Articles by author: Brock University

• Black Friday may be the new king of retail, but the allure of Boxing Day is a powerful tradition

  Monday, December 19, 2016 | By Brock University

  EXPERT ADVISORY: R00256 – 13 December 2016

  Boxing Day has long been a massive money-maker for retailers, with slashed prices enticing consumers into both in-store and online shopping.

  But one expert warns that Boxing Day sales could take a hit this year with the increase of Black Friday sales that have expanded into several days of deals.

  Eric Dolansky, Associate Professor of Marketing at Brock’s Goodman School of Business, teaches courses on marketing communications and pricing strategy and researches consumer estimations of value.

  “I don’t think Boxing Day is as important as it once was, partially because of the expansion of Black Friday in Canada, which was not really established until a few years ago,” says Dolansky.

  “While it’s likely that consumers are spending more overall between the two days, having two major sales days within a month of one another will make each less successful as households only have so much money to spend.”

  But we can still expect to see crowds of Boxing Day bargain hunters as part of an annual tradition.

  “It’s a time when families are together,” says Dolansky. “A holiday has just occurred and now they can go out and shop together. There is the same sense of having a story behind your purchase, such as, ‘I lined up at 4 a.m.,’ or, ‘I tried to get on the website for an hour before successfully getting through.’”

  Another factor could be nostalgia or history.

  “Boxing Day is just something that some families always do, often going to the same stores year after year,” he says.

  Dolansky is available to comment on:

  •    Perception of pricing and sales
  •    Consumer behaviour patterns during holiday shopping
  •    What factors (beyond price) drive consumers to sales
  •    What consumers should watch for when shopping at sales

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases

• Computers with DNA? Brock team working to help make it happen

  Tuesday, December 06, 2016 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: R00254 – 5 December 2016

  When most people think DNA, they think of the molecule that makes us who we are, determining everything from our personalities to our hair colour. 

  But scientists think DNA will one day be used to make computers whose miniscule mass would have massive capacity to store data. These devices would have no chips or electrical circuits, and consume far less of the Earth’s resources than today’s computers.

  And now, researchers at Brock University have created a tool that can potentially be used in a future computer that will be made out of DNA.

  Chemist Feng Li, graduate student Xiaolong Yang, postdoctoral fellow Yanan Tang and undergraduate student Sarah Traynor have devised a strategy that simplifies the design of DNA circuits that may eventually be used in a DNA computer.

  The Brock team’s research “Regulation of DNA Strand Displacement Using an Allosteric DNA Toehold,” was published recently in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

  “We’re at baby steps now,” said Li, “it’s not something like what we know as a computer yet. What we have now, if you can imagine, is something more like a calculator where you can use DNA to solve mathematical questions.”

  Just like living creatures use DNA to store genetic information, DNA computers would be used to store information, said Li.

  “In principle, you can save anything into DNA. For example, there are researchers who coded an entire book into DNA sequences. It’s different from hardware; you only need a tiny amount of DNA to store an entire book.”

  If you type on the keyboard of a conventional computer, it generates binary codes, consisting of a series of 0s and 1s. Those codes translate what is entered into the computer into text, graphics or other things we see on the screen.

  DNA can generate binary codes just like computers do, and doesn’t require electricity or materials such as silicon, aluminum and cobalt to do so.

  Li says scientists around the world are racing to develop DNA for use in information technology, mostly by trying to use DNA as a computing component to construct a molecular computer.

  “It’s not the electricity-based computer we use now, but rather the fundamental units are molecules of DNA.”

  The Brock team has developed a method — called the ‘allosteric DNA toehold (A-toehold) strategy’ — in which DNA molecules can be manipulated using the principle of allostery, which is used widely for regulating enzyme activities by nature. This is done within a process called “toehold exchange,” in which an input DNA strand binds to a sticky end (toehold) on another DNA molecule.

  Li says the toehold exchange method streamlines the design of DNA circuits.

  “If you want to use DNA to replace a computer, you also need to somehow manipulate those DNA strands the way you want You need ‘rules’ to manipulate those DNA. There are existing rules you can use to manipulate DNA, but what we’re trying to do is to simplify this process by providing alternative rules. If you simplify the design, you save DNA molecules, you save money.”

  How the output of the DNA computer — a screen displaying text, graphics and video in our current conventional computers — will be displayed for the average user is still unknown, says Li, but more of these blanks get filled in each time another step is taken toward the final goal.

  See the full story in The Brock News.

  NOTE: A graphic, as well as a photo are attached. Caption is as follows: Feng Li, assistant professor, Department of Chemistry, left, works in a Brock University lab with undergraduate student Sarah Traynor and graduate student Xiaolong Yang.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

   

  Categories: Media releases