The study of intelligent user interfaces and user modeling and adaptation is well suited for augmenting educational visits to museums. We have defined a novel integrated framework for museum visits and claim that such a framework is essential in such a vast domain that inherently implies complex interactivity. We found that it requires a significant investment in software and hardware infrastructure, design and implementation of intelligent interfaces, and a systematic and iterative evaluation of the design and functionality of user interfaces, involving actual visitors at every stage. We defined and built a suite of interactive and user-adaptive technologies for museum visitors, which was then evaluated at the Buonconsiglio Castle in Trento, Italy: (1) animated agents that help motivate visitors and focus their attention when necessary, (2) automatically generated, adaptive video documentaries on mobile devices, and (3) automatically generated post-visit summaries that reflect the individual interests of visitors as determined by their behavior and choices during their visit. These components are supported by underlying user modeling and inference mechanisms that allow for adaptivity and personalization. Novel software infrastructure allows for agent connectivity and fusion of multiple positioning data streams in the museum space. We conducted several experiments, focusing on various aspects of PEACH. In one, conducted 123 258 O. Stock et al.with 110 visitors, we found evidence that even older users are comfortable interacting with a major component of the system.

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There is growing interest in the role of psychosocial stress in health disparities. Identifying which social stressors are most important to community residents is critical for accurately incorporating stressor exposures into health research. Using a community-academic partnered approach, we designed a multi-community study across the five boroughs of New York City to characterize resident perceptions of key neighborhood stressors. We conducted 14 community focus groups; two to three in each borough, with one adolescent group and one Spanish-speaking group per borough. We then used systematic content analysis and participant ranking data to describe prominent neighborhood stressors and identify dominant themes. Three inter-related themes regarding the social and structural sources of stressful experiences were most commonly identified across neighborhoods: (1) physical disorder and perceived neglect, (2) harassment by police and perceived safety and (3) gentrification and racial discrimination. Our findings suggest that multiple sources of distress, including social, political, physical and economic factors, should be considered when investigating health effects of community stressor exposures and psychological distress. Community expertise is essential for comprehensively characterizing the range of neighborhood stressors that may be implicated in psychosocial exposure pathways.

In March 1874 I communicated to this Society a paper entitled, “On a Tremadoc area near the Wrekin in South Shropshire, with description of a new Fauna,” which was published in abstract in the Society's Journal, vol. xxx. p. 196. In that paper I described certain shales, commonly supposed to be Caradoc, which I had examined at Shineton, two miles S.S.W. of the Wrekin. In these shales I had found Conocoryphe, Lingulella , and other fossils of a Cambrian type; and from this and other evidence I had concluded the beds were of Tremadoc age. My views, however, were not accepted by the Fellows present at the reading of my paper, on account of the alleged imperfection of the fossil evidence; and, as I was at the time absent in America, I had no opportunity of defending my position. Since my return home I have collected more abundant and satisfactory evidence, both geological and palæontological, which I venture to think will establish my original conclusions. I have also made out some additional points of interest in the geology of the neighbourhood of the Wrekin. Previous Information. Sir R. Murchison has described the area under examination, from the Wrekin on the north-east to the May-Hill Sandstone at Kenley on the south-west, as composed of strata of Caradoc age, the Wrekin itself being an igneous outburst altering the Caradoc sandstone on its flanks into quartzite. The Geological Survey has followed Murchison, but has included, under the name of “quartzite,” certain sandstones in which

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