Measuring brand image: Shopping centre case studies

'Branding' is well known for consumer products but power has shifted from manufacturers' brands towards retailers'. The term 'image' is more common than 'brand' in the context of shopping centres, but 'branding' may become more important. In this study, the authors first investigated qualitatively, asking shoppers to describe centres in 'personality' terms and eliciting clear descriptive differences between centres. For example, one in-town centre was 'dull, boring and old-fashioned . . . not exciting, just OK'; a larger regional centre was 'trendy, prestigious . . . strong, vibrant, big and colourful'. Second, the authors evaluated six UK shopping centres quantitatively using a questionnaire survey (n = 287). The 'strong and vibrant' centre scored significantly higher than the 'dull and boring' one. Despite 'branding' being little used by shopping centres, those with the better 'brand images' tended to have larger catchment areas, sales and rental incomes. The authors contend that brand management could pay rewards in terms of customer numbers, sales turnover and rental income

Construction of an instrument for the measurement of educational philosophy

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Boston Universit

Asteroseismology of 16000 Kepler Red Giants: Global Oscillation Parameters, Masses, and Radii

The Kepler mission has provided exquisite data to perform an ensemble asteroseismic analysis on evolved stars. In this work we systematically characterize solar-like oscillations and granulation for 16,094 oscillating red giants, using end-of-mission long-cadence data. We produced a homogeneous catalog of the frequency of maximum power (typical uncertainty $\sigma_{\nu_{\rm max}}$=1.6\%), the mean large frequency separation ($\sigma_{\Delta\nu}$=0.6\%), oscillation amplitude ($\sigma_{\rm A}$=4.7\%), granulation power ($\sigma_{\rm gran}$=8.6\%), power excess width ($\sigma_{\rm width}$=8.8\%), seismically-derived stellar mass ($\sigma_{\rm M}$=7.8\%), radius ($\sigma_{\rm R}$=2.9\%), and thus surface gravity ($\sigma_{\log g}$=0.01 dex). Thanks to the large red giant sample, we confirm that red-giant-branch (RGB) and helium-core-burning (HeB) stars collectively differ in the distribution of oscillation amplitude, granulation power, and width of power excess, which is mainly due to the mass difference. The distribution of oscillation amplitudes shows an extremely sharp upper edge at fixed $\nu_{\rm max}$, which might hold clues to understand the excitation and damping mechanisms of the oscillation modes. We find both oscillation amplitude and granulation power depend on metallicity, causing a spread of 15\% in oscillation amplitudes and a spread of 25\% in granulation power from [Fe/H]=-0.7 to 0.5 dex. Our asteroseismic stellar properties can be used as reliable distance indicators and age proxies for mapping and dating galactic stellar populations observed by Kepler. They will also provide an excellent opportunity to test asteroseismology using Gaia parallaxes, and lift degeneracies in deriving atmospheric parameters in large spectroscopic surveys such as APOGEE and LAMOST.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJS. Both table 1 and 2 are available for download as ancillary file

Beginning Farmers: Will They Face Up to Safety and Health Hazards?

The study reported here assessed the farm safety and health training needs of beginning farmers in Pennsylvania to help educators develop training workshops and materials to meet those needs. Results of the online survey indicate that participants highly value farm safety, consider themselves to have mostly minimal to moderate skills relative to the safe operation of farms, and are willing to attend safety training workshops. The results of the study provide direction to Extension educators in designing farm safety and health training for this growing constituent group

Displacement Across a Fracture Gap with Axial Loading of Far Cortical Locking Constructs

Purpose: Far cortical locking has been proposed for reducing stiffness and promoting greater dynamic stability in locked plating constructs. Prior studies have shown reduced stiffness with axial loading of these constructs, leading to a theoretical increase in inter-fragmentary motion and secondary bone healing. The purpose of this study was to examine strain across a fracture gap using far cortical locking constructs in a biomechanical model of distal femoral fractures. Methods: Fourth generation sawbones were cut transversely along the distal diaphysis and plated with distal femoral buttress plates and cortical locking screws. Far cortical locking (FCL) specimens were predrilled in the lateral cortex and control specimens were plated with a standard locked plating construct. The constructs were loaded sequentially with 100, 200, and 400 lbs of force on a mechanical test frame. Displacement across the fracture gap measured in pixels using an optical system. Results: Strain across the fracture gap increased with progressive loading from zero to 400 lbs in both groups. Strain also decreased in a linear fashion from medial to lateral across the fracture gap in both constructs (Figure 1). Standard locking constructs exhibited an average 28% greater strain than the far cortical locking constructs at all loading forces. Control specimens exhibited greater lateral displacement of the distal segment relative to the plate (Figure 2), consistent with higher shear forces compared to FCL specimens. Conclusions: In all specimens, there was considerable strain seen with loading that increased in characteristic fashion from lateral to medial. Overall, FCL constructs exhibited both lower strain, and importantly, lower shear, than measured in controls. This biomechanical model suggests that FCL changes loading across the femoral diaphysis in complex ways, and that assumptions about strain approaching zero on the lateral side of the distal femur with conventional locking or FCL may be incorrect

Casino Games and the Central Limit Theorem

The central limit theorem, in simple terms, states that the probability distribution of the mean of a random sample, for most probability distributions, can be approximated by a normal distribution when the number of observations in the sample is \u27sufficiently\u27 large. Most applied statistics books recommend using the normal approximation for the probability distribution of the sample mean when the number of observations exceeds 30. It is commonly known in the discipline of statistics that larger samples will be needed when the underlying probability distribution is heavily skewed. However, the minimum number of samples needed for the CLT to yield a reasonable approximation, when the distribution being sampled is heavily skewed, is not known. The Berry-Esseen theorem does provide an upper bound on the error in approximating the probability distribution of the sample mean by the normal distribution, but this upper bound turns out to be of no value when applied to slot games. The pay-out probability distributions of many casino games such as slots are heavily skewed, yet the CLT is used for calculating ‘confidence limits’ for total casino win, or rebates on losses, for these games. We will use Monte Carlo experiments to simulate the play of a few slot games and the table game of baccarat to estimate the probability distribution of the mean payout for sample sizes as large as 4,000, and compare it to the normal distribution