Recent developments in video technology have opened up the possibility for people to watch movies in many different ways. For example one person may use a kinetoscope. Others may go to cinemas or join in a movie festival, yet others use a DVD player, watch them on the internet or even on mobile devices. Do movie fans use all or a number of these ways or just pick one of them? How do they select the way they watch the movies? What factors influence them in this selection? These are the important questions which this research addresses. This research utilises product attributes to collect the data from 531 respondents surveyed in Kaohsiung City and analysed by statistics using quantitative empirical methods. It finds that consumers¡¦ preferences for the product attributes and for the movie seeing are related to their lifestyles and demographic variables, and there is a level of significance in these factors: self-benefit, cheerful mind, efficiency, level of socialisation, and economics, in the product attribute for each consumer cluster based on lifestyle. In the preference of product usage, there is the level of significance in these factors: ¡§cinema, and legal and illegal download from the internet¡¨. However, there is no level of significance in these factors: ¡§cable TV, video and disk rent, video and disk purchase, and illegal copy purchase¡¨. Further, in product attribute related to demographic statistical variables, there is separately a level of significance in these factors: gender, education background, marriage, children-raising, and career, in self-benefit, cheerful mind, efficiency, and level of socialisation. And in the relationship of the preference of product usage and demographic statistical variables, there is a significant correlation between most demographic statistical variables and certain preferences of product usage. Keywords: Product Attribute, Preference of Usage, Movie Viewing Products, Lifestyle, Demographics.

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Preference is commonly incorporated into educational interventions for individuals with developmental disabilities. Preference assessments have a solid research base indicating that they are more reliable tools for finding preference than the subjective opinions of parents and teachers. As evidence-based practices have been emphasized, the preference assessment has been a regular component of interventions and instructional programs for the population. Along with the utility, research regarding the assessment and relevant variables has also increased. However, many questions still exist and wait for more inquiry. One of the practical issues is the occurrence of challenging behaviors of individuals with disabilities during preference assessments. Highly occurring challenging behavior during an assessment may interrupt the procedure and lead to inaccurate results about the individual’s preference. That may ultimately affect the effectiveness of the intervention or instructional program. Using a procedure that does not evoke challenging behavior is necessary for accurate results as well as ethically responsible. Therefore this study examined the relation between functions of challenging behavior and three commonly used preference assessment procedures: Paired-Stimulus (PS), Multiple-Stimulus without Replacement (MSWO), and Free-Operant (FO). This study had two phases: Functional analyses and preference assessments. First, functional analyses were conducted to identify the function of challenging behaviors. The participants were nine children with developmental disabilities whose functional analysis results indicated their challenging behavior was maintained by access to tangible items (5), attention (2), and escape (2) reinforcers. After identifying the behaviors’ functions, preference assessments were implemented to compare the rates of the challenging behaviors. Each preference assessment format was conducted 5 times, in a random order for each participant. The results of the study demonstrate that the occurrence of challenging behavior with different functions was different depending on procedure formats. This suggests that there would be a relation between functions of challenging behavior and preference assessment formats. In other words, depending on the function of challenging behavior, the assessment procedure may act as a trigger evoking the challenging behavior. This study discussed practical guidance to prevent challenging behavior during preference assessments. / text

Preference evaluations have been used to determine children’s preferences, for reinforcers, consequences and even preferred instructional strategies. English Language Learners (ELLs) with developmental disabilities (DD) are a quickly growing population and the application of these assessments may be useful in determining preference for language of instruction. This dissertation includes two studies with the purpose of determining whether preference assessments could be used to establish a preference for language of instruction in children with DD who come from Spanish speaking homes. In the first study, a concurrent chains method was used to evaluate a child’s preference for English vs. Spanish instruction. Three colored (blue, green, and yellow) micro switches were used to represent English instruction, Spanish instruction and control (no language) followed by a preferred reinforcer after instruction. Exposure trials were used to teach the chains for each micro switch. Choice sessions were then implemented. All three switches were placed in front of the child and the child was allowed to choose a switch which then initiated the chain associated with that particular switch. After the 10th session switches were reprogrammed to prevent a bias for a specific color and preference procedures were then rerun to see if the preference for language remained. Results from the assessment showed that the child chose Spanish instruction most often. He continued to choose Spanish instruction after switches were reprogrammed. In study two, an ABAB design was utilized to assess the effects of task difficulty on preference for language of instruction. Five children with DD participated in home or school settings. The concurrent chains assessment from the first study was utilized as the preference assessment. Tasks included mastered task (easy) and non-mastered tasks (difficult) from the children’s IEPs. Results for study two indicated that task difficulty had an effect on the preference for language of instruction. Four out of five of the children showed no clear preference for language of instruction when tasks were easy, however they showed a distinct preference for language of instruction when tasks were difficult. Discussion on results of the studies, implications for practice in working with ELLs with DD, and directions for future research are presented. / text

DL-Methionine (Met) has been conventionally used in swine diets with assumption of similar bioefficacy with L-Met. However, because L-Met is the form that is utilized by animals for protein synthesis, L-Met could, theoretically, be more available. Four experiments were conducted to evaluate L-Met bioavailability in nursery pigs with 21-day growth trials. A total of 105,105,112 and 84 crossbred pigs were used in Exp. 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. Each experiment had a low Met basal diet and 3 levels of the Met sources (DL-Met and L-Met). In addition to the basal diet, supplementation levels were 0.053%, 0.107% and 0.160% in Exp. 1, 0.040%, 0.080% and 0.120% in Exp. 2, 0.033%, 0.067% and 0.100% in Exp.3, 0.040%, 0.080% and 0.120% in Exp. 4. Body weight (BW), average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), gain: feed (G:F) were measured and plasma urea nitrogen (PUN) was analyzed in blood samples weekly. In Exp. 3 and 4, preference studies were conducted with the basal diet and the second highest level of each Met source. When additional DL-Met or L-Met were supplemented to the basal diet, BW, ADG, ADFI, and G:F ratio increased (P < 0.05). In the comparison between the DL-Met and L-Met diets in Exp. 1, pigs in the L-Met group had greater ADG and G:F ratios in the d 0-7 (P < 0.05) period than those in the DL-Met group. However, there were no differences for the overall experimental period. In Exp. 2, pigs in the DL-Met group had greater BW (P < 0.05), ADG (P < 0.05) and ADFI (P < 0.05) than those in the L-Met group for the overall period whereas no differences were observed in G:F ratios and PUN concentrations. In Exp. 3 and 4, there were no differences in BW, ADG, ADFI, G:F ratios or PUN concentrations between L-Met and DL-Met groups for the overall period. There was no preference exhibited for either the DL-Met or L-Met diet. In the results of relative bioavailability of L-Met to DL-Met, the values was 111.1% for d 0-14 based on the estimation by ADG in Exp. 1; L-Met bioavailability was lower than DL-Met based on all response measures in Exp. 2. However, in Exp. 3, relative bioavailability of L-Met to DL-Met was 100.4, 147.3, and 104.1% for d 0-14 ADG, G:F ratio and PUN concentrations. In Exp 4, the relative bioavailability of L-Met was 92.9, 139.4 and 70.4% for d 0-14 ADG, G:F ratio and PUN concentrations. In conclusion, using L-Met in the nursery diet demonstrated no consistent beneficial effect on ADG, G:F ratio or relative bioavailability compared to conventional DL-Met.

Phytophagous insects and plants comprise one half of all macroscopic organisms on Earth, and understanding plant-insect interactions has been a long-standing focus in ecological and evolutionary biology. A key challenge has been determining the factors that affect how insects distribute among plants. While ditrophic and tritrophic interactions are well known and enormously important, the biophysical context in which these interactions occur is largely unexplored. This dissertation examines how a plant's physical environment affects insect performance on, and preference for, its leaves.An insect's primary physiological challenges are staying within an appropriate temperature range and retaining sufficient water. These problems are exacerbated during the egg stage. Eggs have comparatively enormous ratios of surface area to volume, and their temperature is determined largely by where they are laid. Because they are small, eggs are nearly always immersed within their plant's boundary layer, a thin layer of still air that resists heat and moisture transfer between the plant and its surroundings. Almost no work has documented the microclimate to which insects are exposed in a plant's boundary layer, which likely differs substantially both from the ambient macroclimate, and from leaf to leaf.Because a female controls the location in which her eggs must develop, her choice of oviposition site may profoundly influence the success of her offspring. In this dissertation I examine how site-specific environmental variables, including microclimate, predation, and leaf nutrition, drive female oviposition preference and offspring performance in the hawkmoth, Manduca sexta L. (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae). I measure how leaves of M. sexta's primary host plants in the southwestern USA modify the temperature and humidity experienced by eggs, and how these leaf microclimates affect the performance of eggs and larvae. I then test whether this species' oviposition-site choices correlate with offspring performance with regard to microclimate, predation risk, and leaf nutrition. This dissertation is unique in focusing on the relatively unstudied biophysical context in which plant-insect interactions occur. Additionally, it is the first work that compares, together in a single study, the effects of varying multiple factors related to oviposition-site choice across all life history stages in a single model system.

The majority of the research conducted on consumer choice phenomena focuses on how choices are made and the processes that lead up to those choices. While these are essential aspects within the breadth of choice knowledge that exists today, little research has been conducted on the options that are rejected during this process. Thus, the overarching goal of this dissertation is gain an understanding of consumer choice processes and outcomes through the lens of a nearly chosen alternative. Specifically, this dissertation investigates how the decision process can cause a close second option to be rejected when the chosen option is found to be unavailable.As a means of achieving these goals, I first demonstrate the phenomenon that consumers do not always select a close second option when the first choice option is unavailable, contrary to the prediction of economic rationality. Next, I propose that the decision process itself, specifically the use of a tie-breaking attribute to differentiate between close options, triggers a choice outcome that does not include the original second choice option, but rather an alternative that possesses this tie-breaking attribute. Finally, I examine the implications that the preference reversal phenomenon described above has for retailers and manufacturers.My original interest in this phenomenon stems from anecdotal evidence provided by a variety of informants. Although this evidence helped me to recognize the prevalence of rejected second choice options, experimental design is used to investigate this phenomenon and the boundary conditions that confine this effect. Consequently, my dissertation consists of 6 experiments. Experiment 1 and a pilot study establish the effect and investigate the theoretical process that account for my findings. Experiments 2 through 4 rule out alternative explanations and add support towards the existence and prevalence of the effect. Finally, Experiments 5 and 6 explore the impact of these results for improving the performance of marketing managers. It is my belief that incorporating the dynamic effects of the second-most preferred option may ultimately lead to more accurate and sophisticated prediction of buyer choices, more effective retailing and personal selling strategies, and more profitable management of product line portfolios.

BACKGROUND: Parents of children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) are often forced to make trade-offs between the effectiveness, convenience, safety, and cost of drug treatments for their child. METHODS: A discrete choice experiment was administered to parents of children with JIA to determine their preferences for drug treatments. Multinomial logit regression was used to estimate part-worth utilities and willingness-to-pay. RESULTS: Participation in daily activities was the most important attribute, followed by child reported pain. Child age, gender, years with JIA, and household income had the greatest impact on preferences. Parents’ were willing to pay $2,080 to switch from a drug representing methotrexate to etanercept (95% CI $698, $4,065). CONCLUSIONS: Parents of children with JIA have the highest maximum willingness-to-pay for drug treatments that improve daily functioning and reduce pain. Cost is a significant factor in the decisions that parents make surrounding the best treatment for a child.

BACKGROUND: Parents of children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) are often forced to make trade-offs between the effectiveness, convenience, safety, and cost of drug treatments for their child. METHODS: A discrete choice experiment was administered to parents of children with JIA to determine their preferences for drug treatments. Multinomial logit regression was used to estimate part-worth utilities and willingness-to-pay. RESULTS: Participation in daily activities was the most important attribute, followed by child reported pain. Child age, gender, years with JIA, and household income had the greatest impact on preferences. Parents’ were willing to pay $2,080 to switch from a drug representing methotrexate to etanercept (95% CI $698, $4,065). CONCLUSIONS: Parents of children with JIA have the highest maximum willingness-to-pay for drug treatments that improve daily functioning and reduce pain. Cost is a significant factor in the decisions that parents make surrounding the best treatment for a child.

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effect of feeding diets with a 2009 and 2010 naturally-contaminated corn to weaning pigs. For both experiments three diets were blended to contain 100% 2010 naturally-contaminated corn (control), 50-50% blend of the 2009 naturally-contaminated corn and 2010 corn (Diet 2), and 100% 2009 naturally-contaminated corn (Diet 3). In Exp. 1, 24 crossbred pigs with an average body weight of 7.64 ± 0.70 kg were allotted to 4 replicates of 3 treatments with 2 pigs per pen, on the basis of gender, litter mate, and BW in a randomized complete block design. Fecal and urine samples were collected and dry matter, energy, and nitrogen apparent digestibility were determined. Dry matter, energy, and nitrogen digestibility were not affected by either Diet 3 or Diet 2 compared to the control diet. In Exp. 2, 30 crossbred pigs with an average body weight of 7.98 ± 1.15 kg were allotted to 3 replicates of 2 comparisons with 5 pigs per pen. Comparisons consisted of: 1) Control vs Diet 3, and 2) Control vs Diet 2. Two feeders were located in each pen containing one of the two diets. Feed preference and growth performance were determined. A preference for the feed containing 2010 corn feed was observed; pigs showed the ability to discriminate mycotoxin-contaminated feed (95.34 vs. 4.66%; P< 0.01). Nutrient digestibility was not affected by these diets, but a clear decrease in feed intake was observed in the pigs.