Studies in the history of books and the book trade

The books and papers offered in this submission are concerned with the history of books and the book trade. Three papers (nos. 1, 2, 3) offer a theoretical and conceptual framework for historical studies of the book. In essence, it is argued that since the book is a societal object it can only be understood in a societal context. Consequently historical studies of books are concerned with far more than physical bibliography, important as that is. The writing, publishing and reading of books are activities which develop out of, and influence the further development of, political and economic systems. The political context of publishing and its legal status is of central concern to the book historian (nos. 12, 14, 15); so too are the mechanisms of sale and distribution (nos. 9, 10, 11, 16) and the relationships between the author who is the primary producer, and the publisher who provides his commercial link with the reader (no. 13). More specifically, the central group of works is concerned with the provincial book trade in 18th-century England. The general study (no. 8) is a wide-ranging survey, largely based on primary sources, of the development and operation of the complex systems which allowed the printed word to permeate English society at every level and in every part of the country between 1700 and 1800. Shorter studies consider some more detailed aspects of the same subject (nos. 4, 6, 7) and survey previous work in the field (no. 5 )

FTMP (Fault Tolerant Multiprocessor) programmer's manual

The Fault Tolerant Multiprocessor (FTMP) computer system was constructed using the Rockwell/Collins CAPS-6 processor. It is installed in the Avionics Integration Research Laboratory (AIRLAB) of NASA Langley Research Center. It is hosted by AIRLAB's System 10, a VAX 11/750, for the loading of programs and experimentation. The FTMP support software includes a cross compiler for a high level language called Automated Engineering Design (AED) System, an assembler for the CAPS-6 processor assembly language, and a linker. Access to this support software is through an automated remote access facility on the VAX which relieves the user of the burden of learning how to use the IBM 4381. This manual is a compilation of information about the FTMP support environment. It explains the FTMP software and support environment along many of the finer points of running programs on FTMP. This will be helpful to the researcher trying to run an experiment on FTMP and even to the person probing FTMP with fault injections. Much of the information in this manual can be found in other sources; we are only attempting to bring together the basic points in a single source. If the reader should need points clarified, there is a list of support documentation in the back of this manual

Bestsellers in the British book industry 1998-2005

Bestsellers in the British book industry 1998-200

Fault-free performance validation of fault-tolerant multiprocessors

A validation methodology for testing the performance of fault-tolerant computer systems was developed and applied to the Fault-Tolerant Multiprocessor (FTMP) at NASA-Langley's AIRLAB facility. This methodology was claimed to be general enough to apply to any ultrareliable computer system. The goal of this research was to extend the validation methodology and to demonstrate the robustness of the validation methodology by its more extensive application to NASA's Fault-Tolerant Multiprocessor System (FTMP) and to the Software Implemented Fault-Tolerance (SIFT) Computer System. Furthermore, the performance of these two multiprocessors was compared by conducting similar experiments. An analysis of the results shows high level language instruction execution times for both SIFT and FTMP were consistent and predictable, with SIFT having greater throughput. At the operating system level, FTMP consumes 60% of the throughput for its real-time dispatcher and 5% on fault-handling tasks. In contrast, SIFT consumes 16% of its throughput for the dispatcher, but consumes 66% in fault-handling software overhead

Medication errors during simulated paediatric resuscitations: a prospective, observational human reliability analysis

Introduction: Medication errors during paediatric resuscitation are thought to be common. However, there is little evidence about the individual process steps that contribute to such medication errors in this context. Objectives: To describe the incidence, nature and severity of medication errors in simulated paediatric resuscitations, and to employ human reliability analysis to understand the contribution of discrepancies in individual process steps to the occurrence of these errors. Methods: We conducted a prospective observational study of simulated resuscitations subjected to video micro-analysis, identification of medication errors, severity assessment and human reliability analysis in a large English teaching hospital. Fifteen resuscitation teams of two doctors and two nurses each conducted one of two simulated paediatric resuscitation scenarios. Results: At least one medication error was observed in every simulated case, and a large magnitude (>25% discrepant) or clinically significant error in 11 of 15 cases. Medication errors were observed in 29% of 180 simulated medication administrations, 40% of which considered to be moderate or severe. These errors were the result of 884 observed discrepancies at a number of steps in the drug ordering, preparation and administration stages of medication use, 8% of which made a major contribution to a resultant medication error. Most errors were introduced by discrepancies during drug preparation and administration. Conclusions: Medication errors were common with a considerable proportion likely to result in patient harm. There is an urgent need to optimise existing systems and to commission research into new approaches to increase the reliability of human interactions during administration of medication in the paediatric emergency setting

Medication errors during simulated paediatric resuscitations: a prospective, observational human reliability analysis

Introduction: Medication errors during paediatric resuscitation are thought to be common. However, there is little evidence about the individual process steps that contribute to such medication errors in this context. / Objectives: To describe the incidence, nature and severity of medication errors in simulated paediatric resuscitations, and to employ human reliability analysis to understand the contributory role of individual process step discrepancies to these errors. / Methods: We conducted a prospective observational study of simulated resuscitations subject to video micro-analysis, identification of medication errors, severity assessment and human reliability analysis in a large English teaching hospital. Fifteen resuscitation teams of two doctors and two nurses each conducted one of two simulated paediatric resuscitation scenarios. / Results: At least one medication error was observed in every simulated case, and a large magnitude or clinically significant error in 11 of 15 cases. Medication errors were observed in 29% of 180 simulated medication administrations, 40% of which considered to be moderate or severe. These errors were the result of 884 observed discrepancies at a number of steps in the drug ordering, preparation and administration stages of medication use, 8% of which made a major contribution to a resultant medication error. Most errors were introduced by discrepancies during drug preparation and administration. / Conclusions: Medication errors were common with a considerable proportion likely to result in patient harm. There is an urgent need to optimise existing systems and to commission research into new approaches to increase the reliability of human interactions during administration of medication in the paediatric emergency setting

"Water, Water, Every Where": Nuances for a Water Industry Critical Infrastructure Specification Exemplar

The water infrastructure is critical to human life, but little attention has been paid to the nuances of the water industry. Without such attention, evaluating security innovation in this domain without compromising the productivity goals when delivering water services is difficult. This paper proposes four nuances that need to be incorporated into a representative specification exemplar for the water industry; these provided input to the exemplar based on a fictional water company

Organisational culture of further education colleges delivering higher education business programmes: developing a culture of ‘HEness’ – what next?

This paper draws on the views of lecturers working in and delivering college-based higher education (CBHE) in the UK. There have been numerous works on the culture of higher education in further education (HE in FE). However, as noted by some literati, the culture of further education (FE) is not easy to define, and does not readily lend itself to the incorporation of a higher education (HE) culture. This could be due to the large number of changes FE has had to adopt owing to various government policies. The study comprises 26 in-depth individual interviews conducted at various further education colleges throughout the Yorkshire and Humber region of the UK. Via the use of an interpretivist approach, common themes and word use were extracted from the narratives for analysis. The organisational culture of these further education colleges was relatively easy to define, the word ‘blame’ being one of the common themes. However, when identifying if the individual colleges had a HE culture; this proved more difficult