Inexpensive Items Research Articles

IKEA vs Trophy effect – an experimental comparison

Purpose What if companies try to combine the IKEA and Trophy winner effects? The purpose of this study is to understand the similarities and differences between both effects. This is not only theoretically but also practically important for the way that companies interact with their customers. Design/methodology/approach Successful work – invested either to create or to obtain a product – increases the customers’ valuation of the product. This phenomenon known as the IKEA or Trophy winner effect. This study directly compares both effects using experiments with two different products (paper planes and 3D puzzles). Moreover, this study tests whether they reinforce each other. Findings The Trophy winner effect looms larger than the IKEA effect for inexpensive items. For slightly more expensive products, this study finds a Trophy loser effect. Positive emotions of trophy winners drive the results for inexpensive products, whereas negative emotions of trophy losers drive the results for slightly more expensive products. Research limitations/implications The relevance of the IKEA and Trophy effects is influenced by the type of product. Customers’ labor invested in the product itself is of greater importance the more expensive the product is. As soon as customers interpret the interaction with other customers as competition, the effect on valuation can be substantial even for inexpensive products. Future studies could try to replicate our results with different product categories. Originality/value Although the IKEA and Trophy effects are no new phenomena in consumer psychology and behavioral economics, they have not been compared to each other or combined yet. The results are useful for researchers and practitioners alike. They yield implications for product customization and customer empowerment.

Implementing Tactile Learning to Aid Students Understanding of the Bohr Model

It is essential for introductory level chemistry students to understand atomic models and how atoms interact to form chemical bonds. The tactile model in this article utilizes marbles to represent subatomic particles, a cup to represent the nucleus and wooden rings to simulate the electron orbitals. These inexpensive items can be combined to construct models in which students can build foundational knowledge of atomic structure and how subatomic particles interact. Students were asked to provide feedback comparing the use of this tactile model to atomic computer simulations, videos and their textbook regarding the method they felt was most useful to learn atomic structure.

Comparative study of vertex-edge based indices for semi-capped carbon nanotubes.

Manufacturing relatively inexpensive items in every area of engineering and science is the major focus of exploration resultant the world's contemporary economic setback. Making small-sized items that are inexpensive and lightweight while providing high quality is critical in today's and tomorrow's worlds. Nanotechnology has a significant role to play in this situation. Nano-objects or, in general, nanomaterials are especially preferred; nanotubes, especially those comprised of carbon, are one of the most popular types of nanostructures, and they are applied in a variety of chemical, biological and technical applications. This notion prompted us to investigate their many physical and chemical characteristics. We utilized topological descriptors to evaluate diverse nanotube structures such as armchair carbon and semi-capped nanotubes by using vertex-edge based indices to characterize distinct chemical structures via numerical quantitative analysis. Furthermore, we examined uncapped and semi-capped armchair carbon nanotubes and achieved adequate comparative findings.

PORTRET, a more inclusive portrait of the older population with breast cancer

PORTRET, a more inclusive portrait of the older population with breast cancer

Fabrication and Validation of a Cost-Effective Upper Endoscopy Simulator.

Purpose:Beginning with the graduating class of 2018, the American Board of Surgery (ABS) requires that residents complete the ABS Flexible Endoscopy Curriculum, Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery (FES). This curriculum includes both didactic and simulator training. In the ideal setting residents gain proficiency using simulation prior to performing endoscopies in the clinical setting. This new requirement creates an increased demand for endoscopic simulators in all General Surgery residency programs. Due to the cost prohibitive nature of virtual reality simulators an economic alternative is needed.Methods:A mechanical simulator was created from inexpensive items easily acquired at a hardware store and in the hospital. Total cost of the simulator was approximately $120 USD. To validate the simulator, experienced endoscopists completed a training session with the device. A seven-question Likert scale survey (1 - strongly disagree to 5 - strongly agree) was completed after the session evaluated the simulated experience versus live upper endoscopies and the device’s ability to meet the goals of the FES curriculum.Results:Eight proficient endoscopists completed the training session and survey and agreed that the device closely replicated live colonoscopies and would meet all training requirements in the FES curriculum. Mean responses to all seven survey questions ranged from 3.8–4.4.Conclusion:This device is a cost-effective method for simulating live upper endoscopies and is appropriate for use in FES training.

Cost awareness in urology: A nationwide survey

Introduction: In the current economic climate with continuous expenditure reviews and financial constraints, clinicians should remain conscious of making cost-effective choices on consumables and medications. In this survey, we evaluated the cost awareness amongst UK urologists. This is an observational study in which urology clinicians were asked to estimate the cost of 10 commonly used medications and consumables in urology by completing a questionnaire. Methodology: The survey was primarily conducted at the BAUS Annual Meeting 2017 with subsequent responders at local hospitals and urological courses. The costs of consumables and medications were verified with the relevant companies and the 73rd edition of the British National Formulary. Result: There were 139 responders from across the UK (46 consultants, 64 training registrars, 13 trust grades doctors and 16 senior house officers (SHOs)). In total, 16 and 60% of all estimates were within ± 25% and ± 100% of the true cost of the items respectively. Approximately 97.1, 95.7 and 97.1% overestimated the cost of a 14Ch urethral catheter, Ciprofloxacin and Sildenafil, respectively; while 78.4 and 84.9% of responders underestimated the cost of a JJ ureteric stent and Solifenacin, respectively. On multivariate analysis, SHOs significantly overestimated the cost of urethral catheters, suprapubic catheterization kits and JJ ureteric stents compared to other clinician grades. Conclusion: Cost awareness among UK urologists is poor. Expensive items (e.g. JJ ureteric stent, Solifenacin) tend to be underestimated while inexpensive items (e.g. catheter, Ciprofloxacin, Sildenafil) tend to be overestimated. This lack of appreciation of value may have an impact on drug and consumable expenditure. Level of Evidence: Level 3

Synthetic chemistry in water: applications to peptide synthesis and nitro-group reductions.

Amide bond formation and aromatic/heteroaromatic nitro-group reductions represent two of the most commonly used transformations in organic synthesis. Unfortunately, such processes can be especially wasteful and hence environmentally harmful, and may present safety hazards as well, given the reaction conditions involved. The two protocols herein describe alternative technologies that offer solutions to these issues. Polypeptides can now be made in water at ambient temperatures using small amounts of the designer surfactant TPGS-750-M, thereby eliminating the use of organic solvents as the reaction medium. Likewise, a safe, inexpensive and efficient procedure is outlined for nitro-group reductions, using industrial iron in the form of carbonyl iron powder (CIP), an inexpensive item of commerce. The peptide synthesis will typically take, overall, 3-4 h for a simple coupling and 8 h for a two-step deprotection/coupling process. The workup usually consists of a simple extraction and acidic/basic aqueous washings. The nitro reduction procedure will typically take 6-8 h to complete, including setup, reaction time and workup.

The Security Implications Of The Internet Of Things

The Internet of Things connects various electronic devices and these can range from the expensive, such as cars or computers, to the mundane, such as toasters or light bulbs and this creates a major security problem. While attention is paid to the complex expensive items, the inexpensive items, although connected to the same network, are often overlooked. With a desperate race to produce more for less and to connect more items to the network, these inexpensive items are overlooked, never updated and in many cases, are downright dangerous when connected to a network and this makes the Internet insecure for everyone else.

Alfred Thompson Bricher’s a Pensive Moment and Winslow Homer’s the New Novel

Alfred Thompson Bricher’s a Pensive Moment and Winslow Homer’s the New Novel Daniel E. Sachs Abstract In the 1870s, amidst a virtual explosion of socially relevant as well as nostalgic images attempting to aid in the recuperation of a nation having survived a long and violent Civil War, Winslow Homer and Alfred Thompson Bricher created and exhibited a pair of watercolor compositions that addressed the gender and sexual issues arising in the mid- to late Victorian era. These images may well have been inspired by the two artists’ personal experiences and also their positive attitudes towards women, but also likely encouraged by an ever increasing Women’s Rights movement led by women such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others as early as the 1840s. The movement gained tremendous momentum in the post-Civil War period. Tradition- challenging Homer and sometimes provocative Bricher painted two paintings that prove to be well worth exploring because of their clearly different though equally compelling images of young Victorian women reading. Reading was very much the domain of men in this period, so when novels started becoming a commonplace, inexpensive item to which young women gravitated, many men of high stature saw it as detrimental and worthy of their criticism. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/ijaah.v4n2a1

When Opposites Detract: Categorical Reasoning and Subtractive Valuations of Product Combinations

Can pairing items from different price tiers decrease consumers’ perceptions of monetary value? Prior research suggests that adding an item with positive utility to an offering can only increase the offering’s overall value. In contrast, we show that combining expensive and inexpensive items can lead to subtractive rather than additive judgments, such that consumers are willing to pay less for the combination than for the expensive item alone. We attribute this subtraction effect to the categorical nature of consumers’ processing of numeric information when evaluating combinations of items classified into opposing categories. Five empirical studies lend converging support to the proposition that categorical reasoning can lead to subtractive judgments.

Automation of size fractionation to extract clays and silts

AbstractThe objective of this study was to build an automated size fractionator to process up to 16 samples at one time. Most parts used in the apparatus are inexpensive items, available from lawn irrigation, household appliance and aquatic pet supply stores. The device can be used to extract different silt and clay fractions by changing sedimentation time. A bentonite, a kaolin and an ironoxide-rich Oxisol were fractionated by this instrument to sequentially extract particles that have sizes equivalent to <2 µm, <5 µm, <10 µm and <20 µm quartz spheres. A laser diffraction particle size analyser revealed size differences in the different fractions and also showed that the silt fractions contained particles having slightly larger sizes than the assumed diameters of spherical quartz. Scanning electron microscope examination suggested that the greater particle size was mainly due to the non-spherical shapes of the particles and a reduced bulk density of the porous aggregates.

The Rolling Release Rulapult

The “rulapult” is a low-cost, easy-to-construct, ruler-based catapult for use in the classroom. It is made from durable, inexpensive items that are easy to store. Most of the components can be found with a visit to one or two local stores. A set of 12 complete rulapults can be constructed for less than $150, including the one-time cost of the only tool needed for construction, a single handheld one-hole paper punch. The unit price per rulapult approaches $10.25 as the number of rulapults constructed becomes “large.” A rulapult can be constructed by a single middle school student in less than five minutes. Ping-Pong® balls or marshmallows are suggested for use as projectiles as they pose a minimal safety hazard. The range of a typical rulapult when firing a Ping-Pong ball is approximately 4.0 m, just right for classroom or hallway testing. The smaller (1-cm size) marshmallows have a range of about 5.0 m, but due to their “squishy” nature, the range is less consistent from shot to shot. For the rest of the discussion, it is presumed that the projectile is a Ping-Pong ball (the ball). The ball can easily knock over a large Styrofoam™ cup, but despite its impressive range and “knock-down power,” the rulers used are “limp” enough that a direct hit to your hand by the ruler will not cause noticeable pain or injury.

‘The Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing’: Cost Awareness in Anaesthesia

Cost awareness for the drugs and disposables commonly used by anaesthetic staff has previously been poor. In our study, fifty anaesthetic staff were asked to estimate the cost of thirty-three commonly used drugs and disposables. Expensive items were consistently underestimated whereas inexpensive items were consistently overestimated. There was no overall correlation between the number of years of anaesthetic experience and cost awareness. These findings demonstrate poor knowledge regarding the cost of drugs and consumables amongst anaesthetic staff.

Purchasing or Borrowing

The Interlibrary Loan Department is authorized to make immediate purchasing decisions for inexpensive items to speed delivery of requested materials to patrons and to enhance patron satisfaction. Criteria for purchasing, rather than borrowing materials for patrons through interlibrary loan are outlined. The practices and procedures of several other institutions about buying rather than borrowing in the interlibrary loan environment are reviewed. Copyright guidelines are another factor that affects decisions about borrowing or purchasing articles.

Bush Hill: Material Life at a Working Plantation

Bush Hill plantation, located near Aiken, South Carolina, and Augusta, Georgia, along the middle Savannah River valley, was owned by four generations of the George Bush lineal family between ca. 1807 and 1920. Drawing upon the interpretive concept of the working plantation, perceptions regarding material conditions and the standard of living experienced by southern planters are explored in this essay. Economic records indicate that the George Bush family was among the top wealth-holding groups within the surrounding community. Although the planter family was affluent, the standard of living revealed archaeologically was economically conservative. The Bush family used inexpensive household items and did not acquire the luxury goods often thought to be archaeological hallmarks of genteel society, such as expensive dining sets or tea ware. Conversely, archaeological data revealed they were aggressive consumers, indicated by the sheer quantity of material discarded at the site. The example provided by Bush Hill underscores the complexity of planter households in the past and illustrates that the wealth held by former site residents is not always directly discernable in the archaeological record.

Moisture on tap

House surveyors have traditionally used conductance moisture meters to find those parts of a building subject to undue dampness. Moisture meters have their place, their strengths and weaknesses, and are today more sophisticated — able to not only detect moisture by their pin probes, but in the same instrument able to offer as well a ‘capacitance reading’. The following case shows how useful this facility could be in a survey. In addition to moisture meters, a range of diverse instruments can be used by the surveyor — and a listening device features in the diagnosis that follows, a relatively inexpensive item of equipment well worth adding to your site armoury. There need to be many more examples of damp defects in surveying textbooks — and with photographs of the symptoms such as those found at Sutton.

How Big Is a 16-Penny Nail? A Measurement Lesson for Middle Grades

One source of free and inexpensive materials to support the study of mathematics can be found at the local hardware store or lumberyard. Many common objects can provide numerous opportunities for students to develop mathematical concepts and skills (Olson and Olson 1998). A pound of nails, washers, or other small inexpensive hardware items can be purchased for a reasonable cost and used as markers, counting devices, or items to measure.

The Emergence of Trendsetters for Fashions and Fads: Kogaru in 1990s Japan

Analyses of fads and fashions often note the importance of trendsetters whose early adoption of novelties provides an example for others to follow. However, trendsetting is usually taken for granted; there is no effort to explain why some groups assume fashion leadership. This article seeks to account for the rise of kogaru (stylish high-school girls) as trendsetters in 1990s Japan. We argue that trendsetting requires resources—particularly leisure time to devote to fashion, disposable income, and communication networks. Kogaru became trendsetters because they gained these resources at a time when the female college students who preceded them had less time for trendsetting, and when economic recession made inexpensive items of the sort kogaru could afford more desirable fashion objects. At the same time, new electronic technologies sped the flow of information among kogaru, while media coverage of this new social type gave kogaru visibility in the larger society.

Boron Nitride Coated Ceramic Crucible With a Hole in the Bottom—a New Device Replacing Expensive Crucibles for the Preparation of Fusion Bead Samples for X-ray Fluorescence Analysis

A new method of casting a melt of a borate fusion bead glass is proposed. After reaching a suitable low viscosity, the melting glassbody will flow through a hole in the bottom of a BN coated ceramic crucible into a mould of platinum or a mould made from pressed BN powder. The formed glass disks are intended for X-ray elemental analysis. The crucible is an inexpensive item intended for once-only use, and it is produced from a mixture of ordinary refractory castable materials. The crucible has a conic shape and is coated with a thin layer of mainly fine-grained BN powder that contains some additives.The performance characteristics of the BN coated crucible have been compared with those of standard Pt–Au crucibles and different kinds of dense BN crucibles. Reproducibility tests carried out for a wide variety of samples showed the general usefulness of the new crucible. Selected samples were analyzed. Special attention was paid to the analysis of a copper and an arsenic concentrate, since both contained volatiles that had a strong tendency to escape when the sample was fused as glass. Element losses attributable to other causes and chemical interactions were included in the study.Advantages and disadvantages of the new BN coated crucible are discussed. One notable advantage is the substantial cost saving that can be achieved using BN coated ceramic crucibles to prepare samples for analysis.

Crime as a hobby: Taking an “involuntary discount” on expensive wines

Criminologists tend to associate themselves with one of several schools of thought concerning the etiology of crime: classical; pathological; or one of the several sociological perspectives such as strain/anomie, critical/conflict, structural functional ism, social disorganization, symbolic interaction/labeling, and social and cultural support. None of these schools appear to have a place in their domain for a crime hobbyist. Criminal typologies that address specific criminal behavior often identify a criminal type known as the occasional property offender and describe him/her as crude, unsophisticated, unknowledgeable, and involved with inexpensive items or, in more recent work, as a delighted scofflaw. This study examines a crime hobbyist who is serious about his pasttime, who carries it off with aplomb, sophistication, and at considerable cost to the victim. This study is intended to stimulate thought concerning the nature of typologies generally, as well as to provide a basis for possible future studi...