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Background The Covid-19 pandemic has imposed extraordinary strains on healthcare workers. But, in contrast with acute settings, relatively little attention has been given to those who work in mental health settings. We aimed to characterise the experiences of those working in English NHS secondary mental health services during the first wave of the pandemic. Methods The design was a qualitative interview-based study. We conducted semi-structured, remote (telephone or online) interviews with 35 members of staff from NHS secondary (inpatient and community) mental health services in England. Analysis was based on the constant comparative method. Results Participants reported wide-ranging changes in the organisation of secondary mental health care and the nature of work in response to the pandemic, including pausing of all services deemed to be “non-essential”, deployment of staff across services to new and unfamiliar roles, and moves to remote working. The quality of participants’ working life was impaired by increasing levels of daily challenge associated with trying to provide care in trying and constrained circumstances, the problems of forging new ways of working remotely, and constraints on ability to access informal support. Participants were confronted with difficult dilemmas relating to clinical decision-making, prioritisation of care, and compromises in ability to perform the therapeutic function of their roles. Other dilemmas centred on trying to balance the risks of controlling infection with the need for human contact. Many reported features of moral injury linked to their perceived failures in providing the quality or level of care that they felt service users needed. They sometimes sought to compensate for deficits in care through increased advocacy, taking on additional tasks, or making exceptions, but this led to further personal strain. Many experienced feelings of grief, helplessness, isolation, distress, and burnout. These problems were compounded by sometimes poor communication about service changes and by staff feeling that they could not take time off because of the potential impact on others. Some reported feeling poorly supported by organisations. Conclusions Mental health workers faced multiple adversities during the pandemic that were highly consequential for their wellbeing. These findings can help in identifying targets for support.

Background Practical methods for facilitating process improvement are needed to support high quality, safe care. How best to specify (identify and define) process improvements – the changes that need to be made in a healthcare process – remains a key question. Methods for doing so collaboratively, rapidly and remotely offer much potential, but are under-developed. We propose an approach for engaging diverse stakeholders remotely in a consensus-building exercise to help specify improvements in a healthcare process, and we illustrate the approach in a case study. Methods Organised in a five-step framework, our proposed approach is informed by a participatory ethos, crowdsourcing and consensus-building methods: (1) define scope and objective of the process improvement; (2) produce a draft or prototype of the proposed process improvement specification; (3) identify participant recruitment strategy; (4) design and conduct a remote consensus-building exercise; (5) produce a final specification of the process improvement in light of learning from the exercise. We tested the approach in a case study that sought to specify process improvements for the management of obstetric emergencies during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used a brief video showing a process for managing a post-partum haemorrhage in women with COVID-19 to elicit recommendations on how the process could be improved. Two Delphi rounds were then conducted to reach consensus. Results We gathered views from 105 participants, with a background in maternity care (n = 36), infection prevention and control (n = 17), or human factors (n = 52). The participants initially generated 818 recommendations for how to improve the process illustrated in the video, which we synthesised into a set of 22 recommendations. The consensus-building exercise yielded a final set of 16 recommendations. These were used to inform the specification of process improvements for managing the obstetric emergency and develop supporting resources, including an updated video. Conclusions The proposed methodological approach enabled the expertise and ingenuity of diverse stakeholders to be captured and mobilised to specify process improvements in an area of pressing service need. This approach has the potential to address current challenges in process improvement, but will require further evaluation.

ObjectivesTo explore the experiences of service users, carers and staff seeking or providing secondary mental health services during the COVID-19 pandemic.DesignQualitative interview study, co-designed with mental health service users and carers.MethodsWe conducted semi-structured, telephone or online interviews with a purposively constructed sample; a peer researcher with lived experience conducted and analysed interviews with service users. Analysis was based on the constant comparison method.SettingNHS secondary mental health services in England between June and August 2020.ParticipantsOf 65 participants, 20 had either accessed or needed to access English secondary mental healthcare during the pandemic; 10 were carers of people with mental health difficulties; 35 were members of staff working in NHS secondary mental health services during the pandemic.ResultsExperiences of remote care were mixed. Some service users valued the convenience of remote methods in the context of maintaining contact with familiar clinicians. Most participants commented that a lack of non-verbal cues and the loss of a therapeutic ‘safe space’ challenged therapeutic relationship building, assessments, and identification of deteriorating mental wellbeing. Some carers felt excluded from remote meetings and concerned that assessments were incomplete without their input. Like service users, remote methods posed challenges for clinicians who reported uncertainty about technical options and a lack of training. All groups expressed concern about intersectionality exacerbating inequalities and the exclusion of some service user groups if alternatives to remote care are lost.ConclusionsWhilst remote mental healthcare is likely to become increasingly widespread in secondary mental health services, our findings highlight the continued importance of a tailored, personal approach to decisions about remote mental healthcare. Further research should focus on which types of consultations best suit face-to-face interaction, and for whom and why, and which can be provided remotely and by which medium.ARTICLE SUMMARYStrengths and limitations of this studyStrengths include its qualitative approach in speaking to a large sample of participants with varied mental health difficulties, carers, and a diverse range of mental healthcare staff.Its novelty lies in a deep exploration of the views and experiences of remote mental healthcare during a pandemic.The methods are strengthened by the involvement of experts-by-experience and the use of peer research methods.We did not adopt a narrative method; the interviews were one-off conversations so we could not explore change as the pandemic progressed and people may have become accustomed to remote care.The study used remote methods to comply with UK lockdown regulations; this will have excluded some groups without the ability to engage remotely.

Background Acute gallstone disease is the highest volume Emergency General Surgical presentation in the UK. Recent data indicate wide variations in the quality of care provided across the country, with national guidance for care delivery not implemented in most UK hospitals. Against this backdrop, the Royal College of Surgeons of England set up a 13-hospital quality improvement collaborative (Chole-QuIC) to support clinical teams to reduce time to surgery for patients with acute gallstone disease requiring emergency cholecystectomy. Methods Prospective, mixed-methods process evaluation to answer the following: (1) how was the collaborative delivered by the faculty and received, understood and enacted by the participants; (2) what influenced teams’ ability to improve care for patients requiring emergency cholecystectomy? We collected and analysed a range of data including field notes, ethnographic observations of meetings, and project documentation. Analysis was based on the framework approach, informed by Normalisation Process Theory, and involved the creation of comparative case studies based on hospital performance during the project. Results Chole-QuIC was delivered as planned and was well received and understood by participants. Four hospitals were identified as highly successful, based upon a substantial increase in the number of patients having surgery in line with national guidance. Conversely, four hospitals were identified as challenged, achieving no significant improvement. The comparative analysis indicate that six inter-related influences appeared most associated with improvement: (1) achieving clarity of purpose amongst site leads and key stakeholders; (2) capacity to lead and effective project support; (3) ideas to action; (4) learning from own and others’ experience; (5) creating additional capacity to do emergency cholecystectomies; and (6) coordinating/managing the patient pathway. Conclusion Collaborative-based quality improvement is a viable strategy for emergency surgery but success requires the deployment of effective clinical strategies in conjunction with improvement strategies. In particular, achieving clarity of purpose about proposed changes amongst key stakeholders was a vital precursor to improvement, enabling the creation of additional surgical capacity and new pathways to be implemented effectively. Protected time, testing ideas, and the ability to learn quickly from data and experience were associated with greater impact within this cohort.

xiView provides a common platform for the downstream analysis and visualisation of Crosslinking Mass Spectrometry data. It is independent of the search software used and its input is compliant with the relevant mass spectrometry data standards. It uses established visualisation techniques, notably Multiple Coordinated Views, to help the user explore the data and is designed to facilitate comparisons between different datasets.

We present a Directed Acyclic Graph visualisation designed to allow interaction with a set of multiple classification trees, specifically to find overlaps and differences between groups of trees and individual trees. The work is motivated by the need to find a representation for multiple trees that has the space-saving property of a general graph representation and the intuitive parent-child direction cues present in individual representation of trees. Using example taxonomic data sets, we describe augmentations to the common barycenter DAG layout method that reveal shared sets of child nodes between common parents in a clearer manner. Other interactions such as displaying the multiple ancestor paths of a node when it occurs in several trees, and revealing intersecting sibling sets within the context of a single DAG representation are also discussed.

‘Classic’ accounts of social capital have emerged in accounts of stable networks or institutional environments. These conditions do not apply in the case of many firms – a case in point being small firm networks that rely on rapid turnover of projects. Our research team is attempting to identify how social capital is manifest in these contexts, and thus to make suggestions for building, maintaining and refreshing such capital. We present work to date that converts this type of tacit knowledge into sets of explicit and manageable local data, and provide examples of information visualizations for profiling and retrieval that support the management of social capital.

Histologic analysis of the hydropic and normal guinea pig cochleae was undertaken to assess a potential correlation between the magnitude of endolymphatic hydrops and hearing loss. It was hypothesized that a greater correlation than previously reported might be found by looking at long-standing endolymphatic hydrops and high-frequency range hearing.Surgically induced endolymphatic hydrops in guinea pigs is the most widely used animal model for the study of human Ménière's Disease and recapitulates both endolymphatic hydrops and progressive sensorineural hearing loss. A strong correlation between the magnitude of hydrops and severity of hearing loss has been reported in the human condition, but not in the animal model.Nine albino guinea pigs were each subjected to surgical obstruction of the endolymphatic sac and duct of the right ear. The left ears remained as internal histologic controls. Hearing was assessed from 2 kHz to 32 kHz by auditory brain stem response testing for 16 to 25 weeks after surgery. Histologic morphometry after the animals were killed was used to quantify both turn-specific and weighted overall hydrops. These measures were correlated with hearing loss in each animal at all tested frequencies.A statistically significant correlation between the magnitude of hydrops and the severity of hearing loss was observed for 2 kHz and 16 kHz. These frequencies correlated with both turn-specific hydrops and overall hydrops. However, turn-specific hydrops did not reliably correlate with the magnitude of hearing loss at anatomically appropriate frequency ranges. Where such a correlation did exist, it might well have been simply part of an expression of an overall correlation between hydrops and hearing loss.There may be a greater correlation between hydrops and hearing loss in guinea pigs with long-standing surgically induced hydrops than has previously been reported in animals with less advanced disease. These findings help to validate continued use of the model for hearing loss related to Ménière's Disease, verify the rationale of treatment modalities aimed at reducing hydrops in the human condition, and may indicate that efforts at reducing hydrops in such patients has benefits toward long-term hearing preservation.

A Java-based program is presented that provides a visualisation tool for display of and comparison between classification hierarchies. Taxa, or groups of taxa, can be tracked across multiple, overlapping classifications. Recognition of congruence and dissimilarity between classifications can be visually assessed through pattern matching. Software development, testing and operation of the tool are discussed, together with potential applications. Further information (including software) is available via the Prometheus website [http://www.prometheusdb.org].

Army Research Office MURI on Hybrid Quantum Interactions Program W911NF09104. The collection efficiency of light from a point-like emitter may be extremely poor due to aberrations induced by collection optics and the emission distribution of the source. Analyzing the aberrant wavefront (e.g., with a Shack-Hartmann sensor) and correcting accordingly can be infeasible on the single-photon level. We present a technique that uses a genetic algorithm to control a deformable mirror for correcting wavefront aberrations in single-photon signals from point emitters. We apply our technique to both a simulated point source and a real InAs quantum dot, achieving coupling increases of up to 50x00025; and automatic reduction of system drift. Postprint

Vesper (Visual Exploration of SPEcies-referenced Repositories) is a tool that visualises Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) datasets, and is aimed at reducing the amount of time and effort expended by biologists to ascertain the quality of data they are generating or using. Currently, DwC-A quality checking is limited to table outputs of data ‘existence’ and compliance with DwC-A format guidelines via the online DwC-A archive validator and reader. Whilst these tools thoroughly examine the presence of data, and the correctness of data structure against the DwC-A schema, they do not give any insight into the underlying quality of the data itself. Built on top of the D3 JavaScript library, Vesper analyses and displays DwC-A datasets in three fundamental dimensions—taxonomic, geographic and temporal—with a visualisation dedicated to each of these aspects of the data. By viewing a dataset's composition in these dimensions, a data consumer can judge whether it is suitable for the tasks or analyses they have in mind, whilst a data provider can identify where a dataset they've constructed may fall short in terms of data quality i.e. does it contain data that is obviously incorrect such as the classic longitude inversion that places North American specimens in China. A further visualisation of the taxonomic dimension can reveal the subtaxa distribution of reference taxonomies—whilst a simple table reveals the presence or not of certain data types for each record to give an overall data ‘existence’ profile for the dataset. Selections of parts of a dataset within one visualisation are linked to the other visualisation displays for that dataset, permitting the discovery of whether data quality issues are restricted to identifiable sub-portions of the dataset. Vesper can handle client-side data sets of a million entities within a browser by judicious use of data filtering, as many of the data types within individual records are not necessary to judge the geographic, temporal or taxonomic distribution and extent of a dataset. Thus, many of the more verbose fields in the file can simply be passed over during an initial data decompression stage. Furthermore it can provide limited name and structure matching of a dataset against DwC-A packaged reference taxonomies to indicate data quality relative to sources outside the archive. A selection of annotated example scenarios shows how Vesper can reveal data quality issues in DwC-A archives.

Background: Plant breeders are utilising an increasingly diverse range of data types in order to identify lines that have desirable characteristics which are suitable to be taken forward in plant breeding programmes. There are a number of key morphological and physiological traits such as disease resistance and yield that are required to be maintained, and improved upon if a commercial variety is to be successful. Computational tools that provide the ability to pull this data together, and integrate with pedigree structure, will enable breeders to make better decisions on which plant lines are used in crossings to meet both critical demands for increased yield/production and adaptation to climate change. Results: We have used a large and unique set of experimental barley (H. vulgare) data to develop a prototype pedigree visualization system and performed a subjective user evaluation with domain experts to guide and direct the development of an interactive pedigree visualization tool which we have called Helium. Conclusions: We show that Helium allows users to easily integrate a number of data types along with large plant pedigrees to offer an integrated environment in which they can explore pedigree data. We have also verified that users were happy with the abstract representation of pedigrees that we have used in our visualization tool., BioVis 2014 conference

We present a new adaptive-optics technique for the optimization of photon collection from a simulated ion. Our technique uses a genetic algorithm to correct wavefront aberrations via deformable mirror before coupling into a single-mode fiber.

This paper presents a case study of the development of a visualization to represent and explore the relationships between multiple hierarchical structures, specifically botanical taxonomies. The case study outlines the visualization's development from initial meetings with taxonomists, through the early visual sketches of their activities, and through to the prototype as it exists now after two rounds of usability testing. Qualitative user feedback was elicited from taxonomists who used the system, using standard techniques, taken from traditional usability methodologies such as direct observation, concurrent verbal protocols, video recording and software logs. Some difficulties and differences in the testing and stages of development arising from the information visualization (IV) approach to the graphical display, as contrasted to a more standard graphical user interface (GUI), are noted and solutions proposed.

Monitoring log files for network intrusions is unwieldy. To build a mental model of the log, an analyst is required to recognise continuous timelines and attack patterns from a dataset that is essentially limited to an ordered list of events. Information Visualization techniques arrange data into directly perceivable visual patterns that may alleviate some overheads associated with interpreting these datasets and improve the ability of users, especially those in resource-stretched Small and Medium sized Businesses (SMBs), to make sense of activity patterns in Intrusion Detection System (IDS) event logs. To this end, we discuss existing network security visualizations for IDS logs and after examining the strengths and drawbacks of those applications we have prototyped a visualization tool, Pianola, that arranges events on multiple timelines to reveal patterns both in time and across a network. The tool was evaluated against the traditional use of command-line interface (CLI)-based tools for analyzing network security events and displayed significant improvements in both recognition and detection of attacks and reduction in the users' subjective workload, measured using the NASA Task Load index (TLX).

While much work has been done in the area of visualization for analysis of graphs, relatively little research exists into how best to use visualization for comparing graphs. We have developed a suite of general graph comparison questions that can be tailored to specific data sets, and compared the use of superimposed and juxtaposed views of graph matrices on an example data set. Our observations indicate that combined views are more useful in comparing general graphs, allowing for greater user accuracy in determining differences and their effects.

Genetic analysis of a breeding animal population involves determining the inheritance pattern of genotypes for multiple genetic markers across the individuals in the population pedigree structure. However, experimental pedigree genotype data invariably contains errors in both the pedigree structure and in the associated individual genotypes, which introduce inconsistencies into the dataset, rendering them useless for further analysis. The resolution of these errors requires consideration of the genotype inheritance patterns in the context of the pedigree structure. Existing visualisations of pedigree structures are typically more suited to human pedigrees and are less suitable for large complex animal pedigrees which may exhibit cross generational inbreeding. Similarly, current table-based viewers of genotype marker information can highlight where errors become apparent but lack the functionality and interactive visual feedback to enable users to locate the underlying source of errors within the pedigree. In this paper, we detail a design study steered by biologists who work with pedigree data, and describe successive iterations through approaches and prototypes for viewing genotyping errors in the context of a displayed pedigree. We describe how each approach performs with real pedigree genotype data and why eventually we deemed them unsuitable. Finally, a novel prototype visualisation for pedigrees, which we term the ‘sandwich view’, is detailed and we demonstrate how the approach effectively communicates errors in the pedigree context, supporting the biologist in the error identification task.

VIPER (Visual Pedigree Explorer) is a tool for exploring large complex animal pedigrees and their associated genotype data. The tool combines a novel, space-efficient visualisation of the pedigree structure with an inheritance-checking algorithm. This allows users to explore the apparent errors within the genotype data in the full context of the family and pedigree structure. Ultimately, the aim is to develop an interactive software application that will allow users to identify, confirm and then remove errors from the pedigree structure and scored genotypes.This paper describes an evaluation of how VIPER displays the different scales and types of data set that can occur, along with a description of the further interface functionality necessary to meet the challenges such data presents. This is followed by an examination of a range of possible pedigree genotype errors by replicating these errors in controlled simulated data sets and showing how they are manifested in the VIPER interface and observed by a domain expert. The data sets used include both real and artificially generated data, the advantage of the latter being that they produce known effects in the visualization which the domain expert can then interpret as being useful or unhelpful as they see fit.

La generación del master plan de la ciudad de Ljubljana se desarrolla según distintas capas de información: espacios públicos, edificios patrimoniales, nuevos proyectos de arquitectura, puentes sobre el río Ljubljanica y otros. La experiencia de la ciudad es planteada por Plečnik como base para el desarrollo de la planificación total y como elemento unificador de la propuesta. The generation of the master plan of Ljubljana develops according to different layers of information: public spaces, patrimonial buildings, new architecture projects, bridges over the Ljubljanica River, and others. The experience of the city is presented by Plečnik as a base for the development of its total planning and as the unifying element of its proposal.

We describe a case study of TaxVis, a multiple view system for examining relationships between sets of multiple classification trees. The system displays multiform views of the dataset, which in turn can either be a singular view of the larger forest object formed from the set of trees, or multiple views in themselves, using linking to show relationships between the separate trees. We describe the circumstances that led to the development of the multiple view aspects of the application and how it emerged that different views were indeed suited to different tasks.

A graphical user interface is presented that allows users of taxonomic data to explore concept relationships between conflicting but related taxonomic classifications. Ecological analyses that use taxonomic metadata depend on accurate naming of specimens and taxa, and if the metadata involves several taxonomies, care has to be taken to match concepts between them. To perform this accurately requires expert-defined concept relationships, which are more complex yet more representative than the simple one-to-one mappings found through simple name matching, and can accommodate nomenclatural changes and differences in classification technique (cf ‘lumpers’ versus ‘splitters’). In the SEEK-Taxon (Scientific Environment for Ecological Knowledge) project we aim to help users of taxonomic datasets untangle and understand these relationships through a prototype visual interface which graphically displays these relationship structures, allowing users to comprehend such information and more accurately name their data.

OPAL (Online PArtner Lens) is an application designed to match project requirements with suitable teams and individuals, and as part of its matching process features an evaluation mechanism designed to elicit measures of trust between potential partners. We describe a matrix-style visualisation that displays these hierarchically structured assessments between sets of OPAL users to allow them to select potential partners. The main feature of the matrix visualisation is the ability for users to assess the context of a specific assessment as the visualisation not only reveals simple related statistics for the two users concerned, but also overlays summaries of related assessor and candidate evaluations as compact and ordered 'value bars' when the user examines information in the matrix. This enables the user to better decide whether a given assessment is in line with what would be expected from an assessor's and candidate's history, or whether it indicates a specifically localised interplay between the two users. Other features include a simple focus+context effect that can reveal the tree-like structure and details of assessments, and filtering assessments by their position in the matrix or by particular assessment attributes.

We introduce a number of refinements to the parallel coordinates visualisation metaphor for multidimensional data. Firstly, the traditional set of polylines are replaced with a collection of smooth curves across the attribute axes, allowing individual data elements to be traced under certain limitations; normally impossible due to the 'crossing problem'. Then the notion of spreading out points on axes with a few discrete values is introduced, which leads onto a simple focus+context technique when the user selects values on such axes.

One of the tasks of plant taxonomy is the creation of classifications of organisms that allows the understanding of the evolutionary relationships between them. In this paper, we describe two different data models that have been designed to support two aspects of taxonomic work: the storage of the information and the visualisation of that information. We show that these two models are different because of their constraints and aims, and we compare their abilities using a number of typical tasks that users perform. We also show that, although different and able to perform different tasks, each of these models is well adapted to its purpose, and tight integration is difficult.

Visualisations have previously combined linking and brushing operations successfully. However, none (to our knowledge) have combined linking and focusing techniques. We describe the motivation behind developing such a technique, and show how our visualisation takes advantage of inherent links in a set of multiple overlapping hierarchies to build a mechanism that can produce linked focus+context effects between these multiple hierarchies with a single user action. Previously, our visualisation had utilised linking only, using colour to highlight correlations between distinct but overlapping hierarchies.

The visualisation of hierarchical information sets has been a staple of Information Visualisation since the field came into being in the early 1990's. However, at present, support for visualising the correlations between multiple, overlapping sets of hierarchical information has been lacking. This is despite the realisation that for certain tasks this information is as important as the information that forms the individual hierarchies. In response to this, we have produced two early visualisation prototypes, one based on a graph visualisation, and the other on a set-based metaphor, that endeavour to display such information in a readily perceived form to potential users. The science of botanical taxonomy is used as an example of a field where such a visualisation would be useful, and also as a resource for example information sets that the prototypes can act upon. Technical and perceptual issues involved in the design and implementation of both prototypes are discussed. Following this, informal user testing on both prototypes is described, which utilised user observation techniques to elicit qualitative feedback from the taxonomists. These findings are then used to emphasise the shortcomings and advantages of each prototype, and from these probable issues for future prototyping and development are drawn.

Techniques for visualising hierarchies have concentrated on displaying static structures or, in the case of dynamic hierarchies, adding or deleting nodes from the hierarchy. However none have adequately dealt with the situation of visualising change occurring in the structure between existing nodes. We present initial work that outlines the difficulties of visualising such an event, with specific regard to the multiple classifications of information that are produced in botanical taxonomy.

Serum immunosuppressive activity due to azathioprine was measured using a technique based on the inhibition of spontaneous rosette formation in vitro, in five patients after liver transplantation, and shown to be dependent on liver function. Levels similar to those in controls were found when the plasma-bilirubin was normal whereas in three patients, with various degrees of cholestasis, levels were moderately reduced. Serial measurements in one, showed a close correlation in time between the fall in serum immunosuppressive activity and the development of jaundice. In another patient with severe hepatocellular damage, there was no rise in serum immunosuppressive activity after oral azathio prine. The findings are of importance in relation to the use of azathioprine both in the treatement of rejection of liver transplants and in the control of autoimmune liver disease.

Many plastic surgeons have used steroids in breast prostheses in augmentation and postmastectomy reconstruction to prevent capsular contracture. The detection and incidence of complications have increased during the last several years. It is probable that the incidence of complications is related to two factors. First, clinicians have used the same doses in the smaller outer compartments of bilumen implants, giving a much higher concentration of steroid. Second, the more recent implants have thinner envelopes. Tritiated Solu-Medrol was placed in the outer lumen of the bilumen Heyer-Schulte, McGhan, and Surgitek prostheses, and in the only lumen of inflatable Mammatech and Heyer-Schulte prostheses. Diffusion of the Solu-Medrol from each of these identically sized prostheses into the surrounding saline bath was measured with a liquid scintillation counter. Diffusion rates provided concentration-dependent, as predicted by Donnan-Gibbs equilibrium. The silicon gel in bilumen implants was found to represent a second Donnan-Gibbs equilibrium and result in a lower diffusion rate because of affinity for the steroid.

In this paper we evaluate three methods for summarising game reviews written in a casual style. This was done in order to create a review summarisation system to be used by clients of deltaDNA. We look at one well-known method based on natural language processing, and describe two statistical methods that could be used for summarisation: one based on TF-IDF scores another using supervised latent Dirichlet allocation. We find, due to the informality of these online reviews, that natural language based techniques work less well than they do on other types of reviews, and we recommend using techniques based on the statistical properties of the words' frequencies. In particular, we decided to use a TF-IDF score based system in the final system.