iPic: A Business Model Analysis

iPic is a luxury movie theater chain gaining momentum in the U.S. in recent years. This paper will cover three aspects of iPic\u27s business model. First, iPic\u27s Blue Ocean Strategy, and the resulting value proposition and customer segments. Second, a comparison of iPic\u27s activity map next to competitor, Carmike Cinemas. Finally, an explanation of iPic’s ability to scale and the potential Achilles heel of its business model

Using Blended Learning to Support Interdisciplinary Professional Development for Teachers

This presentation will share how a group of liberal arts faculty from Departments of Education, Biology, Chemistry, Math, and English used blended learning support the professional development of master teachers. 25 participating teachers from three diverse school districts attended several sessions and a 3 day summer workshop that was supplemented by ongoing blended learning support using Critical Friends Groups and Google Hangouts. Each university faculty member was assigned to a school as a disciplinary mentor and helped them improve their teaching and lesson plans with a goal of integrating a more interdisciplinary approach to the classroom teaching

Lax Matrices & Clusters for Type A & C Q-Deformed Open Toda Chain

At the turn of the century, Etingof and Sevostyanov independently constructed a family of quantum integrable systems, quantizing the open Toda chain associated to a simple Lie group $G$. The elements of this family are parameterized by Coxeter words of the corresponding Weyl group. Twenty years later, in the works of Finkelberg, Gonin, and Tsymbaliuk, this was generalized to a family of quantum Toda chains parameterized by pairs of Coxeter words. In this paper, we show that this family is actually a single cluster integrable system written in different clusters associated to cyclic double Coxeter words. Furthermore, if we restrict the action of Hamiltonians to its positive representation, these systems become unitary equivalent

Afraid of the Dark: Nagel and Rationalizing the Fear of Death

What should be said about the Thomas Nagel/O. H. Green interpretation of why people fear death? Since Nagel focuses only on the non-state of death (ignoring the state of dying), he concludes that it is the deprivation of life that people fear. Green, who shares with Nagel similar organizing thoughts, argues that a fear of loss of life is equivalent to the fear of death, since people really fear not living (any) longer. But this paper’s author sees more logic to Nagel’s position. But is Nagel correct? Has Nagel’s article on death wrongly brushed aside the legitimately rational idea that people fear death because they misunderstand what it is like to be dead? The author answers, Yes!, and imagines a scenario in which it is precisely the awareness of the logical impossibility of knowing what death is like that causes the feeling of a fearful mystery

Foundations in Wisconsin: A Directory [30th ed. 2011]

The 2011 edition of Foundations in Wisconsin marks the 30th production of the print directory and the 11th year of the online version (www.wifoundations.org). The directory is designed as a research tool for grantseekers interested in locating information on private, corporate, and community foundations registered in Wisconsin. Each entry in this new edition has been updated or reviewed to provide the most current information available. Most of the data was drawn from IRS 990-PF tax returns filed by the foundations. Additional information was obtained from surveys, foundation Web sites, annual reports, and newsletters. While the national economic downturn has had a negative effect on Wisconsin foundations the past two years, there are some positive signs of recovery. The total number of active grantmaking foundations increased to a record high 1,324 (with 67 new foundations identified), and the total assets increased by 11% over last year to $6.2 billion. However, total grants fell to$458 million, a 3% decrease from last year.https://epublications.marquette.edu/lib_fiw/1006/thumbnail.jp

The effect of temperature and pressure on laboratory oxidized asphalt films with comparison to field aging

Vita.Two aging models, the asphalt-aging model and the highway-pavement aging model, are developed to describe oxidative aging in asphalt. The first model is based on first principles accounting for carbonyl formation and unsteady-state variable diffusivity oxygen diffusion and reaction. The second model relates measurable properties of pavements to fundamental quantities in the asphalt-aging model. The long-term constant rate of carbonyl formation at isobaric and isothermal conditions is a function of both temperature and oxygen pressure. An Arrhenius equation models the temperature dependence, and these model parameters are functions of asphalt composition. Activation energies range from 66.7 to 80.5 kJ/gmol. The order of reaction with respect to oxygen pressure is 0.27 and independent of asphalt composition. Laboratory experiments at a single elevated oxygen pressure can be reliably extrapolated: however, multiple laboratory experiments at different elevated temperatures are required to estimate rate of carbonyl formation at highway conditions. Because of an initial non-linearity, the integration constant in the carbonyl formation equation can not be determined from neat material. The integration constant is a function of oxygen pressure: the model parameters are dependent on asphalt composition. Therefore, a single laboratory experiment at the highway pressure is required to determine the integration constant. Oxygen diffusivity in asphalt is estimated from laboratory data together with the asphalt-aging model. Oxygen diffusivity is a function of asphalt viscosity; the model parameters are independent of asphalt composition and temperature. Oxygen diffusivity in asphalt is approximately 1 x 10^-12 m^2/s for viscosity of 10,000 poise. Physicochemical models relating viscosity, carbonyl content, temperature, and molecule weight for oxidative aging in asphalts are developed. The model parameters in these equations are functions of initial asphalt composition. Field- and laboratory-aged asphalt are compared with physicochemical properties and the asphalt-aging model. Laboratory aging at relatively low temperature and high pressure simulates field aging based on the agreement between physicochemical properties. Comparisons between field data and values calculated from the asphalt-aging model are the foundation for the highway-pavement aging model. Hypothesized models relating oxygen pressure and film thickness in the asphalt-aging model to percent air voids, asphalt content, and time are developed

RELATIONSHIP OF NITROGEN METABOLISM CAPACITY, CARCASS QUALITY, AND EXPRESSION OF GLUTAMATE TRANSPORTERS AND METABOLIZING ENZYMES IN POLYPAY AND PERCENTAGE WHITE DORPER LAMBS

Two studies were conducted to compare nitrogen (N) and glutamate metabolism in Polypay and percentage White Dorper lambs.First, a two-phase digestion/N metabolism trial was conducted with 18 wether lambs of three genetic types: Polypay (PP), 1/2 White Dorper 1/2 Polypay (1/2 D), and 3/4 White Dorper 1/4 Polypay (3/4 D). Six lambs of each genetic type were fed a high roughage diet (HR; Phase 1) or high concentrate diet (HC; Phase 2). DM and N digestion was higher for 1/2 D than PP or 3/4 D fed HC. N retention was highest for 1/2 D regardless of diet.The second study analyzed the effect of genetic type on glutamate transporter and metabolizing enzyme expression in liver, kidney, longissimus dorsi muscle (LD muscle), and subcutaneous fat (Sub Q Fat) tissue of 18 wether lambs of three genetic types: PP, 1/2 D, and 15 /16 White Dorper 1/16 Polypay (15 /16 D). Tissue samples were analyzed for protein and mRNA content of GS, GDH, ALT, EAAC1, and GLT-1. Glutamate transport and metabolism capacity was lowest for the heavier muscled 15 /16 D lambs.The results suggest genetic type has an effect on N metabolism due to differential expression of glutamate transporters and metabolizing enzymes

Inquiry and inscription as keys to authentic science instruction and assessment for preservice secondary science teachers

This research project consists of a qualitative study of a group of preservice science teachers who, at the time of the study, were enrolled in a graduate level course designed especially to acquaint them with the skills of doing and teaching science by way of scientific inquiry. Most students in the study held bachelor\u27s degrees in some aspect of science, mostly biological sciences. The students were evaluated in the course by way of authentic assessment techniques, including the scientific inscriptions they constructed as they carried out their inquiry activities. The students constructed more than 1500 inscriptions in the course and used them in appropriate ways. Evidence suggests that an inscription rubric, based on criteria used by professional scientists in the ways they make and use inscriptions, and explicit instruction about inscriptions in professional science helped students maximize their use of inscriptions. The students showed an understanding of the importance of a well-prepared inscription and of the collaborative, social nature of authentic science. During the study, the researcher concluded that the students entered with poorly developed skills relating to the Nature of Science and Process domains of Science Education. The students completed several inquiry projects and learned a variety of content, laboratory skills and scientific processes