Consumer images of shopping centres a socio-economic analysis

Previous research has shown that behaviour by consumers is influenced by many interacting factors that motivate each individual in different ways. It is how these factors are perceived and combined by each person that leads to the formation of consumer images of shopping centres. Image is an important criterion in the comprehension of the consumer’s perception of shopping centres. Studies have found that the consumer’s image is related in a systematic way with the measures of social and economic characteristics of the consumer. Occupation and income are two variables that have often been employed by previous researchers to measure a consumer’s socio-economic status. However, other factors such as sex, age, and education should be used in order to obtain a more distinct and complete measure of the consumer’s socio-economic status. This study examines consumers’ images of two shopping centres in the city of Guelph. One centre is Stone Road mall and the other is Willow West mall. Responses were obtained from a sample of consumers through the use of a questionnaire. Each respondent was asked to indicate his feelings or responses to a set of images factors for each mall as well as completing a section related to his socio-economic status. The data were analyzed using a frequency count, the Wilcoxon match-pairs test, factor analysis and a relate technique. It was first determined that consumers have different images of malls. Secondly, further analysis revealed that socio-economic sub-groups of the sample of consumers have different images of shopping centres. It was also shown that the discriminatory socio-economic characteristics differ significantly in their relationship with consumer images. Thus the consumer’s socio-economic status is important in the formation of images of shopping centres

Nitrogen cycling and management decision making in Central Queensland farming systems – N availability and recovery across the farming system – N impacts on productivity – implications for management in CQ

Take home messages The nitrogen (N) fertiliser demand for cereal cropping systems can increase due to two factors: 1. A reduction in the amount of soil organic N mineralised due to the continued decline of natural capital (soil organic carbon and total nitrogen) that occurs under cropping; and 2. An increased crop N demand due to higher yield potentials resulting from optimising other components of the cropping system. The amount of biological N fixation by pulse crops (chickpea/mungbean) is related to the crop yield and biomass and the availability of soil mineral N from mineralisation or carry-over of residual fertiliser. Where deep phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) application increases chickpea biomass (and grain yield), there is generally more N fixed. While some of this is re-exported in grain, the greater residue return means more N is carried forward to the next crop. Growers have a selection of fertiliser N management practices that have differing strengths and weaknesses – it is not a one-size-fits-all model for CQ (or northern region) farming systems. The 4R framework allows choice of rate, source, time and place for any nutrient applied to be implemented suiting each growers’ preferences, with on-going research addressing several themes in regional Qld

Field-calibrated model of melt, refreezing, and runoff for polar ice caps : Application to Devon Ice Cap

Acknowledgments R.M.M. was supported by the Scottish Alliance for Geoscience, Environment and Society (SAGES). The field data collection contributed to the validation of the European Space Agency Cryosat mission and was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Canada, the Meteorological Service of Canada (CRYSYS program), the Polar Continental Shelf Project (an agency of Natural Resources Canada), and by UK Natural Environment Research Council consortium grant NER/O/S/2003/00620. Support for D.O.B. was provided by the Canadian Circumpolar Institute and the Climate Change Geoscience Program, Earth Sciences Sector, Natural Resources Canada (ESS contribution 20130371). Thanks are also due to the Nunavut Research Institute and the communities of Resolute Bay and Grise Fjord for permission to conduct fieldwork on Devon Ice Cap. M.J. Sharp, A. Gardner, F. Cawkwell, R. Bingham, S. Williamson, L. Colgan, J. Davis, B. Danielson, J. Sekerka, L. Gray, and J. Zheng are thanked for logistical support and field assistance during the data collection. We thank Ruzica Dadic, two other anonymous reviewers, and the Editor, Bryn Hubbard, for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper and which resulted in significant improvements.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Extragalactic archeology with the GHOSTS Survey I. - Age-resolved disk structure of nearby low-mass galaxies

We study the individual evolution histories of three nearby low-mass edge-on galaxies (IC 5052, NGC4244, and NGC5023). Using resolved stellar populations, we constructed star count density maps for populations of different ages and analyzed the change of structural parameters with stellar age within each galaxy. We do not detect a separate thick disk in any of the three galaxies, even though our observations cover a wider range in equivalent surface brightness than any integrated light study. While scale heights increase with age, each population can be well described by a single disk. Two of the galaxies contain a very weak additional component, which we identify as the faint halo. The mass of these faint halos is lower than 1% of the mass of the disk. The three galaxies show low vertical heating rates, which are much lower than the heating rate of the Milky Way. This indicates that heating agents, such as giant molecular clouds and spiral structure, are weak in low-mass galaxies. All populations in the three galaxies exhibit no or only little flaring. While this finding is consistent with previous integrated light studies, it poses strong constraints on galaxy simulations, where strong flaring is often found as a result of interactions or radial migration.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&

J.S. Bell's Concept of Local Causality

John Stewart Bell's famous 1964 theorem is widely regarded as one of the most important developments in the foundations of physics. It has even been described as "the most profound discovery of science." Yet even as we approach the 50th anniversary of Bell's discovery, its meaning and implications remain controversial. Many textbooks and commentators report that Bell's theorem refutes the possibility (suggested especially by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen in 1935) of supplementing ordinary quantum theory with additional ("hidden") variables that might restore determinism and/or some notion of an observer-independent reality. On this view, Bell's theorem supports the orthodox Copenhagen interpretation. Bell's own view of his theorem, however, was quite different. He instead took the theorem as establishing an "essential conflict" between the now well-tested empirical predictions of quantum theory and relativistic \emph{local causality}. The goal of the present paper is, in general, to make Bell's own views more widely known and, in particular, to explain in detail Bell's little-known mathematical formulation of the concept of relativistic local causality on which his theorem rests. We thus collect and organize many of Bell's crucial statements on these topics, which are scattered throughout his writings, into a self-contained, pedagogical discussion including elaborations of the concepts "beable", "completeness", and "causality" which figure in the formulation. We also show how local causality (as formulated by Bell) can be used to derive an empirically testable Bell-type inequality, and how it can be used to recapitulate the EPR argument.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure

Testing galaxy formation models with the GHOSTS survey: The color profile of M81's stellar halo

We study the properties of the stellar populations in M81's outermost part, which hereafter we will term the stellar halo, using HST ACS/WFC observations of 19 fields from the GHOSTS survey. The observed fields probe the stellar halo out to a projected distance of ~ 50 kpc from the galactic center. Each field was observed in both F606W and F814W filters. The 50% completeness levels of the color magnitude diagrams (CMDs) are typically at 2 mag below the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB). Fields at distances closer than 15 kpc show evidence of disk-dominated populations whereas fields at larger distances are mostly populated by halo stars. The RGB of the M81's halo CMDs is well matched with isochrones of ~ 10 Gyr and metallicities [Fe/H] ~ -1.2 dex, suggesting that the dominant stellar population of M81's halo has a similar age and metallicity. The halo of M81 is characterized by a color distribution of width ~ 0.4 mag and an approximately constant median value of (F606W - F814W) ~ 1 mag measured using stars within the magnitude range 23.7 < F814W < 25.5. When considering only fields located at galactocentric radius R > 15 kpc, we detect no color gradient in the stellar halo of M81. We place a limit of 0.03+/-0.11 mag difference between the median color of RGB M81 halo stars at ~ 15 and at 50 kpc, corresponding to a metallicity difference of 0.08+/-0.35 dex over that radial range for an assumed constant age of 10 Gyr. We compare these results with model predictions for the colors of stellar halos formed purely via accretion of satellite galaxies. When we analyze the cosmologically motivated models in the same way as the HST data, we find that they predict no color gradient for the stellar halos, in good agreement with the observations.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures. Accepted to Ap

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul: The OtherSide of Group Support Systems

That Group Support Systems (GSS) can enhance group performance appears to be the case. However, GSS research has drawn heavily from a rational perspective, one that may not be able to comprehend the full range of phenomena at play in group meetings. Although a social perspective may provide greater explanatory power, little has been done to investigate GSS phenomena from this viewpoint. This paper considers more fully the social impacts of GSS by varying levels of GSS restrictiveness and assessing the effect that this may have on group cohesiveness. We find that groups in the more restrictive treatment experienced lower perceived cohesiveness than did those in the non-restrictive treatmen

Deep P bands – the solution to subsoil decline or just a useful supplement?

Increasing removal of phosphorous (P) via grain harvests, shallow fertiliser placement and direct drill tillage systems have collectively produced soil P profile distributions that are strongly stratified and increasingly deficient in subsurface layers. Nutrient supply in these layers is a critical success factor for cropping systems that rely on stored soil moisture. Banding of P fertilisers into the 10-30cm profile layer has produced strong crop yield responses in Vertosols in CQld, particularly in seasons where topsoils are dry for extended periods. The relationship between P uptake and grain yield is typically linear, with little evidence of luxury P accumulation in either biomass or grains. We hypothesize that root proliferation around deep P bands rapidly dries these P-rich zones and limits P acquisition unless rain events are large enough to rewet those profile layers. While residual fertiliser benefits are strong, crops are still reliant on declining indigenous P reserves to achieve water-limited yield potential

Deep P and K - Outcomes from 8+ years of research: the good, the bad and the ugly

Take home messages • Stratified soil testing guides fertility and constraint identification. These tests do not need to be conducted annually for immobile nutrients and constraints • Research experiments with subsurface placement of fertiliser phosphorus (P) at around 20-25 cm on low Colwell P subsoil tests has significantly increased grain yield in central Queensland (CQ) across range of wheat, chickpea and sorghum crops. Winter cereals across southern Qld are generally also positively responding, but chickpeas and sorghum responses in this region have been mixed, ranging from positive to no effect. Data for northwest slopes and plains of NSW is very limited • The relationships between crop P uptake and grain yield for chickpea, wheat and sorghum are robust. As you get more P into the plant, yields are increasing • Potassium is an emerging yield constraint, but data sets are not yet as extensive as for P