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The paper proposes a novel index to classify how well UK Computer Science courses articulate cybersecurity-related content through their course/module pages. The aim of this work is to raise awareness among British Universities to pay more attention to include and standardize cybersecurity content in computer science courses. Our results show that 80% of analyzed courses scored 1 or 2-stars on a 5-Stars scale. The results also suggest the need for a formal delivery of cybersecurity content from the first year of the courses and possibly in a collaborative manner with the British Computer Society (BCS). To emphasize cybersecurity education in mitigating security lapses, the analogy is: it is better if most people know how to use a match than to train many fire-fighters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the evolution and impact of Lindsay Leg Clubs (LLCs), which provide effective treatment for leg ulcers in a social setting, emphasizing their role in enhancing patient well-being and reducing social isolation. Topics include the development and use of a database for tracking healing outcomes, the positive financial implications for the NHS, and the significant healing rates achieved by these clubs.

Research has shown that e-learning games do not have the same level of appeal to girls, as they do to boys; particularly in the crucial 11-14 age group. In the United Kingdom, this is typically when they start to make subject choices that impact their future studies and careers. Given the shortage of females who choose computer science as a career, this study explores how e-learning games can be designed to be motivationally appealing to young learners. It further explores the role of game representations and its appeal to this age group. This empirical study addresses the research question: "Can we develop e-learning games which appeal and motivate girls of age 11-14 to study computer science concepts?" Two e-learning games were developed: one included game representations such as game colour, graphics, character, age appropriateness, storyline, number of players, violence, identified as appealing to young females and the other game included antithetical or neutral representations. The two developed prototypes were used to explore key e-learning game representations as used to teach computer science concepts. A total of 304 participants, comprising of 152 girls and 152 boys from a combination of same sex and mixed secondary schools in Southeast England, engaged with both experimental games. The experiment also elicited information on how learners interact with these games and the resulting game appeal, motivation and learning. The insight gained from the analysis of data captured during the experiments, provide the evidence to demonstrate that inclusive e-learning games which motivate and appeal to girls of age 11-14 can be developed. This can have a positive influence on their willingness to use such games to learn computer science concepts. This implies that the study found positive outcomes related to e-learning game appeal, motivation and the learning of girls of this age group. A follow-up longitudinal study could investigate the impact of significant e-learning game representations that appeal to the target group. This could provide additional evidence on the changes in the appeal of the investigated significant game representations over time, due to the influence of other factors such as socio-economic and socio-cultural differences. This understanding can further enhance inclusive e-learning strategies to improve diversity in computer science education and consequently the career pipeline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioinformatics - the so-called shotgun marriage between biology and computer science - is an interdiscipline. Despite interdisciplinarity being seen as a virtue, for having the capacity to solve complex problems and foster innovation, it has the potential to place projects and people in anomalous categories. For example, valorised 'outputs' in academia are often defined and rewarded by discipline. Bioinformatics, as an interdisciplinary bricolage, incorporates experts from various disciplinary cultures with their own distinct ways of working. Perceived problems of interdisciplinarity include difficulties of making explicit knowledge that is practical, theoretical, or cognitive. But successful interdisciplinary research also depends on an understanding of disciplinary cultures and value systems, often only tacitly understood by members of the communities in question. In bioinformatics, the 'parent' disciplines have different value systems; for example, what is considered worthwhile research by computer scientists can be thought of as trivial by biologists, and vice versa. This paper concentrates on the problems of reward and recognition described by scientists working in academic bioinformatics in the United Kingdom. We highlight problems that are a consequence of its cross-cultural make-up, recognising that the mismatches in knowledge in this borderland take place not just at the level of the practical, theoretical, or epistemological, but also at the cultural level too. The trend in big, interdisciplinary science is towards multiple authors on a single paper; in bioinformatics this has created hybrid or fractional scientists who find they are being positioned not just in-between established disciplines but also in-between as middle authors or, worse still, left off papers altogether. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the InCites tool of Thomson Reuters, this study compares normalized citation impact values calculated for China, Japan, France, Germany, United States, and the UK throughout the time period from 1981 to 2010. InCites offers a unique opportunity to study the normalized citation impacts of countries using (i) a long publication window (1981 to 2010), (ii) a differentiation in (broad or more narrow) subject areas, and (iii) allowing for the use of statistical procedures in order to obtain an insightful investigation of national citation trends across the years. Using four broad categories, our results show significantly increasing trends in citation impact values for France, the UK, and especially Germany across the last thirty years in all areas. The citation impact of papers from China is still at a relatively low level (mostly below the world average), but the country follows an increasing trend line. The USA exhibits a stable pattern of high citation impact values across the years. With small impact differences between the publication years, the US trend is increasing in engineering and technology but decreasing in medical and health sciences as well as in agricultural sciences. Similar to the USA, Japan follows increasing as well as decreasing trends in different subject areas, but the variability across the years is small. In most of the years, papers from Japan perform below or approximately at the world average in each subject area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A brief communication appearing in this journal ranked UK-based LIS and (some) IR academics by their h-index using data derived from the Thomson ISI Web of Science™ (WoS). In this brief communication, the same academics were re-ranked, using other popular citation databases. It was found that for academics who publish more in computer science forums, their h was significantly different due to highly cited papers missed by WoS; consequently, their rank changed substantially. The study was widened to a broader set of UK-based LIS and IR academics in which results showed similar statistically significant differences. A variant of h, hmx, was introduced that allowed a ranking of the academics using all citation databases together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of any robotic system requires input from engineers from a variety of technical fields. This paper describes a project-based module, Biologically-Inspired Robotics, that is offered to Electronics and Computer Science students at the University of Southampton, U.K. The overall objective of the module is for student groups to investigate the interface between robotics and biology and develop a system (either hardware or software) to illustrate biological principles. This paper discusses the details of the implementation and delivery of the module, together with evaluation feedback. A number of the robotic systems developed by project groups are presented in order to illustrate the diversity and quality of the systems that have been developed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper intends to explore the impact of Information technology (IT) development on the legal concept of `signatures'. To what extent and in which way does it impact on the legal concept of `signatures'? This paper attempts to examine this issue from an international and comparative perspective. It was found that IT development has different levels of impact on the legal concept of `signatures' in different jurisdictions. In the Common Law system such as the UK and the US, it does not change the legal concept of `signatures'. However, it does put the legal concept on such an important position. On the contrary, IT development changes the legal concept of `signatures' in the Civil Law system such as Germany and China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to enrich our understanding of the history and substance of cybernetics. It reviews the work of three British cyberneticians — W. Ross Ashby, Stafford Beer and Gordon Pask — paying attention particularly to the materiality of their practice — the strange and fascinating devices and systems that were at the heart of their work — and to the worldly projects they pursued — scientific, technological, artistic, organizational, political and spiritual. Connections are drawn between cybernetics and recent theoretical work in science and technology studies, in the hope of illuminating key features of both. The paper concludes by suggesting that the antidisciplinary impulse of contemporary science studies might find inspiration in the work of cyberneticians — that theory does not have to remain confined to the realm of theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue includes research papers related to a workshop held at the Royal Society on 21st of September 2010, honouring Erol Gelenbe on his 65th birthday. The workshop brought together some 40 participants including some of Erol's former and current PhD students, colleagues and friends with whom he has interacted over the years, both in Europe and the USA. The papers focus on probability models in computer science, at the core of the field of computer performance engineering, which Erol pioneered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Capsule Reviews are intended to provide a short succinct review of each paper in the issue in order to bring it to a wider readership. The Capsule Reviews were compiled by Fairouz Kamareddine. Professor Kamareddine is an Associate Editor of The Computer Journal and is based in the Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This practice analysis considers the extent to which mental health occupational therapists utilize standardized assessments and other tools within local electronic clinical records. There is further analysis of a clinical dataset from a single service that highlights limitations in its use to inform cost effectiveness evaluation. The paper highlights the opportunity for the profession to promote greater consistency across clinical datasets at a time when many electronic record systems are being updated. This will require a collaborative approach to allow cross-organizational benchmarking and to adopt a set of variables and other outcome measures in order to successfully undertake economic evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research activities related to social informatics (SI) are expanding, even as community fragmentation, topical dispersion, and methodological diversity continue to increase. Specifically, the different understandings of SI in regional communities have strong impacts, and each has a different history, methodological grounding, and often a different thematic focus. The aim of this article is to connect three selected perspectives on SI—intellectual (regional schools of thought), methodological, and thematic—and introduce a comparative framework for understanding SI that includes all known approaches. Thus, the article draws from a thematic and methodological grounding of research across schools of thought, along with definitions that rely on the extension and intension of the notion of SI. The article is built on a paralogy of views and pluralism typical of postmodern science. Because SI is forced to continually reform its research focus, due to the rapid development of information and communication technology, social changes and ideologies that surround computerization and informatization, the presented perspective maintains a high degree of flexibility, without the need to constantly redefine the boundaries, as is typical in modern science. This approach may support further developments in promoting and understanding SI worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on research in progress that reviews the skills used by library and information science (LIS) professionals and how to record them in a manner that encourages continuing professional and personal development. A portfolio was developed by the learning and teaching support network for information and computer sciences (LTSN-ICS) in conjunction with the Chartered Institute for Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) and academic departments in the United Kingdom (UK). The portfolio was evaluated at pilot sites in UK LIS schools by surveying the progress of those students who took part. Evaluation of the participants indicates that the portfolio is a useful tool in the personal and professional development of LIS students. The general consensus among students themselves is that the portfolio provides a tool to help them plan their future professional development. Further evaluation is planned in 2003/2004 with LIS professionals to enable both the professional body and the LTSN-ICS to determine the appropriateness of the portfolio as a tool for continuing personal and professional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics / Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada (John Benjamins Publishing Co.) is the property of John Benjamins Publishing Co. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A survey using a scenario-based questionnaire format has provided insight into the perceptions of U.K academics who teach programming on computing courses. This survey across various higher education (HE) institutions investigates what academics feel constitutes source-code plagiarism in an undergraduate context. Academics' responses on issues surrounding source-code reuse and acknowledgement are discussed. A general consensus exists among academics that a "zero tolerance" plagiarism policy is appropriate; however, some issues concerning source-code reuse and acknowledgement raised controversial responses. This paper discusses the most important findings from the survey and proposes a definition of what can constitute source-code plagiarism from the perspective of U.K. academics who teach programming on computing courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taverna is a workflow workbench developed as part of the UK's myGrid project. Taverna's provenance model captures both internal provenance locally generated in Taverna and external provenance gathered from third-party data providers. This model also supports overlaying secondary provenance over the primary logs and lineage. This design is motivated by the particular properties of bioinformatics data and services used in Taverna. A Semantic Web of provenance, Ouzo, is built to combine the above different provenance by means of semantic annotations. This paper shows how Ouzo can be mined by a provenance usage component, Provenance Query and Answer (ProQA). ProQA supports provenance retrievals as well as provenance abstraction, aggregation, and semantic reasoning. ProQA is implemented as a suite APIs which can be deployed as provenance services to compose system provenance workflows that analyse experiment results using the provenance records. We show how these features of Taverna's provenance support us in answering the questions from the provenance challenge workshop and a set of additional provenance queries. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue contains four papers selected from the 26th UK Performance Engineering Workshop (UKPEW), which was held during 8–9 July 2010 in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick. UKPEW is the leading UK forum for the presentation of work relating to all aspects of performance modelling and the analysis of computer and telecommunication systems. This year's selected papers demonstrate the variety of topics on offer at UKPEW: performance issues in cloud computing, energy-aware routing in packet networks, source location privacy and multi-hop ad hoc networks for wireless networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the importance of research networks to be trained in information technology (IT). He states that Great Britain has effective research network focused on supporting applied clinical research but feels that computerized data will help researchers identify eligible cases for studies. Data extraction for research trials is complex therefore, research networks should be linked to informatics centers and those engaged in research should be trained in clinical informatics.

The Capsule Reviews are intended to provide a short succinct review of each paper in the issue in order to bring it to a wider readership. The Capsule Reviews were compiled by Fairouz Kamareddine. Professor Kamareddine is an Associate Editor of The Computer Journal and is based in the Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Capsule Reviews are intended to provide a short succinct review of each paper in the issue in order to bring it to a wider readership. The Capsule Reviews were compiled by Fairouz Kamareddine. Professor Kamareddine is an Associate Editor of The Computer Journal and is based in the Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

John R. Womersley's career epitomized how numerical and statistical methods came into widespread use from the 1930s, in Britain as in other Western countries. As an applied mathematician and then a manager of mathematicians and statisticians, in war and in peacetime, Womersley and his career reflect the major trends in British applied mathematics, statistics, and automated computation in the middle decades of the 20th century. Womersley made both significant scientific contributions in applied mathematics and managerial contributions to computer innovation. He was also involved at the beginning of electronic computers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: There is interest in expanding ART to prevent HIV transmission, but in the group with the highest levels of ART use, men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM), numbers of new infections diagnosed each year have not decreased as ARTcoverage has increased for reasons which remain unclear. Methods: We analysed data on the HIV-epidemic in MSM in the UK from a range of sources using an individual-based simulation model. Model runs using parameter sets found to result in good model fit were used to infer changes in HIV-incidence and risk behaviour. Results: HIV-incidence has increased (estimated mean incidence 0.30/100 person-years 1990–1997, 0.45/100 py 1998–2010), associated with a modest (26%) rise in condomless sex. We also explored counter-factual scenarios: had ART not been introduced, but the rise in condomless sex had still occurred, then incidence 2006–2010 was 68% higher; a policy of ART initiation in all diagnosed with HIV from 2001 resulted in 32% lower incidence; had levels of HIV testing been higher (68% tested/year instead of 25%) incidence was 25% lower; a combination of higher testing and ART at diagnosis resulted in 62% lower incidence; cessation of all condom use in 2000 resulted in a 424% increase in incidence. In 2010, we estimate that undiagnosed men, the majority in primary infection, accounted for 82% of new infections. Conclusion: A rise in HIV-incidence has occurred in MSM in the UK despite an only modest increase in levels of condomless sex and high coverage of ART. ART has almost certainly exerted a limiting effect on incidence. Much higher rates of HIV testing combined with initiation of ART at diagnosis would be likely to lead to substantial reductions in HIV incidence. Increased condom use should be promoted to avoid the erosion of the benefits of ART and to prevent other serious sexually transmitted infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E-health is concerned with promoting the health and wellbeing of individuals, families and communities, and improving professional practice through the use of information management and information and communication technology. In autumn 2010 the RCN, supported by an information technology consultancy, carried out a survey of members' views on e-health to assess their involvement in, and readiness for, e-health developments and their knowledge of its benefits. A total of 1,313 nurses, midwives, healthcare support workers and pre-registration students from across the UK responded. This article describes ways in which nurse managers can influence the successful implementation of the survey recommendations. INSET: UK programmes for IT and e-health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Routinely collected general practice computer data are used for quality improvement; poor data quality including inconsistent coding can reduce their usefulness. Objective To document the diversity of data entry systems currently in use in UKgeneral practice and highlight possible implications for data quality. Method General practice volunteers provided screen shots of the clinical coding screen they would use to code a diagnosis or problem title in the clinical consultation. The six clinical conditions examined were: depression, cystitis, type 2 diabetes mellitus, sore throat, tired all the time, and myocardial infarction. We looked at the picking lists generated for these problem titles in EMIS, IPS, GPASS and iSOFT general practice clinical computer systems, using the Triset browser as a gold standard for comparison. Results A mean of 19.3 codes is offered in the picking list after entering a diagnosis or problem title. EMIS produced the longest picking lists and GPASS the shortest, with a mean number of choices of 35.2 and 12.7, respectively. Approximately threequarters (73.5%) of codes are diagnoses, one-eighth (12.5%) symptom codes, and the remainder come from a range of Read chapters. There was no readily detectable consistent order in which codes were displayed. Velocity coding, whereby commonly-used codes are placed higher in the picking list, results in variation between practices even where they have the same brand of computer system. Conclusions Current systems for clinical coding promote diversity rather than consistency of clinical coding. As the UKmove s towards an integrated health IT system consistency of coding will become more important. A standardised, limited list of codes for primary care might help address this need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Capsule Reviews are intended to provide a short succinct review of each paper in the issue, in order to bring the content to a wider readership. This issue's Capsule Reviews were compiled by Fairouz Kamareddine. Professor Kamareddine is an Associate Editor of The Computer Journal and is based in the School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports on the on-line availability of a 40-year archive of international computer science research from the British Computer Society (BCS) and Oxford University Press. It states that all papers published between 1958 and 1997 can now be accessed free of charge through the web site of the company. It adds that only subscribers can access full papers published since 1997.

Presents the results of a survey of all universities in Great Britain to establish the extent and nature of group learning and group assessment on undergraduate computing courses. Amount and control of group learning and assessment methods; Attitudes to group learning and group assessment; Uncertainty about group assessment.

This research is concerned with the development of a knowledge-based expert system for supporting human experts in assessing applications for the house renovation grant system. The development of the system followed the task structure analysis and the client-centred approach. The task structure analysis describes the system at knowledge level in terms of tasks, problem-solving methods and knowledge types. The implementation of the system followed the client-centred approach. The resulting system implements a frame- work that integrates case-based reasoning, abductive assembly, decomposition and associative methods. In addition, this framework combines different types of knowledge, which are required by the problem-solving methods. The implementation was carried out together with verification and validation, making it possible to have the system more valid after each stage of the client-centred approach. The system has demonstrated that various problem-solving methods are required for performing the different tasks of the assessment of application for the house renovation grant system. Therefore the system has proved to perform as accurately as human experts do for all of the tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the exposure and effectiveness of the Leg Club model in the healthcare system in Great Britain. Topics discussed include an overview of the Leg Club model, the significance of informatics, the wound care of the National Health Service, and the plan of Finland to set its first Leg Club.

Reports on a news service introduced by the British Computer Society on its Web site in January 2006.

The Manchester Baby, built by F.C. Williams and Tom Kilburn and operational in June 1948, was the first stored-program electronic computer. The Williams-Kilburn tube memory, pioneered in the Baby, was subsequently adopted in many first-generation computers, including the Princeton IAS machine and the IBM 701. Part 1 of this article provides an overview of the Manchester project and its personnel and documents the origins of the Williams-Kilburn tube. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: An association between mumps-measles-rubella (MMR) vaccination and the onset of symptoms typical of autism has recently been suggested. This has led to considerable concern about the safety of the vaccine.Methods: A matched case-control study using data derived form the United Kingdom General Practice Research Database. Children with a possible diagnosis of autism will be identified from their electronic health records. All diagnoses will be validated by a detailed review of hospital letters and by using information derived from a parental questionnaire. Ten controls per case will be selected from the database. Conditional logistic regression will be used to assess the association between MMR vaccination and autism. In addition case series analyses will be undertaken to estimate the relative incidence of onset of autism in defined time intervals after vaccination. The study is funded by the United Kingdom Medical Research Council.Discussion: Electronic health databases offer tremendous opportunities for evaluating the adverse effects of vaccines. However there is much scope for bias and confounding. The rigorous validation of all diagnoses and the collection of additional information by parental questionnaire in this study are essential to minimise the possibility of misleading results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]