Abercrombie & Fitch Corporate Retreat : didactic experiences in the native midwestern landscape

The Abercrombie & Fitch corporation is a specialty clothing retailer that caters to a college age demographic. The popularity of the clothing brand has exploded exponentially since its separation from its one-time corporate parent, the Limited Brands in 1998. The clothing’s theme leans towards the style of Ivy League college students. The Abercrombie & Fitch corporate headquarters is located on the outskirts of New Albany, Ohio, which is a northeastern suburb of Columbus, Ohio. The architecture of the Adirondack-inspired corporate campus meshes well with the style of clothing the company produces. A&F’s corporate campus is sited on 580 acres of native woodland, constructed prairie grassland, and wetland surroundings. There are two objectives behind introducing this multi-billion dollar corporation’s headquarters into a native Midwestern landscape.Pulling the new A&F headquarters into this natural atmosphere gives employees and visitors the seclusion and off the beaten path feelings common to a summer camp experience. The A&F campus is designed as an extension of the company’s brand. It is a place for associates to work, play, and live the Abercrombie & Fitch lifestyle. A way of life associated with casual luxury.The intentionally isolated Abercrombie & Fitch corporate headquarters was completed in 1999. Many campus design problems and needs have become apparent over the past six years. Employees have voiced a desire for more recreational opportunities onsite. The average age of A&F employees is 29. Staying physically fit and active is an overall important issue to this group of people. However, there is currently no recreational trail system in place. Another request, among many other requirements to be discussed later, is the need for employees to gain access to the 580 acres of native woodland, constructed prairie grassland, and wetland surroundings the site has to offer. Twenty five percent of A&F employees are not from the United States. Another fifty percent of A&F employees are not from the Midwest. Only one-fourth of A&F’s nearly 1,000 corporate headquarters employees have ever had the opportunity to experience and learned from the native Midwestern landscape so prevalent to this location. This diverse, educational Midwestern landscape is underutilized because of current inaccessibility and lack of didactic programming. This project offers solutions to the many design needs voiced by the employees and day to day participants of the Abercrombie & Fitch Corporate Headquarters. The main vision and goal of this project is to teach employees and visitors about the diverse Midwestern landscape by immersing them into this 580 acres of native woodland, constructed prairie grassland, and wetland environment. Some of the naturalistic design elements and processes associated with this immersion are those of Jens Jensen, a designer who’s love of the Midwestern landscape inspired him to enhance and preserve “native” landscapes throughout his lifelong career. In Jens Jensen’s words “art must come from within, and the only source from which the art of landscaping can come is our native landscape. It cannot be imported from foreign shores and be our own.” Employee engagement with the site will give opportunities for educational and recreational fulfillment. This fulfillment will strengthen the Abercrombie & Fitch Corporation as a whole through elevated productivity of more positive and encouraged employees.College of Architecture and PlanningThesis (B.L.A.

Business Method Patents and their Limits: Justifications, History, and the Emergence of a Claim Construction Jurisprudence

Scholars, practitioners, and even popular media spilled much ink over business method patents in the late 1990s, eager to discuss the shift in jurisprudence that enabled patent holders to enforce business method patents for the first time. Since that initial period of excitement--during which businesses filed record numbers of applications for business method patents, and numerous articles tracing the doctrinal shift were published--commentators have written little on the topic. Various patent holders, however, have since litigated business method patent claims. During these first few years after judicial endorsement of business method patents, such litigation has focused on the scope of broadly worded patents. Early court decisions did little to provide guidance, but several Federal Circuit decisions have suggested interpretive principles, and recent District Court applications of these appellate decisions indicate that a uniform approach to business method patent claim construction is taking shape. It is time to revisit business method patent jurisprudence. This article draws together recent court rulings on business method patent claims to chart the early development of this body of law. Specifically, this article will discuss: (1) policies that support business method patents generally, and why businesses prefer patents over other forms of intellectual property when seeking to protect their economic interests in new business methods; (2) the history and ultimate demise of the business method exception to patentable subject matter; and (3) how recent court decisions affect current litigation to determine the scope of broadly worded business method patents

Flame Temperature Imaging of a Low NOx Burner via Laser Rayleigh Scattering

Federal and global legislation are requiring increasingly stringent emission regulation on household appliances and in particular water heater burners. Emissions like NOx (NO and NO2) are a growing concern due to their adverse health effects and contribution to tropospheric ozone, acid rain, and smog formation. As NOx is more closely controlled, appliance manufacturers are developing low emission burners for use in water heaters. Flame temperature is strongly correlated to NOx production. Hence, characterizing flame temperatures in new burners is a key part of improving upon burners used today and the development of future burners. Temperature measurements applied to a new, radiant, ultralow-NOx burner are thus the focus of this research. Laser Rayleigh scattering allows us to make near-instantaneous, 2-D measurements using an unobtrusive technique. The application of this technique resulted in flame temperature images in three locations, above and across the burner surface ranging from 800-1600 K in general with an uncertainty of 9.6%. The fluctuation of the flame temperature was also found ranging from 200-800 K, indicating the presence of large scale hot and cold gas mixing. Other temperature measuring techniques were applied to the burner as well. A type-K thermocouple 5 cm above the center of the burner measured a point gas temperature of 1508 K after an estimated radiative correction was applied. This measurement was within 5.3% of the laser Rayleigh scattering measurement of 1428 K at the same location. An IR camera did not provide quantitative temperature measurements, but the videos indicated similar flame structure and mixing behavior when compared to a series of single-shot laser Rayleigh scattering images. It was concluded that the large amount of excess air (equivalence ratio of 0.725) was primarily responsible for reducing the flame temperature by 436 K in comparison with the adiabatic flame temperature under stoichiometric conditions. The radiative emission by the burner was estimated from the thermocouple and laser Rayleigh scattering measurements to decrease the temperature further by an average of 420 K relative to the stoichiometric adiabatic flame temperature

Optimum take-off angle in the long jump

In this study, we found that the optimum take-off angle for a long jumper may be predicted by combining the equation for the range of a projectile in free flight with the measured relations between take-off speed, take-off height and take-off angle for the athlete. The prediction method was evaluated using video measurements of three experienced male long jumpers who performed maximum-effort jumps over a wide range of take-off angles. To produce low take-off angles the athletes used a long and fast run-up, whereas higher take-off angles were produced using a progressively shorter and slower run-up. For all three athletes, the take-off speed decreased and the take-off height increased as the athlete jumped with a higher take-off angle. The calculated optimum take-off angles were in good agreement with the athletes' competition take-off angles

The Purple Haze of Eta Carinae: Binary-Induced Variability?

Asymmetric variability in ultraviolet images of the Homunculus obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys/High Resolution Camera on the Hubble Space Telescope suggests that Eta Carinae is indeed a binary system. Images obtained before, during, and after the recent ``spectroscopic event'' in 2003.5 show alternating patterns of bright spots and shadows on opposite sides of the star before and after the event, providing a strong geometric argument for an azimuthally-evolving, asymmetric UV radiation field as one might predict in some binary models. The simplest interpretation of these UV images, where excess UV escapes from the secondary star in the direction away from the primary, places the major axis of the eccentric orbit roughly perpendicular to our line of sight, sharing the same equatorial plane as the Homunculus, and with apastron for the hot secondary star oriented toward the southwest of the primary. However, other orbital orientations may be allowed with more complicated geometries. Selective UV illumination of the wind and ejecta may be partly responsible for line profile variations seen in spectra. The brightness asymmetries cannot be explained plausibly with delays due to light travel time alone, so a single-star model would require a seriously asymmetric shell ejection.Comment: 8 pages, fig 1 in color, accepted by ApJ Letter

Real-world Quantum Sensors: Evaluating Resources for Precision Measurement

Quantum physics holds the promise of enabling certain tasks with better performance than possible when only classical resources are employed. The quantum phenomena present in many experiments signify nonclassical behavior, but do not always imply superior performance. Quantifying the enhancement achieved from quantum behavior requires careful analysis of the resources involved. We analyze the specific case of parameter estimation using an optical interferometer, where increased precision can be achieved using quantum probe states. Common performance measures are examined and it is shown that some overestimate the improvement. For the simplest experimental case we compare the different measures and show this overestimate explicitly. We give the preferred analysis of real-world experiments and calculate benchmark values for experimental parameters necessary to realize a precision enhancement.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Hydrodynamic controls on alluvial ridge construction and avulsion likelihood in meandering river floodplains

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Geological Society of America via the DOI in this record.Existing models of alluvial stratigraphy often neglect the hydrodynamic controls on channel belt and floodplain sedimentation, and predict avulsion using topographic metrics, such as channel belt super-elevation (the ratio of alluvial ridge height to channel depth). This study provides a first demonstration of the potential for simulating long-term river floodplain evolution (over >500 floods) using a process-based hydrodynamic model. Simulations considered alluvial ridge construction during the period leading up to an avulsion, and assess the controls on avulsion likelihood. Results illustrate that the balance between within-channel and overbank sedimentation exerts a key control on both super-elevation ratios and on the conveyance of water and sediment to the floodplain. Rapid overbank sedimentation creates high alluvial ridges with deep channels, leading to lower apparent super-elevation ratios, and implying a reduced likelihood of avulsion. However, channel deepening also drives a reduction in channel belt–floodplain connectivity, so that conveyance of water to the distal floodplain is concentrated in a declining number of channel breaches, which may favor avulsion. These results suggest that, while super-elevation ratios in excess of a threshold value may be a necessary condition for a meandering river avulsion, the likelihood of avulsion may not be greatest where the super-elevation ratio is maximized. Instead, optimal conditions for avulsion may depend on channel-floodplain hydrodynamic connectivity, determined by the balance between coarse (channel bed–forming) and fine (floodplain-constructing) sediment delivery. These results highlight a need to rethink the representation of avulsion in existing models of alluvial architecture.This work was funded by UK Natural Environment Research Council grants NE/H009108/1 and NE/H007288/1