Bodily sensation in contemporary extreme horror film

Bodily Sensation in Contemporary Extreme Horror Film provides a theory of horror film spectatorship rooted in the physiology of the viewer. In a novel contribution to the field of film studies research, it seeks to integrate contemporary scientific theories of mind with psychological paradigms of film interpretation. Proceeding from a connectionist model of brain function that proposes psychological processes are underpinned by neurology, this thesis contends that whilst conscious engagement with film often appears to be driven by psychosocial conditions – including cultural influence, gender dynamics and social situation – it is physiology and bodily sensation that provide the infrastructure upon which this superstructure rests. Drawing upon the philosophical works of George Lakoff, Mark Johnson and Alain Berthoz, the argument concentrates upon explicating the specific bodily sensations and experiences that contribute to the creation of implicit structures of understanding, or embodied schemata, that we apply to the world round us. Integrating philosophy with contemporary neurological research in the spheres of cognition and neurocinematics, a number of correspondences are drawn between physiological states and the concomitant psychological states often perceived to arise simultaneously alongside them. The thesis offers detailed analysis of a selection of extreme horror films that, it is contended, conscientiously incorporate the body of the viewer in the process of spectatorship through manipulation of visual, auditory, vestibular, gustatory and nociceptive sensory stimulations, simulations and the embodied schemata that arise from everyday physiological experience. The phenomenological film criticism of Vivian Sobchack and Laura U. Marks is adopted and expanded upon in order to suggest that the organicity of the human body guides and structures the psychosocial engagement with, and interpretation of, contemporary extreme horror film. This project thus exposes the body as the architectural foundation upon which conscious interaction with film texts occurs

Making the Vision a Reality: The University-Public Library Partnership at The Hive

Three years after opening, The Hive goes from strength to strength, offering new opportunities for innovation and partnership working. This article offers a brief overview of some of the success stories so far, from innovative ways of working with students, events and exhibitions held at The Hive, and new research opportunities

Guest editorial: Queer theory and criminology

In 2015, queer theorist Heather Love called for her fellow queer scholars to recognise the centrality of the study of norms and deviance to ‘the intellectual genealogy’ of queer studies. She argued that queer approaches and understandings, with their ‘embrace of a politics of stigma’ and ‘reliance on a general category of social marginality’, were ‘borrowed’ from mid-20th century social science studies of deviance (Love, 2015: 75). For most criminologists, it is axiomatic that this tradition is equally central to our own genealogy, and our concerns with deviance, normativity, social control and the production of power and marginalisation. Despite this shared set of concerns, queer theory and criminology have little contemporary crossover. We share Love’s concern around this state of affairs, but where she is primarily concerned about the stakes for queer studies, the focus of our Special Issue is on what criminologists can gain from greater engagement with the analytic and conceptual tools of queer theory

Fit for purpose? Pattern cutting and seams in wearables development

This paper describes how a group of practitioners and researchers are working across disciplines at Nottingham Trent University in the area of Technical Textiles. It introduces strands of ongoing enquiry centred around the development and application of stretch sensors on the body, focusing on how textile and fashion knowledge are being reflexively revealed in the collaborative development of seamful wearable concepts, and on the tensions between design philosophies as revealed by definitions of purpose. We discuss the current research direction of the Aeolia project, which seeks to exploit the literal gaps found in pattern cutting for fitted stretch garments towards experiential forms and potential interactions. Normative goals of fitness for purpose and seamlessness are interrogated and the potential for more integrated design processes, which may at first appear ‘upside down’, is discussed

Response Time Distribution Analysis of Semantic and Response Interference in a Manual Response Stroop Task.

Previous analyses of response time distributions have shown that the Stroop effect is observed in the mode (μ) and standard deviation (σ) of the normal part of the distribution, as well as its tail (τ). Specifically, interference related to semantic and response processes has been suggested to specifically affect the mode and tail, respectively. However, only one study in the literature has directly manipulated semantic interference, and none manipulating response interference. The present research aims to address this gap by manipulating both semantic and response interference in a manual response Stroop task, and examining how these components of Stroop interference affect the response time distribution. Ex-Gaussian analysis showed both semantic and response conflict to only affect τ. Analyzing the distribution by rank-ordered response times (Vincentizing) showed converging results as the magnitude of both semantic and response conflict increased with slower response times. Additionally, response conflict appeared earlier on the distribution compared to semantic conflict. These findings further highlight the difficulty in attributing specific psychological processes to different parameters (i.e., μ, σ, and τ). The effect of different response modalities on the makeup of Stroop interference is also discussed

WOT 1_2 Insights into the flows and fates of e-waste in the UK

In 2019 the EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive documented a sizable increase in e-waste collection targets alongside widening the scope of electrical and electronic products covered by the legislation. These changes have significant impact for the UK, where e-waste collection has been below the levels necessary to meet the targets. Understanding the flows and fates of products on and off the market becomes of paramount importance, especially for producer-led organisations who have the responsibility to achieve the targets and cover the operational costs. Historic e-waste estimation methods often assume that one product on the market will equate to one product in the waste stream. In this article, we introduce our research commissioned by one of the largest UK producer-led organisations, REPIC Ltd, to explain the gap in products on the market and WEEE collected, and the relationship between the two. We argue that we should move away from the “one-in-one-out” estimation to include a wider set of parameters that are tailored specifically for the UK, including those linked with the state of the market for electronic and electrical products and a broader range of socioeconomic indicators. We show how this can be achieved by adapting a state-of-the-art e-waste estimation model, Waste Over Time, to the UK context and developing it further to include additional drivers

Developmental exposures to perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) impact embryonic nutrition, pancreatic morphology, and adiposity in the zebrafish, \u3cem\u3eDanio rerio\u3c/em\u3e

Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) is a persistent environmental contaminant previously found in consumer surfactants and industrial fire-fighting foams. PFOS has been widely implicated in metabolic dysfunction across the lifespan, including diabetes and obesity. However, the contributions of the embryonic environment to metabolic disease remain uncharacterized. This study seeks to identify perturbations in embryonic metabolism, pancreas development, and adiposity due to developmental and subchronic PFOS exposures and their persistence into later larval and juvenile periods. Zebrafish embryos were exposed to 16 or 32 μM PFOS developmentally (1–5 days post fertilization; dpf) or subchronically (1–15 dpf). Embryonic fatty acid and macronutrient concentrations and expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) isoforms were quantified in embryos. Pancreatic islet morphometry was assessed at 15 and 30 dpf, and adiposity and fish behavior were assessed at 15 dpf. Concentrations of lauric (C12:0) and myristic (C14:0) saturated fatty acids were increased by PFOS at 4 dpf, and PPAR gene expression was reduced. Incidence of aberrant islet morphologies, principal islet areas, and adiposity were increased in 15 dpf larvae and 30 dpf juvenile fish. Together, these data suggest that the embryonic period is a susceptible window of metabolic programming in response to PFOS exposures, and that these early exposures alone can have persisting effects later in the lifecourse