The binge-watcher’s journey: Investigating motivations, contexts, and affective states surrounding Netflix viewing

The growth of Internet-distributed TV services has transformed video consumption, enhancing the level of control that viewers have over what they watch. Along with the release of entire seasons of programming at once, this has led to the phenomenon of ‘binge-watching’, in which several episodes of a program are viewed in one sitting. This article presents the results of a novel exploratory study focused on 40 Netflix viewing sessions from 11 millennials in their homes. Methodologically, we employed a novel mixed-methods approach that combines objective data (collected through a browser extension) and subjective data (collected via questionnaires completed before and after viewing). This novel approach allowed us to describe the binge-watcher’s experience in a holistic fashion. Results suggest that binge-watching is an individual activity mainly performed at the end of the day to relax, for boredom relief purposes, or for escapism. Furthermore, a binge-watching session lasts for an average of 2 h and 10 min, and variations on binge-watchers’ affective states were identified after Netflix exposure. Participants’ levels of valence (unhappy–happy) significantly decreased after binge-watching; their positive affect values increased primarily after watching sci-fi, while their negative affect values decreased after watching comedy and slightly increased after watching drama. However, the levels of arousal (relaxed–stimulated) remained the same. This study extends our current understanding of binge-watching in terms of viewer motivations, how it affects their viewing experiences, and participants’ subjective affective states. The investigation contributes, thus

Sedimentological, mineralogical and geochemical features of late quaternary sediment profiles from the Southern Tuscany Hg Mercury District (Italy): Evidence for the presence of pre-industrial mercury and arsenic concentrations

Southern Tuscany (Italy) is an important metallogenic district that hosts relevant S-polymetallic deposits that have intensely been exploited for centuries. Consequently, potential toxic elements, such as Hg and As, are widely distributed in the surrounding environment. In this paper, an extensive sedimentological, mineralogical and geochemical study of two Late Quaternary sediment profiles, partially outcropping along the coast of southern Tuscany (Ansedonia area), was carried out to evaluate the contents and mobility of Hg and As with the aims to contribute to the definition of the geochemical baseline of southern Tuscany before the human intervention and evaluate the potential dispersion of these harmful elements. The sedimentological, mineralogical and geochemical (major elements) features revealed that the studied profiles are mostly related to the local geological characteristics and the Quaternary geological history of the area. The concentrations and the normalized patterns of trace and rare earth elements highlighted the absence of any anthropogenic activity. This implies that the studied samples are to be regarded as good proxies for evaluating the geochemical baseline of southern Tuscany before the intense mining activity. The enrichment factors (EF) of most trace elements were indeed lower or close to 2, indicating a variability close to the average concentration of the Upper Continental Crust (UCC), while other elements slightly enriched, such as Pb, were in agreement with the natural baseline reported for southern Tuscany. Mercury and As displayed EF values >40 when compared to the average contents of UCC, although they decrease down to 4 when compared to the suggested baseline for southern Tuscany. The higher Hg and As contents detected in this study, inferred to natural sources, evidenced (i) the great natural variability occurring in largely mineralized areas and (ii) the importance of estimating reference environmental parameters in order to avoid misleading interpretations of the detected anomalies. Moreover, the results of leaching test on sediment samples denoted a relatively low mobility of Hg and As, suggesting that these elements are preferentially mobilized by transport of clastic sediments and such anomalies may be preserved for relatively long times in Quaternary sediments. However, leachable Hg (0.6-9.7 μg/L) and As (2.1-42.2 μg/L) concentrations are significantly high when compared to those of the Italian limit for groundwater (1 μg/L for Hg and 10 μg/L for As). Quaternary sediments from southern Tuscany could then be a potential, though natural, source of Hg and As to groundwater systems

Real-time measurements of Hg0 in volcanic, geothermal and anthropogenic systems: a multi-methodological approach using Lumex® instrumentation

Mercury represents a pollutant of global concern and strong environmental impact since is highly toxic. Hg is present in air in the oxidation states of 0 and +2, the former being the dominant species with a residence time of 1-2 years due to its high volatility, relatively low solubility and chemical inertness. Both volcanic/geothermal and anthropogenic systems are crucial contributor to the release of Hg0 in the atmosphere. In this work, a Lumex® (RA-915M) was used to evaluate the environmental impact in air of Hg0 from: i) the abandoned Hg mining site and geothermal areas from Mt. Amiata (Siena, Central Italy) and ii) selected Mediterranean volcanic and geothermal systems. The Lumex® instrumentation, based on atomic absorption spectrometric technique with Zeeman effect, allows to measure Hg0 at high frequency, in real-time and at a wide range of concentrations (from 2 to 50,000 ng/m3). Hg0 measurements were coupled with those of other pollutants, such as CO2 H2S, and SO2. Carbon dioxide was measured using a Multi-GAS instrument manufactured by INGV-Palermo, whereas H2S and SO2 using Thermo Scientific® Model 450i analyzer. GPS and meteorological parameters were continuously recorded, too. The data acquisition was carried out along transects at an approximately constant speed or at selected fixed points. Wherever possible, the analytical data were then converted into a spatial interpolation providing a qualitative model for the areal dispersion of the contaminants. The Lumex® device was also applied to measure Hg0 concentrations in interstitial soil gases collected from a probe inserted into the soil at 70 cm depth, in order to produce Hg0 maximum concentration maps in Hg-polluted areas (e.g. Abbadia San Salvatore Hg mining area, Mt. Amiata). Diffuse Hg0 soil fluxes were measured using a chamber positioned above the soil from which, at periodic time intervals, gases were extracted and injected into the Lumex® device. This instrument was also applied to measure Hg0 concentrations along vertical profiles in thermal wells at Santorini (Greece) and Vulcano (Italy) by using a Rilsan® tube lowered into the wells at pre-defined depths. With this approach, a significant stratification of the air masses in terms of Hg0, strictly dependent on water temperature, air pressure and well depth, was observed. The efficiency of Lumex® for these different approaches demonstrated the reliability of this instrument to produce Hg0 data that can be used to identify gaseous Hg-emitters in natural and anthropogenic environments, especially when coupled with other physical and chemical parameters

Effect of different butyrate supplementations on growth and health of weaning pigs challenged or not with E. coli K88

In a full factorial design (4 diets X challenge, Yes/No), 72 weaning pigs were assigned to one of the diets: Control; experimental diets, obtained with the addition of 2 g/kg free sodium butyrate (fNaB), or 0.6 g/kg fat-protected sodium butyrate (pNaB), or 2 g/kg INVE-NutriAd commercial mixture (Mix, based on 75 g/kg protected butyrate). Oral challenge with Escherichia coli K88 was done on 2/3 of pigs on d 7. Pigs were slaughtered on d 13. The mortality in challenged pigs, tended to be higher in control group (50.0 %) than in the three supplemented groups (23.5%). Growth tended to be increased averagely by the supplements (P = 0.100) after the challenge, that also significantly reduced growth. In general the diet did not affect the fecal shedding of Escherichia coli and Lactobacilli, the K88-specific IgA activity in blood, the morphology of oxyntic mucosa and the expression of H+/K+-ATPase gene. The supplementations tended to increase villous length of jejunum (P = 0.101). On the whole, growth, villous height and surviving rate can be positively affected either when the supplementation is done by free butyrate, by protected butyrate or by the special Inve Nutri-Ad product and these effects are distributed both on pigs infected or not with Escherichia coli K88

The binge-watcher’s journey: Investigating motivations, contexts, and affective states surrounding Netflix viewing

The growth of Internet-distributed TV services has transformed video consumption, enhancing the level of control that viewers have over what they watch. Along with the release o

Highly sensitive gamma-spectrometers of GERDA for material screening: Part I

The GERDA experiment aims to search for the neutrinoless double beta-decay of 76Ge and possibly for other rare processes. The sensitivity of the first phase is envisioned to be more than one order of magnitude better than in previous neutrinoless double beta-decay experiments. This implies that materials with ultra-low radioactive contamination need to be used for the construction of the detector and its shielding. Therefore the requirements on material screening include high-sensitivity low-background detection techniques and long measurement times. In this article, an overview of material-screening laboratories available to the GERDA collaboration is given, with emphasis on the gamma-spectrometry. Additionally, results of an intercomparison of the evaluation accuracy in these laboratories are presented.Comment: Featured in: Proceedings of the XIV International Baksan School "Particles and Cosmology" Baksan Valley, Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia, April 16-21,2007. INR RAS, Moscow 2008. ISBN 978-5-94274-055-9, pp. 228-232; (5 pages, 0 figures