Super Mario (un)making: towards the preservation of digital play practices

This thesis puts forward an approach to the preservation of videogames through a singular case study of Nintendo’s Super Mario Maker (SMM) released exclusively for the Nintendo Wii U console in September 2015. Videogames are a significant part of our culture and our everyday lives. As with other popular cultural forms, there is an urgent need to think about how videogames are being remembered, documented and preserved. Yet herein lies the problem. For how does one preserve a practice? This thesis argues that attempts to preserve videogames as playable objects are, conversely, further contributing to their effacement. Videogame preservation appears to fixate on the technical object. Rather than attempt to approach SMM as a singular identifiable entity, this thesis considers videogames as discursive practices and/as sociotechnical assemblages. Its proposed method of study is to trace the contours of videogame play through the cultural records produced by those who play them. Its explicative method utilises the medium of video. Through tracing the multiple trajectories of SMM play, this study moves to highlight how dominant play styles (and, to this end, dominant players) shape our cultural memory. Whilst there is no “right” way to play SMM, hegemonic discourses influence what kind of play is valorised and consequently, whose histories of play are likely to remain

Semi-automated dialogue act classification for situated social agents in games

As a step toward simulating dynamic dialogue between agents and humans in virtual environments, we describe learning a model of social behavior composed of interleaved utterances and physical actions. In our model, utterances are abstracted as {speech act, propositional content, referent} triples. After training a classifier on 100 gameplay logs from The Restaurant Game annotated with dialogue act triples, we have automatically classified utterances in an additional 5,000 logs. A quantitative evaluation of statistical models learned from the gameplay logs demonstrates that semi-automatically classified dialogue acts yield significantly more predictive power than automatically clustered utterances, and serve as a better common currency for modeling interleaved actions and utterances

BIOMECHANICS OF TECHNIQUE SELECTION IN WOMEN’S ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

This research aimed to determine effective technique selection for the female longswing through four themes: contemporary trend (T1), biomechanical conceptual (T2), musculoskeletal (T3) and energetic (T4) approaches. 3D video data at two elite competitions provided high ecologically validity. T1 identified the straddle Tkachev as the ideal vehicle with three distinct preparatory techniques (arch, pike, straddle) preceding it. Significant joint kinematic differences were not replicated in release parameters (T2) although joint kinetics highlighted greater physical demands in the pike (T3), with an energetics effectiveness score highlighting the arch as a technique promoting skill development (T4). Increasing knowledge and understanding allows coaches to optimise technique selection

Contrasting Effects of Varicose Vein Surgery on Endothelial-dependent and -independent Cutaneous Vasodilation in the Perimalleolar Region

AbstractObjectivesTo evaluate the effects of varicose vein surgery on cutaneous microvascular perfusion and vasodilator responses to acetylcholine (Ach) and sodium nitroprusside (SNP) in the gaiter area of patients with great saphenous vein insufficiency.MethodsTwenty-nine patients with isolated great saphenous vein incompetence attended three study mornings (before surgery, and 6–8 weeks and 6 months after sapheno-femoral ligation+partial stripping) during which cutaneous microvascular responses were measured in the supine and standing positions using laser Doppler fluximetry (LDF) combined with incremental-dose iontophoretic administration of endothelial-dependent (Ach) and -independent (SNP) vasodilators.ResultsVaricose vein surgery had no significant effect on baseline cutaneous perfusion or the microvascular response to Ach: e.g. peak vasodilator responses to the 1000μC stimulus were mean 58 SEM 7, 64 SEM 6 and 65 SEM 7PU on the pre-operative, 6–8 weeks and 6 months assessments. In contrast, the corresponding responses to SNP were significantly increased following surgery: e.g. at 2000μC, mean 63 SEM 9, 142 SEM 4 and 157 SEM 9PU (p<0.0001) in the upright position.ConclusionsSapheno-femoral ligation and partial stripping in patients with great saphenous vein insufficiency improves endothelial-independent cutaneous vasodilator function at the gaiter area, which may at least partly explain the benefits of surgery in reducing the risk of venous ulceration

Reduction in the structural changes of experimental osteoarthritis by a nitric oxide inhibitor

AbstractObjectiveTo evaluate the in-vivo therapeutic efficacy ofN-iminoethyl-L-Lysine (L-NIL), a selective inhibitor of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in a dose response study, on the progression of lesions in the experimental osteoarthritic (OA) dog model.DesignThe sectioning of the anterior cruciate ligament of the right stifle joint of mongrel dogs was done by a stab wound. Dogs were separated into experimental groups: Group 1 received no treatment, Groups 2, 3, and 4 received oral L-NIL (0.3, 1 or 10mg/kg/day, respectively) starting immediately after surgery. The OA dogs were killed at 12 weeks after surgery.ResultsMacroscopically, L-NIL decreased the size of the cartilage lesions on condyles and plateaus. The histologic severity of the cartilage lesions was decreased in the L-NIL-treated dogs. This effect was more pronounced at the highest dosage tested (3 and 10mg/kg/day).ConclusionsThis study confirms the effectiveness of L-NIL, a selective inhibitor of iNOS, in attenuating the progression of experimental OA. It also clearly shows that the effect is dose-dependent

Time-domain dynamic opto-rheology study of polymer films using step-scan FTIR time-resolved spectroscopy (S[sup 2]FTIR TRS)

Step-scan Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in conjunction with impulse stress on polymer films has been used to monitor dynamic rheological responses in real time. A novel piezo-electrically-driven polymer microrheometer was employed to apply repetitive impulses to the polymer sample while time-domain spectra were recorded. Recent results include the study of both semi-crystalline polymers such as isotactic polypropylene (iPP) and elastomers such as Estane polyester/polyurethane copolymer and Kraton tri-block copolymer. The spectral changes of iPP are consistent with frequency-domain results. For iPP at room temperature, large differences in the response times of different absorption bands are not seen. However, the orientation response of the CH{sub 3} rocking mode is slightly slower than the responses of the backbone modes. To the authors` knowledge, this is the first reported successful step-scan FTIR time-domain dynamic polymer opto-rheology experiment. The advantages of the time-domain experiment over the frequency-domain experiment are also discussed briefly. This technique appears to be applicable to a variety of polymer samples, and examples from additional results are illustrated

Continuum theory of vacancy-mediated diffusion

We present and solve a continuum theory of vacancy-mediated diffusion (as evidenced, for example, in the vacancy driven motion of tracers in crystals). Results are obtained for all spatial dimensions, and reveal the strongly non-gaussian nature of the tracer fluctuations. In integer dimensions, our results are in complete agreement with those from previous exact lattice calculations. We also extend our model to describe the vacancy-driven fluctuations of a slaved flux line.Comment: 25 Latex pages, subm. to Physical Review

Extracting collective trends from Twitter using social-based data mining

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40495-5_62Proceedings 5th International Conference, ICCCI 2013, Craiova, Romania, September 11-13, 2013,Social Networks have become an important environment for Collective Trends extraction. The interactions amongst users provide information of their preferences and relationships. This information can be used to measure the influence of ideas, or opinions, and how they are spread within the Network. Currently, one of the most relevant and popular Social Network is Twitter. This Social Network was created to share comments and opinions. The information provided by users is specially useful in different fields and research areas such as marketing. This data is presented as short text strings containing different ideas expressed by real people. With this representation, different Data Mining and Text Mining techniques (such as classification and clustering) might be used for knowledge extraction trying to distinguish the meaning of the opinions. This work is focused on the analysis about how these techniques can interpret these opinions within the Social Network using information related to IKEA® company.The preparation of this manuscript has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under the following projects: TIN2010-19872, ECO2011-30105 (National Plan for Research, Development and Innovation) and the Multidisciplinary Project of Universidad Aut´onoma de Madrid (CEMU-2012-034

CASSETTE—clindamycin adjunctive therapy for severe Staphylococcus aureus treatment evaluation: Study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Background Exotoxins are important virulence factors in Staphylococcus aureus. Clindamycin, a protein synthesis inhibitor antibiotic, is thought to limit exotoxin production and improve outcomes in severe S. aureus infections. However, randomised prospective data to support this are lacking. Methods An open-label, multicentre, randomised controlled trial (RCT) will compare outcome differences in severe S. aureus infection between standard treatment (flucloxacillin/cefazolin in methicillin-susceptible S. aureus; and vancomycin/daptomycin in methicillin-resistant S. aureus) and standard treatment plus an additional clindamycin given for 7 days. We will include a minimum of 60 participants (both adult and children) in the pilot study. Participants will be enrolled within 72 h of an index culture. Severe infections will include septic shock, necrotising pneumonia, or multifocal and non-contiguous skin and soft tissue/osteoarticular infections. Individuals who are immunosuppressed, moribund, with current severe diarrhoea or Clostridiodes difficile infection, pregnant, and those with anaphylaxis to β-lactams or lincosamides will be excluded. The primary outcomes measure is the number of days alive and free (1 or 0) of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) within the first 14 days post randomisation. The secondary outcomes measure will include all-cause mortality at 14, 42, and 90 days, time to resolution of SIRS, proportion with microbiological treatment failure, and rate of change of C-reactive protein over time. Impacts of inducible clindamycin resistance, strain types, methicillin susceptibility, and presence of various exotoxins will also be analysed. Discussion This study will assess the effect of adjunctive clindamycin on patient-centred outcomes in severe, toxin-mediated S. aureus infections. The pilot study will provide feasibility for a much larger RCT. Trial registration Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, ACTRN12617001416381p. Registered on 6 October 2017

Effects of posture and venous insufficiency on endothelial-dependent and -independent cutaneous vasodilation in the perimalleolar region

Objectives: To assess the effects of posture, endothelial function and venous insufficiency on cutaneous microvascular vasodilator function in the gaiter area, in particular defining factors which may affect microangiopathy and ulcer formation. Methods: Endothelial-dependent and –independent vasodilator responses to incremental-doses of acetylcholine (Ach) and sodium nitroprusside (SNP) were evaluated in the perimalleolar region in the supine and standing positions in middle-aged patients with isolated superficial venous insufficiency (ISVI) (n=25) and health controls (n=28) using laser Doppler fluximetry (LDF) and iontophoresis of vasodilators. Results: The venoarteriolar reflex (vasoconstriction on standing) was equally present in both groups, and reduced the vasodilator responses to SNP in the upright position (e.g for patients with ISVI, peak SNP response was 82+11 PU [standing] vs 123+15 PU [supine]). The presence of ISVI had no effect on endothelial vasodilator function in the supine position, but on standing cutaneous reactivity to Ach was significantly reduced (e.g peak Ach response 69+8 PU [ISVI] vs 109+11 PU [controls], p<0.003). Conclusions: Upright posture impairs cutaneous endothelial-dependent vasodilation in the gaiter area of patients with ISVI. This may be of clinical and prognostic utility in identifying which patients with uncomplicated ISVI are at highest risk of tissue breakdown and ulcer formation in the gaiter area