The emotional arcs of horror: a distant reading of Stephen King’s novels

Sentiment analysis, the computational inference of emotion in text through Natural Language Processing, is increasingly used to analyze social and cultural trends. In this thesis, we create narrative time-series and word-shift graphs for each of Stephen King’s novels using the Hedonometer, quantifying the lexical changes responsible for emotional arcs found in each story. Our results suggest King’s work has increasingly shifted in genre from horror to science fiction. The work contributes to a growing science of stories being developed by the Computational Story Lab

Regional libraries online project : Survey

The Library and Information Service of Western Australia (LISWA) implemented their Regional Libraries Online Project in 1997 to provide public Internet access to 11 regional libraries in Western Australia. This report highlights major trends and issues that arose during the implementation of the project..

The Phonon Drag Effect in Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

A variational solution of the coupled electron-phonon Boltzmann equations is used to calculate the phonon drag contribution to the thermopower in a 1-D system. A simple formula is derived for the temperature dependence of the phonon drag in metallic, single-walled carbon nanotubes. Scattering between different electronic bands yields nonzero values for the phonon drag as the Fermi level varies.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Holding and restraining children for clinical procedures within an acute care setting: an ethical consideration of the evidence

This critical reflection on the ethical concerns of current practice is underpinned by a systematic synthesis of current evidence focusing on why and how children are held or restrained for clinical procedures within acute care and the experiences of those present when a child is held against their wishes. Empirical evidence from a range of clinical settings internationally demonstrates that frequently children are held for procedures to be completed; younger children and those requiring procedures perceived as urgent are more likely to be held. Parents and health professionals express how holding children for procedures can cause feelings of moral distress expressed as uncertainty, guilt and upset and that this act breaches the trusting and protective relationship established with children. Despite this, children’s rights and alternatives to holding are not always respected or explored. Children’s experiences and perceptions are absent from current literature. Children and young people have a moral right to have their voice and protests heard and respected and for these to inform judgements of their best interests and the actions of health professionals. Without robust evidence, debate and recognition that children are frequently held against their wishes in clinical practice for procedures which may not be urgent, children’s rights will continue to be compromised

Superconductivity in carbon nanotube ropes

We investigate the conditions in which superconductivity may develop in ropes of carbon nanotubes. It is shown that the interaction among a large number of metallic nanotubes favors the appearance of a metallic phase in the ropes, intermediate between respective phases with spin-density-wave and superconducting correlations. These arise in samples with about 100 metallic nanotubes or more, where the long-range Coulomb interaction is very effectively reduced and it may be overcome by the attractive interaction from the exchange of optical phonons within each nanotube. We estimate that the probability for the tunneling of Cooper pairs between neighboring nanotubes is much higher than that for single electrons in a disordered rope. The effect of pair hopping is therefore what establishes the intertube coherence, and the tunneling amplitude of the Cooper pairs dictates the scale of the transition to the superconducting state.Comment: 12 page

Could relative movement between the adductor muscles and the skin invalidate surface electromyography measurement?

The superficial hip adductor muscles are situated in close proximity to each other. Therefore, relative movement between the overlying skin and the muscle belly could lead to a shift in the position of surface electromyography (EMG) electrodes and contamination of EMG signals with activity from neighboring muscles. The aim of this study was to explore whether hip movements or isometric contraction could lead to relative movement between the overlying skin and 3 adductor muscles: adductor magnus, adductor longus, and adductor gracilis. The authors also sought to investigate isometric torque–EMG relationships for the 3 adductor muscles. Ultrasound measurement showed that EMG electrodes maintained a position which was at least 5 mm within the muscle boundary across a range of hip flexion–extension angles and across different contraction levels. The authors also observed a linear relationship between torque and EMG amplitude. This is the first study to use ultrasound to track the relative motion between skin and muscle and provides new insight into electrode positioning. The findings provide confidence that ultrasound-based positioning of EMG electrodes can be used to derive meaningful information on output from the adductor muscles and constitute a step toward recognized guidelines for surface EMG measurement of the adductors

Permeability-porosity relationships in seafloor vent deposits : dependence on pore evolution processes

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2007. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 112 (2007): B05208, doi:10.1029/2006JB004716.Systematic laboratory measurements of permeability and porosity were conducted on three large vent structures from the Mothra Hydrothermal vent field on the Endeavor segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Geometric means of permeability values obtained from a probe permeameter are 5.9 × 10−15 m2 for Phang, a tall sulfide-dominated spire that was not actively venting when sampled; 1.4 × 10−14 m2 for Roane, a lower-temperature spire with dense macrofaunal communities growing on its sides that was venting diffuse fluid of <300°C; and 1.6 × 10−14 m2 for Finn, an active black smoker with a well-defined inner conduit that was venting 302°C fluids prior to recovery. Twenty-three cylindrical cores were then taken from these vent structures. Permeability and porosity of the drill cores were determined on the basis of Darcy's law and Boyle's law, respectively. Permeability values range from ∼10−15 to 10−13 m2 for core samples from Phang, from ∼10−15 to 10−12 m2 for cores from Roane, and from ∼10−15 to 3 × 10−13 m2 for cores from Finn, in good agreement with the probe permeability measurements. Permeability and porosity relationships are best described by two different power law relationships with exponents of ∼9 (group I) and ∼3 (group II). Microstructural analyses reveal that the difference in the two permeability-porosity relationships reflects different mineral precipitation processes as pore space evolves within different parts of the vent structures, either with angular sulfide grains depositing as aggregates that block fluid paths very efficiently (group I), or by late stage amorphous silica that coats existing grains and reduces fluid paths more gradually (group II). The results suggest that quantification of permeability and porosity relationships leads to a better understanding of pore evolution processes. Correctly identifying permeability and porosity relationships is an important first step toward accurately estimating fluid distribution, flow rate, and environmental conditions within seafloor vent deposits, which has important consequences for chimney growth and biological communities that reside within and on vent structures.Support from the National Science Foundation under grants NSF OCE-9986456 (W.Z. and M.K.T.) and NSF OCE-0327488 (P.R.C.) is gratefully acknowledged. We also thank the WHOI summer student fellowship for providing support to H.G

How academic librarians, IT staff and research administrators perceive and relate to research

Academic libraries are changing how they support research. For example, their involvement in Research Data Management (RDM) implies a much deeper relationship with researchers throughout the research lifecycle. Perhaps we are witnessing a shift from support to partnership. The study reported here examined how librarians, IT staff and research administrators see research and their own relation to it. Within an interpretative methodology, twenty semi-structured interviews with librarians, IT staff and research administrators were analysed thematically. Librarians often talked about research via the discourse of research-led teaching. They also conceived of it via notions of collection and to a lesser extent through reference work or copyright expertise. They saw some of their own continuing professional development or service development work as akin to the work of university researchers, but at the other end of a spectrum. Some saw a categorical difference and considered that research was only conducted by people who had a job title of researcher. IT managers tended to see research via infrastructure or specialist expertise. But at least one IT staff member saw himself as both partly a researcher and a bridge between research and support. Research administrators tended to see research through the roles of administrative support and policy influence. In summary, seven broad narratives about research were identified, namely: influencing researchers to align with policy; being a researcher; being a bridge with research; offering expertise; providing infrastructure; supporting a research/teaching nexus; relieving researchers of administrative burdens. As institutions develop research partnerships, e.g. around RDM, training and curricula will need to expand existing conceptions and build deeper empathetic relationships with research

Anisotropy in seafloor flange, slab, and crust samples from measurements of permeability and porosity : implications for fluid flow and deposit evolution

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 13 (2012): Q03018, doi:10.1029/2011GC003840.Seafloor hydrothermal vents accommodate the convective transfer of fluids from subsurface environments to the oceans. In addition to black smoker chimneys, a variety of other deposit-types form. Flanges protrude from the sides of edifices as horizontal ledges, below which vent fluids pool. Slabs are hydrothermally silicified layered volcaniclastic deposits. Crusts are deposits composed of previously deposited material underlain by hot fluids. Permeability and porosity measurements were conducted on flanges from Guaymas Basin and the Main Endeavour Vent Field, slabs from the Lucky Strike Vent Field, and a crust sample from the Trans-Atlantic Geotraverse (TAG) active mound. Cores taken parallel to textural layers have high permeabilities (≈10−12 m2) and porosities (30–40%) that follow a power law relationship with exponent α ≈ 1 to 2. Cores taken perpendicular to layering have permeabilities from 10−16 to 10−12 m2 and porosities from 20 to 45%, with α ≈ 5 to 8. The two distinct trends result from the heterogeneity of textural layers within these deposits. Microstructural observations show large variations in grain packing and pore distributions between layers, consistent with flow perpendicular to layering being more susceptible to changes in permeability that result from mineral precipitation than flow parallel to layering. These results imply that the primary flow direction in these deposits is parallel to layering, whereas flow perpendicular to layering is more restricted. Quantification of anisotropic permeability provides important constraints for determination of fluid flux from these layered deposits, and temperatures, chemistry, and availability of nutrients to organisms living in and at exteriors of deposits.This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under grants EAR-0741339 and OCE-0648337. Partial support for JG and WZ from DOE # DEFG0207ER15916 is also acknowledged.2012-09-2

Incidence, risk factors, and effect on allograft survival of glomerulonephritis post-transplantation in a United Kingdom population: cohort study

BACKGROUND: Post-transplant glomerulonephritis (PTGN) has been associated with inferior long-term allograft survival, and its incidence varies widely in the literature. METHODS: This is a cohort study of 7,623 patients transplanted between 2005 and 2016 at four major transplant UK centres. The diagnosis of glomerulonephritis (GN) in the allograft was extracted from histology reports aided by the use of text-mining software. The incidence of the four most common GN post-transplantation was calculated, and the risk factors for disease and allograft outcomes were analyzed. RESULTS: In total, 214 patients (2.8%) presented with PTGN. IgA nephropathy (IgAN), focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), membranous nephropathy (MN), and membranoproliferative/mesangiocapillary GN (MPGN/MCGN) were the four most common forms of post-transplant GN. Living donation, HLA DR match, mixed race, and other ethnic minority groups were associated with an increased risk of developing a PTGN. Patients with PTGN showed a similar allograft survival to those without in the first 8 years of post-transplantation, but the results suggest that they do less well after that timepoint. IgAN was associated with the best allograft survival and FSGS with the worst allograft survival. CONCLUSIONS: PTGN has an important impact on long-term allograft survival. Significant challenges can be encountered when attempting to analyze large-scale data involving unstructured or complex data points, and the use of computational analysis can assist