Efecto de los tratamientos con AH y oAH sobre las células K562 y Kv562.

In conjunction with literature reviews focus group interviews are an essential step in the

identification of attributes to be included in the initial design of the CE. Focus groups in CE studies usually consist of 5-10 participants and a facilitator that are brought together to discuss their

attitudes, beliefs, and experience on a topic of interest with the goal of revealing the significant attributes they are willing to pay for in a product or service. As a result not only the omission of important attributes from the model is minimized, but the attributes are described in a way that they will be best understood by the respondents in the survey. Due to the small sample size, the data collected from the focus group interviews can only be used in identifying the significant attributes to be included in the initial design of the CE and in making sure that these attributes are phrased in a way that they will be meaningful to the participants. The description of these attributes will be further tested during the pilot study phase of the survey.

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Six focus group studies were held in the districts of Lefkoşa, Girne, Gazimağusa, Güzelyurt, and İskele between 31 October, 2007 and 7 November, 2007 (see Table 3.2). The groups were selected to include residential customers from that district. We aimed at having a mix of male and female

participants from different age groups and education levels. In each district we contacted several people and asked them to invite other people they knew to participate. For each group around 10 people were invited but on average six were present at the interviews. During these six focus group studies a total of 35 participants (18 female, 17 male) were interviewed from five different districts. Their ages ranged from 21 to 63, and education levels ranged from “no formal education” to PhD.

The meetings in Lefkoşa, Girne, and Güzelyurt took place at one of the participants’ homes. The meetings at the two universities took place in offices on campus; and finally the meeting in İskele was held at the municipality building of Yeni Erenköy. The participants were provided with snacks and refreshments to give them the opportunity to get to know each other before the interview. The meetings on average lasted an hour. The participants were first given an introduction regarding the meeting’s agenda and then they were asked to fill out a four page questionnaire which included questions on their current electricity service (see Appendix 3.1). Afterwards a group discussion was held on the attributes the participants were willing to pay for in their electricity service. I acted as the facilitator in the discussions, took notes and recorded the conversations for future reference.

Table 3. 2 Focus Group Characteristics

District Date of Study No. of

Participants Ages Education Levels 1. Lefkoşa: 31 October, 2007 6 participants: 36-43 high school-master

97 5 Female, 1 Male 2. Girne (American University faculty) 1 November, 2007 6 participants: all male 28-50 master - PhD

3. İskele 2 November, 2007 7 participants:

2 Female, 5 Male 30-54 primary – university 4. Güzelyurt 3 November, 2007 6 participants:

all female 21-56 primary – university 5. Girne 6 November, 2007 5 participants:

3 Female, 2 Male 31-63 no formal education – university 6. Gazimağusa (Eastern Mediterranean University faculty) 7 November, 2007 5 participants:

2 Female, 3 Male 23 – 43 master – PhD

Attributes From the Focus Group Study

The attributes of an electricity service that participants in general believed important and were willing to pay for were frequency of outages, duration of outages, notification of outages, and timing of outages (season, day of the week, time of day). Some other attributes were also mentioned: voltage fluctuations, momentary outages, repair time, under-grounding of power cables, the utility company’s ability to answer phones during an outage, and environmentally friendly sources of power. Among the latter group of attributes “voltage fluctuations” was the attribute that was emphasized more than the rest.

Frequency of Outages

The frequency of outages is the number of times an outage occurs on average in a specified period of time. According to the data collected from the focus group questionnaire, unplanned summer

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ranged from “none or no notification” to “3-4 times a month”, unplanned winter outages ranged from “1-2 times a year” to “more than 8 times a month”, and planned winter outages ranged from 0 to “4-5 times a month” (see Table 3.3). The experience with outages varied with district, and even within the same district.

Table 3. 3 Frequency of Outages – Data from Focus Group Survey

Frequency of outages Unplanned Planned

Summer Winter Summer Winter

Never 2 (11.1%) 6 (27.3%) 1-2 times a year 1 (5.3%) 5 (27.8%) 1 (4.5%) 2-3 times a year 1 (5.6%) 3-4 times a year 1 (5%) 5-6 times a year 1-2 times a month 4 (20%) 2 (10.5%) 9 (50%) 11 (50%) 2-3 times a month 3 (15%) 2 (10.5%) 2 (9.1%) 3-4 times a month 2 (10%) 2 (10.5%) 1 (5.6%) 4-5 times a month 3 (15%) 6 (31.6%) 2 (9.1%) 5-6 times a month 6-7 times a month 1 (5%) 7-8 times a month 1 (5%)

More than 8 times a month 4 (20%) 6 (31.6%) Don’t know 1 (5%)

Total 20 (100%) 19 (100%) 18 (100%) 22 (100%)

Duration of Outages

The duration of outages is the number of hours that an outage lasts on average. According to the focus group results, outages on average ranged from 1 hour to “More than 12 hours” (see Table 3.4).

Table 3. 4 Duration of Outages – Data from Focus Group Survey

Duration of outages Unplanned Planned

Summer Winter Summer Winter

99 Less than one hour

1-2 hours 5 (16.1%) 4 (14.3%) 3 (10.7%) 2 (8%) 2-3 hours 14 (45.2%) 8 (28.6%) 6 (21.4%) 4 (16%) 3-4 hours 8 (25.8%) 7 (25.0%) 5 (17.9%) 4 (16%) 4-5 hours 2 (6.5%) 3 (10.7%) 4 (14.3%) 6 (24%) 5-6 hours 2 (7.1%) 3 (10.7%) 1 (4%) 6-7 hours 2 (6.5%) 1 (3.6%) 3 (10.7%) 2 (8%) 7-8 hours 1 (3.6%) 1 (4%) 8-9 hours 2 (7.1%) 1 (4%) 9-10 hours 10-11 hours 2 (7.1%) 11-12 hours 1 (3.6%)

More than 12 hours 1 (3.6%)

Total 31 (100%) 28 (100%) 28 (100%) 25 (100%)

Season

When comparing the undesirable effects of outages on their households during different times of the year, some participants stated summer, and others winter, outages to be of greater concern. Those that found summer outages had a higher undesirable effect on their households attributed it to the absence of substitutes to electricity in cooling, i.e. there are alternative sources of energy to heating but there are no alternative sources of energy for cooling. The degree of undesirable effects also depended on the duration of the outage. A long outage in summer could be more disruptive since the food in the refrigerator would spoil.

Day of the Week

The participants were asked to compare the degree of undesirable effects of outages on weekdays vs. weekends. Weekend outages were less desirable for those who spend the weekend mostly at home. Also those who work during the week found weekend outages to be more disruptive as they had to

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get most of the cleaning, laundry, and ironing done at the weekend. For some participants, any day was equally undesirable because of their active lifestyle. Also, for the participants who spend most of their time at home throughout the week, a particular day of the week did not make any difference in the level of outage disruption.

Time of Day

Participants were asked to think about the undesirable effects of outages on their household at different times of the day. Some found weekday outages that took place in the mornings (6am to 9am) and evenings (5pm to midnight) to be more disruptive. In the mornings they prepare to go to work and from 5pm to midnight they are home (want to watch TV, kids do home work, etc.). Some participants stated that being able to watch the 11 pm news on television was important for them, and outages that occur after midnight till morning would be less disruptive. However they did mention that this may not be the case in the summer, when air conditioners are needed in cooling the house and keeping the mosquitoes away at night-time in order to be able to sleep.

Notification

Planned outages are usually notified a day in advance or sometimes on the day of the outage in some newspapers, on radio and TV. However most people are not aware of these either because not enough advanced notice is given, or they do not read or listen to the specific media where the notification is given. So most of the outages they experience are “unplanned” according to the focus group participants. Some said they preferred to receive a written notification in the mail, while others

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said they can be notified through a text message sent to their mobile telephones, or through the newspapers (if it is published in all of the local newspapers). While some found 1-2 days notice to be enough, others required at least 3-4 days notice to finish the food in their freezers and reschedule other household activities. Longer than a week was not preferred in general because it would be forgotten.

Table 3. 5 Prior Notification for Planned outages – Data from Focus Group Survey

Prior Notification Preferred

1-2 days 7 (25.9%) 2-3 days 5 (18.5%) 3-4 days 5 (18.5%) 4-5 days 1 (3.7%) 5-6 days 6 days - 1 week 9 (33.3%) Total 27 (100%) Voltage Fluctuations

Voltage fluctuation is the change in the voltage from its acceptable range. When the voltage drops below the acceptable lower limit, then most electrical equipment will not function properly, and in cases when it is above the acceptable higher limit, the electrical equipment may be damaged. Voltage fluctuations were a concern. Participants could notice changes in voltage when their lights dimmed, the oven does not heat up to the desired temperature, washing machines and air conditioners do not work because of lower voltage levels. They mentioned their equipment breaking down: TV, freezers, computers etc. Frequency of voltage fluctuations are difficult to quantify. When asked about the frequency the usual answer is “almost every day”.

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Other Comments and Concerns of the Focus Group Participants on Their Electricity Service

There is a very negative attitude towards the electricity authority and the Government. Lately, on every month’s electricity bill there is a line called “investment contribution”. This is around 10% of that month’s bill. The Government has recently invested in new generation capacity and is collecting forced contributions from people to pay for it. In the meantime however, power outages continue to happen with the same frequency. So the participants found it hard to believe that payment of an additional amount to their current electricity bill will result in an improvement in their service.

Some feel that they are already being charged a very high price for a low quality service. Participants in general believe that the electricity utility company is overstaffed, and hence a high cost producer of electricity. The participants suggested that the Government should be spending the tax money in better ways instead of collecting additional “investment contributions” from them. They also pointed out that electricity is a public commodity and people have the “right” to have a reliable electricity supply, and it is the Government’s duty to provide an electricity service with no interruptions. They think it is unfair that even when they pay their bills regularly they still experience outages and are not compensated for it. On the other hand, when they are late to pay (even after only a couple of days), their service is disconnected immediately.

The total number of alternatives (profiles) in the CE grows exponentially with the number of attributes and the number of attribute levels, and this in turn increases the minimum sample size required or for a given sample size the total number of choice sets that each respondent needs to see

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in order to have accurate estimates for the parameters. Therefore the attribute levels obtained from the focus group studies need to be grouped together to reduce the number of levels for each attribute (see table 3.6).

Table 3. 6 Attribute Levels (Pilot Study)

Attribute Number of Levels Levels Frequency of outages 4 twice a year

4 times a year once a month 8 times a month Duration of outages 2 less than 6 hours

6 to 13 hours

Time of outages 2 daytime

night-time Prior notification 2 prior notification

no prior notification

Additional Cost 4 5% higher than now

10% higher than now 20% higher than now 30% higher than now