A Rideau Canal Tragedy

On 2 July 1942, two young Canadian soldiers on duty drowned in the Rideau Canal in downtown Ottawa. Amid the major horrors of the Second World War the victims of this tragedy have been almost forgotten

Person to Person in Japan

While still in the midst of their study abroad experiences, students at Linfield College write reflective essays. Their essays address issues of cultural similarity and difference, compare lifestyles, mores, norms, and habits between their host countries and home, and examine changes in perceptions about their host countries and the United States. In this essay, Cody Purchase describes his observations during her study abroad program at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan

Student compliance with ethical guidelines: the Glasgow ethics code

While disciplines like medicine and psychology have for several years followed strict procedures for ethical approval of experiments involving humans, only recently has the use of human participants within Computing Science been subject to the same scrutiny. Although we may wish to put a case forward for Computing Science to be exempt from such formal ethics procedures, funding bodies and universities typically insist that we seek the same approval as other disciplines for our experiments, including any use of human participants by our students during the course of their studies. We have introduced a simple, scalable ethics procedure for student assessment, that identifies ethical concerns, yet does not overwhelm the limited staff resources available for supporting this initiative. The process is based around a form of triage that filters the approximately 8000 assessments that are submitted annually. This paper summarises this procedure, discusses the underlying assumptions, and outlines the problems encountered

Microbial keratinases: characteristics, biotechnological applications and potential

Keratinases are a group of proteolytic enzymes that can catalyse the cleavage and hydrolysis of the highly stable and fibrous proteins: keratins. A diverse range of microorganisms, including fungi, actinomycetes and bacteria, have been reported to produce keratinases that have biotechnological applications and potential. These keratinases have been usefully applied in agricultural, pharmaceutical, leather and textile processes as well as within environmentally friendly waste management solutions. Potential uses of keratinases include the fields of biomedicine, cosmetics, biological control and the generation of green energy. Herein we aim to provide an overview of the properties of this group of versatile enzymes, including the mechanisms of keratin degradation. The diversity of microbial sources of keratinases is discussed and the optimisation of keratianse production examined. We conclude with an assessment of the established biotechnological applications of keratinases in different industries and current research that highlights other promising potential uses

Multidimensional tactons for non-visual information presentation in mobile devices

Tactons are structured vibrotactile messages which can be used for non-visual information presentation when visual displays are limited, unavailable or inappropriate, such as in mobile phones and other mobile devices. Little is yet known about how to design them effectively. Previous studies have investigated the perception of Tactons which encode two dimensions of information using two different vibrotactile parameters (rhythm and roughness) and found recognition rates of around 70. When more dimensions of information are required it may be necessary to extend the parameter-space of these Tactons. Therefore this study investigates recognition rates for Tactons which encode a third dimension of information using spatial location. The results show that identification rate for three-parameter Tactons is just 48, but that this can be increased to 81 by reducing the number of values of one of the parameters. These results will aid designers to select suitable Tactons for use when designing mobile displays

Salt intake and regulation in two passerine nectar drinkers: white-bellied sunbirds and New Holland honeyeaters

Avian nectarivores face the dilemma of having to conserve salts while consuming large volumes of a dilute, electrolyte-deficient diet. This study evaluates the responses to salt solutions and the regulation of salt intake in white-bellied sunbirds (Cinnyris talatala) and New Holland honeyeaters (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae). Birds were first offered a choice of four sucrose diets, containing no salt or 25, 50 or 75 mM NaCl. The experiment was repeated using five sucrose concentrations (0.075-0.63 M) as the base solution. Both species ingested similar amounts of all diets when fed the concentrated base solutions. However, when birds had to increase their intake to obtain enough energy on the dilute sucrose diets, there was a general avoidance of the higher salt concentrations. Through this diet switching, birds maintained constant intakes of both sucrose and sodium; the latter may contribute to absorption of their sugar diets. A second, no-choice experiment was designed to elucidate the renal concentrating abilities of these two nectarivores, by feeding them 0.63 M sucrose containing 5-200 mM NaCl over a 4-h trial. In both species, cloacal fluid osmolalities increased with diet NaCl concentration, but honeyeaters tended to retain ingested Na+, while sunbirds excreted it. Comparison of Na+ and K+ concentrations in ureteral urine and cloacal fluid showed that K+, but not Na+, was reabsorbed in the lower intestine of both species. The kidneys of sunbirds and honeyeaters, like those of hummingbirds, are well suited to diluting urine; however, they also appear to concentrate urine efficiently when necessary

A first investigation into the effectiveness of Tactons

This paper reports two experiments relating to the design of Tactons (or tactile icons). The first experiment investigated perception of vibro-tactile "roughness" (created using amplitude modulated sinusoids), and the results indicated that roughness could be used as a parameter for constructing Tactons. The second experiment is the first full evaluation of Tactons, and uses three values of roughness identified in the first experiment, along with three rhythms to create a set of Tactons. The results of this experiment showed that Tactons could be a successful means of communicating information in user interfaces, with an overall recognition rate of 71%, and recognition rates of 93% for rhythm and 80% for roughness

A Coloring Algorithm for Disambiguating Graph and Map Drawings

Drawings of non-planar graphs always result in edge crossings. When there are many edges crossing at small angles, it is often difficult to follow these edges, because of the multiple visual paths resulted from the crossings that slow down eye movements. In this paper we propose an algorithm that disambiguates the edges with automatic selection of distinctive colors. Our proposed algorithm computes a near optimal color assignment of a dual collision graph, using a novel branch-and-bound procedure applied to a space decomposition of the color gamut. We give examples demonstrating the effectiveness of this approach in clarifying drawings of real world graphs and maps

Trientine tetrahydrochloride (Cuprior)

Use of trientine tetrahydrochloride for the treatment of Wilson's disease