Combined Log System

Busy Internet archives generate large logs for each access method being used. These raw log files can be difficult to process and to search. This paper describes a system for reading these growing logs, a combined log file format into which they are re-written and a system that automates this building and integration for multiple access methods. Automated summarizing of the information is also provided giving statistics on accesses by user, site, path-name and date/time amongst others

The ACademic DireCtory - AC/DC

AC/DC (See URL http://acdc.hensa.ac.uk) is an experimental, collaborative research project that indexes and allows searches over all public academic WWW servers in the UK. This report describes why AC/DC was created, how it is built from existing software, the collaborative process used to collect and index the data and future activities

Tackling child sexual exploitation: a study of current practice in London

This report was commissioned by London Councils and the London Safeguarding Children Board and written by Beckett, H; Firmin, C; Hynes, P and Pearce JIn autumn 2013, London Councils commissioned a team of researchers from the University of Bedfordshire to map current responses to child sexual exploitation (CSE) across London. This summary report presents an overview of the key findings of the study; please refer to the full report for further details on, and context to, the study.1 The study was conducted in October / November 2013. The findings are drawn from an in-depth quantitative survey (completed by 30 London boroughs and local safeguarding children boards) and eight semi-structured interviews with statutory and voluntary sector providers. The report provides a snapshot of current responses to CSE across London, in relation to: Local scoping of the issue; Local policies and procedures; Training and awareness raising; Identification and early intervention (re. victims and perpetrators); Responding to cases of CSE (re. victims and perpetrators); and Overarching reflections on progress and challenges. Although there is still much progress to be made, the report encouragingly demonstrates that significant work is underway within this field, with pertinent learning emerging from a number of different boroughs

Analysis of Genetic Loci Associated with Agronomic Performance in Previously Plant-Variety-Protected Elite Commercial Maize Germplasm

The low cost of genotyping coupled with the availability of high performance computer

Smoking, dementia and cognitive decline in the elderly, a systematic review.

Background. Nicotine may aid reaction time, learning and memory, but smoking increases cardiovascular risk. Cardiovascular risk factors have been linked to increased risk of dementia. A previous meta-analysis found that current smokers were at higher risk of subsequent dementia, Alzheimers disease, vascular dementia and cognitive decline. Methods. In order to update and examine this further a systematic review and meta-analysis was carried out using different search and inclusion criteria, database selection and more recent publications. Both reviews were restricted to those aged 65 and over. Results. The review reported here found a significantly increased risk of Alzheimers disease with current smoking and a likely but not significantly increased risk of vascular dementia, dementia unspecified and cognitive decline. Neither review found clear relationships with former smoking. Conclusion. Current smoking increases risk of Alzheimers disease and may increase risk of other dementias. This reinforces need for smoking cessation, particularly aged 65 and over. Nicotine alone needs further investigation. © 2008 Peters et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

A Computer-Aided Control Technique for a Remote Manipulator

Computer aided control technique for remote manipulato

A computer aided teleoperator system Final report

Computer aided teleoperator system for remote handling task

Coevolutionary diversification creates nested-modular structure in phage-bacteria interaction networks

This is a post-print of an article published in Interface Focus. Please cite the published article.Phage and their bacterial hosts are the most diverse and abundant biological entities in the oceans, where their interactions have a major impact on marine ecology and ecosystem function. The structure of interaction networks for natural phage-bacteria communities offers insight into their coevolutionary origin. At small phylogenetic scales, observed communities typically show a nested structure, in which both hosts and phage can be ranked by their range of resistance and infectivity respectively. A qualitatively different multiscale structure is seen at larger phylogenetic scales; a natural assemblage sampled from the Atlantic Ocean displays large-scale modularity and local nestedness within each module. Here we show that such “nested-modular” interaction networks can be produced by a simple model of host-phage coevolution in which infection depends on genetic matching. Negative frequency-dependent selection causes diversification of hosts (to escape phage) and phage (to track their evolving hosts). This creates a diverse community of bacteria and phage, maintained by kill-the-winner ecological dynamics. When the resulting communities are visualised as bipartite networks of who-infects-whom, they show the nested-modular structure characteristic of the Atlantic sample. The statistical significance and strength of this observation varies depending on whether the interaction networks take into account the density of the interacting strains, with implications for interpretation of interaction networks constructed by different methods. Our results suggest that the apparently complex community structures associated with marine bacteria and phage may arise from relatively simple coevolutionary origins.University of Exete