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How Stephen King’s Bachman stories are fuelling 2025’s dark cinematic moments
No full textIt has been a major year for Stephen King films. Four of his stories have hit cinemas in 2025: The Monkey, The Life of Chuck, The Long Walk and The Running Man. And two more have graced the small screen – The Institute and the Pennywise origin series It: Welcome to Derry.Indeed, there was a moment in British cinemas earlier in the year, where you could watch The Life of Chuck and have the film preceded by trailers for the other three cinematic adaptations, making King’s work feel ubiquitous right now
Defining similarity: An arithmetic method for archaeological source provenance targeting using geochemical data
Get PDFGeochemical analysis has long been a key tool in studies attempting to determine the source provenance of lithic artefacts. Cogenetic linkages between outcrop sources and artefacts have been variously argued through visual, statistical and arithmetic interrogations of geochemical data. However, such approaches can overlook the petrological significance of particular elements and suggest artefact-outcrop ‘matches’ that may not pass geological scrutiny. Recent investigations of the same geochemical dataset for the sarsens of Stonehenge, for example, have yielded very different, and irreconcilable, interpretations regarding their provenance. This disagreement has provided the opportunity to develop and test a new arithmetic method for determining the geochemical similarity between lithic artefacts and potential source outcrops. The method, involving the simultaneous evaluation of multiple trace element/Zr (Ei/Zr) ratios, is mathematically simple, petrologically grounded and offers a standardised way to target subsequent outcrop sampling. We first test the method on the Stonehenge sarsen dataset and reaffirm previously suggested provenance linkages. Further tests on datasets from provenancing studies involving basalt, andesite, dolerite and obsidian artefacts demonstrate its utility across a range of lithologies and on datasets obtained using higher and lower precision analytical methods. In most cases our test results confirm the source interpretations of the original investigations, but in others provide petrologically grounded avenues for further investigation not previously considered. Throughout the paper, we caution that the trace elements included in any arithmetic comparison need to be considered carefully in terms of their petrogenetic behaviour
Earliest movement of sarsen into the Stonehenge landscape: new insights from geochemical and visibility analysis of the Cuckoo Stone and Tor Stone
Get PDFThis paper presents the results of new research on two sarsen stones, known as the Cuckoo Stone and Tor Stone, both former standing stones that lie on opposite banks of the River Avon and straddle the eastern border of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site. Geochemical analysis indicates that both stones were probably transported to their present site from West Woods on the Marlborough Downs in north Wiltshire, a source that likely also supplied the large sarsen monoliths at Stonehenge. The paper examines the geological conditions necessary for the formation of sarsen across the site of the present-day Salisbury Plain to address the apparent absence of natural sarsen in the area. The results are integrated with those of archaeological fieldwork from nearby contemporaneous sites to suggest that the Cuckoo Stone and Tor Stone were probably introduced into the Stonehenge landscape in the early part of the Late Neolithic period, ie, contemporary with Phase 1 of Stonehenge and some 400–500 years before the construction of the principal sarsen settings at the monument. Visibility analysis indicates that the two stones were probably intervisible and likely to have formed part of a planned landscape and were positioned to create a formal portal to the Stonehenge area on either bank of the River Avon
Doing Difficult Heritage, Performing Diasporic Memory:Yoshiko Shimada and Haji Oh’s Art of Affective Recall
No full textMultiple Storytelling (facilitated workshop)
No full textJoin two storytelling scholars for a facilitated workshop on multiple storytelling, inviting complex relationships with the more-than-human. Dr Joanna Gilar leads us in the communal reading and re-telling of multiple, lesser known variants of a common folktale - the witch hare – inviting us to move away from stories where becoming animal is a sign of injury or something sinful, and towards a deeper porosity and ecological engagement. Techne student Jon Norman-Mason relates the tales to the reality of urban space, exploring how to re-enchant the mundane and accept the non-human life in our towns. Through that multiplicity of voices, we are invited into a deepening complexity of collective imagination and awareness
Bio-graphene activated carbon of sago waste as a potential catalyst for crude coconut oil combustion:An experimental and quantum mechanics based study
Get PDFThis research describes the potential of bio-graphene from activated carbon of sago waste (bio-graphene ACSW) as an efficient combustion catalyst when mixed with crude coconut oil (CCO). The bio-graphene ACSW mixturewith and without CCO is investigated using Avogadro quantum mechanical software and in-house experiments. Quantum mechanical simulations allowed us to predict the properties of bio-graphene ACSW molecules, including molecular structures, bonds, and angle properties. The results show that the molecular structure of biographene ACSW is unique due to the composition of aromatic carbon (Car), which lowers activation energy and facilitates the ignition of fuel molecules. Furthermore, quantum mechanical properties such as the dipole moment, the dynamic bond angles, and the partial charge of bio-graphene ACSW are expected to produce magnetic forces in the fuel molecules, as evidenced by increased density, decreased viscosity, and flash point.Moreover, bio-graphene ACSW is expected to improve CCO fuel’s heat absorption and energy release capacity, thus improving the ignition performance
150 years of international cooperation under the Metre Convention
No full textThe Metre Convention was signed in May 1875, bringing international agreement on how to measure accurately and consistently — a consensus that was essential for trade, industrialization and scientific progress. 150 years later, how does the metrology community continue this tradition
A Comprehensive Thematic Analysis of Work Motivation Among IT Professionals in the United Kingdom
Get PDFThis study examines the impact of workplace motivation on IT employees in the UK through a qualitative research approach. Recognizing that motivated employees are critical to organizational success, the research explores various factors influencing motivation, such as financial rewards, recognition, and workplace environment. The study aims to identify the advantages of motivation for IT employees, its effect on productivity and performance, and strategies for improving workplace motivation. Primary data was collected from interviewing IT employees across different UK firms. Thematic analysis was used to identify patterns in the data, leading to the development of four key themes that address the research objectives. Findings reveal that workplace motivation significantly enhances employee productivity and performance in the UK IT sector. The validity of these findings was supported by existing literature. The study concludes with recommendations for improving workplace motivation, such as ensuring fair pay, fostering workplace ethics, and promoting transparency. Future research could benefit from investigating these dynamics further
Maximizing Energy Efficiency in IRS-Assisted Phase Cooperative PS-SWIPT based Self-Sustainable IoT Network
Get PDFPower splitting based simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (PS-SWIPT) appears to be a promising solution to support future self-sustainable Internet of Things (SS-IoT) networks. However, the performance of these networks is constrained by radio frequency signal strength and channel impairments. To overcome this challenge, intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRSs) have recently been introduced in IoT networks to improve network efficiency by controlling signal reflections. In this article, we propose a novel IRS-enabled phase cooperative framework that aims to maximize the energy efficiency (EE) of the PS-SWIPT based SS-IoT network. Our framework leverages the idea of phase cooperation between two distinct networks without requiring additional hardware resources. We employed transmit beamforming (BF) at access points (APs) and phase shift optimization at the IRS with effective phase cooperation between APs. The EE maximization problem turns out to be NP-hard, so first, an alternating optimization (AO) is solved for the user’s network using heuristic BF approaches and phase optimization via semidefinite relaxation (SDR) approaches. To combat the computational complexity of AO, we also propose a low-complexity alternative solution by exploiting heuristic BF schemes and an iterative algorithm, i.e., the element-wise block-coordinate descent method for phase shifts optimization. The proposed solutions’ analysis shows low computational complexity and fast convergence, achieving near-optimal EE performance for different network settings. We conducted extensive simulations to evaluate our proposed framework’s performance and unveiled significant EE performance achieved by the IoT network consistent with the numerical findings. This work demonstrates the potential of IRS phase cooperation for enhancing the EE of different networks without constraining hardware resources
What is Not So Hot About Hot Desking and Imposed Work Spaces:Rethinking Workspace, Ownership and Presence in Higher Education
No full textA discussion paper about hotdesking and new learning design in the post-Covid er