A domain-independent model of suspense in narrative

Many computational models of narrative have focussed on the structure of the narrative world. Such models have been implemented in a wide variety of systems, often linked to characters’ goals and plans, where the goal of creating suspenseful stories is baked into the structure of each system. There is no portable, independently motivated idea of what makes a suspenseful story. Our approach is instead to take the phenomenon of suspense as the starting point. We extend an existing psychological model of narrative by Brewer and Lichtenstein (1982) which postulates suspense, curiosity and surprise as the fundamental elements of entertaining stories. We build a formal model of these phenomena using structures we call narrative threads. Narrative threads are a formal description of a reader’s expectations about what might happen next in a given story. Our model uses a measure for the imminence of the predicted conflict between narrative threads to create a suspense profile for a given story. We also identify two types of suspense: conflict-based and revelatory suspense. We tested the validity of our model by asking participants to give step- by-step self-reported suspense levels on reading online story variants. The results show that the normalised average scores of participants (N = 46) are in agreement with the values predicted by our model to a high level of statistical significance. Our model’s interface with storyworld knowledge is compatible with recent developments in automatic harvesting of world knowledge in the form of event chains such as Chambers and Jurafsky (2008). This means that it is in principle scalable. By disentangling suspense from specific narrative content and planning strategies, we arrive at a domain-independent model that can be reused within different narrative generation systems. We see our work as a signpost to encourage the further development of narrative models based on what we see as its fundamental ingredients

Petroleum systems of Indonesia

Indonesia contains many Tertiary basins, several of which have proven to be very prolific producers of oil and gas. The geology and petroleum systems of these productive basins are reviewed, summarized and updated according to the most recent developments. We have linked the recognized petroleum systems to common stages in the geological evolution of these synrift to postrift basins and classified them accordingly. We recognize four Petroleum System Types (PSTs) corresponding to the four main stages of geodynamic basin development, and developed variably in the different basins depending on their depositional environment history: (i) an oil-prone Early Synrift Lacustrine PST, found in the Eocene to Oligocene deeper parts of the synrift grabens, (ii) an oil and gas-prone Late Synrift Transgressive Deltaic PST, located in the shallower Oligocene to early Miocene portions of the synrift grabens, (iii) a gas-prone Early Postrift Marine PST, characteristic of the overlying early Miocene transgressive period, and (iv) an oil and gas-prone Late Postrift Regressive Deltaic PST, forming the shallowest late Tertiary basin fills. We have ascribed the petroleum systems in each of the basins to one of these types, recognizing that considerable mixing of the predominantly lacustrine to terrestrial charge has taken place. Furthermore, we have grouped the basins according to their predominant PSTs and identified "basin families" that share important aspects of their hydrocarbon habitat: these have been termed proximal, intermediate, distal, Borneo and eastern Indonesian, according to their palaeogeographic relationship to the Sunda craton of Southeast Asia. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Seletividade dos herbicidas setoxidim, isoxaflutol e bentazon a espécies arbóreas nativas Selectivity of the herbicides sethoxydim, isoxaflutole and bentazon on native tree species

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a sensibilidade de espécies nativas usadas em recuperação de áreas degradadas aos herbicidas setoxidim, isoxaflutol e bentazon. As espécies estudadas foram Senna multijuga, Guazuma ulmifolia e Croton urucurana. Os tratamentos de herbicida consistiram de uma testemunha (sem aplicação) e aplicação de um quarto, metade, uma vez, duas vezes e quatro vezes a dose recomendada. As doses recomendadas são 184 g ha-1 de setoxidim, 37,5 g ha-1 de isoxaflutol e 720 g ha-1 de bentazon. Avaliaram-se os sintomas de fitotoxicidade, crescimento em altura, acréscimo no número de folhas e massa de matéria seca de folhas. Em outros experimentos, as doses recomendadas dos mesmos herbicidas foram aplicadas em outras 22 espécies arbóreas nativas, nas quais avaliou-se a massa de matéria seca de folhas. O delineamento experimental dos experimentos foi o inteiramente casualizado, com quatro repetições. Cada parcela experimental se constituiu de uma muda em estádio inicial de desenvolvimento. Os herbicidas não provocaram a morte das mudas, embora todas tenham apresentado sintomas de fitotoxicidade. A aplicação de isoxaflutol reduziu a massa de matéria seca das folhas em 20% das espécies, a aplicação de bentazon, em uma espécie, e a aplicação de setoxidim não reduziu a massa de matéria seca das folhas de nenhuma espécie.<br>The objective of this work was to evaluate the sensitivity of native tree species used in the recovery of degraded land to the herbicides sethoxydim, isoxaflutole and bentazon. The species studied were Senna multijuga, Guazuma ulmifolia and Croton urucurana, and the treatment applied comprised one control sample (no herbicides were applied) and the application of the herbicides at one fourth, half, one, two and fourfold the recommended dose (sethoxydim: 184 g ha-1, isoxaflutole: 37.5 g ha-1, bentazon: 720 g ha-1). Phytotoxicity symptoms, growth in length, increase in leaf number, and leaf dry mass were evaluated. In another experiments, the recommended doses of the same herbicides were applied to other 22 native tree species, for which the leaf dry mass was evaluated. The experiments were carried out in completely randomized design with four replicates. Each experimental plot comprised one sapling in initial developmental stage. The herbicides did not cause saplings death, even though all of them showed phytotoxicity symptoms. Herbicide application reduced the leaf dry mass as follows: isoxaflutole, 20% of the species; bentazon, one of the species; and sethoxydim did not reduce leaf dry mass in any of the species