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This article presents information regarding a workshop organized by the Information Processing in Medical Imaging (IPMI), in 2003. IPMI occupies an important position in the scientific calendar. Every two years it brings together leading researchers in medical image formation, analysis and interpretation, for an international workshop that allows extensive, in-depth discussion of new ideas. IPMI 2003 was held over five days in July 2003 at St Martin' s College, Ambleside-in the heart of the English Lake District. Full papers were invited on any aspect of information processing in medical imaging, with particular emphasis on exploring generic mathematical or computational principles.

In Part I of this paper we have introduced the closed-form conditions for guaranteeing regional frequency stability in a power system. Here we propose a methodology to represent these conditions in the form of linear constraints and demonstrate their applicability by implementing them in a generation-scheduling model. This model simultaneously optimises energy production and ancillary services for maintaining frequency stability in the event of a generation outage, by solving a frequency-secured Stochastic Unit Commitment (SUC). We consider the Great Britain system, characterised by two regions that create a non-uniform distribution of inertia: England in the South, where most of the load is located, and Scotland in the North, containing significant wind resources. Through several case studies, it is shown that inertia and frequency response cannot be considered as system-wide magnitudes in power systems that exhibit inter-area oscillations in frequency, as their location in a particular region is key to guarantee stability. In addition, securing against a medium-sized loss in the low-inertia region proves to cause significant wind curtailment, which could be alleviated through reinforced transmission corridors. In this context, the proposed constraints allow to find the optimal volume of ancillary services to be procured in each region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power system planning is essential for ensuring development of a safe and stable power system. Articles on power system planning have been published in recent decades. In this paper, bibliometric analysis is applied to power system planning to identify its basic characteristics, and to summarize the research hotspots and trends. A total of 4562 publications were obtained from the Web of Science during 1971–2020. The 4562 publications cover 8136 keywords, 1526 journals, 107 countries/territories, and 2519 institutions. IEEE Transactions on Power Systems is the key journal in power system planning; USA, China, and England are the countries that dominate publication production. Research hotspots and trends were analyzed using author-keyword co-occurrence analysis and keyword burst detection. Four clusters were identified and topics from Cluster I (central nodes as power system stability and transient stability) and Cluster IV (central nodes as power system simulation and economics) are important for power system planning research. However, their relative popularities have declined over the past two decades. This indicates that Cluster II (central nodes as renewable energy, wind power, and energy storage) and Cluster III (central nodes as distributed generation and smart grids) will be the focus of future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about the third edition of the International Workshop on Antenna Technology (IWAT) conference which was held in Cambridge, England in March 2007 is presented. According to the author, the event was more than successful than the previous events, which was attributed to the very dedicated team of local organizers and hosts, and the high qualities of papers delivered by luminaries in the field. Several photographs of the conference are also included.

This article presents information on the construction of a replica of Colossus Mk2 computer. In 1943, the Bletchley Park code breakers had difficulties breaking the German High Command teleprinter traffic that was enciphered using the Lorenz SZ42 cipher machine. They thought that vacuum-tube electronics might be the answer to the decryption difficulties, and after experimenting with a prototype called Heath Robinson, the Bletchley Park group approached the Post Office Research Laboratories at Dollis Hill in North London, England. Colossus also generated patterns internally, using vacuum tube ring circuits that were stepped around synchronously with the paper tape. It was the comparison of these patterns with the cipher characters read from the tape that eventually revealed the Lorenz machine settings, which allowed the intercepted cipher text to be deciphered. Flowers knew that gas-filled vacuum tubes, called thyratrons, could store bit of information per tube, and he chose to use these in the original ring circuits.

The article offers information about the 36th European Microwave Conference that was held at the International Conference Center in Manchester, England on September 10-15, 2006. The event has become truly international event with papers submitted from 52 countries. During the event, all the meetings were well attended with the most popular sessions in the field of metamaterials.

The space and time dynamics of moving vehicles regulated by traffic signals governs the node connectivity and communication capability of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) in urban environments. However, none of the previous studies on node connectivity has considered such dynamics with the presence of traffic lights and vehicle interactions. In fact, most of them assume that vehicles are distributed homogeneously throughout the geographic area, which is unrealistic. We introduce in this paper a stochastic traffic model for VANETs in signalized urban road systems. The proposed model is a composite of the fluid model and stochastic model. The former characterizes the general flow and evolution of the traffic stream so that the average density of vehicles is readily computable, while the latter takes into account the random behavior of individual vehicles. As the key contribution of this paper, we attempt to approximate vehicle interactions and capture platoon formations and dissipations at traffic signals through a density-dependent velocity profile. The stochastic traffic model with approximation of vehicle interactions is evaluated with extensive simulations, and the distributional result of the model is validated against real-world empirical data in London. In general, we show that the fluid model can adequately describe the mean behavior of the traffic stream, while the stochastic model can approximate the probability distribution well even when vehicles interact with each other as their movement is controlled by traffic lights. With the knowledge of the mean vehicular density dynamics and its probability distribution from the stochastic traffic model, we determine the degree of connectivity in the communication network and illustrate that system engineering and planning for optimizing both the transport (in terms of congestion) and communication networks (in terms of connectivity) can be carried out with the proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article highlights the career of the late engineer and inventor John A. Fleming in electrical engineering. He was the recipient of several awards including the Medal of Honor from the Institute of Radio Engineers and the Hughes Medal from the Royal Society of London. Fleming begun his investigation about the characteristics of incandescent lamps while he was employed at Edison Electric Light Co. in London, England.

This paper describes the application of an interactive theorem-proving assistant and specification support tool called mural in the specification and verification of a small VDM development. The paper's intention is to give a feel for how mural works and of mural's applicability as a tool in specifying and verifying software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the message of the chairman of the COMPUMAG 2003 Committee. The author states that he is glad to present the selected papers presented at the COMPUMAG Saratoga Springs conference. Those papers are published in the March 2004 issue of the journal "IEEE Transactions of Magnetics." The author also states that the first COMPUMAG conference was held in 1976 in Oxford, England. Since then the society and its conferences have continued to grow in numbers, in significance, in international renown and respect. The author is honored to carry on the tradition of presenting the leading research and thought in the area of computational electromagnetics.

Very short-term load forecasting predicts the loads in electric power system one hour into the future in 5-min steps in a moving window manner. To quantify forecasting accuracy in real-time, the prediction interval estimates should also be produced online. Effective predictions with good prediction intervals are important for resource dispatch and area generation control, and help power market participants make prudent decisions. We previously presented a two level wavelet neural network method based on back propagation without estimating prediction intervals. This paper extends the previous work by using hybrid Kalman filters to produce forecasting with prediction interval estimates online. Based on data analysis, a neural network trained by an extended Kalman filter is used for the low-low frequency component to capture the near-linear relationship between the input load component and the output measurement, while neural networks trained by unscented Kalman filters are used for low-high and high frequency components to capture their nonlinear relationships. The overall variance estimate is then derived and evaluated for prediction interval estimation. Testing results demonstrate the effectiveness of hybrid Kalman filters for capturing different features of load components, and the accuracy of the overall variance estimate derived based on a data set from ISO New England. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents an empirical model for the statistical prediction of site diversity gain on earth space propagation paths. A modelling approach is described which incorporates 46 months of Nimrod rain radar data recorded in South England. The dual site diversity (SD) gain is developed as a function of several parameters, including time percentage of average year, site separation, baseline orientation, link frequency and path elevation angle. The model performs with an overall root mean square error of 1.87 dB computed over a wide variety of link configurations with elevation angles ranging from 10^\circ to 50^\circ and transmission frequencies from 16 to 50 GHz. The performance of the new model is checked against satellite beacon measurements as well as the empirical and physical models recommended by ITU-R. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Cybernetics is a broad subject, encompassing many aspects of electrical, electronic, and computer engineering, which suffers from a lack of understanding on the part of potential applicants and teachers when recruiting students. However, once the engineering values, fascinating science, and pathways to rewarding, diverse careers are communicated, appropriate students can be very interested in enrolling. At the University of Reading, Reading, U.K., a key route for outreach to prospective students has been achieved through the use of robots in interactive talks at schools, competitions (often funded by Public Understanding of Science projects), a collectable fortnightly magazine, exhibitions in museums, open days at the University, and appearances in the media. This paper identifies the interactive engagement, anthropomorphic acceptability, and inspirational nature of robots as being key to their successful use in outreach activities. The statistical results presented show that the continued popularity of degrees at Reading in cybernetics, electronic engineering, and robotics over the last 20 years is in part due to the outreach activities to schools and the general public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a novel adaptive battery model based on a remapped variant of the well-known Randles' lead-acid model. Remapping of the model is shown to allow improved modeling capabilities and accurate estimates of dynamic circuit parameters when used with subspace parameter-estimation techniques. The performance of the proposed methodology is demonstrated by application to batteries for an all-electric personal rapid transit vehicle from the Urban Light TRAnsport (ULTRA) program, which is designated for use at Heathrow Airport, U.K. The advantages of the proposed model over the Randles' circuit are demonstrated by comparisons with alternative observer/estimator techniques, such as the basic Utkin observer and the Kalman estimator. These techniques correctly identify and converge on voltages associated with the battery state-of-charge (SoC), despite erroneous initial conditions, thereby overcoming problems attributed to SoC drift (incurred by Coulomb-counting methods due to overcharging or ambient temperature fluctuations). Observation of these voltages, as well as online monitoring of the degradation of the estimated dynamic model parameters, allows battery aging (state-of-health) to also be assessed and, thereby, cell failure to be predicted. Due to the adaptive nature of the proposed algorithms, the techniques are suitable for applications over a wide range of operating environments, including large ambient temperature variations. Moreover, alternative battery topologies may also be accommodated by the automatic adjustment of the underlying state-space models used in both the parameter-estimation and observer/estimator stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) isa particle physics experiment based on the International Space Station (ISS). At the heart of the detector is a large superconducting magnet, cooled to a temperature of 1.8 K by superfluid helium. The magnet and cryogenic system have been designed and built by Scientific Magnetics (formerly Space Cryomagnetics) of Culham, England. This paper describes the results from magnet testing, and the final assembly of the magnet and flight cryostat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the utility of different parameters from polarimetric interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data for the identification of ground pixels in a woodland area to enable accurate digital terrain model (DTM) generation from the InSAR height of the selected ground hit pixels. The parameters assessed include radar backscatter, interferometric coherence, surface scattering proportion (based on Freeman-Durden decomposition), and standard deviation of the interferometric height. The method is applied to Monks Wood, a small seminatural deciduous woodland in Cambridgeshire, U.K., using airborne E-SAR data collected in June 2000. The 1428 variations of SAR-derived terrain models are validated with theodolite data and a light detection and ranging-derived DTM. The results show that increasing the amount of data used in the DTM creation does not necessarily increase the accuracy of the final DTM. The most accurate method, for the whole wood, was a fixed-window minimum-filtering algorithm, followed by a mean filter. However, for a spatial subset of the area using the v3 backscattering coefficient to identify ground pixels outperforms the minimum filtering method. The findings suggest that backscatter information may often be undervalued in estimating terrain height under forest canopies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the role played by computer pioneers Thomas H. Flowers, Alan M. Turing, William T. Tutte and Max H.A. Newman in the installation of the first Colossus at Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes, England. Bletchley Park was the site of British code breaking activities during World War II. Colossus, the large-scale special-purpose electronic computer used for code breaking in the 1939-1945 war with Germany, completed its first trial runs in December 1943. Traditional histories point to Alan Turing as the key figure in the design of Colossus. Flowers, during 1938-39, worked on an experimental, electronic high-speed digital data store for use in telephone exchanges. Flowers was first summoned to Bletchley Park to assist Turing in the attack on Enigma but he soon became involved in work on German traffic code-named "Tunny." Max H.A. Newman was a leading topologist as well as a pioneer of electronic digital computing. Newman assisted Turing with the final drafting of the latter's 1936 paper "On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem."

The article presents the schedule of events related to multimedia communications from May through July 2006. A Symposium on Technology, Knowledge and Society will take place in Montreal, Quebec to discuss the relations between technology and citizenship. On the other hand, the 10th International Conference on Information Visualization of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in London, England will focus on such topics as Semantic Web visualization, multimedia and human-computer interaction for information visualization.

A wide-slot UWB antenna is presented for intended use in the detection scheme being developed at the University of Bristol, based on the principle of synthetically focused UWB radar using a fully populated static array. The antenna's measured and simulated, input and radiation characteristics are presented and compared to an existing, stacked patch antenna that has been designed for the same purpose. The results of this study show that the wide-slot antenna has excellent performance across the required frequency range. Compared to the stacked-patch antenna used in our previous array, the wide-slot antenna can be 3 times smaller (in terms of front surface). The compact nature of the slot antenna means that the detection array can be densely populated. Additionally, this new antenna offers better radiation coverage of the breast. For angles up to 60° away from bore-sight radiated pulses are almost identical (fidelity >95%), whereas for the patch antenna fidelity falls to 58% at the angular extremes. This uniform radiation into the breast should result in focused images with low levels of clutter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design and construction of STARFISH, a series of compact pulsed-power generators to drive advanced Z-pinch experiments, for applications such as soft X-ray generation and as a high-density plasma diagnostic, is being developed in Oxford. The design for these machines is based on the use of many very low impedance distributed pulse-forming lines (PFLs) or discrete pulse-forming networks, which are connected in parallel, dc charged, and switched simultaneously on to a load which may be a wire or laser-preionized channel. This generator avoids the use of very high voltage Marx generators, liquid-insulated PFLs, and magnetically insulated transmission lines that are usually used in machines driving large Z-pinch experiments. Consequently, the generator is far more compact than conventional designs and should be operable at much higher repetition rates if laser preionization is used. The idea is to build a series of generators that can be operated routinely on a day-to-day basis, with pulse characteristics that can be "tailor-made" for specific loads, and be both efficient and reliable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information on several papers discussed at the 2009 Designing with Care workshop that was held in London, England is presented. Topics include the evidence-based solutions for pandemic flu, the issues on capturing and satisfying the needs of various stakeholders in the design of home care technology, and the incidental mobile healthcare. The workshop features several speakers including Andreas Komninos, Marily McGee-Lennon and Alan Card.

Presents a genetic algorithm-based economic contracting strategy for optimal selection of tenders in the England and Wales standing reserve market. Aim of the contracting strategy; Factors which affect the cost of providing reserve services in England and Wales; Features of the proposed algorithm.

Studies the prehistory of computers at the Manchester University, England. Scientific computation in Great Britain during and immediately after the World War II; Influences of computers at Manchester University; Biographies of M.H.A. Newman and F.C. Williams; Period of the start of computer research at Manchester; Continuation of the computer science research in England. INSET: Frederick Calland Williams..

An advanced model-based control technique for regulating the blood glucose for patients with Type 1 diabetes is presented. The optimal insulin delivery rate is obtained off-line as an explicit function of the current blood glucose concentration of the patient by using novel parametric programming algorithms, developed at Imperial College London. The implementation of the optimal insulin delivery rate, therefore, requires simple function evaluation and minimal on-line computations. The proposed framework also addresses the uncertainty in the model due to interpatient and intrapatient variability by identifying the model parameters which ensure that a feasible control law can be obtained. The developments reported in this paper are expected to simplify the insulin delivery mechanism, thereby enhancing the quality of life of the patient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A biological understanding is key for managing medical conditions, yet psychological and social aspects matter too. The main problem is that these two aspects are hard to quantify and inherently difficult to communicate. To quantify psychological aspects, this work mined around half a million Reddit posts in the sub-communities specialised in 14 medical conditions, and it did so with a new deep-learning framework. In so doing, it was able to associate mentions of medical conditions with those of emotions. To then quantify social aspects, this work designed a probabilistic approach that mines open prescription data from the National Health Service in England to compute the prevalence of drug prescriptions, and to relate such a prevalence to census data. To finally visually communicate each medical condition's biological, psychological, and social aspects through storytelling, we designed a narrative-style layered Martini Glass visualization. In a user study involving 52 participants, after interacting with our visualization, a considerable number of them changed their mind on previously held opinions: 10% gave more importance to the psychological aspects of medical conditions, and 27% were more favourable to the use of social media data in healthcare, suggesting the importance of persuasive elements in interactive visualizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on a study which outlined details of the work that started in University of Southampton, England in September 1996 to design, build and test a small high temperature superconducting demonstrator transformer. Background of the study; Some design considerations; Description of the cooling system; Results and conclusion.

The article features several holders of Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge University in Cambridge, England. It notes that the first holder is Isaac Barrow, who made significant contributions to geometrical optics, followed by Sir Isaac Newton. It mentions various holders of the academic chair who made fundamental contributions to the field of electromagnetics including George Stokes and Joseph Larmor.

This article is a slightly amended and extended verison of a talk given by the writer at Dieletrics 2009, organized by the Dieletrics Group of the Institute of Physics (IOP), London UK and held at the University of Reading 15-17 April 2009. It gives a breif history of the Dieletrics Discussion Group (1968-1974) and the Dieletrics Society(1974-2001) in the United Kingdom and summarizes some of the major advances in studies of dynamics of polymeric materials that occured during that period and subsequently using broadband dieletric spectroscopy (BDS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earthworks such as embankments and cuttings are integral to road and rail networks but can be prone to instability, necessitating rigorous and continual monitoring. To date, the potential of remote sensing for earthwork hazard assessment has been largely overlooked. However, techniques such as airborne laser scanning (ALS) are now ripe for addressing these challenges. This research presents the development of a novel hazard assessment strategy, combining high-resolution remote sensing with a numerical modeling approach. The research was implemented at a railway test site located in northern England, U.K.; ALS data and multispectral aerial imagery facilitated the determination of key slope stability variables, which were then used to parameterize a coupled hydrological-geotechnical model, in order to simulate slope behavior under current and future climates. A software toolset was developed to integrate the core elements of the methodology and determine resultant slope failure hazard which could then be mapped and queried within a geographical information system environment. Results indicate that the earthworks are largely stable, which is in broad agreement with the management company's slope hazard grading data, and in terms of morphological analysis, the remote methodology was able to correctly identify 99% of earthworks classed as embankments and 100% of cuttings. The developed approach provides an effective and practicable method for remotely quantifying slope failure hazard at fine spatial scales (0.5 m) and for prioritizing and reducing on-site inspection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study examines how the lean ideas behind the Toyota production system can be applied to software project management. It is a detailed investigation of the performance of a nine-person software development team employed by BBC Worldwide based in London. The data collected in 2009 involved direct observations of the development team, the kanban boards, the daily stand-up meetings, semistructured interviews with a wide variety of staff, and statistical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article highlights the 10th International Insulation Conference held in Birmingham, England on May 24-26, 2006. Dr. Rashna Writer, from the Merchant International Group, gave the opening address. Some of the topics discussed at the conference include advanced partial discharge techniques, cables, converter driven machines, dielectric measurements, outdoor insulation, switchgear and transformer dielectric materials.

Information about the "Computers in Use: Historical and Social Perspectives" conference which was held in Manchester, England on July 22-23, 2006 is presented. It focused on several issues including the history and applications of computers, and ways on how computer users interact with their hardware and software. The meeting was attended by notable speakers and participants representing from various constituencies such as business history, science and technology studies, and social science.

A final design of a 'coreless' 100 kW HTS synchronous generator, to be built at the University of Southampton is under way. The new generator will use the same conventional 2-pole, 3 phase stator used by for the `iron cored' generator. The new HTS rotor has no central core and the rotor winding is built with 15 double pancake coils. Each coil has 38 turns of BiPb2223 superconducting tape, with nominal current of 180 A at 77 K. In this design, only two flux diverters are used at the top and bottom of the winding to help shape the magnetic field. The coils are located on the inner wall of the cryostat. The construction of the cryostat poses our greatest mechanical challenge. Although we have avoided problems with differential thermal contractions by making the cryostat entirely from stainless steel, the cryostat requires considerable reinforcements. Additional support and stiffening ribs must be welded to the thin-walled structure. Distortion/rippling during welding must be eliminated to ensure the final welds to the ring flanges can be made. The pole-pieces, which help to improve the waveform characteristics of the machine, are located in the warm space between the cold flange of the cryostat and the inner wall of the vacuum vessel. Unfortunately, the overall magnetic performance has been affected by the parallel stacking of the coils. Some suggestions for altering the current stator have been presented which show that improvements to the voltage waveforms can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When business strategists use option-like thinking to inform investments in physical infrastructure, developers need to operationalize leaving the options open at project implementation. This study defines safeguard as the design and physical development work for ensuring, or enhancing, the embedment of an option in the project outcome. Safeguards account for design changes stemming from option exercising if the environmental uncertainties resolve favorably in the future. They range from a design effort to secure space in a master plan (passive) to the construction of an integral component (active). A multiple-case study on the expansion of Heathrow airport shows how the confluence of two contingencies underscores decisions to safeguard under a limited budget. Safeguarding is more attractive when: 1) the assumed uncertainty that the option will get in the money is low because the outlay sunk on safeguards is more likely to pay off; and 2) the infrastructure architecture is modular because only the interfaces between components may require safeguarding. Irreversible investments on safeguards increase the option cost and reduce the exercising costs in the future. Safeguards therefore play out as a control point for strategic option-like thinking at project implementation. The empirical findings are summarized in a conceptual framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the prototype fragments from Charles Babbage's first difference engine completed in 1832. It notes that early design of Babbage's difference and analytical engines which is called difference engine 1 (DE1) was made of metal parts that can compute differences and polynomials. According to Nicholas K. Taylor, the said machine had a big role in the history of calculating machines. It states that several fragments of the machine has been preserved and exhibited in science museums in London, England and in Mountain View, California. In addition, pictures of the four fragments that are not part of first difference engine are indicated.

A biography of Tom Kilburn, computer designer is presented. He was born on August 11, 1921 in Dewsbury, England and studied at Wheelwright Grammar School. He then enrolled at Victoria University of Manchester and earned the masteral degree in electro-techniques. He then married to Irene Marsden in 1943. He was also involved in developing transistor computers, Muse and Atlas, and MU5, his last major computing project. He died in Manchester, England on January 17, 2001.

The article provides an overview on the topic of nanocomposites with emphasis on their use in electrical applications. It examines composite systems which illustrate the dielectric response of nanocomposites and the mechanical and electrical properties of nanocomposites. It tackles the nanodielectrics research at the University of Southampton in England which aims to understand why nanocomposites in general and nanodielectrics in particular behave the way they do. Several salient features of nanocomposite research which are related to the development and application of dielectrics are presented.

The article discusses a study of the factors that influence the market adoption of consumer robotic products in Great Britain. The study was based on the robot, Cybot, developed by the University of Reading, England, in collaboration with Eaglemoss International Ltd. These robots were distributed through part-work magazines that are issued periodically. The study consisted of focus group interviews, product launches, and surveys. The product's test launch was a success with the sale of the first issue of the magazine exceeding 25,000 copies. The study identified functionality, appearance and construction, personalization and personal expression, and support material accompanying the product, as key factors that affect consumer's inclination to interact with the robot products.

A biography of Max H. A. Newman, pioneer of computing is presented. He was born of Hermann Alexander Newman and his wife Sarah on February 7, 1897 in Chelsea, London, England. Newman attended school at the City of London School from 1908 to 1915 and at St. John's College in Cambridge from 1915 to 1916 and 1919 to 1921. Some of the awards and honors the Fellow of the Royal Society in 1939, and the London Society De Morgan Medal in 1962.

The article focuses on a national project in England called the Headstart Program, which was established by the computing department at the University of Lancaster. The program's goal is to bring more attention to pervasive computing so that more secondary-school graduates will enter the computer science field. Lancaster is one of the host universities for the Headstart course, which is three-and-a-half days long and is held in July. The course highlights and three challenges in the Mindstorm design project are mentioned.

The article refers to ethnographic research in the London Underground or "the Tube," which collected the aesthetic experiences of the Tube's passengers. A parallel exercise in the study was the design of undersound technology--a music-sharing application, which consists of a mobile phone client for uploading and downloading tracks and storing metadata for each music exchange. The three categories of first-generation urban applications, which frame mobility as disconnection, dislocation, and disruption problems, are mentioned, as well as societal rules such as civil inattention.

Remote sensing is a major source of land-cover information. Commonly, interest focuses on a single land-cover class. Although a conventional multiclass classifier may be used to provide a map depicting the class of interest, the analysis is not focused on that class and may be suboptimal in terms of the accuracy of its classification. With a conventional classifier, considerable effort is directed on the classes that are not of interest. Here, it is suggested that a one-class-classification approach could be appropriate when interest focuses on a specific class. This is illustrated with the classification of fenland, a habitat of considerable conservation value, from Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus imagery. A range of one-class classifiers is evaluated, but attention focuses on the support-vector data description (SVDD). The SVDD was used to classify fenland with an accuracy of 97.5% and 93.6% from the user's and producer's perspectives, respectively. This classification was trained upon only the fenland class and was substantially more accurate in fen classification than a conventional multiclass maximum-likelihood classification provided with the same amount of training data, which classified fen with an accuracy of 90.0% and 72.0% from the user's and producer's perspectives, respectively. The results highlight the ability to classify a single class using only training data for that class. With a one-class classification, the analysis focuses tightly on the class of interest, with resources and effort not directed on other classes, and there are opportunities to derive highly accurate classifications from small training sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the structure and characteristics of the software engineering (SE) curriculum at Open University, Milton Keynes, England. It relates that the SE curriculum in an open university system is designed to cater to information technology professionals who intend to undergo further studies for the advancement of their careers. It as well discusses the structure and levels of program offerings in terms of accreditation for students in part-time, open or distance learning. The program allows students to develop coursework assignments and projects around their work experience. Furthermore, it stresses that its curriculum is on constant academy scrutiny and is very dynamic as it adjusts to the needs of its geographically distributed student body.

A small high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnet has been produced as part of a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) propulsion unit to power a model boat. The magnet is wound from 6 pancake coils of Bi-Sr-Ca-Cu-O HTS tape (BSCCO-2223), and is conduction cooled using an onboard ‘thermal battery’, containing 3 liters of solid nitrogen. The magnet is racetrack shaped, and aluminum electrodes are placed along the straights of the magnet to pass an electric current through the saltwater, perpendicular to the magnetic field. Power for the magnet and the electrodes is provided by onboard sealed lead acid batteries, resulting in a fully ‘stand-alone’ magnet system, capable of up to 1.25 hours of continuous operation on one battery pack. This system was integrated into a model boat hull (approx. 1.2 m long × 0.6 m wide), which was successfully launched on 29th March 2004 at the Culham Science Centre in Abingdon, England. A top speed of ∼30 mm/sec was reached during the first trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about the topics discussed at the 80th public meeting of the Computer Conservation Society on December 8, 2005 at London Science Museum in England is presented. The meeting focused on the history of French computing devices. It tackled calculating machines and punched cards like Pascal, the Arithmometer of Thomas de Colmar and tables of logarithms of de Prony's. It gave insights on the story of the French software industry which developed various mathematical tools. It also honored the Association for an Academy of Data Processing and Telematics for being responsible in preserving the computing heritage in France. The meeting featured the members of the Computer Conservation Society, Philippe Denoyelle and Hans Paufal, as speakers.

Discusses the medical imaging research activities at Guy's Hospital, King's College in London, England. Image-guided interventions; Automated image registration based on Voxel similarity; Importance of the joint histogram or joint probability distribution of image intensities; Ability to align three-dimensional models to X-ray and optical images acquired during an intervention.

Explains the principles underlying the New Electricity Trading Arrangements (NETA) in England and Wales and how it fared in its first year of implementation in 2003. Background on the development of NETA; Assessment of whether NETA should be the blueprint for wholesale electricity trading arrangements; Liquidity and transparency of the wholesale markets upon the implementation of NETA.

Highlights several events in the computer industry as of 2001. Details on the computing history exhibitions at the National Science Museum in Tokyo, Japan; Installation of the Ferranti Pegasus in the Computing Gallery of the Science Museum in London, England; Overview of the symposium held at the Konrad Zuse Center for Information Technology in Berlin, East Germany in May 2001 to inaugurate the rebuilding of Zuse's Z3 relay computer.