Methods of classifying and ascertaining children's tumours

Several methods of ascertaining and classifying childhood neoplasms for epidemiological study have been evaluated using material from the University of Manchester Children's Tumour Registry (CTR), which includes data from several sources on children with neoplasms first seen in the period 1954-73 who were under 15 years old and living in the Manchester Regional Hospital Board area at the time. Two systems of classification-the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and the Morphology Section of the Manual of Tumor Nomenclature and Coding (MOTNAC; Percy, Berg and Thomas, 1968)-were tested. No major problems arose with the Morphology Section of MOTNAC, and we recommend that the revised version of this section, in the proposed "International Classification of Diseases for Oncology", should be used in epidemiological reports on children's tumours whenever possible. The ICD discriminates less well between the commoner types of childhood neoplasms, but must be retained as a supplementary classification to facilitate international comparisons. A comparison of the completeness of ascertainment achieved in recent years by each source of data showed that more than 98% of the serious cases (neoplasms that were malignant and/or lay within the craniovertebral canal) could have been identified using a combination of Hospital Activity Analysis (HAA) and cancer registration records, and more than 95% using HAA and death records. But in an analysis of 2 years' HAA returns and 6 years' cancer registrations of serious cases, nearly one quarter of the former and one fifth of the latter were shown to record diagnoses which differed from those finally assigned at the CTR. It is concluded that, in epedimiological studies based on routine records, the diagnoses given should always be checked centrally, by experts, in the light of all the available clinical and pathological material (including histological preparations).     

Rural mobilization as rural development: exploring the impacts of new regionalism in Wales and Finland

In the current European context, ‘rural development’ is now a much over‐used and misunderstood term. Far from denoting a specific concern for the particular social and economic problems of ‘peripheral rural communities’, since the Cork Declaration of 1996, European policy making, both at central and regional levels, has more meaningfully adopted broader principles of ‘integrated rural development’. However, while many member states are beginning to move away from a sectoral ‘silo’ approach with regard to the management of their rural areas, in recent years the parallel arenas of environmental, cultural, regional and economic development agendas have all become much more vibrant. Looking at the rural regions of Wales in the UK and Ostrobothnia in western Finland, this paper examines some of these contemporary and parallel arenas with regard to their influence in shaping the nature of rural governance. While a rural development policy network is seen to be developing, major questions are raised about how this will position itself in the unfolding multi‐level governance structure.     

People are people, but technology is not technology

Ubiquitous computing is about more than having multiple computers in our environment; it is also about computers venturing into completely new environments. In this paper, we examine the impact of computers in the developing world and look at why most interventions to date have failed to address the key needs of the users and their context. Through an analysis of existing software design techniques, and various case studies, we propose a new model for software creation, which we believe will address the issue of creating technologies for developing world nations.     

Direct simultaneous measurement of rotational and translational accomodation coefficients

When molecules of a low density diatomic gas strike a solid surface both translational energy and the internal energy modes of rotation and vibration will contribute the energy exchange that occurs. Theoretical studies indicate that accomodation coefficient for rotational energy should be less than that for translational energy, and this is confirmed by experimental results. The experimental apparatus described in this paper uses the electron bream fluorescence detector to measure simultaneously both rotational and translational energy accommodation coefficients of room temperature nitrogen reflecting from a solid surface. A bakeable ultra high vacuum system was built to provide a clean vacuum environment for control of the solid surface properties. In addition to being the only known direct measurement of rotational accomodation coefficient the system offers an advantage over some previous methods of translational accommodation measurement in that there are few restrictions on solid surface temperature or composition.     

Lateral and vertical distribution of downstream migrating juvenile sea lamprey

Sea lamprey is considered an invasive and nuisance species in the Laurentian Great Lakes, Lake Champlain, and the Finger Lakes of New York and is a major focus of control efforts. Currently, management practices focus on limiting the area of infestation using barriers to block migratory adults, and lampricides to kill ammocoetes in infested tributaries. No control efforts currently target the downstream-migrating post-metamorphic life stage which could provide another management opportunity. In order to apply control methods to this life stage, a better understanding of their downstream movement patterns is needed. To quantify spatial distribution of downstream migrants, we deployed fyke and drift nets laterally and vertically across the stream channel in two tributaries of Lake Champlain. Sea lamprey was not randomly distributed across the stream width and lateral distribution showed a significant association with discharge. Results indicated that juvenile sea lamprey is most likely to be present in the thalweg and at midwater depths of the stream channel. Further, a majority of the catch occurred during high flow events, suggesting an increase in downstream movement activity when water levels are higher than base flow. Discharge and flow are strong predictors of the distribution of out-migrating sea lamprey, thus managers will need to either target capture efforts in high discharge areas of streams or develop means to guide sea lamprey away from these areas.     

Graphite thermal expansion relationship for different temperature ranges

For practical reasons, the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) has to be measured over a particular temperature range, for example 20-120 °C, 20-400 °C or 500-700 °C. However, in many cases, engineers or scientists involved in the assessment of graphite components such as nuclear reactor moderator bricks, electrodes or moulds require CTE over temperature ranges other than that of the original measurement. This paper compares three different techniques used to convert CTE from one temperature range to another. The method used by the UK nuclear industry is compared with techniques proposed by two international companies. There was close agreement between two of the methods. However there was some divergence in the case of the third method. This may be related to the type of graphite (fine-grain) for which the third method was developed.     

Dissociable roles of dopamine within the core and medial shell of the nucleus accumbens in memory for objects and place.

There is increasing focus on the role of the nucleus accumbens (NAc) in learning and memory, but there is little consensus as to how the core and medial shell subregions of the NAc contribute to these processes. In the current experiments, we used spontaneous object recognition to test rats with 6-hydroxydopamine lesions targeted at the core or medial shell of the NAc on a familiarity discrimination task and a location discrimination task. In the object recognition variant, control animals were able to discriminate the novel object at both 24-hr and 5-min delay. However, in the lesion groups, performance was systematically related to dopamine (DA) levels in the core but not the shell. In the location recognition task, sham-operated animals readily detected the object displacement at test. In the lesion groups, performance impairment was systematically related to DA levels in the shell but not the core. These results suggest that dopamine function within distinct subregions of the NAc plays dissociable roles in the modulation of memory for objects and place. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Importance of context in measuring the effectiveness of strategic environmental assessment

By focusing on three contextual areas—social/political, environmental/economic and legal/administrative—this article considers how a greater understanding of context may help in measuring the effectiveness of strategic environmental assessment (SEA). Based on a review of literature, some of the environmental assessment studies and a recent case study in Canada, the importance of context is considered generally and contextual criteria developed. A positive approach is necessary if the challenge of moving SEA effectiveness studies forward is to be met.     

X-ray diffraction by aluminum soaps

Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society -