Take three spoonfuls of the juice of hkmklkk: an edition of fifteenth-century medical texts in Sloane 3160.

Master's thesis in Literacy studiesThis thesis is an edition of medical texts in London, British Library Sloane 3160, f. 151r-v and ff. 166r-170v, copied by a single scribe here referred to as Scribe M. The manuscript has been dated to the second half of the fifteenth century and consists of religious and medical texts. The medical texts produced by scribe M are of a practical kind (mainly recipes, diagnostics and charms), and they are written in a very distinctive Northwest Midland dialect. No study has thus far been published of these interesting texts, which contain language written in letter-substitution codes in both English and Latin, as well as a range of charm formulae. They present a linguistically complex and layered text that provides insight into the literacy skills of the medical practitioners that will have used the recipes in this manuscript. They also raise questions about the ways in which the manuscript might have functioned both within and outside of the medical community for which it was intended. The thesis is divided into two parts corresponding to its two main aims. The first aim has been to study and contextualise the work of the Scribe M. The manuscript context as well as the physical, visual and linguistic characteristics of the text have been studied, as well as the various coding and marking systems used in the text. Based on a contextualising discussion of the medical tradition and practice in Late Medieval English society, an attempt is made to identify the sort of role this manuscript might have played and the kind of discourse communities that might have produced and used it. The second aim of this thesis has been to present a diplomatic edition of the contribution of Scribe M. The edition is provided with extensive footnotes to aid an interpretation of the physical manuscript reality and followed by endnotes providing some clarification of or context to the contents of the texts. A translation of the text into Modern English has also been included, as well as a list of the ingredients included in the recipes

Exploring two methods of usability testing: concurrent versus retrospective think-aloud protocols

Think-aloud protocols are commonly used for the usability testing of instructional documents, Web sites and interfaces. This paper addresses the benefits and drawbacks of two think-aloud variations: the traditional concurrent think-aloud method and the less familiar retrospective think-aloud protocols. It also offers an outline of a long-term research project designed to empirically investigate the value of both variants. The results of a first comparative study indicate that, although the two methods have distinct differences, they do seem to produce a similar outcome. A more detailed description of the results will be offered during the presentation

Analyzing the interaction between facilitator and participants in two variants of the think-aloud method.

This paper focuses on the interaction between test participants and test facilitator in two variants of the think-aloud method. In a first, explorative study, we analyzed think-aloud transcripts from two usability tests: a concurrent think-aloud test and a constructive interaction test. The results of our analysis show that while the participants in both studies never explicitly addressed the facilitator, the think-aloud participants showed more signs of awareness of the facilitator than the participants in the constructive interaction test. This finding may have practical implications for the validity of the two methods

Types of problems elicited by verbal protocols for blind and sighted participants

Verbal protocols are often used in user-based studies of interactive technologies. This study investigated whether different types of problems are revealed by concurrent and retrospective verbal protocols (CVP and RVP) for blind and sighted participants. Eight blind and eight sighted participants undertook both CVP and RVP on four websites. Overall, interactivity problems were significantly more frequent in comparison to content or information architecture problems. In addition, RVP revealed significantly more interactivity problems than CVP for both user groups. Finally, blind participants encountered significantly more interactivity problems than sighted participants. The findings have implications for which protocol is appropriate, depending on the purpose of a particular study and the user groups involved

HaliVer: Deductive Verification and Scheduling Languages Join Forces

The HALIVER tool integrates deductive verification into the popular scheduling language HALIDE, used for image processing pipelines and array computations. HALIVER uses VERCORS, a separation logic-based verifier, to verify the correctness of (1) the HALIDE algorithms and (2) the optimised parallel code produced by HALIDE when an optimisation schedule is applied to an algorithm. This allows proving complex, optimised code correct while reducing the effort to provide the required verification annotations. For both approaches, the same specification is used. We evaluated the tool on several optimised programs generated from characteristic HALIDE algorithms, using all but one of the essential scheduling directives available in HALIDE. Without annotation effort, HALIVER proves memory safety in almost all programs. With annotations HALIVER, additionally, proves functional correctness properties. We show that the approach is viable and reduces the manual annotation effort by an order of magnitude

Implementing new surgical instruments in minimally invasive surgery

This thesis assessed methods to identify possible hazards to patient safety of new surgical instruments in minimally invasive surgery, before their introduction in daily clinical practice. Using a newly developed uterine manipulator and uterine power morcellators as a template, the concepts of a clinically driven approach and a prospective risk inventory were explored. LUMC / Geneeskund

Synthesis and amination of naphthyridines

In the introduction of this thesis (chapter 1) the reactions of nephthyridines with potassium amide which were known at the start of our research are reviewed. It is shown in chapter 2, that in the amination of 1,X-naphthyridines with potassium amide in liquid ammonia at about -35° to -45°C the initial adduct formation is charge controlled. Thus, at these temperatures the site with the lowest electron density is most susceptible for amide attack (C-2 in 1,5 naphthyridine, C-2 in 1,6-naphthyridine, C-2 and C-8 in 1,7-naphthyridine, C-2 in 1,8-naphthyridine), as proved by NMR spectroscopy. On raising the temperature to about 10°C the site of addition has been found to change for 1,5- and 1,7-naphthyridine (NMR spectroscopy):from C-2 to C-4 in 1,5-naphthyridine and from C-2 and C-8 to C-8 only in 1,7-naphthyridine. Thus, at about 10°C the amination is thermodynamically controlled. The several factors which contribute to the stability of these addition products have been discussed. It has been found that the anionic a adducts (2(4,8)-aminodihydro-l,X-naphthyridinides) can easily be oxidized with potassium permanganate into their corresponding 2(4,8)-amino-1,X-naphthyridines.In chapter 3 a facile synthesis of 2,6-naphthyridine is described. Both 2,6 and 2,7-naphthyridine undergo with potassium amide under kinetically and thermodynamically controlled conditions a adduct formation at position 1. Chichibabin amination of 2,6-naphthyridine yields 1-amino-2,6-naphthyridine in 54% yield. The conversion of 1-halogeno-2,6-naphthyridines into 1-amino-2,6-naphthyridine is shown in chapter 4 to proceed via an even telesubstitution process [S N (AE) tele process]. The amination of 2-bromo-1,5-naphthyridine into 2-amino-1,5-naphthyridine is shown to proceed via an S N (AE) ipso substitution mechanism.Chapter 5 deals with the reaction of 1-halogeno-2,7-naphthyridines with KNH 2 /NH 3 yielding 1-amino-2,7-naphthyridine. Experiments with deuterated compounds show that these reactions proceed via an S N (AE) ipso process and not via an S N (AE) tele process, even though a adduct formation at C-8 takes place, as is shown by NMR spectroscopy.In chapter 6 the occurrence of an open-chain intermediate in the amination of 8-bromo-1,7-phenanthroline is shown by NMR spectroscopy. The reaction of 3-bromo-2-ethoxy-1,5-naphthyridine with KNH 2 /NH 3 is described in chapter 7. The procedure in the literature for its preparation does not lead to this compound but to the isomeric 3-bromo-1-ethyl-1,5-naphthyridin-2(1H)-one. Reaction of this compound with KNH 2 /NH 3 yields 3- and 4-amino-1-ethyl-1,b- naphthyridin-2(1H)one, the latter being the main product. 3-Bromo-2-ethoxy-1,5-naplithyridine was prepared on reacting 2,3-dibromo-1,5-naphthyridine with sodium ethoxide. A mixture of 3- and 4-amino-2-ethoxy- 1,5-naphthyridine was obtained on amination of 3-bromo-2-ethoxy-1,5-naphthyridine. In both cases the intermediacy of the respective 3,4,-dihydro compounds was proposed.<p/