156 research outputs found
Usability and acceptability of a website that provides tailored advice on falls prevention activities for older people
No full textThis article presents the usability and acceptability of a website that provides older people with tailored advice to help motivate them to undertake physical activities that prevent falls. Views on the website from interviews with 16 older people and 26 sheltered housing wardens were analysed thematically. The website was well received with only one usability difficulty with the action plan calendar. The older people selected balance training activities out of interest or enjoyment, and appeared to carefully add them into their current routine. The wardens were motivated to promote the website to their residents, particularly those who owned a computer, had balance problems, or were physically active. However, the participants noted that currently a minority of older people use the Internet. Also, some older people underestimated how much activity was enough to improve balance, and others perceived themselves as too old for the activities
Piloting a workflow for extracting author citations from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language
No full textSince the 18th century, English-language dictionaries have used quo- tations from written works to illustrate a word's use in context. These quotations form a link between language authority and literary authority. In this paper we pilot a workflow for identifying, extracting, and counting author citations in Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language to investigate how au- thors in a defined corpus are represented. We consider how these authors are distributed across the text and compare our results to past studies that used dif- ferent methodologies. We find a consistency that encourages the broader appli- cation of our workflow on other dictionary texts, enabling further study of au- thor citations in dictionaries across time.Made available in DSpace on 2020-03-17T23:28:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Previous issue date: 2020-03-2
Bridging the Commercialization Gap for the Direct Air Capture of Atmospheric CO2
No full textThe present work is a systematic investigation that addresses the primary concerns associated
with scaling Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology. Chapter 2 provides a non-technical
communication about the value of DAC relative to other forms of Carbon Dioxide Removal
(CDR). If CDR systems are compared on a simple cost basis, DAC will be more expensive per
tonne of CO2 due to technology’s nascency relative to nature-based forms of CDR such as
afforestation/reforestation. Chapter 2 reasons that a simple accounting framework neglects the
inherent value of long-duration CO2 sequestration, which is a possibility when DAC is paired
with carbon mineralization or geological sequestration but is not possible with
afforestation/reforestation. Chapter 2, therefore, argues for the implementation of a more
complex pricing framework that accounts for the value of long duration storage in CDR
solutions.
Chapter 3 begins this thesis’ examination of chemical sorbents for DAC. The chapter describes
a novel, green mechanochemical synthesis for a zirconium-based metal-organic framework
(MOF), UiO-66-NH2, which was believed to be a potential sorbent for DAC. UiO-66-NH2 was
synthesized at a rate of 4.52 g per 90 minutes with a 43% yield at a levelized cost of $6,498/kg
of MOF. It became clear through CO2 gas sorption results, however, that the MOF itself was
not a sufficient adsorbent material. As a result, Chapter 4 describes the mechanochemical
impregnation of UiO-66-NH2 with a redox active guest, 9,10-phenanthrenequinone. The
composite material exhibited the desired electrochemical behavior after a rapid 30-minute
mechanochemical impregnation where the redox-active guest comprised approximately 13%
of the composite material’s mass. This chapter demonstrates that mechanochemical
impregnation is a rapid functionalization technique that can be leveraged with other porous
materials for many industrial applications including and beyond CO2 capture. Overall, Chapter
4 examines this novel functional material as a solid-state cathode for electrochemical CO2
capture, and the chapter demonstrates that mechanochemical functionalization is a useful
technique for rapidly introducing desired chemical properties for various industrial
applications.
After examining solid-state materials for DAC in Chapters 3 and 4, Chapter 5 is a technological
pivot away from solid-state sorbents toward a solution-state electrochemical DAC process.
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Chapter 5 describes the investigation of several types of archetypal redox active organic
molecules—such as diazines and quinones—for a continuous, non-aqueous electrochemical
CO2 capture process. The highest performing organic molecule was phenazine, which
maintained a 100% coulombic efficiency over 9.5 hours of testing with a theoretical minimum
energy of 77.2 kJ/mol of CO2 captured. Additionally, this chapter describes the development
of a 3D printed zero-gap electrochemical flow cell, which was designed to reduce the
engineering costs associated with facilitating a continuous electrochemical reaction. In Chapter
6, the technology further evolves toward a green, aqueous electrochemical DAC process. The
system demonstrated reversible electrochemical behavior over 100 cycles or 205 hours and
maintained an average coulombic efficiency of 100% and an average capacity retention of
99.8%. Additionally, the system has an estimated theoretical minimum energy of 24.6 kJ/mol.
Chapter 6 also includes further optimization of the electrochemical flow cell, which was
performed with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software to improve the flow of solution
to the surface of the electrode, and it also includes a techno-economic analysis (TEA) to analyze
variables that facilitate the commercialization of a redox flow DAC process
Modeling Motivation: Examining the Structural Validity of the Sport Motivation Scale-6 among Runners
No full textabstract: Two models of motivation are prevalent in the literature on sport and exercise participation (Deci & Ryan, 1991; Vallerand, 1997, 2000). Both models are grounded in self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000) and consider the relationship between intrinsic, extrinsic, and amotivation in explaining behavior choice and outcomes. Both models articulate the relationship between need satisfaction (i.e., autonomy, competence, relatedness; Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000; Ryan & Deci, 2000) and various cognitive, affective, and behavioral outcomes as a function of self-determined motivation. Despite these comprehensive models, inconsistencies remain between the theories and their practical applications. The purpose of my study was to examine alternative theoretical models of intrinsic, extrinsic, and amotivation using the Sport Motivation Scale-6 (SMS-6; Mallett et al., 2007) to more thoroughly study the structure of motivation and the practical utility of using such a scale to measure motivation among runners. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate eight alternative models. After finding unsatisfactory fit of these models, exploratory factor analysis was conducted post hoc to further examine the measurement structure of motivation. A three-factor structure of general motivation, external accolades, and isolation/solitude explained motivation best, although high cross-loadings of items suggest the structure of this construct still lacks clarity. Future directions to modify item content and re-examine structure as well as limitations of this study are discussed.Dissertation/ThesisM.A. Educational Psychology 201
Language design for distributed stream processing
No full textThesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2009.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (p. 149-152).Applications that combine live data streams with embedded, parallel, and distributed processing are becoming more commonplace. WaveScript is a domain-specific language that brings high-level, type-safe, garbage-collected programming to these domains. This is made possible by three primary implementation techniques, each of which leverages characteristics of the streaming domain. First, WaveScript employs an evaluation strategy that uses a combination of interpretation and reification to partially evaluate programs into stream dataflow graphs. Second, we use profile-driven compilation to enable many optimizations that are normally only available in the synchronous (rather than asynchronous) dataflow domain. Finally, an empirical, profile-driven approach also allows us to compute practical partitions of dataflow graphs, spreading them across embedded nodes and more powerful servers. We have used our language to build and deploy applications, including a sensor-network for the acoustic localization of wild animals such as the Yellow-Bellied marmot. We evaluate WaveScript's performance on this application, showing that it yields good performance on both embedded and desktop-class machines. Our language allowed us to implement the application rapidly, while outperforming a previous C implementation by over 35%, using fewer than half the lines of code. We evaluate the contribution of our optimizations to this success. We also evaluate WaveScript's ability to extract parallelism from this and other applications.by Ryan Rhodes Newton.Ph.D
Real-Time Composer-Performer Collaboration As Explored In Wilderness, A Dance And Audio Installation
No full textabstract: From fall 2010 to spring 2011, the author was the pianist in twenty public performances of Wilderness, a site-adaptable dance and audio installation by choreographer Yanira Castro and composer Stephan Moore. Wilderness's music was generated as the result of an algorithmic treatment of data collected from the movements of both dancers and audience members within the performance space. The immediacy of using movement to instantaneously generate sounds resulted in the need for a real-time notational environment inhabited by a sight-reading musician. Wilderness provided the author the opportunity to extensively explore an extreme sight-reading environment, as well as the experience of playing guided improvisations over existing materials while incorporating lateral thinking strategies, resulting from a real-time collaboration between composer and performer during the course of a live performance. This paper describes Wilderness in detail with particular attention focused on aspects of the work that most directly affect the pianist: the work's real-time notational system, live interaction between composer and performer, and the freedoms and limitations of guided improvisation. There is a significant amount of multi-media documentation of Wilderness available online, and the reader is directed toward this online content in the paper's appendix.Dissertation/ThesisD.M.A. Music 201
Overlapping montage: a comparative study of mainstream film and moving-image installations
No full textThis dissertation develops a discussion on the need for a comparative approach to the study of film and moving- image installations. It addresses the lack of critical attention given to moving-image installations within film studies generally and academic teaching programmes in particular. The development of a comparative approach requires researching a number of interlinking and independent fields of study such as film studies, art history/criticism, photography, literary theory, critical theory, anthropology and philosophy. While arguing against traditional disciplinary boundaries, the discussion critiques the accepted articulations of current interdisciplinary approaches.
The dissertation discusses how an expanded field of comparative film studies needs to concern itself with both diachronic and synchronic axes, requiring a longer historical framework to analyse shifts in technologies of representation and related theories of subjectivity within particular capitalist formations. It is argued that this type of comparative model elaborates a more critically productive and conceptually expansive discussion of cultural products, whether they are mainstream film or moving-image installations. As such it aligns itself with an awareness of the political importance of history, memory and personal experience.
The theoretical ground for a comparative approach is developed through exploring montage and fragmentation. While articulating the significance of theories of fragmentation to discussions of modernity and modernism, the thesis foregrounds the significance of understanding all cultural production as ‘montages’ - as elaborations of a number of competing discourses, both when they are made and when they are read. A reconceptualization of montage as a dominant component in cultural meaning making moves away from montage as an aesthetics of form. Rather than understanding film and moving-image installations as rigidly delineated objects, they are explored through hybridity and overlap, for example through the multiple scopic regimes, which shape and form them. In this enterprise, the significance of an anthropological materialist’ approach to cinema and moving-image installations is articulated as a means of developing a critical cognitive engagement with our varied cultural and ever changing social environment
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Correction to: \u27Greater Wealth Inequality, Less Polygyny: Rethinking the Polygyny Threshold Model\u27
No full textWith apologies, an incorrect author list was given in the article. An additional author, Chris von Rueden, (Jepson School of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond) also contributed to this work. Author Ryan Schacht's affiliation was out-of-date. His correct affiliation is: Department of Anthropology, East Carolina University
The assessment of complex tasks: a double reading
No full textThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Studies in Higher Education on 15 August 2006, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/03075070500339988.Drawing on Bourdieu's theory of social practice, the author challenges common-sense notions of objectivity and subjectivity which inform assessment practice, and argues for assessment as a socially situated interpretive act. A case study of an engineering community of practice at a South African university illustrates the multiple subjectivities that shape assessors' interpretations of student performance. This case study contributes to an understanding of academic professional judgment as a ‘double reading' - an iterative movement between different modes of knowledge which comprise the objective and the subjective. The author concludes with a brief discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of this for how academic communities of practice come to judge and how these judgments are validated
Romantic Dialogues: Writing the Self in De Quincey and Woolf
No full textVirginia Woolf has been recognised as a pioneering modernist writer creating a new literary voice. It is not unusual to discover in Woolf’s writings the aesthetic and literary traces of those past traditions and influences which have been woven into her modern narratives. One significant, but often overlooked, influence comes from the Romantic period and the essayist, Thomas De Quincey. De Quincey’s stylish essays inspire Woolf’s art. Both writers’ fascination with representing the self (and their devotion to creating a literary thinking about, and narrative of, the subject) indicates a shared affinity between these two writers in spite of important cultural, historical, and social differences between them. My treatment of the self in De Quincey and Woolf is aware of the aesthetic and literary affinities between them and those cultural and historical differences that divide them. Tracing important connections between these two important writers sheds light on the larger concerns and patterns of both the literary scenes of Romanticism and Modernism.
Six chapters in three sections focus on three main aspects of the self central to De Quincey and Woolf—the art of literature, the representation of time and the question of autobiographical writing. Chapter One and Two investigate De Quincey’s literature of power and Woolf’s art of fiction to examine the relationship between literary representation and the self. Chapter Three and Four discuss issues of time and self in De Quincey and Woolf. The final two chapters contend that De Quincey’s and Woolf’s reflections on literary representation, and time as a philosophical problem are embodied in their writings of the self across their respective literary careers. A project of this kind is alert to and enriches a recent burgeoning critical interest from Romanticists and Modernists alike in the exchanges, interchanges, bequests, and legacies of Romanticism to Modernism
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