What makes a video go viral? An analysis of emotional contagion and Internet memes

What qualities lead some Internet videos to reach millions of viewers while others languish in obscurity? This question has been largely unexamined empirically. We addressed this issue by examining the role of emotional response and video source on the likelihood of spreading an Internet video by validating the emotional response to an Internet video and investigating the underlying mechanisms. Results indicated that individuals reporting strong affective responses to a video reported greater intent to spread the video. In terms of the role of the source, anger-producing videos were more likely to be forwarded but only when the source of the video was an out-group member. These results have implications for emotional contagion, social influence, and online behavior.     

Geometries of Reading, Light of Learning: Louis I. Kahn’s Library at Phillips Exeter

In Louis I. Kahn’s library at Phillips Exeter Academy geometries of architecture and media function as parallel rhetorical systems, sometimes complementing, sometimes contradicting one another. This present paper examines how the geometric forms of the library shape patrons’ relationships to media in the collection, and how Kahn’s elementary geometries have accommodated new media characterized by non-geometric, non-linear forms.     

Correlations for timing consistency among tapping and drawing tasks: Evidence against a single timing process for motor control.

Three experiments were conducted to examine whether timing processes can be shared by continuous tapping and drawing tasks. In all 3 experiments, temporal precision in tapping was not related to temporal precision in continuous drawing. There were modest correlations among the tapping tasks, and there were significant correlations among the drawing tasks. In Experiment 3, the function relating timing variance to the square of the observed movement duration for tapping was different from that for drawing. The conclusions drawn were that timing is not an ability to be shared by a variety of tasks but instead that the temporal qualities of skilled movement are the result of the specific processes necessary to produce a trajectory. These results are consistent with the idea that timing is an emergent property of movement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accounting for uncertainty in control-relevant statistics

To make appropriate decisions based on common indices used in control, both the point estimates and their uncertainties must be known. Many control-relevant statistics, such as model predictions, gain margins and other frequency domain quantities, are functions of parameters of process models. Confidence regions for these quantities are most often calculated under the assumption that these quantities have an asymptotic limiting normal distribution. These confidence regions may be erroneous, and very misleading, as the asymptotic results ignore the influence of parameter nonlinearities. In addition, proximity of the model parameters to stability/invertibility boundaries also distorts the confidence regions from those predicted from asymptotic theory. Generalized profiling is a flexible numerical method for constructing confidence intervals and confidence regions for model parameters, and functions of model parameters. Applications in nonlinear regression [D. Bates, D. Watts, Nonlinear Regression Analysis and Its Applications, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1988] indicate that it provides a much more accurate representation of uncertainty in those instances when the asymptotic uncertainty results are inaccurate or misleading. Generalized profiling is based on the likelihood approach to quantifying uncertainty. The numerical construction of these likelihood uncertainty regions requires solution to a series of constrained optimization problems. Computationally efficient diagnostic tests, motivated by profiling, are developed. These can be effectively employed as screening tools to indicate when the asymptotic results are most likely to be inadequate.     

Maintaining Change Following Eating Disorder Treatment.

Residential eating disorder treatment involves emotional, financial, and time commitments from clients, staff, and the health care system. At discharge, most clients have made substantial nutritional, social, and psychological changes. However, maintaining these changes when intensive support is no longer available represents a significant challenge, and it is common for individuals to slip back into previous eating disorder patterns. Interviews with 32 individuals were conducted 6 months after discharge. Qualitative analyses revealed a pattern of factors that facilitated and hindered recovery. These factors were integrated with past research findings to develop a conceptual model about how changes are maintained. Recommendations regarding ways that health care professionals can assist with the transition from intensive treatment to community living are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tables of a Truncated Standard Normal Distribution: A Doubly Truncated Case

As an extension to the singly truncated case, this article further examines a doubly truncated normal distribution. In this article, we consider both symmetric and asymmetric cases with two truncation points on the left and the right, and develop the tables of a truncated mean, a truncated variance, and a cumulative probability.     

Information quantity and quality affect the realistic accuracy of personality judgment.

Triads of unacquainted college students interacted in 1 of 5 experimental conditions that manipulated information quantity (amount of information) and information quality (relevance of information to personality), and they then made judgments of each others' personalities. To determine accuracy, the authors compared the ratings of each judge to a broad-based accuracy criterion composed of personality ratings from 3 types of knowledgeable informants (the self, real-life acquaintances, and clinician-interviewers). Results supported the hypothesis that information quantity and quality would be positively related to objective knowledge about the targets and realistic accuracy. Interjudge consensus and self-other agreement followed a similar pattern. These findings are consistent with expectations based on models of the process of accurate judgment (D. C. Funder, 1995, 1999) and consensus (D. A. Kenny, 1994). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Microlesions of the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus: Effects on sociosexual behaviors in male rats.

Electrolytic microlesions aimed at the dorsomedial portion of the ventromedial nucleus (VMN) of the hypothalamus were generated, and effects on copulation, 50-kHz vocalizations, scent marking, and sexual motivation were measured. Male rats were tested before and after lesions, after castration, and after testosterone replacement. Three control groups were used: One received sham surgery, another received no surgery or testosterone replacement, and a 3rd received lesions primarily outside the VMN. VMN lesions produced impairments in testosterone's ability to restore ultrasonic vocalizations and scent marking, assessed with 2 different test methods. Copulation, sexual motivation, and weight gain were largely unaffected, although some differences were observed in copulatory efficiency. The authors conclude that the integrity of the VMN is important for full expression of sociosexual behaviors in male rats. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Efficacy of a novel sanitizer composed of lactic acid and peroxyacetic acid against single strains of nonpathogenic Escherichia coli K-12, Listeria innocua, and Lactobacillus plantarum in aqueous solution and on surfaces of romaine lettuce and spinach

A novel sanitizer composed of lactic acid and peroxyacetic acid (LA-PAA) was developed as an alternative to chlorinated water (CW) for fresh produce processing. Single strains of Lactobacillus plantarum, nonpathogenic Escherichia coli K-12, and Listeria innocua were used to demonstrate the microbial efficacy of LA-PAA. LA-PAA achieved a >7.8-log reduction of L. innocua and L. plantarum suspended in water at 4°C for 20 s, and LA, PAA, and CW achieved reductions of 0.4, 4.8, and 2.7 log, respectively. LA-PAA, when compared with LA, PAA, and CW, enhanced the reduction of L. innocua attached to romaine leaves by >2.2 log, and improved the removal of E. coli attached to spinach leaves by >2.4 log. The exponential improvement in the microbial efficacy of LA-PAA showed synergism between LA and PAA. LA-PAA microbial efficacy was inversely proportional to pH value and directly correlated with residence time and concentration. Despite an improvement in microbial reduction through the addition of surfactant to LA-PAA, the usage of surfactant in washing fresh produce was impeded by excessive foaming during actual processing. Effects of organic matter on the performance of LA-PAA were minimal. External sensory evaluations showed that LA-PAA had no negative effects on the quality of lettuce and tender leaves. Temperature-abuse studies demonstrated that LA-PAA reduced decay by ～50% when compared with CW. Overall, these results support the premise that LA-PAA has significant potential to be an alternative to CW for fresh produce processing.     

Performance and scalability of Fourier domain optical coherence tomography acceleration using graphics processing units

Fourier domain optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT) provides faster line rates, better resolution, and higher sensitivity for noninvasive, in vivo biomedical imaging compared to traditional time domain OCT (TD-OCT). However, because the signal processing for FD-OCT is computationally intensive, real-time FD-OCT applications demand powerful computing platforms to deliver acceptable performance. Graphics processing units (GPUs) have been used as coprocessors to accelerate FD-OCT by leveraging their relatively simple programming model to exploit thread-level parallelism. Unfortunately, GPUs do not "share" memory with their host processors, requiring additional data transfers between the GPU and CPU. In this paper, we implement a complete FD-OCT accelerator on a consumer grade GPU/CPU platform. Our data acquisition system uses spectrometer-based detection and a dual-arm interferometer topology with numerical dispersion compensation for retinal imaging. We demonstrate that the maximum line rate is dictated by the memory transfer time and not the processing time due to the GPU platform's memory model. Finally, we discuss how the performance trends of GPU-based accelerators compare to the expected future requirements of FD-OCT data rates.