How do online hotel consumers perceive room rates?

While it has been perceived that hotel consumers using online travel agencies (OTAs) are overall price sensitive, a dominant use of OTAs in hotel booking suggests that there are more diverse consumers in terms of price perception. As such, this study investigates the price sensitivity of the Online Travel Agency (OTA) consumer segments, using price sensitivity measurement (PSM) by using factor analysis and cluster analysis. The results showed four OTA consumer segments, i.e., planned bargain seekers, enthusiastic shoppers, deal hunters, and apathetic shoppers. Differences in price sensitivity was confirmed among these segments. This study uncovers the characteristics of OTA consumers who are more (less) price sensitive. By using PSM, this study presents and compares the optimal pricing points across the customer segments in terms of monetary values. Based on the findings, this study provides theoretical and practical implications.

Contrast Sensitivity Measurement Tests and Methods

Contrast is a measure of the amount of lightness or darkness an object has in relationship to its background. Usually, it is described as Contrast Sensitivity (CS), which actually is the inverse of the contrast threshold. More often than not, stimulus set includes grating patterns of various sizes that are presented in a stationary manner or are dynamically presented by reversing the contrast at different rates. A variety of tests were developed, in order to asses and evaluate contrast sensitivity, in many different ways. A classical method, to check for contrast sensitivity, is the Pelli-Robson contrast sensitivity chart. The Bailey-Lovie contrast sensitivity chart is another letter chart that deals with differences in the number of letters read on the high and low contrast charts, with a main drawback, the necessity to follow the size of the letters. The Functional Acuity Contrast Test is designed to identify vision loss from a variety of disorders, many of which are not detected by high or low contrast Snellen Acuity tests. The MARS Letter Contrast Sensitivity Test shows good agreement with the Pelli-Robson test and possibly it may be the alternative to the Pelli-Robson chart, in clinical practice and research.

A preliminary study on an image analysis based method for lowest detectable signal measurements in Pulsed Wave Doppler ultrasounds

<span lang="EN-GB">Nowadays, Doppler system performance evaluation is a widespread issue because a shared worldwide standard is still awaited. Among the recommended Doppler test parameters, the lowest detectable signal could be considered mandatory in Quality Control (QC) protocols for Pulsed Wave (PW) Doppler. Such parameter is defined as the minimum signal level that can be clearly distinguished from noise and therefore, it is considered as related to PW Doppler sensitivity. The present study focuses on proposing and validating a novel image analysis based method for the estimation of the Lowest Detectable Signal in the spectrogram image (LDS_IMG), namely Automatic Doppler Sensitivity Measurement Method (ADSMM), as well as to compare its results with the outcomes retrieved from the Naked Eye Doppler Sensitivity Method (NEDSM), based on the mean judgment of three independent observers. Data have been collected from a Doppler flow phantom, through three ultrasound systems for general purpose imaging, equipped with two linear array probes each and with two configuration settings. Results are globally compatible among the proposed methods, US systems and settings. Further studies could be carried out on a higher number of US diagnostic systems, Doppler frequencies and observers, as well as with different probe and phantom models.</span>

Price and Income Elasticities of Residential Heat Demand from District Heating System: A Price Sensitivity Measurement Experiment in South Korea

Since the price for residential heat (RH) from district heating system in South Korea is regulated by the government rather than being freely determined in the market, it is difficult to estimate the demand function for RH properly using the distorted market data. Thus, undistorted data on price and demand are required in obtaining the demand function. This article tries to estimate the demand function for RH by applying the price sensitivity measurement (PSM) technique, with some variation, and then use this to obtain information about the price and income elasticities. To this end, in the PSM survey 1000 households were first asked about their consumption of RH and their expenditure on that consumption and then asked about how much they would lower their demand for RH in response to four hypothetical increases in the price for RH (10%, 20%, 50%, and 100%). Thus, five sets of price and consumption of RH were available for each household. The demand function for RH was estimated using a total of 5000 observations. The price and income elasticities were estimated with statistical significance to be about −0.478 and 0.033, respectively. These values can be utilized in decision-making and/or policy-making related to RH management.