Required Donations: An Empirical Test of Prospect Theory & Framing of Per-seat Contributions in Intercollegiate Athletics

The purpose of this study was to examine how per-seat contributions are framed, and attempt to understand the effects of different price frames on consumer perceptions and behavior. In doing so, we apply prospect theory to explain how framing an outcome can change preferences and ultimately purchase behavior. The current study used an experimental design to determine which price frame most influences repurchase intentions, when considering three price tiers (e.g. low, moderate, high) determined in a pretest. Our results indicate the best way to increase purchase intentions when implementing per-seat contributions campaigns is to use the Combination price frame (i.e. one emphasizing both student and personal benefits) in all per-seat contributions marketing communications, regardless of the price of the ticket

Ion channel diversity, channel expression and function in the choroid plexuses

Knowledge of the diversity of ion channel form and function has increased enormously over the last 25 years. The initial impetus in channel discovery came with the introduction of the patch clamp method in 1981. Functional data from patch clamp experiments have subsequently been augmented by molecular studies which have determined channel structures. Thus the introduction of patch clamp methods to study ion channel expression in the choroid plexus represents an important step forward in our knowledge understanding of the process of CSF secretion

Flow Dynamics And Plasma Heating Of Spheromaks In SSX

We report several new experimental results related to flow dynamics and heating from single dipole-trapped spheromaks and spheromak merging studies at SSX. Single spheromaks (stabilized with a pair of external coils, see Brown, Phys. Plasmas 13 102503 (2006)) and merged FRC-like configurations (see Brown, Phys. Plasmas 13, 056503 (2006)) are trapped in our prolate (R = 0.2 m, L = 0.6 m) copper flux conserver. Local spheromak flow is studied with two Mach probes (r(1) = rho(i) ) calibrated by time-of-flight with a fast set of magnetic probes at the edge of the device. Both Mach probes feature six ion collectors housed in a boron nitride sheath. The larger Mach probe will ultimately be used in the MST reversed field pinch. Line averaged flow is measured by ion Doppler spectroscopy (IDS) at the midplane. The SSX IDS instrument measures with 1 mu s or better time resolution the width and Doppler shift of the C-III impurity (H plasma) 229.7 nm line to determine the temperature and line-averaged flow velocity (see Cothran, RSI 77, 063504 (2006)). We find axial flows up to 100 km/s during formation of the dipole trapped spheromak. Flow returns at the wall to form a large vortex. Recent high-resolution IDS velocity measurements during spheromak merging show bi-directional outflow jets at +/- 40 km/s (nearly the Alfven speed). We also measure T-i \u3e= 80 eV and T-e \u3e= 20 eV during spheromak merging events after all plasma facing surfaces are cleaned with helium glow discharge conditioning. Transient electron heating is inferred from bursts on a four-channel soft x-ray array. The spheromaks are also characterized by a suite of magnetic probe arrays for magnetic structure B(r,t), and interferometry for n(e) . Finally, we are designing a new oblate, trapezoidal flux conserver for FRC studies. Equilibrium and dynamical simulations suggest that a tilt-stable, oblate FRC can be formed by spheromak merging in the new flux conserver

Incorporation of Polarization Into the DIRSIG Synthetic Image Generation Model

The Digital Imaging and Remote Sensing Synthetic Image Generation (DIRSIG) model uses a quantitative first principles approach to generate synthetic hyperspectral imagery. This paper presents the methods used to add modeling of polarization phenomenology. The radiative transfer equations were modified to use Stokes vectors for the radiance values and Mueller matrices for the energy-matter interactions. The use of Stokes vectors enables a full polarimetric characterization of the illumination and sensor reaching radiances. The bi-directional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) module was rewritten and modularized to accommodate a variety of polarized and unpolarized BRDF models. Two new BRDF models based on Torrance- Sparrow and Beard-Maxwell were added to provide polarized BRDF estimations. The sensor polarization characteristics are modeled using Mueller matrix transformations on a per pixel basis. All polarized radiative transfer calculations are performed spectrally to preserve the hyperspectral capabilities of DIRSIG. Integration over sensor bandpasses is handled by the sensor module