logic and extreme learning machine for improving efficiency of circulating water systems in power generation plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aziz, Nur Liyana Afiqah Abdul; Yap, Keem Siah; Bunyamin, Muhammad Afif

2013-01-01

This paper presents a new approach of the fault detection for improving efficiency of circulating water system (CWS) in a power generation plant using a hybrid Fuzzy Logic System (FLS) and Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) neural network. The FLS is a mathematical tool for calculating the uncertainties where precision and significance are applied in the real world. It is based on natural language which has the ability of c omputing the word . The ELM is an extremely fast learning algorithm for neural network that can completed the training cycle in a very short time. By combining the FLS and ELM, new hybrid model, i.e., FLS-ELM is developed. The applicability of this proposed hybrid model is validated in fault detection in CWS which may help to improve overall efficiency of power generation plant, hence, consuming less natural recourses and producing less pollutions.

Online Consumer Ethnocentrism of Danish Consumers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bujac, Andreea Ioana

2017-01-01

No doubt that consumer ethnocentrism is an important phenomenon in international marketing. However, not much attention has been paid to consumer ethnocentrism in an online context. The current study aims to fill in this gap. Specifically, the ethnocentric tendency of Danish online consumers...

Persistent junk solutions in time-domain modeling of extreme mass ratio binaries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Field, Scott E.; Hesthaven, Jan S.; Lau, Stephen R.

2010-01-01

In the context of metric perturbation theory for nonspinning black holes, extreme mass ratio binary systems are described by distributionally forced master wave equations. Numerical solution of a master wave equation as an initial boundary value problem requires initial data. However, because the correct initial data for generic-orbit systems is unknown, specification of trivial initial data is a common choice, despite being inconsistent and resulting in a solution which is initially discontinuous in time. As is well known, this choice leads to a burst of junk radiation which eventually propagates off the computational domain. We observe another potential consequence of trivial initial data: development of a persistent spurious solution, here referred to as the Jost junk solution, which contaminates the physical solution for long times. This work studies the influence of both types of junk on metric perturbations, waveforms, and self-force measurements, and it demonstrates that smooth modified source terms mollify the Jost solution and reduce junk radiation. Our concluding section discusses the applicability of these observations to other numerical schemes and techniques used to solve distributionally forced master wave equations.

Belgian and Spanish consumption data and consumer handling practices for fresh fruits and vegetables useful for further microbiological and chemical exposure assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Jacxsens, L; Ibañez, I Castro; Gómez-López, V M; Fernandes, J Araujo; Allende, A; Uyttendaele, M; Huybrechts, I

2015-04-01

A consumer survey was organized in Spain and Belgium to obtain consumption data and to gain insight into consumer handling practices for fresh vegetables consumed raw or minimally processed (i.e., heads of leafy greens, bell peppers, tomatoes, fresh herbs, and precut and packed leafy greens) and fruits to be consumed without peeling (i.e., apples, grapes, strawberries, raspberries, other berries, fresh juices, and precut mixed fruit). This information can be used for microbiological and/or chemical food safety research. After extensive cleanup of rough databases for missing and extreme values and age correction, information from 583 respondents from Spain and 1,605 respondents from Belgium (18 to 65 years of age) was retained. Daily intake (grams per day) was calculated taking into account frequency and seasonality of consumption, and distributions were obtained that can be used in quantitative risk assessment for chemical hazards with chronic effects on human health. Data also were recalculated to obtain discrete distributions of consumption per portion and the corresponding frequency of consumption, which can be used in acute microbiological risk assessment or outbreak investigations. The ranked median daily consumption of fruits and vegetables was similar in Spain and Belgium: apple > strawberry > grapes > strawberries and raspberries; and tomatoes > leafy greens > bell peppers > fresh herbs. However, vegetable consumption was higher (in terms of both portion and frequency of consumption) in Spain than in Belgium, whereas the opposite was found for fruit consumption. Regarding consumer handling practices related to storage time and method, Belgian consumers less frequently stored their fresh produce in a refrigerator and did so for shorter times compared with Spanish consumers. Washing practices for lettuce heads and packed leafy greens also were different. The survey revealed differences between these two countries in consumption and consumer handling practices

Extreme river flow dependence in Northern Scotland

Science.gov (United States)

Villoria, M. Franco; Scott, M.; Hoey, T.; Fischbacher-Smith, D.

2012-04-01

predominantly impermeable bedrock, with the Ewe's one being very wet. The Lossie(216km2) and Dulnain (272.2km2) both contain significant areas of glacial deposits. River flow in the Dulnain is usually affected by snowmelt. In all cases, the conditional probability of each of the three rivers (Dulnain, Lossie, Ewe) decreases as the event in the conditioning river (Ness) becomes more extreme. The Ewe, despite being the furthest of the three sites from the Ness shows the strongest dependence, with relatively high (>0.4) conditional probabilities even for very extreme events (>0.995). Although the Lossie is closer geographically to the Ness than the Ewe, it shows relatively low conditional probabilities and can be considered independent of the Ness for very extreme events (> 0.990). The conditional probabilities seem to reflect the different catchment characteristics and dominant precipitation generating events, with the Ewe being more similar to the Ness than the other two rivers. This interpretation suggests that the conditional method may yield improved estimates of extreme events, but the approach is time consuming. An alternative model that is easier to implement, using a spatial quantile regression, is currently being investigated, which would also allow the introduction of further covariates, essential as the effects of climate change are incorporated into estimation procedures.

Hungry for success: Urban consumer demand for wild animal products in Vietnam

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rebecca Drury

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Rising urban prosperity is escalating demand for wild animal products in Vietnam. Conservation interventions seek to influence consumer demand, but are based on a limited understanding of consumers and consumption behaviour. This report presents key findings of a structured survey (n=915 and semi-structured interviews (n=78 to investigate the social context of consumption of wild animal-derived products among the population of central Hanoi. Wildmeat is the product most commonly reported consumed-predominantly by successful, high-income, high-status males of all ages and educational levels-and is used as a medium to communicate prestige and obtain social leverage. As Vietnam′s economy grows and its population ages, demand for wildmeat and medicinal products is likely to rise. Given the difficulties of acting on personal rather than collective interests and the symbolic role of wildmeat in an extremely status-conscious society, reducing demand is challenging. Influencing consumer behaviour over the long term requires social marketing expertise and has to be informed by an in-depth understanding, achieved using appropriate methods, of the social drivers of consumer demand for wild animal products. In the meantime, strengthened enforcement is needed to prevent the demand being met from consumers prepared to pay the rising costs of finding the last individuals of a species.

Behavioral Targeting—Consumer Tracking

Science.gov (United States)

Srimani, P. K.; Srinivas, A.

2011-12-01

Behavioral targeting is an online marketing method that collects data on the browsing activities of consumers, in order to `target' more relevant online advertising. Behavioral targeting enables marketers to reach in-market consumers and increases the value of publisher inventory. At the heart of behavioral targeting is a learning-based investigation of consumer behaviors. It helps marketers understand consumers' purchase patterns over time, mapping out a customer's activities based not only on a single purchase but also on an annual or even lifetime basis. As marketers increasingly appreciate the importance of customer lifetime value, behavioral targeting can be a foundation for creating a continuous analytical study of consumer trends and patterns. But as behavioural-targeting systems become more sophisticated and invasive, it is vital that the companies behind them are open with users about what is going on, and give them control over their personal information. The aim of this paper is to explore the various tools and techniques of behavioral targeting and its benefits to online marketing. A multiple—case study approach was used for exploring the effectiveness and acceptance of online marketing in the area of the online marketing.

Lags from Money to Inflation in a Monetary Integrated Economy: Evidence from the Extreme Case of Puerto Rico

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos A. Rodríguez

2007-09-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the time-lenght of money growth's long and short run effect in affecting the rate of inflation in the context of an economy of extreme monetary integration. Money growth is measured as the rate of growth of Puerto Rico's consumer price index. By analyzing the case of Puerto Rico, we find that a dynamic expansion of money is reflected on prices immediately, but the unitary effect occurs approximately within ten quarters. In addition, the results show that local inflation is significantly influenced by its own past history and monetary policy, with the second having the greater effect.

Attitudes of Consumers from Podgorica toward Advertising through Sport among the Question how often Consumers purchase Sporting Goods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vladimir Djurisic

2018-04-01

Full Text Available This research was aimed at gaining relevant knowledge about the attitudes of Podgorica consumers toward advertising through sport among the question how often consumers purchase sporting goods. The sample included 330 students from Faculty of Economics in Podgorica, divided into six subsample groups: consumers who do not purchase sport goods at all, then consumers who purchase sport goods less than ones a month, next 1–3 a month, 4–6 a month, 7–9 a month, as well as consumers who purchase sport goods more than 10 times a month. The sample of variables contained the system of three general attitudes which were modelled by seven-point Likert scale. The results of the measuring were analyzed by multivariate analysis (MANOVA and univariate analysis (ANOVA and Post Hoc test. Based on the statistical analyses it was found that significant differences occur at multivariate level, as well as between all three variables at a significance level of (p=.000. Hence, it is interesting to highlight that it was found there were significant differences showed up between the consumers who purchase sport goods. The significant differences were found in two of three variables, while the consumers who purchase sport goods less than 3 times a moths had much more negative attitudes toward advertising though sport.

Consumer Economics and Consumer Mathematics Textbooks.

Science.gov (United States)

Eastern Michigan Univ., Ypsilanti. National Inst. for Consumer Education.

This publication lists a selection of consumer economics and consumer mathematics textbooks available for review from the National Institute for Consumer Education. Twenty-six textbooks for the secondary level are cited. Nine advanced level texts are also listed. These texts are generally considered college level texts but could be adapted for…

Studies on processing, consumer survey and storage stability of a ready-to-reconstitute fish cutlet mix.

Science.gov (United States)

Shaviklo, G Reza; Thorkelsson, Gudjon; Sveinsdottir, Kolbrun; Pourreza, Fatemeh

2013-10-01

A convenience ready-to-reconstitute cutlet mix containing 30% fish protein powder was developed to improve the nutritional quality of the product. Consumer survey was based on the home use test (HUT) method. The acceptance of the fish cutlet mix (FCM) was studied using a 9-point hedonic scale ranging from 1 (extremely dislike) to 9 (extremely like). Product's characteristics and stability were studied during 6 months of storage at 27 ± 2 °C. The FCM packed in a polyethylene bag and cardboard box was stable during the storage period. There were no changes in colour, moisture gain and water activity, and TBARS values remained low. The FCM was accepted by the consumers in the study (n = 85). The average liking was high (7.5 ± 1.3) and it was influenced by frequency of fish and chicken consumption, educational level and household size. People who ate fish once a week liked the product more than other consumers. Also those with higher educational level and bigger household size. The results in this paper are important information for companies planning to develop ready-to-eat products fortified with fish proteins. The products could be means of increasing fish consumption in countries/areas where there is no tradition of consuming fresh or frozen fish.

Do European consumers use nutrition labels?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wills, Josephine M.; Grunert, Klaus G.; Celemín, Laura Fernández

2009-01-01

Nutrition labelling on food packages becomes more and more widespread in the European Union. Such information is not compulsory, unless a nutrition or health claim is made. However, how do consumers use nutrition information? Two European studies are currently assessing whether nutrition...... information on food labels is exerting an effect on healthy food choices among consumers. Based for the first time on in-store observations and interviews, these studies give a real-life insight into consumers' shopping behaviours. The major outcomes to date are that most European consumers have reasonable...... knowledge about nutrition and are able to use nutrition labels to identify healthier products within a category....

A Fourier analysis of extremal events

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhao, Yuwei

is the extremal periodogram. The extremal periodogram shares numerous asymptotic properties with the periodogram of a linear process in classical time series analysis: the asymptotic distribution of the periodogram ordinates at the Fourier frequencies have a similar form and smoothed versions of the periodogram...

A MARKETING VIEW OVER THE ROLE OF THE PUBLIC AUTHORITIES IN THE PROTECTION OF THE CONSUMERS PRIVATE SPACE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Veghes Calin

2011-12-01

Full Text Available The concept of privacy, seen in connection with the consumer's private space, and defined in terms of the rights the consumer have to disclose or not, respectively to have protected their personal data has gained an increasing importance, as a result of the organizations extended and more and more aggressive attempts, within their marketing efforts, to capture, process and use the consumers personal data. Privacy protection has become an important but, in the same time, extremely sensitive and challenging topic to be taken into consideration by all the stakeholders involved in the processing and employment of the consumers personal data. A key role in this respect is played by the public authorities acting as data controllers the Data Protection Authorities, that have to adopt a more proactive and efficient attitude in adopting and implementing policies and processes aiming to ensure a more effective protection of the personal data and private space, conduct privacy impact assessments and continuously improve the specific activities. Paper presents the opinions of the consumers through the results of an exploratory study regarding the importance given to the protection of the personal data, the area of protection of the specific laws, the need for laws regulating the personal data protection, the balance between the public and private entities in providing a proper protection of the personal data, and the relationship between the domestic, European, and international levels in ensuring the protection of the consumers personal data. Results regarding the role of the public authorities in the protection of the consumers personal data and private space in terms of the most appropriate institution to act as a data controller, the rights consumers consider important in relationship with the protection of their personal data and the risks faced in the context of a less effective protection are also presented.

Consumer Unit for Low Energy District Heating Net

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Paulsen, Otto; Fan, Jianhua; Furbo, Simon

2008-01-01

to reduce heat loss in the network. The consumer’s installation is a unit type with an accumulation tank for smoothing the heat load related to the domestic hot water. The building heat load is delivered by an under-floor heating system. The heavy under-floor heating system is assumed to smooth the room...... heat load on a daily basis, having a flow temperature control based on outdoor climate. The unit is designed for a near constant district heating water flow. The paper describes two concepts. The analyses are based on TRNSYS (Klein et al., 2006) simulation, supplied with laboratory verification......A low energy/ low temperature consumer installation is designed and analyzed. The consumer type is a low energy single family house 145 m2 with annual energy consumption in the range of 7000 kWh, incl. domestic hot water in a 2800 degree day climate. The network is an extreme low temperature system...

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ilie BUDICA

2010-03-01

Full Text Available The study of consumers helps firms and organizations improve their marketing strategies by understanding issues such as: the psychology of how consumers think, feel, reason, and select between different alternatives; the psychology of how the consumer is influenced by his or her environment; the behavior of consumers while shopping or making other marketing decisions; limitations in consumer knowledge or information processing abilities influence decisions and marketing outcome; how consumer motivation and decision strategies differ between products that differ in their level of importance or interest that they entail for the consumer; and how marketers can adapt and improve their marketing campaigns and marketing strategies to more effectively reach the consumer.

New Rules on Consumer Sales

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Møgelvang-Hansen, Peter; Lando, Henrik; Kristensen, Bo

2006-01-01

The project described in this report was carried out with support from The Ministry of Justice's Research Pool. The aim of the project is to examine the effects of Amending Act no. 213/2002, amending the rules on consumer sales in the Danish Sale of Goods Act. The amendments were part of Denmark......'s implementation of Directive 1999/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on certain aspects of the sale of consumer goods and associated guarantees. The Amending Act came into force on 24 April 2002, having effect on consumer sales made on and after 1 January 2002. At the time of completion...... of this report, the Amending Act had been in force for more than two and a half years. In the planning of this project, we assumed that at this point in time sufficient experience with the new rules would be available, enabling us to get an impression of its practical consequences for businesses. Also, we...

Famine food of vegetal origin consumed in the Netherlands during World War II.

Science.gov (United States)

Vorstenbosch, Tom; de Zwarte, Ingrid; Duistermaat, Leni; van Andel, Tinde

2017-11-17

Periods of extreme food shortages during war force people to eat food that they normally do not consider edible. The last time that countries in Western Europe experienced severe scarcities was during World War II. The so-called Dutch famine or Hunger Winter (1944-1945) made at least 25,000 victims. The Dutch government took action by opening soup kitchens and providing information on wild plants and other famine food sources in "wartime cookbooks." The Dutch wartime diet has never been examined from an ethnobotanical perspective. We interviewed 78 elderly Dutch citizens to verify what they remembered of the consumption of vegetal and fungal famine food during World War II by them and their close surroundings. We asked whether they experienced any adverse effects from consuming famine food plants and how they knew they were edible. We identified plant species mentioned during interviews by their local Dutch names and illustrated field guides and floras. We hypothesized that people living in rural areas consumed more wild species than urban people. A Welch t test was performed to verify whether the number of wild and cultivated species differed between urban and rural citizens. A total number of 38 emergency food species (14 cultivated and 21 wild plants, three wild fungi) were mentioned during interviews. Sugar beets, tulip bulbs, and potato peels were most frequently consumed. Regularly eaten wild species were common nettle, blackberry, and beechnuts. Almost one third of our interviewees explicitly described to have experienced extreme hunger during the war. People from rural areas listed significantly more wild species than urban people. The number of cultivated species consumed by both groups was similar. Negative effects were limited to sore throats and stomachache from the consumption of sugar beets and tulip bulbs. Knowledge on the edibility of famine food was obtained largely by oral transmission; few people remembered the written recipes in wartime

Do changes in the frequency, magnitude and timing of extreme climatic events threaten the population viability of coastal birds?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van de Pol, Martijn; Ens, Bruno J.; Heg, Dik; Brouwer, Lyanne; Krol, Johan; Maier, Martin; Exo, Klaus-Michael; Oosterbeek, Kees; Lok, Tamar; Eising, Corine M.; Koffijberg, Kees

P>1. Climate change encompasses changes in both the means and the extremes of climatic variables, but the population consequences of the latter are intrinsically difficult to study. 2. We investigated whether the frequency, magnitude and timing of rare but catastrophic flooding events have changed

Is consumer confidence an indicator of JSE performance?

OpenAIRE

Kamini Solanki; Yudhvir Seetharam

2014-01-01

While most studies examine the impact of business confidence on market performance, we instead focus on the consumer because consumer spending habits are a natural extension of trading activity on the equity market. This particular study examines investor sentiment as measured by the Consumer Confidence Index in South Africa and its effect on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). We employ Granger causality tests to investigate the relationship across time between the Consumer Confidence Ind...

16 CFR 1500.45 - Method for determining extremely flammable and flammable contents of self-pressurized containers.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 16 Commercial Practices 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Method for determining extremely flammable and flammable contents of self-pressurized containers. 1500.45 Section 1500.45 Commercial Practices CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION FEDERAL HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES ACT REGULATIONS HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES AND...

Extreme Design Loads Calibration of Offshore Wind Turbine Blades through Real Time Measurements

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Natarajan, Anand; Vesth, Allan; Lamata, Rebeca Rivera

2014-01-01

Blade Root flap and Edge moments are measured on the blades of a 3.6MW offshore wind turbine in normal operation. Ten minute maxima of the measurements are sampled to determine the extreme blade root flap moment, edge moment and resultant moment over six month duration. A random subset of the mea......Blade Root flap and Edge moments are measured on the blades of a 3.6MW offshore wind turbine in normal operation. Ten minute maxima of the measurements are sampled to determine the extreme blade root flap moment, edge moment and resultant moment over six month duration. A random subset...... of the measurements over a week is taken as input to stochastic load extrapolation whereby the one year extrapolated design extreme is obtained, which are then compared with the maximum extremes obtained from direct measurements over a six month period to validate the magnification in the load levels for the blade...... root flap moment, edge moment obtained by extrapolation. The validation yields valuable information on prescribing the slope of the local extrapolation curve at each mean wind speed. As an alternative to determining the contemporaneous loads for each primary extrapolated load, the blade root resultant...

Consumer Behavior Under Imperfect Information: A Review of Psychological and Marketing Research as It Relates to Economic Theory

OpenAIRE

Wilde, Louis L.

1983-01-01

In recent years, theoretical economists have begun to examine the effects of imperfect information on the existence, uniqueness, and efficiency of market equilibria, both in labor markets and in consumer product markets. Two significant conclusions can be drawn from this literature: (1) the properties of market equilibria are extremely sensitive to the search strategies used by consumers or workers, and (2) the key to “stabilizing” markets at price or wage distributions which are competitive ...

Consumer attitudes towards radurisation in South Africa

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Olst, M.W.

1985-01-01

To gain any insight into consumer attitudes towards radurization in South Africa, it is first of all necessary to pinpoint the consumer. The consumer has to be reached at all levels and must be convinced that radurization is a harmless process. All the indications are there that South African consumer acceptance will come readily once the positive benefits of irradiated food have been adequately publicized. Label and package information create untold problems for the grocery manufacturing and packaging industry. The radiation industry cannot afford to lose consumer confidence. The question is: Must a label be attached to a radurized product or not? The results of the trial marketing campaign have shown that if the correct information is supplied at the right time, the consumer is prepared to accept irradiated food

Consumer behaviour in the waiting area.

Science.gov (United States)

Mobach, Mark P

2007-02-01

To determine consumer behaviour in the pharmacy waiting area. The applied methods for data-collection were direct observations. Three Dutch community pharmacies were selected for the study. The topics in the observation list were based on available services at each waiting area (brochures, books, illuminated new trailer, children's play area, etc.). Per patient each activity was registered, and at each pharmacy the behaviour was studied for 2 weeks. Most patients only waited during the waiting time at the studied pharmacies. Few consumers obtained written information during their wait. The waiting area may have latent possibilities to expand the information function of the pharmacy and combine this with other activities that distract the consumer from the wait. Transdisciplinary research, combining knowledge from pharmacy practice research with consumer research, has been a useful approach to add information on queueing behaviour of consumers.

Fatal Outbreak from Consuming Xanthium strumarium Seedlings during Time of Food Scarcity in Northeastern Bangladesh

Science.gov (United States)

Gurley, Emily S.; Rahman, Mahmudur; Hossain, M. Jahangir; Nahar, Nazmun; Faiz, M. Abul; Islam, Nazrul; Sultana, Rebeca; Khatun, Selina; Uddin, Mohammad Zashim; Haider, M. Sabbir; Islam, M. Saiful; Ahmed, Be-Nazir; Rahman, Muhammad Waliur; Mondal, Utpal Kumar; Luby, Stephen P.

2010-01-01

Background An outbreak characterized by vomiting and rapid progression to unconsciousness and death was reported in Sylhet Distrct in northeastern Bangladesh following destructive monsoon floods in November 2007. Methods and Findings We identified cases presenting to local hospitals and described their clinical signs and symptoms. We interviewed patients and their families to collect illness histories and generate hypotheses about exposures associated with disease. An epidemiological study was conducted in two outbreak villages to investigate risk factors for developing illness. 76 patients were identified from 9 villages; 25% (19/76) died. Common presenting symptoms included vomiting, elevated liver enzymes, and altered mental status. In-depth interviews with 33 cases revealed that 31 (94%) had consumed ghagra shak, an uncultivated plant, in the hours before illness onset. Ghagra shak was consumed as a main meal by villagers due to inaccessibility of other foods following destructive monsoon flooding and rises in global food prices. Persons who ate this plant were 34.2 times more likely (95% CI 10.2 to 115.8, p-valuepeople are able to meet their nutritional requirements with safe foods, they will continue to be at risk for poor health outcomes beyond undernutrition. PMID:20305785

Statistical Model of Extreme Shear

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Gunner Chr.; Hansen, Kurt Schaldemose

2004-01-01

In order to continue cost-optimisation of modern large wind turbines, it is important to continously increase the knowledge on wind field parameters relevant to design loads. This paper presents a general statistical model that offers site-specific prediction of the probability density function...... by a model that, on a statistically consistent basis, describe the most likely spatial shape of an extreme wind shear event. Predictions from the model have been compared with results from an extreme value data analysis, based on a large number of high-sampled full-scale time series measurements...... are consistent, given the inevitabel uncertainties associated with model as well as with the extreme value data analysis. Keywords: Statistical model, extreme wind conditions, statistical analysis, turbulence, wind loading, statistical analysis, turbulence, wind loading, wind shear, wind turbines....

Do you really know your consumers? : analyzing the impact of consumer knowledge on use and failure evaluation of consumer electronics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Keijzers, J.

2010-01-01

The field of Consumer Electronics (CE) can be characterized by continuous technological innovation, fierce global competition, strong pressure on time-to-market, fast adoption cycles and increasingly complex business processes. In this context it is increasingly challenging for product designers and

Evolution caused by extreme events.

Science.gov (United States)

Grant, Peter R; Grant, B Rosemary; Huey, Raymond B; Johnson, Marc T J; Knoll, Andrew H; Schmitt, Johanna

2017-06-19

Extreme events can be a major driver of evolutionary change over geological and contemporary timescales. Outstanding examples are evolutionary diversification following mass extinctions caused by extreme volcanism or asteroid impact. The evolution of organisms in contemporary time is typically viewed as a gradual and incremental process that results from genetic change, environmental perturbation or both. However, contemporary environments occasionally experience strong perturbations such as heat waves, floods, hurricanes, droughts and pest outbreaks. These extreme events set up strong selection pressures on organisms, and are small-scale analogues of the dramatic changes documented in the fossil record. Because extreme events are rare, almost by definition, they are difficult to study. So far most attention has been given to their ecological rather than to their evolutionary consequences. We review several case studies of contemporary evolution in response to two types of extreme environmental perturbations, episodic (pulse) or prolonged (press). Evolution is most likely to occur when extreme events alter community composition. We encourage investigators to be prepared for evolutionary change in response to rare events during long-term field studies.This article is part of the themed issue 'Behavioural, ecological and evolutionary responses to extreme climatic events'. © 2017 The Author(s).

Real-Time Tracking of the Extreme Rainfall of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria using UCI CHRS's iRain System

Science.gov (United States)

Shearer, E. J.; Nguyen, P.; Ombadi, M.; Palacios, T.; Huynh, P.; Furman, D.; Tran, H.; Braithwaite, D.; Hsu, K. L.; Sorooshian, S.; Logan, W. S.

2017-12-01

During the 2017 hurricane season, three major hurricanes-Harvey, Irma, and Maria-devastated the Atlantic coast of the US and the Caribbean Islands. Harvey set the record for the rainiest storm in continental US history, Irma was the longest-lived powerful hurricane ever observed, and Maria was the costliest storm in Puerto Rican history. The recorded maximum precipitation totals for these storms were 65, 16, and 20 inches respectively. These events provided the Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing (CHRS) an opportunity to test its global real-time satellite precipitation observation system, iRain, for extreme storm events. The iRain system has been under development through a collaboration between CHRS at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and UNESCO's International Hydrological Program (IHP). iRain provides near real-time high resolution (0.04°, approx. 4km) global (60°N - 60°S) satellite precipitation data estimated by the PERSIANN-Cloud Classification System (PERSIANN-CCS) algorithm developed by the scientists at CHRS. The user-interactive and web-accessible iRain system allows users to visualize and download real-time global satellite precipitation estimates and track the development and path of the current 50 largest storms globally from data generated by the PERSIANN-CCS algorithm. iRain continuously proves to be an effective tool for measuring real-time precipitation amounts of extreme storms-especially in locations that do not have extensive rain gauge or radar coverage. Such areas include large portions of the world's oceans and over continents such as Africa and Asia. CHRS also created a mobile app version of the system named "iRain UCI", available for iOS and Android devices. During these storms, real-time rainfall data generated by PERSIANN-CCS was consistently comparable to radar and rain gauge data. This presentation evaluates iRain's efficiency as a tool for extreme precipitation monitoring and provides an evaluation of the

78 FR 54629 - Consumer Advisory Board meeting

Science.gov (United States)

2013-09-05

... consumer financial products or services industry, including regional trends, concerns, and other relevant... consumer financial products or services industry, including regional trends, concerns, and other relevant... business so requires; in such event, the public will be given notice at the earliest practicable time. (3...

Generalized Extreme Value's shape parameter and its nature for extreme precipitation using long time series and Bayesian approach

Science.gov (United States)

Ragulina, Galina; Reitan, Trond

2016-04-01

Assessing the probability of extreme precipitation events is of great importance in civil planning. This requires understanding of how return values change with different return periods, which is essentially described by the Generalized Extreme Value distribution's shape parameter. Some works in the field have suggested a constant shape parameter, while our analysis indicates a non-universal value. We first re-analyse an older precipitation dataset (169 stations) extended by Norwegian data (71 stations). We show that while each set seems to have a constant shape parameter, it differs between the two datasets, indicating regional differences. For a more comprehensive analysis of spatial effects, we examine a global dataset (1495 stations). We provide shape parameter maps for two models. We find clear evidence for the shape parameter being dependent on elevation while the effect of latitude remains uncertain. Our results confirm an explanation in terms of dominating precipitation systems based on a proxy derived from the Köppen-Geiger climate classification.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

OpenAIRE

Ilie BUDICA; Silvia PUIU; Bogdan Andrei BUDICA

2010-01-01

The study of consumers helps firms and organizations improve their marketing strategies by understanding issues such as: the psychology of how consumers think, feel, reason, and select between different alternatives; the psychology of how the consumer is influenced by his or her environment; the behavior of consumers while shopping or making other marketing decisions; limitations in consumer knowledge or information processing abilities influence decisions and marke...

Functional and organic eggs as an alternative to conventional production: a conjoint analysis of consumers' preferences.

Science.gov (United States)

Mesías, Francisco J; Martínez-Carrasco, Federico; Martínez, José M; Gaspar, Paula

2011-02-01

In the current context of growing consumer demand for foodstuffs that are healthy and safe and that are obtained in a manner respectful to the welfare of animals, the analysis of consumer preferences towards attributes of this type takes on particular importance. These trends are especially clear in the case of the consumption of eggs because of their strong negative association with cholesterol levels and their extremely intensive systems of production. The introduction of variants that are more in harmony with current consumer demands represents an interesting market alternative. The present study was aimed at investigating the preferences of Spanish consumers for these alternative types of egg that are entering the market. The survey was conducted with 361 consumers from October 2007 to March 2008. The conjoint analysis allowed us to estimate the relative importance of the main attributes that affect consumer preferences for eggs and to distinguish segments of consumers with similar preference profiles. It was found that price is the most important attribute determining consumer preferences, followed by the hens' feed and their rearing conditions. It was also found that only some groups of consumers are willing to pay the premium necessary for alternative methods of production. 2010 Society of Chemical Industry.

Lymphoscintigraphy of the lower extremity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abbasi, N.Z.

1990-01-01

Fifty one lower extremities of 26 normal healthy volunteers and 26 extremities of 13 patients with oedema have been studied. Dynamic quantitative lymphoscintigraphy using 99Tc-m antimony sulphide colloid during passive exercise as well as before and after active exercise was performed. parameters of lymphatic function including percentage of radioactivity cleared from the injection site, the percentage uptake by the inguinal lymph nodes, the time of arrival of activity at the regional lymph nodes and the lymphatic reserve index have been evaluated. The percentage clearance of activity from the injection site was found technically difficult to standardize and proved to be an unreliable parameter of lymphatic function. However, the quantitation of nodal uptake, the lymphatic transit time and the lymphatic reserve capacity accurately depicted the lymphatic functional status of an individual. The physiologic parameters of lymphatic function of the contralateral lower extremities were compared and a physiologic difference in the lymphatic capacity of the two limbs was scintigraphically documented. (author)

Remembering the best and worst of times: memories for extreme outcomes bias risky decisions.

Science.gov (United States)

Madan, Christopher R; Ludvig, Elliot A; Spetch, Marcia L

2014-06-01

When making decisions on the basis of past experiences, people must rely on their memories. Human memory has many well-known biases, including the tendency to better remember highly salient events. We propose an extreme-outcome rule, whereby this memory bias leads people to overweight the largest gains and largest losses, leading to more risk seeking for relative gains than for relative losses. To test this rule, in two experiments, people repeatedly chose between fixed and risky options, where the risky option led equiprobably to more or less than did the fixed option. As was predicted, people were more risk seeking for relative gains than for relative losses. In subsequent memory tests, people tended to recall the extreme outcome first and also judged the extreme outcome as having occurred more frequently. Across individuals, risk preferences in the risky-choice task correlated with these memory biases. This extreme-outcome rule presents a novel mechanism through which memory influences decision making.

Parsimonious Wavelet Kernel Extreme Learning Machine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wang Qin

2015-11-01

Full Text Available In this study, a parsimonious scheme for wavelet kernel extreme learning machine (named PWKELM was introduced by combining wavelet theory and a parsimonious algorithm into kernel extreme learning machine (KELM. In the wavelet analysis, bases that were localized in time and frequency to represent various signals effectively were used. Wavelet kernel extreme learning machine (WELM maximized its capability to capture the essential features in “frequency-rich” signals. The proposed parsimonious algorithm also incorporated significant wavelet kernel functions via iteration in virtue of Householder matrix, thus producing a sparse solution that eased the computational burden and improved numerical stability. The experimental results achieved from the synthetic dataset and a gas furnace instance demonstrated that the proposed PWKELM is efficient and feasible in terms of improving generalization accuracy and real time performance.

Extreme Overvalued Beliefs: How Violent Extremist Beliefs Become "Normalized".

Science.gov (United States)

Rahman, Tahir

2018-01-12

Extreme overvalued beliefs (EOB) are rigidly held, non-deusional beliefs that are the motive behind most acts of terrorism and mass shootings. EOBs are differentiated from delusions and obsessions. The concept of an overvalued idea was first described by Wernicke and later applied to terrorism by McHugh. Our group of forensic psychiatrists (Rahman, Resnick, Harry) refined the definition as an aid in the differential diagnosis seen in acts of violence. The form and content of EOBs is discussed as well as group effects, conformity, and obedience to authority. Religious cults such as The People's Temple, Heaven's Gate, Aum Shinrikyo, and Islamic State (ISIS) and conspiracy beliefs such as assassinations, moon-hoax, and vaccine-induced autism beliefs are discussed using this construct. Finally, some concluding thoughts on countering violent extremism, including its online presence is discussed utilizing information learned from online eating disorders and consumer experience.

Estimating building energy consumption using extreme learning machine method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Naji, Sareh; Keivani, Afram; Shamshirband, Shahaboddin; Alengaram, U. Johnson; Jumaat, Mohd Zamin; Mansor, Zulkefli; Lee, Malrey

2016-01-01

The current energy requirements of buildings comprise a large percentage of the total energy consumed around the world. The demand of energy, as well as the construction materials used in buildings, are becoming increasingly problematic for the earth's sustainable future, and thus have led to alarming concern. The energy efficiency of buildings can be improved, and in order to do so, their operational energy usage should be estimated early in the design phase, so that buildings are as sustainable as possible. An early energy estimate can greatly help architects and engineers create sustainable structures. This study proposes a novel method to estimate building energy consumption based on the ELM (Extreme Learning Machine) method. This method is applied to building material thicknesses and their thermal insulation capability (K-value). For this purpose up to 180 simulations are carried out for different material thicknesses and insulation properties, using the EnergyPlus software application. The estimation and prediction obtained by the ELM model are compared with GP (genetic programming) and ANNs (artificial neural network) models for accuracy. The simulation results indicate that an improvement in predictive accuracy is achievable with the ELM approach in comparison with GP and ANN. - Highlights: • Buildings consume huge amounts of energy for operation. • Envelope materials and insulation influence building energy consumption. • Extreme learning machine is used to estimate energy usage of a sample building. • The key effective factors in this study are insulation thickness and K-value.

Statistics of extremes theory and applications

CERN Document Server

Beirlant, Jan; Segers, Johan; Teugels, Jozef; De Waal, Daniel; Ferro, Chris

2006-01-01

Research in the statistical analysis of extreme values has flourished over the past decade: new probability models, inference and data analysis techniques have been introduced; and new application areas have been explored. Statistics of Extremes comprehensively covers a wide range of models and application areas, including risk and insurance: a major area of interest and relevance to extreme value theory. Case studies are introduced providing a good balance of theory and application of each model discussed, incorporating many illustrated examples and plots of data. The last part of the book covers some interesting advanced topics, including  time series, regression, multivariate and Bayesian modelling of extremes, the use of which has huge potential.  

THE PRINCIPLE OF PERMANENCE IN A CONSUMER SOCIETY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. N. Il’in

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In a consumer society dominated by the imperative that requires permanent update personal system of things (the permanence principle. The production serves not just the needs and growth needs. It focuses on production of a growing number of including the  minimum useful things, but having a prestigious status and a symbolic completeness. A comparative analysis of the companies of production and the consumer society on the basis of the dominant attitude to things. Disclosed two forms of things aging: physical deterioration and moral obsolescence. Many things advertised specially created low-quality for quick change by the user. Or the infrastructure of the fashion and advertising calls for to constantly buy new things to be always in trend, be fashionable, to emphasize their social status. The concept of modernity encompasses extremely short period of time. Today the luxury of tomorrow is becoming the norm, and novelty – archaic. There is an effect of accelerating history. Even if the needs are met, the infrastructure “discovers” new needs. Builds a causal chain: growing production and advertising production speed – creates new needs – a person consumes produce results and thus contributing to its further increase. Symbolism – not a stable characteristic of a particular product. The symbol of the fashion elite goes from one generation to the other things, none of them, not finding a permanent place of localization. Therefore, the symbolic “shelf life” of things to expire soon their physical expiration date. In terms the rapid development of technology and the emergence of new generations of products emphasizing the status is possible through the permanent acquisition of the newest gadgets. Self-presentation – a process based on the permanent use of marketable novelty. This concluded the effect of corporeal gerontophobia. Formed permanence phenomenon, which can be defined as a culture inspired by the

Motor impairments related to brain injury timing in early hemiparesis. Part II: abnormal upper extremity joint torque synergies.

Science.gov (United States)

Sukal-Moulton, Theresa; Krosschell, Kristin J; Gaebler-Spira, Deborah J; Dewald, Julius P A

2014-01-01

Extensive neuromotor development occurs early in human life, and the timing of brain injury may affect the resulting motor impairment. In Part I of this series, it was demonstrated that the distribution of weakness in the upper extremity depended on the timing of brain injury in individuals with childhood-onset hemiparesis. The goal of this study was to characterize how timing of brain injury affects joint torque synergies, or losses of independent joint control. Twenty-four individuals with hemiparesis were divided into 3 groups based on the timing of their injury: before birth (PRE-natal, n = 8), around the time of birth (PERI-natal, n = 8), and after 6 months of age (POST-natal, n = 8). Individuals with hemiparesis and 8 typically developing peers participated in maximal isometric shoulder, elbow, wrist, and finger torque generation tasks while their efforts were recorded by a multiple degree-of-freedom load cell. Motor output in 4 joints of the upper extremity was concurrently measured during 8 primary torque generation tasks to quantify joint torque synergies. There were a number of significant coupling patterns identified in individuals with hemiparesis that differed from the typically developing group. POST-natal differences were most noted in the coupling of shoulder abductors with elbow, wrist, and finger flexors, while the PRE-natal group demonstrated significant distal joint coupling with elbow flexion. The torque synergies measured provide indirect evidence for the use of bulbospinal pathways in the POST-natal group, while those with earlier injury may use relatively preserved ipsilateral corticospinal motor pathways.

The Effects of Thin and Heavy Media Images on Overweight and Underweight Consumers: Social Comparison Processes and Behavioral Implications

OpenAIRE

Smeesters, Dirk; Mussweiler, Thomas

2010-01-01

textabstractThis study examines how advertisements containing thin or heavy models influence the self‐esteem of overweight, normal, and underweight consumers. Previous research has mainly examined the influences of variations of the comparison standard on self‐evaluative outcomes, whereas we examine how the relative position of the self on the comparison dimension may moderate these effects. Three studies manipulated the size (thin vs. heavy) and extremity of the size (moderate vs. extreme) o...

Leisure-time sport and overuse injuries of extremities in children age 6–13, a 2.5 years prospective cohort study: the CHAMPS-study DK

Science.gov (United States)

Chéron, Charlène; Leboeuf-Yde, Charlotte; Le Scanff, Christine; Jespersen, Eva; Rexen, Christina Trifonov; Franz, Claudia; Wedderkopp, Niels

2017-01-01

Objectives It is not known which sports are most likely to cause overuse injuries of the extremities in children. In this study, we report on the incidence of overuse injuries of the upper and lower extremities in children who participate in various leisure-time sports and relate this to the frequency of sport sessions. Design Natural experiment including a prospective cohort study. Setting 10 state schools in 1 Danish municipality: Svendborg. Participants 1270 children aged 6–13 years participating in the Childhood Health, Activity, and Motor Performance School Study Denmark. Outcomes measures Over 2.5 years, parents answered weekly SMS-track messages (a) on type and frequency of leisure-time sports undertaken by their child, and (b) reporting if their child had experienced any musculoskeletal pain. Children with reported pain were examined by a clinician and diagnosed as having an overuse injury of an extremity or not. The incidence of diagnosed overuse injury was calculated for each of the 9 most common sports in relation to 5-week periods. Incidence by frequency of sessions was calculated, and multivariable analysis was performed taking into account age, sex and frequency of physical education classes at school. Results Incidence of overuse injuries of the lower extremity ranged from 0.2 to 3.3 for the 9 sports, but was near 0 for overuse injuries of the upper extremities. There was no obvious dose–response. The multivariate analysis showed soccer and handball to be the sports most likely to result in an overuse injury. Conclusions Among a general population of schoolchildren, overuse injuries of the lower extremities were not common and overuse injuries of the upper extremities were rare. Organised leisure-time sport, as practised in Denmark, can be considered a safe activity for children. PMID:28087543

ETHICAL CONSUMERS IN GREECE: WHO ARE THEY?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonia Delistavrou

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Presents a segmentation on the basis of the overall ethical consumption concept for the first time in Greece. Four segments were identified: Ethical Consumers (18.09%, Boycotters (20.48%, Ecological Consumers (27.86% and Conventional Consumers (33.57%. The Ethical Consumers’ segment consists of well educated citizens, who adopt all ethical behaviours more frequently. These consumers were found to be more confident they can control politics, less materialists, most attracted by post-materialist goals as well as less sceptical towards ethical products and less indifferent about ethical consumption issues. This segment may be considered as attractive enough to be targeted by business and non for profit organisations.

Facilitating consumer participation: an approach to finding the 'right' consumer.

Science.gov (United States)

Happell, Brenda

2010-01-01

Contemporary health care increasingly dictates that consumers of services should become active participants in the health care system. This has placed responsibility on administrators, managers and clinicians to include consumers in key strategic and decision making initiatives. However, this direction has not been accompanied by clear policies or guidelines. Consequently confusion about selecting consumers able to provide valuable input is identified as a barrier to active consumer involvement. The purpose of this paper is to address some concerns raised in the quest to find the "right" consumer, including: finding a consumer without an axe to grind; ensuring the consumer is representative of broader views; health professionals as consumer representatives. While these concerns are common they have not yet been extensively debated and discussed in the broader Literature. Strategies necessary to support consumers in participatory roles are also considered and the controversial subject of financial remuneration for consumers is also explored.

Leisure-time sport and overuse injuries of extremities in children age 6-13, a 2.5 years prospective cohort study: the CHAMPS-study DK.

Science.gov (United States)

Chéron, Charlène; Leboeuf-Yde, Charlotte; Le Scanff, Christine; Jespersen, Eva; Rexen, Christina Trifonov; Franz, Claudia; Wedderkopp, Niels

2017-01-13

It is not known which sports are most likely to cause overuse injuries of the extremities in children. In this study, we report on the incidence of overuse injuries of the upper and lower extremities in children who participate in various leisure-time sports and relate this to the frequency of sport sessions. Natural experiment including a prospective cohort study. 10 state schools in 1 Danish municipality: Svendborg. 1270 children aged 6-13 years participating in the Childhood Health, Activity, and Motor Performance School Study Denmark. Over 2.5 years, parents answered weekly SMS-track messages (a) on type and frequency of leisure-time sports undertaken by their child, and (b) reporting if their child had experienced any musculoskeletal pain. Children with reported pain were examined by a clinician and diagnosed as having an overuse injury of an extremity or not. The incidence of diagnosed overuse injury was calculated for each of the 9 most common sports in relation to 5-week periods. Incidence by frequency of sessions was calculated, and multivariable analysis was performed taking into account age, sex and frequency of physical education classes at school. Incidence of overuse injuries of the lower extremity ranged from 0.2 to 3.3 for the 9 sports, but was near 0 for overuse injuries of the upper extremities. There was no obvious dose-response. The multivariate analysis showed soccer and handball to be the sports most likely to result in an overuse injury. Among a general population of schoolchildren, overuse injuries of the lower extremities were not common and overuse injuries of the upper extremities were rare. Organised leisure-time sport, as practised in Denmark, can be considered a safe activity for children. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and Vulnerable Consumers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Trzaskowski, Jan

the economic behaviour of consumers ‘below 1 average’ even though the practice does not meet the requirements of professional diligence. The Directive’s adoption of the European Court of Justice’s ‘average consumer’ entails that protection is generally provided only for those who are far from vulnerable......Consumer protection is deeply anchored in EU law, including the Treaty and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. This article discusses the concept of consumer vulnerability and how vulnerable consumers are protected in the context of commercial practices which is fully harmonised by the Unfair....... The Directive’s Article 5(3) concerning vulnerable consumers protects only—and to a limited extent—groups who are vulnerable due to mental or physical infirmity, age or credulity. Even though consumers make many good choices, all consumers are vulnerable in certain situations—often due to time constraints...

Motherhood, Marketization, and Consumer Vulnerability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Davies, Andrea; Prothero, Andrea; Sørensen, Elin

2010-01-01

This article explores consumer vulnerability and the role of public policy by focusing on new mothers. Developing the consumer vulnerability model of Baker, Gentry, and Rittenburg, the authors consider how medical contexts, political and legal factors, economic resources, societal prescriptions...... a time of physical and psychological changes in mothers-to-be. This article illustrates that the extended market logic dominating contemporary mothering environments both contributes to and has the potential to exacerbate new mothers’ vulnerability, raising important challenges for public policy, both...

Estimating return periods of extreme values from relatively short time series of winds

Science.gov (United States)

Jonasson, Kristjan; Agustsson, Halfdan; Rognvaldsson, Olafur; Arfeuille, Gilles

2013-04-01

An important factor for determining the prospect of individual wind farm sites is the frequency of extreme winds at hub height. Here, extreme winds are defined as the value of the highest 10 minutes averaged wind speed with a 50 year return period, i.e. annual exceeding probability of 2% (Rodrigo, 2010). A frequently applied method to estimate winds in the lowest few hundred meters above ground is to extrapolate observed 10-meter winds logarithmically to higher altitudes. Recent study by Drechsel et al. (2012) showed however that this methodology is not as accurate as interpolating simulated results from the global ECMWF numerical weather prediction (NWP) model to the desired height. Observations of persistent low level jets near Colima in SW-Mexico also show that the logarithmic approach can give highly inaccurate results for some regions (Arfeuille et al., 2012). To address these shortcomings of limited, and/or poorly representative, observations and extrapolations of winds one can use NWP models to dynamically scale down relatively coarse resolution atmospheric analysis. In the case of limited computing resources one has typically to make a compromise between spatial resolution and the duration of the simulated period, both of which can limit the quality of the wind farm siting. A common method to estimate maximum winds is to fit an extreme value distribution (e.g. Gumbel, gev or Pareto) to the maximum values of each year of available data, or the tail of these values. If data are only available for a short period, e.g. 10 or 15 years, then this will give a rather inaccurate estimate. It is possible to deal with this problem by utilizing monthly or weekly maxima, but this introduces new problems: seasonal variation, autocorrelation of neighboring values, and increased discrepancy between data and fitted distribution. We introduce a new method to estimate return periods of extreme values of winds at hub height from relatively short time series of winds, simulated

Attitudes of Turskish Consumers toward Advertising through Sport among the Question how often Consumers purchase Sporting Goods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gorica Zoric

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Unlike other advertising mediums such as TV commercials or online advertising, people involuntarily receive sport advertisements; they prefer to watch the game for the sporting action than the regular advertisements. However, it is important to analyse their general attitudes among various questions, mostly due to the reason it varies from demographic group to demographic group. Hence, this research was aimed at gaining relevant knowledge about the attitudes of Serbian consumers toward advertising through sport among the question how often consumers purchase sporting goods. The sample included 173 respondents, divided into six subsample groups: consumers who do not purchase sport goods at all, then consumers who purchase sport goods less than ones a month, next 1–3 a month, 4–6 a month, 7–9 a month, as well as consumers who purchase sport goods more than 10 times a month. The sample of variables contained the system of three general attitudes which were modelled by seven-point Likert scale. The results of the measuring were analysed by multivariate analysis (MANOVA and univariate analysis (ANOVA and Post Hoc test. Based on the results it was concluded that significant differences occur at multivariate level, as well as between one of three variables at univariate level (p=.05. It is interesting to highlight that most of potential consumers (n=146 have recognized themselves in two categories: as consumers who purchase sport goods less than ones a month and one to three times a months, while there were no differences among the groups. If we take a look into previous investigations, it is interesting there are some opposite results, and the recommendations for further research are directed to spread out the sample a little bit more, mostly due to the reason the consumers who had a more negative attitudes were in the group that didn’t purchase the sport goods at all.

Correlating consumer perception and consumer acceptability of traditional Doenjang in Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Mina K; Lee, Kwang-Geun

2014-11-01

Doenjang is a traditional Korean food and is widely used for many Korean foods. Consumer perception and consumer acceptability on the typical sensory characteristics of traditional Doenjang remain unknown. The objective of the current study was to determine the consumer perception on traditional Doenjang characteristics and how preexisting consumer perception influenced the consumer liking for traditionally and commercially manufactured Doenjang. A consumer survey was conducted by presenting 26 sensory descriptions to consumers (n = 82) for check-all-that-apply measurement. Then, a consumer acceptance test was conducted over 2 d on 2 Doenjang samples representing commercially produced Doenjang and traditionally produced Doenjang: Day 1 consumers evaluated without any information (n = 182), and day 2 consumers evaluated samples informed that both samples were made by the "traditional" method (n = 109). Two-way ANOVA and multivariate analyses were conducted. Consumers' preexisting perceptions on the typical sensory characteristics of traditionally made Doenjang were similar in that they associate "gu-soo flavor," "dark color," "flavorful," and "well-fermented flavor" regardless of consumer demographics and Doenjang user status. However, these consumer perceptions on sensory attributes of traditional Doenjang did not agree with desirable sensory attributes for consumer liking, in that consumers preferred the commercially made Doenjang regardless of the evaluation condition and consumer user status. Findings from the current study therefore suggested a discrepancy between the preexisting current consumer perception and actual consumer acceptability of traditional Doenjang products. © 2014 Institute of Food Technologists®

(When and where) Do extreme climate events trigger extreme ecosystem responses? - Development and initial results of a holistic analysis framework

Science.gov (United States)

Hauber, Eva K.; Donner, Reik V.

2015-04-01

a seasonal cycle for each quantile of the distribution, which can be used for a fully data-adaptive definition of extremes as exceedances above this time-dependent quantile function. (2) Having thus identified the extreme events, their distribution is analyzed in both space and time. Following a procedure recently proposed by Lloyd-Hughes (2012) and further exploited by Zscheischler et al. (2013), extremes observed at neighboring points in space and time are considered to form connected sets. Investigating the size distribution of these sets provides novel insights into the development and dynamical characteristics of spatio-temporally extended climate and ecosystem extremes. (3) Finally, the timing of such spatio-temporally extended extremes in different climatic as well as ecological variables is tested pairwise to rule out that co-occurrences of extremes have emerged solely due to chance. For this purpose, the recently developed framework of coincidence analysis (Donges et al., 2011; Rammig et al. 2014) is applied. The corresponding analysis allows identifying potential causal linkages between climatic extremes and extreme ecosystem responses and, thus, to study their mechanisms and spatial as well as seasonal distribution in great detail. In this work, the described method is exemplified by using different climate data from the ERA-Interim reanalysis as well as remote sensing-based land surface temperature data. References: Donges et al., PNAS, 108, 20422, 2011 Lloyd-Hughes, Int. J. Climatol., 32, 406, 2012 Rammig et al., Biogeosc. Disc., 11, 2537, 2014 Zscheischler et al., Ecol. Inform., 15, 66, 2013

Multidecadal oscillations in rainfall and hydrological extremes

Science.gov (United States)

Willems, Patrick

2013-04-01

Many studies have anticipated a worldwide increase in the frequency and intensity of precipitation extremes and floods since the last decade(s). Natural variability by climate oscillations partly determines the observed evolution of precipitation extremes. Based on a technique for the identification and analysis of changes in extreme quantiles, it is shown that hydrological extremes have oscillatory behaviour at multidecadal time scales. Results are based on nearly independent extremes extracted from long-term historical time series of precipitation intensities and river flows. Study regions include Belgium - The Netherlands (Meuse basin), Ethiopia (Blue Nile basin) and Ecuador (Paute basin). For Belgium - The Netherlands, the past 100 years showed larger and more hydrological extremes around the 1910s, 1950-1960s, and more recently during the 1990-2000s. Interestingly, the oscillations for southwestern Europe are anti-correlated with these of northwestern Europe, thus with oscillation highs in the 1930-1940s and 1970s. The precipitation oscillation peaks are explained by persistence in atmospheric circulation patterns over the North Atlantic during periods of 10 to 15 years. References: Ntegeka V., Willems P. (2008), 'Trends and multidecadal oscillations in rainfall extremes, based on a more than 100 years time series of 10 minutes rainfall intensities at Uccle, Belgium', Water Resources Research, 44, W07402, doi:10.1029/2007WR006471 Mora, D., Willems, P. (2012), 'Decadal oscillations in rainfall and air temperature in the Paute River Basin - Southern Andes of Ecuador', Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 108(1), 267-282, doi:0.1007/s00704-011-0527-4 Taye, M.T., Willems, P. (2011). 'Influence of climate variability on representative QDF predictions of the upper Blue Nile Basin', Journal of Hydrology, 411, 355-365, doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2011.10.019 Taye, M.T., Willems, P. (2012). 'Temporal variability of hydro-climatic extremes in the Blue Nile basin', Water

The Role of “Extreme Case Formulations”as Facework at Procon

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sonia Bittencourt Silveira

2016-07-01

Full Text Available We focalize in this paper the kind of description entitled “extreme case formulations” used to justify, accuse or argue in order to make the other participants of a verbal interaction to arrive at a desired conclusion (POMERANTZ, 1984. At the Bureau of Consumer Protection (PROCON, during conciliation hearings, the parties (complainants and respondents use this discursive strategy to present their viewpoints as legitimate or defensible. The data utilized were generated during conciliation hearings at PROCON, in Juiz de Fora, MG, and they were transcribed according to Conversation Analysis conventions. This type of activity (cf. LEVINSON, 1979; SARANGI, 2000 is characterized as a conflict situation, caused by the different goals of the opponent parties: the consumer wants to blame the respondent for his/her damages and the respondent generally does not assume any responsibility for the consumer’s claims. These actions are produced discursively by means of rhetorical descriptions (EDWARDS & POTTER, 1992 to present different versions of the “facts” that originated the hearing. Adopting both an interactional perspective in Linguistics (cf. COUPER-KUHLEN & SELTING, 2001 and an impoliteness interactional perspective (cf. HOUGH, 2007, we examine the way participants make their points of view relevant and how they orient themselves, during the interaction, in relation to the dimensions of respect and disrespect, attending to face wants of the self and/or the other. (cf. PENMAN, 1990. Extreme case formulations can be seen as facework used to “save” face and/or to make the other “lose”. Thus the consumer-complainant try to offer a version that can be seen as relevant and lawful, according to the Consumer Defense Code, and present evidences that sustain his/her claims credibility. On the other hand, respondents main strategy is to account for their actions thought excuses, trying to attribute to external factors or, sometimes, to the

Detecting change-points in extremes

KAUST Repository

Dupuis, D. J.

2015-01-01

Even though most work on change-point estimation focuses on changes in the mean, changes in the variance or in the tail distribution can lead to more extreme events. In this paper, we develop a new method of detecting and estimating the change-points in the tail of multiple time series data. In addition, we adapt existing tail change-point detection methods to our specific problem and conduct a thorough comparison of different methods in terms of performance on the estimation of change-points and computational time. We also examine three locations on the U.S. northeast coast and demonstrate that the methods are useful for identifying changes in seasonally extreme warm temperatures.

Consumer experiences in a consumer-driven health plan.

Science.gov (United States)

Christianson, Jon B; Parente, Stephen T; Feldman, Roger

2004-08-01

To assess the experience of enrollees in a consumer-driven health plan (CDHP). Survey of University of Minnesota employees regarding their 2002 health benefits. Comparison of regression-adjusted mean values for CDHP and other plan enrollees: customer service, plan paperwork, overall satisfaction, and plan switching. For CDHP enrollees only, use of plan features, willingness to recommend the plan to others, and reports of particularly negative or positive experiences. There were significant differences in experiences of CDHP enrollees versus enrollees in other plans with customer service and paperwork, but similar levels of satisfaction (on a 10-point scale) with health plans. Eight percent of CDHP enrollees left their plan after one year, compared to 5 percent of enrollees leaving other plans. A minority of CDHP enrollees used online plan features, but enrollees generally were satisfied with the amount and quality of the information provided by the CDHP. Almost half reported a particularly positive experience, compared to a quarter reporting a particularly negative experience. Thirty percent said they would recommend the plan to others, while an additional 57 percent said they would recommend it depending on the situation. Much more work is needed to determine how consumer experience varies with the number and type of plan options available, the design of the CDHP, and the length of time in the CDHP. Research also is needed on the factors that affect consumer decisions to leave CDHPs.

Consumer decision making regarding a "green" everyday product

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thøgersen, John; Jørgensen, Anne-Katrine; Sandager, Sara

2012-01-01

to elevate consumer involvement in the choice of the product. However, there is a lack of research investigating whether adding such a “green” product attribute actually makes any difference to how consumers make choices. Does the way in which consumers make decisions about groceries change when both “green......, it is concluded that, rather than changing the way consumers make decisions when buying this type of product, the availability of a “green” alternative seems to make “green” consumers develop a new, simple choice heuristic that allows them to do their shopping as effortless and time-efficient as consumers buying......” and conventional alternatives are available? Does it make them deliberate more or do they just develop another, simple choice heuristic? Based on observation and follow-up interviews of consumers at the milk counter in two supermarkets which stock both organic (a “green” attribute) and conventional milk...

Organizing Consumers for a Decarbonized Electricity System

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pallesen, Trine; Jenle, Rasmus Ploug

2018-01-01

This paper studies a Danish smart grid experiment, EcoGrid EU, designed to sustain the increase of wind power in the electricity system. EcoGrid EU is designed as a real-time market, through which engineers seek to realize price responsive electricity consumers through the introduction of smart...... meters, variable short-term price signals and training users. Based on observations and interviews with scientist, consumers and technicians, this paper analyses the attempt to produce a new kind of electricity consumer. Drawing on social studies of markets, we argue that the project entails constructing...... a new form of calculative agency. We illustrate the extensive work put into the creation of a new, reconfigured electricity consumer, as well as the challenges associated with the construction of consumers willing and able to act in accordance with the EcoGrid script. On one hand, this study adds...

Variations of extreme rainfall in space and time

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gregersen, Ida Bülow; Madsen, H.; Rosbjerg, Dan

2012-01-01

variation, whereas annual variations are related to changes in the average Danish summer precipitation, the average Danish summer temperature and the East Atlantic pattern. The spatio-temporal Poisson regression model was found to be a helpful tool when comparing the internal importance of these variables......In the ongoing climate change discussion, methods for identification of variability governed by climate change are important tools. The magnitude of variables that can describe this variability should be compared with magnitudes of variables describing variability in a stationary setting....... This study focuses on variations of extreme rainfall events, observed at 70 different locations in Denmark over a period of 31 years. The aim is to identify and compare variables, both spatially and temporally, which can explain different parts of the variability in this data set. Assuming that the number...

Mortality impact of extreme winter temperatures

Science.gov (United States)

Díaz, Julio; García, Ricardo; López, César; Linares, Cristina; Tobías, Aurelio; Prieto, Luis

2005-01-01

During the last few years great attention has been paid to the evaluation of the impact of extreme temperatures on human health. This paper examines the effect of extreme winter temperature on mortality in Madrid for people older than 65, using ARIMA and GAM models. Data correspond to 1,815 winter days over the period 1986 1997, during which time a total of 133,000 deaths occurred. The daily maximum temperature (Tmax) was shown to be the best thermal indicator of the impact of climate on mortality. When total mortality was considered, the maximum impact occured 7 8 days after a temperature extreme; for circulatory diseases the lag was between 7 and 14 days. When respiratory causes were considered, two mortality peaks were evident at 4 5 and 11 days. When the impact of winter extreme temperatures was compared with that associated with summer extremes, it was found to occur over a longer term, and appeared to be more indirect.

Consumer Food Safety Risk Attitudes and Perceptions Over Time: The Case of BSE Crisis

OpenAIRE

Kalogeras, Nikos; Pennings, Joost M.E.; van Ittersum, Koert

2008-01-01

Recent research has shown that by decoupling the risk response behaviour of consumers into the separate components of risk perception and risk attitude, a more robust conceptualization and prediction of consumers’ reactions to food safety issues is possible. Furthermore, it has been argued that the influence of risk attitudes and risk perceptions on consumer risk behaviour for contaminated food products can be used to formulate effective agricultural policies and strategies in case of a food ...

Time To Talk About Dietary Supplements: 5 Things Consumers Need To Know

Science.gov (United States)

... by being an informed consumer . The standards for marketing supplements are very different from the standards for ... links Pinterest Read our disclaimer about external links Instagram Read our disclaimer about external links LinkedIn E- ...

Extreme Overvalued Beliefs: How Violent Extremist Beliefs Become “Normalized”

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tahir Rahman

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Extreme overvalued beliefs (EOB are rigidly held, non-deusional beliefs that are the motive behind most acts of terrorism and mass shootings. EOBs are differentiated from delusions and obsessions. The concept of an overvalued idea was first described by Wernicke and later applied to terrorism by McHugh. Our group of forensic psychiatrists (Rahman, Resnick, Harry refined the definition as an aid in the differential diagnosis seen in acts of violence. The form and content of EOBs is discussed as well as group effects, conformity, and obedience to authority. Religious cults such as The People’s Temple, Heaven’s Gate, Aum Shinrikyo, and Islamic State (ISIS and conspiracy beliefs such as assassinations, moon-hoax, and vaccine-induced autism beliefs are discussed using this construct. Finally, some concluding thoughts on countering violent extremism, including its online presence is discussed utilizing information learned from online eating disorders and consumer experience.

Extreme Overvalued Beliefs: How Violent Extremist Beliefs Become “Normalized”

Science.gov (United States)

Rahman, Tahir

2018-01-01

Extreme overvalued beliefs (EOB) are rigidly held, non-deusional beliefs that are the motive behind most acts of terrorism and mass shootings. EOBs are differentiated from delusions and obsessions. The concept of an overvalued idea was first described by Wernicke and later applied to terrorism by McHugh. Our group of forensic psychiatrists (Rahman, Resnick, Harry) refined the definition as an aid in the differential diagnosis seen in acts of violence. The form and content of EOBs is discussed as well as group effects, conformity, and obedience to authority. Religious cults such as The People’s Temple, Heaven’s Gate, Aum Shinrikyo, and Islamic State (ISIS) and conspiracy beliefs such as assassinations, moon-hoax, and vaccine-induced autism beliefs are discussed using this construct. Finally, some concluding thoughts on countering violent extremism, including its online presence is discussed utilizing information learned from online eating disorders and consumer experience. PMID:29329259

Instigating involvement through consumer-based brand equity : an attitudinal study of consumer-based brand equity and consumer involvement

OpenAIRE

Bredberg, David; Holmquist, Johan

2009-01-01

Recent research on links between dimensions of consumer-based brand equity, as well as links to consumer involvement, has shown that it is a significant predictor of purchase behavior. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the affect brands have on consumer involvement. We attempt to investigate how consumer-based brand equity affects the level of consumer involvement. Based on consumer behavior theory and previous research of these areas, gathered primary data (an empirical investig...

Health care consumer reports: an evaluation of consumer perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Longo, Daniel R; Everet, Kevin D

2003-01-01

There has been a proliferation of health care consumer reports, also known as "consumer guides," "report cards," and "performance reports," which are designed to assist consumers in making more informed health care decisions. While there is evidence that providers use such reports to identify and make changes in practice, thus improving the quality of care, there is little empirical evidence on how consumer guides/report cards are used by consumers. This study fills that gap by surveying 925 patients as they wait for ambulatory care in several clinics in a midwestern city. Findings indicate that consumers are selective in their use of these reports and quickly identify those sections of the report of most interest to them. Report developers should take precautions to ensure such reports are viewed as credible sources of health care information.

Time- and depth-wise trophic niche shifts in Antarctic benthos.

Science.gov (United States)

Calizza, Edoardo; Careddu, Giulio; Sporta Caputi, Simona; Rossi, Loreto; Costantini, Maria Letizia

2018-01-01

Climate change is expected to affect resource-consumer interactions underlying stability in polar food webs. Polar benthic organisms have adapted to the marked seasonality characterising their habitats by concentrating foraging and reproductive activity in summer months, when inputs from sympagic and pelagic producers increase. While this enables the persistence of biodiverse food webs, the mechanisms underlying changes in resource use and nutrient transfer are poorly understood. Thus, our understanding of how temporal and spatial variations in the supply of resources may affect food web structure and functioning is limited. By means of C and N isotopic analyses of two key Antarctic benthic consumers (Adamussium colbecki, Bivalvia, and Sterechinus neumayeri, Echinoidea) and Bayesian mixing models, we describe changes in trophic niche and nutrient transfer across trophic levels associated with the long- and short-term diet and body size of specimens sampled in midsummer in both shallow and deep waters. Samplings occurred soon after the sea-ice broke up at Tethys Bay, an area characterised by extreme seasonality in sea-ice coverage and productivity in the Ross Sea. In the long term, the trophic niche was broader and variation between specimens was greater, with intermediate-size specimens generally consuming a higher number of resources than small and large specimens. The coupling of energy channels in the food web was consequently more direct than in the short term. Sediment and benthic algae were more frequently consumed in the long term, before the sea-ice broke up, while consumers specialised on sympagic algae and plankton in the short term. Regardless of the time scale, sympagic algae were more frequently consumed in shallow waters, while plankton was more frequently consumed in deep waters. Our results suggest a strong temporal relationship between resource availability and the trophic niche of benthic consumers in Antarctica. Potential climate-driven changes

CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR TOWARDS ONLINE SHOPPING

OpenAIRE

Lakshmi. S

2016-01-01

With the increasing internet literacy, the prospect of online marketing is increasing. There are millions of people online any time and they all are a potential consumer in the online market. Since there are so many providers, the most important thing for organizations is to understand what are consumer wants and needs in this competitive business environment. Customer buying behaviors are influenced by different factors such as culture, social class, references group relation, family, salary...

Timely Diagnosis of Malalignment of the Distal Extremities Is Crucial in Morbidly Obese Juveniles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Franz Landauer

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Background/Aims: To determine i whether obesity in childhood can be related to malalignment of the distal extremities, ii the proportion of genu valgum malalignment and abduction setting, and iii the respective deviation dominance in children who are morbidly obese. Methods: 31 morbidly obese Caucasian children (16 males recruited for the STYJOBS Study (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT00482924 with a mean age of 13.9 ± 0.5 years, a mean height of 162.3 ± 2.7 cm, a mean weight of 90.62 ± 5.0 kg, and a mean BMI of 33.8 ± 1.2 kg/m2 were clinically examined using the Mikulicz line in order to assess load distribution on the knee joint. 21 participants received a whole-leg X-ray because of a clinically estimated malalignment. Results: 8/31 participants examined were diagnosed with genu valgum, 1/31 with genu varum, and 22/31 did not have any malalignment of the femur or tibia. The majority of genu valgum presentation was due to femoral deviation. Of those without malalignment, 4/22 participants had an abduction setting, while 2/22 showed an adduction of the leg. Conclusion: Genu valgum as a predominant malalignment of the distal extremities is frequent in youth with morbid obesity. Timely guided correction of angular deformity of the knee seems pivotal in order to avoid osteotomy or osteoarthritis later in life.

National Economic Policies: The Impact on Consumer Welfare. Proceedings of the American Council on Consumer Interests Annual Conference (29th, Kansas City, Missouri, March 16-19, 1983).

Science.gov (United States)

Goebel, Karen P., Ed.

These proceedings contain the texts of the papers presented at a conference on consumer interests. Addressed in the first series of concurrent sessions are the following topics: consumers' new economic positions, consumers' choices with respect to price and quality trade-offs, time value in consumption decisions, and consumer information issues.…

Consumer Behavior and Food Science

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fischer, A.R.H.

2015-01-01

From the consumer's point of view, food is at the same time among the most trivial and the most complex of all product groups. Food is at the same time a mundane and a functional product. Sometimes we eat for sustenance, for example, while sitting behind our desks when typing reports, and at other

A Perspective on Consumers 3.0: They Are Not Better Decision-Makers than Previous Generations

Science.gov (United States)

Houdek, Petr

2016-01-01

This perspective article builds upon the theory of local thinking in interpretation and prediction of consumer behavior in a contemporary world of information overload. It is shown that even informed and socially and environmentally responsible consumers (consumers 3.0) exhibit selective recall, limited attention, and bounded search in the perception and interpretation of price and quality of purchases. Their decisions fall into local cognitive frames, which specifically focus attention only on a narrow structure and content of the choice. The cognitive frames can be established by recent or regular purchases, but also extreme or primary purchase experiences. The article includes a short conceptual review of car, food, clothing, insurance, drugs, paintings, and other product purchases showing that the local cognitive frames often lead to bad bargains across various sectors. The article presents several suggestions for future research. PMID:27375527

A Perspective on Consumers 3.0: They Are Not Better Decision-Makers than Previous Generations.

Science.gov (United States)

Houdek, Petr

2016-01-01

This perspective article builds upon the theory of local thinking in interpretation and prediction of consumer behavior in a contemporary world of information overload. It is shown that even informed and socially and environmentally responsible consumers (consumers 3.0) exhibit selective recall, limited attention, and bounded search in the perception and interpretation of price and quality of purchases. Their decisions fall into local cognitive frames, which specifically focus attention only on a narrow structure and content of the choice. The cognitive frames can be established by recent or regular purchases, but also extreme or primary purchase experiences. The article includes a short conceptual review of car, food, clothing, insurance, drugs, paintings, and other product purchases showing that the local cognitive frames often lead to bad bargains across various sectors. The article presents several suggestions for future research.

A Perspective on Consumers 3.0: They Are Not Better Decision-Makers Than Previous Generations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Petr eHoudek

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This perspective article builds upon the theory of local thinking in interpretation and prediction of consumer behavior in a contemporary world of information overload. It is shown that even informed and socially and environmentally responsible consumers (consumers 3.0 exhibit selective recall, limited attention and bounded search in the perception and interpretation of price and quality of purchases. Their decisions fall into local cognitive frames, which specifically focus attention only on a narrow structure and content of the choice. The cognitive frames can be established by recent or regular purchases, but also extreme or primary purchase experiences. The article includes a short conceptual review of car, food, clothing, insurance, drugs, paintings and other product purchases showing that the local cognitive frames often lead to bad bargains across various sectors. The article presents several suggestions for future research.

Research in consumer behaviour

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grunert, Klaus G.

1988-01-01

The present state of consumer behavior research is analysed here by Klaus Grunert, of the Aarhus Graduate School of Management, Denmark. Against the background of crisis in the existing research paradigm, he suggests a number of possible new directions in the field, at the same time emphasizing...

Causes and timing of death in extremely premature infants from 2000 through 2011.

Science.gov (United States)

Patel, Ravi M; Kandefer, Sarah; Walsh, Michele C; Bell, Edward F; Carlo, Waldemar A; Laptook, Abbot R; Sánchez, Pablo J; Shankaran, Seetha; Van Meurs, Krisa P; Ball, M Bethany; Hale, Ellen C; Newman, Nancy S; Das, Abhik; Higgins, Rosemary D; Stoll, Barbara J

2015-01-22

Understanding the causes and timing of death in extremely premature infants may guide research efforts and inform the counseling of families. We analyzed prospectively collected data on 6075 deaths among 22,248 live births, with gestational ages of 22 0/7 to 28 6/7 weeks, among infants born in study hospitals within the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Neonatal Research Network. We compared overall and cause-specific in-hospital mortality across three periods from 2000 through 2011, with adjustment for baseline differences. The number of deaths per 1000 live births was 275 (95% confidence interval [CI], 264 to 285) from 2000 through 2003 and 285 (95% CI, 275 to 295) from 2004 through 2007; the number decreased to 258 (95% CI, 248 to 268) in the 2008-2011 period (P=0.003 for the comparison across three periods). There were fewer pulmonary-related deaths attributed to the respiratory distress syndrome and bronchopulmonary dysplasia in 2008-2011 than in 2000-2003 and 2004-2007 (68 [95% CI, 63 to 74] vs. 83 [95% CI, 77 to 90] and 84 [95% CI, 78 to 90] per 1000 live births, respectively; P=0.002). Similarly, in 2008-2011, as compared with 2000-2003, there were decreases in deaths attributed to immaturity (P=0.05) and deaths complicated by infection (P=0.04) or central nervous system injury (Pbirth, and 17.3% occurred after 28 days. We found that from 2000 through 2011, overall mortality declined among extremely premature infants. Deaths related to pulmonary causes, immaturity, infection, and central nervous system injury decreased, while necrotizing enterocolitis-related deaths increased. (Funded by the National Institutes of Health.).

Time series analysis of diverse extreme phenomena: universal features

Science.gov (United States)

Eftaxias, K.; Balasis, G.

2012-04-01

The field of study of complex systems holds that the dynamics of complex systems are founded on universal principles that may used to describe a great variety of scientific and technological approaches of different types of natural, artificial, and social systems. We suggest that earthquake, epileptic seizures, solar flares, and magnetic storms dynamics can be analyzed within similar mathematical frameworks. A central property of aforementioned extreme events generation is the occurrence of coherent large-scale collective behavior with very rich structure, resulting from repeated nonlinear interactions among the corresponding constituents. Consequently, we apply the Tsallis nonextensive statistical mechanics as it proves an appropriate framework in order to investigate universal principles of their generation. First, we examine the data in terms of Tsallis entropy aiming to discover common "pathological" symptoms of transition to a significant shock. By monitoring the temporal evolution of the degree of organization in time series we observe similar distinctive features revealing significant reduction of complexity during their emergence. Second, a model for earthquake dynamics coming from a nonextensive Tsallis formalism, starting from first principles, has been recently introduced. This approach leads to an energy distribution function (Gutenberg-Richter type law) for the magnitude distribution of earthquakes, providing an excellent fit to seismicities generated in various large geographic areas usually identified as seismic regions. We show that this function is able to describe the energy distribution (with similar non-extensive q-parameter) of solar flares, magnetic storms, epileptic and earthquake shocks. The above mentioned evidence of a universal statistical behavior suggests the possibility of a common approach for studying space weather, earthquakes and epileptic seizures.

Incorporating Transformative Consumer Research into the Consumer Behavior Course Experience

Science.gov (United States)

Petkus, Ed, Jr.

2010-01-01

In contrast to understanding consumer behavior for the benefit of business organizations, transformative consumer research (TCR) seeks to understand consumer behavior for the benefit of consumers themselves. Following Mari's (2008) call for the incorporation of TCR in doctoral programs in marketing, this article outlines the relevance of TCR to…

Real-time prediction of extreme ambient carbon monoxide concentrations due to vehicular exhaust emissions using univariate linear stochastic models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sharma, P.; Khare, M.

2000-01-01

Historical data of the time-series of carbon monoxide (CO) concentration was analysed using Box-Jenkins modelling approach. Univariate Linear Stochastic Models (ULSMs) were developed to examine the degree of prediction possible for situations where only a limited data set, restricted only to the past record of pollutant data are available. The developed models can be used to provide short-term, real-time forecast of extreme CO concentrations for an Air Quality Control Region (AQCR), comprising a major traffic intersection in a Central Business District of Delhi City, India. (author)

The spatial return level of aggregated hourly extreme rainfall in Peninsular Malaysia

Science.gov (United States)

Shaffie, Mardhiyyah; Eli, Annazirin; Wan Zin, Wan Zawiah; Jemain, Abdul Aziz

2015-07-01

This paper is intended to ascertain the spatial pattern of extreme rainfall distribution in Peninsular Malaysia at several short time intervals, i.e., on hourly basis. Motivation of this research is due to historical records of extreme rainfall in Peninsular Malaysia, whereby many hydrological disasters at this region occur within a short time period. The hourly periods considered are 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, and 24 h. Many previous hydrological studies dealt with daily rainfall data; thus, this study enables comparison to be made on the estimated performances between daily and hourly rainfall data analyses so as to identify the impact of extreme rainfall at a shorter time scale. Return levels based on the time aggregate considered are also computed. Parameter estimation using L-moment method for four probability distributions, namely, the generalized extreme value (GEV), generalized logistic (GLO), generalized Pareto (GPA), and Pearson type III (PE3) distributions were conducted. Aided with the L-moment diagram test and mean square error (MSE) test, GLO was found to be the most appropriate distribution to represent the extreme rainfall data. At most time intervals (10, 50, and 100 years), the spatial patterns revealed that the rainfall distribution across the peninsula differ for 1- and 24-h extreme rainfalls. The outcomes of this study would provide additional information regarding patterns of extreme rainfall in Malaysia which may not be detected when considering only a higher time scale such as daily; thus, appropriate measures for shorter time scales of extreme rainfall can be planned. The implementation of such measures would be beneficial to the authorities to reduce the impact of any disastrous natural event.

Investigating NARCCAP Precipitation Extremes via Bivariate Extreme Value Theory (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Weller, G. B.; Cooley, D. S.; Sain, S. R.; Bukovsky, M. S.; Mearns, L. O.

2013-12-01

We introduce methodology from statistical extreme value theory to examine the ability of reanalysis-drive regional climate models to simulate past daily precipitation extremes. Going beyond a comparison of summary statistics such as 20-year return values, we study whether the most extreme precipitation events produced by climate model simulations exhibit correspondence to the most extreme events seen in observational records. The extent of this correspondence is formulated via the statistical concept of tail dependence. We examine several case studies of extreme precipitation events simulated by the six models of the North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP) driven by NCEP reanalysis. It is found that the NARCCAP models generally reproduce daily winter precipitation extremes along the Pacific coast quite well; in contrast, simulation of past daily summer precipitation extremes in a central US region is poor. Some differences in the strength of extremal correspondence are seen in the central region between models which employ spectral nudging and those which do not. We demonstrate how these techniques may be used to draw a link between extreme precipitation events and large-scale atmospheric drivers, as well as to downscale extreme precipitation simulated by a future run of a regional climate model. Specifically, we examine potential future changes in the nature of extreme precipitation along the Pacific coast produced by the pineapple express (PE) phenomenon. A link between extreme precipitation events and a "PE Index" derived from North Pacific sea-surface pressure fields is found. This link is used to study PE-influenced extreme precipitation produced by a future-scenario climate model run.

Changes in the influence of affect and cognition over time on consumer attitude formation toward nanotechnology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Giesen, van Roxanne I.; Fischer, Arnout R.H.; Trijp, van Hans C.M.

2018-01-01

Insights into how consumer attitudes toward nanotechnology are formed and develop are crucial for understanding and anticipating possible barriers in consumer acceptance of nanotechnology applications. In this study, the influence of affect and cognition on overall opinion is investigated

Extreme weather-related health needs of people who are homeless.

Science.gov (United States)

Cusack, Lynette; van Loon, Antonia; Kralik, Debbie; Arbon, Paul; Gilbert, Sandy

2013-01-01

To identify the extreme weather-related health needs of homeless people and the response by homeless service providers in Adelaide, South Australia, a five-phased qualitative interpretive study was undertaken. (1) Literature review, followed by semi-structured interviews with 25 homeless people to ascertain health needs during extreme weather events. (2) Identification of homeless services. (3) Semi-structured interviews with 16 homeless service providers regarding their response to the health needs of homeless people at times of extreme weather. (4) Gap analysis. (5) Suggestions for policy and planning. People experiencing homelessness describe adverse health impacts more from extreme cold, than extreme hot weather. They considered their health suffered more, because of wet bedding, clothes and shoes. They felt more depressed and less able to keep themselves well during cold, wet winters. However, homeless service providers were more focussed on planning for extra service responses during times of extreme heat rather than extreme cold. Even though a city may be considered to have a temperate climate with a history of very hot summers, primary homeless populations have health needs during winter months. The experiences and needs of homeless people should be considered in extreme weather policy and when planning responses.

What happens at the horizon(s) of an extreme black hole?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murata, Keiju; Reall, Harvey S; Tanahashi, Norihiro

2013-01-01

A massless scalar field exhibits an instability at the event horizon of an extreme black hole. We study numerically the nonlinear evolution of this instability for spherically symmetric perturbations of an extreme Reissner–Nordstrom (RN) black hole. We find that generically the endpoint of the instability is a non-extreme RN solution. However, there exist fine-tuned initial perturbations for which the instability never decays. In this case, the perturbed spacetime describes a time-dependent extreme black hole. Such solutions settle down to extreme RN outside, but not on, the event horizon. The event horizon remains smooth but certain observers who cross it at late time experience large gradients there. Our results indicate that these dynamical extreme black holes admit a C 1 extension across an inner (Cauchy) horizon. (paper)

Dynamic electricity pricing—Which programs do consumers prefer?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dütschke, Elisabeth; Paetz, Alexandra-Gwyn

2013-01-01

Dynamic pricing is being discussed as one method of demand side management (DSM) which could be crucial for integrating more renewable energy sources into the electricity system. At the same time, there have been very few analyses of consumer preferences in this regard: Which type of pricing program are consumers most likely to choose and why? This paper sheds some light on these issues based on two empirical studies from Germany: (1) A questionnaire study including a conjoint analysis-design and (2) A field experiment with test-residents of a smart home laboratory. The results show that consumers are open to dynamic pricing, but prefer simple programs to complex and highly dynamic ones; smart home technologies including demand automation are seen as a prerequisite for DSM. The study provides some indications that consumers might be more willing to accept more dynamic pricing programs if they have the chance to experience in practice how these can be managed in everyday life. At the same time, the individual and societal advantages of such programs are not obvious to consumers. For this reason, any market roll-out will need to be accompanied by convincing communication and information campaigns to ensure that these advantages are perceived. - Highlights: • Little is known about consumer preferences on dynamic pricing. • Two studies are conducted to analyze this topic. • A survey shows that consumers without experience prefer conventional programs. • Test residents of a smart home were more open to dynamic pricing. • They also prefer well-structured programs

Marketing strategies - consumers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Campbell, C.

1985-01-01

As Australia's largest consumer organisation, the Australian Consumers' Association (ACA) has a vital role in providing information, so consumers can make an informed choice, as well as participating in formulation of standards to increase the quality of products, including foods. The consumer movement is marketing the process of irradiation and will continue to give consumers information that allows them to make an informed choice

BEHAVIOR OF THE ROMANIAN GREEN GOODS CONSUMERS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mirela-Cristina VOICU

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Marketing has put forward for a long time the fact that any activity conducted in an organization should consider an intimate knowledge of the client, and a close look at the green marketing practices used over time shows that eco-friendly products should be positioned in relation to those attributes looked for by the involved consumers. In this context, the following paper reveals some important aspects regarding the Romanian green market and the characteristics of the green consumer behavior together with solutions that marketers can apply to stimulate the consumption of green goods.

Injuries in an Extreme Conditioning Program

OpenAIRE

Aune, Kyle T.; Powers, Joseph M.

2016-01-01

Background: Extreme conditioning programs (ECPs) are fitness training regimens relying on aerobic, plyometric, and resistance training exercises, often with high levels of intensity for a short duration of time. These programs have grown rapidly in popularity in recent years, but science describing the safety profile of these programs is lacking. Hypothesis: The rate of injury in the extreme conditioning program is greater than the injury rate of weightlifting and the majority of injuries occ...

Big Data, the perfect instrument to study today's consumer behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristina STOICESCU

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Consumer behavior study is a new, interdisciplinary and emerging science, developed in the 1960s. Its main sources of information come from economics, psychology, sociology, anthropology and artificial intelligence. If a century ago, most people were living in small towns, with limited possibilities to leave their community, and few ways to satisfy their needs, now, due to the accelerated evolution of technology and the radical change of life style, consumers begin to have increasingly diverse needs. At the same time the instruments used to study their behavior have evolved, and today databases are included in consumer behavior research. Throughout time many models were developed, first in order to analyze, and later in order to predict the consumer behavior. As a result, the concept of Big Data developed, and by applying it now, companies are trying to understand and predict the behavior of their consumers.

Organic pork: Consumer quality perception: Final report

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Scholderer, Joachim; Nielsen, Niels Asger; Bredahl, Lone

2004-01-01

Previous research indicates that consumers expect substantially higher eating quality in pork that was produced in organic and free-range systems. Sensory studies and comparisons of objective quality suggest that these expectations are not completely realistic: in most cases, the performance...... of organic and free-range pork is equal to, and in some times even lower than that of conventional pork. However, consumers' expectations may be so strong that they may override differences in experienced quality. An experiment was conducted with 185 consumers to separate these effects and estimate...... were (a) organic pork, (b) free-range pork, (c) conventional pork, and (d) no information. Samples were prepared at a sensory lab following a standardised protocol. Serial positions of samples were counterbalanced across subjects. Before tasting each sample, consumers rated expected quality. After...

Consumer participation in housing: reflecting on consumer preferences.

Science.gov (United States)

Browne, Graeme; Hemsley, Martin

2010-12-01

Historically, people living with mental illness have had limited chance to participate in mental health services other than as patients. Following on from a recent review focusing on consumer participation in mental health services, this paper looks at consumer participation in housing. Housing is a critical element in recovery from mental illness. Without suitable housing, people have little chance of maintaining other resources in their lives, such as supportive social relationships and meaningful activities. Consumer participation is not a common topic in the recent literature, despite the significant public policy push to promote it. The importance of appropriate housing to the recovery of people living with mental illness cannot be underestimated. Even well-meaning and well-resourced housing initiatives can fall short of meeting consumers' recovery goals when they do not incorporate the expressed needs of consumers. These expressed needs include keeping units small in size and employing drop-in support models.

Examine Precipitation Extremes in Terms of Storm Properties

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, P.; Yu, Z.; Chen, L.; Gautam, M. R.; Acharya, K.

2017-12-01

The increasing potential of the extreme precipitation is of significant societal concern. Changes in precipitation extremes have been mostly examined using extreme precipitation indices or Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) analyses, which often fail to reveal the characteristics of an integrated precipitation event. In this study, we will examine the precipitation extremes in terms of storm properties including storm duration, storm intensity, total storm precipitation, and within storm pattern. Single storm event will be identified and storm properties will be determined based on the hourly precipitation time series in the selected locations in southwest United States. Three types of extreme precipitation event will be recognized using the criteria as (1) longest storm duration; (2) Highest storm intensity; and (3) largest total precipitation over a storm. The trend and variation of extreme precipitation events will be discussed for each criterion. Based on the comparisons of the characteristics of extreme precipitation events identified using different criteria, we will provide guidelines for choosing proper criteria for extreme precipitation analysis in specific location.

Identification of Extreme Events Under Climate Change Conditions Over Europe and The Northwest-atlantic Region: Spatial Patterns and Time Series Characteristics

Science.gov (United States)

Leckebusch, G.; Ulbrich, U.; Speth, P.

In the context of climate change and the resulting possible impacts on socio-economic conditions for human activities it seems that due to a changed occurrence of extreme events more severe consequences have to be expected than from changes in the mean climate. These extreme events like floods, excessive heats and droughts or windstorms possess impacts on human social and economic life in different categories such as forestry, agriculture, energy use, tourism and the reinsurance business. Reinsurances are affected by nearly 70% of all insured damages over Europe in the case of wind- storms. Especially the December 1999 French windstorms caused damages about 10 billion. A new EU-founded project (MICE = Modelling the Impact of Climate Ex- tremes) will focus on these impacts caused by changed occurrences of extreme events over Europe. Based upon the output of general circulation models as well as regional climate models, investigations are carried out with regard to time series characteristics as well as the spatial patterns of extremes under climate changed conditions. After the definition of specific thresholds for climate extremes, in this talk we will focus on the results of the analysis for the different data sets (HadCM3 and CGCMII GCM's and RCM's, re-analyses, observations) with regard to windstorm events. At first the results of model outputs are validated against re-analyses and observations. Especially a comparison of the stormtrack (2.5 to 8 day bandpass filtered 500 hPa geopotential height), cyclone track, cyclone frequency and intensity is presented. Highly relevant to damages is the extreme wind near the ground level, so the 10 m wind speed will be investigated additionally. of special interest to possible impacts is the changed spatial occurrence of windspeed maxima under 2xCO2-induced climate change.

Trends in utilization: has extremity MR imaging replaced diagnostic arthroscopy?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Glynn, Nicole; Morrison, William B.; Parker, Laurence; Schweitzer, Mark E.; Carrino, John A.

2004-01-01

To examine the relative change in utilization of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the extremities versus diagnostic and therapeutic arthroscopy. Using the 1993, 1996, and 1999 nationwide Medicare Part B databases, utilization rates (per 100,000) were determined for upper and lower extremity MR imaging, diagnostic arthroscopy and therapeutic arthroscopy using CPT-4 codes. Utilization of extremity MR imaging was compared with that of diagnostic and therapeutic arthroscopy in 10 geographic regions of the United States and tracked over time. Combined lower and upper extremity MR imaging utilization per 100,000 increased from 393 to 1,056 in 1999 (+168.7%). Utilization of diagnostic arthroscopy of the extremities decreased from 18 in 1993 to 8 in 1999 (-55.6%); therapeutic arthroscopy rates increased from 461 in 1993 to 636 in 1999 (+40.0%). Specifically, from 1993 to 1999, utilization of lower extremity MR imaging increased from 270 to 661 (+144.8%). Utilization of diagnostic arthroscopy of the knee over the same time period decreased from 11 to 5 (-54.5%); therapeutic arthroscopy increased from 394 to 501 (+27.2%). Similarly, utilization rates for upper extremity MR imaging increased from 123 to 395 (+221.1%). Utilization of diagnostic arthroscopy of the shoulder over the same time period decreased from 7 to 2 (-71.4%); therapeutic arthroscopy increased from 44 to 104 (+136.4%). No specific geographic trends were ascertained. The utilization of MR imaging of the extremities has markedly increased from 1993 to 1999. During the same time period the utilization of diagnostic arthroscopy has decreased and that of therapeutic arthroscopy has increased. These findings support the hypothesis that there is increased reliance of clinical practitioners on the diagnostic information provided by MR imaging in preoperative clinical decision-making. (orig.)

Biomechanics of fall arrest using the upper extremity: age differences.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Kyu-Jung; Ashton-Miller, James A

2003-05-01

This study tried to isolate critical biomechanical factors in fall arrests using the upper extremity during simulated forward falls. This study also attempted to find the differences in those factors between young and old age groups. The role of the upper extremity is not well defined despite its primary usage as a local shock absorber during fall impact. Comparative study in which two age groups underwent motion analysis.Methods. Ten healthy older males (mean age, 66.4 years) and 10 young males (mean age, 24.1 years) volunteered to perform self-initiated and cable-released falls at selected falling distances, while the joint motion and impact forces at the hand were recorded. Significant age differences were demonstrated in joint kinematics and impact force parameters at close distances. Excessive reflexive responses of the upper extremity in cable-released falls for the older adults resulted in 10-15 times higher peak impact forces and 2-3 times shorter body braking time than in self-initiated falls. Pre-impact activities of the upper extremity predispose the post-impact response during fall arrests. Suppressing excessive pre-impact reflexive activation of the arms could efficiently decrease the risk of fall-related injuries, which calls for securing sufficient arm movement time. Any fall prevention strategy that can increase arm movement time would be effective against injuries of the upper extremity during falling in the older adults. The findings will help to understand underlying mechanisms of fall arrest using the upper extremity for prevention of fall-related fractures.

The influence of hydrologic residence time on lake carbon cycling dynamics following extreme precipitation events

Science.gov (United States)

Jacob A. Zwart; Stephen D. Sebestyen; Christopher T. Solomon; Stuart E. Jones

2016-01-01

The frequency and magnitude of extreme events are expected to increase in the future, yet little is known about effects of such events on ecosystem structure and function. We examined how extreme precipitation events affect exports of terrestrial dissolved organic carbon (t-DOC) from watersheds to lakes as well as in-lake heterotrophy in three north-temperate lakes....

Measures of serial extremal dependence and their estimation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Davis, Richard A.; Mikosch, Thomas Valentin; Zhao, Yuwei

2013-01-01

extremal dependence is typically characterized by clusters of exceedances of high thresholds in the series. We start by discussing the notion of extremal index of a univariate sequence, i.e. the reciprocal of the expected cluster size, which has attracted major attention in the extremal value literature...... has attracted attention for modeling and statistical purposes. We apply the extremogram to max-stable processes. Finally, we discuss estimation of the extremogram both in the time and frequency domains....

Consumer Health Informatics Aspects of Direct-to-Consumer Personal Genomic Testing.

Science.gov (United States)

Gray, Kathleen; Stephen, Remya; Terrill, Bronwyn; Wilson, Brenda; Middleton, Anna; Tytherleigh, Rigan; Turbitt, Erin; Gaff, Clara; Savard, Jacqueline; Hickerton, Chriselle; Newson, Ainsley; Metcalfe, Sylvia

2017-01-01

This paper uses consumer health informatics as a framework to explore whether and how direct-to-consumer personal genomic testing can be regarded as a form of information which assists consumers to manage their health. It presents findings from qualitative content analysis of web sites that offer testing services, and of transcripts from focus groups conducted as part a study of the Australian public's expectations of personal genomics. Content analysis showed that service offerings have some features of consumer health information but lack consistency. Focus group participants were mostly unfamiliar with the specifics of test reports and related information services. Some of their ideas about aids to knowledge were in line with the benefits described on provider web sites, but some expectations were inflated. People were ambivalent about whether these services would address consumers' health needs, interests and contexts and whether they would support consumers' health self-management decisions and outcomes. There is scope for consumer health informatics approaches to refine the usage and the utility of direct-to-consumer personal genomic testing. Further research may focus on how uptake is affected by consumers' health literacy or by services' engagement with consumers about what they really want.

A Generalized Framework for Non-Stationary Extreme Value Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Ragno, E.; Cheng, L.; Sadegh, M.; AghaKouchak, A.

2017-12-01

Empirical trends in climate variables including precipitation, temperature, snow-water equivalent at regional to continental scales are evidence of changes in climate over time. The evolving climate conditions and human activity-related factors such as urbanization and population growth can exert further changes in weather and climate extremes. As a result, the scientific community faces an increasing demand for updated appraisal of the time-varying climate extremes. The purpose of this study is to offer a robust and flexible statistical tool for non-stationary extreme value analysis which can better characterize the severity and likelihood of extreme climatic variables. This is critical to ensure a more resilient environment in a changing climate. Following the positive feedback on the first version of Non-Stationary Extreme Value Analysis (NEVA) Toolbox by Cheng at al. 2014, we present an improved version, i.e. NEVA2.0. The upgraded version herein builds upon a newly-developed hybrid evolution Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach for numerical parameters estimation and uncertainty assessment. This addition leads to a more robust uncertainty estimates of return levels, return periods, and risks of climatic extremes under both stationary and non-stationary assumptions. Moreover, NEVA2.0 is flexible in incorporating any user-specified covariate other than the default time-covariate (e.g., CO2 emissions, large scale climatic oscillation patterns). The new feature will allow users to examine non-stationarity of extremes induced by physical conditions that underlie the extreme events (e.g. antecedent soil moisture deficit, large-scale climatic teleconnections, urbanization). In addition, the new version offers an option to generate stationary and/or non-stationary rainfall Intensity - Duration - Frequency (IDF) curves that are widely used for risk assessment and infrastructure design. Finally, a Graphical User Interface (GUI) of the package is provided, making NEVA

Consumer Information in the food service industry vs. food retailing

OpenAIRE

Rogge, C.B.E.; Becker, Tilman C.

2008-01-01

In order to define consumer expectations over a traceability and information system for the entire food supply chain, the information behaviour of consumers in the food service industry has been subject to an analysis for the first time. In comparison to consumers in retailing, significant differences appear in information seeking behaviour as well as in the information desired.

Coordination of a supply chain with consumer return under vendor-managed consignment inventory and stochastic demand

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Zhihui; Chen, Dongyan; Yu, Hui

2016-07-01

In this paper, the problem of the coordination policy is investigated for vendor-managed consignment inventory supply chain subject to consumer return. Here, the market demand is assumed to be affected by promotional effort and consumer return policy. The optimal consignment inventory and the optimal promotional effort level are proposed under the decentralized and centralized decisions. Based on the optimal decision conditions, the markdown allowance-promotional cost-sharing contract is investigated to coordinate the supply chain. Subsequently, the comparison between the two extreme policies shows that full-refund policy dominates the no-return policy when the returning cost and the positive effect of return policy are satisfied certain conditions. Finally, a numerical example is provided to illustrate the impacts of consumer return policy on the coordination contract and optimal profit as well as the effectiveness of the proposed supply chain decision.

How may consumer policy empower consumers for sustainable lifestyles?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thøgersen, John

2005-01-01

Consumer policy can empower consumers for changing lifestyles by reducing personal constraints and limitations, but it should also attempt to loosen some of the external constraints that make changes towards a more sustainable lifestyle difficult. In terms of reducing consumers' subjectively felt...... restrictions on their ability to change lifestyle, the two approaches are equivalent. Policies that increase a feeling of empowerment may also have a positive effect on consumers' motivation to make an effort, thus amplifying its effects. In this paper both types of constraints on lifestyle changes...

Seasonal temperature extremes in Potsdam

Science.gov (United States)

Kundzewicz, Zbigniew; Huang, Shaochun

2010-12-01

The awareness of global warming is well established and results from the observations made on thousands of stations. This paper complements the large-scale results by examining a long time-series of high-quality temperature data from the Secular Meteorological Station in Potsdam, where observation records over the last 117 years, i.e., from January 1893 are available. Tendencies of change in seasonal temperature-related climate extremes are demonstrated. "Cold" extremes have become less frequent and less severe than in the past, while "warm" extremes have become more frequent and more severe. Moreover, the interval of the occurrence of frost has been decreasing, while the interval of the occurrence of hot days has been increasing. However, many changes are not statistically significant, since the variability of temperature indices at the Potsdam station has been very strong.

Product involvement and consumer food-elicited emotional associations: Insights from emoji questionnaires.

Science.gov (United States)

Jaeger, Sara R; Lee, Pui-Yee; Ares, Gastón

2018-04-01

Individual differences in food-related consumer behaviour are well documented, but lack thorough exploration in relation to product-elicited emotional associations. In this research, focus is directed to product involvement as a factor that modulates emotional associations to tasted products (dried fruit, n = 4) and written descriptions of consumption situations (drinking red wine, cooking dinner using seafood). Emoji questionnaires were used (as check-all-that-apply questions: CATA), and across two studies with consumers in New Zealand (n = 352) and China (n = 450), higher levels of involvement were associated with more positive emotional associations. For example, consumers with higher involvement for dried fruit used emoji with positive meanings (e.g., face savouring delicious food (), smiling face with heart-shaped eyes () and smiling face with smiling eyes () more frequently than those with lower levels of involvement. Conversely, emoji with negative or neutral meanings (e.g., confused face (), confounded face (), neutral face ()), were more frequently used by consumers with lower levels of product involvement. The number of significant differences between the samples of dried fruit were lower in the less involved consumer segment, and these consumers, on average, used less emoji to characterise the samples. A similar pattern of results were established for the written stimuli, which were used with Chinese consumers. For example, in the segment with greater involvement with seafood, associations to emoji with positive meanings were higher when responding to the situation "cooking dinner using frozen seafood as one of the ingredients." In the case of "drinking French red wine," the strategy used to define segments (median vs. triadic split of summed involvement scores) additionally influenced the results, and bigger differences were established when comparing more discrete segments (two extreme groups following triadic split). Copyright © 2018

The rights of patients as consumers: An ancient view.

Science.gov (United States)

Barapatre, Nishant Bhimraj; Joglekar, Vishnu Prabhakar

2016-01-01

As far as the rights of consumers are concerned, the International Organization of Consumer's Union (IOCU) in 1983 has specified about the eight rights of a consumer. The Consumer Protection Act (CPA), 1986 then prescribed six "Rights of Consumers," which are protected under the act. However, these rights can be observed in the ancient Indian texts such as Brihat-trayee , Narad Smruti , and Kautilya Arthashastra ., in the form of rights given to patients. For the purpose of present study, the implemented methodology includes - (1) study of the consumer rights described by IOCU and CPA, (2) detailed review of literature for observance of replication of these consumer rights in the ancient Indian texts and (3) a comparative study of the present consumer rights with the rights of patients observed in ancient Indian texts. This study shows that the substance of consumer rights is not a recent evolution, but the foundation of these rights has been laid well beforehand in the ancient times, which were provided to the patients by medical profession as well as by the rulers. The current scenario of protection of consumer rights is the replication of this ancient practice only.

Fatal outbreak from consuming Xanthium strumarium seedlings during time of food scarcity in northeastern Bangladesh.

Science.gov (United States)

Gurley, Emily S; Rahman, Mahmudur; Hossain, M Jahangir; Nahar, Nazmun; Faiz, M Abul; Islam, Nazrul; Sultana, Rebeca; Khatun, Selina; Uddin, Mohammad Zashim; Haider, M Sabbir; Islam, M Saiful; Ahmed, Be-Nazir; Rahman, Muhammad Waliur; Mondal, Utpal Kumar; Luby, Stephen P

2010-03-18

An outbreak characterized by vomiting and rapid progression to unconsciousness and death was reported in Sylhet Distrct in northeastern Bangladesh following destructive monsoon floods in November 2007. We identified cases presenting to local hospitals and described their clinical signs and symptoms. We interviewed patients and their families to collect illness histories and generate hypotheses about exposures associated with disease. An epidemiological study was conducted in two outbreak villages to investigate risk factors for developing illness. 76 patients were identified from 9 villages; 25% (19/76) died. Common presenting symptoms included vomiting, elevated liver enzymes, and altered mental status. In-depth interviews with 33 cases revealed that 31 (94%) had consumed ghagra shak, an uncultivated plant, in the hours before illness onset. Ghagra shak was consumed as a main meal by villagers due to inaccessibility of other foods following destructive monsoon flooding and rises in global food prices. Persons who ate this plant were 34.2 times more likely (95% CI 10.2 to 115.8, p-valuestrumarium, or common cocklebur. The consumption of Xanthium strumarium seedlings in large quantities, due to inaccessibility of other foods, caused this outbreak. The toxic chemical in the plant, carboxyatratyloside, has been previously described and eating X. strumarium seeds and seedlings has been associated with fatalities in humans and livestock. Unless people are able to meet their nutritional requirements with safe foods, they will continue to be at risk for poor health outcomes beyond undernutrition.

Social Media Communication and Consumer Brand Perceptions

OpenAIRE

Rizwan Ali Khadim; Bilal Zafar; Muhammad Younis

2014-01-01

Social media has changed the shape of communication strategies in the corporate world. Corporations are using social media to reach their maximum stakeholders in minimum time at different social media forums. Consumers being an important corporate stakeholder hold significant importance in corporate communication strategy. The current study examines the role of social media communication on consumer brand perceptions and their buying behavior. A comprehensive survey is conducted through vario...

Development of a synchrotron timing system on a programmable chip

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin Feiyu; Qiao Weimin; Wang Yanyu; Guo Yuhui

2009-01-01

A synchrotron requires extremely high time constraints for timing signals, so timing system is very important for a synchrotron control system. A FPGA+ARM+Linux+DSP architecture has been mainly used in timing control of the HIRFL-CSR control system. In this paper, we report the development of the SOPC(System On a Programmable Chip) based on FPGA and uClinux.It can integrate all the functions of ARM+Linux in one single FPGA chip, hence no need of the dedicated ARM chip, and the reduced cost. The maximum operation frequency of this system is 185 MHz. The hardware consumes less than 4% of total resources of FPGA chip. And both the hardware system and the operating system of the SOPC are reconfigurable. The SOPC system has a wide prospect of applications in accelerator engineering and many fields of scientific research. (authors)

New consumer load prototype for electricity theft monitoring

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abdullateef, A I; Salami, M J E; Musse, M A; Onasanya, M A; Alebiosu, M I

2013-01-01

Illegal connection which is direct connection to the distribution feeder and tampering of energy meter has been identified as a major process through which nefarious consumers steal electricity on low voltage distribution system. This has contributed enormously to the revenue losses incurred by the power and energy providers. A Consumer Load Prototype (CLP) is constructed and proposed in this study in order to understand the best possible pattern through which the stealing process is effected in real life power consumption. The construction of consumer load prototype will facilitate real time simulation and data collection for the monitoring and detection of electricity theft on low voltage distribution system. The prototype involves electrical design and construction of consumer loads with application of various standard regulations from Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), formerly known as Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE). LABVIEW platform was used for data acquisition and the data shows a good representation of the connected loads. The prototype will assist researchers and power utilities, currently facing challenges in getting real time data for the study and monitoring of electricity theft. The simulation of electricity theft in real time is one of the contributions of this prototype. Similarly, the power and energy community including students will appreciate the practical approach which the prototype provides for real time information rather than software simulation which has hitherto been used in the study of electricity theft

New consumer load prototype for electricity theft monitoring

Science.gov (United States)

Abdullateef, A. I.; Salami, M. J. E.; Musse, M. A.; Onasanya, M. A.; Alebiosu, M. I.

2013-12-01

Illegal connection which is direct connection to the distribution feeder and tampering of energy meter has been identified as a major process through which nefarious consumers steal electricity on low voltage distribution system. This has contributed enormously to the revenue losses incurred by the power and energy providers. A Consumer Load Prototype (CLP) is constructed and proposed in this study in order to understand the best possible pattern through which the stealing process is effected in real life power consumption. The construction of consumer load prototype will facilitate real time simulation and data collection for the monitoring and detection of electricity theft on low voltage distribution system. The prototype involves electrical design and construction of consumer loads with application of various standard regulations from Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), formerly known as Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE). LABVIEW platform was used for data acquisition and the data shows a good representation of the connected loads. The prototype will assist researchers and power utilities, currently facing challenges in getting real time data for the study and monitoring of electricity theft. The simulation of electricity theft in real time is one of the contributions of this prototype. Similarly, the power and energy community including students will appreciate the practical approach which the prototype provides for real time information rather than software simulation which has hitherto been used in the study of electricity theft.

The impact of consumer involvement in research: an evaluation of consumer involvement in the London Primary Care Studies Programme.

Science.gov (United States)

Wyatt, Katrina; Carter, Mary; Mahtani, Vinita; Barnard, Angela; Hawton, Annie; Britten, Nicky

2008-06-01

The value of consumer involvement in health services research is widely recognized. While there is a growing body of evidence about the principles of good consumer involvement, there is little research about the effect that involvement can have on the research. This evaluation assessed the level and impact of consumer involvement in the London Primary Care Studies Programme (LPCSP), all of whose individual projects had to demonstrate substantial involvement as a condition of funding. To evaluate consumer involvement in the LPSCP and understand what impact consumers had on the research process and outcomes. A multi-method case study approach was undertaken, using survey techniques, interviews, focus groups, observation and scrutiny of written documents. The overall data set comprised 61 questionnaires, 44 semi-structured interviews, 2 focus groups and 15 hours of observation of meetings. Eleven primary care-based research projects which together made up the LPCSP. An in-depth description of consumer involvement in the Programme was produced. Nine projects had consumers as co-applicants, four projects had been completed before the evaluation began and one was still ongoing at the time of the evaluation. Of the eight projects which have produced final reports, all met their aims and objectives. Consumers had had an additional impact in the research, in the initial design of the study, in recruitment of the research subjects, in developing data collection tools, in collecting the data, in analysis and disseminating the findings. Consumer involvement in National Health Service research is a relatively recent policy development and while there is an increasing amount of literature about how and why consumers should be involved in research, there is less evidence about the impact of such involvement. This evaluation provides evidence about the impact that consumers have not only on the research process but also on the outcomes of the research.

Feeding habits of Molina's hog-nosed skunk, Conepatus chinga (Carnivora: Mephitidae in the extreme south of Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Felipe Bortolotto Peters

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Feeding habits of the Molina's hog-nosed skunk, Conepatus chinga (Molina, 1782 in the extreme south of Brazil. We analyzed 60 stomachs of road-kills of C. chinga in the extreme south of Brazil. The contents revealed 808 prey parts, including invertebrates (frequency of occurrence - FO = 96.7% and relative abundance - RA = 94.7%, vertebrates (FO = 18.3% and RA = 2.8% and plants (FO = 31.7% and RA = 2.3%. We identified 18 kinds of food, including the invertebrate order Coleoptera which showed the highest FO (86.7% and RA (75.2%. Other important orders were Orthoptera (FO = 35% and RA = 10.4% and Araneae (FO = 41.7% and RA = 4%. The combination of occurrence and abundance of the preys consumed allowed classifying C. chinga as an omnivorous with a predominance of insects, especially Coleoptera, consuming other invertebrates, vertebrates and plants in smaller numbers. Behavioral and morphological adaptations of C. chinga favor the predation of insects, which are preys that offer low physical resistance and are available in all terrestrial environments.

PROTECTION OF ENERGY CONSUMERS IN THE ECONOMIES OF EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

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Mihaela ȘTEȚ

2013-10-01

Full Text Available The paper realizes an analyze of the position of the energy consumers and presents some ways of influencing the behaviour of the energy consumers. The paper dealt also with the issue of the protection of domestic electricity and gas consumer which aims, in particular, its rights to receive energy at any time, in safe conditions and at affordable prices.

CONSIDERATIONS ON CONSUMER PERCEIVED RISK

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura Catalina Timiras

2014-12-01

Full Text Available In this article we identified a number of factors influencing the consumers’ perceived risk. In the first part we conducted a review of the main issues that define the perceived risk by the consumer at the time of purchase, some of the lines of action of the organizations to diminish this risk perception and a number of influencing factors presented in the literature, with significant impact on the intensity with which risk is perceived by consumers. The second part of the article is based on the statistical information regarding e-commerce market, market in which the perceived risk plays an important role in the purchasing decision. Thus, based on available official statistics provided by Eurostat we have revealed the existence of certain links between electronic commerce and orientation towards risk and income levels, age and consumer educational level. The review is not intended to be exhaustive, the study taking into consideration only those links that can be identified from using official statistical data.

Wait, bond, and buy : Consumer responses to economic crisis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Yabar, J.

2012-01-01

Although economic crises tend to be perceived as a time in which consumers cut back on expenditures (including cars, clothes, and houses), market data also shows that sales of certain products increase during economic downturns. How do consumers respond to an economic crisis? And what is the

Mandelbrot's Extremism

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Beirlant, J.; Schoutens, W.; Segers, J.J.J.

2004-01-01

In the sixties Mandelbrot already showed that extreme price swings are more likely than some of us think or incorporate in our models.A modern toolbox for analyzing such rare events can be found in the field of extreme value theory.At the core of extreme value theory lies the modelling of maxima

Innovations in Statistical Observations of Consumer Prices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olga Stepanovna Oleynik

2016-10-01

Full Text Available This article analyzes the innovative changes in the methodology of statistical surveys of consumer prices. These changes are reflected in the “Official statistical methodology for the organization of statistical observation of consumer prices for goods and services and the calculation of the consumer price index”, approved by order of the Federal State Statistics Service of December 30, 2014 no. 734. The essence of innovation is the use of mathematical methods in determining the range of studies objects of trade and services, in calculating the sufficient observable price quotes based on price dispersion, the proportion of the observed product (service, a representative of consumer spending, as well as the indicator of the complexity of price registration. The authors analyzed the mathematical calculations of the required number of quotations for observation in the Volgograd region in 2016, the results of calculations are compared with the number of quotes included in the monitoring. The authors believe that the implementation of these mathematical models allowed to substantially reduce the influence of the subjective factor in the organization of monitoring of consumer prices, and therefore to increase the objectivity of the resulting statistics on consumer prices and inflation. At the same time, the proposed methodology needs further improvement in terms of payment for goods, products (services by representatives having a minor share in consumer expenditure.

Extremely low temperature properties of epoxy GFRP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kadotani, Kenzo; Nagai, Matao; Aki, Fumitake.

1983-01-01

The examination of fiber-reinforced plastics, that is, plastics such as epoxy, polyester and polyimide reinforced with high strength fibers such as glass, carbon, boron and steel, for extremely low temperature use began from the fuel tanks of rockets. Therafter, the trial manufacture of superconducting generators and extremely low temperature transformers and the manufacture of superconducting magnets for nuclear fusion experimental setups became active, and high performance FRPs have been adopted, of which the extremely low temperature properties have been sufficiently grasped. Recently, the cryostats made of FRPs have been developed, fully utilizing such features of FRPs as high strength, high rigidity, non-magnetic material, insulation, low heat conductivity, light weight and the freedom of molding. In this paper, the mechanical properties at extremely low temperature of the plastic composite materials used as insulators and structural materials for extremely low temperature superconducting equipment is outlined, and in particular, glass fiber-reinforced epoxy laminates are described somewhat in detail. The fracture strain of GFRP at extremely low temperature is about 1.3 times as large as that at room temperature, but at extremely low temperature, clear cracking occurred at 40% of the fracture strain. The linear thermal contraction of GFRP showed remarkable anisotropy. (Kako, I.)

Flexible Consumers Reserving Electricity and Offering Profitable Downward Regulation

OpenAIRE

Höning, Nicolas; La Poutré, Han; Strunz, K.

2012-01-01

htmlabstractPrevious work on demand response in smart grids considers dynamic real-time prices, but has so far neglected to consider how consumers can also be involved in planning ahead, both for scheduling of consumption and reserving their ability to regulate downward during balancing. This work models a flexible consumer in a novel two-settlement electricity auction. The consumer buys electricity on an ahead market and offers downward regulation on the balancing market. Bidding in two- set...

Operational early warning platform for extreme meteorological events

Science.gov (United States)

Mühr, Bernhard; Kunz, Michael

2015-04-01

Operational early warning platform for extreme meteorological events Most natural disasters are related to extreme weather events (e.g. typhoons); weather conditions, however, are also highly relevant for humanitarian and disaster relief operations during and after other natural disaster like earthquakes. The internet service "Wettergefahren-Frühwarnung" (WF) provides various information on extreme weather events, especially when these events are associated with a high potential for large damage. The main focus of the platform is on Central Europe, but major events are also monitored worldwide on a daily routine. WF provides high-resolution forecast maps for many weather parameters which allow detailed and reliable predictions about weather conditions during the next days in the affected areas. The WF service became operational in February 2004 and is part of the Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology (CEDIM) since 2007. At the end of 2011, CEDIM embarked a new type of interdisciplinary disaster research termed as forensic disaster analysis (FDA) in near real time. In case of an imminent extreme weather event WF plays an important role in CEDIM's FDA group. It provides early and precise information which are always available and updated several times during a day and gives advice and assists with articles and reports on extreme events.

Assessment of Severe Extremity Wound Bioburden at the Time of Definitive Wound Closure or Coverage: Correlation With Subsequent Postclosure Deep Wound Infection (Bioburden Study).

Science.gov (United States)

Bosse, Michael J; Murray, Clinton K; Carlini, Anthony R; Firoozabadi, Reza; Manson, Theodore; Scharfstein, Daniel O; Wenke, Joseph C; Zadnik, Mary; Castillo, Renan C

2017-04-01

Infection remains the most common and significant complication after high-energy fractures. The Bioburden Study is a multicenter, prospective, observational cohort study of wound bacterial bioburden and antibiotic care in severe open lower extremity fractures. The aims of this study are to (1) characterize the contemporary extremity wound "bioburden" at the time of definitive wound closure; (2) determine the concordance between polymerase chain reaction results and hospital microbiology; (3) determine, among those who develop deep infections, the concordance between the pathogens at wound closure and at deep infection; and (4) compare the probability of deep infection between those who did and did not receive an appropriate course of antibiotics based on bioburden at the time of wound closure. To address these aims, sites collected tissue samples from severe lower extremity injuries at the time of wound closure and at first surgery for treatment of a deep infection, nonunion, flap failure, amputation, or other complications (because these surgeries may be due to undetected infection). Otherwise, if no further surgical treatment occurred, participants were followed for 12 months. The study was conducted at 38 US trauma centers and has enrolled 655 participants aged 18-64 years. This is the first large multi-institutional study evaluating the wound bioburden of severe open tibia fractures and correlating this bioburden with the risk of wound complications after definitive soft tissue closure.

Extreme quantile estimation for dependent data with applications to finance

OpenAIRE

Drees, Holger

2002-01-01

The asymptotic normality of a class of estimators for extreme quantiles is established under mild structural conditions on the observed stationary \\beta-mixing time series. Consistent estimators of the asymptotic variance are introduced, which render possible the construction of asymptotic confidence intervals for the extreme quantiles. Moreover, it is shown that many well-known time series models satisfy our conditions. Then the theory is applied to a time series of returns of a stock in...

The Role of Consumer's Identification in Consumer Behavior and Branding

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mana Razeghi

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to investigate relationships between congruity of consumer and brand values, brand identification, brand commitment, and word of mouth. In order to test the relationships between variables 600 questionnaire were distributed in Dubai Malls (Sun and Sand Sports and 334 of questionnaires were received and analyzed. To verify the validity of the questionnaire and to test the significance of observer variables (questionnaire and latent variables (factors, confirmatory factor analysis was used, and Cronbach's alpha was employed to test the reliability. To evaluate the association between variables, the Pearson correlation test is used, and then to verify the conceptual model test the structural equation modeling (SEM and LISREL software are deployed. The result shows that Value congruity positively influences consumers' identification with a brand and Value congruity positively influences consumers ‘commitment to brand. The result also shows that Consumer identification has a positive influence on brand commitment and mediating variable between value congruity and brand commitment and Consumers commitment to a brand has a positive influence on positive WOM and mediating variable between consumers' identification and WOM. The results also demonstrate that Consumer identification positively influences positive WOM.

Consumer satisfaction with the services of prosthetics and orthotics facilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Bosmans, Joline; Geertzen, Jan; Dijkstra, Pieter U

2009-03-01

Consumer satisfaction with the services provided in a prosthetics and orthotics (P&O) facility has seldom been studied. The aim of this study was to analyze consumer satisfaction regarding the services provided by 15 P&O facilities in The Netherlands. Consumers (n = 1,364) of these P&O facilities who were fitted with a prosthesis, orthopaedic shoes, an orthosis, or another device, were asked to rate the overall services provided and whether they were satisfied with the device provided and its delivery time. Additionally, they filled in a modified SERVQUAL questionnaire (see Appendix). Consumers gave the service provided by P&O facilities a mean overall rating of 8.1. The highest ratings were given by consumers fitted with a prosthesis (mean overall rating of services: 8.4). In total, 78% of the consumers were satisfied with the device provided and 93% with the delivery time. The results of our study showed that, on the SERVQUAL, 50% of the statements fulfilled the criteria for a satisfactory quality of the services. The overall consumer rating of the service provided by P&O facilities is high and depends on the device provided. The outcomes on the SERVQUAL were moderate. In future, it is important to study consumer satisfaction more extensively in order to improve the quality of P&O services in daily practice. Additionally, specific questionnaires need to be developed to measure all aspects of prosthetic and orthotic care, with the aim to improve the services.

Neurodevelopmental problems and extremes in BMI

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nóra Kerekes

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Background. Over the last few decades, an increasing number of studies have suggested a connection between neurodevelopmental problems (NDPs and body mass index (BMI. Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD and autism spectrum disorders (ASD both seem to carry an increased risk for developing extreme BMI. However, the results are inconsistent, and there have been only a few studies of the general population of children.Aims. We had three aims with the present study: (1 to define the prevalence of extreme (low or high BMI in the group of children with ADHD and/or ASDs compared to the group of children without these NDPs; (2 to analyze whether extreme BMI is associated with the subdomains within the diagnostic categories of ADHD or ASD; and (3 to investigate the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to BMI in boys and girls at ages 9 and 12.Method. Parents of 9- or 12-year-old twins (n = 12,496 were interviewed using the Autism—Tics, ADHD and other Comorbidities (A-TAC inventory as part of the Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden (CATSS. Univariate and multivariate generalized estimated equation models were used to analyze associations between extremes in BMI and NDPs.Results. ADHD screen-positive cases followed BMI distributions similar to those of children without ADHD or ASD. Significant association was found between ADHD and BMI only among 12-year-old girls, where the inattention subdomain of ADHD was significantly associated with the high extreme BMI. ASD scores were associated with both the low and the high extremes of BMI. Compared to children without ADHD or ASD, the prevalence of ASD screen-positive cases was three times greater in the high extreme BMI group and double as much in the low extreme BMI group. Stereotyped and repetitive behaviors were significantly associated with high extreme BMIs.Conclusion. Children with ASD, with or without coexisting ADHD, are more prone to have low or high extreme BMIs than

Subsidy or subtraction: how do terrestrial inputs influence consumer production in lakes?

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Stuart E.; Solomon, Christopher T.; Weidel, Brian C.

2012-01-01

Cross-ecosystem fluxes are ubiquitous in food webs and are generally thought of as subsidies to consumer populations. Yet external or allochthonous inputs may in fact have complex and habitat-specific effects on recipient ecosystems. In lakes, terrestrial inputs of organic carbon contribute to basal resource availability, but can also reduce resource availability via shading effects on phytoplankton and periphyton. Terrestrial inputs might therefore either subsidise or subtract from consumer production. We developed and parameterised a simple model to explore this idea. The model estimates basal resource supply and consumer production given lake-level characteristics including total phosphorus (TP) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration, and consumer-level characteristics including resource preferences and growth efficiencies. Terrestrial inputs diminished primary production and total basal resource supply at the whole-lake level, except in ultra-oligotrophic systems. However, this system-level generalisation masked complex habitat-specific effects. In the pelagic zone, dissolved and particulate terrestrial carbon inputs were available to zooplankton via several food web pathways. Consequently, zooplankton production usually increased with terrestrial inputs, even as total whole-lake resource availability decreased. In contrast, in the benthic zone the dominant, dissolved portion of the terrestrial carbon load had predominantly negative effects on resource availability via shading of periphyton. Consequently, terrestrial inputs always decreased zoobenthic production except under extreme and unrealistic parameterisations of the model. Appreciating the complex and habitat-specific effects of allochthonous inputs may be essential for resolving the effects of cross-habitat fluxes on consumers in lakes and other food webs.

Detecting Silent Data Corruption for Extreme-Scale Applications through Data Mining

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bautista-Gomez, Leonardo [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Cappello, Franck [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

2014-01-16

Supercomputers allow scientists to study natural phenomena by means of computer simulations. Next-generation machines are expected to have more components and, at the same time, consume several times less energy per operation. These trends are pushing supercomputer construction to the limits of miniaturization and energy-saving strategies. Consequently, the number of soft errors is expected to increase dramatically in the coming years. While mechanisms are in place to correct or at least detect some soft errors, a significant percentage of those errors pass unnoticed by the hardware. Such silent errors are extremely damaging because they can make applications silently produce wrong results. In this work we propose a technique that leverages certain properties of high-performance computing applications in order to detect silent errors at the application level. Our technique detects corruption solely based on the behavior of the application datasets and is completely application-agnostic. We propose multiple corruption detectors, and we couple them to work together in a fashion transparent to the user. We demonstrate that this strategy can detect the majority of the corruptions, while incurring negligible overhead. We show that with the help of these detectors, applications can have up to 80% of coverage against data corruption.

Consumer Attitudes About Renewable Energy. Trends and Regional Differences

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bird, Lori [Natural Marketing Institute, Harleysville, PA (United States); Sumner, Jenny [Natural Marketing Institute, Harleysville, PA (United States)

2011-04-01

The data in this report are taken from Natural Marketing Institute's (NMI's) Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability Consumer Trends Database. Created in 2002, the syndicated consumer database contains responses from 2,000 to 4,000 nationally representative U.S. adults (meaning the demographics of the sample are consistent with U.S. Census findings) each year. NMI used the database to analyze consumer attitudes and behavior related to renewable energy and to update previously conducted related research. Specifically, this report will explore consumer awareness, concerns, perceived benefits, knowledge of purchase options, and usage of renewable energy as well as provide regional comparisons and trends over time.

Consumer Attitudes About Renewable Energy: Trends and Regional Differences

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Natural Marketing Institute, Harleysville, Pennsylvania

2011-04-01

The data in this report are taken from Natural Marketing Institute's (NMI's) Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability Consumer Trends Database. Created in 2002, the syndicated consumer database contains responses from 2,000 to 4,000 nationally representative U.S. adults (meaning the demographics of the sample are consistent with U.S. Census findings) each year. NMI used the database to analyze consumer attitudes and behavior related to renewable energy and to update previously conducted related research. Specifically, this report will explore consumer awareness, concerns, perceived benefits, knowledge of purchase options, and usage of renewable energy as well as provide regional comparisons and trends over time.

Attitudes of Montenegrin Consumers Toward Advertising Through Sport Among the Question How Often Consumers Purchase Sporting Goods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gorica Zoric

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Unlike other advertising mediums such as TV commercials or online advertising, people involuntarily receive sport advertisements; they prefer to watch the game for the sporting action than the regular advertisements. However, it is important to analyse their general attitudes among various questions, mostly due to the reason it varies from demographic group to demographic group. Hence, this research was aimed at gaining relevant knowledge about the attitudes of Montenegrin consumers toward advertising through sport among the question how often consumers purchase sporting goods. The sample included 342 respondents, divided into six subsample groups: consumers who do not purchase sport goods at all, then consumers who purchase sport goods less than ones a month, next 1–3 a month, 4–6 a month, 7–9 a month, as well as consumers who purchase sport goods more than 10 times a month. The sample of variables contained the system of three general attitudes which were modelled by seven-point Likert scale. The results of the measuring were analysed by multivariate analysis (MANOVA and univariate analysis (ANOVA and Post Hoc test.Based on the statistical analyses it was found that significant differences occur at multivariate level, as well as between all three variables at a significance level of (p=.000.

Consumer Finance

OpenAIRE

Peter Tufano

2009-01-01

Although consumer finance is a substantial element of the economy, it has had a smaller footprint within financial economics. In this review, I suggest a functional definition of the subfield of consumer finance, focusing on four key functions: payments, risk management, moving funds from today to tomorrow (saving/investing), and from tomorrow to today (borrowing). I provide data showing the economic importance of consumer finance in the American economy. I propose a historical explanation fo...

Differential use of salmon by vertebrate consumers: implications for conservation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Taal Levi

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Salmon and other anadromous fish are consumed by vertebrates with distinct life history strategies to capitalize on this ephemeral pulse of resource availability. Depending on the timing of salmon arrival, this resource may be in surplus to the needs of vertebrate consumers if, for instance, their populations are limited by food availability during other times of year. However, the life history of some consumers enables more efficient exploitation of these ephemeral resources. Bears can deposit fat and then hibernate to avoid winter food scarcity, and highly mobile consumers such as eagles, gulls, and other birds can migrate to access asynchronous pulses of salmon availability. We used camera traps on pink, chum, and sockeye salmon spawning grounds with various run times and stream morphologies, and on individual salmon carcasses, to discern potentially different use patterns among consumers. Wildlife use of salmon was highly heterogeneous. Ravens were the only avian consumer that fed heavily on pink salmon in small streams. Eagles and gulls did not feed on early pink salmon runs in streams, and only moderately at early sockeye runs, but were the dominant consumers at late chum salmon runs, particularly on expansive river flats. Brown bears used all salmon resources far more than other terrestrial vertebrates. Notably, black bears were not observed on salmon spawning grounds despite being the most frequently observed vertebrate on roads and trails. From a conservation and management perspective, all salmon species and stream morphologies are used extensively by bears, but salmon spawning late in the year are disproportionately important to eagles and other highly mobile species that are seasonally limited by winter food availability.

Time- and depth-wise trophic niche shifts in Antarctic benthos.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Edoardo Calizza

Full Text Available Climate change is expected to affect resource-consumer interactions underlying stability in polar food webs. Polar benthic organisms have adapted to the marked seasonality characterising their habitats by concentrating foraging and reproductive activity in summer months, when inputs from sympagic and pelagic producers increase. While this enables the persistence of biodiverse food webs, the mechanisms underlying changes in resource use and nutrient transfer are poorly understood. Thus, our understanding of how temporal and spatial variations in the supply of resources may affect food web structure and functioning is limited. By means of C and N isotopic analyses of two key Antarctic benthic consumers (Adamussium colbecki, Bivalvia, and Sterechinus neumayeri, Echinoidea and Bayesian mixing models, we describe changes in trophic niche and nutrient transfer across trophic levels associated with the long- and short-term diet and body size of specimens sampled in midsummer in both shallow and deep waters. Samplings occurred soon after the sea-ice broke up at Tethys Bay, an area characterised by extreme seasonality in sea-ice coverage and productivity in the Ross Sea. In the long term, the trophic niche was broader and variation between specimens was greater, with intermediate-size specimens generally consuming a higher number of resources than small and large specimens. The coupling of energy channels in the food web was consequently more direct than in the short term. Sediment and benthic algae were more frequently consumed in the long term, before the sea-ice broke up, while consumers specialised on sympagic algae and plankton in the short term. Regardless of the time scale, sympagic algae were more frequently consumed in shallow waters, while plankton was more frequently consumed in deep waters. Our results suggest a strong temporal relationship between resource availability and the trophic niche of benthic consumers in Antarctica. Potential

Clinical application of lower extremity CTA and lower extremity perfusion CT as a method of diagnostic for lower extremity atherosclerotic obliterans

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Moon, Il Bong; Dong, Kyung Rae [Dept. Radiological Technology, Gwangju Health University, Gwangju (Korea, Republic of); Goo, Eun Hoe [Dept. Radiological Science, Cheongju University, Cheongju (Korea, Republic of)

2016-11-15

The purpose of this study was to assess clinical application of lower extremity CTA and lower extremity perfusion CT as a method of diagnostic for lower extremity atherosclerotic obliterans. From January to July 2016, 30 patients (mean age, 68) were studied with lower extremity CTA and lower extremity perfusion CT. 128 channel multi-detector row CT scans were acquired with a CT scanner (SOMATOM Definition Flash, Siemens medical solution, Germany) of lower extremity perfusion CT and lower extremity CTA. Acquired images were reconstructed with 3D workstation (Leonardo, Siemens, Germany). Site of lower extremity arterial occlusive and stenosis lesions were detected superficial femoral artery 36.6%, popliteal artery 23.4%, external iliac artery 16.7%, common femoral artery 13.3%, peroneal artery 10%. The mean total DLP comparison of lower extremity perfusion CT and lower extremity CTA, 650 mGy-cm and 675 mGy-cm, respectively. Lower extremity perfusion CT and lower extremity CTA were realized that were never be two examination that were exactly the same legions. Future through the development of lower extremity perfusion CT soft ware programs suggest possible clinical applications.

Thermodynamics of extremal rotating thin shells in an extremal BTZ spacetime and the extremal black hole entropy

Science.gov (United States)

Lemos, José P. S.; Minamitsuji, Masato; Zaslavskii, Oleg B.

2017-02-01

In a (2 +1 )-dimensional spacetime with a negative cosmological constant, the thermodynamics and the entropy of an extremal rotating thin shell, i.e., an extremal rotating ring, are investigated. The outer and inner regions with respect to the shell are taken to be the Bañados-Teitelbom-Zanelli (BTZ) spacetime and the vacuum ground state anti-de Sitter spacetime, respectively. By applying the first law of thermodynamics to the extremal thin shell, one shows that the entropy of the shell is an arbitrary well-behaved function of the gravitational area A+ alone, S =S (A+). When the thin shell approaches its own gravitational radius r+ and turns into an extremal rotating BTZ black hole, it is found that the entropy of the spacetime remains such a function of A+, both when the local temperature of the shell at the gravitational radius is zero and nonzero. It is thus vindicated by this analysis that extremal black holes, here extremal BTZ black holes, have different properties from the corresponding nonextremal black holes, which have a definite entropy, the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy S (A+)=A/+4G , where G is the gravitational constant. It is argued that for extremal black holes, in particular for extremal BTZ black holes, one should set 0 ≤S (A+)≤A/+4G;i.e., the extremal black hole entropy has values in between zero and the maximum Bekenstein-Hawking entropy A/+4 G . Thus, rather than having just two entropies for extremal black holes, as previous results have debated, namely, 0 and A/+4 G , it is shown here that extremal black holes, in particular extremal BTZ black holes, may have a continuous range of entropies, limited by precisely those two entropies. Surely, the entropy that a particular extremal black hole picks must depend on past processes, notably on how it was formed. A remarkable relation between the third law of thermodynamics and the impossibility for a massive body to reach the velocity of light is also found. In addition, in the procedure, it

Time perspective in extreme situation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O G Kvasova

2010-06-01

Full Text Available The article gives the new definition of the concept of time perspective in the view of postnonclassic paradigms in psychology. It shows the temporal unity of the past, present and future in life story of personality in the context of conception of temporal work.

Bringing the DERP to consumers: 'Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs'.

Science.gov (United States)

Findlay, Steven D

2006-01-01

Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, has used the drug class reviews of the Drug Effectiveness Review Project (DERP) as one critical component of a free public information project on the comparative effectiveness, safety, and cost of prescription drugs. The project translates the DERP findings for consumers. Drawing on other sources and adding information on drug costs, the project chooses Best Buy drugs in each category it evaluates. This guidance can help consumers save up to thousands of dollars per year, and it has the potential to reduce overall drug spending.

Changes in the probability of co-occurring extreme climate events

Science.gov (United States)

Diffenbaugh, N. S.

2017-12-01

Extreme climate events such as floods, droughts, heatwaves, and severe storms exert acute stresses on natural and human systems. When multiple extreme events co-occur, either in space or time, the impacts can be substantially compounded. A diverse set of human interests - including supply chains, agricultural commodities markets, reinsurance, and deployment of humanitarian aid - have historically relied on the rarity of extreme events to provide a geographic hedge against the compounded impacts of co-occuring extremes. However, changes in the frequency of extreme events in recent decades imply that the probability of co-occuring extremes is also changing, and is likely to continue to change in the future in response to additional global warming. This presentation will review the evidence for historical changes in extreme climate events and the response of extreme events to continued global warming, and will provide some perspective on methods for quantifying changes in the probability of co-occurring extremes in the past and future.

Linking Consumer Rights with Citizen Roles: An Opportunity for Consumer Educators.

Science.gov (United States)

Stevens, Georgia L.

1994-01-01

Consumer educators can help students develop consumer/citizen roles through curricula linking consumer rights with citizen responsibilities. Dialogue about issues, community needs assessment, and community volunteer service enable students to practice citizen roles. (SK)

Effect of direct-to-consumer genetic tests on health behaviour and anxiety: a survey of consumers and potential consumers.

Science.gov (United States)

Egglestone, Corin; Morris, Anne; O'Brien, Ann

2013-10-01

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests can be purchased over the internet. Some companies claim to provide relative genetic risks for various diseases and thus encourage healthy behaviour. There are concerns that exposure to such information may actually discourage healthy behaviour or increase health anxiety. An online survey was conducted (n = 275). Respondents were composed of individuals who had purchased a DTC genetic test and received their results (consumers, n = 189), as well as individuals who were either awaiting test results or considering purchasing a test (potential consumers, n = 86). Consumers were asked if their health behaviour or health anxiety had changed after receiving their results. Respondents' current health behaviour and health anxiety were queried and compared. In total, 27.3 % of consumers claimed a change in health behaviour, all either positive or neutral, with no reported cessation of any existing health behaviour. A change in health anxiety was claimed by 24.6 % of consumers, 85.3 % of which were a reduction. Consumers had significantly better health behaviour scores than potential consumers (p = 0.02), with no significant difference in health anxiety. This study points towards an association between receipt of DTC genetic test results and increased adoption of healthy behaviours for a minority of consumers based on self-report, with more mixed results in relation to health anxiety.

Price Intransparency, Consumer Decision Making and European Consumer Law

OpenAIRE

Boom, Willem

2011-01-01

textabstractPrice comparison is a basic element of competition. For comparison to work, at least prices need to be transparent. Moreover, price is usually a focal point in consumer thinking and deciding on transactions. Hence, obfuscating prices can be detrimental to consumers. Therefore, it is vital for policymakers to know how transparent pricing is in reality. Commercial practices involving price intransparency can be detrimental to consumer decision making and may be associated with marke...

Analyzing phenological extreme events over the past five decades in Germany

Science.gov (United States)

Schleip, Christoph; Menzel, Annette; Estrella, Nicole; Graeser, Philipp

2010-05-01

As climate change may alter the frequency and intensity of extreme temperatures, we analysed whether warming of the last 5 decades has already changed the statistics of phenological extreme events. In this context, two extreme value statistical concepts are discussed and applied to existing phenological datasets of German Weather Service (DWD) in order to derive probabilities of occurrence for extreme early or late phenological events. We analyse four phenological groups; "begin of flowering, "leaf foliation", "fruit ripening" and "leaf colouring" as well as DWD indicator phases of the "phenological year". Additionally we put an emphasis on a between-species analysis; a comparison of differences in extreme onsets between three common northern conifers. Furthermore we conducted a within-species analysis with different phases of horse chestnut throughout a year. The first statistical approach fits data to a Gaussian model using traditional statistical techniques, and then analyses the extreme quantile. The key point of this approach is the adoption of an appropriate probability density function (PDF) to the observed data and the assessment of the PDF parameters change in time. The full analytical description in terms of the estimated PDF for defined time steps of the observation period allows probability assessments of extreme values for e.g. annual or decadal time steps. Related with this approach is the possibility of counting out the onsets which fall in our defined extreme percentiles. The estimation of the probability of extreme events on the basis of the whole data set is in contrast to analyses with the generalized extreme value distribution (GEV). The second approach deals with the extreme PDFs itself and fits the GEV distribution to annual minima of phenological series to provide useful estimates about return levels. For flowering and leaf unfolding phases exceptionally early extremes are seen since the mid 1980s and especially for the single years 1961

Consumer trait variation influences tritrophic interactions in salt marsh communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Hughes, Anne Randall; Hanley, Torrance C; Orozco, Nohelia P; Zerebecki, Robyn A

2015-07-01

The importance of intraspecific variation has emerged as a key question in community ecology, helping to bridge the gap between ecology and evolution. Although much of this work has focused on plant species, recent syntheses have highlighted the prevalence and potential importance of morphological, behavioral, and life history variation within animals for ecological and evolutionary processes. Many small-bodied consumers live on the plant that they consume, often resulting in host plant-associated trait variation within and across consumer species. Given the central position of consumer species within tritrophic food webs, such consumer trait variation may play a particularly important role in mediating trophic dynamics, including trophic cascades. In this study, we used a series of field surveys and laboratory experiments to document intraspecific trait variation in a key consumer species, the marsh periwinkle Littoraria irrorata, based on its host plant species (Spartina alterniflora or Juncus roemerianus) in a mixed species assemblage. We then conducted a 12-week mesocosm experiment to examine the effects of Littoraria trait variation on plant community structure and dynamics in a tritrophic salt marsh food web. Littoraria from different host plant species varied across a suite of morphological and behavioral traits. These consumer trait differences interacted with plant community composition and predator presence to affect overall plant stem height, as well as differentially alter the density and biomass of the two key plant species in this system. Whether due to genetic differences or phenotypic plasticity, trait differences between consumer types had significant ecological consequences for the tritrophic marsh food web over seasonal time scales. By altering the cascading effects of the top predator on plant community structure and dynamics, consumer differences may generate a feedback over longer time scales, which in turn influences the degree of trait

Extreme value distributions

CERN Document Server

Ahsanullah, Mohammad

2016-01-01

The aim of the book is to give a through account of the basic theory of extreme value distributions. The book cover a wide range of materials available to date. The central ideas and results of extreme value distributions are presented. The book rwill be useful o applied statisticians as well statisticians interrested to work in the area of extreme value distributions.vmonograph presents the central ideas and results of extreme value distributions.The monograph gives self-contained of theory and applications of extreme value distributions.

Impulsive consumer behavior

OpenAIRE

Kovač Žnideršić, Ružica; Grubor, Aleksandar; Marić, Dražen

2014-01-01

Research into consumer behaviour features as the foundation of all the planned and implemented marketing activities of a company. Consumer behaviour is determined by numerous factors, and is therefore characterised as highly complex and difficult to predict. A particular challenge for marketing science and practice is to research impulse consumer behaviour in shopping – a behaviour that occurs when consumers experience a sudden, powerful and persistent urge to buy something immediately. This ...

Determinants of property damage recovery time amongst households affected by an extreme flood event in Metro Manila, Philippines

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jamil Paolo Francisco

2014-08-01

Full Text Available This study identified the factors that influence household recovery following an extreme flood event, measured in terms of the length of time to repair, rebuild or replace damaged private property. Data was obtained through a survey of 400 households in Marikina City in Metro Manila, Philippines. Results from the empirical analysis indicated that household income, access to credit (borrowing, the use of a flood alarm system, access to safe shelter, membership in a community organisation, adoption of disaster-specific anticipatory measures and adoption of general preventive measures significantly reduced the time it took for affected households to recover from property damage. Evacuation, relief aid, type of housing, education, household size and frequency of flooding in the area did not have significant effects.

Stellar extreme ultraviolet astronomy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cash, W.C. Jr.

1978-01-01

The design, calibration, and launch of a rocket-borne imaging telescope for extreme ultraviolet astronomy are described. The telescope, which employed diamond-turned grazing incidence optics and a ranicon detector, was launched November 19, 1976, from the White Sands Missile Range. The telescope performed well and returned data on several potential stellar sources of extreme ultraviolet radiation. Upper limits ten to twenty times more sensitive than previously available were obtained for the extreme ultraviolet flux from the white dwarf Sirius B. These limits fall a factor of seven below the flux predicted for the star and demonstrate that the temperature of Sirius B is not 32,000 K as previously measured, but is below 30,000 K. The new upper limits also rule out the photosphere of the white dwarf as the source of the recently reported soft x-rays from Sirius. Two other white dwarf stars, Feige 24 and G191-B2B, were observed. Upper limits on the flux at 300 A were interpreted as lower limits on the interstellar hydrogen column densities to these stars. The lower limits indicate interstellar hydrogen densitites of greater than .02 cm -3 . Four nearby stars (Sirius, Procyon, Capella, and Mirzam) were observed in a search for intense low temperature coronae or extended chromospheres. No extreme ultraviolet radiation from these stars was detected, and upper limits to their coronal emisson measures are derived

The commoditization of consumer electronics products and its influence on packaging design

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wever, R.; Boks, C.; Stevels, A.

2008-01-01

The traditional purpose of packaging for consumer electronics (CE) products was to get them in one piece from the factory to the consumers home. It was purely focused on the physical distribution. In that time, buying a CE product could be considered a major family investment. However, times have

Consumers as co-developers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jeppesen, Lars Bo; Molin, Måns J.

Abstract: This study describes a process in which a firm relies on an external consumer communityfor innovation. While it has been recognized that users may sometimes innovate, little is known aboutwhat commercial firms can do to motivate and capture such innovations and their related benefits...... firms purposively can do to generate consumer innovation efforts. An explorative casestudy shows that consumer innovation can be structured, motivated, and partly organized by acommercial firm that lays out the infrastructure for interactive learning by consumers in a publicKeywords: Product Development......, Consumer-to-Consumer Interaction, Learning, Consumer Innovation, Community, User-toolkits. JEL code(s): L21; L23; O31; O32...

Climate change, climatic variation and extreme biological responses.

Science.gov (United States)

Palmer, Georgina; Platts, Philip J; Brereton, Tom; Chapman, Jason W; Dytham, Calvin; Fox, Richard; Pearce-Higgins, James W; Roy, David B; Hill, Jane K; Thomas, Chris D

2017-06-19

Extreme climatic events could be major drivers of biodiversity change, but it is unclear whether extreme biological changes are (i) individualistic (species- or group-specific), (ii) commonly associated with unusual climatic events and/or (iii) important determinants of long-term population trends. Using population time series for 238 widespread species (207 Lepidoptera and 31 birds) in England since 1968, we found that population 'crashes' (outliers in terms of species' year-to-year population changes) were 46% more frequent than population 'explosions'. (i) Every year, at least three species experienced extreme changes in population size, and in 41 of the 44 years considered, some species experienced population crashes while others simultaneously experienced population explosions. This suggests that, even within the same broad taxonomic groups, species are exhibiting individualistic dynamics, most probably driven by their responses to different, short-term events associated with climatic variability. (ii) Six out of 44 years showed a significant excess of species experiencing extreme population changes (5 years for Lepidoptera, 1 for birds). These 'consensus years' were associated with climatically extreme years, consistent with a link between extreme population responses and climatic variability, although not all climatically extreme years generated excess numbers of extreme population responses. (iii) Links between extreme population changes and long-term population trends were absent in Lepidoptera and modest (but significant) in birds. We conclude that extreme biological responses are individualistic, in the sense that the extreme population changes of most species are taking place in different years, and that long-term trends of widespread species have not, to date, been dominated by these extreme changes.This article is part of the themed issue 'Behavioural, ecological and evolutionary responses to extreme climatic events'. © 2017 The Authors.

Extreme-Strike and Small-time Asymptotics for Gaussian Stochastic Volatility Models

OpenAIRE

Zhang, Xin

2016-01-01

Asymptotic behavior of implied volatility is of our interest in this dissertation. For extreme strike, we consider a stochastic volatility asset price model in which the volatility is the absolute value of a continuous Gaussian process with arbitrary prescribed mean and covariance. By exhibiting a Karhunen-Loève expansion for the integrated variance, and using sharp estimates of the density of a general second-chaos variable, we derive asymptotics for the asset price density for large or smal...

Environmentally Friendly Consumer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Reijonen, Satu

2011-01-01

on the green consumer: cultural determinism, psycho-socio-demographic determinism and calculative determinism. An explanation of the green consumer in these terms, however, loses sight of the emergence and processuality of consumer behaviour. Process oriented constructionism, by contrast, is useful to recover...... these important aspects. This paper suggests a research agenda focused on socio-material processes and situated actions that lead to the emergence and stabilization of a particular type of consumer behaviour.......Several attempts have been made by academics in the past to explain the so-called ‘environmentally conscious’ consumer. These explanations share an important feature, namely determinism. This paper identifies three different sources of determinism that are distinguished in recent literature...

Sizewell: good value for consumers' money

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

MacKerron, G.

1984-01-01

For consumers, the overriding issues in electricity policy are always likely to be those which affect prices, both in the near future and over the longer term. It is therefore the 'need and economics' part of the overall case for Sizewell that consumers' representatives chose to scrutinize. This paper argues that there are no compelling short-term reasons to start construction of Sizewell at the earliest possible time. Further, long-term considerations suggest that there are good reasons not to make an early commitment to the Westinghouse four-loop design of PWR, either for Sizewell or for subsequent orders. (author)

Application of the Consumer Decision-Making Model to Hearing Aid Adoption in First-Time Users.

Science.gov (United States)

Amlani, Amyn M

2016-05-01

Since 1980, hearing aid adoption rates have remained essentially the same, increasing at a rate equal to the organic growth of the population. Researchers have used theoretical models from psychology and sociology to determine those factors or constructs that lead to the adoption of hearing aids by first-time impaired listeners entering the market. In this article, a theoretical model, the Consumer Decision-Making Model (CDM), premised on the neobehavioral approach that considers an individual's psychological and cognitive emphasis toward a product or service, is described. Three theoretical models (i.e., transtheoretical, social model of disability, Health Belief Model), and their relevant findings to the hearing aid market, are initially described. The CDM is then presented, along with supporting evidence of the model's various factors from the hearing aid literature. Future applications of the CDM to hearing health care also are discussed.

Consumer adverse drug reaction reporting - A new step in pharmacovigilance?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Grootheest, K; de Graaf, L; de Jong-van den Berg, LTW

2003-01-01

The direct reporting of adverse drug reactions by patients is becoming an increasingly important topic for discussion in the world of pharmacovigilance. At this time, few countries accept consumer reports. We present an overview of experiences with consumer reporting in various countries of the

Ordered Consumer Search

OpenAIRE

Armstrong, Mark

2016-01-01

The paper discusses situations in which consumers search through their options in a deliberate order, in contrast to more familiar models with random search. Topics include: network effects (consumers may be better off following the same search order as other consumers); the use of price and non-price advertising to direct search; the impact of consumers starting a new search with their previous supplier; the incentive sellers have to merge or co-locate with other sellers; and the incentive a...

Going hybrid: An analysis of consumer purchase motivations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ozaki, Ritsuko; Sevastyanova, Katerina

2011-01-01

What makes consumers adopt energy-sustainable innovations? The uptake of such products and technologies is of importance, particularly at a time when climate change, diminishing energy resources and energy security are urgent issues. This paper reports on a case study of consumer adoption of hybrid vehicles, a green innovation that has been in the market since the late 1990s. The study is based on a questionnaire survey, conducted in 2009 in collaboration with Toyota GB, to investigate the dimensions that constitute motivations to purchase the Prius and to examine how policy can encourage hybrid adoption. The survey yielded 1484 responses, 1263 of which were used for the analysis; the results of the exploratory factor analyses provide information on consumer purchase motivations. The financial benefits related to transport policy are an important factor in consumer hybrid purchase motivations, and social norms and consumers' willingness to comply with the norms of their groups influence the purchase decision. We also find that various meanings are attached to hybrid vehicle ownership, and practical, experiential and affective values need to be communicated to consumers in terms of value added.

"Extreme Bold" in the Faculty Ranks

Science.gov (United States)

Kuusisto, Stephen

2013-01-01

Boldness, defense, and the necessity of talking back remain as central to life with disability in one's time as in Francis Bacon's age. "Therefore all deformed persons are extreme bold," Bacon wrote, "first, as in their own defence, as being exposed to scorn, but in process of time, by a general habit." Perhaps no word carries…

Analysis of consumer behavior at chocolate purchase

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dagmar Kozelová

2014-02-01

Full Text Available At food purchase consumer is affected by several factors. In this work analysis of consumer behavior at chocolate purchase was performed involving 277 respondents. Statistical testing of results was performed by Chi - Square statistic, correlations have been tested with use of the Cramer's coefficient. It was found, that 86% of respondents consume chocolate. Factors affecting respondents at purchase were recommendations of friends, acquaintances (32%, brand of chocolate (24%, price (16%, personal experience (12%, health restrictions and allergies (11%. Less important factors when choosing chocolates are flavor (4%, nutritional quality (3%, country of origin (2% and chocolate packaging (1%. In the consumption of chocolate moderate correlation among various categories of economic activity of respondents was confirmed. Chocolate was consumed mainly by respondents whose monthly income ranges from 801 to 1001 €. We found that consumers prefer milk chocolate followed by dark and white at the end. In terms of gender the most commonly was chocolate consumed by women, once to three times a week. The same frequency of chocolate consumption dominates at the categories of students and employee. Expenses frequently spent to buy chocolates were from 1-3 € per week by young people (18-23 years and middle age generation of people (46-55 years. Normal 0 21 false false false CS JA X-NONE

Portable upper extremity robotics is as efficacious as upper extremity rehabilitative therapy: a randomized controlled pilot trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Page, Stephen J; Hill, Valerie; White, Susan

2013-06-01

To compare the efficacy of a repetitive task-specific practice regimen integrating a portable, electromyography-controlled brace called the 'Myomo' versus usual care repetitive task-specific practice in subjects with chronic, moderate upper extremity impairment. Sixteen subjects (7 males; mean age 57.0 ± 11.02 years; mean time post stroke 75.0 ± 87.63 months; 5 left-sided strokes) exhibiting chronic, stable, moderate upper extremity impairment. Subjects were administered repetitive task-specific practice in which they participated in valued, functional tasks using their paretic upper extremities. Both groups were supervised by a therapist and were administered therapy targeting their paretic upper extremities that was 30 minutes in duration, occurring 3 days/week for eight weeks. One group participated in repetitive task-specific practice entirely while wearing the portable robotic, while the other performed the same activity regimen manually. The upper extremity Fugl-Meyer, Canadian Occupational Performance Measure and Stroke Impact Scale were administered on two occasions before intervention and once after intervention. After intervention, groups exhibited nearly identical Fugl-Meyer score increases of ≈2.1 points; the group using robotics exhibited larger score changes on all but one of the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure and Stroke Impact Scale subscales, including a 12.5-point increase on the Stroke Impact Scale recovery subscale. Findings suggest that therapist-supervised repetitive task-specific practice integrating robotics is as efficacious as manual practice in subjects with moderate upper extremity impairment.

U.S. consumer attitudes and expectations about energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

DeCicco, John; Yan, Ting; Keusch, Florian; Muñoz, Diego Horna; Neidert, Lisa

2015-01-01

Understanding public perceptions of energy is important for informing energy-related business, research and policy strategies. To this end, a new U.S. consumer survey probes core attitudes about the reliability, affordability and environmental impact of energy. Appended quarterly to the long-running monthly survey of 500 households that produces the Index of Consumer Sentiment, this instrument inherits the sample design and statistical rigor of that household economic survey. First-year results yield several notable findings. Home energy bills are viewed as unaffordable if they were to double for consumers in the lower income tercile but only if they were to triple for consumers in the upper income tercile. Regarding the cost increases deemed unaffordable, consumers report much greater sensitivity to higher gasoline prices than to higher home energy bills. Moreover, consumers express at least as much concern about the environmental impact of energy as they do about its affordability, a result that shows some regional variation but which holds across income brackets. Several other findings are of likely interest to energy researchers and policymakers, and the unique data series generated by this survey will enable deeper analyses of attitudinally related energy topics as time goes on. - Highlights: • Views of energy reliability, affordability and environmental impact were surveyed. • Consumers seem less tolerant of rising costs for gasoline than for home energy. • Consumers are as concerned about energy's environmental impact as its affordability. • This survey's findings add to policymaker understanding of consumer views on energy.

Regional tendencies of extreme wind characteristics in Hungary

Science.gov (United States)

Radics, Dr.; Bartholy, Dr.; Péliné

2009-09-01

Human activities have substantial effects on climate system. It has already accepted that change in the long-term climatic mean state will have significant consequences in the global economy and society, but the most important effects of climate change may come from changes in the intensity and frequency of climatic extremes. It is therefore of great interest to document the extremes of surface wind that could assist in estimating the regional effects of climate change. The research presented is based on 34-year-long (1975-2008) wind (speed, direction, and wind gust) data sets of 36 Hungarian synoptic meteorological stations. After processing (including digitalisation of old instrumental records, quality control and homogenisation of wind time series) the measured wind data sets, time series and complex wind climate analysis were carried out. Spatial and temporal distributions of mean and extreme wind climate characteristics were estimated, wind extremes and trends were interpolated and mapped over the country. Finally, measured and reanalysed (ERA40) wind data were compared over Hungary, in order to verify not only the validity of ERA40 reanalysed data sets, but the adaptability of climate simulation results in estimation of regional climate change effects.

Millennial consumers shape corporate culture towards sustainability : the case of the food industry in Portugal

OpenAIRE

Baptista, Mariana Falcão Viana

2017-01-01

The main purpose of this Thesis is to understand Portuguese Millennials’ attitudes towards Corporate Sustainability and whether these influence companies’ Corporate Culture. Millennials seem to care about the environment and society to a greater degree than previous generations, and as consumers, they care about the sustainability of the products they buy. They also present an extremely complex brand loyalty behavior, and want to buy from companies whose values are in line with their own. To ...

Consumer Information. NASFAA Task Force Report. Consumer Information

Science.gov (United States)

National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, 2014

2014-01-01

The National Association of Student Financial Aid and Administrators (NASFAA) Consumer Information Task Force was convened to conduct a thorough review of the current student consumer information requirements and propose ways to streamline both the content and delivery of those requirements. The proposals in the this report were produced for…

Extreme values of meteorological parameters observed at Kalpakkam during the period 1968-1999

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Balagurunathan, M.R.; Chandresekharan, E.; Rajan, M.P.; Gurg, R.P.

2001-05-01

In the design phase of engineering structures, an understanding of extreme weather conditions that may occur at the site of interest is very essential, so that the structures can be designed to withstand climatological stresses during its life time. In this report an analysis of extreme values of meteorological parameters at Kalpakkam for the period 1968-99, which provide an insight into such situations is described. The extreme value analysis reveals that all the variables obey Fisher-Tippet Type-I extreme value distribution function. Parameter values of extreme value analysis functions are presented for the variables studied and the 50- and 100- year return period extreme values are arrived at. Frequency distribution of rainfall parameters is investigated. Time series of annual rainfall data suggests a cycle of 2-3 years period. (author)

Factors influencing purchase intention towards consumer-to-consumer e-commerce

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad Dachyar

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Purpose: This study explores factors that influence consumer’s purchase intention at three consumer-to-consumer (C2C e-commerce companies in Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach: 5 Expert opinions are used to determine the indicators of each factor and the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM method is used to analyze the empirical data of  400 respondents for each company. Findings: It is found different significant factors that influence customer’s purchase intention in each company. Trust and risk are found to be significantly effect purchase intention in Company A. Meanwhile, the other two companies, perceived usefulness proved to be significant in Company B and benefit significantly effect consumer purchase intention in Company C. Originality/value: This study represents purchase intention in the consumer-to-consumer e-commerce by investigating three case study using technology acceptance model as a guiding theory.

Extremely Preterm Birth

Science.gov (United States)

... Events Advocacy For Patients About ACOG Extremely Preterm Birth Home For Patients Search FAQs Extremely Preterm Birth ... Spanish FAQ173, June 2016 PDF Format Extremely Preterm Birth Pregnancy When is a baby considered “preterm” or “ ...

FPGA Implementation of Real-Time Compressive Sensing with Partial Fourier Dictionary

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yinghui Quan

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a novel real-time compressive sensing (CS reconstruction which employs high density field-programmable gate array (FPGA for hardware acceleration. Traditionally, CS can be implemented using a high-level computer language in a personal computer (PC or multicore platforms, such as graphics processing units (GPUs and Digital Signal Processors (DSPs. However, reconstruction algorithms are computing demanding and software implementation of these algorithms is extremely slow and power consuming. In this paper, the orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP algorithm is refined to solve the sparse decomposition optimization for partial Fourier dictionary, which is always adopted in radar imaging and detection application. OMP reconstruction can be divided into two main stages: optimization which finds the closely correlated vectors and least square problem. For large scale dictionary, the implementation of correlation is time consuming since it often requires a large number of matrix multiplications. Also solving the least square problem always needs a scalable matrix decomposition operation. To solve these problems efficiently, the correlation optimization is implemented by fast Fourier transform (FFT and the large scale least square problem is implemented by Conjugate Gradient (CG technique, respectively. The proposed method is verified by FPGA (Xilinx Virtex-7 XC7VX690T realization, revealing its effectiveness in real-time applications.

Fatal outbreak from consuming Xanthium strumarium seedlings during time of food scarcity in northeastern Bangladesh.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emily S Gurley

2010-03-01

Full Text Available An outbreak characterized by vomiting and rapid progression to unconsciousness and death was reported in Sylhet Distrct in northeastern Bangladesh following destructive monsoon floods in November 2007.We identified cases presenting to local hospitals and described their clinical signs and symptoms. We interviewed patients and their families to collect illness histories and generate hypotheses about exposures associated with disease. An epidemiological study was conducted in two outbreak villages to investigate risk factors for developing illness. 76 patients were identified from 9 villages; 25% (19/76 died. Common presenting symptoms included vomiting, elevated liver enzymes, and altered mental status. In-depth interviews with 33 cases revealed that 31 (94% had consumed ghagra shak, an uncultivated plant, in the hours before illness onset. Ghagra shak was consumed as a main meal by villagers due to inaccessibility of other foods following destructive monsoon flooding and rises in global food prices. Persons who ate this plant were 34.2 times more likely (95% CI 10.2 to 115.8, p-value<0.000 than others to develop vomiting and unconsciousness during the outbreak in our multivariate model. Ghagra shak is the local name for Xanthium strumarium, or common cocklebur.The consumption of Xanthium strumarium seedlings in large quantities, due to inaccessibility of other foods, caused this outbreak. The toxic chemical in the plant, carboxyatratyloside, has been previously described and eating X. strumarium seeds and seedlings has been associated with fatalities in humans and livestock. Unless people are able to meet their nutritional requirements with safe foods, they will continue to be at risk for poor health outcomes beyond undernutrition.

Journal of Consumer Sciences

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The Journal of Consumer Sciences is an official publication of the South African Association of Family Ecology and Consumer Sciences (SAAFECS). The Journal of Consumer Sciences (JCS) publishes articles that focus on consumer experiences in different places and from different perspectives and methodological ...

Consumer attitudes and the benefits of smart grid technologies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ablondi, B. [Parks Associates, Dallas, TX (United States)

2010-11-15

This article discussed consumer attitudes regarding the benefits of smart grid technology. Understanding the motivations of consumers and how much they are willing to pay for smart grid technologies allows utilities to tailor their offerings to ensure market success. Surveys revealed that more than 80 percent of consumers are very interested in learning about ways to cut energy expenditures. Most consumers are only willing to pay less than the cost of the special equipment to participate in programs that guarantee cost savings, requiring innovation on the part of both utilities and their vendors to develop viable business models. Remote monitoring systems are a potential residential energy management solution that would increase consumer awareness of energy consumption, but adoption will occur slowly and only after consumer awareness is increased. The segmentation of consumers is necessary for providers to target those with both an interest in and a willingness to pay for an energy monitoring system. Most consumers want to see information on a thermostat with an enhanced display, and there is limited interest in other formats at this time. Consumers are willing to pay a premium for smart appliances, but the premium only amounts to a fraction of the actual cost, leaving no incentive for appliance manufacturers in the absence of tax or utility incentives. It was concluded that consumer attitudes toward smart grid technology are still being formed and that the consumer must be engaged to realize the full benefit of the smart grid in the residential market. 4 figs.

Consumer attitudes and olive oil acceptance: The potential consumer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

McEwan, Jean A.

1994-04-01

Full Text Available       This paper outlines the results of consumer research to investigate consumer attitudes towards olive oil, and to evaluate selected experimental samples for acceptability.
      Consumer focus group discussions were used to investigate consumer attitudes to and awareness of olive oil, in relation to other culinary oils. A wide range of information was obtained, indicating the increasing importance of olive oil in the UK.
       Product use was examined to investigate the different types of olive oils consumers use, and the importance of different attributes for purchase. Price, quality and colour were the most important considerations for purchasing an olive oil, whilst package design, package material and brand were the least important.       Eight samples of virgin olive oil were evaluated for acceptability of appearance, odour, flavour and mouthfeel. These data indicated clear differences in acceptability between the samples, particularly on flavour, mouthfeel and overall acceptability. These data were then linked to sensory information to determine the characteristics of oil associated with liking for the product.

Consumer Fetish

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arnould, Eric; Cayla, Julien

2015-01-01

in the organizational fetishization of consumers, that is, how in the process of understanding and managing markets, a quasimagical fascination with amalgams of consumer voices, images, and artefacts comes about. We offer several contributions. First, we demonstrate the pertinence of (primarily anthropological...

Manufacturer Responsiveness to Consumer Correspondence: An Empirical Investigation of Consumer Perceptions.

Science.gov (United States)

Smart, Denise T.; Martin, Charles L.

1992-01-01

Evaluation of manufacturers' responses to 300 consumer letters of praise or complaint as well as consumer's reactions to responses concluded that (1) businesses should tell consumers their input is appreciated; (2) sincere, personal responses are preferred; and (3) coupons, refunds, or similar gifts should be sent with letters. (SK)

The relationship between extreme weather events and crop losses in central Taiwan

Science.gov (United States)

Lai, Li-Wei

2017-09-01

The frequency of extreme weather events, which cause severe crop losses, is increasing. This study investigates the relationship between crop losses and extreme weather events in central Taiwan from 2003 to 2015 and determines the main factors influencing crop losses. Data regarding the crop loss area and meteorological information were obtained from government agencies. The crops were categorised into the following five groups: `grains', `vegetables', `fruits', `flowers' and `other crops'. The extreme weather events and their synoptic weather patterns were categorised into six and five groups, respectively. The data were analysed using the z score, correlation coefficient and stepwise regression model. The results show that typhoons had the highest frequency of all extreme weather events (58.3%). The largest crop loss area (4.09%) was caused by two typhoons and foehn wind in succession. Extreme wind speed coupled with heavy rainfall is an important factor affecting the losses in the grain and vegetable groups. Extreme wind speed is a common variable that affects the loss of `grains', `vegetables', `fruits' and `flowers'. Consecutive extreme weather events caused greater crop losses than individual events. Crops with long production times suffered greater losses than those with short production times. This suggests that crops with physical structures that can be easily damaged and long production times would benefit from protected cultivation to maintain food security.

A single origin of extreme matrotrophy in African mabuyine skinks

Science.gov (United States)

Metallinou, Margarita; Karin, Benjamin R.; Conradie, Werner; Wagner, Philipp; Schmitz, Andreas; Jackman, Todd R.; Bauer, Aaron M.

2016-01-01

Most mammals and approximately 20% of squamates (lizards and snakes) are viviparous, whereas all crocodilians, birds and turtles are oviparous. Viviparity evolved greater than 100 times in squamates, including multiple times in Mabuyinae (Reptilia: Scincidae), making this group ideal for studying the evolution of nutritional patterns associated with viviparity. Previous studies suggest that extreme matrotrophy, the support of virtually all of embryonic development by maternal nutrients, evolved as many as three times in Mabuyinae: in Neotropical Mabuyinae (63 species), Eumecia (2 species; Africa) and Trachylepis ivensii (Africa). However, no explicit phylogenetic hypotheses exist for understanding the evolution of extreme matrotrophy. Using multilocus DNA data, we inferred a species tree for Mabuyinae that implies that T. ivensii (here assigned to the resurrected genus Lubuya) is sister to Eumecia, suggesting that extreme matrotrophy evolved only once in African mabuyine skinks. PMID:27555650

Effect of Store Atmosphere on Consumer Purchase Intention

OpenAIRE

Hussain, Riaz; Ali, Mazhar

2015-01-01

This paper aimed at identifying the effects of atmosphere on the consumer purchase intention in international retail chain outlets of Karachi, Pakistan. This was the first study, which investigated the collective impact of atmospheric variables at one point in time on purchase intention. This research was causal in nature. A sample of 300 consumers was taken who usually visited these outlets. Data was collected through a well-structured questionnaire and analyzed through regression a...

The Dynamic Pricing of Next Generation Consumer Durables

OpenAIRE

Barry L. Bayus

1992-01-01

Learning curve effects, aspects of consumer demand models (e.g., reservation price distributions, intertemporal utility maximizing behavior), and competitive activity are reasons which have been offered to explain why prices of new durables decline over time. This paper presents an alternative rationale based on the buying behavior for products with overlapping replacement cycles (i.e., next generation products). A model for consumer sales of a new durable is developed by incorporating the re...

Consumers' inflation expectations and monetary policy in Europe

OpenAIRE

Berk, J.M.

2000-01-01

This paper analyses the effects of monetary policy decisions on inflation expectations of European consumers. Using a novel approach that does not assume unbiasedness of expectations, which makes use of survey data on expected future as well as perceived past price developments and allows for non-normal peakedness and asymmetry, we convert qualitative survey responses of consumers in various European countries into quantitative time series of inflation expectations. After checking the rationa...

Model and measurement methodology for the analysis of consumer choice of foods products

NARCIS (Netherlands)

B. Wierenga (Berend)

1983-01-01

textabstractThe consumer can be conceived as an imperfect problem solver. Consumer behavior with respect to food products is purposive, but the consumer is bounded by limitations of information, cognitive skills, memory and time. From this starting point, this paper develops a model of the

Extreme environment electronics

CERN Document Server

Cressler, John D

2012-01-01

Unfriendly to conventional electronic devices, circuits, and systems, extreme environments represent a serious challenge to designers and mission architects. The first truly comprehensive guide to this specialized field, Extreme Environment Electronics explains the essential aspects of designing and using devices, circuits, and electronic systems intended to operate in extreme environments, including across wide temperature ranges and in radiation-intense scenarios such as space. The Definitive Guide to Extreme Environment Electronics Featuring contributions by some of the world's foremost exp

LOW INCOME CONSUMERS AND ONLINE SHOPPING: APPREHENSIONS IN CONSUMING THROUGH THE INTERNET

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juan Pablo da Silva Dias

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The growth in access of low income consumers to the internet has taken them to use the net in search of entertainment, education and relationships. However, consuming online is still an activity surrounded by distrust. The present study aims to discuss the reasons why low income consumers have apprehension in consuming through the internet. For this, in depth interviews were conducted with 23 low income consumers. The collected data shows that the internet is still seen by the interviewees as being, mainly, for leisure and entertainment. Online shopping still is a task they fear, because of different motives. Initially, one can point the preference to consume in physical stores, since the consumers can touch the desired product, enjoy the trip to the store as a moment of pleasure and the possibility of interacting with salesmen, who help them in their choice. The apprehensions in buying online are also influenced by the perception that sites are not safe, because they offer threats, such as viruses or theft of personal information. Furthermore, interviewees believe that online stores are not compromised with their customers, since they permit problems to occur in the delivery of merchandise, are not clear about the shopping process, and create difficulties in payment method. Another reason for them not to buy online is the perception that if a negative consuming episode of online shopping happened to someone they know, it is also bound to happen with them. Despite this reasoning, these consumers point the importance of help from a third party in their reference group as main incentive for them to face the obstacles to consuming through the internet. In conclusion, it is possible to consider that low income consumers have apprehensions that are similar to their higher income peers, but, also, show different feelings, which are seldom discussed in the literature about online shopping.

Fluid particles only separate exponentially in the dissipation range of turbulence after extremely long times

Science.gov (United States)

Dhariwal, Rohit; Bragg, Andrew D.

2018-03-01

In this paper, we consider how the statistical moments of the separation between two fluid particles grow with time when their separation lies in the dissipation range of turbulence. In this range, the fluid velocity field varies smoothly and the relative velocity of two fluid particles depends linearly upon their separation. While this may suggest that the rate at which fluid particles separate is exponential in time, this is not guaranteed because the strain rate governing their separation is a strongly fluctuating quantity in turbulence. Indeed, Afik and Steinberg [Nat. Commun. 8, 468 (2017), 10.1038/s41467-017-00389-8] argue that there is no convincing evidence that the moments of the separation between fluid particles grow exponentially with time in the dissipation range of turbulence. Motivated by this, we use direct numerical simulations (DNS) to compute the moments of particle separation over very long periods of time in a statistically stationary, isotropic turbulent flow to see if we ever observe evidence for exponential separation. Our results show that if the initial separation between the particles is infinitesimal, the moments of the particle separation first grow as power laws in time, but we then observe convincing evidence that at sufficiently long times the moments do grow exponentially. However, this exponential growth is only observed after extremely long times ≳200 τη , where τη is the Kolmogorov time scale. This is due to fluctuations in the strain rate about its mean value measured along the particle trajectories, the effect of which on the moments of the particle separation persists for very long times. We also consider the backward-in-time (BIT) moments of the article separation, and observe that they too grow exponentially in the long-time regime. However, a dramatic consequence of the exponential separation is that at long times the difference between the rate of the particle separation forward in time (FIT) and BIT grows

Hydraulic retention time affects stable acetate production from tofu processing wastewater in extreme-thermophilic (70°C) mixed culture fermentation.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Yun; Zhang, Fang; Wang, Ting; Shen, Nan; Yu, Zhong-Wei; Zeng, Raymond J

2016-09-01

Acetate is an important industrial chemical and its production from wastes via mixed culture fermentation (MCF) is economic. In this work, the effect of hydraulic retention time (HRT) on acetate production from tofu processing wastewater (TPW) in extreme-thermophilic (70°C) MCF was first investigated. It was found that long HRT (>3days) could lead to less acetate production while stable acetate production was achieved at short HRT (3days) with the yield of 0.57g-COD/g-CODTPW. The microbial community analysis showed that hydrogenotrophic methanogens (mainly Methanothermobacter) occupied up to 90% of archaea at both HRTs of 3 and 5days. However, Coprothermobacter, the main acetate-degraders, decreased from 35.74% to 10.58% of bacteria when HRT decreased from 5 to 3days, supporting the aggravation of syntrophic acetate oxidation in long HRT. This work demonstrated that HRT was a crucial factor to maintain stable acetate production from TPW in extreme-thermophilic MCF. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Predictive ability of the Society for Vascular Surgery Wound, Ischemia, and foot Infection (WIfI) classification system after first-time lower extremity revascularizations

OpenAIRE

Darling, Jeremy; McCallum, John C.; Soden, Peter A.; Guzman, R.J. (Raul J.); Wyers, M.C. (Mark C.); Hamdan, A.D. (Allen D.); Verhagen, Hence; Schermerhorn, Marc

2017-01-01

markdownabstract__Objective:__ The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Wound, Ischemia and foot Infection (WIfI) classification system was proposed to predict 1-year amputation risk and potential benefit from revascularization. Our goal was to evaluate the predictive ability of this scale in a real-world selection of patients undergoing a first-time lower extremity revascularization for chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI). __Methods:__ From 2005 to 2014, 1336 limbs underwent a first-time ...

The Contribution of Extreme Precipitation to the Total Precipitation in China

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

SUN Jian-Qi

2012-01-01

Using daily precipitation data from weather stations in China, the variations in the contribution of extreme precipitation to the total precipitation are analyzed. It is found that extreme precipitation accounts for approximately one third of the total precipitation based on the overall mean for China. Over the past half century, extreme precipitation has played a dominant role in the year-to-year variability of the total precipitation. On the decadal time scale, the extreme precipitation makes different contributions to the wetting and drying regions of China. The wetting trends of particular regions are mainly attributed to increases in extreme precipitation; in contrast, the drying trends of other regions are mainly due to decreases in non-extreme precipitation.

Heavy Tail Behavior of Rainfall Extremes across Germany

Science.gov (United States)

Castellarin, A.; Kreibich, H.; Vorogushyn, S.; Merz, B.

2017-12-01

Distributions are termed heavy-tailed if extreme values are more likely than would be predicted by probability distributions that have exponential asymptotic behavior. Heavy-tail behavior often leads to surprise, because historical observations can be a poor guide for the future. Heavy-tail behavior seems to be widespread for hydro-meteorological extremes, such as extreme rainfall and flood events. To date there have been only vague hints to explain under which conditions these extremes show heavy-tail behavior. We use an observational data set consisting of 11 climate variables at 1440 stations across Germany. This homogenized, gap-free data set covers 110 years (1901-2010) at daily resolution. We estimate the upper tail behavior, including its uncertainty interval, of daily precipitation extremes for the 1,440 stations at the annual and seasonal time scales. Different tail indicators are tested, including the shape parameter of the Generalized Extreme Value distribution, the upper tail ratio and the obesity index. In a further step, we explore to which extent the tail behavior can be explained by geographical and climate factors. A large number of characteristics is derived, such as station elevation, degree of continentality, aridity, measures for quantifying the variability of humidity and wind velocity, or event-triggering large-scale atmospheric situation. The link between the upper tail behavior and these characteristics is investigated via data mining methods capable of detecting non-linear relationships in large data sets. This exceptionally rich observational data set, in terms of number of stations, length of time series and number of explaining variables, allows insights into the upper tail behavior which is rarely possible given the typical observational data sets available.

Consumer behavior research

OpenAIRE

Hašková, Lucie

2010-01-01

The major part of this work is a consumer behavior research in process of buying christmas presents. The goal of this work is to describe a consumer behavior of Prague's customers in process of buying christmas presents, also describe a a consumer behavior of different age and social groups, as well as the difference between men and women.

The effect of poverty-influenced, food-related consumer behaviors on obesity: An analysis of the NHANES flexible consumer behavioral module.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Dare Wilson, Kellie

2017-01-01

Despite extensive research investigating obesity, the problem continues to increase, particularly in poor, minority, and under-resourced communities. However, the literature continues to demonstrate many obesity-predicating variables are outside of personal volitional control, such as food-related consumer behaviors, which are strongly influenced by income and environment. This cross-sectional study (n = 5,109) employed secondary data analysis to quantitatively examine the effect of food-related consumer variables on obesity while controlling for covariates. Participants answered questions regarding money spent on food, time preparing meals, number of meals eaten at home and away from home, and types of food products consumed (frozen/fast foods, sodas, salty snacks, etc.) In this study, 48.9% of respondents were either overweight or obese. No significant differences were noted between the contextual variables examined and BMI scores. However, given the sample's limitations illuminated in the study, further research regarding the relationship between obesity and poverty-influenced, food-related consumer behaviors is warranted.

Waste reduction through consumer education. Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Harrison, E.Z.

1996-05-01

The Waste Reduction through Consumer Education research project was conducted to determine how environmental educational strategies influence purchasing behavior in the supermarket. The objectives were to develop, demonstrate, and evaluate consumer education strategies for waste reduction. The amount of waste generated by packaging size and form, with an adjustment for local recyclability of waste, was determined for 14 product categories identified as having more waste generating and less waste generating product choices (a total of 484 products). Using supermarket scan data and shopper identification numbers, the research tracked the purchases of shoppers in groups receiving different education treatments for 9 months. Statistical tests applied to the purchase data assessed patterns of change between the groups by treatment period. Analysis of the data revealed few meaningful statistical differences between study groups or changes in behavior over time. Findings suggest that broad brush consumer education about waste reduction is not effective in changing purchasing behaviors in the short term. However, it may help create a general awareness of the issues surrounding excess packaging and consumer responsibility. The study concludes that the answer to waste reduction in the future may be a combination of voluntary initiatives by manufacturers and retailers, governmental intervention, and better-informed consumers.

Consumer energy conservation options - professional and consumer perspectives

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ritchie, B.J.R.; Claxton, J.D.; McDougall, G.H.G.

1980-01-01

The objectives of this study were to: identify government policies for reducing Canadian consumption of home heating fuel, electricity, and gasoline; assess probable effectiveness of different policy alternatives as a means of reducing consumer energy consumption; and measure the acceptability to Canadian consumers of the different policy alternatives. Interviews were conducted with energy conservation professionals to identify and evaluate existing energy conservation programs, and interviews were conducted with consumers who had evaluated selected programs previously reviewed by the professionals. Information was also gathered on energy conservation activities of consumers surveyed. A directory of 34 energy conservation programs was also compiled. Some of the conclusions reached in this report are as follows. There is a need for an information system to gather data on existing conservation programs in order to increase the knowledge of relevant parties as to the outcomes of operating programs. This would help evaluation and improvement of current programs and suggest new program possibilities. The professionals rated six of the 34 programs highly, including the Energuide and the Canadian Home Insulation Program (CHIP). Retrofitting programs for houses are recommended for continuation and expansion, with some consideration given to linking these kinds of programs with home audit programs. In the private transport sector, any new conservation programs should be thoroughly tested on a small scale before widespread implementation, as evidence indicates that certain programs favorably evaluated by professionals may not be received favorably by consumers. 3 refs., 24 tabs.

Consumer involvement in dietary guideline development: opinions from European stakeholders.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Kerry A; Hermoso, Maria; Timotijevic, Lada; Barnett, Julie; Lillegaard, Inger Therese L; Řehůřková, Irena; Larrañaga, Ainhoa; Lončarević-Srmić, Azra; Andersen, Lene Frost; Ruprich, Jiří; Fernández-Celemín, Laura; Raats, Monique M

2013-05-01

The involvement of consumers in the development of dietary guidelines has been promoted by national and international bodies. Yet, few best practice guidelines have been established to assist with such involvement. Qualitative semi-structured interviews explored stakeholders' beliefs about consumer involvement in dietary guideline development. Interviews were conducted in six European countries: the Czech Republic, Germany, Norway, Serbia, Spain and the UK. Seventy-seven stakeholders were interviewed. Stakeholders were grouped as government, scientific advisory body, professional and academic, industry or non-government organisations. Response rate ranged from 45 % to 95 %. Thematic analysis was conducted with the assistance of NVivo qualitative software. Analysis identified two main themes: (i) type of consumer involvement and (ii) pros and cons of consumer involvement. Direct consumer involvement (e.g. consumer organisations) in the decision-making process was discussed as a facilitator to guideline communication towards the end of the process. Indirect consumer involvement (e.g. consumer research data) was considered at both the beginning and the end of the process. Cons to consumer involvement included the effect of vested interests on objectivity; consumer disinterest; and complications in terms of time, finance and technical understanding. Pros related to increased credibility and trust in the process. Stakeholders acknowledged benefits to consumer involvement during the development of dietary guidelines, but remained unclear on the advantage of direct contributions to the scientific content of guidelines. In the absence of established best practice, clarity on the type and reasons for consumer involvement would benefit all actors.

Consumer Generated Advertising and Brand Trust in The Consumer Experience

OpenAIRE

Reeves, C

2010-01-01

Increasing media clutter now exposes consumers to thousands of commercial messages every day (Gritten, 2007). The advent of the internet and technology over the past twenty years now means consumer-generated media such as blogs, podcasts, and online social networking sites are a further source (Gritten, 2007). Building brand trust remains, now more than ever, crucial to corporate marketers, in a world where consumers are losing faith in traditional marketing strategies. Social media has give...

Crowdfunding and new trends in consumer behaviour

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joanna Pieniążek

2014-06-01

Full Text Available This paper discusses social funding and how it affects consumer behaviour. Crowdfunding contributes to the support and development of interesting products and services. Consumers have become not only the recipients but also co-creators of new products.The changes also apply to the consumption model.So far, the customer has received product already formed by the manufacturers. Now, the customer may pre-order the product via a crowdfunding site, by financially supporting the manufacturing process of the product. Online community which the consumer belongs to has the power to market the products which might never be created or would be created after a long period of time. It may also have influence on their appearance and functionality. The purpose of this article is to present the phenomenon of crowdfunding and an attempt at defining consumer attitudes related to the new model of funding, promotion and sale of products online.The article provides an overview of the literature on the subject and an analysis of selected crowdfunding sites.

Ethical aspects of advertising in the struggle for consumer confidence

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Galavtina Anna

2016-05-01

Full Text Available This article discusses the issues associated with ethical aspects of advertising activities of the enterprise and consumer perception. The significance of this study is primarily due to the fact that in today's world, the realization of any products (goods is impossible without advertising support. The consumer has the right to receive the necessary, affordable, reliable and timely information about the product, which allows its conscious and informed choice. The purpose of this article is to reveal the problematic issues of ethics and truthfulness in advertising and to show their influence on consumer choice. The results of the study show that consumers tend to choose the product, which they are more informed about, even being aware of the shortcomings of this product. Companies, open to consumers, increasingly come into market leaders.

Tourniquet Deflation Prior to 20 Minutes in Upper Extremity Intravenous Regional Anesthesia.

Science.gov (United States)

Gurich, Richard W; Langan, Justin W; Teasdall, Robert J; Tanner, Stephanie L; Sanders, John L

2018-03-01

Bier blocks, or intravenous regional anesthesia (IVRA), are a method of anesthesia for upper extremity surgeries. This study reports our experience with tourniquet deflation prior to 20 minutes with upper extremity IVRA. This study was designed as a retrospective cohort analysis. Records, including intraoperative and immediate postoperative anesthesia notes, of 430 patients who underwent IVRA with an upper extremity Bier block and a corresponding tourniquet time of less than 20 minutes were reviewed. Patient demographics, procedure(s) performed, American Society of Anesthesiologists scores, volume of lidocaine used in Bier block, tourniquet time, and any complications were recorded. This cohort consisted of 127 males and 303 females. The 3 most common procedures performed were carpal tunnel release (315), trigger finger release (47), and excision of masses (34). The average tourniquet time for this cohort was 16 minutes (range, 9-19 minutes), and the average volume of lidocaine (0.5% plain) injected was 44 mL (range, 30-70 mL). A tourniquet time of 17 minutes or less was observed in 339 patients, and 170 patients had tourniquet times of 15 minutes or less. Five complications were recorded: intraoperative vomiting, mild postoperative nausea/vomiting, severe postoperative nausea and vomiting, and transient postoperative hypotension that responded to a fluid bolus. No major complications were observed in our cohort of upper extremity IVRA and tourniquet times of less than 20 minutes. Several variables play a role in the safety of upper extremity IVRA.

Overview of the biology of extreme events

Science.gov (United States)

Gutschick, V. P.; Bassirirad, H.

2008-12-01

Extreme events have, variously, meteorological origins as in heat waves or precipitation extremes, or biological origins as in pest and disease eruptions (or tectonic, earth-orbital, or impact-body origins). Despite growing recognition that these events are changing in frequency and intensity, a universal model of ecological responses to these events is slow to emerge. Extreme events, negative and positive, contrast with normal events in terms of their effects on the physiology, ecology, and evolution of organisms, hence also on water, carbon, and nutrient cycles. They structure biogeographic ranges and biomes, almost surely more than mean values often used to define biogeography. They are challenging to study for obvious reasons of field-readiness but also because they are defined by sequences of driving variables such as temperature, not point events. As sequences, their statistics (return times, for example) are challenging to develop, as also from the involvement of multiple environmental variables. These statistics are not captured well by climate models. They are expected to change with climate and land-use change but our predictive capacity is currently limited. A number of tools for description and analysis of extreme events are available, if not widely applied to date. Extremes for organisms are defined by their fitness effects on those organisms, and are specific to genotypes, making them major agents of natural selection. There is evidence that effects of extreme events may be concentrated in an extended recovery phase. We review selected events covering ranges of time and magnitude, from Snowball Earth to leaf functional loss in weather events. A number of events, such as the 2003 European heat wave, evidence effects on water and carbon cycles over large regions. Rising CO2 is the recent extreme of note, for its climatic effects and consequences for growing seasons, transpiration, etc., but also directly in its action as a substrate of photosynthesis

Detection and attribution of extreme weather disasters

Science.gov (United States)

Huggel, Christian; Stone, Dáithí; Hansen, Gerrit

2014-05-01

Single disasters related to extreme weather events have caused loss and damage on the order of up to tens of billions US dollars over the past years. Recent disasters fueled the debate about whether and to what extent these events are related to climate change. In international climate negotiations disaster loss and damage is now high on the agenda, and related policy mechanisms have been discussed or are being implemented. In view of funding allocation and effective risk reduction strategies detection and attribution to climate change of extreme weather events and disasters is a key issue. Different avenues have so far been taken to address detection and attribution in this context. Physical climate sciences have developed approaches, among others, where variables that are reasonably sampled over climatically relevant time periods and related to the meteorological characteristics of the extreme event are examined. Trends in these variables (e.g. air or sea surface temperatures) are compared between observations and climate simulations with and without anthropogenic forcing. Generally, progress has been made in recent years in attribution of changes in the chance of some single extreme weather events to anthropogenic climate change but there remain important challenges. A different line of research is primarily concerned with losses related to the extreme weather events over time, using disaster databases. A growing consensus is that the increase in asset values and in exposure are main drivers of the strong increase of economic losses over the past several decades, and only a limited number of studies have found trends consistent with expectations from climate change. Here we propose a better integration of existing lines of research in detection and attribution of extreme weather events and disasters by applying a risk framework. Risk is thereby defined as a function of the probability of occurrence of an extreme weather event, and the associated consequences

On target : extreme engineering's tools used for fundamental and high-end drilling operations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cope, G.

2006-09-15

Positioned at the bottom of the drillstring, measurement-while-drilling systems can discern the location of the drillbit and transmit information back to the surface in the form of pulses in the mud system. The technology is costly, time-consuming and provides a limited amount of information. This article presented details of new devices developed by Extreme Engineering Ltd. to communicate drillbit location information from the bottom of the well to the surface in real time. The XPulse is a mud pulse system with continuous directional measuring capacity that allows operators on location to perform fundamental directional drilling operations without using a technician to interpret data. Installed behind the drillbit, the device records azimuth and inclination when the bit is sitting idle. Inclination is measured using a set of 3 axis accelerometers, quartz crystal devices that are sensitive to the Earth's gravitational force. Azimuth is measured with a flux gate magnetometer that senses its orientation to the Earth's magnetic field. The 2 data are computed to give an orientation of the drillbit in three-dimensional space. Extreme Engineering Ltd. has also developed XAct, a new set of tools using acoustic telemetry to transmit data to the surface using piezo ceramic materials. The acoustic energy is transmitted up the steel drillpipe at the rate of 20 bits per second to the surface, where an electro acoustic receiver detects it. The rate is sufficient to transmit large amounts of geological and drilling information to the surface in real time. Designed for high-end applications, the new suite of tools has cost the company almost $30 million to develop. It was concluded that industry response to the new technologies has been positive. 4 figs.

Consumer in insurance law

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Čorkalo Milena

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The paper analyses the notion of consumer in the European Union law, and, in particular, the notion of consumer in insurance law. The author highligts the differences between the notion of consumer is in aquis communautaire and in insurance law, discussing whether the consumer can be defined in both field in the same way, concerning that insurance services differ a lot from other kind of services. Having regarded unequal position of contracting parties and information and technical disadvantages of a weaker party, author pleads for broad definition of consumer in insurance law. In Serbian law, the consumer is not defined in consistent way. That applies on Serbian insurance law as well. Therefore, the necessity of precise and broad definition of consumes is underlined, in order to delimit the circle of subject who are in need for protection. The author holds that the issue of determination of the circle of persons entitled to extended protection as consumers is of vital importance for further development of insurance market in Serbia.

Price Intransparency, Consumer Decision Making and European Consumer Law

NARCIS (Netherlands)

W.H. van Boom (Willem)

2011-01-01

textabstractPrice comparison is a basic element of competition. For comparison to work, at least prices need to be transparent. Moreover, price is usually a focal point in consumer thinking and deciding on transactions. Hence, obfuscating prices can be detrimental to consumers. Therefore, it is

The origins of the consumer society: socio-philosophical analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O. O. Serdyuk

2014-05-01

Full Text Available This article investigates the prerequisites of the consumer society and the theories of «consumer revolution». According to these theories, the formation of consumer society began long before the industrial age, consumerism revolution is represented by a consequence of economic development of production and markets at the end of the eighteenth century, which contributed to a significant expansion of public participation in the consumption and the changing of role of things in social life. It is shown that in this time consumption becomes more demonstrative, the status of things, is changing which is beginning to be appreciated not its durability, utility, and compliance with the latest fashion trends and prestige. The author believes that in the eighteenth century consumption only began to emerge and was not spread to the in public general, was part of a private rather than public life, being limited practice of general population. Concepts of consumer revolution are retrospective theories aimed to study of the origins of the trends of development of the society acquired relevance in our time. The author concludes that in traditional and premodern societies consumption due to objective reasons could not be widespread.

Consumer detection and acceptability of reduced-sodium bread.

Science.gov (United States)

La Croix, Kimberly W; Fiala, Steven C; Colonna, Ann E; Durham, Catherine A; Morrissey, Michael T; Drum, Danna K; Kohn, Melvin A

2015-06-01

Bread is the largest contributor of Na to the American diet and excess Na consumption contributes to premature death and disability. We sought to determine the Na level at which consumers could detect a difference between reduced-Na bread and bread with typical Na content, and to determine if consumer sensory acceptability and purchase intent differed between reduced-Na bread and bread with typical Na content. Difference testing measured ability to detect differences in control bread and reduced-Na bread using two-alternative forced choice testing. Acceptability was measured using a nine-point hedonic scale and purchase intent was measured using a five-point purchase intent scale. Difference and acceptability testing were conducted in Portland, OR, USA in January 2013. Eighty-two consumers participated in difference testing and 109 consumers participated in acceptability testing. Consumers did not detect a difference in saltiness between the control bread and the 10 % reduced-Na bread, but did detect a difference between the control bread and bread reduced in Na content by 20 % and 30 %. Na reductions had no effect on consumer acceptability of sensory characteristics, including overall liking, appearance, aroma, flavour, sweetness, salt level and texture, or purchase intent. Reducing Na levels by up to 30 % in the sandwich bread tested did not affect consumer liking or purchase intent of the product. These results support national recommendations for small, incremental Na reductions in the food supply over time and assure bread manufacturers that sensory characteristics and consumer purchase intent of their products will be preserved after Na reductions occur.

Consumer-to-Consumer Electronic Commerce: A Distinct Research Stream

OpenAIRE

Kiku Jones; Lori N.K. Leonard

2007-01-01

Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) e-commerce is a growing area of e-commerce. However, according to a meta-analysis of critical themes of e-commerce, C2C e-commerce was only represented in the area of online auctions (Wareham, Zheng, & Straub, 2005). C2C e-commerce can encompass much more than just auctions. The question then becomes, “is C2C e-commerce a different research area that deserves its own stream of research?†This study adapts constructs from a business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce st...

The rise of smart customers. How consumer power will change the global power and utilities business. What consumers think

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2011-08-15

Smart technology puts unprecedented power in the hands of consumers to manage and control their energy use. In time, this will fundamentally shift the balance of customer relations. It seems the era of a one-way relationship - where a utility delivers energy to domestic consumers, end of story - is over. Most power and utility businesses are currently treating the smart transition as an infrastructure upgrade, focusing chiefly on the technology and on fulfilling regulatory obligations. So far, the customer perspective and need for consumer education have not figured prominently in smart implementation programs. But following customer resistance to implementations in the US and Australia, the sector has been alerted to further challenges. Consumers' newfound power to say 'no' is one that the industry is not used to dealing with. Power and utility businesses must learn from the mistakes made so far. They need customer buy-in before they can exploit the host of new business opportunities that smart technology could provide. To explore the sector's readiness to respond to the present cycle of change, we asked domestic energy consumers how they viewed their relationship with energy providers. We wanted to know if they understood the benefits of smart metering, as well as their appetite for smart energy services.

The new frontiers for CCT: Considering consumer-producer interaction in consumer culture

NARCIS (Netherlands)

MSc Lotte Salome

2010-01-01

Previous investigations of consumer subcultures in the CCT tradition focused primarily on consumer behaviours, feelings, experiences and meanings of consumption. This paper advocates that in order to deeply understand and interpret a particular subculture, researchers in consumer culture should

Prediction of length-of-day using extreme learning machine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yu Lei

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Traditional artificial neural networks (ANN such as back-propagation neural networks (BPNN provide good predictions of length-of-day (LOD. However, the determination of network topology is difficult and time consuming. Therefore, we propose a new type of neural network, extreme learning machine (ELM, to improve the efficiency of LOD predictions. Earth orientation parameters (EOP C04 time-series provides daily values from International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS, which serves as our database. First, the known predictable effects that can be described by functional models—such as the effects of solid earth, ocean tides, or seasonal atmospheric variations—are removed a priori from the C04 time-series. Only the residuals after the subtraction of a priori model from the observed LOD data (i.e., the irregular and quasi-periodic variations are employed for training and predictions. The predicted LOD is the sum of a prior extrapolation model and the ELM predictions of the residuals. Different input patterns are discussed and compared to optimize the network solution. The prediction results are analyzed and compared with those obtained by other machine learning-based prediction methods, including BPNN, generalization regression neural networks (GRNN, and adaptive network-based fuzzy inference systems (ANFIS. It is shown that while achieving similar prediction accuracy, the developed method uses much less training time than other methods. Furthermore, to conduct a direct comparison with the existing prediction techniques, the mean-absolute-error (MAE from the proposed method is compared with that from the EOP prediction comparison campaign (EOP PCC. The results indicate that the accuracy of the proposed method is comparable with that of the former techniques. The implementation of the proposed method is simple.

Spatial extreme value analysis to project extremes of large-scale indicators for severe weather.

Science.gov (United States)

Gilleland, Eric; Brown, Barbara G; Ammann, Caspar M

2013-09-01

Concurrently high values of the maximum potential wind speed of updrafts ( W max ) and 0-6 km wind shear (Shear) have been found to represent conducive environments for severe weather, which subsequently provides a way to study severe weather in future climates. Here, we employ a model for the product of these variables (WmSh) from the National Center for Atmospheric Research/United States National Center for Environmental Prediction reanalysis over North America conditioned on their having extreme energy in the spatial field in order to project the predominant spatial patterns of WmSh. The approach is based on the Heffernan and Tawn conditional extreme value model. Results suggest that this technique estimates the spatial behavior of WmSh well, which allows for exploring possible changes in the patterns over time. While the model enables a method for inferring the uncertainty in the patterns, such analysis is difficult with the currently available inference approach. A variation of the method is also explored to investigate how this type of model might be used to qualitatively understand how the spatial patterns of WmSh correspond to extreme river flow events. A case study for river flows from three rivers in northwestern Tennessee is studied, and it is found that advection of WmSh from the Gulf of Mexico prevails while elsewhere, WmSh is generally very low during such extreme events. © 2013 The Authors. Environmetrics published by JohnWiley & Sons, Ltd.

Models of sequential decision making in consumer lending

OpenAIRE

Kanshukan Rajaratnam; Peter A. Beling; George A. Overstreet

2016-01-01

Abstract In this paper, we introduce models of sequential decision making in consumer lending. From the definition of adverse selection in static lending models, we show that homogenous borrowers take-up offers at different instances of time when faced with a sequence of loan offers. We postulate that bounded rationality and diverse decision heuristics used by consumers drive the decisions they make about credit offers. Under that postulate, we show how observation of early decisions in a seq...

Consumer perceptions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ngapo, T. M.; Dransfield, E.; Martin, J. F.

2004-01-01

Consumer focus groups in France, England, Sweden and Denmark were used to obtain insights into the decision-making involved in the choice of fresh pork and attitudes towards today's pig production systems. Many positive perceptions of pork meat were evoked. Negative images of the production systems...... that there was no link between the negative images of production methods and their purchase behaviour. The groups were clearly confused and mistrusted the limited information available at the point of purchase. Careful consideration should be given to meat labelling, in particular taking account of the evident consumer...... ethnocentrism, to assure that such information is targeted to enhance consumer confidence....

Consumer Behavior Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kaveh Peighambari

2016-04-01

Full Text Available This article analyzes 12 years of recent scholarly research on consumer behavior published in the five leading international journals in this field. Analyzing academic contributions to a specific area of research provides valuable insights into how it has evolved over a defined period. The approach was to briefly discuss content analysis and its application in scholarly literature review studies. The methodology used here involves the classification of topics to evaluate key trends in consumer behavior literature. It includes a ranking of topics published, typology of the published articles, the research classification in terms of methodologies, and analysis techniques. The most cited articles in the field and within each journal are also examined. The comprehensive literature review of consumer behavior research undertaken in this article could advance the discipline of consumer behavior research by elucidating the evolution of consumer behavior literature in the studied period.

Teaching Consumers To Use the Internet To Make Consumer Decisions.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Neill, Barbara

1999-01-01

An adult-education course familiarized participants with online consumer resources. Beyond teaching the mechanics of Internet use, it showed how to use the Internet as a tool for consumer decision making. (SK)

True or False: Consumer Perception to Green Consumer Retail

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sergio Silva Braga Junior

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to analyze the influence of greenwshing in consumer awareness for green consumption in retail. Under this approach was evaluated if the greenwashing confuses consumers about what is to be green consumption and if it relies on green consumption. For the verification of the objective proposed by this work, an exploratory survey was conducted quantitative, through a survey with a sample of 359 respondents of São Paulo/Brazil. As for the justification of the method used, the exploratory research, with a non-probabilistic convenience sampling and quantitative nature, are characterized by a field approach seeking situational characteristics presented by respondents to generate quantitative measures of the attributes observed by them. For data collection was used a specialized company and market research and thus were collected data from real consumers. As a result it was observed that the greenwashing confuses consumed and does not influence the confidence of the green product.

Consumer behaviour towards new products

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bucatariu Mihaela

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The main purpose of this paper is to find a structure of consumer behaviour, especially regarding the preference for the newly-released products from the market. We intend to study the impact of the new, innovative products compared to the traditional ones. Empirical research is based on the selling mix of a company in Romania and Austria. The analysis of this case will be done with the support of an econometric model of simple regression. This research confirms the validation of the structure and the attitude of the consumers towards the new products, launched by that company. By applying this linear model, it is possible to identify the percentage of the increase or decrease in consumption of new products. The need of carrying out this study regarding the impact of the consumption of new products is to create a profile and to find the causes that influence their acquisition. The originality of this paper lays in studying some aspects of influence over the consumption of new products from McDonald’s in Romania and Austria. Where does McDonald’s stand regarding the digitalization? It is not enough to sell new products; it is also necessary to bring innovation in the organization. Nowadays consumers are more present in the online environment and retailers are adapting at a fast pace to their needs of direct communication and transparency. How does a company that faces Slow Food and Bio era, deal with consumers who are more preoccupied with the nutritive values of the nourishment act? Platforms for real-time communication with clients such as “Our food. Your question” redefined the term of transparency and helped McDonald’s stop bad rumors. The results of the research will show us if there really is transformation in behaviour towards traditional products and in what degree consumers are influenced by innovation.

Consumer preferences in respect of processed fruit and berry products

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gribova N. А.

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Nowadays fruits, berries and processed products are an indispensable component of the human diet throughout the year. Frozen fruits and berries are widely distributed on the Russian market and are part of the food industry worldwide. Frozen products become popular among consumers for home use due to the minimal cooking time. Consumer evaluation is the most relevant and significant for identifying preferences and evaluating quality products in Russian markets. In this regard, a qualitative analysis of marketing research has been carried out and preferences have been identified according to which criteria consumers buy quick-frozen products. Some methods of sensory analysis have been used (consumer evaluation, the profile method, and pairwise comparison method. The dominant factor in choosing a brand of quick-frozen products is the combination of an acceptable price and quality, and to a lesser extent, the recommendation of acquaintances, the type of packaging and advertising of products. The research is aimed at identifying organoleptic properties that affect the consumer evaluation of the quality of frozen, thawed grapes in comparison with the reference product. Fruits and berries freeze for hours and even minutes, but are stored for a long time. The problem arises in rehydration – the return of the product to its original state, close to fresh natural raw material. The main goal of the research is aimed at identifying some rational method of defrosting, corresponding to organoleptic and consumer properties. With the help of organoleptic evaluation the best ways of defrosting have been identified – the microwave oven and the freezer. These methods allow obtaining thawed foods with the finest quality and identical to natural raw materials. The storage time after defrosting has been revealed: in the microwave oven – 60 min; at the room temperature – 80 min; in the coldstore – 100 min. The obtained information can be useful for consumers

Field Report - Consumer Survey

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Kristian S.; Gwozdz, Wencke

The present report outlines the purpose, scope, and methodology of a recently conducted four-country consumer survey that explored sustainable clothing consumption. The report also presents a sample of the descriptive findings from the survey (see Gwozdz, Nielsen & Müller, 2017 for further results...... foundation for upcoming deliverables relating to quality of life, acceptance of new business models, and consumer policy recommendations. The results presented in the report relate, specifically, to consumers’ general clothing consumption patterns, acceptance of new business models, and environmental...... purchasing outlets, and acceptance of new business models. Polish and American consumers purchased the most clothing items. Polish consumers also reported the lowest expenditures on clothing, whereas German consumers reported the highest expenditures. Only a limited proportion of consumers had previously...

High-resolution, time-resolved MRA provides superior definition of lower-extremity arterial segments compared to 2D time-of-flight imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Thornton, F J; Du, J; Suleiman, S A; Dieter, R; Tefera, G; Pillai, K R; Korosec, F R; Mistretta, C A; Grist, T M

2006-08-01

To evaluate a novel time-resolved contrast-enhanced (CE) projection reconstruction (PR) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) method for identifying potential bypass graft target vessels in patients with Class II-IV peripheral vascular disease. Twenty patients (M:F = 15:5, mean age = 58 years, range = 48-83 years), were recruited from routine MRA referrals. All imaging was performed on a 1.5 T MRI system with fast gradients (Signa LX; GE Healthcare, Waukesha, WI). Images were acquired with a novel technique that combined undersampled PR with a time-resolved acquisition to yield an MRA method with high temporal and spatial resolution. The method is called PR hyper time-resolved imaging of contrast kinetics (PR-hyperTRICKS). Quantitative and qualitative analyses were used to compare two-dimensional (2D) time-of-flight (TOF) and PR-hyperTRICKS in 13 arterial segments per lower extremity. Statistical analysis was performed with the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Fifteen percent (77/517) of the vessels were scored as missing or nondiagnostic with 2D TOF, but were scored as diagnostic with PR-hyperTRICKS. Image quality was superior with PR-hyperTRICKS vs. 2D TOF (on a four-point scale, mean rank = 3.3 +/- 1.2 vs. 2.9 +/- 1.2, P < 0.0001). PR-hyperTRICKS produced images with high contrast-to-noise ratios (CNR) and high spatial and temporal resolution. 2D TOF images were of inferior quality due to moderate spatial resolution, inferior CNR, greater flow-related artifacts, and absence of temporal resolution. PR-hyperTRICKS provides superior preoperative assessment of lower limb ischemia compared to 2D TOF.

A comparison of observed extreme water levels at the German Bight elaborated through an extreme value analysis (EVA) with extremes derived from a regionally coupled ocean-atmospheric climate model (MPI-OM)

Science.gov (United States)

Möller, Jens; Heinrich, Hartmut

2017-04-01

As a consequence of climate change atmospheric and oceanographic extremes and their potential impacts on coastal regions are of growing concern for governmental authorities responsible for the transportation infrastructure. Highest risks for shipping as well as for rail and road traffic originate from combined effects of extremes of storm surges and heavy rainfall which sometimes lead to insufficient dewatering of inland waterways. The German Ministry of Transport and digital Infrastructure therefore has tasked its Network of Experts to investigate the possible evolutions of extreme threats for low lands and especially for Kiel Canal, which is an important shortcut for shipping between the North and Baltic Seas. In this study we present results of a comparison of an Extreme Value Analysis (EVA) carried out on gauge observations and values derived from a coupled Regional Ocean-Atmosphere Climate Model (MPI-OM). High water levels at the coasts of the North and Baltic Seas are one of the most important hazards which increase the risk of flooding of the low-lying land and prevents such areas from an adequate dewatering. In this study changes in the intensity (magnitude of the extremes) and duration of extreme water levels (above a selected threshold) are investigated for several gauge stations with data partly reaching back to 1843. Different methods are used for the extreme value statistics, (1) a stationary general Pareto distribution (GPD) model as well as (2) an instationary statistical model for better reproduction of the impact of climate change. Most gauge stations show an increase of the mean water level of about 1-2 mm/year, with a stronger increase of the highest water levels and a decrease (or lower increase) of the lowest water levels. Also, the duration of possible dewatering time intervals for the Kiel-Canal was analysed. The results for the historical gauge station observations are compared to the statistics of modelled water levels from the coupled

Imaging of upper extremity stress fractures in the athlete.

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Mark W

2006-07-01

Although it is much less common than injuries in the lower extremities, an upper extremity stress injury can have a significant impact on an athlete. If an accurate and timely diagnosis is to be made, the clinician must have a high index of suspicion of a stress fracture in any athlete who is involved in a throwing, weightlifting, or upper extremity weight-bearing sport and presents with chronic pain in the upper extremity. Imaging should play an integral role in the work-up of these patients; if initial radiographs are unrevealing, further cross-sectional imaging should be strongly considered. Although a three-phase bone scan is highly sensitive in this regard, MRI has become the study of choice at most centers.

Consumer returns policies with endogenous deadline and supply chain coordination

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Xu, Lei; Li, Yongjian; Govindan, Kannan

2015-01-01

on consumers' behavior and the pricing and inventory policies of the retailer are systematically investigated. Moreover, based on the analysis of consumer return behavior on a traditional buy-back contract, we present a new differentiated buy-back contract, contingent on return deadline, to coordinate a supply......This paper considers returns policies under which consumers' valuation depends on the refund amount they receive and the length of time theymustwait after the item is returned. Consumers face an uncertain valuation before purchase, and the realization of that purchase's value occurs only after...... chain consisting of an upstream manufacturer and a downstream retailer. Finally, extensions on some specific behavioral factors such as moral hazard, inertia return, and external effect are investigated....

Crisis management and Organic Foods Industry: How to keep consumer confidence in times of negative media coverage

OpenAIRE

Arp, Kirsten; Wegner, Karin

2014-01-01

Consumer confidence is a very important basis for further development of the Organic Food Sector worldwide. But consumer confidence can be destroyed through (Organic) food crisis or scandals. That is why it is very important to be prepared as an individual company and as the sector as a whole. Crisis management like a crisis plan and issue management can minimize the reputational and financial damage.

Direct-to-consumer advertising: its effects on stakeholders.

Science.gov (United States)

Montoya, Isaac D; Lee-Dukes, Gwen; Shah, Dhvani

2008-01-01

The escalating growth in the development of pharmaceutical drugs has caused the pharmaceutical industry to market drugs directly to consumers. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising has increased immensely in the past 15 years and continues to grow each year. The advantages of DTC advertising include an increase in consumer knowledge, patient autonomy, and possibly providing physicians and pharmacists with up-to-date information about the recent trends in the marketplace. However, there is also an equally notable list of disadvantages, which include concerns about the quality of information provided, loss in physician productivity due to time spent convincing patients that what they want is not in their best interest, and increases in the reimbursement expenditure of the insurers. Because of these conflicting outcomes, the issue of DTC advertising has become controversial. This report offers an overview of DTC advertising and focuses on its effects on physicians, pharmacists, consumers, insurers, the government, and pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Consumer identification with store brands: Differences between consumers according to their brand loyalty

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Natalia Rubio

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Retail management of store brands (SBs has focused on achieving positioning in value and creating associations of smart or expert shopping. The result is that value-conscious consumers and market mavens are the main targets of these brands. This study proposes and contrasts empirically a theoretical model of the effect of market mavenism and value consciousness on consumer identification with SBs. We also perform a multi-group analysis based on the consumer tendency to be loyal to the brands he or she buys. Consumers who are loyal to brands are very attractive segments for firms, due to the potential benefits these consumers represent in the long term, whereas consumers with little loyalty to brands can be an attractive segment for potential benefits in the short term. The results obtained in this study show differences between these two groups. For consumers who are loyal to brands, the results stress strong identification with the SB among the most value-conscious consumers, due fundamentally to their greater disagreement with the greater functional risk of these brands as compared to manufacturer brands and due to their greater conviction of the better price-quality ratio of SBs. In consumers with little brand loyalty, we find identification with the SB among the consumers with the greatest market mavenism, as a result of their greater perception of smart or expert shopping for these brands. Significant implications for management are derived from this study.

Playground slide-related injuries in preschool children: increased risk of lower extremity injuries when riding on laps.

Science.gov (United States)

Jennissen, Charles A; Koos, Maggie; Denning, Gerene

2018-04-10

The purpose of this study was to better understand the factors associated with playground slide-related injuries in preschool children and to test the hypothesis that riding on laps increases the likelihood of lower extremity injuries. Playground slide-related injuries (product code 1242) in children ≤5 years of age treated in emergency departments from 2002 to 2015 were identified (N = 12,686) using the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS). Descriptive and comparative analyses, including chi-square testing and binary logistic regression, were performed. Based on NEISS stratified national sampling estimates, over 350,000 children ≤5 years of age were injured on slides from 2002 to 2015. Overall, 59% of the children were male, and 65% were white. Almost 60% of injuries occurred in parks or other public areas. The most frequent diagnosis was a fracture (36%); lacerations were 19% of the injuries. A higher proportion of musculoskeletal injuries were seen in toddlers < 3 years old as compared to those 3-5 years of age (p < 0.001). Injuries to the lower extremities increased in frequency as age decreased, whereas injuries to the upper extremities and head/neck/face were more common in older preschoolers. Children < 3 years of age were 12 times more likely to be identified from narratives as being on another person's lap at the time of injury. Children identified as being on a lap had an increased odds of injury to the lower extremity than to other body parts (OR 43.0, 95% confidence interval (CI) 32.0-58.0), and of lower leg/ankle fracture than fractures elsewhere (OR 49.5, 95% CI 31.7-77.4). Decreasing age was associated with a higher likelihood of being identified as sliding down on another person's lap and a higher likelihood of lower extremity injuries. Healthcare providers should be mindful of the potential for these slide-related injuries as they can result in a toddler's fracture of

Consumer Buying Behavior

OpenAIRE

Irena Vida; Mojca Maher Pirc

2006-01-01

The study examines the phenomenon of national identity and economic ethnocentrism in consumer buying behavior. Analysis of data collected from a representative sample of adult Slovenian consumers reveals only moderately expressed ethnocentric tendencies. Similar moderation was revealed in the preferences of Slovenian consumers for patriotic purchasing behavior, whereby the domestic origin of products was more important in the case of nondurable goods and services than in the case of durable g...

Real-time Pricing in Power Markets

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Boom, Anette; Schwenen, Sebastian

We examine welfare e ects of real-time pricing in electricity markets. Before stochastic energy demand is known, competitive retailers contract with nal consumers who exogenously do not have real-time meters. After demand is realized, two electricity generators compete in a uniform price auction...... to satisfy demand from retailers acting on behalf of subscribed customers and from consumers with real-time meters. Increasing the number of consumers on real-time pricing does not always increase welfare since risk-averse consumers dislike uncertain and high prices arising through market power...

Real-time Pricing in Power Markets

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Boom, Anette; Schwenen, Sebastian

We examine welfare eects of real-time pricing in electricity markets. Before stochastic energy demand is known, competitive retailers contract with nal consumers who exogenously do not have real-time meters. After demand is realized, two electricity generators compete in a uniform price auction...... to satisfy demand from retailers acting on behalf of subscribed customers and from consumers with real-time meters. Increasing the number of consumers on real-time pricing does not always increase welfare since risk-averse consumers dislike uncertain and high prices arising through market power...

Consumer Perception of Competitiveness – Theoretical-Instrumental Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Duralia Oana

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Behaviorist economic approach has recorded a quantum leap in a relatively short period of time, as studying the relationship between consumer behavior and companies’ strategic decisions based on market competitiveness are no longer an unknown area. However, this issue remains actual in view of the fact that during the decision process of purchase, consumers do not always behave rationally, as they are the only ones who can appreciate if the offer of the company, in terms of range, quality, price and auxiliary services meet their needs or not. In this context, this paper aims to deepen the existing interconnection between the market decisions of the enterprise and consumer behavior, as measure standard for the competitiveness of a firm on a certain market.

Determinants of Consumer eHealth Information Seeking Behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Sandefer, Ryan H; Westra, Bonnie L; Khairat, Saif S; Pieczkiewicz, David S; Speedie, Stuart M

2015-01-01

Patients are increasingly using the Internet and other technologies to engage in their own healthcare, but little research has focused on the determinants of consumer eHealth behaviors related to Internet use. This study uses data from 115,089 respondents to four years of the National Health Interview Series to identify the associations between one consumer eHealth behavior (information seeking) and demographics, health measures, and Personal Health Information Management (PHIM) (messaging, scheduling, refills, and chat). Individuals who use PHIM are 7.5 times more likely to search the internet for health related information. Just as health has social determinants, the results of this study indicate there are potential social determinants of consumer eHealth behaviors including personal demographics, health status, and healthcare access.

Using GRACE Satellite Gravimetry for Assessing Large-Scale Hydrologic Extremes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexander Y. Sun

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Global assessment of the spatiotemporal variability in terrestrial total water storage anomalies (TWSA in response to hydrologic extremes is critical for water resources management. Using TWSA derived from the gravity recovery and climate experiment (GRACE satellites, this study systematically assessed the skill of the TWSA-climatology (TC approach and breakpoint (BP detection method for identifying large-scale hydrologic extremes. The TC approach calculates standardized anomalies by using the mean and standard deviation of the GRACE TWSA corresponding to each month. In the BP detection method, the empirical mode decomposition (EMD is first applied to identify the mean return period of TWSA extremes, and then a statistical procedure is used to identify the actual occurrence times of abrupt changes (i.e., BPs in TWSA. Both detection methods were demonstrated on basin-averaged TWSA time series for the world’s 35 largest river basins. A nonlinear event coincidence analysis measure was applied to cross-examine abrupt changes detected by these methods with those detected by the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI. Results show that our EMD-assisted BP procedure is a promising tool for identifying hydrologic extremes using GRACE TWSA data. Abrupt changes detected by the BP method coincide well with those of the SPI anomalies and with documented hydrologic extreme events. Event timings obtained by the TC method were ambiguous for a number of river basins studied, probably because the GRACE data length is too short to derive long-term climatology at this time. The BP approach demonstrates a robust wet-dry anomaly detection capability, which will be important for applications with the upcoming GRACE Follow-On mission.

Extremal RN/CFT in both hands revisited

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kuo, En-Jui; Yang, Yi

2016-01-01

We study RN/CFT correspondence for four dimensional extremal Reissner–Nordstrom black hole. We uplift the 4d RN black hole to a 5d rotating black hole and make a geometric regularization of the 5d space–time. Both hands central charges are obtained correctly at the same time by Brown–Henneaux technique.

Anders Breivik: Extreme Beliefs Mistaken for Psychosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Rahman, Tahir; Resnick, Phillip J; Harry, Bruce

2016-03-01

The case of Anders Breivik, who committed mass murder in Norway in 2011, stirred controversy among forensic mental health experts. His bizarrely composed compendium and references to himself as the "Knights Templar" raised concerns that he had a psychotic mental illness. Beliefs such as Mr. Breivik's that precede odd, unusual, or extremely violent behavior present a unique challenge to the forensic evaluator, who sometimes struggles to understand those beliefs. Psychotic disorder frequently is invoked to characterize odd, unusual, or extreme beliefs, with a classification that has evolved over time. However, the important concept of overvalued idea, largely ignored in American psychiatry, may better characterize these beliefs in some cases. We discuss the definitions of delusion and overvalued ideas in the context of Anders Breivik's rigidly held extreme beliefs. We also review the British definition of overvalued idea and discuss McHugh's construct, to introduce the term "extreme overvalued belief" as an aid in sharpening the forensic evaluator's conceptualization of these and similar beliefs. © 2016 American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.

BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS OF CONSUMER COMPLAINT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrie Prasetyo

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Complaining is one form of communication for consumers to express their dissatisfaction. Understanding the consumer complaint behavior is an important thing for businesses; however, it is not easy to do. The initial step in understanding this behavior of consumer complaints is to map consumers based on their behavior of complaints and analyze the factors that influence this. This study examines the complaint behavior of consumers in Cibubur who have experienced dissatisfaction with a product.  The objectives of this study are to map the consumer complaint behavior and identify its relationship with various factors such as consumer demographics, personality, attitude to businesses, attribution of the causes of dissatisfaction, and product attributes. A crosstab descriptive analysis method was used to map the consumers, while the Pearson correlation analysis methods was used to analyze consumer complaint behavioral relationships with various factors. The results of this study indicated that consumers in Cibubur based on their complaint behavior are classified into four groups: passive, voicers, irates and activist. The passive consumers dominate the category with a percentage of 49%.  The voicers, irates, and activist belong to the complaining type and are dominated by young women, with high levels of education and income. Keywords: consumer complaint behavior, product, crosstab, pearson correlation

Civic Engagement in Extreme Times: The Remaking of Justice among Guatemala's "Postwar" Generation

Science.gov (United States)

Bellino, Michelle J.

2015-01-01

In recent years, there has been a dramatic growth in the field of youth civic engagement, although little of this work has been conducted in fragile democracies contending with legacies of war and authoritarianism. This study explores how Guatemalan postwar generation youth develop as civic actors under extreme conditions of violence, social and…

Constructive Consumer Choice Processes.

OpenAIRE

Bettman, James R; Luce, Mary Frances; Payne, John W

1998-01-01

Consumer decision making has been a focal interest in consumer research, and consideration of current marketplace trends ( e.g., technological change, an information explosion) indicates that this topic will continue to be critically important. We argue that consumer choice is inherently constructive. Due to limited processing capacity, consumers often do not have well-defined existing preferences, but construct them using a variety of strategies contingent on task demands. After describing c...

Paradoxes of Technology: Consumer Cognizance, Emotions, and Coping Strategies.

OpenAIRE

Mick, David Glen; Fournier, Susan

1998-01-01

Although technological products are unavoidable in contemporary life, studies focusing on them in the consumer behavior field have been few and narrow. In this article, we investigate consumers' perspectives, meanings, and experiences in relation to a range of technological products, emphasizing lengthy and repeated interviews with 29 households, including a set of first-time owners. We draw on literatures spanning from technology, paradox, and postmodernism to clinical and social psychology,...

Sustainable consumer behaviour

OpenAIRE

Antonides, Gerrit

2017-01-01

We summarise the contributions in this special issue on sustainable consumer behaviour and place them in perspective. Several studies focus on macro- and meso-issues, and others on micro-issues of consumer behaviour. The studies employ a variety of methods, including surveys, field experiments, eye tracking, scale development, and contingent valuation. The 12 contributions from authors of 13 different countries show the wide and varied application of consumer research focused on sustainabilit...

Scaling of Precipitation Extremes Modelled by Generalized Pareto Distribution

Science.gov (United States)

Rajulapati, C. R.; Mujumdar, P. P.

2017-12-01

Precipitation extremes are often modelled with data from annual maximum series or peaks over threshold series. The Generalized Pareto Distribution (GPD) is commonly used to fit the peaks over threshold series. Scaling of precipitation extremes from larger time scales to smaller time scales when the extremes are modelled with the GPD is burdened with difficulties arising from varying thresholds for different durations. In this study, the scale invariance theory is used to develop a disaggregation model for precipitation extremes exceeding specified thresholds. A scaling relationship is developed for a range of thresholds obtained from a set of quantiles of non-zero precipitation of different durations. The GPD parameters and exceedance rate parameters are modelled by the Bayesian approach and the uncertainty in scaling exponent is quantified. A quantile based modification in the scaling relationship is proposed for obtaining the varying thresholds and exceedance rate parameters for shorter durations. The disaggregation model is applied to precipitation datasets of Berlin City, Germany and Bangalore City, India. From both the applications, it is observed that the uncertainty in the scaling exponent has a considerable effect on uncertainty in scaled parameters and return levels of shorter durations.

Cost-reflective electricity pricing: Consumer preferences and perceptions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hall, Nina L.; Jeanneret, Talia D.; Rai, Alan

2016-01-01

In Australia, residential electricity peak demand has risen steeply in recent decades, leading to higher prices as new infrastructure was needed to satisfy demand. One way of limiting further infrastructure-induced retail price rises is via ‘cost-reflective’ electricity network pricing that incentivises users to shift their demand to non-peak periods. Empowering consumers with knowledge of their energy usage is critical to maximise the potential benefits of cost-reflective pricing. This research consulted residential electricity consumers in three Australian states on their perceptions and acceptance of two cost-reflective pricing scenarios (Time-of-Use and Peak Capacity pricing) and associated technologies to support such pricing (smart meters, in-home displays and direct load control devices). An energy economist presented information to focus groups on the merits and limitations of each scenario, and participants’ views were captured. Almost half of the 53 participants were agreeable to Time-of-Use pricing, but did not have a clear preference for Peak Capacity pricing, where the price was based on the daily maximum demand. Participants recommended further information to both understand and justify the potential benefits, and for technologies to be introduced to enhance the pricing options. The results have implications for utilities and providers who seek to reduce peak demand. - Highlights: •Electricity price rises can be limited by ‘cost-reflective’ pricing. •We consulted residential electricity consumers on Time-of-Use and Peak Capacity pricing. •Understanding of peak electricity demand must increase to enable demand shift. •Interactive website could enable consumers to evaluate pricing options. •Smart meter adoption may increase if voluntary and includes an in-home display.

Climate Extreme Events over Northern Eurasia in Changing Climate

Science.gov (United States)

Bulygina, O.; Korshunova, N. N.; Razuvaev, V. N.; Groisman, P. Y.

2014-12-01

During the period of widespread instrumental observations in Northern Eurasia, the annual surface air temperature has increased by 1.5°C. Close to the north in the Arctic Ocean, the late summer sea ice extent has decreased by 40% providing a near-infinite source of water vapor for the dry Arctic atmosphere in the early cold season months. The contemporary sea ice changes are especially visible in the Eastern Hemisphere All these factors affect the change extreme events. Daily and sub-daily data of 940 stations to analyze variations in the space time distribution of extreme temperatures, precipitation, and wind over Russia were used. Changing in number of days with thaw over Russia was described. The total seasonal numbers of days, when daily surface air temperatures (wind, precipitation) were found to be above (below) selected thresholds, were used as indices of climate extremes. Changing in difference between maximum and minimum temperature (DTR) may produce a variety of effects on biological systems. All values falling within the intervals ranged from the lowest percentile to the 5th percentile and from the 95th percentile to the highest percentile for the time period of interest were considered as daily extremes. The number of days, N, when daily temperatures (wind, precipitation, DTR) were within the above mentioned intervals, was determined for the seasons of each year. Linear trends in the number of days were calculated for each station and for quasi-homogeneous climatic regions. Regional analysis of extreme events was carried out using quasi-homogeneous climatic regions. Maps (climatology, trends) are presented mostly for visualization purposes. Differences in regional characteristics of extreme events are accounted for over a large extent of the Russian territory and variety of its physical and geographical conditions. The number of days with maximum temperatures higher than the 95% percentile has increased in most of Russia and decreased in Siberia in

Further outlooks: extremely uncomfortable; Die weiteren Aussichten: extrem ungemuetlich

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Resenhoeft, T.

2006-07-01

Climate is changing extremely in the last decades. Scientists dealing with extreme weather, should not only stare at computer simulations. They have also to turn towards psyche, seriously personal experiences, knowing statistics, relativise supposed sensational reports and last not least collecting more data. (GL)

Attribution of extreme rainfall from Hurricane Harvey, August 2017

Science.gov (United States)

van Oldenborgh, Geert Jan; van der Wiel, Karin; Sebastian, Antonia; Singh, Roop; Arrighi, Julie; Otto, Friederike; Haustein, Karsten; Li, Sihan; Vecchi, Gabriel; Cullen, Heidi

2017-12-01

During August 25-30, 2017, Hurricane Harvey stalled over Texas and caused extreme precipitation, particularly over Houston and the surrounding area on August 26-28. This resulted in extensive flooding with over 80 fatalities and large economic costs. It was an extremely rare event: the return period of the highest observed three-day precipitation amount, 1043.4 mm 3dy-1 at Baytown, is more than 9000 years (97.5% one-sided confidence interval) and return periods exceeded 1000 yr (750 mm 3dy-1) over a large area in the current climate. Observations since 1880 over the region show a clear positive trend in the intensity of extreme precipitation of between 12% and 22%, roughly two times the increase of the moisture holding capacity of the atmosphere expected for 1 °C warming according to the Clausius-Clapeyron (CC) relation. This would indicate that the moisture flux was increased by both the moisture content and stronger winds or updrafts driven by the heat of condensation of the moisture. We also analysed extreme rainfall in the Houston area in three ensembles of 25 km resolution models. The first also shows 2 × CC scaling, the second 1 × CC scaling and the third did not have a realistic representation of extreme rainfall on the Gulf Coast. Extrapolating these results to the 2017 event, we conclude that global warming made the precipitation about 15% (8%-19%) more intense, or equivalently made such an event three (1.5-5) times more likely. This analysis makes clear that extreme rainfall events along the Gulf Coast are on the rise. And while fortifying Houston to fully withstand the impact of an event as extreme as Hurricane Harvey may not be economically feasible, it is critical that information regarding the increasing risk of extreme rainfall events in general should be part of the discussion about future improvements to Houston’s flood protection system.

The development of personality extremity from childhood to adolescence: relations to internalizing and externalizing problems.

Science.gov (United States)

Van den Akker, Alithe L; Prinzie, Peter; Deković, Maja; De Haan, Amaranta D; Asscher, Jessica J; Widiger, Thomas

2013-12-01

This study investigated the development of personality extremity (deviation of an average midpoint of all 5 personality dimensions together) across childhood and adolescence, as well as relations between personality extremity and adjustment problems. For 598 children (mean age at Time 1 = 7.5 years), mothers and fathers reported the Big Five personality dimensions 4 times across 8 years. Children's vector length in a 5-dimensional configuration of the Big Five dimensions represented personality extremity. Mothers, fathers, and teachers reported children's internalizing and externalizing problems at the 1st and final measurement. In a cohort-sequential design, we modeled personality extremity in children and adolescents from ages 6 to 17 years. Growth mixture modeling revealed a similar solution for both mother and father reports: a large group with relatively short vectors that were stable over time (mother reports: 80.3%; father reports: 84.7%) and 2 smaller groups with relatively long vectors (i.e., extreme personality configuration). One group started out relatively extreme and decreased over time (mother reports: 13.2%; father reports: 10.4%), whereas the other group started out only slightly higher than the short vector group but increased across time (mother reports: 6.5%; father reports: 4.9%). Children who belonged to the increasingly extreme class experienced more internalizing and externalizing problems in late adolescence, controlling for previous levels of adjustment problems and the Big Five personality dimensions. Personality extremity may be important to consider when identifying children at risk for adjustment problems. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Quest for Consumer Comprehension

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lauren E. Willis

2017-01-01

Full Text Available To ensure that consumers understand financial products’ “costs, benefits, and risks,” the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been redesigning mandated disclosures, primarily through iterative lab testing. But no matter how well these disclosures perform in experiments, firms will run circles around the disclosures when studies end and marketing begins. To meet the challenge of the dynamic twenty-first-century consumer financial marketplace, the bureau should require firms to demonstrate that a good proportion of their customers understand key pertinent facts about the financial products they buy. Comprehension rules would induce firms to inform consumers and simplify products, tasks that firms are better equipped than the bureau to perform.

Health care knowledge and consumer learning: the case of direct-to-consumer drug advertising.

Science.gov (United States)

Delbaere, Marjorie; Smith, Malcolm C

2006-01-01

This research develops a framework for understanding how consumers process health-related information and interact with their caregivers. The context is direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising by pharmaceutical companies in North America. This theoretical research presents a research framework and focuses on the presentation of information in advertisements, consumer-learning processes, consumer utilization of health care knowledge, and bias in perceived risk. The paper proposes that consumers who lack expertise with prescription drugs learn from DTC ads differently than those with expertise. Further, it is proposed that consumers also process the information in DTC ads differently depending on the perceived effectiveness of the drug being advertised, and ultimately utilize the knowledge taken from the ads in many different ways, some of which may appear irrational to health care providers. By understanding how consumers interpret and learn from DTC ads, health care organizations and providers may be able to improve health care delivery and consumer outcomes.

Consumer behaviour survey for assessing exposure from consumer products: a feasibility study.

Science.gov (United States)

Schneider, Klaus; Recke, Selina; Kaiser, Eva; Götte, Sebastian; Berkefeld, Henrike; Lässig, Juliane; Rüdiger, Thomas; Lindtner, Oliver; Oltmanns, Jan

2018-05-23

Evaluating chemical exposures from consumer products is an essential part of chemical safety assessments under REACH and may also be important to demonstrate compliance with consumer product legislation. Modelling of consumer exposure needs input information on the substance (e.g. vapour pressure), the product(s) containing the substance (e.g. concentration) and on consumer behaviour (e.g. use frequency and amount of product used). This feasibility study in Germany investigated methods for conducting a consumer survey in order to identify and retrieve information on frequency, duration, use amounts and use conditions for six example product types (four mixtures, two articles): hand dishwashing liquid, cockpit spray, fillers, paints and lacquers, shoes made of rubber or plastic, and ball-pens/pencils. Retrospective questionnaire methods (Consumer Product Questionnaire (CPQ), and Recall-Foresight Questionnaire (RFQ)) as well as protocol methods (written reporting by participants and video documentation) were used. A combination of retrospective questionnaire and written protocol methods was identified to provide valid information in a resource-efficient way. Relevant information, which can readily be used in exposure modelling, was obtained for all parameters and product types investigated. Based on the observations in this feasibility study, recommendations are given for designing a large consumer survey.

Consumer choice behaviour

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Flemming; Percy, Larry; Hallum Hansen, Morten

2004-01-01

The paper is concerned with the measurement of emotions and the study of the role ofemotions in consumer choice. Contemporary neurological findings suggest that emotionsmay play a role in its own right, quite different from the way in which they have beenconsidered in traditional consumer choice ...... behaviour theory. A large-scale study including800 respondents, covering 64 brands, provide findings on emotional response tendenciesfor the brands, and relate these to involvement, type of need gratification, purchasingbehaviour, etc.......The paper is concerned with the measurement of emotions and the study of the role ofemotions in consumer choice. Contemporary neurological findings suggest that emotionsmay play a role in its own right, quite different from the way in which they have beenconsidered in traditional consumer choice...

Summary of Utility Studies: Smart Grid Investment Grant Consumer Behavior Study Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cappers, Peter [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Todd, Annika [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Goldamn, Charles A. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

2013-05-01

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) program is working with a subset of the 99 SGIG projects to assess the response of mass market consumers (i.e., residential and small commercial customers) to time-varying electricity prices (referred to herein as time-based rate programs) in conjunction with the deployment of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and associated technologies. The effort provides an opportunity to advance the electric industry’s understanding of consumer behavior. In addition, DOE is attempting to apply a consistent study design and analysis framework for the SGIG Consumer Behavior Studies (CBS). The aim is to collect information across the studies on variables and impacts that have been defined in a consistent manner. This will enable Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL), as DOE’s principal investigator for these Consumer Behavior Studies, to leverage the data from the individual studies and conduct comparative analysis of the impacts of AMI, time-based rate programs and enabling technologies that facilitate customer control, automation and information/feedback on customer energy usage.

Consumer rights and protections

Science.gov (United States)

... care consumer rights; Rights of the health care consumer ... RIGHTS AND PROTECTIONS Here are ways that the health care law protects consumers. You must be covered, even if you have a pre-existing condition. No insurance plan can reject you, ...

A dependence modelling study of extreme rainfall in Madeira Island

Science.gov (United States)

Gouveia-Reis, Délia; Guerreiro Lopes, Luiz; Mendonça, Sandra

2016-08-01

The dependence between variables plays a central role in multivariate extremes. In this paper, spatial dependence of Madeira Island's rainfall data is addressed within an extreme value copula approach through an analysis of maximum annual data. The impact of altitude, slope orientation, distance between rain gauge stations and distance from the stations to the sea are investigated for two different periods of time. The results obtained highlight the influence of the island's complex topography on the spatial distribution of extreme rainfall in Madeira Island.

Nutrition security under extreme events

Science.gov (United States)

Martinez, A.

2017-12-01

Nutrition security under extreme events. Zero hunger being one of the Sustainable Development Goal from the United Nations, food security has become a trending research topic. However extreme events impact on global food security is not yet 100% understood and there is a lack of comprehension of the underlying mechanisms of global food trade and nutrition security to improve countries resilience to extreme events. In a globalized world, food is still a highly regulated commodity and a strategic resource. A drought happening in a net food-exporter will have little to no effect on its own population but the repercussion on net food-importers can be extreme. In this project, we propose a methodology to describe and quantify the impact of a local drought to human health at a global scale. For this purpose, nutrition supply and global trade data from FAOSTAT have been used with domestic food production from national agencies and FAOSTAT, global precipitation from the Climate Research Unit and health data from the World Health Organization. A modified Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) has been developed to measure the level of resilience of one country to a drought happening in another country. This index describes how a country is dependent of importation and how diverse are its importation. Losses of production and exportation due to extreme events have been calculated using yield data and a simple food balance at country scale. Results show that countries the most affected by global droughts are the one with the highest dependency to one exporting country. Changes induced by droughts also disturbed their domestic proteins, fat and calories supply resulting most of the time in a higher intake of calories or fat over proteins.

MARKETING RESEARCH OF THE SUBJECTIVE AND MOTIVATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CONSUMERS OF TOURIST SERVICES OF THE YAROSLAVL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mineev Alexey Nikolaevich

2013-01-01

Full Text Available For today one of the most dynamically developing spheres is tourism. According to the Rosstat, the share of tourist sector in the total volume of GDP is already 4%, and with the allied industries - by 7%. The industry is fraught with deep potential and has the value of the national scale, but for further development it is necessary to understand the needs, desires, and motives of potential tourists at the level of separate territorial entities. Research devoted to the subject of the analysis of user characteristics and features of demand for tourist services is extremely small, which gives it the real theme of the novel. The relevance of the theme is determined by the analysis of the demand for tourist services. The aim of the work is a marketing analysis of the Yaroslavl consumers of tourism products. For realization of this goal, a study was conducted by the method of questioning. The survey has identified the most popular kinds of tourism, the main parameters and motives, which are used by consumers when planning your vacation and tourism, as well as describes and analyses the main types of consumers and their quantitative composition. Study of consumer characteristics will allow organizations to better Orient themselves in them and the values of the clients.

Consumer Food Safety Risk Attitudes and Perceptions Over Time: The Case of BSE Crisis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kalogeras, N.; Pennings, J.M.E.; Ittersum, van K.

2009-01-01

Recent research has shown that by decoupling the risk response behaviour of consumers into the separate components of risk perception and risk attitude, a more robust conceptualization and prediction of consumers’ reactions to food safety issues is possible. Furthermore, it has been argued that the

Informing Consumers About Themselves

NARCIS (Netherlands)

O. Bar-Gill (Oren)

2010-01-01

textabstractConsumers make mistakes. Imperfect information and imperfect rationality lead to misperception of benefits and costs associated with a product. As a result, consumers might fail to maximise their preferences in product choice or product use. A proposed taxonomy of consumer mistakes draws

Shyness in consumer behavior

OpenAIRE

Kusterer, Sandra

2017-01-01

Shyness is widespread among the population and affects a large group of consumers. Companies, however, have barely knowledge about this kind of consumers and their behavior. Particularly in the field of complaint management the barriers which prevent consumers of voicing a complaint are largely unknown and quite often companies are not aware of the dissatisfaction among their customers. Thus, this paper aims to analyze the impact of shyness on consumer complaint behavior. A survey-based appro...

Consumer Directed Health Care

OpenAIRE

John Goodman

2006-01-01

Consumer driven health care (CDHC) is a potential solution to two perplexing problems: (1) How to choose between health care and other uses of money, and (2) how to allocate resources in an industry where normal market forces have been systemically suppressed. In the consumer-driven model, consumers occupy the primary decision-making role regarding the health care that they receive. From an employee benefits perspective, consumer driven health care in the broadest sense may refer to limited e...

From rhetoric to reality: consumer engagement in 16 multi-stakeholder alliances.

Science.gov (United States)

Greene, Jessica; Farley, Diane C; Christianson, Jon B; Scanlon, Dennis P; Shi, Yunfeng

2016-08-01

A key component of the Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) program was engaging consumers in their health and healthcare. We examined the extent to which the alliances embraced 4 areas of consumer engagement: self-management, consumer friendliness of reports of healthcare provider quality, involvement of consumers in alliance governance, and the integration of consumers into quality improvement teams. We used a largely qualitative approach. The evaluation team conducted 1100 in-depth interviews with alliance stakeholders. Two authors reviewed the consumer engagement data for each alliance to assess its level of embrace in the 4 consumer engagement areas. For consumer friendliness of public reporting websites, we also assessed alliance public reports for reading level, technical language, and evaluable displays. Population-level effects were also examined for self-management and public reporting. Consumer engagement was new to most alliances, and few had staff with consumer engagement expertise or existing consumer constituencies. For each area of consumer engagement, some alliances enthusiastically embraced the work, other alliances made a concerted but limited effort to develop programs, and a third group of alliances did the minimum work required. Integrating consumers into governance was the area most often embraced, followed by making public reports consumer friendly. Two alliances strongly embraced both self-management and integrating patients into quality improvement efforts. The AF4Q program did not have greater population level effects from self-management or public reporting than were those observed in a national comparison sample. The AF4Q program sparked a few alliances to develop robust consumer engagement programming, while most alliances tried consumer engagement efforts for the first time and developed an appreciation for integrating consumer perspectives into their work.

Legacies from extreme drought increase ecosystem sensitivity to future extremes

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, M. D.; Knapp, A.; Hoover, D. L.; Avolio, M. L.; Felton, A. J.; Wilcox, K. R.

2016-12-01

Climate extremes, such as drought, are increasing in frequency and intensity, and the ecological consequences of these extreme events can be substantial and widespread. Although there is still much to be learned about how ecosystems will respond to an intensification of drought, even less is known about the factors that determine post-drought recovery of ecosystem function. Such knowledge is particularly important because post-drought recovery periods can be protracted depending on the extent to which key plant populations, community structure and biogeochemical processes are affected. These drought legacies may alter ecosystem function for many years post-drought and may impact future sensitivity to climate extremes. We experimentally imposed two extreme growing season droughts in a central US grassland to assess the impacts of repeated droughts on ecosystem resistance (response) and resilience (recovery). We found that this grassland was not resistant to the first extreme drought due to reduced productivity and differential sensitivity of the co-dominant C4 grass (Andropogon gerardii) and C3 forb (Solidago canadensis) species. This differential sensitivity led to a reordering of species abundances within the plant community. Yet, despite this large shift in plant community composition, which persisted post-drought, the grassland was highly resilient post-drought, due to increased abundance of the dominant C4 grass. Because of this shift to increased C4 grass dominance, we expected that previously-droughted grassland would be more resistant to a second extreme drought. However, contrary to these expectations, previously droughted grassland was more sensitive to drought than grassland that had not experienced drought. Thus, our result suggest that legacies of drought (shift in community composition) may increase ecosystem sensitivity to future extreme events.

SOCIAL MEDIA – VITAL INSTRUMENT IN GAINING CONSUMERS CONFIDENCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mirela-Cristina VOICU

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Given that, currently, the consumer has become more demanding and organizations face some of the greatest challenges due to the economic climate of recent years, the need to build and cultivate strong relationships has become vital not only for the company's success but also for its survival. And solid relationships are built over time through confidence. Trust is one of the most important elements in the process of purchasing and consumer loyalty; it is difficult to obtain but easy to lose. Companies that are enjoying a high degree of confidence benefit from best quotations for their shares, higher profits and a better retention of the best employees. The effects of the lack of confidence are obvious (unsatisfied consumers, lost sales and very expensive for the company. In this context, through the following paper we seek to bring more understanding on how a company can gain the confidence of consumers given that the forms of communication that consumers prefer and that are gaining momentum currently, are taking place online, especially in the social media.

Quantifying the consequences of changing hydroclimatic extremes on protection levels for the Rhine

Science.gov (United States)

Sperna Weiland, Frederiek; Hegnauer, Mark; Buiteveld, Hendrik; Lammersen, Rita; van den Boogaard, Henk; Beersma, Jules

2017-04-01

The Dutch method for quantifying the magnitude and frequency of occurrence of discharge extremes in the Rhine basin and the potential influence of climate change hereon are presented. In the Netherlands flood protection design requires estimates of discharge extremes for return periods of 1000 up to 100,000 years. Observed discharge records are too short to derive such extreme return discharges, therefore extreme value assessment is based on very long synthetic discharge time-series generated with the Generator of Rainfall And Discharge Extremes (GRADE). The GRADE instrument consists of (1) a stochastic weather generator based on time series resampling of historical f rainfall and temperature and (2) a hydrological model optimized following the GLUE methodology and (3) a hydrodynamic model to simulate the propagation of flood waves based on the generated hydrological time-series. To assess the potential influence of climate change, the four KNMI'14 climate scenarios are applied. These four scenarios represent a large part of the uncertainty provided by the GCMs used for the IPCC 5th assessment report (the CMIP5 GCM simulations under different climate forcings) and are for this purpose tailored to the Rhine and Meuse river basins. To derive the probability distributions of extreme discharges under climate change the historical synthetic rainfall and temperature series simulated with the weather generator are transformed to the future following the KNMI'14 scenarios. For this transformation the Advanced Delta Change method, which allows that the changes in the extremes differ from those in the means, is used. Subsequently the hydrological model is forced with the historical and future (i.e. transformed) synthetic time-series after which the propagation of the flood waves is simulated with the hydrodynamic model to obtain the extreme discharge statistics both for current and future climate conditions. The study shows that both for 2050 and 2085 increases in discharge

The NASA Energy and Water Cycle Extreme (NEWSE) Integration Project

Science.gov (United States)

House, P. R.; Lapenta, W.; Schiffer, R.

2008-01-01

Skillful predictions of water and energy cycle extremes (flood and drought) are elusive. To better understand the mechanisms responsible for water and energy extremes, and to make decisive progress in predicting these extremes, the collaborative NASA Energy and Water cycle Extremes (NEWSE) Integration Project, is studying these extremes in the U.S. Southern Great Plains (SGP) during 2006-2007, including their relationships with continental and global scale processes, and assessment of their predictability on multiple space and time scales. It is our hypothesis that an integrative analysis of observed extremes which reflects the current understanding of the role of SST and soil moisture variability influences on atmospheric heating and forcing of planetary waves, incorporating recently available global and regional hydro- meteorological datasets (i.e., precipitation, water vapor, clouds, etc.) in conjunction with advances in data assimilation, can lead to new insights into the factors that lead to persistent drought and flooding. We will show initial results of this project, whose goals are to provide an improved definition, attribution and prediction on sub-seasonal to interannual time scales, improved understanding of the mechanisms of decadal drought and its predictability, including the impacts of SST variability and deep soil moisture variability, and improved monitoring/attributions, with transition to applications; a bridging of the gap between hydrological forecasts and stakeholders (utilization of probabilistic forecasts, education, forecast interpretation for different sectors, assessment of uncertainties for different sectors, etc.).

Benefit salience and consumers' selective attention to product features

OpenAIRE

Ratneshwar, S; Warlop, Luk; Mick, DG; Seeger, G

1997-01-01

Although attention is a key construct in models of marketing communication and consumer choice, its selective nature has rarely been examined in common time-pressured conditions. We focus on the role of benefit salience, that is, the readiness with which particular benefits are brought to mind by consumers in relation to a given product category. Study I demonstrated that when product feature information was presented rapidly, individuals for whom the benefit of personalised customer service ...

Consumer trends and prefences in the demand for food

OpenAIRE

Lappo, Alena; Bjørndal, Trond; Fernandez-Polanco, Jose; Lem, Audun

2013-01-01

The objective of this report is to analyse the major tastes and preferences of consumers in food consumption, as well as expected changes in these over time. We identify five important consumer trends and purchase drivers: food safety and health benefits; corporate social responsibility; production systems and innovations; sustainability; and food origin. For each of these trends we will consider relevant actions that are being implemented by governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs)...

Classifying three imaginary states of the same upper extremity using time-domain features.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mojgan Tavakolan

Full Text Available Brain-computer interface (BCI allows collaboration between humans and machines. It translates the electrical activity of the brain to understandable commands to operate a machine or a device. In this study, we propose a method to improve the accuracy of a 3-class BCI using electroencephalographic (EEG signals. This BCI discriminates rest against imaginary grasps and elbow movements of the same limb. This classification task is challenging because imaginary movements within the same limb have close spatial representations on the motor cortex area. The proposed method extracts time-domain features and classifies them using a support vector machine (SVM with a radial basis kernel function (RBF. An average accuracy of 74.2% was obtained when using the proposed method on a dataset collected, prior to this study, from 12 healthy individuals. This accuracy was higher than that obtained when other widely used methods, such as common spatial patterns (CSP, filter bank CSP (FBCSP, and band power methods, were used on the same dataset. These results are encouraging and the proposed method could potentially be used in future applications including BCI-driven robotic devices, such as a portable exoskeleton for the arm, to assist individuals with impaired upper extremity functions in performing daily tasks.

Consumption and the Consumer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria VADUVA

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The consumer is that trader responsible for consumption act of some final goods or services who decided what must be produce and in what cantity, being the one who make the economic mechanism to move. Consumption is in close connection with the production of goods and services, exerting an active role, any activity should be complete by consuming its results; consumption creates the motivation to achieve economic and non-economic activities. The traditional approach to consumer behavior starts from hypothesised that all consumers seek to maximize the aggregate utility obtained of satisfactions resulting from consumption of goods taking into account the budgetary constraints given by income that consumer has and the prices of these goods. In the conditions of modern economy, consumption can be increased by diseconomies. If consumption depends on permanent income, revenue growth effectively does not exert influence on consumption only to the extent that this increase of income leads to increasing permanent income consumer. Consumption is viewed as an active agent of economic life, it is not only a consumer of goods and services but also a producer.

Readability of consumer health information on the internet: a comparison of U.S. government-funded and commercially funded websites.

Science.gov (United States)

Risoldi Cochrane, Zara; Gregory, Philip; Wilson, Amy

2012-01-01

The Internet has become an extremely prevalent means of communicating health information to consumers. Guidelines for selecting reliable health information websites give preference to U.S. government sites over commercially funded sites. However, these websites are not useful to consumers unless they are able to read and understand them. The authors' objective was to compare the readability of Internet health information intended for consumers found on U.S. government-funded websites versus that found on commercially funded websites. Consumer health websites were identified through a systematic Internet search. Webpages for 10 common health topics were extracted from each website. Readability of webpages was determined by 3 validated measures: Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Reading Level, and SMOG Formula. Mean readability of government-funded and commercially funded websites was compared using the Mann-Whitney U test. Commercially funded websites were significantly more difficult to read as measured by Flesch Reading Ease (49.7 vs. 55.6 for government-funded sites, p = .002) and Flesch-Kincaid Reading Level (10.1 vs. 9.3, p = .012). There was no significant difference according to SMOG Formula (12.8 vs. 13.2, p = .150). The overall readability of Internet health information intended for consumers was poor. Efforts should be made to ensure that health information communicated via the Internet is easy for consumers to read and understand.

Extreme eigenvalues of sample covariance and correlation matrices

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Heiny, Johannes

This thesis is concerned with asymptotic properties of the eigenvalues of high-dimensional sample covariance and correlation matrices under an infinite fourth moment of the entries. In the first part, we study the joint distributional convergence of the largest eigenvalues of the sample covariance...... matrix of a p-dimensional heavy-tailed time series when p converges to infinity together with the sample size n. We generalize the growth rates of p existing in the literature. Assuming a regular variation condition with tail index ... eigenvalues are essentially determined by the extreme order statistics from an array of iid random variables. The asymptotic behavior of the extreme eigenvalues is then derived routinely from classical extreme value theory. The resulting approximations are strikingly simple considering the high dimension...

Advancing Our Understanding of Cross-Cultural Issues in Consumer Science and Consumer Psychology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Herk, H.; Torelli, Carlos J.; van Herk, Hester; Torelli, Carlos J.

2017-01-01

Globalization has resulted in a more complex marketplace. Growing multi-culturalism of consumer markets and increased global competition are pushing marketing scholars to better understand cross-cultural issues in consumer science and consumer psychology. The chapters in this book cover the field to

Compound summer temperature and precipitation extremes over central Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Sedlmeier, Katrin; Feldmann, H.; Schädler, G.

2018-02-01

Reliable knowledge of the near-future climate change signal of extremes is important for adaptation and mitigation strategies. Especially compound extremes, like heat and drought occurring simultaneously, may have a greater impact on society than their univariate counterparts and have recently become an active field of study. In this paper, we use a 12-member ensemble of high-resolution (7 km) regional climate simulations with the regional climate model COSMO-CLM over central Europe to analyze the climate change signal and its uncertainty for compound heat and drought extremes in summer by two different measures: one describing absolute (i.e., number of exceedances of absolute thresholds like hot days), the other relative (i.e., number of exceedances of time series intrinsic thresholds) compound extreme events. Changes are assessed between a reference period (1971-2000) and a projection period (2021-2050). Our findings show an increase in the number of absolute compound events for the whole investigation area. The change signal of relative extremes is more region-dependent, but there is a strong signal change in the southern and eastern parts of Germany and the neighboring countries. Especially the Czech Republic shows strong change in absolute and relative extreme events.

[MATCHE: Management Approach to Teaching Consumer and Homemaking Education.] Consumer Approach Strand: Core. Module I-A-3: Consumer Rights and Responsibilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Sharman

This competency-based preservice home economics teacher education module on consumer rights and responsibilities is the third in a set of four core curriculum modules on consumer approach to homemaking education. (This set is part of a larger series of sixty-seven on the Management Approach to Teaching Consumer and Homemaking Education…

Behavioural Economics, Consumer Behaviour, and Consumer Policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Reisch, Lucia A.; Zhao, Min

2017-01-01

. In particular, we discuss the impacts of key principles such as status quo bias, the endowment effect, mental accounting and the sunkcost effect, other heuristics and biases related to availability, salience, the anchoring effect and simplicity rules, as well as the effects of other supposedly irrelevant...... factors such as music, temperature and physical markers on consumers’ decisions. These principles not only add significantly to research on consumer behaviour – they also offer readily available practical implications for consumer policy to nudge behaviour in beneficial directions in consumption domains...... including financial decision making, product choice, healthy eating and sustainable consumption....

Large-strain time-temperature equivalence in high density polyethylene for prediction of extreme deformation and damage

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gray G.T.

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Time-temperature equivalence is a widely recognized property of many time-dependent material systems, where there is a clear predictive link relating the deformation response at a nominal temperature and a high strain-rate to an equivalent response at a depressed temperature and nominal strain-rate. It has been found that high-density polyethylene (HDPE obeys a linear empirical formulation relating test temperature and strain-rate. This observation was extended to continuous stress-strain curves, such that material response measured in a load frame at large strains and low strain-rates (at depressed temperatures could be translated into a temperature-dependent response at high strain-rates and validated against Taylor impact results. Time-temperature equivalence was used in conjuction with jump-rate compression tests to investigate isothermal response at high strain-rate while exluding adiabatic heating. The validated constitutive response was then applied to the analysis of Dynamic-Tensile-Extrusion of HDPE, a tensile analog to Taylor impact developed at LANL. The Dyn-Ten-Ext test results and FEA found that HDPE deformed smoothly after exiting the die, and after substantial drawing appeared to undergo a pressure-dependent shear damage mechanism at intermediate velocities, while it fragmented at high velocities. Dynamic-Tensile-Extrusion, properly coupled with a validated constitutive model, can successfully probe extreme tensile deformation and damage of polymers.

Modelling of extreme gusts for design calculations (NewGust)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bierbooms, W; Cheng, Po-Wen [Delft Univ. of Technology, Inst. for Wind Energy, Delft (Netherlands); Larsen, G [Risoe National Lab., Roskilde (Denmark); Juul Pedersen, B [Vestas Wind Systems A/S, Lem (Denmark); Hansen, K [Tecnical Univ. of Denmark (Denmark)

1999-03-01

The main objective of the NewGust project is to come to a realistic and verified description of extreme gusts based on the stochastic properties of wind. In this paper the first results of the project are presented. Theoretical considerations indicate that the shape of extreme gusts is very sharp. Based on simulated wind time series, mean gust shapes (for several amplitudes and mean wind speeds) are determined and compared with the theoretical curves. The resemblance turned out to be very good. Furthermore, the influence of the sampling rate and the dynamics of a cup anemometer on the empirical mean gust shape are examined. The promising results are confirmed by a (preliminary) verification based on measured wind time series, available from the database on wind characteristics. The mean shape of gusts, of certain amplitude, together with their probability of occurrence can be used to obtain the distribution of the extreme response of wind turbines to gust loading. (au)

Temporal and spatial scaling impacts on extreme precipitation

Science.gov (United States)

Eggert, B.; Berg, P.; Haerter, J. O.; Jacob, D.; Moseley, C.

2015-01-01

Both in the current climate and in the light of climate change, understanding of the causes and risk of precipitation extremes is essential for protection of human life and adequate design of infrastructure. Precipitation extreme events depend qualitatively on the temporal and spatial scales at which they are measured, in part due to the distinct types of rain formation processes that dominate extremes at different scales. To capture these differences, we first filter large datasets of high-resolution radar measurements over Germany (5 min temporally and 1 km spatially) using synoptic cloud observations, to distinguish convective and stratiform rain events. In a second step, for each precipitation type, the observed data are aggregated over a sequence of time intervals and spatial areas. The resulting matrix allows a detailed investigation of the resolutions at which convective or stratiform events are expected to contribute most to the extremes. We analyze where the statistics of the two types differ and discuss at which resolutions transitions occur between dominance of either of the two precipitation types. We characterize the scales at which the convective or stratiform events will dominate the statistics. For both types, we further develop a mapping between pairs of spatially and temporally aggregated statistics. The resulting curve is relevant when deciding on data resolutions where statistical information in space and time is balanced. Our study may hence also serve as a practical guide for modelers, and for planning the space-time layout of measurement campaigns. We also describe a mapping between different pairs of resolutions, possibly relevant when working with mismatched model and observational resolutions, such as in statistical bias correction.

Food Security and Extreme Events: Evidence from Smallholder Farmers in Central America

Science.gov (United States)

Saborio-Rodriguez, M.; Alpizar, F.; Harvey, C.; Martinez, R.; Vignola, R.; Viguera, B.; Capitan, T.

2016-12-01

Extreme weather events, which are expected to increase in magnitude and frequency due to climate change, are one of the main threats for smallholder farmers in Central America. Using a rich dataset from carefully selected subsistence farm households, we explore the determinants and severity of food insecurity resulting from extreme hydrometeorological hazards. In addition, we analyze farmerś coping strategies. Our analysis sheds light over food insecurity as an expression of vulnerability in a region that is expected to be increasingly exposed to extreme events and in a population already stressed by poverty and lack of opportunities. Regarding food insecurity, multivariate analyses indicate that education, having at least one migrant in the household, labor allocation, number of plots, and producing coffee are determinants of the probability of experiencing lack of food after an extreme weather event. Once the household is lacking food, the duration of the episode is related to access to credit, number of plots, producing coffee, ownership of land and gender of the head of the household. This results are in line with previous literature on the determinants of food insecurity in particular, and vulnerability, in general. Our dataset also allows us to analyze coping strategies. Households experiencing lack of food after an extreme weather event report mainly changes in their habits, as decreasing the amount of food consumed (54%) and modifying their diet (35%). A low proportion of household (between 10% and 15%, depending on the nature of the event) use their assets, by redirecting their savings, migrating, and selling items from the house. Asking money or food from family and friends or from an organization is reported for 4% of the households. This general results are connected to the specific coping strategies related to damages in crops, which are explored in detail. Our results indicate that there are patterns among the household experiencing lack of food

Consumer choice : Linking consumer intentions to actual purchase of GM labeled food products

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sleenhoff, S.; Osseweijer, P.

2013-01-01

With a mandatory labeling scheme for GM food in Europe since 2004 measuring actual consumer choice in practice has become possible. Anticipating Europeans negative attitude toward GM food, the labeling was enforced to allow consumers to make an informed choice. We studied consumers actual purchase

Promoting educated consumer choices

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Edinger, Wieke Willemijn Huizing

2016-01-01

Contemporary EU food information legislation combines and balances two main consumer interests, i.e., a consumer right to information and the freedom of choice, into one single protective standard: informed choice. Although the recent legislative measures quite openly establish a link between...... informed choice and the rather abstract societal norm of “what is good for the consumer,” this does not justify the conclusion that food information legislation has become overly meddlesome in relation to EU consumers and their choice of food. Rather, there has been a gradual maturing of the EU legislator......’s perception of its task from the mere provision of food information to ensuring educated consumer choices. This development is a logical and necessary consequence of the growing complexity of food choices....

Can consumers save energy? Results from surveys of consumer adoption and use of low and zero carbon technologies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Herring, Horace; Caird, Sally; Roy, Robin [Design Innovation Group, Faculty of Technology, The Open Univ. (United Kingdom)

2007-07-01

This paper presents results from a UK Open Univ. research project which surveyed consumers' reasons for adoption - and non-adoption - of domestic energy efficiency measures and renewable energy systems - collectively called low and zero carbon (LZC) technologies. Data was gathered during 2006 via an on-line questionnaire with nearly 400 responses, mainly from 'green' consumers, supplemented by 83 in-depth telephone interviews. These consumer surveys also identified problems and benefits experienced by adopters of these LZC technologies.The paper outlines some results of these surveys, for four established energy efficiency measures - loft insulation, condensing boilers, heating controls, and energy-efficient lighting - and for four renewable energy technologies - solar water heating, solar photovoltaics (PV), micro-wind turbines and wood stoves. These consumers typically adopted the energy efficiency measures and renewable energy systems to save energy, money and/or the environment, which many considered they achieved despite some rebound effects. The reasons for considering but rejecting these LZC technologies include the familiar cost barriers, but there were also other obstacles that varied according to the product or system concerned. An important finding is that most adopters of renewable energy systems have previously adopted two or more energy efficiency measures. Thus one conclusion is: sell energy efficiency first, then renewables. Whilst in the UK very few people have adopted household renewable energy systems, about a third of the consumers in our on-line survey said that they seriously considered adopting a renewable energy technology, although, only about 20 % of these actually did so. There seems to be considerable interest in household renewables in the UK, especially among older, middle class green consumers, but so far only relatively few pioneer adopters (notably retired couples) have managed to overcome the barriers of cost, time

Methodology for featuring and assessing extreme climatic events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Malleron, N.; Bernardara, P.; Benoit, M.; Parey, S.; Perret, C.

2013-01-01

The setting up of a nuclear power plant on a particular site requires the assessment of risks linked to extreme natural events like flooding or earthquakes. As a consequence of the Fukushima accident EDF proposes to take into account even rarer events in order to improve the robustness of the facility all over its operating life. This article presents the methodology used by EDF to analyse a set of data in a statistical way in order to extract extreme values. This analysis is based on the theory of extreme values and is applied to the extreme values of the flow rate in the case of a river overflowing. This methodology is made of 6 steps: 1) selection of the event, of its featuring parameter and of its probability, for instance the question is what is the flow rate of a flooding that has a probability of 10 -3 to happen, 2) to collect data over a long period of time (or to recover data from past periods), 3) to extract extreme values from the data, 4) to find an adequate statistical law that fits the spreading of the extreme values, 5) the selected statistical law must be validated through visual or statistical tests, and 6) the computation of the flow rate of the event itself. (A.C.)

Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labels: Their Effect on Attention and Choices when Consumers have Varying Goals and Time Constraints

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Herpen, van E.; Trijp, van J.C.M.

2011-01-01

Although front-of-pack nutrition labeling can help consumers make healthier food choices, lack of attention to these labels limits their effectiveness. This study examines consumer attention to and use of three different nutrition labeling schemes (logo, multiple traffic-light label, and nutrition

Ethical Marketing Practices viewed through Consumer Spectacles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pranav Kumar

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the working of a demand and supply mechanism in an ethical scenario in the cosmetics market context. It principally aims to investigate the intentions of consumers to consider marketers’ commitment to ethics issues. Design/Methodology/Approach – Using a sample of urban female respondents from Malaysia, a consumer survey was carried out. PLS structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Findings and implications – The results show that the aspects of product fairness and price fairness are positively correlated to the attitudes of shoppers’ towards firms that resort to such practices. Additionally, shoppers’ attitudes and their perceived behavioral control further influence their intentions to consider a firm’s ethicality while anticipating a purchase. In terms of lifestyle aspects, the self-confidence and health consciousness of consumers do not moderate the relationship between attitude and intentions. As a whole, consumers offer hints that it is high time for marketers to start developing a sense of obligation to adhere to relevant ethical practices under vulnerable circumstances. Accordingly, it is suggested that managers offer products that are safe and pose the least risks, and that they set rational and justifiable prices. Limitation – This study has been limited to facial care products in Malaysia. Originality – This study addresses and operationalizes fairness aspects of products and their pricing from a consumer perspective through a rigorous review of the marketing and business ethics literature.

Consumer brand choice: individual and group analyses of demand elasticity.

Science.gov (United States)

Oliveira-Castro, Jorge M; Foxall, Gordon R; Schrezenmaier, Teresa C

2006-03-01

Following the behavior-analytic tradition of analyzing individual behavior, the present research investigated demand elasticity of individual consumers purchasing supermarket products, and compared individual and group analyses of elasticity. Panel data from 80 UK consumers purchasing 9 product categories (i.e., baked beans, biscuits, breakfast cereals, butter, cheese, fruit juice, instant coffee, margarine and tea) during a 16-week period were used. Elasticity coefficients were calculated for individual consumers with data from all or only 1 product category (intra-consumer elasticities), and for each product category using all data points from all consumers (overall product elasticity) or 1 average data point per consumer (interconsumer elasticity). In addition to this, split-sample elasticity coefficients were obtained for each individual with data from all product categories purchased during weeks 1 to 8 and 9 to 16. The results suggest that: 1) demand elasticity coefficients calculated for individual consumers purchasing supermarket food products are compatible with predictions from economic theory and behavioral economics; 2) overall product elasticities, typically employed in marketing and econometric research, include effects of interconsumer and intraconsumer elasticities; 3) when comparing demand elasticities of different product categories, group and individual analyses yield similar trends; and 4) individual differences in demand elasticity are relatively consistent across time, but do not seem to be consistent across products. These results demonstrate the theoretical, methodological, and managerial relevance of investigating the behavior of individual consumers.

Radurization : the consumer perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Foster, J.W.

1989-01-01

A three part study in which a number of consumer groups were involved was conducted. The study examined the views of South African consumers concerning radurization. The results of the study are discussed and recommendations are made with regard to possible greater consumer acceptance of radurization in South Africa. 2 figs

Virtual Reality Training for Upper Extremity in Subacute Stroke (VIRTUES)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brunner, Iris; Skouen, Jan Sture; Hofstad, Håkon

2017-01-01

Objective: To compare the effectiveness of upper extremity virtual reality rehabilitation training (VR) to time-matched conventional training (CT) in the subacute phase after stroke. Methods: In this randomized, controlled, single-blind phase III multicenter trial, 120 participants with upper...... extremity motor impairment within 12 weeks after stroke were consecutively included at 5 rehabilitation institutions. Participants were randomized to either VR or CT as an adjunct to standard rehabilitation and stratified according to mild to moderate or severe hand paresis, defined as $20 degrees wrist...... were assessed at baseline, after intervention, and at the 3-month follow-up. Results: Mean time from stroke onset for the VR group was 35 (SD 21) days and for the CT group was 34 (SD 19) days. There were no between-group differences for any of the outcome measures. Improvement of upper extremity motor...

Evaluation of different time domain peak models using extreme learning machine-based peak detection for EEG signal.

Science.gov (United States)

Adam, Asrul; Ibrahim, Zuwairie; Mokhtar, Norrima; Shapiai, Mohd Ibrahim; Cumming, Paul; Mubin, Marizan

2016-01-01

Various peak models have been introduced to detect and analyze peaks in the time domain analysis of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. In general, peak model in the time domain analysis consists of a set of signal parameters, such as amplitude, width, and slope. Models including those proposed by Dumpala, Acir, Liu, and Dingle are routinely used to detect peaks in EEG signals acquired in clinical studies of epilepsy or eye blink. The optimal peak model is the most reliable peak detection performance in a particular application. A fair measure of performance of different models requires a common and unbiased platform. In this study, we evaluate the performance of the four different peak models using the extreme learning machine (ELM)-based peak detection algorithm. We found that the Dingle model gave the best performance, with 72 % accuracy in the analysis of real EEG data. Statistical analysis conferred that the Dingle model afforded significantly better mean testing accuracy than did the Acir and Liu models, which were in the range 37-52 %. Meanwhile, the Dingle model has no significant difference compared to Dumpala model.

Vertical structure of extreme currents in the Faroe-Bank Channel

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Carollo

2005-09-01

Full Text Available Extreme currents are studied with the aim of understanding their vertical and spatial structures in the Faroe-Bank Channel. Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler time series recorded in 3 deployments in this channel were investigated. To understand the main features of extreme events, the measurements were separated into their components through filtering and tidal analysis before applying the extreme value theory to the surge component. The Generalized Extreme Value (GEV distribution and the Generalized Pareto Distribution (GPD were used to study the variation of surge extremes from near-surface to deep waters. It was found that this component alone is not able to explain the extremes measured in total currents, particularly below 500 m. Here the mean residual flow enhanced by tidal rectification was found to be the component feature dominating extremes. Therefore, it must be taken into consideration when applying the extreme value theory, not to underestimate the return level for total currents. Return value speeds up to 250 cm s–1 for 50/250 years return period were found for deep waters, where the flow is constrained by the topography at bearings near 300/330° It is also found that the UK Meteorological Office FOAM model is unable to reproduce either the magnitude or the form for the extremes, perhaps due to its coarse vertical and horizontal resolution, and is thus not suitable to model extremes on a regional scale. Keywords. Oceanography: Physical (Currents; General circulation; General or miscellaneous

Transforming Consumers Into Brands

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Erz, Antonia; Christensen, Anna-Bertha Heeris

2018-01-01

The goal of this research is to explore the transformational power of a new consumption and production practice, the practice of blogging, to understand its impact on consumers' identity transformations beyond their self-concept as consumers and on the blogosphere as an organizational field....... Through an exploratory study of over 12,000 blog posts from five fashion bloggers, complemented by in-depth interviews, we trace the transformation of consumer bloggers. We identify and describe three identity phases, the individual consumer, collective blogger and blogger identity phase, and two...

Linking consumer experiences

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Smed, Karina Madsen

become part of the individual self, worldview, and behaviour. This paper seeks to explore links between consumer experiences through the exploration of narrative sequences in travel blogs. Findings indicate that non-consumption is a central element to the bloggers and also indicative of a community......Consumers consume products in various ways serving a number of purposes. Much attention has been paid to experiences attached to consumption, sometimes very explicitly, e.g. in tourism, the essence of which is experiences of various sorts, but often also implicitly as internalised experiences...

On causality of extreme events

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Massimiliano Zanin

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Multiple metrics have been developed to detect causality relations between data describing the elements constituting complex systems, all of them considering their evolution through time. Here we propose a metric able to detect causality within static data sets, by analysing how extreme events in one element correspond to the appearance of extreme events in a second one. The metric is able to detect non-linear causalities; to analyse both cross-sectional and longitudinal data sets; and to discriminate between real causalities and correlations caused by confounding factors. We validate the metric through synthetic data, dynamical and chaotic systems, and data representing the human brain activity in a cognitive task. We further show how the proposed metric is able to outperform classical causality metrics, provided non-linear relationships are present and large enough data sets are available.

Consumer Decisions. Student Manual.

Science.gov (United States)

Florida State Dept. of Education, Tallahassee. Div. of Vocational Education.

This student manual covers five areas relating to consumer decisions. Titles of the five sections are Consumer Law, Consumer Decision Making, Buying a Car, Convenience Foods, and Books for Preschool Children. Each section may contain some or all of these materials: list of objectives, informative sections, questions on the information and answers,…

Consumer Protection for Educators.

Science.gov (United States)

Wallace, James M.

Educational changes are examined from the perspective of consumer protection--the direct consumers are the teachers being prepared; the indirect consumers are the students and the society that supports the schools. During the colonial and early national periods of American history, there was an absence of formal and separate teacher education.…

Consumers and Producers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

E. Maira (Elisa)

2018-01-01

markdownabstractIn the last few decades, advances in information and communication technology have dramatically changed the way consumers and producers interact in the marketplace. The Internet and social media have torn down the information barrier between producers and consumers, leading to

Consumer protection in European Union

OpenAIRE

Bartlová, Daniela

2009-01-01

The consumer protection is a very actual topic in the european policy. It is necessary for the right function of the internal market. The document mentions the development of the consumer protection policy - the past and the future strategy. The valid legislation is listed and also mentioned is the Proposal for a Directive on Consumer Rights. It gives an overview of european consumer organisations and their function . There are also mentioned some alternatives of the consumer's redress. Docum...

The Normative Impact of Consumer Price Expectations for Multiple Brands on Consumer Purchase Behavior

OpenAIRE

Aradhna Krishna

1992-01-01

Empirical research indicates that some consumers form price expectations which may impact their purchase behavior. While literature in operations research has built purchase policy models incorporating uncertain price expectations, these models have been built for commodities. Consumers face an environment with multiple brands. In this paper, we develop a model that incorporates consumer preferences and price expectations for multiple brands as determinants of normative consumer purchase beha...

Status, challenges and facilitators of consumer involvement in Australian health and medical research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Girgis Afaf

2010-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The emergent international practice of involving consumers in health research is driven, in part, by the growing share of health research that can only be applied in and emerge from knowledge that is shaped by human values and societal contexts. This is the first investigation of its kind to identify the current prevalence, challenges, enabling factors and range of approaches to consumer involvement in health and medical research in Australia. Methods A nation-wide survey of research funding organisations and organisations that conduct research was performed during 2008-2009. Results Marked variation in consumer involvement experience and perceptions exists between research funders and researchers. Research funders were over eight times more likely than organisations conducting research to involve consumers in identifying research needs and prioritising research topics. Across both groups, practical and time constraints were reported as key challenges to involving consumers, while guidelines on consumer involvement and evidence of effect were the most important potential enablers. More than a third of research organisations indicated that when consumer involvement was a condition of research funding, it was an important facilitator of involvement. Conclusion It is no longer simply enough to keep society informed of important scientific breakthroughs. If Australian health research is to take into account important social contexts and consequences, it must involve consumers. A set of minimum consumer involvement standards and associated guidelines, that are agreed and routinely adopted, could ensure that consumers and the Australian community they represent, are given an opportunity to shed light on experiences and local circumstance, and express views and concerns relevant to health research.

Consuming America : A Data-Driven Analysis of the United States as a Reference Culture in Dutch Public Discourse on Consumer Goods, 1890-1990

OpenAIRE

Wevers, M.J.H.F.

2017-01-01

Consuming America offers a data-driven, longitudinal analysis of the historical dynamics that have underpinned a long-term, layered cultural-historical process: the emergence of the United States as a dominant reference culture in Dutch public discourse on consumer goods between 1890 and 1990. The ideas, values, and practices associated with the United States in public discourse remained relatively steady over time, which might explain the country’s longevity as a reference culture and its po...

Modeling Spatial Dependence of Rainfall Extremes Across Multiple Durations

Science.gov (United States)

Le, Phuong Dong; Leonard, Michael; Westra, Seth

2018-03-01

Determining the probability of a flood event in a catchment given that another flood has occurred in a nearby catchment is useful in the design of infrastructure such as road networks that have multiple river crossings. These conditional flood probabilities can be estimated by calculating conditional probabilities of extreme rainfall and then transforming rainfall to runoff through a hydrologic model. Each catchment's hydrological response times are unlikely to be the same, so in order to estimate these conditional probabilities one must consider the dependence of extreme rainfall both across space and across critical storm durations. To represent these types of dependence, this study proposes a new approach for combining extreme rainfall across different durations within a spatial extreme value model using max-stable process theory. This is achieved in a stepwise manner. The first step defines a set of common parameters for the marginal distributions across multiple durations. The parameters are then spatially interpolated to develop a spatial field. Storm-level dependence is represented through the max-stable process for rainfall extremes across different durations. The dependence model shows a reasonable fit between the observed pairwise extremal coefficients and the theoretical pairwise extremal coefficient function across all durations. The study demonstrates how the approach can be applied to develop conditional maps of the return period and return level across different durations.

Factors influencing consumer behaviour in market vegetables in Yemen

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tarish H. Al-Gahaifi

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the research is to understand factors influencing consumer behaviour when buying vegetables in Republic of Yemen. Data collection was done by structured questionnaire administered through schools, universities, government offices, and markets from 13 provinces in 5 governorates. Random convenience sampling technique was used. Total sample comprised of 463 completed questionnaires which were used for analysis. The respondents were classified into five categories on the base of their monthly income, age, education, gender, and type of settlement. Authors present the factors that can influence significantly this behaviour, e.g. price, quality, the location of seller, habit, personal relationship between consumer and seller, occasions, discount, sorting, word-mouth, time of purchase, the way of products display, and recommendation of friends and families. From the obtained results, it is obvious that there was high influence on the behaviour of Yemeni consumer when buying vegetables for factors price, occasions, discontent, and time of purchase, while factors habit, display, sorting, and the location of seller suggests medium influence, and the influence was low for word-mouth.

[Research on the Application of Lean Management in Medical Consumables Material Logistics Management].

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Chai; Zhang, Wei; Gu, Wei; Shen, Aizong

2016-11-01

Solve the problems of high cost, low utilization rate of resources, low medical care quality problem in medical consumables material logistics management for scientific of medical consumables management. Analysis of the problems existing in the domestic medical consumables material logistics management in hospital, based on lean management method, SPD(Supply, Processing, Distribution) for specific applications, combined HBOS(Hospital Business Operation System), HIS (Hospital Information System) system for medical consumables material management. Achieve the lean management in medical consumables material purchase, warehouse construction, push, clinical use and retrospect. Lean management in medical consumables material can effectively control the cost in logistics management, optimize the alocation of resources, liberate unnecessary time of medical staff, improve the quality of medical care. It is a scientific management method.

Consumer Neoteny

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mathieu Alemany Oliver

2016-07-01

Full Text Available This research explores childlike consumer behavior from an evolutionary perspective. More specifically, it uses the concept of neoteny to show that the retention of ancestors’ juvenile characteristics is related to specific behaviors. The results of factor analyses conducted on a UK sample (n = 499 and a French sample (n = 292 7 years later indicate four dimensions of childlike consumer behavior, namely, stimulus seeking, reality conflict, escapism, and control of aggression.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS ELECTRIC FANS

OpenAIRE

Inderpreet Singh

2017-01-01

The study of consumer behaviour develops great interest for consumers, students, scientists, and marketers. As consumers, we need insights into our own consumption related decisions: what we buy, why we buy, and how we buy. The aim of the study is to cover entire research about consumer behaviour towards electric fans and different factors affecting their buying decision. A sample of 200 consumers of electric fans is taken. Questionnaire has been analysed with the help of pie diagram & bar ch...

Consuming apart, together

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bartels, Jos; Reinders, M.J.

2016-01-01

Although consumers' awareness of the environmental and ethical consequences of their behaviour has grown, research on the role of multiple consumer identities in sustainability behaviours is scarce. The aim of the current study was to explain sustainable behaviour from a social identity

Global characteristics of extreme winters from a multi-millennial simulation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hunt, B.G. [CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, PO Box 1, Aspendale (Australia)

2011-10-15

Output from a multi-millennial simulation with the CSIRO Mark 2 coupled global climatic model has been analysed to determine the principal characteristics of extreme winters over the globe for ''present conditions''. Thus, this study is not concerned with possible changes in winter conditions associated with anthropogenically induced climatic change. Defining an extreme winter as having a surface temperature anomaly of below -2 standard deviations (sd) revealed a general occurrence rate over the globe of between 100 and 200 over a 6,000-year period of the simulation, with somewhat higher values over northwest North America. For temperature anomalies below -3 sd the corresponding occurrence rate drops to about 10. Spatial correlation studies revealed that extreme winters over regions in Europe, North America or Asia were very limited geographically, with time series of the surface temperature anomalies for these regions having mutual correlation coefficients of about 0.2. The temporal occurrence rates of winters (summers) having sd below -3 (above +3) were very asymmetric and sporadic, suggesting that such events arise from stochastic influences. Multi-year sequences of extreme winters were comparatively rare events. Detailed analysis revealed that the temporal and spatial evolution of the monthly surface temperature anomalies associated with an individual extreme winter were well replicated in the simulation, as were daily time series of such anomalies. Apart from an influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation on extreme winters in Europe, other prominent climatic oscillations were very poorly correlated with such winters. Rather modest winter temperature anomalies were found in the southern hemisphere. (orig.)