Index Pages Research Articles

Multi Small Index (MSI): A spatial indexing structure

Most of the existing spatial indices are constructed using a single hierarchal index structure; hence a large number of index pages (nodes) are most likely to be inspected during spatial query execution. Since spatial queries usually fetch spatial objects based on their spatial position in the space, it is significant that spatial objects are clustered in such a way that pertinent objects to a query are fetched quickly. This paper presents a method for partitioning the whole space into set of small subspaces. Then, an index structure for each subspace (called the Multi Small Index) is built. This makes it is easy to quickly retrieve spatial objects that are relevant to the query in question using their corresponding small spatial index structures and ignoring other irrelevant indices. To evaluate our new approach, we conducted a set of experimental studies using a collection of real-life spatial datasets (TIGER data files) with diverse sizes and different object sizes, densities and distributions, as well as various query sizes. The results show that (using small query sizes) our proposed structure (Multi Small Index) outperforms the original R-tree (Single Big Index) structure, achieving nearly 50% saving in disk access.

소형 블록 DBMS의 데이터/인덱스 페이지 구조 소형화를 통한 NVRAM 성능 개선

In response to the demands of large-scale data processing with low-power and new application, a storage system using SSD (Solid State Disk/Drive) with fast input-output performance instead of hard disc has appeared as storage device. Studies on methods to overcome specific problems of SSD such as various processing data units, out-place-update and limited delete count have been actively conducted. However, declining performance and stability have not been resolved yet when storing case specific data with small scale that causes frequent random write in hard disc or SSD. This thesis suggests a system structure that stores index requesting frequent random write in NVRAM capable of byte access by using characteristics such as byte unit fast read / write of NVRAM, non-volatile and smaller size of actual changed data size in index page than block size.

Partitioned-Tree Nested Loop Join: An Efficient Join for Spatio-Temporal Interval Join

A predictive spatio-temporal interval join finds all pairs of moving objects satisfying a join condition on future time interval and space. In this paper, we propose a method called PTJoin. PTJoin partitions the inner index into small sub-trees and performs the join process for each sub-tree to reduce the number of disk page accesses for each window search. Furthermore, to reduce the number of pages accessed by consecutive window searches, we partition the index so that overlapping index pages do not belong to the same partition. Our experiments show that PTJoin reduces the number of page accesses by up to an order of magnitude compared to Interval_STJoin[9], which is the state-of-the-art solution, when the buffer size is small.

Topics in Oceanic morphosyntax (review)

Reviewed by: Topics in Oceanic morphosyntax Robert Early Claire Moyse-Faurie and Joachim Sabel, eds. 2011. Topics in Oceanic morphosyntax. Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs 239, vi + 344 pp. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-3-11-025989-6 (hardbound), e-ISBN 978-3-22-025991-9 (e-book), $140.00 or €99.95 each; or $210.00 or €149.95 for both hardbound and e-book. This volume contains an introduction and nine papers, providing 340 pages of useful advances in the description and analysis of Oceanic languages, prepared by established Oceanic scholars. Each paper has its own bibliography, and the volume as a whole has two pages of subject index and two pages of language index (113 languages or language subgroups are mentioned). Some papers have their own list of abbreviations, others do not. The editors arrange the papers into three topic-based sections: sentential syntax and sentence types; nominal morphosyntax; and historical developments. Some papers cover issues in Oceanic (three papers) and Polynesian (two papers), and others deal with specific Polynesian languages (two papers: Niuean and Tahitian) or other non-Polynesian Oceanic languages (two papers: Unua of Vanuatu [Remote Oceanic, North-Central Vanuatu] and Saliba of Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea [Western Oceanic, Papuan Tip]). The interaction of language with topic is shown in table 1, which includes the author names and titles of all papers. This might appear to be a somewhat sporadic, or at least eclectic, collection, but the papers have come together because they mostly represent the research topics that their authors chose to present at COOL7 (Seventh Conference on Oceanic Linguistics) in Nouméa, New Caledonia in July, 2007, and the title of the collection is probably the best that could be found to provide some kind of overarching unity or schema for the compilation. However, since the publication of formal volumes of conference proceedings seems to have fallen from favor with the organizers of the COOL series, or with publishers, or with university authorities who rank the publication outputs of their academic staff, the editors of this volume are to be thanked for providing an opportunity for these authors to present their papers to a wider audience. The editors are similarly to be congratulated for the comprehensive introduction provided to the volume. All papers are placed in the context of earlier typological overviews and studies of Oceanic languages, and general theoretical frameworks. For each paper, one or two pages of discussion first provides this theoretical and typological orientation, and [End Page 602] then the paper's major claims and findings are summarized. The introduction concludes with a single paragraph summary of each paper ordered by the authors' surnames. Click for larger view View full resolution Table 1. Interaction of Language with Topic There is a slight drawback to the comprehensiveness of the introduction, however, as it results in a certain level of repetitiveness. Each paper's key conclusions are detailed at least four times: first, in the context of the introductory theoretical discussion; second, in the paper summaries given at the end of the introduction; and then again in the introductions and conclusions of the papers themselves. The second of these, the summaries, are probably the authors' own paper abstracts, as suggested by the use of a "we" (15) that escaped being edited out. This organization also results in some apparent contradictions between the editors and the papers they are introducing. For example, Margetts's abstract (15) states that the variation in order of stems (V-N and N-V) found in Saliba noun incorporations is unusual, and "has not been described for other languages of the Papuan Tip cluster or the wider Oceanic language group." However, the editors have already posited a counter to this, by indicating (9) that this possibility "is also attested in Polynesian languages such as Samoan and East Futunan." There are also divergent claims that are reiterated by the editors in the context of discussing different papers, but are not resolved. For example, in the discussion of his own paper, Sabel claims that "Kiribati and Fijian are configurational free word order languages" (5), but on the next page, in discussing another paper, the view that...

Scalable and dynamically balanced shared-everything OLTP with physiological partitioning

Scaling the performance of shared-everything transaction processing systems to highly parallel multicore hardware remains a challenge for database system designers. Recent proposals alleviate locking and logging bottlenecks in the system, leaving page latching as the next potential problem. To tackle the page latching problem, we propose physiological partitioning (PLP). PLP applies logical-only partitioning, maintaining the desired properties of sharedeverything designs, and introduces a multi-rooted B+Tree index structure (MRBTree) that enables the partitioning of the accesses at the physical page level. Logical partitioning and MRBTrees together ensure that all accesses to a given index page come from a single thread and, hence, can be entirely latch free; an extended design makes heap page accesses thread private as well. Moreover, MRBTrees offer an infrastructure for easy repartitioning and allow us to have a lightweight dynamic load balancing mechanism (DLB) on top of PLP. Profiling a PLP prototype running on different multicore machines shows that it acquires 85 and 68%fewer contentious critical sections, respectively, than an optimized conventional design and one based on logical-only partitioning. PLP also improves performance up to almost 50 % over the existing systems, while DLB enhances the system with rapid and robust behavior in both detecting and handling load imbalances.

Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury 1945–1961; Reformed Dogmatics, Abridged in One Volume; Wild and Robust, The Adventure of Christian Humanism; 40 Questions About Christians and Biblical Law; The Miracle of Kindness, Changing the World One Act at a Time; A Different Priest, The Epistle to The Hebrews

Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury 1945–1961; Reformed Dogmatics, Abridged in One Volume; Wild and Robust, The Adventure of Christian Humanism; 40 Questions About Christians and Biblical Law; The Miracle of Kindness, Changing the World One Act at a Time; A Different Priest, The Epistle to The Hebrews J. Harold Ellens, PhD Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury 1945–1961 David Hein Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2008, pp. 122 + xviii, pb, $17.00. David Hein, Professor of Religion at Hood College and author of The Episcopalians, has given us a minor gift. Aside from some infelicities of syntax that obstruct the smooth flow of his narrative, he has given us in one chewable chunk a constructive and balanced life of Geoffrey Fisher, Churchill's surprising selection for Archbishop of Canterbury at the end of World War II. Following an adequate introduction, setting the course of this little work, Hein offers seven chapters shaped by the stages of Fisher's rise to and service as archbishop. These are simply: Formation: 1997–1932, Chester and London: 1932–1945, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1945–1961: The Church of England, The Anglican Communion, Ecumenical Outreach, Church and State, and Retirement 1961–1972. Fisher was an administrator and made no special demonstration of his spiritual leadership, piety, or theological prowess. He was simply a soundly dedication Christian Anglican with devotion to the institution of that church, as his numerous generations of clergy ancestors before him. This book is rounded off with a good bibliography, but unfortunately lacks an index. Reformed Dogmatics, Abridged in One Volume Herman Bavinck (John Bolt, Editor) Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2011, pp. 848 + xvi, cloth, $60.00. Herman Bavinck has been revered for a century for his superior four volumes of Reformed Dogmatics. He lived from 1854 to 1921 and taught Systematic Theology at the Vrie Universität te Amsterdam, beginning at outset of the twentieth century. The predictable endorsers, Donald McKim, Richard Mouw, J. I. Packer, and Michael Horton, have all promoted this one volume, abridged edition: and well they might. John Bolt of Calvin Theological Seminary has done yoeman's service in capturing all of Bavinck's useful perspective in this volume. Its nearly 1000 pages are packed with over 700 words per page, nearly twice the normal number. Thus a very large portion of the original Bavinck is captured in this compact work, making it readily and readably available to any college or seminary student, as well as the Sunday afternoon lay reader. It is highly recommendable for that. Bavinck was a bit unconventional in his structuring his Reformierte Dogmatik in that he did not conform to the traditional six loci of Malancthon and Calvin. Instead his work is organized in seven parts. The first is Prolegomena: Introduction to Dogmatic Theology; including an address to Dogmatic Theology as Science, The History and Literature of Dogmatic Theology, Foundations of Dogmatic Theology, Revelation, Holy Scripture, and Faith. Second comes The Triune God and Creation; explicating the themes, Knowing God, The Living Acting God, The Triune God and his Counsel, and Creator of Heaven and Earth. The Third section is Humanity and Sin and treats The Image of God, The Fallen World, and Sin and its Consequences. Part Four has to do with Christ the Redeemer, with such topics as The Only Begotten Son of the Father, The Servant Savior: Christ's Humiliation, and The Exalted Lord Christ. The Fifth section teaches of The Holy Spirit and Salvation in Christ: The Order of Salvation, Calling and Regeneration, Faith and Conversion, and Justification, Sanctification, and Perseverance. Six is The Spirit Creates a New Community: The Church as a Spiritual Reality, and The Spirit's Means of Grace. The final section, The Spirit Makes All Things New, has three subsections: The Intermediate State, The Return of Christ, and The Consummation. This volume has 49 pages of scripture index, fifty pages of name index, and 17 pages of subject index. Each page of the entire volume is able to boast nearly twice the normal words because the type is small and the paragraphing intensely compact. Bavinck's work is thoroughly comprehensive, excitingly lucid, and filled with inspiring surprises of insight and illumination. John Bolt's abridgement...

Reaching for the sun. How plants work, 2nd edn

Reaching for the sun. How plants work, 2nd edn

National list of essential medicines of India

Essential medicines lists have been shown to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of health care delivery when combined with proper procurement policies and good prescribing practices. The Ministry of Health, Government of India revised the National List of Essential Medicines of India (NLEMI 2011) in June 2011, eight years after the last revision. The NLEMI 2011 contains 348 medicines and was prepared over one and a half years by 87 experts. Though there are some positive aspects to the list such as the documentation of a detailed description of the revision process, inclusion of many experts from various fields in the review committee, well written description of the essential medicines concept and others, a critical review of the list reveals areas of major and minor concerns. Improper medicine selection like the inclusion of a nearly obsolete medicine such as ether, an anesthetic agent; non-inclusion of pediatric formulations; spelling errors; and errors in the strengths of formulations diminishes the significance of the NLEMI 2011. In its present form, the NLEMI 2011 did not align with the Indian Pharmacopoeia, and the National Health Programs as well as the National Formulary of India 2010. Formatting errors, non-inclusion of an index page, syntax and spelling errors may also undermine the usefulness of the NLEMI 2011 as a reference material. An urgent revision of the NLEMI 2011 is suggested so as to avert misinforming the wider international and local readers.

The restless plant

The restless plant

All flesh is grass. Plant–animal interrelationships

When I saw the phrase ‘all flesh is grass’ I had in mind a text dealing with aspects of agriculture, on the grounds that humans and other animals are nutritionally dependent upon grass – or plants more generally – because those photoautotrophs are the first trophic level in the great majority of food webs. I was therefore expecting a book that dealt with various aspects of man's relationships with crops and domesticated animals; all fair game for one who is interested in plant and people interactions. So, you'll probably understand my surprise when I discovered that All flesh is grass is not really about that. Or, rather, it is, but not in that rather myopic, blinkered, narrow way. Instead, its vision is much grander and more ambitious, encompassing as it does a broad range of animal–‘plant’(which embraces algae) interactions, with a strong emphasis on symbioses (predominantly of the mutually beneficial variety). So, what you are presented with is arguably a more satisfying holistic world view; but, one which by virtue of trying to cover so much is inevitably a little unsatisfactory because you want to know even more about the interesting interactions that are introduced in its nearly 550 pages. But isn't that the sign of a good book? Shouldn't it be a starting point for a journey of discovery, not merely a destination? Still, and in keeping with its ‘fleshy-grass’ theme, throughout the text there is a strong agricultural/economic emphasis in such sections as Part: 2 ‘Insects [sic.] Interactions’ (including plant–aphid, and gall contributions); Part 3 ‘Pollination and Seed Dispersal’ (including chapters on ‘Ants as pollinators’, ‘Crop pollination’, and ‘Bee cognition and crop pollination: proven and potential applications’); Part 4: ‘Animals and Humans [sic.] Involvement’ (‘Grazing livestock’, and ‘Herbivore–plant interactions’); and Part 5: ‘Plant Defenses’ (including ‘Biochemical plant defenses against herbivores’). But, establishing its true global sweep, and on the basis that ‘grass’ means microalgae in aquatic habitats, Part 6 is devoted to marine environments and includes such chapters as ‘Epizoic diatoms on gastropod shells’, ‘Managing the interactions between plants and animals in marine multi-trophic aquaculture’, and Marine microralgae [sic.]/cyanobacteria–invertebrate symbiosis' (wherein you will find much mention of coral reefs). From a lack-of-obvious-agricultural-relevance point of view, Part 7: ‘Carnivorous Plants’ stands apart from the preceding six parts, but one of its two chapters attempts to answer the intriguing question ‘Why are plants carnivorous?’, and the other presents a review of plant carnivory. Appropriately, the book begins with Part 1's single contribution that reviews the evolution of plant–animal interactions and sets the scene for the chapters that follow. But, curiously – and frustratingly – Part 8 (‘Outlook and Summary’), by the book's two editors, which was supposed to present a ‘Summary, final comments and conclusions’ (according to the publisher's website www.springer.com), was missing from the hard copy version that I reviewed (but – in fairness – Part 8 is not mentioned in the book's Contents pages, so maybe its absence is a late editorial decision?). The promised 12 pages of Organism Index, Subject Index, and Author Index were there, though. Overall, All flesh is grass is a fascinating tome, and should appeal to anyone who has an interest in the broader aspects of botany, particularly the interconnections between plants (in the broadest sense) and other biota. It is abundantly illustrated throughout, with many colour images. It is filled with fascinating insights into symbiotic associations, whether it be the ‘plant–aphid universe’, zoochory, diatom–human interactions, or the mysterious world of foraminifera. The 22 chapters contain many 21st Century references, as befits this 21st Century synthesis of symbiosis. Although the website identifies the book's content as ‘graduate level’, I think it could be enjoyed by readers at all levels from first year undergraduate. Arguably, it might be of more direct appeal to the teachers of those (under)graduates because its many examples of plant–animal interactions or human dimensions thereof could be used to ‘liven-up’ lectures on almost any botanically based topic. Interestingly, Googling ‘all flesh is grass’ reveals an alternative interpretation for this Biblical phrase: all human life is transitory (www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_flesh_is_grass). That may well be, but perhaps the antiquity of most (probably all) of the co-operative plant–animal associations tackled in this book provides the book's real take-home message: species that work together, last longer. Maybe this collection will encourage us to review our own relationships with the very ‘grass’ that ultimately makes our own ‘flesh’, and hopefully take our self-appointed stewardship of the planet role more seriously? However, I'm still curious to know why this book is Volume 16 in Springer's ‘Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology Series’ …

PLP

Scaling the performance of shared-everything transaction processing systems to highly-parallel multicore hardware remains a challenge for database system designers. Recent proposals alleviate locking and logging bottlenecks in the system, leaving page latching as the next potential problem. To tackle the page latching problem, we propose physiological partitioning (PLP). The PLP design applies logical-only partitioning, maintaining the desired properties of shared-everything designs, and introduces a multi-rooted B+Tree index structure (MRBTree) which enables the partitioning of the accesses at the physical page level. Logical partitioning and MRBTrees together ensure that all accesses to a given index page come from a single thread and, hence, can be entirely latch-free; an extended design makes heap page accesses thread-private as well. Eliminating page latching allows us to simplify key code paths in the system such as B+Tree operations leading to more efficient and maintainable code. Profiling a prototype PLP system running on different multicore machines shows that it acquires 85% and 68% fewer contentious critical sections, respectively, than an optimized conventional design and one based on logical-only partitioning. PLP also improves performance up to 40% and 18%, respectively, over the existing systems.

Malcolm and Manning

ATRAGIC IRONY binds Malcolm X and Dr. aManning Marable: neither lived to enjoy the fruit of his endeavors. Malcolm was assassinated only months before his autobiography was published and Dr. Marable died a few days before his biography, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention (Viking, 2011), was released. Dr. Marable’s prodigious tome — nearly 600 pages with more than 100 pages of endnotes, bibliography and index — is the culmination of a score of years of research and a testament to his diligence and determination, particularly given the medical problems he endured. For more than a quarter of century he suffered from sarcoidosis, a disease affecting the lungs and other organs, and in the summer before his death had a double lung transplant. During the last month of his life he was hospitalized with pneumonia. The physical obstacles Dr. Marable surmounted to complete his book are tantamount to the social and political issues Malcolm encountered, and none more troubling for the freedom fighter than the last two years of his furious passage. Both Malcolm and Manning were restless spirits with one’s ceaseless search, peripatetic roaming matched by the other’s gypsy-like flights from one academic roost to another. There are shelves of books on Malcolm X, including his own compelling but flawed account, but Dr. Marable goes the extra mile, hears one more interview, and scours one more document in his pursuit of a man who he claims was continually reinventing himself — from hoodlum, to hedonist, to hustler, to hero, to martyrdom. Each one of these incarnations, Dr. Marable contends, is marked by a name emblematic of that plateau — Malcolm Little, Detroit Red, Satan, Malcolm X, and El Hajj Malik ElShabazz, to list but the most prominent. BUT it was as Malcolm X, an avatar of aElijah Muhammad, that Malcolm Little became best known, and who remains for many an unimpeachable icon of the struggle for human rights, despite the humanistic gloss applied to his odyssey by Dr. Marable. Because of his popular autobiography and that so much of his latter years are part of the public record, many readers will be familiar with the terrain Dr. Marable nimbly traverses. Nonetheless, even the most informed Malcolm X scholar will be amazed by the accumulation of new material he has assembled and the fresh analysis he applies. An equal number will be disturbed by his focus and conclusions. After a general assessment of Malcolm’s early years, Dr. Marable practically proceeds in a chronological, day-by-day approach, unearthing facts that properly situate Malcolm within the context of African American social and political thought. However, rather than reinvention — which has a deliberate implication of a shedding of skin or changing one mask for another — there is every indication that Malcolm’s life was a steady, and often intrepid, intellectual and political evolution, the latter concept Dr. Marable only mentions once in passing. Not to quibble, because whether reinvention (with an insinuation of agency that Dr. Marable intuits throughout) or evolution, Malcolm X was a phenomenal American, and like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he was symbolic of a singular philosophical and ideological perspective. And several scholars have proposed that Malcolm and Dr. King’s political trajectories were gradually merging, and though Dr. Marable doesn’t expend too much capital on this possibility, he does a remarkable job explaining the growing, and at last fatal hostility between Malcolm and the Nation of Islam.

Assessment of function and clinical utility of alcohol and other drug web sites: An observational, qualitative study

BackgroundThe increasing popularity and use of the internet makes it an attractive option for providing health information and treatment, including alcohol/other drug use. There is limited research examining how people identify and access information about alcohol or other drug (AOD) use online, or how they assess the usefulness of the information presented. This study examined the strategies that individuals used to identify and navigate a range of AOD websites, along with the attitudes concerning presentation and content.MethodsMembers of the general community in Brisbane and Roma (Queensland, Australia) were invited to participate in a 30-minute search of the internet for sites related to AOD use, followed by a focus group discussion. Fifty one subjects participated in the study across nine focus groups.ResultsParticipants spent a maximum of 6.5 minutes on any one website, and less if the user was under 25 years of age. Time spent was as little as 2 minutes if the website was not the first accessed. Participants recommended that AOD-related websites should have an engaging home or index page, which quickly and accurately portrayed the site's objectives, and provided clear site navigation options. Website content should clearly match the title and description of the site that is used by internet search engines. Participants supported the development of a portal for AOD websites, suggesting that it would greatly facilitate access and navigation.Treatment programs delivered online were initially viewed with caution. This appeared to be due to limited understanding of what constituted online treatment, including its potential efficacy.ConclusionsA range of recommendations arise from this study regarding the design and development of websites, particularly those related to AOD use. These include prudent use of text and information on any one webpage, the use of graphics and colours, and clear, uncluttered navigation options. Implications for future website development are discussed.

XML 데이터베이스 다차원 타입상속 색인구조의 조율 알고리즘

For the MD-TIX(multidimensional type inheritance index) that supports query processing for the type inheritance concept in XML databases, this paper presents an index tuning algorithm that enhances the performance of the XML query processing according to the query pattern. The MD-TIX uses a multidimensional index structure to support complex XML queries involving both nested elements and type inheritance hierarchies. In this index tuning algorithm, we first determine a shape of index page regions by using the query information about the user`s query pattern, and then construct an optimal MD-TIX by applying a region splitting strategy that makes the shape of the page regions into the predetermined one. The performance evaluation results indicate that the proposed tuning algorithm builds an optimal MD-TIX by a given query pattern, and in the case of the three-dimensional query regions for the nested predicates of path length 2, the performance is much enhanced according to the skewed degree of the query region`s shape.

Analyzing the Impact of Visitors on Page Views with Google Analytics

This paper develops a flexible methodology to analyze the effectiveness of different variables on various dependent variables which all are times series and especially shows how to use a time series regression on one of the most important and primary index (page views per visit) on Google analytic and in conjunction it shows how to use the most suitable data to gain a more accurate result. Search engine visitors have a variety of impact on page views which cannot be described by single regression. On one hand referral visitors are well-fitted on linear regression with low impact. On the other hand, direct visitors made a huge impact on page views. The higher connection speed does not simply imply higher impact on page views and the content of web page and the territory of visitors can help connection speed to describe user behavior. Returning visitors have some similarities with direct visitors.

A Unified Algorithm for Identification of Various Tabular Structures from Document Images

This paper presents a unified algorithm for segmentation and identification of various tabular structures from document page images. Such tabular structures include conventional tables and displayed math-zones, as well as Table of Contents TOC and Index pages. After analyzing the page composition, the algorithm initially classifies the input set of document pages into tabular and non-tabular pages. A tabular page contains at least one of the tabular structures, whereas a non-tabular page does not contain any. The approach is unified in the sense that it is able to identify all tabular structures from a tabular page, which leads to a considerable simplification of document image segmentation in a novel manner. Such unification also results in speeding up the segmentation process, because the existing methodologies produce time-consuming solutions for treating different tabular structures as separate physical entities. Distinguishing features of different kinds of tabular structures have been used in stages in order to ensure the simplicity and efficiency of the algorithm and demonstrated by exhaustive experimental results.

Prevalence of the Pro12Ala missense mutation in the PPARG2 gene in Kuwaiti patients with primary knee osteoarthritis

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:Peroxisome proliferator–activated receptors (PPARs) play an important role in a number of cellular and metabolic functions. This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of a missense mutation (Pro12Ala) in the PPARG2 gene in Kuwaiti Arab patients with primary knee osteoarthritis (OA) and healthy controls with the aim of identifying a possible association.DESIGN AND SETTING:A prospective cross-sectional study carried out at three major teaching hospitals (referral centers) in the country over a one-year period.PATIENTS AND METHODS:The prevalence of PPARG2 gene Pro12Ala missense mutation was determined in 104 Kuwaiti Arab patients with primary knee OA and 111 ethnically matched healthy controls. The prevalence of this Pro12Ala missense mutation was also determined in clinical subgroups of OA patients divided on the basis of age at onset, function and radiologic grading.RESULTSThe Pro-Pro genotype of the PPARG2 gene Pro12Ala missense mutation was detected in 95/104 (91.3%) cases compared to 111/111 (100%) in the control subjects. The heterozygous Pro-Ala genotype was detected in 9/104 (8.7%) of the OA patients, while it was not detected in any of the controls. The Ala-Ala genotype was not detected in any of the OA patients or the controls. No significant differences were detected in the PPARG2 gene Pro12Ala genotypes in the subgroups of patients classified on the basis of age at onset, functional assessment using Lequesne’s functional index, and radiological grading using Kellgren-Lawrence (K-L) grading.CONCLUSIONSThis study found no significant association between the PPARG2 gene Pro12Ala missense mutation and knee OA. However, the presence of the Pro-Pro genotype of the PPARG2 gene mutation has a protective effect against development of OA.

Corralling Web 2.0: Building an Intranet That Enables Individuals

The days of top-down communication and controlled internal messages at a library organization are—or should be—behind us. Modern libraries must be fluid and flexible organizations with equally nimble internal communication infrastructures in place to keep up with the fast-paced environments that have been created in these organizations. As is the case at many institutions, McMaster University Library (about 100 employees) put a great deal of effort into public-facing resources and content, while the library intranet languished as an afterthought. Static Web pages were haphazardly created and linked to from the site's index page. As the site grew, the lack of global navigation, search functionality, and clarity about content ownership led to a large, confusing collection of pages that was increasingly difficult to maintain. In 2009, a project was undertaken to redesign the staff intranet and implement Drupal, an open-source content management system, to power the new site. This case study outlines the issues faced with the former intranet, requirements gathering, staff feedback, and usability tests performed to inform the redesign, site architecture, and Drupal modules implemented, features and benefits of the redesigned intranet, the use of the new intranet to corral existing Web 2.0/social media channels, governance, evaluation, and lessons learned from the project. Future phases of the project will focus on integrating other internal communication tools used by staff in their day-to-day work, including internal file-sharing drives, staff e-mail and instant messaging platforms, meeting scheduling software, and external document sharing tools such as Google Docs.

Thomas F Baskett, On the shoulders of giants: eponyms and names in obstetrics and gynaecology, 2nd ed., London, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, 2008, pp. xxii, 440, illus., £75.00 (£67.50 to Fellows, Members and Trainees of the RCOG), (hardback 978-1-904752-64-6).

What defines a “pioneer” in any field of medicine (or, for that matter, in any aspect of life)? Pioneers—the older the better—are so often central to constructions of professional identities, reflecting the potent appeal of seeing present practice standing, as in the title of Thomas Baskett’s new book, “on the shoulders of giants”. Baskett was born and educated in Northern Ireland, but spent his working life as an obstetrician and gynaecologist in Canada. In recent years he has turned to the history of medicine, taking the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries’ diploma course, and in On the shoulders of giants he offers an encyclopaedia of 365 “pioneers” in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology, from Soranus via Louise Bourgeois and Nicholas Culpeper to Ian Donald and Dugald Baird. Each entry consists of a two- to five-hundred-word essay on their life and the techniques or ideas with which they are associated, accompanied by portraits or illustrations and a short bibliography of their most influential publications. Baskett throws a few curveballs—Thomas Malthus, Marie Stopes, Margaret Sanger—but for the most part he is content to minimize controversies, sketching a (relatively) smooth path to contemporary practice. Like many books in this genre, On the shoulders of giants may be most useful to future generations of historians as a snapshot of the way in which clinicians of the early twenty-first century chose to interpret their past. Judging by the press release, the RCOG Press see Baskett’s work in this way, framing the future in terms of past achievements by “perpetuat[ing] the names and provid[ing] an introductory profile of some of the more significant and fascinating characters in whose steps we follow”. Whatever else this past might be, it is overwhelmingly a male preserve: only fourteen of Baskett’s heroes—less than 5 per cent of the total—are women. Though their voices break through in some places, mothers and babies appear most frequently as body parts or organs, and generally defective ones at that: narrowed pelves, recalcitrant ovaries, distressed foetal hearts, incompetent cervixes. In a book which makes such a show of celebrating and perpetuating great names, it is ironic to find the recipients of all this progress given so few opportunities to speak for themselves. For this reason, it is perhaps more enlightening to read On the shoulders of giants against the grain. With page after page of formal portraits and photographs this is, amongst other things, a fascinating gallery of medical haircuts through the ages. Most sitters present themselves as sober and respectable medical gentlemen, all starched collars and gold-rimmed spectacles, but a few break this rule: Naguib Mahfouz’s jaunty fez, Grantly Dick Read’s unimpressed-looking cat, Albert Neisser’s luxuriant beard (which looks, as Billy Connolly used to say, as if he had eaten a bear and left its bottom hanging out). Readers might also pause to enjoy the index and contents page, where such oddities as the Braun decapitation hook, Brenner’s tumour and the Burch colposuspension are jumbled together to create a strange and brutal musique concrete. On the shoulders of giants is not a book which will sharpen or revolutionize our understanding of the history of obstetrics, nor is it intended to be. But for retired clinicians reflecting on the changes they have witnessed through their careers, for historically inclined house officers who want to pass ten minutes in the staff room, for medical students seeking an anecdote that will break the ice with their consultants, this might be just the ticket.

Structure and function of plants

I was really pleased to have been given the opportunity to review this book. After all, structure and function is the aspect of botany closest to my own interests. So, anticipating some sort of modern-day version of Haberlandt's famous Physiological plant anatomy text, it was with great expectation that I opened MacAdam's book and explored the contents. The book's first five chapters – The Plant Cell; Plant Meristems and Tissues; Plant Roots; Plant Stems; and Plant Leaves and Translocation – are fine; you can see a definite ‘structure’ theme to these topics. In particular, in Chapter 5 you can feel a marked integration of structure and its functional dimension. However, the remaining nine chapters go far beyond the structure–function theme and is the main issue I have with the book. It is not the structure–function text its title led me to expect; instead it is a general botany text. Whilst there is nothing wrong with that, the onus must be upon the author/publisher to make it clear that this is the case – a better title would go a long way towards achieving that. Accordingly, the remaining chapters deal with the general botanical topics of: Reproduction in Flowering Plants; Plant Nutrition; Plant Water Relations; Macromolecules and Enzyme Activity; Photosynthesis; Respiration; Environmental Regulation of Plant Development; Hormonal Regulation of Plant Development; and Secondary Plant Products. The book is completed with an 18-page glossary; a reference section (a mix of very up-to-date ones, and other much older – ‘classic’? – ones, but on balance too few); and ten pages of index. One aspect of the book deserving of comment concerns the illustrations. On the plus side, abundant colour is used throughout, which I liked, and illustrations are numerous and of a good size to be seen clearly. However, it seems strange nowadays that a plant cell (Fig. 1.1), a mitochondrion (Fig. 1.13 – whose cristae are unlabelled and appear misleadingly as blobs free in the matrix) and a chloroplast (Fig. 1.14) should be illustrated solely by diagrams. Surely, suitably labelled TEM images could have been used? From an accuracy point of view some of the legends are in need of amendment. For instance, Fig. 6.12 shows an Antirrhinum inflorescence, but is labelled as foxglove in the legend. However, there is a bigger issue with Fig. 4.17, which shows bark of ‘sycamore’ yet is described as Platanus. The term ‘sycamore’ in the UK refers to Acer pseudoplatanus (a maple); whereas in North America sycamore refers to trees of the genus Platanus (known as plane trees in Europe). Proof of the value of using unambiguous scientific names, and a cautionary tale for publishers of books designed to have international appeal – many commonly-used terms do not travel far beyond national borders. In terms of topicality, the book appears up-to-date; e.g. it includes aquaporins, molecular motors and the identification of florigen as FT protein, but coverage is a little patchy in places. For example, the Hormonal Regulation chapter provides a good introductory-level summary of the ‘classical’ five plant growth regulators yet does not mention salicyclic acid, jasmonates or brassinolides. Elsewhere the book goes into great depth about historic aspects of some topics at the expense of dealing with matters of more pressing concern. For example, it provides a nice summary of the discovery of the biochemistry of photosynthesis; however, at over three pages this seems a luxury – especially so when topical subjects such as plant response to stress, climate change and biotic interactions are hardly covered at all. Also, ranging from very detailed and advanced considerations of factors influencing the balance between photosynthesis and photorespiration to the different types of flower arrangement, yet claiming to be ‘for introductory students … and plant enthusiasts’, I wonder if the book is clear on its intended audience and whether it serves their interests fully without perhaps intimidating them. Given that we now know this is a general botany text, almost any other plant biology textbook is a competitor. But if we limit consideration to the book's intended audience – which the publisher advises us is ‘undergraduates, faculty, extension faculty, and members of Master Gardener programs’, then it does its job reasonably well. Structure and function will withstand scrutiny alongside Capon (2005) and Ingram et al. (2008) as an introductory-level text: it would not fare so well against more substantial textbooks such as Smith et al. (2009 – see the following review, below), which are aimed at more advanced or specialist students. On balance, providing you are aware that this is a general plant biology text – largely aimed at an introductory level – you will find much of value here.